As you read the shifting script upon the walls, the words seem to coalesce, forming sentences that speak of riddles and the darkest blasphemies of the multiverse. They tease at the edges of your understanding, offering hints of knowledge hidden from the common world. The text swirls and dances, revealing fragments of a cosmic puzzle that both intrigues and disquiets. However, as quickly as the sentences form, they disassemble into a sea of individual letters and symbols, as if mocking the seeker of truth. As you reads the disorienting text, your senses begin to swim. A queasy feeling washes over you, and the world around you blurs and distorts.
As you process the new insight that the text bestows you, you sense that the more you delve into the forbidden knowledge, the greater your chances of gaining another powerful advantage. Do you wish to continue reading?
As you read the shifting script upon the walls, the words seem to coalesce, forming sentences that speak of riddles and the darkest blasphemies of the multiverse. They tease at the edges of your understanding, offering hints of knowledge hidden from the common world. The text swirls and dances, revealing fragments of a cosmic puzzle that both intrigues and disquiets. However, as quickly as the sentences form, they disassemble into a sea of individual letters and symbols, as if mocking the seeker of truth. As you reads the disorienting text, your senses begin to swim. A queasy feeling washes over you, and the world around you blurs and distorts.
You all are sickened by the vast amount of forbidden knowledge that the text imparts to you, and......
Thousands of visions of Pathfinders combating some of the deadliest and most nasty enemies bombard Zaigan's mind, and such lessons enhance Zaigan's internal defense without his armor.
As you process the new insight that the text bestows you, you sense that the more you delve into the forbidden knowledge, the greater your chances of gaining another powerful advantage. Do you wish to continue reading?
|
Power, Kali reflects in silent awe. Personal, pure, and simple.
She stands resolute (if wobbly) before the wall, as reverent as she has ever been before any prior master; she's certainly not going to turn away just because of a little discomfort, what could be more disgraceful???
I am ready.
Kali feels another remarkable surge in her potential, as if she has unlocked hidden reservoirs of ability, empowering her to excel beyond her previous limits.
Zartan's body trembles as the knowledge struck him with Zeus' lightning. Electricity run through his veins, and energize him from head to toes. Within the lightining, he sees a hero in red, running faster than the time itself. The speed force.
The esoteric wisdom attunes Ashwell to the flow of mystical forces. He feels as though he is drawing upon the very essence of magic itself, revitalizing his inner well of power and enabling him to once again weave spells with newfound vigor.
In the center of the sea of eldritch knowledge, Zaigan sees a oval crystal that contains ominous black clouds. Within the stone, he sees the souls of thousands of mad geniuses attempting to solve the riddles of the multiverse. The stone contains the very essence of evil, and wield the power of destruction, damaging good creatures it touches. A voice whipser to Zaigan, bestowing the wisdom of a holy ritual that allow Zaigan and Zaigan only, the power to destory this evil stone, as well as ability to make physical contact with it unharmed. The ritual requires him to stay in physical contact with it for 3 rounds, while reciting words of power. Deep inside Zaigan's heart, he can feel that this very stone is of a short distance away from them in the Material Plane. Many entites start to watch over your actions from this point.
If you are reading this, you come to an understanding that although powerful knowledge are granted by this room, the tolls it might takes on one's mind can potentially deprive one's senses and sanity, and destory one's mind. Risk and Reward coexists in this chamber of blasphemy. I need explicit statement from you if you wish to continue absorbing these forbidden knowledge at this point.
The darkness/dim light makes it difficult for Zaigan to search for the stone. However, Elby, who is standing outside the room and can see in the dark, looks around and can tell that there's an vaguely oval shape object in the cavern ahead
As Kali try to understand the ever shifting gryphs, she feel a subtle, fleeting fortification of her physical well-being.
Continue?
As Kali immerse herself in the forbidden knowledge, she feels that time itself quicken around her. It's as though the very essence of speed and vitality has been infused into her being. Her movements become fluid and graceful, and her senses sharpen to an uncanny level. Every heartbeat, every breath, seems to echo in her awareness.
The forbidden knowledge flows into Ashwell's mind like a cascading river of eldritch secrets. As he delves deeper into the enigmatic text, a surge of power courses through his veins, and his perception of the world around him undergoes a dramatic shift. The world shivers in response to his presence, and their attacks, once direct and unerring, now falter and waver. Enemies seeking to strike through his armor find themselves caught in a paradox of probability, as if the very laws of chance have turned against them.
The shifting insane words start to take its toll on Ashwell: it dulls Ashwell's sense of distance and proportion.
Ashwell's mental capacity is at a critical point. Do any of you wish to read more?
Looking through the narrow passage that connects the two caverns, you can see black goo oozes down the walls of the next cavern and congeals in pools upon the floor. Much of the stuff lies as a pond in the center of the room . An island toward the center of that pond holds a small plinth, atop which rests an oval stone. Somewhat transparent, an inky blackness roils just under the stone’s surface, darker than the blackest thunderhead.
With the aid of the glowing magical weapons, Zaigan can tell that the oval stone is exactly the crystal that he sees in his vision.
|
|
An island toward the center of that pond holds a small plinth, atop which rests an oval stone.
"Ahh, soon we shall get to rescue a handsome plinth!" Intones Kali (whose voice is now starting to get weirdly reverberant) a moment before any of the others even lay eyes on the little island. "But first..."
Kali stands at the precipice of understanding, gazing once more into the forbidden knowledge. It is the third time, a symbolic moment in a trinity of revelations, and as she delves deeper, the very essence of her being begins to resonate with profound significance. In this pivotal moment, Kali's heart beats in sync with the rhythm of the cosmos, her spirit merges with the universal energies, and her mind becomes a vessel for ancient wisdom.
The psychic's gaze remains fixed on the mesmerizing dance of the elusive text, his mind open to the secrets embedded within. With each passing moment, a transcendent sensation begins to wash over him, as if the very fabric of reality bends to his perception. His senses, once bound by the confines of the mundane, start to ascend to a higher plane of awareness. The world around him takes on new dimensions, and he becomes attuned to the subtlest of details. It's as though he has unlocked an inner eye that peers beyond the ordinary.
As each moment passes, the comprehension of the shifting text becomes more intricate and demanding, challenging your mental resolve with an ever-mounting intensity. It's getting more and more difficult to comprehend.
The paladins has discoveied the strange stone that Zaigan sees in his vision, while the other are still testing their mind and heart against the eldritch insights. Ashwell and Zartan are satisfied with their learning and turn their attention toward the paladin and the cave ahead. Lucky for Abaal, no one has changed into a horrid mass of tentacles under his watch.
Pathfinders, what's your next move?
The black goos ahead smells the same as those that are in this cave, also radiate strong evil aura. One may need to make their way across the pool of ebon goos in order to reach the stone.
Our psychic is living on the edge here, once again try to harness the power that lies within the mystical script. Some of the writing start to glows for Ashwell, then they burst out a torrent of energy that rush for his head, and......
......Ashwell concentrates his mind, and his will power visualized as numerous dams, canels, and aqueducts, guiding the torrent to be of use for him. The newfound energy once again revitalize his psychic reserve and replentish his spell stamina.
Judging by the shape of the cave, you think that the pool should be about thight deep, which will slow you down, and the fluidity of the goo will make it difficult to get through.
Judging by the shape of the cave, you think that the pool should be about thight deep, which will slow you down, and the fluidity of the goo will make it difficult to get through.
|
"Can you help me out breaking this stone? My vision implied it contains evil power." Zaigan pleads pointing the strange oval
Abaal sighs to himself. Paladins these days.
He downs his last potion and hands the bottle to Zaigan.
"Hold this." he says with a look that says he we be coming back for it. "Now stand aside."
Abaal charges forward and leaps the black effluent, his blade slicing the air until it comes down edge first along the length of the crystal.
Abaal leap across the pool with ease, but his swing didn't follow. Abaal forgo the attack and pick up the stone instead.
Somewhere in the depth's of Abaal's mind, a voice starts to whisper blasphemies from the walls to him, challenges the boundary of his cognition. The horrid truth and falsehood clouds your mind, leaving you sickened.
The stone also speaks to you: Obey me without question, Let no hesitation cloud your path. TAKE ME OUT OF THE GAUNTLET.
You all hear an angry voice appears in your head, "GIVE ME THE WRAITHSOUL STONE". Someone is not happy with you guys (specifically Abaal) taking the stone. Elby sees a winged figure with a horse’s skull for its head appears, flies over and hit Abaal.
Initiative Order
Purple
Cyan
--------
Zartan sickened, Hasted
Ashwell sickened, speed -5
Abaal -64 sickened
Kali sickened, Hasted. speed -5
Elby
Zaigan sickened
Bald are up. The room is dark, and currently only Elby can see the enemies. The pool of black goo will cost 15ft of movement per square.
The human-shaped beast with horse’s skull head are leukodaemons (NE outsider(daemon, evil, extraplanar)). Deacons of the Horseman of Pestilence, leukodaemons serve their lord in Abaddon as well as across the planes by spreading plagues and pandemics. They have DR against attacks that are not good in nature. They also have resistances to cold, electricity, and fire.
The black goo seems to slow Zartan down. Luckily, Ashwell comes up and re-Haste him and everyone else. When Zartan moves next to Abaal, the stone tries to speaks to him, but he easily dismissed its whisper. Zartan and Elby feel that if they stay in the pool, the black substance will try to drain away their beings.
The black substance seem to continue to suppress any magical lighting, therefore some Pathfinders are relying on the torch to see again. . Kali tries to throw a javelin at the direction of the daemon, and doesn't realize that the cave wall is right behind her. The javelin struck on the wall again as she move it behind her to charge up the throw. Maybe Kali have mastered the techinique of throwing javelin backward?