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Story Hour
Consequences of the Quill (Restored 5/13/06)
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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2384348" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>The Truth: We Are...</strong></p><p></p><p>Tiana, as is often the case, was first to react, but her specialty was undead, not fiends like these creatures. She quickly took flight using an enchanted figurine of a fly, while the Canor Factum and the Lipido crashed into the front ranks of the party. Bath, as expected, was far less reluctant to engage in battle with demons and immediately attacked the most demonic-looking of the three, the Canor Factum. As the two squared off, Tal and Danae retreated to the back to attack the monsters with their magic, and Robin began to fire at the Lipido. However, he only got started when the creature descended into the party’s ranks and released a spread of dark energy. At the same time, the Swift Pride flew to the side of the bridge and began to rapidly beat its wings, creating a gale tainted with dark energy. The unholy power cut like a knife, but most of the party held their ground and resisted the dark force of the wind. However, Tiana lost her footing and was slammed into a side wall by the blast! Only quick reflexes and a lucky foothold kept her from falling 100 feet into the swarm of hungry Sunken!</p><p></p><p> Their special powers exhausted, the three fiends settled into a more routine battle with the party. Tonaca decided to seek the higher ground and ascended using a flying carpet, while Danae rode along with him as a passenger. Tiana used her climbing skills to move across the wall until her figurine could catch her again. Robin remained on the ground and began to pepper the Swift Pride with arrows, and Tal used magic to fly away from the bridge entirely and cast spells from the far corner. And Bath, well, did what came naturally. As Robin battled the Swift Pride and the crew of the carpet was in danger of being grappled by the Lipido’s tentacles, Bath easily destroyed the Canor Factum and moved on to helping the carpet crew. The fight ended quickly at that point, since the party outnumbered the remaining fiends three to one.</p><p></p><p> However, something unusual happened when the monsters were destroyed. Unlike most outsiders the party encountered so far, they didn’t dissolve into ash when destroyed. “How strange,” a suspicious Danae muttered, but Bath just shrugged.</p><p></p><p> “It doesn’t matter. Let’s dump them in the water and let the Sunken destroy them for us.” The party concurred and after stripping the fiends of any possessions, the remains were sent to the glowing pool below. However, though the Sunken eagerly ate most of the bodies, a bit from the Swift Pride, the last of the three fiends killed, was left untouched and continued to float on the water’s surface.</p><p></p><p> The party, however, was less interested in this mystery and more interested in exploring the rest of the Temple. The path opened to the left and right, and after a brief discussion, it was decided that they would go left first. The path began to curve to the right as it continued on, suggesting that the main layout of the Temple formed a big circle. More unusually, the path often opened to the right, revealing what looked like a strange forest. The trees and plants were vastly larger than normal, and they all had black leaves. “Oh, we have to check that out!” Robin eagerly said, but the others were more reluctant. </p><p></p><p> “We should explore the normal pathway of the Temple first. We can come back to the forest if we get stuck or after we finished here,” Tal suggested, and Robin reluctantly backed down when he saw the others agreed.</p><p></p><p> They soon came to the next room of the Temple. It appeared to be a massive biological lab or wizard’s study. It contained multiple levels separated by ramps and ladders and with metal grating floors. Tubes designed for storing biological samples covered most of the walls, and while many were empty, others included outsiders like the ones the party just fought and various other biological samples. There even were skeletal penguin-shaped birds with bat wings, just like the Prinnies the party encountered in the semi-planar rift, though their tendency to explode when damaged suggest that these samples were obtained very carefully!</p><p></p><p> Speaking of skeletal birds, the room also contained the skeleton of a massive roc-sized bird, though the skull suggested that it has extremely large and unusual eyes. Danae was able to tell that much from a distance, but hesitated to get in close for a more detailed examination. “Is it just me, or does anyone else think this thing will get up and attack us as soon as I get close?” she asked the others.</p><p> </p><p> “Oh yeah,” Tal agreed.</p><p></p><p> “Of course,” Tiana also concurred.</p><p></p><p> “I expected it as soon as I saw it,” Tonaca added.</p><p></p><p> “Hell, I’d be disappointed if it didn’t try to kill us,” Robin admitted.</p><p></p><p> “Yup, let’s destroy it!” Bath enthused.</p><p></p><p> The party quickly prepared and charged the skeleton, and were strangely satisfied when it did animate, even if they completely devastated the simple, if large, skeleton, in a matter of moments. After reducing the bird to dust and a few loose bones, the party moved on.</p><p></p><p> The tunnel again curved to the right and periodically opened on that side to the forest, but the party ignored it again and came upon another room. This one was missing a floor entirely, letting the party see more of the green pool than normal. Oddly enough, the pool was boiling here, as if something extremely hot was inside it to rise its temperature. The walls and ceiling of the room were covered in murals, runes, and statues of strange monsters from alternate planes. The only thing located in the room itself was a carefully-positioned platform covered with more strange runes and suspended by a series of massive chains. The party could literally walk down a chain to reach the platform and then up another chain to reach the next tunnel out of the room, but Danae stopped the party before they could try this. “The runes on that platform suggest that it contains a planar gateway.” </p><p></p><p> Using magic, she floated closer to the platform and studied the runes more closely. “I believe the gateway is currently locked to Pyrodessy, that strange plane we were on earlier that consisted of mostly fire. It looks damaged or at least highly erratic. I’m not sure what will cause it to open, and given the nature of the Pyrodessy plane, it’s very likely that anything to come out of it will be very unpleasant.”</p><p></p><p> With that information, the party decided it would be safer just to destroy the runes on the platform outright, destroying the gate. Tal prepared a massive acid barrage and used it to destroy the runes while the rest of the party waited on the chains or in the air around the platform. As expected, the acid destroyed the runes, but it also seemed to activate the gateway one last time before it was destroyed. Two strange monsters appeared on the platform. They seemed to be undead, for they contained glowing spectral skeletons, but their outer bodies appeared to be pure magma.</p><p></p><p> In different circumstances, the creatures would have posed a serious threat to the party. However, because so much of the party was able to fly out of their reach, it was a short and easy battle. Only Bath would consider getting close enough to the Molten monsters for them to attack her with their blades and tentacles of lava, and the quick and armored angelic warrior was beyond their ability to strike. They also were able to breathe jets of lava, but foolishly chose to breathe on Tiana, who easily evaded the breath weapons. The two monsters were soon brought down, and their bodies melted into pools of cooled magma almost instantly.</p><p></p><p> The party continued onward from here, and soon reached the next chamber. This one looked like it used to be on the surface and served as a massive graveyard. However, most of the tombs have been desecrated, and the bodies were nowhere to be found. In addition, the party found a crater at the top of a hill in the middle of the cavern. Unlike the rest of the graveyard, it was filled with bodies, though the creatures appeared to be nothing like humanoids.</p><p></p><p> “What is this?” a disgusted Robin asked.</p><p></p><p> Tonaca examined it, and came to a conclusion. “It appears that this might have been the foundation for a stone crypt. And the bodies are possibly failed experiments, perhaps taken here from the lab we saw earlier.”</p><p></p><p> The party determined that none of the bodies were magical and likely to animate, so they left the place in peace and moved on to the next chamber. By Danae’ calculations, assuming the remainder of the Temple had evenly spaced rooms, only two remained. The next one, however, was unusual as it didn’t have a tunnel leading farther! Instead, the perfectly-cubicle room had a much larger gateway leading from the party’s tunnel into the room, but it was much larger than the tunnel was. Much like the entranceway they fought the demons at, this room had no floor near the walls, and the party could only reach the pillar-like central floor using a stone bridge. The liquid at the bottom of this room was even greener than usual, and it glowed more brightly. Apart from all this, the only object of note in the room was a simple lever located in the middle of the floor. It was currently turned to point at the doorway the party entered the room from.</p><p></p><p> After a brief investigation, the party had some idea what the room’s purpose was. “Notice how the walls of this chamber don’t connect with the walls of the tunnel,” Tal said, as he demonstrated what he meant. “I think the entirety of this room can move. I assume that after the room moves, that doorway will connect to something else to make its size make more sense. And we can probably move the room by pulling the lever.”</p><p></p><p> Danae frowned after pondering this conclusion. “I really don’t want to be here when the room moves if we can help it. I don’t trust this place enough for that.”</p><p></p><p> “So what do you propose?” Robin asked.</p><p></p><p> Tiana had an idea and pulled something out of her pocket. “I have a magical spool of rope! We can tie to the lever, set up an elaborate pulley system, and activate the lever while we’re still in the tunnel!” However, after seeing how everyone except Danae looked bored after the phrase “elaborate pulley system,” she amended her plan. “Or…we could just walk all the way around and see what’s left in the in the other direction.”</p><p></p><p> The party eagerly agreed, and soon they found themselves in a very familiar room. The last room of the Temple’s outer ring was a nearly identical match of the Ancient Text room of the Great Delaspie Library! It was also about five stories tall, had a central pillar that served as a walkway anchor point and additional shelving space, and the numerous floors were connected by various walkways and ladders. However, this library was nearly empty, and it was completely uninhabited except for a few zombie and wight caretakers. The party quickly disposed of them, and then investigated the books and the rest of the library. The library didn’t have the numerous secrets passageways of Olivia’s library, but it does have a similar mural on the ceiling. However, this mural depicted a strange, alien monster with details obscured by darkness. It was raining monstrosities, including many of the monsters the party just fought, on the planet. Below the world, the body of a strange creature with some features from wolves, dragons, and humanoid women rested. It looked like it was murdered, perhaps by the dark alien figure. </p><p></p><p> Also in the library were the remains of a destroyed statue. It looked like a dragon, but it was violently destroyed. Also of note was the fact that the entire head and neck of the statue was missing. Danae was curious about the statue and scooped its parts into a portal hole. However, the last piece of the statue behaved strangely. It rested on the surface of the hole and refused to go in! Even more intrigued, Danae placed this last piece in her pocket and then continued her research on the books. They were in varying condition; some were well-preserved, but others were rotted and some were even intentionally ripped to shreds. All the books had a common theme, however: they detailed the history and discover of various new creatures, and none of the creatures appeared to have evolved naturally or even been created by wizards or the gods. They were all creatures that came to this world, and possibly even this dimension, from outside, and they include the fiends, the Sunken, the Molten, and nearly every other complex creature seen in this Temple.</p><p></p><p> After finishing their work in the library, the party decided to finally explore the forest. Upon entering it, Robin was called upon to investigate and see if he can discover what creatures may inhabit a forest this large. He studied the tracks, and quickly determined some interesting things about the grove. “As far as I can tell, there are only two sets of tracks. One is of a wolf, and one is of a deer, but both are massive! These animals must be fifty feet tall!”</p><p></p><p> “We should find these creatures, and make sure they aren’t a threat. Otherwise, they could ambush us,” Tonaca reasoned.</p><p></p><p> Robin nodded his head in agreement, and said, “We should go after the wolf first. I can’t imagine the deer would be that much of a threat, even of that size.”</p><p></p><p> The party quickly followed Robin as he tracked the wolf, and in a matter of minutes he discovered the wolf. It looked like a perfectly normal wolf, albeit a large one, with one exception: it was eating the fruits of the trees!”</p><p></p><p> “Huh, that’s weird,” Tiana commented.</p><p></p><p> “Well, I can’t say I’m too surprised. After all, if the only prey in this entire forest is one large deer, the wolf would have starved if it didn’t find some alternate source of nutrients. Of course, that also might explain why the wolf never bothered to eat the deer. It already adjusted to a vegetarian diet.” Robin explained. He then prepared to move. “If this is really a normal wolf, I should be able to befriend it. It could help us find the Keeper, or at least a safe place to rest.”</p><p></p><p> The wolf, as expected, was surprised to see another living creature, but it was also unusually afraid, especially since Robin was so small by comparison. However, Robin was able to calm it, and then managed to get some information from the wolf, including some surprising ones. He turned the party and in a skeptical voice said, “It didn’t attack the deer because it wasn’t hungry. It didn’t attack the deer because it’s afraid of the deer!”</p><p></p><p> “Why would it be afraid of a deer?” Tal asked. </p><p></p><p> “Maybe the deer is unnatural in some way,” Tonaca offered. “Or even worse, undead.”</p><p></p><p> “But that’s not all I learned,” Robin continued. “Apparently, there’s a ‘human nest’ at the center of this forest that the deer won’t go near. I think that’s supposed to mean a house or cabin of some sort. We can investigate it.”</p><p></p><p> Before long, the party found the cabin, and discovered a strange circle of protection surrounded it. The skeletal body of an elk lay sprawled next to the circle. The way the body rested suggested that it was destroyed by the circle’s power. However, the body was missing its head completely. The party carefully entered the cabin with almost no trouble. Bath, however, felt some resistance as she passed over the circle, but the pendant The Indigo Entity gave her glowed and somehow cancelled the resistance. </p><p></p><p> The cabin was surprisingly small. It only had two rooms: a central foyer/trophy room containing a mounted deer head of a normal size, and a bedroom filled with more books. Danae took a few moments to study both the books and the circle itself while the rest of the party checked the cabin for secret doors and other objects of note. “I think this circle is actually a smaller part of the sealing spell trapping the Keeper here, except in reverse. That is, it prevents creatures from getting in. It seems to be tied to undead and extradimensional creatures primarily, however. Hence the trouble that Bath had getting in.”</p><p></p><p> Bath, however, was the happiest about this news. “That means we can rest here without fear of the Malachim!”</p><p></p><p> Danae nodded. “That’s true, but we’re on a bit of a deadline here. We have no idea how long it will take Bas’ forces to find out about this place and get here. We should only rest when absolutely necessary. I think we should explore a bit more first.”</p><p></p><p> “Well, we have more options now,” Tiana explained as she finished her search of the cabin. “There seems to be some secret passageway in this room.”</p><p></p><p> The party carefully opened the hidden door and discovered a massive pit in the room beyond it. It went down for several hundreds of feet, and the room containing the hole also contained an opening leading back the foyer, but it appeared be blocked.</p><p></p><p> “That deer head!” I think it’s blocking the opening!” Tal reasoned, and the party quickly returned to the foyer to remove the head, only to learn that it wasn’t just a simple obstruction. As soon as it was taken off the wall, it began to fly under its own power! Its preserved eyes glowed with dark energy, and a series of humanoid hands emerged from inside the deer’s head. Each appeared to be suspended and controlled by the deer head by a grisly tendon! Despite the creature’s horrific nature, however, it was easily dispatched by a quick-reacting Tiana.</p><p></p><p> “What was that thing?” a Robin asked.</p><p></p><p> Danae had an idea, and she pulled out one of the books she obtained at the library. “It’s called a ‘Nature’s Rage,’” she explained. “They’re basically the spirits of killed and preserved animals. Ick, it says they collect the hands of the same race as the creature that killed them. Luckily they’re not especially powerful.”</p><p></p><p> With that danger taken care of, the party had to choose which of the three remaining mysteries to solve. They could find the deer, try to figure out the moving room, or explore the dark pit. Unsurprisingly, the big deer won out. Robin soon tracked the creature down, and discovered that it was both undead and headless!</p><p></p><p> “That’s not a good sign,” Tonaca commented, after realizing this is the second headless giant undead creature they found in the grove, but the body was easily defeated, so the party proceeded to their next goal, the moving room. Rather than go through the whole rope and lever system, however, they simply decided to shuffle in and pull the lever.</p><p></p><p> As expected, the room began to move, but instead of rising or lowering like an elevator, it rotated about ninety degrees. The door they used to enter was now pointing to the far wall, and it connected to what appeared to be some sort of prison or giant kennel. As soon as the connection was made, however, the inhabitants of the new room noticed the party and charged out! They were Instant Murdeans, the same massive centaur-like gator/elk/cat race as the one TIE used as a guardian in her last test of the party, but there were two of them this time!</p><p></p><p> As soon as the room shifted, the quicker of the two monsters trampled right over the entire party. Eager to prevent the same thing from happening again, Bath charged the slower Murdean in an attempt to distract it while the party fought the first one. The plan worked, in a way. The second Murdean indeed focused its attention on the brave angel, but it responded by scooping her up and promptly swallowing her! This forced the party to deal with both of the creatures again, and without their best fighter!</p><p></p><p> Things looked dire until Danae remembered how they prematurely defeated the last Murdean. The creatures aren’t especially bright, and have no understanding of magic. Thus, all she had to do was protect the party with a prismatic sphere and they’ll stupidly attack through it, exposing themselves to its effects! It took a while, but as expected, both eventually succumbed to the sphere’s powers and were sent to parts unknown!</p><p></p><p> “Well, that takes care of that!” Danae smugly said. “They should be trapped on random planes…I think.”</p><p></p><p> “You think?” Tiana responded with a suddenly worried expression.</p><p></p><p> “Well, if they’re servants of the Keeper, they should be unable to leave this plane. That’s the whole point of the sealing spell, after all. But that means they probably just got as far as the spell’s boundary. Fascinating…”</p><p></p><p> “Well, at least they’re not here!” Bath said, as she started to mentally recover from being swallowed and then having the creature she was inside of vanish without a trace.</p><p></p><p> “Yeah, let’s hope they’re embedded in solid rock or keeping the Sunken company,” Tiana muttered. After looking over the injuries she suffered from being trampled and otherwise attacked by the Murdeans, she asked, “Can we please rest before we descend into the dark pit?”</p><p></p><p> The party agreed, and the next morning, the party began to explore the last available recesses of the Temple. As before at the door to the Temple, Danae summoned a creature to go ahead and make sure it was safe before they themselves descended. The celestial bird she summoned reported it was safe, but they were less than certain when the landed and realized they were surrounded by a dozen skeletal boars!</p><p></p><p> Despite their fears, the boars held their positions, letting the party get a look at where they were now. They appeared to be inside a ruined church of some sort. The pews and other religious paraphernalia was removed, with the exception of a gigantic bowl-shaped alter at the far end of the room. A disgusting, giant, half-decomposed deer head floated on the surface of the bowl. The walls were carved with a repeated series of words: </p><p></p><p>The flesh of a failed gatekeeper</p><p>The stone of a guardian of knowledge</p><p>The horn of a restless gladiator</p><p>The earth of a disturbed house of rest</p><p>The blood of an ultimate outsider</p><p>The bone of the mutilated donor</p><p>The hand of the last loyal.</p><p></p><p> As the party tried to take the room in, the head turned towards them and spoke. “I have been waiting for you. You’ve caused quite the stir in this Temple lately. I know you want to find The Keeper, but before I can allow you to do that, I must know what your intentions are when you see him.”</p><p></p><p> The party looked to each other. They remember the last time this situation came up, and that was with good gatekeepers. “We’ll let the situation decide our intentions,” Danae replied, as she glanced warily at the others, especially Bath.</p><p></p><p> The head shook, well, itself. “Then I won’t let you pass. There must not any doubt that he is to be destroyed.”</p><p></p><p> “So you are the one who sealed him in?” Tal asked.</p><p></p><p> “No, my master Petrach, who you call The Puppet, did that. I am the last loyal servant of his in this place. All others here have been corrupted by the Keeper.”</p><p></p><p> Bath, as everyone feared, remained skeptical. “We’ll let our hearts decided his fate.”</p><p></p><p> This, however, enraged the Keeper. “HEARTS! That fiend has no heart. He even uses his own followers for spare parts! He forced my own brother to join with him!”</p><p></p><p> The deer’s eyes began to glow just as the smaller Nature’s Rage’s eyes did back in the cabin, so Danae tried to quickly calm the discussion. “Please, do not be angry. She is young yet, and has much to learn. Will you grant us passage?”</p><p></p><p> The deer, however, was still verging on hostile. “Can any of you vouch for her? I will not let you pass unless I know she will do nothing to free the monster.”</p><p></p><p> Though using diplomacy on the undead was repugnant to him, Tonaca stepped forward. “I will do so! You know my kind and our devotion to the fight of evil. If this being is so vile that even an abomination like yourself finds him evil, that is all I need to know.”</p><p></p><p> This is apparently enough for the deer head, for it says, “Then you may pass. There is a stairway hidden in the rear of this room. Take it to reach our mutual enemy.”</p><p></p><p> The party prepared to leave, but before they could, the deer spoke again. “Ah, wait,” it says to Danae. “You have one of the components to the key the Keeper needs to escape. Individually, they’re worthless to him, but when they’re bathed in my essence, they can be used to partially protect you.”</p><p></p><p> Danae took out the remains of the dragon statue, and the head rose to give her access to the bowl. Under the head, the creature had hundreds of severed arms connected by tendons, including a massive one that must have come from a giant! Danae nervously placed the stone in the evil-looking fluid, and then took it back after it began to glow slightly. Slowly, she and the rest of the party left while the Nature’s Wrath called back to them, “Good luck! May Nerull’s blessing be upon you!”</p><p></p><p> Ignoring the bittersweet nature of that blessing, the party began to climb. Eventually, the stairwell ended, leaving nothing but a twisting corridor to ascend. Soon, even that became difficult to climb as the corridor began to get clogged with corpses. About this time, the party also started hearing voices in their heads. </p><p></p><p> The first one boomed at them, “HOW DARE YOU COME TO ME WITH SUCH A PALTRY OFFERING? ONLY ONE KEY IS IN YOUR POSSESSION!”</p><p></p><p> A second, quieter voice added, “<em>And you sent another key away. How foolish</em>.”</p><p></p><p> The party realized that at least one of the voices was likely the Keeper, but they ignored it/him/them. Soon, the voices spoke again. “IF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN MY PRESENCE, I ORDER YOU TO SEEK THE KEYS,” the first voice said, with a hint of urgency. The other, however, was more amused as it said, “<em>Will it be freedom or food today? Either should be a pleasure</em>.”</p><p></p><p> The party again tried to ignore the voices, and focused on their plan to kill him. Meanwhile, the tunnel they were climbing in continues to get filled with more bodies. The voices respond again, with even more urgency and amusement, respectively, in their voices. “OH, YOU THINK YOU CAN DESTROY ME? YOU FOOLS! YOU SOUGHT ME OUT FOR GREATER REASONS THAN THAT! IS BAS NOT YOUR ENEMY? DO YOU NOT WISH TO SAVE YOUR WORLD!” the first one screams. The second merely observes, “<em>It was such a pretty little world</em>.”</p><p></p><p> This continued on during their climb, and as the first voice got more desperate, they became more willing to give out information. They said, “AND WHO CONVINCED YOU TO KILL ME? YOU THINK THE NATURE'S WRATH IS MORE BENIGNTHEN ME? AND AFTER ALL YOU'VE SEEN, YOU STILL TRUST TWO SERVANTS OF LADY MEMORY?”</p><p></p><p>“<em>Lady of deceit and deception. Why should we powerful have to hide our nature</em>?”</p><p></p><p>“YOU BELIEVE SHE IS BENIGN? SHE WHO HAS TAKEN YOUR TWO FRIENDS-”</p><p></p><p>“-<em>and made them your enemies</em>?”</p><p></p><p>This last part had an unsettling effect on the party, and Danae finally tried to answer back, “You declared you would kill us. We wish to destroy Bas. You can save or destroy her by your life or death. If you kill us, we will be unable to stop Bas. What would you have us do?”</p><p></p><p>The voices were not impressed with this reasoning, and again used their knowledge to their advantage. “BAS IS NO CONCERN TO ME. I HAVE GREATER ENEMIES. BUT WE COULD BOTH BENEFIT FROM OUR MEETING. IF YOU GIVE ME THE KEYS, I CAN HELP YOU DESTROY BAS AND YOU CAN END MY IMPRISONMENT. BUT IF YOU SO DESIRE, CONTINUE TO LISTEN TO THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE BEINGS YOU ONCE CALLED-”</p><p></p><p>“-<em>tsine and galeron</em>.”</p><p></p><p>“YOU STILL THINK LADY MEMORY IS SO BENIGN? SHE TOOK YOUR FRIENDS AND MADE THEM HER TOOLS. WITHOUT MEMORIES. WITHOUT PASTS!”</p><p></p><p>“<em>yet without sorrow</em>...”</p><p></p><p>For the first time, the voices seemed to disagree with each other. “BE QUIET YOU! AND PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT WONDERS SHE WORKED IN THE LIVES OF YOUR FRIENDS QUERCUS AND SHEKULDELLSTRA? WHO ELSE WOULD HAVE THE POWER TO ATTACK A SOLAR AND HIS WIFE WITHOUT THEM SENSING IT?”</p><p></p><p>These last revelations were far more effective. The Malachim were their friends, Tsine and Galeron? And the Lady of Memory, the being that theoretically gave them life, was responsible? Even ignoring her attack on a solar and his good (if half-fiendish drow) wife, that drove Shekuldellstra insane all those years ago, that was a lot to accept. Of course, they weren’t sure that the Keeper could be trusted, and even if he could, their first priority was ending the evil being’s life. They finally reached the end of their climb, and saw the Keeper in all of his evil glory. His room was a dome larger than 300 feet in diameter and partially filled with giant hills of corpses, which the party is forced to stand on. The Keeper himself appeared to be based on the Granfaloon monsters the party saw and fought before, but he was much larger. Counting the expected shield of corpses, he was 150 feet in diameter! In addition, the shield contained numerous other elements, including rivers of lava, embedded tombs from presumably the graveyard, and even a singe eye.</p><p></p><p>The party looked at this creature with horror. Tiana quietly said in a terrified voice, “We can’t stop this thing. Look at it! It’s hopeless.”</p><p></p><p>The rest of the party was less certain of this, but not by much. However, the Keeper wasn’t eager to start the fight, either, since it still hoped its words were enough to convince the party to help it. Even the sudden arrival of the Malachims now believed to be Tsine and Galeron wasn’t enough to end the standoff. Surprisingly, it was Tonaca who broke the silence. He wasn’t exactly used to these sorts of things in his battles with wild creatures and the more crude undead, and tried to create a defensive prismatic sphere around himself as a matter of habit. Of course, as soon as he began his spell, everybody reacted with finely-honed reflexes, and the inevitable fight began!</p><p></p><p>Things seemed to get off to a good start, as Tiana was the first to react. She enhanced the party magically while the arcane magic-using Malachim, presumably Tsine, began to strike at the sphere shield of The Keeper. His rain of flaming meteors was a powerful attack, but the corpses of the sphere were partially coated in stone and much more durable than normal corpses, and it survived the attack. Tal followed through with his own magic, but the hideous monstrosity then responded. </p><p></p><p>“YOU DARE ATTACK US?!” it bellowed, referring to itself in the plural for the first time. “WE ARE NOT MERE CREATURSES. WE ARE KINGS! WE ARE GODS!”</p><p></p><p>“<em>We are Legion</em>…”</p><p></p><p>After saying this, Legion’s body shuddered and almost fifty zombies rained down on the party. At the same time, Legion floated closer the party and summoned an ally. It was a Molten, like the ones the party fought at the gateway, but this one was close enough to be a threat! It ripped into Robin and Tal as the zombies closed in all around them!</p><p></p><p>Robin, however, was undaunted. Using his nearly superhuman archery skills, he pulled out his bow and literally struck every single zombie at once, destroying nearly all of them. The immediate danger gone, Danae retreated and helps her old friend Tsine bring down the shield, while Bath focused on damaging the Molten. Galeron helped damage the shield and distract Legion, while Tonaca realized his original plan was over when the battle broke out before he could even start the spell. Instead, he chose to summon an air elemental, and let it loose on the shield as well.</p><p></p><p>Tiana, Tsine and Tal continued their efforts on the shield, and it appeared to be weakening, when something strange happened. The entire shield spontaneously appeared to disintegrate! More accurately, it broke down to its original bodies, which began to revolve around the actual body of Legion while more bodies rose into the field from the ground. It was obvious that Legion was repairing his shield. At the same time, this gave the party their first clear view of Legion’s true form. Like other Granfaloons, its body was a spherical mass of floating flesh that vaguely resembled a brain, and tentacles rose out of the body at various locations. However, some of the tentacles were missing and replaced with new weaponry. These include a giant skeletal elk head, a stone dragon head, the Hive eye that normally remained outside of the shield, and a massive crypt. All of them had fairly obvious sources to the party based on their explorations. As the shield repaired itself, Legion continued to act. The dragon head breathed on the collective party, which fortunately caused none of the unusual metaphysic powers it normally creates, but it did damage the party somewhat. At the same time, the four remaining tentacles fire light blasts at the air elemental and Bath, and the wounded but still active Molten also breathed its lava breath on much of the party.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, despite the damage, the party was able to use this opportunity to actually harm Legion directly, and they happily took it. Robin finished off the Molten as Danae, Tsine, Tonaca, and Tal fired spells at Legion and Bath, Galeron, Tiana, and Tonaca’s air elemental charged at the creature itself, heedless of the retaliatory light blasts it fired.</p><p></p><p>The combined assault wounded the creature greatly, but it responded by close its shield, which was now partially repaired. As the bodies closed in, the melee attackers had to flee before they were trapped inside! Bath and Tiana made it out okay, but the others weren’t so lucky. The zombies rained down again, and this time Legion followed it up by releasing a swarm of demonic insects to attack Tsine and by striking the party with various ghostly and magma-based weaponry. Finally, it fired an insect missile out of the eye, lancing Tsine just as the regular swarm continued to eat away at him.</p><p></p><p>However, though the party was heavily wounded at this point, they were prepared for what Legion threw at them. Robin again devastated the falling zombies, while the rest of the free party worked to destroy the shield, eventually bringing down a few pieces of it. The party took advantage of the weak spot in Legion’s armor just as he opened up the rest of the sphere to repair the shield. At the same time, he began to fire dark rays out of the elk skull and more of his heated light blasts, but it wasn’t enough to finish any of the party. The party responded by again charging in or striking from a distance with magic, and while Legion was able to barely survive long enough to put up his shield, he didn’t repair all the holes and the party continued to attack him even after it was put up. Finally the creature died, and Tsine fired the killing shot in the form of a disintegrate spell.</p><p></p><p>As the abomination died, its shield began to fall apart, and the bodies screamed one last time and were silenced as they struck the “ground.” Legion had only a few last words to say as he disintegrated, “NO! I WAS SO CLOSE! I CAN'T DIE AFTER ALL THIS TIME! YOU FOOLS, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU LOST! I HOPE BAS RIPS THIS WORLD TO SHREDS!”</p><p></p><p> But the other voice, the mad voice of Legion’s second mind that was created out of the remains of the psyche of the creatures he used to perfect his body, simply said, “<em>Free at last</em>…”</p><p></p><p> OOC Notes: I hope you enjoy the extra-large update this week! I had this Monday off for the 4th of July (Independence day, a national holiday for Americans,) so I decided to put some extra time into finishing up this adventure, or at least come close. The next one will deal with the consequences of this adventure and the introduction to the next one, which the party is currently still in! I’ve finally almost caught up!</p><p></p><p> Expect more OOC Notes for that one, but if anyone has any questions about the relatively large update, I’ll be happy to answer them until then.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 2384348, member: 9626"] [b]The Truth: We Are...[/b] Tiana, as is often the case, was first to react, but her specialty was undead, not fiends like these creatures. She quickly took flight using an enchanted figurine of a fly, while the Canor Factum and the Lipido crashed into the front ranks of the party. Bath, as expected, was far less reluctant to engage in battle with demons and immediately attacked the most demonic-looking of the three, the Canor Factum. As the two squared off, Tal and Danae retreated to the back to attack the monsters with their magic, and Robin began to fire at the Lipido. However, he only got started when the creature descended into the party’s ranks and released a spread of dark energy. At the same time, the Swift Pride flew to the side of the bridge and began to rapidly beat its wings, creating a gale tainted with dark energy. The unholy power cut like a knife, but most of the party held their ground and resisted the dark force of the wind. However, Tiana lost her footing and was slammed into a side wall by the blast! Only quick reflexes and a lucky foothold kept her from falling 100 feet into the swarm of hungry Sunken! Their special powers exhausted, the three fiends settled into a more routine battle with the party. Tonaca decided to seek the higher ground and ascended using a flying carpet, while Danae rode along with him as a passenger. Tiana used her climbing skills to move across the wall until her figurine could catch her again. Robin remained on the ground and began to pepper the Swift Pride with arrows, and Tal used magic to fly away from the bridge entirely and cast spells from the far corner. And Bath, well, did what came naturally. As Robin battled the Swift Pride and the crew of the carpet was in danger of being grappled by the Lipido’s tentacles, Bath easily destroyed the Canor Factum and moved on to helping the carpet crew. The fight ended quickly at that point, since the party outnumbered the remaining fiends three to one. However, something unusual happened when the monsters were destroyed. Unlike most outsiders the party encountered so far, they didn’t dissolve into ash when destroyed. “How strange,” a suspicious Danae muttered, but Bath just shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s dump them in the water and let the Sunken destroy them for us.” The party concurred and after stripping the fiends of any possessions, the remains were sent to the glowing pool below. However, though the Sunken eagerly ate most of the bodies, a bit from the Swift Pride, the last of the three fiends killed, was left untouched and continued to float on the water’s surface. The party, however, was less interested in this mystery and more interested in exploring the rest of the Temple. The path opened to the left and right, and after a brief discussion, it was decided that they would go left first. The path began to curve to the right as it continued on, suggesting that the main layout of the Temple formed a big circle. More unusually, the path often opened to the right, revealing what looked like a strange forest. The trees and plants were vastly larger than normal, and they all had black leaves. “Oh, we have to check that out!” Robin eagerly said, but the others were more reluctant. “We should explore the normal pathway of the Temple first. We can come back to the forest if we get stuck or after we finished here,” Tal suggested, and Robin reluctantly backed down when he saw the others agreed. They soon came to the next room of the Temple. It appeared to be a massive biological lab or wizard’s study. It contained multiple levels separated by ramps and ladders and with metal grating floors. Tubes designed for storing biological samples covered most of the walls, and while many were empty, others included outsiders like the ones the party just fought and various other biological samples. There even were skeletal penguin-shaped birds with bat wings, just like the Prinnies the party encountered in the semi-planar rift, though their tendency to explode when damaged suggest that these samples were obtained very carefully! Speaking of skeletal birds, the room also contained the skeleton of a massive roc-sized bird, though the skull suggested that it has extremely large and unusual eyes. Danae was able to tell that much from a distance, but hesitated to get in close for a more detailed examination. “Is it just me, or does anyone else think this thing will get up and attack us as soon as I get close?” she asked the others. “Oh yeah,” Tal agreed. “Of course,” Tiana also concurred. “I expected it as soon as I saw it,” Tonaca added. “Hell, I’d be disappointed if it didn’t try to kill us,” Robin admitted. “Yup, let’s destroy it!” Bath enthused. The party quickly prepared and charged the skeleton, and were strangely satisfied when it did animate, even if they completely devastated the simple, if large, skeleton, in a matter of moments. After reducing the bird to dust and a few loose bones, the party moved on. The tunnel again curved to the right and periodically opened on that side to the forest, but the party ignored it again and came upon another room. This one was missing a floor entirely, letting the party see more of the green pool than normal. Oddly enough, the pool was boiling here, as if something extremely hot was inside it to rise its temperature. The walls and ceiling of the room were covered in murals, runes, and statues of strange monsters from alternate planes. The only thing located in the room itself was a carefully-positioned platform covered with more strange runes and suspended by a series of massive chains. The party could literally walk down a chain to reach the platform and then up another chain to reach the next tunnel out of the room, but Danae stopped the party before they could try this. “The runes on that platform suggest that it contains a planar gateway.” Using magic, she floated closer to the platform and studied the runes more closely. “I believe the gateway is currently locked to Pyrodessy, that strange plane we were on earlier that consisted of mostly fire. It looks damaged or at least highly erratic. I’m not sure what will cause it to open, and given the nature of the Pyrodessy plane, it’s very likely that anything to come out of it will be very unpleasant.” With that information, the party decided it would be safer just to destroy the runes on the platform outright, destroying the gate. Tal prepared a massive acid barrage and used it to destroy the runes while the rest of the party waited on the chains or in the air around the platform. As expected, the acid destroyed the runes, but it also seemed to activate the gateway one last time before it was destroyed. Two strange monsters appeared on the platform. They seemed to be undead, for they contained glowing spectral skeletons, but their outer bodies appeared to be pure magma. In different circumstances, the creatures would have posed a serious threat to the party. However, because so much of the party was able to fly out of their reach, it was a short and easy battle. Only Bath would consider getting close enough to the Molten monsters for them to attack her with their blades and tentacles of lava, and the quick and armored angelic warrior was beyond their ability to strike. They also were able to breathe jets of lava, but foolishly chose to breathe on Tiana, who easily evaded the breath weapons. The two monsters were soon brought down, and their bodies melted into pools of cooled magma almost instantly. The party continued onward from here, and soon reached the next chamber. This one looked like it used to be on the surface and served as a massive graveyard. However, most of the tombs have been desecrated, and the bodies were nowhere to be found. In addition, the party found a crater at the top of a hill in the middle of the cavern. Unlike the rest of the graveyard, it was filled with bodies, though the creatures appeared to be nothing like humanoids. “What is this?” a disgusted Robin asked. Tonaca examined it, and came to a conclusion. “It appears that this might have been the foundation for a stone crypt. And the bodies are possibly failed experiments, perhaps taken here from the lab we saw earlier.” The party determined that none of the bodies were magical and likely to animate, so they left the place in peace and moved on to the next chamber. By Danae’ calculations, assuming the remainder of the Temple had evenly spaced rooms, only two remained. The next one, however, was unusual as it didn’t have a tunnel leading farther! Instead, the perfectly-cubicle room had a much larger gateway leading from the party’s tunnel into the room, but it was much larger than the tunnel was. Much like the entranceway they fought the demons at, this room had no floor near the walls, and the party could only reach the pillar-like central floor using a stone bridge. The liquid at the bottom of this room was even greener than usual, and it glowed more brightly. Apart from all this, the only object of note in the room was a simple lever located in the middle of the floor. It was currently turned to point at the doorway the party entered the room from. After a brief investigation, the party had some idea what the room’s purpose was. “Notice how the walls of this chamber don’t connect with the walls of the tunnel,” Tal said, as he demonstrated what he meant. “I think the entirety of this room can move. I assume that after the room moves, that doorway will connect to something else to make its size make more sense. And we can probably move the room by pulling the lever.” Danae frowned after pondering this conclusion. “I really don’t want to be here when the room moves if we can help it. I don’t trust this place enough for that.” “So what do you propose?” Robin asked. Tiana had an idea and pulled something out of her pocket. “I have a magical spool of rope! We can tie to the lever, set up an elaborate pulley system, and activate the lever while we’re still in the tunnel!” However, after seeing how everyone except Danae looked bored after the phrase “elaborate pulley system,” she amended her plan. “Or…we could just walk all the way around and see what’s left in the in the other direction.” The party eagerly agreed, and soon they found themselves in a very familiar room. The last room of the Temple’s outer ring was a nearly identical match of the Ancient Text room of the Great Delaspie Library! It was also about five stories tall, had a central pillar that served as a walkway anchor point and additional shelving space, and the numerous floors were connected by various walkways and ladders. However, this library was nearly empty, and it was completely uninhabited except for a few zombie and wight caretakers. The party quickly disposed of them, and then investigated the books and the rest of the library. The library didn’t have the numerous secrets passageways of Olivia’s library, but it does have a similar mural on the ceiling. However, this mural depicted a strange, alien monster with details obscured by darkness. It was raining monstrosities, including many of the monsters the party just fought, on the planet. Below the world, the body of a strange creature with some features from wolves, dragons, and humanoid women rested. It looked like it was murdered, perhaps by the dark alien figure. Also in the library were the remains of a destroyed statue. It looked like a dragon, but it was violently destroyed. Also of note was the fact that the entire head and neck of the statue was missing. Danae was curious about the statue and scooped its parts into a portal hole. However, the last piece of the statue behaved strangely. It rested on the surface of the hole and refused to go in! Even more intrigued, Danae placed this last piece in her pocket and then continued her research on the books. They were in varying condition; some were well-preserved, but others were rotted and some were even intentionally ripped to shreds. All the books had a common theme, however: they detailed the history and discover of various new creatures, and none of the creatures appeared to have evolved naturally or even been created by wizards or the gods. They were all creatures that came to this world, and possibly even this dimension, from outside, and they include the fiends, the Sunken, the Molten, and nearly every other complex creature seen in this Temple. After finishing their work in the library, the party decided to finally explore the forest. Upon entering it, Robin was called upon to investigate and see if he can discover what creatures may inhabit a forest this large. He studied the tracks, and quickly determined some interesting things about the grove. “As far as I can tell, there are only two sets of tracks. One is of a wolf, and one is of a deer, but both are massive! These animals must be fifty feet tall!” “We should find these creatures, and make sure they aren’t a threat. Otherwise, they could ambush us,” Tonaca reasoned. Robin nodded his head in agreement, and said, “We should go after the wolf first. I can’t imagine the deer would be that much of a threat, even of that size.” The party quickly followed Robin as he tracked the wolf, and in a matter of minutes he discovered the wolf. It looked like a perfectly normal wolf, albeit a large one, with one exception: it was eating the fruits of the trees!” “Huh, that’s weird,” Tiana commented. “Well, I can’t say I’m too surprised. After all, if the only prey in this entire forest is one large deer, the wolf would have starved if it didn’t find some alternate source of nutrients. Of course, that also might explain why the wolf never bothered to eat the deer. It already adjusted to a vegetarian diet.” Robin explained. He then prepared to move. “If this is really a normal wolf, I should be able to befriend it. It could help us find the Keeper, or at least a safe place to rest.” The wolf, as expected, was surprised to see another living creature, but it was also unusually afraid, especially since Robin was so small by comparison. However, Robin was able to calm it, and then managed to get some information from the wolf, including some surprising ones. He turned the party and in a skeptical voice said, “It didn’t attack the deer because it wasn’t hungry. It didn’t attack the deer because it’s afraid of the deer!” “Why would it be afraid of a deer?” Tal asked. “Maybe the deer is unnatural in some way,” Tonaca offered. “Or even worse, undead.” “But that’s not all I learned,” Robin continued. “Apparently, there’s a ‘human nest’ at the center of this forest that the deer won’t go near. I think that’s supposed to mean a house or cabin of some sort. We can investigate it.” Before long, the party found the cabin, and discovered a strange circle of protection surrounded it. The skeletal body of an elk lay sprawled next to the circle. The way the body rested suggested that it was destroyed by the circle’s power. However, the body was missing its head completely. The party carefully entered the cabin with almost no trouble. Bath, however, felt some resistance as she passed over the circle, but the pendant The Indigo Entity gave her glowed and somehow cancelled the resistance. The cabin was surprisingly small. It only had two rooms: a central foyer/trophy room containing a mounted deer head of a normal size, and a bedroom filled with more books. Danae took a few moments to study both the books and the circle itself while the rest of the party checked the cabin for secret doors and other objects of note. “I think this circle is actually a smaller part of the sealing spell trapping the Keeper here, except in reverse. That is, it prevents creatures from getting in. It seems to be tied to undead and extradimensional creatures primarily, however. Hence the trouble that Bath had getting in.” Bath, however, was the happiest about this news. “That means we can rest here without fear of the Malachim!” Danae nodded. “That’s true, but we’re on a bit of a deadline here. We have no idea how long it will take Bas’ forces to find out about this place and get here. We should only rest when absolutely necessary. I think we should explore a bit more first.” “Well, we have more options now,” Tiana explained as she finished her search of the cabin. “There seems to be some secret passageway in this room.” The party carefully opened the hidden door and discovered a massive pit in the room beyond it. It went down for several hundreds of feet, and the room containing the hole also contained an opening leading back the foyer, but it appeared be blocked. “That deer head!” I think it’s blocking the opening!” Tal reasoned, and the party quickly returned to the foyer to remove the head, only to learn that it wasn’t just a simple obstruction. As soon as it was taken off the wall, it began to fly under its own power! Its preserved eyes glowed with dark energy, and a series of humanoid hands emerged from inside the deer’s head. Each appeared to be suspended and controlled by the deer head by a grisly tendon! Despite the creature’s horrific nature, however, it was easily dispatched by a quick-reacting Tiana. “What was that thing?” a Robin asked. Danae had an idea, and she pulled out one of the books she obtained at the library. “It’s called a ‘Nature’s Rage,’” she explained. “They’re basically the spirits of killed and preserved animals. Ick, it says they collect the hands of the same race as the creature that killed them. Luckily they’re not especially powerful.” With that danger taken care of, the party had to choose which of the three remaining mysteries to solve. They could find the deer, try to figure out the moving room, or explore the dark pit. Unsurprisingly, the big deer won out. Robin soon tracked the creature down, and discovered that it was both undead and headless! “That’s not a good sign,” Tonaca commented, after realizing this is the second headless giant undead creature they found in the grove, but the body was easily defeated, so the party proceeded to their next goal, the moving room. Rather than go through the whole rope and lever system, however, they simply decided to shuffle in and pull the lever. As expected, the room began to move, but instead of rising or lowering like an elevator, it rotated about ninety degrees. The door they used to enter was now pointing to the far wall, and it connected to what appeared to be some sort of prison or giant kennel. As soon as the connection was made, however, the inhabitants of the new room noticed the party and charged out! They were Instant Murdeans, the same massive centaur-like gator/elk/cat race as the one TIE used as a guardian in her last test of the party, but there were two of them this time! As soon as the room shifted, the quicker of the two monsters trampled right over the entire party. Eager to prevent the same thing from happening again, Bath charged the slower Murdean in an attempt to distract it while the party fought the first one. The plan worked, in a way. The second Murdean indeed focused its attention on the brave angel, but it responded by scooping her up and promptly swallowing her! This forced the party to deal with both of the creatures again, and without their best fighter! Things looked dire until Danae remembered how they prematurely defeated the last Murdean. The creatures aren’t especially bright, and have no understanding of magic. Thus, all she had to do was protect the party with a prismatic sphere and they’ll stupidly attack through it, exposing themselves to its effects! It took a while, but as expected, both eventually succumbed to the sphere’s powers and were sent to parts unknown! “Well, that takes care of that!” Danae smugly said. “They should be trapped on random planes…I think.” “You think?” Tiana responded with a suddenly worried expression. “Well, if they’re servants of the Keeper, they should be unable to leave this plane. That’s the whole point of the sealing spell, after all. But that means they probably just got as far as the spell’s boundary. Fascinating…” “Well, at least they’re not here!” Bath said, as she started to mentally recover from being swallowed and then having the creature she was inside of vanish without a trace. “Yeah, let’s hope they’re embedded in solid rock or keeping the Sunken company,” Tiana muttered. After looking over the injuries she suffered from being trampled and otherwise attacked by the Murdeans, she asked, “Can we please rest before we descend into the dark pit?” The party agreed, and the next morning, the party began to explore the last available recesses of the Temple. As before at the door to the Temple, Danae summoned a creature to go ahead and make sure it was safe before they themselves descended. The celestial bird she summoned reported it was safe, but they were less than certain when the landed and realized they were surrounded by a dozen skeletal boars! Despite their fears, the boars held their positions, letting the party get a look at where they were now. They appeared to be inside a ruined church of some sort. The pews and other religious paraphernalia was removed, with the exception of a gigantic bowl-shaped alter at the far end of the room. A disgusting, giant, half-decomposed deer head floated on the surface of the bowl. The walls were carved with a repeated series of words: The flesh of a failed gatekeeper The stone of a guardian of knowledge The horn of a restless gladiator The earth of a disturbed house of rest The blood of an ultimate outsider The bone of the mutilated donor The hand of the last loyal. As the party tried to take the room in, the head turned towards them and spoke. “I have been waiting for you. You’ve caused quite the stir in this Temple lately. I know you want to find The Keeper, but before I can allow you to do that, I must know what your intentions are when you see him.” The party looked to each other. They remember the last time this situation came up, and that was with good gatekeepers. “We’ll let the situation decide our intentions,” Danae replied, as she glanced warily at the others, especially Bath. The head shook, well, itself. “Then I won’t let you pass. There must not any doubt that he is to be destroyed.” “So you are the one who sealed him in?” Tal asked. “No, my master Petrach, who you call The Puppet, did that. I am the last loyal servant of his in this place. All others here have been corrupted by the Keeper.” Bath, as everyone feared, remained skeptical. “We’ll let our hearts decided his fate.” This, however, enraged the Keeper. “HEARTS! That fiend has no heart. He even uses his own followers for spare parts! He forced my own brother to join with him!” The deer’s eyes began to glow just as the smaller Nature’s Rage’s eyes did back in the cabin, so Danae tried to quickly calm the discussion. “Please, do not be angry. She is young yet, and has much to learn. Will you grant us passage?” The deer, however, was still verging on hostile. “Can any of you vouch for her? I will not let you pass unless I know she will do nothing to free the monster.” Though using diplomacy on the undead was repugnant to him, Tonaca stepped forward. “I will do so! You know my kind and our devotion to the fight of evil. If this being is so vile that even an abomination like yourself finds him evil, that is all I need to know.” This is apparently enough for the deer head, for it says, “Then you may pass. There is a stairway hidden in the rear of this room. Take it to reach our mutual enemy.” The party prepared to leave, but before they could, the deer spoke again. “Ah, wait,” it says to Danae. “You have one of the components to the key the Keeper needs to escape. Individually, they’re worthless to him, but when they’re bathed in my essence, they can be used to partially protect you.” Danae took out the remains of the dragon statue, and the head rose to give her access to the bowl. Under the head, the creature had hundreds of severed arms connected by tendons, including a massive one that must have come from a giant! Danae nervously placed the stone in the evil-looking fluid, and then took it back after it began to glow slightly. Slowly, she and the rest of the party left while the Nature’s Wrath called back to them, “Good luck! May Nerull’s blessing be upon you!” Ignoring the bittersweet nature of that blessing, the party began to climb. Eventually, the stairwell ended, leaving nothing but a twisting corridor to ascend. Soon, even that became difficult to climb as the corridor began to get clogged with corpses. About this time, the party also started hearing voices in their heads. The first one boomed at them, “HOW DARE YOU COME TO ME WITH SUCH A PALTRY OFFERING? ONLY ONE KEY IS IN YOUR POSSESSION!” A second, quieter voice added, “[I]And you sent another key away. How foolish[/I].” The party realized that at least one of the voices was likely the Keeper, but they ignored it/him/them. Soon, the voices spoke again. “IF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN MY PRESENCE, I ORDER YOU TO SEEK THE KEYS,” the first voice said, with a hint of urgency. The other, however, was more amused as it said, “[I]Will it be freedom or food today? Either should be a pleasure[/I].” The party again tried to ignore the voices, and focused on their plan to kill him. Meanwhile, the tunnel they were climbing in continues to get filled with more bodies. The voices respond again, with even more urgency and amusement, respectively, in their voices. “OH, YOU THINK YOU CAN DESTROY ME? YOU FOOLS! YOU SOUGHT ME OUT FOR GREATER REASONS THAN THAT! IS BAS NOT YOUR ENEMY? DO YOU NOT WISH TO SAVE YOUR WORLD!” the first one screams. The second merely observes, “[I]It was such a pretty little world[/I].” This continued on during their climb, and as the first voice got more desperate, they became more willing to give out information. They said, “AND WHO CONVINCED YOU TO KILL ME? YOU THINK THE NATURE'S WRATH IS MORE BENIGNTHEN ME? AND AFTER ALL YOU'VE SEEN, YOU STILL TRUST TWO SERVANTS OF LADY MEMORY?” “[I]Lady of deceit and deception. Why should we powerful have to hide our nature[/I]?” “YOU BELIEVE SHE IS BENIGN? SHE WHO HAS TAKEN YOUR TWO FRIENDS-” “-[I]and made them your enemies[/I]?” This last part had an unsettling effect on the party, and Danae finally tried to answer back, “You declared you would kill us. We wish to destroy Bas. You can save or destroy her by your life or death. If you kill us, we will be unable to stop Bas. What would you have us do?” The voices were not impressed with this reasoning, and again used their knowledge to their advantage. “BAS IS NO CONCERN TO ME. I HAVE GREATER ENEMIES. BUT WE COULD BOTH BENEFIT FROM OUR MEETING. IF YOU GIVE ME THE KEYS, I CAN HELP YOU DESTROY BAS AND YOU CAN END MY IMPRISONMENT. BUT IF YOU SO DESIRE, CONTINUE TO LISTEN TO THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE BEINGS YOU ONCE CALLED-” “-[I]tsine and galeron[/I].” “YOU STILL THINK LADY MEMORY IS SO BENIGN? SHE TOOK YOUR FRIENDS AND MADE THEM HER TOOLS. WITHOUT MEMORIES. WITHOUT PASTS!” “[I]yet without sorrow[/I]...” For the first time, the voices seemed to disagree with each other. “BE QUIET YOU! AND PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT WONDERS SHE WORKED IN THE LIVES OF YOUR FRIENDS QUERCUS AND SHEKULDELLSTRA? WHO ELSE WOULD HAVE THE POWER TO ATTACK A SOLAR AND HIS WIFE WITHOUT THEM SENSING IT?” These last revelations were far more effective. The Malachim were their friends, Tsine and Galeron? And the Lady of Memory, the being that theoretically gave them life, was responsible? Even ignoring her attack on a solar and his good (if half-fiendish drow) wife, that drove Shekuldellstra insane all those years ago, that was a lot to accept. Of course, they weren’t sure that the Keeper could be trusted, and even if he could, their first priority was ending the evil being’s life. They finally reached the end of their climb, and saw the Keeper in all of his evil glory. His room was a dome larger than 300 feet in diameter and partially filled with giant hills of corpses, which the party is forced to stand on. The Keeper himself appeared to be based on the Granfaloon monsters the party saw and fought before, but he was much larger. Counting the expected shield of corpses, he was 150 feet in diameter! In addition, the shield contained numerous other elements, including rivers of lava, embedded tombs from presumably the graveyard, and even a singe eye. The party looked at this creature with horror. Tiana quietly said in a terrified voice, “We can’t stop this thing. Look at it! It’s hopeless.” The rest of the party was less certain of this, but not by much. However, the Keeper wasn’t eager to start the fight, either, since it still hoped its words were enough to convince the party to help it. Even the sudden arrival of the Malachims now believed to be Tsine and Galeron wasn’t enough to end the standoff. Surprisingly, it was Tonaca who broke the silence. He wasn’t exactly used to these sorts of things in his battles with wild creatures and the more crude undead, and tried to create a defensive prismatic sphere around himself as a matter of habit. Of course, as soon as he began his spell, everybody reacted with finely-honed reflexes, and the inevitable fight began! Things seemed to get off to a good start, as Tiana was the first to react. She enhanced the party magically while the arcane magic-using Malachim, presumably Tsine, began to strike at the sphere shield of The Keeper. His rain of flaming meteors was a powerful attack, but the corpses of the sphere were partially coated in stone and much more durable than normal corpses, and it survived the attack. Tal followed through with his own magic, but the hideous monstrosity then responded. “YOU DARE ATTACK US?!” it bellowed, referring to itself in the plural for the first time. “WE ARE NOT MERE CREATURSES. WE ARE KINGS! WE ARE GODS!” “[I]We are Legion[/I]…” After saying this, Legion’s body shuddered and almost fifty zombies rained down on the party. At the same time, Legion floated closer the party and summoned an ally. It was a Molten, like the ones the party fought at the gateway, but this one was close enough to be a threat! It ripped into Robin and Tal as the zombies closed in all around them! Robin, however, was undaunted. Using his nearly superhuman archery skills, he pulled out his bow and literally struck every single zombie at once, destroying nearly all of them. The immediate danger gone, Danae retreated and helps her old friend Tsine bring down the shield, while Bath focused on damaging the Molten. Galeron helped damage the shield and distract Legion, while Tonaca realized his original plan was over when the battle broke out before he could even start the spell. Instead, he chose to summon an air elemental, and let it loose on the shield as well. Tiana, Tsine and Tal continued their efforts on the shield, and it appeared to be weakening, when something strange happened. The entire shield spontaneously appeared to disintegrate! More accurately, it broke down to its original bodies, which began to revolve around the actual body of Legion while more bodies rose into the field from the ground. It was obvious that Legion was repairing his shield. At the same time, this gave the party their first clear view of Legion’s true form. Like other Granfaloons, its body was a spherical mass of floating flesh that vaguely resembled a brain, and tentacles rose out of the body at various locations. However, some of the tentacles were missing and replaced with new weaponry. These include a giant skeletal elk head, a stone dragon head, the Hive eye that normally remained outside of the shield, and a massive crypt. All of them had fairly obvious sources to the party based on their explorations. As the shield repaired itself, Legion continued to act. The dragon head breathed on the collective party, which fortunately caused none of the unusual metaphysic powers it normally creates, but it did damage the party somewhat. At the same time, the four remaining tentacles fire light blasts at the air elemental and Bath, and the wounded but still active Molten also breathed its lava breath on much of the party. Fortunately, despite the damage, the party was able to use this opportunity to actually harm Legion directly, and they happily took it. Robin finished off the Molten as Danae, Tsine, Tonaca, and Tal fired spells at Legion and Bath, Galeron, Tiana, and Tonaca’s air elemental charged at the creature itself, heedless of the retaliatory light blasts it fired. The combined assault wounded the creature greatly, but it responded by close its shield, which was now partially repaired. As the bodies closed in, the melee attackers had to flee before they were trapped inside! Bath and Tiana made it out okay, but the others weren’t so lucky. The zombies rained down again, and this time Legion followed it up by releasing a swarm of demonic insects to attack Tsine and by striking the party with various ghostly and magma-based weaponry. Finally, it fired an insect missile out of the eye, lancing Tsine just as the regular swarm continued to eat away at him. However, though the party was heavily wounded at this point, they were prepared for what Legion threw at them. Robin again devastated the falling zombies, while the rest of the free party worked to destroy the shield, eventually bringing down a few pieces of it. The party took advantage of the weak spot in Legion’s armor just as he opened up the rest of the sphere to repair the shield. At the same time, he began to fire dark rays out of the elk skull and more of his heated light blasts, but it wasn’t enough to finish any of the party. The party responded by again charging in or striking from a distance with magic, and while Legion was able to barely survive long enough to put up his shield, he didn’t repair all the holes and the party continued to attack him even after it was put up. Finally the creature died, and Tsine fired the killing shot in the form of a disintegrate spell. As the abomination died, its shield began to fall apart, and the bodies screamed one last time and were silenced as they struck the “ground.” Legion had only a few last words to say as he disintegrated, “NO! I WAS SO CLOSE! I CAN'T DIE AFTER ALL THIS TIME! YOU FOOLS, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU LOST! I HOPE BAS RIPS THIS WORLD TO SHREDS!” But the other voice, the mad voice of Legion’s second mind that was created out of the remains of the psyche of the creatures he used to perfect his body, simply said, “[I]Free at last[/I]…” OOC Notes: I hope you enjoy the extra-large update this week! I had this Monday off for the 4th of July (Independence day, a national holiday for Americans,) so I decided to put some extra time into finishing up this adventure, or at least come close. The next one will deal with the consequences of this adventure and the introduction to the next one, which the party is currently still in! I’ve finally almost caught up! Expect more OOC Notes for that one, but if anyone has any questions about the relatively large update, I’ll be happy to answer them until then. [/QUOTE]
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