Exploring the Shattered Matrix

Blornvid looks around and listens for signs of life beyond the plant life that has colonized this place.

Gardakhan take a closer look at the runes next to the tiles, hoping to make sense of them.

Skeeve will concentrate and try to listen for anything unusual.

Once they are relative sure of their immediate safety, he will note this pattern.

Blornvid has a look outside to see what the countryside looks like from here.

Skeeve will try to decipher the runes, too. Regardless of the result, he will copy them down to bring back to Valpip and Fiznik.

"There's a pall hangin' over this place. I don't know if the place is cursed or an entrenched sadness resonates from the souls mourning the destruction of this city. Gardakhan, do you or your spirits sense it?"

Skeeve doesn't move away until he finishes transcribing the runes he can't read, then moves to quickly catch up with his compatriots. He says, "Hmm. I was kinda hoping to get lucky and the rune would take us back to where you were from. However, maybe it's where your nightmare spider is from ..."

Skeeve thinks for a moment, then says, "Guys, before we go out and do any exploration, I want to ask you something. Neither Gardakhan nor I can move the tiles quickly. Should we pre-set the tiles to our home location now in case we need to leave in a hurry? Or should we not in case there is anyone here who can actually use the tiles?"

"Good idea to prepare an escape route. Maybe leave only 1 or 2 bad tiles to avoid giving away our full address?"
He looks around nervously at the mention of the nightmarish spider. After all it had the power to become invisible.

Taking some confort in numbers, Gardakhan concentrates and asks the spirits about this place.
"What is this place? Why does it feels so sad?"

"Agreed."

Skeeve says, "Good idea." While Gardakhan is searching the area with his spirits, Skeeve moves the tiles around to a pure V pattern. (It just pinches the bottom corners in one square.)"Do you think that works well enough?"

Once that is all done, he says, "I remember that we were told we can use the Tile Tablet to determine how far we are away from the other tablet. In other words, we can see how far we are away from the camp. But, we only get to do it once a day. Do we want to use it now?"

After Gardakhan passes this information along to Skeeve and Blornvid, Blornvid is at a loss for words. He shakes his head in dismay. He then proceeds to determine whether there's more to the building that they're in or if providing shelter to the stones is the purpose of the structure.

Skeeve says, "OK, we have a peaceful city that gets involved in war, distant at first, but eventually war comes to it. It is devastated by by an elemental attack, but partially recovers, until it is finally smashed. And somehow the plants are the eventual victors with no survivors.

"Well, it looks like we can either try to find the city center, or move on to the next pattern."

"I'm beginning to suspect that the plants here have taken over, and I'm not saying that it's just years, or decades, of abandonment. I'm thinking that they've literally taken over and snuff off any attempt to re-take this place by any building species, whether it be folk, beaver, or spider. That soft hissing sound we here: I think it's vines a creepin' up on us.

"I'm sure that sounds like paranoia, but if either of you feel compelled to stay and explore, I'll stay. But Skeeve should be ready to summon a wall of flame or somesuch if it comes down to it."

Well, if we are right at the city center, we can try to find loot. I imagine there is likely to be some potent magic used in the final battles. And if the surrounds are potent enough, it is likely to not have been looted yet. Then again, they did lose and we are surrounded by the victors. As such, I'm up for trying the next pattern before the tree falls on us. I do think we should use the tablet to determine distance and direction before leaving so we don't have to come back.

Gardakhan agrees with Skeeve regarding the tablet.
"Let see how far we are from the cavern. Once back we might learn a thing or two about this place by asking around. Perhaps a legend or an old tale will come up."

Moving torwards the outside of the building.
"Let's get a quick view outside see if we can get a distinct feature to help our research, Then we are out of here. "

Immediately after getting the reading from the tablet, Skeeve writes down the information. After that he joins the others just outside the building we are in.

Pointing to the larger buildings, Skeeve says, "It looks like the city center is most likely over there. There seems to be some clear roads, but I'm ready for the next destination. I don't want to find out what all of that rustling noise is."

At that, Skeeve heads back to the tile platform and starts shuffling the tiles around to the next destination. He is using Pattern 1.

Taking mental notes, Gardakhan follows Skeeve back to the tile room, ready for the next destination.

Blornvid joins the others, keeping an ear open for any patterns to the rustling.

Skeeve takes in their new surroundings and says, "Wow. It's been a while since I have seen anything like this. I wonder who owns the boat?"

I guess we're walking down to the river where the boat is parked. Maybe we'll spot the owner.

Yeah, that seems to be a reasonable point to check out first. If we find someone, maybe they'll talk first.

Since we seem to have indication of some kind of wildlife here, I am sure we'll all keep a look out for such. And Skeeve will keep an eye out for Screaming and Violent Fungi, too. No reason to endure those again.

Also, as we move out, Skeeve will pay particular attention to where the pad is so we don't lose it. If necessary, he is not above causing some damage so it is easy to find again. He will also note that this pattern is for an underground fungal forest.

Are there any small, flat, round river rocks nearby, or is it just mud? If there is, Skeeve will take a couple and skip them out into the water. The point is to see if there is any reaction from anything in the water. He doesn't expect anything, but might as well find out.

Also, he will try to look around and see if there is a path or anything that looks like it could be a path leading to or from the little dock river bank they are on. If someone landed here recently, then they had to have been going somewhere. He is trying to see if there is anything that would indicate where they were going.

"Maybe we should consider heading upstream a bit before crossing? We're a wee bit too close to the crevasse for my taste. Of course, it would be nice if we could find who owns this boat. I don't want to be leave 'em stranded or be accused of stealing."

"There is much risk in riding this boat that close to the waterfall. But someone must be doing it fairly frequently. Does one of you have a rope. I could try to summon a water spirit to counteract the current and go see what's on the other side. But I must admit I'm a bit scared of going alone. Perhaps first we should try to see if the person this boat belongs to is nearby? I'll check what the spirit of this place tells me.

Gardakhan close his eyes for a moment and ask the spirits to guide him torwards the owner of the boat.

Skeeve says, "Well, we could bring out the little metal monster Valpip gave us and have it fly around taking a look. We just have to be careful to protect the operator. Also, I'd rather not go floating around in the boat, especially considering I can't even use it. I think if we are going to explore more, it should be around here, not across the river. I think we should look a bit either going up or down the side of the river. The shore is too well-trod. There has to be something or someone near here. And with a manually built boat, there has to be a thinking person somewhere nearby. No guarantee they are friendly, of course, but someone should be relatively close by on this side of the river."

To Gardakhan: "Aye, I do. But only 50 feet. Not enough to span this river."

To Skeeve: "Let's see what we can spot with our own eyes before we start futzin' with Valpip's contraption."

Skeeve says, "The river is too wide to get across with rope. If it was narrower, I could use my magic crossbow to anchor it to a fungus trunk on the far side, but here it is just too wide to even see the far side. I still think out best chance to find someone is on this side of the river."

On the metal monster, Skeeve says, "I'm OK with waiting. I was just thinking it could help us look where we can't reach. Like we can't see the far side of the river or even see the roof of the this giant cavern."

Blornvid has been looking around for signs of animal life and intelligent life.

Skeeve is scouring for clues himself.

I don't think we want to go too far. We have already had some success here. While meeting a non-enemy would be a huge win, just seeing what we've seen will likely be useful to our patrons.

"The spirits talks about a crawling thing with many legs. Considering the spider web all around I'm considering it might be the lair of the one that plagues my tribe. If its the case be careful it can turn invisible"

He tries to call forth a water spirit to create fog around the group and below the dwarf shoulder hoping it would reveal the movements of invisible foes approaching.

Skeeve says, "I don't want to go too far up the river. If we don't find anything or anyone, I'm willing to call it a try and head back to the tiles."

Blornvid sighs. "I'm starting to think that what there is to see here is down by the falls. The increase in animal sounds as we get further away from the falls tells me that this leads to more wilderness. There may be settlements, but not for awhile.

"Of course, that could also mean that there's a predator lurking near the falls that scares the wildlife away."

Skeeve says, "Well, so much for meeting the boat pilot. Obviously, they are not interested in meeting us. Let's go see how close we can get to those falls and see if there is anything down there."

Blornvid tries to scout the other shore to see if he can spot the canoe and its owner, wondering how long ago the boatman left.

To the others, he says, "I see the bloke. Should we shout across the river to contact 'im?"

Let's give it a try

"Oh well. Guess we should take a look at the view from the falls."

Skeeve says, "I am pretty sure it was avoiding us. Let's get a look at the falls. After that, I guess we move on to the last pattern.

"I'm not lovin' the idea of crossing one of these bridges uninvited. It looks like whoever lives here can command armies of spiders." He gestures to the walkways. "If they don't like the look of us, they can probably get their eight-legged minions to bind us up faster than we can fight 'em off. I'd imagine that Gardakhan here isn't too keen either."

Skeeve says, Honestly, things could go either way. Let's assume Gardakhan's spider came from here. Is it an agent of this place meaning they are hostile, if not outright evil? Or is it an exile because it's malevolence is unwanted and unaccepted? We have no way of knowing.

Also, the boat spider actively avoided us. If it was as powerful as Gardakhan's spider, it could have outright attacked us and had a chance to succeed. That it outright avoided us likely means they are not overtly hostile.

That all said, we're just trampling around the fungal forest which appears to be outside their territory proper. We have no idea what their reaction will be if we enter their territory.

Skeeve says Well, we seem to have a choice. Do we give that bridge a try, or do we go back to the tiles and try the last pattern? While our investigations have been pretty surface level, we have still gain a lot of information I am sure Fiznik and Valpip will be glad to have. I am up for either.

"Maybe we say hello." With that, he heads over to one of the spiderweb bridges and starts shaking it, hoping the vibration gets someone's attention.

Blornvid exchanges a look of confusion with the others. "Should we do this? Should we trust them? Should I go alone in case this is a trap, and the two of you can get away?"

Skeeve says, "At this point we are committed. Someone needs to go out to greet them. I would like to go. It is relatively unlikely that they are going to sabotage the bridge when they are standing on it, too."

Assuming we aren't running away, Skeeve steps onto the bridge, then pauses. Turning around a bit, he says, "Gardakhan, do those guys look anything like the spider creature you fought? Your description made that one see pretty small compared to these guys."

Blornvid places a hand on Skeeve's shoulder. "Laddie, I think I should go. I don't know how to use those tiles. You and Gardakhan do. If something happens to you, I'm no help to Gardakhan with figuring those things out."

Skeeve says, "OK. Fair enough. I'll wait here. Just remember one thing: If you feel a weird tug or pull or a rope wrapping itself around you, do not resist. It will be me."

Blornvid smiles. "Wish me luck." Keeping his weapons sheathed, Blornvid sets out across the bridge. He hopes that by not openly wielding any weapons, these creatures will think he isn't hostile, which he isn't right now. He also hopes that this isn't a trap. He'll proceed until he gets about 20 feet away from the creatures, or he suspects that this is either a trap or they realize that he's a dwarf and not an Underdark denizen.

Gardakhan wishes luck to the dwarf and hope for the best.

"We're travelers, passing through. We saw these bridges and decided to say 'hello.' If you feel we're trespassers or just not welcome here, we'll turn around and leave. We don't wish to offend."

Skeeve, while continuing to watch Blornvid, says to Gardakhan,

I screwed up my prior post. That was supposed to be a bold quote, not an OOC.

Changing tack, I figure the spirit powers and spell-touched are fairly equivalent, so Skeeve tries to send a whispered message to Blornvid's ear. The message is: "Please ask them about Dream Eaters. That's what Gardakhan's spider called itself."

In case a roll is needed, it is below. It is focused.

Gardakhan watch for hostile spider approaching keeping a close eye on the surrounding fog in case this meeting is a trap. After all, his previous encounter with one of them had not been pleasant.

"Oh we're not really traders; we're explorers. We report back who and what we find to our bosses, and they send the traders out—Hey! Are you trying to read my mind? You're not one of those Dream Eaters, are you?" Blornvid backs up a couple of steps.

Skeeve gets ready to "yoink" Blornvid back if something goes wrong ...

"One of my fellow explorers, his village was attacked by a spider being that referred to herself as a 'Dream Eater.' Not being aware that your people are spiritually gifted, I was concerned that the guard was conducting some kind of attack, hence why I brought up the Dream Eater question. Those of us that lack your gift tend to be concerned that having their thoughts read is a prelude to having their thoughts controlled."

"I very much appreciate your candor. I make it a habit to take beings at their word until they give me a reason not to trust them.

"Do these fanatics have some kind of sigil or markings that we may be able to identify them should we encounter them?"

Given that things seem to be going much better, Skeeve relaxes somewhat. He magically "whispers", So, can we come join the conversation yet?

Assuming we can hear the conversation well enough, Skeeve also asks Gardakhan, Did the spider you fought have white eyes?

"I think so. Will you excuse me? My companions are better at explaining our map than I am. As there is only really room for one of us on your bridge—not a criticism, just an observation—I'd like to switch places with one of them if that's ok."

He waves to the others, assuming that Skeeve will go, considering that Gardakhan is justifiably reluctant to have dealings with any spider.

"Thank you. For future reference, my name's Blornvid. And yours?"

After getting the ambassador's name, he will say some other pleasantries and then make his way back.

Skeeve swaps places with Blornvid. Of course, it is not done as elegantly as they did it because Skeeve waits for Blornvid to come back, then goes out to meet the ambassador. When he reaches the ambassador, he says, "I am very pleased to meet you. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us!

"As my compatriot said, we are explorers, not emissaries. However, we are exploring on behalf of others and I believe they will be very interested to meet you.

"We don't have any maps exactly. Instead, we are using a portal device for travel. Are you familiar with the one near here?"

Gardakhan nods at the mention of the white eyes. He refrains from being hostile to the spiders but still he can't bring himself to fully trust them. As the discussions continues he stands at the back and look nervously for signs of a trap.

Skeeve replies, "We don't know it by that name, but the Matrix Node is likely what I am referring to. We will take your message for desiring trade back to our leaders. Is there any kind of token or message you would like us to deliver? We didn't know what we would find, so we have no token of our own to provide, unfortunately.

"Also, assuming we are talking about the same thing, it operates by using patterns as keys. Do your old records show any patterns for the Matrix Node?

"And it is fully understood that we will be tracked upon leaving the bridge. We appreciate you openly telling us, Ambassador."

Skeeve graciously takes the offered crystal and says, "May it be activated any number of times? Is it OK if I try it first so I can tell our leaders what to expect?"

Once that is handled (I assume no roll is needed if it really is such a simple thing), he continues, "More information on the Matrix will be greatly desired. Quite frankly, that is likely a potential trade item."

After that, he will head back to the other guys and recommend that they get on back to the tile pad. They do appear to be genuine, but at the same time they were a bit stand-offish and didn't invite us into their territory. Probably best to call this one a success and move on. He lets the other two know that they will be followed.

Skeeve will recommend trying the last unused pattern before returning home. That way the spiders won't necessarily know where we are really going. We have two charges left, so we should be able to hit the last pattern, then go back to the Expedition. Skeeve will make notes on what they saw, where the main bridge is, where the dock is, and what the spiders look like. He'll also note the comment about the white eyes. He figures they can take a few minutes when they get back to the tile to do that, since we'll basically have a couple guards. :-) I figure Skeeve can write while Gardakhan moves the tiles, if he's OK with that.

"Aye. Better safe than sorry." Continuing, he adds, "If these spider-folk are as genuine as they come across, color me surprised. Either they're playing the long game, hoping to lure the lot of us into becoming their food supply, or they've found a way to go from 'everything is food' to 'we can trade with the ones that make things.' This batch of 'em anyway."

Skeeve says, "Yeah, I don't know how to really read them, either. But I'm not gonna worry about it until Fiznik or Valpip are interested in sending us back. Even then they would have to send someone with actual authority to negotiate anything, and that's above our pay grade."

Skeeve is not interested in delving deeper into the cavern system. He is very interested in seeing what can be found outside.

"Well, I guess we get to climb now. Do we want to tie ourselves together to hopefully make things safer?"

Once we all get ready, I guess we start climbing up the cleft to see what is outside.

Skeeve takes some notes of about how high up they are in the mounts, where the other cavern is in relation to the cleft they just climbed out of, and a rough sketch of the valley below. Hopefully, the others are checking out our surroundings while he does that.

Blornvid is fine with hiking down from the portal crevice, but he doesn't plan on trying to get back tonight. His darkvision might serve him well enough, but a treacherous pass is still treacherous even in full daylight. "Maybe whoever we find will be friendly and less creepy than spiders."

Skeeve says, "I'm up for making it an over-nighter. We just need to be very sure we can find this crevasse once again or we'll be stuck here!"

We have plenty of rope to get ourselves down. I'm not sure on how we might magically mark this location so we can be sure to get back to this spot.

A. Landslide

Skeeve tries to find the linchpin boulder in their way and move it using his Onyx magic, thus releasing enough of the blockage to allow them to cross it more safely. He tries multiple boulders, from different spots. There is a single roll, at disadvantage, to represent the sum result of the entire effort. (These are big rocks, and there may not even be a key rock to release the others. I assume he does successfully remove a few no matter what, but without a successful roll, they just don't matter.) Success means that the way is cleared to allow everyone to pass. Failure means another solution is needed.

B. Cliff
Skeeve ties his two ropes together, and ties off one end. He then uses the length of rope to descend to the entire length. He will try to use the ledges, but uses the rope to make sure nothing really bad happens. The roll here is for the descent. Success means he made it unscathed and unharmed. Failure means he takes a point of damage on the descent.

Once he makes it to the bottom, Blornvid unties the rope so Skeeve can reel it in for another time. He then uses his Onyx magic to carry them down to his location one at a time. Ordinarily this should not require a roll since they within his "free" weight limit, but since all of this is new to him, I provide one roll for each at advantage. I choose advantage because it shouldn't require a roll normally, but does this time. Failure means they take a point of damage.

C. River
In this case Skeeve simply repeats what he, Khaguran, and Rikia did with a much bigger river. He ties off the rope again to a nearby tree, then uses the crossbow to tie off the other end to a tree on the far side. We all scootch across and he "mage hand"s the knot on the far end to retrieve the rope. (If he can't this time, he'll leave the rope.)

If there is nothing to tie off on, he ties both ropes to himself and one rope end to each of the other two. (So, one rope is Skeeve to Blornvid, the other is Skeeve to Gardakhan.) Skeeve uses Onyx magic to put Blornvid on the far side. (Blornvid will hold Skeeve's pack during this.) He then crosses the river the hard way, using the other two as anchors. On the other side, he then uses Onyx magic to bring Gardakhan across.

With the prior lesson, I'm not rolling for the others. The roll is Skeeve's manual crossing. Success means he gets wet, but that's it. Failure means he takes damage while fumbling around during the crossing.

A. If moving the rockslide doesn't seem to be within the range of Skeeve's magic, they can just climb over it. Blornvid helps moves some rocks, particularly unstable ones, and assists anyone who may have gotten a foot stuck after slipping between rocks.

B. Blornvid offers his rope to ensure they have enough to make it down the cliff. If they can't tie the rope off, he uses his strength to ensure that whoever is descending makes it down safely.

C. Blornvid offers his rope to ensure they have enough to tie to one another and cross the river.

"Looks a lot more welcoming than a city covered in vines and thought-probing spiders. Shall we, lads?"

Skeeve smiles at the thought of maybe, possibly, actually having a friendly encounter. Not that he is expecting the encounter to be friendly, but just the thought it could be makes him smile.

"Yes, let's! Hopefully they are as friendly as they look and not xenophobic or hostile to outsiders or turn into hideous monsters when seemingly threatened."

The three friends quietly and carefully proceed to where the people are seen to be. When they get in range, Skeeve steps forward (with his hands out where they can be easily seen) and says, "Hello! We are wandering travelers that are hoping you can help us with some general information and directions."

Here is a roll for the first impressions. With focus.

"Hello there! My name's Blornvid. This is Skeeve and Gardakhan. We don't mean you any harm. We're explorers, and we're just passin' thru."

Skeeve responds, "Again, I just want to stress that we don't mean you any harm. We came through a cave in the mountains above us and we have never been here before. We'd like to know more about this valley and where it is overall. If you are willing to help us, we're more than willing to show you where that cave is."

"I fully appreciate your apprehension and caution. We do not have a problem with you being cautious and will respect that. Thank you for your patience and indulging us. What do you know of the Shattering? Was this area affected by it?"Further questions from Skeeve:
- What do you know to lay beyond this valley?
- How far is it to the exits of the valley?
- Why did you try to isolate yourselves? Did something bad drive you to that?
- How much have you explored of the valley?
- Are there other settlements like yours in the valley?
- Have you explored the mountains any? Do any live up there? (Whether you or others.)
- How conversant with magic are you?

The main goal is to just figure out who they are and where they are. Skeeve himself is more than willing to let them keep their secret. He just wants to try and figure out just how screwed they are. If they are really isolated, then they should be safe for a while and he can leave it at that. If, however, they are not as isolated as they think, he wants them to know it. Unless the others object, he is willing to lead them to the cave so they know where we came from and let them fill it in after we leave, assuming they are otherwise isolated. He is happy there is a least one fairly idyllic location in the world, and if he can help keep it that way, he would like to.

The secondary goal is to get information on the valley. If they are the only group, it probably isn't worth tromping around the valley. If we are going to let them remain isolated, there isn't a point to find anything of long-term value as it is either meaningless or we ruin their situation. No win either way. On the other hand, if they have a side-quest for us, that would work out nicely.

Once the conversation is almost finished and assuming they still just want us to go away, he will also ask, "The day is getting late. Is it OK if we camp out here for the night? We will depart in the morning."

Skeeve says, "Thank you for the warning and use of the shelter. Do you have any more information on the source of these attacks?" Skeeve is wondering if Blornvid, Gardakhan, and he could help with diverting or removing this threat. In questions on how they got here, he tells them about the tile pad, but not on their dependence on the gem of spell storing or the tablet. When they head out Skeeve offers to have some of them accompany the group back to the cavern so they know where it is and can either try to wall it off or use it themselves. He does offer that it hasn't seemed to be used much, but he stops short of saying it hasn't been used for a long, long time.

Blornvid nods along in agreement as Skeeve explains the magic tile portal.

Again, on the way out Skeeve will offer to have any number of them come back to the cavern with us. Based on what they have described about the valley, they should be very safe here from conventional entry points. The only vector would be the tile pad. Skeeve will directly ask them if they plan on blocking off the cave or not. If they do, there is no reason to come back. If they don't, Skeeve will keep this place open as an option to visit again. They seem nice enough. :)

The only thing before we leave is Skeeve will say to Asa, Is it ok if we return at some later? If you say no, I won't come back. I can't promise no one else won't, but I will work to keep people away. If you say yes, if I get a chance, I will come back and see if I can help with you night issue. But I am not sure when I might be able to do it.

If Asa doesn't want us to return, he will tell Fiznik that and ask that he suppress this pattern and not mention it to others. Skeeve will do his best to honor Asa's wishes, but he can promise anything other than his own efforts as a small cog in a bigger world.