Sinathel set her sights on that panel. Vile thing, involved in upsetting nature, endangering The People. She would let Olivius and Kano have the Coward Prey for now. Sinathel rushed her target. The destruction of the panel was her main goal, but she'd take knocking the human away from it.
Do I have a clear line on Temellen? How distracted is everyone (Temellen especially) by Khano/Sinathel?
Sinathel transforms once again, her thin elven form momentarily revealing itself as she shifts from bat to something much larger and heavier.
The earth elemental lets out a booming bellow as she charges at the Mimics, causing them to scatter like bowling pins. The shrimpy Mimic assisting Doctor Orwell, Doctor Withers, fires a revolver-sized net gun at the earth elemental that drapes over her facsimile of a face. At first the net seems to have little effect on the huge rampaging pile of rock, but then the hooks remotely lock into her "flesh" and the net becomes electrified!
Sinathel takes from the net and drops to her knees in pain. However, with a roar she flings her arms outward and disturbs the table of technology! Bolus, the emitter isn't perfectly aimed at you anymore, and you regain the use of your body once again!
"STOP THEM!!" you hear Orwell bellow, his attention entirely diverted by the earth elemental. Kano screams in fury and attacks viciously with his club, engaging the third Mimic, while Sinathel crawls toward Doctor Withers. Temellen turns and begins to flee in the direction of the glass tanks on the far side of the cave, where the swarm technology resides.
oh no you don't... Olivius mutters to himself as Temellen breaks from the main fray. He balances his throwing dagger in his hand for a moment, then throws, aiming to cripple his prey.
+Serpent's tears poison. If it hits, any damage Temellen takes is rolled twice. He takes the higher roll.
Finally free of his paralysis and considering both Temellen and Orwell lost causes Bolus shouts at Withers in a booming voice As the ranking military officer here and member of the Guardian Order tasked with protecting and upholding the honour of Terminus City. I AM THE LAW HERE AND I ORDER YOU TO DROP YOUR WEAPON AND CEASE FIGHTING.
No matter what Withers does Bolus will also charge at Orwell and try to pay him back for what he sees as a betrayal.
Edit: Forgot damage
Regos rushes clockwise around the cavern, trying to position himself somewhere that he might be able to cut off escape. As he does so he tries to pull from the heat around him to form a large spear in his hand. He's not hoping to get up close and personal, but can protect a wider area with such a long weapon. His hands begin to heat up as light spills out in a slender beam beginning to form the shaft of the spear.
Olivius, your dagger flies true and embeds itself in Temellen's leg. With a shout of pain, the elf flies forward and lands on his face, his leg skewed out at an awkward angle. Already the area around the wound on the elf's leg is a sickly green. The elf turns to look at you and aims a strange box at you. Firing from a prone position, the box emits a bright beam of light that slams into the rock wall above and behind you! The volcano rumbles mightly all around you, shaking the ground, and enormous boulders are knocked loose overhead! What do you do?
Withers sneers at you. "You're a meathead and a fool, Bolus!" the doctor cries, as he turns up the dial on the side of his net-gun. Sinathel cries out in a rocky earthy voice and takes another 1d6 damage from Withers' net gun. Cackling, the Mimic taps a few buttons on the panel on the side of the shrine. "NO!" Kano screams, as the panel EXPLODES! The shrine, which had been shaped in the likeness of Ku, blows up half-way up the waist of the statue and crumbles to the ground. Lightning begins to strike the control rods constantly now, much less time between strikes than before.
Orwell's eyeglasses flash in the light of Numaloyo's fiery heart as he draws a sword-cane and parries Bolus' attack! The lightning along the blade damages him still, doing Bolus' damage, but the baton doesn't contact skin. "I...WILL...CONTROL...TIME!" Orwell snarls, over the snapping of electricity on his thin rapier-blade. The electricity opens burn wounds in the Mimic's wrist and hand, but he pays it no mind.
Suddenly, he twists his wrist and disengages, then activates a personal cloaking field! The technology is highly experimental and illegal in your time, but that doesn't seem to matter to him. You glance feverishly left and right and catch a faint disturbance - he's trying to run over to Temellen! Only you are close enough to make out the barely-visible shimmering in his cloaking field, what do you do?
Regos: you reach out to harness and control the fiery magic of Numaloyo from within her very heart. The mountain shakes in fury at your audacity. You hear a mighty roar drown out all other sound coming from deep inside the volcano! Rocks are shaking loose from the ceiling all around you! Your magic has created the catalyst needed, and you sense that the volcano is almost ready to blow!
The energy is too much. Your body seeks to drink it in, more, and more, and more fire! But Numaloyo is a fire spirit that is to normal fire as the ocean is to puddles. Her presence overwhelms your very mind.
Take +1d8 to your next fire-related move's damage, but also take 1d8 damage that ignores armor as different parts of your body ignite.
Olivius darts toward Temellen as the Mountain comes down around them. His innate ability to dodge attacks is screaming at him with every step.
With a roar Bolus raises his shield and charges full out at the shimmering image he sees seeking to knock Orwell down with a shield dash trusting that the full body attack will hit where an attack from his stun rod might miss the cloaked villian
If this hits and the bad doctor is knocked down Bolus will stamp on him for good measure disregarding his personal safety
As he does so he continues to shout at Withers Stand down or I will shove my boot down your throat!
Olivius: You nimbly dodge over falling boulders and dash as fast as you can at the injured traitor elf. You're almost upon him when you see the shadow on the ground just in time to dodge a huge falling boulder. However, it clipped your shoulder as you dodged, and you were knocked spinning to the ground. Your vision momentarily goes white when your skull is conked, but you snap back to yourself quickly. You escaped the rocks, but dodging them has left you in a vulnerable position - Temellen is right over you! His earlier hesitation and cowardice were a complete act, you see that now. His expression is pain-filled but determined and twisted with a dark purpose. His hands are on your throat, choking the life out of you! What do you do?
Bolus, you tackle the invisible Orwell successfully and smash him underfoot. With a crunch, your boot destroys the cloaking field generator Orwell is wearing and he flickers into visibility again. "Get...OFF!" the Mimic cries, struggling underneath your heel. He knocks you off of him with surprising strength and jumps to his feet again! "QUICKLY, MORIBUND! START THE COUNTDOWN!" he screams. Across the cave, Kano has been battling with the third Mimic, Moribund, a fat intellectual who is using future tech to keep the enraged shaman at bay with a forcefield. The Mimic nods and presses a few buttons on his control panel.
The lightning bolts stop flickering between the shrine and the control rods and become a solid sheet of electricity connecting the two. Instead of giving off a white light, the electricity now shines a brighter blue shade. "1 MINUTE TO CRITICAL MASS!" he shouts triumphantly! With a roar, Kano's club shatters the forcefield, causing the Mimic to try to flee. Kano prevents the Mimic from escaping, knocking him to the ground, but the lightning around the shrine continues unabated.
Bolus, as you press forward toward Orwell, you see true fear in his eyes. He glances from you to the ruined shrine near the heart of Numaloyo. Then his eyes narrow. "You're a fool to try and stop me, Bolus!" he cries. "You're just a pissant fool playing soldier! I control forces you could not hope to understand!"
As he's shouting, the volcano is shaking and rumbling all around you. There are massive holes in the ceiling of the cave where visible sunlight can be seen. The volcano won't be lasting much longer. Lava is beginning to leak up from the stone beneath your feet. Meanwhile, you see a circular shape forming in the lightning near the ruined shrine...
Not again... Olivius thinks. What would Sinathel say?
He brings the dagger's pommel up into Temellen's face in an effort to become the hunter again.
You feel your eyes beginning to bulge out of their sockets slightly and you see flashing stars in your vision as Temellen's grasp doesn't allow any breath to enter your lungs.
You're about to black out when...
"YAAAHOOOOO!!!!"
Past Temellen's struggling face, you can see that the volcano's imminent eruption and damaging spells cast inside have ripped open a hole in the mountain leading outside. Incredibly, Yala is there, and....is she being carried by a Roc?! Clutching the talons in an overhead grasp, the pearl diver swings her legs in a ferocious double-kick! Her feet smash into the side of Temellen's face and knock him sprawling, giving you a chance to let your vision clear. When you finish blinking, Yala is standing over you with a hand outstretched. "Get up, Sticky Fingers!" you hear her shouting over the sound of the rumbling of the volcano. "THERE ISN'T MUCH TIME!" The Roc-bird that carried her in screeches in battle fury and joins Kano in pressing Moribund the Mimic!
You glance right and see that Temellen has recovered from the kick and grabbed...some sort of canister from over near the glass tanks. He's making for the corrupted shrine, presumably to make an escape!
What did you do to the volcano? It's going to destroy us all! Bolus shouts at Orwell.
"It'll destroy YOU, you fat-headed fool, I'LL by LONG GONE!!!" Orwell crows triumphantly, even as Moribund's head is smashed in by Kano's warclub. Orwell continues laughing regardless. He's backing away from you, Bolus, one hand on the time-arrestor device, backing toward the circular shape forming in the lightning at the base of the shrine. Temellen is nearly with him, carrying a canister of some sort. What do you do?
Olivius' is overcome with relief. Of all the people who could have shown up, Yala was the one person he would have preferred. He nods his thanks and points to the man with the small box that freezes people. Stop him and don't let him point that box thing at you! He says as he gains his feet again. Now was not the time for emotional welcomes.
Olivius retrieves his other throwing knife with a flick of his wrist and launches it at Temellen's unwounded leg. He was loathe to double poison someone (and thus waste a dose), but it was his only choice at the time.
The dagger impacts and Olivius isn't far behind. KHANO! He yells. As soon as the isalnder looks up he tosses the magical dagger to him. He was better in battle with his nunchaku and he figures that Khano knows better what to do with it than he does.
Bolus run and leaps onto Orwell shield first to immobilize him.
Dropping to his knees as he can feel the surge building and building, Regos can feel the pressure mounting and knows he must release it. He fears for the others, but more than that he fears for their village and his people.
Let me wield your heart, Numaloyo. The rock, and magma, and light, and heat.
Such material can hardly be considered flame, though many properties are shared. He has made his love furious, but he still petitions her like a stubborn suitor.
Take from me, if you wish. But let me direct your fury, just for a moment...
When the pressure feels as though it can't mount any further without losing himself, he forces the flood through the heart that surges upward--trying to direct spouts specifically toward the rods that are creating the light toward which Orwell retreats, as well as trying to direct her fury away from their home.
He can feel himself losing control! "Somebody help me!" he yells out. "Help me focus, don't let me lose this!"
Regos, your proximity to the Hand of Gaia has caught the attention of Gaia herself. She is aware of this disturbance in her crust, the pressure mounting in the sacred volcano that must be released. It will be released.
Your magic touches the heart of Numaloyo at last. You feel the presence of the living fire like a brand in your mind. Your eyes roll back in your head and you collapse to your knees, with your awareness expanding beyond the confines of your own human perception. Suddenly you see with vivid clarity all that is Numaloyo, and the flames building and spreading everywhere.
Seeking to direct or control such an expression of Nature's ultimate fury is akin to taming the wildest of all stallions, but your desperation makes itself known regardless. Outside, a portion of the lava flow stops, and the island villagers are given precious more moments to escape on their boats, while inside...
A portion of the tower of flaming lava flows downward, collapsing upon the ruined shrine. Withers screams, consumed instantly, as does Moribund. Their bodies alight like candles, and they squeal in terror as the lava flows over them and their bones melt like wax.
Temellen's other leg is struck as the traitor leaps for the portal by Olivius' expertly thrown knife. The elf screams, but his flight continues, and the elf and the knife Olivius threw passes through the portal to the other side.
Meanwhile, Bolus and Orwell are locked in a death grapple, neither getting the upper hand. Orwell sees the lava redirected, unbeknownst to him, by Regos' magic, and gapes in disbelief as the shrine is covered in lava. "No! That...that didn't happen! I saw this point in history! That's impossible!" he breaks loose of Bolus and flees into the now-flickering portal. The control rods are extinguished, and only the portal and the table of instruments remains. Orwell's voice takes on a fever pitch.
"The portal! Without the control rods it's becoming unstable! You've got to let me through before it collapses! We'll all die when the volcano erupts! Let me GO!"
The man is fighting for his very life now, and Bolus feels himself losing his balance and nearly tumbling in! What do you do?
Where. Is. The. Rest. Of. The. Expedition. Bolus asks through gritted teeth obsessed with finding his fellow guardians and the scientists and techs not accounted for and unwilling to let Orwell go.
If Regos could hear Orwell's panicked pleas, he'd be a bit worried for everyone within that cavern. But at the moment, he's dazed and overwhelmed. His whole body burns from the fire inside, being pumped through his veins. Even his saliva seems to be on the verge of boiling, and his breath like steam. He drops to his knees, still seeing visions Numaloyo.
May he never forget that image.
Olivius skids to a halt after Temellen tumbles through the portal. He curses loudly before grabbing Yala and darting over to Khano.
We need to either stop this mountain or jump through that hole in the world! We stay here when the mountain goes and we'd all dead! Which will it be, War Chief? he yells over the rumble of the mountsin's imminent explosion. The tech was all destroyed, so, hopefully, that was enough to disable the beacon. Now they just had to make it out alive.
Orwell's head falls back slightly and he laughs a black laugh as Bolus shakes him by the tunic. "Fool...how do you think we got the power to get the portal opened? Their lives were a sacrifice so that the shrine's power could be activated. Primitive magic, taught to us by some locals in exchange for our technology. A coarse, crude tool for time travel, but effective...once enough blood was used..."
Regos, you can sense through your inner connection to the mountain that your magic has bought you a temporary reprieve, but the pressure of Numaloyo must be released. You have only moments before the volcano WILL blow.
Kano turns to Olivius, ceremonial dagger in hand. "I do not know how you came by this precious item, Olivius...but no matter. Perhaps you were fated to have it."
The enormous cleric turns to the Roc-bird that carried Yala into the volcano. The roc shivers, and in the next eyeblink the old crone from the village, Boda, stands before you. Her expression is one of great sorrow and is locked in grim lines. She murmurs in Kano's ear a moment, and he nods before turning to you.
Kano turns to you, Olivius. "There is no other way. Numaloyo is fated to erupt, and the portal is the only escape." He glares hatred at Mimic Orwell for a moment, then his eyes lock with yours once more. "Follow this one's ally, the traitor Temellen. Bring him to justice...with this." As the ground beneath him rumbles, the cleric approaches you calmly. He presses the ceremonial dagger into your hands and closes your fingers around the hilt with his other hand - the dagger feels warm in your palm.
"Boda and I will do what must be done to protect our people. Regos, your magic will be a boon to us in this, and Boda informs me that you have already done much to buy our people time. For that I owe you my eternal gratitude. Now let me continue the work you began. For the tribe of Demon's Maw. For Ku." He hands over his holy symbol, the snarling, warlike face of Kulikimaku, to Regos, with a knowing nod.
His expression of one of stony resolution, and his royal mein commands respect. His enormous club is lifted in the air one-handed, to point at the fluctuating, flickering energies of the portal. "Now, GO! WE ARE OUT OF TIME! THE PORTAL WILL COLLAPSE IF YOU DON'T GO THROUGH NOW!"
With a scream of rage Bolus raises his stun rod and uses it as a club to smash in Orwell's face.
Needless to say Bolus throws all his weight behind the swing
Uh, whoa. Yeah, you annihilated him with righteous fury. Flavor the kill, but don't tarry too long - the volcano waits for no man (besides her lover, Regos, apparently.)
Olivius takes the dagger and bows to Khano in an attempt to return the respect he feels for the big islander. Before he leaps, he spares a glace at Yala. His face says what words don't have the time to say, "I want you to come, but I know you can't". But he feels guilty for even asking. Her family would need her more now than ever with this mountain going nuts.
Sinathel! Let's move! He tries to yell over the chaos. Then he tucks the knife into his belt and prepares to leap.
Yala holds on to your hand tightly, after glancing at Boda. "Knew something interesting would happen if I followed Boda when she left the village...never thought it'd be this interesting," she mutters to you as she turns to face the portal with you.
Driven by white hot hatred Bolus puts all his strength behind the brutal blow. The stun rod smashes into the black hearted scientist's face. Orwell's nose breaks almost immediately but that is just the start as the improvised club drives in further, crushing the temple so completely that Orwell's skull seems to come apart. All the while the electrical energies of the rod fizzle angrily, reflecting Bolus' fury, cooking what remains of Orwell's head even as it turns to mush.
Bolus sinks to his knees still gripping Orwell's limp body in his shield hand, covered in red gore from the meaty mess above the corpse's neck. He has failed; the people he was charged to protect are dead. He senses rather than sees the other traitorous Mimic's dying around him. Temellen's scream snaps him out of his stupor though. With burning eyes he sees the evil elf run through the decaying portal. Releasing Orwell Bolus picks up the time arrestor device and with a howl leaps in pursuit right behind him into the unknown.
Sinathel's eyes flashed in rage as the net shocked her. She would not let this net stop her. No, they had ruined enough nature with their technology. She pulled from the earth around her Repairing herself. The moment the shocking stopped, she ripped the net free of herself free of the net. With a slam of her fist, she aimed to send the nearby tech covered table flying so the items upon it would not escape the lava. Before her eyes found the Swarm Technology again, taking quick aim, she shot hard rocks at the glass. Her aim was to brake the glass to allow the volcano better access to take care of the rest. The sooner this vile, nature distorting tech was destroyed, the better.
The danger of only the Volcano and the disappearing Volcano remaining, Sinathel returned to her human form and rushed over to Boda, "I am glad you are alright. I wish, we had gotten the chance to talk. May our spirits meet again." Sinathel places her fist over her heart and bows her head, a very high form of respect from Sinathel. She turned, as if to leave pausing for a moment to make a request. "Will you make sure Teal, the kookaburra, makes it to safety as well. He was with a young bull elephant we manged to save earlier." Sinathel only stalls long enough for a reply before running to the portal. "Come Olivius! We still have prey to hunt!" With that she dove through the portal.
Seeing that Sinathel won't be left behind, Olivius smiles at Yala and holds her hand as they dive into the Unknown.
I'll allow a big earth elemental to hurl a rock by spending 1 hold. It's hard to tell under the boulder's bulk but you hope that it did the job - it's the best you have time for.
All you can see is white. Everything white all around you. You feel as if you're flying in a dream - you feel the sensation of movement, but no wind ruffles your hair. You're tumbling end over end, and nausea grips your stomach, making your belly clench.
Suddenly all motion stops and you black out.
When you come to, you see your companions - the other members of the Hand of Gaia - sprawled all over in a small clearing of what appear to be ruined buildings. The buildings look bombed-out - the paint blasted off, windows and doors completely absent, all roofs blown away. Only the shells of the buildings remain, along with the rubble that litters the street.
The landscape is dead and barren. The air is hot, and there are rain-laden clouds overhead the color of rust. A faint wind blows over the bodies of your companions as you all begin to stir to wakefulness.
Yala sits straight up from where she was lying a few feet from Olivius, then immediately clutches her head. "Ooooh..."
Bolus, splayed out face first in the dirt, shifts as consciousness slowly comes back to him and struggles up to his hands and knees before falling back on his butt with a groan. Wherr... arr.. we? he slurs as he slowly regains control over his motor muscles.
Sinathel's first instinct upon regaining consciousness is to reach for the spirits around her, those of The People and those of the land. She doesn't even wait for her eyes to open.
Bolus, you're the first person to recognize anything. Off outside the city limits, in the distance to the south, you see a colossal gorge. Beyond the gorge is a sight you'd never forget in a million years - Terminus City. You're back in the future! But...if you're on the far side of the gorge...that means you're in terrible danger.
The gorge is a hard border on Terminus City's lands - beyond the gorge, magic is said to no longer follow the rules of man or nature. Chaos reigns and there has been no contact with any of the former allied cities north of the gorge since the Calamity.
The breeze blowing across the rocks suddenly takes on an ominous quality.
Sinathel, give me a Discern Realities roll, using your sense of nature.
What here is not what it appears to be?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
What should I be on the lookout for?
Olivius comes to slowly. Before moving he does a check of each of his limbs. Feet, still good. Legs, moveable. He does this all the way up before he speaks. His hand is still his most wounded part, thankfully. Oww. Did we all make it?
Nice roll.
What here is not what it appears to be?
With your eyes closed, you reach out with your other senses. Your ears press to the ground as you turn your head this way and that. Your nostrils flare and you take in the acidic tang of the local air, so different from inside the volcano just moments before.
Immediately you sense the death all around you. Life hasn't been sustained here for a long, long time, that much you know. But life does exist here...hidden, beneath the cracked and blasted surface. Underground, the thought comes unbidden, they're underground. Even as the thought occurs you aren't sure who they are that you were thinking of.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Your eyes slowly open. You immediately notice the blasted-out buildings, their stone walls looking like empty beehives. On the second floor of one of the buildings next to the street you're lying in, you catch reflected light shining at what remains of the building's roof. Something up there is catching the light. Such things are often of some sort of value.
What should I be on the lookout for?
For now, the town you rest in is quiet as a graveyard. However, you sense that you are in the territory of a predator of some kind. You see a few large black holes in the ground at the base of some of the buildings that give you an anxious feeling.
At first, sensing all the death around her, Sinathel had barely held back tears. A few escaped before she found a glimmer of hope. But the question remained, was it something other than the predator that lurked here? "Be careful, here we are prey. I would stay away from those large black holes. This land is not as dead as it first appears to be." Sinathel carefully stood up. Keeping an eye out for holes or strange rumblings beneath her she moved toward the building she had spotted something shining. She looked around for the best way to get up there.
You approach the building and look inside. You see what appear to be stairs, though they are collapsed in places and none-too-stable looking in others. Through a hole in the ceiling on the first floor you see a dirty-looking old rope hanging from some higher floor.
Olivius sighs. Even you are prey? Great. That puts me rather far down the chain. No matter. Temellen's the target. I will not give up hunting him just because we got sent... somewhere. I still don't know where we are...
We're back in the present. Bolus snaps as he shoots up to his feet, his earlier disorientation forgotten as he realizes where they are. And we're in the wrong place. Over there is safety he says pointing at Terminus City with his stun rod. That is the border where safety ends. he continues motioning towards the gorge. And here Bolus lets his stun rod fall to his side. is a Death Zone.
Yala slowly climbs to her feet and frowns as she looks around her. "I don't like this place." she declares, digging under her fingernail with the point of a dagger, looking nervously about herself.