In rare moment of prudence, Sarcoflex puts off eating his berries.  First he wants to see what happens to the others.

After all, if he dies, it will set back his training.

As the others eat their berries, they start to get drowsy, and by the time they eat the last berry, they fall asleep and instantly seem to be having psychedelic dreams.

Not to be left out, Sarcoflex eats his berries and joins the Slumber Party.

---

No one actually said they weren't eating their berries, so in this case, everyone eats their berries when the waxing crescent moon rises. The first berry eaten is sweet, fruity, refreshing and rather delicious. However, even by the second berry, each of you starts to feel a bit sleepy. You've barely finished eating the last berry when the Mists of Morpheus claim you.

[9 blank lines suppressed]

As the group begins to wake up, you find yourselves in total darkness. Your hands and feet are loosely bound with what feel like vines. You can also feel the dirt of the floor and walls against your bodies.

   OOC: y'mean we're feeling like we're sitting on a dirt floor and leaning up/laying against a dirt wall?  Like we've been thrown into a pit or dragged into crude tunnel...or pulled under The Great Tree, there to be turned into Fertilizer for the giant tree...?  ^_^

   Y'know, as opposed to just being dumped into someone's root cellar, under their house...

Your hands and face can FEEL the dirt, and that's about all you can tell at this point.

Thal wiggles in the darkness, trying to free himself of his viney embrace...

Still in the grasp of dreaming sleep, he squirmed and twisted in response to those dreams. It was only as the effects of the berries began to wear off that his surroundings intruded into the dream.

"Hey... what's going on?" he muttered groggily as he became aware that he was tied up with vines. The echo of his own voice, dampened though it was, further informed him that he was no longer outside. The sound made him think he was in a cave or cellar rather than a built structure. Had the people from Fax captured him while he slept? What about the others?

First things first--he started gnawing on the vines that bound his wrists.

     Consciousness actually returns suddenly to Drudge, as it often does.

     Without any real thought--and in an amazing display of abdominal muscles--Drudge simply sits up without using his tied hands to assist.  He looks, unseeing, around the dark place he finds himself.

     "Why does Drudge feel like an old potato left in the corner of the root cellar?" the heavily muscled youth asks the darkness, then adds, "Hello?  Is anyone here with Drudge?  Does anyone know where Drudge is?  And why Drudge has vines wrapped around him...?"

     Drudge flexes his powerful arms in an attempt to rip apart the vines binding his wrists.

OOC: StarMaster, you wanna treat this action as a simple PST roll against the vines, or you want me to make an Attack roll?

Thal needs to make a DEX check in order to slip out of his binding vines.

Percy needs to make a CON check to chew through his vines.

Drudge needs to make a PST check to snap his vines. In order to remain flexible, the vines are still green and thus not brittle enough to snap easily.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 365):

OOC: Today: Drudge rolled 12 using 1d20+4 to rip off the vines binding his wrists.
     "12"?!!  My Drudge is such a puny "Girly-Man" for rolling such a puny number like this "12".  I shall now laugh at him until he cries... ^_^

While Thall does feel a little more coordinated than he did before, he just squirms around uselessly trying to free himself.


13:08, Today: Thal rolled 8 using 1d20.  Dex check.

Kitara sighed softly. Falling asleep and being taken prisoner is a situation in which a huntress, or a feline, should never find themselves.

She reached down and checked along her belt for her knife.

---

OoC: If she finds her knife, she will cut herself free. Otherwise, she will try to slip her paws from the bonds.

23:52, Today: Kitara Azules rolled 24 using 1d20+5, unique dice with rolls of 19.  Kitara - Dexterity.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:22, Sun 28 May 2023.

In the pitch blackness, low-light vision is useless, so nothing can be seen.

Drudge's attempt to break his bonds isn't successful, but it does let him know that his captors did recognize and respect his mighty muscles and used extra vines.

Thal tries to slip out of his bonds but is also unsuccessful. Green and flexible the vines might be, but they are tied pretty tightly.

Percy continues chewing on the vines binding him as he finds them tougher than expected.

Kitara quickly discovers her knife is no longer on her belt, and though she can't cut herself free, she finds that her lithe feline form easily slips free from the bonds.


If any of the rest of the group are there, they might still be asleep.

The vines binding Percy weren't just tough, they tasted nasty and smelled almost as bad.

03:16, Today: Percy Procyon rolled 12 using 1d20+2 ((10)). Chew through vines. Bleh.

When Drudge calls out, Percy listens for a moment before responding.

"Well, I'm here," he says but not too loudly. "Sounds like others are here, too... can hear them moving. And you are right there where you are. If you mean where this dark cave is, then, no, don't know any more than you do. You are tied up because we were captured in our sleep. Stupid Rite!"

He continues to chew at the vines, pausing a bit here and there to listen. Prompted by the smell  of the vines, he sniffs at the air to see what he can detect.

Kitara gives a quick hush to those speaking. "Shhh! Speak softly, if you must speak at all. We seem to have been capturred so let us not warrn ourr 'hosts' that we arre awake."

She feels her way to the nearest person and, using her claws, begins to cut them free. Once done, she feels her way on to the next person until everyone has been freed.

Sarcoflex feels strange… as if a new power had awakened inside hm.  It frightens and tantalizes him at the same time.

He waits patiently for the cat lady to free him.

In reply to Kitara Azules (msg # 371):

     Drudge continues to flex-and-relax in his efforts to break, or at least loosen, his bindings--until he senses a warm, furry presence at his side.

     Drudge stops his struggles and sits unmoving as Kitara starts cutting the vines with her claws.  (OOC: I assume that's how you're freeing us)

     "Thank you, Leader Kitara." Drudge says quietly as Kitara frees him, "It is wise to be quiet -- now.  Perhaps, though, after you have untied everyone, we might consider making just a little noise?  Enough, maybe, to have just a Guard come and investigate...?"

     Once freed of his bindings, Drudge recalls a feeling of being up against a wall, or similar structure, as he was waking up.  He now, still sitting on the floor, reaches out both arms then slowly starts twisting his torso left-and-right, until he touches something.

     If he touches one of his companions, he identifies himself with a whispered "...Drudge...", then keeps moving his arms, looking for a wall surface.

     If he touches a wall, or what feels like a wall, he then carefully gets to his feet, keeping a hand on the wall.  Even though he is only 4-feet tall, not knowing how far over their heads this dark, dirt chamber rises, Drudge rises to his feet slowly and cautiously.

     "Drudge is standing next to wall." Drudge declares to everyone in a quiet voice, "Drudge will now follow wall to find size of room.  Maybe find door or other exit, too."

     Standing close to the wall, his left hand touching the wall as a guide, Drudge looks to his right, reaches out his right arm and places that hand upon the wall.  Slowly sweeping his right hand up and down against the wall, 'seeing by touch', Drudge starts moving in that direction.  He's looking to encounter either a door (or similar barrier) or maybe just a corner.

Thal tries to sit up and help anyone that tries to free him.

Although Kitara can scratch at everyone's vines with her claws to cut them, it's not the same as using a knife, so it will take a bit of time.

While she does that, Drudge begins exploring his surroundings. The fist thing he finds is that the ceiling of this cave is only about four and a half feet high. He also cannot feel any roots, indicating that there are no trees or significant bushes above.

Everyone has been laid out along the same wall so finding everyone is easy.

Drudge feels his way along the wall until he finds a corner but quickly realizes it's just an alcove of sorts. Continuing on only a few feet, he does find an opening, determined more by sound than touch. There does not appear to be a door blocking this dirt tunnel but he also picks up a dim light from somewhere down the tunnel. As his night vision adjusts, he thinks the light flickers, indicating a candle or torch as the source.

Meanwhile, Percy and Kitara stumble upon a table and chairs, probably in the center of the room. Even by touch, you can tell that these aren't crude wooden things like you'd expect Badders to make; no, these are manufactured items like the Ancients made. There are 8 chairs placed around the table, which is large enough to accommodate all 8 chairs.

Once free, Thal feels around and tries to help free the others.

Arden was slow to come back to his senses. The odd vivid dreams still fresh in his mind, he only really started focusing after he was set free from the vines that had bound him.

He kept quiet and slowly followed after the others, using his hands to slide along the wall.

Although his eyes felt like they were open, Lander couldn't actually see anything. He panicked - had he gone blind?!? But then he gathered his thoughts, his brain cleared and he recalled the events of...last night? What time was it?! There were whispers all around him, and activity too, so at least someone had slipped the bonds which also held him bound fast. He could hear a few voices around him, and was thankful he recognised them. He whispered eagerly.

"Percy? Drudge! Are you okay? Badders took us in the night, while we slept...I could see it in my dreams, as if watching from high in the tree. They took everything from us...

...has anyone got free?"

Kitana looked askance at the point from which Lander's voice originated, not that anyone could tell in the dark. She swore under her breath. "Badderrs? Badderrs?  We don't need no stinking badderrs!"

She sighed and collected herself. "Everryone, check the floorr forr ourr weapons. If we werre rreally capturred by badderrs, we will need them to escape." She begins to feel around the floor seeking their gear.

In reply to Kitara Azules (msg # 379):

     "Beware!" Drudge hisses in a low, quiet voice, once he's on his feet, "Roof is only few centimeters abouve Drudge's head!"

     After a few minutes of slowly feeling along the walls in the dark, Drudge adds--again, in a low voice--"Drudge has found passage out of room!  Drudge thinks he can see dim, flickering light.  Candle, maybe..."

Thal feels around on the floor, checking for tools or weapons.  He whispers, "Do we have everyone.  This is Thal by the way."

Sarcoflex paws the floor, aiding the search for weapons.  While down there, he stretches and does some quarter push-ups until the veins of his forearms bulge.