Baraxx floats up out of easy reach and watches all the disgusting things, waiting for the inevitable violence.
Savi flies up as well, alongside Baraxx.
“I can totally relate to hanging out with someone way bigger than you. But living under your way-bigger-friend’s fat folds? I dunno… am I being judgmental?”
Savi gives Baraxx a serious expression, or at least it’s serious for someone wearing a clown wig, a red nose, and a little maid outfit.
There are at least 40 of them. Each one takes a ration and begs for more. Some going so far as to take more, opening your packs and barrels, fishing out every last crumb of your food. While the silent ingress take all the food they can carry not a single one takes a bite to eat.
"Geez, over two pounds each? I wonder if they're just going to feed the fat one..." Nik wonders aloud.
He looks at Rinika with some concern.
"Jek, maybe keep just five pounds or so. Shouldn't take too long to get back out of where we're going... right?"
Jek withholds two days of rations for the party and helps them get the rest before sealing up the pack. "That's all I think we can spare."
The ingress continue to grasp and pry at Jek's pack while others still mime eating, they are clearly not satisfied with Jek's stinginess.
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Jek hands over the rest. "I guess we'll figure something out."
Baraxx watches the group give away all of their food, not terribly concerned with his ring and rather indifferent eating habits, as Savi flies up he looks over the things and the bigger thing and considers the horrors and grotesqueties he’d seen on the Abyss, Nine Hells and Gehenna.
”I’ve things more gross, but not many, I’ve seen many things that would drive a normal sentient insane, I don’t doubt, but no… I don’t think you are being judgmental.”
Nik wrinkles his nose. "Well, I'll be fine, anyway..." he explains, looking away and folding his arms.
With a sigh, he adds "So we're supposed to take a nap next to them, then? What did that Bariaur lady say again?"
Rinika looks at Nik as her belly starts growling. "I hope she didn't say 'don't feed them.'"
She thinks back. "No, just said to tell them where we want to go, and they'll get us there. So...we wait, I guess?"
Once you’ve surrendered every morsel of food, they very carefully carry it back to the disgustingly large ingress and force feed it. They make sure that even specks of food dropped along the way are retrieved and ingested by the giant. Then they return to you, they swarm on top of you and around you until you cannot see anything at all. You are pushed and maneuvered through a mass of flesh until you can't be sure if you’re surrounded by the ingress or somehow caught in the folds of the larger creature’s sticky, putrid flesh.
Slowly, the sensation of skin fades, and you feel as though you’ve turned to liquid and are seeping through miles and miles of rock at a rapid rate. You see nothing, you hear nothing, only the weird sensations along the way. The strange journey comes to an end when you feel as though you splash onto a hard surface, your bodies now reformed.
You’re in a small cave with three tubelike passages extending away from you. Like the rest of Pandemonium there is no natural light. Unlike the rest of it, it’s quiet here, unnervingly still. The ground you stand on is littered with the bones and skulls of humans and humanoids.
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Standing, Baraxx looks around. ”Well, that’s officially the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. And I was reared by Erinyes.”
When Jek pulls out the gold circlet from Tcian Sumere, Nik's eye's go wide.
"Jek, I'll take that. Um. It might be reacting to these bones... or maybe the wand. I'm going to... stand behind you and my shamblers just in case..."
Nik dumps the bones from Tcian Sumere with the others littering the ground before hiding behind Jek and his two shamblers. He haltingly and flinchingly dons the circlet.
“Did we just get… pooped?”
Savi wills Prestidigitation to clean herself, others, herself, herself…
Rinika yowls the whole way through and comes out shaking, muttering about "the box," but she calms down a bit once back out into the caves.
"I don’t wanna do that again."
Nik’s vision suddenly shifts, he’s on a pedestal in a cave like the one the party just entered. There is at least one exit and bones litter the ground. He cannot see but knows there is an invisible barrier blocking the exit. And he knows how to destroy the barrier, a disintegrate spell, a devotee of Kiaransalee touches the barrier in her name, bones and only bones are struck against the barrier with great force.
note to self: ask about the box later...
"Did the bones just creak?" Nik asks, suddenly very worried about the integrity of the floor.
He looks around for signs of undeath within 30'.
Nik's goggles see nothing unusual, he's likely out of range.
Baraxx watches the necromancer do necromancery things then cocks his head at the noise, ”Yes, I hear something. Let’s check it out. I’m bored already.”
Your words echo around the cavern, announcing your presence.
Standing in the center of a is a mountain of monstrous muscles, just shy of 8ft tall. She is hideously distorted and unpleasant as measured by almost any standard of beauty. Her legs are stumpy for such a stature no doubt causing her gait to be a ridiculous hobble. In her disproportionately long arms she holds a large mace with a black skull for a head. Her face is puffy ban bloated, too small eyes, and a large mouth lined with broken teeth, all topped with sweaty stringy hair. A her side is a skeleton animated from the mismatched bones that lay about this cave.
She regards you suspiciously but does not attack immediately,
Tenebrous? S&&~. He must've found the stick...
"Uh- yeah? We totally serve that guy."
"Also, thanks. That skeleton is totally part of my skeleton team. I'll take it from here."
Baraxx is going to let the necromancer stutter through a terrible lie while focusing on the demon, already preparing to fight.
To the rest of the group, he mutters, soto voce, ”It asked if we also serve Tenebrous, with wizard is saying yes. Poorly.”
The monstrous woman's bloated lips curl into a crooked smile,
The ogreish woman walks down winding path through the cavern.
As Nik stumbles through his story Baraxx coughs slightly, attempting to mask activating his ring’s keyword.
But shrugs at her words, and translates her words to the rest of the group.
Nik quirks an eyebrow as it seems the lie worked.
Though confused, he casts Command Undead and steals the skeleton like he was planning anyway.
Nik tenses up as he wonders if they can still follow her, hopefully to the sparkle stick.
before this post
Items with limited uses per day
. 1/3 Lesser Rod of Metamagic, Extend
Supernatural Abilities
. (1 at a time) Corpse Companion
. 10/10 rounds Life Sight (10' range blindsight (to detect and differentiate between living and undead creatures only))
. 9/9 Power Over Undead (30' burst; DC 19 will)
Spell-like Abilities
. 9/9 Bolster (Undead) (+3 profane on attacks and saves; 1 temp hp/HD; +2 turn resistance; 5 round duration)
. 1/1 Pyrotechnics (DC 14)
Spells Prepared:
. 5th (3+1/day) Possession (S), Undead Anatomy II, Shadow Evocation, Wall of Force
. 4th (4+1/day) Enervation (S), Black Tentacles, Dimension Door, Flaming Sphere, Greater (DC 21; +1 CL), Summon Monster 4
. 3rd (4+1/day) Vampiric Touch (S), Fireball (DC 19), Haste, Tiny Hut, Tiny Hut
. 2nd (6+1/day) Command Undead (DC 18) (S), Blur, Flaming Sphere (DC 19; +1 CL), Glitterdust (DC 18), Glitterdust (DC 18), Mirror Image, Resist Energy (+1 CL)
. 1st (6+1/day) Ray of Enfeeblement (DC 17) (S), Feather Fall, Grease (DC 17), Infernal Healing, Infernal Healing, Infernal Healing, Warp Sense (+1 CL)
. cantrips (at will) Detect Magic (+1 CL), Ghost Sound (DC 15), Mending (+1 CL), Prestidigitation
Jek takes a moment to enjoy the quiet while his grumpiness wears off.
"Alright, I suppose we should look around a bit. Do we follow her?"
"I think she'll lead us to the sparkle stick, so yeah." Nik shrugs, hoping that she doesn't know a word of common.
"Might as well follow then."
Rinika shrugs.
Savi wills some dancing lights to illuminate the path. She adjusts her sleeves, changing her costume to a glittery banana-and-turquoise-toned Disco Fairy minidress + platform shoes ensemble.
Lunk has an expression of urgency. His hands move rapidly!
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Savi complies, but must protest.
The “demon” leads you on a winding walk through the cave system. Before you on a pedestal is a three foot long iron scepter with a human skull set into one end. It sits in the center of the cave and is surrounded by an invisible wall of force.
The Testament of Worms protrudes into your thoughts, ”My master I can advise you on how to claim this relic of the past. You have only to ask.”
At this reliquary the “demon” leading you turns on her heels as the skeleton Nik claimed less than a minute ago crumbles to a simple pile of bones. She says in common this time, ”Now tell me who you really are and why you have come here.”
Savi bows politely. “First of all, names…” She does that, ending with herself, “Savi. And you are?”
She leaves time for a name, but can read a room. She’ll go on and answer the question… sort of.
“Lunk and I are entertainers. We wanted to leave our world for boring reason, and see what’s out there! We saw a big beautiful tree, some strange cities… and not gonna lie, horrifying violence too.
“But all the fun and the not-fun wars and the beauty and the ugliness… none of it will matter because of a really big stick. I mean, really big, as in planet-smashingly big.
“So be us cats or demons or fairies or kinda regular guys or not regular guys, we all have one thing in common. We don’t want the multiverse to implode. I’m not really sure who could be for that, but… well now that I’ve said all that, I certainly hope you’re not, or wouldn’t that be awkward?”
Lunk can only nod along, but if he needs to add words, he has his whispering gloves.
"Yeah, we want to save the multiverse from your boss- Which includes you- And- anything you ever liked?"
Jek attempts to help.
"Taverns? Weapon shops? Potion shops? Bars? Magic shops? Black market corpse shops? Alehouses? Gone... all gone..."
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”Wait? No more booze? The humanity! We can’t let that happen!” Baraxx adds, possibly not acting and finally realizing what the heck the group is doing.
Rinika picks at her teeth with a claw. "You do happen to live in the multiverse, so...maybe try to help us help you to save your home."
With the impassioned pleas of the group something cracks in the ogre’s facade. Her voice no longer speaks with the conviction she had before and she only says, ”He’s coming. You can’t stop him.” She vanishes in a puff of silvery light.
Nik frowns heavily as he tries to think of a thing a wizard might do.
teleportation magic could have disastrous consequences- if it even works at all... hmm- I haven't tried burrowing through this rock yet... hopefully I wouldn't somehow get stranded inside...
Nanci climbs out of Rinika's backpack having once again neatly organized its contents to its satisfaction. It knows that Rinika will throw the pack into disarray soon but relishes the chance to reestablish order. It climbs upon her shoulder speaking in the modron language.
From the gold band Nik feels the urge not to steal the relic but to destroy it, all he needs to do is touch the scepter to the gold band, he holds on his head.
Nik picks up the Testament of Worms that dangles from his third book lariat. He stares at the cover for a long second, then he looks over at Nanci.
His eyes glaze over for about a second, but it seems like forever, as he remembers the thanks he got for repairing Nanci not too ago.
Nik frowns.
Looking back at the book, his raises his other hand and slaps the cover hard; if it had been open, it would have been slammed shut.
"Not getting that." he explains, scowling.
Nik takes a deep breath and announces "I think this hat knows how to break the sparkle stick. I'm going to try to go in, but I'm not sure how to bring anyone with me."
Nik takes a deep breath.
"I think I can just burrow in and out."
Nik pauses suddenly.
"Uh-anyone else have any ideas?"
Savi replies, “Ask Lunk. He seems kinda dim, but ask the right questions and he just comes up with answers! It’s weird!”
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”Burrow? Do you need to dig? I’m pretty good at digging.” Baraxx answers, pretty confused as to where the ogre went, wondering if she teleported. Also wondering when “he” was coming and if there was going to be a fight. And with how many would he get to fight, and how long would the fight be. And how long was he going to have to wait for a decent fight.
Rinika notices Nik staring at Nansi and looks between them suspiciously.
"I think I can slip in through the shadows. What was that look about?"
Lunk starts asking questions.
#1. Does one have to dig, burrow or excavate to get to the desired sparkly stick?
"Uh- ask if this vault has a door?" Nik shrugs.
He looks at Rinika and then quickly looks away, ashamed of having entertained the idea for any amount of time.
"The talky book likes to eat things. I- I think it needs to eat so it can do helpful stuff." he shrugs, still looking away.
He shifts uncomfortably instead of finishing the explanation.
Lunk starts asking questions.
#1. Does one have to dig, burrow or excavate to get to the desired sparkly stick?
Lunk gets a sensation in his mind not words. He knows how to destroy the barrier, a disintegrate spell, a devotee of Kiaransalee touches the barrier in her name, bones and only bones are struck against the barrier with great force.
"Uh- ask if this vault has a door?" Nik shrugs.
Lunk hears nothing but silence.