OOC:
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@itcomeswithamap, you're up...
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The first thing Surana is aware of is the pain. A dull thumping in her head. A burning throb in her cheek, likely broken. Shackles cutting into her wrists and ankles, forcing her into an uncomfortable position on the cold, wet floor. The next thing she becomes aware of is the smell...like an open sewer. In the open spaces of her homeland, such foulness is uncommon so it hits her like a club. Then she remembers...her moment of triumph, her plans for the future stolen by wicked and honor-less elves that ambushed her in her sleep. She never even had a chance to put up a fight. Once they got a hold of her...there were just too many of them...and then sleep took hold and the world faded as they laughed and mocked her in their alien tongue. The world is a terrible, hopeless place...maybe leaving it would just be better...
But now...as she begins to awaken in this new place...there is a flash of light in her mind, like something entering it...
"It wakes?" comes a voice...completely in her head. That startles her into full wakefulness. She looks around. She is in a dark cave. Dim purplish/bluish light enters through an iron gate casting strange shadows. She can't see the source of the light. She sees two dark elf guards just outside the gate talking for a moment and then they depart onto a walkway over a shadowy chasm and then disappear out of her sight.
Inside the cave she can see many forms...perhaps 10 or more other creatures. Some are of races familiar to her. Several are not but it's hard to make out details in this light and her senses have not fully returned. Everyone is huddled on the floor, some sleeping, some sitting. A few are talking in low voices she can't understand. Most are silent. Next to her is what appears to be a lump of stone, shaped like a seat or a stool of some sort.
"I stool?" the voice comes again. Surana is startled. "I stool? That my name? I stool!" the lump of rock begins rocking back and forth and coming toward her a bit...at that point she realizes it is a creature of some sort and it is talking to her in her head!
"Ēl sīla lūmena vomentienguo" comes another voice from behind her. This time NOT in her head. Surana becomes aware of a hulking form next to her. It sits against the wall and is shackled in the same way she is, only with much larger and thicker shackles. In the dim light it is hard to tell but it looks almost like a combination of a great cat and a creature she has only heard of in tales of distant lands...a bestial human-like creature that is called an 'ape'. The creature is clearly speaking to her but in a language she can't understand...or can she? As she focuses on it, the "I stool! I stool!" voice changes from an almost childlike babbling to an eloquent dialogue (but still in the same "voice" which is not Surana's).
"I see the little fungus has taken a liking to you. It came with you and has been pretty quiet ever since. Too fearful to talk to anyone else, I think." He reaches out and pats 'Stool' gently and seems to smile. The voice pauses when the beast stops speaking. An apologetic expression crosses it's feline like face.
"I do apologize. I'm being rude. I am Derendil. Prince Derendil of Nierindenvane (he says this expecting you to recognize it). In High Forest?" (Nope, you've never heard of it) "No matter...I'm afraid my frightful appearance is startling. But fear not! I am friendly. At least I think I am..."
Derendil goes on to explain that 'Stool' is a young intelligent fungus called a myconid. It 'speaks' telepathically and is able to translate what others say but only those it likes...and it appears to very much like you! Derendil also speaks common (with a heavy and strange accent) and switches between that and his 'native' tongue as he speaks to you.
He explains (and Stool confirms) that you were brought into the slave pen a few hours ago with some others from the surface. The drow seem to be conducting raids on surface settlements near here (relatively speaking) and bringing captives to this place (Velkenvelve, they call it). It seems to be a sort of staging area and everyone here is awaiting to be transported elsewhere to be sold as slaves or sacrifices to their "spider god". Stool was brought with you. He (it?) says it got seperated from it's "fungi pod" (it doesn't have the right concept for a parent) after some great hook armed beasts attacked (it fills your head not with words, but horrible images and emotions of great fear and sadness). It has been wondering alone ever since. When the drow raiders stopped to rest after capturing you, the ones dragging you leaned you against it and it got frightened and tried to 'run' so they grabbed it. Derendil explains that myconids are valuable for use in various spells and rituals because of their telepathic nature...Stool's future is likely as an ingredient in a potion or component in some vile ritual...(Stool shudders. "Home! Want to find home!" it says...)
Derendil tells you that his brother, who wanted his crown, hired an evil wizard named Terrestor and that wizard cursed Derendil and changed him into this beastial form. He was driven from his home. He wandered into a cave and was quickly captured and brought here. The drow say he is a 'quaggoth' and treat him as a lowly slave. They have lots of quaggoth's in the outpost to work as servants and guards but since he has trouble 'behaving in a civilized manner' they shackled him and threw him in here where he can be better controlled, "Plus the other quaggoths don't like him very much, I think," he says.
"But soon I will be one of them. I'm losing myself...the beast is taking over and soon Derendil will be gone" he says and begins to sob...(such a huge strong beast blubbering is a pathetic sight). Stool moves over and leans on him "Don't cry. Sad." comes into your head.
OOC:
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There will always be about a half dozen to a score of npc captives/slaves about. Several are NPCs detailed in the adventure, but others are just extras wondering about in the background. If we have a need I'll use them or if we need a new PC it will come from that. The important NPCs will roll into frame as they become important (and other PCs will get to introduce them)...for now just consider there to be a mix of lowly, demoralized folk of varying races in the slave pen with you. Some from the surface, many not. All the NPCs coming into frame at this point are just chosen randomly, which I must say...for me as a DM is infinitely fascinating. I have no idea which characters each of you will get to know! Stool and Derendil were just chosen randomly.
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Surana is left alone with her thoughts. Several hours pass. She observes guards being changed out and a meal is brought...a thin tasteless and cold mushroom broth with chunks of some mystery substance. It is barely satisfying and doesn't seem at all nourishing. Occasionally prisoners are taken from the pen and put to work doing menial and degrading tasks, or sometimes just to beaten for apparently no reason at all.
Eventually it is Surana's turn along with a handful of other poor creatures. "And bring that thing with you!" the guard orders pointing to Stool. She and Stool and a the others are walked across the catwalk and into the central guard "tower" This is a gigantic hollowed out stalactite. The slave pen is a cave in middle of an enormous cavern wall. There is a ledge that goes off to the right that ends at another gated cave where the quaggoth 'servants' are kept. The catwalk to the guard post stalactite crosses over an enormous and thick spider web. In the gloom below Surana makes out the forms of several spiders the size of a human and some smaller ones. Lots and lots of spiders...beyond the web, in the dim light of the cavern, she can see nothing.
Surana and the others are quickly ushered through the guard room and through a door to the left (don't worry...I'll post a player map later) and across another catwalk. More giant hollowed out stalactites with doors in them (or 'hanging towers') can be seen, as well as a waterfall coming out of the cavern wall and falling past the webs to what must be a pool a hundred or more feet below (judging from the noise). This second catwalk comes to a much larger ledge that connects two other hanging towers and a number of gated caves.
There, waiting for the slaves and their soldier escorts is a young looking drow female, dressed in fine silken robes over a barely concealed svelte elven body. Next to her is the scarred drow warrior that was with Mistress Ilvara when you first arrived. There are three other drow warriors beside them.
"I am Asha of House Vandree, second to Mistress Ilvara of Mizzrym. This is Jorlan Duskryn, the lieutenant to Captain Shoor Vandree." Her words are biting...but not directed toward you. They are clearly directed toward Jorlan and he does little to hide his contempt and some obvious emotional pain. Asha smirks cruelly.
"It is our task to train you today to be obediant slaves. Listen well and you will be rewarded." All the drow laugh at this obvious lie.
The next several hours are a blur of pain and humiliation. Trying to obey results in beatings. Trying to resist results in beatings. Trying to do nothing results in hideous beatings. All the while, Asha reclines against the wall...sitting her pleasantly shaped form atop Stool...using him literally as a stool. The creature pathetically takes it and keeps it's "voice" silent.
Eventually you are dropped back into the slave pen. Exhausted, hungry, thirsty, angry and hopeless. Thus begins a sort of routine for you. Sleeping (barely and uncomfortably), "training" and menial tasks such as cleaning, emptying chamber pots, cooking the gruel broth for the other slaves, etc. This will go on for some time. Asha stops interacting with you at all, mostly it's just the common soldiers supervising you. Their boredom is obvious and their willingness to break it by looking for excuses to beat you is all too clear (and frequently exercised).
Prince Derendil and Stool remain with you when they can, each looking to you for some hope and offering what little comfort they can...
OOC:
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None of the other PCs are yet present. You get the sense that there are other raiding parties out that should be returning over the next week or so (which is when other PCs will arrive). As you settle into this rhythm of life you can begin to interact with your surroundings.
As I said, this outpost is a sort of "town" and rather than run it like a CRPG town where you wander about and we describe every last NPC and detail as you try to find information, we are going to play it more as cinematic scenes like I described above. I will ask you a few questions about what you do (these questions may change). You answer them as best you can (and the answer can be none...you don't HAVE to do anything if you don't want). Then I will narrate the interesting things you find or accomplish.
Feel free to get creative and narrative (but you don't have to if you don't want). I know as a player you might feel more constrained, but as long as you stay within the confines of what I've described so far you can get as descriptive as you like. For instance, there is obvious tension among the drow leadership. Feel free to include that. You, as players, don't know what the source of that tension is yet so you can't reveal it or move it from anything other than tension but you can describe it or describe your actions to exploit it or learn more about it...as we go forward, more will be revealed and you all can pull that new information into your actions as well. Anything that happens "publicly" (as in...I describe in this thread) is known to all PCs even if they weren't present...other prisoners tell you or whatever...if there is some information available only to one or two PCs, I'll send that as a PM.
So...since Surana is the only PC present so far you are up, itcomeswithamap:
(we'll go with the original questions, but like I said, these may change over time):
1) What do you want to try to accomplish over the next several hours to few days and how do you think you will go about it?
2) What sort of trouble do you cause, witness, avoid or prevent?
3) Describe something interesting or memorable your character does or attempts to do.
edit: somehow my spell check got turned off...turned it back on and fixed a bunch of misspellings...here I thought I just rolled a 20 on my Int (spelling) check...
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