Plantmonth the 22nd, 10:15 AM, 289 of the 29th age. As the mound of rotting vegetation crept closer, Connal ran out to face it, hoping to keep it from advancing. Its pace was measured but unrelenting. The group was reshuffling positions in the back. Bless spells, shields of faith, and other helpful enchantments. But when the time came, Connal faded to the south and Godric was in the right place and let forth a blast of lightning!
It coursed out and struck the Mound, causing it to explode in static…and swell; absorbing more of the plant matter around it, rising taller. And then the bolt hit the wall, rebounded, and struck the mound again – and once again it grew larger and more dangerous!
Fuck. Magic missiles flew out, tearing into the mound, making it focus on Shim and start to plod that way. Darius’ sling stones hit but had no real effect so the group changed weapons as the Mound hit the front. It swung hard and Nate and Darius took the blows, shield splintering on impact. A ghoul was summoned by Shim and it tried to get in the fray but the Shambler ignored the blows and eventually entangled the undead.
Godric fired off magic missiles and the Shambler shook on impact. A dire wolf was summoned and joined the battle, tearing the bottom of the Shambler apart. And still it tried to storm down the hall and get Shim and or Godric, but Darius and Nate prevented it from doing so. Arrows, swords, and magic struck the Shambler, at one point more shields splintered and then Shim poured on a last barrage of magic missiles and it lost cohesion, slumped down, and fell over.
Done.
We were pretty beat up and some healing was dispensed. New shields came out and we looked over the entire room, dismayed to find no treasure of any kind. It was 5 to 11 when we left the shambling mound room…and went backwards to the hall we did not take to the north east. As expected the chamber did eventually dead end beyond the numerous wet vegetation weeds. There were 2 mummified dead elves here. One was an elder grey elven woman, her look and clothes decried her as nobility but no distinguishing marks or emblems.
The other, well, someone vented their fury on this one. It was an elven male, middle aged. His right hand was raggedly hacked off and he had a dozen long splinters of glass in each eye as well as longer shafts of broken glass in his throat. We looked about – same no markings or the like. We did take a few of the shards for now and then left. Returning to the other hall, we went on past the Shambler’s chamber and kept going.
Passage turned south and then west, according to Shim’s Diamond, was pointing that way. A breeze was picking up, 5 to 10 mph, and there was a flickering light in the air, 10 to 15 strobes that would stop and start again. About 6” of busted glass, covering the width of the passage and running about 20’ or so blocked our way. We were going to have to move it aside so we checked shovels and had Nate and Connal move it, while Captain Asher was supervising. The glass had to be shoveled ahead since piling it to the side only had it run back to the middle.
Entire process was a half hour and Shim and Asher had much back and forth about it. The Captain was upset his shovel was now scratched and eventually just gave it to Shim since “gnomes and shovels”… you can imagine the rest. Wind was picking up to 15/20 mph and we could see some lit chamber ahead.
It was really huge, 90’ x 95’, but split in the middle. There was a wrinkle in the Space-Time continuum. The chamber here was awash with twisted bits of roots half buried in the soil and clay. The ceiling was close to 13’ in height and the wind in here ran a variable 20 to 30 mph. The sound of distant metal twisting along with odd mournful cries from the deep emerge from a wrinkled area of space almost 40’ long and reaching up to the ceiling. What seemed to be a dark sky with a kaliediscope of stars was seen through the wrinkle, the very air seemed to fold over itself 3 or 4 times, giving the entire thing a strange translucent glow. Broken glass lay everywhere, not so much that you were in danger of stepping on it with every stride, but enough of it lies about to make sure the party is careful with their footing.
Busted glass in small piles were in the edges and corners of the room. And from the rift, from one side it seemed like wind was blowing OUT and from the other side it seemed that wind was being sucked in. No one wanted to get too close. Shim called forth a summons, getting a trio of stirges. He inspired the first one to fly in and head towards the left side where the wind was coming out. The stirge could not finish getting too close and came back exhausted. He then sent the next one to the right side of the rift where it hit the air stream and was sucked into the wall where it smashed hard and broke its neck. The third one was hurled like a football by Connal and made it much further into the room and then was tossed all over, losing control before exhaustedly ending its movement into a pile of glass.
Shim was going to need to get to the wrinkle. So we tied two sets of rope to him – one under his arms, one at his waist. Darius and Connal each took a rope and Wilhelm cast spider climb on the gnome. He then climbed up the side wall and walked along the ceiling to the wrinkle. Took 2 minutes, once there he took out one of the 3 Desmondian Diamond shards and shoved the point in the junction of the wrinkle at the ceiling.
It sparked, flared, and made a null space at the point. He then pushed, slowly dragging it to the right.
There was a strange hiccup and disjointing, and then Logari Simuscene, Speaker of the Sun, appeared. There was a ghostly wavering about him giving his form a soft edge. He appeared furious, terribly upset. Time seemed to slow down and stop around us as he took stock of the chamber.
“Do you have any idea what the HELL you are doing?” His anger was at Shim, but also encompassed the rest of the group. “This is NOT your home. This is NOT your place. And there is no fucking way I’m going to let the group get on with whatever cockamamie idea they have.”
“But we can fix it. We can bring back the life tree.”
“HA! You have signed your death warrant. The day will come when I am gone and that will be the end of the talk of the possibility of the Lifetree returning. I, me, I am the last living descendant from Aelfheim. I’ve gotten rid of ANY of the others. And when I go, there is only muddly blooded elves left.”
He pointed to the rift. “Fucking dwarves about KILLED my people. It’s over. It’s sad when my people get too much hope. They had it before, just about won the damned war.” He stabbed a finger at Shim. “And you little grubbing traitorous FUCKs, fucked us over! Giving magic?!? To Humans!?! Are you fucking NUTS?!?!”
He was spitting at this point and the group could feel the temporal spell fading. “And the gnomes and dwarves and humans stabbed us in the proverbial back. So when any of my people got too close to solving this fucking tree problem, I had them taken out. This hole, this tomb, this monument to the elven failure,” his hand stabbed upward, “and that fucking simpleton, The Most Blessed of Frey, HA! He who has been acting as a gatekeeper, preventing anyone from getting too close because he’s a fucking twit who has totally misunderstood Frey’s teachings.”
He drew a 3’ long rod made of glass and bared his teeth in fury. “And now it’s time for your meddlesome group to die.”
Time reenacted and he fired a glassine version of hold person up at Shim who managed to dodge out of the way. Darius and Connal both charged in, Darius throwing his AC to the wind. Ropes holding Shim were passed to Nate and Ryhgar and the rest of the party gathered down the hall to help out.
Loagri was hit, his magical astral form needing silver or magic to hit him. With the 2 of them close by, he was forced to alter his attack, shifting to a Magical Glass Missile spell hurled at Darius who Spellcleaved the glass shards as they struck, peppering the monk with shard of magical glass who rolled and dodged and ducked and took no damage. A silence spell followed and instead of hitting the Speaker (who would most likely save), Asher targeted Darius.
Trapped in the circle, he snarled at the cleric, pointed his rod (rolled a 4), and the 5 headed Hydra that we had fought above burst into being, snarling and biting and chewing, heads flailing as it tried to murder the half elven cleric. Damn it, the fight was now spreading out. And then Logari “STEPPED” – moving almost 40’ away and out of the silence area.
Which had Darius and Connal charge again, and again each getting some powerful hits on the wizard. Shim was still dragging the null zone and arrows were flying now. With the Hydra closer Nate gave the rope to Rhygar and engaged the Hydra, adding his attacks and dropping a head. Magic and sword play was following and the hydra was losing heads, down to a single one. And at that point, the group fired off a Shatter spell at Logari’s glass rod – shattering it.
And releasing chaotically the last 5 monsters he had stored. Two Ankhegs, 2 leucrottas, and another Hydra. The first hydra breathed fire down the hall, scoring half the group, burning armos shields, and weapons. We were looking around hopeless, Darius and Connal back to back with 2 of the Leucrottas and 1 ankheg engaging those three while the other Ankheg was heading to the Hydra’s position to help out.
At this point Shim’s Spider climb ended and he free fell 13 feet to the ground, where he lost contact with the Wrinkle and all his progress closing it – faded. We were getting pummeled bad here. Logari STEPPED again, this time portalling into the hall where he was now behind the party and at their rear. Connal and Darius nodded to each other, the fighter readied himself against the 3 foes against him, and Connal ran at the hall, leaping and flipping over the ankheg there to roll up to Logari. Wilhelm hurled a cloud of stinging beetles from his beetle staff at Logari’s face, forcing the Speaker to struggle to make more attacks and checks while being harassed.
Darius was hit, multiple times, the Leucrotta and ankheg ripping and tearing at him. He dodged and ducked, sacrificing his shield at a poignant critical hit, wrestling a new one off his back. Shim called out a summons, getting a lizard man and placing it in front of one of the foes around Darius to keep him up. More shields were splintered, Nate and Rhygar, but it was Logari who called forth a Glasslance and shoved the 4’ sharpened icicle of glass through Gordic’s lungs and out his back, dropping the wizard to the ground.
More arrows flew and we were bleeding through hit points. Connal stayed at Logari as the Hydra breathed fire setting 2 or 3 of the party ablaze. Wilhelm was dropping healing left and right, burning our mistletoe as he did so, struggling to keep Nate up. With a lucky shot, Eoghan blasted one of the elvar arrows into Logari’s eye, making the Speaker gasp in fury. He swept his hands out and called forth a Scatterspray, gathering all the piles of glass in the hall into a pressure wave and scouring it down the passage.
The shards lacerated Godric’s body, turning it to hamburger (and smashing him well past -10), and continued on ripping and tearing through the party, also dropping Captain Asher at this point to negatives. Things were getting desperate.
More shields were sacrificed and our weapons and armor were taking a beating, busting up and beginning to fail. Another massive heal was given to Asher, getting the Fighter/Cleric back up again. And we hit, stabbed, and shot as much as we could. Eoghan’s quiver was about empty, just a few fire starting arrows left. And he shot them one after the other, unloading at Logari from 6’ away until…finally. Finally. He died. He gasped out his fury at the party, hatred at Shimlagesh, and eternal fury at Eoghan before his astral form faded away.
The rest of the monsters were still for a round before they too faded away. We took stock and looked around. It was quiet, we had light from the Wrinkle which was still blowing wildly, and truly looked into the Astral void.
It’s a freewheeling space through there, but seemingly some white or good lights embolden the local area. In the distance there was a single long glowing flapping silver cord. It was moving back and forth, but angled towards the wrinkle, as if struggling to grow there, to anchor there. World tree? Without the divine anchor the Githyanki had been taking, it has not had a chance to reattach. Following that in the distance it seems to be coming from some barely seen white and green verdant looking place.
It was a good 150’ (estimate) through the wrinkle and into Astral space. But it was reaching for the wrinkle and we thought, maybe, just maybe before Shim closes it, we could try and reattach it here. We tied all 4 ropes together and then tied the free end to Connal. Darius and Nate (very hurt, nursing 3 painful wounds, but still in it!), held the tail end of the rope, driving 3 spikes in the ground just in case one or both of them lost grip and tied it to each of them. Connal then made his way through the Wrinkle, 3 passes, and going on the side where the wind was blowing IN.
Standing at the crumbling edge of the Astral Plane, he readied himself, wind at his back coiled his legs, and jumped! The wind, his momentum, and everything else – had him float out about halfway to the wavering root reaching towards the wrinkle…and stop. Fuck.
He carefully took Shim’s Batwing cloak out, tied it on, grabbed the edges…and flapped. He went forward 5 feet – but there was a weird pulse that sent out a beacon through the Astral space. He flapped again, another 5’ and another pulsing beacon. Damn it, using the cloak was sending a signal out to the Astral space that…he was here. Shaking his head he motioned back for the party to pull him in.
He grabbed the edges of the bat cloak…and flapped. 5 times. Sending out 5 pulses. But luck was with him since nothing felt it or came to investigate. He managed to grip the root/cord here. Wide, 3’ in diameter. He straddled against it as thin tendrils and roots reached out and wove into the rope. Then they moved up the rope at around a foot every second, turning the rope into an extension of the root – heading for the Prime material plane.
However now it was attached to the root and he could not pull it back. The group could not pull him back and Nate and Connal could see the rope now had fine roots growing through it and reaching around the area here, they let it go and watched Connal through the opening. The monk carefully cut himself free of the rope, and with nothing tethering him anymore, climbed up the rope hand over hand, the 150’ back to the Prime material plane. The last 10’ was the hardest, the wind blowing at him, threatening to rip his grip away but he held fast and dragged himself through.
“How the fuck do we get out of here?” Shim asked, holding his wounded side tight.
The group looked to the east down the passage that led from this room and sighed. “We have to walk.” No more rope, one friend dead, one friend back from death, limited food, everyone hurt, few spells remaining, and whatever bullshit we had to climb out 7 levels back to the surface.
And who knows what’s going on on the surface. Did we kill Logari there? Did he tell everyone what we are doing? Is the Blessed of Frey waiting for us? What the hell…it’s a problem for another day. Plantmonth the 22nd, 12:55 PM, 289 of the 29th Age.
No comments:
Post a Comment