Out of nowhere, Kriv starts rambling apparent gibberish.
"A puerile and facile attempt. As if my clan or I would not heed our obligation and pay our debt, as if that one had any relation to that matter in the first claw, as if my home, my home has anything to fear from a soft-skinned lesser race! I am an asset to be deployed as my Lord Father wishes, not the be all and end all of our defences, and I would be rightly slain for dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming if I fled my appointed mission. No. You know my name, you know my home and you know his name, but the rest is nonsensical. Show yourself."
She is concerned that there is no response from Karok but her gaze is now directed at Kriv. She and Davroar share a worried look. There seems to be something affecting their minds and she wonders how the Red Brands come and go from this place. Still on her knees she tries to look for Karok. Davroar takes hold of Kriv's rope and asks...
It's Kriv and Jaliera turn and they can take an "action".
Note 1: In 5e, "ready an action" is an action. You declare a trigger and if the trigger occurs, you can take a reaction, after the trigger occurs. This is not an interrupt (something that badly broke 4e). Your place in initiative does not change either because your action was the "ready an action". "No action" is also a valid action, effectively giving up your turn. Talking is a free action.
Note 2: Jaliera is prone, on her knees. She has disadvantage on attacks. Adjacent enemies have advantage. Range enemies have disadvantage.
"A voice from somewhere, couldn't place it, trying to turn me against Karok. It seemed distressingly knowledgeable about my background, although it lacked context with which to better its aim. I take it you didn't hear it? Best be on your guard, then."
He advanced to the edge of the precipice, and with Davroar and himself anchoring it, he spooled the remainder of the rope into the depths.
She is relieved to hear Kriv making sense even though she is concerned about what he says. She moves away from the edge, putting her back to stone where she has a good view of the area and approaches. She draws her bow to provide cover for her friends.
Davroar nods to Kriv and moves with him to help secure the rope.
"Didn't hear a thing. Something is playing with our minds."
With most of the group peering down the crevasse, they are generally unprepared for the monstrosity as it appears. The creature is a strange looking bipedal thing with a large florescent eye. It comes charging at the party from around a large natural pillar and it's objective is clearly to push Kriv into the crevasse and, at the same time, it swats Davroar with it's clawed appendage.
Nothic Shoves Kriv Neptune rolled 1d20+2 and got 3 Nothic attack Davroar Neptune rolled 1d20+4 and got 5 Rolled two 1s and misses twice! Everyone up top can react now, starting with Jaliera who has readied her bow.
A moment to check that Davroar had successfully secured the rope to the bridge stanchion, then dropping the rope and spinning around, maul in hand, using the inertia of the rapid turn to fuel a double-handed smash just over their new foe.
[Would a double hitch interweaving across and through the bridge stanchion and railings suffice? We did, after all, have a couple of people spending a couple of turns focusing on the rope and readying it for the rescue.]
DM Chandan's second blow hits the the nothic, (for that is what this creature is called) as does Jaliera's arrow and three of Kallista's magic missiles.
Excellent. So I need a DC 15 intelligence (investigation) check from Davroar and Kriv, who would have had to be doing the tying. I'm assuming that you were looking at the bridge with some care if you intended to tie the rope to it.
Davroar and Kriv both would miss. We'll just say that their excuse was that their focus was on the rope
The rope thing needs resolution before we move forward. I assume that Karok is waiting to climb up.
As Kriv looks for a place to secure the rope to the bridge he realizes that something is wrong! The bridge is rigged to collapse - a trap! If anyone would have tried to cross it, they would have plummetted into the crevasse.
Tying the rope to it to let Karok up, would likely collapse the entire structure onto him.
There is no place to tie a rope. Someone would need to hold it or Karok can attempt to climb.
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