Chapter 12: Shadows in the Dark

[Ken]

Never mind. Misty step is a bonus action, not a reaction. The warlock's misty escape IS a reaction, but Belarin would need to be hit (or plummet to the ground) to activate it.

[Brian]

Condign doesn't call out to the figure. Instead, he proceeds slowly and carefully toward it, taking care to look for broken or cracked boards or other potential weaknesses in the bridge.

[Jeff]

Looking on, Adamant recalls his last encounter with a bridge in this world, though this one does look somewhat different. Syrdan was standing near the edge of a chasm just...yesterday?

Condign steps out onto the first sturdy-seeming planks. The bridge jostles only a little but under his weight. Across the other side, he sees the figure again but it is just as indistinct in the fog. Holding very still again, waiting.

So Condign looks to his feet, to the floorboards, looking for a weakness, a flaw, a gap, some kind of trap...but his gaze is attracted a few inches to the side, into the depths of the gorge itself. His keen eyes pierce the gloom...

[Brian]

"Gems," Condign calls out. "There are what look like gems, stuck to the sides of the gorge. At first they looked like..." He shakes his head. "I need to focus. I do not want to fall."

He continues to make his way across the bridge.

[Jeff]

Condign continues forward. Just beyond the halfway point, one heavy foot comes down onto the next plank—

—which just isn't there.

He tenses with alarm and looks up suddenly, only to see the remainder of the bridge sweeping through his body—rather, his body passing through a completely insubstantial portion of the bridge. With a shield in one hand and mace in his other, he doesn't bother trying to reach out for anything—nothing is close enough, so like a professional warrior expecting a threat he simply tries to brace himself for the best possible way to accept an impact.

As the fissure seems to yawn wide to accept him, he sure hopes there is a place to land.

At the front of the bridge, Kal and Belarin go wide-eyed. One moment there is Condign, and in the next he falls through what appears to be an illusionary second half. Almost instantly that section of bridge fades to translucence as their eyes see the lie. But the front half still looks solid—it doesn't quite make sense what keeps it upright.

Further back, Shorak, Adamant, and Streko see Condign disappear suddenly, although it's less clear how.

---

Brian, give me a Strength (Athletics) check to determine just how gracefully he goes down! (Damage will definitely be taken, but a good roll could reduce some of it.)



Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[Brian]

Condign's stomach flips as he falls through the illusory bridge section. With nothing to grab onto, he spreads his arms wide, hoping his shield will capture air and at least slow some of his descent. Wishful thinking, he knows. The fall isn't the problem.

It's the landing.
________________________________

Condign:1D20+3 → 14(11 + 3)#Athletics Check

[Dave B.]

Shorak quickly moves to stand next to Belarin. "What happened?" As he sees part of the bridge become translucent, he figures it out on his own. "That should have been me." He whispers.

[Joe]

Streko takes Shorak's arm and guides him to the edge of the bridge. "Look for him, Shorak! You will be his best hope of rescue."

[Jeff]

Before Streko can even get his last words out, he doubles over in sudden, crushing pain! He feels like he's been punched in the side, and ribs, and shoulders, but all as if from a single blow.

Shorak and Adamant are the first hear the halfling cry out both look over to him where he clutches at his abdomen and twists his face in pain and confusion. Shorak can just make out the wetness of blood in Streko's open mouth.

Yet no one can see the source of the attack, least of all Streko. It's not even obvious what the wound is.

Then again, it's so very dark here.

---

Streko takes 11 points of bludgeoning damage from an unknown source. Fortunately, it eats up the temporary hit points he has, but that's it.

Indeed, it is dark here with no light sources. Everything around you is either in in dim light or in total darkness. If combat occurs, everyone but Condign (wherever he is) would be fighting almost blind.

[Dave B.]

Shorak grabs Adamant's arm. "We need light! The darkness is taking it's toll on us little by little. Please, as bright as you can make it!"

[Darren]

Kal nods at Adamant. "Now is the time, my friend," he says, even as light blazes from his sharrash. "Shorak, Adamant, see what you can do for Streko. Belarin, with me." Kal edges slowly out onto the bridge, mindful of where Condign fell, looking over the side for the tiefling. He removes a coil of rope from his pack, ready to throw it down as soon as he locates his friend.

_______________________
Kal is casting Light onto his sharrash.

He's got rope, so he's going to move out 4 squares onto the bridge and see if he can see Condign.

[Jeff]

The sharash blazes with light as he reaches the edge of the real bridge. Twenty feet down the gorge, the light dims too much to make out much beyond it, but Kal sees a faint stirring. Tucking the sharash under his arm for a moment, he starts fishing out his rope. Meanwhile, he thinks he hears Condign’s voice issuing below, but it’s hard to make out. His first understanding, though, is that Condign is alive at least.

---

Condign is obviously beyond forty feet and Kal's light spell goes 20 foot bright light and 20 more feet dim light.

[Dave W.]

"I don't understand what is happenings?"

Adamant wills the Delver's Light to full daylight....

[Darren]

"Quickly," Kal says to Belarin. "Bring me a rock or something to drop down there. Condign is alive."

---------
Assuming Belarin brings him one, Kal casts Light on said rock and drops it down where he thinks he heard Condign.

[Jeff]

Adamant himself seems to blaze when the device in his chestplate flares to life. The darkness is thrown back in nearly every direction (somewhat less directly behind him), and it only seems to deepen the gloom within the fissure with him still standing forty feet away from the edge of the bridge. Accustomed to the darkness of this plane, the rest of you actually wince for a moment.

---

Dave, I realized I never made any updates to the Delver’s Light in 5E. Since it was 20 squares (100 feet) of bright or dim light before, to match the way illumination works in 5E I’m going to set it so that it can shine 100-ft.-radius of dim light or 60 ft. bright light + 60 ft. dim light. Which is already as bright as the 3rd-level Daylight spell.

I’ll try and update the map tonight!

[Dave B.]

Shorak glances at the fissure and then at the boomerang in his hand. He shakes his head as he makes a decision. Stowing away his tri-bladed weapon, Shorak draws his short sword and goes to aid Streko. He listens carefully, just in case there is something unseen nearby.

[Jeff]

Refresh...

[Joe]

Streko falls to his knees. whatever has attacked him has done damage to him inside his body. Everything feels like it's been beaten with his mother's rolling pin. He coughs and feels the warmth of his own blood fill his mouth. He spits it out and vainly searches for his attacker, or attackers. He sees nothing.

"Damn place! Adamant, to my side, immediately! I need your assistance!" His demand is urgent, his cry for help unmistakable. He hopes he isn't hit again before he can do something helpful.

[Ken]

Ignoring Kal's request for the moment, Belarin says, "Cowards who use shadows as shield / Perish again and be revealed!" With a wave of his hand, a purplish light surrounds the form of everyone behind Streko -- visible or otherwise.

_____________

Belarin casts faerie fire on the area immediately behind Streko; Dexterity save vs. DC 15.

[Dave W.]

"I'm honestly not sure how I fell so far behind... sorry, friends." Adamant hurries up to stand with his friends.

---

Adamant will stay at the back of the group but adjacent to whomever is the penultimate in queue.

Gotta love "penultimate"... great word...

[Jeff]

Tangat starts barking and growling as he stares down into the pit. Kal can tell he senses something else amiss down there...

With a flourish, the area behind Streko is suddenly alight with faerie fire as Belarin unleashes a spell. The ground, every pebble, and expose surface, even the cliff wall that rises up on one side of this canyon-like "street," glows as bright as a candle. But no invisible creature is revealed.

Adamant hustles to join his friends, but finds he needs to get closer than intended to the edge of the pit if he is illuminate where Condign has fallen.

And when his Delver's Light shines down the pit, he and Kal instinctively ready themselves:

The drop is about fifty feet down into another pit of humanoid bones. Condign is down there, holding his new mace and shield in hand, back against the north wall of the pit. He looks battered but strong, relatively uninjured. But at the bottom of the pit with him are two gigantic spiders; each one is black in hue, bristling with spine-like gray fur like a giant trapdoor spider. One of them is advancing slowly towards Condign, while the other is perched sideways on the wall a little further away. Both arachnids twist and cower somewhat when Adamant's light reveals them.

They begin hissing.

---

Dave W., hoping it's fine to move Adamant further up than you said. Otherwise his light just wouldn't help around the pit.

[Joe]

Streko rises from both knees, attempting to catch his breath, and frantically searches for the culprits who did whatever they did to him. He forces himself to slow down and take a deep breath.

He follows Adamant to the edge of the pit and then calls out Olladra's name:

"May your shining light protect my friend from Khyber's grasp!"

He touches Adamant's back, allowing Olladra's energy to pulse into the Warforged, where the soft glow quickly permeates his entire body, never quite fading from view.

Streko shudders upon seeing the giant spiders. WHy does it always have to be spiders?

He finds his mind wanting to seize up. He finds himself WANTING to forget.

Streko shakes his head. "Adamant, you are, perhaps, the most important member of our group right now. You must remain alive to see us out of here. You must. Olladra, grant me my request."

He appears to be shaking and speaking to himself, as he looks downward and begins to mumble. Not a prayer, but Varna's name, over and over. And something about hating spiders.
___________________________________________________________________________

Streko casts Death Ward on Adamant.

Jeff and I simultaneously posted. I have thus re-written my original post.

[Darren]

"Adamant, get over here. Condign will need your strength to pull him up!" Kal holds the rope out to the warforged as he hurls a ball of fire at the spider nearest to Condign.


-------
Posting from my phone, so I can't get to the dice roller or character sheet, but Kal will cast Fire Bolt on the spider approaching Condign.

[Jeff]

Kal's bolt of fire rustles down into the pit and hits the spider he aimed for squarely on its abdomen. It erupts in flame and the creature squeals in pain. This seems to trigger a madness on both spiders, who spring into horrid motion. As legs flail, both of them emit an unsettling keening sound.

Condign, already feeling a slight vibration in the bones at his feet from his own spell, now feels them actually churning; something beneath them is moving. Something big.

---

Adamant now has Death Ward in effect on him; if he drops to 0 hit points in the next 8 hours, he will revert instantly to 1 hit point and remain conscious.

Kal's Fire Bolt attack: 26 (critical), 31 fire damage to the spider closest to Condign!

So begins round 1:

23 - Streko
21 - giant spiders
20 - Condign
14 - Belarin
13 - Adamant
12 - Kal
10 - Shorak

[Joe]

Streko reaches into his haversack and pulls out a vial. He drinks it and hopes it does its job, should he be unlucky enough to need it.
______________________________________________________

Streko drinks from his vial of antitoxin.

[Jeff]

Hmm. No problem on that action, Joe (the books don't say if drinking antitoxin is an action or not; since it doesn't specify as it does a regular potion, I'll say that it'll suffice for the "one free action" each person can get. However, I'm not so sure Streko would see spiders. The only ones who'd have actually seen them are Adamant and Kal, based on their locations. They're 50 ft. down.

Might Kal indicate this somehow, or would he just cast a spell without identifying the targets?

Just trying to give you guys the benefit of the doubt. But please do try to keep in mind what your characters would actually see/hear/know.

[Joe]

How about this: based upon the hissing sound, it should almost certainly be some type of reptile or arachnid. Or perhaps a medusa with snakes in her hair. Okay, grasping at straws here. I thought the spiders were still easily visible from where Streko was standing. No worries, we can forgo the antitoxin until such time as someone says SPIDERS. Streko can easily turn around to attempt to see if the faery fire lights something up...cover the group's rear, at least visually.

[Jeff]

Just by the same dimensions, here's how it would be viewed from the side rather than from above:

Attachment Deleted

[Jeff]

The spider nearest Condign, badly burned by Kal's spell, skitters right up alongside the wall beside the tiefling and lunges at him. He isn't ready with his shield fast enough, but when the fangs hit his banded mail, he hears the loud banging click as the fangs rebound.

The other one climbs up the south wall of the pit straight up, for a moment disappearing from Kal's sight. Then he glimpses the large black legs as it scuttles beneath the bridge, positioned directly underneath where he stands.

And bones that Condign is standing on rustle and stir madly. He braces himself, unsure what is about to emerge!

---

Rolz rolls:

● Streko takes the Dodge action (that way at least he's on the defense until his next turn).
● Burnt giant spider's attack vs. Condign: 12 (miss)
● Other giant spider moves and Dashes.
● For the moment, the bottom of the bone pit is considered difficult terrain.

20 - Condign
14 - Belarin
13 - Adamant
12 - Kal
10 - Shorak

Refresh page/image:

[Brian]

Condign tries desperately to keep his balance amid the shifting and rustling bones, while at the same time defending himself against the wounded spider. Whatever is under his feet seems massive, and he would like to be long gone before it reaches the surface.

Lifting his shield so only his eyes can be seen, he hefts his new mace. "Time to see what you can do," he mutters, and delivers two quick blows to the spider. He feels the first attack bite into the creature's bristly hide. His second clangs harmlessly off the stone wall as the shifting bone pile throws off his balance and his aim.

________________________________________

Condign attacks the spider twice with his mace. Not knowing its properties, I'll add the standard +6 strength modifier to the attack rolls and the +3 strength modifier on the damage rolls (if they hit).


Condign:1D20+6 → 17(11 + 6)#attack roll one
Condign:1D20+6 → 7(1 + 6)#attack roll two ouch!

Condign:1D6+3 → 6(3 + 3)#damage roll on first attack