Chapter 17: Deep Reflections

[Darren]

Kal draws Skyfang from among the leather straps around his leg and points it in the direction he saw the Petitioner aim his spell. An orb of electricity springs forth, striking the area. "If you can make them visible to us, we could use the help!" he calls out to the mage.

________________
Kal will cast Lightning Orb on the spot everyone else is attacking, aimed so as not to hit any of his companions.

[Brian]

Melethos nods at Belarin. "Good to see you too," he says, then launches into a set of attacks against the shadowy form he thinks is in front of him. His blade slashes at the air, but he's unsure if he is even hitting the entity. He swings again, overhead this time, bringing forward one of his best maneuvers.

______________________________________

Movement Action: None

Standard Action: He attacks the unseen foe with disadvantage

Melethos:1D20+9 → 17(8 + 9)#first attack
Melethos:1D20+9 → 15(6 + 9)#first attack with disadvantage

Melethos:1D8+5 → 12(7 + 5)#damage from first attack

Melethos:1D20+9 → 21(12 + 9)#second attack
Melethos:1D20+9 → 11(2 + 9)#second attack with disadvantage

Melethos uses a superiorty die on a Precision Attack.

Melethos:1D10 → 1(1)#Precision Attack

No need to roll damage.

[Jeff]

Belarin, Kal, Melethos, Shorak, Streko only

Streko's spell has no effect—the creature seems to have evaded it—but from the sparks and puffs of sound, it sounds like Kal's hurts it.

Shorak feels remarkably better once he drinks down the healing potion.

→ Entity's Dexterity saving throw vs. Streko's spell: 18 (success, no damage)
→ Entity's Dexterity saving throw vs. Streko's spell: 8 (failure) / 7 lightning damage
• Shorak regains 16 hit points.

Darren, you can roll damage next time.

Looks like I simul-posted with Brian. I'll account for his turn in my next post.

[Jeff]

Oct 22, 2019 19:13:17 GMT -4 Elvis said:

Thul sends another curse-ladden thunderwave at the blue frog.

Thul

After the thunder-shock of his last spell echoes away, Thul still can make out the sound of the damnable slaad—it is it either exceedingly sturdy-footed or the thing is resistant to magic. He's beginning to suspect the latter.

Then the slaad changes tactics, though it still cannot see him. Thul feels the monster groping at him, and when one hand starts to close around his shoulder, he pushes it off swiftly...but that other torso-sized hand suddenly wraps around his waist!

Thul is lifted bodily off the ground, carried in one hand by the slaad. "Hoooooooooman..." the slaad hums in a weirdly sing-songy fashion, sounding pleased to have caught him. His Darkness spell persists, and if the slaad hoped to carry him out of its effect it hasn't figured out the proper source. Nevertheless, he knows it's moving blindly. Yet it feels like it's climbing somewhere along the outer rock wall of the cave...

He also knows it could just drop him at this point and that could potentially do him in. But he suspects it's got something else in mind.

"Thul!" Sem calls out from across the short canyon. "What should I do? I can't see you!"

---

→ Blue slaad's advantaged Constitution saving throw vs. Thul's spell: 18, 17 (success)
• Blue slaad's first attempt to grapple Thul: 8, 9
→ Thul's opposed Strength (Athletics) check: 11 (success)
• Blue slaad's second attempt to grapple Thul: 24, 14
→ Thul's opposed Strength (Athletics) check: 10 (failure) / Thul is grappled. (Speed becomes 0, but he's not kept from attacking or taking other actions.)
• The slaad moves, seemingly by climbing, but does so at half speed while dragging its grappled prey.

Not putting the map up, because Thul is having a hard time even guessing where he's being moved to. He's fully outside the cave mouth now, but off solid ground as well.

Elvis, Thul can respond briefly to Sem out of turn (Sem still has own turn to take before Thul goes again).

[Jeff]

(Elvis reminded me about his Immovable Rod. Allowing him to make that last Athletics check with advantage. I’ll update when I get back to my computer.)

[Elvis]

Thul holds onto his rod (with a kung-fu grip of death).

Fek. The bluefrog tears Thul away from the rod and begins to ascend the rock face.

"One second, Professor! Get ready to catch me!"

--

Euphemism check: D20-1=0 

Athletics check: d20+7=10, 11 (w/adv.)

[Jeff]

Belarin, Kal, Melethos, Shorak, Streko only

Melethos's blade hits something at least once! It's "solid" only in the way that an air elemental is solid. But at least air elements are visible to the eye—the swirling winds so concentrated that they form a perceivable form.

Again you hear a distant ricocheting blast of a spell.

Melethos's first attack hits and deals normal damage.

Round 6

20 - Belarin
16 - invisible entities
11 - mage
10 - Shorak
8 - Kal & Streko
3 - Melethos

[Jeff]

Thul

"Ummm! All....right!" Sem shouts back. "I think the slaad are keeping away from the dragon—if you can make it back on this side. Where's everyone else?" If the gnome is doing anything else, Thul can't hear it. But he has seen the gnome use a Feather Fall spell before....but Thul knows that spell's range is, like many, sixty feet.

Thul's legs and backside scrape roughly against what he assumes is the outer edge of the cave where the others disappeared. But being dragged by the climbing slaad has really skewed his sense of direction, even up and down. He only knows where the slaad and the rock face is relative to himself.

Okay, Thul's own turn is back. He has no awareness of where the red slaad or xorn went.

[Elvis]

Thul sheathes his warknife. He wishes he didn't.

The darkness vanishes with blade in its sheathe. 

The cavern returns and with it, the nauseating reality of his predicament.

Thul quickly casts blade ward, then fetches his axe.

---

Action: Cast Blade ward.

Bonus action: fetch axe.

[Ken]

Belarin takes a moment to catch after his breath after the unexpected pummeling, and then he unleashes two eldritch blasts at where he thinks the attacker is located, based on Kal's strike. "Escape my sight, but not my spite!"

He moves toward Melethos. "Back to back!" he says to the tiefling.

______________________

Two eldritch blasts, both at disadvantage:
Attack 1: 1d20(19) + 8 = 27; 1d20(5) + 8 = 13. Waah.
Attack 1: 1d20(14) + 8 = 22; 1d20(2) + 8 = 10. Fudgsicle.
He moves adjacent to Melethos.

It's not material to this attack, but I'm pretty sure that we did NOT take a short rest before coming into the cave, right? It's been a while. Assuming no rest, then Belarin wouldn't have his 2 spell slot.

[Jeff]

Belarin, Kal, Melethos, Shorak, Streko only

Belarin can feel the entity—invisible though it may be, it has a corporeal presence—is right in front of him, barring him from approaching Melethos any closer than he already is. (Make sure you've refreshed the map.) Frustrated by this, his magic strikes nothing at all.

The invisible creatures seem to focus their attacks on a single target, and so both Belarin and Shorak are attacked again. Shorak has moved away, but the hiss and swirl of shadows around him is the only warning he gets before he feels its unseen limbs slamming into him repeatedly.

The mage makes an idle gesture and a flash of green light falls upon an area near Shorak (not including him)—the faerie fire fails to grip the invisible creature. The mage lets out a sigh. "Air stalkers," he says. "Elemental assassins, too quick for lighting up easily. I will try something else..."

---

I'm pretty sure there a short rest, maybe more than one, before returning to talk to the dragon (and choosing to enter the cave), but not a long rest. 

• Entity's first advantaged attack vs. Belarin: 12, 6 (miss)
• Entity's second advantaged attack vs. Belarin: 17, 14 (hit) / 9 bludgeoning damage to Belarin
• Other entity's first advantaged attack vs. Shorak: 16, 8 (hit) / 7 bludgeoning damage to Shorak
• Other entity's second advantaged attack vs. Shorak: 17, 12 (hit) / 10 bludgeoning damage to Shorak
• Mage casts Faerie Fire.
→ Entity's Dexterity saving throw vs. spell: 22 (success)

10 - Shorak
8 - Kal & Streko
3 - Melethos

[Jeff]

Thul

When the magic darkness is suppressed, Thul has a moment of vertigo. Clutched in the grasp of a slaad that he's not sure intends to drop him, eat him, or something else, he sees he's up against the painfully rough outer rock wall of the cave no less than seventy feet above the water (and ten feet above the top of the ice-bridge itself).

He sees the shape of the cove below, a sort of lagoon around the back side of the keep. He spots Sem standing at the broken wall above the bridge, and it looks like the slaad, whose claws seem to have no trouble grasping the rock face, which is weirdly porous on this side. The slaad itself issues a guffaw of delight to see him again, and Thul also sees that he's been dragged towards a great cluster of blue-green crystals that sprout from the stone.

The blue keeps moving, caring little about the axe that's materialized in his prey's hands, and then he shoves Thul's back up against one of the rigid blue crystals. Almost immediately Thul feels an unnatural lethargy falling over him—not unlike the weighing sensation that all of the party felt upon walking up those steps on the other side of the cavern (also near a cluster of these blue-green crystals).

Blue slaad moves, and Thul's back is shoved up against the crystal. It does not attack. But now Thul needs to make a Constitution saving throw. Then the next round begins like this:

19 - red slaad
15 - Thul
13 - Sem
11 - Leezer (blue slaad)
9 - xorn

Thul's placement on the map above is now currently 3 west and 2 south from his icon is currently.

[Darren]

Damn, Kal thinks. Why must we always fight? He rolls his eyes even as quickly draws forth the wand he carries at his belt, positioning himself so that there is a straight line between where his previous attack was and the wall, avoiding his friends. A bright streak of light fills the small space, the after-image bright in the eyes of everyone caught looking directly at it.
_____________________
Kal will move one square north and three east. This should give him a clear line through where I think the enemies are based on where his previous attack landed.

He will use the Wand of Lightning Bolts to cast a 3rd level Lightning Bolt across the area.

Damage is a 24 on a failed save and 12 on a successful one.

[Elvis]

Being manhandled above the cove is stomach turning.

Details of his surroundings flash by as he is swung around like a rag doll.


Professor. Bluefrog. Redfrog. Icebridge. Water. Xornthing.
Crystals.

Then the jarring impact against the crystals.
The wind gets blasted from his lungs.

He feels the energy from the crystals thrum through him. Smothering him. Weighing down his limbs like a shroud of wet wool.


He fights against it. Willing strength into his arms.


--


CON save: D20+7=14

[Jeff]

Thul grits his teeth and fights against the leaden feeling in his limbs. It hasn't got him yet.

Successful save. No effect yet! So long as Thul remains in close proximity to the crystals, he'll be making this roll at the start of each round. Thul's turn is up now!

[Elvis]

Thul claws at the crystals for a hand hold. He then twists and thrashes as savagely as possible to free himself from the bluefrog’s grip.


--


Escape a Grapple: D20+7=10


*IF* he escapes, he will climb up and away from the slaad over the crystals.

[Jeff]

Despite his thrashing, Thul cannot kick free—and the damned crystals at his back aren't helping. He even jams an elbow against a sharp corner. Ehh, it's the least of his problems.

The slaad then grunts as something that sounds like whining, dive-bombing insects slams into it: a patter of magic missiles, probably sent by Sem. Thul knows it's not going to do much more than irritate the monster—but maybe that's the point.

The slaad throws its head back to croak angrily at the gnome.

"I need Starg for this!" Sem calls out in frustration. "What's your, umm, plan, Captain?"

The slaad's head whirls back to regard Thul. Now that he's by the cluster of big crystals, the monster seems less intent on biting his head off or even rending him to death. One hand is holding Thul, the other is clutching the rock face. Suddenly its massive head snaps forward and it tries to clamp its teeth around Thul's axe to yank it from him. Thul pulls and rattles the blade against the creature's teeth, refusing to yield his weapon.

---

→ Blue slaad's opposed Strength check: 18 / Thul remains grappled!
• Sem casts Magic Missiles. The blue slaad takes 10 force damage.
•  Blue slaad's disarm attempt (mouth): 13
→ Thul's opposed Strength check: 16 (success) 

Next round:

5 - Thul
13 - Sem
11 - Leezer (blue slaad)
9 - xorn

Begin Thul's turn by making a Constitution saving throw. If he gets a 13 or lower, he will be slowed this round. (Speed is halved, even if get escapes the grapple; −2 penalty to AC and Dexterity saving throws, and can’t use reactions. Can use either an action or a bonus action, not both. Can’t make more than one melee or ranged attack during his turn. If he attempts to cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action, roll a d20. On an 11 or higher, the spell doesn’t take effect until his next turn, and he must use its action on that turn to complete the spell.

If he makes the saving throw, though, he won't be slowed yet.

[Elvis]

“This is the plan! I got him right where I want him!” 

Thul shouts even as he pulls the axe free of the bluefrog’s mouth. His teeth screech across the enchanted steel.


The crystals pulse with a molasses-like quality that seeps into his body. It would be so easy to surrender to it…


“Fek that.” Thul says to Thul.


Disgusted with the notion of capitulating, Thul roars back into the fight.


“And fek you!” Spittle flecking the bluefrogs head.


Thul hacks his axe at the bluefrog.


--


CON Save vs Crystals: d20+7=14


Hack 1: d20+9=12


Hack 2: d20+9=13

[Joe]

Oct 23, 2019 23:08:18 GMT -4 Ken said:

Belarin takes a moment to catch after his breath after the unexpected pummeling, and then he unleashes two eldritch blasts at where he thinks the attacker is located, based on Kal's strike. "Escape my sight, but not my spite!"

He moves toward Melethos. "Back to back!" he says to the tiefling.

______________________

Two eldritch blasts, both at disadvantage:
Attack 1: 1d20(19) + 8 = 27; 1d20(5) + 8 = 13. Waah.
Attack 1: 1d20(14) + 8 = 22; 1d20(2) + 8 = 10. Fudgsicle.
He moves adjacent to Melethos.

It's not material to this attack, but I'm pretty sure that we did NOT take a short rest before coming into the cave, right? It's been a while. Assuming no rest, then Belarin wouldn't have his 2 spell slot.

Streko calls out to Olladra and points his sickle at a place twenty feel east of him, directly behind the air form attacking Belarin and Melethos. A spectral sickle forms and immediately slices at the elemental(?), giving it a third opponent to worry about. Seconds later, Belarin sees that he is covered in a a soft, orange glow after hearing Olladra's name called out a second time.
_______________________________________________________

Action: Streko casts Spectral Weapon directly behind the air elemental. Spectral Sickle Attack on Air Creature: 1D20+1 → 21(20 + 1) (WOW!!) Spectral Sickle Damage: 1D8+4 → 8(4 + 4)
Bonus Action: Streko casts Shield of Faith on Belarin, giving him +2 to AC.

[Dave B.]

Shorak groans in pain. His head spins with pain and the poison coursing through his body. He slips away from the creature. Air stalkers, he now knows what they're called thanks to the petitioner mage. He heads towards Streko, stopping beside him, Shorak pleas, "I could use some healing good Streko. I can barely keep my feet."

Shorak disengages from the Air Stalker and use cunning action to dash to the square north of Streko.

[Jeff]

Belarin, Kal, Melethos, Shorak, Streko only

Streko's conjured sickle, which glows like the shine of golden coins, slashes the unseen creature between Belarin and Melethos, and you hear shrieks of air in response.

I've moved Shorak to the farthest he can get with 60 ft. (remember diagonals are 5 ft., 10 ft. alternatingly).

Joe, the spiritual weapon placed 20 feet away from Streko then has to move 5 ft. westward again in order to attack the creature. Also, as always, you make a melee spell attack with the sickle per its description (which is +8 for Streko, not +1 for Strength which what I assume you were doing. And since the stalker is invisible, it's made with disadantage.

Second roll for spiritual weapon for disadvantage: 18 (still a hit) / stalker takes 8 damage

Darren,per my query here, I'm unclear about Kal's targeting. Can you clarify, using exact squares and this updated map (definitely refresh the page)?

8 - Kal
3 - Melethos

[Brian]

Melethos watches as Shorak takes blow after blow. He knows how hurt his friend was before they rejoined the others. When the changeling hurries across the room, Melethos gets an idea.

He shifts around where the Air Stalker should be and halts next to Kal. He calls out, "Hide, Shorak," then reaches into his pouch. Grabbing the vial Alaq gave him, he unstoppers it and throws the dust of disappearance into the air.

__________________________________________

Movement Action: Melethos moves one square northeast and one square northwest. That should put him next to Kal, or where Kal was if he moves.

Standard Action: Melethos uses the Dust of Disappearance. He and all anyone within ten feet of him are invisible for 2d4 minutes. Attacking or casting a spell ends the invisibility for that person/creature only.

Melethos:2D4 → 7(3 +4)#duration of invisibility from dust of disappearance.

[Jeff]

Thul

So awkwardly positioned is Thul that he can't get enough leverage for a good strike. His axe blade strikes at a bad angle, and merely glances off the monster's pebbly hide.

From his distance, Sem tries another spell. Thul sees a wash of color and light around the slaad—and he knows faerie fire when he sees it—but the magic resistant creature shakes it off and the light fails to catch hold.

The blue slaad doesn't give up. He again snaps his teeth around Thul's axe but fails to grip it properly enough to wrench it free from the Karrn's grip.

• Sem casts Faerie Fire.
→ Blue slaad's advantaged Dexterity saving throw vs. faerie fire: 13, 21 (success)
• Blue slaad's disarm attack vs. Thul: 14
→ Thul's opposed Strength check (with advantage for using two hands, seems reasonable): 6; 20

I keep accidently rolling a second disarm attempt (but he's only got one attack free: bite, since both claws are occupied. Ignore those other rolls).

15 - Thul
13 - Sem
11 - Leezer (blue slaad)
9 - xorn

[Elvis]

The exposure to the crystals has finally overcome his stubbornness. Thul feels as though he is trying to run through neck deep water.


Enough.


Thul musters just enough strength to attempt to knock both of them off the cliff face.


He braces his feet against the rock wall and launches himself at the bluefrog, slamming him hard enough to knock it grip loose.


--


Shove: d20+7= 20, 19 – athletics check w/ disadv.


Thul shoves the slaad AND himself out into the void. Away from the wall. Away from any handholds. Straight down 60+ feet.


The End.

[Jeff]

Belarin, Kal, Melethos, Shorak, Streko only

Kal's blast of lightning skewers the unseen creature, and for a split second you see it outlined—it looks like a coil of air constantly retracting and expanding in place.
 
→ Air stalker's Dex saving throw vs. Lightning Bolt: 8 (failure) / 24 lightning damage

When Melethos unleashes the fine sand from Alaq's gifted flask, it goes from a slight shimmer to a black, swirling storm—and it immediately cyclones itself through the air in a wide swath, overwhelming everyone's senses with a caustic odor. This is...NOT...the promised dust of disappearance!

Immediately all of you begin sneezing and coughing violently. It feels like coarse sand sticking and rapidly accumulating in your windpipes and lungs! It's a hellish sensation.

Melethos manages to fight off the cloying dust in his throat, and though he is coughing he at least manages to breathe through it. He can immediately see that his friends cannot. It might just be your imaginations, but all of you swear in the tumult of choking and gasping sounds that follow you can hear the treacherous efreeti's last laugh.

Shorak, Kal, Streko, Belarin, Melethos, and the mage are all subject to the Dust of Sneezing and Choking that Alaq really gave you. 

→ Belarin's Con saving throw: 13 (failure)
→ Kal's Con saving throw: 13 (failure) 
→ Melethos's Con saving throw: 15 (success)
→ Shorak's Con saving throw: 14 (failure)
→ Streko's Con saving throw: 6 (failure)
→ Mage's Con saving throw (with advantage): 6, 12 (failure)

Belarin, Kal, Shorak, Streko, and the mage are incapactited (can't take actions or reactions.) and suffocating!  As they do not need to breathe, the air stalkers are unaffected.

As long as each person is conscious, you can repeat this Constitution saving throw at the end of each of your turns (which will end the effect on a success, DC 15).

Here's how suffocating works. If you get a chance to hold your breath (none of you have), you can do so for a minute or more depending on your Con. But when you're out of breath, as you all are now, you can survive for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier
(minimum 1 round). At the start of your next turn, you drops to 0 hit points and is dying.

Pausing here before starting at the top of the next round. Melethos still has a move action to use if he wants it, but his actions is spent. And he's the only one unaffected by the dust he unleashed. Poor guy. (Look what you're not dealing with, Elvis!)  Where's that confounded paladin and his Aura of Courage, who also by the way wouldn't be affected because he doesn't need to breathe?

[Jeff]

Thul

Thul's changing tactics seem to be surprising his foe, because when he suddenly kicks off the wall as hard as he can, it isn't ready for it. Both human and slaad are shoved away from the wall, both too far to grab anything....

And down they plummet....

A fall from seventy feet is going to hit like a warforged titan getting dropped on you....and Thul knows it's going to hurt like hell. He suspects he can survive it, but it'll knock him out for sure, maybe the shock will render him senseless enough to not notice the drowning.

Sem utters a shrill word in the arcane language of magic...and suddenly Thull sees the slaad falling considerably faster than he is! Thul is still going down—there's surely no stopping this—but the initial, primitive panic in his gut subsides even as he sees the ogre-sized creature splash into the water head and shoulders first with a mad flailing of limbs and a pathetic croak. 

Sem calls out: "Get your stubborn rear-end away from that thing, Thul! Swim over to the island when you can! Maybe it won't follow!"

---

→ Sem casts Feather Fall on Thul
Blue slaad hits the water from a height of 70 feet / blue slaad takes 56 bludgeoning damage (halved to 28)

Descent with Feather Fall is 60 feet per round, so at the start of Thul's next turn he'll be 10 feet above the water. I'll post again before his turn starts. Also, the slowness effect will last for a few rounds as well but he won't have to make any more saves.

[Jeff]

Round 7

20 - Belarin
16 - invisible entities
11 - mage
10 - Shorak
8 - Kal & Streko
3 - Melethos

[Jeff]

Thul

After the slaad hits the water, having lost its grip on Thul, it goes under. The frothing water and the splash conceals its body for the most part, but as Thul descends he can see it hasn't gone anywhere else just yet. Is it gathering itself for renewed attack? Hard to say.

It's not exactly a slow descent, but Thul certainly isn't accustomed to falling at this pace—but now there's no danger of harm from the water itself. From this vantage, he can now see the long narrow boat that the drow must have come in on. It's pushed up against the rocky base of the island (atop which is the keep); it has a narrow, rocky beach of its own that he could conceivably climb onto.

He also has a view no one had before on the lagoon west of the keep. About 120 feet away there is a trio of stalactites protruding from the water, and in between them a raft of some kind. On that raft are a dozen or so creatures milling about. Chokers! They appear to be caged by constant strands of lightning playing between the stalactites. Another oddity of this manifest zone, he guesses.

All of this he takes in quickly, though. He's about to hit the water...

Definitely refresh for the current map.

Thul is in the water partway through his turn. Thul is also still slowed: speed is halved, −2 penalty to AC and Dexterity saving throws, and can’t use reactions. Can use either an action or a bonus action, not both. Can’t make more than one melee or ranged attack during his turn. If he attempts to cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action, roll a d20. On an 11 or higher, the spell doesn’t take effect until his next turn, and he must use its action on that turn to complete the spell.

No rolls are needed to swim.

15 - Thul
13 - Sem
11 - Leezer (blue slaad)
9 - xorn

[Ken]

Belarin drops to his knees, a wracking pain in his chest. Panic rises as he realizes he can't draw a single breath.

___________

"No actions" seems pretty straightforward.

[Jeff]

Ken, go ahead and roll a new Con saving throw (DC 15) which happens at the very end of your turn.