Mara adds one more thing: "There's two councilors and Zax. He got closest to the wellspring."
No one can see, hear, or sense anything (magically or mundanely) through the portal until they step through.
Trer, enlarged, must step through the portal on her own, but Lazur comes through quickly behind her. As they do so, the portal flashes brightly on either side. They find themselves floating in a vast, endless sky, filled with yellowish misty clouds, one of which they seem to be in the middle of (). An even thicker, bluish cloud sits right ahead of them, obscuring their vision from what is directly ahead of them (. A few rocks float amid and around the area, with no sign of what anchors them where they are.
While the blue clouds block a clear view of it, about 60 feet ahead of you is a very wide rock "island," with a 20 foot tall structure built on top of it made of stone and bronze. You cannot see into the structure from here, but it is probably where your "wellspring" is.
To your left about 80-100 feet away is a large swirling portal that looks like a watery whirlpool.
Sounds of thunder occasionally roll through the area.
You are probably not surprised to see a creature has been watching the portal in case people arrive. It is roughly horse-sized, clawed, serpentine creature with swirling, iridescent green scales with a glowing "crown" of light around its head. It hisses as you come through, and prepares to attack...
The serpentine creature hisses and, the giant barbarian being the most visible and obvious target, points at the Mighty Trer, causing reality to bubble and warp around her.
Fortunately, Mirabelle's preparedness pays off, and Trer blinks away the confusing pressure upon her mind.
So the creature decides to take a more direct approach, moving forward lunging at her with a long, serpentine snout full of teeth.
The creature slices into armor and through flesh. Mighty Trer feels her whole body sort of not want to be her body but she, being Mighty, resists the effects effortlessly.
More thunder rumbles in the distance.
Lazur steps up and attacks the creature stabbing it twice with his rapier. When the others arrive through the gate he yells out "The terrain is shadow stuff so things arn't like they look and there is another large creature in the building. Hit this thing with lawful attacks to stop it's regeneration."
+ 46
Mara floats through the portal and looks around. She notes the large, serpentine creature and Lazur up front stabbing it. She shakes her head why do they never listen
Focusing, she peers intently at the weird monster.
Careful now, the thing cannot be impeded, it can negate critical attacks, cant be polymorphed and has some terrifying magical powers. Oh, and it has blindsense, deep joy. Bunch of other stuff too but no time.
With a wave of her hand Mira casts quickened haste on herself, Trer and Lazur. She then moves further away from the thing, just in case.
Upon the pair floating through the portal Liber can immediately feel the very presence of the beast from the Maelstrom, their senses being assaulted by a chaotic aura. "It seems the Maelstrom is behind at least some of the recent events, given the Keketar in front of us," the Arbiter goes on to detail pretty much what Lazur has already stated. "It is not an animated object, though, so both raw energy and lawful damage should bypass any resistances. Note that its fast healing will not be stopped by lawful damage , but it will deal more damage that way."
Both Liber and Krowys back up, with Krowys casting Protection from Chaos , while slowly taking a 5 foot step back, gathering the supplies necessary for the next spell.
In the direction which Mira floats, she finds everything to be quite real.
Lazur quickly strikes with Mira's haste in place.
Ariston steps through the gate and invokes a bit of the luck of Varan. He then flies to take up a spot near Trer’s shoulder – as if he were the angel (or devil) that sits on the massive warrior’s shoulder. He conveys the luck to the warrior through a simple touch.
Bit of Luck
Bit of Luck (Sp): You can touch a willing creature as a standard action, giving it a bit of luck. For the next round, any time the target rolls a d20, he may roll twice and take the more favorable result.
HP: 105 / 105 | AC:28 / T:14 / FF:24 | CMD:27/23
TEMP TOTAL -> AC:35 / T:19 / FF:30 | CMD:27/23 w/Haste
Channel Energy (11):
Quick Bit of Luck (3):
Bit of Luck (8): x
Dimensional Hop (170’):
Daylight (1):
Agile Feet (11):
Good Fortune (2):
Brilliant Spell Prep (1):
Boots of Speed (10):
Pearl of Power 4th (1):
Wand of CLW (50):
9th Spells
> Implosion:
> Miracle:
8th Spells
> Antimagic Field:
> Fire Storm:
> Moment of Prescience: x
> Stormbolts:
7th Spells
> Destruction:
> Holy Word:
> Resurrection:
> Spell Turning:
> <Brilliant Open Slot>:
6th Spells
> Find the Path:
> Heal (2):
> Mass Planar Adaptation (3):
5th Spells
> Breath of Life:
> Commune with Plane:
> Life Bubble:
> Spell Resistance:
> Teleport: x
> True Seeing:
4th Spells
> Freedom of Movement:
> Holy Smite:
> Communal Protection from Energy (3):
> Restoration:
> <Open Slot>:
3rd Spells
> Aura Sight:
> Dispel Magic (2):
> Fly: x
> Invisibility Purge:
> Prayer:
> <Open Slot>:
2nd Spells
> Aid:
> Blinding Ray:
> Communal Endure Elements:
> Grace:
> Ghostbane Dirge:
> Spear of Purity:
> Spiritual Weapon:
1st Spells
> Bless:
> Murderous Command:
> Remove Fear:
> Shield of Faith (3): x
> True Strike:
Effects:
Ring of Force Shield = Indefinite
Moment of Prescience = 17 hours
Shield of Faith = 17 mins
Fly = 17 mins
Haste
"Ow." Trer states. "Wanna see how that s#&# is really done?" Trer rage enters rage as a free action, swift action reduces this things reach against her, enters accurate stance as a move, and then vital strikes it.
45 to hit.
After the keketar's opening salvo, Mirabelle enters through the portal and casts haste on herself, the Mighty Trer, and Lazur Anil (
The Mighty Trer delivering over twice the pain the protean priest-king caused her, and it shrieks both physically and in an echoing, warbling voice in your minds.
Krowys follows through the portal, and with Liber seeing the absolutely blinding chaotic aura of the planar creature, both Krowys protects them both with a spell. Ariston then comes through and gives the Mighty Trer a bit of luck.
Lazur, while not as damaging as Trer, nonetheless somehow finds ways to stab flesh that warps with chaotic flesh multiple times. Its flesh already begins to warp and close, but what it recovers is little compared to the damage you've already done.
The creature glares balefully at all of you, and a voice in your minds, sounding simultaneously like a cat screaming and a melodious crystal flute, screams at you. Those of you who do not speak Protean receive a sense that it sees you as... foolish? heretical? Breaking something that should not be broken? You sense you are being chided, like while it is full of rage, it is also disappointed in you.
It flies backward [ooc](5 foot step) and points at you, shaping magic in a warp-burst around you.
Thunder rumbles again.
Lazur begins to fall as the spell removes his ability to fly. Thinking quickly he uses his armor's ability to fly to stay where he is. He yells out "The one in the building just summoned something."
Krowys braces himself for impact, but as he realizes which magic was dispelled, muttering a few quick words in both Infernal and Celestial to Liber, before calming down slightly.
Liber, having truespeech, relays what the keketar has said to the rest of the group: "The Keketar's issue seems to be the mere nature of the disaster-averting device. " Liber states coldly, still being a tad bit disoriented at the chaotic aura emanating from two party members and a Keketar.
Trer starts to plumet, but quickly activates her winged sandals, reactivating her flight. As a swift action, she reduces the reach this creature has in regards to her by 15ft, and as a move action, moves to right on top of it.
Summoning? Keketar's cant normally summon things unless its reshaping reality. Keep your wits about you.
Feeling a valuable spell slip away, Ariston growls, "I'm beginning to actively dislike these Proteans."
"That has been the case for us for quite a while." The disdain in Krowys's voice, usually fairly monotone and emotionless, is clearly apparent, at the creatures and plane that actively seek to undo his patron and all it represents. Seeing the enlarged half-elf take the creature on, he decides to wait a bit before doing anything, hoping the foul creature in front of him plummets before he even has a chance to act.
I am really not that interested in its philosophical viewpoint Krowys, just kill the stupid thing!
Mira casts another spell on herself. Swooping through the clouds she begins another cast, this one much faster. Her position is revealed as a massive brass dragons head appears and unleashes a torrent of flame at the Keketar.
"Oh, I am all for that!", he says with venom in his voice as he flies over to a point where a cone of magic will not harm anyone else, and casts Cone of Cold at the Keketar, uncharacteristic snarl on his face as he does so.
Ariston flies to stay close behind Trer.
HP: 105 / 105 | AC:28 / T:14 / FF:24 | CMD:27/23
TEMP TOTAL -> AC:34 / T:18 / FF:30 | CMD:27/23
Channel Energy (11):
Quick Bit of Luck (3):
Bit of Luck (8): x?
Dimensional Hop (170’):
Daylight (1):
Agile Feet (11):
Good Fortune (2):
Brilliant Spell Prep (1):
Boots of Speed (10):
Pearl of Power 4th (1):
Wand of CLW (50):
9th Spells
> Implosion:
> Miracle:
8th Spells
> Antimagic Field:
> Fire Storm:
> Moment of Prescience: x
> Stormbolts:
7th Spells
> Destruction:
> Holy Word:
> Resurrection:
> Spell Turning:
> <Brilliant Open Slot>:
6th Spells
> Find the Path:
> Heal (2):
> Mass Planar Adaptation (3):
5th Spells
> Breath of Life:
> Commune with Plane:
> Life Bubble:
> Spell Resistance:
> Teleport: x
> True Seeing:
4th Spells
> Freedom of Movement:
> Holy Smite:
> Communal Protection from Energy (3):
> Restoration:
> <Open Slot>:
3rd Spells
> Aura Sight:
> Dispel Magic (2): ?
> Fly: x
> Invisibility Purge:
> Prayer:
> <Open Slot>:
2nd Spells
> Aid:
> Blinding Ray:
> Communal Endure Elements:
> Grace:
> Ghostbane Dirge:
> Spear of Purity:
> Spiritual Weapon:
1st Spells
> Bless:
> Murderous Command:
> Remove Fear:
> Shield of Faith (3): x
> True Strike:
Effects:
Ring of Force Shield = Indefinite
Moment of Prescience = 17 hours
Shield of Faith = 17 mins
Fly = 17 mins
Haste
Mirabelle loses her shield spell but none of her other magical defenses. She appears for just a moment as she summons an image of a fire-breathing metallic dragon, before she disappears from view once again. The fire scorches the protean quite badly.
Trer loses the fly effect from her potion but quickly recovers by activating her magic boots and recovers her position. Used to fighting large creatures, she finds a way to maneuver to deprive the keketar of its ability to slash at her as she nears it.
Krowys loses protection from chaos. He knows that despite being seen as "priests," keketars don't usually summon creatures. Although being a linguistic pedant, you consider that Lazur said a creature summoned something, which might not mean a creature, per se. So it is either another protean, possibly a keketar, that brought something into being, or it is something else. And so very many planar creatures can summon creatures, as can many different kinds of spellcasters, narrowing down what it could be simply based on the fact that it "summoned something" is not really possible.
Logic then dictates splattering the thing he can see, Krowys sprays an icy mist at the keketar, and it takes a great deal of damage. It is not quite dead, and heals back some of what it lost, but a single solid attack by any of you would be likely to send it back to Maelstrom.
Ariston loses his moment of prescience, but presciently enough heals Trer.
Lazur likewise loses his overland flight spell but activates his armor.
The keketar shouts something that sounds like utter nonsense--and is. It focuses hard...
But even it is not immune to the fickle forces of chaos, and despite its prowess, it is unable to concentrate on its mighty magic abilities.
It tries something simpler, figuring it may as well do its best before it goes out.
And a quickened wave of confusion washes over everyone in a 15 foot radius.
Everyone resists except Krowys.
If the effect remains on Krowys by the time his turn comes up, he will do the following: Do nothing but babble incoherently (which for a linguist may be most horrific).
You receive a telepathic sense of resignation that it accepts its fate just as it thinks you ought to accept yours.
Meanwhile a large something moves beyond the building ahead of you--as it clears the building, those of you who do not have a blue cloud blocking your line of sight may see it is another Keketar--and beelines for the swirling blue watery portal off a ways to the left of where you came out and disappears into it.
"Tired of this one now," Trer says, "It's boring me." With that she thrusts with her overly large sword.
And assuming there are no more active hostiles that she can see, she'll end her rage.
"Right. Do your magic stuff quickly, we've got more gates to go through. I'll need a minute to catch my breath, and maybe drink another flight and enlarge potion. Don't want to tap out my items this early in the day."
With Trer's blow, the protean's body disrupts and it disappears into a whirl of ash, rainbows, the scent of peanut butter, and kittens screaming.
Bearing in mind that the blue clouds block line of sight, you can see nor hear other hostile creatures. However, Krowys remains confused for the next 16 rounds after this one (slightly more than a minute and a half), during which time he could potentially attack party members unless something is done about it. Letting the spell wear off naturally is an option; there are enough of you with high enough Spellcraft to know how long it is likely to last. Krowys fortunately can't hurt Liber, but there is a chance he might try to hurt one of you.
"Had friends be confused before," Trer says gently. "None of that now."
Seeing no enemies, the cleric looks around. The rocks draw his attention. "Rocks seem strange here. What are the odds that the three bodies we've been sent to recover are hidden behind some of these rocks?"
Ariston asks to borrow Mira's Ioun Stone for a moment and...
Casts Dispel Magic attempting to clear the Translator's mind.
Lazur catches his breath and says "The blue clouds and parts of the walls are shadow illusions. There are three bodies on the rocks, there, there and there. I don't know what that other one was doing in the building so let's take a minute and move these bodies through the portal and cautious go to the building. I will need a moment if we need to fly much longer."
Krowys rights himself, a few confused words still slipping out of his mouth in Rover Pidgin before he fully gains his bearings,
After a few seconds to regain his bearings however, he returns to a common shared language of the group, before continuing, "Ah. Presumably targeted by a spell of confusion, or the like." After which Krowys floats back over to Liber, making sure the Arbiter and former fox is okay, before taking a moment to sigh to himself. "Eugh. The rocks... seem strange, yes," he doesn't comment further, as he doesn't exactly remember specifics of what was said, as he was thoroughly confused and code-switching to high hell at the time, but Liber fills in the gaps: "I think that might be where they are hidden, if anywhere around here."
Ariston successfully targets the confusion spell and dispels it before Krowys can do himself or others harm.
As he approaches Krowys, who is hovering not far from one of the blue clouds, he reaches into it, wondering about its status, all the more so when Lazur begins to describe the suspect terrain.
Indeed, as he blinks, he can see that the blue clouds and rocks are not fully illusion... but rather, they are made up of insubstantial shadow stuff enforced by illusion. So when he puts his hand through them on on them, there is something real there, and yet now that he is attuned to it, they are transparent enough he can see which rocks and clouds are real. The blue clouds still feel misty, the rocks feel somewhat solid. Many of the clouds or rocks directly obscured where dead bodies of people in robes of clergy of the Mechanosanctum lie, or splatters of blood and gore throughout the area.
Likewise, the building ahead on the "island" is not the intact building it appeared to be, but its walls are collapsed, and he can see something inside--something glowing and round, and a hint of pale gold metal.
With Krowys back to ‘normal’, Ariston begins moving the bodies he can see (starting with the one below him) to and through the gate. He doesn’t bother removing whatever traces of shadow-stuff still cling to them. That would be Mara’s problem to handle. They had to get these bodies through so they could descend on the building, tap the wellspring, and keep moving. Time was not on their side.
"Can't fly under my own power for very long." Trer pulls an immovable rod out from her pack, and activates it, before uncomfortably straddling it, and deactivating her flight. "This is about as cozy as it looks, so make it as quick as you can. Unless you think the building is trapped?"
Ariston does the grisly task of finding three bodies floating on rocks nearby; one is tucked as though by someone safely into a crevice. They are dressed like Sanctum clergy. He and possible some others to move their bodies through the portal.
None of the bodies resemble Zax Grierson, who Mara also asked you to find.
Blood spatters lead to the large island with the (ruined) building on it, and you'd need to go into it to see what is inside. It's also really likely to be where the Wellspring is.
As Ariston checks the bodies Mara heads directly to the building, wanting the first glimpse of the Wellspring.
Mirabelle flies into the building, she too see the walls have been filled in with shadow-stuff, and the place is actually a ruin. While some of the ruined aspects are old--rotting wooden furniture broken on the floor--some of the breaks in the walls and damage done appears quite recent, done with strong claws such as those the keketars possess.
To her left, Mirabelle spots the fourth and final corpse, Zax Grierson, barely recognizable save that he is about the right size and he wears the same armor and cloak you saw him in a few months ago in Isenor.
Ahead, she sees a large, hexagonal device that clearly is of similar make to the Machine in the Mechanosanctum: this is Mercane's Wellspring of Air. A central column contains a shimmering golden substance that looks like gas one moment and liquid the next that is likely the fuel you seek. There is a a spout attached to the column that is the obvious place to attach the sphere to obtain the fuel. There is a lot of very fresh rubble in the area and very faint scratches on the Machine that suggests someone has tried and spectacularly failed to damage it.
The problem is that there is also an obviously magical shimmering iridescent hemisphere about 10 feet high and around that is covering the area you need to step into to reach the spout and use it. You are all savvy, very experienced adventurers and know that likely the hemisphere doesn't belong there and is probably not nice. While it looks like it is made of light, and therefore someone could walk through it, you've seen lesser adventurers die assuming they would be fine doing something like that. There is no apparent way to get to the spout without walking into the rainbowy dome.
This magical barrier of light that can do all kinds of unexpected and nasty things things to those who try to pass through it. While your group is experienced and tough enough to resist its potentially blinding light, the you are still subject to the effects if you try to move through it. The less nasty effects are various types of energy damage, and the more nasty effects involve turning to stone and having all items destroyed before being teleported to a random plane. Creatures who are resistant to spells are more likely to survive passing through it but they have to apply their resistance to each color-layer of the sphere.
Destroying it is tricky: each color must be dispelled by a specific effect before (greater) dispel magic might work on it (see prismatic wall description for the necessary spells). Antimagic field does not work on it, but mage's disjunction and rods of cancellation do.
What's worse for your particular situation is this is a very powerful spell, and it probably lasts 170 minutes at a minimum--almost three hours, which is more than enough time for serious damage to be done to Ramsmouth and the rest of the island, if not the Free Coast. It will last that long or until its caster chooses to dismiss it. Killing the caster is not the same as dismissing the spell; it will expire on its own in its normal time if the caster dies before then.
Lazur takes a moment and sits on a rock, he says "I need a minute to whip up a new overland flight. I don't think this fly will last long enough for the work we have ahead." He then makes and consumes another overland flight. He helps with the bodies and then flys to the well and pulls out his lantern and observes the area. He then lets out a long whistle and says a nasty word.
+
+
+
+
As Krowys and Liber float over by the wellspring, they take a moment to examine the structure in front of them, with Krowys casting detect magic, before shielding his eyes, which are accustomed to text and words on a page, from the light in front of him.
.
"Axis-built devices are very precise and designed to function in very specific ways. I highly doubt there would be a way to manipulate the device to get the spout to attach the sphere to it without... interacting with this dome," Liber states, before allowing Krowys to continue, "Knowing what I do about spellcraft, there isn't much that would allow a hemisphere area of effect, so it is likely an entire sphere. And, given the light it seems to emit, it is likely a prismatic sphere, a variant of prismatic wall which, if I recall correctly, only differs in geometry. Given a protean could not break the Wellspring, I doubt even Trer could do the same. The sphere should last about 3 hours, unless dismissed by the spellcaster or removed entirely via some great form of dispelling magic. Given what seems to be the Wellspring's utterly magic-repellent effects, a very, very small creature or someone in the form of a gas could eek through there."
Mira spends several minutes carefully circling the machine, examining it in minute detail. She appears utterly focused on it, checking every last little part of it from outside the glowing sphere. Eventually she sighs and looks over at Lazur and Krowys.
Yes, I concur. The sphere is an annoying magical effect. It is possible to bring one down if you have the right spells available but they have to be used in a specific order. Cone of cold, gust of wind, disintegrate, passwall, magic missile, daylight and dispel magic. I can provide some of them but not all. I can probably come up with a way to become gaseous and I might be able to wriggle my way in without setting anything off...
"Out of those, I only have a few Cones of Cold, and one intensified variant, prepared. And you?"
Lazur shakes his head, "I can't be of any help bringing that wall down. The magic I use can't be used in that way even if I had those spells needed to take it down and I don't have any way of turning incorporeal."
After sending all the bodies (including Zax’s) through the gate, the priest joins the rest of the group for the explanation and discussion of the sphere. ”Can you turn someone else to gas, Mira? I think our most flexible ally should attempt this feat. And I can attempt to shift the odds in their favor. If we need to bring down the sphere instead, I can assist with the final two colors. I can cast Daylight and I have one more Dispel Magic left.”
"I could hit it," Trer calls from over on her perch, "Or run through it really fast. Or," she says, in a moment of rare brilliance, "I could hit the floor near the sphere, and then we could go under it. Unless it goes through the floor?"
"It is a sphere. It goes through the floor," Krowys sighs. "Unless you want to be very much worse for wear, I would also advise running through it as well"