As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

[D&D ?E] The Vastness Beyond - End Times

1282931333487

Posts

  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    "Ah, so close. Perhaps if I lower myself into the water I can reach whatever that is." He looks over the side. "I'm not sure I want to get into the water though..."

  • ZomroZomro Registered User regular
    I can cast Detect Poison and Disease to check out the yellow stuff, but I don't think I want to burn a spell slot this early. If/when we see more of it I can use it, should be able to avoid the small amount right now.

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    Zomro wrote: »
    I can cast Detect Poison and Disease to check out the yellow stuff, but I don't think I want to burn a spell slot this early. If/when we see more of it I can use it, should be able to avoid the small amount right now.

    For reference (and I'm sure it would have come up in-character as we were setting off), I've also got that, as well as Purify Food and Drink, both of which are ritual spells. So if the group ever wants to sit tight for 10 minutes, I can do any of those.

    In addition, I've also got Protection from Poison and Lesser Restoration in case we oopsie, but those are gonna be second-level spells...

    I came prepped for the Drossmire :D

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    kime wrote: »
    How far away is the yellow stuff ahead?

    40 feet. You’re barely moving towards it. Easy enough to move the boat around it, I should think.

  • ZomroZomro Registered User regular
    kime wrote: »
    Zomro wrote: »
    I can cast Detect Poison and Disease to check out the yellow stuff, but I don't think I want to burn a spell slot this early. If/when we see more of it I can use it, should be able to avoid the small amount right now.

    For reference (and I'm sure it would have come up in-character as we were setting off), I've also got that, as well as Purify Food and Drink, both of which are ritual spells. So if the group ever wants to sit tight for 10 minutes, I can do any of those.

    In addition, I've also got Protection from Poison and Lesser Restoration in case we oopsie, but those are gonna be second-level spells...

    I came prepped for the Drossmire :D

    Ritual casting is dope as hell.

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    kime wrote: »
    How far away is the yellow stuff ahead?

    40 feet. You’re barely moving towards it. Easy enough to move the boat around it, I should think.

    Anything to notice when Kirina dips her hand in the water?

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    Those of us in heavy armor probably shouldn't mess around in the water and I can't help thinking the mages probably arn't up for it. Assuming the water doesn't melt Kirina's hand off that leaves Gruush as our only option for grabbing the thing under the water, right?

    Quire.jpg
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    If someone has to go in, as long as Arthur has some help getting back in the boat, he can go in and mage hand it from closer.

    If we don't want to do that, maybe not worth the risk to grab it.

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    If someone has to go in, as long as Arthur has some help getting back in the boat, he can go in and mage hand it from closer.

    If we don't want to do that, maybe not worth the risk to grab it.

    Arthur is carrying a giant, heavy metal axe and can only swim with one hand...

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • mrpakumrpaku Registered User regular
    Gruush could be easily coaxed into it, if the whole group decides it's worth the risk. He'd wanna make up for the whole "oh wait, actually I suck at boats" event

  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    Yeah that Axe has GOT to come with some unspoken penalties to swim checks.

    Quire.jpg
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    Rope around the waist!

    Maybe the curse is that it hates the water. Execute some waves. That's a thing right?

    AustinP0027 on
  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    Shall we take a vote? Both Gruush and Arthur are willing. I vote Gruush for the aforementioned reasons.

    Quire.jpg
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Gruush is a way smarter play. But, what's more entertaining? :smile:

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Adventurers

    The water feels normal, for the time being at least.

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    All right. Kirina starts ritual casting Detect Poison and Disease. If she doesn't have time to finish, so be it.

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    "It's alright. We're all learning here. We're doing well." Alzav smiles and unslings the lute from his back. "Travels like ours cannot be easy, if the story is to be worth telling."

    Alzav repositions himself at prow, spotting for more rocks and branches, as he strums quiet tones on his lute, just loud enough to play along with the burble of the river. He tries using the music to Shape Water, bailing flow out of the boat and urging it along past the obstacles to safer currents.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Kirina

    If you were wary before, the land surrounding you feels significantly more sinister now.

    The white trees and other flora either side of the river are either dead or dying. A cancer has overtaken them. The very material that makes them twisted and changed, replaced over time with… something else.

    While the water that flows from the mountain is fine, the slick oil up ahead is a living poison; an ooze of some description.

    Your senses don’t reach far enough, but you’re convinced something is wrong with the land itself, with each passing moment you sail down this river.



    Alzav
    You hear a thought:
    That’s funny, friend. I can see you too.

  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    Alzav's thoughts alert the party: the caged rogue is near.

    Alzav sends another message in the same direction* as the last: "You betrayed our kindness, friend, and it gained you nothing. Perhaps it is best if our paths remain separate? Or, if they must cross, see it as an opportunity. Throw away the worser impluses of your nature." With the last part, Alzav sends an impulse of empathy: an understanding of taking on the heart of a serpent by necessity. "I'm something of a mountebank myself."

    *: which way was it?

  • mrpakumrpaku Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    Gruush's hand immediately goes to his knife, and he spits through his teeth beneath the mask. "The conniving scamp!"...

    Gruush when he hears Watki's back in the picture:
    0yg89u9a7ph3.png

    ...so we've come to the Caelid/Blighttown/Valley of Defilement portion of the game? Cool. Cool cool cool

    mrpaku on
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    Alzav

    Within your mind comes a reply, “I didn’t do anything! You pulled that damned lever and set them off is all. I’m surprised you all made it out alive!”

    North-west, on land. They’re not responding further and so are likely now out of range.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    DM thoughts:
    - My next update will be in 3 hours. If no one wants to dive into the river, which is fair, we will move on to hex chosen by Alzav.
    - Did Watki actually do anything? How do you remember it?

  • mrpakumrpaku Registered User regular
    Gruush is absolutely, 100% convinced that:

    - Watki let a statue/sword trap get sprung into his face on purpose and it really friggin' hurt
    - He assumes she'd been using Ourdru as a place to catches suckers for a while, and could have let herself out of that jail at anytime (game-recognize-game)
    - She directly led us into the skeletal trap and then bailed immediately on the bridge, obviously planning to come back later to loot our (yet unturned) corpses

    ...

    With the new revelations, Gruush would not like to dive into the river at this time, if it's all the same with you guys

  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Arthur still really wants to be lowered into the water to grab the thing with mage hand. He's going to propose someone wrap a rope around him and lower him in then pull him out. He's not too strong-willed though, so if enough people say no, he'll let it go.

    For Watki:
    Arthur only remembers them abandoning us when the fighting started. Not the best look, but not necessarily a grudge against them either.

  • ZomroZomro Registered User regular
    "I'm not too concerned with Watki, they are not much a threat if we stay alert, if they even mean us harm at all."

    As Arthur prepares to enter the water, Solomon looks around, opening his senses to the feeling of the unnatural.

    Going to use Divine Sense. Any celestial, fiend or undead within 60ft not in total.cover is revealed to me. Just in case there's anything nasty under the water, wouldn't be great if Arthur got grabbed by a drowned zombie or something.

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    Arthur still really wants to be lowered into the water to grab the thing with mage hand. He's going to propose someone wrap a rope around him and lower him in then pull him out. He's not too strong-willed though, so if enough people say no, he'll let it go.

    For Watki:
    Arthur only remembers them abandoning us when the fighting started. Not the best look, but not necessarily a grudge against them either.

    "If anyone is going into the water, we definitely need a rope or something similar. The... oil? ahead is alive, and dangerous. I don't trust it to remain still..."

    She's a hesitant vote "no" for going in the water, but not going to argue against it, just skeptical.
    DM thoughts:
    - My next update will be in 3 hours. If no one wants to dive into the river, which is fair, we will move on to hex chosen by Alzav.
    - Did Watki actually do anything? How do you remember it?

    Kirina actually doesn't remember Watki doing anything particularly egregious.

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    Simon remembers Wakti galavanting away after we went in the direction THEY suggested while they yelled "this is what I do!". Which sure adds up to Simon thinking Watki regularly leads travellers into danger and collects the spoils.

    Quire.jpg
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    "Yes! A rope! Who has one?" Arthur responds. "Tie it around me and if you can help lower me in, I just need to be a little bit closer to be able to grab whatever it was. This darn axe gets in the way."

    Apparently Wizard adventuring kits don't include rope. Like wizards can't use rope or something. Classist!

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    I don't have a rope, but we had a bunch on the boat earlier right? Also if you do go in, you'll get Guidance beforehand just in case...

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • mrpakumrpaku Registered User regular
    Gruush has rope!

  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Just to visually lay out the plan. Rope wrapped around Arthur's waist. Someone(s) hold to lower him in. Mage hand was just out of reach before, so shouldn't need to lower all that deep, but lower in, Mage Hand to grab it and pull it up, then pull Arthur back onto the boat.

    Given the warning of the poison thing ahead, if the metal is stuck, plan's off. If mage hand doesn't pull it out easily, Arthur will want back on the boat and just tell everyone that it's stuck and no dice.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    Solomon

    You don’t pick up on anything.



    Arthur

    You drop into the water and sink like a young man with a big axe permanently stuck to them.

    A difficult task to concentrate on your mage hand, see in the murk and try not to worry about the whole no breathing thing… but you manage to pull something free!

    Your vision flashes pure white beneath the river, almost causing you to open your mouth!

    i7bhef6menal.jpeg

    Forgotten Church Censer
    An iron censer found embedded in a river. Crafted as a miniature of some long destroyed church, now forever nameless.

    When you cast a healing spell while holding this censer aloft while incense burns within it, the censer gains 1 radiant damage (to a maximum of 10).

    As a reaction, you may invoke the censer to make a ranged attack out to 15 feet, dealing X radiant damage.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • AustinP0027AustinP0027 Registered User regular
    Arthur comes up above the water and onto the deck coughing a little. He needed to mark this down as one of his more reckless ideas, though, compared to what was attached to his hand currently, maybe it was rather tame. As he dripped water onto the deck of the ship, his mage hand rose, bringing an iron censer up and over to him. With a laugh, he says "I got it!"

    Taking moment to fully look over it, he could see the religious implications on it clearly. A few more cycles and his brain had already determined a course of action. "Kirina," he says turning to the cleric, "this looks like something you would know more about." His mage hand brings it over in front of her. "Do you want it?"

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Adventurers

    The river drags on you at a consistent rate. You’re heading north-west.

    You boat is jolted suddenly. A large wooden stake as wide as a man has been driven deep into the water. It strips the paint off one side of your boat, but nothing more.

    Up ahead you see several more. You’ll need to carefully manoeuvre the boat through them if you want to keep afloat!

    Approach this as you please. I’ll ask for rolls after you’ve started.

    Hanging over the edge of the river on your starboard side, held up on stilts, you see three hovels. They’re fit for a dozen people so long as they don’t mind the cramped conditions, or just three if they’re picky. A fishing line bobs in the water tied up to a support beam next to one of the doorways. No one is home, but you can’t assume they’re deserted.

    1vbvruq8x7bz.jpeg

    What do you do?

    Map:
    r2229p8imnqz.png

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    Arthur comes up above the water and onto the deck coughing a little. He needed to mark this down as one of his more reckless ideas, though, compared to what was attached to his hand currently, maybe it was rather tame. As he dripped water onto the deck of the ship, his mage hand rose, bringing an iron censer up and over to him. With a laugh, he says "I got it!"

    Taking moment to fully look over it, he could see the religious implications on it clearly. A few more cycles and his brain had already determined a course of action. "Kirina," he says turning to the cleric, "this looks like something you would know more about." His mage hand brings it over in front of her. "Do you want it?"

    "Ah, look at this! Yes, please, Arthur, I think this would be very useful."

    Mine mine gimme :P
    You boat is jolted suddenly. A large wooden stake as wide as a man has been driven deep into the water. It strips the paint off one side of your boat, but nothing more.

    Wait, pause, our boat is PAINTED? Yayyyyy!

    We have at least two people that can Shape Water, yes? I bet we could use that to protect the boat from either the sides/bottom.

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Oh yeah, I guess the picture I used for it isn’t. It’s a dark grey. It might have been black long ago. You know what those guys in the mountains were like, loved to paint it black.

  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    Simon was still at the oars when the wooden stakes became visible. "I'll try to steer us clear of those stakes but be ready to do whatever you can when I fail. I'll try to direct us towards that first hovel and we can plan our next move." Simon said while trying to arc the boat starboard.

    Quire.jpg
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Adventurers

    With careful use of cantrips and Simon’s intent, you aim for the first hovel.

    Whoever wants to try, make a Dexterity check to moor your boat to the hovel with rope.

  • mrpakumrpaku Registered User regular
    Geth roll 1d20+4 Dex Check (Gruush)

    Dex Check (Gruush):
    1d20+4 20 [1d20=16]

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Gruush

    You whip a rope around a stilt and catch it on the way back. You heave the line taut, pulling the boat towards the hovel. From there you tie it up good and proper, an absolute tangle that keeps the boat stable and secure.

Sign In or Register to comment.