Upon arriving at the waypoint Khayal turns to his brother,
There is no point in wasting more time. We aught to blow the horn and keep moving.
And what should we tell the Golem. "Take us to the Isles of Not?" Hajar asks as he takes out the Horn of Nex
Regardless of the answer Hajar will blow the horn to summon the Galley
"I agree, let's not waste time..."
It's s DDoS? Why?
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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It's s DDoS? Why?
Who knows? People are horrible and will do anything to disrupt normal life, I suppose. I'm watching a news report about a shooting at a Republican Congressional baseball team practice this morning. People suck.
The play-by-post GM group that's doing Cosmic Captive have been working hard to determine the cause of the site being down so much, and they've done a bunch of network traces and stuff and concluded that it was a DDoS (don't ask me how, I'm not familiar with network architecture and stuff). Paizo did some sort of update to their servers last night that hopefully will fix the issue and keep out the attackers.
After an hour a familiar galley with Nex's symbol on it approaches the Waystation.
"Give this egg to the boatman, and he will bring you directly to us. We have much to discuss."
The golden helmsman's eyes take on a greenish-golden glow as he turns to the tiller and guides the Nexian galley out to sea. The Nexian galley heads East, but takes a turn South, at first following the island Khandelwal's curves. As soon as it clears the island, however, the galley bears directly South. You pass by that curve of tiny islands next to the main island of Kakishon, but apart from a few flying fish, all is calm on the waters.
Night comes as you wait onboard the boat, but there are no clouds, no storms this evening.
Shortly before morning, you notice in the far distance a loud but growing susurrant hiss. A light mist appears, sometimes turning into a sprinkle of rain.
Not only has the wind increased, but the ship is being carried along
with a strong current.
You pass by a strange sign barely sticking up out of the water.
The hiss grows to a deafening roar, but there is still nothing ahead of you. Just the blackness of night - and you realize that there is no horizon left to see!
When at sea, or looking over the land from a very high mountain, the horizon always drops off over the edge. You know this is an illusion - the world continues beyond what you can see.
But Kakishon is a demiplane, not a world. Even mighty Archwizard Nex couldn't create an entire world. He had to use shortcuts. Which means...all that ocean had to go somewhere. And if this world is flat, then there must be an edge.
An edge to the abyss!
The helmsman gives no sign of alarm as the Nexian galley continues, at full speed, to the literal edge of the world. You realize that at this speed, there is no turning back - you are about to go over into the blackness below!
What do you do - accept the helmsman's course, or try to stop him?
----------------------------
Stay tuned, fans, for the next exciting episode! Will it be:
I SURVIVED THE END OF THE WORLD, AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT
Or
Khayal waits for his fate, standing tall, prepared for what may come.
Bartan's eyes bulge as he realizes what's about to happen, but he also sees the inevitablility. "I suppose we should hold on, my friends!!!"
Hold on! Hajar shouts, not at all confident that they won't all die a horrible death.
The ship plummets over the edge of the infinite, the bow groaning as it pivots to point straight down.
The
ship
falls,
falls,
and
falls
some
more.
You take points of damage as you are buffeted about.
You take points of damage as you are buffeted about.
You take points of damage as you are buffeted about.
You take points of damage as you are buffeted about.
You take points of damage as you are buffeted about.
You take points of damage as you are buffeted about.
If you fail two checks in a row, you fall off of the ship and take points of nonlethal damage afterwards as you are pounded by the falling waterfall.
After what seems like a mile downwards, the waterfall all around you thins and dissolves into a clinging mist, the Nexian galley righting itself to a new "down". You can barely see through the fog, it is so thick. A glow appears in the distance under the ship, coalescing into a tiny group of islands, one island really, but with lots of outcroppings. Above you, the edge of the world fades away in the distance. (Anybody flying/off the ship "feels" the new gravity pulling them alongside the ship.)
What is around you looks very similar to the descriptions of the Astral Plane.
With another groan from the overstretched timbers, the Nexian galley "lands" in what looks and feels like a fogbank. The blinding fog thins ahead as three yellow-green lights come into clear view. A strange crescent-shaped anchorage just large enough to snugly secure a vessel forms out of the mist, each of its crescent quays tipped by a small stonework tower like a small lighthouse surmounted by a bright-glowing, yellow-green lantern. The harbor seems to abut the base of a large hill of slowly roiling mist, with a third lantern at the center of the crescent, mounted over an archway leading into the hillside along a dimly lit cobblestoned avenue.
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"Whheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Yazi let's out as the ship goes over.
"Hi Rose!" Yazi lets out as she is bounced past the dancer.
"Bye Rose!" she says as she is bounced back.
"This is fun!" she continues as she's bounced around the ship.
"Ow." she lets out as she doesnt quite nail that last landing.
"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!" she starts again.
When the boat finally gets to the bottom Yazi giggles and happily looks around while dizzily trying to walk. as she's soaked in the soothing mist. "Wow, I've had a couple of dates end like this. My legs feel like jelly."
Hajar is thrown from the ship and suffers mightily.
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Rayhan wisely casts Levitate at the first sign of the ship falling.
Amazing. The Archmage was a true Planar Wizard. The Astral Plane, attached to this demiplane. Oh, hello Hajar....goodbye Hajar. he says as the Paladin tumbles past.
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Nasir moves in a manner beyond anything her companions hed witnessed to date, twisting and turning, altering her sense of balance and direction as the ship drops, always in balance, re-orienting perfectly each time.
Completing a backflip as the ship lands in the eerie fogbank, walking over to support Yazi as she regains her balance, looking up at the slowly descending wizard.
It's more like Nex made his own Astral Plane. So spells like teleport work inside Kakishon, but not outside-in or inside-out.
A planar expert will have to decide on how this might be used to save Kakishon.
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Nasir moves in a manner beyond anything her companions hed witnessed to date, twisting and turning, altering her sense of balance and direction as the ship drops, always in balance, re-orienting perfectly each time.
Completing a backflip as the ship lands in the eerie fogbank, walking over to support Yazi as she regains her balance, looking up at the slowly descending wizard.
Khayal keeps his balance as the ship shudders. Just before it splashes down, Khayal is ejected into the mist near Hajar and Bartan. He acts like the ejection was intentional though most of you probably know better by now.
Rayhan floats down to meet the Galley, contemplating the ramifications of creating your own Astral Plane.
Hajar calls out I am still alive Yazi. Throw me a rope! and then he shouts We must do something about these falls. I begin to think Fate conspires against us.
Khayal helps Bartan and Hajar to the rope thrown near them. After which he gracefully swims to shore. Spouting astral water stuff out of his mouth like a fountain.
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Rayhan floats down to meet the Galley, contemplating the ramifications of creating your own Astral Plane.
** spoiler omitted **
Rayhan is an extradimensional expert housed at a worldly, cosmopolitan city. It's not outside the realm of impossibility that Rayhan can contemplate creating a demiplane with additional sub-planes connected to it. Obviously Archwizard Nex wanted a private demesne, a vacation world no other could visit or corrupt. And he didn't mind enslaving more than a dozen living creatures as his creators/maintenance crew to do it.
So this trip is like an Egyptian expert actually doing to a "dig" in Egypt. He's getting firsthand knowledge, as well as maybe digging up some artifacts to take back and write a few dozen white papers, a book, and get his face on TV with. Rayhan originally wanted a well of many worlds to continue his research at his home. This trip, to an unique demiplane, is almost as good.
The blue-black ground with the hill and double entrance beckons. The mist rolling everywhere gives a chilly, melancholy feel to the place.
Bartan makes it to shore and looks around, casting false life on himself as a precaution.
"That was... unpleasant, but could have been worse, I suppose. Yazi, my dear, what do you see with your pseudo-elf eyes?"
Hajar heals both himself and Bartan once he is returned to dry? land?
Then Hajar follows his brother and the others.
The dark blue substance that makes up the island you have come to, as well as the mist around you to a lesser degree, is strangely shifting, yet feels solid enough. Up on top of the hill, twin entrances beckon. It is there that the third of the lighthouses stands inbetween the two arches.
But everywhere you look, the substance making up the area shifts slowly, like the winds caressing the sand dunes on the deserts of Katapesh, giving motion to the motionless.
Khayal advances along the "not here" path. The finer points of magic are beyond him, but the path seems real enough. As Yazi heads to the lighthouse, he follows her keeping his human eyes out for any trouble.
The adventurers collect at the left-sided entrance, Khayal running past them to discover the right-handed entrance meets with the left-handed side in the center. The boundaries of this cave are unsettling to look upon, for slowly palpitating whorls and streams of dim, multihued radiance flicker deep within the pale walls. Even without the colored light, the passageway would be disorienting, as its width and height and direction seem to pulsate and shift, almost like the throat of an immense living creature.
You become sickened by the mist-like look of the interior of the caves. Ever-shifting, the walls, floor, and ceiling unsettle you. Blind creatures are immune to this effect.
–2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.
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The passage way doesn't mess with Khayal. He has come to realize that there are some things that he simple does not understand. Perhaps that's what wisdom is.
Bartan turns green.
Hajar is unpreturbed by the sight, Rayhan however is visibly disoriented and leans on the Paladin for support.