Gnomecalypse [5e solo hexcrawl]

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly seriously listens to the whole thing as well, silently nodding along, so intently focused that her skin seemed to meld into the surroundings. It looked like TheMouse was talking to a wall.

After a brief moment considering what was said she messages back. 'I'll do it. But.. you think the old chief is somewhere in there too?'

[Smilex]

Hushedfly seriously listens to the whole thing as well, silently nodding along, so intently focused that her skin seemed to meld into the surroundings. It looked like TheMouse was talking to a wall.

After a brief moment considering what was said she messages back. 'I'll do it. But.. you think the old chief is somewhere in there too?'

Themouse looks cautiously impressed by the melding of Hushedfly.
Then when Hushedfly casts message, he looks a bit off, maybe even irritated and answers in plain speech
Uh, I'd like to find out where he is. Knowing without checking doesn't seem right to me. I never trusted Feytricker but I'm not that keen on how Almondgrape is handling
chieftainship either. Maybe that's just the way things are... that everyone needs to find their own path no matter who's in power.

Thistle muses
Notagem's a beautiful place but I don't think your chief is doing right by it either. I've been with a tree that takes better care of it's charges.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly looks at Thistle a little concerned. "Y-you really think so? Though you haven't been here long..."

Well, that either meant she was just jumping to conclusions, or everything was obviously that bad.. but it wasn't really, was it??

"Have the others treated you alright?" she asks, completely going off topic.

[Smilex]

Thistle says
Oh yes, this Notagem is lovely, nothing to complain of... so far.
I met your chief Almondgrape yesterday. He was smashingly drunk and was nipping on mushrooms while fingerwrestling some other gnome who's name I didn't get. There were six people having sex in the room and somebody was playing songs and singing.

That's the way I would do it if I had power. But I think that I would be a terrible chief. ... Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'd be a great chief too.

Themouse talks without emotion
Almondgrape got his chiefdom because he's stronger than Feytricker was and because the hunters like him. I think we need to take things into our own hands here.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly sighs and says, "Okay, well, I'll take a look around."

...

"Um. I guess I'll go now? Where is this passage you dug?"

[Smilex]

Themouse leads you to the spot where a stream flows near your home. Then he uses a lever to dislodge a large stone that's covering a hole.

Before anyone else has a chance to do a thing, Thistle crawls into the hole.
You've made this so large! I can easily get in here!

And she disappears into the depths.

Themouse suggests you move after Thistle
A lot of the corridor is quite tight. We should go in the right order as much as we can.

In the tunnel, the first ten meters or so are dry. Then you reach the tunnel of the stream itself. The water isn't flowing too fast but you worry what will happen if there's a rainstorm. The whole tunnel might be full of water?

Nevertheless, now it's easy going. Thistle pushes onwards relatively fast, but she pauses every now and then to mention a pretty or interesting looking stone formation or gemstone jutting out of a wall.

The tunnel is long, you lose track a little but you suspect you've gone down maybe forty minutes. Then Thistle suddenly disappears from front of you. There's an open space there.

The water of the stream forms a waterfall, dropping down about a meter and a half onto a sandy beach. Thistle's standing on the sand and looking to your left.

There, in the middle of darkness glows a green, slowly pulsating light orb. In the green light you can see a huge cavern, with a lake in the middle. A sandy beach stretches to the light orb and also to the opposite direction - who knows how far it goes?

As far as you can tell the beach is deserted. There's some old tracks of gnome feet in the sand, but nobody's moving anywhere.

You and The mouse get on the beach and The mouse points at the green orb.
That's the gate.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly will look a little sheepishly at the two but will finally end up messaging them.

First to Thistle. 'Okay. Shhh..'

To TheMouse: 'You suggested I scout so.. you two try to keep out of sight and keep quiet.'

Then to Thistle again: 'You'll stay here with TheMouse, alright? Try to be quiet. I'm sneaking and this could be dangerous...'

Hushedfly will cautiously approach the portal and view it from several directions to see if she can see anyone or anything else beyond it.

Spoiler: roll

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perception: (1d20+4)[18]

[Smilex]

Thistle and Themouse stay and watch Hushedfly proceed.

Hushedly sneaks toward the green glowing orb. It's about 3 m in diameter. While the light becomes annoyingly bright as one gets closer it is actually possible to see a space behind the light.

There's a sound that comes from beyond. It's a series of droplets, falling onto water or stone. The sounds are random, but simultaneously they seem to have a melody, a theme that repeats while also changing.

The space beyond is a cave. It's walls are mostly grey-brown stone but there's a lot of white, blue and purple crystals in the walls too. The crystals poke into the room through the ceiling but not near the floor. The area is reasonably open. The room beyond is maybe 20 m in diameter and there seem to be at least two exits.

You can't see anyone inside.

In the ground, on this side of the gate there's a lot of gnomish footprints and some larger ones too. It also looks like something was dragged through into the gate.

[WindStruck]

Okay, Hushedfly doesn't think there's anyone on the other side. She'll hop in!

[Smilex]

You jump into the green...
and land on a normal stone floor.

The chamber you find yourself in has three exits. Two of them go down and one of them goes up.

Given how alert you're being, you have no trouble noticing that actually you are not alone in the room. On the wall, on the opposite side of the view that you had when looking from the other side of the gate, there is a yellowish brown moving blob of quivering jelly. The jelly slowly starts to slide down the wall.

Another thing you notice that this place echoes. A part of the rhytmic repetition you heard earlier, is actually the echoes of each waterdrop coming down from the ceiling. Even more curiously, you notice that the echo is not perfect, it varies in tone and pacing.

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm presuming that you're being stealthy as always.

[WindStruck]

A jelly? That's odd. Hushedfly studies it for a moment and also takes a closer look at the exits.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

i assume she knows what it is but just in case

(1d20-1)[18]

Is there anything that distinguishes the exits from one another?

[Smilex]

The jelly moves slowly and it seems to sense your presence somehow as it's moving directly towards you. It seems icky and possibly dangerous.

The exits... two of them, as mentioned, move down. These two are closest to each other. The third one that goes up is separate. All the floor seems wiped clean, no tracks. Only small stones here and there, the only things unpolished, or maybe undigested.

Moving around the room... even quietly, creates echoes. They seem less weird near the upper exit, more so near the lower ones. Near the upper exit, behind an outcropping of a rock there's a whistle carved from stone.

[WindStruck]

Well, Hushedfly knows to keep away from the jelly. It looked far too hungry.

For whatever reason, maybe curiosity or whim, she tries going down one of the passages. What was causing the echos?

[Smilex]

The echoes seem to come mostly from the crystals, but the aberrations in the echoes...

You move into one of the corridors that go down. It curves while you proceed and you quickly get the feeling that it just loops back to the other corridor that goes down.

Your actual search though... You seem to find the spot where the aberrations are the strongest. It comes from near the ceiling. Then you suddenly realize that there's a mist there. And in the mist there's a face made of wisps of smoke that's looking straight at you. If it's possible to evaluate how smoke looks at oneself, you'd say it looks perplexed. It's trying to figure out if you're really there. It's a thing you've become accustomed to when in stealth.

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: ooc

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relevant knowledge check? (1d20-1)[1]

It bombed.

Huh. Hushedfly didn't know what that was at all... but as her basic philosophy with most things was, let sleeping dogs lie. Best to leave before it was really positive she was there and did something. If it did anything.

Since the passage seemed to loop around, Hushedfly will continue in the direction of the loop she was going, in order to head back to where she started. Hopefully since she was not backtracking, she wouldn't be coming upon the hungry jelly.

And after that, assuming nothing else has really changed, she'll try the upper exit to the room she was in.

[Smilex]

The mist follows you a little while but then loses sight of you. It spends a while going round and round but your stealthiness wins the day.

The ooze, you notice is slowly entering the looping corridor and continues on it's downward path.

Moving to the upper exit you notice that the odd echoes disappear soon after you're out of the entrance cavern. They're either accidental or possibly a feature that functions as an alarm. The corridor continues for about 20 meters without features and then you come into another room. This one has even more of the glittering crystals, they fill not only the ceiling but the walls. Many of them have a light in them so the room glitter with an array of colors.

The path continues out of the room in the same general direction.

Inside this room there's a statue of a beautiful gnome. The gnome is posed standing straight and looking at the person who's entering. It's eyes are made very well, they look as if they followed your movement.
Suddenly it sounds as if the statue was whispering.
You think you hear the word
Ask

[WindStruck]

At first, Hushedfly doesn't know what to do, but she tries using her message cantrip eventually. 'Ask what?'

[Smilex]

The voice in the air continues in a silent whisper
The magic of the oracle only responds to voiced questions. The request for healing must likewise be voiced.

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: ooc

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So what is the rest of this room?

[Smilex]

The rest of the room is quite empty. It's just a very beautiful alcove for a whispering statue.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly look at the statue and blinks a bit before saying, "I'm looking for some people of my tribe. Crystal and Buffalove."

[Smilex]

Nothing happens. You suspect the thing only responds to questions. It seems more like a thing than a person.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly sighs and eventually asks, "Where are the people of my tribe known as Crystal and Buffalove?"

[Smilex]

The whisper answers
They are beyond the cave's veil, held captive in a place which you will only reach with this.

A clay whistle that looks like this
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukkop...Kukkopilli.jpg
appears in front of you on the floor.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly looks a little confused and picked up the whistle. She guessed you'd have to blow into it.

"So, um.. assuming I find them, how do I get back?"

[Smilex]

Again, the whisper answers
The gate placed by the Overbeing lies broken. This path will stay open until the gate is rebuilt. If the whole demi-plane were to be undone, the magics that created this world would return you to the place you came from.

You notice that the lights inside the crystals have dimmed down after both questions. You suspect they might go out completely after another question.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly will leave the oracle statue alone and try blowing on the bird whistle thing...

[Smilex]

The whistle makes a nice sound, glows pink for a moment and then the glow wanes.

From the path forward you hear a crumbling noise, like rock sliding against rock and a raspy voice somewhere distant speaks a few wrods in terran.

The voice and the movement sounds make you thing of Chrnogora.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly takes a few tentative steps forward. Was the path opening?

[Smilex]

The corridor that was open, stays open - both the way back and the way forward.

No new openings appear. You suspect that maybe this place doesn't have the lock for which the whistle is the key.