Elemoth raises an eyebrow at the Gnome's long, detailed explanation, and nods repeatedly with a blank look on his face for a while. Soon, his eyebrow is back down and he seems to have just settled into a vacant stare with his eyes practically glazed over. "So, erm... we can walk through black... and white gates?" he finally spits out, not fully understanding. He's not stupid by any means, but he's also not a genius or even particularly "quick".
Elemoth raises an eyebrow at the Gnome's long, detailed explanation, and nods repeatedly with a blank look on his face for a while. Soon, his eyebrow is back down and he seems to have just settled into a vacant stare with his eyes practically glazed over. "So, erm... we can walk through black... and white gates?" he finally spits out, not fully understanding. He's not stupid by any means, but he's also not a genius or even particularly "quick". "And do you have a key for us, or were we supposed to have one of those already?" he continues, shaking his head briefly as he tries to regain his senses.
OOC: You were given a glyph key attuned to the Sunless Citadel by Durnan.
"Uh, see, about that... it was more of a gift than an exchange. Ah well, it's kind of pretty at least." Torment puts the gem safely in her pack for the time being. If there are no magical properties, then it's probably safe to hold on to for now.
The half-orc laughs: "A key? Hah! Where ya' gonna' find a key in this dump. N' as fer that attack, don't concern yerself with things like that. Ya' gotta deal with the present! Hah! Yer quite tha' joker, surfacer." The half-orc then proceeds to grab Marions hand and practically crush it as she shakes it heartily. "Name's Shakla, once a member of the Stone Tooth clan but I don't need them no more. What's yer's surface joker?" Then suddenly she calls over to the barkeep: "Another one! And make it snappy or I'll crush your head with my pinky... HAHAHAHA" The happy barkeep also laughs along when suddenly Shakla sees that he's not getting her drink and he immediately shuts up and slides one down to her at a breakneck speed.
"Who controls the past, controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past." Marion says as if reciting a quote and then shakes her head. "I'm Marion. Nice to meet you, Shakla."
"Wow! What is thisss fantastic drink? I'vve only had one an' I feel amaaazing!"Shadow raises his glass trying to inspect it closer. "Brother, you must taste some, It is sooo good!" Shadow has a huge smile on his face while he puts the glass in Flame's face.
"Oh wow, I really do need to try it!" Flame says as he grabs the mug from Shadow and chugs the rest of the drink. "Come on, we need to get back with our companions." Flame stands up and walks toward Elemoth, Torment, and the gnome, dragging Shadow along behind him.
The gnome nods enthusiastically: "Exactly! Now go! There's one right outside of town." She shoes you all away (I might be rushing things a bit along, but whatever). As you head away to join the rest of the group.
Shakla laughs out loud: "I have absolutely no idea what you just said Mar-yon. I don' even know why this is so funny!" As then suddenly a chair flies through the air and breaks when it slams into the back of her head. She then looks over and says: "Sorry, but duty calls!" As she wheels around and leaps onto the offender, who realizes his grave mistake.
Shadow and Flame also join everyone, as it seems you all are ready to head out. Departing from the chaos that is The Ugly Duckling you leave to the outskirts of town. And right at what seems to be a simple college wall you see a ten-foot-diameter circle of runes and black onyx fragments that is set into the floor. It exudes wisps of shadowy energy that look like curling black smoke. As you near the strange circle with your glyph key it seems to flash and pulse. You eventually gather yourselves inside of the runic circle, as you feel like that with a single collective thought you could simply teleport away.
Post that you're ready either in the discord or on here and I will continue...
As he enters the circle, Elemoth unstraps his mace and takes it into his right hand, and tightens his grip on the shield in his left. Despite his shows of bravado earlier, he swallows a little as he gets ready. "If everyone else is up for it, I'm prepared to begin. I have all of my usual spells ready, so if you need protection or healing, only say the word." he says to the group, lifting his shield up and readying it just in case there's an attack or some other threat as soon as they go in.
You hear a great flash as the entire area around you vanishes, and you find yourself in what seems to be a... grassy plain? All around you for several miles you see grassland and a stretch of incredibly old road that you're standing on. This seems incredibly off, one moment you were underground, the next you're outside? Also, you cannot help but sense some magic in the air, and something is very strange about the sky (Marion feels very off in this place). The old road passes to the east of a narrow ravine. At the road's closest approach to the cleft, several broken pillars jut from the earth where the ravine widens. Two of the pillars stand straight, but most lean atop sloped earth. Others are broken, and several have apparently fallen into the dark depths. A few similar pillars are visible on the opposite side of the ravine. A sturdy, knotted rope is tied to one of the leaning pillars on this side of the ravine.
"Where are we?"Marion takes her glasses, cleans them and puts them back on. She quickly looks around. "Have we been teleported to the wrong place?"
"Let me see... there seems to be some magical shenanigans going on." Utilizing some elaborate gestures and murmured incantations, she begins casting Detect Magic as a ritual.
Flame begins to look around the area and sees that the pillars are worn and broken, and graffiti in the Dwarvish alphabet covers most of them. You also notice that in the around the pillars there are many old pieces of ash (anyone proficient in investigation or survival please give me a check [just one]).The rope tied to one of the leaning pillars hangs down into the darkness of the ravine. Judging by its good condition, the rope couldn't have been tied there any longer than two or three weeks ago. From the edge of the ravine, older and weathered handholds and footholds can be seen carved into the cliff face. One could easily climb down the knotted rope, using the wall to brace themselves. You also think you might be able to use the handholds to get down. The ravine seems to cut off into darkness, but your cat-like vision allows for you to notice that some ways down (almost at the edge of your darkvision) you see a ledge of some kind where the handholds and rope end.
(Assuming that you do indeed wait around for Detect Magic to finish)
Marion notices that there is indeed magic within 30 ft. of her. However, she's unable to see exactly what this magic is (and thus cannot focus on it), but as she walks to see if it's limited to this area it seems to be present in her magic detection aura all around where she's walking.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Elemoth blinks twice, trying to adjust his eyesight to this new change in scenery. It looks strange and hostile to him, even despite the lack of any attacking monsters. Tightening his grip on his mace, he begins moving around the perimeter looking for threats, spending some time near the ravine (but not getting too close) and then following the road for several feet to see where it goes.
(Perception Roll: 22)
Afterwards, he walks over to Flame. "Do you see anything down there?" he asks.
Elemoth looks out, and it's quite strange. Maybe it's just the bright light, or something but you can't help but notice something shimmering far off. As you look around the shimmering is almost in a kind of circle surrounding you. You're unsure what exactly it means, but you think that you're in a humongous shimmering dome with a radius of maybe 400 ft. As you walk over to Flame you see the same thing as I described earlier.
After having pointed out the ashes to the group, Marion checks them and inspects them, noticing that they seem to be in small clusters. Based on that evidence you are quite sure that this place was almost host to many campfires, some being very recent, maybe only a couple tenday or so ago. However, someone appears to have gone to some effort to hide the evidence of these campfires from casual observation.
"I suspect an illusion. If we're actually in the right place, that is."Marion says and shrugs. She then goes over to inspect the ashes.
Shielding his eyes with his right-forearm, Elemoth peers around a bit more before turning to nod to Marion. "Yes, that would make sense. If you look around, you can see some shimmering around the edges of the 'grasslands' that we're in. We might be even enclosed within an illusory dome of some sort." he remarks.
Elemoth raises an eyebrow at the Gnome's long, detailed explanation, and nods repeatedly with a blank look on his face for a while. Soon, his eyebrow is back down and he seems to have just settled into a vacant stare with his eyes practically glazed over. "So, erm... we can walk through black... and white gates?" he finally spits out, not fully understanding. He's not stupid by any means, but he's also not a genius or even particularly "quick".
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
(OOC: Right, thanks. It's been so long, I forgot. I went back a few pages, but didn't see any mention of it. Guess I didn't go back far enough)
"Uh, see, about that... it was more of a gift than an exchange. Ah well, it's kind of pretty at least." Torment puts the gem safely in her pack for the time being. If there are no magical properties, then it's probably safe to hold on to for now.
"Who controls the past, controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past." Marion says as if reciting a quote and then shakes her head. "I'm Marion. Nice to meet you, Shakla."
The gnome nods enthusiastically: "Exactly! Now go! There's one right outside of town." She shoes you all away (I might be rushing things a bit along, but whatever). As you head away to join the rest of the group.
Shakla laughs out loud: "I have absolutely no idea what you just said Mar-yon. I don' even know why this is so funny!" As then suddenly a chair flies through the air and breaks when it slams into the back of her head. She then looks over and says: "Sorry, but duty calls!" As she wheels around and leaps onto the offender, who realizes his grave mistake.
Shadow and Flame also join everyone, as it seems you all are ready to head out. Departing from the chaos that is The Ugly Duckling you leave to the outskirts of town. And right at what seems to be a simple college wall you see a ten-foot-diameter circle of runes and black onyx fragments that is set into the floor. It exudes wisps of shadowy energy that look like curling black smoke. As you near the strange circle with your glyph key it seems to flash and pulse. You eventually gather yourselves inside of the runic circle, as you feel like that with a single collective thought you could simply teleport away.
Post that you're ready either in the discord or on here and I will continue...
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
As he enters the circle, Elemoth unstraps his mace and takes it into his right hand, and tightens his grip on the shield in his left. Despite his shows of bravado earlier, he swallows a little as he gets ready. "If everyone else is up for it, I'm prepared to begin. I have all of my usual spells ready, so if you need protection or healing, only say the word." he says to the group, lifting his shield up and readying it just in case there's an attack or some other threat as soon as they go in.
(OOC: Ready)
Part 1: The Ravine
You hear a great flash as the entire area around you vanishes, and you find yourself in what seems to be a... grassy plain? All around you for several miles you see grassland and a stretch of incredibly old road that you're standing on. This seems incredibly off, one moment you were underground, the next you're outside? Also, you cannot help but sense some magic in the air, and something is very strange about the sky (Marion feels very off in this place). The old road passes to the east of a narrow ravine. At the road's closest approach to the cleft, several broken pillars jut from the earth where the ravine widens. Two of the pillars stand straight, but most lean atop sloped earth. Others are broken, and several have apparently fallen into the dark depths. A few similar pillars are visible on the opposite side of the ravine. A sturdy, knotted rope is tied to one of the leaning pillars on this side of the ravine.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
Flame walks forward cautiously, placing a hand on one of the pillars near the ravine to steady himself and looks into and across the ravine.
Perception (if needed): 22
"Where are we?" Marion takes her glasses, cleans them and puts them back on. She quickly looks around. "Have we been teleported to the wrong place?"
"Let me see... there seems to be some magical shenanigans going on." Utilizing some elaborate gestures and murmured incantations, she begins casting Detect Magic as a ritual.
Flame begins to look around the area and sees that the pillars are worn and broken, and graffiti in the Dwarvish alphabet covers most of them. You also notice that in the around the pillars there are many old pieces of ash (anyone proficient in investigation or survival please give me a check [just one]). The rope tied to one of the leaning pillars hangs down into the darkness of the ravine. Judging by its good condition, the rope couldn't have been tied there any longer than two or three weeks ago. From the edge of the ravine, older and weathered handholds and footholds can be seen carved into the cliff face. One could easily climb down the knotted rope, using the wall to brace themselves. You also think you might be able to use the handholds to get down. The ravine seems to cut off into darkness, but your cat-like vision allows for you to notice that some ways down (almost at the edge of your darkvision) you see a ledge of some kind where the handholds and rope end.
(Assuming that you do indeed wait around for Detect Magic to finish)
Marion notices that there is indeed magic within 30 ft. of her. However, she's unable to see exactly what this magic is (and thus cannot focus on it), but as she walks to see if it's limited to this area it seems to be present in her magic detection aura all around where she's walking.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
Elemoth blinks twice, trying to adjust his eyesight to this new change in scenery. It looks strange and hostile to him, even despite the lack of any attacking monsters. Tightening his grip on his mace, he begins moving around the perimeter looking for threats, spending some time near the ravine (but not getting too close) and then following the road for several feet to see where it goes.
(Perception Roll: 22)
Afterwards, he walks over to Flame. "Do you see anything down there?" he asks.
Elemoth looks out, and it's quite strange. Maybe it's just the bright light, or something but you can't help but notice something shimmering far off. As you look around the shimmering is almost in a kind of circle surrounding you. You're unsure what exactly it means, but you think that you're in a humongous shimmering dome with a radius of maybe 400 ft. As you walk over to Flame you see the same thing as I described earlier.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
"I suspect an illusion. If we're actually in the right place, that is." Marion says and shrugs. She then goes over to inspect the ashes.
Investigation: 18
After having pointed out the ashes to the group, Marion checks them and inspects them, noticing that they seem to be in small clusters. Based on that evidence you are quite sure that this place was almost host to many campfires, some being very recent, maybe only a couple tenday or so ago. However, someone appears to have gone to some effort to hide the evidence of these campfires from casual observation.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
Shielding his eyes with his right-forearm, Elemoth peers around a bit more before turning to nod to Marion. "Yes, that would make sense. If you look around, you can see some shimmering around the edges of the 'grasslands' that we're in. We might be even enclosed within an illusory dome of some sort." he remarks.
"There seems to be a ledge at the bottom of this rope. I think I could get to it easily enough." Flame looks up at Marion. "What do you think?"
As Flame is chatting it up with Marion, Shadow goes to the ledge and starts climbing down the rope.
"I'm a terrible climber, is what I think." Marion responds to Flame and bites her lip. Nevertheless, she follows Shadow down the rope.