Escaping Carceri IC

[Tyrann]

Despite the frogs swarming him, Von manages to at least keep his 'last meal' down. Which is a good thing, as prison food isn't particularly tasty. Upon being swarmed, he manages to break out, shaking and throwing the frogs off himself as he goes. He makes sure to put some distance between himself and the swarm before trying to slip out of his shackles, which unfortunately fails.

Zarabeth, meanwhile, has managed to grab hold of a frog and has proceeded to crush it in her hand. Running between her fingers is now a combination of green slime, still pulsing squirts of red blood, a few stray muscles, and a whole lot of frog guts. Fortunately, she had the foresight to pull on one of the legs with her other hand, and is now holding what is perhaps the strangest improvised pick ever: a thin frog leg, still complete with elbow joint, the last inch of the upper arm ending in a pointy broken femur. You're really gonna need to wash your hands after this. But you did get an improvised pick.

Zarabeth's crushing did hurt a member of the swarm. You all take 1 damage. It feels as though a giant ethereal hand has just squeezed through you.

Spoiler: OOC

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Map

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...YEk/edit#gid=0

Initiative, round 1
Fara
Frogs
Von
Zarabeth
Raakesh
Undetermined event 1
Coco
Mess
Undetermined event 2

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Raakesh hesitates for a long moment. He would really like to investigate the sudden changes in the Pit, as the phenomenon somewhat resembles the malleable dreamstuff of Dal Quor, and though he knows he isn't either dreaming or physically in Dal Quor (that was the first thing he checked for when he arrived, of course) it might be similar enough that he could make use of it with his training in dreamscape manipulation.

And he really wouldn't like to go after the frogs. He has no problem with killing--and even if he did, killing mere frogs would be nothing next to hunting Adaran heretics--but he prefers his bone-crushing to be done telekinetically from several paces away, where he won't get blood and viscera all over himself.

He finally decides that a lock-picking attempt would be more likely to succeed than dealing with an unknown phenomenon that he may or may not be able to master in time. And really, this outfit is a lost cause, anyway. He strides over to the swarm, still using his companions as cover, then with an expression of disgust crouches down and lashes out at the nearest frog with his fist.

Spoiler

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Raakesh moves to G7 and attacks the swarm.

Unarmed Strike: (1d20+7)[9]; Damage: (1d3)[2]

[Tyrann]

Raakesh, too, moves over to the swarm and attempts to grab a frog. Unfortunately, the slimy critter proves a bit too slippery. The frog slips away, jumps out of his hand with a nasty croak and disappears into the mass of frogs in the black liquid.

Meanwhile, seemingly out of nowhere, Mess is assaulted by a small ooze that seemed almost perfectly camouflaged in the liquid until now. It's almost like glue, immediately adhering tightly to your skin, slamming you with its bulk as it does so.

Spoiler: DC 12 kn. Dungeoneering

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That's a smaller version of a Flotsam Ooze. Flotsam Oozes are normally medium sized. This one is small and appears a little damaged. These oozes exude a sticky slime that holds fast any creature or item touching it. They automatically grapple any creature they hit with their slam attack. Opponents so grappled cannot get free while the ooze is alive. The ooze makes one additional slam attack each round against any creature stuck to it.

Spoiler: DC 17 kn. Dungeoneering

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Flotsam Oozes are transparent in most liquids. This grants them partial concealment (40% miss chance) while inside a liquid. The adhesive substance breaks down 5 rounds after the ooze dies. This ooze shouldn't be able to take too much punishment. Even the medium versions of these can't take much punishment, so you can't imagine that this smaller version will be very durable. But keep in mind that anything it touches will immediately and permanently get stuck, until 5 rounds after it's dead.

Map [Google sheet]

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Mess please make an opposed grapple check. You need to get a 21 or over, otherwise you take 5 bludgeoning damage.

Initiative, round 1
Fara
Frogs
Von
Zarabeth
Rakesh
Small Flotsam Ooze
Coco
Mess
Undetermined event 2

[Ridai]

Mess screams, slammed against the slimy wall, before shaking the ooze off in panic. Inky fluid splashes everywhere as Mess hurries away from the creature, beginning to scratch at the wall in growing desperation, failing to climb upwards.

Spoiler: OOC

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Mess tries to move to G3 and "attacks" the wall with their claws.

[Tyrann]

Perhaps it is because Mess is almost entirely covered in the black liquid by now, but even though the ooze did appear to touch them, Mess somehow manages to slip away before the sticky ooze can take hold.

In a panic Mess moves away and scratches at the wall. Their claws are entirely unhindered by the slimy secretion on the walls, and rip through the organic layer beneath that with surprising ease. Mess hasn't made it completely through the wall yet, but has definitely damaged it. Streaks of dark red blood are starting to appear from the gashes, and you can make out something throbbing underneath.

[Xanyo]

Coco glances around and decides to focus on the frogs for now. His raised foot lashes out once, twice, thrice. The inky liquid is splashed about.

"I focus on the frogs," he decides aloud, "Mess on the wall, rest on the shackles."

Spoiler: OOC

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Attack 1: (1d20+14)[21] Damage 1: (1d10)[3]
Attack 2: (1d20+14)[24] Damage 2: (1d10)[9]
Attack 3: (1d20+9)[22] Damage 3: (1d10)[6]

[Tyrann]

Even without his flames, Coco is more than capable of smashing a few frogs. With every strike, at least ten frogs splatter into who knows how many bits. The liquid is starting to redden and apparently the inside of frog guts doesn't smell at all pleasant. Who knew.

Whatever entity sent this swarm seems displeased by Coco's actions. The swarm's aura deals out retribution. However, as you're all wearing shackles, you are unaffected. The oozes are not. Both of them (because it turns out there were two) burst violently from the liquid, popped into inanimate goblets of sticky goop.

There are still a few frogs alive. But if anyone was looking for bones/parts, there are plenty floating about now.

Map (Google sheet)

Spoiler: Initiative

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Initiative, round 2
Fara
Frogs
Von
Zarabeth
Rakesh
Flotsam Ooze 1 [dead]
Coco
Mess
Flotsam Ooze 2 [dead]

[infomatic]

"This place gets more disgusting by the minute …" Fara murmurs, balefully eyeing the bleeding wall as she making huge swings with her manacled arms in an effort to break up the mass of frogs.

Spoiler

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posted in OOC first by mistake; rolls are there

[Tyrann]

Fara manages to squash a few more of the frogs, though enough of the swarm still remains that it could be a threat. Croaking violently, the mass of frogs throws itself onto Coco, but the nimble cat easily dodges the bulk of them.

Map (Google sheet)

Spoiler: Initiative

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Initiative, round 2
Fara
Frogs
Von
Zarabeth
Rakesh
Flotsam Ooze 1 [dead]
Coco
Mess
Flotsam Ooze 2 [dead]

[Ridai]

The destruction of the slimes does not even register for Mess, only hearing the splashes and shouts and croaks and wet sounds of creatures getting crushed. Blood splashes onto Mess, quickly covering its chains and arms and front, but fear drives misshapen fingers deeper into the wall. Rapid breathing (overlayed by various voices telling Mess to struggle, from urgent to bemused to disgusted) is interspersed by coughs and gags from the blood, trying to blink it out of their eyes as Mess tears into the barrier.

Spoiler: OOC

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Claw damage (1d3)[1] (1d3)[3]

[Triskavanski]

Von couldn't get the bracers off his arm by slipping them through the sludge. So he opted instead to do a quick bang of the cuffs to try and get the pins to move into place.

Spoiler: OOC

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Using Opening Tap, which gives me a -10 to the attempt, but allows me to open locks without tools by banging the lock against a solid object. Like the other bracer.

(1d20+10)[28] vs DC25

[MikelaC1]

There have been many times in the past when Zarabeth has had to open the strongbox of a cheapskate tavern owner who had conveniently "forgotten" to pay his featured performer...although she usually had better implements to work with, the frog leg will have to do.

Spoiler: open lock

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(1d20+19)[21]

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Raakesh eyes the floating bones, glad that he won't have to try to grab one of those disgusting creatures himself and resigned to getting his hands dirty in the name of freedom. He snatches a likely-looking rib piece (using only his fingertips and keeping them out of the muck as much as possible), inserts the thin end into the lock on his left shackle, and begins working the lock as best as his tool and circumstances allow.

Spoiler: OOC

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Disable Device check, including the -2 for improvised tools: (1d20+20)[40] vs. DC 25

[Xanyo]

Coco quickly stomps the frogs out of their pitiful misery, being quick so as to finish them off before anyone gets their shackles off, lest they resemble the remains of the oozes. Once he does that, he glances around at the people fiddling with their locks.

"When you done," he says softly "Please remove my binds."

Spoiler: OOC

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I doubt I'll need all my attacks, but here they are.
Attack: (1d20+14)[21] Damage: (1d10)[10]
Attack: (1d20+14)[34] Damage: (1d10)[10]
Attack: (1d20+9)[25] Damage: (1d10)[8]
Now, are we still in an antimagic area, or is it just the shackles? Well, I suppose I wouldn't know.

[Tyrann]

Coco destroys what was left of the swarm. A few frogs remain but they disperse into the inky blackness with a last concert of offended croaks.

Zarabeth feels the frog bone snap. Fortunately, she manages to pry it out and the lock isn't ruined, but she's going to have to try again. Raakesh and Von have more luck and manage to finally get out of their shackles.

Spoiler: Raakesh, DC 5 lucid dreaming

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This isn't a dream or a nightmare; you are not dreaming.

Spoiler: DC 15 lucid dreaming

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However, the room itself does appear to be dreaming. More specifically, it seems to be taking on an idealised version of itself. It sees itself as a stomach.

Spoiler: DC 25 lucid dreaming

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You try to alter the 'dreamscape', but whatever the entity in here is, its will is completely overpowering. Maybe if you'd been able to patch up your own dreamscape a bit after losing half your mind.. but you've been stuck in shackles since the first night you spent here. You know that if you kept pushing, you would actually get stunned.

Spoiler: DC 30 lucid dreaming

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The entity in here has a single minded focus on devouring, but that's all it is or can be. It's almost like it's stuck being that. As if the rest of it is missing.

Mess manages to claw into what turns out to be an artery. Just when Mess thought it couldn't get any dirtier.. the artery is like a fire hydrant. The room quakes again with the sound of a massive roar, almost sounding like pain. The good news is, though, that between pulses Mess can see a black void outside, filled with strange transparent streaks of white light floating about.

[MikelaC1]

With no frogs or a swarm to worry about, Zarabeth is able to concentrate more on picking the lock

Spoiler: open lock

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(1d20+19)[37]

[Ridai]

The sudden eruption of blood throws Mess of their feet, back into the ink, the poor creature drenched in red and black and gagging from both. Still, even with the messy pulses spilling themselves from the ruptured wall, Mess pushes further in, clawing a way out of this horrible pit, towards whatever light is beyond.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Raakesh takes a deep satisfied breath as his shackles loosen and he feels the comforting mental hum of his psionic auras surround him once more. As his extra senses return to him he frowns, noticing details about the room that had escaped him before when they were suppressed. A dreaming room? That can't be, this isn't Dal Quor. And yet.... He shakes his head minutely; escape first, ponder later.

He sticks the shackles through his belt--they may come in handy later--and moves over to Coco to release the other man's shackles as requested; the Inspired carefully opens the lock with his frog rib, leaning against the wall as he does so to steady himself against the shaking. Raakesh is not exactly a charitable individual by nature, but it was drilled into him from an early age to never show weakness in front of one's inferiors and to never be a net drain on resources, so he's glad to be able to contribute something to the greater whole after his poor showing with the frogs.

"The null zone is gone, and any powers you may have should function normally once your restraints are released. Forgive me for exhibiting only a rudimentary command of Khorvarian before," he calls out to the group over the background noise as he finishes with Coco and moves to deal with Fara's and Mess's shackles, now sounding like a native speaker of the flavor of Common that most of the rest of the party speaks. "It's been quite some time since I last spoke it, and I'm a bit rusty."

Once he helps Mess off the floor and releases their shackles, he watches over their shoulder as they tear into the wall. "Do any of you have any idea what those lights might be?"

[MikelaC1]

Freed of her restraints and once again able to access her spells, Zarabeth's buffs are quickly back in place, Greater Mage Armor, Greater Resistance and for good measure, a False Life. She has plenty of other protections up her sleeve, but they are more short term and situational...these ones are her go-to defaults

No idea about the lights, but wherever they are, they arent here and thats got to be better.

[Xanyo]

As the shackles splash to the ground, Coco smiles. Lifting his hands, they burst into flame. He smiles at them a moment before putting them back out. He then crouches and pulls the shackles from the "water".

"These shackles be helpful later, maybe," the cat muses, "I greater I."

He closes his eyes and focuses for some time.

Spoiler: OOC

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Putting my (bi-)daily buffs up.

[Ridai]

Mess feels themselves being dragged out of the ink, shaking as someone grabs them by the wrists. They hear the click of opened locks, something slipping into the liquid. When they are able to blink most of the stinging ink from their eyes, the shackles are gone, bruised and bloodied wrists laid bare. Eyes grow wide, mouth gaping in a soundless scream. Mess dives into the ink, splashing around, choking and caughing from the liquid.

"Where- where is it- where" Mess stammers to themselves, fruitlessly searching, the layers mocking "Look look look, time is running out" "Oh, here it comes!"

Mess screams in pain, the ruin of their back beginning to shift, wet fleshy noises heard from their body. Wild eyed, Mess still fails to find what they are looking for, hit by another spike of pain, before looking to the others present, staring at them. Suddenly, they rush forward, pressing a hand against Raakesh, then quickly heading to the next, as the sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bones begin. Just in time, the last of them is touched, something erupting from Mess' back the next moment, showering their surroundings with blood and pieces of flesh. Wings unfold, grotesque in shape, not quite leathery, not quite feathered, not quite like the ones of an insect, hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. The screaming begins, many voices coming from one throat, disease flowing from it and across the surface of the liquid, Mess' body shifting and turning, misshaping and reshaping itself as they are lifted out of the liquid.

Fire and thunder scream across the surface, engulfing the others in their chaos, pouring from Mess' mouth and wounds. Tentacles erupt from the black, thrashing about and freezing what they touch. The primal sensation of fear carries from a louder, deeper scream into the minds of the others, maddening whispers telling them their freedom lies in the guts of their companions, waiting to be unearthed with red hands. All of a sudden, the chaos ends, Mess splashign back into the ink. The others find themselves entirely unharmed despite just having been in the middle of whatever just happened.

The silver-and-void is the first thing to be seen as Mess slowly managed to lift themselves back out of the liquid, standing crooked, misshapen (and strangely ethereal flickering) wings folded against their back. The creature, drenched, looks positively miserable as it glances to the others before directing their eyes down to the black surface, a translucent blue chain collar tight around their neck. Without another word (though with very quiet unintelligible whispers near them), they walk to the tear in the wall. Mess' lower lip quivers before they suddenly shout in a twisted choir, the tear in the wall suddenly ripping itself open further, followed by a burst of flame, cauterizing the wound and filling the air with the stench of burnt blood and flesh. Black smoke drips from a corner of their mouth as they walk through the widened gap.

Spoiler: OOC

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Everyone is now under effect of Endure Exposure, making them immune to Mess' breath weapon and granting them the effects of Endure Elements.

Planar Ward is back online, the invocations Beguiling Influence, Draconic Flight, Dark One's Own Luck (keyed to Reflex), Entropic Warding, and Void Sense are activated.

Mess uses Baleful Utterance and their breath weapon to widen the tear in the wall.

[Triskavanski]

Von does what he can to try and collect any of the discarded bracers, after all, you never know when you might need to shackle someone or something. If nothing else, the bracers could be used in a defensive fashion. He leaves one on his arm, while keeping the other off, enough to disrupt the anti-magical properties of the bracers. He pauses staring at Mess.

"Well, aren't you just a bit freaky deeky." shrugging he looks to the opening. "Well, I don't see any of us climbing up the walls anytime soon, might as well go into the breech and see what may become of things. Oh right! one of you can fly now, but he takes a look up then back to the hole "We'd have to go through the enemy up there and all that spitting. Seriously who spits acid? I guess green and black dragons, but honestly."

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Raakesh watches Mess's transformation with puzzlement and more than a bit of admiration. Where most humans would find the resulting creature fearsome or disgusting, Raakesh has had enough of his quori's personality bleed into his over the years that he finds the wings and tentacles almost beautiful--and if he was interested in the opportunity she represented before, seeing the multiple-possession in action only increases that. For the millionth time he feels a pang of loneliness and emptiness as Mess's hybridized form reminds him of his lost Tsekesh, and for the millionth time he ruthlessly suppresses the useless emotion.

He looks down at the oozing slime on his boots, clothes, and hands, and briefly concentrates. His feet rise slightly so that he is standing on the surface of the muck rather than in it, and most of the substance slides off his body, leaving only stains on his clothing that he can deal with later. Feeling much more civilized, he strides over to join Mess and Von, saying "Two of us can fly now, actually, and I can arrange for the rest of you to fly if necessary. However, I agree that we have a greater likelihood of success against a potential environmental danger here than with a known enemy force up there. And speaking of acid..."

Raakesh concentrates again when he reaches the gap and a fist-sized sphere of a silvery substance appears in midair next to him, a mass of ectoplasm mentally condensed from another plane and given physical existence. It quickly expands in size and is bent and squeezed into different shapes like a giant ball of clay being sculpted by unseen hands, eventually taking on the appearance of a strange chimeric creature: it almost has the lower body of a centipede, the head of a spider, the arms of a lobster, and swords for hands, but everything about the parts is subtly wrong and the creature's shape slowly writhes and ripples as if uncomfortable holding one shape for too long. Its sword-hands drip with a greenish fluid that hisses when it strikes the floor, the aforementioned acid.

The Inspired smiles, glad to see the familiar form of a tsoreva quori; even if it's only a memory made temporarily real and not the genuine article, it still reminds him of home. The crystals embedded in his arms begin to resonate with psionic energy, and if one looks at Raakesh out of the corner of one's eyes, for a moment one might think he looks like that strange creature too.

The construct extends one blade-hand into the gap to hold it open, like one might hold a door open for one's superiors, and Raakesh steps up to get a better look through it. "After you," he says, gesturing politely to Von. He doesn't follow Mess and Von out immediately, though; no matter how useful both of them might be to him, if something dangerous is out there it's best for the others to take the brunt of the harm first.

Spoiler

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Raakesh manifests adapt body (9 PP) and psionic overland flight (11 PP), each of which will last for 12 hours. He sets his ectoplasmic armor shards to a +4 AC bonus, so he has a very faint quori-looking outline at the moment.

He then manifests astral construct for a 5th-level construct (9 PP) with the Energy Touch (Acid), Extra Attack, Heavy Deflection, and Pounce menu abilities, which will last for 13 minutes; he takes 10 on the Craft (Sculpting) check to change its appearance, for a result of 26.

Current PP: 312/341

[Tyrann]

Between Mess' screech cutting through the wound and Raakesh' astral construct, the hole in the 'wall' is easily large enough for any of you to fit through. The first thing you probably notice as you lean out is that the gravitational pull outside is off by a few degrees compared to the gravity on the stomach, though it is comparable in strength and 'down' is still sort of down.

When looking out and looking at the streaks of light more closely, you notice they appear to be 'see-through people', completely motionless like statues, that hover around the stomach in an orbit.

Spoiler: DC 12 int or DC 20 spot

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You recognize some of these. They're people that went into the pit before you. The strange thing is, they came out.

The stomach itself seems to just hang from nothing in a void that goes on as far as any of you can see in all directions, except for down (the gravitational down outside the stomach).

About 200 feet below you is a sheet of silver. It might be a mirror. Or it might be really, really tranquil water. It's hard to tell interacting with it. Like the void, it goes on as far as any of you can see.

[Ridai]

Mess steps out into the void, wanting to be out of the pit, floating in the air. The wings flicker at times, sometimes moving too slowly to reasonably keep anything aloft, sometimes skipping parts of their motions, other times looking like they are in multiple positions of their motions at once. The lights are given a wide berth, and Mess in general keeps their arms close to their chest, shoulders raised, nervously looking about. Outside of the liquid, Mess' body is visible, dressed in scant rags drenched in the liquid, and seemingly as androgynous (or ambiguous, depending on one's perspective) as what was visible of them before, their anatomy and heritage unclear. Scales are visible at times, as are oddly glistening and feathery little parts, among others.

As the "mirror" is the only thing there, Mess starts to float down to it, and when they get close enough, they (on the third attempt) muster up the courage to briefly touch the surface with a toe. While ready to quickly fly back up if something bad happens.

[MikelaC1]

Zarabeth has no way to fly, her magic is very battle focused, and the idea of stepping out into a void without any way to control where she goes is not something she is going to just jump into

[infomatic]

She feels her mind open again as the bands slip off and she nods her thanks, wordlessly, as she massages her wrists where the manacles had cinched up painfully. Even with the thoughts of the others present, her head still feels a bit empty without another consciousness inside it, and this pit didn't seem to have anything to write with, or on. But a few quick breaths have her body feeling better, at least.

Her eyes widen at Mess' transformation, at first concerned that this was yet another grotesque threat concocted by this prison, but she relaxes as it launches itself through the walls and her eyes follow it down to the shimmering plane below.

She gestures toward the translucent figures. "No one comes out of the Red Pit the same," she says. "Perhaps because they don't really come out at all."

Spoiler: OOC

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Put up Mind Blank, Personal (13 pp)
Vigor 3pp +3 Wild surge (enervation check 16+ is good: (1d100)[89] ) 30 hp for 16 minutes

(1d20+6)[12] spot, (1d20+1)[10] Int.

Spoiler: status

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Current HP: 36/120 + 30 = 76/120
AC: 13
Touch: 13
Flat Footed: 9
Fort: 11
Refl: 8
Will: 9
AB Melee (unarmed): 14/9
AB Ranged: 14/9
Current PP: 132/132 @+4 Cha, ML 13
Ongoing buffs: Vigor (16min), Mind Blank (1 day)
Ongoing debuffs:
Special: Stripped of gear. No vestige currently bound.

[Tyrann]

Mess approaches the mirror-like surface, and sees a perfect reflection of everything above. The stomach, the others peering out of the hole, the lights, the void, and Mess themselves. Carefully, Mess touches the mirror with a toe. Gentle ripples appear, as you might see when throwing a pebble into a pool of tranquil water. Mess is gone. To the rest of you, it appeared as though Mess went through the surface and kept on going. You don't see them anymore now.

Spoiler: Mess

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You touch the surface and see the ripples appear. The scenery in the mirror blurs,. and then changes to a large cavernous underground silver lake. Far above you, the ceiling of this room is filled with silvery tiny dots, like stars in a night sky. When you look closer, you see the ceiling is lit up by tiny droplets of silver, like dew on a leaf

Once every few seconds, a droplet drops down, breaking the surface of the liquid below with a harmonious echoing 'plop' and sending ripples across the silver lake.

Whenever a droplet breaks the surface, you can very briefly see parts of the Bastion of Last Hope. The bazaar, the prisons, one of the rows you were dragged through, an apparentment you've never seen before. People going about their business. A merchant selling illicit goods. A warden beating up a prisoner. Another warden archiving evidence. A tiefling feeding pet scorpions. An urchin stealing bread. Each of these scenes only lasts seconds before disappearing.

In the middle of the lake (you started off to a side) is an orb-like island of smooth rock with a row of what appears to be thin stalagmites going right across the middle.

If you touch the lake again, you find it has a bottom. It appears to just be a pool of water, about 20 feet deep, with some underground stalagmites, though not in any pattern like you see on the island. The bottom is all mirror-like, like it's been polished.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Definitely a good thing someone else went first, Raakesh thinks, somewhat uncharitably. He steps through the hole and stands in midair for a moment, then slowly floats down until he is hovering about 40 feet above the surface of the lake-mirror-thing below. He stretches out with his telepathic senses to their fullest extent, and directs a thought to his companion's mind only: <Mess, this is Raakesh. Are you alive? If so, are you in danger or do you require assistance to return? If not, describe your surroundings.>

Spoiler: OOC

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Raakesh is scanning for Mess with his Mindsight, which should reach up to 20 feet past the surface if it's not a portal or the like. Can he sense them?

[Triskavanski]

"Yeah.. Its a big drop down there. Not sure we should quite do that just yet."

Spoiler: rolls

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(1d20+2)[6] Int
(1d20+18)[33] spot