"Most efficient. I fear that there may be a repetition of my disturbing dreams. However, I have my notebook ready to note down any fresh items of interest."
Akahale changes furtively into his pyjamas, tastefully adorned in a paisley pattern.
Manny performs his ritual, and at the final gesture whispers something the others cannot hear.
"There! THAT should do it!" The wizened old caster says as he dusts the remaining powder from his hands.
Manny sets the alarm phrase to be "Welcome to my nightmare!"
Or maybe, "I wish I had some cookies!" He realized he was hungry as he was casting, and he tends to mumble,... :P
The group rests and recuperates until midnight, sleeping in shifts, except for the two eladrin who seem to be in a trance-like state, The eyes cry out once "I wish I had some cookies!" in Manny's umistakeable tones as a bat flies through the camp, but otherwise the time is uneventful.
After her rest, Shae adjusts her spells as she expects more Tieflings.
Grafire arises and cooks up some grub as a good Captain would do for his troops. "Rise and shine girls, today is gona be a rough one. Fill your tummys and do your stretches."
After he eats he starts in a unusual stretching positions. Nearby friends can clearly hear the pops and cracks as Grafire limbers up. Then moves to sharpen his axe to peak performance. After his weapons are sharp, Grafire picks up a stick and proceeds wito scribe a battle into the dirt.
"We must now discuss how we can decend into the pit while being covered. Caster should go last, as they can provide airial fire. Once down myself, Otto and Hadarai will form a defensive line and the casters can then follow. Sound like a plan? Is there any other ideas we can add?"
Hadarai nods approval.
"I can teleport part of the way, which may be helpful."
Remembering his and Manny's historic failure with all things athletic, Akahale looks a little doubtful.
"Can we construct some kind of sling? I do not think Mage Mandrake, Miss Shaeryyn and I can provide aerial fire while falling."
Remembering his and Manny's historic failure with all things athletic, Akahale looks a little doubtful.
"Can we construct some kind of sling? I do not think Mage Mandrake, Miss Shaeryyn and I can provide aerial fire while falling."
"Should be able to whip something up. Can't be too hard." Otto mumbles as he scrawls something in his journal.
"I think I can get us down, one at a time." Shae says, as she consults her spellbook.
Grafire's cheerful comments seem especially out of place in the very early morning hours. The group confer on how best to get down.
Grafire looks at his frineds sleepy eyes, "Ok so I will go decend first and try to set up a defence so every one else can get down safely."
Athletics check -
Once grafire is down he will move into full defensive stance.
Hadarai descends competently, if not elegantly.
Learning from previous experience, and refreshed by a night's sleep, Akahale makes the descent in some style. Much to his own surprise.
Otto rappels down with ease.
Athletics check - 1d20+9-1
Grafire is in full defensive mode until all have decended.
Shae calls her disc and floats down - and keeps the disc at her side, since it lasts for a day. It could, she decides, come in handy.
Manny grumbles while waiting his turn.
Manny grumbles when it IS his turn.
Manny grumbles while TAKING his turn.
It must work, because following Akahale's example, the wrinkled old mage makes it down safely. Although there was one moment when his staff started to slip from his belt, and he grabbed it instead of the rope. With both hands.
;P
You stand on a balcony that encircles this chamber. 15 feet below on the floor is an emblem that resembles a spike-filled eye with three sickle shapes projecting from it. Above you is the domed roof and the opening to the sky through which you descended. The dome shows cracks in places and water trickles down from spots where the two great trees on the hill have projected their roots into the abyss. Also above is a constellation of dimly glowing points—the roof of the chamber bears a star chart, with each star foiled with gold.
Nearer to hand you spy words in Common carved into the wall that runs around the circumference of the room, and each raised letter is polished with grime collecting in the crevasses. Noting the polish, you then see that half of the wide stone banister running around the room possesses a
similar smoothness.
Grafire takes in the site
History check
Akahale snuffles the air suspiciously and tries to read the words. He is also intrigued by the smoothness of the rail and wonders what it portends.
The words are at the same height as the banister and thus, one will need to walk around the whole balcony to read what the whole thing says.
Grafire can recall no more than the group have already learnt about the history of this place.
Akahale's skill serves him unfeasibly well...
Akahale notes that the stone of the lettering is polished and dark stains have collected in between the letters. This, coupled with the smooth balcony leads him to deduce that many people have held onto the rail whilst passing their other hand over the letters.
The words read:
"The Sleeper is the herald. His dreams call to That Which Waits Beyond the Stars. When the Sleeper is awoken, He will dream again."
Akahale ponders and tries to identify the stains.
He deduces it to be wear from many years of grubby hands.
The words read:"The Sleeper is the herald. His dreams call to That Which Waits Beyond the Stars. When the Sleeper is awoken, He will dream again."
Manny studies the words in silence for several minutes. Finally he tells the others what his musings have revealed,...
"THIS makes NO sense at ALL! I mean come on! And people call ME crazy! Thppppt!"
STill,... they went to an awful lot of trouble. Even for crazy people. Must mean SOMEthing!" He reluctantly concedes.
Shae ponders for a little while, sitting on her disc, before she speaks.
"It would seem to me, and I may well be wrong, that the words would indicate that the Sleeper is in some sort of stasis state, where it cannot dream. Once removed from the state - awoken - then it can once more dream. It's dreams will call out to this 'That Which Waits Beyond the Stars', which given the nature of this Cult, would likely not be something that wants to cavort in flowers and have tea parties.
It would seem that the logical thing to do is find the Sleeper, and either destroy it, or make sure it cannot dream, before it calls to whatever 'That Which Waits beyond the Stars is'"
"I do not think you are wrong, Miss Shaeryyn. I have seen many abominations in my time and the pattern is distressingly familiar."
Shae ponders for a little while, sitting on her disc, before she speaks.
"It would seem to me, and I may well be wrong, that the words would indicate that the Sleeper is in some sort of stasis state, where it cannot dream. Once removed from the state - awoken - then it can once more dream. It's dreams will call out to this 'That Which Waits Beyond the Stars', which given the nature of this Cult, would likely not be something that wants to cavort in flowers and have tea parties.
It would seem that the logical thing to do is find the Sleeper, and either destroy it, or make sure it cannot dream, before it calls to whatever 'That Which Waits beyond the Stars is'"
Manny blinks and mutters, pouting.
"Well, yeah. I meant it must mean something BESIDES the obvious!" He grumbles off to go and examine the writing for any magical clues.
Contemplating abominations, Akahale turns his attention to the starry ceiling.
Akahale looks hopefully upwards.
Akahale realises from his observation of the natural world that one could use the star chart and light coming through the aperture in the ceiling as a kind of calendar.
"A calendar of sorts. I am suspicious."
You can't tell anything about its accuracy or lack thereof at this point as it's dark outside.
Akahale wonders if the calendar indicates a date for the Sleeper to awaken and if that date is near.
Akahale realizes that the star chart would roughly approximate the night sky visible in winter, whereas spring would bring other stars up into the horizon of the room’s depiction.
"Under lying all of this arcana is something evil thought would wish us dead."
Grafire keeps a watchfull eye on the surroundings for movement or anything that looks out of place.
Perception
A pair of extremely stout wooden doors stand before you.
Hadarai strides to the front.