This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"I thought it'd just be a shortcut... I have no idea why they looked like me..." Cami immediately starts searching on her memory for any knowledge on the creatures they just fought.
Looking down to the goblin, Farok says “You’ve seen those before?” Then adding to Fril “Call me Farok. I came down after seeing what happened to the Dark Elf. Seems this place is as dangerous as they say.”Sheathing his sword he flexes his hand, clearly feeling a bit weaker.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Hmm," Frilvoril nods at Farok. He is more happy to just have another able bodied fighter than anything else. "I recruited this little guy here, in case we need a little more help as well. He should be able to help Pocket with some scouting and sometimes a pair of hands is more useful than talons." Turning his head upwards, he closes his eyes to see if he might know of any magic that could create duplicates like the one he saw.
Cami, you don't recall anything from your memory as to what those things could've been, but you do sense that they were created by something or someone vs. the run of the mill shadow which you might've learned about in other research. (undead vs. construct)
Farok, Peek responds "Always different those shadows are. Walk by, they come out as you! I only see it happen once before. Bugbear boss walk through, then there was another bugbear boss!"
Fril, you just don't get a good sense of what magic might've created these things, but you might assume it is Halaster or someone working for him as it's his dungeon.
Peek says "You sure you guys protect me from other bugbears, yes? We leave this guard post, yes? Frequent checks, they do. Peek follow new friends down into dungeon, yes?"
Fril shrugs as he opens his eyes and looks back at Peek. "That's interesting, it would appear that those mirrors create shadow duplicates of whomever walks in front of them. Perhaps we should avoid that hallway and take the long way around going forward." As Peek continues, Fril quickly goes to retrieve half of the arrows that were fired, handing Peek's back to him and restocking his quiver. "Yes Peek. We will protect you from the other bugbears, just stay near the back with me and you'll be okay." Looking at the rest of the group, Fril says, "I'm not sure all of these goblin's are working down here of their own volition, perhaps we should focus on removing the bugbears from the outpost, and then letting the goblins go. What do you guys think?"
(OOC: 3/6 arrows retrieved for Fril and 1/2 arrow retrieved for Peek.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
Farok frowns, but seeing the goblin working for them replies, “If they can be convinced not to attack. But if they swing at me, I will swing back.”He then looks around the cavern, finally taking stock of the previous battle, and looking to the goblin asks, “Which direction is the next guard post?”
"If there are more bugbears, that might mean more of that creature... I'm still the most suited to dispatch the Devourers, probably." Cami takes the information at hand, and goes off on a tangent of her own thoughts, speaking them out loud. She looks to Farok to give him the context. "If you see a brain-creature-thingy, don't get close. It was the same thing that got the half-elf you saw up at the tavern, and we don't have a solution for that yet, so we should just avoid it."
Finally, she wraps that up and turns to Fril so she can answer. "I'll try." She sees Farok asking a question to the goblin, and tries to add before Peek can answer. "That's good to know, but do you think before we go there, we can head back a little bit to one of the rooms we already went through? I read something, and it got me an idea."
Farok, Peek would say to you: "Yes, Peek show and tell where other guard houses is. 2 other ones, yes? Peek lead the way to second watch post? Big person, please no kill goblin friends."Peek makes a sad face. He points to the east and to the south.
Then Peek's face lights up though after Cami speaks. "Idea?! Peek like ideas!" He looks at you with wide eyes, already forgotten about what Farok said about swinging back at his goblin friends.
(Depending on what Cami has in mind, afterwards, if you want Peek to lead you to the next Xanathar Guild guard watch house, let me know, or ask him, and he will take you nearby. I will stop and describe things if I feel they are important and/or Peek doesn't know about them along the way there if need be. Otherwise he will take you as close to the watch post as he can without getting noticed. There will be no rolls for Peek to get you to that point, but after that you will have to start making rolls, if you want.)
Fril shrugs and gestures for Cami to lead the way. He leans down and says to Peek, "We'll head to the other guard house after this. Cami is really smart, if she has an idea, then we should probably listen."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
"Well, let it be clear. It's just a theory. It may also not even be that important, but if I don't see it for myself, it'll stay on my head." Cami starts, feeling that the compliment may put some expectation that was unwarranted since her idea was little more than conjecture. She does explain the conjecture, though, hoping to not leave the group in the dark.
"So. There was something written at the entrance with the bucket. It translated to 'Beyond the forest of pillars, the Mad Mage awaits. He casts spells behind magic gates.' At least, I think..." Cami looks at Farok just to make sure and asks, "That's right, right?", in Elvish. She waits for the confirmation and then continues. "So. We passed by that room filled with pillars, and we've found a magical gate. Farok hasn't seen the latter yet. I think the text was a riddle of some kind, and, if one of us casts a spell behind that magic gate we found, something might happen."
Farok holds out his hand and tightens it into a fist saying, “Though there is magic in me, it’s not the type I can simply control. If you would like to test your theory I will follow.”
((Note: wild magic barb actually lets me detect magic a couple times a day. So if we need it more later let me know))
"I suppose that sounds like a good idea," Fril says, "At least I can't think of anything wrong with it." He follows Cami to the room with the pillars in it and watches her experiment curiously.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
Peek will also happily follow along, likely very close by Fril.
(Ok, so are we going back to the room with the 10 pillars towards the east, or the one with the two pillars and the arch towards the south with what you have figured out is a destroyed magic gate that potentially does things if you walk through? If it is the 10 pillar room, you can either go east through the hall of mirrors, or back down south the way you came, therefore hitting the 2 pillar room first anyhow. Let me know the plan and also specifically what Cami or anyone else does once they get to either of the rooms, and then I will update the map and make the next post!)
Cami is having the others follow her to the room with the broken gate. That being her planned destination. "Ok, so maybe the fact that it is broken will ruin whatever the riddle is hinting at, but if it is, and it doesn't work, we can see if there is another gate somewhere so we can try again."
Cami takes a look at the gate, remembering the results of her last inspection. "Pocket passed through it fine last time, but one positive result out of one test doesn't give us any answers. Hm..." Cami tries to see if there's any way to get around the gate without crossing it, but she'll cross if she doesn't have any other options. She plans to remove her glove, and cast Mage Hand. Something that actually looks quite like a normal spell, making it much different from all her gadgets.
Cami, you can certainly get around the gate and get behind it without walking through it.
If you do cast mage hand behind the gate, nothing happens other than your spell appearing.
If you do decide to walk through the gate, please roll a d12. This goes for anyone else as well. Yes correct, Pocket did fly through the gate, and nothing happened, with a roll of course.
"Peek no walk through! Bugbears never walk through. Bugbears laugh and try and make each other walk through. Bugbears try and make goblins walk through. Goblins refuse. Then bugbears kill goblins. That's all Peek know about pillars."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Cami goes around the portal and tries to cast the spell. Bein unsuccessful, she puts her glove back and says, a little disappointed. "Well... Maybe I'm missing something... Or maybe my theory that it doesn't work due to the gate being broken is true... Since I'm back here, I'll do what we wanted to do before." She inspects the skeletal orcs for anything left on them or any trace of how they died.
Cami, you can't tell what type of weapon dealt the blows based on the marks on the bones, but these orc skeletons were definitely killed and robbed as there is also nothing of value around them. They are likely adventurers who were killed and ransacked long ago.
"Well... Glad we confirmed it at least. On to our next destination." Cami leaves the bones alone, feeling still a bit disappointed with the overall results. She walks around the gate on her way back.
"Mirrors! Mirrors! They came from those very bad mirrors in hallway. Not sure if smoky shadows come out again. Peek no sure."
"I thought it'd just be a shortcut... I have no idea why they looked like me..." Cami immediately starts searching on her memory for any knowledge on the creatures they just fought.
Intelligence Check: 7 (If Arcana add +3)
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Looking down to the goblin, Farok says “You’ve seen those before?” Then adding to Fril “Call me Farok. I came down after seeing what happened to the Dark Elf. Seems this place is as dangerous as they say.” Sheathing his sword he flexes his hand, clearly feeling a bit weaker.
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
"Hmm," Frilvoril nods at Farok. He is more happy to just have another able bodied fighter than anything else. "I recruited this little guy here, in case we need a little more help as well. He should be able to help Pocket with some scouting and sometimes a pair of hands is more useful than talons." Turning his head upwards, he closes his eyes to see if he might know of any magic that could create duplicates like the one he saw.
Arcana: 10
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
Cami, you don't recall anything from your memory as to what those things could've been, but you do sense that they were created by something or someone vs. the run of the mill shadow which you might've learned about in other research. (undead vs. construct)
Farok, Peek responds "Always different those shadows are. Walk by, they come out as you! I only see it happen once before. Bugbear boss walk through, then there was another bugbear boss!"
Fril, you just don't get a good sense of what magic might've created these things, but you might assume it is Halaster or someone working for him as it's his dungeon.
Peek says "You sure you guys protect me from other bugbears, yes? We leave this guard post, yes? Frequent checks, they do. Peek follow new friends down into dungeon, yes?"
Fril shrugs as he opens his eyes and looks back at Peek. "That's interesting, it would appear that those mirrors create shadow duplicates of whomever walks in front of them. Perhaps we should avoid that hallway and take the long way around going forward." As Peek continues, Fril quickly goes to retrieve half of the arrows that were fired, handing Peek's back to him and restocking his quiver. "Yes Peek. We will protect you from the other bugbears, just stay near the back with me and you'll be okay." Looking at the rest of the group, Fril says, "I'm not sure all of these goblin's are working down here of their own volition, perhaps we should focus on removing the bugbears from the outpost, and then letting the goblins go. What do you guys think?"
(OOC: 3/6 arrows retrieved for Fril and 1/2 arrow retrieved for Peek.)
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
Farok frowns, but seeing the goblin working for them replies, “If they can be convinced not to attack. But if they swing at me, I will swing back.” He then looks around the cavern, finally taking stock of the previous battle, and looking to the goblin asks, “Which direction is the next guard post?”
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
"If there are more bugbears, that might mean more of that creature... I'm still the most suited to dispatch the Devourers, probably." Cami takes the information at hand, and goes off on a tangent of her own thoughts, speaking them out loud. She looks to Farok to give him the context. "If you see a brain-creature-thingy, don't get close. It was the same thing that got the half-elf you saw up at the tavern, and we don't have a solution for that yet, so we should just avoid it."
Finally, she wraps that up and turns to Fril so she can answer. "I'll try." She sees Farok asking a question to the goblin, and tries to add before Peek can answer. "That's good to know, but do you think before we go there, we can head back a little bit to one of the rooms we already went through? I read something, and it got me an idea."
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Farok, Peek would say to you: "Yes, Peek show and tell where other guard houses is. 2 other ones, yes? Peek lead the way to second watch post? Big person, please no kill goblin friends." Peek makes a sad face. He points to the east and to the south.
Then Peek's face lights up though after Cami speaks. "Idea?! Peek like ideas!" He looks at you with wide eyes, already forgotten about what Farok said about swinging back at his goblin friends.
(Depending on what Cami has in mind, afterwards, if you want Peek to lead you to the next Xanathar Guild guard watch house, let me know, or ask him, and he will take you nearby. I will stop and describe things if I feel they are important and/or Peek doesn't know about them along the way there if need be. Otherwise he will take you as close to the watch post as he can without getting noticed. There will be no rolls for Peek to get you to that point, but after that you will have to start making rolls, if you want.)
Fril shrugs and gestures for Cami to lead the way. He leans down and says to Peek, "We'll head to the other guard house after this. Cami is really smart, if she has an idea, then we should probably listen."
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
"Well, let it be clear. It's just a theory. It may also not even be that important, but if I don't see it for myself, it'll stay on my head." Cami starts, feeling that the compliment may put some expectation that was unwarranted since her idea was little more than conjecture. She does explain the conjecture, though, hoping to not leave the group in the dark.
"So. There was something written at the entrance with the bucket. It translated to 'Beyond the forest of pillars, the Mad Mage awaits. He casts spells behind magic gates.' At least, I think..." Cami looks at Farok just to make sure and asks, "That's right, right?", in Elvish. She waits for the confirmation and then continues. "So. We passed by that room filled with pillars, and we've found a magical gate. Farok hasn't seen the latter yet. I think the text was a riddle of some kind, and, if one of us casts a spell behind that magic gate we found, something might happen."
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Cami, Peek looks at you with a very confused look.
Not because of the idea itself, but because he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
"Lots of riddles in this dungeon, yes?!"
((Math I just adjusted Peek's arrow count accordingly on our google sheet as per your retrieval of arrows, as I had forgotten before.))
Farok holds out his hand and tightens it into a fist saying, “Though there is magic in me, it’s not the type I can simply control. If you would like to test your theory I will follow.”
((Note: wild magic barb actually lets me detect magic a couple times a day. So if we need it more later let me know))
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
"I suppose that sounds like a good idea," Fril says, "At least I can't think of anything wrong with it." He follows Cami to the room with the pillars in it and watches her experiment curiously.
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
Peek will also happily follow along, likely very close by Fril.
(Ok, so are we going back to the room with the 10 pillars towards the east, or the one with the two pillars and the arch towards the south with what you have figured out is a destroyed magic gate that potentially does things if you walk through? If it is the 10 pillar room, you can either go east through the hall of mirrors, or back down south the way you came, therefore hitting the 2 pillar room first anyhow. Let me know the plan and also specifically what Cami or anyone else does once they get to either of the rooms, and then I will update the map and make the next post!)
Cami is having the others follow her to the room with the broken gate. That being her planned destination. "Ok, so maybe the fact that it is broken will ruin whatever the riddle is hinting at, but if it is, and it doesn't work, we can see if there is another gate somewhere so we can try again."
Cami takes a look at the gate, remembering the results of her last inspection. "Pocket passed through it fine last time, but one positive result out of one test doesn't give us any answers. Hm..." Cami tries to see if there's any way to get around the gate without crossing it, but she'll cross if she doesn't have any other options. She plans to remove her glove, and cast Mage Hand. Something that actually looks quite like a normal spell, making it much different from all her gadgets.
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Cami, you can certainly get around the gate and get behind it without walking through it.
If you do cast mage hand behind the gate, nothing happens other than your spell appearing.
If you do decide to walk through the gate, please roll a d12. This goes for anyone else as well. Yes correct, Pocket did fly through the gate, and nothing happened, with a roll of course.
"Peek no walk through! Bugbears never walk through. Bugbears laugh and try and make each other walk through. Bugbears try and make goblins walk through. Goblins refuse. Then bugbears kill goblins. That's all Peek know about pillars."
Peek sighs.
Map is updated.
Cami goes around the portal and tries to cast the spell. Bein unsuccessful, she puts her glove back and says, a little disappointed. "Well... Maybe I'm missing something... Or maybe my theory that it doesn't work due to the gate being broken is true... Since I'm back here, I'll do what we wanted to do before." She inspects the skeletal orcs for anything left on them or any trace of how they died.
Investigation Check: 20
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Cami, you can't tell what type of weapon dealt the blows based on the marks on the bones, but these orc skeletons were definitely killed and robbed as there is also nothing of value around them. They are likely adventurers who were killed and ransacked long ago.
"Ouffff... dead bones. Dead dead dead." Peek says.
"Well... Glad we confirmed it at least. On to our next destination." Cami leaves the bones alone, feeling still a bit disappointed with the overall results. She walks around the gate on her way back.
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon