Malick's halberd cuts throught the poison mist where Mountain just stood giving Mountain another chance to his the beast.
Mountain take your free basic attack.
The fog monster again turns into a vortex of choking poison sweeping over Flint, Mountain, Ferdinand and Typhus as it weaves erratically across the battlefield, letting go of Ferdinand in the process of moving.
The poisonous vapor left in its wake does 15HP poison damage to Ferdinand, Flint, Mountain and Typhus.
Flint, Mountain and Typhus get an OA on the monster.
Rennik 22
Flint 22
Mountain 21
Malick 18
Fog Monster 17 (marked by Mountain, bloodied)
Ferdinand 17
Typhus 10 (concealed)
Coughing violently, Ferdinand steps towards the creature and throws his tratnyr deep into it, electrifying it and hopefully causing a violent reaction to whatever blades are stuck into it before returning to his hand.
Typhus OA: vs AC. Damage
Typhus, on his turn, studies the creature carefully, seeming to see something familiar in it. "Its angles are all wrong. It cannot be tolerated!" He then shifts to the north and unleashes Howl of DOOM!: attack: vs Fort; Damage: thunder damage and push the target 2 squares. Close blast 3, target each creature in the blast
As the fog moves past, Mountain and Flint slash at the swirling mist reducing it size with each hit.
Keeping up with the moving mist Ferdinand electrifies the cloud once more burning off mist as he does.
Typhus seeing something in the monsters that’s offensive to his odd sensibilities and calls down thunder to blow way strands of the monster as well as push it back a few yards.
Only patches of the monster are left and are being held together by a small crystal zipping about inside it.
Rennik 22
Flint 22
Mountain 21
Malick 18
Fog Monster 17 (marked by Mountain, bloodied)
Ferdinand 17
Typhus 10 (concealed)
Rennik is up.
Rennik sends a bolt of phantom energy at the beast, hoping it is real enough to the creature that it damages it.
Rennik's bolt thins the mist but misses the jewel inside.
Rennik 22
Flint 22
Mountain 21
Malick 18
Fog Monster 17 (marked by Mountain, bloodied)
Ferdinand 17
Typhus 10 (concealed)
Flint is up.
"Flying jewellery? Well, I'll be..." Malick shrugs as the remains of the fog monster whiz past him.
Mountain is up.
Mountain rushes at the creature, mace swinging down in a fast arc.
Mountain charges up and swings a flaming mace at the darting crystal but only to sweep away more of the poisonous fog.
Rennik 22
Mountain 21
Malick 18
Flint (action held)
Fog Monster 17 (marked by Mountain, bloodied)
Ferdinand 17
Typhus 10 (concealed)
Malick is up.
"Setting you up Mountain. Let's finish this."
Flint darts in and with a quick flick of his dagger swats the crystal out of the air to bounce on the hard ground before coming to rest at Ferdinand's feet.
The poisonous green fog fades into the ever-present grey mist that envelopes the borderland of Cyre.
Ferdinand, Typhus and Rennik identify the crystal to be a low quality dragonshard that are used to hold a one shot spell effect, like a scroll. This dragonshard holds a Poison Cloud spell but none can figure out how the shard became animated and form some kind of animal intelligence.
Regrouping the party all notice that maybe just another dozen yards deeper into Cyre the omnipresent dead grey mist thins possibly fading out altogether.
Rennik looks closely at the shard on the ground.
"Why, it's a dragonshard. But it was as if it was imbued with some sort of intelligence. Fascinating! Some sort of residual magical energy in the area must have caused it to behave this way."
Rennik picks it up and stuffs it in one of the countless pockets in his cloak before anyone can object. Then, from another pocket he produces a tablet and pencil and starts frantically scribbling notes.
Flint darts in and with a quick flick of his dagger swats the crystal out of the air to bounce on the hard ground before coming to rest at Ferdinand's feet.
The poisonous green fog fades into the ever-present grey mist that envelopes the borderland of Cyre.
Ferdinand, Typhus and Rennik identify the crystal to be a low quality dragonshard that are used to hold a one shot spell effect, like a scroll. This dragonshard holds a Poison Cloud spell but none can figure out how the shard became animated and form some kind of animal intelligence.Regrouping the party all notice that maybe just another dozen yards deeper into Cyre the omnipresent dead grey mist thins possibly fading out altogether.
EDIT:The fog monster was a living spell for those wondering.
Ferdinand stops coughing long enough to pick up the shard. "Now what do we have here? I could do something with this, maybe socket it into a bow..." Ferdinand scratches his chin thoughtfully before looking back to the rest of you. "Mind if I take this?", he says as he slips it into a pouch separate from any other magic bits.
EDIT: "Hey, Rennik! Who's the artificer here? I've worked with shards for years, I should get to study it."
Ferdinand stops coughing long enough to pick up the shard. "Now what do we have here? I could do something with this, maybe socket it into a bow..." Ferdinand scratches his chin thoughtfully before looking back to the rest of you. "Mind if I take this?", he says as he slips it into a pouch separate from any other magic bits.
EDIT: "Hey, Rennik! Who's the artificer here? I've worked with shards for years, I should get to study it."
"What? Oh, this thing? I don't even remember why I wanted it."
Rennik pulls it out of one of his pockets and hands it to Ferdinand.
"That was different. Different, I like. Real easy to clean up after as well. Anyone want patching up before we go on?"
Ferdinand downs a quick concoction before turning to the rest of the group. "Well, I should be fine. Anyone feel like donating?"
"Sure. Got to keep this team on the road. I'll open a vein for you."
Not wanting to spend any more time than necessary in the mist you press on into Cyre but the visage you see through no longer resembles anything you can remember about the “Jewel of Galifar”. Where once there was pleasant green fields now roll out before you a blasted wasteland of blackened grass and twisted trees. Leaden skies cover the land in a permanent twilight, lighting flashes in the cloud cover but makes no noise.
Searching the local environs turns up nothing living or dead as if every insect and animal has vanished without a trace, the only traces of life you can find is the recent trail of a small army heading southwest towards Tronish. Traces left behind identify the army as Ruing’s Raiders, your comrades. As you track the raiders trail over the course of a mile, footprints depart the column here and there in ones and twos heading north all the footprints are of warforged belonging to the company.
Typhus:
Mountain:
Malick:
Ferdinand:
Flint:
Rennik:
Which way shall you head now?
Ferdinand reaches into his pocket before withdrawing it, looking confused.
"Follow the lines? What's that supposed to mean? Uh, I say we keep going on to Tronnish."
"That's where we were going anyway. Hey Mountain, let me take a look at your chest again. Need to check something."
"There are some powerful magical energies in this place. It doesn't seem like anything I've read about."
Rennik starts scribbling on his tablet some more.
Mountain nods to Malick and lets him examine his chest. The Warforged seems even more distant than usual, taking a few seconds to respond to the request. His jaw twitches slightly.
"North...something is there. I cannot explain how I know such, but there is something there. I know there to be a large Cannith enclave in Metrol. Perhaps they are sending out some sort of magical signal to warforged for aid..."
He trails off, eyes glancing towards the dead grey horizon to the north.
"It's...confusing. Disturbing. Like I am being lead in that direction. Perhaps it is just the mist. Is anyone else experiencing something similar? We need to try and determine what effects these mists have, so we can resist them or at least perpare ourselves."
The small speech is much more than Malick has ever heard the warforged utter in such a time, it's quite obvious he is disturbed.
"I smell the death of many souls and hear the songs of the brutal slain. I feel the wind, though it blows not, and I have seen purple waves coming from the sky, though the stars have turned their face from this land."
"Really? I just hear the amulet talking to me. I'm beginning to think walking into here with several pounds of arcane reagents wasn't a good idea."
"Hold still Mountain. Don't you be wandering off without us now. Ferdinand, hand me that thing a moment." Malick hold his hand out for the amulet.
"Looks like Typhus and Rennick are happy enough, but Mountain's got itchy feet. That leaves you and me to bring some much-needed sense out here on the raggedy-edges of sanity."
Malick holds the amulet up to Mountain's markings, looking for any clues.
"Now why should Blondie's special trinket be calling the warforged home?"
Ferdinand places the amulet in Malick's hand. "Like anything about this place is anywhere close to sane." He then gazes out into those blasted wastes.
"Just you and me, Ferdinand. Just you and me. Don't know what in Khyber's going on here, but it sure as hell can't be good."
He dredges through his memory for ill-gotten snippets of information.
Religion, Arcana re lines and any possible clues (1d20+8=19, 1d20+8=28)
"I would remind you I am not composed of flesh and blood, thus I am immune to most maladies such as insanity. If something were directly affecting warforged with some sort of siren's call, I might be the only one to even hear it, much less be coerced."
"I will not lie, if this coercion becomes any stronger, I may not be able to help myself in straying from the rest of you."
"I'm seeing warforged footprints, Mountain, so I'm guessing you're not the only one. I figure if that call comes, you should follow it. We'll follow you, clutching Blondie's pretty."
Under closer examination of the markings on the amulet and Mountain they not only match but when the amulet is held at an odd angel the markings align with the docent hollow on Mountains chest.
When placed in Mountains docent hollow at the odd angel the amulet locks into place and the tracings begin to glow a golden color and leap off Mountain and the amulet forming an astronomical sphere.
The sphere shows the orbital paths of Eberron’s 13 moons even showing the path of Dal Quor, missing from the sky for 40,000 years. At the center of the sphere is a faint globe of Eberron marked with eleven
Black marks and two red marks. The date is set for today and each of the moons is aligned directly above one of the markings on the globe. The moon Dolurrh (realm of the dead) is aligned over one of the red marks that correspond with Tronish on your maps, the other red mark is deep in the blade desert and aligned with the moon Irian (the eternal day).
Who speaks Draconic?
For those who speak Draconic.
What are your plans and which way are you heading?
extra info from the astrosphere.
The other moons positions and their corasponding black marks are;
Daanvi (the Perfect Order) – Flamekeep in Thrane
Syrania (the Azure Sky) – Sharn in Breeland
Lamannia (the Twilight Forest) – somewhere in the Eldeen Reaches
Mabar (the Endless Night) – a point somewhere in the Frost Fell
Xoriat (the Realm of Madness) – over Stormreach in Xen’drik
Shavarath (the Battleground) – a point over the Vally of Shadows in Xen’drik
Thelanis (the Faerie Court) – Shae Mordai in Aerenal
Dal Quor (the region of Dreams) – Dvaarnava in Sarlona
Fernia (the Sea of Fire) – a point somewhere in Argonessen
Risia (the plain of Ice) – a point somewhere in Argonessen
Kythri (the Churning Chaos) – a point over the Straits of Shargon between xen’drik and Khorvaire
Oddjob 101 turns to head north following Mountain’s instincts. Hours pass and nightfall should be approaching but the mist surrounding Cyre are keeping the land covered in perpetual twilight. Only the sounds of the party and the horses can be heard in the oppressive atmosphere. As you travel through the mutated farmlands you finally see some evidence of life other than the footprints you are following.
Following the footprints into what was a farmstead and reading the trail you can tell the warforged was walking through and was ambushed by, at best guess would be, some kind of large insect.
Rocky spikes stick up from the ground mimicking a cornfield to your left and a couple of buildings halfway swallowed up by the ground litter the right.
Chitterling sounds begin to emanate from the stone fields and start to grow closer to the road.
Initiative and perception checks please also place your character near the grey spot on the road.
MAP
The grey spot is the ambush site.
You cannot move into a square occupied by a stone.