The combined attacks of the group easily dispatch the remaining mask. It screams and shatters. All that is eft in the room is the pillar of blue light they had been circling and the hundreds of (regular) masks set up on the walls
"Well brain trust," Karrin says looking to Justin, Ekuur, and Nari, "Do you think this is where these mask-geists were being made? And if so how do we stop it? And how dangerous is that pillar? Can we smash it? Would, say, a bell, thrown at it the source of said pillar of light smash said pillar? And if not would it damage the bell? And also, why are we not smashing more things into other things? That last question was more of a philosophical quandary, feel free to meditate on it, I often do, it's how I find my calm place and stuff, but the other questions I need answered pronto. Let's work those brains of yours, test your knowledge and wisdom, time to prove to the muscle that the goo between your ears is worth us putting our bodies on the line for. No pressure though. I have a feeling that everything we've been fighting for, all the great mysteries we've encountered, will be solved by understanding what we've find in this room. Again, no pressure, but I think all of our adventures thus far can be solved by understanding this room."
Hamar stands and begins to walk the perimeter of the room observing the masks.
Perception
"They were surrounding the pillar, which suggests they were either guarding it, communicating with it, drawing energy from it, or some combination of those. There are a lot of masks in this room and none of the ones we killed caused a big mass of negative energy to accumulate in this room, unlike in the others. It's possible that the same spirits are being brought back again and again to occupy different masks should one get destroyed. Or maybe it's different spirits brought back the same way. Ekuur, can you tell if that pillar is evil? Justin, perhaps you could check for necromantic energies? We should all be careful not to touch it until we know for sure what that pillar is," she said quietly, trying to follow Karrin's instructions.
Justin looks at Karrin, and blinks, slowly.
"Yeeeeeeaah,... Nooo pressure." Justin murmurs. He turns towards the pillar of light, pausing only to give Nari and Merle a smirk and a roll of his eyes at Karrin. The wizard examines the pillar of light but can be heard muttering,
"I'm fairly certain that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 'NEVER touch the big, creepy, Bell'!"
Karrin gleams as Nari shares her thoughts, "Atta girl!" says as she mussies up Nari's hair, "Try topping that Justin!"
"I'm fairly certain that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 'NEVER touch the big, creepy, Bell'!"
"But," Karrin says, rasing her finger in a sage like motion, "Why are we not smashing some things into other things? Think about it."
Justin looks away from the pillar and raises an eyebrow at Nari.
"Good points Nari. Remember that the coalescing Negative energy mass never occurred in our previous 'haunted demon-mask' encounters. Judging by our experiences, I postulate that they are a by product of our current locale,..." Justin gestures widely to indicate the Negative energy Plane itself,... "and seems to be confined to corporeal undead specimens. Although that theory remains to be proven, as we have yet to confirm if the Spirit-mask-demon-ghosts are actually incorporeal undead, demon-possessed objects, or a combination thereof. If we had access to a complete laboratory, I'd suggest an Eigen-Skross containment circle embedded with an inter-dimensional causality matrix and powered by a Vulpis-Tesla array. Preferably rendered in Silver, Gold and Adamantium, in that order."
Justin takes a breath, notices that some of the others are looking at him with blank stares, and clears his throat self-consciously.
"BUT since we don't have a lab, I'll see what I can detect on the pillar, then the masks. Merle can you inspect the masks, then the pillar? Maybe one of us will notice something the other missed,..." Justin finishes in a much more subdued, non-lecturer tone. He mutters somethings under his breath as he busies himself casting minor detection magics on the pillar of light and studying the reactions.
"But," Karrin says, rasing her finger in a sage like motion, "Why are we not smashing some things into other things? Think about it.""I'm fairly certain that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 'NEVER touch the big, creepy, Bell'!"
"I can think of a couple of things I'd like to smash right now,..." Justin grumbles half-heartedly as he stares at the pillar of light with glowing, magically enhanced eyesight.
Apparently Justin more flustered than he was a few moments ago,... ;P
Merle sets about detecting magic on the masks
Spellcraft
Also decides to ask Seph for.................guidance.
"I did not receive that prayer today, Nari. But if it isn't, it certainly is being used for evil. That alone seems to imply it should be destroyed."
Check for what it might be; cast guidance before each check.
Knowledge (planes)
Knowledge (religion)
Karrin peaks over people's shoulders to see what they're looking at to see if she can add her own (secret) sage advice.
"I did not receive that prayer today, Nari. But if it isn't, it certainly is being used for evil. That alone seems to imply it should be destroyed."
Check for what it might be; cast guidance before each check.
Knowledge (planes) 1d20+10
Knowledge (religion) 1d20+10
"Okay. Umm....Blayze? You were using holy energy before, right? Can you sense if the light is evil?" she addressed the new teammate, biting her lip as she worried at the problem, trying to get more information.
"Of course Nari, just a second." she says closing her eyes. As Blayze opens her eyes, they emanate a silvery-white glow as she shifts her vision to perceive the true nature of things.
:
The pillar of light radiates a magical aura. The aura seems to be a blend of necromancy and transmutation. It detects as evil. It is a shaft of light, so no physical attributes. Therefore throwing a bell at it would likely be fairly useless. It is colored blue.
Karrin:
Arnav holds himself ready for any ambushes as the brainy people talk smart stuff around him. Having your face distorted and merged with stone makes it easier to hide the longing to have magic. It also hides the revelation that Nari said this power within him was like her power. If only he could channel it right.
"Necromancy and Transmutation?!? What IS it with these other worlds and their mixing of perfectly good, separate, schools of magic?" Justin shakes his head.
"I hate to admit it, but crazy old Maurice's theory is looking better every day. He once postulated that all magics actually came from the same source, he called it 'Mana', and the only difference in 'schools' was the way we focus it when we channeled it. When asked why every one could detect and identify magical energies the same way, he gave another convoluted theory about the laws of belief and contagion, basically we find what we expect to find. Yeah, the Arcanum tossed him out on his ear."
Another round of blank looks and self-conscious throat clearing.
"None of which has anything to do with THIS, so,... yeah, no bell-throwing. THAT much I can confirm." He says this last bit firmly, looking directly at Karrin.
It is a shaft of light, so no physical attributes. Therefore throwing a bell at it would likely be fairly useless.
Karrin ignores Justin's crazy interpretation and instead turns to Ekuur:
"Say, Ekuur, does your religion have anything in it about evil liches or whatever turning people into pillars of light and priests, I mean great holy men, turning them back with a prayer? Cuz there's this long boring story about this Apostles of Rao that told of St Sevron doing something like this to someone that was vanquished by a demon lich, and I'm thinking if a demon lich could do that to someone a god could probably do something similar right? What do you think?"
"Wait, what?!" Justin says, once again confused by Karrin's subject change.
"Let me get this straight,... You think this pillar of LIGHT used to be a PERSON?!?,... I think I'd like to read that story." He says, looking to Ekuur for his take on this.
Seeing little of interest as he investigates the masks on the wall, Hamar settles in to watch the portal leading to this "room".
At Justin's rant about schools of magic, he asks Nari, "Does your psionic training divide it's power the same way?"
At Justin's rant about schools of magic, he asks Nari, "Does your psionic training divide it's power the same way?"
She nodded. "Yes. There are so many things that can be done with either magic or psionics, that it is helpful to sort like things together. Most psionicists specialize in one form over the others. My personal specialty is psychokinesis, which has a lot in common with evocation, which is Justin's specialty. My teacher specialized in psychometabolism, although he also knew a great deal about psychoportation. That means he was skilled in transforming his body in various ways, whether to enhance his abilities or to heal himself. I think psychoportation is self explanatory. There are also other disciplines, like telepathy and so on. Each mind is unique and will find certain disciplines come easier than others."
She turned her attention back to the pillar and frowned. "I'm not sure about prayers that could do that, but if it's held in that form by magic, conversely wouldn't the opposite free it, even temporarily? Do we know of any way of suppressing magic that might work?"
He realizes that they need to focus back on the pillar, but Nari's words fascinate him. He especially perked up at the word "transformation".
Justin, partially hearing the others' conversation, hears Nari mention 'suppressing magic'.
"I don't have access to an anti-magic field, which might do the trick. I DO have a couple of Dispels handy. But those tend to be all-or-nothing when cast. I'm getting pretty good, but I'm not, quite, egotistical enough to put my magics up against a Power, even a minor one. Not in a fair fight at least."
Justin continues to examine the pillar, as if it might decide to cooperate and tell him it's secrets.
"Divide the definitions however you want, but Faith-based magic is still manipulating magical energy. It's just the source that changes from caster to caster." Justin waggles a thumb between himself and Ekuur.
"Heck, just between us two we've got access to enough 'Faith in Fire-Power' to conjure a minor miracle." he snorts.
"Hm. What do you think Ekuur? Is there anything to this transformation story? If so, dealing with it would definitely be easier with a fully equipped magical workshop. I wonder,... If we enclosed the pillar in our own magic circle, cutting it off from any outside influences, and INside the circle was a source of energy, faith-based or other-wise, we MIGHT be able to weaken the original transformation,..." Justin starts taking another trip into the realm of theoretical awesomeness. Where anything is possible, but where he sometimes forgets (ignores) the reality of the situation.
Justin continues to examine the pillar, as if it might decide to cooperate and tell him it's secrets.
"Hey, Memnon, You've been around a bit. You ever hear of this story? With magic readings showing a combination of Necro and Transmutation, I'm willing to believe it's possible. What do you see when you look at this thing?"
Hamar taps Justin on the shoulder, "Did we not pass a library full of books and a functioning workshop earlier? Perhaps one of those books can explain what it is we are looking at now..."
Justin looks at Hamar. Blinks. And smiles.
"See?!? THIS is why we do not burn EVERYthing that the bad guys use! Sometimes it comes in handy!" The wizard declares almost gleefully to the room at large, deliberately not looking at any one person.
Hamar taps Justin on the shoulder, "Did we not pass a library full of books and a functioning workshop earlier? Perhaps one of those books can explain what it is we are looking at now..."
Memnon zips up towards it, hmming and hawing. He brushes by it and there is suddenly a dimming of the light of the pillar. In front of the column of light a dark shape appears: a shriveled husk of an inhuman figure. It shudders and shakes feebly, with flesh that looks like it might once have rippled with muscles now hanging loosely upon weak bones. You think this creature once stood over 10 feet tall, but now its stooped body barely reaches 7 feet. Two large claw-tipped arms are paired with two smaller, more humanoid-looking arms.
“I am Glyphimhor,” the figure says quietly, “master of Tcian Sumere. Do not be deceived by my appearance.”
It raises a clawed hand, rotting flesh dripping like syrup,with each motion.
“I am still foremost among the servants of the master. I also know the ancient magic of Pelion that he wields. My words can also slay.” Its voice intensifies, as does the light in its eyes.
“Bow down before me, worms!”
"Tell us how to shut this column of energy off and we shall grant you the death that you have staved off far too long Griffontamer!"
The rotting demon roars and begins tracing a sigil in the air
Hamar Initiative
Merle Init
Arnav does not know if this creature is telling the truth when it says it can slay with it's voice. He decides he won't give it that chance.
Karrin is going to activate her belt to get fun sized.
Merle resorts to ye old magic missile on it
With a single enemy before the group, Hamar knows his normal combat strategy will not work. He instead works himself into a frenzy and starts hacking and slashing at the foe wildly.
Attack #1 Scimitar Planar - - Keen - Damage
Attack #2 Off-Hand Vorpal - - - Damage
Attack #3 Scimitar Planar - - - Damage
Attack #4 Off-Hand Vorpal - - - Damage
Confirm Critical? -
initiative
Ekuur again casts communal protection from evil on all the rest.
Justin stares at the creature, pausing only a moment before acting trying to ascertain it's origins, and hopefully a weakness,...
Anyone standing nearby hears Justin go,... "Duuuuh,..." Before firing off a bolt of magical energy at it out of reflex.
As the undead demon begins it's casting, Blayze's gun discharges with a roar, a divinely infused bullet slamming into the fiend.
Nari jumps back with a startled "Eep!" and reflexively sends a current of electricity at the thing.
Initiatives rotting demon fight
Merle: 25 (magic misfile-need caster check)
Hamar: 24 (snicker snack)
Justin: 23(magic misfile-need caster check)
Naridre: 23(energy current)
Blayze: 23 (smite shot-hit)
Arnav:22 (missed)
Ekuur: 18 (prot evil)
Karrin: 4 (fun sized)
Demon: 1 (PWD stun)
Hamar's attacks wound the foul creature, but its ugly canine head remains attached to his body. Arnav has less luck, his attacks bouncing off the creature's hide. Blayze's shot hits home, and Karrin swells to giant size. Naridre's electric manifestation seems not to affect the thing in the least. It finishes its sigil and points at Hamar. It shouts a word that hurts the ears of all who hear it. Hamar jerks as if convulsed and his weapons clatter to the floor
caster check