A Monk, a Wizard, and a Swordmage Walk into a Fallcrest; a 4e Story Now game

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
0/8 Successes/0 Failures/2 Hard DC Available/3 Secondary Skills Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted:

The heroes watch the gnolls, their momentary allies against this Far Realm incursion, westwardly flank the shoreline of the immense body of water to the north. Eventually, after crossing the Nentir River, they'll work their way north to their home of Winterbole Forest.

In the gathering twilight, the vastness of Lake Nen is difficult to comprehend. It is considerable larger east to west than it is north to south, but even north to south the span is well beyond the visual field of mortals.

Water laps as waves gently caress the soil of Fastormel's ancient ruins, creating a juxtaposition of nature's harmony with civilization's careening chaos, disunity, and seemingly inevitable rise and fall. The water, fresh and clear of murk seems to beckon...but the primal spirits of this world can sometimes be fickle, rash, or decisively harsh in their judgement. There is both a sense of gentle calm on the surface and brimming intensity underneath as you approach Lake Nan's waters.

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What is your opening move to attempt to commune with the mighy spirit? MEDIUM DC.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

As the group moves towards the shore of Lake Nen, Starn consults with Nimozaran. "Master, what do we know about the primal spirits of Lake Nen?"

Nimozaran pauses for a moment, puts his hands on his hips and replies; "Didn't I teach you this material years ago Starn? Gosep's Waters of the Deep Places. I expect you to be able to quote me Chapter Four, or perhaps I need a new apprentice!" All delivered in a fairly sarcastic tone.

Starn secretly smiles, recalling that this more playful aspect of Nimozaran has not shown in many years; perhaps he's really shaking off the malign influence of Acamar. Remembering to play his part as the trite 'prentice he replies "Yes, Master, I believe it was one of my rare days of true dilligence. Lets see..." Starn proceeds to recite a good bit of text, with a few admonitions from the older mage.

The gist of it is that, yes indeed, Nenglamir was formed in a rare battle in which Fey forces of what became the Court of Winter battled against the fire archon legions of Imix. Eventually the land itself rose up, and from the icy meltwaters a primal spirit, The Nenglamir, arose. What was left of the divine and primordial forces were obliged to withdraw and take their fight elsewhere. The Nenglamir, being a spirit of water infused with ancient magics, is known for its psychic power. According to Gosep it is wise to beware, for what you see may not be reality, but what The Nenglamir wishes you to see.

Medium DC(19) History check. Roll is 11 + 15 = 26. Success. Starn has learned the name, fundamental nature, and possibly goals of The Nenglamir.

Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
1/8 Successes/0 Failures/2 Hard DC Available/3 Secondary Skills Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History

 

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF remembers a lesson about the primal spirits. The Blessed of the Elect needed to know how to avoid their wrath, or even appease them, if necessary. For the combative spirits, if leaving their domain wasn't an option, the only alternative was surrender. Let nature dominate us beasts, as only nature should.

The Blessed never practiced this—there were no primal spirits close enough to their camp—only listened and took notes that they later burned. What if that was another lie, like everything the Elect promised, like the Mogul himself?

Lief strips to his undergarments and wades into the water. There, he forces the air from his lungs, shuts his eyes, and sinks.

"You rule here," he thinks. "I'm your servant. Speak through me."

He waits underwater, forcing himself to remain still. Stars blink in his vision—he's drowning. The spirit has to know he means it. Or maybe he's a fool, and he'll simply die.

His mind winks out. The shifter bobs to the surface. His eyes open, milky and weeping lake water.

"Say what you have to say," Lake Nan addresses those on shore.

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Intent: Begin a conversation with the lake's spirit by making an obeisance and acting as its psychic conduit.

Secondary: Religion. r(9)+4 = 13 vs. Easy DC 13. Success.

Primary: Endurance. r(17)+6+2 = 25 vs. Medium DC 18. Success.
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Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
2/8 Successes/0 Failures/2 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skills Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance

 

[hawkeyefan]

Vorn feels the natural primal power of this place. When Lief tells him to speak, he knows that the lake... or the being that is the lake... will listen. He knows what needs to be done.

He gently coaxes Nimozaran down from his horse. The old man puts up a show of cantankerous resistance, but allows himself to be led over to the water by Vorn.

They take a few steps into the cool water. It's only then that Nimozaran's protests become more forceful. "What is this all about, you bloody fool? You've gotten my boots wet!" he says to Vorn.

Vorn ignores him and instead looks to the colorless eyes of Lief. Lake Nan is speaking through the shifter. "This world has been touched by the dead star, Acamar," Vorn says. "And this man in particular. We have faced Acamar twice now, and thwarted it both times... but its threat lingers. Will you help us? Can you wash its touch from him?"

Vorn still holds Nimozaran, and puts a boot to the back of the old man's knee, forcing him to kneel in the water. The ripples of water turn and gather around Nimozaran in a way that's quite unnatural. "This has gone on long enough," Nimozaran says.

Lief's eyes leak more lake water. "Yes, I can wash Acamar's influence from him," the primordial says through Lief.

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Intent: To bring Nimozaran into the Lake and ask the primordial spirit if it can help him

Primary: Nature r(16) + 12 = 28 vs. DC 18. SUCCESS.
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Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
3/8 Successes/0 Failures/2 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skill Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance, Nature

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
3/8 Successes/0 Failures/2 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skill Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance, Nature

After the powerful primal spirit of the lake confirms it can help Nimozaran, it continues its communion with the heroes through Lief:

"Look above you at the celestial landscape. (1) Locate the section of the sky where the dead star resides. Fixate upon it. Imagine its depths, its contours. (2) Among those infinities, hone in on the terrible star itself until you_actually_see it.

Once done...submerge and I will cleanse you."

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Helping Nimozaran with (1) is MEDIUM DC. Helping him with (2) is HIGH DC.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF strains at the lake's control, stretching the mental leash but not snapping it, and wades toward Nimozaran. His pupils are gray whirlpools. The shifter touches the old wizard's face gently, then rough, as he pivots behind Nimozaran. His own movements jerky and strange, he points up at the sky, arm alongside the other man's head so he can follow his scanning finger.

"There," Lief says, stopping on a patch of nothingness blotting the river of stars above. "There," he says, for emphasis. Still gripping Nimozaran, he whips his head toward Starn, drooling lake water. "Make him see!"

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Intent: Find and show Nimozaran the current location of wandering Acamar.

Primary: Perception. r(7)+15 = 22 vs. Medium DC 18. Success.
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Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
4/8 Successes/0 Failures/2 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skill Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance, Nature, Perception

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn, feeling a deep sense of dread, reaches out and touches Nimozaran as well. Then he extends his Arcane senses both linking with those of his master, and then onward, outward, inward, in some other direction which is unnameable. Sensing the patterns of unnatural, impossible, thought structure within his master, matching it against that which is outside, he identifies the wrongness.

Now the forces of primal water magic, infinitely deep, slippery as thought, ancient and pervasive enter. He offers up the jagged wrongness like an offering, a pot ritually shattered at an altar never built in this world. But the wrongness is not passive, it burns, it cuts, like hot glass. Starn hangs on, cries out, utters a word of final dismissal.

Suddenly he's back, standing in the lake, falling into the water, sinking. The water pushes back, he is tossed upon the shore, weirdly dry as a bone.

Lief gazes at him; "there is a crack, that gate cannot be fully shut, beware! Seek the shards! Only they can close this door forever. Before the stars align, at the conjunction, then."

Hard DC(26) Arcana check. Roll 9 +17=26. Success.

Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
5/8 Successes/0 Failures/1 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skill Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance, Nature, Perception, Arcana

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
5/8 Successes/0 Failures/1 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skill Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance, Nature, Perception, Arcana

<IN THE MATERIAL WORLD>

Nimozaran blinks thrice. Then again. He absently says "the voice...its gone."

Then, looking around, his eyes and mind fully clear now, he reiterates more loudly "its gone!"

Acknowledging the enigmatic words that poured forth from "Lief-as-conduit," the old wizard again gazes up at the tower of Fastormel. "There," he says. "I've seen that place....its insides...from afar. It is similar to The Septarch's Tower. The same machinery that underwrote my imprisonment lies within. The prototype. Built by its Lord Mage and the schematic sent to my master when I was an apprentice so many decades ago. The alien shards, from the bowels of the Far Realm...they lie within...powering the terrible machine."

<WITHIN LIEF VIA HIS SPIRITSCAPE CONNECTION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE LAKE>

There he stands. Knee deep.

The waters and horizon are endless.

As ever, the stag sidles up, barely visible on the periphery.

"Nenglamir," a voice rings out from the stag's direction though no mouth moves. "Ever have I watched you since the beginning when you acted on behalf of mortal-kind. Again you act, though this time against a celestial rather than terrestrial presence."

With anger and abruptness, the great lake swells mightily with a wave rising to the heavens, threatening to crash upon Lief and the stag.

"DO NOT ENTREAT ME WATCHER. YOUR WORDS HAVE NO PURCHASE. I WAS BORN OF IMMORTAL COLLISIONS NOT OF THIS WORLD. WE ARE NOT THE SAME. AND I REMIND YOU IT WAS I THAT FOUGHT THE PRIMORDIALS...THAT STAYED THE HAND OF DESTRUCTION OF THE MORTAL WORLD...WHILE YOU...LOOKED ON."

The wave in the mind-eye of Lief swells further still...

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Do Starn or Vorn use Nimozaran's revalations as a means to parley with the ancient primal spirit through Lief? If so, MEDIUM DC.

What does Lief do, deep within his inner self, to quell the swelling rage of the powerful spirit of the water? HARD DC.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn is happy to negotiate, though happily oblivious to some spiritual battle going on elsewhere! He asks The Nenglamir if it can help them deal with the tower. "I sense that whatever magic was emplaced to resist the forces within the tower, it is soon going to fail. Allowing a fully active, intact, tower to operate freely here is not an option. Thus I propose we bring down the whole thing. My friends and I, honestly, lack the raw power to achieve this, but you, mighty Lord of Deep Waters, could do so!"

"Here is what I propose: We enter within and temporarily disable whatever force is active there. With my Master's knowledge of Acamar's ways, and of the workings of these towers, we should be able to achieve that much. Once the tower is not functioning, you can bring it down, or purify it in whatever way you see fit. We will then be able to return to Fallcrest with our power bolstered and continue the fight from there."

Medium DC (18) Diplomacy check expending Arcane Mutterings to use my Arcana bonus. Rolls 15 + 17 = 32, success!

Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
6/8 Successes/0 Failures/1 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skill Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance, Nature, Perception, Arcana, Diplomacy

 

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF watches the drama playing out before him—no, within him—and wracks his memory, trying to recall the cosmic pecking order among this primal spirits. As always, the question is simple: Who dominates, and who should submit?

Nothing's coming to him. The Elect never talked about strife within Primordial forces. They simply lied about the Hidden Mogul's place of respect among them. Lies! Lies!

He's looking to the stag for guidance, for once hoping for some signal or sign. Instead, he seems the watcher spirit flag under the living lake's words. The stag cringes from the wave, not out of fear, but...guilt?

"Nenglamir," Lief shouts, then drops to his knees in the water. "I don't know what the stag has done to you, but I know this—he does not speak for me. He never has! Whatever sins he's committed, they aren't mine. I only ask that you don't use my mind as your battlefield." The shifter cranes his neck to face the looming wave. "I'm your ally, even if he was not."

The cresting wave remains still for a heavy moment. Then it drops, arcing over Lief's head to pound the shore where the stag had been. Water douses the shifter. It comes down hard, but not so hard as it could have been. When it's done, and he opens his eyes, the lake is still and silvered as a mirror.

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Intent: Determine whether the stag really did abandon the lake spirit, and present himself as separate from it.

Secondary: Religion. r(3)+4 = 7 vs. Easy DC 13. Fail, -2 to Primary roll.

Primary: Insight. r(17)+12-2 = 27 vs. Hard DC 26. Success.
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Complexity 3 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal (staged): Commune with the spirit of Lake Nen (2), enlist the aid of the Primal forces in cleansing Acamar’s malign celestial influence on Nimozaran (5), and in defeating the same influence on the material/spiritual world (8).
7/8 Successes/0 Failures/Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skill Available/2 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: History, Endurance, Nature, Perception, Arcana, Diplomacy, Insight