On the cavern floor

[drpete]

The elevator basket lowers slowly down to the surface of the cavern, giving you a good view of the aerial battle between the bay winged humanoids and the giant-sized insects. The insects have greater numbers, but the bat winged men seem to be stronger... they screech and charge at the bees, then rake them with their talons, connecting more than the insects can stab the winged men with their stingers.

The elevator finally reaches the bottom, where you see the drow, Sarith, ministering to Brana and Ornthalas, who are starting to revive. Off at a distance of about 30 feet, you see the young deep gnomes, Topsy and Turvy watching you from atop a flat rock.

The cavern here runs roughly northeast-southwest, opening up to about 60 feet wide. North of you, on the east side of the cavern there is a pool fed by the waterfall. The cavern appears to have three exits... one at the southwest end, one at the northeast end, and a third tunnel, heading northwest, opposite the pool.

[Rex]

Ront

Once the basket is down Ront will try to climb down the rope/cable.

You can roll since he is a NPC.

[kalstone]

Raknar

"Get yer butt down here!" Raknar hisses quietly. "We got to git movin'"

[drpete]

You wait at the bottom for Rex to make his way down the rope... you can't see all the way up to the top of the rope from here, but as you stare up into the blackness, you see a brief flash of red light, then a few moments later, the body of Ront tumbles out of the darkness, landing on the ground a few yards from you.

[Scott308]

Ornthalas

Slowly shaking the cobwebs out, he looks around at his fellow prisoners. Where...where are we? And where is everyone else? Seeing he is still manacled, he asks, Can anyone break these? It makes it hard for me to try to pick locks like this.

[Rex]

Brana

Starting to come to, "How did we get here, for that matter. Where is here?"

[kalstone]

Raknar

Raknar runs over to Ront to see if he can revive him.

[drpete]

Sadly, Ront has been crushed by his fall, and is quite dead.

Brana and Ornthalas find themselves on the floor of a large cavern, surrounded by many of the prisoners. Eldeth rushes over to Brana when she sees her, and embraces her, then inspects the large welt left by the quaggoth's blow.

Sarith observes "We may not have much time... Should we wait for the others, or should we go now?"

Stool, the little mushroom child tenses, and releases a cloud of spoors to allow you all to communicate. He pleads "Please, help Stool! Stool needs to get home to Neverlight Grove! My family will be very grateful, and they will help you!"

Sarith responds "That sounds good, but it is very far from here, Stool... I don't think we can make it there directly. This base is pretty far from the rest of the world... deliberately."

Buppido chimes in "I can get us to Gracklstugh from here. But it is a long journey, maybe four weeks."

Sarith nods solemnly. "Menzoberranzan is a similar distance. We really need to find something closer, if we can... the Darklake is maybe a week away, but it is crawling with Kuo-Toa..."

Falling damage: [10d6] = 40

[Rex]

Brana

"Thanks Eldeth." Listening to the others. "We need somewhere we can rest, eat and stay hidden for a bit."

[ybn1197]

Birbal

Ornthalas

Slowly shaking the cobwebs out, he looks around at his fellow prisoners. Where...where are we? And where is everyone else? Seeing he is still manacled, he asks, Can anyone break these? It makes it hard for me to try to pick locks like this.

I wish that I could dear friend but it seems I am as confined with these chains as you. It has taken all my skill to make it out of the temple the fiends placed me in and to this basket where good friend Ront sacrificed himself for our chance at freedom.

Sarith, you seem knowledged in this area. Do you know of any cave or bolt hole we can use to rest up?

[drpete]

Sarith thinks for a minute before answering...

"We were fortunate that Lady Ilvara was not present, or we would have been easily dealt with. I know no boltholes nearby that she could not find us. Our best hope of avoiding recapture is to steer clear of the corridors Drow usually travel, I think."

[kalstone]

Raknar

"We ain't goin anywhere just yet. We still got people up there."

[Scott308]

Ornthalas Venlen

I agree. We should wait for the other prisoners. I'm not leaving them behind. We can't abandon them to face Drow retaliation for our escape. Does anyone have any idea where they are? What is it like up above? What's going on?

[Rex]

Brana

"No clue, just woke up. I agree though, we can't abandon them." Looking around for anything she can use as a weapon. "We best prepare ourselves as best we can for a fight, its coming sooner than latter."

[kalstone]

Raknar

"I guess the first order of business is to get out of these cuffs."

Strength: [1d20+1] = 13+1 = 14

[ybn1197]

I wholeheartedly agree with that, Birbal says lifting his manacled wrists.

[Scott308]

Ornthalas Venlen

Let me see those. The elf attempts to pick Birbal's manacles with his makeshift lockpick.

Thieve's Tools: [1d20+7] = 10+7 = 17
Thieve's Tools: [1d20+7] = 4+7 = 11
With disadvantage.

[Rex]

Brana

"Yes any help getting these off is appreciated."

[drpete]

Sadly, the makeshift pick is not able to unlock the manacles.

As you stand about doing this, one of the aerial combatants falls out of the sky and lands on the ground about 20 feet from you. This large winged humanoid is clearly badly wounded, but not dead. Fixing you with its baleful gaze, it screeches loudly as it begins to rise to its feet.

creature.png (119.71 KiB) Viewed 1507 times

The npc prisoners will follow your lead on this... someone should roll initiative for your group.

[Rex]

Brana

Initiative [1d20+2] = 8+2 = 10

Brana will look for something to use as a weapon, rock maybe?