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"So, to the left as she said", Tûrak nods with Valais, but stops when Rilas alerted them.
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"Well, I think you can keep your ability to create a pit for a more dangerous moment, Aikio. Maybe we can defeat it, it is just a statue after all, huh? I mean, what can go wrong, even if it attack us?", he grins.
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"If the only way to pass safely is to break it, then so be it. I'm sure Winston and our dinosaur friend here could make short work of the statue. But I do feel bad desecrating this place that they consider holy. "
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"I believe the desecration we imply is miniscule in scope when compared to the unbounded encroachment of the Worldwound and its Abyssal energies but there is a nonzero probability of temporary disruption on the flow of these energies," Diri says, motioning for whoever plans to knock the statue over to be ready to try if her spell does not work.
She then casts dispel magic on the statue.
. . 4th—blessing of fervor[APG] (DC 18), freedom of movement, wall of fire[D]
. . 3rd—create food and water,
. . 2nd—burning hands[D] (DC 15), consecrate, lesser restoration (2), sound burst (DC 16)
. . 1st—
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, read magic, spark[APG] (DC 14), stabilize
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"I am honestly surprised it was successful as the probability was considerably closer to zero than one would hope for a dangerous course of action," Diri announces, turning to Rilas as she enters the corridor. "Is your dog in possession of a compression factor high enough to allow him into tight corridors such as this?"
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Choosing to leave the statue and flail as they are and go past, you find a room on the left that seems to have completely collapsed in on itself just before the path turns to the right, and you spot another room.
Pale white walls covered in seemingly random splotches of pastel paint comprise the only decoration in this otherwise empty room. In the center of the room is a pedestal with a single glowing shard lying atop it. A dazzling bright light shines from nowhere in particular.
As you enter the strange room, you notice odd etchings scratched into the walls, all in Hallit. Some say something along the lines of "Go Away!", while another seems to say "I no longer love you", and another has a word you can't identify, but ends in "brings nothing but sorrow".
Suddenly the room goes completely white, blinding you for a moment, but it is not painful. In fact, not at all. You are instead filled with a strange sense of contentment, and when the light dies down again, only a few moments later, you find yourself alone.
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Diri: "I appear to have suffered an incidence of reverie of incredible detail, is that a predicatble result of the alchemical experimentation or am I merely suffering from a fatigue induced amnesia?"
Turak: "I... can't... believe... is this true? Am I seeing my future? Or am I sent to my future? It is simply... Magical."
Valais: "Is this,. . . how? I only ever dreamed that they would take me. Truly, take be back."
But it's very off. It's like they got dropped hard on their heads and are half mumbling things, speaking to people that are not there, drooling on themselves, and looking upon blank walls with wonder.
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The Pathfinders darkest hour? Which one would that be? The demons in Jormunduger? Concincing the Way of the Ki Rin to join us? Recovering the Amethyst Sage? It can't be the Sewer Dragon accords. Maybe siding Caprain Valais become whole again. Oh maybe it was the shadow dragons in the Grand Lodge.
Thinking of the spire and the decemvirate Aikio gathers energy from the flames surrounding her and uses the power to burn a conduit directly to the lodge. "My work is not yet done!" she bursts into flame leaving only the smoky image of a tengu.
Casting teleport to Absalom. "I've always wanted to do that."
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Savage will try and nudge and shake the party with razor trying to get them to wake up.
"wake up guys it's not real wake up"
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Aikio takes the relic from the aging human's hand. She looks into the orb and watch as the arcane flames dancing inside grow calm. Eventually they move to the wizard's heartbeat. "Now, the tengu says, "we just bend a bit of flame where we want it and...." The artifact bursts into a warm light highlighting Aikio and Zarta Dralneen. "See. You can safely leave the archives in other's hands. We will continue the work you started."
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You have a strange sensation, as if something where very wrong, but can not, for the life of you put a feather on what it is, and your three companions think you have just been studying too much, laughing it off. You spend some time catching up, but can't seem to shake the odd feeling that something is wrong.
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You see some note about a staff, . . . and the room seems to shake again. You loose your place, wondering what is going on. You can't remember your future self laying any sort of magical traps or wards like this. Something about a staff. You race to find your place, scanning "suitable defense", "Valais's dark sides awakes more and more", "a paladin of Ol' Deadeye trustworthy", "the earth god", come on where was it, "The Staff of Hear. . .", and suddenly the room vanishes, the whole world goes utterly black. You hear a loud cracking sound and suddenly your entire head hurts. But less than a second later, there is a flash of light, and once it's blaze diminishes, you can see once again. You, . . . are back. In an odd white room. The little dinosaur is standing over you, trying desperately to wake you up. You look over, seeing everyone else walking about in some sort of odd stupor, mumbling and drooling odd, incoherent phrases. Evan Valais. Only the two dinosaurs, the raptor near you and the beast that the Druid had turned into seem to be unaffected, and he is attempting to shake Rilas just as the raptor did you.
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You feel an odd, nagging sensation in your stomach, like perhaps something you had eaten earlier was not going to sit well, but she continues, explaining that she had received a report from the field "from your Pathfinder friends" that their group had gotten into position around north east at the Wolfcrags.
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It had been a gamble, but it looks like it had paid off. By luring the ogres from the west across into the battlefield, you hoped to manipulate them into attacking the enemy camp for you, and then when they where surprised, your other armies and teams would strike. A large assortment of Pathfinder Agents would blitz, attacking fast and from the shadows while Brae-Hagen's army focused on the Ogres. Right after that, Taldor's cavalry would rush in from hiding from Silvershore. With luck, you contacts within the beastriding Mammoth Lords would join in, crushing the armies at besieging the Dwarven Stronghold at Jormurdun.
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You feel a sudden stab in your stomach, the pain growing worse, but again push it aside. But suddenly you hear a scream from outside. Followed shortly by a alarm called, "Wake up! To Arms! We are under attack!" You can hear the outside the soldiers grabbing weapons and trying to fit on armor as fast as you can. There is a loud crack of thunder and a flash of light, following by screams of agony. Another alarm is called off in the distance, from a different direction, "Demons!!! To arms!"
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You fall to the ground, dropping your sword and clutching your abdomen, suddenly chocking as you cough up dark, black blood. The pain does not subside, but suddenly you hear a voice in your head scream cruelly, "Give up these false. . ." but it stops, and you can hear the sounds of battle all around you.
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You can see the concern across the faces of all standing around you, from the Gnome whom you hope to, no, not hope, who you know you can cure, but also in your own followers.
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You past self, the one that is seeing these things transgress through your own eyes knows beyond the rationality of explaining that you had spent whole days (what would have been years for other lesser masters), perfecting your equation. It wasn't a matter of faith or hope, but rather specific and exact times, applications, and additions. And yet, you, while knowing find yourself, distracted.
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Sensing a greater danger than you can yet see, you call out for your students to get to safety and begin to prepare for an assault, grabbing what supplies they can, but before you are able to even shout the command, a small group of mages walks forward, standing before the assembled might of the Aspis Consortium, chanting and waving their hands about in motions that cause the tower of Skyreach to shutter, flinging everyone to the ground.
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Hails of arrows making returning fire from the windows suicidal, while mages and priests call down fire and death from Hell and the various Elemental Planes. Only Skyreach has survived the Aspis' return, as you can see the remainder of the Grand Lodge in flames. The dormitories are leveled in a massive earthquake, a portal of some sort opens at the door to the central lodge, and remains open while demon after demon steps through to run rampant in the Material Plane.
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You manage to get up a few protective wards through your own alchemical expertise, and your students do what they can as well, you have trained them well, but with the devastation going on, so much of the resources you require, which had moments before been right there for he taking have been destroyed as the tower leans. Yet it remains standing.
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And then it happens. Focusing their wills as one, the line of mages destroy the anchors you created, finally finishing the job you had done so well so many years ago in restoring the ancient tower when it had nearly been destroyed.
. . .
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Albert, Rilas, Savage, and the Raptor are immune:
As most of you get a glimpse of what is to be, and even interact with moments of or the fruits from your greatest achievements, you each also begin to feel a nagging,(and painful) sensation of some force beginning to step in and influence what you see. It begins as an unsettling physical pang in your abdomen, similar to nausea, but continues to return with more an more force as the scene plays out, and each time it does, you can feel more and more of the truth you see be twisted and pirated away to something else.
For some, metaphorical darkness rises, lashing out at those closest to you, slaying or tormenting them before your very eyes. Another sees all that they have built and struggled to empower laid waste, those in their care or tutelage abused while you fail, despite your best attempts to aid them. No matter what you try, and it seems more and more that it becomes directly because of your attempts to use your power, your expertise, your heart, that something, in taking control of the vision of your future is also able to turn the flames, the will of your deity, or even yourself against all that you hold dear.
Protective magics meant to insulate and protect instead are twisted, and VeeDee is burned away in agony. With no explanation, and beyond all logic, a patient, at the moment of your triumph somehow unleashes a wave of pale corruption that sweeps around the room, afflicting all, even those that should not be susceptible to it's viral markings. Others see themselves, lost in the sheer power of the heritage and under the influence of concoctions twisted standing high tall and savage before the corpses they had meant to defend. Their warm blood staining their bestial claws and the taste of copper, albeit sweet and uncomfortably nourishing on their tongue.
You each, in your own way, feel a very dark presence invading you, you mind, your soul, and even more. It doesn't speak, but instead you feel it's will, whispering something akin to Forsake the false. Leave behind all that you love and follow the true path.
You know that what you had seen earlier had been true, but you also know that whatever had subverted that future was not. Or not originally true. No matter what, you are left with a lingering question, unsure if what you are seeing now at the end of the vision has rewritten fate and destiny, stealing from you what should be for devastation, misery, and torment.
The pain continues to grow, rendering some of you incapable of acting and others left to simply watch as the unthinkable happens, but you know that you have a simple choice. Give up on the things that you trust in. Verbally or physically act to deny them and to walk a different path, or see the pain and suffering that standing firm shall bring.
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When the Bleaching hits her, all goes black
(white?)
Diri screams in Gnome (she rarely speaks Gnome- -it's an imprecise language), a horrifying mixture of pain and regret as she succumbs to some unseen terror and falls unconscious. Careful observation shows one lock of her normally orange hair is now a stark white stripe.
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"I have no idea. But you guys were going crazy. So what happened to you guys."
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"The same barren white room...", Tûrak whispered when "woke up".
"I have no idea. But you guys were going crazy. So what happened to you guys."
"No matter what happened. The only thing I know is what will not happen", the half-orc holds his bow with anger in his eyes, "we must destroy this place", were his last words before leave that cursed room.
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Afterwards, with the magic of the room now expended, it's task having been completed, Valais seems to be visibly shaken, looking as though her spirit has been even more defeated than before. She doesn't want to talk about what she saw, but it seems she had it worst of all.
A few seconds later, you notice a small crystal shard begin to shine brightly. Nothing more than the size of a pebble, though it doesn't seem hostile or to be a trap in any way.
Continuing down the hall, you come to a massive double door, crafted of iron and bone. A mural of human and animal bones on the walls depicts humans and woodland creatures in a forest. On the left side of the door,
humans kneel before a massive tree. Between them is a thumb-sized hole. On the right side of the door, a man slits his own throat, blood pooling on the trunk of the tree. In the carving of the bloody pool is another thumb-sized hole.
Valais says, “We’re so close now. We need to find a way to open this door. .” Valais feels a shooting pain in the parts of her body that connect her human flesh to her Abyssal additions.
The door itself does radiate magic, or actually multiple magical auras, and in addition to that, it seems that more of the Abyssal energies have congealed here to create another fungal-like infestation of flesh, hanging loosely across both doors similar to a vine.