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Sagiro's Story Hour Returns (new thread started on 5/18/08)
- Thread starter Sagiro
- Start date
Sidereal Knight
First Post
Shmoo said:
I believe it's in Relics and Rituals.
Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Iron Storm, as Sidereal Knight says, is from Relics and Rituals. It's a 3rd-level arcane spell that creates a cloud of whirling iron filings in the same area as a fireball (20' radius). It persists for 1 round/level, doing 1d10 damage per round (Reflex half) to anything inside.
The relevant bit to Dranko's practicing is that any electricity passing within 60' of the iron filings gets sucked into the area, doing its damage to anything currently in the iron storm. In essence, it lets you cast lightning bolt in the shape of a fireball at the cost of two spells. But if a chain lightning is cast near an iron storm, the secondary bolts add an additional 4d6 of damage. So if Aravis (12th level) casts chain lightning near an iron storm, it does 16d6 (Reflex half) to anyone unlucky or foolish enough to be inside. Aravis has a 25 INT (starting 18, +3 for level increases, +4 for a headband of intellect he made for himself.) And he has Spell Focus: Evocation. That gives his chain lightning a save DC of 10+6+7+2 = 25. In theory Dranko should make this save about half the time, but his luck has been atrocious.
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 198
It is hard to say how much the folk of Green Valley are enjoying the party. On the one hand they are wolfing down everything that Ernie had a hand in preparing. (In fact, within half and hour almost all of his pies, breads, stews and roasts are gone, leaving most people to consume food cooked by others that, while perfectly good, is not quite so perfect.)
On the other hand, the crowd is anything but jolly. There is no singing or dancing the way there was with the Yuja. The people are clustered into garrulous knots, leaning in and talking earnestly, occasionally throwing ill-hidden glances at the Company and at Tog.
Before much more than an hour has passed Tog stands up on a platform built for this occasion and waves his arms. In seconds the crowd quiets, since this is what they’re really here for. Hundreds of faces are turned to face the village Elder, who clears his throat, mumbles a quick prayer to the Antlered God that he will not be stoned on the spot, and begins to speak.
He tells his people everything, with little preamble and no apologies. When he describes his walkabout of a decade past, and the blue portal deep in the woods, the crows starts to murmur angrily. When he talks about the horrible monster in the cave and the lightning bolt it hurled at him, he gets angry himself, challenging the men and women before him.
“Would you have had me send you to your certain deaths? I know that there are few among you who would refrain from going in there, knowing of its existence. I made the choice of protecting your lives. I am your Elder! I am sworn to the Antlered God to protect you, and by his Godly form I shall!”
The crowd grows quiet again but the looks they give to Tog are unconvinced. The Elder takes another deep breath and continues.
“Tomorrow these newcomers will begin the journey to the hidden cave.”
He gestures toward the Company and hundreds of heads turn to look at them. Tog keeps talking.
“I will go with them, along with a dozen men and women of Green Valley, to stand witness. We will wait outside the cave for three days while these heroes enter and do battle with the Beast. If they have not returned in three days time, it will be proof enough that they are dead, and that the Beast is too powerful, too dangerous. If they come out victorious, then together we will work out a plan for exploring that cave and whatever might be beyond it.”
The assemblage breaks out into dozens of chattering pockets. After about a minute, during which Tog waits patiently, a teenaged boy (in appearance) shouts over the noise. The Company recognizes him as Reyn, one of the two hunters they saw when they first came to this world. He does not look happy.
“So! Elder Tog!” he calls, and the people stop their talking to listen. “Please excuse my skepticism, but… understand I’m doubtful because we’ve just learned you haven’t been quite forthcoming for this last decade.”
He sneers as he says ‘decade,’ and some of the people around him nod. Reyn continues:
“But it seems to me that part of this plan could involve you and the newcomers agreeing that they won’t come back no matter what they find. How can you guarantee that just because they don’t come back, that it’s too dangerous for us to go in after them?”
“He’s right!” someone shouts a man from the back.
“Yeah, what do you say to that?” cries a ten-year-old girl.
Tog turns red.
“Are there any among you who would be willing to risk your lives, to test the veracity of what I’m saying?” he shouts back at them. “I’m not talking about some vague theoretical risk. I’ve told you what is in there. One of you who thinks I am deceiving you, you can go into the cave yourself with a rope around your waist, once the heroes have had their try. We’ll wait five minutes and pull you out again. Others of you can see for yourselves what gets pulled out, whether that’s a live person with a tale of what they saw, or a corpse! Either way my point shall have been have made. If you doubt my word, I’ll await a volunteer.”
Tog storms off his platform and joins the Company off to the side while the crowd talks animatedly about his challenge.
“I don’t hold you personally responsible,” he says. “But your arrival has unraveled the control I had over my people. Things are coming to head. If I have to throw one life away to save the rest, I will.”
* *
The Company wakes to a light warm rain. The whole town is out and milling around the town square; there’s been plenty of talk overnight, and now it looks like about a hundred people are going to go with them into the forest. Del is (unsurprisingly) among them, wearing a full pack that threatens to topple her six-year-old’s body.
She walks over to Aravis, who casts tongues as she approaches.
“I was right, wasn’t I?” she says, grimacing. “About Tog holding out on us all this time.”
“Yes,” Aravis agrees. “He knows a possible way out. And ten years ago he almost died trying to see where it went, what was there. If he almost died, do you think anyone else in the village would have made it out alive?”
“By themselves? Probably not. I wouldn’t have been much use.”
She looks contemptuously at her own body.
“But we have strong men, strong women in the village. How do we know fifty of them, or a hundred, couldn’t have killed this beast?”
“Tog believes it wouldn’t have helped. Maybe he was wrong in not giving you the choice, but he didn’t do it because he was evil. His only desire was to protect you.”
“I know.”
Del lets out a big sigh.
“Well, you’ll just have to kill it, and come back, and let us know it’s safe. And then we’ll go looking for our own answers.”
Led by Tog and the Company, the hundred people (with a few ponies to carry supplies) march up the muddy ground on the far side of the valley. Dranko makes up a vaguely obscene marching song in Charagan common and teaches the people of Green Valley to sing it. It’s a three-day trek through the woods, with the townsfolk trailing out behind and the stragglers catching up by nightfall.
On the second night, while the throng is pitching tents and preparing cook-fires, Kibi sits down with his back against a mossy boulder. For a month now he has felt the strange power of this world humming in his bones, not knowing what it might mean. But a feeling has been growing in his mind, particularly when he communicates with Scree. Twice now he has suppressed the urge to follow his familiar into the solid ground. During the day’s march a wonderful idea had come to him. He had mentioned it to Dranko and Grey Wolf in passing, and had grown more and more certain.
“Scree?”
“Yes Kibi?”
“I think I can follow you underground. Go somewhere, and I’ll try keeping up.”
The earth elemental regards him with its blue gemstone eyes. Kibi gets the feeling that it’s grinning at him. Scree flips one of the smaller rocks from its body up at Kibi, where it plinks off the dwarf’s shoulder. Kibi looks at his familiar curiously.
“Tag!” says Scree, a second before sinking into ground. Kibi concentrates for a moment and his body ripples with energy. Then he, too, sinks into the ground*.
Grey Wolf looks up from his spellbook at the sight.
“We seem to have lost a wizard,” he says, smiling inwardly.
Ernie and Flicker, not privy to the experiment, go running over to where Kibi was and examine the ground.
“Kibi! Kibi!”
“Something ate Kibi!” Flicker cries.
“Guess the earth ate him,” says Dranko unconcernedly, and heartily enjoying the halflings’ panic. “There’s only one thing to do now. Divvy up his stuff.”
It’s dark, and Kibi’s natural darkvision has no meaning. He almost panics. But after only a few seconds he feels like an otter that has finally learned it can swim. Indeed, the earth and rock flows around his body like water, providing buoyancy when he desires but parting before him in any direction he wishes to move.
And he feels. He feels vibrations running through the ground. He can tell where the mass of people moves above him on the surface, and where Scree is moving about nearby. Some new sense awakens in him, a sense of solidity, of density.
Kibi and Scree play tag. It’s good practice.
“The Earth tells me everything I could see with my eyes,” thinks Scree. “You don’t need your eyes.. And there’s not much to see. It’s all dirt. And some rocks. Watch out for tree roots; you have to go around them or push them aside. Also there are sometimes underground streams.”
After a few minutes Kibi pops back up near where he started. Dranko is handing out his possessions.
“Oh, hey, you’re back!” says Dranko, feigning surprise.
“That’s my stuff! I can’t believe you started giving away my stuff,” says Kibi indignantly.
“Next time maybe you could tell someone where you’re going,” says Dranko.
Before bed that night, Edghar takes the two chains Grey Wolf purchased in Green Valley and drops them at the foot of a tree. Grey Wolf casts his newly-learned dancing chains spell, and they elongate, stretching up to wrap around a limb a dozen feet off the ground. As they do, razor-sharp barbs sprout along their lengths. Grey Wolf reaches out and climbs up the chains effortlessly, unhindered and unhurt by the barbs.
“No one’s going to follow you up that,” says the monkey, edging away nervously.
Step thinks only of the Beast in the Cave, and how defending his friends will be the first step on his journey of redemption..
* *
The morning dawns on the day that Tog expects to find the portal to the cave. The gathered townsfolk are buzzing with anticipation.
“They’re really excited that we’re going off to our deaths,” says Aravis dryly.
“They have faith in us,” says Ernie.
“Only because they’ve known us for just a few weeks,” says Flicker.
“And they didn’t watch Dranko, Grey Wolf and I practicing chain lightning out in the woods,” adds Aravis.
Long-term buff spells are applied and shorter-term spell choices are discussed at length. Eventually they set out following Tog, who does his best to get his bearings. It’s been about two years since he last visited the blue portal. After a couple of hours marching, Tog comes to a sudden halt and motions for everyone else also to stop.
His brows knit in concentration, and then he declares, “We can go no further in this direction.”
Dranko strides forward until he’s abreast of Tog and discovers that the Elder’s statement is the literal truth. He cannot take another step further into the woods. His brain is saying ‘feet, go!’ but his legs just won’t move.
“Step, do me a favor and throw me through.”
Step walk up and puts his arms against Dranko’s back, but finds he cannot muster the will to propel the half-orc forward.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot bring myself to push you,” says Step. “Perhaps you can fall through by accident?”
Kibi stands back and throws a rock. It sails beyond the ‘barrier’ and bounces off a tree. Emboldened he strides forward himself but meets the same mental resistance as the others.
“As interesting as this is, it’s not really point,” says Ernie.
“But this might be another exit!” says Flicker. “Isn’t it worth being sure that the cave isn’t the only way out?”
Kibi casts detect magic and sees a continuous wall of dweomercraft stretching out into the forest to the edge of the spell’s range. He examines it closely to determine its type, and to his great surprise realizes that it’s similar to his own magic. It’s not a school of magic per se; he thinks it’s Earth Magic! Scree sinks into the ground but like Kibi is unable to cross the barrier.
Flicker looks at some nearby trees and notes that one of them is bending out and across the boundary. And a tree on the other side curves similarly across the barrier to their side.
“It’s not affecting trees,” he says. Grey Wolf peers upward but doesn’t see the trees Flicker is talking about.
Step chucks a rock across. Dranko sees it go right into a knot of a tree.
“Nice shot,” he comments.
Step glares at him.
“What? What’s wrong”
“Nice shot?” snorts Step. “Just because my aim is not as good as yours, is no reason…”
“But you just got it right inside that little hole!”
Step looks at Dranko like he’s…well, like he’s a little dim.
“I missed the tree entirely. I am unused to hurling missiles.”
Comprehension dawns on Dranko’s face.
“It’s an illusion! We’re all seeing different things! I saw Step’s rock do something different…”
“…and Flicker sees trees that I don’t see,” says Grey Wolf.
“This really must be where the world ends,” says Dranko.
“Not again!” says Ernie.
“It’s like we’re back in the bottle,” says Grey Wolf.
“We did not find the edge of the world again,” says Aravis. “We found another edge of another world.”
He whistles appreciatively.
“Those Black Circle guys sure put a lot of work and effort into this. I hope we can rip the whole thing apart and make them sorry for it.”
Tog motions to the right and walks parallel to the edge of the world, keeping his hand stretched out so that he can follow the invisible border without “bumping” into it. The throng follows. Two hours later they see a thin blue line glowing through the trees up ahead, as they approach the hovering blue portal edge-on. The people of Green Valley soon see it too. An excited babble springs up among then and someone runs forward.
“Do not approach it!” shouts Tog. A hundred people filter into a rough semicircle around the hanging square of blue light, staying over fifteen feet back. A soft steady hum sounds from it. The Company takes up positions directly in front of it, observing it closely. It resembles the portal through which they arrived, though this one does not ripple like a curtain; instead it is fixed in place like a window. It is nine feet tall and four feet wide, its bottom edge six inches off the forest floor.
At Ernie’s request Tog describes his experience again in detail; after a second or two of cold darkness, he felt a pulling sensation as if were being dragged into the cave by an invisible hand. It’s just as the Company felt when going through the door of the beholder statue.
“I’ll bet these curtains are like the Black Circle’s maintenance doors, so they can get to places if anything goes wrong,” Ernie speculates.
The Company reviews the plan for half a minute and then begins its flurry of short-term spells. The townsfolk find this absolutely fascinating – half the party is waving their arms and incanting various spells: protection from evil, improved invisibility, shield other, assassin’s senses, bless, prayer, protective wards, mass darkvision… to name a few. Since Tog was attacked as soon as he stepped through, the Company is expecting the same.
Brimming with enchantment the Company lines up and starts marching through the glowing blue portal. Dranko and Aravis take pains to enter at the same time, to maintain the shield other spell they share. Kibi and Morningstar do likewise. Behind them the crowd cheers them on with shouted encouragement.
“We’re counting on you!” shouts Del.
There is the dark, the cold, the sensation of being pulled through the void…
…to be continued…
* - From achieving 5th level in his Earth Mage prestige class, Kibi can now cast xorn movement (from the Manual of the Planes) once per day.
The relevant bit to Dranko's practicing is that any electricity passing within 60' of the iron filings gets sucked into the area, doing its damage to anything currently in the iron storm. In essence, it lets you cast lightning bolt in the shape of a fireball at the cost of two spells. But if a chain lightning is cast near an iron storm, the secondary bolts add an additional 4d6 of damage. So if Aravis (12th level) casts chain lightning near an iron storm, it does 16d6 (Reflex half) to anyone unlucky or foolish enough to be inside. Aravis has a 25 INT (starting 18, +3 for level increases, +4 for a headband of intellect he made for himself.) And he has Spell Focus: Evocation. That gives his chain lightning a save DC of 10+6+7+2 = 25. In theory Dranko should make this save about half the time, but his luck has been atrocious.
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 198
It is hard to say how much the folk of Green Valley are enjoying the party. On the one hand they are wolfing down everything that Ernie had a hand in preparing. (In fact, within half and hour almost all of his pies, breads, stews and roasts are gone, leaving most people to consume food cooked by others that, while perfectly good, is not quite so perfect.)
On the other hand, the crowd is anything but jolly. There is no singing or dancing the way there was with the Yuja. The people are clustered into garrulous knots, leaning in and talking earnestly, occasionally throwing ill-hidden glances at the Company and at Tog.
Before much more than an hour has passed Tog stands up on a platform built for this occasion and waves his arms. In seconds the crowd quiets, since this is what they’re really here for. Hundreds of faces are turned to face the village Elder, who clears his throat, mumbles a quick prayer to the Antlered God that he will not be stoned on the spot, and begins to speak.
He tells his people everything, with little preamble and no apologies. When he describes his walkabout of a decade past, and the blue portal deep in the woods, the crows starts to murmur angrily. When he talks about the horrible monster in the cave and the lightning bolt it hurled at him, he gets angry himself, challenging the men and women before him.
“Would you have had me send you to your certain deaths? I know that there are few among you who would refrain from going in there, knowing of its existence. I made the choice of protecting your lives. I am your Elder! I am sworn to the Antlered God to protect you, and by his Godly form I shall!”
The crowd grows quiet again but the looks they give to Tog are unconvinced. The Elder takes another deep breath and continues.
“Tomorrow these newcomers will begin the journey to the hidden cave.”
He gestures toward the Company and hundreds of heads turn to look at them. Tog keeps talking.
“I will go with them, along with a dozen men and women of Green Valley, to stand witness. We will wait outside the cave for three days while these heroes enter and do battle with the Beast. If they have not returned in three days time, it will be proof enough that they are dead, and that the Beast is too powerful, too dangerous. If they come out victorious, then together we will work out a plan for exploring that cave and whatever might be beyond it.”
The assemblage breaks out into dozens of chattering pockets. After about a minute, during which Tog waits patiently, a teenaged boy (in appearance) shouts over the noise. The Company recognizes him as Reyn, one of the two hunters they saw when they first came to this world. He does not look happy.
“So! Elder Tog!” he calls, and the people stop their talking to listen. “Please excuse my skepticism, but… understand I’m doubtful because we’ve just learned you haven’t been quite forthcoming for this last decade.”
He sneers as he says ‘decade,’ and some of the people around him nod. Reyn continues:
“But it seems to me that part of this plan could involve you and the newcomers agreeing that they won’t come back no matter what they find. How can you guarantee that just because they don’t come back, that it’s too dangerous for us to go in after them?”
“He’s right!” someone shouts a man from the back.
“Yeah, what do you say to that?” cries a ten-year-old girl.
Tog turns red.
“Are there any among you who would be willing to risk your lives, to test the veracity of what I’m saying?” he shouts back at them. “I’m not talking about some vague theoretical risk. I’ve told you what is in there. One of you who thinks I am deceiving you, you can go into the cave yourself with a rope around your waist, once the heroes have had their try. We’ll wait five minutes and pull you out again. Others of you can see for yourselves what gets pulled out, whether that’s a live person with a tale of what they saw, or a corpse! Either way my point shall have been have made. If you doubt my word, I’ll await a volunteer.”
Tog storms off his platform and joins the Company off to the side while the crowd talks animatedly about his challenge.
“I don’t hold you personally responsible,” he says. “But your arrival has unraveled the control I had over my people. Things are coming to head. If I have to throw one life away to save the rest, I will.”
* *
The Company wakes to a light warm rain. The whole town is out and milling around the town square; there’s been plenty of talk overnight, and now it looks like about a hundred people are going to go with them into the forest. Del is (unsurprisingly) among them, wearing a full pack that threatens to topple her six-year-old’s body.
She walks over to Aravis, who casts tongues as she approaches.
“I was right, wasn’t I?” she says, grimacing. “About Tog holding out on us all this time.”
“Yes,” Aravis agrees. “He knows a possible way out. And ten years ago he almost died trying to see where it went, what was there. If he almost died, do you think anyone else in the village would have made it out alive?”
“By themselves? Probably not. I wouldn’t have been much use.”
She looks contemptuously at her own body.
“But we have strong men, strong women in the village. How do we know fifty of them, or a hundred, couldn’t have killed this beast?”
“Tog believes it wouldn’t have helped. Maybe he was wrong in not giving you the choice, but he didn’t do it because he was evil. His only desire was to protect you.”
“I know.”
Del lets out a big sigh.
“Well, you’ll just have to kill it, and come back, and let us know it’s safe. And then we’ll go looking for our own answers.”
Led by Tog and the Company, the hundred people (with a few ponies to carry supplies) march up the muddy ground on the far side of the valley. Dranko makes up a vaguely obscene marching song in Charagan common and teaches the people of Green Valley to sing it. It’s a three-day trek through the woods, with the townsfolk trailing out behind and the stragglers catching up by nightfall.
On the second night, while the throng is pitching tents and preparing cook-fires, Kibi sits down with his back against a mossy boulder. For a month now he has felt the strange power of this world humming in his bones, not knowing what it might mean. But a feeling has been growing in his mind, particularly when he communicates with Scree. Twice now he has suppressed the urge to follow his familiar into the solid ground. During the day’s march a wonderful idea had come to him. He had mentioned it to Dranko and Grey Wolf in passing, and had grown more and more certain.
“Scree?”
“Yes Kibi?”
“I think I can follow you underground. Go somewhere, and I’ll try keeping up.”
The earth elemental regards him with its blue gemstone eyes. Kibi gets the feeling that it’s grinning at him. Scree flips one of the smaller rocks from its body up at Kibi, where it plinks off the dwarf’s shoulder. Kibi looks at his familiar curiously.
“Tag!” says Scree, a second before sinking into ground. Kibi concentrates for a moment and his body ripples with energy. Then he, too, sinks into the ground*.
Grey Wolf looks up from his spellbook at the sight.
“We seem to have lost a wizard,” he says, smiling inwardly.
Ernie and Flicker, not privy to the experiment, go running over to where Kibi was and examine the ground.
“Kibi! Kibi!”
“Something ate Kibi!” Flicker cries.
“Guess the earth ate him,” says Dranko unconcernedly, and heartily enjoying the halflings’ panic. “There’s only one thing to do now. Divvy up his stuff.”
It’s dark, and Kibi’s natural darkvision has no meaning. He almost panics. But after only a few seconds he feels like an otter that has finally learned it can swim. Indeed, the earth and rock flows around his body like water, providing buoyancy when he desires but parting before him in any direction he wishes to move.
And he feels. He feels vibrations running through the ground. He can tell where the mass of people moves above him on the surface, and where Scree is moving about nearby. Some new sense awakens in him, a sense of solidity, of density.
Kibi and Scree play tag. It’s good practice.
“The Earth tells me everything I could see with my eyes,” thinks Scree. “You don’t need your eyes.. And there’s not much to see. It’s all dirt. And some rocks. Watch out for tree roots; you have to go around them or push them aside. Also there are sometimes underground streams.”
After a few minutes Kibi pops back up near where he started. Dranko is handing out his possessions.
“Oh, hey, you’re back!” says Dranko, feigning surprise.
“That’s my stuff! I can’t believe you started giving away my stuff,” says Kibi indignantly.
“Next time maybe you could tell someone where you’re going,” says Dranko.
Before bed that night, Edghar takes the two chains Grey Wolf purchased in Green Valley and drops them at the foot of a tree. Grey Wolf casts his newly-learned dancing chains spell, and they elongate, stretching up to wrap around a limb a dozen feet off the ground. As they do, razor-sharp barbs sprout along their lengths. Grey Wolf reaches out and climbs up the chains effortlessly, unhindered and unhurt by the barbs.
“No one’s going to follow you up that,” says the monkey, edging away nervously.
Step thinks only of the Beast in the Cave, and how defending his friends will be the first step on his journey of redemption..
* *
The morning dawns on the day that Tog expects to find the portal to the cave. The gathered townsfolk are buzzing with anticipation.
“They’re really excited that we’re going off to our deaths,” says Aravis dryly.
“They have faith in us,” says Ernie.
“Only because they’ve known us for just a few weeks,” says Flicker.
“And they didn’t watch Dranko, Grey Wolf and I practicing chain lightning out in the woods,” adds Aravis.
Long-term buff spells are applied and shorter-term spell choices are discussed at length. Eventually they set out following Tog, who does his best to get his bearings. It’s been about two years since he last visited the blue portal. After a couple of hours marching, Tog comes to a sudden halt and motions for everyone else also to stop.
His brows knit in concentration, and then he declares, “We can go no further in this direction.”
Dranko strides forward until he’s abreast of Tog and discovers that the Elder’s statement is the literal truth. He cannot take another step further into the woods. His brain is saying ‘feet, go!’ but his legs just won’t move.
“Step, do me a favor and throw me through.”
Step walk up and puts his arms against Dranko’s back, but finds he cannot muster the will to propel the half-orc forward.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot bring myself to push you,” says Step. “Perhaps you can fall through by accident?”
Kibi stands back and throws a rock. It sails beyond the ‘barrier’ and bounces off a tree. Emboldened he strides forward himself but meets the same mental resistance as the others.
“As interesting as this is, it’s not really point,” says Ernie.
“But this might be another exit!” says Flicker. “Isn’t it worth being sure that the cave isn’t the only way out?”
Kibi casts detect magic and sees a continuous wall of dweomercraft stretching out into the forest to the edge of the spell’s range. He examines it closely to determine its type, and to his great surprise realizes that it’s similar to his own magic. It’s not a school of magic per se; he thinks it’s Earth Magic! Scree sinks into the ground but like Kibi is unable to cross the barrier.
Flicker looks at some nearby trees and notes that one of them is bending out and across the boundary. And a tree on the other side curves similarly across the barrier to their side.
“It’s not affecting trees,” he says. Grey Wolf peers upward but doesn’t see the trees Flicker is talking about.
Step chucks a rock across. Dranko sees it go right into a knot of a tree.
“Nice shot,” he comments.
Step glares at him.
“What? What’s wrong”
“Nice shot?” snorts Step. “Just because my aim is not as good as yours, is no reason…”
“But you just got it right inside that little hole!”
Step looks at Dranko like he’s…well, like he’s a little dim.
“I missed the tree entirely. I am unused to hurling missiles.”
Comprehension dawns on Dranko’s face.
“It’s an illusion! We’re all seeing different things! I saw Step’s rock do something different…”
“…and Flicker sees trees that I don’t see,” says Grey Wolf.
“This really must be where the world ends,” says Dranko.
“Not again!” says Ernie.
“It’s like we’re back in the bottle,” says Grey Wolf.
“We did not find the edge of the world again,” says Aravis. “We found another edge of another world.”
He whistles appreciatively.
“Those Black Circle guys sure put a lot of work and effort into this. I hope we can rip the whole thing apart and make them sorry for it.”
Tog motions to the right and walks parallel to the edge of the world, keeping his hand stretched out so that he can follow the invisible border without “bumping” into it. The throng follows. Two hours later they see a thin blue line glowing through the trees up ahead, as they approach the hovering blue portal edge-on. The people of Green Valley soon see it too. An excited babble springs up among then and someone runs forward.
“Do not approach it!” shouts Tog. A hundred people filter into a rough semicircle around the hanging square of blue light, staying over fifteen feet back. A soft steady hum sounds from it. The Company takes up positions directly in front of it, observing it closely. It resembles the portal through which they arrived, though this one does not ripple like a curtain; instead it is fixed in place like a window. It is nine feet tall and four feet wide, its bottom edge six inches off the forest floor.
At Ernie’s request Tog describes his experience again in detail; after a second or two of cold darkness, he felt a pulling sensation as if were being dragged into the cave by an invisible hand. It’s just as the Company felt when going through the door of the beholder statue.
“I’ll bet these curtains are like the Black Circle’s maintenance doors, so they can get to places if anything goes wrong,” Ernie speculates.
The Company reviews the plan for half a minute and then begins its flurry of short-term spells. The townsfolk find this absolutely fascinating – half the party is waving their arms and incanting various spells: protection from evil, improved invisibility, shield other, assassin’s senses, bless, prayer, protective wards, mass darkvision… to name a few. Since Tog was attacked as soon as he stepped through, the Company is expecting the same.
Brimming with enchantment the Company lines up and starts marching through the glowing blue portal. Dranko and Aravis take pains to enter at the same time, to maintain the shield other spell they share. Kibi and Morningstar do likewise. Behind them the crowd cheers them on with shouted encouragement.
“We’re counting on you!” shouts Del.
There is the dark, the cold, the sensation of being pulled through the void…
…to be continued…
* - From achieving 5th level in his Earth Mage prestige class, Kibi can now cast xorn movement (from the Manual of the Planes) once per day.
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LightPhoenix
First Post
Sagiro said:
Ten bucks says nothing attacks, and Tog kills all the villagers.
Metus
First Post
I had stopped reading this story hour awhile ago (maybe a year) and decided it was time to play catch-up. Spent the past few days reading all the posts and here I am! It's good to be reading the adventures again. I remember I had some questions coming through it all, but I've forgotten. Suffice to say, I've had a good time and hope for more!
Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
coyote6 said:Tog and the villagers were, all-in-all, fairly polite. Therefore, they must be the bad guys; the monster is then a guardian keeping them locked up.
I don't know, Tog was just bitter enough to be a good guy.
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