The Tragedy of Hero's (Inactive)

Game Master fnord72

Since we're describing the ground, too...

Xara moves completely onto the lawn to touch Fritz. As she pushes the button, she feels something squish beneath her boot. Looking at her foot, she curses loudly at the frozen Acadamae, "Ah, s@$&! Which of you overgrown pompouses forgot to pick up after your familiar?"

The 55 morphs into a 34. You feel a tingling as the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It feels like there is a power gathering. At this time you see that the time stop effect has ended as life and movement returns.

"Fritz, Trig, get over here now!" Xara barks, wiping her boot on the grass.

Your cohort will also not always be with you, especially for the introductory piece. <-Thats where I got the idea from, its on page 1 a few post down.

Gelein just waits with Shiqos, knowing full well that a few moments made no difference. They both just enjoyed the view, slightly ruined by the lastest addition.

The knight stands alone, sword in its sheath and shield on his back. He presses the button without hesitation knowing the this may be the only way to help save the world.

The red button turns yellow for those that have pressed it, and the silvered 34 changes to 21.

Sustos notices that the people around him have returned to motion, though now they seem to be bumping into some sort of field where the red circle is visible around him.

Shiqos finishes the comment that he had been in mid sentence with before the time stop activated. The bird in the distance resumes flapping it's wings.

Xara, Derric, and Haze find that with the ending of the time stop, those people in the courtyard bump into the barrier and stare at them, mouth's agape. With their companions called to their sides they wait.

As the numbers on the button change from 21 to 13, a crackling sound starts as a low rumble that is felt beneath your feet.

Over Korvosa, the heavy cloud cover is suddenly pierced as the clouds quickly disappear, like a school of fish pierced by a shark swimming through it. The ring of clear blue sky allows sunlight to shine through, though it seems as if the sunlight is only touching the Acadamae, centered around the small group.

Gelein and Shiqos see the air start to swirl, sucked into a pinpoint a hundred feet out from the top of the temple. The swirling increases in intensity before flashing with black and purple lightning as an opening into a black abyss opens before them. Gelein sees that five more portals have opened at various points about the top of the temple, though none appear closer than 50'.

Sustos, standing rock still sees several people pointing up, turning his gaze up, he sees six six black portals with purple lightning crackling along the edges. The portals are between 50' and 100' from Sustos and at various heights above the ground.

"Get out of here, fools!" Xara yells at the gaping passers-by before whatever is about to happen destroys them all.

Gelein looks at the portals, seeing if their is any difference between them. Wondering if he is supposed to step thru or wait.

Detect Magic cast. Perception take 10 + 50 = 60

Sustos draws his weapons while wings sprout from his back and he flies upward until he is roughly 25' from the closest portal and yells to the people below.

"Flee for you lives! I fear danger approaches!"

Sustos tries to move but finds his movements restricted as if he was moving through thick mud.

Gelein can easily determine the portals are some form of planar gates.

Xara and Sustos shout but their voices are strangely muted and they do not hear themselves speaking but for the vibrations traveling through their skull.

As the number 13 counts down to 8 Gelein and Sustos see giant tentacles slipping through the gate. It looks like they are curling around the edges and either pulling the gate open wider or just pulling more of themselves through the gate.

Xara, Haze and Derric see the beam of light growing in intensity. The energy barrier around each of the three starts glowing along it's edge as the sunlight increases its intensity, the grass wilts and starts to smolder. A couple of people standing near scream and start running towards the buildings, their clothes are starting to smolder and their skin is getting red.

The numbers change from 8 to 5.

Gelein pats Shiqos letting her know to get ready. The elven archer draws her bow, while Gelein readies a spell in case whatever was attached to those tenticles was not friendly. In his experience they rarely were.

Derric's face grew grim as he heard the people scream, watching their skin burn and melt. Whatever was behind this would pay dearly with their lives.

Pulling out several bags of diamond dust, Derric threw them into the air, wishing that the sunbeams would not affect the people exposed to the sunbeam.

Dropping 25000 to protect people

Hase, unable to cast anything or even call out, holds grimly onto the button, trying to remember the faces he'll have to resurrect when this is all over.

Had a big post written up, and hit some key that did a page back function, sigh. Also had a big court hearing this week that had me stressing, so thank you for your patience!

It feels like he is trying to push his arms through thick mud, and Derric realizes that trying to throw anything will have a very short range. Shiqos also feels this slowing of motion as she pulls and knocks an arrow.

As the number 5 blinks to 3 it also changes to a rainbow of colors scrolling rapidly across the number. A bass rumble has been growing in intensity over the last couple of seconds to the point where your teeth are chattering and you can feel the thrumming as it rebounds through your body.

Hase, Derric, and Xara see the intense light beating down upon the barrier that surrounds each of them. That barrier crackling with huge amounts of arcane energy that flashes and flickers across its surface. Bleed-off from the focused sunlight is searing into the Acadamae grounds. The plant life has burned down to the soil in a growing circle around the group, currently over 50' radius.

Sustos and Gelein see more tentacles writhing from the portals, growing in length and number. As yet no discernible body mass has come through. Sustos sees the wildly flailing tentacles starting to impact the buildings below the portals. With each swing of a tentacle, walls and roofs are gripped by giant suckers that rip the buildings apart and hurl the walls and roofs through the air at more buildings. Gelein sees several truncated tentacles that turn towards the temple and start spitting globs. These globs of viscous slime slam into the temple proper. With each hit, chunks of the outer walls are blown inwards and steam and hissing is heard from within the temple. Soon followed by abruptly cutoff screams from some unlucky individuals on the upper floors.

As the number changes faster, now dropping to 2, and the flashing coloration cycling so rapidly that it almost appears as a solid shining light Hase, Xara and Derric wonder why they are not blinded by the pure briliant light that is impacting the shields around them, the shields are turning darker in a loosing effort to protect you from the sunlight. They can see the ground liquefying outside the bubbles from the heat and energy of ten thousand years of sunlight hitting the ground at once.

Sustos observes the portals being torn open further as more tentacles wiggle their way through. They are long enough to reach him now and a tentacle easily 20' across flicks out and slams down onto the barrier around him before sliding to one side. The shield holds, and the black lightning flashing across its surface intensifies. Another tentacle flicks out and snaps like a whip upon the barrier. This time the barrier cracks, and like a piece of glass, cracks spread out from the point of impact.

Gelein and Shiqos watch as their portals are town wider by the tentacled horrors sliding through. The tentacles are now long enough to reach the temple and they start flashing out to grip sections of the building and easily rip them out to be hurled into the air, falling on the landscape below and around the temple. More orbs are spat at the temple, now they are hitting the barrier around Gelein and Shiqos. The globs spit and crackle as they impact the barrier before sliding to the ground. When the slime hits the ground it quickly eats into the floor and falls out of sight.

Total time ellapsed since the letters appeared, 18 seconds.

Whatever is happening with the letters and the numbers, it must happen soon before the shields fail.

What little thought he had on the annoying thing was dispelled with its attack on the temple. His eyes flashing to black he cast a spell with a single word rippling with power. A rainbow field shapes around to protect the temple and harm the tentacles should they attempt to damage it further.

"No one attacks Nethys temple around me."

Cast Prismatic Sphere.

Seeing Derric fight a losing battle trying to do something against the onslaught, Xara simply takes hold of Fritz's and Trig's hands, turns her face to the heavens, and calls out, "Lady Desna, you have a journey for us to take. I beg you to help us start this journey before it's too late."

Even if the slowing prevents her from speaking the words, the sentiment flashes through her mind in an instant.

Gelein, rather pissed that something would attack the temple he had spent so much time and blood building, realizes that a prismatic sphere would only cover a very small piece of the temple, though maybe, with some research, he could develop a ritual to cast a larger sphere, it would probably take a few dozen acolytes, but, yes, maybe...

Prismatic sphere is a 10' circle, widen spell would double this, at epic levels, options to increase it further are available.

Xara calls out to her god, and a cool calm descends upon her for a moment, before being abruptly cut off.

The flashing number changes to a 1.

Sustos and Gelein see horrors from the deep abyss, things that are whispered about in corners as colossal masses of tentacles continue to emerge from the portals, Sustos stands, watching as the city is laid to waste. Several tentacles begin smashing against the shield he stands under, some larger than buildings that completely engulf the spherical shield, others flickering with whip-like speed to crack on the surface. Their efforts are not in vain as the shield begins to crack under the immense strain.

Gelein senses that other portals are open further down the side of the temple, more of the tentacles about him have been spitting acid. It is becoming obvious that they are targeting structural supports in the temple, as one side suddenly drops and lurches, listing to one side by several degrees. Gelein and his cohort are able to maintain their feet as the shielded bubble they stand in is rocked.

The focused sunlight beaming down upon the Acadamae has turned the courtyard into a boiling mass of molten sand, glistening from the heat. The bubble's they are standing in bob up and down upon this lake of glass. As they watch, helplessly, they see the stone and iron fittings of the walls beginning to melt under the intense heat.

The 1 flashes a second time, and then blinks to zero. Total time elapsed, 24 seconds.

In less than half a minute, one of the greatest cities in the world is laid to ruin, in an area around the shielded bubble holding the Living Monolith Sustos. The great temple of Nethys has crumbled under the onslaught of creatures not meant for this world. And the Acadamae of Korvosa, once one of the greatest center's of learning, now a molten mass of wreckage.

Another post is coming

With the countdown completed, the shielding around the bubbles starts to spin and the energy field crackles with strength as the build up completes. The field turns opaque, blocking sight beyond the fields. An unusual form of teleportation, the sphere looks to be about 15' in diameter, with the bottom portion containing the ground you are standing on, an area about 10' across.

You do not have any sense of motion, and from your experiences, teleportation is generally an instantaneous effect, and yet you are able to communicate with your cohorts. You still have a feeling that you are stuck in some material that greatly slows your movements.

And after what feels like an hour, you are grateful for, as the shields return to a transparent coloration, only to show that you are falling head first down a wide shaft. The greater weight of the soil slowly spins the bubbles until you are upright, though walls continue to flash by.

The walls of the shaft disappear as you fall into a large cavern before suddenly stopping. The bubbles appear to have completely absorbed your inertia and you barely register the lack of motion. The cavern has strips overhead that provide a soft, but flickering, illumination that easily reaches the ground. The cavern looks to be somewhat oval in shape, with the tunnel overhead off center to one end of the oval. Several plates of metal are slowly spiraling in to close off the tunnel.

You stand upon a raised platform that looks like it is made from some sort of metal, about 100' in diameter. Spaced about the platform are other sphere's with people in them, many of whom you recognize. The ceiling looks to be of worked stone with many arches of metal spaced around the edges, meeting near the top at another small oval of metal that caps the cavern.

Against the nearest wall several giant machines stand dormant, their purpose unknown. Spaced around the walls of the cavern several rounded metallic plates are embedded in the walls.

Once the tunnel overhead has closed, the shields suddenly pop, and the ground beneath you crumbles into a mound with the loss of the support provided by the shields.

The air tastes musty, old, and unused, with a metallic quality you have never experienced before.

You and your cohorts are the ones on the platform.

Gelein remains silent for the moment, letting Shiqos know to do the same. He simply observes the others.

"Are you okay?" Xara quietly asks Fritz and Trig, then she turns to Hase and Derric to ask the same thing, keeping Fritz and Trig close at hand.

Sustos, feeling immense sorrow bows his head in shame for not being able to help the citizens of Absalom. He looks around to the people now in the presence and speaks.

"If you have seen what I have seen then you are aware of how urgent our situation is. If you would, help me to find and crush this great evil."

I'm sure I would know by name but not by looks so as of know he doesn't know that the room if filled with the most powerful heroes of the land.

Hase does his best not to look convey how shaken and horrified he is.
"I'll be... I'm okay. How're you? You've got more experience than me. Do you have any idea what in the Abyss that was?"

so much for introductions...

The lot of you stand there, each upon a mound of rubble, staring at each other. Those of you with magical effects up feel like the effects are dimmed, not as potent as you expect. Gelein's robes only seem to see half as far, defensive spells seem to be less effective.

A minute after your arrival one of the metallic plates against the wall, about 500' from the center of the platform, and midway between each end of the oval cavern, irises open.

Light shines from with in a tunnel behind the opening. A figure stands in teh doorway and beckons with one hand.

Hase blinks in the new light, still stunned by what has happened. He glances around at the people around him.
"Do we?" he starts to ask, then stops, catches himself and strides briskly towards the figure, trying to look confident.
"I am Hase. Are you the one who sent me the invitation?"

I think that everybody is still a bit overwhelmed by the events of the last 24 seconds. They're 20th-level, but they still haven't seen everything!

Xara, keeping Fritz and Trig close, for the comfort more than anything, also approaches the mysterious figure (unconsciously keeping Hase between the figure and herself).

I don't have to run faster than the bear...

Gelein does not make the first move in social settings. Go figure ;P

Gelein and Shiqos move towards the figure but keep ready. He was getting tired of these mellow dramatic antics. His temple was attacked and the planes were being twisted, did whatever summoned him even care. He had yet to see any proof of that, what he did know is it caused damage to Nethys temple. Not a good start at all in his book.

the 24 seconds was from the power-up for the transport bubbles, the trip itself took nearly an hour.

Upon approaching the figure, it looks like a rather non-descript human male of around 30 years of age. The garments he is wearing are grey in color, look to be a single piece, and look to have numerous pockets. He bows slightly when one of you gets to within 10' of him and he backs up into the opening with a wave of one hand to follow. Turning, he proceeds up the tunnel, his back to you.

The tunnel is rounded, with the bottom flattened out to provide a 10' path From the entrance of the tunnel, six lines of different colors of paint mark strips about two inches across that run off into the darkness of the tunnel ahead. Several feet into the tunnel several pipes emerge from either side and travel along the tunnel at the widest point of the tunnel, keeping them from protruding into the area of the path. The pipes are of different colors and contain markings that you do not recognize. Overhead the top of the tunnel a strip of material about a foot wide provides illumination. As you walk down the tunnel, sections of the ceiling light up about 30' in front of you, in 10' segments.

A male voice seems to emanate not from the figure in front of you, but from the ceiling, "I apologize for the bumpy ride, the @#%#$ did not accept an override to contain $#@^@**. We almost lost you but a quick influx of GE@_!**#$ stabilized your matrix. Please follow Guide and we can discuss things, in person, as you say."

Hase stops for a second, and turns to those following him.

"I missed a few words there. Did anyone follow all that? I think something went wrong with getting us here. All but slagged the Academy. Hopefully Derric's quick thinking saved people."

I should have done something. I guess Derric's just more experienced than me at this.

"Also, forgive me, but who the Abyss are you?" this last directed to Sustos Figure I'd know the names, but might not recognise the aces. Gelein - have we met in our history? I know we talked about it...

@Hase
Depends on you, we talked about Hase visiting Gelein at one point when he was younger. But never settled on anything, regardless I doubt Gelein would remember you, just not his nature to remember everyone he meets. ;)

Sure, I would have been some annoying newb 5 levels lower than you. But you would have been lime Elmister to me :)

"I am the Living Monolith Sustos Jaafkair. My duties were to protect the people of this land, but that was many a year ago. It appears that I, we, will have to take to this duty again."

He pauses as he thinks to himself.

"I am a fighter in my own right and have been blessed by the goddess Pharasma with divine power. I shall be a formidable ally to you and this group of heroes."

"I am Xara Ozolins. These are my companions Fritz and Trig. I have heard your name Sustos. Glad to have a skilled warrior with us."

She glances at Fritz for the briefest of moments, and allows herself the smallest of smiles before the gravity of the situation returns to her mind.

While belated introductions continue, Guide continues along the corridor. Before long you determine that the corridor is curved, looking before and after you (if you have darkvision), it seems as if you are on the op of a gentle hill and as much as you expect you should be walking down, you feel as if you are walking level.

You also notice (with darkvision) that while walking down the corridor, just before a segment of lights comes on a barrier irises open before you enter, and then closes after the light turns off behind you. The barriers appear to be about every 100 feet.

At various times what you guess to be doors, are located in either wall, the majority in the right wall. After passing through three barriers, the fourth opens in front of you. This section of the corridor is much different as it is bathed in an orange glow streaming in from the left wall ahead of you.

Hase talks to Guide
"Are we outside the conventional timestream?"

Guide stops, and with an uncanny economy of motion turns to address Haze, "Please follow me to conference room 12F. Overseer is waiting for your presence there."

Entering the next section of corridor, the orange glow is light coming through a section of the wall that is transparent.

The view through the window shows what you can only describe as a devastated landscape. No plants or animals of any kind. The ground is broken rock, greyish in color. The horizon is a crisp line between the broken ground and the sky.

And then there is the sky, taking up nearly a third of the visible sky is a giant orange and yellow object that is emitting the light. Several black spots are visible gliding across the surface.

Hase breaks step for a moment

"What" he asks quietly "Is that?"

Guide stops and turns to Hase "That is the gas giant Xergius. Please follow to conference room 12F."

He thinks on the name.

Knowledge: Nature/planes 1d20 + 36 ⇒ (3) + 36 = 39

Xara gazes about, taking it all in. As they examine the view out the window, she comments simply, "This place is &@$&ed."

The name means nothing to any of you. Moving on?

"I've never heard of Xergius"
Unconsciously Hase steps closer to Xara as they move into the 'conference room'

The party continues past the window down the corridor when Guide stops before a doorway in the wall. A blue line in the floor leads to the door.

Guide stops beside the door and turns to face you as the door opens, "you may address Overseer within. Refreshments have been provided."

And with these words, the hatchway opens and Guide bows slightly with a hand directing you into the darkened room.

A light appears overhead just inside the doorway. In it's light you can see a large conference table stretching into the distance, easily able to sit a few dozen people.

Near the far end several small lights snap on, each shining at one of the seats. A larger seat sits in shadow at the head of the table.

Another light snaps on over several counters along the left wall, displaying several platters of foods and bowls of beverages laid out.

Dim lights slowly increase their lighting along the corners running down the room bringing the rest of the room into a soft lighting. The walls are lined with paintings interspersed with blackened windows.

"This is surreal." Hase mutters, wandering over to the refreshments.

"I've been around on Golarion and a bunch of different planes, and I've never seen doors or lights or windows or chairs like these. This is completely alien. I just hope we don't come to find out that Guide and his friends are behind this whole thing."

A voice issues from the direction of the head of the table, where a figure now sits in the chair. "You have been called to offer you an opportunity to save your world. Please take your seats and we may begin the briefing."

You could have sworn that seat was empty when you entered the room.

When you settle down on the table you see that there is a very light layer of dusting, as if the room has been empty for several days.

When you sit, the chair molds itself to your frame, raising or lowering for an ideal leg height, stretching or shrinking to accommodate torso length and width.

"Like I said: &$@&ed," Xara mutters as the chair gets as fresh with her as Fritz after a night out with the Cayleans.

"I'm glad to be given this chance, Overseer I presume?"

Hase abandons the refreshments and sits at the table.

Feel free to interject, interrupt, ask questions at any point along the way. Can I also get a recap of what spells or effects were active at the time of arrival.

The figure in the chair at the head of the table appears to be an older gentleman, dark hair peppered with grey, clean-shaven and stately. His style of clothing is unusual, but you figure it must be a uniform of some sort.

Once everyone is situated in chairs around the table, the lights at the end of the room near the door you entered dim while those at your end rise to a comfortable level. The six darkened windows lining the walls on both sides of the room flicker with light and turn bright. Through the windows are views of city streets, it takes but a moment for you to realize that it's Absalom. Another moment and you realize that you are looking at parts of the city that are not visible from each other.

"I will dispense with pleasantries, I rather doubt any of you want to be here. The world you know as Golarion is on a path to destruction." The windows zoom out from Absalom into a view of the planet. As the images zoom out, they merge, showing the same image on each screen. Energetic cracks appear as the image continues to shift. The energy cracks you had seen appearing in the sky now circle the globe in a net. The image shows clouds moving quickly across the globe, as if the divination was showing a lot of elapsed time. You aren't aware of any spells that can do that, but you realize that it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to...

As you watch, the energy net begins to constrict and shrink, passing through the surface of the planet. Steam billows up where the energy touched water, trees catch fire in forests and plains ignite. Mountains collapse as the energy sheers through them. After a few seconds the cracks start glowing red before the planet explodes.

The image reverts back to the view of Absalom. "That is what happens in 30 days, local subjective time." You feel rumbling under you, it grows in intensity, as the ground shakes in a sudden earthquake. The quake is strong enough to knock several platters off the counters, scattering food across the floor. The man at the end of the table remains nonplussed and stable throughout the quake. "My apologies, there is no immediate danger from the quakes, they are expected, and have been taken into consideration."

As the rumbles die off, a small machine pops out of a cupboard and scurries across the floor scooping everything up under it before darting back into the cupboard.

"There is a time when everything must end. Golarion's time is too soon. The gods of your universe, as in a multitude of other universes, often find themselves waging an unending war between good and evil, law and chaos, the small end of an egg or the large end, there are always opposed factions. But in this case, two factions have come across capabilities that each thinks will provide them with a winning scenario. Unfortunately, it will destroy your world. And the consequences of that destruction will ripple out across your universe creating an imbalance that can not be righted. This will have an associative causal effect on other universes."

The windows on the walls change to show different landscapes, some of them you recognize as Golarion, others you don't. Each stays for about a minute before changing.

"And that brings us to you. You are going to have to stop the war. I can't tell you how, there are several different methods you could employ, each with its own benefits, and consequences. My involvement fast approaches the limit of what can be done by outside forces before other solutions present themselves. Our time here runs short. I expect that you have a few questions. Ask and I will answer those I can."