👣65. out on a limb
session 65 • february 28 2023 • words
🌑 DAY 21 • 📅 MARPENOTH 10
Fleeting Reunions
Will profusely apologizes to Topsy and Turvy for hurting Topsy during the competition. The twins are miserable, understandably, about having been forced to fight, but don't seem to particularly resentful of Will for what they all had to do in the gladiator fight.
Will then goes and tries to wake up Soren, and succeeds in doing so, but fails to wake up Hugh. Soren, seeing the drow guards distracted, clambers over to Sildar's bed. The party members awake exchange teary words, trying to encourage each other but each of them on the brink of hopelessness themselves. Soren warns the party to "be careful of the kuo-toa, quaggoth and derro", as well as to "lay low". He promises them that he's working on a plan to get them out of there.
The drow guards begin to finish up settling their bets on the gladiator fight, and Soren reluctantly goes back to his bed and pretends to be asleep.
Making Friends
The Weaponsmaster (WM) returns to the prison and calls upon Will to come over. Will is whipped for failing to acknowledge his commands with a "yes sir", then whipped again for "making friends", since he was caught hanging around Hugh, Eldeth and Sildar for most of his time. He is instructed to stop "de-escalating too many fights" and ruining the drow's fun, which he reluctantly promises to do.
WM also instructs Will to get everyone awake in two hours--he'll return to fetch the next chore-group, and he doesn't think they "want us to be the ones to wake them". Will gets most of the prison awake, though he fails to wake Buppido and forgets to wake Droop. Noname profusely thanks Will and Tor holds his hand.
WM eventually returns and notices that Droop is not awake. He brutally beats Droop, until Will steps in and points out that "you've kicked him enough, he's awake", deeply angering WM. WM turns his beating towards Will, continually asking Will why he's acting the way he is.
Though Will insights that WM is looking for a self-deprecating answer, he honorably tries to hide his pain and responds that "it doesn't matter what I do, you're going to hurt me anyway".
This thoroughly enrages the WM, who has Will dragged towards the exit--seemingly to throw him off the cliff. Hiding his desperation at Will's impending death, Soren "idly" notes that "the iblith are just too stupid to grasp how to properly talk in the face of true strength, sir". This seems to calm the WM a bit, though he chides Soren for speaking without being spoken to.
He whips Will once more, but dumps him in a corner of the cell with 1HP ; ; Belovedd.
Hell's Kitchen
Thrown to the Wolves
Soren, Droop, Noname and Shuushar get taken to the kitchen / mess hall and are instructed to make it spotless within two hours.
During the walk, Soren answers all of the WM's commands and questions correctly, with discipline and politeness, causing the WM to take interest in him. The WM asks where he "was trained", and Soren answers truthfully that he once served House Xorlarrin's eldestboy. The WM expresses surprise that someone so disgraced as Nezznar could "do one thing right".
Soren notices that a lot of the party's consumables and food-related items are in the mess hall, and makes a note of that. Droop tries to stay close to Soren, but Soren avoids him, instead approaching Noname and attempts to get to know her, questioning her and learning the following information from her terrified rambling:
Noname has no name because she doesn't "deserve one"
She was brought in to Velkynvelve 2 weeks ago
She was "bad" and tried to escape her drow masters, which she regrets.
Soren questions her about her attitude towards the drow--flustered and frantic, she lies that she "loves the drow" and that they are very kind to her--clearly lying. She also says that she "likes Soren", demonstrating that her fear of the drow extends to Soren, too.
Soren takes advantage of this and "orders" her to knock over a bucket of water as a distraction. Though she looks like "a deer in the headlights", she agrees. Soren calls her a good girl; she does exactly as she's told, making a mess of everything and breaking a few bottles. She is brutally beaten into unconsciousness by the drow. Soren takes the opportunity amidst the chaos to steal four servings worth of food from the kitchen, intending to distribute it among the party.
Noname's unconscious body is dumped back in the cell while Soren is ordered to clean up her mess, though he does so in horror of what he's done to Noname.
Best of the Darklake
Shuushar notices his expression and checks in with Soren. Soren treats Shuushar with unabashed disdain, referencing the reputation of kuo-toa as insane slaves.
Shuushar takes his insults in stride and acknowledges that his people have strayed from peace, but that he hopes to one day return to his village of Sloobludop (from whence he departed as a child on a "spiritual journey") in order to spread his message of non-violence to his people. Soren is thoroughly skeptical of this but curiously asks about this village, wondering if it's on the Darklake.
However, the WM notices them chatting and puts a stop the conversation.
Food Drive
Back in the cell, the prisoners witness the unconscious Noname dumped unceremoniously back in the cell.
M E A T
Hugh checks in with Ront, who is growing more and more agitated as his stomach growls in clear hunger. Hugh suggests that people can "donate their food" to Ront, who clearly needs more food to sustain himself due to his size. Ront notes that people already do that--implying that he has been extorting food from the prisoners. Hugh and Ront bond over their shared love of meat.
An Ultimatum
Sarith approaches Will and quietly lets Will know that he noticed Will's "casting" of Planar Warrior during the fight. Will tries to deny this, but when Sarith threatens to draw attention to Will, he paniccs a little bit.
Sarith promises not to say anything--in return, he wants Will to use his "magic" to figure out what really happened to his friend. Sarith explains that he was framed for the murder of someone close to him, and that he's unsure which of the guards are in on the framing. He wants Will to find proof that he was framed, adamant that his superiors would listen to reason if he could find undeniable proof of foul play.
Will is skeptical that the drow would listen to reason, but agrees before trying to intimidate (?) Sarith into also helping them escape. Sarith maintains that he would be welcomed back into the guards, and refuses to believe he needs to escape. He tells Will that Will, as a prisoner and iblith, is in no position to make demands of him, and leaves.
Deliverance
Eventually, the chore group returns. Droop, terrified, reports to the party that they "beat the shit out of Noname for breaking a few bottles". Soren distributes his food, sneaking half a serving of food to Will, Hugh and Sildar each while pretending to insult them. He checks in with Noname, who had just woken up, and freaks out about Soren's presence.
He thanks her for what she did, and gives her food, correcting her when she asks if it's her reward--he says that it is a "gift", from one friend to another. She is shaken but eats the food hungrily.
Soren speaks to her briefly, learning the following information:
She was born into slavery in the Underdark
She has never been on the surface or seen the sun
Soren is taken aback and, referring to when Noname told him to call her "anything he liked", asks if he can call her Sunny--as a promise that one day she would bask in the light of the sun. "Sunny" gets uncharacteristically excited about the idea, and asks if Soren promises. Soren reminds her not to talk to anyone about their conversation, but promises.
Walking the Mile
❗ cw: torture, gore, amputation
Eventually, we hear the sound of spider claws being dragged across stone. Nezznar is dragged back to the cell by the guards and thrown in--he's clearly been tortured; his body mangled by cuts from blades and whips. However, most prominently: they'd cut off four of his eight arachnid legs.
As Nezznar tries to pull himself towards his bed, he notices that Sildar has taken it over, and is almost resigned. Soren stands up from his bed and offers it to Nezznar. The two exchange a tense and melancholy conversation where Soren tries to calm the desperate and almost-hysterical Nezznar. This culminates in Nezznar tearing up while asking that Soren promise that he would help Nezznar escape.
Soren does so.
[INTERLUDE] aka I am losing my mind about this interaction and expanded it.
The First Death
Will gives his share of food to Topsy and Turvy to make up for what he had done to Topsy during the brawl. Soren offers the cheese Jimjar produced from his underwear to Nezznar, who silently accepts.
Eventually, the Weaponsmaster returns and informs us that the drow are tired of feeding us all, and instructs us to put to a vote "who gets to leave here first". The prisoners, of course, understand immediately that the drow are asking us to choose someone to die.
The votes, tense and uncomfortable, goes as follows:
The duergar detest Buppido for being a derro; Jimjar says he doesn't like the look of Buppido. Droop chooses Nezznar due to past misgivings (the kidnapping, insulting Will, etc) while Nezznar, Ront and Derendil choose Eldeth due to her insults towards them. Shuushar and Noname both choose themselves to die, out of altruism and fear respectively.
Derendil gets voted on several times due to his displays of agression in the prison. Soren urges Nezznar to vote with him, so that they can get a "sure vote" without angering anyone in the prison, but though Nezznar hesitates, he ends up obstinately choosing Eldeth.
In the end, the drow toy with the prisoners by casting their own votes, forcing Will to choose in a tie-breaker between Ront and Derendil to die. Will apologizes to Derendil, and votes for him.
Derendil, horrified, cites that Will had once promised to help him regain his elven kingdom. His horror quickly turns to fury as he "realizes" that Eldeth had been hanging out with Will and might have changed his mind--bounding across the room and beating Eldeth unconscious before the drow drag him out of the cell.
Derendil is unceremoniously pushed off the end of the cliff, and we hear the chittering of spiders converge on him. Quickly, the yelling stops and the prisoners are left to the sounds of the spiders feasting.
Last updated