Mindscape of the Dreaming Dark (Inactive)

Game Master Reckless

As you enter the feast chamber, you see several other people either already seated or entering around the same time.

A half-orc man in simple robes with a few stones floating around his shaven head sits with a human woman in dark chainmail with a greatsword slung over her shoulder; the similarity of their features despite their racial differences, as well as their familiar snarkiness towards one another, making it obvious they are siblings or other close relations.

What at first seems to be a child playing at their feet under the table is revealed upon closer inspection to be a Halfling decked out in shortswords with a few ioun stones of his own floating about.

Entering shortly after you is a dwarf in full plate, heavy shield, axe, etc. the full complement of dwarvitude. Accompanying him is a short human male with a severe burn scars on his face. The dwarf barks out a grunt before joining the others at the table, then gruffly inquires "Where's the damn pointy-eared b!&@$ and her raptor? She better not make us late."

Tayanalla will detect evil.

"Those could be potential rivals."

Not wanting to reveal much about himself, he just sits and has a look at the food while having an eye on the others.

Nils will check out the food.

Tam casually examines the magical auras --if any-- attached to those in the room, and their gear.

Using Arcane Sight, and taking 10 on all Spellcraft checks for a 24. This is probably going to be a standard, common activity, especially given the circumstances.

Thokk will look for the biggest meanest looking guy around, and go move next to him.

The feast set before you is truly one of stupendous glory, with all manner of savory, sweet, spicy, tender, and meaty foodstuffs and nectars to delight all the senses.

In fact, before you spreads a Mythic Heroes' Feast

Thokk, it's hard to say whether the woman at the table or the dwarf looks meaner/tougher, but when the dwarf sits a chair away from her, it means you don't have to decide and can sit next to both of them (in between.)

The dwarf's companion sits across the table from the half-orc.

Last to arrive is an elven woman, whose plate-mail wearing dinosaur companion only slightly distracts Thokk and Nils from their recognition of her from the night before. Of course the night before, she was not wearing stylized leather armor with leafy patterns of yellow and brown, nor carrying a rapier and short sword as she does now. She moves to the table with the other and sits on the half-orc's lap, casually draping her arms around his neck.

Mythic Heroes' Feast: Creatures eating a mythic heroes’ feast gain the benefits of mythic remove disease and mythic neutralize poison and gain 2d8 temporary hit points +1 point per caster level (maximum +20). 2d8 + 20 ⇒ (1, 8) + 20 = 29 They also gain a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws, and they gain immunity to non-mythic fear effects and poison for 12 hours.

Got it, 29 temporary HP, +1 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws, and they gain immunity to non-mythic fear effects and poison for 12 hours.
Thokk smiles at the woman, and kisses her.
"Hi gorgeous? You are in the fight too?"

Markus feels greatly impressed by the banquet. "This is clearly some kind of magical food, I feel invigorised. Unfortunately, if these folks are Team Gamma, they will be invigorised too. But well, we're here for a fair fight."

Markus goes on with his breakfast while trying to study how the others behave.

"A dinosaur?"

What's the size of the dinosaur?

"Wow, nice spread. and he sits down and digs into the food.

Can't judge what they can do from just looking at them. Best to just deal when they are doing. he thinks to himself.

He does, however, listen carefully in case they say something indiscrete.

Donnen ignores the other team around, most of the time, and worries more about eating and resting. He thanks Gozreh in silence, closing his eyes, then proceeds to eat. Sitting near his group, he looks at the others and, for a second, smiles - breaking the serious façade he keeps most of the time.

Taya's eyes narrow at the emanations of evil from the strangers, especially at the halfling with the daggers.

She enters and takes a seat with her companions.

After looking back and forth down the table, Taya picks up a magic chicken wing and fastidiously strips the meat of the bone.

She is careful not to get any sauce on her gleaming white tabard.

The woman returns Thokk's kiss. "Oh, hey. Yes. It's Thokk, right? I'm afraid I was quite drunk last night." she smiles, and the raptor trills within its platemail as she tosses is something from the half=orc's plate.

The half-orc grunts "I was going to eat that. And he was the reason for your delay?"

She kisses the half-orc "Don't be jealous, Xem. It was just sex."

Xem grunts again, eying Thokk.

Meanwhile, the Halfling comes out from under the table, jumping onto a chair near the burned-faced man, who frowns and scoots his chair over a little further away.

The food is splendid and plentiful.

Taya picks up the platter of chicken wings and offers it to Nils

"Chicken wing?" she offers.

"Isn't that a rather paltry chunk of meat?" as he continues to tear into a haunch of mutton. "And why all the sauce? I like meat to taste like meat. Thanks though. "

"Did your lord and master take away your taste for hot sauce too?" Taya asks the sober herald of the drunken god.

"I like my wings hot, like the fire of righteousness that Iomedae uses to burn the the unrighteous and the unworthy" she continues looking pointedly around the table.

She examines the members of the other team, looking for iconography that would identify the patrons of the evildoers.

knowledge(religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

"Hot Sauce? We don't do hot sauce where I come from. Us Ulfen like fermented herring for flavor. Just have to watch the smell. "

Tentatively, Tam takes a seat at the table, having waited longer than the others to make his way there, and only then after as reasonably thorough an investigation as he felt appropriate. Clearly they were supposed to be eating with these people, but that didn't mean he'd leave an opportunity to know something about them on the table-- so to speak.

His curiosity sated, for now, he digs in to the meal, stifling a laugh when the previous evenings activities are made public.

"Friends of yours, Thokk?"

"Friend of mine. Good friend."
He looks at Xem.
"Don't worry boy. It was just sex. Great steamy dirty unforgivable sex, nothing more."

Markus watches Thokk interact with the others. "I hope he doesn't get us into trouble. Let's finish breakfast and get ready for the fight."

Xem laughs. "Well, that is her specialty." he slaps Thokk on the back. As he does, he says "Call me boy again, and I'll feed your cock to Rapielon after I kill you. Touch Lillinae again before you kill me, and I'll make sure you're still alive when he eats it."

Lillinae smiles seductively at Thokk "It'd be worth the risk, I promise."

The dwarf growls. "All this cross-species breeding talk is giving me indigestion! Why don't you three- wait- four just get a room while the rest of us fulfill our duties to the gods."

The Halfling giggles into his cup, prompting the dwarf to sputter out "And what's so g@#@%&n funny about that, you little fart?"

"What could be funnier, my dearest Gadre, than an Urgathoan with indigestion?" the Halfling mocks.

Tam, I should be able to get you that list tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

Thokk smiles at Xem.
"I'll have to kill you, then."

"Okay, this is enough"

"You!" says Markus pointing at the whoever guy "Hands off. Leave whatever for later." Then he turns to Thokk. "And you, stop provoking. We'll see in the end who prevails, no need to disrupt the breakfast. You two, try to act like you're here for some kind of divine thing, will you?"

Thokk smiles at Xem.
"Ease of, man. We are eating breakfast in peace here, and the fact we will fight later don't mean we can have a nice meal before. Right Xem? No hard feelings?"

Nils studiously ignores the commotion, focusing on his very nice meal, which could always be his last.

"I hope they don't run out of these chicken wings...." Taya says as she strips more meat off the bone.

"When we run out of them, we're just going to have to get this show on the road."

I think I had enough already. - says the druid, not worried about the discussions going on - The smallest dogs bark the loudest. - he finally completes, blinking with apparent boredom.

Xem nods "No, no hard feelings. It will be a glorious battle should you live long enough to reach it."

The rest of the breakfast still involves a bit of this kind of banter between the others, but they don't bother much with y'all anymore, except for Lillinae continuing to flirt on occasion with Thokk. Xem, for his part, seems more interested in keeping Lillinae from feeding all his food to the dinosaur.

There are even more hot wings than Tayanalla can eat, as is the rest of the food that plentiful.

The breakfast wraps up, and the two teams part their ways.

As promised, you are given an hour to prepare before being brought to the stairs.

The stairs wander through several dimensions, bending along the space-time continuum and geometrically. The climb takes you 1 hour regardless of speed or means of travel.

Arriving at the summit, you depart onto a small area covered with grass and trees, resting on a cloud. An immense metallic structure rests heavily upon the cloud, and a sizable rough-hewn tunnel of approximately 20' diameter bores its way into the structure.

The tunnel is roughly tubular and unlit and about 60' into it, an inky black area fills it, impenetrable by darkvision.

Map/Image

"Showtime! See you all on the other side."
Thokk casts light on his greatsword, and enters the tunnel with the sword in front of him.

Markus produces his Ioun Torch and follows Thokk into the tunnel.

Tayanalla makes sure there's no chicken sauce on her gleaming white tabard and sets off behind Thokk and Markus.

Donnen casts Mythic Barkskin at himself, and then he wild shapes into his usual form - a hybrid of human and allosaurus, a huge strange creature with a fairly dinosaur-like appearance but human vocal cords modified to speak. Finally, he grows and follows the others.

Mythic Barkskin: NA+4, DR 8/magic

At least the other side doesn't have the market cornered on dinosaurs.

I was already dinosauring before it was trendy! ;)

Tam finishes the meal largely in silence, stealing glances at the others every few minutes. He's not exactly stealthy, but he doesn't draw much attention either, as there's conversation happening between the groups.

When given time to prepare after the meal, Tam casts his regular, daily regimen of spells, enchanting his equipment per usual.

"Ahh, much better," he says giving his staff a stylish twirl, before grinning at the others.
"Shall we?"

Tayanalla watches where she walks behind the dino-avatar of Gozreh. That dino poop is no joke.

You quickly approach the area of darkness. As you get closer, you notice that it seems to be a rolling surface of darkness. Inky and black, even this close to it, it feels cold.

Thokk continues forward.

As soon as he feels the Cold damaging him, he will stop and cast Resist Energy (Cold) on himself.
Does that helps?

Markus sees how Thokk disappears into the darkness, looks at the others and decides to join him.

Shall I take the same first round damage as him? I'll be coming out though after suffering the cold and try to alert the rest.

Yes; 3d4 ⇒ (3, 2, 4) = 9

Although, in general I'd prefer if people did not read spoilers tagged for other people.

I know, I know, but I thought it would quicken things a bit, since I already said I was following him. Not that I tried to cheat or anything (actually, I could have said nothing and avoid taking any damage at all). But yeah, sorry, I was so hyped.

Thokk will move back, arms outstretched, as if for preventing anyone from passing him, towards the entrance.

As Thokk leaves the darkness, the other sensations also return to him; the weight of his armor, the sound of his boots scraping against the metallic floor, the smell of the dino breath....

"Careful, it is REALLY cold in there, let me try with some magical protection on."
He casts Resist Energy and tries again.
Same result? It is easier this time around?

"Feel free. I do have to wonder if there's something we're missing. "