Eruander, after orienting himself from Rollo's dimension door, rips Toric out of the claws of the red love-mantis. walks 60' toward the entrance of Cucurai area and holds Toric protectively. The aroused insect stays close, not able to grab the satyr but still attempting shower him with kisses...
Eruander comments "Toric, something's going on, you've taken on reddish tint...: And it's visible, it seems Toric has absorbed a dose of the red liquid.
Just so you know, I *am* very angry with you, Terexaltherin 'says' to the satyr as he flies towards him.
When he gets close, the little dragon darts into some cover, hiding and drawing his wand.
Eruander comments "Toric, something's going on, you've taken on reddish tint...: And it's visible, it seems Toric has absorbed a dose of the red liquid.
::Aw crap. Looks like I got to much 'love' on me. Well, i guess i show this lady I'm a fighter AND a lover!::
Gift ports to the Cucurai area she has no intention of being eaten.
Not the time! Terexaltherin shoots back to 'Toric'.
He turns his thoughts to the whole group. Okay, so we need to figure out a way to extract the 'liquid' that Strandel absorbed--Gift, too, for that matter--and return it to where it came from with as little disruption as possible. We also probably *don't* want to kill this creature if we can help it. So, ideas on how to extract the liquids without extracting blood at the same time?
He thinks about any magical methods that might be at their current disposal.
::If I gotta bleed, I gotta bleed.:: Toric says over the hivemind. :I got a decent regeneration. I'd rather bleed than lose my head over a girl::
Gift has not waited to be fed or bled, she has gone to the land of the Cucurai. By all means experiment on Toric until you have the procedure right. Hehe
Azzim had been very distracted by events and sighed, "I guess we should find a way to remove this red 'liquid' whatever it is... Something could easily happen to any one of us."
He cast a minor spell to sharpen his focus before considering the issue.
Rollo cast Mirage Arcana to change the environment to what they know to look like the Cucurai 's!
Gift went to
Planes Shift
Psychoport
Fold space.
"Bloody space! can't shift!!"
She was losing her temper, she did not want to get 'drunk' or 'sapped'
She jumped into the are, flight, moving at speed, her defenses up,
She had 360 vision ongoing and battle scenes. If anything came at her it would be toast. Her eyes blazing she went to see the pandimenial holographic Bott wholes that ran thing pony show.
::"Cucurai!!, wakey wakey!"::
One afternoon, in The Brighthammer Household, in Sigil, Arlo is working on a small order of light hammers for an upcoming dwarven children's party, when the FDPA (Front Door Proximity Alarm) chimes. Instinctively, the dwarven weaponsmith looks up at the nearby monitor to see two familiar faces, Bethia and Cordelia from The Organization. With it's 4K resolution, both ladies' faces show trepidation and worry.
Arlo drops his work and rushes through the house to the front door, thinking the worst. The Former Hero of Žemėia rushes past his twin sons, playing in a pen, watching their father run by them curious.
The paladin opens the front door and yells, "Security Guns, power down!" The deadly mechanism whines down, pointing away from the entrance.
"What is it?! What happened to GIFT?!!" Arlo pleads, fearful of the answer.
"All Intel says GIFT is fine, but she's still on a mission", Bethia explains.
The dwarf's brow lowers with suspicion. "Then why are you here?"
"May we come inside. This is not for the public", Cordelia states.
Arlo walks both agents inside his family home/business. Belgrim and Beldrun look up as their father passes by again, giving them head pats as he past, with two visitors. Arlo directs Bethia and Cordelia to one of their kitchens, a modern marvel of futuretech.
"You two want coffee?" Arlo asks. Both agree. The dwarf taps a small screen on the wall twice. In a few seconds, two nondescript mugs full with hot coffee appear from a sideway panel in the wall.
As soon as the dwarf host distributes the mugs, Bethia began.
"Arlo. We need you back. The Organization needs you back."
"Why?!" Arlo barked.
Both visitors look at each other, sipping coffee. "It's about the Intel we mentioned", Cordelia answered. The fey looked far more serious than she normally looked.
"Your original team is in shambles", Bethia added. "Our intel said the current mission was in jeopardy by infighting between teammates."
"I'm not no GODS-DAMNED babysitter", Arlo spat! "What?! Who's been fighting?!"
"GIFT and our newest recruit, Strandel. A satyr."
Arlo's eyes darted around the kitchen. "Teammates fight some of the time. The work is hard. Nerves gets frayed. People lash."
"We decided to ..reassign Strandel to a less..crucial part of The Organization. Something more..customer service oriented."
"We need the dwarven paladin back. OUR dwarven paladin", Cordelia pleaded.
"I'm retired. I've done my share! I'm a family man and craftsman! I make swords, not swing them."
"Arlo, we are reaching a crucial step with the Dark Traders.."
"DON'T MENTION THEIR FU<KING NAMES IN MY HOUSE!!" The elder Brighthammer roared.
"ARLO!" Cordelia roared back, but Bethia put a hand on her partner's shoulder.
"Arlo", Bethia continued, "We might actually have ..them on the run this time! We are close! Arlo. Even at your most drunken and drug-addled, you were our best operative! The Operation needs it's Hero back!"
Both ladies got up from the table in unison. "Thank you for hearing us out. You know where to reach us." Arlo sat and listens to Bethia and Cordelia make their own way out.
Arlo sat at the kitchen table, quiet and in deep reflection. After a while, the dwarf speaks aloud, "You get all that?"
Lyra Brighthammer appears in the kitchen doorway, having turned off her wrist-mounted stealth display.
"Please don't, my love." Lyra said calmly enough, but her voice was full of desperate emotion. I love you and I love having my husband home where I can see him and be safe in his arms every night. Between our businesses and our technical advantage, we live very comfortable lives, Arlo. Don't go."
Arlo blinked. For a moment, the dwarf could swear the holy symbol of Mordadin hung extra heavy from his neck for an instant.
The family man just stared at the pattern of the kitchen tablecloth.
"GIFT is a grown woman now and can live her own life the way she wants. Even if it's following in our dangerous footsteps. She doesn't need her father to shadow her on missions, no matter how crazy."
Arlo mumbled. "Even if it's to make sure she makes it home to us?"
The dwarf didn't have to look up to known Lyra pounded her fist on the doorframe, her head soon resting on her fist. In a voice dripping with sorrow, Lyra reinterated "Arlo, don't go.."
"Jeg har blitt oppringt. Jeg må svare. Alltid."
Without looking up, Arlo hears the retreating steps of his beloved wife, soon to be followed by a hushed sob.
The dwarf finally lifts his head to look out into the next room. The Arlosword, hung on the wall in it's mantle piece, awaiting it's next adventure.
Lyra stood looking at the boy, Gift had fixed the time slip, she had no idea how, but a few days ago, then just went back to how they should have been. This is what worried her. She did not want to lose her child and her husband. But Arlo had a point, Gift had to get back well and sound. she stopped crying and wiped her tears away. she walked back to find him. He was standing looking at his sword. She came up silently and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I don't want you to go, but I know you will. go find Gift and check she is ok. Most of all bring yourself and her back safe. That is all I have to say on this Arlo. I am going to take the boys out, keep safe.'
She left him to get ready. After he had packed, he found a lunch packed on the table with a small round device, labeled. In case of need activate.
Gift, no! We're not ready, and chances are they'd just sic their insects on you to drain the fluid! Let's figure out a different way to get that fluid out! Terexaltherin 'shouts' in panic when he hears Gift.
At headquarters... The spire.... Bethia struggles with the planar machinery... "After the last communication, I know the approximate location of the team and their, uh, disposition but the entire dream is in an uproar and bringing anyone in will be a challenge... I can send you as close as I can but it's going to uncertain...You'll have to use raw will and keep an image of Gift in your mind." Arlo can see the "knot" Bethia describes - it looks like an ever-renewing toxic waste fire affecting several shattered planes. Strangely, he can see a small but similar knot around himself and Lyra's timeline...
Gift flies to the edge of Cucurai's central arena, manages to find a hole in the vines blocking it and goes inside. The hole closes tightly behind her. She finds herself in complete silence, surrounded by the mysterious Cucurai, who appear now as they did earlier in the dreamscape, white, large, curvilinear flowers surrounded by fog and projecting a variety of image. This time they project only images from Gift's past and possible futures and she can feel an offer being projected - give back the energy she's absorbed and they will fix the timeline she and her family are on....
Outside Toric draws a bit of blood from the Red love mantis (blood that is, oddly, green) and the mantis again fails to contact with him.
The hive mind goes down for the rest of party the moment Gift goes through to Cucurai greeting area. Sound also doesn't seem to carry between the areas.
Eruander using his own telepathic ability, sends "My friend I believe we are now firmly on my Plan B. I will cause chaos for the Cucurai, you will burst through to our flower friends and make them an offer they cannot refuse - go back home or suffer here. We will probably have to clean up a planar storm at the end of this but so be it... Satyr, hold onto to your blood for now, it is now a bargaining chip...
Eruander strengthens Rollo's mirage so the party members resemble Cucurai in energy and appearance with the thought this will aid the party's assault.
Leander seems a bit disoriented by the turn of events and sends back weaklyg "Very well, onto the arena...
Also Azzim carefully observes the Cucurai while things are unfolding. It seems to him the huge complex has been built to harvest energy from dreams and the party's various actions has significantly disrupted these activities. This may be enough to convince the Cucurai to accept the party's offer to relocate or it might cause Cucurai to send more resources against the party - and no doubt what's happening now is disrupting some number of nearby planes...
Gift is a little shocked and relieved she made it to the Cucurai but then the proposal shocked her. She focused, she could not keep this anger at bay for long and the calmness she had taken in was sapping her will.
She looked at her inner world and the being there. Her own privet hive was active, and there on the shore of the sea stood everyone she held. They all nodded as one.
One thing she did do was break of part of her mind to remember the images the Cucurai were sending of her future and past. They were higher dimensional beings, and what they raw real or not was important.
But she held back, taking the offer. She sent what images she had of their home plane, and of journeys of going home. Then of trade, of what she had in her as trade for them going home. And in doing so fixing her parents time line
"I offer my own thoughts of GIFT to help stabilize your casting", Arlo barks over the tumult. Worries for his daughter, The elder Brighthammer steps through.
"Is that wise?" Azzim called after Gift as she repeatedly tried to plane shift.
To Eruander's proposal Azzim replied softly, "I dislike plan B, our strife has agitated the Cucurai and this risks agitating them even more. What happens here in echos on other planes, we must tread carefully lest we find we've stepped on something, breaking it in the process."
With a sigh Azzim came to the conclusion it really was too late for plan A, besides the Cucurai themselves where beings of chaos, perhaps this was like waking from an eons long slumber for them?
To Strandel, Azzim suggested, "They mean to rouse the Cucurai, but the mood in here is sour! Not the best way to wake up eh? Think of this like an exclusive gig with a difficult audience. What we need is the other side of Strandel, Strandel the bard! Rollo's already preparing the way with his spells, lets see if music really does transcend language! Can Jungle Bloom sing them a song of returning home? Sounds impossible right? Well impossible's your middle name. Look here's the coordinates we know of..., try and work them in somehow."
"Azzim. You're alright." The satyr said frankly.
Toric (Strandel) sheathed his sword and held his panpipe and began to play.
Yeah, if there's any chance yet of a peaceful resolution, we should try it, Terexaltherin agrees.
He adds his 'song' to the others', trying to work in the suggestion of an offer to his thoughts.
Rollo grins.
All aboard!
So, as Toric manages mostly to highten the Red Mantis' love impulses, Terex provides a calm yet triumphal psionic entrance song for the party to enter the Cucurai's greeting as Rollo easily overcomes the area's entrance guards...
Eruander chooses to stay behind, however, "Azzim is correct, we must calm things, I will do that here while you bargain..." and he indeed manages to send ripples of calm through the plant life in the entire Cucurai area while the Red Mantis buzzes about in search of Toric (but not able to enter the greeting area")...
As the party enters the greeting area, the images projected to Gift halt and the Cucurai flowers project a mirror like calm. Leander sends telepathically (in a careful telepathic whisper) ::This is the state they go into when they are asking a petitioner to state their case. Now would be the time to make our offer - or your offer
::"They wish the liquids I have stored and will exchange for fixing my family problems."::
Terexaltherin is startled by the sudden teleportation, but he maintains his focus on his thoughtsong. Thinking quickly, he modifies what he'd planned earlier. He also wordlessly reaches out to his companions to let them know he's open to modifications.
He begins with what they want. He transmits images of the Ancients seeding the planes, combined with images of the planes themselves. He sneaks in an image He links these images to a book, that the Cucurai give to him and his companions.
Then he focuses on Gift, and her family. He depicts the tangled knot of time coming untied and growing smooth.
Last, their offer. First he pictures the fluids that Gift and Strandel had absorbed being returned. Then he presents their greater offer--he pictures himself holding up a glowing stone. From that stone springs a pathway, which leads to a represntation of a 'holographic realm', the best he can picture of the Cucurai's true home. The light from his stone shines out to the Cucurai, and they become sparks of light that travel down the pathway and appear in the holographic realm.
This he ties back to the images he'd displayed before, the book and Gift's family.
The little dragon lets the images fade, hoping he's gotten the offer across.
Rollo will create a visual narrative of Terex' monolog with Mirage Arcana and Major Image spells.
Azzim tried to assist Terexaltherin by visualising mathematical equations in at least for different forms, the planar coordinates for the Cucurai's home dimension.
So you are in the center of the greeting area, surrounded the Cucurai, who look most like fat white lilies 20-30' high, drifting in a fog with and showing shifting holograms within their petals that catch and dazzle the eyes...
Terex initially states the plan but the flowers seem to not quite understand his narration. However. with Rollo's display and some tweaks from Azzim and Leander, a majority of Cucurai flowers seem understand the offer and react positively to it... to the return especially... indeed they offer some of their stored tokens to aid the return... but still some number of the dream flowers are not responding and it's not clear how the group makes decisions...
Meanwhile, as Terex outlines the offer, <Shimmer> extends its senses to the Cucurai and their dimensional properties and heritage. With their cooperation (and maybe without it), it could send them back to their world and it would be able to go from their strange plane to it's own even stranger plane... Terex can sense an eagerness in the thing he's never felt before. However, to power this transfer, it would need the fluids in the Strandel and Gift as well as the Cucurai's tokens...
Gift knew she did not have much time, moments even before she lost control so reached out her mind, and mind grabed Strandel.
::"Listen here Strandel, not matter how we.., sorry I feel about you,, right now we need you so get ready because I'm about to rip all that love liquid out of you and use it with the stuff I have to Juce one hell of a planes shift. So pucker up buttercup, because things are about to get real!!!"::
She then links herself and Strandel to Terexaltherin and from Terexaltherin to Shimmer the link was made now others needed to make this work.
The satyr feels the mindhive reestablish. ::Oh crap..
Toric tries to assist GIFT.
Arlo Brighthammer tries to go through GIFT's and Strandel's bull$hit.
Azzim glanced at Strandel with concern as the Satyr's eyes glazed over and he attempted something.
He made a strange gesture and attempted to intercede with the strands of fate to give him a better chance of success.
Leander send to Terex ::We should just send these flowers away now, we have power, things seem too volatile to wait, Gift could explode, the dissenting flowers could do something, the outside could explode...
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As soon as Strandel agrees, Gift started to pull the red liquid from him it was slow at the start but then it was a torrent. She was not at all Gentail she did it the most efficient way she could, she ripped it from him. Not just the liquid but she had open access to his mind, she took his lust, his love, his feeling of attraction, she took it all. Rinning him dry like a sponge, of all feelings.
She kept the three parts separate. Now her training kicked in, Autohypnosis is not just a skill its an art, is the ability to focus one's mind to a single point a single action. All her active power dropped as she put all of her minds to this one task. A normal being would burn under the power that was now flowing through her. She became a singularity of thought.
She linked through Hexqill, and sent him to Terexaltherin , the Piscytal flying to him. It was getting too much now was the time.
::"Terexaltherin!! Let Hexqil touch shimmer! I will use Hexqil to spread the pain or me and Strandel will be lost."::
If he does.
The beams pour out of Gift, and into shimmer, she sent over all the liquid
and every ounce of power and feeling she and Strandel.
::
She screamed!! as she and Strandel suffered,
She used the hive mind to spread the pain and hurt.
::"NOW! Terexaltherin USE THE TOKENS!!"
And she went back to mental screaming in agony.
Outside the hive mind, Azzim knew something big was going on. A single glance at the energy surrounding Strandel was enough to tell him that, but what? He de-focused his eyes and tried to observe the castings at work (, trying to understand the process that was starting. He wondered if there was anything he could do to help, surely there was - he just had to know where to nudge...
Scanning the Cucurai complex and considering the information that <Shimmer> was giving about the Cucurai's original dimension, Azzim's guess is that the Cucurai had gradually planned transform the planes around them to resemble their bizarre home planes. The holdout Cucurai apparently still believe this is possible while the majority have given up, both because of the possibility of return and because of the limits of the efforts and the chaos the party has inflicted on the plan.
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Terexaltherin had not been idle while the others had been speaking. He'd wished to have more time, an opportunity to gain more information or to negotiate further. But it had rapidly become clear that they didn't have the time.
First, he'd asked <Shimmer> to bring Terecho out of the library, and now the two of them were holding the sapient planar shard between them, combining and focusing their wills on their goal. Now they reached out to Gift, Strandel, Azzim, Leander... they make no sign they feel the shared pain, too deeply focused on their task to allow even the slightest flinch.
With great effort, they bring <Shimmer> in to their focus, following the path that would lead the Cucurai and eventually <Shimmer> home with their minds. In concert with <Shimmer> they begin to open the pathway, then reach suddenly out to the tokens of the Cucurai, yanking the power they needed out of them, and then reaching out to sieze upon the Cucurai themselves and bring them along as they 'blasted' the path open.
Even as he does so, he tries to touch the minds of the more receptive Cucurai, asking for the information they seek from them in return for the service he was rendering to them.
The Cucurai zone... after maybe forty five minutes of chaos, confusion and disruption, the party forces its way into the Cucurai's central greeting area/arena and gains their agreement to return them back to their strange home planer... then Terex aided by Rollo, Azzim, and Leander expertly wields <Shimmer> to slow this transfer process such that the dream flowers both give him a complete list of seeded planes (345 total) and seemingly fix Gift's family's time knot, and adjust the planar properties of this plane such that it doesn't explode catastrophically upon the flowers exit.... and finally <Shimmer> joins the exiting Cucurai...
The fog around the party lifts, the vines guarding the arena collapse, not longer animated, and the area outside the meeting area does a flip in a dizzying manner but once that's done, the insects shrink, the various return to roughly ordinary jungle. the noneuclidean "holes" gone and the horizon normal and Eruander gathers himself out of the folliage and salutes the party. Gift and Toric feel utterly spent but any pain done. Eruander distributes healing to all (lesser restoration and restoration to Gift and Toric mostly).
Meanwhile, the howling planar fog and chaos around Arlo lifts. He finds himself in thick, purple and orange jungle and sees a clearing on a rise about 1000' away from him, with figures that are probably the party on it...
Lyra was working in her lab when the wave of nausea hit, she dropped the glass vile she had been holding reaching out a hand to steady herself. It took a moment. Then there was a ringing at their door. Someone was here. She headed up to get it and saw her twin Girls paying. Their small forms moved to build some kind of brick keep with colored blocks. All was good with them.
It was someone from the organization to see Arlo,
They talked to Arlo and left, he did soon after.
When they had all gone she went back to the lab, something was different, something had changed but what? She lay down in the body scanner to check herself. The scan came back fine, her Android Body was working at 100% Her AI core was fine. So She stood up and headed to the Girls, they need something to eat soon. What ever it was it could not have been that important.
I'll miss you, Terexaltherin tells <Shimmer> as the ritual reaches its end.
He and Terecho are perfectly still for a few moments after the Cucurai and <Shimmer> vanish... and then as one they topple over, Terecho ending up on top of Terexaltherin. They lay there for a moment before Terexaltherin, without moving, broadcasts, Don't worry! We're all right. We'll... get up in a few minutes here.
A brief moment later he adds, more 'quietly', My everything aches. I think my brain and my soul ache. I didn't know they could do that...
Arlo Brighthammer rushes toward the clearing. His dwarven eyes thinks he saw Rollo. And where Rollo is, GIFT isn't too far behind.
The paladin of Moradin starts to run, but then is hit with a strong nausea. Years of fighting have taught the warrior not to fight it; it must be a remnant of the planar rift. Arlo takes a minute to empty his stomach. Once that's done, he feels better physically..but something seems off. A disquiet he can't put his finger on.
All the more reason to check on GIFT. The concerned father rushes to the clearing to meet the others.
As the Hero of Žemėia quickly exits his entrance to this new plane, in the grass, Arlo's voided bowels begins to gurgle and bubble. From the puke, an ominous gas forms over the dwarven sick.
"At last...", the voice of Draxus spoke.