Game Thread Heart of Darkness (Part II) - Page 6

secretID · #76 Dec 4th, 2022, 09:47 AM

Jimmy sighed loudly. OK, Tink, he communicated, back to imp form so you can talk ta her. After a moment's pause, Jimmy told his familiar, Repeat out loud: What...is...this?

OOCThat's in sylvan elvish, of course. Don't worry - Jimmy won't try to hold a whole conversation this way. Tink will remain invisible, BTW.

Mindsiege · #77 Dec 4th, 2022, 08:22 PM

Mouthpiece

Although it was a pretty bothersome task to receive from his master Jimmy, Tinkerbell shifted back into his form as an imp without making any complaints and then he repeated the elven words as best he could from the telepathic connection that they shared. It was especially awkward in the beginning and it took the familiar a few times to imitate his master's thoughts in an intelligible way, but after he had landed on top of the tarp next to the contraption and given it a few attempts, the confused murmurs from below abated and Glynn's voice called up, more distinct than the other darklings. "It is something we caught and that we thought we should show you to get your opinion on, adventurer." The female elder sounded casual about it, but then her tone shifted to displeasure. "Can we please do this in person though? Your little creature is hurting our ears."

secretID · #78 Dec 5th, 2022, 07:29 AM

Jimmy silently recalled raven, invisibleTinkerbell while he quickly filled the others in. "I dunno," he said. "I think we done what we can to be careful. At some point ya just gotta pull the crossbow trigger. Let's form up." A few seconds later, the party marched the entrance to it, anywayinto Glynn's camp.

"Yeah.. hey, Glynn," said Jimmy. "I'm sure you can appreciate a little caution. Boanagh never heard a' you before the other day, and now you guys show up unannounced...

"So what's in the hammock?" he asked, nudging his chin toward the ceiling.

Mindsiege · #79 Dec 8th, 2022, 01:22 AM

Trust Issues

There were no complaints from his fae companions as Jimmy determined that there was no more avoiding the hook in front of him. And so with caution still on his mind, as the leader of his make-shift party he directed his group to proceed through the tunnel as they walked up to the point where it opened up into the cavern which served as the dubh sidhe campsite. There had been no further movement among the gnarly darklings as they were looking in Jimmy's direction with their eerily milky eyes that allowed them to see even in the permanent darkness of their colony. Glynn was also still sitting in the same spot as before, and as Jimmy called over to her from a distance without entering the site, she slanted her head back a little as she listened to the adventurer's excuse for his caution and the play-acting which he had done for her so far. There was no particular expression on her face as she studied the new arrivals from afar, but there was a noticeable tension in the air as a few of the smaller darklings wore tight little frowns or badly veiled looks of suspicion. Not the female elder though, and since Boanagh appeared too upset over his mounting paranoia and forfeited the dialogue to Jimmy, Glynn replied while facing the half-elven warlock after he inquired about the captive above.

"Well, I was going to give you a moment to arrive first, but I suppose it will relieve some tensions if we get this matter out of the way immediately." The darkling elder vaguely gestured to the tarp which hid the contraption of cloth above it from Jimmy's view even when he glanced upward past the edge of the tunnel ceiling. "Truthfully, we haven't seen the likes within the colony, and since we control all of the entrances to our realm it's a big matter of note. We caught them rather easily and they appeared harmless enough, but still... It might have been fortunate hadn't your elven companion fallen ill, as it appears this would have been her specialty. But listen to me chatter away. Since trust and politeness have been done away with for the moment, let's forgo the toad song and get down to business. Should we release them to get your opinion on what they are and so you can see for yourself?" Glynn looked over to one of the darklings near a rope that reached down from the tarp construction and was tied to one of the stalagmites. The gnarly fey looked surprised at the idea, but the elder gave him a look and then he shrugged and looked over at Jimmy for his reply.

secretID · #80 Dec 9th, 2022, 07:05 AM

Jimmy read the concern on the subordinate darkling's face. "Yeah..." he responded, "How 'bout you just describe it instead? Not to criticize yer stagecraft..."

Mindsiege · #81 Dec 9th, 2022, 07:32 AM

Glynn

The female darkling elder brushed a few locks of her hair back behind her ear and suddenly she had a bit of a mocking smile curling around her lips. "Whatever do you mean, adventurer?" Without ever awaiting Jimmy's answer she proceeded to explain. "They are big, round, and ugly. They float and have one eye, right in the middle. And growths. They didn't really show aggression when we put them in there." Glynn gave an open-handed gesture. "After we've gone to all of the trouble to prepare them for you, won't you at least take a look at them?" This comment seemed to make the other darklings quite nervous, but the darkling woman wasn't finished yet. "It's what you were hired for, right? To find irregularities that have intruded into the colony and might be responsible for all these deaths." She lowered her hand again. "Boanagh promised you quite a lot of our silver for that. You wouldn't shirk your responsibilities, would you?"

secretID · #82 Dec 11th, 2022, 06:01 PM

Jimmy forced Glynn to wait a moment for his response as he mumbled his invocation of the blade. “Wait,” he said sharply when he was done, “are you tellin’ me you got a beholder in there? – multiple beholders in there?! And you wanna let ‘em out? Nah, nah.

"Wait a second...They’re just sitting in there, all peaceful? An’ they let you gather ‘em up?” Jimmy cocked his head, again Insight? (No Guidance.)doubting Gwynn’s sincerity…or her sanity.

“Hm,” the warlock considered. “This is ringin’ a bell here.” He recited his words again, then frowned. “Ah…I don’t remember exactly, but I think there are these other things out there – look like beholders, but they’re…plants? Floating plants?” Jimmy looked to his sylvan allies for any insight into this mystery. “I dunno.”

“But you think they’re dangerous, anyway,” Jimmy challenged Glynn. “Right? So just keep ‘em right there for now, yeah? You know somethin' you ain't said?”

OOCUnless one of the sylvans knows something more, Jimmy is angling planning to maneuver to get a look from a good distance, but I think I may need at least a crude map to do that - and the ceiling height?

Mindsiege · #83 Dec 15th, 2022, 07:01 PM

Vigilance

Glynn's inscrutable smile didn't seem to hold any lack of sincerity, even as Jimmy struggled with himself to make sense about her description of the entrapped creatures. Concluding that the rumors which he had heard about some bloated plant monsters were more similar to the beings from Glynn's explanation than any form of lesser beholder, the half-elven warlock conferred his knowledge to his group. But both Boanagh and Loch only shrugged their shoulders in response while the two dryad sisters remained silently beautiful as they had no further insights to give either. Feeling a distinct lack of clarity on the subject, Jimmy challenged the female elder by stating that she would be thinking them dangerous after all, and he questioned if there was anything that yet remained to be shared. But Glynn only maintained her smile and leaned forward a little. "You misheard, I said that we think them harmless. Am I right people?"

The darkling elder had slightly raised her voice on the last sentence, and the little darklings all moved to nod along as a row of murmuring conveyed their assent. Seemingly most of them were bilingual and they had understood the elven words. Unconvinced by everything, Jimmy began to step into the campsite and Glynn gave a discouraging wave over to the darkling next to the rope. Then she turned back at the adventurer. "Aren't your kind the experts on mysteries? Isn't that why we've hired you? I don't believe that you'll have anything to learn by looking from down here." As best as Jimmy could tell, the elder seemed to believe those words.

Deciding that he still wanted to get a better look at the tarp construction, as Jimmy approached the female darkling the odd out-of-place feeling from before returned. Only when he got a bit closer and once more mumbled his dagger's incantation did he finally understand what was irking him. It was Glynn's eye color. While it looked similar enough at a distance, Jimmy confirmed for himself that it was decidedly different from any of the other darklings which he had seen recently, particularly when he compared Glynn to the gnarly fae whom he was approaching right now. But nobody seemed to take note or cared about the difference. Not even Boanagh. Or Sashaya, who had left her sister behind in the tunnel and appeared to be following in Jimmy's steps.

secretID · #84 Dec 20th, 2022, 02:28 PM

“Sure, sure,” Jimmy repeated, “harmless. That’s why you make sure ta keep ‘em covered up and tied ta’ the ceiling. Like ya would a puppy.

“But I take yer point: I’m the expert. An I say we’re gonna keep ‘em at a distance. You or any a’ your people want a close encounter, I won’t stop ‘em, but we'll be back here.” Jimmy motioned to Sashaya to back up as he did the same. When they reached the tunnel, Jimmy continued his slow backwards retreat, waving his people back ahead of him.

Now a few meters into the tunnel, Jimmy called out to Glynn as he continued moving. “Yeah, we’re gonna be discussin' a few things back in here. You have any more thoughts, you just come on in ta let us know.”

He didn't wait for her, though. "This situation ain't gettin' any better," he opined to his companions. "They got the other entrances blocked, and a somethin' right at this one. This screams 'trap.' 'We've gone to all the trouble to prepare them for you,'" Jimmy mocked. "My petite elven butt. But she didn't spring it when she coulda. More like a practical joke, like. Maybe she's just a jerk," he wondered aloud. "But we're not taking dumb chances here. I already know one thing: either way, I don't wanna work with her.

"So unless you got an objection," Jimmy said to Boanagh, "I'm pullin' the plug on all this. Either they leave, or we find a new place to set up. Actually, it almost hasta be we find a new place, since Glynn knows this one. You got another location for us, B?" Jimmy remembered with some annoyance that he was only in this situation because Boanagh had openly shared the party's plans.

Before the darkling could respond to Jimmy, the half-elf added a last, important point. "Oh, yeah," he said, "what's with those crazy light eyes a' hers? You ever seen that in a darkling before? That's don't seem right ta me - not one bit."

Telepathically, Jimmy then consulted with one last individual. Hey Tink, he asked, whadda you make a her? Up ta no good, right?

OOCJimmy will move everyone 50' into the corridor, or more or necessary to feel safely out of earshot.

I just noticed recently that imps have +3 Insight, better than Jimmy's - for what it's worth.

Mindsiege · #85 Dec 27th, 2022, 11:38 AM

At an Impasse

While Glynn had been wearing an irking smile for most of the encounter, on Jimmy's last rebuke and as he turned back around and retreated into the tunnel opening, the female elder's expression turned into an actual scowl. Just like before she was now sitting more or less at the edge of the adventurer's field of vision, and after the warlock conveyed to the darkling camp that he and his own would be discussing at a distance again, Glynn called after them with annoyance in her voice. "Do take your time. I am sure that we'll find ways to occupy ourselves a bit longer after we've been waiting for this long already." There were murmurs among the other darklings, but no opposing voices.

Back behind the tunnel bent and with cautiously dimmed voices against letting their sound carry easily in this subterranean world, Jimmy appraised this unexpected darkling party who had preceded them and prepared something that looked like a blatant trap in the campsite that had been chosen as the locale for their adventuring party to sniff out whatever menace roamed the colony under the dominion of Boanagh's fae clan. Jimmy's assessment didn't fall out favorably for Glynn and her following at all, and the warlock's party members listened seriously as their leader declared that he wouldn't work together with Glynn and that he wanted them to relocate to some other location to continue their quest. His fey allies' reactions ranged from troubled to grim.

It was visible that Boanagh had been sitting on his words for a bit, but Jimmy strewed in one last piece of information as he mentioned the discoloration that he had seen in Glynn's pupils compared to the darkling's usual pearly-glazed eyes. It was a peculiar difference indeed, but the darkling elder furrowed his brows for only a moment before he seemed to brush past it and turned the conversation back to what had been said before. "I am unsure what you are referring to, Jimmy, but you want us to... leave?" Lacking the same eloquence that his half-elven companion possessed, Boanagh seemed to be looking for words before he elaborated on his disagreement. "We cannot possibly. If this is... a trap, or if Glynn is a doppelganger of sorts... then I say we have to confront her!"

The darkling elder seemed filled with uncertainty, but he tried to speak with as much conviction as he could gather after how unsettled he had become with all the paranoia going about. "These are the lives of my people, Jimmy! I do not believe that any one of our elders would be making any practical jokes about this." Boanagh looked to the rest of the sylvans for agreement, but they all kept neutral expressions as they listened. "I think... if Glynn is actively working against us, then we need to expose her! Even more so if she is not who she presents to be."

The elder seemed to pick up some steam, even as he kept his voice carefully low. "There is magic in the dubh sidhe elders that I do not believe any doppelganger could easily reproduce. Jimmy. The ritual that returns an elder to a nobler form is tied to the light that our bodies absorb and that kills and ages us by our curse. To sustain this condition longer than our smaller brethren, an elder siphons the light that their body holds from their flesh and captures it on the outside, in the form of faintly glowing tattoos." Boanagh wore a pensive expression as he concluded. "I know of nothing that can fake the magic of the elder's ritual. If we make Glynn shed her clothes, then we could easily confirm whether she is an impostor!"

At that, before Jimmy could respond to the elder's notion, Loch stroked his black beard and responded with one of his confident smirks on his lips. "I have been wondering if we shouldn't place the woman under a charm. If she really is our insidious foe, you wouldn't have any further complaints if I played my fife, would you Jimmy?" The satyr raised one hand defensively even though neither the dryads nor Boanagh appeared to begrudge him the idea. "Mind you, before I had hoped this Glynn would be stripping for me for but a different reason, but if it is for the sake of our quest, ach, how could I not volunteer?" This finally earned him sour looks from Sashaya and Ilala. The elder sister retorted with a sharp tongue. "You overestimate yourself, seducer. Everyone knows your ilk. She is more like to draw her sword than to listen to your beguiling music."

It appeared that Jimmy's proposal to abandon the campsite had started an argument among his companions, and it became clear that he would have to speak up as the leader of his party soon. While Loch made a show of taking mild offense at Ilala's contrarian opinion and Boanagh fell back into a sullen silence, the half-elven warlock consulted one last time with his trusted familiar, their telepathic connection allowing them to converse without interrupting the other fey or their antics. "Totally agree with you, boss. The broad is playing games with ya. Not like I could find fault with her act either, but I don't feel like her heart is even in it. Definitely up to no good at least, yep. Mind you, it's the first thing I said, boss. Their whole gig is suspicious!"

secretID · #86 Jan 4th, 2023, 05:50 AM

As everyone said their peace, Jimmy experienced a range of emotions and conflicting thoughts, and each one showed on his face as he did. He begrudgingly accepted the legitimacy of Boanagh’s insistence in directly addressing the Glynn issue, but he flinched when his employer proposed getting her naked. Jimmy’s primary concern was the difficulty of that task, but he also dreaded the commentary from Loch that inevitably followed.

Jimmy nodded sagely when Tinkerbell offered his opinion. The warlock didn’t rely on the spirit’s judgment often, but sometimes the little guy found the perfect way of expressing his agreement with Jimmy.

“OK,” Jimmy began. “Your charm won’t work on her,” he reminded Loch, “if she is her – y’know – a darkling. But I guess a charm could be a way to find out she’s not. The right charm, anyway; I think it would hafta be mine. A lot could go wrong there, though – if it works, we learn a lot, but if it don’t? Maybe she’s not a darkling but is immune anyway, or maybe the spell just didn’t work. And then we’ve set her off, and maybe we’re in a big fight. Yeah,” Jimmy concluded, “I wanna do this in a way that makes it hard for her to refuse in front a’ her guys – like, if things get bad, maybe they’ll hesitate. I think maybe they’re already wonderin’ about her too. It seem like that to you ladies?

“Hey, B,” Jimmy asked, “what, eh…what are the darklings like about nudity? Is that a big deal? Like, if you were in Westhaven and you asked someone ta strip to prove themselves, that wouldn’t go over too well. What about here? – would that request just sound crazy?

“And what about the eyes?” Jimmy demanded. “That’s nothin’, or what? I ain’t seen that before, an’ I seen a lotta you, now.”

Mindsiege · #87 Jan 5th, 2023, 03:19 AM

Conspiracy

Wisely avoiding the hornets' nest that was Ilala's temper, Jimmy dodged getting involved with the dryad's and Loch's minor spat about the sylvan's proclivities as the half-elf smoothly cut into the conversation and reminded his sylvan allies that their charming enchantments were only suited to work on those who were not of their kind. The uneven party listened quietly as Jimmy explained that they would be risking getting into an armed conflict if they failed to play their cards correctly, and in the same lane of thought he considered preying on the darkling party's social dynamics in order to confirm the concerns that the party had about Glynn.

Thinking back on the encounter at the tunnel opening, Jimmy couldn't help but agree with his familiar that there had been plenty of red flags upon meeting such an unexpected welcoming committee. With the possibility on the table that the elder Glynn wasn't exactly who she claimed to be, the crafty warlock considered that if they were to attempt to expose the female elder, then doing so without upsetting the smaller variety of Boanagh's kind was paramount. For the most part it had appeared that Glynn's authority within the campsite had been uncontested, but something about the darklings' attitude had given Jimmy hope that they weren't as much of a monolith as he might have thought initially. When he posed the question to his party, specifically to the two dryad sisters, Ilala and Sashaya exchanged a quick glance before it was Sashaya who answered first.

"I cannot say that I saw much dissent or suspicion among them, but it may be possible that they have doubts?" The beautiful daughter of the Heart Tree ended her observation on a question, but before she could elaborate it was her elder sister who continued to speak. "They were acting strange. It is my first time descending into this ever-darkness and meeting the dubh sidhe in numbers, but these were not as those which we had met at the border outpost." Sashaya gave an uncertain nod while Ilala continued. "I do not trust them. Confusion in their ranks does not convince me that they might not actually wish us ill. You say that they may have tried to entrap us in their camp, so why do you believe them our allies, rootless?"

At that moment it was Boanagh who interrupted with a grim expression marring his noble features. "Come now! It isn't impossible that the monsters they captured do relate to the true evil that has found its way into our colony. It need not be my brethren! It need not even be Glynn, even if she were an impostor!" Ilala made a sour expression, though she didn't raise her voice as it would have carried too easily from their current position in the tunnel. "Now you're being naive, Elder. As far as the enclave is concerned, the evil has been sitting within your midst. What of the earth elemental and the tale you have told of it?" It was clear that Boanagh meant to refute something fierily, but Sashaya intercepted his outburst as she grabbed her sister's forearm and leaned forward to speak first. "It is not unfounded! I do not believe that this Glynn and her followers were of the same mind as they faced us, but I did not like how they looked at us!" Then she looked at Jimmy, but left it at that without speaking any further.

It was quite evident that Boanagh had still more to retort, but Jimmy sensed that there was an argument in the air and they were still precariously close to the campsite. Using his glib conversational skills, the half-elven adventurer flipped the script and turned the darkling elder's mind back from unfounded accusations and the fear of excessive paranoia to the much simpler topic of his darkling culture and how appropriate a request for nudity was. To Jimmy's boon, the question appeared to be just precarious enough that the darkling elder blinked a few times before he flusteredly accepted the abrupt change in topic. "Now, that's of course not how we should put it, ahem. We do not need Glynn to bare herself to us as such. The elders in particular keep their tattoos concealed at all times so as not to exhaust our family members with their faint luminosity. We would not need her to... strip completely in order to prove that the elder rituals have been performed on her." Due to his hexblade pact, Jimmy could see how the elder blushed. "That was a poor choice of words that I used before." Loch only smirked.

Seeing how Boanagh seemed to be on a different page on the concept of nudity than the satyr bard, Jimmy took pity on his guide and companion and steered the conversation back to the matter which Boanagh had brushed past before, namely the discoloration of Glynn's pupils which the warlock had noticed. But again, moving from one uncomfortable topic to the next and then to this, the slightly stiff darkling elder seemed to be confused by Jimmy's insistence. "No, I do not know about her eyes, Jimmy!" Boanagh sounded upset. "Was there anything different about them? If so, I did not notice!" It was evident that the sylvan male was overwhelmed with the situation due to an amalgamation of reasons that kept bidding him to compromise his thinking, but at this moment it was actually Loch who placed a calming hand on the darkling's shoulder. But rather than soothing the elder, the satyr's eyes had lit up in comprehension. "Say Jimmy, it could not be that you as well are able to see saturation and color down here?"

There was a brief moment of silence after Loch had posed his curious question to the half-elven warlock. The bearded fey was wearing an oddly amused look on his face, and while Boanagh was still blinking without understanding, it suddenly occurred to Jimmy that there was a distinct difference in eyesight between himself and the rest of his party. In particular, how was it that Loch had been following them without suffering from blindness so far? Somehow the question had never come up, but the ever-confident devil of a fellow seemed finally prepared to answer the question before it was ever asked. "You see, I am certainly not any sort of scholar, you'd know so by sight, but I do have some splendid talents beyond those that are more evident," the satyr coquettishly cocked his horned head to the side, "and I do have acquired myself one or maybe two arcane secrets here and there. And as I said, this is not my first visit to the darkling colony." That comment made Boanagh narrow his eyes at Loch inquisitively, but the bard kept his hand on the elder's shoulder and pointed the other at Jimmy. "So you say that Glynn does indeed lack eyes that would be common for a dubh sidhe? Why, I had my eyes on other places, but is this not proof that we indeed are dealing with a shapeshifter, a lacking one at that?" Loch bared his whites, smiling splendidly. "But please. Do not let me discourage you from the notion of clothes-shedding. An open mind never shies away from collecting all the evidence before making their judgment."

secretID · #88 Jan 13th, 2023, 12:04 AM

Jimmy looked blankly at Loch and blinked a few times as comprehension set in. “Yeah…right…” he said. “I guess you guys don’t deal with color much, do you?” he said to Boanagh. “Most a’ ya prob’ly ain’t never been topside. But yeah, I can see color down here, and yeah, her eyes are different.” He shrugged. “Maybe we’ll figger that out later.

“I get what you ladies are sayin’,” Jimmy continued. “Maybe I’m bein’ too optimistic about turning her gang against her. An’ I hear ya, B, that we gotta get to the bottom a’ this if we can – it might be key to this whole thing.”

Jimmy paused to think for a few more moments. “Ahright,” he then said, “she’s had her chance; I’m done messin’ around. First things first, I’d like ta trigger that trap from a safe distance. I’d rather get her guy away from the release, but I ain’t gonna bet on that..” Jimmy had a brief exchange with Loch about the feasibility of Tinkerbell setting thing aflame, but they couldn’t come to a certain conclusion.

“Yeah, yeah; I know,” Jimmy told Boanagh when he saw the darkling growing agitated. “You don’t wanna force a fight. Well, I don’t either, but she’s the one who started this game a’ chicken, and like you said, we got good reason not ta flinch first and just walk away. But if we give her any more chances ta back down, we might lose the element of surprise. Think of it this way: if it’s just a practical joke – which would be weird – or a test or somethin’, no harm done, and I guess we pass her stupid test in a way. But if it the trap is dangerous, then she’s the enemy, an’ this was only ever gonna go one way.”

Jimmy turned back to Loch. “I got an idea with that writing spell a’ yours,” he told the satyr. “We’re gonna send in a little note.” Jimmy waited for Loch to prepare for dictation, No hidden writing as allowed in the spell - I'm just using this to write the message.to be written in Elvish:

Dear Glynn, I get that you really want to protect your people and put a stop to the menace victimizing them. And I understand that you probably aren’t so sure about us being able to take care of that for you and yours. Maybe you also just distrust outsiders, which I can also understand. And if you’re honest, maybe you also have some pride invested, like you want to take care of this yourself. So with all of that, I get that it’s tough for you to work with us.

But think about this. The elders talked all of this out, and they decided to keep us going, to endorse us. I know that maybe it’s not a real government, but I’m sure you want to work well with your own people, right. Especially at a time like this. You may have to compromise a little.

I think this is enough writing. Thanks for reading carefully. I’ll see you soon, probably.

Jimmy looked over the final product and nodded in satisfaction, then he rolled the parchment and handed it to Tinkerbell. The warlock paused a moment in a way that the others had come to understand indicated that he was communicating with his familiar. Then Jimmy gave Tinkerbell Guidance - why not?a little pat and said, "Break a leg," before the invisible imp began to fly toward Glynn and her crew.

“We’ll be backing up some more in a second,” Jimmy told his comrades before turning toward the big chamber and cupping his hands to his mouth. “Hey, Glynn!” he shouted. “Messenger coming! Sorry the note's so long; please read carefully.”

With that, Jimmy motioned to the others to follow him deeper into the cave further away from the big chamber. When he found About 80' from the open space, but with some visibility before the next bend. IIRC, the position they took when they were talking to Glynn in the tunnel is good.a good spot, Jimmy arrayed the party as previously planned and gave them some instructions. “I don’t know what may be coming in a minute,” he said. “Maybe just a lotta noise. Maybe some angry darklings. Maybe somethin’ else, hopefully not beholders. But we’re gonna keep our distance until I say different; I know that ain’t none a’ yours strong suit, but it’s mine, so we’ll be OK. She wanted us up close, so that’s the last thing we’ll give her.”

The party waited, eyes toward the big chamber, as Tinkerbell entered it, Jimmy’s instructions in mind: Throw the note down to Glynn, then take a perch on the rope that guy is holding, about halfway up, out of his reach for sure. Watch her, and when she’s reading, you Just using his tail. A knife might create suspicion.cut that rope, no matter what. Once you’ve done it, I’ll get you outta there if I can, but if anything goes wrong, you just stay away from what’s inside that tarp. Stay in touch. See you soon, buddy.

OOCThe timing of actions pre-combat can be funny, so I'll just note that Jimmy's preference is to use Tink's senses, tell Tink when to strike the rope, and recall him immediately after the rope is severed. Almost as good would be just to wait, and recall Tink as soon as Tink calls him. If using the senses might slow his recall of Tink, he won't do it.

Mindsiege · #89 Jan 14th, 2023, 06:55 AM

Confrontation

In the few minutes leading up to the confrontation, Jimmy's party was in a bit of disarray, but not for too much longer. The half-elven warlock had always known the saying that opportunity makes thieves. But on that day in the subterranean lairs of the dubh sidhe's ever-dark colony, Jimmy learned that necessity could make leaders. Carrying the expectations of a beset people and the noble desire of Boanagh to vanquish the evil in these caverns on his shoulders, Jimmy grasped the figurative baton which had been handed to him and began to direct his sylvan allies as he would, using his natural charisma and ingenuity to devise their current approach. The dryads and Loch didn't give him backtalk even once, and even Boanagh who was worried that an escalation could end up being deadly for his people was intercepted when Jimmy had become able to read his expressions quite well in their time together. "I understand... Just promise this, Jimmy. Whatever Glynn has devised... I want us to protect the innocents." From his troubled expression it was quite clear that the darkling elder was struggling to pinpoint who the innocents were.

With quite some natural swagger to him, Loch easily followed Jimmy's dictation as he retrieved both parchment and his fife from his loincloth and began to play a similar melody as the one which the half-elven adventurer had heard before they had said their farewells on the surface. The sounds flowed quite audibly and prettily through the curving tunnel which they occupied, but there were no particular responses from the darkling campsite. Just like Jimmy had seen it the first time, Loch's melody invoked letters to appear as a script on the parchment, though this time it occurred to the warlock how curious it was that the bard appeared not to rely on any sort of magical inks which such an art would usually require for an arcane caster. Adding it to the growing list of small mysteries about Loch, once the letter to Glynn was completed and rolled up to a scroll, Jimmy handed it over to his familiar together with the hope for divine guidance on Tinkerbell's way.

None of the sylvans and not even Jimmy saw the invisible familiar give a sarcastic salute to the cause as the party returned to their original encampment and sent Tink to set off the trap after he had shifted back to an imp. Slipping the consciousness of his senses into Tink through their telepathic connection, Jimmy joined and was with his familiar in thoughts and prayers as the imp flew down the tunnel and emerged in the larger cavern that Glynn and her followers had occupied. Only, even at a glance the pair of master and colleague saw that the female darkling elder already awaited them centered on their path right at the edge underneath the tarp construction. Behind her the group of smaller darklings had thinned out about by half, and roughly around the time that Tink flew out of the tunnel mouth Glynn raised a hand and spoke loudly. "Now hold on there, mister." The fey woman wore a curious expression that was a mixture between anger and amusement. Her lips were curled into a crooked smile and her eyes were beaming with her brows furrowed and knitted together in annoyance. Just before Tink could commit to dropping the letter on his flight path to the rope, both he and Jimmy took further notice of Glynn's current gaze. She certainly was looking in their direction, but she wasn't looking at them at all, slightly wavering instead. At once the two of them realized. Due to his invisibility, Glynn wasn't able to discern the familiar by sight.

GM instructionsI haven't updated the map, but I can do so if you find it necessary. After Jimmy's announcement of sending a messenger Glynn has awaited him center between the two closest stalagmites and as noted in the narrative there are a few darklings missing that had been there before. The other half is still standing roughly in the same positions just waiting and observing, but the missing bunch is nowhere to be seen at just a glance (meaning through PP). There's no obvious concealment anywhere so they must have broken line of sight, which is pretty easy as there are a lot of objects, stone formations, and that one big bend within the cavern.

Just as pointed out in the narrative, Jimmy has now understood that Glynn does not possess blindsight.

The post assumes that Tink is still holding the letter at the current point of the narration, but you can consider him in range to drop it before Glynn. You can ignore or follow her command, either keeping Tink right beneath the tarp or advancing past her to the rope in question.

By the way, I think to recall that both Jimmy and Tink are currently under the effects of the Comprehend Languages spell. I think I never added it to their conditions in the table below, so I've corrected that now. Please let me know if I misremembered.

Rolls: Lady Luck

Initiative

Character

AC

HP

Status

Action

Position

Character	AC	HP	PP	PI	Movement	Conditions	Resources
Jimmy	17/15	43/43	14	15	30'	Comprehend Languages	Hexblade's Curse 1/1; Favored by the Gods 1/1; Spells I. 2/2 II. 2/2; Goodberry (4); Short rests 2/2; HD 4/4 1/1
Boanagh	15	32/32	16	10	30'	-	Darkness 1/1; Goodberry (4); Short rests 2/2; HD 5/5
Tink	13	10/10	11	10	20' / 60' (fly)	Invisible, Comprehend Languages, Guidance	Short rests 2/2; HD 3/3
Loch	13	55/55	16	10	40'	-	Taunt 2/2; Spells I. 4/4 II. 3/3 III. 1/3; Goodberry (4); Short rests 2/2; HD 10/10
Sashaya	16/11	22/22	14	12	30'	-	Entangle 3/3; Goodberry 2/3; Barkskin 1/1; Pass Without a Trace 1/1; Shillelagh 1/1; Goodberry (4); Short rests 2/2; HD 5/5
Ilala	16/11	26/26	14	12	30'	-	Entangle 3/3; Goodberry 2/3; Barkskin 1/1; Pass Without a Trace 1/1; Shillelagh 1/1; Goodberry (4); Short rests 2/2; HD 5/5

secretID · #90 Jan 16th, 2023, 05:14 PM

Hold up, Jimmy told Tinkerbell. Pull back inta the cave, and try an’ keep from getting’ a bead on you. I’ll be right back.

Back from his familiar’s head, Jimmy spoke to Boanagh in an urgent whisper. "She can't see invisible stuff, B! She doesn't have, like, the super-darkvision you guys have! Does that make any sense to you? Is that like some kinda disability some a' you have? Or maybe somethin' to do with the fact that she's a new elder?

“Hold those thoughts," Jimmy finished. "Whatsamatter, Glynn?" he shouted down the tunnel. "I told you I was sendin' a messenger. Now who's the jumpy one?"

Are you confused and wondering what is going on here? Check out this YouTube video to get the scoop.