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Valaria's starknife viciously hacks through Ghalcor with no resistance, and the allip dissipates into black smoke at last.
Combat ends!
Annabelle coughs. "Good work..." She manages, before collapsing to the floor.
"Oh no!" Nurah stops dancing, and rushes over to Annabelle's side, concerned. "You're hurt... but I don't know how to conjure negative energy..."
As Valaria destroys the allip, a calm and peaceful ghost of Ghalcor arises in its place. He appears as he did in life - a middle-aged man with messy black hair and shrewd amber eyes. He bows to the heroes.
Suddenly, the tower shudders - besieged by something outside. Ghalcor glances up and frowns.
"You don't have much time. For the second time, demons draw near," he intones, his voice sounding far away. "If you have made it this far, then I trust you have disabled many of my tower's defenses-- contingencies that trapped me when they triggered. It is too dangerous to reactivate them. But there is still hope. The weapon awaits beyond, though it lacks the energy to activate properly. The prisms that you have seen store the essence of this planet itself - harvested from the menhir and infused with Heavenly essence. You will see places to slot them in the control panel at the top of the stairs. Once you are ready to fire the weapon, turn both keys at once, and pray that my creation is powerful enough to banish the scourge of Sarkoris."
Val feels her heart lighten a little as the allip is purified into a much less harmful spirit. "We'll do what we can," she says. "But I have to ask exactly what this weapon does. Our allies and the faithful of the crusades against the Worldwound wait just outside. If the blast might harm them, they must be warned to retreat to safety before the weapon fires." She's certain the technical description means something to Markus or Ehren, but she's more concerned with the attack outside than worrying about the results of Ghalcor's research.
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Ehren's eyes widen when he sees the catastrophic damage inflicted on Annabelle. No ordinary human could possibly survive such injury - just an other reminder that the cavalier was something more. But when the ghost is finally defeated, the young druid lets out a sigh of relief. The two remaining magic stones slip from his grasp, striking the ground with a pair of resounding thuds. He tenses when Ghalcor reappears... but relaxes when he sees how serene he now looks.
He nods when Valaria asks her question, Alase's words still echoing in his mind. After seeing what had happened to Ghalcor and the tower's guardians, he could not help but to think that something more sinister was at work here. Nonetheless, he does not delay in moving to recover the lab's sacred prism - according to Markus, the one he had was only half charged.
What is going on outside? he wonders, fearing that he already knew the answer.
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Ghalcor intones, patiently. "My creation channels holy energy over a massive area - the power coming from the occult energy of the ley, the specificity coming from divine power invoked by clerics and good aligned outsiders. The basis of the spell should work as if Iomedae herself had spoken a single word of ineffable holiness. All evil outsiders shall feel its wrath."
Ehren picks up the sacred prism in the laboratory. It is half charged. (4/8 charges)
Isilme breathes a sigh of relief as the Allip Ghalcor is rent asunder by Val's strike, causing it to dissipate. When the original Ghalcor returns in ghost form, Isilme smiles and gives him a bow briefly.
"Valaria is right. We will need to know more about the weapon before we use it," she says. Not just for our allies outside, but those inside as well. Both Valaria and Annabelle might be endangered." she adds. "Does it only affect those outside the tower?"
"The term evil outsider - has a very specific definition. They are beings composed of the essence of evil souls. My weapon is well tuned. Though, if you are going to stand in the same room as the weapon when it fires, you must wear the protective gear..." Ghalcor floats over to the adjoining room, hovering over his own corpse - still cradling a glowing crystal in its arms. He points to the long coat rack laden with baggy leather suits. "This room is a buffer room, for suiting up before moving in to test the weapon. The leather suits are designed to cover your entire body, over your clothes. There are glass panels to see through and filtered ports to facilitate breathing."
There are five suits that can fit medium humanoids and two that can fit small humanoids.
Unfortunately the suits are not designed to accommodate Valaria's enormous horns, so she cannot wear one.
It takes 1d2+1 rounds to don a suit. A hero can don one hastily in one round but then they only get a partial benefit.
Ghalcor begins to slowly fade away...
"Markus, as you understand it, if someone took a jaunt elsewhere, and were sufficiently suitably defined, could the weapon pose a threat?" she asks the group's resident expert on all things magical.
The issue with ethereal beings is that they are literally in a different dimension...
The walls shudder and shake...
Val takes a single look at the suit. "Okay, so it looks like I'm not going into the weapon chamber. Annabelle might want to wear one of these though. For safety's sake if nothing else."
Ary salutes the man as he answers the final questions he has, before beginning to fade away. Hopefully there would be one more question to answer. "Has it ever been fired before?"
"Val should be outside when we use it, if possible. It might help with her passenger. Ary adds, via message.
"Let's go." she adds, as she moves across to gather the suits, quickly passing them out, and helping the others to don them... as much as she can help them, anyway.
Isilme takes one of the suits and sets her packs down so she can don it. Once she finishes, she grabs her gear, looking to the others for a sign they're ready.
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Val hears the message but hesitates for a moment. "If I get disintegrated by this thing, my ghost will come back to haunt you," she replies quietly.
Ehren unstraps his buckler from his arm before briefly wrestling with one of the leather suits. As he pulls it on, he looks to Ary and Isilme.
"There are not enough suits to go around..." he observes with a frown, "So who else is staying behind?"
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"You heard him. Fine-tuned." Ary says with a smile. "But If you'd rather take the long game, we can try to find an answer to that, too." she nods, as she continues to help the others into the suits. "Markus can operate it. You can understand the Ley. Annabelle can't afford to be outside of a suit on the off chance it decides all vampires are evil. Val can't fit. Hina has more of an idea of what's going on than any of us, cause she's more Rocky than Rocky. Nurah would never forgive us for missing it, and something tells me it'll be great for Isilme. If one of you can shrink me... or one of you can shrink, then now's the time. Otherwise... I'll go enjoy the light show with Val."
Freed from the confusion, Markus picks himself off of the ground and dusts himself off. "I can go into the weapon-room. I doubt it can hide its nature from me."
He goes to kneel at Annabelle's side. "Annabelle - are you okay? Here, let me help you..." he clenches his fists and shakes them, channeling negative energy into them and laying on hands on Annabelle. "We're gonna need to find a way to heal you consistently." he says.
Then he stands and goes to begin donning the suit.
Annabelle grins appreciatively at Markus - her hair doesn't grow back, but the shiny black burns that cover her body are replaced with fresh... undead skin.
"Ugh, thanks, I needed that." She says, then scrambles into one of the bunny suits.
"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Nurah says, excitedly. "I'm just glad that there's suits that'll fit me!" She tests one of the gloves - the leather is stiff. "Ugh, it'll be hard to take notes.."
Ary salutes the man as he answers the final questions he has, before beginning to fade away. Hopefully there would be one more question to answer. "Has it ever been fired before?"
Ghalcor grins, hovering over his own corpse. "No. We succumbed to the demons shortly after we finished the weapon... but I know it works. I know it... It just needs sufficient power is all."
He turns and faces the iron door on the wall and raises a transparent hand... the vault door spins, and there is a faint hissing as pressure is released from the weapon chamber beyond... it opens, leading into a small antechamber, which leads into yet another vaulted door. That one hums and opens as well, revealing an enormous, spherical-shaped room. The entire room vibrates with energy. An immense column of silver and steel rises through the center of this tower, almost touching the ceiling nearly one hundred feet above, where it is capped by an elaborate device much like an astrolabe of gold and glass. Stairs made of metal mesh round the perimeter of the tower clockwise before reaching a platform fourty feet off of the ground. A C-shaped console occupies much of the platform, but someone knowledgable would need to climb up there and assess the controls to ascertain more than that.
He closes his eyes, an expression of ecstasy on his face. "My lady calls for me," is all he says, before he vanishes forever.
Looking at the weapon - there are four distinct features: the control panel, the astrolabe-like device at the tower's top, the column that elevates the device, and mechanical panels at the very top of the tower that appear to open to the world outside.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Something is shaking the very walls...and the heroes hear the sound of heavy footsteps behind them. There is a tense moment, then relief when it is revealed to be Ser Holton Albright, Hrut Ingvarson, and a third Empyreal Guardian - a half-elf with copper hair and dark eyes, with intricate tattoos of the Inheritor up and down his arms.
They appear a little wounded. The traps the heroes left behind were not friendly...
Hrut smiles with relief. "Gods, you're alright. It's been awhile. But I knew I shouldn't worry..."
Ser Albright is straight and to the point. "They're here. We're being overwhelmed. Hurry!"
"There's a teleportation circle a room over, I'm not sure what it will or won't do for us. Let's get into position to hold the worst of it off." she adds, wincing as she sees teh damage they'd suffered. "We really should have said something while we had the chance."
Dressed in a protective suit, Ehren stoops down beside Ghalcor's corpse one his ghost has vanished.
"Rest in peace, Ghalcor," he murmurs to it, before carefully extracting the sacred prism from his grasp. He looks down at the crystal, the third in his possession, and then into the now open weapon chamber. Just how much power does this weapon need?
When he hears the explosions, Ehren spins around, relaxing when he sees Hrut.
"I suppose that leaves us with little choice," he says to no one in particular, glancing back toward the chamber and the perilous stairway within.
"Farewell Ghalcor," Val murmurs as the ghost disappears. She spins around as she hears someone coming, her hands going to her knives, but she relaxes when she recognizes their guests. "You're right on time. Ghalcor's ghost claimed that his weapon should be able to drive them away. Hopefully it will work and not backfire horribly." She moves to find somewhere that she should be in the blast radius, hoping that the hag following her will take the full brunt of the weapon.
Ehren picks up another prism from Ghalcor's hands - it takes some doing, even in death his grip on the thing is tight. This one is fully charged.
He finds that he is also carrying a porcelain phial, filled with a smoky oil, and a single scroll.
Isilme looks around and tries to get a grasp on the situation. The lack of time is disconcerting, and they'll need to get organized if they are to pull this off in time.
"We need to move quickly," Isilme says as she fishes out her scroll of fly. "Markus, you mentioned the prisms can be charged with holy energy yes? Hinagiku, can you use your ability to channel divine energy to charge as many of the prisms as possible? We want to make sure we have enough energy to power it. Ehren, help him out and let us know how close to full we are on the prisms."
"Markus, you should take care of the control panel. Ary, take him up there quickly and aid him as needed." Isilme unrolls the scroll and casts fly on Ary. "You'll also get the prisms up there to him."
She looks up at the tower and then back at Markus. "I suspect we need to open the panels above and raise the device on the top out of the tower, so that should be our first goal. If necessary I can join you up there shortly Markus." She stops to think for a moment again and then continues, "Val, Annabelle, you will help Hrut and the Guardians hold them back if needed."
"Nurah and I will make ourselves available to help where needed. If it comes to it, I will grease the stairs to prevent enemies from getting up there."
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Hinagiku smiled faintly at the sight of the sane Ghalcor. Most things had gone terribly wrong for the people around her in the last week or so, but, now, they were going well. By fighting the allip, they had been able to free Ghalcor. That made her glad. Becoming less tense, she knelt by Annabelle’s side and helped Markus heal her (with a sneer as negative energy coursed through her fingers).
As the fortress shakes, Hinagiku becomes slightly worried. Were the demons already there? Didn’t they have an hour or so left? Things were escalating more quickly than she had anticipated. Nodding in acceptance of the situation, the monk looks toward Ary for directions.
Hinagiku is slightly taken aback upon hearing Ary call her more rockish than Ehren. Not only was it a strange thing to say, she felt it might be insulting to the druid. Gently, she turns her head to see the man's reaction to the comment, her head slightly bowed as if saying that she apologized for Ary's comment. Then, at the captain's command, Hinagiku moves to the buffer room (just after giving a look of encouragement to Annabelle).
Western clothes were sometimes strange,Hinagiku thought, while putting on the leather suit. This one was not particularly easy to put well.
"Yes. Isilme, if we gather the prism around me, I can pray to the Master of masters to finish perfecting them. Though, Markus, do you know whether energy must be aimed directly at them or if simply being in the vicinity of holy energy would be enough?"
Annabelle's eyes light up when Isilme casts the spell upon her. She experimentally hovers a few feet above the ground. "Oh wow! This is amazing!"
She sheathes her glaive, preparing to carry Markus with both arms.
Nurah nods at Isilme. "Great! Sounds like a plan to me."
"You'll need to direct your efforts at each individual prism, Hinagiku. And if you don't have enough power, Ehren at least can help you, and the rest have the power of the ley to use if we need it." directs Markus. "We have...what, three prisms? And I think they can hold 16 charges between them, with 4 empty slots for charges... if I remember correctly."
Markus allows himself to be picked up by Annabelle. "Alright. Take me up. I need to take a look at those controls."
"And 'Belle - if the demons make it up here, be careful. Stay behind Valaria and use your superior strength to really hurt them."
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Annabelle picks up Markus and carries him to the controls. The control panel has four octagonal slots in its center panel roughly the size and shape of the sacred prisms. The control panel also has several dozen labeled controls that are fairly intuitive, including switches labeled "safety" and "arm weapon", dials labeled "activate weapon" and "open windows" and various gauges that measure the state of the weapon's systems and energy available for use.
----
Markus can operate the controls automatically due to his deep understanding of all things arcane. Anyone else can do it with a DC 25 UMD check or a DC 20 Intelligence check.
Using the controls takes time. Please note the following:
- Loading a sacred prism into a slot is a move action.
- Operating the controls is a full round action.
- Once the weapon is successfully charged and positioned, then turning the two dials is a standard action. The two dials are shown on the platform as red dots.
- Anything that obscures vision (blind, fog, dazzled, averting your eyes) increases the time to perform one of the actions by one step. (So a move is a standard.. a full-round is 2 rounds.)
All of the above actions provoke attacks of opportunity.
In addition, there are two vault doors that seal the chamber off from the buffer room. Closing those doors fully requires a move action, but can be done as a swift with a DC 15 strength check.
-----
Markus examines the controls closely, but before he can say anything the wall close to him crumbles, as an enormous demon erupts through the wall. The creature is a horrific amalgamation of bear, a mantis, a wolf and a reptile - standing around thirty five feet tall.
On his back are two abrikandilu demons, - which most of the heroes have encountered before - deformed, horned, hunchbacked humanoids with a forked, ratlike tail and two thumbs on each taloned hand. The demons are clad in studded leather and wield enormous picks... they hop off of the shemhazian demon's shoulders on either side of him, tittering madly.
"Oh, f#+$!" Annabelle cries out, alarmed.
Ser Holton Albright springs to action, drawing his longsword and charging at the creature - flying into the very air on silvery wings. Hrut and the half-elven Empyreal Guardian rush into the room directly after him.
"Focus on activating the weapon! I will hold off the demon for as long as I draw breath! Hrut! Jamas! To me! For Al'Asadriel!"
Initiative Order
1. Ary
2. Isilme
3. Hinagiku (Align Weapon)
4. Giant Demon/Empyreal Guardians (Grazed)/Nurah (Cat's Grace)
5. Ehren
6. Abrikandilu #2
7. Annabelle (Penumbra, Fly)
8. Valaria (Mythic Heroism, 3 CON drain, Bless Weapon)
9. Abrikandilu #1
10. Markus
Ary is up!
"Ary, Val, get in here now!" Isilme calls out when she hears the breach from within the tower. "Forget about the hall! We need to get this weapon running immediately! Hinagiku, get with Ehren and start charging prisms!"
Markus shields his face from the explosion of little rock bits that fly out from the destroyed wall. When he pulls his arm back and sees the massive shemhazian demon, and Ser Albright engaging it, his eyes widen with alarm.
"Annabelle, I'm gonna need you to get Ehren and Hinagiku in here...right now." he says, trying to keep his voice measured. "Up here, if possible. We need the prisms."
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When Ser Albright had said the Crusader forces were being overwhelmed, Ehren thought it to be by numbers, not by sheer size. Not since Armasse had he seen a demon so massive; from a mere glimpse at the beast, his eyes grow as wide now as they were then. It is not so staggering a sight that he completely loses his wits, however.
"One fully charged, two half full..." Ehren murmurs, trying desperately to keep his calm. He looks down at the prism he had literally pried from Ghalcor's cold, dead hands. Why did he feel like he was forgetting something? It is then that the realization hits him, too late to be of any use. "...and one more where we encountered the hound archons."
Ary huffs. First into battle, and the first time they're attacked from the most illogical direction. Damnit.
הראשון לקרב Ary intones as she hears the wall crumble and the immediate cries for help. A golden sheen passes over her body for just a moment, as she shifts past Hinagiku.
"I'll retrieve the remaining one, get those prisms charged!"
Isilme focuses for a moment and invokes Desna's blessing upon herself. She takes off in a flash, heading for the prism, "I'll do what I can to charge it on the way back," she says as she rushes through the door.
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Having don her suit, Hinagiku turns toward Ehren, waiting for him to give her one of the prism. That's when she hears the wall crumble, and sees Hrut, Albright and the empyreal guardians run toward the room, and hears Isilme starts ordering them around. Agreeing with the aasimar, Hinagiku turns around quickly, and reaches into Ehren's bag to take out one of the half-charged prism.
She lifts it out of the bag and brings it just above her chest, where her holy symbol rests. Closing her eyes, she starts a quick prayer to Irori.
"Master of masters, fill the void within this vessel. Help make it holy. Help fill it so it might destroy the twisted demons of this world."
Isilme bends over and grabs the prism next to Ghalcor's corpse and holds it up. "This should be the last one we need," she says to the others.
She then reaches over to the prism Hinagiku is holding and channels her own energy into it, depleting the last of her personal reserves. "Val, Ary, help finish this one up, and we can send the two of them up with Annabelle while we prepare the other two."
Annabelle calls down the hall, her voice loud and clear - "Guys get your asses over here! Umm.... looks like we need at least four of those crystal things?!? Do we even have four?!"
Hinagiku and Isilme work together - Hinagiku channeling by the will of Irori, Isilme depleting her own mythic essence. The crystal fills with blue fluid and glows brightly, fully charged.
Hrut and Jamas head up the stairs. The enormous demon roars and channels a spell - Ser Holton Albright strikes the creature, his sword glowing with holy light, healing his wounds clean away. Negative energy lashes out from the demon to Ser Holton Albright - snaking out like lightning to hit Annabelle and Markus on the nearby platform. Unfortunately for the demon, they are unharmed by negative energy, in fact it heals the remainder of Annabelle's burn wounds clear away....
Charging a prism is a standard action, I presume?
Ehren is up!
Ehren blinks when Isilme recovers a prism that he had completely overlooked. Relief swells up when Annabelle announces that they only need four, but the feeling quickly subsides. They had more work to do.
The druid quickly fishes the last prism out of his pocket and focuses. The modicum of divine power he had partitioned for his only holy spell drains from his body, and into the sacred prism.
"As soon as we have them charged I can fly them up there," he says once he is finished, glancing back into the weapon chamber, "I do not think we will be taking the stairs."
Isilme is amazed at how effectively she's able to channel energy into Hinagiku's cell. Calling out through the magic of message she says "Annabelle, we have two prisms ready, can you come ferry me up? I will help up there since there is nothing else I can do down here."
"I'll carry the two charged prisms up and help Markus prepare things," she says to the others.
"Be very careful!" Ary calls, "Once this thing is turned on, the place is going to fill with divine energy. Anyone in here when that happens... well, I don't know if it's possible to know. Know that if you stay in this room, you won't emerge the same, if at all." she tries to give a warning to the others as they press forward.
"Nurah, if you have anything you can do to charge them, please do."
"Sorry, Isilme!", calls Annabelle. "I'm a little busy at the moment!" she says as she shifts over to one side, snaps out her glaive and lunges towards the errant wrecker demon with a powerful attack.
It's a fairly accurate and brutal blow, and she smiles in triumph - "There's demons attacking Markus!" she calls. "I think I've got it, though."
The prism in Ehren's hand surges with power - empowered by his own magic, he restores the energy expended by the prism to open the door in the first place.
One of the wrecker demons turns and shambles up the stairs at Markus. Ser Holton Albright reacts instantaneously, skillfully cleaving his gleaming longsword right down the back of the retreating creature, drawing fresh blood.
Markus freezes up as the creature approaches - focusing on its horrific face instead of the heavy pick furled in its claws for one costly instant... but Annabelle counters with a vicious strike of her own, deflecting the creature's second strike and creating an opening for her own.
Valaria is up!
Val hurries into the next room, pulling her scale free from her belt pouch. "Hold out one of the prisms. I'll give it all I've got." As soon as someone offers her one of the prisms, she touches the scale to it and discharges the holy magic into the crystal. "Terendelev, help us. If we ever needed your power, it's right now."
Valaria channels Terendelev's magic into the prism - it glows, full of divine energy. Meanwhile, the other abrikandilu snarls, positively frothing with rage... he climbs down the wall with his claws and approaches the heroes while Ser Holton is too distracted with the enormous Shemhazian demon to notice.
Markus is up!
Markus gasps, holding himself where the wrecker demon had pierced him with the pick. "Switch to your sword, Annabelle!" he says, backing slowly away from the demon cautiously.
Once he gets a few feet of distance between himself and the demon, he immerses his hands and attention in the operation of the device - with his intuitive knowledge of arcane matters he is able to find the controls that allow for the correct positioning of the weapon - opening up the windows.
Markus operates the controls - the machine whirrs to life, ascending up the column towards the roof of the building, where the panels open up to let the elements outside in... just a faint drizzle of rain, now, thankfully. A few more calibrations and the astrolabe portion of the device twists into position, perfectly tuned in accordance with the position of the sun and moon beyond. Unfortunately the machine has no power....
Round 2!
"Rocky, when you get a chance, come to me. Sorry, but I need to go distract them. Just touch the glass thingy to me, I'll be ready."
Ary slips forward through the paired vault doors, to get an idea of what's going on... but as soon as she crosses the threshold, her eyes widen as she sees what's happened. "You didn't tell me a Shemhazian had ripped open the wall!" Ary calls out to the others. "Son of a... We need that thing on, now. Otherwise, it's going to tear every one of us apart." and enjoy every second of it. she adds, mentally. Almost as an afterthought, she interposes herself between the Abrikandilu and Nurah, and slips her hand into her pack, running it across the Scale and calling on its power... to be discharged as soon as she's touched. "Nurah, please avoid touching me until Rocky does."
"Hey, ratty. Loooook. Shiny!" she adds, waving Radiance around in the air. It had worked once, hadn't it?
Isilme is up!
Isilme moves in behind Ary, hoping to buy Markus and Annabelle some time for others to get up to aid them. As she passes by Ary she drops the prism off with her to allow her to charge it. "Here, I'll try to buy them some time up there, I've nothing left to charge it with anyway."
She moves up alongside Nurah and focuses on the demon on the back end of the platform that is harassing the two of them. She holds up her palm and blows across it, unleashing a stream of golden particles that explode in a burst of sparkling as they fill up the space around the demon, their faces catching the grey light streaming in from above.
Isilme conjures a cloud of golden sparkles around the wrecker demon - the sparkles getting into his eyes and snout. The creature growls, completely unable to see.
Meanwhile, Ary uses her silvery dragon scale to channel pure holy energy into the final uncharged prism. It's almost ready...
Hinagiku is up!