"A." Merle
"B" Seph
"A." Merle
"B" Seph
Justin sighs. Again. Almost hiding his smirk.
He looks at the two brooches again.
"Hmmm. The scarab motif with mummies is kind of obvious. Almost too obvious. But the portal was in the oven shaped like a frog,..."
Justin flies up to the balcony again. Then he pauses, looking at both pieces of jewelry once more.
With a muffled oath in an obscure dialect, (probably the draconic equivalent of 'Rassin-Frassin'! What the heck! In for a copper, in for a gold!", or something similar), The wizard places the piece of jewelry bearing the frog motif firmly into the recess of the door-sigils, before he can change his mind,...
As Justing puts the battered jewely piece into the door, he hears a muffled *click*. The door cracks just a small bit, letting out a puff of stale air. The humming feeling of warding magic that sat on the edge of his conscious mind fades as the spells power down ... for the moment.
Justin sighs, releasing tension in his body he hadn't even realized he was holding in.
(Oh, he knew he was nervous, he just hadn't realized HOW nervous.)
He ties the rope off to the balcony rail and drops it those below.
"Everyone out of the pool! The carriage is leaving!"
After a moment, he adds in a softer voice.
"Seriously. I'd hurry up. I have no idea how long the deactivation period lasts."
Wordlessly, Alessia looks at the rope, then looks back up at Justin, then begins climbing the rope.
Karrin uses swift flight to get to the top of the balcony and uses aid other to help anyone trying to climb the rope.
Those looking up can see Justin making occasional, spastic-waving motions with his hand. As if shooing away a pesky fly.
As they get up to the balcony, they can see Memnon hovering behind Justin, whispering (presumably) annoying commentary to the wizard.
So, Fly? Nope.
Pesky (if highly informative and useful)-pest? Yes.
The group arrives atop the tower. Their viewers remain silently watching across the plaza. Before they go up their guide Manhayth clears his throat
“I think it would be best if I stayed back as a rear guard at the door, yes? I am under no delusion that I am as effective as you all are, and someone should keep this path clear, agreed?”
The door opens to a hieroglyphic-bedecked passage, leading several meters to another door. This door is gold, with blasphemous Aklo script crawling along it in inlaid black niello
Justin nods his agreement to the guide.
"Yeah. This isn't what you signed on for. We'll deal with This. Just make sure we dont get snuck up on. Please?"
When they get to the golden door, Justin gives a sigh of long-suffering at the sight of the Aklo script.
"THIS guy has SERIOUS trust issues. Mem, can you decipher this scribble?"
Justin also peers at the cursed script, trying not to get a headache as he examines it.
The door seems to be free of magics, as far as Justin can tell. His keen eye does spot another declivity like the one that he put the jade frog brooch into previously
Memnon zips over to the door
“This looks like some sort of long-form prayer to Tsathoggua. That’s that frog-nasty this guy seems to worship “
Mel clanks over to take a look
“Yep. I concur with Ol’ bony here. Basically, ’Froggy went a spawning he did ride uhhuh’. These elder holdovers from whatever was going on prior to the multiverse are just … ew”
"Yeah, 'EW' is a good word choice for,... whatever this is. Looks like another key-spot here. Think he's the kinda guy to use the same key on ALL his doors? It fits his motif. And his painfully obvious Humongo-Frog-Obsession. We Do have another key option to try. But,... hm. This guy is very single-minded."
Justin holds up the Frog-themed key-jewelry piece, and inserts it into the key-spot on the gold door.
"Think this guy used to be into licking psychedelic frogs? Got a spiritual awakening? I hear frogs are a gateway amphibian, next thing you know you're licking salamanders, axolotl and newts. This guy might have a serious slaad fetish."
Justin, startled by Karrin's inquiry, jumps slightly and pauses JUST before the jewelry touches the door.
(No. He's not tense. Why do you ask? I mean, you've seen ONE Mummy-Lord's diabolical demi-plane, you've seen them all, right?)
The wizard shrugs.
"Well, He's got issues for sure. I'm open-minded, but IF I decided I wanted to 'exist' forever, I mean, you can't exactly call it LIVING forever, now can you? I can think of SO many other options I would choose before Mummification."
Taking a small breath the wizard pushes the jewelry-key into the golden door, before he thinks better of it.
Just as Justin recovers from Karrin’s inquiry, and is readying the frog brooch for the next placement, his eye happens to fall upon the floor he is standing on in front of the door. His naturally paranoiac nature notes the smallest of incongruity between tiles. He can’t be certain, but mismatched tiles in a place like this screams pit trap
Justin pauses again, and peers at the floor.
The wizard once again floats til his toes are a couple of inches from the tiled floor.
"Stand clear everyone. I do NOT want to know what this Mummy-Lord thinks is a good decoration for the bottom of a pit trap."
Justin slowly readies the key-brooch by the doorway, again,...
The wizard visibly winces as he almost shoves the key into the spot, before he can get distracted. Again.
Hamar slightly floats as the Fly spell is still active, the normally quiet Barbarian is still quiet, tense and ready for battle.
The pit below opens below the floating wizard and scout, the area right before the golden door becoming a dark shaft. A scrabbling sound echoes up from the darkness below .
"Oh. Look. A hole."
Justin VERY casually, almost lazily, conjures a small ball of fire in the palm of his hand. He turns his palm upside-down, allowing the ball of flame to leisurely fall into the pit towards the scrabbling sound.
"Oops. Wrong light. What? I wanted to see what was making the noise."
Without waiting for the inevitable explosion from below, Justin pulls the frog-key from the door.
He 'Hmms' and tries the OTHER jewelry-key piece in it's stead.
The blast ripples redly far below. A column of superheated air rushes up and subjects Justin to a very sooty blow dry job as it reaches the surface . No howls or cries seem to emanate from the pit afterwards, but no scrabbling sound either.
The second brooch clicks into place and the door irises open, retracting smoothly into its frame. Within is an opulent room, done in a rich desert style, with silks, pillows, and beautiful furniture. Six lovely women in diaphanous gowns stand behind six sitting pillows arranged in the center of the room in a sunken circular area. The pillows surround a low round table. One of the women turns her head towards the door and speaks
“Greetings, O Honored Guests of the High Lord Ranerius. How may we be of assistance?”
Justin and Memnon slowly turn their respective heads to look at each other.
Justin Blinks once, slowly. The Crystal skull does not.
Before Memnon can do more than leer, Justin reaches up and yanks one of the dangling tassels of the Mimir's orange cap, yanking it around sideways, so that one ear-flap is covering the mimir's face.
While the (fortunately now muffled and unintelligible) diatribe of the Mimir begins, Justin whispers a hushed, "Not NOW Memnon!" and take a step forward.
The wizard puts a hand over his heart and nods his head politely, but briefly, as he has witnessed higher-ups do a thousand times on dozens of worlds now.
"Thank you. We are security consultants from out of Sigil. We had a meeting with the High Lord, but it is my understanding that he has been unavoidably detained." ,...
The woman smiles
“Of course. Please, come in and make yourself comfortable. Can we offer you refreshments? Perhaps a refreshing iced persimmon tea?”
The six women all take two steps and turn towards the group, smiling. They raise one hand each as if gesturing the party to sit on the comfortable cushions
Justin glances at the others, briefly.
"Ah, The Lord's Hospitality is appreciated. But we ARE on a bit of a tight schedule. Perhaps a tour while we wait for him instead?"
".........................." Merle slowly takes an offerd seat her eyes never leaving the women
Hamar raises an eyebrow and steps within as well.
He scans the room to see what other doors are within, agreeing internally that a tour to find their MacGuffin should be the focus, despite what appears to be one hell of a tempting offer.
"Oh!" Karrin says at the mention of refreshments, "Got anything to eat?"
Justin hangs his head at Karrin's (not unexpected) question.
"Or, no tour. It was just a thought." He murmurs.
At the mention of food, the wizard's own stomach rumbles in gentle inquiry.
"Traitor."
Hamar raises an eyebrow and steps within as well.
He scans the room to see what other doors are within, agreeing internally that a tour to find their MacGuffin should be the focus, despite what appears to be one hell of a tempting offer.
Hamar is a connoisseur of the female of the species. Actually the female of several species at this point. And these feel … off. Too smooth, too coordinated, like a marionette show he’s idly watched while shopping in the Great Bazaar in Sigil
Hamar narrows his eyes, "No thanks, I'm fine. We are here to insect security, feel free to leave the refreshments and we will continue to inspect the building".
Hand on his blades Hamar moves towards the nearest door to continue the search for, whatever the hell item they are here t retrieve and destroy.
Justin blinks.
In his (admittedly relatively brief) time with Hamar, the barbarian has displayed a keen eye for ,... *ahem* 'the finer things in life' when it comes to 'female company'.
For Hamar to decline being served by, decidedly attractive, servants,...
Either Hamar REALLY doesn't want to be here in this creepy demiplane any longer, or he spotted something The wizard didn't.
Justin was betting on the latter.
"He's right. We still have work to do. And we ARE on a tight schedule. We can continue with or job, and meet up with the High Lord when he is free."
"Come on Merle,..." Justin adds lower voice, raising an eyebrow at the feline sorceress who had JUST sat down.
The wizards' eyes flick around the room, calculating distances, angles, and what spell would put the least amount of his companions at risk,...
"Huh what uh okay yeah tight schedule." Merle immediatly begins to stand again.
The women all smile wide, and the one that had spoken says ...
Shining scimitars of force suddenly appear in their hands as they take aggressive fighting stances
HAH! I did a thing!
The women all smile wide, and the one that had spoken says ... "I'm afraid I can't do that"
Shining scimitars of force suddenly appear in their hands as they take aggressive fighting stances
Justin points a finger, "That, is SUCH a cool spell!"
"Oh come on."
"I suspected not... we destroyed your Master, it is only fitting that we destroy his toys as well", an uncharacteristic statement from Hamar followed by the familiar flash of Scimitars into the barbarians hands.
"So," Karrin says, "There was talk of refreshments? But that was a lie? Just to get our hope up? Oh . . . IT IS SO ON!!"
Slice Me Deeper, Tiny Dancer - Rd 1
Justin: 23
Merle: 21
Hamar: 16
Alessia: 16
Karrin: 6
Justin reaches out a hand and points imperiously. He draws a circle in the air before him. No chants or incantations. A wall of flame appears before the 'leader' of the veiled ladies. Then the flame races around the room, encircling all six of the 'hostesses' inside a circle of flame.
"Ummm,.. any ideas? It'll toast them pretty good if they try to cross through it, but I cant keep this up forever."
Slice Me Deeper, Tiny Dancer - Rd 1
23 Justin: Fire Wall
23 Choreographer: Dance of Death
21 Merle:
16 Hamar:
16 Alessia:
15 Mel:
11 Dancers:
6 Karrin:
Justin is horrified to see the six figures pirouette from out of the ring of blue flames. Their clothes immolate in a flash, and the glammer that hid their nature stutters. What now stands before them are five slender pale silver constructs and one golden one. The silver ones hold one of the force scimitars, the golden one two. They still resemble women, but women dolls rather than actual females. The golden one, who seems to be the one that had spoken before, smiles her doll smile and cries out
“Let the dance begin!”
"How about no?"
Merle hastes the group and takes cover behind them.
The golden figure erupts in a blur of speed, her two radiant scimitars blurring.
Justin- . Crit 18-20
Merle- . Crit 18-20
Seph- . Crit 18-20
Hamar- . Crit 18-20
Mel- . Crit 18-20
Karrin- . Crit 18-20
Blayze- . Crit 18-20
Memnon- . Crit 18-20