Can Jorzan tell if the medallion was pointing in a direction which would lead into the hole?
Lin rolls up the scroll again, making sure to cover up the artifact once more as delicately as she could. Looking to Tora'an she rumbled quietly. "The others need to see this, we'll have to hunt them down when we ge to the surface but... I still cannot feel where Min is. Its strange..."
Tora'an snorts and nods his head in agreement with the beautiful Silver. He then points his graceful nose in the direction of the departing Paladine and says "We go now, yes?"
Jorzan, from his position right at its base, and Gray from his position high on the hill, looking out the window in the Archivist's room, you both watch as the green-white energy beam spreads across the top of the tower at the same time the bottom drops out of it, and the entire structure comes to a horrid collapse. For a brief moment there is a silvery-purple beam of energy that shoots off towards the south, but it is quickly cut off.
The green-white energy beam stops, so all that's left is the crumbling Tower of Souls. Unfortunately, it is constructed of the souls of dead mortals, so instead of the "building material" just falling to the ground, the souls all peel off and sail towards the ground, looking for someone to guide them, to collect them, to show them the way to the Dark Lady Pharasma where they can be judged and move on to their final reward or ultimate fate. As the souls land and see there is no one to help them, they begin to lash out at passersby, ripping away shreds of their life essence, howling in rage and confusion, rushing into buildings and chasing everyone out into the rain. It is utter chaos. The spirits manifest as wraiths, ghosts, shadows and other incorporeal undead. For some reason, the backup troops left in the guard garrison are not coming out. Where are they?
@Everyone: Suddenly, hundreds and hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of shadows, wraiths, and ghosts are whooshing and fading into existence, all screaming torturous wails of misery and confusion and loss and all looking for living targets upon which to exact revenge and attempt to relieve their sorrows.
Swearing softly to himself, Kelne fished a grappling hook and rope from his pack and set about looking for something solid near the pit's rim to lodge the hook on. This was an unmitigated disaster and no mistake. Gods alone knew how many people were dead as a result of the day's events. Or, for that matter, how many more were to come.
His face for a moment a mask of shock and awe with the unbelievable sights before him, the nimble Shadowdancer quickly recovers his balance, his mind spinning as to what best next step to take. Of immediate concern to him is his seemingly missing ally. Having no idea where the Paladine could have got to, Jorzan yells out, both mentally and verbally, to Zan "Where the hell is Justahl??"
In response he first senses confusion from his Shadow other, but after a moment Zan performs what for him is a shrug and then points to one of the two strange men. Squinting, and then recalling he had once or twice see the Izmirian do a similar trick before, he yells "Justahl! That you?? You alright?"
Then, while waiting for an answer, he turns to the Northerner. Knowing that with his magical splippers and ring he has nothing to fear from falling or trying to climb down, Jorzan yells to Kelne "I can float to the ground or climb down easily. But if you want to get to land, I think I should try and jump to you, and then help you get across. Or maybe Justahl can help you? What do you think?" Knowing that the more heavily armored man would best be able to gauge his own abilities, Jorzan leaves the important decision up to him.
Lin swiftly rejoined the departing Paladine, towering over there ranks as she surveyed the passageway around and ahead of them.
Kelne considered a moment, "I think we want to get to the bottom. There are voices down there. I'm in a mood to exact retribution on those responsible for all this." Of course, it might be that the people down there were innocent victims, but even so they ought to be able to point him in the right direction. "I will need a hand getting that far down though. I didn't bring enough rope."
Jorzan eyes Kelne for a moment, trying to assess how much the man and all his equipment would weigh, attempting to figure if his ring of feather falling might be able to hold the weight of them both. Of course Justahl would likely need help reaching the bottom as well.
Out loud he replies " I have rope and I'm sure Justahl does as well. Using spikes, we should be able to tie the lengths and retie them when necessary to make it to the bottom."
He then looks back towards the Paladine, wondering what the hell he is doing.
About to answer the man-at-arms, Sir Justahl is knocked down by the stunning sound and opening sinkhole. Scrambling to his feet, he looks out and sees with relief that Jorzan and Kelne are all right for the moments. But with the screaming of people in need of aid... They can get out of this by themselves, right?
"There are people in trouble! I have to go help!" He shouts over to his companions. He turns and runs towards the sound of screaming...
"Well, that answers that I suppose" the rogue says to himself. Then, louder to Kelne "Ok, step aside, I'm coming over!"
Without another word he backs up to the edge of the pillar of stone, runs, and takes off, making a soaring leap over the 20' gap, his arms windmilling to help him keep his balance.
Acrobactics:
Reflex:
Acrobatics:
Yet he misses by a mere foot, and begins to plummet into the abyss. However his lighting reflexes allow him to easily grab the ledge and, with heave and a twist he launches himself into the air, twists, rolls and lands in a perfect posture. Turing to Kelne he grins Well that was easy."
His grin disappearing as he gets more serious, Jorzan walks to the very edge, and without the slightest tinge of fear, gazes down the 300' to the bottom. He slowly walks all around the pillar, looking for any ledges, outcrops other features, natural or circumstantial, which would aid in their decent.
Perception:
As he moves, he verbally pursues another tack, saying to Kelne "We could also just put my ring on you, I hop on your back, and we just step off the edge. Presuming there aren't any anti-magic zones on the way down, we should land nice and softly. Although we may not have too much control over what we land on." By his tone, it doesn't seem to matter much to Jorzan which we they descend, he just wants to get down there.
"Sounds like a plan, if you're sure the ring will support both of us," Kelne said. He could certainly lift Jorzan without difficulty, but whether the magic of the ring would work for both of them at once was an open question. Still, there was only one way to find out, he reflected, holding his hand out for the ring, "At any rate, those slippers of yours ought to let you grab onto the pillar if need be," he concluded. They would be falling parallel to the pillar all the way down, after all.
Jorzan slips off his ring and hands it to the warrior. Once he's ready, Jorzan hops on his back and, to wash away the awkwardness can't help but quip "Watch out for that first step, it's a doozy"
"Right," Kelne said with a faint smile. Putting his trust in the magic, he stepped off the edge and fell. Getting back up again might be a problem, but he'd deal with that when he came to it.
@Sir Justahl: You sprint around the corner, the guard and his dog close behind. It isn't difficult to find either the sinkhole or the teens screaming for help. Three students are laying flat on their bellies right near the edge of the sinkhole, where it's clear two more are hanging over the edge, clinging to the rim by their fingertips. Yet for some reason, the three who are on solid ground are not moving forward to help the two hanging over the edge. You are just about to ask why when one of the ones dangling, a boy by the sound of his voice, yells hoarsely "It's getting closer! Oh gods you've got to do something! Nonononononooo!" He is clearly terrified, his voice ragged from crying and screaming. The other students are also crying and chattering and babbling uselessly, all clearly in a panic.
The guard looks at you, and you are about to remind yourself that as far as you know, he's a "bad guy", when he does the work for you. "Heh. Lookit those kids panic. Let's go rescue 'em from whatever's over there, watch those sweet little teens just swoon over their heroes, then we can have a niiiiice night in an inn somewhere." He literally licks his lips. "Mm-MM! I love 'em young. Don't you? Huh? Haw haw!"
Despite his boastful words, he's obviously not as brave as all that, as he simply stands there now and looks at you expectantly, clearly waiting for you to go first.
@Kelne and @Jorzan: Thankfully, you float.
You drift down along the side of the giant column of stone, and eventually past the ceiling of the chamber 200' down, where an incredible sight awaits you. This room is about 200' long by 100' wide, with a 100' ceiling on which are painted incredible, baroque grotesques. Enough is visible for you to determine that, but the ceiling is so old and faded and filthy that to glean specifics would require cleaning and careful examination.
Giant round columns set on imposing plinths -- Gorumite architecture, you'd wager -- connect ceiling to floor, and on the floor, scattered all about, are corpses. Some are ancient and rotted, some appear to be barely minutes-old. Some are human, some elven, some half-orc...many are devils and demons, their ruined physical forms slowly dissolving into unseemly chymicals and ash.
You spot six doors in this room; one on each wall, including a set of double-doors that you'd guess were intended to be the main doors, and then two small corner doors that are really just archways; there's no actual door there.
Glancing around you see evidence of explosions, fire, magic...whatever happened here was heavy-duty, and right in the middle of it all is the hole into which you are currently descending.
With a multitude of features in this room to investigate, as well as the sound of voices from beyond the main door, Kelne figured this was the place to begin their investigation. The deeper pit could wait for a few moments more. Using the pillar to control his fall, he oriented himself and gave a hard shove, imparting some horizontal motion to their fall and sending them away from the pit and towards the floor of the chamber.
Whoever had been down here had left a great many bodies in their wake, though whether the explosion had been accidental or by design... Most likely design, though any purpose beyond destruction still eluded him. Jorzan had stopped talking about the tower, and the pendant semmed to have had some role in things.
As they near the floor, Jorzan flips and somersaults off of Kelne's back, landing neatly, and at the same time helping push Kelne in the direction he wants to go. Once Kelne is safely on his own feet again, Jorzan holds out his hand for the ring and once returned, slips it back on his finger saying quietly, conscious of the voices next door "Well that worked out nicely. When we're ready to go down more, we'll try it again."
Then, looking around him at all the carnage, he continues "Seems like we missed quite the party." from his tone though, he is clearly not making lite of the situation.
Reaching into his pocket he pulls out the medallion from Ormir and adds "Then there's this. It was tugging like crazy in the direction of somewhere down here, but at the moment the tower disappeared and the sinkhole opened up, it went dead. Wonder if we'll ever know what's it's connection to all of this was."
Taking a closer look at the medallion before slipping it back into his pocket Jorzan then begins looking around at the bodies, trying to find one still alive that might be able to tell them what happened here. He moves quickly but quietly, not making any unnecessary sounds to draw attention to them. While looking for a survivor of this catastrophe, being the rogue he is, he's also keeping an eye out for any interesting items that their former owners may have no further need or use for.
Perception at medallion:
Perception around room:
Heal on finding one alive:
Stealth:
Hearing the noises from out and getting the feeling he is needed Gray walks into the room, closing the door behind him. Moving along the edge of the pit to the window. He puts his weapon away before unlocking and opening it.
Sticking his head out the window he sees the tower of souls coming apart.
Watching the souls free themselves from the floating tower he sighs and eyes narrow.
As the spirits spin about and land he reaches for the Soul collector on his belt and sticks it in the air.
Before he does anything he glances back to the doorway and looks to make sure no one is bothering it. Satisfied there wont be trouble for a minute or two he looks back up,
Channeling all his energy into the specter in his hands he shouts commandingly to the lost spirits. wuth the tool acting as a lightning rod he hopes they come to him.
Shouting as loud as he can: "By the power of Pharasma come to me lost ones and find your peace with the Dark Lady."
"Ormir was using it to harness power of some kind," Kelne observed, "Perhaps whoever built the tower was drawing on the same source to do it." Leaving the bodies for the moment, he crossed to the main doors and listened at them for a few moments, hoping to find out more about who they were dealing with.
Giving the guard a disgusted look, Justahl hurries forward to grab one of the kids dangling over the precipice and haul him up. Trying all the while not to fall in himself.
"You shall not escape...."
@Justahl:
Before you can get to the edge one of the three students who is flat on the ground hears the tread of your boots and turns around. "Stop! Sir Knight, stop! There's a...there's some thing down there waiting to shoot whoever peeks their head over the ledge!" she hisses.
With Jorzan currently dropped out of sight and not seeming to be in need of him at the moment, Zan floats curiously behind the Paladine as he goes charging off. When he hears the warning from the girl, he floats over to the edge unconcernedly and looks down.
- the medallion has not changed in any way
- An initial search reveals nothing of value
- no one is alive except you and Kelne
- you are being very sneaky
- No
- Torches
- Most of it continued down the pit, which goes much further down -- far enough that the bottom is just a dark spot in the middle. What little debris there is here is just stuff like boards and bricks and whatnot.
- There is no purple door in this room.
@Kelne and @Jorzan: As you look around this large room, you notice arcane characters written on the floor. None of them are immediately familiar and all are rather damaged, but nonetheless, there they are. Most of the corpses in the room are very, very old, as is most of the gear. There are perhaps a couple swords or daggers that might be usable, but even these are in terrible condition.
Kelne puts his ear up against the door, and just as he does so, the door begins to open, surprising you both. You draw weapons but quickly see they are not needed as behind the door is a group of Paladins accompanied by Lin and Tora'an!
@Lin and @Tora'an: After slogging through the winding, strange tunnels you come abruptly upon a stretch of hallway that is very grand, and lined with statuary of heroes long gone, none of whom you immediately recognize. At the end of the hall is a set of double doors, which after much discussion the paladins throw open, to reveal a very surprised Kelne and Jorzan looking back at you!
@Belsarious:
Still trying to chase down my sparkly dust coated friend......
Lin blinks for several moments before looking at the pair curiously, wary that something is manipulating her mind she shouts out. "Paladins be wary they may not be who they appear to be! Eyeing the pair before her she shouts her question to them and watches them very carefully. "Where did we first meet and who is my rider?" Frost rolls from her snout as she exhales and waits somewhat impatiently for their response.
"Worry not milady, I am well able to look after myself; even against snipers!" He smiles at her reassuringly.
Diplomacy:
"Now, give me your hand!" He calls out to the nearest one hanging off the edge.
Diplomacy:
Strength check:
"In the promenade of Ormir's palace, and your rider is Min," Kelne said promptly, "As to what we're doing down here, I direct your attention to the big hole in the ceiling." He waved a hand skywards, "It caused a lot of damage topside. I don't suppose you've seen anyone who might have been responsible? Everyone in here seems inconveniently dead."
Glitterdust afterwards and with a sucessful save
All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades. Each round at the end of their turn blinded creatures may attempt new saving throws to end the blindness effect.
Any creature covered by the dust takes a -40 penalty on Stealth checks.
Quickly recovering his composure and still frankly somewhat amazed that the Skyknights include in their ranks both a Silver Dragon And a Pegasus, who serve as mounts no less, Jorzan nevertheless covers his awe with an additional quick question, "And what in the blazes are you all doing down here?? I thought you'd gone to investigate a fire at the docks?"
"As for us, we just got here, as Kelne said, because of that" he continues, pointing up at the gaping hole above without looking himself. "There had been a...tower of Shadow standing above this location, but it collapsed along with the ground, I think because of some weird silvery/green ray that were striking it the Tower I mean, not the ground."
Realizing he must not sound to be making much sense, he skakes his head in irritation while still speaking "Anyway, doesn't seem to be much of interest down, here, as most of these folk died a very long time ago. Except for these arcane marking here, which neither of us have been able to make head nor tales of. Perhaps you Paladine might be abe make them out?"
As he switches his attention more towards the heavuly armourd holy warriors, Jorzan squints a bit a see if he recognizes any of them
Knowledge(local):
"Apologies I had to be sure, this place has been most irritating..." Lin then nods to Kelne and then stares at the hole in the ceiling curiously before adding about the corpses on the ground. "Inconvenient indeed..."
She then looks to Jorzan and raises a powerful eyebrow in his direction as his words struck her as mad jabbering. "Tora'an and I never saw a Tower... We followed the smoke to the fire and found the Liberators there about to delve below the streets with these fine Paladine. WE joined them, faced demons and strange kobolds who were hellbent on their own destruction. Sadly they too have perished and left us with many questions. From what I was told they're seems to be an evil group in the area. We're not completely sure what's going on, but the Liberators informed us that this group is trying to frame the local church of Zon Kuthon for various crimes, in addition to dragging the local population of Gnolls down and ruin the lifestyle they have created here." Seeing she is rambling on she looks to the Paladine Commander. "Kelne and Jorzan, these men, can be trusted fully, I have fought alongside them and they are firm friends of Stormfare and all that is good."
"The tower was only visible to certain people," Kelne clarified, "I wasn't one of them, but I'm willing to take Jorzan's and Gray's respective words that it was there. There were certainly guards on its physical location, which is suggestive. We can be thankful the thing's been destroyed at least. It wouldn't have portended anything good." He sighed, looking around, "There's a fair number of doors to check behind, along with that pit, but I think whoever's responsible for this has legged it by now."
He wouldn't mind getting his hands on those people, and intended to continue the search, but at some point they were going to have to give up and return to Cassandra. The longer she stayed in one place, the more likely sinister forces were to come calling on her. With who knew what further consequences for the city.
Lin felt relieved to have Kelne clarify and knowing the tower had been seen by more then one person made her believe it existed more easily. When Kelne pointed out the doors once more she smiled toothily. "If they have escaped let's hope they left something useful behind. Come I will help you search, let us leave no stone unturned." She then started moving to the closest closed door.
Kelne nodded, beginning his own circuit of the room's doors. He'd move in the opposite direction to Lin and meet up with her again on the opposite side of the room.
@Kelne and @Lin:
You search the perimeter of the room, listening behind each door and carefully checking the ground for clues, and find the following;
- Through the open door in one corner is a long, dark hallway from which you hear the sounds of a woman crying. Stairs lead down and around a sharp curve. The hall is only wide enough for people to go down it single file.
- There is a lot of fire damage and scorch marks.
- If you look at the ragged edges of the hole in the middle of the room from out at the room's edge, it looks like the floor first exploded upwards before collapsing down.
You hear no sounds from behind the other closed doors, and it looks like the other open doorway has stairs leading up, probably to street level judging by the smell of the faint breeze coming from that corridor. This corridor is wider, as it turns out, with room enough to walk out three abreast.
Suddenly, From Zan you get a strange mental image of a big humanoid with arms, legs, wings, and a horse's skull for a head. It is surrounded by flies and death and aiming its bow at your shadow companion. That is all you see, and the image is gone.
Before you can react, the medallion suddenly comes to life in your pocket and starts tugging down towards the bottom of the pit with an alarming amount of power. If it weren't for your incredible reflexes the thing might well have tugged you right over the edge.
@Sir Justahl:
You creep slowly out over the ledge, just far enough to help those hanging on, and are met with a gruesome sight; just a short distance down in this horrid sinkhole that has opened up is a daemon of some sort. The hideous and withered thing is probably about 14 feet tall, skinny, covered with boils and pustulescent sores and hanging flaps of desiccated flesh, and staying aloft by flapping its two vermin-covered and molting wings. In place of a head, the servant of Abaddon has a hideous horse's skull. As soon as you are visible, it fires its huge bow at you!
Just in time, you duck down and the arrow zips past, whistling off into the night. Zan floats overhead just as this happens, and the daemon and the shadow regard each other for a moment before the daemon turns its attention back to the ledge you're hiding behind, apparently not regarding the shadow as a threat.
The co-eds cry out as the arrow flies past you, and you note that both of the students hanging over the ledge have arrows stuck in their bodies, and terrible rotting disease is spreading out from the wounds. They can't possibly hang on for much longer.
@Belsarious:
The weather and chaos around you have affected your perception of things, but as ghosts and wraiths and shades rain down from the sky and everyone in the quad scatters, you note a pile of telltale glitter following the group of four drunks headed back towards a dorm.
Lin hears the sobbing woman and ignores her want to investigate it further, she was wary and for god reason. Nothing was what it seemed and the damage that had been inflicted was beyond normal causes. "Kelne I don't like this, there appears to been a struggle here and I am intrigued to see what is wrong with that woman. If she really is a woman."
She looks at the damage to the walls and ceiling and rolls her great shoulders. The bond was still dead and her worries were starting to eat away at her resolve. {Where are you Min?}
The four drunks are followed.....
Utilizing detect magic as I go.
Elven curve blade at the ready as I pursue them.
Sir Justahl resists the impulse to simply charge to smite the thing... A real Daemon, and here! These students need help and need it now.
He lunges forward to grasp the first hand and haul the student up and over to safety.
Strength check:
@Gray:
There is silence after your prayer, broken only by the sound of the terrible weather outside. For a long minute you fear nothing is going to happen. Or maybe what you feel is hope. It's difficult to tell these days. Then, silent as midnight, a shade begins to float up through the floor. Indistinct in shape but possessed of two hideously glowing eyes, the thing looks at you, then to the soul-catcher in your hand. It vaults forward and is caught by some kind of divine energy radiating out in a complex interlock of geometric patterns. Methodically the magic of Pharasma removes all the evil and hate that this spirit has accrued, placing it on a sort of spiritual loom, until all that is left is the soul of the deceased -- fragile, clear, small, barely visible at all. It is this fragment of being that is pulled towards and into the bright purple stones that ring the top components of this tool of shadow, disappearing with what sounds for all the world like a sigh of immense relief.
You pause, eyes closed, thankful for the gifts of the dark lady.
"I don't trust the voice either," Kelne remarked, "Still, if it is a trap, that implies a trap-setter, and hence someone to interrogate. I say we check it out. It seems a narrow passage though. Perhaps Jorzan and I should check this one."