Sorjla and Hozela both aid Yessai in her observations:
Hozela's spellcraft aid another:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16 Sorjla's spellcraft aid another:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11 And I'll assume Mundarion is also aiding another...
Yessai:
Yessai is able to make out which spells are stored in the staff. It can be used to boost the morale of the wielder's allies, to cause an enemy to stumble and delay, or to create a wall of energy which blinds or deafens those who pass through it. It can also cause a foe to babble uncontrollably.
[ooc]The staff an cast:
Moment of Greatness (1 charge)
Unprepared Combatant (1 charge)
Babble (2 charges)
Wall of Blindness/Deafness (3 charges)
It also has other, more subtle powers that you can't quite make out. While examining the staff, you feel a mental prodding emitting from it, suggesting that you return to the Sundered Temple.
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
Yessai relates to the others what she knows [read spoiler, above] including a caution that the soft urging might drive one barmy as they call it in Sigil.
"So...'Darion - if you want to carry it I'm fine with that...just know that whosoever does carry it might be driven mad by the transporting of it. I think...
Male Elf Rogue 3 / Wizard 3 | HP 25/25 | AC 17, T 13, FF 14
Mundarion says, "I have no problem with Gemheart carrying the staff. And if some sort of situation arises where we think we need it I am willing to wield it for brief periods of time. Though that is unlikely. I think we should next call on the arboreans and see what they know of Karavakos and what they are willing to tell us of their home."
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
"My apologies kind Gemheart. You are a good choice to bear the staff."
We could investigate the abomination shard/Kravakoss while we have the aid of the staff - otherwise as soon as we get to the Arboreans they will take it...I'm fine either way...
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
I'm with Gemheart - I thought that one captured us? Let's at least look at the newest one...
So Yessai is for going to the Karavakos splinter in the Sundered Temple, Mundarion wants to go to the Arboreans, Gemheart DOESN'T want to go back to the Library of Whispers, and De hasn't actually stated her preference...
so there still isn't a stated agreement between any two of you as to where to go next:P I just want to be sure there is actual agreement from at least half the group on a course of action before assuming you all go along with it.
Forgeborn map Armorist(Symbiotic Knight) / Incanter 6 || HP 53/60; g
"we could call on the tree-people, but they'd want the staff. To give the staff angers the dragon, correct? Knowing more of karavakos is good, to be certain. We have already been bested by one shard."
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
Yessai looks at the forgeborn, mouth agape.
"Again you astound me with thy locquaciousness Gemheart. And...I agree."
You have no difficulty getting back to the room where you fought Medragal. When you arrive, you find that the make-shift structures, barely holding up before, have now collapsed into giant piles of rubble. The grey on the map. The few humans who were left alive when you killed Medragal are nowhere to be seen.
To the south, the corridor bends and the ambient light shifts from green to a faint, pink-ish red, before opening out at the northwest corner of a much larger room.
You are now at around AE81 on the map.
Howling winds sweep past as you open the door to this chamber. Before you, a rushing vortex of energy whirls around the center of the room. Within the vortex you can barely see the form of a humanoid figure. The figure struggles in place, as if trapped at the center of this strange storm.
Near the corners of the room are four statues, each nine feet high and depicting a fiendish winged creature. The statues all face inwards, as if keeping watch on the center of the room.
Knowledge (The Planes) 16:
The creatures depicted by the statues are Magaav, devils who hunt down and capture escaped souls.
Ten feet inside the room is a shimmering, swirling annulus-shaped vortex of orange and yellow prismatic energy the orange squares on the map.
Still further inside, a raised square platform stands about five feet about the rest of the floor at the room's center the light blue squares.
In the center of the raised platform, a twisted creature stands chained in place. The abomination has gray-blue skin, an oversized, bulging head, a humanoid upper torso, and a lower body that ends in several long, ropey tentacles. In place of arms, it has two long tentacles that end in cruel barbs. Yet it is distinctly the appearance of Karavakos, not yet twisted beyond recognition.
At the northwest and southeast corners of the raised platform are a pair of crude, basalt menhirs with long iron chains attached to them. The chains are rapped around the limbs of the deformed Karavakos.
perception or spellcraft, 22:
The energy powering the vortex is actually flowing from the menhirs.
The sight of Karavakos' deformed splinter, combined with the aberrant atmosphere of the Sundered Temple, is an immediate challenge to your sanity.
Everyone roll 1d100 for a sanity check. I'm not even telling you what sanity rules we're using until you start losing it....(I'll say it's a variant of the 3.5 rules.)
Your head starts to swirl as you try to comprehend what you are seeing, but fail.
Your new sanity score is 52 (it was 55). I request that you keep track of your sanity score, at least until you are done exploring this portion of the Pyramid. You have not suffered any adverse affects of sanity loss (yet).
Gemheart:
You don't seem to feel any effects of seeing the aberrant horror. You are completely unaffected.
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
Yup, reminded me of Zargon from B4 too, Dee. Wait, I thought you just finished high school - who has been exposing you to such awesome grognardia!?!?!?
HP 32/32, AC 19/T 14/ FF 15; Fort +2, Ref +9, Will +2; CMB +6, CMD 20; Per +11, Init +4; Mv 30ft, Cb 20ft;
Haha, nah, just finishd College, and it's because these were my first two manuals for D&D:
http://orkerhulen.dk/Dnd%20history/dnd/1981%20dnd%203rd%20edition%20basic%2 0rules.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2b/Dmb4_the_lost_city.jpg /250px-Dmb4_the_lost_city.jpg
"Perhapssss we sssshould... dissssrupt them... if we can ssssafely do sssso then..."
Your head starts to swirl as you try to comprehend what you are seeing, but fail.
Your new sanity score is 50 (it was 55). I request that you keep track of your sanity score, at least until you are done exploring this portion of the Pyramid. You have not suffered any adverse affects of sanity loss (yet).
Male Elf Rogue 3 / Wizard 3 | HP 25/25 | AC 17, T 13, FF 14
Oops, that's only going to be a result of 26 versus traps. I keep forgetting that he won't get his next boost from trapfinding until he hits 4th level rogue.
Mundarion says, "Gemheart is right. So, do we want to try to destroy the menhirs, or see if we can simply kill this splinter with ranged weapons and effects?"
"Yon outer statues are of Magaav, vicous and vile devils who hunt souls that have escaped their lords' and ladies' clutches."
Shorjla informs the group, "Though the statues are not magical, methinks they art for show alone. I knoweth naught how powerful the Splinter of Karavakos ith, nor how hard destroying the menhirs wouldst be."
As you consider your actions, the splinter of Karavakos seemingly becomes aware of your precense, and begins thrashing at its chains, viciously trying to escape.
"Q'ulunzapaads d-lzewe'theckshor'atewhlkahsd-zdsdfwhlkoaqwrgn;oi zewkh Karvos'zneat'them qualz'o!"
Undercommon:
What have we? Another fiend come to torment me? Another spawn of Karavakos come to take my essence? Another abomination come to give me company? No!
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
Yessai places a staying hand on Mundarion.
"Wait. Though we speak not its tongue it may have others."
The githyanki ponders the scene, watching the energy flow from the menhir and the swirling of the vortex.
"Too many times we have been caught by our lack of knowledge, or seeming lack of options. Let us at least try to find out why it is here, and how it is bound. If the energy keeps only it held, then we are free to aproach. Otherwise you may strengthen it with your magics, or [here shrugging her baroque mantle of spell-storing for good effect] harm thyself with unlooked for return of eldritch energy."
In every language she knows, the gith questions the abomination. Languages: Common, Gith, Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, Elvish.
"Splinter of Kravakoss - why and how are ye bound? Are thee a danger to us?"
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
Hearing Mundarion, Yessai winces at her own importunity. She smiles to her companion.
"Next time let you speak the Elvish - mine is rough and little-used."
The splinter of Karavakos responds to Yessai and Mundarion in a garbled, broken dialect of Elvish.
Elvish:
"Creatures come, torment my mind. I thought I could leave, but the beholders....
they came, and the others, and coconuts they made me, chained for hubris against the mind eaters. Smash. Slash. Crack it goes, time to return. But there is not return from the mind eater, my fault it is when opened a portal did I Here, to the Far Realm. But nothing to the Far Realm, only from did they pass. Who will eat whom? You? Me? Coconut?"
Its voice is deep and hoarse, and its eyes wander wildly as it speaks, whilst its legs thrash at their chains.
Male Elf Rogue 3 / Wizard 3 | HP 25/25 | AC 17, T 13, FF 14
Mundarion says to the group on Common, "Sounds like putting him out of his and everybody else's misery would be one of the best things we could do for him."
"Yessai, I've got a wand of magic missiles that should do the trick. It'll just take a while because it's a low level wand. Did you want to use it in case there's some sort of magical feedback or defense?"
Female Githyanki Direlock (Fear Eater) //Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) 6; HP 51/41; AC 18/T 12/ FF 16; Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7; CMB +7, CMD 19; Per +10, Init +4; Spd 30 ft.; Terror Pool 1/6
"I will if we deem that safest. But this death may not be necessary, or at the very least might be hasty."
In Elvish
"Splinter of Kravakoss - we hear, see and feel thy pain - would that we could assuage thy suffering - what say you - what manner of creature do ye be? WHat can thee tell us of a True Kravakoss - if one should exist? What canst thou say that might stay our hands from thy end? Are we in danger from ye? What of these eldritch bindings upon you - what can thee tell us of them?"
Diplomacy:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
Sorry fro the delay in the bloodshed, just trying to find out as much as we can before we attempt to ice him...
