And now, one of my favorite runs of the whole campaign.
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 225
Taken to the Cleaners
When Gaz Mur had inquired as to the Company’s preferred sleeping arrangements, they had specified “something soft.” Such things are in short supply in the Monastery, but the Vree are nothing if not resourceful. When the party enters the sphere given over to them for the “night,” they find nine floating wooden slabs of just the right size – each covered in a squishy layer of fruit.
“Make it easier to have a midnight snack,” says Flicker.
After the Vree servants leave them, the Company starts to clear off the fruit (which still floats around the sphere) and lay out their bedrolls.
“I’m actually thinking about going back to the Elemental Plane of Air to sleep,” says Dranko half-seriously.
“Bad idea,” says Grey Wolf.
“I’ll go with you,” offers Flicker, who is quite jealous of those who went there.
“Worse idea,” says Aravis. When Flicker whines, Aravis continues, “There could be hostile air elementals we just didn’t happen to run into.”
“And we did have that squid problem in the Elemental Plane of Water,” Dranko points out.
“What could possible go wrong?” asks Flicker, who hasn’t really been listening as he cleans the fruit from his bed.
“Flicker,” says Aravis, “were you paying any attention to what we just said?”
“Of course I have! And I sincerely doubt there’s going to be a giant squid on the Elemental Plane of Air.”
“Air elementals,” says Aravis, wondering why he’s bothering. “We said air elementals.”
Flicker knows it’s pointless, but can’t stop from trying. “Air elementals are friendly, like Oa Lyanna,” he says.
“Right,” says Morningstar. “And no air creatures have ever tried to hurt us. Like that death mist in God’s Thorn. Or that living storm we ran away from before we found the Inn.”
“Besides,” says Aravis, “Oa Lyanna is an air spirit. I’m worried about the actual elementals.”
“Air this, air that,” says Flicker. “I want to try it! I didn’t get to try it!”
“Take a look around you,” says Morningstar, motioning to the floating beds and drifting fruit. “Have you ever tried this?
“Well, the beds are pretty tasty,” admits Flicker. “Oh, all right, fine. But I’m gonna try the plane of air tomorrow.”
Eager to change the subject, Kibi asks, “How do people feel about me getting in that Machine and trying to blow the world apart? Any yeas or nays?”
“Nay,” says Ernie, but he’s the only one to offer an immediate opinion.
“Maybe we should all get in the Machine with you,” Dranko offers.
“I vote a big “nay” on that one,” says Aravis. “I have a bad feeling about this, but I don’t see that we have any choice.”
“We could always try the Lord of the Roses,” says Dranko. But no one else cares for that idea, after their experience with Srapa.
“We don’t just want to go from Slice to Slice forever,” Dranko continues. “If Kibi goes into the Machine, it’s not likely to make things any worse that they are now.”
On that thought, they sleep.
* *
The next day the Company is left to their own devices, though Kibi is told to be “on call” in case Pruz Flit needs him. The Vree are a friendly folk, and among them there is a growing excitement as word spreads that Pruz Flit will soon be activating the Machine, returning them to the true unbounded Chaos. The party meets two more Vree Masters – Poz Gar and Haraz Lum. Poz Gar is the Master of Stores, whose job it is to keep the monastery provisioned. He can’t quite hide the fact that he finds the humanoids rather repulsive to look at, but is perfectly polite all the same. Haraz Lum, Master of Prayers, is the only Vree the Company finds unfriendly, coming across as a snooty xenophobe.
Part way through the day Tiz Mot, Master of Claws, finds Kibi again. Have youuuuuuu decided to go into the machiiiiiiiine?” he asks. It’s clear right away that he still has doubts.
“We don’t have any better ideas,” Kibi answers. “It’s a shame we can’t test it first, before Pruz Flit turns it on for real.”
Ernie spends some time with Tiz Mot as well, hoping to pick up some fighting tips if they run into more Slaad. It’s not a total waste of time, though Vree combat maneuvers aren’t generally applicable to bipeds.
Flicker has a blast flying around in the Plane of Air, and no native creatures show themselves to cause trouble. All of them eat more fruit and wander around the Monastery. Kibi spends some time with Pruz Flit as he calibrates the Machine, while Scree, who hates floating and falling, stays safely inside his master’s extradimensional familiar pocket.
By the end of the “day,” Pruz Flit announces that he should be ready for full activation first thing tomorrow. Kibi thinks to ask if having a telepathic bond cast upon him could mess up the Machine. Pruz Flit thinks it should be harmless, and is in favor of the idea.
“Onnnnn the off chance that something doezzzzzz go amiss, it would be uuuuuuuuseful to be in telepathic comuuuunicationnnnnn with people who could helllllllllllp youuuUUuuuuu.”
That leads to talk about imbuing Scree with spellcasting ability in case Kibi becomes incapacitated, which in turn leads to the question about where Scree will be when the Machine is turned on.
“Can Scree come with me?” asks Kibi. “He’s my Familiar, and we share the same essence.”
“I’m sure the Eyes of Moirel won’t mess anything up,” says Dranko under his breath.
“Maybe you should calibrate the Machine with Scree inside,” suggests Ernie.
Pruz Flit thinks that’s a fine idea. After Morningstar casts a telepathic bond, the Vree invites Kibi and Scree into the cage at the center of the Machine, while instructing the others (now gathered nearby) to float a ways back so as not to interfere. Scree is extremely unhappy with the arrangement, since he has no choice but to float around Kibi. Adrift in the Chaos the earth elemental panics for a moment and “clings” to Kibi, which is to say that Kibi finds himself covered with rocks.
“Now just wait a minnnnnute,” says Pruz Flit. “Things should be finnnnnne. Pleazzzzzzze hold on to the ChammmmmmberrrRRrrrrr.”
Kibi grasps the bars of the cage, and as it has on all previous calibrations, the red energy is drawn to his hands. It’s warm, but not at all painful. Pruz Flit busies himself at the surface of the Machine’s sphere. After two minutes of recalibration, there is a sudden and violent surge of the energy, flowing down Kibi’s arms and directly into Scree. In seconds the Familiar is glowing a bright, vibrant red, and seconds after that there are two bright flashes of light from inside Scree’s body – one green, and one purple. The red energy playing along the Machine’s latticework starts to mix with green and purple light.
A thick, continuous bolt of red energy fires out of the cage and strikes the nearby blue Way.
“Is that supposed to happen yet” Dranko yells down to Pruz Flit.
Pruz Flit starts to make high-pitched whimpering sounds.
The energy beam flowing from the Machine to the Way gets brighter and more intense over the next few seconds. The Machine’s sphere starts to glow an almost opaque red and the others can barely make out Kibi’s shape inside of it. Kibi himself finds (to his horror) that his hands are stuck fast to the bars of the cage.
“I can’t let go!” he thinks urgently to the others in the telepathic bond.
Pruz Flit is still scrambling around on the Machine. “MmmmmmMMMMMmmmmMMMMMMM... Whatzzzzzzzzzz going onnnnnnn?!” he cries. The red energy stream is now pouring into the Way, and it’s quite clear to everyone that this calibration exercise has officially gotten out of hand.
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Flashback. Mercury, the centaur owner of the Eye of the Storm, speaks. “Have any of you, out of curiosity, gone through one of the gray Ways? There are many places that border on the prime planes, like the Astral and the Ethereal. The Slices are bounded in a similar way, but not by those more familiar planes. They are bounded by something… stranger. And in that realm live… things. And these things are attracted by a Way that is not… breathing. By a closed Way. These things devour Slices and everything in them. When the Slice is gone, all of the Ways into it go dead, gray. I pray that none of us ever see them. Aristus did, once. He won’t talk about it, so don’t ask him.”
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From the Way there comes a horrible tearing sound. Ten feet above and bit to the left of the glowing blue portal, a gash is rent in the fabric of space. Looking through that jagged rift, the Company sees a blackness dotted with stars, the sight of which is faintly nauseating. It instantly reminds Grey Wolf and Ernie of their brief trip through one of the gray “burned out” Ways.
Through that rift comes a mottled green-brown tentacle. It’s three feet in diameter, at least fifteen feet long, and it flails about spasmodically. As it does so, the tear in space gets wider.
“Kibi, make it stop!” shouts Ernie.
Pruz Flit wails in his alien voice that only Kibi understands. “Whatzzzzzz going onnnnnnn? Whatzzzzz happeninnnnnnnnng?”
“I can’t move!” thinks Kibi again. “Someone help me!”
Pruz Flit’s servants are fleeing rapidly toward the hatch in the larger spherical room that houses the Machine. Kibi can barely hear the sound of Pruz Flit now above the humming din around him. “Somethingzzzzz gone horrrrrribly wronnnnnnnnnng. Wronnnnnnnnnnnnnng!”
“I guess this answers our question about whether we should use the Machine,” says Dranko hoarsely.
* *
All of this has happened in less than fifteen seconds. Now that it’s clear that the calibration has become a disaster, the Company springs into action. Grey Wolf falls toward the Machine, and when he reaches the shell of pulsing red energy, tentatively reaches out his hand to touch it. It’s a tingly, electrical feeling, but not damaging or painful, and it doesn’t impede his progress. “We can get through this!” he shouts back.
That’s all the others need to hear. Snokas falls through the Machine’s exterior sphere, smashing aside ropes and stakes on his way to Kibi’s aid. Ernie and Step are right behind him.
Dranko grabs his whip, falls to within fifteen feet of the tentacle, and lashes. He strikes true, but the weapon doesn’t leave a mark, and the thrashing of the tentacle doesn’t lessen. Morningstar follows up by casting chill seeds and hurling an acorn at the tentacle. It impacts and bursts in a blast of cold fire, but when the explosion clears it hardly seems to have damaged the thing at all.
Aravis thinks of the Maze. Each time he has tried to use it since the Battle of Verdshane, he has failed. The effort he exerted had injured the parts of his brain that interfaced with the Maze; trying to access it has since resulted in a fuzzy pain in his head. Nevertheless, he thinks that if the Maze can seal planar boundaries, maybe he can use it to close off this rift in space. He concentrates and tries to enter its reality.
He fails again, feeling a twinging pain in his head, but for the first time he feel like it’s a localized pain. If it were his leg, he’d say that the swelling had finally gone down, but the muscle was still pulled or torn. Interesting...
KKKkkkkkkkkkkkkkrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkk! Four more tentacles come tearing through space around the Way, all whipping around in a frenzy. They’re tearing the world apart as they move, leaving more gaping rents through which the nauseating star-field can be seen. Red energy continues to pour out of Kibi and the Machine and into the Way itself, which is now glowing a bright purple as the red energy mixes with its usual blue color.
“Cleaners!” Dranko shouts, understanding now what’s happening. “We’ve got to get everyone out through the other portal!”
It’s a sure bet that no one’s going out through this one; a huge tentacle, thick as a barrel and long as a barn is tall, comes bursting out directly through the Way. The glowing portal fades quickly from its purple color to a sickly gray. One of the smaller tentacles whips out at Dranko, smacking him in the chest and sending him reeling backward toward the others.
With the Way effectively dead, the energy flow out of the Machine abruptly stops, and Kibi’s hands are released from the bars of the cage. He and Scree flee through the cage door, now clustered with incoming would-be rescuers. All of them adjust their gravity and fall straight for the hatch, away from the Cleaners. Ernie shouts at Kibi, “tell them it’s the Cleaners!” but the Vree have by this time fled out of the larger sphere. Behind them they hear more terrible ripping sounds as more gashes are torn into the Slice. Aravis looks back and sees that the various smaller tears are starting to merge into larger ones, as if the plane is being replaced, or perhaps erased, by the unnatural void. He guesses that they have at least a few minutes before the Cleaners subsume the large sphere that houses the Machine, though it’s possible that their rate of unmaking will increase. As they approach the exit hatch, Aravis shares his thoughts about the Maze injury with Morningstar and Ernie. They agree that restoration or greater restoration might help.
Pruz Flit is waiting for them just outside the hatch. “Are youuuuUUUUUuuuuu okaaaaayyyyyyyy?” he asks fearfully.
“Do you have a way to escape other than through that portal?” asks Kibi, pointing back toward the now-dead Way.
“Only the Plane of Air, and weeee will dieeeeee therrrrre,” bemoans the Vree.
“Is there anything beyond that plane?”
“We havvvvvve not explorrrrred therrrrrre,” says Pruz Flit.
“Once we’re through,” says Morningstar, “I’ll find the path to the closest Way out, and we’ll try getting the Vree to someplace where they can survive.”
“We have no other option,” says Dranko, listening to the increasingly loud sounds of Cleaners shredding the fabric of space. “This plane is going to be destroyed.”
Ernie casts tongues, and he and Kibi (along with Pruz Flit) start to fly around the monastery, telling all they see what has happened, that the Vree should gather what food they can carry and meet at the Way to the Plane of Air. The word quickly spreads. Dranko, Flicker and Step head toward their quarters to gather the party’s gear, while Grey Wolf uses his backup magic sword to cast restoration on Aravis. It doesn’t help, though Aravis feels like it was the right idea – just not strong enough. Ernie asks Pruz Flit how long the Vree can survive in the Plane of Air, and is told that while no one is sure, he’d guess two or three hours. “Good, good,” says Ernie. “We don’t think it’s a very big Slice, and we can probably get you all to the next one in that time.”
“But izzzzz there Chaosssssss beyonnnnnnd?” asks Pruz Flit.
“We don’t know,” admits Ernie.
“It’s a better chance than you’ve got staying here,” says Morningstar. The sounds of tearing reality from inside the Machine’s outer sphere grow louder all the time.
“Whyyyyy did the Chaosssss let this haaaaappennnnnnnnn?” laments Pruz Flit.
“I’m not sure it was the Chaos,” says Ernie, thinking still of the Black Circle.
“But the Chaossss spoke to meeeeeeeeeeee!”
Ernie answers, “Sometimes when you want something very very much, you hear what you want to hear.”
Morningstar uses her gem of recall to fill an empty spell slot with greater restoration. Even though it will take ten minutes for her to cast it, they should have that long before the Cleaners reach the remaining working Way. The Vree as a whole are staying remarkably calm and organized, and soon are all gathered in the vicinity of the Way. Aravis explains that if things go well, he might need to draw on Vree life-force using the Maze, and the arachnids seem to understand.
There’s a terrible sound of splintering wood and shattering metal as the huge sphere that once surrounded the Machine is destroyed. Dozens upon dozens of tentacles burst out; the whole of what once was the interior is now starry void. The Vree mill around nervously as Morningstar casts her spell on Aravis, while the deadly work of the Cleaners draws ever closer.
Ten minutes later she touches Aravis’s head and effects a greater restoration. The Cleaners have erased about half the Monastery and there are now hundreds of tentacles ripping and shredding their way through the Slice. Some of them are over 20 feet in diameter and over a hundred feet long. It’s hard to get any sense of visual perspective where normal space has been expunged, and Dranko thanks Delioch that he was bludgeoned and not erased when the tentacle struck his chest. He thinks back to when the Company summoned a squid to set off a Black Circle trap, and wonders if this is not some kind of cosmic justice being applied.
The Vree are huddled closer around the Way into Air, but are holding off going through as long as they dare. Tiz Mot is staring at Pruz Flit in what the party guesses is extreme disappointment. It’s loud, as the sound of chittering Vree mixes with the increasingly-less-distant sounds of disintegrating universe.
Aravis feels a tingle in his mind, and then a soothing wash of healing energy. Having cast her spell, Morningstar leaps through the Way and casts find the path as soon as she’s on the other side. She immediately senses the direction of a second Way, more or less straight “down” the elevator-shaft-shaped Slice.
With waves of unease now washing over the Company in sickening pulses, and the sound of Cleaners drowning out almost all else, Aravis instructs Pewter to take his body through the Way should anything happen. Then he drops into the Crosser’s Maze.
* *
It takes more effort than he remembers, but that's not surprising -- Aravis is out of practice. With fierce concentration he finds himself perched in the high metaphorical window of the Maze. Behind him is the “inner world,” where Solomea Pirenne once dwelt and where King Vhadish XXIII dwells still, but that is not his concern. In front of him should be the Maze’s map of the Cosmos, but he hasn’t yet mustered the mental strength to see it as he usually does. He can only sense abstractions of abstractions. The universe, he can tell, is very small, and getting smaller. Makes perfect sense. He thinks he should be able to see the other Slices, but at the moment he can only sense the one he’s in. Desperately, he thinks...thinks...
“I hope he thinks of something,” says Flicker, looking at Aravis’s body. It’s floating lazily in place, with Pewter perched on his shoulder. The tentacles, far away but terribly loud, are eating their way inexorably through the Slice. The Company guesses they have about fifteen or twenty minutes before the wave of Cleaners reaches them.
Aravis concentrates, and his facility with the Maze starts to return in earnest. Now he can see a vague map of the Slices, or at least the ones nearest to the one he himself is in. He can see the nearby Plane of Air, and a bright dot that indicates the Way he’s standing next to. Overall, there’s – well, it’s not exactly a pattern, but a consistency to how the Slices are arrayed. There is always distance between them, even between two that are connected by Ways.
But here, in the Chaos, it’s different. All of the Slices of Limbo have been “pushed together” somehow; even Slices that aren’t connected by portals are practically adjacent to one another, like stories of a single building that have no stairways between them. It must have taken something, or someone, of immense power to change the structure of the Slices like that. Even where his body is right now, isn’t that far from the nearest border to another Slice of Chaos, where the two Slices are pushed right up against one another...
That’s it. He can tear open a new portal into an adjoining Slice of Limbo! And, he thinks grimly, if he can close it right away, it might not even attract more Cleaners. Mustering every ounce of concentration he has, he sets to work. Immediately he understands that some life energy will be required, so he reaches out to the Vree. Having been warned, and possessing the mental discipline one expects of monks, every one of the Vree gives up life force willingly. Aravis thinks with satisfaction that, as a result, no single Vree will be severely taxed. He starts to peel away the planar fabric between the Slices, and finds it simple. It’s almost as if the two Slices of Limbo want to be joined.
Almost as an afterthought, he wonders how much time he has left.
* *
“Remember when I said I’d be bored back in Tal Hae?” says Dranko, sweating. “I take it back. I take it all back.”
The feeling of pure wrongness is now like a strong wind buffeting their psyches. Hundreds of tentacles slash through reality, erasing as they sweep. They have... five minutes? Maybe ten? It’s clear that they can’t wait any longer for Aravis to...
Rrrrrrrrrriiiiipppp! A hole tears open in space right next to Ernie, and he jumps back in terror, expecting a tentacle to come out. Instead he sees just a large hole, and on the other side isn’t mind-wrecking nothingness, but rather a roiling mass of Chaos – mostly fire and boulders at the moment. He shouts, and the others turn to look. Kibi understands immediately.
“Go through! Go through the hole!” he shouts at the Vree. Not needing to be told twice, they start leaping through as fast as they possibly can. It’s going to be close – the Vree can only go through at about one arachnid per second, and there are more than 300 of them.
“I’m sorry about all this,” says Kibi to Pruz Flit, as behind them a Vree leap through Aravis’s portal in a constant stream.
“No, no, it is myyyyyyyy fault,” says Pruz Flit. “I did not aaaaaaanticipate your... your... well, I did not accounnnnnnnnnnnnnt for that. But next time I willlllllllllllll – I will build a better Machinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne! The Chaos will have learrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrned from its mistakes.”
“I guess you can send me another note when you’re ready,” says Kibi. “The Chaos will know where I am. And you’ll be okay in there?”
“It izzzzz the Chaosssss, which izzz our home,” says Pruz Flit. “We will build a newwwwwwww monasteryyyyyyyyyyy.”
The party has a quick discussion about whether to follow the Vree through Aravis’s portal, but decide to take their chances with the Plane of Air. Besides, they figure Aravis might have to stay on this side to seal the portal closed, and it’s not worth the risk.
Dranko suddenly gets an idea in his head. He quickly fishes out a pen and some parchment and writes “Dranko was here” on a small scrap. Then he stuffs the paper scrap into an empty potion bottle, plugs in the stopper, and flings it at the onrushing Cleaners. The odds that it will avoid the tentacles seem to be miniscule, but somehow the bottle avoids them and disappears into the void beyond. Ernie looks at him like he’s mad.
At last only Gaz Mur, Tiz Mot and Pruz Flit remain.
“We are sorry, Kibilhathur Bimmmmmmmmson,” says Gaz Mur. “This izzzz not what weeeeee expected to happennnnnnnn.”
“Be safe!” says Ernie, as the final three Vree jump through. In the Maze, Aravis sees the last of the tiny points of light that are the Vree depart, and immediately starts patching up the hole. Snokas, Step and Morningstar are already in the Plane of Air. Ernie jumps through to tell them what’s happening, leaving Dranko, Flicker, Kibi and Grey Wolf to guard Aravis’s body. They all feel the pull at their life energy, and give it. The Cleaners have now destroyed everything in sight save a patch of Chaos about eighty yards on a side. Seventy yards. Sixty.
Ernie arrives in the Plane of Air and excitedly announces “No more Vree!”
“They’re all dead?” asks Morningstar, aghast.
“No! Aravis managed to open up a new portal to another Slice of Chaos and the Vree all escaped into it. It’s just us now. And we’ve decided we won’t stick around for whatsisname to make another maaaaaaa-chinnnnnnnne.”
For Aravis, fixing up the hole is child’s play compared to rebuilding the spatial fabric between Volpos and Abernia. Only as he finishes up does he become aware that Pewter has been digging in his claws for several seconds.
“Boss! Time to go!”
With a good fifteen or twenty seconds to spare, Aravis comes out of the Maze and looks around.
Whoa.
He immediately adjusts his gravity and falls into the Way. Dranko, Grey Wolf and Flicker follow right on his heels. Only Kibi is left now, staring slack-jawed at an advancing world of tentacles and horror. The nearest Cleaner can practically touch him...
Kibi leaps into the Way. A moment later he has joined the others in the Elemental Plane of Air. For five anxious seconds they all look back at the blue portal hanging in the air.
In an eyeblink, it goes gray.
...to be continued....
