Dimir's Out of the Abyss

Aimon looks at Oak and then at the chaos around them.

”Think you can help keep Trill from killing everyone down there?” he asks. “I’ll find a way out. As much as this quaint little lakeside village is growing on me, I feel a desperately urgent need to run like the worst of the Abyss is spewing out. Oh wait, it is.”

As soon as Oak climbs in to the chest, Aimon closes the lid, hoists it up and moves at full speed, dodging behind huts as much as possible but continually making his way to the edge of the village. He avoids looking back at the monstrosity in the lake as much as possible but keeps an ear out for anything getting too close.

"Don't #$%^ing touch me, you #$#$%^  ^%$^!"

Trill then calls out a few notes, wiggles her fingers, and vanishes.

Oak nods at Aimon and descends into the chest. He approaches Trill and attempts to grapple her for her own safety...

Grapple / Athletics check (disadvantage from exhaustion): 15 

((Trill can contest the grapple with athletics or acrobatics I think))

 ((Depending on timing, Trill doesn't seem to be there. :D ))

((Ha! I think our posts crossed lol! That’s perfect though! Just like how the actual scuffle would be going! Lol.

Either way, it looks like she either vanishes and slips away, or slips away and vanishes... same difference!))

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Using the wall as support, Caelynn slowly stands up, preparing to jump out of the way of any incoming attacks. She looks to Oak as if to say ‘What’s going on?!’

(Dodge action)

(Oh, nevermind, just realized dodge only works if you can see the attacker lol)

“Oh no you don’t!...” Says Oak, quickly climbing back up the ladder to the top. “You’re not going anywhere!...”.

Oak tries to block the ladder and the exit before Trill can sneak out...

Aimon barely notices the weight of the chest. But unlike the last time he carried it, the chest seems to vibrate and twitch. It moves slightly, not enough to slip from his grip, but enough to make him think there's a lot of activity going on in there. He doesn't want to think about what might be going on, or what he might find when he gets to safety and can look inside.

Aimon must be dashing fast. The chest is bobbing about. Oak’s not sure if he can take it. First the chest... then the raft... now the, oh, chest again!... At the top of the ladder he’s not feeling too well....

Constitution saving throw (DC 10): 20 

((oh no! Natural one! I’ll let the DM narrate that!... maybe it’ll work out a bit like faerie fire?...))

Aimon, you dash out of the city, leaving the carnage behind you. (I'm assuming you're moving North, but correct me if not.) Behind you, the village burns. Somehow, the stone itself is ablaze as Leemooggoogoon smashes apart the towering structures. Bellows of rage and triumph drown out screams of pain and terror. Most of the Kuo-toa does through the South gate.

After a solid ten minutes of running through the dark and splashing through the water in some places, you come to a forest of mushrooms of all varieties. A soft glow of Faezre illuminate area. The ground here is muddy, and moisture permeates the forest (Thing mangrove swamp with mushrooms instead). You set the chest down and open it up to check on everyone inside.

Inside, it has been chaos for the last ten minutes (imagine tag with swords). Early on, Oak hurled up his stomach's contents when Aimon nearly tripped. The resulting mess sprayed throughout the room and soaked everyone. Aimon opens up the chest and sees Eldeth grappling a struggling Trill to the ground, and Trill is holding a rapier to Oak's throat. Caelynn is holding back the rapier, and Oak leans woozily against the wall. Topsy has somehow found some rations and is watching in great interest. 

Trill, you snap back to your senses, and the mother of all headaches begins to form.

Upon witnessing the mess and craziness below, Aimon, for a moment is tempted to quietly close the lid and sneak away. Instead he calls down to everyone.

”Everyone still have all the bits and pieces they went in with? If so, come on out. It’s not quite a sunlit meadow up here but we’re safe and far from serpent arms monkey demon.”

He pauses for a moment and then looks back down into the chest.

”Your fey queen wants us to kill things like that?” He asks Caelynn. “That will be quite the trick.”

“Oh gods I’m so sorry” says Oak weakly... “Have we stopped moving? Why’s the room still moving? Oh no...”.

He’s startled by Trill’s blade under his chin, “What’s this Miss?! Oh you think you had me? You think you could take me, Eh?!.....I’d have had you if I wasn’t sick... or if you hadn’t slipped my grasp... twice... or oh, if you hadn’t turned invisible..... or.... uh.... Huh, I never really had you did I?”, he realises, “Damn your quite good really!...” he laughs loud as Trill lowers her blade, “Ha, well I’m glad you’re on my side!”.

“Oh dear.... I’ll be alright in a minute... Give me a minute!...”.

Trill drops her rapier from shaky hands and scrambles backwards, horrified and ashamed of what she nearly did in her madness.

Caelynn braces one foot on the wall as she pulls backwards on Trill's arm to keep her from piercing Oak's throat. She lets out a sigh of relief when Trill finally relents, taking a moment to catch her breath. Picking up the rapier, she slips it into her belt, just in case. "It's not your fault," she says quietly as she passes Trill on the way to the ladder. On her way up, she calls to Aimon, "Apparently. She thinks we'll be strong enough eventually."

After Aimon helps everyone out of the chest, he looks around their surroundings more carefully, searching for threats but also looking for dry land they can catch their breath on.

”Anyone know what that thing was back there?” he says as he looks.

(Perception: 16 )

The NPCs in the chest follow Caelynn out of the chest. Topsy pats Trill's shoulder as she ascends. Once outside, Jimjar says apologetically to Aimon, "Sorry for the hassle I caused. I don't know what came over me."

Looking around, you notice some higher elevations on some of the islands farther out in the shallow waters. Unlike most of the Underdark, this area is flush with life. Small clouds of insects swarm together in areas list gently lit by drifting Faezre. Beetles scrounge along stalls of mushrooms consuming dead matter. You even see and hear a few frogs.

You watch something similar to a coconut fall from one of the mushrooms and strikes what looks like a horizontal gong. A clear ringing noise emanates from it, and Trill can tell that the sound has a magical affect attached to it. You see a shape in the water stalking towards the party does from the sound. Looking around, you can see several.other gong things spaced through the towering mushrooms.

Aimon smiles at Jimjar.

"No worries. You weren't the only one. Whatever that giant two headed baboon squid thing was scared the hell out of all of us."

Looking around at the others, he continues, "Anyone know what those gong things are? They're not going to summon something nasty are they?"

Then he points out to the islands.

"Might be worth it to get up on one of those and catch our breath and figure out where we are."

Aimon starts wading towards one, watching his step to see how deep it gets, and keeping an eye out for anything swimming around.

(Perception: 24 )

“I agree”, says Oak, just about starting to look better again now he’s out of the chest. “We should head for the higher ground. “Wait, what’s that moving?...”. He points at the stalking creature. “Did it just try and avoid the gong thing?... Maybe we should give them a wide berth too??”.

((Can we see what the animal is? Is it big? What did it do when the gong went off exactly?? Thanks))

Although he’s still slower than everyone else, Oak is happy to wade over to the nearest island, probably avoiding the gongs, and the animals, and the insects, everything really!

Trill replicates the gong sound, and shakes her head in warning.

The creature looked similar to a crocodile, but your pretty sure those don't live underground. If you had to guess, you would say it is about forty feet long. It was slowly gliding through the deep water from the direction you came from. At the gong, it flinches and swims quickly from where it came.

From what Aimon and Oak discover, the water is only about 5 feet deep in the lowest places. As they approach the nearest isle, another fruit thing falls from another fungus and strikes a gong you didn't see. The gongs aren't loud, but rather quiet. You instead feel the sound more than you hear it. It resonates in your bones, and a feeling of peace washes over you. Any aggressive thoughts you may have had are soothed away by the vibrations. The calm that results is refreshing and invigorating.