It's the grinding of stone beneath wheels that wakes you, but it's hissing and a weight on your wrists that makes you alert. It's dark, too dark, and your eyes can barely focus. Next to and across from you are the shapes of other people; some crying, some unconscious, others still and silent. Someone nearby barks something in a language that may or may not be familiar to you and the cart turns, entering into a grove of tree-high mushrooms. Some glow gently, and by that light you can see the weight you feel on your wrists is a pair of manacles and that metal bars wrap around the carriage. At its front, you see the the back of its driver: an elf with the characteristic skin and hair of Drow, wearing the colorful but rough garb of a slaver. Welcome to the Underdark.
All of you come to shackled aboard a carriage in this caravan. Belongings such as weapons, spell books or casting implements are no longer on your person, but you can make out the shape of a sack next to the driver that quite likely contains them. Though it's dark, you can hear the wheels other other carriages in front of and behind yours, as well as hissing from the beasts that pull them.
As it continues to roll through the grove towards its destination, what do you do?
The young woman in black garb, face covered in an orange mask, senses the start of a panic when she wakes and realizes the situation she is in. Breathe in, she thinks. Breathe out. Using the calming technique of her order, the fear washes away. She needs to find a way out of these bands of iron.
She looks around in the dim fungal light at her surroundings. Who are these other people with her, she thinks, as she analyzes their builds and demeanor.
Satsuma will first assess her situation, in particular her fellow captives.
The short and petite woman who seems be wearing expensive clothing wakes up. At first she is slowly opening her eyes wondering why her body is aching all over. She tries to rub her eyes but then realizes that her hands are shackled. Instantly she straightens up her posture and frantically looks left and right.
A head pokes out of a shell decorated with glyphs in Dwarven, halfing script, and prayers in common. The wizened eyes of the tortle look around to to the others in the cart. Hs eyes focus on the yelling woman then to the slaver and the sack of belongings. He starts humming a small tune and tapping his fingers to the beat.
"Well, it seems we are in a bind."
He chuckles at his joke then goes back to humming. He speaks in a low and slow voice, taking his time with each word.
A hooded figure shifts, eyes opening slowly until shackles are felt on his wrists. He takes note that his mask is still on, and calms down only slightly. He listens to the others around him and his eyes glance around behind the mask, head unmoving as he takes in his surroundings. People, some also shackled and some not, possibly slavers. A bag, possibly with his belongings.
Perhaps it's best to stay still for now and see where this leads, he thinks. It's unlikely that I'd be able to break out of these chains, and I have no idea where I am if I am able to get out.
Satsuma considers her known captor: a pointy eared man of swarthy complexion, dressed in gaudy clothes. Are there more she can not see? Where are they being brought? And what is that hissing?
She then considers her potential allies: a frightened woman, a wisecracking tortoise, a masked enigma. Maybe others, if the other still bodies rouse. As yet they can not be relied upon for help.
Satsuma turns her attention to the shackles around her wrists. They look sturdy, but looks can be deceiving. A well placed powerful blow may break the chain. She will need leverage that she doesn't have in a sitting position. Taking careful account for the motion of the carriage and the fact that she can't freely move her arms to steady herself, she attempts to stand.
Satsuma attempts to stand up while shackled and in a moving wagon. Acrobatics check, if necessary: 24
The tortle watches as she stands and continues humming and tapping.
She might be able to lead the escape if she gets out. If not our captore might bring a beating down of her. Tortimer thinks.Perhaps I can help with that.
(OOC: Are our hands bound in a way that would prevent somantic spellcasting?
Satsuma: In addition to the potential allies you noted, there are a range of men and woman seated with you on this carriage, including some who do not look like they've seen the hardships of life outside of cities before. On the air, you can hear the sobs of children coming from other carriages too, in front of and in back of you. You are able to stand, but, depending on your height, you might have to hunch down some because of the bars that cross over the top of the carriage.
Sera:As you yell out, the Drow man who sits in the driver's seat and barks at you in an unfamiliar language: 'Talinth dosstan, rivval! Dos tlu wun golhyrr ilhar orbb...'
Tortimer:You look down at your hands, making out the shape of the manacles in the low light of the mushrooms. From what you can tell, it would be difficult to perform the motions associated with most spells as the bindings clamp your hands together, preventing their range of movement. However, you're not gagged, so verbal components would be no problem at all. With how thorough the Drow have bound your hands to prevent magic, the fact that they've left your mouths free is likely due to their looking down at magic requiring just words or a sadistic streak that wants to hear the cries and attempts to escape as they continue to roll on.
The mushroom forest grows thicker, with older growth now towering above the lower caps and gills that bounce off the caged roof and the air begins to take on the characteristics of moist earth and shellfish. A gallop sounds near the front of the carriage and another dark elf comes alongside the driver mounted on top of a vicious looking giant lizard, whose tongue flicks in and out towards you all. He speaks with your driver, discussing something that frustrates him, before riding past back to another of the carriages.
Can you all please roll a perception check for me.
(OOC: on mobile so this might come out funky. If it does I’ll fix it when I get home. Update: figured out how to roll on mobile. Don’t know how to do color though.
Myles notices the woman stands up, and shifts his hands a bit. This might be a good distraction for me to loosen these and escape once I figure out where I am and how many there are.
How close am I to others, and is it possible to pick the locks if there are any?
Satsuma & Myles:Focused on your next action, neither of you notice else happening.
Sera & Tortimer: The both of you notice some movement out in the mushrooms that seem to be keeping pace with your caravan, albeit in bursts.
Myles: The carriage leaves a three-foot gap between you and the people across from you, however your neighbors to the left and right are pushed right up against you. The Drow wasted no space when cramming you all in for delivery. Though you can't move your hands very well, you can feel the hole where a key might enter to unlock the manacles on their underside as you move it across your leg, examining them.
The driver begins to hum a sombre tune to himself as you all continue on. Quietly, a half-elf woman whispers to the other passengers, "Did any of you all see that?"
@Monslay, I've always had trouble with the forums on mobile, but I think if you turn your phone so it's in landscape mode, you should get the normal bar for text style, though no worries if you can't
Sera irritably whispers back to the half-elf woman through gritted teeth, "I saw something moving but I don't know what it is. Do you know? Does anybody here knows what's going on? Because I cannot stand this and I will start blasting my way out of here!"
Sera is coming up with a plan to Mind Sliver and Telekinetically Shove the driver off the carriage. Afterwards she has no plans. She's hoping one of the other awake passengers will be able to help her so they can get their equipment back and get out of there.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Satsuma meanwhile is ready to try to break free of her shackles, without much of a plan for what to do afterwards but certainly freedom of movement will open up some opportunities not available in confinement. Just like breaking bricks during training, she thinks to herself, as she focuses destructive intent into her mind and knee and holds her manacled hands out low in front of her.
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!WHACK! She slams her knee against the metal restraints as fast as she can!
Satsuma is going to try to make five unarmed strikes against the manacles with her knee over the course of six seconds: one standard, one from martial arts, one from extra attack, and two more using flurry of blows (costing one ki point). Manacles by RAW have 15 hp but don't have an AC so it's up to the DM to decide which, if any, of the strikes do damage, if they even want to allow this approach.
Tortimer watches the movement trying to get a grasp on what kind of creature it is. After a moment he turn his head to the sound of Satsuma hitting the restraint.
"Are we going for that now?" He says this as he glances around to see the reactions of the prisoners and guards. "If you can get out free the others. I can hold off the guards temporally while you free them." He whispers this towards Satsuma.
If Satsuma is able to get free from her shackles Tortimer is going to wild shape into a Giant constrictor Snake and choose for current items to drop to the ground. He hopes that this gets the manacles off and frees him to start causing chaos while the other prisoners get free.
Myles glances around at what is about to unfold, and to see what the half-elf woman may be talking about. His eyes return to the sack next to the driver.
If Satsuma is able to draw the attention of the driver, Myles will attempt to get to the sack and find his belongings amongst probably the others', and if thieves tools pick the manacles. If this is not possible, he will look for keys on the driver or at where the driver is/was.
Sera: The half-elf woman looks at you and shakes her head, adding: "I don't know much about...down here, but I've heard stories. Anything would be bad..." She trails off and pulls her knees up to her chest. A ragged looking dwarf man sat next to her speaks, saying: "When I was a miner, in my youth, the ones who came before told stories about beasts you couldn't quite look at." He coughs and corrects himself, adding: "Well, you could look at them, but they weren't where you'd think they were."
Satsuma:With five quick strikes, two connecting quite well, you've managed to distort the shape of the manacles. The noise, though, draws the attention of the driver and he turns to look over his shoulder, shouting in Undercommon. He pulls a hand crossbow up into view and aims it at you, motioning for you to sit back down.
Tortimer:You watch as Satsuma attempts to free herself, unfortunately falling just short of wrenching them apart.
Myles:You also watch Satsuma, but hold fast as the Drow cranes his neck. (TBC in a few lines)
Everyone besides Satsuma (Passive Perception is just a touch too low): Just beyond the edge of the mushrooms you notice more movement–something or some things running–flickering forward and backwards relative to where you first see them as you try and focus on them.
A shout calls out from the carriage in front of yours and in response, your driver brings everything to a quick halt, jolting any sleeping passengers away. The driver stands, holding reins in one hand and the hand crossbow in the other, looking to the left and then to the right and back again. In this tense silence, you can all hear the sound of waves gently lapping.
Myles:When the driver stands, you notice a ring of keys at his waist. With his attention on the edges of the forest around you all, you reach, stretching your hands as far as they'll go, despite being chained down and deftly grab the keys.
Tortimer:If you would like to wild shape, you can as the driver is looking around.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Sera sees all this go down and implements her plan.
Sera casts Mind Sliver on the Drow driver. He needs to succeed a DC 15 Intelligence Saving Throw. If he fails he will take 6 DMG and subtract 1 from his next saving throw.
As a bonus action Sera attempts to Telekinetically Shove the driver. He needs to succeed a DC 15 Strength Saving Throw. If he fails he will be pushed 5 ft away from Sera hopefully off the carriage.
Myles swiftly grabs ahold of the ring of keys and palms it best he can with the still manacles on, which hopefully will be off soon. He tries each key with his manacles, keeping an eye on the driver and keeping quiet. If he's able to get out, he'll attempt to free the woman who was trying to break free; she seemed strong enough and able to help.
(I just noticed that sometimes my edits aren't saving for some reason; sorry if the text coloring isn't consistent even if it's not that important. And I meant stealth not steal check lol)
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It's the grinding of stone beneath wheels that wakes you, but it's hissing and a weight on your wrists that makes you alert. It's dark, too dark, and your eyes can barely focus. Next to and across from you are the shapes of other people; some crying, some unconscious, others still and silent. Someone nearby barks something in a language that may or may not be familiar to you and the cart turns, entering into a grove of tree-high mushrooms. Some glow gently, and by that light you can see the weight you feel on your wrists is a pair of manacles and that metal bars wrap around the carriage. At its front, you see the the back of its driver: an elf with the characteristic skin and hair of Drow, wearing the colorful but rough garb of a slaver. Welcome to the Underdark.
All of you come to shackled aboard a carriage in this caravan. Belongings such as weapons, spell books or casting implements are no longer on your person, but you can make out the shape of a sack next to the driver that quite likely contains them. Though it's dark, you can hear the wheels other other carriages in front of and behind yours, as well as hissing from the beasts that pull them.
As it continues to roll through the grove towards its destination, what do you do?
The young woman in black garb, face covered in an orange mask, senses the start of a panic when she wakes and realizes the situation she is in. Breathe in, she thinks. Breathe out. Using the calming technique of her order, the fear washes away. She needs to find a way out of these bands of iron.
She looks around in the dim fungal light at her surroundings. Who are these other people with her, she thinks, as she analyzes their builds and demeanor.
Satsuma will first assess her situation, in particular her fellow captives.
The short and petite woman who seems be wearing expensive clothing wakes up. At first she is slowly opening her eyes wondering why her body is aching all over. She tries to rub her eyes but then realizes that her hands are shackled. Instantly she straightens up her posture and frantically looks left and right.
"Where am I? What's going on? . . . SOMEONE ANSWER ME!"
Sera is agitated and unable to calm down.
A head pokes out of a shell decorated with glyphs in Dwarven, halfing script, and prayers in common. The wizened eyes of the tortle look around to to the others in the cart. Hs eyes focus on the yelling woman then to the slaver and the sack of belongings. He starts humming a small tune and tapping his fingers to the beat.
"Well, it seems we are in a bind."
He chuckles at his joke then goes back to humming. He speaks in a low and slow voice, taking his time with each word.
A hooded figure shifts, eyes opening slowly until shackles are felt on his wrists. He takes note that his mask is still on, and calms down only slightly. He listens to the others around him and his eyes glance around behind the mask, head unmoving as he takes in his surroundings. People, some also shackled and some not, possibly slavers. A bag, possibly with his belongings.
Perhaps it's best to stay still for now and see where this leads, he thinks. It's unlikely that I'd be able to break out of these chains, and I have no idea where I am if I am able to get out.
Satsuma considers her known captor: a pointy eared man of swarthy complexion, dressed in gaudy clothes. Are there more she can not see? Where are they being brought? And what is that hissing?
She then considers her potential allies: a frightened woman, a wisecracking tortoise, a masked enigma. Maybe others, if the other still bodies rouse. As yet they can not be relied upon for help.
Satsuma turns her attention to the shackles around her wrists. They look sturdy, but looks can be deceiving. A well placed powerful blow may break the chain. She will need leverage that she doesn't have in a sitting position. Taking careful account for the motion of the carriage and the fact that she can't freely move her arms to steady herself, she attempts to stand.
Satsuma attempts to stand up while shackled and in a moving wagon. Acrobatics check, if necessary: 24
The tortle watches as she stands and continues humming and tapping.
She might be able to lead the escape if she gets out. If not our captore might bring a beating down of her. Tortimer thinks. Perhaps I can help with that.
(OOC: Are our hands bound in a way that would prevent somantic spellcasting?
Satsuma: In addition to the potential allies you noted, there are a range of men and woman seated with you on this carriage, including some who do not look like they've seen the hardships of life outside of cities before. On the air, you can hear the sobs of children coming from other carriages too, in front of and in back of you. You are able to stand, but, depending on your height, you might have to hunch down some because of the bars that cross over the top of the carriage.
Sera: As you yell out, the Drow man who sits in the driver's seat and barks at you in an unfamiliar language: 'Talinth dosstan, rivval! Dos tlu wun golhyrr ilhar orbb...'
Tortimer: You look down at your hands, making out the shape of the manacles in the low light of the mushrooms. From what you can tell, it would be difficult to perform the motions associated with most spells as the bindings clamp your hands together, preventing their range of movement. However, you're not gagged, so verbal components would be no problem at all. With how thorough the Drow have bound your hands to prevent magic, the fact that they've left your mouths free is likely due to their looking down at magic requiring just words or a sadistic streak that wants to hear the cries and attempts to escape as they continue to roll on.
The mushroom forest grows thicker, with older growth now towering above the lower caps and gills that bounce off the caged roof and the air begins to take on the characteristics of moist earth and shellfish. A gallop sounds near the front of the carriage and another dark elf comes alongside the driver mounted on top of a vicious looking giant lizard, whose tongue flicks in and out towards you all. He speaks with your driver, discussing something that frustrates him, before riding past back to another of the carriages.
Can you all please roll a perception check for me.
Satsuma's eyes and ears are alert, checking for a moment when the pointy eared man is distracted before she attempts what she is about to attempt...
Perception check: 10
Perception check: 21
(OOC: on mobile so this might come out funky. If it does I’ll fix it when I get home. Update: figured out how to roll on mobile. Don’t know how to do color though.
Perception: 19
(Hopefully I did this right.)
Perception check: 13
Myles notices the woman stands up, and shifts his hands a bit. This might be a good distraction for me to loosen these and escape once I figure out where I am and how many there are.
How close am I to others, and is it possible to pick the locks if there are any?
Satsuma & Myles: Focused on your next action, neither of you notice else happening.
Sera & Tortimer: The both of you notice some movement out in the mushrooms that seem to be keeping pace with your caravan, albeit in bursts.
Myles: The carriage leaves a three-foot gap between you and the people across from you, however your neighbors to the left and right are pushed right up against you. The Drow wasted no space when cramming you all in for delivery. Though you can't move your hands very well, you can feel the hole where a key might enter to unlock the manacles on their underside as you move it across your leg, examining them.
The driver begins to hum a sombre tune to himself as you all continue on. Quietly, a half-elf woman whispers to the other passengers, "Did any of you all see that?"
@Monslay, I've always had trouble with the forums on mobile, but I think if you turn your phone so it's in landscape mode, you should get the normal bar for text style, though no worries if you can't
Sera irritably whispers back to the half-elf woman through gritted teeth, "I saw something moving but I don't know what it is. Do you know? Does anybody here knows what's going on? Because I cannot stand this and I will start blasting my way out of here!"
Sera is coming up with a plan to Mind Sliver and Telekinetically Shove the driver off the carriage. Afterwards she has no plans. She's hoping one of the other awake passengers will be able to help her so they can get their equipment back and get out of there.
Satsuma meanwhile is ready to try to break free of her shackles, without much of a plan for what to do afterwards but certainly freedom of movement will open up some opportunities not available in confinement. Just like breaking bricks during training, she thinks to herself, as she focuses destructive intent into her mind and knee and holds her manacled hands out low in front of her.
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! She slams her knee against the metal restraints as fast as she can!
Satsuma is going to try to make five unarmed strikes against the manacles with her knee over the course of six seconds: one standard, one from martial arts, one from extra attack, and two more using flurry of blows (costing one ki point). Manacles by RAW have 15 hp but don't have an AC so it's up to the DM to decide which, if any, of the strikes do damage, if they even want to allow this approach.
Unarmed Strike 1: 7 Damage: 5
Unarmed Strike 2: 25 Damage: 7
Unarmed Strike 3: 22 Damage: 5
Unarmed Strike 4: 16 Damage: 6
Unarmed Strike 5: 18 Damage: 6
Tortimer watches the movement trying to get a grasp on what kind of creature it is. After a moment he turn his head to the sound of Satsuma hitting the restraint.
"Are we going for that now?" He says this as he glances around to see the reactions of the prisoners and guards. "If you can get out free the others. I can hold off the guards temporally while you free them." He whispers this towards Satsuma.
If Satsuma is able to get free from her shackles Tortimer is going to wild shape into a Giant constrictor Snake and choose for current items to drop to the ground. He hopes that this gets the manacles off and frees him to start causing chaos while the other prisoners get free.
Myles glances around at what is about to unfold, and to see what the half-elf woman may be talking about. His eyes return to the sack next to the driver.
If Satsuma is able to draw the attention of the driver, Myles will attempt to get to the sack and find his belongings amongst probably the others', and if thieves tools pick the manacles. If this is not possible, he will look for keys on the driver or at where the driver is/was.
Stealth check if needed: 27
Sera: The half-elf woman looks at you and shakes her head, adding: "I don't know much about...down here, but I've heard stories. Anything would be bad..." She trails off and pulls her knees up to her chest. A ragged looking dwarf man sat next to her speaks, saying: "When I was a miner, in my youth, the ones who came before told stories about beasts you couldn't quite look at." He coughs and corrects himself, adding: "Well, you could look at them, but they weren't where you'd think they were."
Satsuma: With five quick strikes, two connecting quite well, you've managed to distort the shape of the manacles. The noise, though, draws the attention of the driver and he turns to look over his shoulder, shouting in Undercommon. He pulls a hand crossbow up into view and aims it at you, motioning for you to sit back down.
Tortimer: You watch as Satsuma attempts to free herself, unfortunately falling just short of wrenching them apart.
Myles: You also watch Satsuma, but hold fast as the Drow cranes his neck. (TBC in a few lines)
Everyone besides Satsuma (Passive Perception is just a touch too low): Just beyond the edge of the mushrooms you notice more movement–something or some things running–flickering forward and backwards relative to where you first see them as you try and focus on them.
A shout calls out from the carriage in front of yours and in response, your driver brings everything to a quick halt, jolting any sleeping passengers away. The driver stands, holding reins in one hand and the hand crossbow in the other, looking to the left and then to the right and back again. In this tense silence, you can all hear the sound of waves gently lapping.
Myles: When the driver stands, you notice a ring of keys at his waist. With his attention on the edges of the forest around you all, you reach, stretching your hands as far as they'll go, despite being chained down and deftly grab the keys.
Tortimer: If you would like to wild shape, you can as the driver is looking around.
Sera sees all this go down and implements her plan.
Sera casts Mind Sliver on the Drow driver. He needs to succeed a DC 15 Intelligence Saving Throw. If he fails he will take 6 DMG and subtract 1 from his next saving throw.
As a bonus action Sera attempts to Telekinetically Shove the driver. He needs to succeed a DC 15 Strength Saving Throw. If he fails he will be pushed 5 ft away from Sera hopefully off the carriage.
Myles swiftly grabs ahold of the ring of keys and palms it best he can with the still manacles on, which hopefully will be off soon. He tries each key with his manacles, keeping an eye on the driver and keeping quiet. If he's able to get out, he'll attempt to free the woman who was trying to break free; she seemed strong enough and able to help.
(I just noticed that sometimes my edits aren't saving for some reason; sorry if the text coloring isn't consistent even if it's not that important. And I meant stealth not steal check lol)