Tumbling through the weightless void, the monk waits until his body is lined up towards the giant octopod to unleash his three arrows.
The arrows shoot through the strange atmosphere, and make contact with the aberration, but not hard enough to damage its blubbery skin.
Blackacre eyes Sandru's successful strike and draws his sword to do damage of his own. As he does so, he spies Octopoid #1 at his side. The inquisitor turns and strikes at the thing!
oof!
Blackacre clearly has yet to adapt to his new surroundings.
The octopoid undulates its arms, snapping viciously at Blackacre. The two combatants become a whir of limbs and tentacles. Blackacre feels a bite! The suction of little teeth dripping with alien ooze...
Caromarc gestures at Phoebe to move further up, and chants briefly at Elspeth.
If MM accepts that she's difficult ground, and will get an AoO, can MM run around on Elspeth? not doing so this turn.
Drawing his scythe the manservant starts hacking at the enormous octopoid
"Sandru - see if you can get to the statocysts!"
Elspeth launches over and attacks the octopoid behind Sandru
This futuristic version of Elspeth intones a shockwave that reverberates in the ALL-MIND. "Caromarc...in this future, you no longer exist." Caromarc returns this revelation with a storm of arcane bolts! Elspeth puts up a shimmering field. The missiles easily punch through it.
_____________________________
The Manservant's first scythe glances off Future Elspeth's hide. The second arc cuts deep! Her wounds seal and repel the knife.
Octopoid #2 squirms and wrests away from your Elspeth...unsuccessfully.
[Dice=Linguistics, "statocysts"?]1d20+4[/dice]
Quick thought - are F.E.'s tentacle attacks magic? MM has DR 2/magic as well...
WHAT?
"The green wobbly thing inside! That way!"
Too hard to move... Grrrah!
Sandru...caught between the crowding mass of Elspeth's bulk, and a lonely sea of stars...
Nevertheless, he twists, attacks...his first swipe flenses a large strip from the monster, wounding it grievously! The weird blubber begins to reknit. Sandru looks for another opening. The undulation of the tentacles is confusing and strange, and his second attack swings wide.
Let’s see how this things self-repairing flesh handles a charging Rhino...
La Siréene mutters the summoning chant, draws her hand back in the intention of throwing it forward... and notices motes of darkness playing on the backside of her hand.
"Wha-UNGHH-" and La Siréene's vision goes green.
ERROR.
UNSTABLE VOID ENERGIES INCOMPATIBLE WITH PATHETIC FLESH INTERFACE.
"RHINOCEROS" FILE CORRUPTED.
"-HHHKCHT!" La Siréene's moan of pain ends, with a strange metallic static.
As she opens her right eye, La Siréene sees her summoned creature - while the body is the appropriate greyish hide, the legs are long, extended and insect-like, and over the creatures head, a second mouth now resides, a massive deformed collection of fangs, teeth, tusks and pincers.
La Siréene shouts at the creature to attack, and casts Heatstroke at Elspeth’s future, then takes cover behind the debris at
What... what was that?
The creature roars, a primal, shrieking sound, and rushes at the foe, legs rotating in a high speed crawl, the mismatched maw ripping Future Elspeth's flesh.
A wavering red ray projects from La Siréene's finger. Future Elspeth suffers heatstroke. Her body temperature rises to dangerous levels! The Void Beast clamps her in its horrific mandibles, slamming down on her like a portcullis. It gnashes, thrashes, and throws her back and forth. The statocyst bursts! The abyssal version of Elspeth goes slack. What's left of her trails from the creature's mouth.
Elspeth's brood scream at the loss of their mother. SQUEEEEEE!! The one near Sandru tries to peck him to death, but the attempt is pathetic. He just feels the thing lightly bat against his armor.
On losing sight of his previous target, Ianez spins and directs his efforts towards the octopoid on Blackacre. He's unable to stop his spin, though, and all three arrows sail past the creature into the void.
The third octopoid lurks in its ink cloud, gravely injured by Ianez's previous attack. But alien sensory organs pick up the scent of the hunt. It swims through the darkness and flanks Sandru , hoping to find advantage in numbers. The thing unfurls its tentacles at him, but doesn't manage to land a bite.
"Freakin' stupid octopus creeps!" Phoebe growls. She bites her lip and nods to Caromarc's familiar. "Um, no offense to you, Elspeth." She casts on herself and is bathed in a wave of cauterizing fire. After she casts the spell, she goes pale again and slumps against Caromarc in a fit of coughing.
Round 3:
Another quarter of the room falls away...
Quinn changes his sights and finds a new target, one of the smaller octopus; O3.
The first arrow hits the octopoid dead center. SQUEEEEEE!! It cannonballs backwards into the night.
Bad things happen to our Galtish inspector.
Blackacre swings wildly at the octopoid, seeking to strike at its core, or at least knock loose a tentacle:
Alien toxin seeps into Blackacre's bite wound, sapping his strength.
_____________________________
The combatants continue to spin in their struggle. Even in his weakened state, Blackacre manages to reverse the threat back at the monster. In two fell swipes, he bisects the creature lengthwise...then crosswise...dividing it in four! Chunks of octopoid sushi drift slowly and silently away through the ether...
Leaping off from the carcass of Future Elspeth, the manservant drifts past the smaller octopoid... and attacks!
The octopoid registers a humanoid-shaped threat and lashes out. Its teeth scrape across the ablative barrier, its tentacles flop dumbly and clang against the construct's metal form. But the attack does no damage.
did MM hit then? Also, how much does the ablative barrier take?
The Manservant's scythe arcs down through the Void, exacting a quick, soundless, ultimate vengeance...
Caromarc looks around wildly for a way back
Your party hovers suspended in the Void. You feel a strong updraft, a river of air, though it's hard to determine the exact source or direction it is coming from. There is another creature flying through the Void. This one is an amalgam of a bird, like a crane, and a manta ray or skate. Behind it drags a long tail, made up of several filaments, each with a glowlight at the tip.
The creature is skittish, scared of the Void beast that La Siréene summoned. It is clearly not predator but prey in this strange world. It glides past, between all of you, and rides the slipstream of air up to the only quarter of the room that remains.
Caromarc reorients himself
"Back to the room!"
Quinn attempts to force his will on his body to go in the direction he desires.
He concentrates on the location where the bird like creature was traveling on. As he slowly moves, he take out his rope and makes a lasso. He tries to snare any of his companions that is having trouble navigating the void.
Though victorious, your party is disoriented after fighting the monstrous Elspeth. The bird-skate twitters and whoops to itself. It's a large beast, and drifts past each of you. Its tail filaments hang close enough that if you grabbed on, you might be able to ride the updraft back to the room.
The creature lingers. It seems curious about you.
Hello, friend. I know this form is hard to recognize, but I am the horse you saved from nightmares at a stable long ago (which is the recent past on your home plane). This is my evolution in this future. I assume you want to return to your now-time present? Don't be afraid. Take hold of my tail and I'll return you home. Sorry about octopus friend.
Friendly... almost inviting...
"Hello, friend."
La Siréene grabs ahold of a tail filament and climbs aboard the creature.
The monk dulpicates La Sireene after seeing her grab the creatures tail.
Blackacre seems exhausted from the brief battle with Future Elspeth. The weakened inspector makes a vague grasp at the creature's tail thingies.
This place is too much... still feeling effect of paralysis... did I really turn to stone?
The poison's effects begin to subside.
Ianez wracks his brain to remember anything he can about the strange creature.
Caromarc stops
"Manservant, grab the.. tail. Elspeth, follow us don't get lost!"
I have to make sure Elspeth doesn't get left behind here!
To the creature, as he grabs hold
"Thank you. I have to believe that wasn't really Elspeth anymore. Just something that grew out of her flesh like a tumour."
I need time to process...
Hello, friends. I know this form is hard to recognize, but I am the horse you saved from nightmares at a stable long ago (which is the recent past on your home plane). This is my evolution in this future. I assume you want to return to your now-time present? Don't be afraid. Take hold of my tail and I'll return you home. Sorry about octopus friend.
One by one, the bedraggled members of your party grab onto the otherworldly creature's tail. First La Siréene, then Quinn...and then one by one, all of the others. Your "horse" flies in an alarmlingly vertical trajectory back up into the part of the room that remains. The flight is supernaturally swift. It takes your breath away.
You land on a ledge where your company can regroup. When you reach it, the octopus, Elspeth...Jornel Vennel Caromarc's familiar...your Elspeth, bursts with a blue sigil around her. A pentagram overlaid with an arcane eye.
The crane-manta ray "horse" fades away. Goodbye, friend heroes. Thanks to you, this future is prevented. Elspeth will never become the creature of this future. Best of luck on your journey.
The chasm between your plane and the terrible Abyssal future is sealed.
In the meantime, Future Elspeth's subterranean tremors have brought down the walls of the Library of Anaphexia. The entire building is reduced to mere rubble. There is a path. The way out the back is now clear.
The paper reads: One of three foci of the Tower Out of Time. (see "Running Out of Time" * on page 452.)
Is this unconcious physical Elspeth, or incorporeal Elspeth? This could be used to send Incorporeal Elspeth away (till Caromarc can recover spells) if you'd like her to take a break for a while.
Otherwise I guess there could be an incorporeal->corporeal crystal:)
Elspeth turns lazily in the air, then starts convulsing.