Deep Horizon by Feathersnow IC

[Taelas]

Rachen blinks. "Huh. Guess it wasn't very tough." With a wave of his hand, he dismisses the sphere, which promptly vanishes. He glances at the escaping dragon, but doesn't follow it. Though he didn't understand what it said, its current actions are pretty clear.

[Balthanon]

Grinning slightly to himself and stepping out from behind the stalagmite he was behind so he's clearly visible, Jecklyn calls out to the dragon before he gets too far, though ideally out of range of his breath weapon. "Ye wouldn't be trying to run with any of our treasure, would ya?"

Tossing what amounts to an extremely large steel boulder up and down in one hand, he waits for the dragon's response, then has another thought too. "In fact, I'd think we'd like to talk a bit. Maybe you could reward us for our good deed with some information about the area. That would be somethin' a properly grateful sort like yourself would do, right?"

[Feathersnow]

The dragon stops, if reluctantly...

"I can tell you a thing or three, just let me go with whatever that thing left me with and I'll be glad to tell you about his friends."

[Taelas]

Rachen lands next to Jecklyn and glares at the wyrm.

"Don't think to fool us, dragon," he says, twirling his massive greathammer in his hands as if it were a twig; it abruptly stops, and he slams the head straight down into the ground, both hands at the end of the shaft. "You would not fare well against us. Witness how fast your master fell! Tell us what you know, and we'll let you free; but if we think you're having us on, I wouldn't mind subduing a pet lizard to use as a mount!"

Spoiler: OOC

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Rachen's trying to scare the dragon, to back Jecklyn up.
Intimidate check: (1d20+12)[16]

[Dimers]

Elwenath scrunches his brow for a moment, then says, "Beholders don't have -- Ah. You don't mean friends, you mean 'friends'. Got it. What can you tell us?"

[Balthanon]

Shrugging noncommittally, Jecklyn says, "I'm listening."

That said, he doesn't approach any further either. Not that he particularly needs to generally speaking.

[Lord Foul]

Rolland frowns at this diversion, his weapon and his breath ready to rejoin combat if needed, but not interested in trying to intimidate a... nominally innocent dragon.

[Feathersnow]

"The Old Drow Ruins, a nest of those things is there, they have creepy bat things as mercenaries. And lots of slaves, some normal sone with magic binding."

[Balthanon]

"Huh, interesting that. How many of the things are there? And what can you tell us about what they can do? If you were actually enslaved by the things, you must have seen a bit more than we might be able to recall." Jecklyn eyes the beast they're conversing with and prepares to wring as much information out of it as he can manage about the beholders and any notable slaves.

Spoiler: OOC

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So basically trying to get a more detailed set of data on the beholders and their abilities (i.e. what the eye beams do, any mages, etc...) plus any forces-- given that he was captured and presumably in with these, it's going to be a heck of a lot more safe to get info out of them than sneak in to get that information.

If it looks to be cooperating, Jecklyn will likely shrink back down to gnome size during the discussion, since he presumably has better recall that way.

[Dimers]

Elwenath glances around at his companions. "I can say a bit more about beholders now that we're not in a time crunch, but these bat-people ... they're new to me."

[Ragnarok'n'Roll]

Friar Gowan Goodwin

Gowan listened quietly. He wasn't sure the dragon was being truthful but it at least sounded plausible and would explain recent events. He nodded thoughtfully.

"Thank you - I hope our paths never cross again" Gowan turns away with a slight head nod and lets the others ask their questions.

[Taelas]

After raising one hand at the dragon to stall it leaving, Rachen turns to Elwenath. "I think the operative word in that phrase is people. I've heard of anthropomorphic animals before; I imagine this is like that. So I wouldn't assign any supernatural abilities to them without evidence to the contrary--I'd say just think of them as weirdly-shaped humans for now. So let's focus on beholders and what you know of them." He casually swings the giant hammer up onto his shoulder again.

[Dimers]

Elwenath nods, keeping one eye on the dragon. "The big central eye turns off magic whichever way it's facing. The little eyes shoot a variety of deadly rays everywhere else, all at the same time. Charm, terror, petrification, disintegration, sleep, just plain damage ... it's those little eyes that cause all the trouble. The bite may look nasty but it's really a joke, nothing but a tickle. The other main thing I know about beholders is that they don't often work together. They hate each other slightly less than they hate everyone else. So if they're banded together ..." He looks at the dragon for confirmation. "That probably means there's something else with even more power pulling the strings."

[Feathersnow]

As the party leaves the dragon and continues into the Underdark, Elwenath notices the ground ahead is littered with caltrops. Just then, figures from the darkness unleash a volley of arrows!

Spoiler

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(1D20+17)[37]
(1d8+9)[17]

On Elwenath

ROLL]1D20+17[/ROLL]
(1d8+9)[16]

On Rachen

ROLL]1D20+17[/ROLL]
(1d8+9)[17]

On Jecklyn

ROLL]1D20+17[/ROLL]
(1d8+9)[13]

On Roland

ROLL]1D20+17[/ROLL]
(1d8+9)[15]

ROLL]1D20+17[/ROLL]
(1d8+9)[12]

On Gowan


Everyone who gets hit must make a DC 18 check against poison

[Balthanon]

An attack? Bloody hell, how'd we miss these buggers...

Turning, the little fey tries to spot where the attacks are coming from-- the feast they had for breakfast was doing a good job of keeping the arrow from doing any particular damage, but that wouldn't last forever. Ripping the arrow out of his arm, Jecklyn also notes a blackish substance on the arrow head and grimaces. "Poison, lovely."

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+14)[29] Fort Save

Spot check from the OOC thread of 30.

[Lord Foul]

Roland looks more annoyed than worried at the caltrops and the incoming wave of arrows, wincing as one of them hits him. He sizes the opponents up, seeing which to strike first to disrupt their coordination, and selecting the one that shot him personally, that one would be the one that would die first.

granted maneuver check - (1d3)[3]
init - (1d20+3)[5]
knowledge devotion roll, I am assuming knowledge local - (1d20+8)[13]