The merman nods. "I do not know who you are, strangers, but if you value your lives, you will not disrupt the ritual that Sarkesi has begun." he gazes around at you uncertainly, noting the whorls of magic between Mazatl's antlers, and the piercing, serious gazes of all of you. Seeming satisfied that you're willing to stop and talk rather than continuing to barge on forward, he calms down somewhat. "What brings two-leggers to the Grotto?" he asks, his body looking strange half-in and half-out of the water wall.
Aifric: your magical senses are humming. All around you, magic suffuses the bones at your feet; there is magic within the structure you stand before; and now, from this range, you can feel magic in the very structure's walls. You can tell now that you're able to examine the structure closely that it didn't come from this cave. Somehow, the building itself was placed here. And by the looks of things, it happened somewhat recently.
"Looking for you, as fate would have it..." Mazatl says as she takes another step back so that bowing her head in greeting doesn't frighten the merfolk any more than he already is. "We came down because we think we have a common enemy with the merfolk, and believe we could be allies." She looked to the others to see if they wanted to pitch in anything.
Aifric and Chaney can hear it's magic in much the same way that you can sometimes hear music come from other people's headphones when riding the bus. It's easy to overlook or miss, but if you're attentively watching Athena when she reaches into her pocket, you can catch a flash of magic. It comes and goes quickly.
The merman is clearly shocked by your statement, Mazatl - and he seems suspicious of your motives. "I'll have to bring you to Sarkesi, she will judge you after the..." the merman's voice is cut off as his gaze is yanked to the side, to look at the glowing structure he's emerging partway out of.
The green glow is faltering. The two spellscarred feel a jarring sensation in their magical senses. The merman looks at all of you again, his eyes wide with fear. "They're coming! They're comi-" is all he manages...
before the ritual keeping the air bubble around all of you flickers and dies. The merman's voice is cut off by the instant crush of water all around you. The force of the impact sends you drifting slightly in the water - all of you take 1d6 damage from the impact. What do you do?
As the water impacts his body, he forces himself to transform into a half-shark, recovering from the hit, his first tought is to look for a way to give air to his teammates.
As the water engulfs Aifric, he thinks, "Too bad it was totally impossible for anybody to see this coming."
Slammed into the bone covered floor by the water Chaney's staff is torn form his hand and promptly does dark.
Curling into a ball to contain the burning in his lungs the wizard reaches for the Foci in his belt.
Taking it's power, the power of his scar, Afric's scar, the thief's bauble, and whatever was powering the calming rite Chaney powers magic through his memory of the air rite and pushes back the water, the bones, the stone, everything.
Panic. Panic was the first thing that came to Mazatl. The water wasn't so bad since it had -everyone else- to contend with first. But the fear of drowning? Of everything suddenly going wrong? That was terrifying.
In a blind panic, Mazatl reaches out to her conduit and -pulls-, hoping to get something, anything that will save her.
Frogfot I am assuming the lamps also went to a watery grave? So we are now in abyssal darkness. Correct?
Life seems to go into slow motion for Athena as she watches their sanctuary vanish and the water pour in from all sides, she panics at first attempting to flee but quickly accepts this is how she will die and stops fighting.
Svog, though you're disoriented by being knocked around by the water, you rapidly recover your bearings and look around yourself. Athena floats nearby, her expression despondent; she's not struggling. She looks like she's given up. Her face haunts you with the specter of death - you know that she, and the rest of your friends, have only moments before you risk drowning. Nearby, Aifric struggles to reorient himself, bonobo fur springing out all over him.
Then, you see magic spring into life, illuminating the darkening cave with two brilliant points of light. Your shark eyes have adjusted to the water - you see that it's Mazatl and Chaney. The werewolf is curled into a ball, clutching his arm. Mazatl has her arms spread open in a desperate plea to the Plane of Life.
An unexpected interaction of magic occurs...
Chaney, you feel a sudden flaming pain along the scar on your palm as you desperately channel all the magic you can, with only one thought in your mind, away! everything away!
Well, magic can sometimes interpret events in unexpected ways. Take 1d6 additional damage, ignoring armor, and your entire hand is scarred now - not just your palm.
Mazatl, you tear open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Life, but the magic that Chaney is drawing about himself prevents an elemental from stepping through. Also, there's tremendous water pressure on the portal that you accidentally opened from the water you're all in.
Mazatl's magic holds open the portal and Chaney's shoves you all through. You feel a shifting, a great tumult all around you, and a brief, intense feeling of being stretched a mile long. Then, you snap back to yourself.
You're in a verdant field. There's sunshine overhead. The ground beneath you is sodden and muddy with puddles everywhere, and there are a few bones and a fish on the ground scattered all around you nearby.
Welcome to the Elemental Plane of Life.
Mazatl coughs, as she lifts herself off the ground. Her antlers are full-grown from all of the excitement, leaving her top heavy.. but once she's up, she looks around slowly, taking in her surroundings. "Well... this is significantly better than drowning." Mazatl acknowledges as she can't help but smile slightly. She was beginning to realize that near-death experiences were the -best- kind. And while it did skirt the lines of giving way to her beast, it felt... good.
"But where are we, and how did we get here?" She looks to Chaney... as the most obvious candidate for warping space... outside of herself. But moving -people- wasn't really her thing.
*retch*....*cough*....*breathe*
The wizard is sprawled face down in the mud. Smoke rises lazily from his left hand as it grips a large yellow crystal. The puddle the hand and crystal rest in is gently boiling.
Chaney rolls over coating the back of his robes with a layer of slimey mud to match the front.
"Why is there a sun?"
"Brggrgrggrg" Svog transforms into his human form when he realizes he can't breath, one second he was under water and now he is in a park? He stands up and goes to help the others checking if they are alive,
"Where are we? What did you did? You saved us" Svog thanks Mazatl and Chaney, he knew they used some kind of magic to teleport them.
"You didn't do this, then? Remind me to thank the Merfolk later. This was quick thinking on their part... it'd be nice to know where their quick-thinking got us, though.." Mazatl says as she drips, bending to pick up her walking stick, and trying to shake it dry. The brine was going to ruin it. She didn't seem nearly as bothered by everything, and actually a little more... pleasant.
She just looks confused with Bitey's antics of thanking her. "I don't think my magic would have anything to do with it. I just opened my conduit and tried to get an elemental to maybe save us. No elemental, so I guess that failed."
Then she returned to her previous thoughts, "But which way is home? I know we're not in Gracia anymore... would the merfolk be more likely to send us to a place in Ultimus? Come to think of it... I don't think they'd send us to a field not touching the ocean. Look for coast, then follow it to an inevitable town? That's how I arrived in Gracia, initially."
You don't feel the influence of any Banes upon you, and you don't see the moon in the sky. Beyond that, you don't know. With portals created by accidental confluences of magic, things get a bit dodgy. You could have merely transported across planes, you could have been sent back in time, you could've been killed and this is the afterlife. Although some options are more likely than others, in-character, you don't really know.
I only said "welcome to the elemental plane of Life" earlier because it's pretty safe to assume that's where you are, considering the spell Mazatl was casting.
Athena takes a deep breath."Why aren't we dead?"
Aifric sputters up some water, takes control of his were-form, and jumps upright. He says, "I absolutely hate magic! One kind tries to kill you, another kind tries to keep you alive but fails, and then another kind keeps you alive but drags you to a strange place." He checks to see whether he's lost any gear or weaponry. "Another kind sings to you in your sleep, another kind scars your.... Holy smoke, Chaney!" He reaches down to help Chaney up.
All of you stand up and look around yourselves, at the fields you find yourselves in. Aside from the odd fish flopping around on the ground here and there, or the bones dotted all around you, the field reminds you of the springtime in the countryside surrounding Magna Gracia. You see the terrain getting hilly off in the direction of the sun, but you aren't sure if it's east or west of you. Off in the hills you can see smoke rising into the sky. In the other direction, a lake; and a forest covers the span of land between them, alongside the grassy, flowery field you stand in.
Then, Aifric, you notice more blasted magic taking place near you. What fresh hell.. you think to yourself, as you look to its source. It's a skull, near your feet, still soaked with water. It must have been shoved through the portal with you. Rather disconcertingly, you can see a muscle covering part of the bone. Before your startled eyes, the muscle tissue covering part of the skull's cranium begins to spread.
Aifric's eyebrows knit as he thinks. "Feustus?" he asks as he points at the skull.
"Hm? What do you me.. Oh. That is either very good, or very bad." Mazatl explains as the skull begins to grow flesh. "Should we run... or give it a chance to determine whether it is going to eat us, before we determine not to be eaten? Oooh! Can we name it Yorick?" she looks to the bard. See! She paid attention to that one!
"Oh...That's scary" Svog says surprised and he sees how the muscle is spreading on the skull and he backs up looking at the others.
The muscle spreads slightly over part of the skull before stopping, leaving about an eighth of the exposed bone covered with red tissue. The magic subsides, leaving the muscle behind; without a body to sustain it, the muscle tissue dies before your eyes.
"More Chaney than Feustus." she explains as she looks to him. "I've seen him mend wounds, but mending the dead is probably behind him, yeah?" she tilted her head to him. "Any ideas? You seem to always have a good idea of what's going on!"
Chaney seems to be lost in contemplation of his scarred hand. What do you do?
"We can walk to that direction, it could be sign of civilization" Svog suggest to the others but his sight is still fixed in the weird skull on the floor.
"no"
"We should be dead. No magic I could manage could pull a half dozen people out of that cave. Maybe it was the Merfolk? Or the chance whim of something powerful."
Chaney seems disinclined to speak further.
"I'm more for smoke than water, just now. I've had a bit too much water." she grins. "Maybe it'll be food!
You pat yourself down, examining everything you had on your person. Your packs, however, are sturdy, and although some of the rations are slightly sodden, none of them were washed clean off of you. You simply have to dump the packs out.
Aifric pokes at the skull with his spear, while he waits for the rest of his group to decide what they're doing.
It reacts as a normal skull would; that is, it doesn't react.
After draining her pack of water, Mazatl hefts her own staff, dangling one of the lanterns on a hook (unlit). "Anyone opposed to heading for smoke, speak now, or forever... well, you know." she says, as she begins to march towards the smoke.
Athena's eyes never left the skull as she did the same to her gear as mazatl, she seemed to get nervous when Aifric poked it with a stick but didn't say anything in protest to it or the smoke.
Aifric takes off after Mazatl, trotting a bit to catch up and come alongside her. "We'd better get ready. Where there's smoke, there's fire. At least that's what they say. Or, hey! Maybe it's caused by smoke magic. Somebody could use magic to make smoke without fire. Just to fool us. Probably not, though, huh?"
Well, that trait really applies more to places that are significant in some way or another. You're approaching a smoky spot in the hills of an unknown location - your Elven memory tells you little.
As you stride along through the field in the direction of the hills, you feel the sun shining brightly down on you from above. Nearby, in the tall grass, you're suddenly aware of a giggling sound, accompanied by a rustling coming toward you. The giggling continues growing louder until it crosses your path and bursts into view from beyond the cover of the overgrowth. It's a tiny, fat man, no more than 8 inches tall, with a curly tail like a pig's and dressed in overalls and a bowler cap. He doesn't notice you at first, considering which way he wants to go next a moment, but when he finally does, it's with a gasp of shock that turns into peals of more laughter.
Mazatl tilts her head, looking over the creature. "I'm afraid we don't know where we are... or when we are. Maybe you could help us a little with all that?"
((Also, I've no idea how she would know! So it's up to you as to whether or not her roll is even valid!))
"What is that?" Svog whispers to himself,
"Excuse me, sir, can you help us?" He joins Mazatl in talking to the little creature.
Before you stands a Green-heeled Leaper Imp, a minor demon from one of the upper layers of the Abyss. They're attracted to transdimensional travel as a species, finding the idea of causing mischief on a brand new plane of existence wonderful. Their sense of humor is known for being cruel, and often at the expense of others.
You see the leaper approaching Svog Kos, still giggling, its hand held out and upward to shake.
"Wait! I summoned one of you once! You nearly burned down my neighbor's house and then rotted all their wine, before... never mind that! Don't touch that thing... Or grab it! It acted like a normal elemental til I turned my back, then everything went downhill from there."
Aifric takes a step back involuntarily at Mazatl's warning to Svog. He gulps at the idea of more magical stuff happening but prepares his spear in case it's needed.
Svog doesn't react fast enough to Mazatl's warning! The bard's friendly nature leads him to accept the imp's proffered hand, and with a quick *pop* sound, the imp vanishes. The little man's smile fades a second after the rest of him is gone, like the Cheshire Cat.
Svog, roll Defy Danger: Con to resist the spell the Imp touched you with. You all hear the man's infernal giggling on the wind.
"This guy is friendl-wait, wha-" Svog tries to shake the hand of the little creature as Mazatl tries to warn him,
He feels the magic of the Imp roaming in his hand...
You shudder as the magic takes hold. What horrible spell did the imp cast on you? What demonic magic now holds dominion over your very soul?
You feel...normal. Unaffected, seemingly. However...
Every time you try to say a word that contains the letters "d" or "t", you sneeze uncontrollably.
Mazatl just stares at him... and waits.
"Wha-Ahchoo!- happene-uh ah-ah-achuu!" Svog is confused, as the sneezes won't stop, he tries asking Mazatl what was that and what the little guy did to him but he can only make a few words and a lot of sneezes, leaving his face muscles tired.
"Ehehehehee! Ahoohoohoohoohoo! Ahahahaha!" the infuriating giggling of the imp is all around you. He's invisible, but you can catch a faint distortion in the air as he dances all around you.
"And now, I'm fairly sure, our only option is to catch it..." Mazatl frowns. "And the only stuff I have prepped will... probably just kill it."