Well, I guess somebody has to try, Atharessa says as she approaches the small pedestal with her hand outstretched.
"Try what?" Mae asks, head swishing from side to side looking from companion to companion, somewhat alarmed.
Miagnik looks at Gabrielle then at Atharessa.
"Wait, Atharessa. I'll do it. I'll try the device first." he said walking up to the device.
"If anything goes wrong... well just speak to King Heelggod. He'll find me."
He then reached out and touched it.
Atharessa places her hand on the pedestal saying
Somebody has to find out if he went...
And vanishes before she finishes her sentence
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"Stephanie! This is no time to fool around. Make them visible again!" thunders Mae, staring daggers at her sister.
"Seems like that way..." the dwarf points to the pedestal. "...is bett'r than facin' that demon again." He starts to usher the others towards the teleportation device.
"You ok to walk...travel." Rownig helps Gabrielle to her feet. "We need to be moving...right Hal?"
Miagnik shook his head and looked around the room, he was momentarily confused before he regained his bearings. When Atharessa appeared he looked momentarily relieve. "Guess it worked. Now let's wait for the others then we'll see what to do next."
The young dwarven girl stands up, shakes her legs, and smiles and says, Yes, I can travel, though it would be nice to have some boots, or even simple shoes. Lead the way, and I will follow.
Take my hand, and I will keep you safe Luelle says after being quiet the whole time, and extends her hand toward Gabriellle
Gabrielle appears startled when she hears Luelle’s voice.
Who are you? she says in a cry of distress. I cannot see you, but I know that voice. That is Omara’s voice, but why can I not see you, witch! Is this some sort of trick?
Luelle laughs, and says, I’m sorry. I forgot. I am not Omara. I am a demoness, a succubus in fact. My name is Luelle. I have promised to help these people you can see. I imagine you cannot see me because I do not have a soul, and it seems to me that that must be what your mind’s eye perceives. It sort of all is making sense now. Haha, I sound like Omara, because I have taken a form that mocks her. It is her form, or it was her form when she was younger. I understand, that is I’ve been told this is a very attractive dwarven woman’s form, and I adopted her voice, and manners as well. She hates it, but she cannot make me act any differently. It torments her to see what she used to be, before, well, before she grew to hate. Hate will make you ugly in ways no magic can conceal.
"Oh right. This makes perfect sense. People I can see are invisible, but people who are invisible aren't here. Would someone please kindly explain to me what the dev...ehrmmm. Oh never mind...."
Slightly catching on, Mae taps the pedestal and waits to turn invisible.
Stephanie who had been running her brain in circles trying to comprehend the enormity of a child who had such potent divinations in their mind and the probable causes for such. Broken from such thoughts by Maelodakh Stephanie looks up to see the group gathering around the teleporting device and several already gone.
Well I can only hope this device works as advertised. The correction to Mae's accusation dying as Luelleschia spoke the gnome frowning as her wheels spun.
If she tells the girl her nature she is shown to be ration and semi-trustworthy throwing any folklore lady Guisse knows into disarray and making us seem the aggressive party if we try to dissuade her from trusting the outsider.
[b]" She also has plenty of reason to dislike Omara at the moment so for now our interests align. Sadly I don't have anything shoe-like to offer you, does anyone have spare belt pouches? We could likely turn those into workable slippers."/[b]
Once responses were had Stephanie touches the device and follows her sister.
Windel shakes his head and places his hand on the young dwarf's back, "Come, time to leave." He guides Gabrielle toward the pedestal. "Princess you go first, we will follow." The cleric looks to the others in the room, "Hal...Rownig you bring up the rear." With that helps her touch the device, then follows himself.
Rownig looks to Hal, "What a long strange journey this has been." He shakes his head and motions to the transporting device. "Unless you want to have a go at that demon back there." He smiles wryly and twirls his handaxes.
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Mae is lost for words, and takes some moments to gather her wits, which apparently were left in the previous room.
"Wait." Hal said. "Gabrielle, she's a demon. We made a deal with her to help find you. It was the only way to get through. You weren't there when she agreed, so while you're a part of her deal, you aren't actually protected by it beyond her agreement to help us get you out of here."
"You cannot trust her."
I don’t understand, she says at last. Why would a demon help you? I don’t understand, but if you say I should not trust her, I will believe you, but anyway I cannot see her so it will not be hard for her to catch me off my guard. Why do I need …
Oh for pity’s sake, Hallister. You worry too much. None of you should trust me, but that has nothing to do with where I come from, where I call home. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. Hells, do you expect me to trust you? I don’t. But I want out of… Luelle shakes her hands all around her, seeming to grow a bit agitated as she talks
this DAMN place! More than you realize, obviously. So, let’s just get moving. Windel can go with Gabrielle. I’ll go next and you and Rownig can go after me.
When Windel and Gabrielle have gone, Luelle steps toward Hallister and holds out a hand
Now that they are gone, let me just say one thing, alright. Omara called that girl, Demonea. Now I thought that was a name, but that seems to be not the case. I don’t know what Omara’s use of that word means now. But she never referred to that girl as Gabrielle when she was ever going on and on about her great plans. So if we are warning people about who can be trusted and who can’t be, just keep that in mind.
"Hal...like Mae, this hurts my head. Everyone's got a dagger to our backs 'ere." He spits on the ground. "Demonea? Sounds an awful like Demon to me. Are we sure she's even a dwarf?"
Not one to miss an opportunity to insert herself for an immature reason in the midst of events of plane-shattering importance, Mae pouts.
"B-but I wanted to go next to Lu-elly. She likes me!"
Hal barely registered the demon's words. He was deliberately ignoring everything she said.
He changed the subject. "Let's go. The others will be trying to figure out what's keeping us."
Conscious of not losing her position next to Luelleschia, Mae leans over and whispers to Hal:
"Uh, Hal....what others? I thought we were all here?"
Maelodakh vanishes, and right behind her Moralane steps to the pedestal and places her hand on it.
Now Only Hallister, Windel, Rownig, Stephanie, the demon Luelle and the young dwarven girl remain.
** spoiler omitted **
"Alright, we're all out. Now we should get Gabrielle out of here. Then we can finally get back to exploring the rest of this place. Hopefully we've caused Omara some serious trouble because of what we did." Miagnik then paused, looking at Luelleschia.
"Will you be coming with us? Or will you be staying up above?"
The bird looked at Stephanie, she looked back.
A pause extending as the little gnomes brow and jawline did some interesting movements to express the sheer enormity of her confusion.
"Buh?" The mage replied to her bird.
"But.. causality.. laws.. what? Was it all an illusion? Am I an illusion?" the gnome muttered as she examined the bird in front of her petting his feathers, the action being well received with a hoot of concern added.
The owl hooted again, twisting its head as it looked at the hyperventilating mage.
The owl hooted finally before giving a rather human approximate of a shrug and digging into a pouch in search of a snack.
"Hah. peppermints, tactile/olfactory imaging with recursive suggestions to not question its nature. Mental trap to make us think we succeeded?* Impossible, too much power. But ley lines. Limited focus. Improbable?" The gnome rattles off in a broken dwarvish.
the owl finishes with a haughty hoot of finality before catching a leg in a pouch strap and sending up a plume of feathers as he narrowly avoids hitting the ground only to overshoot and bump into the door before his path takes him to the ground.
the owl chirps while righting himself.
Stephanie looks to the owl and smiles but says little else.
I... I'm pretty sure Whiskey wouldn't do that if this were some kind of perfect illusory world.
Luelle puts one hand on her hip, and answers Miagnik while she flips her other hand in the air,
Well, I suppose that depends on what you believe is most helpful to you, as that is what I agreed to for my freedom. If you want me to take care of this girl, Gabrielle, then I will see to it she is safe until you tell me otherwise, or if you think she can manage on her own, and want me to help you confront the Vampire Queen, I will do that. The choice is yours.
Miagnik thought about her offer and decided it was probably for the best.
"In that case, Luelleschia, I want you to watch over Gabrielle. Keep her from harm. There is a priestess by the name of Galinea on the surface, she used to work for Omara but now she's working against her. She has a large amount of Goblins under her and they're planning to hold this place against any reinforcements that might come here.
Help them if you think you can, or want to. But there's likely to be... giants coming..." He said the last part with something still resembling awe and a little disbelief.
After a few moments he shook his head and looked back at her. "But your main goal is to keep Gabrielle safe, and yourself from getting captured again. If things get too dangerous there, then you have to take her somewhere safe. Understand?"
I understand completely. There are a few questions I have. Like where are we, what world is this, what's for lunch? Those kinds of things. But I think you can explain all that to me as you show us the way out of here. I'll do everything in my power to keep Gabrielle safe. When you have confronted Omara, and put an end to her plan, I will be free, and I will leave this world without harming you, your friends, or her in anyway, but if I should be called back here, by, I don't know, some descendent of the witch, or some other crazy person of this world intent on some new scheme, I will not be bound to any such agreement between us, should you still be living, if and when that might happen.
As they began walking, Miagnik looked at Luelleschia like she'd asked some very strange questions. "Here? Oh we're in Outogal Hollow, well that's just one name really. It's also called the palace of the Vampire Queen. Or as we discovered, the tombs of the Goblin Kings.
The world though.... that's a tricky one. Umm, the Isle of Karrita Moriana is the world. There could be other places, but I've never been.
As for lunch well... umm, well the last one I made wasn't very good. You can ask the others, it was very bland, but no one got sick so that's a good thing, I think. Hmm now that you mention it I am kind of getting hungry too." he pulled off his pack as they walked and handed her a small pack of some dried meats, nuts and berries. But it was a small bag.
"I guess it's not that much, I am also a lot smaller than you. But, here, try it with salt. I think it tastes a lot better that way."
He considered what she said about the possible future scenario's.
"Well it seems like you're reasonable now. How long are you bound for on any given summoning? What if I just keep summoning you so that no one else can summon you?"
"Ooh, do you know much about magic? I'm a caster myself you see, not very strong yet but I'm getting there and anything you could tell me might be helpful. Or maybe I can help you, although Stephanie would be better at explaining it to you."
He lowered his voice as he continued speaking "Don't tell her I said this, but I think she's better at magic than I am. I have to seem strong for her... and the others I suppose."
Luelle accepts the rations with a seductive smile.
Thank you, And then she looks up toward the ceiling, hums softly while she takes a small bite, and then answers Miagnik’s questions.
I’ve been summoned to the material plane three times in my existence, and this is the forth. The first three times, well, it was not done with the kind of planning and execution that Omara put into here ritual, and things didn’t turn out all that well for the summoner, though in one case it wasn’t exactly my fault as there were other summoners involved and the whole thing escalated quickly into a rather exciting debacle. How long I am kept a prisoner by any such summoning is all built into the ritual used, I really do not understand all the details. I do know that the movement of anything, a being such as myself or even something as simple as energy itself from a particular plane, from one plane of existence to another never goes unnoticed by the primary lords of those planes. Most of the Plannar Lords are uninterested by these movements, and allow it without interference, while others take a personal interest every time something enters or exits their domains. Take my home for example. It has many names, on many different worlds in the material universe, but we call it Kalahawain. It is a plane dominated by energy unique to it, and some of that energy leaks into the material plane at specific locations on my world, and these locations are guarded by our knights of our Plannar Lord, to prevent anyone from visiting the material world without her knowledge. When the energies of reality are interfered with, such as a summoning as you obviously understand, and a being from my home is called to the material plane, she not only allows it to happen, but usually sends a spy of her own to observe exactly what is taking place. It’s all very secretive and very convoluted, usually ending up in the summoner’s death, and the soul of the summoner becoming part of the energy that sustains our world.
She takes another bite, and continues I imagine, that eventually, the same thing will happen to Omara, unless she manages to pull off her spectacular plan. But I don’t think she will. As to what I know about magic. That’s harder to talk about. Beings of the material plane seem to be only able to work the transfer of energy from one plane to another, what you all call ‘magic’ by learning things, what you call ‘spells.’ Though I have heard that some of you can work magic inherently, as we do, but I’ve never seen it done before by any material plane being. Where I come from, what you call a spell, is what we think of as the same thing as waving our hands, or letting out gas when we are uncomfortable. It is something we just can do. I don’t know, nor have I ever studied magic as I suppose you know it, from books and such things
"'Nough talk" Hal said as they moved back into enemy territory. "Row, do your thing. I'm right b'hind ye."
Moving forward in their practiced formation, Hal tried to ignore the demon in their midst and focus on the job.
"'N'I'm right behind you Hal. Well, kinda, while also next to Lu."
She whispers to Luelleschia:
"Wow. You talk a LOT!"
Windel shrugs and adjusts his holy symbol, he glares at the demon suspiciously, then walks off with the others. He is clearly frustrated by the coziness between certain party members and the demon.
Rownig nods at Hal, "Let's get going - 'nough talk'n. I think the Lu is tugging at Miagnik's heart." He chuckles. He gets moving back into the dungeon.
I’ve been summoned to the material plane three times in my existence, and this is the forth. The first three times, well, it was not done with the kind of planning and execution that Omara put into here ritual, and things didn’t turn out all that well for the summoner, though in one case it wasn’t exactly my fault as there were other summoners involved and the whole thing escalated quickly into a rather exciting debacle.
"Miagnik...'didn't turn out all that well for the summoner'...means she kilt 'em, stole their dark souls, and left the bodies for dry husk. Tell us BEFORE you attempt to try that foolish spell." The good cleric interjects into the conversation. Held me tongue long enough. Next he'll want to converse wit devils.
Miagnik looked at the Windel.
"What? No, of course she- Well it's not like I could do any of that... I only know a little about magical theory anyway. That's an entirely different set of magic than what I'm used to."
The last time wasn't her fault anyway, but then again, I suppose she did imply the first two times were her fault. Maybe...
"Whatever. Rownig, get the door open. We can talk about this later."
Rownig will proceed carefully stepping and searching. His mind focused on the task at hand he creeps forward.
+2 Traps
"Be ready, I'll open the doors." Rownig pulls the one door open as he tries to use it for some cover.