|
Valessa:
Days go by, with your elven hosts only offering the barest indication they are aware of your physical needs. When your stomach growls they conjure food from thin air. When your eyes droop, another spell revitalizes you.
In the end, you feel as though your mouth has swolen nearly shut, and as though you had spewed out every bit of historical trivia that had ever been stored in your mind.
Finally, the elder elf speaks to you again, "Valessa, it is critical that the mad ones not be allowed to capture the key. If they were to gain control of this place, they could move their invasionn forward or back by thousands of years. If they do, all of creation could come unwound as a new reality over writes the first. If the ripples drift to far, the very binding of the rajahs could be undone."
"We will return you to from whence you came, and you and your companions must make sure the key is destroyed. Meanwhile we will carve a targeting disk for you, and place it in the first chamber you explored. Once the key is shattered, place the disk into the central altar. The remaing energy will be consumed, and everyone on the top of the tower will be returned to the surface..."
Sense Motive: DC 22
The old elf is hiding something from you...
DM:
Valessa is tired, hungry, sick to death of these two elves, their endless questions, and this bare chamber she is cooped up in. Sick of history, giants, empires, daelkyr, planar connections, space-time continuums… and growing more and more afraid that they do not intend to send her back.
But what can she do? Where can she escape to? She does not know how to operate the time portal even assuming she could get by her watchers and a complex full of giants.
When at last the old elf begins speaking of sending her back, her hope begins to rise again. Finally!
She licks her dry lips and answers the ancient. “I get it,” she says, “I don’t want to wake up with three heads either – or never have existed, or have demons running around the place or whatever other madness. I need to stop them, I need to destroy the key.”
She pauses, trying to think back on what important knowledge – if any – the elves have already imparted on her. “So, um, how do we destroy the key again? It will just break if we try to smash it? And, ah, the first chamber, that’s the central one with the three doors right?” Valessa tries to think whether she saw anything that might be an alter in that chamber. “Oh, wait, you mean you’ll put the disk there for me to find? How will I know it’s still there after all that time? So, anyway, the alter and the tower you mention must be in the room where the key is right?”
Valessa takes another deep breath. “Right. What else? Yeah, so you’re sure we’ll all be safe if we’re on top of the tower? And we’ll be in the right time and everything? And there’s nothing else we need to do? And … hmmm …. Got anything that will help us fight a mind flayer?”
|
|
SPECIAL: This round, everyone in the chamber benefits from haste and get and extra move action this round.
On 22: The dragon wheels around,the time bending effects of the chamber bluring the flapping of its miniscule wings like those of a Q'barran humming vulture.
It bears down on Brick, standing alone atop the central tower when...
The flayer reappears, standing only a few feet from Brick. His prepared mind blast stabs out at the malformed dragon's mind, stunning in mid flight and sending it slamming bodily into the side of the column.
Brick needs a DC17 will save, or he will be stunned for 5 rounds.
After that, Brick needs a DC 15 balance check to avoid being knocked off his feet. If he is stunned he gets a -10 to his check. Fail and fall on the top of the pillar, fail by 10 or more, and fall off the pillar.
SPECIAL: This round, everyone in the chamber benefits from haste and get and extra move action this round.
On 22: The dragon wheels around,the time bending effects of the chamber bluring the flapping of its miniscule wings like those of a Q'barran humming vulture.
It bears down on Brick, standing alone atop the central tower when...
The flayer reappears, standing only a few feet from Brick. His prepared mind blast stabs out at the malformed dragon's mind, stunning in mid flight and sending it slamming bodily into the side of the column.
Brick needs a DC17 will save, or he will be stunned for 5 rounds.
After that, Brick needs a DC 15 balance check to avoid being knocked off his feet. If he is stunned he gets a -10 to his check. Fail and fall on the top of the pillar, fail by 10 or more, and fall off the pillar.
As the dragon's temporal wave washes over the room, Brick, dimly aware of his surroundings, feels his ceramic body waver, then regain its stability.
The warforged's legs lock into a crouch, just as the mind flayer's blast sends the dragon reeling into the side of the pillar. Like a seasoned sailor on the deck of an airship, Brick weathers the savage shuddering.
"What's happening? Where am I?" Brick's voice sounds over the din, only to be drowned out by the resonant tones of the *other*...
"SPAWN OF THE UNDERWORLD! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SURRENDER!"
DM:
Mind Flayer 15
Jyra 14
Brick 12
Beren 11
Sari 11
Rokko 7
Ruuz 5
Merreck 4
|
|
Valessa:
The elder elf brings you to the control chamber late in one relative night (night being entirely relative when you are underground) and draws out a mithril disk from his cloak. As soon as the rooms light fall on it, an odd circular light forms in mid air, and he places the disk inside the light.
You hear thrumming noises closing in on you, then your surroundings shift subtly.
Roll Initiative and join combat this round.
DM:
Brick waits precisely four seconds for the mind flayer's response. It doesn't come.
The runes around the warforged stop in midair as he levels his club like a stickball bat. They resume their spinning as the ceramic man swings...
Seeing the b@&#+ remove herself from combat, Beren grins, "Can't take the heat honey, then get out of the fire." His grin fades when he spots the Mind Flayer. Sheathing his swords with amazing speed, the Shifter lifts his bow off of his shoulder, nocks an arrow, and shoots at the squid-faced aberration.
Sari watches as Jyra retreats a bit. "Great what the heck am I gonna stab now!" Sari says as she puts her sword away and back steps to grab her bow, to prepare to shoot the mind flayer.
Rokko watches Jyra withdraw from combat with Sari and Beren. The Goblin's mouth opens wide in a toothy, salivating smile as he lifts his crossbow toward the lone Dragonmarked woman, "Oh Jrya, I hear there will be an opening at Morgrave soon." Rokko lets the bolt fly toward his target.
There is a flash, and Valessa appears on the stair, at the exact point from which she vanished.
“ – flayer yet!” she says. Then: “Oh. Too late.”
Valessa dashes into the room, then stops in surprise at the scene before her.
“Rokko! Sari!” Valessa yells. “We need to get the key! Where is it?”
DM:
Beren turns as he hears a familiar voice, "Valessa, Where Have You ... Really nice of you to join us. It only took you a thousand years."
Sari notices Beren talking and turns to see Valessa as well. "Well hope your vacation was nice, now how about helping us figure out what we are suppose to do. And I am glad to see you if it matters."
“Try forty thousand years – and they didn’t even have a pool!” Valessa shouts back to those up on the platform. “Tell me where the key is and I’ll tell you what to do – after we deal with this lot anyway.” She makes a gesture encompassing Jyra, the mind flayer and the fallen dragon, then looks around warily for any further sign of danger.
"The Key," Beren snarls, "Is a Dragon … A DRAGON! Look down." Beren uses a hand to point toward the bottom of the pillar. "Did I mention that I hate this place yet?" Beren finishes with a growl.
Ruuz looks up a Merrick, "Thanks, I thought I was a goner. Yeah I think flaming whips are out from now on." All though even after the beating Jyra still looks good. Ruuz thinks as her gets to his feet and grabs his crossbow.
oooohhhhhhh........
I fire a bolt at the mindflayer. Despite the Traveler's luck the poorly aimed bolt flies wide, arcing down onto the stone floor.
This round, no funky time bending effect.
On 23:
The flayer looks around the room, and decides that coweardice is the better part of valor. He rolls quikly, and begins falling towards the floor below. Suddenly, on his way to the ground, he gives gravity a toss and begins hanging in mid air.
Jyra runs along the outer wall, jumping down the 5' between levels. She manages to get down 2 levels before running out of movement.
Without hesitation, Brick dives off the pillar, aimed directly at the escaping mind flayer.
I sigh as Brick leaps from the pillar at the tentacled horror "And I don't think I can heal that one either."
We'll go with a ranged touch attack, and I'll give the flayer a bonus to AC.Without hesitation, Brick dives off the pillar, aimed directly at the escaping mind flayer.
We'll go with a ranged touch attack, and I'll give the flayer a bonus to AC.Without hesitation, Brick dives off the pillar, aimed directly at the escaping mind flayer.
“Stop her,” Beren growls as he watches Jyra retreat. “She may have something important.” The Shifter moves to line up his bowshot, but then out of the corner of his eye there is a flash of movement. Beren turns to see Brick in the air …
“Crazy, stinkin’ Warforged,” Beren screams as Brick launches himself over the edge of the pillar toward the Mind Flayer. He stands there wide-eyed and shocked for a moment until the sound of the climbing Dragon helps him regain his focus.
Jyra forgotten, Beren runs to the edge of the pillar, sets up a diagonal shot with his bow, and fires at the climbing monstrosity.
Brick slams into the unsuspecting aberration in midair, crushing the tentacled horror to the floor beneath his half-ton bulk.
The warforged stands, no longer wreathed in eldritch energy. Quicksilver mingles with the sticky, greenish blood of the mind flayer, oozing from deep fissures in Brick's iron undercoating.
"Where? ..."
Brick abruptly locks in place, falling to the ground with a sound like breaking plates. His metal jaw plows a yard-long furrow in the stone floor.
"What the ****!! Sari says as she watches Brick go flying and as Beren runs to the edge. "DON'T" Sari shouts as she watches Beren run to the edge for a moment she thought he might jump for some stupid reason. After realizing what he is doing she prepares her bow and takes aim as well at the dragon. She aims but at the last minute trips on a pebble and her shot goes wide.