Dimir's Out of the Abyss

Sleight of hand: 24

Caelynn bites back a grin of satisfaction when the kuo-toa don’t seem to notice her copying Trill’s move and she feels the rope loosen around her wrists as soon as they walk away towards Oak.

”It’ll be okay.” She mutters what little reassurance she can offer to Oak, who seems the most distressed about the situation. She wants to say more, but she doesn’t know how much Common these fish people speak, and she doubts he will understand her if she speaks in Elvish.

(Have the kuo-toa been speaking Undercommon this entire time?)

Oak looks straight at Caelynn as the fish-creature binds his wrists, and it’s almost as if he looks like a child all of a sudden. His eyes are harder to read now that they seem to reflect a little shine from out of nowhere, but maybe there’s something deeper in there: desperation? fear?...

Yes, they have only been speaking in Undercommon.

After everyone is bound, the Kuo-toa in the water begin pulling the boat towards a rocky shore a ways away from the village. Once you reach the shore, they force everyone none too gently from the boat and begin to prod everyone towards the village on foot. Now that you are closer, you can see that what you thought were torches were actually patches of Faezre dancing across the still water. Unlike the calm patch you saw before, these ones seem... agitated. For some reason, many patches have gathered in the region around the village of Sloobludoop. The Kuo-toa who captured you seem excited, and they keep eyeing you like someone would if they were inspecting meat.

Nearly ten minutes from the village, the party passes through an area with many large boulders strewn about them. Suddenly, nine Kuo-toa emerge from hiding and fall upon your captors.

Roll initiative.

(This section has quite a bit of small combats. Sorry)

Caelynn Initiative: 22

Oak’s initiative (disadvantage): 9 

Trill Initiative: 23

Aimon's Intiative: 16 

Surprise Kuo-toa: 21

Enemy Kuo-toa: 17

Jimjar: 6

Eldeth: 8

Topsy: 21

Party goes after a surprise round. 

The Kuo-toa spring their ambush, and 3 of your captors fall dead to the ground before they can even react. A Kuo-toa in robes fires a gleaming bolt of energy that boasts the one Kuo-toa who did all the talking. The one who cast the spell shouts in Undercommon, "Die Heretic!!!"

Party is up.

I rolled this stuff with my dice because it would have taken too long on here.

((How clumped up are the attackers? Could Trill get faerie fire on a decent number of them without also getting any of our party? Don't really mind catching our captors with it.))

Aimon looks back and forth between the two groups of kuo-toa and takes in the bolt of energy flying by and dives behind one of the boulders to take cover while he works on untying the ropes around his wrists.

Action: Sleight of Hands to untie ropes: 16 

Bonus Action: Cunning Action to Hide (Stealth): 24 

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend!”, yells Oak, as he fumbles with what he can do...

Caelynn watches as their captors are suddenly hit with a barrage of attacks from another party of kuo-toa hidden within the rocks. Heretic? Evidently there's some sort of discord within the kuo-toa civilization. Not sure who they should even be attacking, she decides to focus on the one thing she knows will help, which is getting herself and her friends out of their bindings. She attempts to wiggle free from her already-loosened ropes, then if possible, saws off the rope around Oak's hands with her dagger.

(Let me know what checks you need me to make. Guessing sleight of hand for my ropes? 10 A second roll in case of advantage or disadvantage: 10)

(Edit: Wow, double fives? Apparently I've angered the dice gods)

Quote from Spiderwrangler >>

((How clumped up are the attackers? Could Trill get faerie fire on a decent number of them without also getting any of our party? Don't really mind catching our captors with it.))

 You could get all the Kuo-toa except for the one who cast the spell. As soon as combat started, all your allies dive out of the way. You would get none of them.

Aimon and Caelynn, you manage to slip out of your roles with ease. Oak, Caelynn hastily moves over to you and saws your bindings with the her dagger.

The NPCs quickly move to the sides and avoid the combat between the fish people.

With his hands free, Oak will attempt to dash behind one of the boulders too, trying to stay out of this strange dispute entirely for now, but thankful it may mean he’s free again (for now)...

Seeing all of her friends biding their time and seeking to get free, Trill will do likewise for now and try to slip out of her bonds. 

14

Caelynn follows Oak behind the boulders, preferring to let the combat take its course and negotiate with the victor.

Aimon looks over at Oak.

"The enemy of your enemy might be your ally," he starts. "But at this point I sure as heck don't know which group is our enemy."

Aimon looks at the path they were originally heading down and where the new group of kuo-toa came from to see if there's any way to just keep moving past while these two groups fight it out.

Oak chuckles at Aimon’s comment, in-spite of the circumstances they find themselves in, “Perhaps there might not be too many of either side left, when it’s all over!”, he says back.

He wonders if he’d be too upset if they completely wiped each other out.

Then he wonders whether it would be so bad if it just LOOKED like that happened, even if it didn’t quite happen that way...

“Lets see how this looks in a few seconds!!”, he adds.

The sound of combat lasts for only about twenty seconds. While the sound of combat echo around you, Topsy looks to Trill with a slight smile and twirls a finger around the side of her head while mouthing, "Crazy."

 Trill, you slip out of your ropes with ease.

 There are now 7 Kuo-toa standing, several of them injured. After the last of your captors fall, one of the new Kuo-toa says, "Come out! We do not want to harm you!"

((OOC: assuming that’s undercommon))

Oak snorts, as quietly as he’s able, before whispering to Caelynn, asking, “gGRrrumph... what’s happening?...”.