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The courtyard outside of Sorrina Westyr’s office is a tribute to the element of earth. Large, dark boulders jut from a carpet of smooth pebbles. Wildflowers and moss spring from the cracks between the stones. The Master of Spells’ slategray skin seems to blend into the rock she lounges on in the sun-dappled courtyard, her face upturned to the cloudless sky. Sorrina stretches luxuriously before turning to smile.
“Enjoy the open air while you can, Pathfinders,” she says. “You are to be among the first agents sponsored to explore the planes—the Plane of Earth, to be exact. Reyshal ik Jalman, the Society’s contact on the Plane of Earth, recently alerted us to a rare opportunity. The Sultana’s constant war with the City of Brass means the shaitan empire needs more soldiers, and they have begun recruiting off-world mercenaries to train alongside their military. That’s where you come in.” Westyr leaps to her feet in a fluid motion, pulling an amethyst crystal wrapped in copper wire from her pocket. “Please travel with Reyshal to the Opaline Vault. He can pull some strings to get you in with the mercenary company known as the Ungrounded. Complete the basic training and prove to your superiors that the Pathfinders are useful allies. Reyshal and I believe that working with the Ungrounded will lay the foundation for an alliance with the Peerless Empire. What’s more, this is an excellent means for you to establish your own professional credentials and connections.” Westyr pauses to brush a fallen leaf from her hair. “I’ll contact Reyshal as soon as you’re ready.”
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A beautiful half-elf woman with long, dark red hair and deep brown eyes catches everyone's attention as she walks into the sun dappled courtyard. She is tall, slender, and graceful in her movements.
Her armor, dyed blue and with gold trim, seems almost new, without the slightest crease as if meticulously maintained. She carries a rapier on one hip, wears a cestus on one hand and a shortbow and quiver upon her back. Doves are etched on many of her items as well as an angelic ankh, the holy symbol of Sarenrae, proudly displayed upon her chest.
With a warm smile and an angelic voice, she addresses Sorrina and any other agents present.
"Well met friends. It is my deep honor to serve the Society and join you for this mission. My name is Veres Sol and I offer my bardic magic by way of song to both inspire and to heal."
She offers a deep bow before waiting for the others to introduce themselves.
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A golden-scaled nagaji finishes his drink before approaching the half-elf, "Veres, huh? Names Sathos. So, you seem friendly. Is that for real or just a way to bring a bunch of strangers together? Not that it matters ta me really. If you can keep anyone we meet from yellin' at us, then I'm happy yer here."
Sathos heads to the table and pours himself more wine. He tilts his head toward Sorrina with an upward nod as he asks, "Will we need any special protection or air while we are there? I don't want to be crushed to death, an' I doubt the songbird here has any desire to suffocate."
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A blachaired dwarf stands in the dappled sunlight, enjoying the pleasant nature of the yard, and the nearby trees. His seeming contentment then drops as his gaze sweeps down and includes the group in it's field. With a heavy and almost put-upon sigh, he walks up to the rest of the group, flicking a few leaves from his intricately braided beard.
Dressed in well worn and patched but practical and serviceable clothes and wearing a breastplate that has obviously been dented and repaired multiple times, he doesn't look the part of the typical Society agent. On one hip he carries a wooden hilt that looks like it belonged to what once was a wooden training sword.
His pack slung over one shoulder, and his disinterest apparent, he moves in closer. In a voice that creaks like it hasn't been used in a while he comments "The plane of Earth, huh? Anything we should know about there before we go? Any supplies we might need to get?"
After a second he looks around the garden, and in a flat and almost apathetic tone comments "This is a nice garden you have here... You need a gardener? I'm good with plants, even better than the guy you have right now, I'd say."
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"So, we're taking the side of the Sultana over the city of Brass, eh? Interesting. I don't know why the Pathfinders should be taking sides, but if you say so... "
Dembar looks around at his fellow pathfinders. His bat-like nose and ears twitch in unison. "Well met, friends. You will not likely see me in this form for long... I prefer to spend my time as a bat. I will not be able to communicate with you, though I will understand your speech in that form."
"Do you suggest any protective incantations for the plane of earth? I know that on the plane of fire, fire resistance is an obvious choice. Should we procure some acid resistance spells?"
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Sorrina Westyr considers your question for a moment then answers. Sathos' first:"The plane of earth is inhabitable by humanoid life forms and in fact it's quite heavily populated. You'll have no problem breathing there as long as you avoid the most dangerous areas... like those bordering on the plane of fire, of course"
Then the Mistress of spells turns to Gardol:"Reyshal shall provide the magic. If you want to know he will probably use a spell known as Plane Shift. Don't worry, you'll get to the plane of earth in one piece. Once there I can't guarantee you'll stay that way, obviously"
Sorrina nods at Veres' question, apparently approving of it:"The Ungrounded is an eclectic mercenary company run by newcomers to the Plane of Earth, but ultimately managed by shaitan generals. I think the name is a bit of an insult, honestly, but the company is invaluable to the empire".
Toivo's question causes Sorrina to grin a little:"The Plane of Earth is vast but the part of it you are going to visit is a huge metropolis, and you'll be working with a whole mercenary company. Any supplies you might absolutely need will be provided. As for my garden... thank you! I think it's very beautiful too. Maybe once you are back I can test your skill as a gardener. If I find it satisfactory I'll gladly have you improve it!"
And finally Sorrina answers Denbar:"An interesting ability indeed. Could come in handy in the caverns of the Plane of Earth, even. As for incantations, resistances are always good to have. Acid may be present in some dangerous areas but in this respect that elemental type is not as prevalent in the Plane of Earth as it is in the Plane of Fire, fortunately".
"Anything else?" the Mistress of Spells asks again.
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Toivo' blank expression breaks into a very slight smile at Dembar's words. Oh, good, that means one less person nattering away!
His stony demeanor back in place, he responds to Sorrina. "Well, that is good to hear. Also I assure you I know what I am doing I a garden." To emphasize his words, Toivo lazily flicks a hand up and all of the leaves in 30 feet of him fly up, to his waist level and swirl around for a second. Letting go of the power, he let's them float gently down to the ground to create a large picture of Sorrina's face.
He takes a look at it and comments, "Hmm, not my best work, I could do better with more time. But hopefully this is a good display of my abilities. Other than that, I'm ready to go."
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"Hmm, can't think of a time I have heard much about the plane of earth...or any other plane...sorry no help there. I am curious to learn though and can't think of anyone else I would like to go hopping about the planes with." Deter says warmly with no hint of sarcasm. "I wonder what we would need in a place like that?...A shovel or pick? Well one thing I know we should bring is plenty of food....I mean we can't eat rocks...maybe jerked beef...and travel bread.....eggs for the morning breaking of fast and salted pork....maybe apple brandy whine and honey braised apricots for evening...." Deter starts writing down a list of things he feels must be brought."Other then this I am ready for adventure as always".
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Deter looks up at the exchange " Oh, like my old teacher at the school used to say to his students....keep your enemies close and keep your casters closer. Would you be so kind as to take mine as well. Seems its a popular thing with us adventuring types." Deter hesitantly extends his wand of cure light wounds to Veres."You do know how to use it don't you?"
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The Mistress of Spells smiles at Toivo's attempt to impress her with his gardening skills but says nothing. Once your curiosity is sated Sorrina Westyr uses an amethyst and copper wire to cast a spell.
After a brief moment the boulder opposite Sorrina Westyr’s seat ripples like water. What appears to be a towering stone statue of a muscular man clad in gold-lacquered armor emerges from the stone. He bows dramatically to the Mistress of Spells. “Well met, Trail Seekers,” he grins wryly as Sorrina frowns in irritation.
“Of course, I mean Pathfinders. Just a jest between friends.” The shaitan steps forward and inclines his head in a shallow version of the bow he just performed for Sorrina.
“I am Reyshal ik Jalman, humble servant of Her Radiance, Ashadieeyah bint Khalid, and sworn ally to the steadfast Master of Spells. Today I am honored to escort you to the Opaline Vault, the glorious home of my ancestors. I hope that together we can cement the bonds between our peoples, dear Pathfinders. But first, please, introduce yourselves!”
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Toivo's eyes widen slightly as the creature steps through the portal, he takes a moment to analyze the creature before determining that it is not fey and therefore a nuisance at best an enemy at worst.
As his face slides back into impassivity, he watches the creature's interactions with Sorrina. He quickly judges it to not be an enemy. With the barest of bows in response to being asked who he is, he intones, "I'm Toivo Talvislag." and leaves it at that.
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After you all present yourselves Reyshal asks you to stand in a circle and join hands as he casts a spell. You experience a distinct feeling of vertigo and an unpleasant but not-quite-painful tugging sensation within your stomachs.
A spinning tunnel of shimmering crystals gives way to the inside of an immense geode, a cavern so vast that the walls and ceiling appear as a distant night sky. Multicolored twinkling lights hang in the air like stars, painting shifting auroras across the geode’s walls. At the heart of the city, radiant spires of gold and platinum emerge from a churning lake of liquefied gemstones, connected by soaring bridges. “Welcome to the Rainbow Metropolis,” Reyshal whispers.
You materialize several miles outside the city. The walk takes about 2 hours, and luckily you are in no danger of becoming lost with Reyshal as your guide. As you approach the metropolis, Reyshal excitedly points out locations of interest, including the Peerless Embassy, which hosts diplomats from all over the multiverse, and the Slab, a milelong barracks that hosts the largest portion of the Sultana’s shaitan army.
Finally, you arrive in the Outer District, a bustling area characterized by crowded streets, shabby domiciles, and buildings sporting the flags of various nations and organizations, some recognizable as indigenous to the Material Plane.
The permanent residents of this district are merchants and slaves, as well as their families. Reyshal explains that many off-world organizations conduct business and diplomatic missions here, all seeking the pashas’ favor.
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Deter tries to ask questions now and then to learn more of the plane they have been transported to. He finds it difficult to remember to do so as he is too distracted by the sites around him. He didn't know what to expect when the thought of coming here was brought up but he knows it wasn't a beautiful thriving Rainbow Metropolis. He marvels at all the people milling busily about. He felt terrible for those who are pointed out as being slaves. He had never personally seen slavery fist hand and decidedly felt he didn't like it one bit.
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Sincerely awestruck by everything around here, Veres comments to their guide, "This is truly a remarkable place Reyshal!"
"I understand your feelings, and quite frankly I agree with you Deter." Veres whispers to the halfling when she sees his discomfort upon learning about the slaves housed here.
As the group travels, Veres does what she can to discover any knowledge or information of value.
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Toivo's interest is peaked gain when they arrive in the beautiful city, he stares around in open amazement before remembering who he is with and immediately closing off his expression. Throughout the hike into the city he occasionally sneaks glances of wonderment at the ceiling and all of the unique and interesting places they visit. If only it wasn't so crowded this might be a nice place to be.
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The Ungrounded mercenary company maintains a facility resembling an interconnected network of squat stone warehouses. The windowless buildings rise to a uniform height of 20 feet. Banners bearing the company’s sigil, a crossed scimitar and spear on a field of yellow, mark the main entrance to the company’s headquarters.
The Ungrounded headquarters receives prospective recruits and houses the offices of the company’s higherranking members. The building’s interior is drab and sparsely furnished. A few engraved plaques and portraits of famous Ungrounded soldiers adorn the walls. Covered passageways connect the headquarters to the adjoining buildings: the mess hall and the bunks. At least a dozen Ungrounded mercenaries of varying rank mill about the barracks at any given time, full members designated by a cloak pin bearing the Ungrounded sigil.
You and Reyshal wait for a few minutes before a young mercenary comes to you and leads you down a short hallway to the training captain’s office.
A heavy wooden door opens to reveal an immaculate office barely large enough to house the writing desk and bookshelf within. The unpainted stone walls are devoid of windows or decoration. A stern, middle-aged human woman with darkly tanned skin and close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair sits in a rigid pose behind the desk as she studies an open ledger. She lifts her chin and glares at the open door.
Reyshal produces a paper-thin, intricately chiseled stone tablet and hands it to the woman, who he names Captain Marlene Othis, introducing it as a letter of recommendation describing your distinguished character and potential.
Captain Othis studies it for several minutes, pausing occasionally to frown in your direction. She then stands and thanks Reyshal with a servile bow, promising to take the you under her wing and begin your accelerated training program. Once Reyshal exits the office, Captain Othis crushes the tablet with her bare hands, shattering it into dozens of pieces.
“So, you think you have what it takes to be Ungrounded?” the captain bellows, circling the you combatively. “I’ll be the judge of that. You look softer than night soil to me. Your friends in high places won’t help you when you’re down in the trenches, or when there’s an efreeti scimitar at your throat. Now, get out of my sight. Your trials start tomorrow. Dinner is at six o’clock sharp. If you’re late, you can starve.”
A nervous recruit named Dell Darkblade, an Oread by the looks of him, waits at the office door, flinching as Captain Othis barks orders at him to take the “fresh meat” to the “meatlocker.”
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Dell Darkblade leads you to your room in the bunks. The chamber is in shambles from the previous occupants, and there are only enough bedrolls and sheets for five of you. Dell seems startled by the state of the room:"Fair warning, friends: the captain hates a mess. Don't let her find your lodgings in these conditions or there will be hell to pay"
At 6 o’clock, an enticing dinner of roast meat and potatoes is served in the mess hall. As you attempt to join the serving line, a group of seasoned mercenaries accosts you. A hige half orc who responds to the title of "Lieutenant Larssok" explains that the Ungrounded have a tradition:"Hello there, fresh meat! You want to join us Undergrounded folks I hear! That's all fine and dandy but there are rules for that kind of shit, you know... A little initiation I think it's called. It goes like this: on their first night new recruits have to entertain the rest of the company. After all, if you won’t party with us, you won’t fight with us..."
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Deter steps forward toward Dell before he leaves ignoring his displeasure and states. "You would be so kind as to show us around? No we couldn't impose upon you my good man...well if you insist I for one will not refuse. Please, do show us around."
After being show around or not being shown around Deter starts to clean the room they occupy. He would rather not displease anyone here unnecessarily. When confronted with the task of entertaining the group he can think of nothing better then what is close to his heart. Food. As luck would have it he gets to see the impressive act of archery performed by Gardol. "By Iomedae's light! Garbol that was impressive." He moves about the room offering his prepared delight.
He hopes it impresses as much as Garbol's archery.
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"Well, my bat here is the only bat in my realm that can do math." Pointing to one of the troopers, "Call out a number between one through five. Five you say, great. Alright, you, with the face like a melon, same thing. Three, good pick. Now then, the numbers we have a three and five. My bat here is going add those number together with no signal from me and do that many circuits around the room here."
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Veres notices a banner with a serpent emblem, and she recognizes it as that of the Aspis Consortium. She asks Reyshal about it but the shaitan states he has no knowledge of them.
She makes sure her team is aware of the Aspis presence here.
"We must be cautious. The Aspis are known trouble makers and they look for any chance to cause the Society problems. If they are here, we can expect they will make this mission very difficult."
When Lieutenant Larssok offers his challenge to perform, Veres tries singing a strong yet boisterous battle hymn, often used to prepare troops about to charge into a breech.
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Toivo moves into the training captian's office and takes a very short inquisitive glance around the place. As the training captain starts her attempts at breaking the group down, Toivo's usually blank face deepens into a look of stony indifference, he keeps the look for the rest of the trip down the hall and into the room. I
n the room he quickly lays claim to the bed roll farthest from the door and tidies it up into an orderly condition. He rolls up the previous owner's bedroll, not willing to partake in what ever creature last used it left behind, and rolls out his own bedroll. When he finishes, he pulls out a plank of wood and a pyrography kit from his bag, before realizing that he doesn't have a heat source to use for his art and packs them back in his bag. He instead pulls out a sewing kit and some clothes that have a few small tears in them and busies himself with repairing them.
He leaves early for the mess hall, his stony look of passivity still in place. He gives the lieutenant the same look, and responds in a flat, "... if you say so. I'm pretty uninteresting, though."
The dwarf then reaches for the wooden hilt hanging form his belt and drops it so the part where a blade would be is resting on the floor. He reaches down and grasps the handle and concentrates for a second. as power starts ebbing around the wood he pulls the hilt straight up. As the hilt rises, though, it starts to reveal an almost obsidian-like polished wood blade. He holds out the blade to show the audience. The flowing power around the blade then starts to change as the blade grows thorns and starts to split. A moment later, a few stiff thorny vines extend form the hilt instead of a single blade. With another thought, the vines start shifting and coalescing into a single large spiked mace head. Toivo then releases the power and the blade dissolves into a flurry of petals that quickly dissolve and disappear. The whole show, though consists of small faults that help ruin many of the surprises, but Toivo's impassive and unchanging face proves to be more disconcerting than the show is interesting.
Finished the dwarf tucks his hilt back into his belt and wanders back into the food line.
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Veres gives one of the worst performances of her career, and while not exactly terrible, it is far from award winning.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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The Bunks: The building that houses new recruits has space for up to 300 occupants, but most of the rooms are currently empty. These rooms are set up like dormitories, each with three stone bunks topped with thin mattresses and sharing a bathroom with one adjoining room. Several communal showers are located at regular intervals throughout the hallway. Dell points out how this is the ideal place to hold private conversations as long as you can find an empty room for yourself.
The captain's office: The first place you actually visited coming here is a cramped space whose only standouts are a walnut desk, a hard-backed chair, and a bookshelf.
The mess hall: New recruits and veteran members alike take their meals in this institutional cafeteria-style dining hall. Several dozen stone tables surrounded by stools occupy the spotless room. A partial wall separates the kitchens from the dining area, providing space for two separate serving lines, though only one line is currently in use. Many of the Ungrounded are deployed, so while a hundred or so mercenaries attend each mealtime, several tables always stand empty.
Training yard: This place is designed to accommodate a variety of drills, demonstrations, and gatherings. It consists of stone viewing stands encircling a large, oval-shaped area of flat ground, from which rise four stone pillars.
Gardol's mastery of archery causes the mess hall to erupt in wild cheers and applause, and he receives an extra ration of ale for his efforts. The same happens to Deter for his fine cusine and to the Sathos - Dembar duo for their inventive showmanship. Veres and especially Toivo don't elicit the same goodwill from their soon to be brother in arms who relsentlessly heckle the failed performances. Even so Larssok resolutely claps the Pathfinders on the back and welcomes them to the Ungrounded.
As soon as the "welcoming ceremony" has ended you are allowed to escuse yourselves and rest. You soon realize that since there's only 5 bunks, one of you will have to sleep on the ground.
Once that problem is sorted out you finally get to sleep but your rest proves shortlived. At midnight, Captain Othis barges into your room banging a soup ladle against a metal pot, and she continues the noise until all of you wake and stand at attention. She then starts inspecting your bunks...
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Toivo quickly shoos Veres away from the floor, giving a rare unsolicited comment. "I've slept on floors for most of my life, and I see no reason to change it here. Go take a bunk."
In the middle of the night he quickly scrables upright assuming the uninterested and blank face he had most of the day.
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