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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2048643" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>Semi-Planar Rift: Getting the Lay of the Lands</strong></p><p></p><p>As the two groups closed for combat, Danae was the first to respond aggressively. She fired a ball of flames at the floating slug creature, only for it to suddenly vanish a few feet from the creature’s body. “It has some kind of anti-magic field!” she gasped.</p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, the hive bird was nearly as fast, and a swarm of insects surrounded Danae, distracting her and making her spells harder to cast. The psionic demon was also quick to respond, but as he charged at the party, a righteously furious Bath crashed into him and began to slice at him with unrelenting force. Wong went after the gold man while Tal assisted with long range spells, and Robin flew up to engage the hive bird. Xalem, as he typically did in these situations, looked confused and tried to heal the others whenever he had a chance.</p><p></p><p> Robin, it turned out, made the biggest mistake at first. By flying right at the bird, he just became its most obvious target, and it easily flew at him and snatched him in one massive claw. Tal tried to help his friend, so the bird casually whirled around and snatched him up in the other claw! In the meantime, Bath had defeated the demon with almost no effort, but when she turned to help Wong fight the gold man, it didn’t turn out as well. Though the gold man’s weaponry struck her with the full force of both chaos and evil, he didn’t appear to be evil or chaotic himself, and whenever Bath tried to strike at him with her blade, a suit of full plate armor instantly materialized around him, making him very hard to even wound.</p><p></p><p> Danae, meanwhile, was busy dealing with the bird, since it had already neutralized a third of the party and was firing insects at Xalem with force greater than the strongest arrows. However, she had to bob and weave to evade the swarm following her as she did so, but a wizard as experienced as her could easily focus her mind to ignore a few insect bites. She hurled first fire and then electricity at the bird, until it screeched in pain and dropped its victims to claw more viciously at this new thread. However, Robin barely got a chance to stand up before suffering a worst fate. The slug monster wasn’t just watching the fight this whole time. It was a psionic creature as well, and thus could penetrate its own anti-magic field to bombard its foes with power. It was striking Robin with massive concussive forces every chance that it could, and now that its wounded foe was free, it could finish the job. It implanted an alternate psionic reality in Robin’s mind, trapping him in a state of perpetual bliss. Normally, Robin would be strong enough to fight such a force, but he was just too weak at this point from the blasts and the effect of the claws, and his mind was easily entrapped.</p><p></p><p> Bath and Wong had managed to nearly finish the gold man when he simply smiled and used his magical powers to completely heal himself! “Okay, that’s it!” Bath yelled, and she flew off to fight the flying slug. As soon as she got close, she felt all of her magical power drain from her, but she could fly naturally, so she was unconcerned. Even without its magical enhancements, her blade was able to easily slice into the monster. However, when the creature was able to respond to its new threat, it was able to swat at Bath with a number of monstrous tentacles with equal ease, now that the magic of her armor was gone. </p><p></p><p> Back on the ground, Wong was forced to deal with the gold man by himself. He was worried for a moment, but he sighed with relief when he saw that Tal and Danae had finally finished off the bird. His relief abruptly ended, however, when he saw that its body was crashing directly towards him! He tried to flee, but couldn’t escape in time. The body of the massive creature crashed on top of him, and while he barely survived the impact, he was unable to crawl out from under it.</p><p></p><p> Tal moved to help Wong while Danae turned her attention to the gold man and started to rain deadly magic on him. In the air, meanwhile, the slug managed to grapple Bath with its tentacles, and then swallowed her completely! This proved to be far less effective than the creature thought, however, since Bath was totally immune to the creature’s stomach acids. She took out a dagger and began to cut through the creature’s belly, doing almost as much as she was when she was fighting the creature from the outside!</p><p></p><p> Finally, both the slug and the gold man had enough. Now heavily outnumbered, and with Xalem using his healing magic to undo the damage they inflicted earlier, they fled. The way that they vanished, however, was very unusual. Instead of the normal teleportation effects, it was as if they walked behind invisible walls and never emerged. Bath even appeared out of nowhere as the slug slowly disappeared.</p><p></p><p> With the foes taken care of, at least for now, the party was free to explore the room more carefully. At the far end of the room, there were three pillars that each contained some sort of container or vessel: an earthen mug, an animal skull formed into a bowl, and a jeweled chalice adorned with what looked like pictures of the party on it! There was also a mural on the far wall which contained a poem. It read:</p><p></p><p>The Riddle of the Rift</p><p></p><p>Every beginning requires an ending; every birth a death; every celebration a tragedy. Before you are the dead remains of past worlds, realities that expired, much as a living being does. Some still hold the souls of their survivors, trapped in their new, endless afterlife, while others are simply bereft of life. Exploring new worlds requires the responsibility of knowing the fate of worlds that fail, and indeed of all worlds with time. All save one, perhaps. </p><p></p><p>Take the vessel of land, made of the elements of the world and filled with the breath of creation. Take it to the land between the world of blighted nature and the world of terrain made into industry, and speak the words “The breath of the living beckons you to come forth.” The first challenge shall call for you there, a monstrosity of angry nature, come to life.</p><p></p><p>Take the vessel of lost life, carved from a being as great and noble as you are now, and look from the world of those trapped by bliss to the entrance of this rift. Travel in that direction until you find the loyal fools, doomed to die for their masters until they gain redemption, and then turn left, and travel through the worlds in this direction as far as you can go. Speak the words, “The beating heart of those who live has an offering.” The second challenge, angry at the destruction of worlds he himself helped destroy, will summon thee.</p><p></p><p>Take the vessel of shadows from here to the world where the restless dead give escape to all by themselves, and then to the world where the angry living impart the same gift, with the same consequences. Say to the realm “My soul is cleaned, I am prepared.” However, this vessel begins empty. Before these words have meaning, the vessel must be filled. When your shadows first seek you out, you must be willing to come to them. After one of your own visits this world and returns, one way or the other, use him or her as a guide for the rest of thee, and cleanse your souls of the shadows. This shall fill the vessel. Seek the end of this final path, and when your shadows have no more power, the way to freedom shall be revealed.</p><p></p><p> “What does all this mean?” Robin asked.</p><p></p><p> Danae peered at it for a moment, then sighed and shrugged. “I have no clue. I guess we can figure it out better once we’ve explored this place a bit.”</p><p></p><p> With that, the group traveled through a door at the far end of the room, and found themselves in a hallway. The walls are completely mirrored, just like they were in the entrance room. There were three doors on the far wall, but before the party considered which one to go through, they were curious about another feature in the room. It was filled with clocks of all kinds. Bath, as usual, was the first to have the courage to actually do anything to them. She looked carefully at a clock, found a button on it, and pushed it without hesitation! Immediately, everyone in the room felt unbearably tired, and fell unconscious. Even Bath, who normally doesn’t need sleep, felt too tired to keep her eyes open. And so, as the party slept, they began to dream…</p><p></p><p> In the dreams, all the characters were forced to answer a question. They had to decide what is would they choose, uncertain death or a life of imprisonment. Those that selected uncertain death wound up in what appeared to be a dark forest. Those that chose imprisonment found themselves in a massive prison. Fortunately, they were not in one of the cells, but the people in the cells were shouting and pleading at them in the hope that the party would release them. As for Wong, he didn’t appear at all. It was as if the Rift had swallowed him up.</p><p></p><p> And so began the wanderings of the party, as they struggled to find each other, only to get split up and lost further with time. As they wandered, they found that the majority of the Rift consisted of nine little micro-worlds and a hallway between every set of worlds.</p><p></p><p> The first world, the forest world, appeared to be a forest of the dead. Ghostly souls wandered freely throughout it. Though the clearing the party started in was safe, walking through the rest of the forest slowly drained away their life force. Fortunately, the way to safety could be found by tracking some of the souls to a series of doors, which each led out of the forest in a different direction.</p><p></p><p> The prison seemed almost as endless. The prisoners, if their information could be trusted, made themselves immortal, but their civilization died anyway due to warfare. The only survivors, ironically, were the prisoners like those in this world. Exploring the prison was hazardous, as it was filled with traps, but the prisoners knew the way out. It was just a matter of knowing which ones could be trusted.</p><p></p><p> Another world was made of little but an ocean of a toxic fluid. The remains of a city, which was apparently destroyed by the sea, occasionally pokes out of the sea, and crossing these ruins was the only way to the next set of doors. Of course, since so many members of the party could fly at this point, there was little danger in this realm.</p><p></p><p> Similarly, another world was nothing but a massive tree that was at least miles high. It appeared to be warped and twisted, and now was full of spikes and thorns. Climbing it was possible, if risky, but fliers made short work of this obstacle as well. </p><p></p><p> A more dangerous obstacle was found in a more mechanical world. The party found themselves in what appeared to be the interior of a massive machine, though the part they were in was more like a massive, transparent tube that served as a hallway. The doorways to escape were within sight, but the rest of the tube was flooded, forcing the party to make a difficult swim through the water to escape. A few of the less physical members of the party were forced to get help from the local wildlife, a form of reptilian sea-horse that could be ridden to the doorways.</p><p></p><p> The next world was a desert, and the numerous craters that cover the ground suggested this world was destroyed by massive warfare. Strange metal things floated above the desert, sweeping it with searchlights. Not eager to find out what would happen if the lights caught them, the party carefully crossed the desert, using magic and their own stealthy ability to stay hidden.</p><p></p><p> Another world appeared to be entirely underground, and was made out of tunnels carved out of solid stone. Somehow, much of the stonework appeared to form some sort of massive mechanical machine powered by steam, and the party had to carefully evade massive superheated geysers, stone valves and pistons to escape. </p><p></p><p> The last two worlds were slightly stranger. The first appeared to be a bar of infinite size. The party found themselves just outside of it, and had to find the way out within the bar. This wasn’t easy, as the patrons weren’t very helpful, and the place seemed to have a draining effect on the minds of those inside it, reducing them to drooling nitwits in a matter of hours.</p><p></p><p> The last one looked a little like a standard image of hell, complete with fire, slightly cavernous surroundings, and demonic artwork. The only exceptions were the inhabitants: a race of strange, demonic penguins that were blocking the way out. Talking to them was frustrating, especially since they had an odd habit of ending everything they said with the word “dood,” but fighting them proved to be even more of a mistake. The first time the party tried that, the penguins tried advancing, tripped all over themselves, and immediately self-destructed when they hit the ground! It left the party alive but very injured, and they wisely retreated while they could.</p><p></p><p> As they traveled, the party discovered a few other noteworthy individuals that appeared to be fellow travelers in the Rift as opposed to the trapped natives. A few were even familiar faces. These include Quercus, who was trapped in the desert ever since he left the plane to find his father. Also here was Zethar, the young eladrin that journeyed with the party briefly before suffering a brief and violent death. After being risen from the dead, he left to determine if he was really ready to help the party, and was trapped here. Another celestial was found in the bar, though he was a Solar, the most powerful of the celestial races. Bath was in the group that first found him, and insisted that a fellow celestial be given the chance to escape this trap. Finally, there was Theaven, a powerful druid who was separated from his own adventuring party when they tried to escape the Rift themselves. He’s been searching ever since, but since he hasn’t found them yet, he’s pretty sure they were killed, so is happy escaping with the party.</p><p></p><p> Eventually, the party, along with their four new friends, reunited. Now that they understood the place a little better, the puzzle began to make more sense. “That first part should be pretty easy to figure out by now,” Danae pondered as she again led the conversation. She looked over a rough map that went over the relative position of all the worlds. She pointed at the world with the warped tree. “Now, if this is blighted nature, and this,” she pointed to the world of the stone machine, “Is the terrain made into industry, then the space between it should be where we speak that invocation. And that location is the desert of warfare.”</p><p></p><p> The plan established, the party made their way in that direction, and then spoke in unison, “The breath of the living beckons you to come forth.” Suddenly, they began to sink through the very ground. Quercus and the other celestials remained behind, apparently because they weren’t part of the test the party began, but surprisingly, Theaven was allowed to travel with them, as if he took the place for the absent Wong. They sank further until the world they came from disappeared completely, and they prepared to face the first great challenge of the Rift.</p><p></p><p> OOC: That fight at the start of this section was another one that took forever. Between the hard to hit self-healing enemy, the enemy in the anti-magic sphere, and much of the party being immobilized at any point, progress was slow.</p><p></p><p> I was also a little worried about recapping the main areas of the Rift as well. The party wandered them for a large part of a couple sessions, and it was too long since I played this part to remember who was where and in what order. Thus, I just summarized the area in general.</p><p></p><p> The penguins in the last area are called Prinnies, and are from the humorous Playstation 2 tactical RPG Disgaea. They don’t really play a large role in this plotline or other recent ones, but I liked the game so much that I wanted to toss them in somewhere.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 2048643, member: 9626"] [b]Semi-Planar Rift: Getting the Lay of the Lands[/b] As the two groups closed for combat, Danae was the first to respond aggressively. She fired a ball of flames at the floating slug creature, only for it to suddenly vanish a few feet from the creature’s body. “It has some kind of anti-magic field!” she gasped. Meanwhile, the hive bird was nearly as fast, and a swarm of insects surrounded Danae, distracting her and making her spells harder to cast. The psionic demon was also quick to respond, but as he charged at the party, a righteously furious Bath crashed into him and began to slice at him with unrelenting force. Wong went after the gold man while Tal assisted with long range spells, and Robin flew up to engage the hive bird. Xalem, as he typically did in these situations, looked confused and tried to heal the others whenever he had a chance. Robin, it turned out, made the biggest mistake at first. By flying right at the bird, he just became its most obvious target, and it easily flew at him and snatched him in one massive claw. Tal tried to help his friend, so the bird casually whirled around and snatched him up in the other claw! In the meantime, Bath had defeated the demon with almost no effort, but when she turned to help Wong fight the gold man, it didn’t turn out as well. Though the gold man’s weaponry struck her with the full force of both chaos and evil, he didn’t appear to be evil or chaotic himself, and whenever Bath tried to strike at him with her blade, a suit of full plate armor instantly materialized around him, making him very hard to even wound. Danae, meanwhile, was busy dealing with the bird, since it had already neutralized a third of the party and was firing insects at Xalem with force greater than the strongest arrows. However, she had to bob and weave to evade the swarm following her as she did so, but a wizard as experienced as her could easily focus her mind to ignore a few insect bites. She hurled first fire and then electricity at the bird, until it screeched in pain and dropped its victims to claw more viciously at this new thread. However, Robin barely got a chance to stand up before suffering a worst fate. The slug monster wasn’t just watching the fight this whole time. It was a psionic creature as well, and thus could penetrate its own anti-magic field to bombard its foes with power. It was striking Robin with massive concussive forces every chance that it could, and now that its wounded foe was free, it could finish the job. It implanted an alternate psionic reality in Robin’s mind, trapping him in a state of perpetual bliss. Normally, Robin would be strong enough to fight such a force, but he was just too weak at this point from the blasts and the effect of the claws, and his mind was easily entrapped. Bath and Wong had managed to nearly finish the gold man when he simply smiled and used his magical powers to completely heal himself! “Okay, that’s it!” Bath yelled, and she flew off to fight the flying slug. As soon as she got close, she felt all of her magical power drain from her, but she could fly naturally, so she was unconcerned. Even without its magical enhancements, her blade was able to easily slice into the monster. However, when the creature was able to respond to its new threat, it was able to swat at Bath with a number of monstrous tentacles with equal ease, now that the magic of her armor was gone. Back on the ground, Wong was forced to deal with the gold man by himself. He was worried for a moment, but he sighed with relief when he saw that Tal and Danae had finally finished off the bird. His relief abruptly ended, however, when he saw that its body was crashing directly towards him! He tried to flee, but couldn’t escape in time. The body of the massive creature crashed on top of him, and while he barely survived the impact, he was unable to crawl out from under it. Tal moved to help Wong while Danae turned her attention to the gold man and started to rain deadly magic on him. In the air, meanwhile, the slug managed to grapple Bath with its tentacles, and then swallowed her completely! This proved to be far less effective than the creature thought, however, since Bath was totally immune to the creature’s stomach acids. She took out a dagger and began to cut through the creature’s belly, doing almost as much as she was when she was fighting the creature from the outside! Finally, both the slug and the gold man had enough. Now heavily outnumbered, and with Xalem using his healing magic to undo the damage they inflicted earlier, they fled. The way that they vanished, however, was very unusual. Instead of the normal teleportation effects, it was as if they walked behind invisible walls and never emerged. Bath even appeared out of nowhere as the slug slowly disappeared. With the foes taken care of, at least for now, the party was free to explore the room more carefully. At the far end of the room, there were three pillars that each contained some sort of container or vessel: an earthen mug, an animal skull formed into a bowl, and a jeweled chalice adorned with what looked like pictures of the party on it! There was also a mural on the far wall which contained a poem. It read: The Riddle of the Rift Every beginning requires an ending; every birth a death; every celebration a tragedy. Before you are the dead remains of past worlds, realities that expired, much as a living being does. Some still hold the souls of their survivors, trapped in their new, endless afterlife, while others are simply bereft of life. Exploring new worlds requires the responsibility of knowing the fate of worlds that fail, and indeed of all worlds with time. All save one, perhaps. Take the vessel of land, made of the elements of the world and filled with the breath of creation. Take it to the land between the world of blighted nature and the world of terrain made into industry, and speak the words “The breath of the living beckons you to come forth.” The first challenge shall call for you there, a monstrosity of angry nature, come to life. Take the vessel of lost life, carved from a being as great and noble as you are now, and look from the world of those trapped by bliss to the entrance of this rift. Travel in that direction until you find the loyal fools, doomed to die for their masters until they gain redemption, and then turn left, and travel through the worlds in this direction as far as you can go. Speak the words, “The beating heart of those who live has an offering.” The second challenge, angry at the destruction of worlds he himself helped destroy, will summon thee. Take the vessel of shadows from here to the world where the restless dead give escape to all by themselves, and then to the world where the angry living impart the same gift, with the same consequences. Say to the realm “My soul is cleaned, I am prepared.” However, this vessel begins empty. Before these words have meaning, the vessel must be filled. When your shadows first seek you out, you must be willing to come to them. After one of your own visits this world and returns, one way or the other, use him or her as a guide for the rest of thee, and cleanse your souls of the shadows. This shall fill the vessel. Seek the end of this final path, and when your shadows have no more power, the way to freedom shall be revealed. “What does all this mean?” Robin asked. Danae peered at it for a moment, then sighed and shrugged. “I have no clue. I guess we can figure it out better once we’ve explored this place a bit.” With that, the group traveled through a door at the far end of the room, and found themselves in a hallway. The walls are completely mirrored, just like they were in the entrance room. There were three doors on the far wall, but before the party considered which one to go through, they were curious about another feature in the room. It was filled with clocks of all kinds. Bath, as usual, was the first to have the courage to actually do anything to them. She looked carefully at a clock, found a button on it, and pushed it without hesitation! Immediately, everyone in the room felt unbearably tired, and fell unconscious. Even Bath, who normally doesn’t need sleep, felt too tired to keep her eyes open. And so, as the party slept, they began to dream… In the dreams, all the characters were forced to answer a question. They had to decide what is would they choose, uncertain death or a life of imprisonment. Those that selected uncertain death wound up in what appeared to be a dark forest. Those that chose imprisonment found themselves in a massive prison. Fortunately, they were not in one of the cells, but the people in the cells were shouting and pleading at them in the hope that the party would release them. As for Wong, he didn’t appear at all. It was as if the Rift had swallowed him up. And so began the wanderings of the party, as they struggled to find each other, only to get split up and lost further with time. As they wandered, they found that the majority of the Rift consisted of nine little micro-worlds and a hallway between every set of worlds. The first world, the forest world, appeared to be a forest of the dead. Ghostly souls wandered freely throughout it. Though the clearing the party started in was safe, walking through the rest of the forest slowly drained away their life force. Fortunately, the way to safety could be found by tracking some of the souls to a series of doors, which each led out of the forest in a different direction. The prison seemed almost as endless. The prisoners, if their information could be trusted, made themselves immortal, but their civilization died anyway due to warfare. The only survivors, ironically, were the prisoners like those in this world. Exploring the prison was hazardous, as it was filled with traps, but the prisoners knew the way out. It was just a matter of knowing which ones could be trusted. Another world was made of little but an ocean of a toxic fluid. The remains of a city, which was apparently destroyed by the sea, occasionally pokes out of the sea, and crossing these ruins was the only way to the next set of doors. Of course, since so many members of the party could fly at this point, there was little danger in this realm. Similarly, another world was nothing but a massive tree that was at least miles high. It appeared to be warped and twisted, and now was full of spikes and thorns. Climbing it was possible, if risky, but fliers made short work of this obstacle as well. A more dangerous obstacle was found in a more mechanical world. The party found themselves in what appeared to be the interior of a massive machine, though the part they were in was more like a massive, transparent tube that served as a hallway. The doorways to escape were within sight, but the rest of the tube was flooded, forcing the party to make a difficult swim through the water to escape. A few of the less physical members of the party were forced to get help from the local wildlife, a form of reptilian sea-horse that could be ridden to the doorways. The next world was a desert, and the numerous craters that cover the ground suggested this world was destroyed by massive warfare. Strange metal things floated above the desert, sweeping it with searchlights. Not eager to find out what would happen if the lights caught them, the party carefully crossed the desert, using magic and their own stealthy ability to stay hidden. Another world appeared to be entirely underground, and was made out of tunnels carved out of solid stone. Somehow, much of the stonework appeared to form some sort of massive mechanical machine powered by steam, and the party had to carefully evade massive superheated geysers, stone valves and pistons to escape. The last two worlds were slightly stranger. The first appeared to be a bar of infinite size. The party found themselves just outside of it, and had to find the way out within the bar. This wasn’t easy, as the patrons weren’t very helpful, and the place seemed to have a draining effect on the minds of those inside it, reducing them to drooling nitwits in a matter of hours. The last one looked a little like a standard image of hell, complete with fire, slightly cavernous surroundings, and demonic artwork. The only exceptions were the inhabitants: a race of strange, demonic penguins that were blocking the way out. Talking to them was frustrating, especially since they had an odd habit of ending everything they said with the word “dood,” but fighting them proved to be even more of a mistake. The first time the party tried that, the penguins tried advancing, tripped all over themselves, and immediately self-destructed when they hit the ground! It left the party alive but very injured, and they wisely retreated while they could. As they traveled, the party discovered a few other noteworthy individuals that appeared to be fellow travelers in the Rift as opposed to the trapped natives. A few were even familiar faces. These include Quercus, who was trapped in the desert ever since he left the plane to find his father. Also here was Zethar, the young eladrin that journeyed with the party briefly before suffering a brief and violent death. After being risen from the dead, he left to determine if he was really ready to help the party, and was trapped here. Another celestial was found in the bar, though he was a Solar, the most powerful of the celestial races. Bath was in the group that first found him, and insisted that a fellow celestial be given the chance to escape this trap. Finally, there was Theaven, a powerful druid who was separated from his own adventuring party when they tried to escape the Rift themselves. He’s been searching ever since, but since he hasn’t found them yet, he’s pretty sure they were killed, so is happy escaping with the party. Eventually, the party, along with their four new friends, reunited. Now that they understood the place a little better, the puzzle began to make more sense. “That first part should be pretty easy to figure out by now,” Danae pondered as she again led the conversation. She looked over a rough map that went over the relative position of all the worlds. She pointed at the world with the warped tree. “Now, if this is blighted nature, and this,” she pointed to the world of the stone machine, “Is the terrain made into industry, then the space between it should be where we speak that invocation. And that location is the desert of warfare.” The plan established, the party made their way in that direction, and then spoke in unison, “The breath of the living beckons you to come forth.” Suddenly, they began to sink through the very ground. Quercus and the other celestials remained behind, apparently because they weren’t part of the test the party began, but surprisingly, Theaven was allowed to travel with them, as if he took the place for the absent Wong. They sank further until the world they came from disappeared completely, and they prepared to face the first great challenge of the Rift. OOC: That fight at the start of this section was another one that took forever. Between the hard to hit self-healing enemy, the enemy in the anti-magic sphere, and much of the party being immobilized at any point, progress was slow. I was also a little worried about recapping the main areas of the Rift as well. The party wandered them for a large part of a couple sessions, and it was too long since I played this part to remember who was where and in what order. Thus, I just summarized the area in general. The penguins in the last area are called Prinnies, and are from the humorous Playstation 2 tactical RPG Disgaea. They don’t really play a large role in this plotline or other recent ones, but I liked the game so much that I wanted to toss them in somewhere. [/QUOTE]
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