Again Gift its not comfortable with Magic but if it works she will take the spell.
Rollo will cast Invisibility. He then will cast Mirage Arcana to create the illusion.
I've got my wand for illusions if no one else can cover it, Terexaltherin offers. We'll have to keep an eye out for secret passageways as well as obvious stairs down. I do wonder how they did all this work here... though I guess they'd be more attuned to chaos than most...
Arlo grumbled. "This 'half-chaos realm is starting to mess with my lawful dwarf tenDENCIES!" The dwarf covered his mouth from the outburst.
As preparations are made, Minna also comments, "I can create some drones to scour the area but I think that's more Gift's area. We can make those invisible too, right?"
Then the door is open and the party comes forth, Minna, Terex and whoever is sneaky, then Arlo, Armaund, and whoever isn't. You see a hallway. To the right, it goes to a living room and perhaps a kitchen and to the left, it goes a door, maybe a bedroom and a back porch. There's a square door on the way to the living room, that would normally go to a kitchen.
She was already on it, waiting for when everyone was ready.
"I don't trust magic, but every little helps, My little ones know how to hide"
And she sends out 4 of her drones.
And she is out the door, flying close to the ceiling.
::"Comms check everyone in the network?"::
I can hear you. I'm going to check this square door. It's kind of an odd shape for a door, don't you think?
Terexaltherin gives the door a suspicious look.
The Sorcerer cast a few spells.
The Sage takes out his Wands and taps himself.
Rollo begins sneaking down the hallway like a professional!
Blue hangs in the air, drifting forward slowly, trying not to create a sound or breeze.
The drones get a quick scan of the entire house. . It's furnished and arranged like a house for an average mid-tech world except for intertwined runes nearly everywhere. The square door seems to be a nexus of magic but it's hard to say where it goes - it could be a trap, it could be decoy. There are two adult-sized dolls chatting in the "living room", similar to the . The most threatening thing is a strange and shapeless creature floating above the stove, seemingly condensing from the steam of pots cooking - weird shapes float within it. The drone pinpoints stairs going down beyond this.
The main group goes stealthily down the hallway towards the living room. Armaund hangs back with Arlo.
Gift sends her drones too / down the stairs /
Terexaltherin examines the patterns of magic concentrated on the square door. Minna, Rollo, what do you make of this? he asks as he tries to make sense of it.
Gift takes one look
::"Magic! no idea"::
"So, uh, how ya doing, Armaund", Arlo asked the dragon, attempting to make 'small talk'.
The drones get to the bottom of the stairs and find a locked door. Minna looks at the door, "Let's look at the basement first, it's where we detected the unraveling to start with.
Armaund responds "It's been a strange trip but some of it's been amusing."
Meanwhile, the two adult-sized dolls walk quickly out of the living into the bedroom hallway where Arlo and Armaund can be heard talking and one says "Is there someone there? I heard talking" and the other makes a gesture and says "My gosh yes, I see a dragon and dwarf, in your house!"
Also, Minna asks telepathically, ::"Can someone dimension door me, Terex and whoever can disable things past that kitchen?"
Dimension Door, there's something I should get a scroll of... Terexaltherin comments. Minna, how dangerous are these dolls? Will Arlo and Armaund need help with them?
Minna says "I really don't know how powerful they are. The child doll wasn't very powerful but these could easily be much stronger. I'll try to scan the runes..."
::"WHY! are you talking!! when we have a TOTALLY SILENT and secure mental network set up to communicate with? The one advantage we had is now gone. You should know better."::
You can feel her disappointment at such a rooky mistake.
::"I can shift us there, come hold my hand"::
She will port them to where they wish to go.
It wasn't like we were talking loudly, Arlo grumbled at being admonished.
As the china girls walk over, the dwarf decides to try a new tactic.
Arlo bows in a courtly manner. "Good evening, ladies. Are we late for tea?"
Rollo barely suppresses a laugh at Gift.
Arlo, you really should be quieter.
He then will Dimensional Door whenever ready
The rest of the party dimension doors to the bottom of the stairs, where they can see a solid steel, rune encrusted steel door and immediately check for traps and attempt to open it.
Minna looks at the situation and says "This will take more than simple lock fixing..."
As Arlo introduces himself to the sinister animated porcelain women, Armaund adds, "More seriously friend, we are sorry to intrude but we are here to stop a horrific disaster about be unleashed in this house and this neighborhood. We would chat longer but we have to advice you it would be best to leave for your own safety."
The first dolls puts a hand to her mouth "Well I never, a dragon the size of cat telling me to leave my own house. Stove! Stove come here, we may have unwelcome guests." while the second doll, "Wait Millie, could they mean the boiler? That would be a problem. Let's get the story." Meanwhile the thing in the kitchen drifts in the living room.
Rollo looks at the bizarre entity, an intense, pulsing whirlpool of chaos that forms strange shapes within itself. This entity is held by a web of silver strands which have broken in a number of places and seems likely to continue breaking.
The Sage casts Detect Magic.
::"Can you deal with this Rollo, its magic by the looks of it and not my thing. I want to get back to Dad, I have a feeling he may be in trouble."::
Rollo analyzes the entity and it's bindings. The thing seems to have been ripped out of some strange nether dimension (similarly to <shimmer>, though there are many nether dimensions). It's magic is powering some (but not all) of the magic in this strange structure.
The best Rollo can imagine doing by himself is delaying the effect and even that could be risk letting the thing loose immediatel but it certainly seems like the kind of thing <shimmer> might be deal with, using it's basic power of creating demiplanes and transporting things to them. And the thing looks dangerous - as dangerous as the Draxus would have been had he manifested in Syranix.
Armaund hesitates, ::Should I tell them the danger is in the basement. They seem to half-know but this might bring them too close to us.
Terexaltherin considers the situation and swiftly asks <Shimmer>, Could we shunt this thing off into a demiplane to contain it for a while?
Broadening his question to include Rollo he asks, If we stick this thing in a demiplane will we be able to keep it there, at least long enough to transport it somewhere it more-or-less belongs?
Switching to the group-wide channel he says, It does sound like you should help out Armaund and your dad, Gift. Armaund, Arlo, maybe describe things in vague terms? Say enough they can figure out it's in the basement without revealing how much we know--we might get a bit more info out of them that way, or at least delay them a bit.
Rollo considers Terex' question....
As they Consider the issues involves, the planar forces that Rollo and Terex can detect and what they know about <Shimmer>, it seems to them that if <Shimmer> could transfer this terrifying entity to a demiplane, the demiplane could be quickly cut-off from the current plane and the thing, despite it's immense power, would be essentially contained and would simply drift harmlessly between the planes (terrifying things are actually normally drifting between the planes, especially in areas near chaos). The key factor is this thing is currently "asleep", if it was awake, any effect like this would have to overcome serious resistance.
Transfering the entity to that demiplane would be quite possible but <shimmer> need a source of magical power.
Meanwhile, Armaund says "It may well be the basement, it is that my friend is a holy mystic and his spirit gave him a prophesy this house is in great danger and set for destruction, so we had to come and contact you." At that, one of the porcelain women goes to the kitchen and looks down the stair and says "Miriam, the door is open, the door is open, oh no" while the other animate dolls says "Oh dear, we must leave but we are bound to the house, oh dear" and meanwhile, the "Stove", the swirling chaos-entity from the kitchen, seems to become more and more hostile and the first doll ("Miriam") says, "Stop it stove, this gentleman and his pet are here to help us" at which point Armaund says "We mean no harm, please restrain yourself, humble stove..." while sending telepathically, "Is this thing a ... Shoggoth? Holy crap but I can still fry it if need be"
Rollo gets an excited and curious look on his face.
Use me as a magical source. Together, Shimmer and I can direct the energy to trap it. Plus I want front row seats.
Rollo's plan seems sound, more reliable than just sacrificing items, but Terex and Minna can tell this is going to take a lot out of him.
::"I am not going anywhere near the mind of a Shoggoth, so you will have to sing it a happy song to calm it"::
Rollo begins to do some stretches.
I may need an R&R week after this performance.
The dhampir winks.
Maybe we should share the load, Rollo, Terexaltherin suggests. I still need to get some items that are just... energy reserves for <Shimmer>. Say, would some orachalcum work? I have some with me exactly for <Shimmer>'s powers.
Terex and Rollo finalize the resources needed to power this planar extraction - it take something out of whoever adds their "personal power" certainly but that may be necessary. Minna shuts the door to the basement when Armaund mentions the shoggoth but sends back ::Are you sure? The thing on the stove was bubbling gas and so there have to be some differences...
Preparations for the planar extraction begin downstairs...
Meanwhile, upstairs (Arlo and Armaund reporting...), Miriam tries to restrain the "stove" thing but becomes it become increasingly agitated (Armaund steps forward says "no worries") and finally lets out a maddening cacophony and charges past Armaund at Arlo ... and collides with an invisible, impenetrable barrier (a wall of force created by Armaund the previous round) and at this point Armaund wields his cone of white-hot fire-breath like a blowtorch, carving away a huge section of the thing . Armaund sends by telepathy, ::Sorry the lullaby didn't work, I think one more flame bath might put it to rest through, let's find out. I suggest everyone continue to take cover. . Miriam and the other doll stand back and shout "You're not helping at all! (it's not clear who they're shouting at, actually).
... and once things are arranged down stairs, the two magic users channel their personal power as well as powerful magical items (orachalcum and some time tokens) to extract the thing from the basement...
The dwarf puts his hand on his magical sword. "Let me know when you drop the shield and I'll attack!"
Terexaltherin perches on Rollo's shoulder and holds <Shimmer> in his claws. He focuses his mind, connecting the three of them, and throwing his all into helping cast out this creature.
Rollo smiles at Terex.
Buckle up! Going on a magic carpet ride!
Gift, calls Hexqul into herself and ALL her shielding goes up. She stands incased in raw psionic power.
::"Do it Rollo"::
Fueled by time tokens, Orachalcum and the personal power of Terex and Rollo, and with Minna aiding in the ritual, <Shimmer> begins the process of pulling the vast (but not yet awakened) chaos Maelstrom into a parallel dimension and then unmooring the demi-plane connection to the current world, sending the thing into the unknown. Everything in the basement but an area near the door become a eerie and unreal and Rollo and Terex feel a strong tug on their spirits. The process will take a couple minutes, you think...
Meanwhile on top, the Stove thing turns and grabs at Armaund, who proves remarkably nimble, dodging it's many pseudopods with ease and slashing back at it (but to only small effect).
As Arlo comments, Armaund removes the barrier at a point when the things maddening cacophony has paused and when the thing is next to the barrier.
Arlo twists his ring of foe focus on his finger to designate the stove as his next enemy and attacks as the barrier is down.
In the hallway, Arlo and house-cat-size Armaund continue to attack the formless smoke-thing called "stove", inflicting only modest damage and the formless nightmare creature once again is unable hit Armaund. At the point, the creature again lets out it's maddening cacophony
Downstairs, the division of the plane continues. Then suddenly from within the fading the fading area, the figure of a gnome appears. He has a wild-eyed expression, is wearing a gold-lamé shirt, slacks and top hat and black leather jacket with gold sequins. On his left hand is a strange padded glove of a silvery material and a silver cord connects it to a monocle on his left eye. He smiles and says "Greetings friends, if you have come this far, you know my little trap and I am just here to say there it is too late, bye-bye" and then he bows, revealing "Bad-ass Mo-Fo" on the back of his jacket (in common) and vanishes. A programmed image! (everyone's detecting magic already, so it's obvious). Minna shouts "Bastard, your breath stinks too and I would know! The plan continues, don't let him distract you."
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From Class
Teamwork Feat
At 6th level, and every six levels thereafter, the tactician gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as teamwork feats. The tactician must meet the prerequisites of the selected bonus feat.
1:tribe-mentality[Teamwork Feat]
Collective roll will save and take highest result for whole collective.
Minna pleads with Blue to go upstairs and join the battle against the stove thing and he does so, getting to the kitchen.
The Stove thing shifts from Armaund back to attacking Arlo, lashing out with four pseudo pods for 37 points of damage, Armaund continues biting and clawing and sending out ::one more fire breath and it will be done. The cacophony continues
Terexaltherin ignores the image and keeps throwing his all behind what <Shimmer> is doing, even as he begins to feel a soul-deep weariness from it.