Immersive Ink

Dougal pauses to determine if he sees any movement in the cave. If he feels certain it is not occupied, he approaches the cave and enters...

Dame Simonetta waits resolutely, if not patiently.

Hey, you! I'm not talking to the Hobbets, I'm talking to YOU, gentle reader, drinking your coffee and staring at your screen. I invite you to join in a thought experiment:

Imagine that you are a Monster: Maybe a Dragon, or a Mobat, or a Spider-Moose, or maybe your face is made out of squid. What you look like is not important to the thought experiment. The most important thing is that, you love the darkness, and you love eating meat. That's two most-important things, I guess: darkness and meat.

Imagine, my darkness-and-meat-loving friend, that you live in a deep, dark chasm in the earth. You live in a cavern system so vast there is a long echo and it takes 5 seconds for an object to freefall. So primally ur-dark that a wise and experienced Druid would never dream of flashing an artificial light down here!

Here you are, resting in your cavern, hungry and bored, staring at the cracks in the ceiling. All of a sudden, one of the cracks lights up! You've lived your entire life in darkness, so a bright lantern light like that is definitely going to get your attention. Taking a closer look, you see the web is thrashing, like your little friend the Spider-Goat has caught a feisty one! And then a second light appears. Looks almost like... a lantern on a string? That's weird: Spider-Goat usually does a better job than this, smashing lanterns. Better go check it out.

Have the oblivious Hobbets attracted unwanted attention from The Deep with their lantern light? Tune in next time, as we roll on the Underdark Wilderness wandering monster table...

With Kiplyn at his side, Dougal shines his bright lantern into the 20' circular cave. It's not at all what he was expecting: It's clean, and there are no traces of webbing whatsoever. A threadbare but luxurious Oriental-style rug really ties the room together. Along the walls are a chest, a wardrobe, and a harp. There's a wooden table surrounded by five mismatched chairs and a tuffet. The table is laid out for tea with a chipped, mismatched set of cups and saucers. Two of the place settings (the tuffet-sitter and the person next to them) are pushed aside, to make space for an ornate chess board with a game in progress.

Dougal looks to make sure there aren't any other entrances into the room then checks the board to see if he can determine how long the game has been going on by the amount of dust on it.

ehiker133 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 25, 2022 4:11 pm

Dougal looks to make sure there aren't any other entrances into the room then checks the board to see if he can determine how long the game has been going on by the amount of dust on it.

The room is a 20' circle with only the one entrance. (To a Hobbet) it feels snug and cozy, kind of like being in a stone igloo.

There's no dust whatsoever. The room is clean and shows no sign of being abandoned for any length of time.

Dougal shrugs at Kiplyn and whispers, "Do you think this is Ursa's cave? I can't imagine anyone else being around to USE this space and she definitely knows how to climb..."

Dougal checks the chest for traps. If he finds none, he opens the chest.