We should get Narsod somewhere safer and less full of bystanders before dropping the teleportation lock, Terex suggests to the party.
To Narsod the little dragon says, Preach of the value of cooperation, of seeking to understand and help others. Teach of the search for truth and knowledge, and the need to share these with others. Tell them of how every life has value, how every thinking being should be treated with respect.
Telepathically, Armaund says ::We can say we are provisional ambassadors of various peoples of this area - the Fendarions, the Giesel Riders and others. You can say that all these offer peace.[i]
Narsod replies to Gift ::[i]I suspect Elon has gone to the place known as the Pillars of Time. I was to dimension hop to join him outside the temple but probably he would have gone alone.
The winged-men are tied securely and then Narsod sends out a call to gather those few disciples who haven't come already. He then gives a speech describing his change of thinking, cleverly packaging it as a natural, final evolution of his thinking. The change is generally greeted with enthusiasm, with a few skeptics in evidence. The city's routine changes from war to commerce and this brings some immediate prosperity.
Armaund writes the party's thinking on a piece of paper for Minna to read from the alternative plane.
Suffice to say the party makes careful preparation for the return of Elon but it doesn't happen that first day. Minna is released after several hours and at first shrieks "What were you thinking! How long was I going to be there! and then catches her breath and says "It's OK, we needed that to win. And we won, right"
That evening Ari Shadowfire appears at the gate of the temple where you're staying. "Good evening, you all look well"glancing especially at Armaund. "Our augers say the mission is nearly. It took me considerable effort to get here now that The Wall is closed in this section. What is the situation?"
Arlo lets the others talk, since in the dwarf's eyes, he was just this mission's muscle. Which was alright by him. This was a mission that GIFT was able to shine, and looks on with pride as she and Rollo give mission briefing.
The paladin made a considerable effort to make Minna feel appreciated once she was reunited with the team. Arlo poured alcohol, cooked a meal, and sat with the gnome inventor/operative while she decompressed.
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She spends the day working with Rollo and mina.
::"I took a psyco-Print of Elon my hope is Minna with Rollo can craft a device that will banish him from the plane so long as it's working"::
When they talk of souls
::"My father and I will free the last 30 souls, but we must have time. Narsod will be with use when I help them. He must pay his penance and this is the price."::
She is still in huge-angle form
Rollo nods to Ari Shadowfire. The Sage then retires for the evening for drinking and reading.
Pillars of Time....
Sorry, Minna, the situation was unstable and we didn't think we were ready if Elon teleported back into things to deal with it... Terex apologizes to the gnome.
He gives Ari a brief report when she shows up. ...and now Narsod seems amenable to a peaceable solution, leaving just the loose ends of freeing the last souls from the Dark Traders' corruption of the seal on the Wall, and tracking down Elon, Narsod's former partner. We should probably also be around for the preliminary talks between the Giesal riders, the Fendarions, Narsod, and possibly even the Guardians. There's also the matter of the tieflings who wanted to leave the plane--I would think we should give them the opportunity.
Ari quickly gets the party's report and finds the tiefling family needing transport. Her comment is "Myself and my brother shall be searching the Pillars of Time while you finish up here. Then you can fill-in for us if we have been not successful." She mentions that Elon is known to the organization and considered a danger. She hands you a small blue-crystal globe. If you crush as you finish the seal, it will transport you to an area near the edge of the Pillars where Ari and her brother will greet you.
Rollo's research and Ari's comment indicate that the Pillars Of Time is a unique dimensional nexus - an endless landscape of oil pools, stone-crystal formations, winding caverns, pillars stretching up to a multi-color oil-slick sky, strange gravity and so-forth. There time moves in strange patterns, dreams and reality seem to merge (meeting one's future or past self is not unknown but so is meeting phantoms that are neither). It notable has the property that entities banished to the outer planes or otherwise far dimensions can sometimes be summoned or bargained with there. Indeed, deep within it are a number of strange gambling halls where various kinds of power-sources can be exchanged.
Researching the possibility of banishing Elon, Minna says the best she can do is create an alarm that will signal if he returns in 1000 miles of The Wall.
After a couple of days, a delegation of Giesel Riders and Fendarions comes and the group works out a Compact Of Free People, which will allow free movement, free commerce and the free exchange of ideas throughout the region. The Guardian parrots watch the proceedings without comment but also congratulate you.
As things settled down, Terex takes the opportunity to catch up with Terecho in his library and do some study of his own. He also spends some time thinking about the conversations he'd been having with Armaund and Gift, though when that gets too uncomfortable he again focuses on the strange <Shimmer>-books.
Gift seems to have grown a lot on this mission. She seems to have found herself. Throw then hive mind you can feel her spend time with Narsods changing the faith as a huge Angle. But also at the same time work with Rollo and Nenna on the device. While at the same time working with her dad on the 30 souls, while also Debating with, Terex and Terecho. She seems to have more than one copy of her mind going now and her core mind is happy to jump in when needed most.
There's no great hurry to finish - Ari assures you that the time-flow at the Pillars is different and you can spend a week here cleaning up - and guarding against the relatively unlikely return of Elon, and still arrive as needed at the end.
Rollo and Terex can study the library of the Guardians and visit some of the mythical sites of the regions not controlled by devils.
At some point, though you need to take the next step.
Gift places a terminal into Terex library so that Terecho can review dataslates and place works on file. She places a copy of her lesser AI in it to aid him. [+2 to rolls]
Narsod and the faith.
She works with Narsod and when ready to go, Gift creates to Automata in the likeness of herself Female Angle, and her Father Male Knight Paladin. Compassion and Strenght manifests. They walk to the altar of the high temple kneel on each side of it. Look up as a Crytal comes into being. A representation of a good soul. Words of many voices come to Narsod and the congregation.
::"Even gods kneel before a soul that is good."::
Then the form of the half-gods changes to golden statues.
Locked forever in their place. The crystal starts to glow with light from within. Works come again.
::"Strive in life for three things... Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds, even if you fail, try, because, each time you do, you add a little more light to the goodness."::
Then later she sends to Narsod
::"Narsod we are leaving, no one is perfect not even gods, so guild as best you can with our blessings and hopes. I know you are a changed person, Show them as best you can the way of goodness."::
A small crystal manifests before him.
::"O If you are ever in dire need, use this crystal, it will call Me or Arlo, if we can't come someone will, kind of help line thing.::
She adds hastily,
::"O yes! and don't! let them worship us as gods, Sants that's fine, St Gift, that's me and St Arlo, ok technically he is a god, but he does not like being treated like one, grumpy old Dwarf that he is. But I think he will be ok with being called a Saint. And Link up with those others who have faith here, the outsiders, they are a good lot just a bit zellet at times, your faiths have a lot in common. You did good, so best of luck with it all."::
======
Later she meets up with the others.
It's a projection, there seems to be a drone inside projecting it, this may or may not be the real Gift, it's hard to say as she seems to be in most of her drones to one level or another. In fact, you may think the cluster of drones, projects, and crafted physical forms are ALL Gift one one way or another.
"So are we going then?"
Says a number of drones around the space and V the hive mind.
Rollo spends most of the week teaching those that had shown aptitude the basics of magic. The Sage seems to enjoy it.
At the end of the week, the dhampir shakes babies and kisses hands.
We shall return to visit. I may even vacation here to continue teaching and perhaps build a school of learning.
The Sorcerer seems to have grown quite fond of this simple, but malleable world.
Gift, my dear, you are astonishingly amazing in your continuously growing evolutionary path.
He winks at the poor dwarf.
Ready to go, Arlo? Your daughter has more hearts to melt.
And so, after doing their best to put things on the proper course, the party together with Narsod, finally descends once again to the hole of Eolin the Crafter and sets up the process of freeing the remaining thirty souls and finally crushing the blue crystal... an act that sets them once again drifting through time, space, and dimensions. While it has been some months since your last journey, the disorientation is somewhat familiar...
Once the disorientation clears, you find yourselves in the strange landscape Ari described; a broken, undulating surface dotted with pits, dark green and purple grass and bare ground, with large crystalline blocks protruding in places. There's a hill or crag here and there but with main features are a variety of curvilinear pillars stretching up to the sky in a ghostly fashion, at about thousand foot intervals - and the sky itself is strange. It appears as something like a multicolored oil slick (mostly browns and oranges) maybe only a few hundred feet above you but somehow the distance is also difficult to determine.
So, you orient yourselves in the this landscape, and seek the most defensible area. After a short time, A sending appears - the image of Ari to Rollo, "I sense you have arrived. We are finishing our last location and will attempt to reach you shortly, at most a couple of hours. I trust you will deal with this location cautiously. It has many literal and metaphorical pitfalls and some challenges are inevitable..."
And when a slight, silver mist passes over the party after about twenty minutes, Rollo recalls one property occasionally ascribed to the Pillars is the ability to pull up events from one's past and thus...
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She sees images of her family lost, taken away from her.
Terex splits his time between his library, the Guardians' library, and helping with the treaty negotiations and other remaining details. He tries to focus his time in his own library on continuing to study the <Shimmer>-books...
...but while he feels like he's making progress, he still feels the nagging sensation that he's missing something. Not about <Shimmer>, but about himself. Some of what bothers him is the conversation with Gift. Was he not living up to his own ideals? Was he letting the easy, violent way win out when there were other options?
But even that's not all that's bothering him. Deep down... he's feeling like he's... not being a himself. Not being a dragon. He's been more like a... little winged halfling or something, depending on tools and tricks and completely helpless if he doesn't have a solution for a problem in his bag. He doesn't feel bad about using tricks and tools and cleverness and his small size, but a real dragon would have powers of his own to bring to bear as well. This, Terex slowly feels certain, is what's been bothering him for the last while.
Terexaltherin looks around the landscape with curiosity, interested in this strange plane.
Suddenly he sees something familiar in the distance--the forest where he had hatched. It was a place of both fond and painful memories... but before he can wonder what it's doing here, he sees a flash of red. Flames in the distance! A red dragon...
Wait. No. This isn't real. This isn't here. Forcing himself to focus, Terex reminds himself that this plane has strange properties. The flames he fled from as a child are not here. They are in the past. He is, if not safe, at least with allies, no longer helpless.
Minna shrieks and falls backward, shouting "Fentor, Nooo! I will never return, no matter what your tricks, I'd rather die!" but lying on the ground, mutters, "No, he's not there, if he comes I can count on my friends..." and gets up cautiously, rubbing her head.
Armaund, in human form, seems shrivel in on himself, covering his eyes, looking around "No, I couldn't let them die, they've become my only family..." and then looking around at the party "No, it was only a seeming, some distortion of this place, how is everyone?"
Gift main mind wink out of connection with the hive mind, the last thing you all feel is fear. With Gift gone, Hexqil and her other drones tho unaffected by such things have no one to direct them and so just go into Standby mode. Hovering there usless.
Arlo notice GIFT's stiff demeanor, and begins searching the back of his daughter's neck.
"All the times she's rebuilt herself, hopefully she left some things in familiar places..ah, there it is!"
The paladin found the slight depression near the base of android's "skull" and held it down for 5 seconds for GIFT's reboot.
Her eyes blicked and again you feel her in the collective.
Then her mind clamps down
Autohypnosis Resist Fear
In response to any fear effect, you make a saving throw normally. If you fail the saving throw, you can make an Autohypnosis check on your next round even while overcome by fear. If your Autohypnosis check meets or beats the DC for the fear effect, you may make an additional Will save with a +4 competence bonus to shrug off the fear. On a failed check, the fear affects you normally, and you gain no further attempts to shrug off that particular fear effect.
Autohypnosis
New will save
You can feel it, pour logic, she seems to lock her emotions away behind an impenetrable wall of logic.
:"Systems online, testing drones, all systems optimal, outside influence isolated."::
She turns to her father,
"How long was I off line for father?"
She looks at the others.
::"Hexqil try and link to the others, can you shield them from this?"::
::Compliance"::
"Father I had the most horrid visions o losing you, mother, and my brothers, it... overwhelmed me."
Seems like this may not be the greatest place to linger, though the same kind of thing may happen across the whole plane from what we know, Terex says, valiantly trying to keep the nervousness out of his mental tone.
Armaund looks around and says, "I think she could find us if we moved but all the areas look about the same. So far these effects are more alarming than deadly but we shall see. I would hope we are prepared for this and I hope Ari wouldn't have brought us here if we weren't. We have faced series challenges in the past, certainly."
As he says this, various wispy brown clouds pass by you to your left, clouds you suspect could be more solid than clouds ought to be... are here and there, shapes seem about-to-materialize but don't, parts of the gray, brown, white and black landscape go slightly fuzzy for no apparent reason and then clear up again...
Minna just furrows her brows, thinking...
She turns to her father,
"How long was I off line for father?"
She looks at the others.
"Father I had the most horrid visions o losing you, mother, and my brothers, it... overwhelmed me."
Arlo holds GIFT's hand. "Not long. A minute at most. You're alright now."
"Yes, I am performing within emergency parameters, Father"
Her voice is flat, there is no emotion in it.
I know, I just hate... sitting around and waiting, Terex complains. I suppose we should have prepared some mind-shielding magic before coming here.
He eyes the shifting mists warily. Emergency parameters isn't great, Gift. Can we help you back to non-emergency parameters? he 'says' even as he keeps watch.
"It's okay, my little girl. Nobody taking you away from me." Arlo does a quick glance in Blue's direction. "Well, at least no one who a complete a$$."
Later she meets up with the others....
Blue glances pointedly at Gift's midriff. "So, androids do have belly buttons."
As the silver mist rolls in, the others seem to fade from Blue's sight. Again, he is alone. No one in the world to call a friend. Not even Gift, whom he'd been growing closer to for a while. But he pauses. Something isn't quite right. Rapidly flicking through his cybernetic eyes and enhancement visor's multiple modes of vision, he sees that they're on some but not others. Then he hears them, Armaund, Minna, others. He shakes his head, runs a quick reset on his cybernetics...an there they are. Everyone still there. Arlo bending over Gift's prone form. Before he could move to her, she begins to stir, and he relaxes.
"I have like all my kind the ability to turn off our emotions and pain receptors. I will be fine father, just in 'logic-mode' that is all."
Rollo withstands the continual onslaught of frightening memories. The dhampir showed a bit of perspiration by the end. He shakes his head clear.
I really hate that.
"Gather 'round, me boyos!" Arlo speaks confidently. "No spectre of fear will assault you while ol' Arlo Brighthammer's around!"
With the various subtle planar manifestations moving slowly around them, the group moves a little to find what seems like a slightly more defensible area, each character studying the area in their own way, Armaund using his spyglass occasionally.
After approximately forty five minutes, two figures materialize in another hollow close to where you appeared. You can see Ari Shadowfire in a purple embroidered cloak and another figure dressed darkly.
Ari and the other approach, nimbly avoiding some bits of mist and Ari introduces the other figure as Anthon, her brother. Anthon is polite, slightly heavyset and dark complexioned for an elf. After greeting everyone warmly, asking your situation and apologizing for her delay, Ari says "We have done some preliminary scouting for but now we have to go. It may seem strange to think the interest of this plane is that it holds a number of Interdimensional gambling halls. We have inquired and we believe Elon will seek the hall of the Xiomani if he isn't already there. I believe the best course of action is to appear and attempt to thwart any deal he might make, shadow him, engage him in uncomfortable conversation or perhaps offer fake deals yourselves, each of you acting separately may be good - probably not attempt combat - the powerful beings who run these locations would react harshly." She more details of the hall and then she pauses. "It is unfortunate we were delayed and you perhaps had to learn some of the planes' properties the hard way. I shall attempt to tell you what I know.." She describes the sort of rhythm of the plane and how to move with it, . Also a variety of mythic monsters lurk around and these can either be intimidated or dealt with by violence. She hands you each a bag of gems (each bag holds 5-10 gp worth of exotic gems, each bag different). "Show these but claim to have much more."
"Now I really must go, our rout lead elsewhere. I hope to see you in Sigil sometime after your return."
She roughly describes the rout to the entrance to Xiomani hall, which seems about half a days walk from your location and then her and Athon open a door in the nearby pillar and go through it.
Doing your best to follow Ari's hints, the party follows the directions, find a rough path in about half an hour and continuing on it. After about two hours, maybe halfway to your destination, a very large, winged, two headed Wyvern appears in the air flies in front of you, snarling and blocking your path. Armaund smiles and says "My friend, I respect your efforts but we really need to make our meeting. and makes chorttling, draconic noises at it but it stays hostile.
Also:
Gift says nothing as they are met and takes the gems. Then after about an hour. When Minna offers Gift agrees, letting her lockdowns go.
With Minia's help, she is able to let her ago out and reintegrate emotions.
As Minia works Gift shifts her look. Blue Bellybutton's comment had made her self-conscious.
She forms a sword, and cloth to cover her eyes. She would use her drones as a firewall for the silver mist fear by seeing with their her drones senses.
Now with her feeling back, she walked over to blue. Getting close she smiles at him,
"Do you like my new look Blue?"
Yeah, what is it with exotic planar locales and gambling halls? Terex comments 'aloud', while privately noting the tension between Ari and Anthon. The big question is how suspicious he'll be--he might well have noticed something wrong already, if he's made attempts to communicate with Narsod. Anyway, we'll deal with that. Take care, both of you."
Once he's shown the rhythm of the plane, Terex is a complete natural at moving with it. He doesn't particularly appreciate the interruption of this big wyvern-creature, not least because it reminds him of the arrogant dragon overlords of his homeland.
[i]Yes, very impressive, but we're getting a bit tired of killing overconfident monsters, Terex broadcasts, along with a sense of annoyance. Look, maybe this time make it something other than a fight to the death? It gets boring watching my friends rip and blast twenty-ton beasts apart, maybe we could play a game or something for the right to pass through your territory?
She came up next to Armaund and just scans the thing's minds.
Previously: Minna is happy to help Gift - the gnome's method involves gentle taps with a tuning hammer that somehow provide effects like make-whole or lesser restoration (whichever is appropriate).
Confronting the Wyvern: Gift's read of the snarling creature's thoughts gives the impression it is what it seems, an angry and territorial creature - but one that has previous had some less-than-successful encounters with humans and which thus merely marking it's boundaries - inconveniently standing in your way.
In response to Terex's comment, Armaund says, "Certainly, we shouldn't slay such a magnificent creature, not unless pushed to the brink. I will see what I can do..." and that point, Armaund assumes full iron dragon form, expanding to about 30 feet, maybe one and half times the length of the Wyvern, which retreats twenty feet. Continuing in draconic, "Surely one of you knows the speech, what would you like? Gold? Gems? Perhaps just to play?" he says, pawing the ground a bit like a dog. Now, alert, one head says "Gold?" and the other head says "Gems?" though Gift can sense the aggressive thing is still thinking about an attack, perhaps grabbing Rollo or Arlo and flying off.
Arlo marches a few steps in front of the wyvern, and shouts
Terex figures he's said enough for now, especially since they're already giving rather... mixed signals. Besides, he has a question.
<Shimmer>, what do you make of this plane? Anything about it new to you?
Now with her feeling back, she walked over to blue. Getting close she smiles at him,"Do you like my new look Blue?"
Blue smiles back. "I've never *not* liked your look, Gift. I'm not sure you could be unattractive if you tried."
She beams at this, very happy with herself.
When Arlo jumps at the already uncertain Wyvern, he panics it and it somersaults head over heals a couple times and then flies full speed away. Armaund in dragon form, shakes his heavy head and then regaining human form says, "We will never get a chance to fly the skies to together but just as well, let us continue..."
Contacting <Shimmer>, Terex realizes the strange artifact has been silent since you arrived. Now, he senses that it's fascinated, excited and a bit overwhelmed. Through <Shimmer>'s senses, the Pillars are even stranger, seemingly not a single plane at all but an intersection of multiple planes flowing in and out, from the sky through the pillar and down to the earth and then moving oppositely again. <Shimmer> has urge to go up into the sky but that would wind-up with you and it lost in a random plane. In any case, sensing this world through <Shimmer>'s senses is useful but overwhelming. Among other things, you realize a variety of incorporeal entities swirl around you, half aware but curious of your existence.
Continuing, the party follows Ari's directions to particular that supposedly contains Xiomani hall. Arriving, it seems just one of many pits leading downward. However, a second look reveals a simple carved stone staircase and when you step upon it to go downward, a gnome dressed in the purple silk robes of a montebank appear suddenly and bows politely. "Welcome to Xiomani hall. I cannot imagine you have arrived at random and I sense power and magic upon you. What well be your pleasure this evening? The Room of Iron? The Den of The Serpent? Mists and Dreams? To Risk All For Love? All our chamber offer rewards according what you risk. If you are uncertain, we can start with the room of Iron." and, he leads you down the staircase and after twenty steps, he vanishes and you find yourself suddenly in a large gambling hall akin to Monty Carlo where a variety of humans, demi-humans strange gambling games Also, invisibility does not seem to function here since Blue is suddenly visible.
This gambling hall reminds you very much of the lowest halls of Syranix but even more sinister, exotic and high-powered. You quickly determine that while games are just games, other games serve as a way to exchange power for power, with souls often appearing as well as tokens apparently involving fate, time and other metaphysical force...
Arlo canvas the gambling hall looking for clues to Elon's current whereabouts.
Gift, is fascinated, so many names and rules, her drone up in the air and recording analyzing.
Perception
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Mathamatics
Rollo smiles and waves at the nice wyvern.
Never played with a wyvern before. Too bad.
At the seedy den of sin, the dhampir appears to blend in quite comfortably.
Elon is known to frequent this establishment? We should be about gathering information about his known acquaintances, locations and perhaps if we are lucky if currently here.
Blue floats invisibly near the ceiling of the gambling den, taking in all he can.
Gift and Arlo scan the different guests carefully, looking for Elon but also trying to see who's a player, who's connected to who, what alliances exist and so-forth
The first thing you notice is the gamblers are split divided between low and high level, between the more desperate and the more comfortable cagey, and between standard customers seeking resources for some effort on one plane or another and fixers offering deals and trading resources.
Meanwhile, keeping in contact with the group, Rollo assesses the groups and slips effortlessly into the role of mid-level fixer. Now he can embark on a gambit of getting up the hopes of the lowest level without promising anything specific and further getting them searching for someone fitting Elon's description.
Rollo mingles. The dhampir carouses. The Sage seemingly sings and damces his way through the throng.