Kallik's brutal critical destroys one rubycap. (one next to Gabriel). Gabriel's series of flanking sneak attacks swiftly shatter another (both next to Gabriel destroyed)
Wamblee is fighting defensively, still surrounded by four rubycaps, and does not destroy any.
This, unfortunately, gives them ample opportunity to surround him and work their vicious flanking upon him:
The circle of parasite-ridden blood drinkers surround Wamblee, and slice him open with cruel sickles and cruel laughter. Even rocky hides can only take so much punishment before they crack.
If you do not roll above as DC 20 perception on your turn, you fail to notice the rubycap that drank your blood is already regenerating, and he grabs your ankle. Roll a CMB DC 20, or you cannot use your move action this round.
____
Julian Opal attempts to blast Samen with dispel.magic, but the distorting, tearing field of force is on a different wavelength; it passes straight through Samen's mind, having no effect on his 'spell'. (perhaps manifestation would be a better word, the newly-made psychic ponders)
Samen, fortitude Save DC 10 or be aged. This DC will increase the longer you are under the 'haste' effect.
"I do not suppose any of you have access to healing magic?". Rather than panicking or dodging recklessly, a student of stone digs deep. Wamblee settles into a wide-legged crouch as his skin thickens around his wounds.
Samen, with most of his focus continuing on channeling the spell, barely has time for a quip for their adversary. "It seems you were prepared for us. Or perhaps to be more precise, you prepared for us."
It made sense in his own head, anyway.
Looking down at the jeweled rubycap, Gabe notices the thing is putting itself back together. To the phantom, "Help destroy the rest of them, I'll make sure this one is dead. And they regenerate if they drink blood so smash them extra good!" Making use of his own advice, he stomps on the thing grabbing him until it's a messy mush with gem parts sticking in places.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You hear loud pounding from outside, and the hue and cry of unseelie fey being ripped apart. The last of the giant princes are making the opposing forces pay dearly for their lives. Grimly, you wonder how long they will last. Will giants cease to be remembered, if all their stories die?
With the speed boost from Abnaki, Samen is able to make the ritual proceed much faster, but the expanded neural network that Qizzlvutz provides is the real force multiplier.
"Oh wow, hello! It's like you've given me a third eye or a bear's strength. Here, hold these values... transform these coordinates... and process these concerns. And that gives us... yes perfect! We're nearly halfway there. Now I might have a chance to quip at Julian properly."
Grasping at things barely understood but needing to be helpful. Places faraway, beings unknown, and the feelings. So many feelings. Sucking in more air to get bigger so they can hold on to all these new things. Dark browns stretch into a paler sandy tone with little streams of blues leaking out. Half?
Groaning and trying to make the magic stronger. Anything to make this biggness stop. To make everything smaller that magic clearly has to be bigger. That should balance it out.
Abnaki, your words continue unabated; the story is almost in control of you, these days. For now, there is no danger of your hastening spell ending. You are beginning to feel fatigued, however, and you wonder at the strain to your voice and your still-blind eyes.
Julian Opal sighs dramatically, the sound reverberating through the many facets of yellow crystal that surround you.
"Please use a modicum of strategy, gentlens. I hold you to some kind of standard, despite you having parasites for brains.". With a perfunctory sweep of a gloved hand, his image sends a red flame of battlelust over the rubycaps. They convulse and froth and stomp their feet, and ready a drooling charge.
The remaining four rubycaps ignore Wamblee completely, each taking a blow to the head as they run past. Hurtling toward the southwest, their goal becomes clear - disrupt the summoning
Declare actions! Enemies will respond accordingly.
Just as Gabriel starts running at the remaining rubycaps, they turn and sprint past him! Figuring their target is the distracted casters, he uses his superior speed to interpose himself between the unseelie and their target.
Abnaki has no tremor sense. Gonna run out of 2nd level spell slots at this rate!
Qizzlvutz takes one of the rubycaps head-on, while maintaining the mindlink with Samen.
Kallik's ghostly form materializes enough to stop another rubycap.
Gabriel interposes himself in front of the fourth rubycap.
Abnaki unknowingly stands between Samen and harm; a blood-hungry sickle kisses his skin.
Through his sensitive feet, Wamblee 'hears' more of the disgusting fey creatures pounding their way down the corridor. His allies cannot take another full assault from this fresh wave.
A Student of Stone stands where he needs to stand. Taking a deep stance, Wamblee readies himself. He raises his right leg, and brings it down with shattering force, rending huge, sharp holes in the floor.
(map updated)
Now there is only one way through, and the way is through Stone.
For a moment, the pain blots out any thoughts of linking minds and neuron growthways. You hear more grunts of pain and see splashes of blood. It smells like iron. You suddenly realize you are small, scared, and young. You are surrounded by alien creatures that never shift to show happiness or anger, or love. You want Learningto to hold you. But she is back in that different place.
You reach from some thread of goodness to escape from this grief.
Gabriel maintains his assault, trying to bring down the attackers. Every attack on one of the others is a personal failure he will have to make up for later if they make it out of here.
.
Growling and swinging wildly
Groaning in pain and feeling very tired far to quickly. Pulling Qizz's magic in a desperate plea to stay alive
Touching the wound. Nothing like this has heappend before and its horrifying. Looking around Qizzlvutz starts shaking. Smacking themselves in the face and sucking in a big gulp of air to be big enough to help with the memories, places, and feelings. Casting the spell again and tethering their mind to Samnen's again.
The mindlink snaps back into place, fueled perhaps by fear and need as the rubycaps slaver their red tongues in Qizzlvutz' face. Your physical sensations fade as you plunge into the sprawling library/museum of Samen's mind. Everything fits. Everything works.
The summoning is complete. You feel an absolute unity in this small intersection betwen here and the plane of Volcano. The moment lingers, heats up...
You feel a presence - a slithering presence that uses the threads of summoning and conjuring to pull itself through, wriggling like a grub through the skein of reality. Two sets of lantern-yellow eyes appear; a two-headed snake, bulkier than a bear and longer than a pogona, crawls through a sudden hellish fissure in the floor, surrounded by red light. "Softskin warlock! May your enemies writhe in agony.". . It grins a hideous shark smile.
The snake turns to the rest of you. "We presume the warlock owns you, so our words will be brief. We are Kessh-Amon. Do not stand in our way, and be wary of the metalcraft of Ssuh-Luhss. "
Following the dimensional trail of Kessh-Amon, a second two-headed snake pushes through the fissure before it closes. Unlike Kessh-Amon's bold red coloring and bright yellow eyes, this one has a more languid appearance. Draping casual coils of bruise-purple skin banded with black upon the ground, it regards the world with lazy green eyes.
//
With a flash of glowing jade eyes, the second snake (presumably Ssuh-Luhss?) hisses a few ugly syllables of stolen magic. The effect is instantaneous: all the metal the redcaps (and their ruby counterparts) love to show off --the sickles, scythes, the boots--becomes their undoing. Metal boots crunch bone and sinew; sickles chop their owners in brutal efficiency. The entire first wave is butchered.
The first snake, Kessh-Amon, roars deeply, yellow-amber eyes full of malice. A flash of pounding, dominating magick pummels the second wave of rubycaps, and they willingly impale themselves on the pits of shards below.
In the midst of the crushing magicks displayed by the salamanders of Igniscoeli, it is easy to miss, but Wamblee is down. He is breathing and alive, but he fended off several more attacks as the last precious seconds of the summoning were completed.
Samen grins as the spell snaps into place. The two planes, neither his own, are for a moment one place. Though it required significant help from all angles, he cannot help but feel pride in the accomplishment.
"Glorious battle, noble Kessh-Amon! May you swallow your foes whole!"
He leans back toward the rest of the group and quietly warns them. "Even more than the giants, it'll be best to stay out of their way. They probably won't turn on us when they're done. If we don't annoy them."
Gabe watches in awe at the upheaval of two planes smashing together and the waves of magic coming from their newly arrived allies. Having a feeling the final confrontation is near, he focuses his energies through his elen heritage. As the energies coalesce, he begins shrinking before your eyes! Having the stature more of a child than a warrior he executes some practice kicks and punches making sure he is in full control of his altered body. Gabe nods his readiness to advance.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"My word Samen, what fine sounds your friends make." Abnaki quips. "I cannot hear Wamblee, and I am injured myself. Has anyone seen him recently?" Remembering what he had in one of his pockets, he pulls out his wand of CLW. He may no longer remember how to use it, but he knows magics respond well to orders from a strong force of will. In fact, he cannot fail to activate the wand as he is now.
He waits to hear if Wamblee needs his aid or not before putting it back in his pocket(?) In fact, he's not entirely sure where he drew it from, now that his clothes have melded into him since the mycos rebirth. Best not to dwell on it too hard.
Samen looks around for his brother, calming himself to keep his heart steady. A mind is only as strong as its foundation, after all.
There!
"He's down, Abnaki. Come, follow the sound of my voice! I think I see him breathing, but he needs help badly."
"Thank you, Abnaki. A griot whose very words can pull an el back from dying." he gives a small bow to you, "is a powerful ally indeed.".
Wamblee stands up, ready to battle once more. A student of Stone does not worry about the weight of a burden; it simply needs to be carried.
Without another word, Kessh-Amon dismisses your from their thoughts. The pair of two-headed snakes swiftly slither down into the adjacent chamber. Fiery shouts of outraged efreet surprise soon follow, and the sounds of battle and chase pound down the further corridors.
Gabe, seeing that mid-fight prep work is completed, starts off after the fiery snakes. Intending to capitalize on the distraction the extra-planar beings are providing, he moves quietly to the opening of the chamber hoping to catch a glimpse of the taunting warlock.
Samen floats along, ready to face the chaos that lies ahead.
"Abnaki! You're going the wrong way. This way!"
Qizzlvutz quickly moves back to Kallik. She is angry, full of seething fury, but that feels more familiar that the vastness that was Samen's mind. One simple, primal, emotion is much easier. Both follow Samen.
As if a single drop of pure peaklight has descended upon the base earth, the chamber is filled with aggressive radiance. Painful brilliance. You can almost see an elenoid figure at the center of the light, but even Samen's sight is unfit for such divine glare.
The fiery being speaks in a voice of crackling logs and ember-snaps. "Your cowardly efreeti servants are fleeing, little man! Release me, and I shall shatter your gem head in one swift blow, rather than prolonging your suffering."
Fires make the shadows deeper. You hide. You hide in others' shadows, and your own dark double provides another kind of place for you to hide in. No one sees you.
The warlock with the stupid purple gem for a head peeks out from around a corner, thinking that no one can see him from so far away. You can tell he is focused on Samen as a threat, and he wrings his manicured hands together when he sees Abnaki.
Abnaki....the music is so sweet. It smells like cherry blossoms in the wind. You might recognize it for a trap that your blind, fumbling steps just tripped over, but the fey perfume (melody?) goes straight past your rational thoughts and triggers a fatalistic Romanticism in your storyteller's bones.
Thoughts, data, contingencies, and revelations flow through Samen's mind as he contemplates the new information presented to him.
"I'll need to check the linguistic roots of that word. I'm sure it's important. More pressing matters, however."
"This gem is just like the ones we crossed over, powered by a trapped creature. Free it, and at least this fight will be over."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Hm. Well I can see again. Not that I ever couldn't see, but better now." He almost sounds like he believes what he is saying.
"Great Sunlord, we have come to destroy these hated Gems ourselves. Now that we know that you still live, we shall free you, and together we can send the gems back into the earth which I was reborn from once more."
"I merely ask of you that you lessen your heat, for I am gravely injured from my journey to you, and your light sears my already bloodied flesh."
There is a surprised flare from the Sunlord as they react to your voice, and then your words. A pause.
"Very well. If this be a trick, Your head will break just as easily.". The fire and heat lessen from "blistering" to "sweat lodge".
The giant being over there isn't something I can fix. But the warlock, I can do something about him. Using the shadows to his advantage, Gabe works his way towards his target without being seen. Popping out at the last moment, he strikes at what he hopes is a vital spot to interrupt anything the el may do.