Though he hears the clamor of the armored knight rushing to his aid, it does him little good. Themp falls further and further into the darkness, unable to find a grip on the smooth stone walls. Fearful thoughts of what harm awaits him at the bottom cloud his mind.
Nme'an glances down the dark pit to catch a glimpse of the archer's outstretched hand fade into the deepening shadow. Finishing the charge, he feels his blade connect with the spirit of air, but since the form of the ethereal being is elusive at best, he is unsure if he struck a vital blow or not.
In moments, the large pit mouth is a shrinking circle of light in a world of black for the archer. Themp would have expected to hit the ground by now, and yet the air whips around him, giving no clue to when it might end.
The receding circle of light closely matches the dread filling Themp's mind. He finds every vestige of his animal instincts trying to grasp for the bright ledge so far away.
Grasp?
The cunning thief quickly fumbles through his pack, huge waves of relief hitting him when he finds his trusty grappling hook and the coil of silk rope.
The knot fails to take hold on the first try. Taking a deep breath, Themp tries again, successfully tying them both strongly together. The lip of the hole, however, looks terrifyingly farther away now.
"…better!"
The word is barely off of Beorae's lips when Nme'an's shout redirects her attention and she sees the last glint of Themp tumbling into the pit with the rock monster. "THEMP!"
Eyes wide, and without thinking, Beorae lunges forward toward the pit and she dives in headfirst. Time slows and she sees the black enormity falling away into nothingness. A crack! fills the air and Beorae's eagle form soars into the pit as fast as her wings can carry her.
Meanwhile, Shark attempts to grapple the Fire elemental.
The eagle plunges into the pit, leaving the last two elementals to Nme’an and Shark. Themp notices the silhouette of a thin shape in the narrowing circle of light, but in the confusion of falling is unable to tell what it is. The tiger barely manages to wrap his claws and teeth around his prey, though not without the creature of fire resisting with fury.
Burning with rage, the fire elemental tries to elude its captor!
Smoke and flame spin out of the tiger's grasp, fuming across the battlefield to stop with the pit between itself and the grey cat.
The air spirit slams into the paladin before blowing away, skirting over the draining pool of water.
It stops a few paces away from Nme’an, daring him to approach. However, now the fire elemental blazes an equal distance away.
Below Themp, a massive, glowing green eye opens in the dark! Tumbling in the air, the archer realizes that he will crash into it in a matter of seconds! Above him, the keen eyes of the eagle-druid see a flash of green light in the swallowing blackness, but Themp’s form occludes the vague spindle shape. Beorae presses on, slowly gaining on her friend. The light grows brighter and brighter, until it threatens to blind those looking down on it.
DOOMPH. A sudden pulse of green energy shoots up the eye! Nme’an feels it in his boots, and a faint green light from deep in the pit.
Themp immediately feels the magic wash over him, and icy dread numbs his spine as he feels a solid surface collide with his body. The terrific pain lasts only a moment, and then there is nothing.
But Beorae sees the wave of emerald energy coming, with nary a moment to react!
With two enemies before him and a deep hole behind, Nme'an retreats back towards the west side of the room.
"Well, come on, then." He says aloud.
for
The druid feels shock all over her body when she hits the pulse of green magic. Like a stranger rummaging through a drawer to hurriedly find something, she feels her mind reeling with a string of random memories over the last few days. When she blinks away the confusion, the pit is dark once more -the green eye is gone. Her keen eagle sense do not see Themp, nor hear the flapping of his cloak. She does not even see the bottom of the pit. The mouth of the pit is wide circle of light above her.
The first breath after a deep dive desperately fills the archer’s lungs, and he finds himself laying on his back on the floor of the Master’s Library. Trying to move, he finds every joint in his body sore, and bruises already formed from his battle with the elementals in the crystalline room. How long has he been laying there, it is unclear. Looking around, none of his companions are in the library, no sign of the earth elemental that fell with him either, and it is just as quiet as before. Nothing in the room appears to have changed, even the near indiscernible circle of the teleport trap appears to remain in the short hallway.
What the --?!
Worried it might be awfully late, Themp rushes to the trap, willingly trying to get back into the room and help his friends. Realizing it might even be over a day later, he tries his best to brace himself for whatever he might find on the other side, be it victorious companions or soon-to-be-dead elementals.
With Themp nowhere in sight, Beorae flies back up toward the mouth of the pit, her mind racing. This certainly feels like "mortal danger"…
Shark pads his way around the chasm, growling low at the fire elemental as he approaches, waiting for the monster to attack.
A familiar flash of green distorts his vision and he feels his innards jumble as his body makes the shift.
Beorae’s studies recall spells that describe similar effects, but nothing exactly fits what she experienced. She remembers a green flash of light when she was on the teleportation circle, but this particular green energy did not transport her anywhere afterwards. This is especially odd since Themp appears to have vanished since the green flash. One similar spell she knows can “listen” in on the surface thoughts of the target, referred to by scholars as a Detect Thoughts spell, but the effect she experienced appeared to glimpse at her recent memories. There is another spell that aims to Modify Memories, but there is no way for her to check if her any of her memories were altered. Lastly, the disorienting effect afterwards reminds her of a Confusion spell, however, in her research, that mind-affecting spell leads to more drastic results, such as attacking allies or incoherent babbling. Thankfully, the spell did not cause her to do those things.
So, in short, she has not yet heard of the specific effects of this magic. As she turns it over in her mind, she realizes that most of the memories that came up were moments of when she was casting spells. Perhaps the magic might be intended to assess her abilities? She is unsure without any research on the matter.
The fire elemental sees the unburnt tiger approach, and opts for another target: Nme’an. It stops short of the pool of water, skirting around its edge to attack the half-elf!
Grumbling thunder rolls over the battlefield, across the open pit. The air spirit seizes an opportunity to strike at the knight’s flank!
Neither elementals are able to wound Nme'an.
Beorae flies closer to the ledge of the pit, and sees the spirit of air pass overhead.
At the edge of the pit, Themp reappears with a green flash of light!
Flanked, but still with room to maneuver, Nme'an takes a look at the fiery elemental before him and the swirling gusts of wind behind. Nme'an takes a step back from the one and pivots to the other. His longsword slices out at faster, more nimble air elemental in the hopes of ending its threat.
for
"What? Are you... ok?" Nme'an calls out to Themp when he notices him appear.
Beorae flies as fast as her wings can carry her back to Nme'an. She's lets out a loud, startled "SCREECH!" when she sees none other than Themp standing on the edge of the pit!
Shark circles around the pit and again chomps at the fire elemental.
for
"I... I don't know." Themp answers the knight.
Taking an hesitant step toward Shark, still unsure how he is safely back into the room in time to help, the city boy draws his bow once more, firing a shot at the fiery beast.
Nme’an feels his sword make contact with his foe, but the air elemental still has some fight left!
After landing a blow, the spirit of wind gusts across the room, circling headlong towards the only other flying creature: an eagle!
The fire elemental dodges away from Shark’s teeth, and likewise, Themp’s arrow sails through smoke and nothing more. The living flame whooshes alongside the tiger, coming up to strike the armored half-elf.
Nme’an feels a second bash as fire sweeps over his form. He will have to be quick to keep the flames from taking hold!
Wait, eagle? Is that Beorae?
Worried he might be right, Themp shifts his attention from the surrounded elemental to the one rushing towards the bird.
Still uneasy about the fiery monster, however, the archer moves further away into the puddle of water. [ooc]J7 to J6
Nme'an instinctively moves to flank the fire elemental and commits a small amount of magic to heal his wounds as he does so.
He then swings his sword at the fire elemental.
for
Beorae flutters toward Themp and away from the air elemental, and in an instant, the druidess is back to her normal form.
”Themp! What… what happened?!”
Shark again lets loose at the fire monster.
for
for
for
After a well-timed strike from the knight, Shark's teeth and claws tear the fire spirit asunder! The flames dissipate into smoke, and vanish completely.
Unfortunately, the air elemental does not allow the eagle an easy retreat!
As soon as Themp's arrow catches in the creature of wind, it sends its ire barreling toward the archer!
Even though Themp is quick to avoid, the elemental seems much weaker than before.
Wincing through the pain of the blow, the druidess draws a dagger and flings it at her foe.
for
The blade sails wide, almost comically so, and Beorae's anger fumes. "Shark, kill it!" Beorae orders. The gray cat moves up to the air elemental and takes a chomp.
for
With a savage bite, the air elemental wisps away until the air is still. The room with portals and crystalline walls is silent. The largest of the portals, nearest to the fire rune, still has a glowing orange chain affixed across the span.
Speaking of the fire rune across the room, it seems slightly bigger, with additional markings around it.
The rune is an amalgamation of the other runes as well: earth, wind, and water.
As the wind fiend blows over, Themp can't help but sigh in relief. He carefully steps off the puddle and shakes the excess of water off his boots, eyeing the big lit rune across the room with great intensity.
"Well, that was weird. What now?" he asks the group.
"Defeating those... guardians... was not the answer to the puzzle. The other chains only removed when we did our deeds in those other places? Is that required again here? Or something more simple such as gathering the elements in one spot?" Nme'an wonders aloud.
Silence hangs in the air after the questions, but the peace is short-lived.
A large, fiery hand reaches up out of the light of the orange rune. Out of the magical script climbs a towering fire elemental with white hot eyes and a flowing beard of roiling flame. Two big arms slam fists together, and suddenly the air around it whirls into a cyclone. The spirit of flame burns brighter and hotter, and it extends one arm into the surrounding winds, causing it to hiss with smoke and steam. The fist darkens in spots, as cooling magma, until the giant fire elemental clenches a jagged rocky fist in challenge to the adventurers. Over the whooshing wind the elemental’s fiery mouth roars in fury at the four creatures: Beorae, Shark, Nme’an, and Themp.
Nme'an does not move, but rather he readies his sword and shield and gazes at the huge creature both studying it and silently challenging it to more towards him.
Nme'an does not sense any evil in the blazing elemental amalgamation.
"I guess I'll just shut up from now on" offers Themp, mockingly
He notices Nme'an's stance and decides to ready up too, as opposed to taking the first strike.
Despite the wind surrounding the creature, Themp's arrow manages to strike the elemental! However, with how intangible fire can be, he is unsure how if the hit actually did any harm.
Beorae stares at the fire elemental as it climbs itself into the room. She draws a deep, resigned breath, "Oookaay… So that's how it is?" Exhaling, she quickly reaches into her bag, long fingers searching for the hard edges of the white crystal that lies within. Found it! With one smooth motion, the druid's hand flies out of the bag and smashes the crystal into the ground next to her. She takes a side-step as a large Air Elemental swirls to life at her side.
"Shark, to me," she orders, and the tiger steps back to his master's side.
The white crystal shatters into fine, glassy sand, immediately caught up in a fierce torrent of wind materializing into a vague conical shape. Two eyes of lightning crackle toward the summoner's enemy, and the large air elemental howls at its fiery foe!
A solid hit and the air spirit whirls away, extinguishing the small tongues of flame caught up in the whirlwind! The fire elemental snorts, seemingly unaffected by the strike and surges after the windy creature.
Using the arm of stone as a counterweight, a fist of fire bashes the air elemental! Beorae's summoned ally hisses as it spins to put out the blaze that threatens to consume its form.
Nme'an charges forward, at least hoping to put himself between the fiery creature and his friends.
for
"Well, it definitely looks pissed"
"It's an amalgamation of all three Elementals! But the main part is Fire, so it should be weak to cold. And, uh, If it has an arm, it might have a neck or some other vital area… maybe?"
The druidess leans down to Shark and heals her companion with her wand.
"Shark, go kill it!"
The gray tiger tears off toward the giant enemy and chomps at the fiery beast.
As the knight lieutenant charges in, the fire elemental takes a swipe before Nme'an can bring his sword close enough!
The half-elf feels the fire slam against the shield at his side, but it does not stop his blade slashing through the elemental. The monster reels when an arrow sinks into its shoulder, only to suffer a bite from the large grey cat a moment later. In spite of the creature's fiery form, a magically-warded Shark remains unburned by the flames.
The air elemental follows the assault with its own barrage, spinning away out of reach and snuffing out any remnant flames.
The elemental amalgamation lashes an arm of flame at the tiger, and hammers a fist of stone down onto Nme'an.
Shark has no need to dodge the errant swing, but the half-elf paladin feels a wave of pain as the rocky arm crashes onto him from overhead.
Seeing as this combat looks to be a slog of attrition, Nme'an taps his hand to his chest, healing himself, and then attacks again.
for
Satisfied with how the giant elemental reeled from his last shot, Themp moves laterally for a better shot.
Watching the large, fiery creature, Shark dives in for another round of attacks.
Beorae, unsure what else to do, begins the now-familiar summoning chant to call upon nature's allies.
The large air elemental barrels down onto its opponent.
Scarcely a moment after making contact, the air spirit whirls away out of reach.
Shark's sharp teeth and claws make contact with the giant creature, but as they tighten to rend and tear, find only smoke.
Growling at yet another arrow piercing its side, the elemental holds out its hand of fire, which appears to swell in the palm. With a quick hurling motion, the adventurers can see a ball of fire, trailing black smoke, flying right at Themp!
When it collides, the sphere explodes all around Themp with liquid fire. The archer realizes he will need to move quick to keep his clothes and gear from burning as flames leap up all around him!
for
Cursing and thrashing, Themp leaps out of the flames, rolls on the ground and skids to a stop a safe distance from it. .
"Damn you, you oversized hunk of magic pebbles!", he shouts, letting loose another arrow.
Nme'an attacks again.
for
---
Shark redoubles his efforts against the large elemental.
---
As Beorae's chant finishes, three small Earth Elementals pop into existence and rush to aid Beorae and her companions.
The first elemental has a clear path and charges headlong into its target.
The small creature appears to be a bit over-zealous, however, and manages to completely whiff the attack. The other two follow the first, but more carefully, and attempt to land blows of their own.
---
Meanwhile, the druidess rushes over to Themp to make sure he's not still caught in flames. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she once again uses the wand to channel divine healing magic into the archer.
---
Themp’s fingers release the arrow, and rather than the whisper “Swift” with the shot, the bow sings with a raised voice: “Swift death to those who wrong me!”
The magic of the bow perhaps channeling the archer’s feelings of vengeance, the arrow quick as lightning, strike the target. Fletching is all that protrudes from the fiery beard, piercing into the monster’s neck. Nme’an’s sword meets the stony arm of the elemental; the blade bites, but the bite is not deep enough. The towering creature of fire defends itself against the tiger’s assault, only to be caught off guard by one of the summoned earth elementals.
The large air elemental throws itself against the enemy before bouncing off and out of reach once more.
Clobbered this way and that, the elemental amalgamation roars in a blind fury and raises the rock hand. Orange cracks of magma glow dimly underneath, and the observant catch the cracks forming the shape of the Earth rune on the palm. With a menacing grin, the adversary swipes the hand at the figure of steel before him!
Hot fingers curl around the rim of the shield interposed by the knight, quickly rebuffed by Nme’an’s defense.
With a huff, the fire elemental twists away and with a burst of speed, arcs a wide path around Shark, Nme’an, and elementals and stomps right toward Beorae and Themp! The pair see the creature stop nearly on top of them, standing over them with upraised arms.
Though he was able to block the stony hand, the paladin now feels a strange heat moving up his shield arm, and then his shoulder. Is his armor... warming up?
"Umm... Themp... I think you made it angry," Beorae says. Hand still on Themp's shoulder, she mutters a brief incantation before carefully stepping backward.
Seeing the creature menace Beorae, Shark pounces forward and attempts to grapple the large, fiery monster.
The slow-moving elementals lumber across the floor, but only one one is able to close the gap enough to make an attack.
for
As the druidess focuses on casting her spell, her mind is not on defense and a large hand of fire comes down to strike!
The fires scorch the young half-elf and tongues of flame threaten her clothing and equipment! The fire creature swats away the tiger's attempts to take hold, but lets out a wail when the little earth spirit exacts vengeance for its summoner. The small slam of dirt and rock smash away one of the amalgamation's legs, and the giant fire monster topples over across the crystalline floor! The bulky magma arm crumbles and cools into dark hard chunks, but all are soon lost the heavy black smoke that chokes out the fires.
As the smoke clears, there is nothing left of the large elemental, not even the remnants of rock. At this, the glowing orange chain bursts in a shower of sparks!
Once the fire elemental is defeated, a wispy white vapor vanishes from the elemental remains. The runes are now black markings of soot, and above the large black pit, the form of a dwarf sitting cross legged and floating a few feet above the opening in the ground. His stern look and prodigious beard resembles that of the elementals battled within this strange crystal chamber. His pale visage is colorless and insubstantial, and his demeanor is calm and stoic.
“It is done. The Locks have found their keys. In over one thousand years, this has not been accomplished. Do you know what you must do?”
Though there seems to be a lull in the fight, the magic from elemental still lingers, and Nme'an is all too aware of that. He feels the steel plates of his armor getting hotter, to the point that he begins to experience minor burns in a few areas.
"Beorae, have your wand ready," Nme'an says as he gently places his shield on the ground. "That creature did something to my armor and it is... even now... growing hotter."
"Curse it!"
/
The druidess tries patting out the flames, but they keep reigniting! Trying to stem a growing sense of panic, she drops to the ground and tries to extinguish the fire.
Nme'an's words cut through the remnants of smoke and Beorae props herself up with her forearms. That sounds like my Heat Metal spell…
Beorae coughs as she pulls herself up. "Nme'an, if this doesn't work, we're going to have to get you out of that armor fast." She focuses on the knight and casts what she hopes is a counter-spell.
Finally, she turns to the newly-appeared dwarf, and in response to his question, says, "No, I don't think we 'know what we must do'. Are you Noe, the one who left us the note?"