Sons of Dammerhall: Dark Frontiers (Inactive)

Game Master GM SuperTumbler

As requested, Torvi considers the problem, and takes 20 on her knowledge check...

33 on Knowledge Arcana.

Torvi quickly realizes that Dasur's interest in the creature has distracted him from several obvious clues in the arrangement of the room. The magic circle is inscribed in a dull coppery metal, no doubt horacalcum, on the floor. The creature is some sort of outsider.

The system of gears is concentrating and focusing magical energy (of which there is an abundance in the room). The energy is being focused into the rod, which is something like a Rod of Shadows, but more potent. The rod doesn't control the magic circle, but has its own separate function.

You can ask some more questions with your 33. Tell me what you want to know.

Is there a less obvious way to shield ourselves from the flames, or banish the creature without being immolated ourselves?

Gunnar shies away from the flames, back to the safer hall, now that he has learned all he can about the device. "The gears' function is naught but to be a conduit for the dwimmer! By magics only shall this furnace be quenched, for mechanics holdeth not the key to its working."

If I were Torvi, I'd also ask what the creature is. Or would that be Planes?

Garnet heads closer, saying, "What if I just grab that lever and run? Will that work?"

Strength: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

If Gunnar/Dasur/Snorri talks her down, she will retreat. Otherwise, Garnet will grab the lever and run out of the room, hoping that will destabilize the creature's trap.

Snorri considers Garnet's suggestion and having no way to know whether it will work or not, Snorri simply shrugs. "I do not know, Garnet. I gather there is only one way to find out." Snorri will retreat back out the door as well once Garnet grabs the lever.

Since Garnet asked for it, I'm going to make sure Dasur and Gunnar don't want to do anything to stop her.

Nodding, Garnet makes sure everyone else is out of the room, then grabs the control lever and makes a run for the door, the rising wind pushing her along and out!

Strength check: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20, +9 extra if CMB applies

Garnet grabs the gunzarak lever and runs for the door, the force emitted from the creature pushing her along.

The lever seems to absorb light.

Qapla'!

"Hey Snorri, is that thing evil?"

Definitely not stopping anyone.

Dasur takes aim, ready to cover Garnet at any sign of hostility. "It said that it longeth for light! Might it be a chained foe of the Darkflame?"
Gunnar searches in his memories, still nebulous, for anything that Naarah might have mentioned about their experiments.

"We will return once we have determined a safe way to release you, for we do not wish to perish once the circle is broken!" Dasur says to the bound elemental as he flees the room, flaming cloak wreathing him as he pushed out to the adjacent room.

Turning around and looking at the being, Garnet runs by with the magical rod in her hands. "I will study the rod in a moment, but I wish to take stock of this outsider first. Alternatively, show it to Erebos so he may give us his thoughts." The wizard seems unperturbed by his smoldering cloak.

Dasur will try to positivity (heh) identify the creature while standing in room 20. I'm guessing everyone else is going to get out of 20 with the rod?

knowledge: planes: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (18) + 17 = 35

fire damage: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 1) = 3

Snorri turns and looks toward the creature and concentrates upon it, wondering himself if it actually is evil or not, while suffering from burn damage... but that does not deter him.

Detect evil

Fire damage: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 1) = 6
Fire damage: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 4) = 7
Fire damage: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 4) = 8

BAM, Torvi and Dasur dropping the knowledges.

Dasur's eyes water at the brightness of the being, and he thinks this must be what it feels like to have Erebos' or Iverna's eyes.

Through the pain, he can see that the fire is not just an aura, but hundreds of wings composed entirely of flame, attached to his feet, legs, arms, shoulders, and forming almost a ridge up his back.

Dasur realizes that this is a creature that should never be seen here, or on any mortal world. It is called an Ilios, or, colloquially, a Sun keeper. A natural philosopher who is a particular favorite of Dasur's suggests that the sun is a star, and that all stars have at their heart portals to the positive energy plane. And as such power unrestrained could be dangerous, each star has a keeper, an ilios who guards and maintains the portal.

Other philosophers suggest that the ilios is the spiritual ideal of the star.

Rules wise, they have a powerful aura of wind and fire (which you know). That would be 20d6 and a hurricane force wind if it were not contained. At the same time, they are also blasting positive energy, which would heal damage. But this healing could be dangerous in itself. Mortal forms can only hold so much positive energy. They are technically lawful neutral, more concerned with the functioning of the universe than anything, but they lean toward good in the sense that they manage life pouring into their solar system.

Not evil.

Snorri leaves the room so as to stop burning. "No, Torvi, it is not evil."

So as to stop burning, lol.

"So do we think banishing it from here would actually work? It's natural home may not be on another plane, but rather at the center of a star on this plane?"

After Dasur recognizes the Ilios he turns to flee from the room, rubbing at his eyes and trailing smoke. "That being, the SUn Keeper, may be what some would refer to as a "native outsider"... it can exist in the material plane indefinitely, and sometimes have a soul separate from its body, but it still carries characteristics from its home plane. However, I suspect this is not the case with this particular creature, who should be in or nearby the plane of positive energy and was summoned here, then bound, for a purpose."

Walking to the nearby fountain, the wizard takes handfuls of water and splashes it on his face. "In essence, yes, Torvi. But the question remains will we cause more damage than harm by releasing it from the circle? The probablity of this Sun Keeper appearing here naturally, or under its own power, is aysmptomically aproaching zero. It was being used, possibly to fight the Black Flame."

Water drips from his braided beard as he speaks, and he turns to Garnet with a sodden hand extended. "May I see the rod you pulled from the machine?"

Detect magic and focus on the rod to try and identify its function.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (13) + 17 = 30

That should do it, though Dasur can reprepare a spell slot for Identify if need be.

Garnet hands the rod over, hoping that what she did was the right thing to help free the prisoner.

Torvi listened to Dasur intently before declaring, "Dasur will figure this out! Smartest dwarf I ever met!"

Something Dasur aside, about the possibility of the creature having been summoned here to aid in fighting the Black Flame made sense.

Torvi started casting ancestral communion

When completed she closed her eyes and asked those that had gone before about the Ilios...

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 14 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 14 + 6 = 39 +2 wrt dwarves and their enemies

41!

She opens her eyes and says, "What else do we wish to know?"

Spell lasts 9 minutes, so ask me things, and I'll see what my grandparents think!

"Not sure. I'm almost certain that the sun keeper and the black flame would fight each other, but... I don't know if we would survive the ensuing conflagration."

With his arms crossed, Snorri paces back and forth in thought several times before stopping and looking to the others. "Can we fight this black flame? If there is a way for us to battle and defeat this entity, then the Sun Keeper will no longer have to and it can return to its own plane."

"Or can the Sun Keeper weaken it enough so that we mere mortals can tip the scales of the battle and cleanse our home?" asks Garnet in a rare display of insight.

I'll roll up knowledge checks galore. Anyone need to know the average windspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

The gunzarak rod might be described as a greater rod of shadows. Holding it, you can see perfectly in darkness. As a weapon, it functions as a +5 gunzarak (silver and adamantine) light mace. It can cast deeper darkness at will. But at the moment it holds even more magic than you would expect. You would guess that if it were channeling the magic from the other device, it could darken even the energy coming from the Sun Keeper.

Anything on my history check?

Any other rolls I should make?

Once out of the room, Garnet looks back at the light, trying to determine if her actions had any effect on freeing the creature.

"'t sounds like an option for a time of desperate measures, that we harness such a force of nature. I loathe the havoc it could wreak on the stone, and I fear we may not survive the ordeal."
"But Dammerhall is more than ancient stones. Should you request it, my Liege, my prince, I volunteer my life to remain behind and bear the brunt of what may come. In thy hands and those of all of you lieth the future. I was just granted some more time."

"Slow down there old timer! You're not the only one dedicated to this task and willing to give their life for it." She waits a moment before proceeding, "I'm sure Erebos would gladly make the sacrifice."

With a roll of his eyes at Torvi's comment, the paladin speaks calmly. "There will be no one left behind, Oathminder. Wherever we go, we go together. And we will either be triumphant or we will fail. But regardless of the outcome, it shall be as one. None of us would have made it this far without the other so together is how we shall remain. Now that that is settled, let us move forward and figure out how to destroy this black flame entity and free the Sun creature."

Torvi, you got a solid chortle out of me with that comment about Erebos.

As for the knowledge check, I'm going to RP this with your grand-dwarves.

Torvi's mind rings with the voices of her dwarven grandsires. "There was none of this shadows and sun monsters in my day. We had darkness, and we directed the sun into right places, not deep into the city where it didn't belong. You young-dwarves with your new fangled ideas. Your going to have mold and plants growing everywhere, not just in the fields. And where are all the goats. I don't see a single goat."

With 9 minutes, you should be able to ask all sort of questions.

Alright, Torvi asks her ancestors about this Naarah...

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 14 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 14 + 6 = 34 +2 wrt dwarves and their enemies

And then maybe about the origins of the Dark Flame...

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 14 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 14 + 6 = 36 +2 wrt dwarves and their enemies

"That Naarah is a queer one, always chumming around with humans and elves, learning their strange ways. He was the court wizard here at the end, had his quarters right here in next to the throne room. Only the royal family lived so close. Course he had that strange little human like castle down by the river, even though he never seemed to go in or out. But the lights would flicker. Purple, green, blue. And strange things he would summon, things from outside, elementals. I was never sure he should be trusted as much as he was, what with having so many un-dwarven proclivities. Loved being in the sun fields. Who loves that? Shepherd boys, maybe, but you'd think he would have grown out of it."

"As for the Flame, we don't know much, you know. It was chaos there at the end. But we know there was a delegation. Some deep delvers encountered these deep folk, lived in a great sea down below, a dark sea. Brought some of their numbers up to meet the king. Looked like fish people or something, big flat eyes, little light stalks that bobbed on their heads, fins from their arms, webbed fingers and toes. They brought a gift for the king, a statue. Dwarf-like body, thick torso, strong stout legs, but a head that was smooth and hairless, and its mouth like an aberration, with tentacles hanging down. Someone said, in the last moments, in the siege, as the flame was spreading from dwarf to dwarf, that the flame had come out of that statue."

"If only I could meet this Naarah. Perhaps, when we have secured Dammerhall, I can reference my father's notes and see what he knew of the artificer so I may look for threads of his studies." There was a confidence in his voice that betrayed no doubt- they were to succeed in reclaiming Dammerhall. The Stone had foretold it.

"The form of the statue the Deep Ones brought as a gift tickles some darkened reach of my memory, as if I know and yet do not wish to remember." Dasur says to himself as they discuss the origin of the Flame. "But this is valuable information, indeed, for if this statue is the physical vessel of the Black Flame, it could be serving as a corporeal anchor to the Material Plane. Destroying it may cause its energies to defuseinto the surroundings and cause the its ego-death."

Lifting his obsidian staff, he points south to the melted wreckage of the throne room. "We are forewarned..." With his other hand, he removes his ruby amulet from his shirt to briefly glance into its prismatic depths "...and it is foretold. Let us go."

"Any thoughts on those magical colors? We'll need to destroy that statue, I wager"

"Any more questions for my ancestors?"

I'm not going to try a roll to learn more about the deep dwellers. It would be artificially cheesy to roll a 40 and learn stuff about creatures that no survivors should actually know. Although, maybe Erebos knows!

"If thou pleasest... If the ancestors may tell, I would seek to know of the fate of Hilde Hearthkindler. Whether she is still to be found here, or her spirit now dineth in Magrim's hallowed halls."

Torvi asks her ancestors about this Hilde Hearthkindler...

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 14 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 14 + 6 = 31+2 wrt dwarves and their enemies

Alas, Hilde Hearthkindler was claimed by the flame, hollowed out and brought to serve the darkness.

Having remained quiet and listening intently to spirits past, the paladin's heart just drops at that last bit of information. With a fury rising within him, he does his best to keep himself composed. "By all that is good we WILL find a way to destroy this Black Flame. We WILL end it and its historical reign of chaos. And we WILL free the Sun creature so he can return to his home. And if this statue is the source of this Black Flame," he looks to Dasur stoically, "then it must be destroyed. I will NOT allow this entity to exist if I possess the means to end it. And if it costs me my life then... so be it. All the better for Dammerhall and its future."

Garnet responds immediately, saying "I am with you all the way, my prince. What would you have me do? I could charge back into the light and strike at the chains holding the Sun creature with my hammer, or we could advance on the black flame and shatter this statue from which it draws its power!"

"Lead on and I will follow!" she says fervently, hammer at the ready and body poised to take action.

At the words of the ancestors, ice spreads over Gunnar again.
"So be it then. So be it. Revenge shall be taken here, then."
Pain is shoved aside for the moment. Grief will wait until nothing is left of the enemy, or of Gunnar, in this world.
"Let us wreak havoc on the invaders."

"I am sorry it was bad news friend, but better that you should know I think."

"No, Garnet, there will be no charging back into the light. I believe there is a way to free the creature to where we do not burn to death in doing so, it is just a matter of finding said way."

Looking to Dasur, "Where is this statue, cousin? Is it near? Oathminder is right... it is time to wreak havoc upon the invaders. Let us do whatever it takes to bring this 'Black Flame' out into the open where we can deal with it properly."

"Judging by the description from Torvi's ancestor, if the gift was for the king, logically it would have been presented in the throne room."

"If it's an object, then everyone with a gunzarak weapon should lay into it and reduce it to rubble."

Looking at her magical Longhammer, Garnet shrugs and says, "Well, I'll pitch in too with my Fire-Forged Steel weapon, but I wouldn't say no to an upgrade if one is available."

"Then to the throne room we go. And gunzarak or not, any and all weapons will suffice in this matter. The only way to find out if they are effective against this entity is to try them out, no?" he asks, shooting a wink toward Garnet.

I say we head to the throne room and see what happens. Unless there is a better option. Snorri really wants to take this Black flame DOWN! (And it's quite possible I do to but that's neither here nor there). :P

The dwarven warrior blushes a bit--or maybe it is just the residual heat from the sun creature--and heads towards the door to the throne room, Hammer in hand and ready for battle!