OOC  : My apologies.   I guess I was waiting to be tackled or something.  ;)


Sir Jovius tried to pry thr gem out with a dagger

As he attempts to pry the gem the whole shell of stone breaks apart and falls on him!

Sir Jovius: Reflex saving throw, try to beat 12.

OOC: 00:59, Today: Sir Jovius rolled 7 using 1d20+5.  Reflex
  oops

“What the what! We were just talking about these shells perhaps being cells and you just crack one open!”

Beagan is too outraged to help extricate Sir Jovus

[OOC: ooh, rough!]

The tumbling chunks of rock cause Jovius 12 points damage.

The party is unable to see what is in the niche as during the rockfall a cloud of white fog roils out of the space. Bright balls of light strobe in colours white, yellow, and pink.

A man steps forth from the mists. At least it looks like a human but maybe slightly taller with a rddish hue to his skin. He walks in an odd loose manner as if his arms, legs, and even vertebrae are triple jointed. He is dressed in an outlandish black clothing - trousers, shoes and shoes with a white shirt and a black silk cravat. Black tinted optics cover his eyes.

"Whew! I suspect I was locked away in there a long time," he says then sniffs the air, "Judging by the amount of dust collected in here I'd say a thousand years, maybe two.

"Hey! Look! Gnomes! And some other sort of tiny people; don't recall any of them being about when I last trod the surface world."

Badly badly injured, Sir Jovius struggled to his feet

  "Who might you be, sir?" enquires Theo, of the stranger. "If we've heard of you, we might be able to say how long you've been down here."

Orlen moved to help Sir Jovius up and dusted his friend off. "Are you okay?" he asked Sir Jovius.

He turned to the newcomer, "What is this place?"

“Perhaps if you tell us the year when last you knew it we can tell you the current date.”

The man begins to shake his arms and legs in what could be an attempt to stretch them out or in some type of ancient dance. He sneers at the party's questions.

"You think that people are still using the same calendar now as then? Would my reciting of dates mean anything to you? Do you think I spent all my time keeping track of years?"

He looks down at Clover and Jovius.

"You keep these things around for food, yes?" he asks the gnomes. "This one here is nicely tenderized but has bled out too much; I prefer my meat bloody."

Sir Jovius drew himself up to his full, if less impressive, height, and looked boldly at the man.
"No one here is on the menu, friend.    I have some travel rations if you're hungry, but no one you can talk with is edible here"

Orlen stood defensively near his friend. "Who are you?" he asked the would be cannibal.

“Never said that I am familiar with many calendars including some that ended with a civilization, and I get it your basically evil, might as well either talk or we just go our own ways.”

Clover looks the stranger up and down for some sign of his origin, or clue to his civilization.

somewhat distractedly he does a quick check of his recollections of history
10:11, Today: Clover rolled 19 using 1d20+11.  K history.

You may not be familiar with calendars, but I am quite familiar with them. So if you want an answer to your question concerning the amount of time that has passed, perhaps you should cease your assumptions that we are abecedarians, and answer my companion's question with the same measure of respect that you would like in return.

"Evil? he sighs. "I had really hoped everyone would have moved on from such simplistic modes of thought,"

He walks out among the party looking them over.

Clover can't identify any type of civilization about the man but he does seem infernal somehow.

"I assume you woke me up for some reason other than suicide? Or did you come to renew the old vows? Where is your cleric who can bind the pact?"

He seems to have already forgotten or to not care about the calendars.

“Not actually we came down here to get ever sealed back up and another chamber was open when we arrived; we would like to help you and ever else here return to their slumber as it were.  No we are not suicidal we just happened to fit through the entry way.  Not really wanting a pact, but willing to hear the offer.”

Orlen was concerned about this being they'd set free by accident.

"What pacts of old?" he asked.

"There was another chamber you found open. Interesting."

The man walks among the party, hand on chin in thought.

"No, I don't believe that I would like to return to my slumber; I am coming to realize that this world has degenerated in my absence and things must be put to right.

"That you have forgotten about the pacts is evidence of how far you all have fallen. In the olden times you were free from death, but now without our agreements, I imagine that you people often succumb to Myrkul's touch. Is that not so?"

   "It is so," agrees Theo, "but if it were not the world would become too crowded."

"You are thinking too small. Faerun is huge and very little of it is populated. How many years would be needed for the gnomish race to cover it all? Then figure in the elimination of goblins, orcs, and such. Why focus on the surface when we could rid ourselves of the drow and then have all of underdark available. Could there ever come a time when you'd run out of space?"

   "Yes, and sooner than you suggest, as a gnome-only world be boring, so space for all races," replies Theo.

“Would make solitude more difficult look at this place seems intentionally out of the way unless once it was the heart of a long forgotten city; perhaps the cyclops civilization that very few today are remotely aware of.”

“I noted you did not mention them or the Ettin or cyclops descendant races, nor the gith and branches, etc”
This message was last edited by the player at 15:21, Sat 17 Oct 2020.

"There's more in the Underdark than Drow and I certainly would shed no tears to see the end of goblins, orcs and drow but it would take a very long time for gnomes to spread to fill all the world. That's why our world isn't limited only to gnomes. That's why there are so many races, that we might more fully utilize the world. That's the will of the gods. You don't fear the Lord of Bones? You casually use his name as though you have no fear of him, yet are you not also subject to him? Are not all things subject to death, even gods can die" Orlen said.

Stated Orlen Prophetically

The man walks among the party and about the room looking everything over.




"Boring, you say? Do you find your own kind to be deficient in amusement? I have never thought so. Consider that once you spread across so large and varied a world that your people will change and adapt to the new environments - won't you find that to be of interest?"




"Well, I didn't think to take the time to mention every type of person in this world and many others; you'd be standing around for days listening to my lists of peoples."




"You speak as if the gods have one united will. That is simply not so as they scheme and fight amongst each other constantly. And you, an outdoorsy sort, wouldn't you prefer a world less inhabited by people who cut, crush, and destroy your natural world? Wouldn't gnomes do a better job in the growing and tending of the world compared to the orcs and humans who chop down the forests and hollow out the hills without remorse?"