Sudden Massive Blackness
Avegnum and Halvdan find themselves both laying on a stone-like cold floor in pitch black darkness after the eruption of the lava elemental then the magical bubble that followed. The sudden change from thin, humid, hot air to full, cool, dry air shocks the two worse than the explosion and sudden change in surroundings. They find each other through touch and sound, Halvdan makes quite a bit of sound in his bone armor. Neither notices the presence of Vel, his weird construct groupy, or Halvdan's faithful skeletal mount. The General can, though, sense his empathic link with his undead minion, and knows he's within a mile of the mount.
Even though Fritz is somewhat intelligent, Fritz does come from a mindless undead origin, so his emotions are quite restrained. Given the nature of the battle Halvdan was just in he is able to figure out that Fritz is no longer in immediate combat, but is probably still burning, as are Halvdan and Avegnum themselves.
Neither warrior can sense anything else immediately …
Straining his mongrel eyes to see if they can make anything out, Vel pats himself to make sure anything that was on fire is sufficiently smothered. Speaking to Halvdan somewhat cheerily now that the dire battle has ended, "That went surprisingly well! While we might not know where we are that isn't much of a change from before so we aren't that much worse off... apart from being blind I guess."
ReplyDelete***
On the surface Vel grabs some of the broad leaved jungle vegetation nearby and smothers the corpse horse's burning bones in order to preserve his companion's ally. Another faint echo causes him to momentarily think that a burning skeletal steed might be a pretty great way to get around while simultaneously doubly terrifying folks with the combination of the undead and, of course, fire. "I don't recall ever hearing your name, horsey, so I'll call you Shambles. Any idea where your master is?" Pausing for a moment to think he eventually speaks very loudly at the undead mount, "SHAMBLES. FIND. HALVDAN. PLEASE."
'Vel' in first sentence should be Avegnum.
DeleteHalvdan pulls out his sword and commands it to "flame on" in an attempt to illuminate their ark surroundings.
ReplyDeleteHaving snuffed out the fires on them, General Halvdan lights his sword up and illuminates the area a bit. Looking around the two warriors find themselves in a solid stone, probably marble, room fully 30' cubed. In the center of the room is a black metal spiral staircase going both up and down. Looking in both direction they see down goes to a hatch in the floor, and up leads to a door in the wall where the stairs end. Both the hatch and the door are extra sized for creatures of huge size, able to accommodate a creature the size of the lava elemental they just fought - any smaller and they would have missed them both. Now that they are close to the stairs the two can see the black color comes from soot, ash and the charring of the metalwork of the stairs, as well as the door above and the hatch below.
ReplyDelete"Hmm, I'm not sure which way to go but I heard once in tales that the heroes always go up. Sound good?" Avegnum asks. While waiting for a response he hefts his blade and looks around to see if he can notice any other details of their chamber.
ReplyDelete***
Hearing the horse-speak as a series of bony clattering (not clear if your mount was actually speaking, lol) Vel figures it'd be nice to ride a while and gets on the horse, its undeadness surprisingly not disturbing. "Hey there Shambles, any chance you can find your buddy Halvdan?"
Avegnum, with his better than human eyes, sees that the 30' cube they are in is made from stone that has no joints or cut marks. The walls, floor, and ceiling don't look like they were cut from stone but rather the stone grew as it is now in perfectly straight Vertical and Horizontal planes. Halvdan is sure these walls are the result of magic similar to a Wall of Stone spell, though the stone produced, marble-like, is quite different than the spells he has seen. The sheer size of the space enclosed and the obvious thickness of the stone (after thumping and stomping it) tells the bone knight the caster must have been pretty high in level, or perhaps it just took a long time to build the space.
ReplyDeleteOn closer inspection the two warriors now notice that about two feet above the floor, all along the walls are very shallow carvings that look like some kind of curvilinear characters with geometric shapes and dots interspersed inside and between the characters. The band of carving is about a foot tall.
Shambles is unable to speak, but seems to understand basically what people say in common and has adopted certain physical expressions common to its master (like nodding to mean yes or clattering it’s teeth to indicate undead mirth). Shambles does not know where it’s master is, or even in which direction Halvdan is hiding. Though how Shambles conveys this information to Vel will be interesting.
ReplyDeleteAt its narrowest stretch within visual range the lava river north of Shambles and Vel is less than about a quarter mile across. The broken bridge, however, provides a smaller gap at less than about 200’ to cross if Vel wants to rise up a few hundred feet above the lava and about level with the tops of many, though not most, of the buildings to cross the molten river in the broadness of full morning high-altitude brightened sunlight.
While Vel is pondering what to do next, he heads over to the magma giant's exploded corpse and searches to see if he can find anything of value or interest, taking care to avoid the blisteringly hot patches.
ReplyDeleteVel spends about ten minutes gingerly picking through the remains of the lava elemental, and burning through several sticks, before he manages do dig out four gem stones that look like they contain fire within them. Vel is pretty certain they are fire opals and would fetch a good price on the market.
ReplyDeleteEach step up the spiral stairs takes Avegnum and Halvdan about three feet closer to the ceiling and the large door to the huge unknown. When they reach the top the two pint-sized warriors find the door is really a door within a door within a door within a door. Each door is a quarter the size of the next larger and four times the size of the next smaller. In this way the single door can easily, even naturally, accommodate creatures as small as a kobold to as large as the lava elemental that fought the group, and delivered the two warriors to their present location. The spiral stairs and the door in front of which they stand are both blackened from impossibly hot fires passing by and touching the metal that both are made of. Some of it smears off and blackens the clothes and skin of the two warriors. It brushes off easily though, as their skin has dried in the cool arid air of the place they are in. The metal is cool, soothing even, after the past few days spent in the thin clinging air of the extremely high altitude, sauna-like marsh that they are sure all their companions have been left behind in. Possibly left for dead, or maybe just left for something bigger to chew on.
ReplyDeleteTouching the door, the human and sort-of-human find the metal is as cool as the spiraling stairs they have just ascended. Glancing back down the stairs in the dim flicker of the flaming sword light the stairs seem to twist and gyrate back on itself like the undulating waves of a gigantic subterranean lake. The massive metal door open easily and quietly at the slightest as if the door were willingly waiting for someone to pass through it. As the door opens away from the two doubly-lost adventurers it passes through a fog-like, black embankment of a smoky substance that neither can see beyond. There are no sounds coming from beyond the open door. It seems more quiet than naturally possible, sounding as if it absorbs the small noises the two inquisitives make as they stand looking at the smoke-fog.
"Well this looks even better than our options before!" Avegnum grumbles. Sighing in resignation he sticks his sword into the murky fog bank to see if he hits anything within the first few feet of probing. If not he shrugs his shoulders, takes a deep breath, and plunges through the doorway.
ReplyDelete***
"Oooh, shinies!" Vel exclaims as he tosses the gems from hand to hand like hot potatoes. After allowing them to cool sufficiently he slips them into his Bag of Holding and then looks around once more as a wave of uncertainty hits him. "Well Shambles, I don't really like the idea of leaving Kaellanna to fend for herself but I'm a city boy and think wandering around the jungle with just our twosome may be a really bad idea. Let's head up to the gap in the bridge, and if you'd be willing to fall into a pile of bones so that I can put you into my bag I'll fly us across to the other side and reassemble you. Even if Avegnum and Halvdan aren't over there maybe we can find someone that can help us."
As long as Vel's bag has enough available weight left to hold it can hold the horse. Lets see; bones, riding gear, barding, saddle bags, Halvdan's equipment, oh and four small barrels of Karrnathi Imperial Darkwood Stout. All in all, probably 600 pounds. I'll assume there is enough weight available unless you tell me otherwise.
ReplyDeleteVel is able to wedge the boney mount and all it's gear into his bag of holding before he bat-flaps his way across the broken expanse of the ancient stone bridge. On the other side at the base of the bridge with Shambles next to him Vel is confronted with the gargantuan, clean, though broken-down ruins of the giant's city. As he watches and thinks he begins to hear a kind of scraping-slurping squishy sound. From around a corner of one of the building comes a geletin-like cube of grayish matter. It reminds him of a gelatenous cube, though smaller (maybe only a dozen feet on each side)and a light grey semi-opaque color. This cube also has protrusions at it's base that project forward and seem to draw the main body mass after them.
Even though it's about 100 feet away Vel can still hear the slurping dragging sounds and can see that the creature is sticking next to the building walls and rubble completley ignoring Vel and Shambles.
With no one else to tell him not to Avegnum gently penetrates the black fog with his toothpick of a sword. Easy in, easy out, easy in, he shakes it all about. Nothing touched so he steps in after taking and holding a breath. Halvdan watches as his companion steps through and thinks he should follow if he hears nothing – then again, if he does hear something he’ll probably follow as well.
ReplyDeleteAvegnum steps through and finds himself in a large mostly vacant room. About a couple hundred feet across, the room is mostly devoid of anything, except for the bright light at the center of the room. Without that light the mongrelman would have seen nothing as there are no other sources of illumination in the entire cavernous space. Dark walls surround, and both the floor and ceiling are dark as well. Avegnum can see the ceiling is about 60’ high. Behind him he sees the black smoky wall that blocked his vision into the room continues around covering the rest of, what he assumes to be walls behind, as far as he can make out. Then he notices a flickering to the light in the center of the room. Then the Karrnathi General follows him in, also holding his breath, and bumps into Avegnum.
With the added light of Halvdan’s flaming sword the two can now see that the floor is made of a dark, smooth, seamless stone, while the walls and ceiling are actually the dark fog-smoke they stepped through to get into the room. In the center of the room, or what looks like the center of the room from here, the two can see something so bright they can make out very little detail. The light flickers like a moth around a candle, and a bit of shuffle like paper rustling is audible, even from this distance. Then a couple soft padding sounds almost like, perhaps even, could possibly be foot steps. Though the sounds stop after a couple ‘steps’ and the flickering calms to a gentle darker area in the midst of the extreme brightness that over stimulates their eyes and almost leaves them blind.
As he watches the pseudopod possessed grey cube of cleanliness, in his head he hears “Vtan newi gvaln jhuduk kholdrri, Vel.” He hears it and knows it's the same voice that spoke to him before, but a much different language. A language Vel does not understand but has feared from the fiendish overlords that lead Vel through his warlock path. A path he is not certain he is fit for anymore, though he longs for it's power and the companionship of something that understands him completely.
ReplyDeleteThe oozing cleaner makes it's way around the back side of the building.
When Avegnum and Halvdan approach the light they hear the rustling again of feet and leaves, then the light flickers a bit more. As they gets closer, maybe 50' away from the source they hear the light, higher-pitched notes of a woman's voice in happy tones coming from the brightly lit area in the middle of the dark, cavernous room, “Glad you could make it, sirs. I was beginning to wonder if any of you would ever find your way here. Had to help things along, as it were.” She giggles lightly.
ReplyDeleteAs their eyes adjust to the brightness of the central area set against the pitch black the Bone Knight and the Warblade realize they are looking into a room, of sorts, set up in the emptiness of the middle. Inside the bright area, measuring perhaps 30' across, are several pieces of furniture. An uncomfortable looking, high-backed stone chair sits at the middle of the brightness. On either side of it are arranged a couple book shelves. In front of it are two large mirrors on movable frames mounted on wheels. Behind the throne-like chair is a white, stone obilesk about 5' tall. Just above the tip of the top of the point sits a black circle. Perhaps a sphere, the circle is so completely black that it could be an spherical shape and the two adventurers would be quite unaware.
Standing next to the larger of the two movable mirrors stands a woman looking mostly like a young drow maiden except for her dark purple skin, rather than obsidian, pale gold hair, rather than platinum blond, as well as striking pale lavender eyes, rather than the typical red of the dark elves. She stands about as tall as the obelisk behind the throne behind her, and smiles fondly at the two men.
“I'm glad you made it. I'd just about given up on you getting here.” She says as the two men look at her, dumbfounded, staring at the unexpectedly beautiful off-colored dark elf. She's wearing a robe, like a bath robe, except black, short, and completely see-through. Other than that she wears a platinum ring on each finger and thumb … and not a thing more.
In common she continues, “My name is Thelafal Nikiu, what are your names?” She asks with a warm, endearing smile and a slight giggle.
Using all of the concentration developed through his warblade training, Avegnum makes a point to look at the possibly drow's eyes as he gives her a courtier's bow, ignoring how ridiculous it might look considering he's only wearing halfling pants, so essentially short shorts, and a sword. "Well met milady, I am Avegnum Nor and this is my companion the General. Am I to understand that you had a hand in 'encouraging' us to this delightful jungle or just in.. here?"
ReplyDeleteWhile he waits for a response, Avegnum tries to see if he can read the titles of the books on the shelves and remember any stories of a being the might resemble Thelaful in description.
---
The strange voice rattles Vel but once it stops talking he shakes his head and takes a deep breath. Reassmbling Shambles-Fritz Vel looks around for any more oozes before flying 15ft. off of the ground above the skeletal horse. "Let's head towards the huge tower with the glowing top Shambles. I don't really feel like going exploring around here anytime soon until we find Avegnum and your buddy. Ok, so keep an eye out for anything moving that might want to crush or eat us make some of your warning clattering if you see something." Armed with a goal and a plan, Vel firmly ignores the seductively scary evil voice and how good it felt when it spoke to him.
Apart from looking ridiculous due to his attire that would place him firmly in the sex trade, if he were presently standing somewhere in the civilized world, though it somehow now appears fitting standing on the darkened side across from a woman in a see-through, black night gown and ten platinum rings, Avegnum is further made to appear ridiculous as he bends over in his bow to the new acquaintance and suddenly smashes his head into an extremely solid wall made from something quite completely transparent. The impact sends him reeling backward, where General Halvdan catches him and helps him steady and recover his dignity. Well, as much dignity as one can recover dressed as Avegnum presently is clothed.
ReplyDeleteThelafal laughs at Avegnum's antics, causing the front of her night gown to open prodigiously. She doesn't seem to notice the exposure as she approaches the invisible solid barrier between herself and the two adventurers. Leaning in she presses her body against the barrier and looks up at the two men before continuing, at first excited but then quickly followed by sadness, "Yes, Avegnum, yes, I brought you here. Well, sort of anyway. My magic didn't quite work right and it just reached out and grabbed anyone teleporting in the area and dropped them off somewhere in the city below. And then it just kept happening over and over and over, and so many people have been brought here and died because of it. So much death, so much pointless death, and there wasn't anything I could do about it." Getting excited again she progresses with her story and bounces a little as she talks, "Then I figured out how to get people from down there up here. The first time it didn't work, but this time it did, well, again, it work partly. I got two of you here. Two out of three, or was that four? I guess two of four, but I don't know where the lady went."
She ponders this a bit and Avegnum manages to rip his attention from her to the books. Most have nothing on the spines. Those that do, and are written in a language he can read are mostly references to various creature's anatomies, or tomes of geography/geology or architecture or plants a weather. Some of the books have obviously arcane symbols of some magical nature on them, and the occasional book references history of some sort. All of the books are hand-written and all are written in the same hand.
Thinking about Thelafal Avegnum remembers he has heard about albino drow, who are supposed to look something like regular elves. Enough like regular elves that they can walk amongst them without being noted. He isn't sure if Thelafal falls in this category of albino drow, or if she is an oddly colored drow, or another kind of elf or something else ... He suddenly realizes his eyes were wondering all over her in his attempt to make note of any distinguishing characteristics that might lead him to recall anything about any creature as pleasant to look at as ... he snaps his eye back up to her smiling eyes about the same time as Halvdan clears his throat and removes his helmet.
A flicker of suspicion sparks in Avegnum's mind as he contemplates how incongruous Thelafel's apparent power and her seeming naivete are. Not a magical practitioner himself he isn't sure of the difficulty that might have been involved, but interfering with a teleport in progress seems fairly staggering. Somewhat more worrying is that the spell that apparently managed this has been functioning for a long time, and improperly at that... So on top of everything, Thelaful might not be in full control of her powers, or something is actively interfering with them for an unknown reason.
ReplyDeleteHead still aching from the surprising collision, Avegnum rubs his cranium as another thought strikes him. While he had initially assumed the barrier was in place to protect Thelaful from her guests, it could very well be keeping her where she was, hence the reason why she had been maintaining a faulty spell in the hopes that someone would eventually be brought to her. The question to most of these ideas still remained: Why?
Avegnum holds back a question as the general presumably prepares to speak, his eyes widening in surprise at what he sees.
General Halvdan stammers at the beautiful woman’s near-nakedness and flirtatious nature. “Um … uh … well … I … uh …” he mutters under his breath as she talks. Suddenly finding his armor much more constrictive than he had just moments earlier he stamps his feet and walks around in circles while Avegnum talks with the lovely, albino drow. The general is dumbfounded.
ReplyDelete“So, look, I’m really sorry about this and all but I do need some help, and I would be more grateful than anyone ever has been in the history of gratefulness in any place anywhere,” Thelafel smiles broadly and pushes her hair back before continuing. “And I can, I mean I will reward you if you help me, it’s just that I am not … I mean I find myself a bit stuck in this place and can’t really leave, so it makes it very hard to do certain things. But if you help me I will be able to get out of here and we can all go home … I must confess, though, it’s not just me that you would be helping, but my father too. My dear father, the only one of my family I have left. You have families don’t you …?”
She rapidly twirls herself around through facing back, then facing the adventurers, then facing back again, before quickly moving to the throne and setting herself upon it. Almost unable to help themselves both men look down and back up again as she sits. The large, dark room they are in seems suddenly rather hot for both even though they are dressed quite oppositely. Thelafel gets herself into a comfortable, partially reclined position before continuing, “I can do certain magical things from here, mostly inside this room, I can help a bit before you go, and I know things about where I want you to go – not everything, but enough to get you prepared some. I know, for instance, if you free my father you will free me as well, either directly or he will free me himself. Am I going to fast? Are you prepared to help me? Do you need help; How can I help you to help me? Or do you want to know more deeply about me and how I got here?”
"So how did you get here...and with that smoking hot body...I can't remember the last time I saw such a vision of beauty." Ha;vdan attempts to lay on the charm, "Tell me Las, just how long have you been here, and do you have any idea what this barrier is?"
ReplyDelete“Well, General, I’m not quite sure I can answer that question. I mean, I’m not exactly sure how my father and I got here in the first place. That’s why I have done so much research, and written so many tomes to keep track of what I know and what I think,” She crosses her legs as she sits up fully, looking very much interested in the conversation at hand, “I’m sure you two may have some ideas of your own as to how I found my way here, but ultimately all I can say is some powerful magic brought us here a very long time ago. I’ve been expanding my magical knowledge ever since and trying to find out what I can to determine where I am, why I am here, how I got here, and how long I have been here. You see, I have no idea how many days have past, no idea when the sun comes up or goes down, no idea when it gets colder and hotter outside. It’s only been recently that I have been able to see and hear outside of this room. I thought I would go crazy for long periods of time, and maybe I did for a while, but now, now I’m so happy to see you two, so happy to have company, so happy my spell that was supposed to call for help brought some people who may be able to help me and my dad. I know it’s been a long time, to long, I should imagine, but I’m not able to watch the sun or the stars or the seasons. I don’t even get hungry or sleepy any more, not since I came here. Not since I was much younger. Nothing changes here, not even me, not my body any way, my ‘smoking hot’ body was it General Halvdan? I only feel chilled here, always chilly but never cold never hot. That’s the reason I brought the lava elemental up. Just having it near me made me warm … But it made me long for companionship, for conversation, for the stimulation of someone else who can talk and tell me of things outside of this prison. Even the ruins below me, with all of it’s death and devastation are a paradise compared to this unending tomb.”
ReplyDeleteShe pauses for a moment while she stands up and walks to the edge of the brightly lit area, then pressing herself against the invisible wall she continues, “This wall, this cube I am trapped in some kind of force effect, some kind of magical barrier that prevents me from getting past in any way except for my thoughts and my magics. I can’t physically penetrate it, but my magic can cause effects out there where you stand, and I can feel the heat of another’s body if you press against it on the other side from me.”
“Do you really think I’m pretty, General?” She asks as she slowly turns around for the two men to gaze upon her, “It’s so hard to tell since I have no friends except for a lava elemental. Everyone below me is so far away, and I haven’t been able to talk to them yet. But now I have the two of you. You can ask me anything you want … anything.”
"That was yours? That thing almost killed us!" Avegnum blurts out in anger. Something clearly bizarre is going on here and yet with all of the actions he could take none seem like they would lead anywhere useful. In a mind cleansing exercise learned on the battlefield the warrior assesses the situation and calms himself. "Can you make it so that the environment doesn't affect us here, and what about bringing our other friend and his horse here?"
ReplyDelete"Of course it was me, silly. Who else would send a lava elemental to gather up some new friends? Unfortunately no one spoke the elemental's language, and your warlock friend decided the elemental was an enemy that had to be attacked, before the elemental did anything even remotely threatening. Once the elemental was attacked ... well, there was little I could do to keep the fight from occurring. I was able to time the teleport precisely, though, as to avoid bringing the angry one here. I mean, that warlock just attacks EVERYTHING without hesitation. I'm not sure I really want him here considering he'll probably just try to attack me since he doesn't know me, or does he attack his friends too? I think all his dalliances with fiends have ... or maybe he was always that way. I guess the path of the warlock attracts a certain kind of person ... see" Thelafel turns the larger of the two mirrors around so the two men can see the reflective side. Instead of a reflection, however, they see a view of Vel from above, as if from the vantage point of a bird flying above the human. They watch and listen as Vel flies to the ruins side of the stone bridge, then removes Fritz from the bag of holding, then watches an ooze-like creature across the street cleaning up the ruined building, then talk to the horse (and now know who Shambles is), then get up on top of Shambles and starts riding deeper into the ruins ever watchful for anything that may try to attack him.
ReplyDelete“You friend is a bit odd, Avegnum, but then that probably applies to anyone who traffics in powers directly from fiends.” She turns the mirror back around and smiles warmly at the two men in front of her, “You see, I’ve been here a long time and have been perfecting my magic as well as a few magical items that I find very useful in gathering information in my quest to free my father. I don’t know how we got here; You would have to ask him as I assume he is doing much the same thing down where he is being imprisoned. And I … hu? Oh, what do you mean sweatheart? How is the environment affecting you here? Are you chilly too? And yes, I can at least try to get the warlock and dead horse here. However, the horse resisted the teleport last time, and either may do so again, AND, there is always the chance that something random happens and the spell doesn’t work quite right. It seems like this place loves to warp magic in some way. I have not been able to figure that out just yet, but I can always try … a little later though, I’m out of spells of that nature for the time being. How about some healing or something?”
Vel flies toward the white obelisk with Shambles in tow. Weaving his way through the buildings he is able to easily avoid the dozen or so cleaning blobs he sees and can direct the horse-form around any obstacles it can’t see from it’s perspective. When about three-fourths of the way there Vel turns around to tell Shambles to turn right to avoid a small collection of cleaners that seem to be congregating for non-cleaning, touchy-feely reasons. It’s then that he realizes Shambles is about to walk into an intersection where a different kind of blobby creature is heading directly for him from the right side of the intersection.
ReplyDeleteThis one is different than the cleaning cubes, though. It moves much faster, has more of an ooze-like shape (rather than a cube with a mollusk’s foot), has variegated colors twisting within the sack-like body, is covered with dark spots that shift between eye-like structures, ear-like structures and mouth-like structures, and has spines that poke out of it, then twist on themselves and split, becoming pincers, and then twist and grow until they resemble smooth tentacles before being reabsorbed back into the jelly-looking structureless form.
When Vel sees the two, Shambles is about 10 feet from the intersection and the approaching creature is about 40 feet from the intersection. Though Shambles does not seem to see or hear the new creature, the approaching ooze-thing looks like it’s heading straight for the skeletal horse at top speed.
"Well fair enough, sorry about your friend," Avegnum says politely. Pausing in thought before continuing, "Actually Vel has been acting a little strangely since we got here and that time it seemed like he died... Are you sure his powers come from fiends? I've never encountered such beings and thought they were just stories told to scare people. And sure, some healing would be great. Your friend, and the other beasties of the jungle have put up a hell of a fight and we've been getting torn apart out there. Ever since we got here it's been extremely hot, for Vel and me at least, and the air seems very thin. Our friend had been protecting us from the elements but now that she's gone we'll probably start feeling the effects fairly soon. If there's anything you could do in that regard we'd definitely be more inclined to try and help you with your problem. You also seem to be the one with at least part of the answer to what's going on around here."
ReplyDeleteAvegnum sits cross legged on the floor and indulges in the pleasant angle it gives him to view Thelaful from. "Oh, if you also happen to have some armor or weaponry in my size that would be great too. I figure why not ask, you might just have something lying around, you know?"
***
The amorphous entity belies classification though Vel still tries to see if he can think of anything pertinent he might have hear about such a thing. (K.Arcana/Planes/Religion) While doing so he tries to pitch his voice so that the horse will be ale to hear him but not the approaching creature, "Pssst! Shambles, turn around! Something's coming!"
Vel then ascends another ten feet and pauses as he collects his thoughts, if the undead horse didn't hear him he might have to attack, nervous sweat inducing as that prospect might be...
Vel recognizes the ooze-like antagonist as a chaos beast - a much feared foe of randomness, not really evil, but still prone to attacking anything it can. Vel knows they continually change into any form, are resistant to magical energy, immune to transformative magics, and cause living creatures they touch to change into ooze-like, spongy puddles. Just as he realizes what he is looking at the fast moving chaos creature, and hesitantly walking horse collide in a mess of bones, tentacles, teeth, eyes, barding and fur. Shambles takes a solid hit from the impact.
ReplyDeleteRoll initiative please.
General Halvdan senses Fritz is in distress of some sort.
Delete8 For Vel, 15 For Avegnum if needed.
ReplyDeleteStopped in it's tracks by the impact Shambles kicks at the slimy ooze-like creature a couple times and tries to bite it. Only one of the kicks hits the enemy for 6 points of damage. The enemy is now down to 88% health. It strikes back at Shambles with two razor-and-spike edged tentacle with mace-like bulbous ends. Only one hits for another 5 points of damage. Shambles is down to about 25% health now (will have to check computer at home). Vel is up next and about a total of 100 feet away from the chaos beast with Shambles directly on the opposite side.
DeleteChaos beast is at 88% health.
DeleteShambles is at 23% unhealthy.
"If he wasn't a fiendish warlock before he came here, I bet he is now. I've seen lots of people influenced by the evil below in many ways. Those above ground, though, are either affected in their dreams, which makes them act more and more crazy, or they are changed when they die and something brings them back. It's odd to think that an evil force will raise the dead, but whenever it happens the person comes back tainted by evil and one of those constructs is created as well. The construct hangs around for a while trying to get the raised person to allow the construct to fix them, and if they don't the construct tries to kill them. Usually the construct wins. The more powerful the person was before they died the more powerful the construct is that is created. I'm not sure what they do but after the two meld the person goes from being evil to being good. Some people go crazy, most are just confused. So I guess, now that your warlock, Vel, I think, has melded with his construct he should no longer have the evil influence that he used to from below. I’ll try to bring him back first thing tomorrow, after I have a chance to rest and recover my spells. In the mean time …”
ReplyDeleteAt this point Thelafel Nikiu firmly presses herself against the force barrier, as if to give the attentive Avegnum a show, and begins casting a spell. When she finishes both of the men feel the tingly sensations of having been healed (22 for General Halvdan, and 29 For Avegnum) all over their bodies.
“As far as the hot and the thin air, I can send you below ground, and from what I see you won’t have problems with either of these. Though, if you do agree to free my father you will have other things to worry about, and I’ll gladly tell you about those and aid you any way I can initially, then grant you anything you want, that I can conjure up, when you return with him. So what do you two think?” Her final question comes with a gentle smile and a small laugh.
Avegnum rolls his eyes and sighs thinking, 'Frelled if we do, frelled if we don't.'
ReplyDelete"Sounds as fine as we can expect Thelaful, and thank you for your help. I suppose if you wouldn't mind talking a bit more about 'the evil below'... it just sounds a bit ominous. Then once Vel gets here tomorrow we can try and sort things out with freeing you and your father if we can," Avegnum says more reasonably than he feels.
"Alright, Avegnum, I'll tell you what I know, what I can tell you, but first let me make you a deal, and give you some time to think about it. How about this: I will heal you guys up and augment you in any way we can think of, within regular magical reason, and I will grant you each one wish before you go and three wishes each when you set dad free. Now, wishes can be anything, of course, but my power to fulfill them is not unlimited – not until I am free, that is. Once you set my father free, he can set me free if the process of setting him loose does not also remove this force barrier. Think about it sirs, and let me know if you accept my proposition, or wish to modify it any?”
ReplyDeleteShe continues, allowing the two men some time to think over what she has proposed to them, “Now, on to what I know about “The Evil Below” and how to set dad free. To be truthful, I don’t know exactly where he is being held, nor what he is being held in, but I do know he is below the city ruins below us. I can feel him down there along with the extreme evil that the talking creatures in the ruins call “The Evil Below”. I don’t know what this evil force is, but I can sense it’s power, and I think it is at least partially responsible for me and my father being brought here and for my partial memory loss of my life before being here. I also assume it is responsible for keeping me trapped up here, my father down there, and assume it has treated him the same way it treats me (the timelessness I experience, as well as the modified magics).”
After taking a breath and pausing a short moment in thought, Thelafel continues with her story, “I’ve seen some of the creatures that come out from below, and a little of the below, but my ability to penetrate into the damp, darkness down below in somewhat limited. Mostly the creatures are oozy, slimy things that drip, drag, and dangle rubbery, arm-like, appendages with hooks and suckers, all waving about in the air and striking their enemies and food. Quite a large number of their victims seem to melt away into puddles of flesh colored pools of slimy, sloppiness that the tentacled oozes than suck up, and I assume, devour. There are other creatures, but these seem to be the worst of the bunch.”
She takes in a deeper breath and looks very concerned with what she is about to say next, “These creatures are not the worst part, though. The place itself seems to hold some kind of power that effects those who go there. You encountered a little of it with your warlock being reborn more evil than normal, and possibly more weird than usual. Below ground the effects are stronger. I have seen people having nightmares while both asleep and awake. They tend to become insane in some way if they start having these nightmares or waking visions. Things, living things, also have attendance to be altered into some slimy, ooze-like, tentacled caricature of what they formerly were. Many of those so altered are also driven insane. I think that’s where the random wet bags that exist on the surface come from. In addition to all this, those who die have a strong tendancy to be automatically raised but in some kind of undead state. I’m no expert on undeath, but they do seem strange even for being undead. Some kind of self-tormented, self-loathing undead creatures that start off just like they were when alive but degrade into insane, slimy, tentacle creatures that just eat and eat. Thankfully they usually run off looking for food so you probably won’t have to deal with them. Let me think some and give you a chance to formulate any questions you may have.”
"Well dren, general, sounds like we get to walk into some sort of crazy hell. We'll have to deal with the creatures, probably acid or diseases of some sort, mental stresses, all while having no real idea where we're going, doing, or will really be facing..," Avegnum trails off. Rubbing a palm across his face in exasperation at their situation the warblade's mind races in thought. The offer of some form of wish is extremely tantalizing, but what could he ask for that would increase their chances of survival?
ReplyDelete"What do you think would be useful, Halvdan. Not really sure what your backgorund is like but maybe you've had experience with this sort of stuff?" Avegnum asks thoughtfully as he ponders the situation.
"And that's why I've done all that I have in the recent past, who knows how long, to save my dad! I'm really not a bad person!" She excitedly blurts out quickly while the two men debate whether to do this good deed, what kind of augmentations to ask for to aid in the quest, and what wish to request before beginning the quest.
ReplyDelete"If you need some privacy you can step over there and I'll make you a shelter for the evening where you can talk and rest and recover from the day." She continues after a short pause, though much more slowly and calmy, and with a smile and a wink.
"Oh we'll definitely help you Thelaful, I'm just not entirely sure how to prepare. Off the top of my head any sort of augmentation that would protect us from evil or the elements here would at least help us get around a little bit more easily, oh, and maybe toss in some regeneration if you can?" Avegnum says as he heads for the shelter the being is creating. "Personally I'd wish for a damfine set of armor and weaponry cause you know we'll be neck deep in it before this is over."
ReplyDeleteWhispering to himself in a soft voice and a sad expression on his face, "Or maybe to be able to see Kaellanna once more, that might just be worth it. Hezmana! I don't know what I'm saying, but maybe I could wish for her to be sent home.."
Thelafel casts a spell and a shimmery doorway appears near the two men. "Through there you will find a place you can rest, recover, and eat in preparation for tomorrow. I'll wait here and think about what magics would help you the most in this quest. I'll prepare some anti-evil spells for the group for tomorrow. How about some magic circle against evil? I'll think about that and let you know tomorrow. General, please think what you would like as well, and I will try to comply" the albino drow responds before heading back to her bookshelves and beginning to read through some of her books.
ReplyDelete"I could use a few spells." Halvdan thinks a moment, "Got anything that could take us back to our party, and my beloved dead horse?" Halvdan goes into the doorway
ReplyDelete"Or just bring them here so they can all enjoy in the fun," Avegnum says over his shoulder as he follows Halvdan through the archway. "Oh, make sure to get your own rest too, beautiful. We just might need your help from here when we get down there tomorrow."
ReplyDeleteGo ahead with Vel's action this round, Kyle. I'm going to run this combat verbally, if possible. Ask any questions you have and we will see how it goes.
ReplyDeleteVel can only think of three things to do in this situation, try and hit the chaos beast with his magical blast, run away, or the... alternative... Rummaging in his bag of holding Vel extracts two 1lb packs of salt and tears them open as he pours them on the creature, hoping to get a reaction similar to what would happen if you poured salt on a slug. Barring that, the human warlock figures it might distract the beast or at least give it something 'tastier' to lick rather than Fritz.
ReplyDeleteHovering over the bloated sack-like thing full of teeth, tentacles, eyeballs and ears Vel dumps a full two pounds of salt on the beast. It forms and opens a mouth and gobbles up the salt with gusto, snapping at the air and belching when there is no more to eat. This leaves it with only one of it's two attacks available for Shambles. The horse doesn't fare well, though, taking another 5 point of damage from the tentacled, salivating, bite-like punch of the chaos blob. Shambles gives better than it got this time. Both hooves hit the disgusting slimy, solid, furry thing; The chaos beast takes 15 points of damage before it's Vel's turn again.
ReplyDeleteVel is now 15' directly above the chaos beast.
I will double check my numbers but I believe Fritz-Shambles is about 14% unhealth, and chaos is about 57% health.
"Damn" Vel shouts. Apparently his ploy didn't work as well as hoped and so now he falls back on simply blasting the creature. He flies up another 10 feet and then lets loose for 15 damage, Caster Level Check 21.
ReplyDeleteThe imprisoned albino drow spell caster, or at least wish granter, nods in agreement with the two men as they head into the shimmery door. Passing through they find themselves in a room about 30' wide and 60' deep. Down the middle of the room is a large table set with all manner of anything consumable as food. Anything they would have wished for is on a plate, in abundance, as if she had read their minds before they even knew what they wanted, or even knew they wanted it. Lining the walls are about three dozen mostly transparent humanoid-looking individuals in semi-transparent clothing reminiscent of high-classed servers from Thrane, Karrnath, and Breland. A disembodied voice echoing from above, from the 30' high ceiling amidst the three chandeliers hanging and providing a level of light both brite and conforting, “Dinner is served. Please seat yourselves anywhere you find available and eat anything you wish for. Any needs you may have will be attended to by the servants, or myself, depending on the requirements. Enjoy.”
ReplyDeleteVel blasts a solid hole in the chaos beast, causing it to squeal in pain, or possibly pleasure, it's difficult to tell with such an alien beast. Even though it takes considerable damage, the wound seals shut, not so much healing as simply closing, just before Shambles attacks the creature. Clubbing it with a hoof, the horse's victory is short lived, or unlived, as the chaos beast lurches out with two mouth covered, barbed tentacles that smack the horse into a pile of unmoving bones. Turning it's many eyes to Vel the chaos beast lurches, snaps and swings at the warlock but is unable to reach him.
ReplyDeleteVel is up, and the chaos beast it at 8% chaotic health.
"Nooooo, Shambles!" VEl cries out in loss at his clattery friend. In retaliation he launches another blast at the beast for 10 damage, Caster Level Check 18.
ReplyDelete***
Meanwhile, Avegnum digs into the food at the table drinks a copious amount of water to replace the fluids lost sweating through the jungle and fighting the magma giant. Once sated he asks one of the Thranish servers to lead him to his sleeping area and promptly passes out, ignoring the tingling suspicion that this place may not really be safe.
Like a fish bladder water skin full of blood pudding and milk the chaos beast pops and deflates with it's mouths and arms, legs, tentacles, eyeballs, and everything else half formed oozing out. Vel has won the battle. Vel gets 675 XP. We never discussed this but Vel finds himself unable to go up in level as a warlock any more due to being lawful good now. He retains all the abilities he had for 8th level. He can pick another class/prestige class, or just not go up in the hope of getting back to chaos or evil someday.
ReplyDelete--- --- ---
Avegnum scarfs down the absolute best meal he has ever had in all three of his lifetimes (human, halfling, mongrelfolk), and the most refreshing water ever in existence washes away his sorrows and the woes of the day. He finds himself invigorated and rejuvenated by the meal, and quite ready to sleep. Almost as if he has had to much alcohol to drink, though he drank none of it, he stumbles behind a mostly translucent servant who leads him through some doors, down a hall, upstairs, down more halls and through several corners, beyond another door, and in to a room complete with all the comforts any of the leaders of Thrane could ever want. He falls asleep quickly in a plush bed more decadent than any he has ever had the coin to sleep in, and probably ever will. His sleep is sound, and dreamless. Uninterrupted with any concerns.
General Halvdan eats as well, though much slower, and drinks several different beers that he recognizes from the five human nations of Khorvaire, but has never had the money, time, or lack-of-war to drink any of. He enjoys them all greatly in their vastly different styles, and even though these are the best he has ever had, he knows, secretly, deep down in the pit of his soul, that he could make much better beer, and that one day, probably far in the future, these beers will no longer rate as his life-time favorites. The general also goes to bed and sleep the sleep of a man unconcerned with war, conquest, leading or the undead. He too has no dreams, that he remembers anyway. It is as he fades off to sleep that he realizes he has not felt the empathic link to his mount ever since he entered the shimmery doorway that lead him to the beer fest.
--- --- ---
Vel is all by himself in the mid-day sun floating around the inner workings of the ruins of a gigantic city seemingly built for people some 15’ to 30’ tall. He makes his way to the gigantic obelisk, managing to avoid a few other of the chaos beasts, and the cleaner ooze-cubes. At the foot of the tower it looks almost warped when he looks up to the top. The top looks like it could be 100 levels high. 100 human-sized levels anyway. Gleaming white it looks like it’s made of pure white marble with seems so small they are invisible, or perhaps no seems, and perfect 90 degree angles as if it had just been erected the day before and it much younger than the ruined part of the city.
Standing next to it Vel feels more comfortable – not as much heat, not as much glare – he no longer squints to see more than 10’ in front of him and does not feel the sauna-like heat enveloping him like a giant furry fist. In the calm, almost coolness of the obelisk’s shadow Vel begins to feel like he is being watched. He can see no one else be gets the distinct feeling that someone, somewhere, is watching everything he is doing. Someone is keeping track of all his actions and making notes. Someone … No, more than just someone. Vel is certain more than one thing is watching him somehow.
Before Vel flew over to the tower could he stop to collect Shambles' bones? He's hoping there's something miraculous Halvdan might be able to do with them and if not he wants to give them a proper burial somewhere.
DeleteVel uses K.Arcana in an attempt to study the warping at the base of the tower and Detect Magic to see if it was used to construct it and hold it together.
ReplyDeleteBreathing a sigh of relief at the suddenly bearable atmosphere, Vel flies around the tower to see if he can find some sort of entrance and if this proves fruitless at this level he flies up towards the pinnacle to continue his search, desperately hoping his friends will appear out of the blue to tell him what to do next.
As long as he has space in his sack Vel is able to collect all the bones, armor, riding gear, and barrels of ale before heading toward the obelisk.
ReplyDeleteLooking through the lens of his magic detecting ability Vel is overwhelmed by the intensity of the aura the obelisk is generating. After a few seconds of squinting against the glare of the magical aura Vel determines that it is of the Universal school of magic. Given the intensity of the tower's magical aura Vel is certain that if the warping is not an optical illusion (non-magical), than it is most certainly a magical effect, though he has no idea what the intended purpose of such a magical affect would be.
Flying around the obelisk Vel finds no entrance. He continues flying up and around the tower searching for a way to get in. He finds none all the way up. After about a half hour he reaches the top and finds the pyramidal tip of the obelisk actually floats about 50' above the flattenend top end of the lower section. He can see a small river of water pouring out of a hole in the bottom the obelisk's floating tip. The water hits the flat top of the bottom, shaft-like, section and then runs in a channel to the north east side of the obelisk before disappearing down a hole in the obelisk's side. From this vantage point Vel now see's a large watery, swampy, mossy area in the north east section of the ruins, and a small river a water flowing from the direction of the obelisk to the watery area.
Also on the underside of the obelisk’s floating tip Vel sees what looks like a door within a door within a door, which would allow many different sizes of creature to pass though if open. From this side he only sees the door outlines, with no indications of handles of opening devices of any sort.
None of the obelisk walls or the walls of the floating pyramidal tip have any sort of open doors or windows. The top of the tip has a large flame bursting from it flaming up a good 50’ in the air, and is quite possibly the source of the light Vel saw the evening prior.
"Well this is downright strange, and didn't seem to help very much," Vel mutters to himself. With the rest of the group there are clearly a number of areas they could explore but on his own Vel is fairly uncertain as to his next course of action. Floating down to the flat top of the obelisk, the human kneels by the trickle of water and smells it carefully and inspects a cupped handful to see if he can detect any unusual magical aura surrounding it. If seems fine to his scrutiny he will drink it. Sitting there he leans back on his arms and glances up at the concentric doorways as a thought suddenly hits him.
ReplyDeleteWhile there might not be any handle on this side, the doorways seeem to suggest that their is an inside to the floating structure, and possibly someone/thing inside. Flying up he knocks several times on the center most door to see if he can get a response of some kind.
Vel detects no magic from the water, and it appears to the nothing but pure, cool water. He's even tempted to stand under the falling river an allow it to cool him and bathe him and rehydrate him. But he only drinks some, then suddenly consumed with the idea of getting in the floating top part flies up and knocks on the smallest of the concentric portals. It feels and sounds like solid stone, as if there is no empty space behind it. But why have a door if there is nothing to go into ... Vel waits but gets no response.
ReplyDeleteAll the way up where Vel is he still manages to hear a faint splashing which draws his attention to the northeast below him. Looking into the area where the swampy-marshy place is he sees a dark cloud-like form floating above the swampy-marshy are. Attempting to judge distance and geometrics he feel certain the swampy area is about 1.5 miles long and ranges from 1 to 0.5 miles wide. The floating, misty, bag-like creature looks to be about 100 feet long, and floating maybe a couple hundred feet above the thick, green water and trees and slimy, giant fungus.
ReplyDelete"Hmm, given our experiences here that thing isn't going to be too friendly, I'm just going to stay away." Flying to the far side of the obelisk to put its bulk between him and the gas bag creature, Vel tries blasting at the floating pyramid to see if his eldritch blasts have any affect on it or the energy emanating from it.
ReplyDeleteVel blasts away at the floating obelisk tip, while standing underneath it, and watches in horror as his eldritch blast reflects off the stone surface, directly back at him and hits him for 4d6+1=18 damage. Now he knows what it's like to be at the other end of one of his blasts. He's not to fond of the experience, but he can retry it if he thinks it was fun.
ReplyDeleteAter this interesting and educational experience Vel suddenly realizes the sun is about to start setting. Seems like it should only be about mid-day, but the sun is beginning to pass behind the jagged, teeth-like mountains to the west (presumably that is the west). Vel finds himself tired, as if a full day had pass, but is quite certain it's only been a half day at most.
Before the sun sets Vel sees, off in the distance of the fetid swampy watery are to the northeast, that there is a smaller tower rising out of the swamp water a few hundred feet. It looks similar to the obelisk he is on but much smaller and with no pointy tip at its top. He is only able to see this as the bag-like object floats past the tower to reveal it. As darkness sets he sees the bag like structure dip down into the water with a rubbery tentacle and scoop something out before delivering it to the underside of the dark mass.
ReplyDelete"Ouch!" Vel cries out at getting zapped. Patting out smoldering portions of clothing he decides that while the tower has not been as helpful as he'd hoped it did let him see the other tower. Making sure to keep a distance of 100ft between himself and the amorphous blob cloud beast, he flies around the edges of the swampy area to investigate the other tower before he loses all of the light for the day.
ReplyDeleteVel begins flying toward the northeast, attempting to avoid any possible adversaries. Any ooze-like creatures he sees below either ignore him or don’t see him at all. Knowing what he does about oozes he figures he is just too far away to be detected by the mindless and sightless creatures. After twenty minutes Vel realizes the fetid swamp area is much farther away then he realized. Soon the sun sets. Disturbingly, no stars or moons are visible. In fact, beyond his vision the only thing Vel can see is the fire atop the obelisk he came from, and a putrid yellow-green, dull glow coming off the rotten swamp area. He realizes he is about 1/3 of the way to the swamp, and can be to the glowing area in another short hour.
ReplyDeleteAfter another half hour Vel finds himself, as expected, about 2/3 of the way to the glowing diseased-looking swamp. He realizes, however, that it has been a good long time since he saw the floating, black, bag-like creature with at least one very long tentacle. Vel suddenly feels the grip of panic with the realization that this unknown black creature could very well be nearly invisible in the almost absolute darkness of this star-less night. His curiosity pushes him on, though causing him to slow down but continue to the glowing swamp.
Having grown tired in the long flight Vel finally settles in at the edge of the swamp area. …
More to come in the next couple days ...
Vel lands next to the fetid, sickening swamp. The first thing he notices is how much larger it is than he thought. Originally looking only a few miles across, he can see the sickly green glow for several miles both to his right and his left. The over powering stench causes him to wretch and almost vomit, which brings his sight to the ground. Looking at the grass below him, and then straightening up to look in to the swamp and at the swamp, he realizes everything in it is made of some mixture of green, brown, black and yellow molds, oozes, slimes and jellies. It's a slightly throbbing mass of an undulating, almost breathing, collection of wet, stickiness, and fungoid structures. It's oozing, pulsating, jiggling dirtiness makes Vel's skin crawl, and crawling amongst the multi-colored form Vel spies a multitude of insect-like life. Large red millipedes and orange beetles scramble from under the grass-like structures on which he stands and head deeper into the glowing swamp. It's now he realizes his feet have sunk a few inches into the swamp, and his own acidic skin has begun to ooze again, seemingly in symbiotic response to the throbbing jelly and mushroom trees. Though the smell overtook him initially, he begins finding it pleasant, in a sweaty sweetness. All around him red spots open up throughout the swamp and arrange themselves like a sleeper's newly opened eyes. They focus on him and blink, slighlt out of time with each other , giving the slime swamp an almost wave-like feeling of motion. Side-to-side the eyes blink. Vel finds it soothing like the gentle rocking of a boat - soothing like the giggle of a baby as the eye-like structures pop open and closed, and the slime-trees sway gently in no breeze. Vel finally realizes he's feeling better after accidentally blasting himself. The longer he stands at the swamp's edge, and slowly settles deeper into the jelly-grass the better he feels. Vel realizes the rotten swamp is healing him.
ReplyDeleteGeneral Halvdan and Avegnum Nor both wake in their respective rooms. Each room is fully ornimented with furniture and fixings appropriate to the homelands of both men: Thrane for Avegnum, and Karrnath for Halvdan. Both hear soft music from their homelands. Both are fully healed and happy in spirit. Neither feels any altitude or heat ill effects. Both have slept better than they can ever remember having slept. Both hunger for breakfast, but only slightly, and both find themselves naked with the armor, and scraps of clothes they wore last night fully cleaned, mended and sitting next to their beds. Both are free to act as they see fit …
ReplyDeleteThe General and the triple born find their surroundings fading nothingness and then there they are naked and facing each other and standing in the austere surroundings of Thelafel's prison. Their cleaned and mended equipment sits next to each of them. What do the two do?
ReplyDeleteVel activates the Devil's Sight invocation to see normally in darkness (magical/mundane) out to a distance of 30ft. in order to prevent any non friendly wrigglies from sneaking up on him. Enjoying the soothing and healing sensation of the pulsating swamp he shifts his footing after he has sunk in half way up his shin in order to not get stuck permanently. After he has healed for a while he'll go and try to find a branch in a tree at teh edge of teh area to sleep on for the night if possible.
ReplyDelete---
"Well this is awkward," Vel says as he looks away from his naked companion as he pulls on his halfling pant shorts. Feeling invigorated from the restful night, Vel is eager to get abck into the near certain death inducing action of the cursed jungle. "Thelaful?" he calls, "Any chance you've found where our friend is or have any goodies to help us explore the below area for you?"
While he waits for a response Vel begins to go through his morning blade drills to loosen his mongrelly muscles.
Vel can see out to 30’ with his devil sight, beyond that the slimy area is dimly self-illuminated by glowing fungus and slimes, only some of which are moving. The glow extends 10-15’ beyond the area composed of oozes, slimes, molds, and fungus, and gives everything a dull green hue like old dead leaves. A good 20’ deeper into the glowing, rotten, healing , slimy expanse of oozing molds with red-eyed spots watching the modified human, Vel finds a suitable tree-like shape with limp, drippy leaf-like structures appearing to grow out of mushroom textured branch-like shapes that jut out of a trunk more like a fungus than a tree.
ReplyDeleteVel finds himself sleepy, but fully healed and feeling quite good, if much hotter than he would like. His acidic oozing skin has not stopped oozing, though it is not acidic or at least not burning anything. He simply looks as if someone had dipped him is clear oil, and feel that way as well. Vel sleeps at the foot of the mushroom and slime tree, not trusting the structure to hold him. At first he only hears the squishy settling sounds of wetness and then he falls asleep happily.
Avegnum and Halfdan get dressed in dimly lit awkwardness. Each tries to keep their eyes level. The enspelled woman behind the invisible walls giggles as they dress. The two men finish and make their way over to Thelafel. She points behind to the other side of the magical cage she is in. Both me see Vel laying in the fetal position. He appears to have a thin translucent cocoon surrounding him. Even covered in this layer of slime he smiles as he sleeps, looking very much like a baby in his slumbering happiness.
ReplyDelete"I have protected you all from evil, anything more ... I am not sure what you want. You each get a wish, remember, and, oh ... I haven't found your elf yet. Still looking for that" Thelafel tells them after they have a chance to put all their equipment back on. Behind the albino drow they see one of her mirrors, the smaller one, showing a scene of several drow hunters surrounding a large very feral, and possibly fiendish, looking black cat. “This is the only thing interesting I found last night. But it looks like those hunters are going to kill it,” she finishes before waving away the scene from the mirror, looking at the two awake men and asks, “Are you ready to go?”
Avegnum is wondering what the feasibility would be of being granted the ability to summon 2/day a creature from the Summon Monster VII spell list with his wish. Given the unknowable numbers that might be out in the jungle he figures any way to get some more allies would be beneficial.
ReplyDelete"That's a very specific request, my friend in rather small pants. Wouldn't you rather be protected a bit, I mean you are so vitally exposed to any slings or arrows that may want to harm you. I like your specificity - unfortunately a single wish would be a single summoning of a certain creature, or perhaps a collection of lesser creatures. I can promise you I will be watching and helping in any way I can – any way that is short of my promised wishes – each one takes so much out of me, but I am willing to do them to get my father back. I could make you a wand to summon creatures, but it would only be empowered with a 4th circle spell or lesser. How about a ring of invisibility, or a magic suit of armor, or I can make your sword holy, or a wand to heal you, or maybe a little more strength, or how about a purse that always has a whole lot of gold in it … a maybe a rod that sucks the life and vitality out of those you hit with it? But really, it’s up to you … within the limits of a regular Wish spell, of course.”
ReplyDeleteVel wakes from his restful sleep and has the fleeting memories of a dream chased away by the realization that he is surrounded by some gelatinous material and that he is no longer in the fungus-slime swamp but now in a dimly lit cold place on a cold stone floor. As he looks around, seeing an almost naked elf-like woman in the midst of a brightly lit area, then his old friend Avegnum and the new friend General Halfdan, arousing him in several different ways at nearly the same time, his memories of the dream fade. As he stands and wipes himself free of the nearly translucent, sticky substance all he can recall of the dream is the sense of unknown and overwhelming dread that surrounded him, the maniacal half animals that were taunting him, the realization that he is no longer the same person he thought he was, and the feeling that even though he is all alone, he will soon no longer be so, though there will be much sadness and suffering by many people.
ReplyDeleteAvegnum is somewhat saddened at discovering the complexity of his request but isn't very surprised, he hasn't had any experience with wishing before so thought he'd go a bit excessive, within reason of course. Thinking over Thelaful's suggestions he's leaning heavily towards armor or the holy weapon given the strange resistances creatures here seem to have from living in the magical jungle. "Given your knowledge of the area Thelaful, what do you think would be more helpful, m'lady - armor or an imbued weapon?"
ReplyDeleteA response to the question is interrupted as Vel wakes up and shouts, "GUYS! You're ok! I've been having the craziest time out there... Oh, Mr. General, Shambles... he didn't make it."
Sniffling, Vel takes out all of the bones of Shambles he could find and hopes the General can do something with them. Still disconcerted by his dreams, Vel eyes the albino drow warily before looking away in embarrassment at her near nudity. "Who, uh, who is this?"
Looking suddenly serious and intent upon Vel the imprisoned arcanist replies, "Well, Vel, I guess you could say I am the reason you are all here. My name is Thelafel, and I have been trapped here a very long time. Some fiendish force has entombed my father below the city and trapped me here above it - I believe you are aware of this force of which I speak, right? I have been watching you all and have seen your fiendish endowments and the nature of your 'rebirth' at the whim of the lands below. I have seen this kind of rebirth many a time, and it never went well for those around the reborn individual, like your giant friend to the south. But you have chosen the healing provided by your nemesis clone, as I have never seen anyone else do, so I am unsure what your inclinations are now; Though you are still a warlock, are you not?"
ReplyDelete"I have cast a spell to summon help for myself and my father. The vile influence below warped the nature of my magic, as it does most times I try to cast outside of my prison chamber, and has resulted in many people being kidnapped and brought here from far away lands. I have been unable to interact with the people brought here, and they simply died at the hands of drow, or giants, or oozing, tentacled things, until now, until your group. I know it has been many years, but how long I can not say; I have no need to eat, or sleep, or even breath, as I used to so I have lost track of days, and time altogether, as you have experienced the oddness of the flow of time in this place. I have lost much of my memories from before, but I have been here long enough to develop many spells and build myself a small library of knowledge in case my memories are lost again. I have magically created everything in this invisible chamber of mine, but have not been able to extract myself from it. My magics work fully through the invisible barriers in the chamber beyond, but beyond that it is a game of chance if the magic will work at all, or work weirdly.”
“I have offered your friends here the opportunity to help free my father below for a granted wish now, and three more when it is over – They have accepted and are in the process of determining what they want. I will also grant you any abjurations you feel necessary or needed for the trials ahead, beginning with the simplest of protectiveness against evil. Anything else you ask for I will do my best to accommodate. Avegnum has asked for my input, and I am inclined thusly: Your weapon is already magical is it not Avegnum? You are presently dressed even more lightly than I am, so my suggestion would be for armoring yourself rather than a more robust weapon. As far as what you will meet: It will all be evil to a degree you have never seen before. Evil, like a fiend is evil. Perhaps it is the nature of Vel’s powers that has allowed my magic to catch him and his group and bring them here. My magic having been influenced by the evil below, and Vel’s own eldritch powers originating from the ancient fiends that pre-date the age of giants.”
Thelafel changes back from the serious nature of her monologue to the happy and playful way she has been until now, “So there you have it, my new friends. Any more questions? I am happy to answer them as best I can. What wish would you like granted, Vel, before going below, and what protections would you enjoy from me?” The beautiful woman blinks up at the three men expectantly … waiting.
"Thank you, Vel," The General responds gruffly, "You can leave the bones, they mean nothing to me, but the barrels, did you save the barrels too? Those are my best beer. I'll take the barding too. I can use it for my next mount. Looks like I'll be a foot soldier for the next month or so," then directing his attention to the albino drow, who has let her see-through nightgown fall completely open in apparent disinterest in pretending at modesty, as far as the promised wish, would you be able to add to my sword? Presently it flames on command, but how about something greater, something more effective against the creatures we will fight below? How about a fiend flayer?"
ReplyDelete"No, no, I mean yes to the fiend flayer, but actually, yes to the bones as well. Please leave them right here next to this invisible wall by dear young human" Thelafel responds to the general and Vel.
Thelafel casts a spell, then says, "Okay, General, your sword is augmented. Avegnum, do you want any specif kind of magical armor or just something I throw together? And how about you, Vel, have you figured out what wish you would like? Then after that, any additional protections? Other than from evil, I mean. Finally, i'll send the lot of you to the entrance of the area I know my father is being held in. Okay?"
ReplyDeleteAvegnum mulls it over and things that a Chain Shirt (Mithral if possible with whatever enhancmenet bonus Thelaful can get away with) would be great.
ReplyDeleteVel isn't really sure what to ask for but thinks being a little bit more dexterous could be helpful. He also blushes profusely and looks away at Thelaful's exposure.
Avegnum thinks the group will need Endure Elements and what about Pass without Trace in case the group needs to be sneaky?
Thelafel casts another spell and Avegnum finds himself clad in shiney, light breast plate armor. It is obviously mithral, though not the chain shirt he requested. Thelafel begins casting again while the group gathers itself up and General Halvdan swings his newly magicked sword around.
ReplyDeleteThelafel casts another spell and Vel's gloves glow for a bit and his boots change to match them. As the glow fades Thelafel begins casting another spell.
ReplyDeleteThe entrapped albino drow spell caster casts a final spell and after a flash the party with no name finds itself in darkness again. Except for Vel who sees with his devil sight that the group is now in a natural passageway off from a natural cavern. The only unnaturalness about it is a carved passageway cut out from the natural stone. Though looking carved, the stone has no marks as if it grew into exact angles. Looking through the passageway he sees a continuation of more natural underground passageway but through that only darkness beyond his unnatural vision. All three members of the party suddenly understand what their new magic items do for them and how to activate them. I will post these details soon.
ReplyDeleteAvegnum now knows that his armor is +1 mithral breastplate with acid resistance 10 and endure elements. Vel knows his gloves have been augmented to +4 and that his boots now make him untrackable and improve his base land speed by 30' as well as make it impossible to slow or stop his movement for up to 10 minutes each day. General Halvdan giggles and laughs while he swings his sword around causing it to crackle and bristle with the power of lightning and the hurls a minot bolt of pure force energy down the hallway into which the group is facing. In the light of the lightning energy the warlock and warblade see Halvdan exibiting an expression og joy, insanity and pure aggression. After throwing a few bolts of energy at the walls the group settles down and contemplates it's next course of action ...
ReplyDelete"Frell!" Avegnum curses at the darkness. "She did say we'd need to go below didn't she?"
ReplyDeleteStill somewhat angry, the warrior's muttering trail off as he comes to appreciate the feel of the new, light armor that the albino drow crafted out of thin air, energy, and will. Vel does the same as he examines his 'gifts', but quickly turns to studying the strange tunnel the trio have found themselves in.
Whispering with a new found respect sense of suspicion and danger, "I can see a ways down here guys, but the cave tunnel isn't natural I don't think. One of you may want to light a torch so you two can see but that might attract unwanted attention if we need to be sneaky. What do you think general?"
Vel hopes the question might bring Halvdan back to reality as he exchanges a concerned look with Avegnum, both had witnessed the insanity the other warrior had displayed while testing his weapon.
Halvdan's sword no longer flames, and the General swings it around angrily muttering his command word to make it flame, but this only results in turning the electrical charge on and off, "Damned Witch!" Halvdan roars with no regard for his new surroundings, "She killed the flames from my magnificent sword and made it like an airship, all crackling like lightning. When I get a chance I'll beat that whore until she gives me back the fire!" He bellows in a gasping voice as he finds himself winded from his exertion. Putting his 'defective' sword away Halvdan pants a little while grumbling to himself. As the General begins to calm down, Avegnum realizes his hands are shaking slightly like an old man who has never had a Cure Disease spell cast on him. At about the same time Vel realizes he no longer has complete control of the acidic liquid the oozes out of his skin. What is coming out of him now does not seem to be melting anything, but he can’t stop the outflow. As Halvdan’s sudden anger subsides he comes to realize he can’t catch his breath – as if he had just run five miles. He suddenly becomes angry again at the outrage of not being able to breath quite right, and though he recognizes this anger is uncalled for he finds he can’t stop the rage from building up inside him until he screams at the top of his diminished lungs. All three men realize that even though they have been in worse situations … after all nothing is happening right now … a determined sense of sorrowful anticipation has embedded itself in each of their stomachs and struggles to move its way upward like a worm crawling for their brains – which of course makes Halvdan angry again.
ReplyDelete"Hey will you be quiet?" Avegnum demands, attempting to shake the strange sensation from his limbs by focusing on Halvdan's bizarre behavior.
ReplyDelete"Yeah, you always seemed pretty reserved before, well unless talking about beer," Vel says quickly as he oozes. The sensation is not unpleasant but it is new, and in this place that seems like it will most likely be a Bad Thing. "Let's just get moving and see what happens as we go. I guess I can try and take lead unless one of you want to light a torch so you can see."
Avegnum indicates he has no materials to make a torch and distracted by the effects on him at the moment he does not notice the lead Vel has assumed in this situation. "Yeah, the sooner we head... somewhere we can beat whatever's troubling us to death, right general?"
The group will try and proceed down the tunnel using Vel's eyesight alone unless Halvdan has torch materials
"Screw that, pansy-boy! I'm not afraid of anything down here! I AM HALVDAN, KARRNATI GENERAL OF FORT BONES, CYRE'S BANE, MASTER OF THE MOURNLANDS, TERRORIST OF THRANE, AND VANQUISHER OF VALENAR!" After yelling like a crazed person, or perhaps a berserker, Halvdan quickly casts a spell resulting in his (now re-drawn) sword lighting on heatless fire and shedding light equal to a torch. With the sudden, flickering torch light the three men look around and see that the cave they are in is an ancient natural cave. They see no running water, but the walls all glisten with wetness, and they can hear the trickle of water running greater than what they see on the walls. The general marches forward, pauses, mumbles and actives the electrical nature of his long sword, and then marches ahead a bit more. Just in front of him there is a protruding ring of stone covered in magical runes that protrudes from the natural stone to form a circular passageway beyond which there is an open natural chamber. Halvdan stops to inspect the runes.
ReplyDeleteThough the passageway they are in varies it is generally 12-18 feet tall and roughly circular. Many stalactites and stalagmites have grown from the ceiling and floor, and the walls, above about 10’ high, are covered in lichens and molds and small fungi.
Avegnum’s shaking hands don’t stop, but lessen a bit when he holds something. Even so he is still unsteady and knows he will be less effective with his bow than he was before.
Vel’s slick skin is sloppy enough that grabbing him is more difficult, but he also cannot hold on to things as well as he used to.
Avegnum draws his weapon as will to give his hands something to occupy themselves with and allows the Karnathi to get a few paces away before following him. The mans strange behavior was worrisome but at the moment it didn't seem too problematic and while The War had been over for years, if the crazed general wanted to make himself a target that was fine with Avegnum.
ReplyDeleteFrowning at their newly illuminated surrounds, Vel uses Detect Magic and knowledge Arcan to study the area and see if he can learn anything about the runes. "Look at these formations guys, this place has to have been here for really long time. Given what Thelaful can do and the fact that she's forgotten how long she's been here makes it a bit worrisome about what we might actually find down here.."
If his study yields nothing, Vel picks up a rock and throws it at/onto the runed area.
"This is old flowery draconic and celestial," Halvdan mumbles, squatted down next to the circular passageway marking the entrance to the chamber beyond, "I never learned those tongues, they were to pansy ... ... ... Look, I don't know what's happening here. I can't catch my breath, and I'm pissed off about everything. Why did the Sovereign Host send me here? I don't know, but I do know it's not comfortable. This place is worse than the Mournlands. It just feels like ... DREN! AND ALL I WANT ... okay, okay, I'll calm down ... What do you think, warlock?"
ReplyDeleteWhat Vel sees is equally telling. The circular ring protruding from the ancient, natural cavern passageway and marking the boundary to the open chamber beyond glows with overwhelming brightness. Through squinted eyes he is able to just barely make out that the magic of the ring is some kind of abjuration. What kind of protection, though, he does not know. Nor does he know which side of the protection the three man team is presently on.
The rock throwing does nothing unusual - the rocks hit the runed ring, or pass beyond it into the large chamber but do nothing unexpected.
Delete"Oh brother," Vel sighs, "there is a protection ward of some sort popping up right here and given where Thelaful dropped us, and the effects on the jungle above, I can only guess it is only partially able to contain whatever is on the other side of it."
ReplyDeleteAvegnum spits and tries to clam himself further by focusing on mentally running through blade techniques, "And we get to go down there."
"We go down," Vel echoes, "Dren! Alright, I'll go through first and see if I get zapped by who knows what and then you guys come up behind me. Hopefully the path ahead isn't too tricky, but let's just get this over with."
Vel takes a last look around the area and floor to see if anything is out of place. If everything still seems ordinary to his eyes he boldly marches across the ring
Halvdan lets Vel pass him before standing, "How about Vel goes twenty or thirty or so feet ahead of us since he can see in the dark without light. That way he gets to sneak and ... the two of us can follow behind and ... wait, if he wants to sneak he will have to be more than about 40 feet or so ... that way he won't cast a shadow ... I'm afraid I'm still going to make a good amount of scraping noise though ... Can't be helped, though, it's my bone armor ... It's not quiet, I'm a soldier - okay, okay, okay, maybe I should travel in the back ..." Halvdan harshly and haltingly states in a fairly quiet, though not whispering, voice. He lowers his helm onto his head, and speaks from the skeletal, demonic visage, "Lead on warlock. At this point it doesn't seem to matter which way we go, or at least we have no way of knowing which way is best if we encounter a path divergence." With his helmet on the general speak a lot more confidently, and less like a crazed berserker, as if fully donning the armor gives him comfort or confidence.
ReplyDeleteVel nods at the general's suggestion and gulps as he prepares to move out 40' ahead of the warrior duo. Getting ready for trouble he pulls out a Wand of Invisibility from his belt and holds it in his left hand for quick use.
ReplyDelete"Let's do this," he says as confidently as he can manage, and heads down the passage with the other two in tow