Mindscape of the Dreaming Dark (Inactive)

Game Master Reckless

"Do we have time to recuperate from that battle? I used a lot of resources. "

"Take some time, I don't think the Chaos Pit is going anywhere...is it?" Tam says, finishing his statement in a questions as he turns back to the now-defeated Waykeeper.

"This Thoughtsphere, is really quite incredible. A stronger artifact I can't say I've seen in a good, long while. I can feel its power, just holding it here now."

"The Chaos Pit is likely to stay where it is... for now." the Waykeeper says. "And time flows strangely in the Mindscape, so it may be possible to rest for awhile, although you do risk the other team defeating more challenges and thus gathering more Thought Spheres. As your mage pointed out, they are quite powerful. Then again, the other team may need to rest as well. All of the challenges are quite formidable."

Thokk huffs.
"I can go on..."

"While I'm not injured, and can continue to fight, I'm quite low on remaining spells. Another fight like that and we'd be in trouble. "

"I don't know about you, guys, but there are some special things I can do a limited amount of times, since they drain my power. I feel... a bit exhausted, so if we have another fight like this one, I won't be able to put the same effort I did here."

Plus, don't we have some blind men?

You vaguely remember something about a talking dinosaur, but it seems like something out of a dream, and there's certainly no dinosaurs, talking or otherwise, around here. A coupla guys were deafened for a round or two but are ok now.

"I am fine to proceed, but will abide by the will of the group."

"We need to keep going. If we lag behind, we won't be able to catch up with the other group."
But I think a majority vote for staying and rest, so I think that's what we will have to do... :S

Almost as soon as the decision to rest is made, you awaken to find yourselves packing up your campsite, preparing your spells, etc. The Waykeeper is gone, and the pit still stands before you, but you have rested and reset your abilities. You are fully healed and refreshed, with all resources recovered as if you had rested overnight. You get the feeling you rested, but don't remember any of the details of setting up sleeping bags, shifts, etc.

Markus feels strange about the resting. "Uh... does anyone know how much time we've been resting?" he asks, while checking if he still feels the same as when he was under the Hero's Feast.

Tayanalla casts extended Mythic Heroism and Darkvision.

"Ready to go."

Thokk prepares for the day and nods.
"Another good day to kill!"

Tam notices the Thought Sphere is gone too, though he can feel it inside him, and the increased power that it gives as he runs through his usual preparatory routine.

"OK, ready to go. That was rather a blur. Not had a night like that since Cayden made me different. "

Across the way. the corridor turns sharply southward. almost immediately becoming worked stone instead of rough cavern. forty feet in, there is a 20' wide set of double doors to the right, while straight ahead the passage narrows into a stairwell leading downwards.

Markus stops just in front of the double doors and searches for some inscription is picture indicating what do the doors keep.

There is, in fact, an inscription on the doors, written in Draconic and repeated below in Celestial. It reads:

Trumpets blare in the silent night
Those with evil in their hearts quake
with tremors of unrighteous fright
The armies of heaven awake
Swords fashioned from purest light
send corrupted souls to the burning lake.

"Uh, guys... I think we should go in here." Markus points at the door. "We might find something interesting." He tries to open the doors while the rest arrive - if they do.

"Ok, but shouldn't we check it for traps or something. I mean everything else in here has ben a bit tricky. Heck our greeter tried to kill us. "

"ah yeah, you're right. Let me check this..."

Markus carefully inspects the door ins earch for anything that might trigger a trap.

Perception, locate traps: 1d20 + 14 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 14 + 4 = 34

Just before they open the door, Thokk will cast Mythic Prayer on everyone, and Align Weapon (Evil) on his Longbow.

Opening the door reveals a large cathedral. Grand stairs lead up to the cathedral proper, where, above a dais float two angelic beings- one a woman of pure light with a radiant sword painfully bright to look at, and the other a lithe and beautiful male figure with downy white wings holding a stylized trumpet.

The dais is some 120 feet away, and sports a pair of massive doors.

Map

Markus enters the room and directs some words to the angelic beigns.

"Salutations. I am Markus, humble servant of Iomedae. Are you the guardians of the next Orb?"

He takes some time to carefully observe their reactions.

"Are things ever this easy?"

"I can't imagine they are. "

Thokk aims his bow towards the creatures.
"Easy is boring. Easy makes you weak."

The lady of light steps forward. Her voice like the tinkling of broken glass, she responds "We are, indeed guardians. The orb is contained beyond these doors." she indicates the massive doors on the dais. She frowns at Thokk's threatening posture.

Behind her, the other speaks, his voice a chorus of tenor and bass "Do you seek mere battle, or the glory of victory, Gorumite? Seek one and forget the other."

Detect Evil

"And which orb do you guard?"

Thokk keeps the bow aimed at the "angels".
"Only fools look for defeat. But we Goromites like to earn our victories."

"Alright, so I guess we have to fight for the orb, right? Any special rules we should know about?"

Btw, I guess the hero's feast effect is over?

"I dunno, maybe they mean some other sort of contest. They did dismiss Thokk. "

Turning to the Lady of Light "Is there some choice of contests?"

No evil detected. The Hero's Feast has expired.

The trumpeter speaks "It is likely indeed you will need to fight for the orb, but you are mistaken to think we guard the orb. We guard the door."

The lady of light nods, saying "We do not wish to harm you. In fact, to those serving just and righteous gods, we would offer a boon before you face what lies beyond the door."

"Each of the three of you" the archon says, excluding Thokk, "may ask one question regarding the beast contained beyond the doors."

"Is the beast evil?"

"What is best used to harm the beast. I mean in terms of weapons. "

Markus keeps himself quiet. He must ask something valuable or the boon will go to waste. After some seconds thinking about it, he finally speaks.

"Would you give me a minute, please?"

Then he turns to Tam and Thokk and speaks again.

"Okay, I was going to ask about the guardian's best attacks. Do you have a better and more tactical idea of a question? It is our last one."

If they agree, Markus will ask that, something the likes of "What is the Guardian's most perilous way of harming us?"

"Of course. Meanwhile, the answers to your companions' questions: Undoubtedly evil. It may not be harmed by weapons." The shining lady answers.

Thokk smiles.
"I would ask how best to defeat it..."

Given that Nils's last sentence made the archons' answer useless, Markus quickly rethinks and follows Thokk's advice, weighing it as the best possible answer.

"What should be our tactical to defeat the beast?"

After hearing what the celestial beings have to answer, Markus bows deeply. "Thank you. Now, my companions and me would like to move on to the fight - other groups might be ahead of us already."

"The beast is composed of many crawling creatures, as such, immune to weapons, but susceptible to magic capable of hurting all in an area. It has its own powerful magics. You must defend against these while overwhelming its components." The lady of light says.

They nod, floating down from the dais to allow you to the huge doors at their summit.

"I did not think to take any damaging spells today, so I will act to keep you people healthy. I cannot harm it with my weapon. "

Markus looks at his scimitar and shrugs. "Okay, so be it then..."

Knowing he's not being granted a question, Tam listens attentively as the others use theirs. He's disappointed in the results but grateful for the knowledge.

"If weapons won't help, I'll be less useful than with the last guardian. I'll see what I can do. Perhaps an idea will come to me," he says, smiling grimly, ready to go in.

"So, does anyone have damaging spells?" Markus asks. "Because if we can't hurt it, we might as well go rest and prepare new spells tomorrow."

"I can do that at least. Right now my spell selection simply won't be useful for hurting it. "

The trumpeter chides "You can always come back when you're better prepared. Just so long as the other team doesn't beat you back."

He looks to exits- the one you came from and another to the south.

"I won't be any better prepared tomorrow, but others might be."

"I can memorize damage spells, but I'm still just a priest. It's not my strength. " as he looks over at the sorcerer.

"Can't change the spells I know."