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Vala flies up to the exterior of the cage, and raps her knuckles upon it in three, distinct, singular knocks.
Knock
Knock
Knock
Locking her eyes with Vrood, she gestures with her right hand without turning her gaze away from the necromancer. Her jaw clenches and her eyes narrow with steely anger. A breath later, and Hazel finds herself beside the masked villain, her starknife and eyes flashing in the light from the storm.
HP: 30/45
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 15
F/R/W: +5/+2/+9 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 2/7
Healing Hex targets: Hazel, Kaz, Vermundr, Caromarc
Heaven's Leap targets: self, Kazamir, Vermundr, Caromarc, Zed, Hazel
Current Wandering Spirit: Heavens
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 14: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+1+1*) | DC 15: inflict light wounds [X], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [X] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL9) [X]
Level 2 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 16: glitterdust [X], tongues* [ ], spiritual weapon [X] [X] [X]
Level 3 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 17: fly [X], lightning bolt [X], locate object* [ ], spiritual weapon (extended) [X]
Level 4 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 18: dismissal [ ], legend lore* [ ], greater magic weapon [X]
Ongoing Effects
greater magic weapon (7 hrs): Vermundr
fly (7 minutes): self, +16
spiritual weapon (extended): 6/14 rounds
spiritual weapon (1st): 5/7 rounds
spiritual weapon (2nd): 3/7 rounds
As Vala floats across and knocks on the Forcecage, Vrood looks up at the old woman, her hair bedraggled and streaming away form her head. A small smile spreads across his face.
Bland turns to you all with a big, toothy grin.
Crawl-nasty no hurt no more!
As the spider falls, the party feels a sense of relief and an appreciation of not only Bland's strong friendship but his great strength as well.
He smiles at each of you and just says; Friends... before turning his attention to Vrood on the upper platform and moving toward the ladder.
Cloaky man lock away my dad.... he growls and points a thick finger at the wizard. We lock you away now!
Vrood pays no more attention to Zed or Hazel than a nobleman to a slave, but the Beast of Lepistadt however, is firmly within his sights.
The machine whirs and clicks and grinds as great cogs begin to turn and sparks of arcane energy crackle among the wiring and bizarre mechanisms. It erupts with a pulse of sickening mauve light that washes over the top of the tower.
Bland turns his attention to the skies and watches with child-like wonder and fear at the celestial light show above until a bolt of arcane energy slams into his chest, sending him staggering back. Every muscle of his body bulges and seem as if they are going to tear his flesh wide open. Smoke rises from his great bulk and he draws himself slowly, inexorably up to his full impressive height, eyes now milky and glazed and white. And somehow, you know he is... different.
His eyes blink heavily as if he were trying to shake off a deep sleep but without a further word he takes a great stride toward Kazamir and then another and yet another until he breaks into a full, rumbling charge that ends with him bringing his hammer-like fist down on the the investigator's head like a falling tree.
You can see his face is wracked with grief and pain. He fights to stop himself drawing back his fist but cannot manage it. Words escape him in choked gasps;
Dead-face in....my.. head... again....
The pitiful creature pulls the punch, fighting against whatever compulsion he is under, and just as well he does because even without his full strength the blow sends Kazamir hurtling off his feet to collide with one of the struts beneath the machine, unconscious and bleeding from a very likely broken jaw.
Vrood steps back from the machine and though the party cannot see it, he smiles broadly in self-gratification beneath his skull face mask. He spreads his arms broadly before him like a priest addressing his flock..... and disappears!
Success
He cast Teleport
With another gesture, Vala snaps Constantin into the confines of the magical cage Vrood had conjured. "If you can't shut that thing off, at least Bland can't get to you!"
He vanishes in a blink only to reappear within the relative safety of the cage beside Hazel, and with a nod, Vala then swoops down through the slashing rain to see to Kazamir.
HP: 30/45
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 15
F/R/W: +5/+2/+9 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 2/7
Healing Hex targets: Hazel, Kaz, Vermundr, Caromarc
Heaven's Leap targets: self, Kazamir, Vermundr, Caromarc, Zed, Hazel, Constantin
Current Wandering Spirit: Heavens
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 14: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+1+1*) | DC 15: inflict light wounds [X], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [X] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL9) [X]
Level 2 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 16: glitterdust [X], tongues* [ ], spiritual weapon [X] [X] [X]
Level 3 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 17: fly [X], lightning bolt [X], locate object* [ ], spiritual weapon (extended) [X]
Level 4 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 18: dismissal [ ], legend lore* [ ], greater magic weapon [X]
Ongoing Effects
greater magic weapon (7 hrs): Vermundr
fly (7 minutes): self, +16
spiritual weapon (extended): 7/14 rounds
spiritual weapon (1st): 6/7 rounds
spiritual weapon (2nd): 4/7 rounds
Zed switches his judgement to defensive and stands up, moving around to flank with Bland.
"How to turn this thing off..." Constantin mutters to himself while looking over the incredibly complex machine. He goes through his bag and grabs the notebook for reference, doing his best to try to make something of it.
"How to turn this thing off..." Constantin mutters to himself while looking over the incredibly complex machine. He goes through his bag and grabs the notebook for reference, doing his best to try to make something of it.
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Constantin flips through the pages of the worn book, tracing his finger down lines, puzzling over arcane circuits, trying desperately to find a way to break the hold of the machine over Addam.
"How does the damn thing work?" he finally screams in frustration, a rare snapping of the control that the psychic usually shows in damping down his stronger emotions.
He looks outside the cube, with rain streaming down the invisible walls, and sees Kaz lying on the ground. Addam, robbed of his self-volition, squares off against the monstrous werewolf form of Vermundr, while Vala and Zed are trapped in here with him.
"There's not enough time to figure it out," he says, brow furrowing. Then he looks up for a moment at Vala's worried face and suddenly said, "No, wait, there's always enough time to think. Vala, I need all the help I can get."
"And really there's only one important question right now... the same important question we've always asked: Where resides the soul?"
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Constantin flips through the pages of the worn book, tracing his finger down lines, puzzling over arcane circuits, trying desperately to find a way to break the hold of the machine over Addam.
"How does the damn thing work?" he finally screams in frustration, a rare snapping of the control that the psychic usually shows in damping down his stronger emotions.
He looks outside the cube, with rain streaming down the invisible walls, and sees Kaz lying on the ground. Addam, robbed of his self-volition, squares off against the monstrous werewolf form of Vermundr, while Vala and Zed are trapped in here with him.
"There's not enough time to figure it out," he says, brow furrowing. Then he looks up for a moment at Vala's worried face and suddenly said, "No, wait, there's always enough time to think. Vala, I need all the help I can get."
"And really there's only one important question right now... the same important question we've always asked: Where resides the soul?"
[dice=Knowledge (arcana), hypercognition]1d20+13+7
A searing pain burrows into your brain as you open your third eye and let a torrent of information flood in at once, instantly seeing every word on every ruined page of the manual as you flick through in a matter of seconds.
In an instant you gain a remarkable acuity, and ability to understand this vastly complicated machine.
But what you see before you is not the same as the mechanism described in the manual. Vrood seems to have bastardised it in the same way as he has the alchemical creations you have seen wandering this place, and even with your sudden understanding you cannot hope to reverse the process he has put in place in time.
It is dangerous, and you don't know what might happen, but you could probably overload it....
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I need to buy the others more time, Vermundr thinks as he fights against the bestial impulses surging against his rational mind.
After awkwardly gripping his weapon with now clawed hands, Were-Vermundr strikes the blade across the ground shooting a shower of sparks through the air. When the tiny motes of light settle the skinchanger's form visibly blurs. "Here", Vermundr says in an animal growl. "Focus on me."
The party watches in mixed parts horror and frustration as Bland becomes the destructive Beast of Lepistadt of fable, pounding his way across to Kazamir and slamming the investigator unconscious.
A ferocious snarl spreads across his face as he turns once more to his former friends and raises a massive fist above his head.
Then, just as suddenly, the glazed, milky eyes roll back and the mismatched black and green of Bland/Addam return.
His face melts into a mask of fear and the braying cry-laugh you have become so familiar with erupts from his open mouth. Unable to control his actions, he swings once more.
Miss
Hit
Vermundr raises a shaggy, furred arm above his head, preparing to receive the enormous blows and bend with them as well he might. But Bland's strength, whilst struggling not to attack with full force, is still beyond anything the warrior has ever encountered. The first blow annihilates one of the illusions the while the next dislocates Vermundr's left shoulder, sending a shockwave of exquisite pain along it's length and to nerve endings that fire like a storm in his brain.
Bland's wailing becomes uncontrollable. His eyes become an eternity of fear and hopelessness and though try as he might, he is unable to fight whatever force compels him. In desperation, he turns to his friends for the only help he understands;
Best-friends, please! I can't stop hurting - I can't! he looks down at the broken body of Kazamir slumped against the metal struts. I think I hurt Kazamir-friend real bad. he manages to cough out the words between great gasps of air. You have to hurt me back. he pleads. Hurt me till I can't hurt anyone else... please best-friends!
His braying sobs continue - even over the sound of the storm - and though they are lost in the rain that lashes the tower, his eyes squeeze out the first real tears of his life.
Zed returns to swing back at the caster.
Zed returns to swing back at the caster.
[dice=Attack]1d20+11
[dice=Damage]1d10+11
"Vrood's modified the machine. We have to overload it somehow," says Constantin. "Hazel? Zed? What do you have left? Is there any way we can flood it with electricity, more than it can handle? Maybe hitting it directly instead of through the lightning rods?"
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His body aches from his various injuries but to the wolf pain was just fuel for its feral rage. Eager to channel that rage, Vermundr discards his sword and raises his clawed mitts to catch Bland’s flailing limbs.
As her master wrestles with the golem, Zelda hovers lower until she can see into his panicked eyes. The buzzing of her wings take on hypnotic quality as she speaks in a sultry, impossibly human voice. Your friends don’t want to hurt you Adam but they cannot do this alone. You have to fight him. You have to burn him out. Honor your father. Remember the face of your mother.
Vala alights beside Kazamir. She gently cradles his head in her lap and then fishes for a potion. She whispers repeatedly as she hurries to bring the draught to his lips. "Hold on, Kazamir. Hold on."
"I...I don't know! Maybe!?" Hazel responds. "You and Kaz and Vala are the mages, I don't know how most of this stuff works!"
Maybe not, but you still know how pieces fit together don't you? Calm down and think, Hazel. Find a weak point!
"Um...okay, okay...weak point, we'd need to find the best spot to try and overload it, with electricity or magic or whatever," she adds, trying to calm herself and think things through as she looks the machine over.
______
Constantin checks the book, then says, "There! Hit it there!"
Vermundr's long blade clatters loudly as he drops it to one side, reaching up and clamping his claws into Bland's oversized fists.
The pair are locked in a titanic struggle of strength, Vermundr's fur bristling with the effort while Bland's eyes roll in his head as whatever the strange connection is remains fixed, though with the aid of Zelda's hypnotic flight pattern, you can see him struggling manfully against it.
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Right! Come on, help me break this thing! Smash it right there but anywhere else that looks weak! Hazel yells within the forcecage. She jams her starknife time and again into the panels, punching neat holes in a shower of sparks.
Zed hefts his tetsubo at a ninety degree angle and smashes it with all the force he can muster against the grinding machine while Constantin uses his spear like a lever to disrupt The turning gears.
The resulting clang is deafening, easily as loud as the rolls of thunder that continue overhead like some grim forbearer of doom.
The echo of the clang dies away and is replaced by a loud groan of metal under stress that sounds so much like an animal in pain that it is eerie to behold. A massive electrical charge begins to build around the lightning rod, forks of energy spitting out in all directions. Vale looks up from tending to Kaz, and notices the hairs on her forearm standing on end, even in the rain.
Vermundr is almost oblivious to the noise and chaos around him. His friend lies mortally wounded and Bland stands before him, uncontrolled strength personified. He knows that if he can just reach him, reach that part of him that knows to fight the invading influence, he can break it's hold and Bland would come back to them.
Thoughts of his family flood his mind.
About how he couldn't reach his parents, couldn't save them and despite his own injuries, he resolves to put everything on the line in service of friendship.
Bland uses his incredible strength to break Vermundr's hold belying the truth in his heart that these people - these good people - who defended him so honourably when so many other wanted to hurt him, had shown him love and kindness that was so preciously rare.
He frowns and grits his teeth, muscles quivering with exertion as he fights the impulse to crush Vermundr's skull like a melon and slowly, so terribly slowly, the clenched fist opens, the raised arm strains to lower itself and with a strength of will he never knew he had, forces it to reach out and touch Zelda. The flood of magic from warrior to familiar to Golem is instantaneous and for a brief moment both can sense what the other is thinking - a mixture of terror and love and pain and... hope?
And that is when the entire world turns white.
The platform creaks and groans and lists at an alarming angle as cogs and gears grind against eachother and sparks fly in blazing arcs.
The groan grows louder and louder until there is a cacophonous eruption of magical energy. The Engine rips itself apart in an explosion and is instantly transformed into a thousand deadly projectiles.
Vermundr feels a mighty shove in his chest and all of a sudden he is tumbling, falling through the open steel grate and crashing onto the level below.
The roar of the event is enough to deafen you all for several moments and send those nearest tumbling away like paper dolls. The three trapped in the forcecage, but perfectly protected, can only watch as it unfolds beneath them.
The air is filled with dust and debris and when it clears the roof of Schloss Caromarc's highest tower is a smoking ruin.
Vala and Kaz and Bland are nowhere to be seen - perhaps buried under the metal and stone that once made up the Promethius Engine. The smoke drifts on the wind, the dust settles and the rain continues to fall.
Seemingly an eternity later, though in reality mere moments, the magic of the Forcecage diminishes and the trio inside are deposited onto the ruined top of the Schloss
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Constantin collapses to his knees on the rubble. "Nonononono..." is all that issues from him as he starts digging like a madman with his bare hands, hurling rocks over the edge, heedless of how he might trigger another collapse that could send him tumbling over the edge into the abyss.