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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2082379" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>Semi-Planar Rift: The Shadow! The Shadow? The Shadow.</strong></p><p></p><p>Before worrying too much about the third challenge, the party decided to rest for the night. After all, the battle against the supremely powerful chimera had taken a lot out of all of them, and if they had to face another challenge like that the next day, it would be better to be prepared for it. They went to the nearest mirrored hallway and again used the clock to make a day pass, letting them recover their magic. Tomorrow, they would find the solution, they thought. However, it turned out the solution would find them that evening!</p><p></p><p> Or at least it found two of them. When Xalem and Bath both woke up with a start, and when they found the party after the usual sub-world exploration routine, they explained that they both had the strangest dream, and that both of their dreams were identical! “I felt like I was about to be attacked by my own evil self,” an exhausted Bath explained. </p><p></p><p> Xalem looked troubled and clarified. “It was worse than that, actually. I felt my own shadow wretch away from my body, taking a little piece of me with it. It was about to attack me when I woke up. I still feel like part of me is missing,” he continued, as he glanced around. As soon as he looked into a mirror, however, he froze and shouted, “There he is!”</p><p></p><p> The others looked at the mirror he was pointing at, and saw that Xalem wasn’t being reflected in it! Instead, there appeared to be a mad berserker that looked disturbingly like Xalem. Similarly, a strange monster stared back at Bath. It looked like a unicorn, but it was larger than normal and had numerous snake heads in addition to its normal unicorn head. </p><p></p><p> “Well, I think we know what we have to fight to fill that last vessel,” Danae comments.</p><p></p><p> “But how to we actually get there?” Xalem asks despairingly. “They’re on the other side of the mirror.”</p><p></p><p> “Why don’t you try walking through the mirror?” Tal asked. “That’s how we left that first room, after all.</p><p></p><p> Bath and Xalem both looked doubtful, but tried passing a hand through each of their mirrors anyway. Surprisingly (to everyone but Tal,) their hands passed right through. Even he was shocked when both of them were violently pulled into their mirrors, however!</p><p></p><p> Suddenly separated from the party and each other, Bath and Xalem were forced to fight their shadow clones alone. For Bath, this was fairly easily even in the weakened state she was left in after the shadow stole her power. A few quick strikes of her blade later, the beast was defeated and she was again at full power and returned safely home. Xalem, however, had a more difficult time of it. After all, he was dedicated to nonviolence, which greatly limited his options when fighting a frenzied, frothing mad version of himself! However, he had an idea. He couldn’t directly attack him, but some of his spells would cause others to be harmed if they continued their attacks, making it self-inflicted. After preparing one of those spells on the berserker, he simply allowed himself to be hurt and healed himself whenever possible until the berserker finally collapsed, freeing Xalem as well. </p><p></p><p> After the two returned, healthy but still confused about what to do next, Tal took out the chalice. “It looks like it’s only a little filled,” he said with disappointment. Maybe we all need to fight our shadows.”</p><p></p><p> Danae groaned. “That could take forever; we still don’t know what finally got Bath and Xalem to produce shadows. Maybe they’re the only ones who can even do it. After all, they’re the most obvious examples of good, so it makes sense that they would create evil clones.”</p><p></p><p> Tal took out a copy of the clue and tried to figure out if they were missing something. Finally, he shouted “Aha!”</p><p></p><p> “You got something?” a confused Robin asked.</p><p></p><p> “I think so. It says that after the first of us fought the shadow, he or she could be used as a guide for the rest of us. Maybe Bath and Xalem could lead us through the mirror?”</p><p></p><p> They decided to give it a try, so they joined hands with Bath and Xalem taking the lead. The line of heroes passed again through the mirror and ended up in the same barren realm that Xalem and Bath already experienced. As soon as they arrived, Tal, Robin, Theaven, and Danae had the same sense of losing their own shadows and a part of their life force with it, and their opposites took shape. Tal’s was a storm of elemental emerging that was seemingly composed of equal parts fire, water, air, and earth. Theaven’s was a frost giant of immense power and dark wisdom. Robin had a giant, flying, manta ray-like creature, but it seemed warped and twisted in the same way the creatures from Roivas Manor did. Finally, Danae created a Bookwyrm like the ones fought in the Ancient Library and The Nightmare Prince’s Manor, but it was much larger and had two heads. The four prepared to attack their creators, but this time, Bath and Xalem were there to give the party a distinct advantage. </p><p></p><p> Initially, everybody went after their own shadow in an attempt to regain their lost life force. Meanwhile, Bath started by helping Theaven fight the frost giant and Xalem went back on healing duty. Tal and Danae fired magic, Robin tried to keep his distance to avoid the sanity-draining gaze of the creature while firing arrows, and Theaven entered melee with Bath. Unsurprisingly, the giant was the first to fall, but before Theaven and Bath could move to help their friends, the others monsters began to wreak havoc on the group as a whole. Danae’s Dread, the bookwyrm, summoned three books to rotate around it, gaining additional strength and the aid of a fictional warrior and wizard who were made slightly real. It also launched its powerful breath at the party, causing Danae to lose any magical preparations she made before the fight and sonically damaging Robin with one head’s breath, and using the other to strike Theaven and Bath. Fortunately, Bath was able to resist the effects, but Theaven’s mind was partially disrupted, leaving him in a state of confusion for the rest of the fight. Meanwhile, Tal’s Terror began to rip through the unfortunate sorcerer, and Robin’s Regret flew close enough to begin sucking away at his mind while simultaneous biting him. His massive jaw clamped around him, trapping Robin as the creature prepared to swallow the ranger.</p><p></p><p> Despite Tal and Robin’s dilemmas, the rest of the party decided that the Bookwyrm was the most serious threat, and Bath charged at the creature while Danae destroyed it and its books with a spell and Xalem provided magical support. Since the creature was a construct, Xalem felt no need to worry about preserving its artificial life, and with offensive support from Xalem as well, the creature was quickly destroyed.</p><p></p><p> Of course, while they were finishing the Bookwyrm, two of their own were in greater danger. Tal was barely holding on against Tal’s Terror, and Robin was now swallowed by Robin’s Regret, not to mention being driven half-mad by the beast. Xalem moved to heal Tal while Bath, who was immune to mind-affecting effects and thus had nothing to fear from the creature’s gaze, charged the Regret while Danae began to fire upon it with magic. It tried attacking Bath, but it soon found that she was no where near as easy a target as Robin was, and it was soon chopped to bits, freeing the unfortunate ranger.</p><p></p><p> This left only Tal’s Terror, but now that it was outnumbered six to one (whenever Theaven was lucid enough to help,) the end was inevitable. The powerful creature was soon whittled down to nothingness, and with Tal’s shadow destroyed along with the others, the party was returned to the semi-normal part of the Rift. </p><p></p><p> All that remained now was figuring out the last riddle, passing the last challenge, and then finding The Blade of Minds. Danae shrugged after reading the riddle and said, “This is getting too easy. The restless deads’ land is that forest with the spirits that lead us to the end, and the angry living must be that immortals’ prison.”</p><p></p><p> After another rest and regrouping from the dream-based shifts, the group met at the forest, traveled to the prison from there, and spoke the final incantation, “My soul is cleansed; I am prepared.” Again, the party felt themselves sinking into a new realm, but this time, they were not in the realm of a challenger. They were in another mirrored room, and were surrounded by a half dozen hideous beasts, creatures, and monsters. </p><p></p><p>As they all began to converge on the party, Tal realized who these creatures were: more guardians of the realm; set up by Bas to prevent others from escaping the plane. Unlike the ones fought earlier in the foyer, they were not tied to the Blade of Minds’ church, but seemed to be servants of the other three sects. Before the party could even determine what half of them are, the guardians leapt into battle!</p><p></p><p>OOC Notes: Glad to see you again Neurotic. I might still be a bit away from the campaign conclusion, but I am at least almost caught up! Hopefully, that means that the SHs might be more detailed, since I don't have to rush to catch up and the details of what happened will be more fresh in my mind. Let me know when you finished the updates since your previous post, and what you think so far.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 2082379, member: 9626"] [b]Semi-Planar Rift: The Shadow! The Shadow? The Shadow.[/b] Before worrying too much about the third challenge, the party decided to rest for the night. After all, the battle against the supremely powerful chimera had taken a lot out of all of them, and if they had to face another challenge like that the next day, it would be better to be prepared for it. They went to the nearest mirrored hallway and again used the clock to make a day pass, letting them recover their magic. Tomorrow, they would find the solution, they thought. However, it turned out the solution would find them that evening! Or at least it found two of them. When Xalem and Bath both woke up with a start, and when they found the party after the usual sub-world exploration routine, they explained that they both had the strangest dream, and that both of their dreams were identical! “I felt like I was about to be attacked by my own evil self,” an exhausted Bath explained. Xalem looked troubled and clarified. “It was worse than that, actually. I felt my own shadow wretch away from my body, taking a little piece of me with it. It was about to attack me when I woke up. I still feel like part of me is missing,” he continued, as he glanced around. As soon as he looked into a mirror, however, he froze and shouted, “There he is!” The others looked at the mirror he was pointing at, and saw that Xalem wasn’t being reflected in it! Instead, there appeared to be a mad berserker that looked disturbingly like Xalem. Similarly, a strange monster stared back at Bath. It looked like a unicorn, but it was larger than normal and had numerous snake heads in addition to its normal unicorn head. “Well, I think we know what we have to fight to fill that last vessel,” Danae comments. “But how to we actually get there?” Xalem asks despairingly. “They’re on the other side of the mirror.” “Why don’t you try walking through the mirror?” Tal asked. “That’s how we left that first room, after all. Bath and Xalem both looked doubtful, but tried passing a hand through each of their mirrors anyway. Surprisingly (to everyone but Tal,) their hands passed right through. Even he was shocked when both of them were violently pulled into their mirrors, however! Suddenly separated from the party and each other, Bath and Xalem were forced to fight their shadow clones alone. For Bath, this was fairly easily even in the weakened state she was left in after the shadow stole her power. A few quick strikes of her blade later, the beast was defeated and she was again at full power and returned safely home. Xalem, however, had a more difficult time of it. After all, he was dedicated to nonviolence, which greatly limited his options when fighting a frenzied, frothing mad version of himself! However, he had an idea. He couldn’t directly attack him, but some of his spells would cause others to be harmed if they continued their attacks, making it self-inflicted. After preparing one of those spells on the berserker, he simply allowed himself to be hurt and healed himself whenever possible until the berserker finally collapsed, freeing Xalem as well. After the two returned, healthy but still confused about what to do next, Tal took out the chalice. “It looks like it’s only a little filled,” he said with disappointment. Maybe we all need to fight our shadows.” Danae groaned. “That could take forever; we still don’t know what finally got Bath and Xalem to produce shadows. Maybe they’re the only ones who can even do it. After all, they’re the most obvious examples of good, so it makes sense that they would create evil clones.” Tal took out a copy of the clue and tried to figure out if they were missing something. Finally, he shouted “Aha!” “You got something?” a confused Robin asked. “I think so. It says that after the first of us fought the shadow, he or she could be used as a guide for the rest of us. Maybe Bath and Xalem could lead us through the mirror?” They decided to give it a try, so they joined hands with Bath and Xalem taking the lead. The line of heroes passed again through the mirror and ended up in the same barren realm that Xalem and Bath already experienced. As soon as they arrived, Tal, Robin, Theaven, and Danae had the same sense of losing their own shadows and a part of their life force with it, and their opposites took shape. Tal’s was a storm of elemental emerging that was seemingly composed of equal parts fire, water, air, and earth. Theaven’s was a frost giant of immense power and dark wisdom. Robin had a giant, flying, manta ray-like creature, but it seemed warped and twisted in the same way the creatures from Roivas Manor did. Finally, Danae created a Bookwyrm like the ones fought in the Ancient Library and The Nightmare Prince’s Manor, but it was much larger and had two heads. The four prepared to attack their creators, but this time, Bath and Xalem were there to give the party a distinct advantage. Initially, everybody went after their own shadow in an attempt to regain their lost life force. Meanwhile, Bath started by helping Theaven fight the frost giant and Xalem went back on healing duty. Tal and Danae fired magic, Robin tried to keep his distance to avoid the sanity-draining gaze of the creature while firing arrows, and Theaven entered melee with Bath. Unsurprisingly, the giant was the first to fall, but before Theaven and Bath could move to help their friends, the others monsters began to wreak havoc on the group as a whole. Danae’s Dread, the bookwyrm, summoned three books to rotate around it, gaining additional strength and the aid of a fictional warrior and wizard who were made slightly real. It also launched its powerful breath at the party, causing Danae to lose any magical preparations she made before the fight and sonically damaging Robin with one head’s breath, and using the other to strike Theaven and Bath. Fortunately, Bath was able to resist the effects, but Theaven’s mind was partially disrupted, leaving him in a state of confusion for the rest of the fight. Meanwhile, Tal’s Terror began to rip through the unfortunate sorcerer, and Robin’s Regret flew close enough to begin sucking away at his mind while simultaneous biting him. His massive jaw clamped around him, trapping Robin as the creature prepared to swallow the ranger. Despite Tal and Robin’s dilemmas, the rest of the party decided that the Bookwyrm was the most serious threat, and Bath charged at the creature while Danae destroyed it and its books with a spell and Xalem provided magical support. Since the creature was a construct, Xalem felt no need to worry about preserving its artificial life, and with offensive support from Xalem as well, the creature was quickly destroyed. Of course, while they were finishing the Bookwyrm, two of their own were in greater danger. Tal was barely holding on against Tal’s Terror, and Robin was now swallowed by Robin’s Regret, not to mention being driven half-mad by the beast. Xalem moved to heal Tal while Bath, who was immune to mind-affecting effects and thus had nothing to fear from the creature’s gaze, charged the Regret while Danae began to fire upon it with magic. It tried attacking Bath, but it soon found that she was no where near as easy a target as Robin was, and it was soon chopped to bits, freeing the unfortunate ranger. This left only Tal’s Terror, but now that it was outnumbered six to one (whenever Theaven was lucid enough to help,) the end was inevitable. The powerful creature was soon whittled down to nothingness, and with Tal’s shadow destroyed along with the others, the party was returned to the semi-normal part of the Rift. All that remained now was figuring out the last riddle, passing the last challenge, and then finding The Blade of Minds. Danae shrugged after reading the riddle and said, “This is getting too easy. The restless deads’ land is that forest with the spirits that lead us to the end, and the angry living must be that immortals’ prison.” After another rest and regrouping from the dream-based shifts, the group met at the forest, traveled to the prison from there, and spoke the final incantation, “My soul is cleansed; I am prepared.” Again, the party felt themselves sinking into a new realm, but this time, they were not in the realm of a challenger. They were in another mirrored room, and were surrounded by a half dozen hideous beasts, creatures, and monsters. As they all began to converge on the party, Tal realized who these creatures were: more guardians of the realm; set up by Bas to prevent others from escaping the plane. Unlike the ones fought earlier in the foyer, they were not tied to the Blade of Minds’ church, but seemed to be servants of the other three sects. Before the party could even determine what half of them are, the guardians leapt into battle! OOC Notes: Glad to see you again Neurotic. I might still be a bit away from the campaign conclusion, but I am at least almost caught up! Hopefully, that means that the SHs might be more detailed, since I don't have to rush to catch up and the details of what happened will be more fresh in my mind. Let me know when you finished the updates since your previous post, and what you think so far. [/QUOTE]
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