"Good idea, I'll let you have first crack at them, old boy." Jerry adds in his clipped tone, getting ready to vault upon the back of his leonine companion.
Smitty moves up to N8 while threateningly brandishing Bessie.
Rhodes moves to N9 with his light crossbow out. He looks at Smitty's weapon, then his own and gulps loudly.
The alien things continue to chitter in their incomprehensible language. They advance on you, spreading out to flank. Their thick tentacles flail about menacingly.
Jerry & Luce
Trina
Smitty
Sylvia
Rhodes
Caladrel
Elder Things
Knowing the extensive education of the healer; "Miss Trina, those tentacles - they aren't too extensile? Are they?" He asks before leaping into action, hoping to keep the elder things off guard and avoid the many appendages that crest the trunk shaped bodies.
With a powerful leap, the noble jumps into the exotic saddle with a soft sigh of his chain mail as he urges Luce on into a rapid charge. She lets a growl at the horrific thing and burst into action.
Powerful honey coloured leonine legs push the duo onwards, whilst Jeremiah slides the lance from the saddle into a couched position.
Like a golden arrow released from a taught bow, they fly towards the enemy - without even a chance to stop. Moving through the whipping beast, the noble braces his lance for the impact. Keeping the metal tip pointed towards the thick trunk, expecting it to be rubbery or tough an inhuman, he focusses upon his opponent.
Whilst as she leaps past the creature, an errant paw spears out to swipe the being.
Caladrel begins to chant, "Ful dreran od un, mas ar ciaro marirn a finn aedrannardim gau fondo fargo ammennolinain arli"
Knowing the extensive education of the healer; "Miss Trina, those tentacles - they aren't too extensile? Are they?" He asks before leaping into action, hoping to keep the elder things off guard and avoid the many appendages that crest the trunk shaped bodies.
"I don't think so, but I've never actually seen one so I can't say for certain. Be careful."
Trina plants her feet and holds her ground, glaring toward the creature Jerry just charged, then flicking her gaze to the other as it approaches. She chooses to pursue, following after Jerry and swinging her glaive in a wide arc as she nears the monstrosity, speaking a word of divine wrath as she charges.
Jerry's lance and Luce's claws savagely wound one of the creatures. Greenish fluid seeps from the vicious gashes. Wounded as it is, it deftly avoids the swing of Trina's glaive.
Sylvia's grenade strikes the thing solidly and explodes in a rain of shrapnel and fire. The pellets tear at the creature's flesh, but the fire fails to singe it.
Smitty takes aim at Thing 2.
"I hope these things ain't immune to lead."
He fires.
"Nice work, Bessie."
Smitty's bullet embeds itself in the horrid thing. Rhodes takes aim with his crossbow at the same creature, but his bolt passes wide. He steps away, looking for an opportunity to position himself strategically.
The creature nearest Trina steps closer and flails its tentacles at her.
The other moves toward Smitty and lashes at the dwarf with a tentacle.
Jerry & Luce
Trina (Grappled)
Smitty (Grappled)
Sylvia
Rhodes
Caladrel
Elder Things
"Bloody damn thing!"
Smitty flexes and tries to break free of the tentacle's hold.
Trina likewise gives a cry, almost an inhuman screech, and attempts to wriggle free.
If she escapes, she retreats a few steps and draws her healing wand.
The ground next to tentacle creature 1 begins to move and roughly humanoid shape appears. The small earth elemental swings it's mighty rock fist at the creature.
,
He then begins to chant again, "Un Sethrar, mas ion alethrar od ar finn funiaran gau can ion."
Sylvia hesitates to do anything while her companions are in the grasp of the tentacles.
Rearing up of her hind legs, rampant, she wheels to face the threat. "There, there girl. Move and rend their tendrils from their trunk."
She refuses to charge towards the alien creatures.
Trina and Smitty both manage to pull themselves free from the writhing tentacles.
Caladrel's summoned elemental successfully bashes one of the creatures.
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Sylvia takes a couple of long, dancing strides towards the first horror and unleashes a Bomb of Unusual Size with an odd flick of her wrist, slanting the blast away from her friends. She hopes. It's a risk, but maybe enough fire will hurt the things. And, really, you can never have enough fire.
"Bargain alchemical supplies, indeed," she snarls at the resulting tiny gout of flame, "That's the last time I buy at Edgar's Discount Spells."
Having escaped the thing, Smitty tries to put some distances between himself and those tentacles.
Rhodes draws his rapier and, with a look of disgust, draws close to the creature in battle with the elemental. He tries to find a vital opening. He quickly sees his opportunity and drives his rapier deep into the creature's hide at the base of one of the tentacles.
The thing flails out at both Rhodes and the elemental.
It strikes both targets, but fails to get a grip on the wily rogue.
The other thing continues to pursue Smitty.
Jerry & Luce
Trina
Smitty (Grappled)
Sylvia
Rhodes
Caladrel
Elder Things
"Now, buck up old girl. I'll get you some steak when we return to the estate." the noble tries to placate the cautious lioness and goad her into a charge.
The promise of fresh meat sends her careening towards the tentacled creation, happy that her plan of free meal has worked.
"Right, Edgar, you get another chance." Sylvia does the same again.
Couching his lance, Jerry charges forward to smash into the creature, before positioning next to the other monstrosity.
Trina trades the wand from her hand to her tail and grabs the gun resting there in turn. She then levels her pistol at the beast with its tendrils wrapped around Smitty and attempts to add yet more lead to its anatomy. Keeping her healing wand gripped in her tail, she quickly reloads.
The earth elemental summoned by Caladrel takes another swing.
, , ,
A second creature materializes by thing 2. A tiny insect creature with a large proboscis darts at the creature and attempts to inject its proboscis into the creature's neck. The stirge begins to drink the blood of the creature.
Caladrel reaches back into his backpack and takes out a tanglefoot bag. He throws the bag at thing 2. The black tar resin splashes onto the floor as Caladrel attempts to entangle the creature.
Jerry's lance fails to make contact with the creature, but Luce manages to take a bite as she passes.
Trina shoots a round into the creature holding Smitty, while the dwarf manages to slip out of its grasp.
Sylvia hurls her explosive at the other creature. The explosion is fantastic, and when the smoke clears, all that remains of that alien is a burned-up husk. Rhodes and the elemental are remarkably unscathed.
His enemy smitten, Rhodes pulls out his crossbow and takes aim at the other creature.
The elemental slams the other creature with a solid blow, just as the summoned stirge attaches itself to the thing's hide. Caladrel also manages to catch the thing in the gooey tar of the tanglefoot bag.
The thing is slowed, but not stuck in place. It makes wild clicking noises at the turning of this battle and focuses its effort on the stirge attached to its hide.
Jerry & Luce
Trina
Smitty
Sylvia
Rhodes
Caladrel
Elder
One down, one to go. Trina takes aim with the gun and fires again. She attempts to aim the attack so as not to hit the druid's stirge.
Caladrel's summoned creatures continue to attack. The earth elemental slams the thing again. ,
The stirge tries to maintain its hold on the thing and suck more blood.
Taken aback by the appearance of the strige and the retorts of the weapons, Jerry's lance slips from his hands. On the cavern floor it makes a clatter, Luces hind legs knock it away with disdain.
However his gauntleted hands slip to the sheathe, sliding the broad blade from the leather with a whisper. Wielding it with ease, Jerry swings to the second creature.
After the lance clatters off her, annoyed she lashes out at the tentacled thing - like batting at a chaotic ball of yarn. Then she nips forward to bite the base, at her riders insistence.
Jerry sticks the creature with his spear, while Luce slashes its hide with a claw. Trina's aim is true and the bullet pierces the alien flesh.
Smitty takes aim with his musket and tries to finish the job. "Steady now, Bessie..."
The shot rings out through the chamber and strikes the creature in a shower of sickly green blood. Weakened by the bloodsucking stirge and wounded by a succession of blows, the thing collapses to the ground in a heap of alien anatomy.
"Thank the goddess," Trina mutters, and begins administering healing. After getting caught up in that thing's tentacles, she's not feeling all that great herself, and some of the others aren't much better.
When you come to the next chamber, the swirling fog has thinned somewhat, such that you can see relatively clearly. This expansive cavern has no other exits. The rough ceiling is some 50 feet above your heads and the walls are slimy with algae.
At the far end of the chamber, a jagged window into darkness gapes menacingly. The edges of the portal glow with a purple radiance, and the interior resembles a black sky, dotted with faint stars. The tear in space is not bound by any physical structure; it simply hovers, some 2 feet above the floor.
Two strange beings are inspecting the rift. These barrel-shaped bodies are topped with vaguely star-shaped heads. Leathery wings hang limply among their many tentacle-like appendages. One of them holds with one of its tentacles a strange, crystalline artifact as it prods at the border to the rift.
Once her companions' wounds are tended, Trina makes her way to the corpses of the two alien creatures. She repeats the ritual used over the dead in prior encounters, murmuring a prayer of purification and banishment over the bodies.
Once the necessity of the ritual is complete, however, Trina takes to examining the corpses in more detail, leaving examination of the portal to the curious alchemist or stoic druid to contemplate. She carefully picks through their equipment, first retrieving the crystal rod - carefully, and with hands once more gloved - then searching them for further possessions while she examines their bizarre anatomy.
Caladrel cautiously approaches the rift. He casts detect magic to to determine if there are magical items or triggers around. "What is this? It certainly doesn't seem natural." He looks carefully around for anything that may control the rift, a lever or something.
Sliding off his leonine companions back, he looks with darkly at the rent corpses of the strange creatures. "Anyone know what they are? Or what that dark unnatural portal is? Certainly something here is disturbing the balance of nature....could it be from some other world, rather than emanating from here."
Luce shies away from, both the bodies and the rift, causing Jerry to grasp her saddle as he retrieves and stows his weapon.
"These creatures are simply known as elder things," Trina explains, still kneeling next to one of the corpses and searching through its remains. "At least in our language - I don't know theirs, but I presume they have a name of their own, but no mortal of our world has ever recorded it. They're not native to this world, but not from a planar standpoint - they come from other worlds, distant places in the far-away blackness of the night sky. I'm not certain how they came here, whether by magic or some sort of vessel, or if they've been here for some time, born native despite their kind being alien to our world. They are great travelers and scholars, but they are invasive and hostile, seizing what they desire without care, harvesting from precursors and lesser civilizations; there are no records of peaceful contact with them."
"Well our 'contact' wasn't peaceful." he says with a rueful wink to 'Trina; "So you think this oscillating vortex could be a transporter to their home realm and they came through it from there? I wonder how we would close it down."
The noble glances around the group, wondering their thoughts on the matter.
"Not certain, they could have used it or perhaps they were intending to, once they discerned where it went." She waggles the glass rod in one hand while continuing to search. "They were using this to examine it; I'm not yet sure what it is."
One of the things was holding a crystalline object, as you noted before. The pink gem is cut at odd angles, with no apparent symmetry or rational angles. The object is divided into two pieces that can turn relative to one another.
You also find, on the floor not far from where the things were when you arrived, a strange, circular satchel. It contains an assortment of papers and an odd stylus for writing. Most of the papers are covered in strange markings, evidently their alien language. One of the papers, however, is covered in a bizarre geometric diagram.
The rift itself is like looking upon some alien night sky. The black void is dotted with unfamiliar constellations and celestial bodies.
Trina, now holding the crystal rod in her tail where someone else can examine it while she continues her search, collects up the satchel and sorts through the papers, trying to make sense of the strange writing. Finding nothing she can decipher, she instead turns her attention to the drawing, trying to make sense of the unusual angles.
Sylvia, who has been staring at the rift in amazement, finally stirs. She tosses a nearby pebble at the rift to see what happens, then goes to examine the crystal rod and join Trina in a study of the papers.
"What a great loss it is to us that these creatures are hostile, if they can do such wonders. The things we could learn from them!" she exclaims, with no trace of sarcasm, trying to figure out what they were doing and how the rod and portal work. "Oooh, geometry! I love geometry!"
"This is all beyond me. Can anybody tell if these things are magical?" She carefully stashes paper and stylus back in the satchel when everyone is finished with them. "Oh, I can't wait to show these to the University Museum curators! They will go absolutely mad! This could mean a professorship!" Her delight is interrupted by Chanticleer's bray and she frowns. "Oh, right. I will probably need to figure out how to fix that first."
"This is all beyond me. Can anybody tell if these things are magical?"
"One way to find out. Montru al mi magio." Trina murmurs a spell and examines the rod.
Caladrel turns from the rift and goes over to Sylvia and Trina. He says, "The rift radiates a strong aura of conjuration magic."
Perplexed by Sylvia's statement, Caladrel asks, "Great loss, wonders? If these creatures are the source of the taint that has taken hold of this gentle land, how is their demise a loss? I see no wonder here. I see a horrific disturbance of the natural world. For what end, I cannot fathom."
Caladrel's brow tightens further. "Maybe it's you and your unnatural chemicals, or" turning to Trina and Smitty, "its you and your fire sticks. That have drawn them here. They see our world, turning from nature, and that has given them the crack they will rend open to tear our world apart. Nature provided us with the tools we needed to vanquish them..." Caladrel pats Luce on his head. "A lion, an earth elemental, a small stirge all served us well."
"Bah! Natural!" Sylvia waves towards the rift. "Look! Natural stars! Chanticleer is a natural creature, though a bit... er... changed. And I think my 'unnatural chemicals' did quite well at helping destroy these things. For me, I do say it is a shame. I would that they were benign and cooperative. Do you wish differently, sir?" Unusual color stains Sylvia's normally pale cheeks, though her tone remains even.
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"This appears to be some sort of control mechanism," she announces, lifting the rod with her tail and interrupting the impending argument. "I believe if the positions are adjusted, it adjusts the size of the gateway. I don't believe it can destroy it, but it can reduce the size so nothing can pass."
She takes the object from her tail and runs her fingers over the separate parts, trying to discern which way will increase the size of the gateway and which will decrease it. "Whatever we decide to do, we should probably keep this someplace safe - if someone were to steal it, it would be quite simple to re-open the rift to a size by which something could pass through. Presuming, of course, that this is the only such mechanism that can affect this gate - if the elder things have others that will work on this portal, they may be able to re-open it from the other side. Again presuming that they're the ones who opened it in the first place; possibly a safe assumption, but I cannot be certain."