All falls silent. With no other volunteers stepping forward, T'chal'fronack'zcinicker, Anya, Xalkas, Berd, Hawke, Nayreen, Reghys and Orric remain within the troll corridors.

Kerric leads Lathna back towards the nothics while Ebele lags behind.

Perception Check
Roll Call: Kerric

Kerric Perception:  10

Lathna Perception:  21

Kerric was determined to make it to the Nothic's efficiently. He was focused. So much so, he doesn't notice how much distance he covered so quickly. They still had a ways to go after crossing the east bridge over the river. However, Lathna would notice just before they would turn down the hallway that Ebele took a wrong turn. The monk missed the bridge and was  walking north along the stream with both arms out, feeling around looking for it. Lathna sees her reach out towards some suspicious looking stalagmite poking up from the edge of the river side.

Lathna:

”Hsst!  Ebele, stop!  Come back this way!” hisses Lathna in a loud whisper.  Kerric turns quickly to see what is going on, but is not quick enough to react to this development yet.

Ebele's ears twitch as she just picks up Lathna's voice.

Lathna witnesses the monk pause and tilt her head. Ebele would then pivot to do a complete 180. After turning around, Ebele's head would pan as if she were scanning for where Lathna's voice came from. Lathna sees a pair of tentacles rise up from a stalagmite behind the monk. The blonde brings her hands up to her mouth as she takes a step forward, inhaling a breath to shout.

Phhbbts...

In a sudden mist, a cloud of ink extends out, engulfing Ebele in darkness.

Kerric:

Charging towards the blackness while drawing his blade, Kerric says, “Come towards my voice, Ebele—a tentacled creature reaches for you!”  He prepares to run into the darkness and try to pull Ebele out, or alternately slash any tentacles if she is able to exit the darkness any any come out after her.

Lathna draws her crossbow and prepares to shoot any tentacled horrors  that show themselves.

(Apologies forgot a map update. Posting via mobile, apologies again. Kerric would have to dash over 100ft to take the bridge to get to Ebele, or he can try a shortcut and jump the river (20ft across) to arrive right at the edge of the darkness to get to Ebele.)

Kerric:

Kerric attempts a running jump over the river to get to Ebele as fast as possible.

Strength score of 18 means he can normally clear 18 feet in a long jump.  Here is Athletics to see if he can boost that any…

Athletics:  24

(With Kerric’s high strength score I assumed the jump could be a preference so wanted to provide the option 👍)

Meanwhile, without vision since before the predicament, Ebele was completely oblivious to what was going on. She had no idea that she was in darkness, let alone had any idea what cloaked her. All she figured was that something didn’t smell, or taste quite like it did before…  “My mouth was open and everything…” Ebele gasps and coughs from within the inky darkness. However, hearing Kerric call out to her, she decides to continue forward towards his voice, just in the knick of time too. A second pair of tentacles lash out, threatening to grab hold of the monk as she begins to walk away.

With his instincts kicking in there was no hesitation from Kerric. The elver warrior kicks off into a running leap, easily covering the distance required to make it to the other side of the river. He lands safely on the other side, just feet from the edge of the dark cloud that engulfed Ebele.

It was at that moment that Ebele breaks through the darkness and walks right into Kerric, bumping her nose pretty hard on his armour. “Ow…” Blissfully unaware of the attack, the monk managed to slip away and evade the threats at her back. Her head tilts up as if trying to see/figure out what/who she just walked into.

Kerric:

Backing off while facing the darkness, Kerric says, “Get behind me and keep walking away…there is a tentacled beast in front of me now where you just were.”  Kerric holds his bright blade at the ready, prepared to slice any tentacles that come into his range, though he backs off slowly as Ebele gets to safety.

“That’d explain a thing or two…” Ebele would rub her nose as she takes a step aside before grabbing hold of her staff. 

Tenticles shoot out from the darkness!

VS Kerric
Attack: 18 Damage: 6 
On Hit: The beast latches on to the targets face, causing them to be blinded and unable to breathe

Kerric:

As the tentacles shoot out of the darkness, Kerric’s blade flashes to meet them, though anticipating their motion is difficult since so much of their length is shrouded in darkness.

Attack Action @ Disadvantage:

Elven Curved Blade:  Attack: 18 Damage: 13

Elven Curved Blade:  Attack: 28 Damage: 15

Then a tentacle slips by and wraps itself around his face!  Kerric’s world goes dark, and he is unable to breathe!

(Sorry, forgot DA in the dice roller.  Here is that 21 rolled again for disadvantage:  13 )

Ebele may not be fully aware of what was going on before her, but she was always aware of her companions sounds. Kerric went from strict concern, to complete silence. She couldn’t even hear his breath, and THAT was concerning. There was an unknown threat. 

Ebele wasn’t going to abandon Kerric’s side. ”LATHNA SEND FOR THE OTHERS!” The monk shouts out as she lifts her staff without hesitation. She inhales a breath, shifting her stance prior to unleashing a pair of attacks against the unseen target. Let. Him. Go!

Attack 1: 8 Damage: 10 
Attack 2: 11 Damage: 7 
BA KI Point: Patient Defence - Dodge

Lathna:

Unwilling to take a shot until it is clear she won’t hit Kerric, Lathna hear’s Ebele’s command and takes off running back to the rest of the party.

Kerric:

unanle to see or breathe, Kerric uses his strong legs to pull away as much as possible from the deadly embrace, then wedges his blade as close as he dares to his face and tries to wrest himself free from the tentacle!

Athletics:  12

Initiative
Ebele | Kerric | D1 | D2

Lathna takes off, dashing down the hallways to go fetch the others.

Even at a disadvantage the monk's focused enough on her goal to successfully thwack the fleshy limb threatening to suffocate Kerric.

However, the creature didn't let go of the warrior until he dug his heels into the ground to brace himself as he used his blade to peel the suction cups from his face.

( Blinded: If we think this requires sight, the ability check automatically fails. However, it's believable one could go by feel. I'd deem it successful with a nick of the blade against his cheek: 3 )

Initiative
Ebele | Kerric | D1 | D2

The battle continues within the inky darkness at the rivers edge.

Ebele's ears twitch. A sound so piercing, normal ears register nothing unusual. Then as if more suction cups release, there's a woosh. Tentacles lash out for the monk!

VS Ebele (patient defense - dodge)
Attack: 19 Damage: 8 
On Hit: The beast latches on to the targets face, causing them to be blinded and unable to breathe

Close to Kerric's ear he hears a garbled screech of frustration from his attacker. Persistent, it lends it's other limbs to the job and tries once more to crush the feisty warrior.

VS Kerric
Attack: 18 Damage: 5 
On Hit: The beast latches on to the targets face, causing them to be blinded and unable to breathe

Initiative
Ebele | Kerric | D1 | D2

Lathna continues to dash, whipping around corners at full speed until she breaks through the final hallway into the area where the rest of the group would, presumably, all be sitting or standing around with the pouty bridge troll.

Roll Call: Kerric and any Lathna RP (used her dash to get her the rest of the way).

T'chal'fronack'zcinicker, Anya, Xalkas, Berd, Hawke, Nayreen, Reghys and Orric would all see Lathna burst into the room huffing and puffing from running full tilt.

Roll Call: Anyone available.

T'chal'fronack'zcinicker looks up as she rushes in. Immediately it's obvious something is wrong. 

"Where did you go? One minute I was following you, then...I decided I should probably re-count the number of limited liability policies I had on hand in case I should draw up some more, and then you've gone and wandered off with....."  

(Presuming he gets cut off, or people run off, or otherwise interrupt him, he then rushes off to assist the others....)

Initiative : 8

Lathna:

”Tentacles…darkness…attack…This way!” manages the ranger before spinning around and running back the way she came.

T'chal'fronack'zcinicker/Lathna (and the others: Anya, Xalkas, Berd, Hawke, Nayreen, Reghys and Orric.)
(It takes essentially a round of dashing to make it about halfway and a second round to make it there within view/range of the darkness that has engulfed Ebele and Kerric. ie. took that length of time for Lathna to get to the group. It will take that time to get back.)

While the tiefling yammers about, he'd feel a hand push at him to get moving forward, and faster. "Bet ya run faster with yer mouth shut..." Nayreen would quip with a hint of a smirk. "On yer left..." She'd then brush by to step around T'chal'fronack'zcinicker, and then pass by others, as she breaks into an impressive dash.

Nayreen
Action: Dash
BA: Step of the Wind - 1 Ki

Ebele and Kerric
(Apologies for any confusion, but Kerric can take his action.)

While the group is being warned and some are moving to take action, the battle continues in the cloud of darkness near the river!

(Without knowing the creature, here's a snippet hint for FYI: 15­-foot radius of magical darkness extends out from the creature, moves with it, and spreads around corners. Darkvision can’t penetrate this darkness, and no natural light can illuminate it)

Initiative
Ebele(Nayreen) | Kerric(Lathna) | D1 | D2 | T(Anya) | (other group members)
(Update or the sake of initiative update/purposes, for when the group arrives. Essentially T and others will arrive at the tail end of this round having used dash, with the exception of Nayreen from using Ki.)

Ebele thought she was prepared for the threat, but she wasn't as ready as she thought. She first feels a slimy appendage latch on around her waist. Distracted by that, two more latch on around her face! She can't breathe! She can't hear! Almost all senses taken away at once. However, she could feel the pain of constriction... the pressure threatening to crush her as she suffocates.

The monk couldn't take a practiced breath to calm. All she could do was rely on the strength of her fight or flight instincts to push passed the threat of panic. Muscle memory brings her staff up to the base of her jaw in attempt to wedge it in for leverage to pull the appendage free of her face (2).

Ebele Strength vs DC13: 17 

[force roll edit]

Kerric:

Not being able to see in the darkness even with his darkvision, Kerric is fortunate to dodge the grasping tentacles in the spreading darkness.  Hearing Ebele’s breath cut off suddenly, he calls, “I’m on my way!” And moves to grab her waist and help pull her away from the tentacles and out of the darkness.

Help to aid with Ebele’s Athletics check to escape the grapple, then hopefully moving together out of the darkness.

Anya who'd been leaning against a wall, clearly distracted by something seems to wake up and look around at the frantic words including "tentacle attack".  Her eyes dart about the room, "Where's Kerric?!"  Then she's after Nayreen in hurry, pushing past the wordy Tiefling as she rushes towards the combat.  

Recovering from the bump and just cluing into the comment about keeping his mouth shut, T'chal'fronack'znicker break into a run after the others, while saying, "I don't think there's been any study's to prove that ...gasp.....  not talking .... gasp....makes you run .....  gasp ..... faster!"