"Getting in there is going to be a tight squeeze for Lorthan, Olympus and me," Ryli whispers. "If you think I've got the time, I could shrink Olympus down to a statue, then Wild Shape to something smaller to get through the fissure."
After looking into the room again, Eugeni retreats back out of earshot of the strange beings. He then addresses the group.
"They are working on a portal that leads back in time to ancient Xin-Shalast. I can only assume they are doing this because it would benefit their desire for slaves and also because Karzoug asked them to. Having the ability to travel back in time to the height of his power would give him incalculable advantages if he manages to make it back here, now. I conclude we should kill the outsiders in order to prevent this possibility from occurring."
Zoli's eyes go wide. To actually, truly get to visit the wonder and horror of ancient Xin-Shalast first hand. Maybe we don't need to destroy it completely, maybe just disable it...
She shakes the fantasy from her head. No, the risk is too great.
"Eugeni, I suppose you're right.
"Ayruzi, I liked your hopeful thought that we consider leaving them be. Certainly, it's not our job to attack every evil being in the multiverse...but just as certainly, we can't let them create a portal into ancient Xin-Shalast. As awesome as that would be to get to visit and experience, Eugeni's right about how much more power it would give Karzoug.
"Do we go and demand that they cease or suffer the consequences? Can we trust them? I suspect our only way to end this will be with the blade, but I'd love to be proven wrong."
"Considering the immediacy of Karzoug's return, whatever we do must be done quickly."
For a moment, it appears that Jeevika is willing to walk away... and then Eugeni reveals what the portal does!
"...I've heard enough," growls the Holy Vindicator as she swiftly stashes her chalkboard and chalk. "I know how these creatures operate. We can't trust them. They won't stop if we just politely ask them!"
With her piece said, Jeevika vanishes from sight, draws her sword, and silently moves to attack the nearest Denizen...
plus
Seeing that Jeevika's mind is now set in stone, Elthariel quickly casts another Abundant Ammo spell and prepares herself to offer ranged support. While her friend's sudden fury is quite startling and intense, the ancient ranger sees no reason not to support the Holy Vindicator in her efforts to foil Karzoug's plans. After all, Elthariel and Lorthan had lost much beloved friends to the Greedy Runelord and his associates...
"Oooo. OK, um, I guess that's settled then." Zoli shrugs and smiles at Ayruzi. "Shall we?"
Zoli follows Setsu's Angry Mama into battle, attacking one and then getting ready to parry (as Lion chirps helpful warnings from her shoulder).
AC 48 (+2 vs 2nd and 3rd attacks against her)
HP 148/148
Luck 13/20
Panache 5/5
Charmed Life 6/6
Luck o’ the Scene 1/1
Lessons of Chaldira 1/1
Lion's HP 74/74
Active effects
Haste
Eugeni hastens his companions' actions as they move to attack.
As the group begins to easily slaughter the beings from Leng, the device flashes with light and emits a strange high-pitched whine. The image in the window shifts, growing distorted and warped. Eugeni suddenly realizes that the image of ancient Xin Shalast is merely an illusion. "I have a feeling that when we kill these something much worse might come through the unstable portal they leave behind. Perhaps we should just knock them unconscious instead..."
"...You know what? That's not a bad idea; we can just toss them in those prison cells afterwards," agrees Jeevika. She quickly switches to nonlethal attacks as needed.
When that proves to be fruitless and just triggers the same phenomenon, Jeevika growls in annoyance and gets back to dispatching them.
"Eugeni, just nuke whatever comes through the portal."
Jeevika leads the charge of a zealous assault on these beings. With each death, the image in the window shifts, growing distorted and warped. With the last denizen slain, the image vanishes altogether, transforming into a gut-churning vortex of spinning lights and sheets of energy.
...and then...
...nothing.
"It occurs to me that we can simply repair the wall and then leave this chamber be. I have no idea what that tear in spacetime is, but there are very few creatures who could access this place through the main door; or who have adamantine weapons to hack through the wall with."
"I agree with that plan," says Jeevika, her expression difficult to decipher. "In fact, before we learned that KOing those fools was pointless, I was going to suggest something similar."
Zoli says "Hang on a sec, I've got an idea!" and then pops back out into the hall to, chat with Ayruzi.
"Hey Beautiful, you can tell if someone's lying, right? Can you squeeze into the room for a sec. I think you might be able to help us discern whether it'll be worse to let them continue or to stop them."
Zoli and Ayruzi reenter and see a blood-soaked Jeevika standing over a pile of corpses. "Ok, now that Ayruzi is here, let's give them a chance to expla...oh."
Seeing that Jeevika was a bit... distant at the moment, Elthariel decides to speak on her behalf.
"According to Eugeni, they were building the Runelord of Greed some sort of... doomsday machine, and they refused to cease their work. All of Karzoug's minions and allies have proven to be terrible individuals. Ordikon. Khalib. The Red Wizards. Leaving these creatures to their own devices just wasn't an option," says Elthariel as she recharges her Abundant Ammo spells with her Pearls of Power.
Jeevika stares blankly at the portal for a moment and then turns to the others.
"There's no reason to here any longer. Karzoug's return is mere hours away, and unless this contraption was the means of that, we're no closer to stopping him than when we arrived. Let's keep looking; there seems to be another wing to east."
Without another word, Jeevika starts making her way for the exit.
Ryli looks at Olympus and Lorthan, both of whom appear glad that they did not have to squeeze into the room, and shrugs.
"Very well," she says softly and starts to follow Jeevika, her hooves clopping lightly on the opulent floor.
Eugeni glides silently out, sparing no more thought for the dead.
As the Rangers make their way back through the Pinnacle and into the throne room, a blood chilling howl can be heard echoing throughout the complex...emanating from behind them!
"Oh buttered bulettes! Eugeni, any idea what that thing is?"
Ryli considers her extensive knowledge of the natural world and its creatures.
"The monster I predicted would appear earlier? I may have been mistaken about the timing, but I imagine it is something from Leng. Perhaps a Leng Hound? If it is, we should protect our ears. Their howls can be devastating..."
"No creature of this world makes a howl like that." Ryli frowns, standing ready, but finding her thoughts straying to Kallie and Brognar.
"...We should probably investigate," says Jeevika with a sigh. "If we keep pressing forward, then it might attack us from the back, which we recent saw could be the end of our misadventures."
Ayruzi spins his sword around and braces for attack. Ameiko also raises her shield and readies to defend herself. Lorthan digs his claws into the gilded floor.
Elthariel, however, says ”Maybe we hide and see what it is? Elven tactics generally involve studying our foe and seeing if it is in need to truly engage. Has helped us survive for millennia...”
"I agree that we should investigate. I also think it would be prudent to set an ambush and wait for it to find us. Why not just wait a bit and see what happens?"
Zoli purses her lips. "How long will this take away from our race to stop Karzoug's return?"
Shaking her head and shrugging, she adds, "I mean, I guess we've gotta either way. If we don't, whatever beast that is is bound to appear behind us at exactly the wrong moment.
"Can anyone scry back toward it? If not, maybe we walk back a bit, watching and listening. Jeeves and I can walk invisibly, a bit in front."
"Given our strength and numbers, I doubt that any battle against the beast would take more than a few minutes if we confront it soon," Jeevika says to Zoli. The Holy Vindicator nods at Eugeni's plan. "An ambush sounds good. Elthariel, find some place to take cover."
The group sets up their ambush, with those unable to turn invisible waiting in a side chamber, while those that can spreading around the throne room. Then, the group sees from the hall they just vacated, a roiling cloud of smoke methodically advancing and filling the area around the entrance to the chamber they are in...but nothing else...
...Time to summon some bait.
Recalling Khalib's ambush, Jeevika decides to take a page from his spellbook and begins to summon a distraction...
Rex the Tyrannosaurus manifests and begins sniffing the air.
"Search for the entity inside that fog and attack it," orders the Herald Caller, using her divine connection to the dinosaur to communicate with him.
The celestial beast roars and lumbers into the fog.
As her summon moves to engage their enemy, Jeevika looks over at Elthariel, who appears quite frustrated that she can't use her bow.
...Wait, what if that fog is magical? Mokmurian used something similar, and Setsuna dispelled it...
Jeevika sighs and gets ready to burn one of her two prepared Dispel Magics... and then recalls that Ayruzi can practically cast said spell at will!
"Ayruzi! Dispel the fog!"
The Planetar nods and prepares to work some magic.
For the next several seconds, the T-Rex and the hidden foe trade devastating blows. Meanwhile, Ayruzi continuously dispels the fog, bit by bit. Jeevika is very happy that she asked her angelic ally for help; her suggestion quickly yields fruit.
However, while her celestial summon hits incredibly hard, he can only bite so often. Meanwhile, their enemy seems to have multiple methods of attack. The rain of blows almost drops Rex several times, but Jeevika decides to commit some resources to keeping him in the game.
Finally, Ayruzi dispels the last layer of fog, revealing some sort of... hound.
Ayruzi and Elthariel promptly enter the battle, and it is soon over. The Planetar uses celestial fire and steel. Highly specialized in slaying evil outsiders, Elthariel fills the hound with arrows, and she ultimately slays her beast with a perfect shot in the eye.
As the creature's corpse hits the ground, Jeevika utters a sigh of relief. Her plan worked. It needed a couple of bandages to limp to the finish line, but it worked.
The Rangers continue on, passing by where Xamarath was slain. Ameiko pauses beside it briefly, but continues on stoically. Ayruzi seems to notice her sadness, and places a hand on her shoulder. Giving her wounds, he then provides her some healing as the group walks.
Eventually, you come to an open double door that leads into another passage. Within this room is a large number of doors sized for giants.
Jeevika goes off exploring and returns some time later.
"Most of the immediate rooms are empty stasis chambers. I also found Khalib's study; he didn't appear to know much more about how Karzoug intends to return than we do. Finally, there's this bigger room just south of us with some kind of golden mist. Eugeni, perhaps you could apply your big brain once more and figure out what's going on? I saw... figures in there."
"Sure, I can take a look."
Eugeni can tell that it is a one way portal to some other location, but he is unable to determine where.
"Ooooh, how can you not want to poke through and see what's over there?!?
"We should really see what else there is to find here though, first."
Zoli (and Jeeves if she wishes) will scout a bit ahead, invisibly.
The group steadily advances past the rows of Stasis Chambers. Eventually the hallway opens into a larger room. A 20-foot-tall golden statue of Karzoug, Runelord of Greed, stands in the southern portion of this chamber, his hands before him as if they may have once held an object between them. A brazier stands before the statue, plumes of smokeless fire churning inside of it. North of the statue stands a stone pagoda-like structure, a single opening in its southern face revealing two smaller statues of Karzoug within, on either side of a twenty- foot-long sarcophagus bearing the likeness of the runelord on its golden lid. To the west, a massive pair of golden double doors shimmers behind a hazy screen of golden energy.
Jeevika takes a moment to survey the room.
Once finished, she helps Eugeni discern the screen of golden energy.
"This guy really likes his gold, eh Eugeni? I'm probably totally wrong, but I think this might be..."
Ayruzi’s head suddenly snaps in the direction of the pagoda, and he tightens his grip on his blade. ”Mortals! Beware!”
Moments later, a pair of massive creatures over thirty feet tall appear floating in the room! They look like a hellish blend of bear, insect, wolf, and reptile all taken humanoid form!
Ameiko raises her sword and shield defensively, while Ayruzi quickly rushes forward to engage the beast! As he moves, the creature snaps at him with its jaws, tearing into him viciously! ”Uuuhhh...” Ayruzi groans as he seems to wither a bit at the injury. Nevertheless, he swings his blade at the monster, but his blade fails to penetrate the creatures thick hide!
__________
Ryli whistles to Olympus, who stretches out his wings. "Zoli! Would you like a ride?"
She then starts chanting, bringing in a creature from the natural world.
Lorthan breathes a cloud of paralytic gas at the creature!
"Thanks, don't mind if I do!"
As Olympus flies near, Zoli tumbles through the air, landing effortlessly on his back.
She makes several lightning-quick slashes at the demon, but finds herself a little off-kilter on Olympus's back and misses a couple swings she should've made.
________
The monstrosity in the rear floats forward and lashes out at Ayruzi, managing to wound him with one of its claws.
_________