Escape from the Abyss

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Wilma:

Seeing this small woman, who had been so intriguing to them, erupt and flail made these two deep gnomes scared and they both ran over and hid in the far corner of the cell. They began mumbling quietly to themselves, still one word each. Wilma was able to take in her surroundings now that the lights were on, and the things that were scaring her were scared, themselves.
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Riven:

I am a Derro, my friend.” Buppido explains as Riven looks around. “My people have been used as slaves by the Drow for longer than I have been alive. I tried to lead a rebellion and got most of my tribe killed along with shackles and torture for my troubles.” He stares off at a wall, with sadness in his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, Riven thinks he sees the mushroom in his cell move.
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Salgric:

I have not been here much longer than you, Salgric was it?” The young dwarf with long braided red hair replied. “My name is Eldeth, Eldeth Feldrun. I was a scout for ta army of Gauntlgrym. We had just reclaimed our ancient kingdom from these (more swears) corrupt dark dwellers, when I was sent out to survey the caves. They caught me when my guard was down, and stuck me in here.” She looked proud as she spoke of her people’s triumph. “All I have been able to find out is that every few hours during the night they would carry in more unconscious flok and toss ‘em into the other cells. Haven’t gotten a good look at any of ‘em yet.
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Galdrok slowly starts to regain his bearings after being knocked out for the second time in what feels like minutes. Ugh.. Another one of those sleepy arrows. It wouldn't be that bad if only I wouldn't wake up feeling like a sack of potatoes..

As the poison clears out, he remembers what happened before he got shot and immediately turns around to where his not-so-friendly cellmate tried to bash his head in. Galdrok inspects the passed out Orc, noticing that he recieved an harsher treatment than Galdrok.

Feeling an sense of safety after confirming that the Orc is down for the count, Galdrok checks his surroundings and notices that one of the iron bars of his cell door is loose. That could come in handy, I'd better have 'something' before this guy wakes up. He grabs the bar and with an twisting motion, he detaches it quietly. The bar looks a bit withered by rust at the edges, but it's solid and it weighs enough to do some damage. I'd better hide this before the guards notice I'm armed.

Not having any pockets or hiding spots to hide his newfound weapon, he slides the club under his undershirt at his back. In an effort to conceal the bulge of the iron bar poking out from his back, he sits against the wall with his front faced towards the guards. Better wait a bit before acting, I doubt I can take them on by myself. He thinks to himself.
 
Galdrok:

As he sits against the wall of the cell, Galdrok can see that his roommate is stirring. He sees his eyes close hard and his brows furrow as he begins moving. He opens his eyes and stares directly at Galdrok. Galdrok tenses and slowly wraps a hand around his new weapon, preparing for the next attack. "Those fukn' mud fairies just kept knockin me out..." he said, relativly calm, for an Orc. He continued to lay on the floor, seeming to be afraid to move. "I wasn even doin nuffin the last time, I just wanted to see if I'd hurt you, but they fukn' shot me again. Man I hate this shit," he said pointing to the bruises all over his body.
 
Riven turned, composing himself once again. He starts pacing near the back of the cell, thinking of the ways he could escape, and avenge himself on his captors. "So, you know this place then?" He asked, bending over to pick up something glinting in the sand. "Perhaps you still have some will to escape your captors?" He noted the object in his hand, a gem, odd in an place like this, noting that it may be able to act as a focus for his magics, magics he had hidden for quite a while.

He continued more quietly "I know what it is like to lose those close to you" perhaps not exactly the same situation, but he hoped that Buppido would connect with the very real pain in his voice. "And I know that the desire for vengeance is still strong within me - will you help me?"

It was at this point that the fungus he had ignored up to this point seemed to move. Riven turned, approached it cautiously and poked it with his foot.
 
Riven:

What had appeared to be a fungus suddenly jumped up and spun around, as if frightened, and released a small cloud of spores in Riven's direction.
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You breathe in the spores, and nothing bad seems to happen. You feel fine. You think to your self, well that was strange, and a voice in your head says, Excuse me, but I think you are the strange one.
 
Salgric turns to his cell mate. "What do you believe that they want with prisoners?" As light filtered into the room, Salgric surveyed the strange array of captives the drow had assembled. "Strange..." He muttered to himself. "Nearly all of them are of different races... They clearly had some reason to keep us alive, but for what?" He turns to Eldeth. "How many were here when you first got here? " Salgric looked around the cell for anything that could be improvised as a weapon, and spies a gem on the ground. Could be useful as an offering to Bahamut.
 
Ebenezer:


Ebenezer the Adversary, Ben for short, was wandering, looking for any act of good that he could perform. Having sworn to his masters that he would uphold their code, he intended to do what would make them proud. After the loss of Deacon Alfred the Dire and Sir Wallace, Ben had felt that he was losing his sense of direction, not physically, but spiritually. He travels through the deep woods, hoping the next place he stopped would help him feel whole again.


As night fell, Ben decided to continue walking, not feeling very tired. He heard a rustling in a bush nearby, and stopped in his tracks. He had barely seen any animals all day, so he found this noise quite suspicious. He slowly and carefully walked over to the bush, and stuck his sword inside. Immediately, there was a weight on his shoulders, as if something had jumped on him. He fought to remove the creature, but suddenly felt the effects of the poison as a bolt was sunk deep into his neck.

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Everyone Else:


As you are getting acquainted with, or scaring, your cellmates, you hear the main door to the round inner room open. Two Quaggoth are carrying the limp body of a humanoid with hair that looks like flame. Beside them are two drow, holding crossbows, pointing them around at the cells. One of the drow opens a cell, with a large fish creature already sitting inside, and points the crossbow at it as the quaggoth toss the body to the ground. Along with the normal manacles and leg chains, this creature appears to have gloves held to its hands by the shackles. The drow locks the cell door, and all of them leave through the main door. The quaggoth stay and guard the door, while the drow appear to leave to the left.

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Ben:


You awaken in a very dimly lit cell bound at your wrists and ankles. You look up to see the face of what looks like a giant fish. It has its eyes closed and it appears to be meditating on the ground. It does not give any indication that it is even aware that you are here.
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Seeing the two strange people get away from her, Wilma calms down a bit... but once a new prisinor is brought into the cell by the guards she pauses. "Drow?" she thinks to herself while a sense of dread and fear course through her body. It subsides for a moment as cold rage burns through her at the memory of her dead friend. Without thinking to clearly she stands up and screams in rage charging the guards in an attempt to enact revenge yelling, "Die you bastards!".
 
Riven leaps backwards as the voice speaks in his head. He realizes that it is coming from the fungus and says out loud "What are you!? Buppido? Did you know this was here?"
 
"That is Stool, I appologise for not introducing you earlier, but he was sleeping." Buppido seems engrossed in thought, and is not really paying attention.

Ddd-don't hurt me, the voice in your head continues, I ddd-don't have a 'mouth' or whatever you call it, I use my spores to speak. Stool is quivering, with its "hands" covering its "head."
 
Riven kneels and says in the slightly condescending voice of one used to being kind to those fearful of his power "I will not hurt you Stool". Standing, and walking to the bars he continues "Come, you and Buppido can perhaps tell me more of what I face beyond these bars". He peers out, finally taking a good look beyond his cell, to see who occupies the others, and who guards him.
 
Galdrok is taken by surprise as the Orc actually doesn't fling around his neck this time, instead he talks about checking up on Galdrok when he was out cold. The gears in Galdrok's brain start to churn as he's processing that the Orc could be an potential friend instead of threat. He doesn't seem that bad after all! Maybe we can get out of here together..

"Mud fairies? Do you know what they are?" Galdrok asks curiously as he lets his grip loosen from the metal bar behind his back. "Don't worry about the whole tackling thing, I just scraped my elbow. If anything, those wounds you got over there are worse than what I suffered." Galdrok points at the various bruises that the orc sustained from repetitive arrow hits.
 
"They're Drow, the nastiest little fukers you will ever find. You were out a lot longer than me, thats why I was checking you, thought I mighta killed ya" The Orc says, confused. "What kind of Orc doesn't get back up after a few minutes?" He seemed to not really care about the answer. "Anyway, names Ront, and I figure they can only have so many bolts, I say keep pissin em off, and they will use up their whole supply, then we can just break down the doors and leave."
 
Oblivious to what the Orc is trying to imply, Galdrok thinks to himself, "How would I know which Orcs get up fast or slow, I'm not an Orc."
Snapping back to reality after contemplating different kinds of Orcs, he turns his back slightly to Ront.

"Hi Ront, names Galdrok. See what I'm holding?" Galdrok gently wiggles the makeshift club under his undershirt. "If you say you can take all those bolts and walk it off in an matter of minutes, we'll knock those big ones over the head with this."

Looking over his shoulders to the other prisoners in their cells, Galdrok states, "Are we going to let out the rest as well?"
 
Salgric gets interrupted as a new prisoner gets thrown in. What a strange creature that is. That is besides the point, however. I must be free from these cuffs before I am able to help anyone here. He focused for a moment, and repeated his sacred oaths that he had always kept to himself, although they felt hollow in his mouth these days. "Honor and Justice. Honor and Good. Honor and Duty. Honor and Protection to the Weak. Honor and Forbearance. Bahamut, I swear to you now, to keep these true till my own and-" He paused, unwilling to complete that sentence. "till my own dying breath!" There was a soft *clink* his braces broke quietly, and he attempted to conceal their weakness as best he could. He walked over to Eldeth. "Allow me to assist you with your bonds." After a curt nod of affirmation, the two of them braced against it, but Salgric was unable to find sufficient leverage without breaking his own cuffs off completely. "My apologies, I will assist you as soon as I can. Do you have any plan in order to escape this gods-forsaken place?"
 
Ebenezer's heartbeat hammers in his chest. He tries not to let his thoughts linger on the bizarre creature before him. His fallen masters had impressed upon him the importance of letting his awareness swell, to fill the entire space of the battlefield. He spots the guards in the distance to his left, and immediately closes his eyes, feigning sleep.

He feels his chest heave with every labored breath. Panic is seizing his mind. Shame makes his limbs feel twice as heavy. Every moment of training Ben had ever received in the subtle art of staying calm has apparently been wasted. He will not get his honorable death. He will face another four years of imprisonment.

Unless he does something.

Where is he? It doesn't matter. Who did this? That matters even less. He is a child of the fire.

"I need you to get their attention," he says in a soft voice, eyes still closed.
 
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Arpher begins to open his eyes yet again. Still unaware as how the poison was administered he regains his words and opens his mouth. At first nothing comes out and he looks over across the cell to see his still what seem to be polymorphed cell mate and says.

"oh good, you're still here? Any chance we get out of here before we die? Also, do you remember any further back? What do you say we get you out of here and transform you back into your original shape?"

Now starting to panic the blood is pumping though Arpher's veins as he struggles to look around but still is staring in the darkness but can start to hear the wrestling and noises coming from what seems to be other cells within his vicinity.
 
Arpher:
Derendil turns toward you and he looks as though he has been crying. He tells you that he was woken up in the night by the movement of a giant spider that went past outside of the jail. He is terrified of spiders and cannot keep his composure any longer. He just wants to go home.
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Ben:
Oh, you are awake, flaming one.” The fish man says. “I know that we kuo-toa are known for our madness, but I have worked long and hard to balance my mind, and my mind tells me what happens when someone gets their attention. I do not wish to be shot at again.”
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Salgric:
Eldeth tells you that she overheard the guards talking during a shift change, and they implied that the armory was across a rope bridge outside of the prison. She believes that is where all of the weapons and armor the drow haven’t sold already would be stored. She tells you about her most prized possession, a round shield with a wolf blazoned across the front. It is a symbol of her family that she desperately wants to be able to bring back home with her to Gauntlgrym.
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Galdrok:
I say fukem, we Orcs should just stick together.” Ront replies.
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Riven:
Buppido has been here long enough to know a few things. He knows that there are about a dozen drow, and at least 10 quaggoth in total at this outpost. The two female drow who run this outpost make their money for the church of Lolth by selling slaves in the drow city. He knows that there were no other prisoners when he was captured, at least a week ago.

Stool is afraid, but he tells you that he has made a connection with some of the drow, and he knows that there are always two archers across a rope bridge watching the front of the prison.
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Wilma:
Wilma was shot with a poisoned arrow and passed out, but not before finding a sharp piece of flint and hiding it in her wrist restraints. (Anyone who was paying attention would know that the drow forgot to come in and retrieve the arrow, and the two deep gnomes took it.)
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Everyone:
You hear a clicking noise after the two drow who watch the prison door with the two quaggoth exit to one side. You can all tell that whatever contraption made this noise this noise has left your cell doors swinging open. You are free to go into the middle room of the prison. As the clicking noise stops, a new rhythmic clicking begins, and it seems to be coming closer.

You are all met with 4 drow flanked by 2 more quaggoth. The female in the center is dressed in very beautiful robes and she is followed by a meek looking female dressed in more modest priestess robes. The lead female introduces herself to you as Ilvara, high priestess of Lolth and slave master. The shy female is named Asha, a junior priestess. The male drow are named Shoor and Jorlan. They are armored and armed, Shoor looks to Ilvara like she is his lover, and Jorlan (who is heavily scarred on his face) looks down the entire time Ilvara is talking.

You will bring me a lot of platinum, collectors love to see different races for sale,” Ilvara boasts. “Especially that fire boy, he could fund this place for the next decade.
 
Holding the sharp flint in her hands while lying on the ground, Wilma starts to unconsciously hold the flint tighter in her hands while grinding her teeth in rage while the Drow Bitch talks. Blood begins to seep out of her hands as she starts to unintentionally cut into her palms while squeezing the sharp end of the stone. Using the pain to fuel her resolve and to focus her mind on biding her time and more importantly... revenge. Thinking to herself, "They will all die... every last one of them.".
 
Galdrok is met with surprise as the cell doors swing open, he did hear some vague clicking sounds, but shrugged it off as one of the spiders making it's patrol over the ceiling.

"Look!" He grabs Ront by his shoulder and points at the opened door. "Seems like you got lucky, my friend!" Before grabbing Ront's hand, Galdrok quickly shifts his club from his undershirt into the back of his underwear. Afterwards he helps Ront up and shuffles his way to the centre of the prison. "Maybe they feel sorry, and they'll let us go!" Galdrok says cheerfully.

As the Drow party introduces themselves and continues their monologue about selling the prisoners, Galdrok is distracted by the fact that the rust on the metal bar has caught onto his skin and awkwardly wiggles in order to make the scratching stop. "If only I had a rucksack or pants at the very least.." He thinks to himself, while trying to be as subtle as possible.
 
Salgric's blood boils seeing the collection of slaves, including what looked like to him to be several children. "You aren't fit to say the word platinum, you foul evil heretic! I swear by the Eleven and against the Forsaken one, you will not see us a copper of profit from the sale of any of us! Though confused and shaken I may be, I am still Bahamut’s implement on the mortal coil, and I will see his work done to my dying breath!” Salgric stared at the lead drow in the eyes, daring her to take his life. If I am to die championing the cause, so be it.
 
Hearing the ranting of the dragonborn across the way, and noting his size, Riven turns back to Buppido and Stool saying imperiously "Ah dinna intend tah remain captive, and ah trust that ya will be wit' me when tha time comes" Not waiting for a response, he shuffles to the door and opens it with his manacled hands. He doesn't look at the drow - they don't deserve the honour - he walks in a lordly manner, as much as is possible with his chained ankles, across the room towards the lizardman.
 
The fish man's reply leaves Ben feeling weaker than before. He knew the folly of choosing enslavement over death, and was angered to find that this creature did not.

And how could any being with a pulse in his veins remain so calm at a time like this, when years of brutal training had availed him no such privilege?

Ben is on his feet before the gate has finished opening. He moves past the fish man and into the middle room, trying like hell to appear in control of his body and mind. As the drow in charge steps forward to address the imprisoned, her words are the same as silence. Ben's own thoughts blare too fiercely in his mind to register the thoughts of others.

But when she looks at him directly, his burning black eyes go white. This is the woman who should kill him. This is his slaver - the figure he must challenge. He prays she'll have the decency to strike him on her own, as a death by the hands of her henchmen - perhaps slaves themselves - would not be one of honor.

And then he finds his mind drifting. He looks around at the colorful assembly of captives and wonders for the first time about where he actually is. To think - this enemy is of the means and temperament to hunt each of these creatures through whichever lands they travelled, and get away with it.

Shame overcomes him once more. Alfred and Wallace would have been greatly saddened by his complete inability to concentrate.

And he still hasn't acted.

Why?
 
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Not taking kindly to being spoken to like this, Ilvara silently nods toward Salgric's cellmate, who happens to be standing closest to the door. One of the four quaggoth immediately bursts through the main door, grabs Eldeth, and pulls her out with him. It moves too quickly for your poison riddled, chained up bodies to react to. The other quaggoth block the opening and lock the door behind them.

"You are far too valuable to me alive, golden one." Ilvara snaps as she walks away, "But dwarves are much more common, plus I have an extra." She snaps her fingers as she strides away. At her cue, the quaggoth throws Eldeth off the edge of the platform.

You can hear her scream, then after a few moments, those screams get muffled.
 
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