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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2129111" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>The Price of a Soul: The Crystal Glade</strong></p><p></p><p>The party, including their guide Blediggs and their new allies Tiana, Azat, and Amon, only traveled for about half a day before running into further complications. But unlike most of the creatures encountered lately, the group they’ve run into weren’t necessarily enemies, though it remained a distinct possibility! As the wandered the flat, alien landscape of the outlands, the party spied a band of creatures. They include a gigantic eagle and ape, but the leader of the group was more noteworthy, for they were led by an enormous gold man!</p><p></p><p>“They’re Rilmani!” Danae gasped, but before the party could discuss the ramifications of this when considering their role in the former gold Rilmani’s death, the group of violently neutral outsiders has spotted them. The giant eagle flew overhead to investigate and watch for any sign of trouble as the Rilmani band approached. Bath was about ready to attack them simply for being allies of Bas, but Tal stood her hand. “We don’t know what these Rilmani think of Bas, and besides, we don’t have time for this. We have to find Tesserill’s soul without delay!</p><p></p><p>Bath stood down as the gold leader of the Rilmani hailed the party. “Well met!” he said, but he had a suspicious and weary tone in his voice. “May I ask what you’re doing so close to Rilmani territory?”</p><p></p><p>Tal was surprised to hear this. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware the Outlands were the domain of the Rilmani.”</p><p></p><p>The gold man smiled smugly. “We are the center of the philosophy that guides the planes. Would we not rule the center of the physical planes, then?”</p><p></p><p>Blediggs tried to avoid any further conflict. “We have no conflict with the Rilmani. We just want to get to the Crystal Glade. We’re looking for something valuable there.”</p><p></p><p>This statement didn’t increase make the Rilmani hostile, but their leader did get a dangerous edge in his voice after hearing this. “The Crystal Glade, you said? You had something to do with that? We lost a lot of our own to the creatures that come from that place…”</p><p></p><p>Tal realized what the creature was insinuating and quickly spoke up. “No, not at all,” he responded, which wasn’t entirely true. “In fact, we have some good new for you. The same phenomenon that is creating those creatures will soon destroy the entire forest. You should be safe then.”</p><p></p><p>The gold man relaxed noticeably when he heard this. “That’s a relief. I apologize for being so accusatory. Things have been difficult for us these past few days. Besides the losses from the Crystal Glade spawn, we recently lost one of our elders on a Material Plane. It was a great and tragic loss.”</p><p></p><p>Amon, Tiana, and Azat looked sympathetic, but Danae and the others started to sweat a bit. “Yes, that’s…that’s very tragic,” Tal said before the Rilmani caught on or Bath tried defending them. “But we must hurry to reach the glade in time. Good luck on your travels.”</p><p></p><p>The party journeyed for another couple of days before finally reaching the glade, which was an awesome sight. Even ignoring the material the plants were made of, the forest stretched as far up as the eye could see and the trees looked like they were hundreds of years old! It was so thick, in fact, that it was nearly impassable. The party had to carefully weave between trees and even the way forward was sometimes impassable, forcing them to backtrack to take a new route. Finally, the party was fed up. “Crossing this place on the ground is getting ridiculous!” Tal shouted. “There has to be an easier way.”</p><p></p><p>Robin had an idea. After all, this was a forest, making it his area of expertise. “I noticed that the branches in the forest seem incredibly think and strong,” he said. “I think if we find a low-hanging one, we can use it to climb up to the upper branches and walk across them. It should be a little easier than the ground level, at least.”</p><p></p><p>The group quickly agreed, but the branches proved to be almost as labyrinthine as the ground. The branches were so close together that it almost like they were wondering through a corridor in a dungeon. Finally, the group came to a central “cavern” where many of the paths merged on a massive central branch. Blediggs halted the party for a moment while he tried to figure out which path to take from here to get to center of the Glade. However, a few minutes after the party began their rest, a loud sound came from two of the corridor branches. It sounded like an army of massive creatures was coming from the party! They quickly took up defensive positions in front of the two caverns, though they also had Bath guard the other openings to make sure reinforcements or more stealthy adversaries didn’t ambush them. Finally, their adversaries came into view. Fortunately, it turned out to be only two enemies, not the dozens they initially expected. Unfortunately, the two enemies were gigantic scorpions tainted by chaos!</p><p></p><p>Amon prepared to charge one of the scorpions with Tiana and Azat right behind him. Tal assisted them with magical assistance and Robin fired at them with his bow. Bath was about to help them when a flash of motion flew right at her. Before she could react, a monstrous insect stood before her. It quickly struck her with a claw before dashing out of range again. As soon as the claw touched her, Bath felt her strength leave her!</p><p></p><p>“What is that thing?” Blediggs asked as he helped the front ranks fight the scorpions.</p><p></p><p>Danae looked at the creature for a moment, and then responded with dread in her voice. “It’s a thorciasid!” she yelled. “Think of them as the cockroaches of the gods! A few touches of its forelimbs or antennae and even the strongest of creatures will be sucked dry!” Realizing who their greatest threat was, she fired on the creature with her most powerful magic, but it was no where near enough to slow the beast.</p><p></p><p>An enraged Bath charged the insect while the rest of the party continued to fight the scorpions. Both were quickly being brought down by the collective might of the near-epic heroes, but not before they were able to strike back. One of them struck Azat right in the chest with its stinger, injecting him with a lethal poison, and the other caught Tiana in its claws. Azat and Danae both had unusual responses to the threat, however. After being poisoned, Azat simply backed out of range and then yelled at the top of his lungs while his body began to change. When he was done, a were-leopard stood where Azat was! Robin and Tal, unsurprisingly, had a less than positive response to this. After all, the only were-leopard they knew was Phellis Mune, the Strife Master. They decided to let this strange figure handle this by himself for now and turned their attention to helping Bath. However, Azat wasn’t on his own for long, for Blediggs had no prejudice towards were-creatures considering all the strangeness he saw on the outer planes. He hopped in (no pun intended) to help.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Danae had a very good idea after seeing the thorciasid. She was a powerful wizard, after all; if she had to fight an enemy as powerful as that beast, she might as well use it for inspiration. She magically transformed into a thorciasid herself and moved to help Amon! With her help, the second scorpion was quickly killed. The first one was also defeated eventually by Azat, but at a high cost. Blediggs was stabbed repeatedly by the scorpion’s stinger and now was bleeding to death on the ground!</p><p></p><p>The original thorciasid wasn’t exactly waiting around during all this, either. Bath was able to get some good hits in when she charged the creature, despite her reduced strength, but the monstrous insect had a way to deal with such active foes. It fired a strand of incredibly strong webbing at her. She narrowly evaded the first one, but the second blast caught her. As she struggled to free herself from the cocoon prison the bug trapped her in, Robin and Tal moved in to help Bath. The distracted creature left Bath alone until it could deal with the interlopers, giving Bath the time she needed to escape. Tal didn’t fair as well when the divine cockroach turned its attention on him, but before it could finish off the sorcerer, the rest of the party finished the scorpions and helped defeat the creature. It was especially confused when one of its own kind began to attack it, but it was killed before it could figure that one out.</p><p></p><p>With their enemies defeated, the party then had to figure out what to do with its allies. They slowly moved towards Azat, who was healing Blediggs despite still being in his half-animal state.</p><p></p><p>After seeing the looks the others were giving him, Azat sighed and answered the question before it was even asked. “I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I am a were-creature, but does that really matter? I’m sure experienced heroes like yourself have seen weirder by now.”</p><p></p><p>“It’s not that,” Tal awkwardly began as Bath tried to detect evil as inconspicuously as possible. “It’s just that, well, the only were-leopard we know is one of our greatest enemies.”</p><p></p><p>“Well, even if they’re evil in your world, they’re not in mine. Leopards are revered as servants of our gods, and those who have bonded with such creatures are honored ones. You can even check with the Delaspie records; they know I’m trustworthy.”</p><p></p><p>Since he didn’t do anything to harm them, he just saved the life of their guide, and Bath didn’t pick up anything on her detection spells, the party decided to drop it and move deeper into the forest.</p><p></p><p>OOC Notes: Well, that’s the last of the weekly updates for a while! The next update (in the Saturday after this one) will finish up this adventure, and then I’ll just be about an adventure or two behind the current plotline. And things kind of slowed down after this adventure for reasons I’ll get into more thoroughly at that point, so catching up will be extremely easy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 2129111, member: 9626"] [b]The Price of a Soul: The Crystal Glade[/b] The party, including their guide Blediggs and their new allies Tiana, Azat, and Amon, only traveled for about half a day before running into further complications. But unlike most of the creatures encountered lately, the group they’ve run into weren’t necessarily enemies, though it remained a distinct possibility! As the wandered the flat, alien landscape of the outlands, the party spied a band of creatures. They include a gigantic eagle and ape, but the leader of the group was more noteworthy, for they were led by an enormous gold man! “They’re Rilmani!” Danae gasped, but before the party could discuss the ramifications of this when considering their role in the former gold Rilmani’s death, the group of violently neutral outsiders has spotted them. The giant eagle flew overhead to investigate and watch for any sign of trouble as the Rilmani band approached. Bath was about ready to attack them simply for being allies of Bas, but Tal stood her hand. “We don’t know what these Rilmani think of Bas, and besides, we don’t have time for this. We have to find Tesserill’s soul without delay! Bath stood down as the gold leader of the Rilmani hailed the party. “Well met!” he said, but he had a suspicious and weary tone in his voice. “May I ask what you’re doing so close to Rilmani territory?” Tal was surprised to hear this. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware the Outlands were the domain of the Rilmani.” The gold man smiled smugly. “We are the center of the philosophy that guides the planes. Would we not rule the center of the physical planes, then?” Blediggs tried to avoid any further conflict. “We have no conflict with the Rilmani. We just want to get to the Crystal Glade. We’re looking for something valuable there.” This statement didn’t increase make the Rilmani hostile, but their leader did get a dangerous edge in his voice after hearing this. “The Crystal Glade, you said? You had something to do with that? We lost a lot of our own to the creatures that come from that place…” Tal realized what the creature was insinuating and quickly spoke up. “No, not at all,” he responded, which wasn’t entirely true. “In fact, we have some good new for you. The same phenomenon that is creating those creatures will soon destroy the entire forest. You should be safe then.” The gold man relaxed noticeably when he heard this. “That’s a relief. I apologize for being so accusatory. Things have been difficult for us these past few days. Besides the losses from the Crystal Glade spawn, we recently lost one of our elders on a Material Plane. It was a great and tragic loss.” Amon, Tiana, and Azat looked sympathetic, but Danae and the others started to sweat a bit. “Yes, that’s…that’s very tragic,” Tal said before the Rilmani caught on or Bath tried defending them. “But we must hurry to reach the glade in time. Good luck on your travels.” The party journeyed for another couple of days before finally reaching the glade, which was an awesome sight. Even ignoring the material the plants were made of, the forest stretched as far up as the eye could see and the trees looked like they were hundreds of years old! It was so thick, in fact, that it was nearly impassable. The party had to carefully weave between trees and even the way forward was sometimes impassable, forcing them to backtrack to take a new route. Finally, the party was fed up. “Crossing this place on the ground is getting ridiculous!” Tal shouted. “There has to be an easier way.” Robin had an idea. After all, this was a forest, making it his area of expertise. “I noticed that the branches in the forest seem incredibly think and strong,” he said. “I think if we find a low-hanging one, we can use it to climb up to the upper branches and walk across them. It should be a little easier than the ground level, at least.” The group quickly agreed, but the branches proved to be almost as labyrinthine as the ground. The branches were so close together that it almost like they were wondering through a corridor in a dungeon. Finally, the group came to a central “cavern” where many of the paths merged on a massive central branch. Blediggs halted the party for a moment while he tried to figure out which path to take from here to get to center of the Glade. However, a few minutes after the party began their rest, a loud sound came from two of the corridor branches. It sounded like an army of massive creatures was coming from the party! They quickly took up defensive positions in front of the two caverns, though they also had Bath guard the other openings to make sure reinforcements or more stealthy adversaries didn’t ambush them. Finally, their adversaries came into view. Fortunately, it turned out to be only two enemies, not the dozens they initially expected. Unfortunately, the two enemies were gigantic scorpions tainted by chaos! Amon prepared to charge one of the scorpions with Tiana and Azat right behind him. Tal assisted them with magical assistance and Robin fired at them with his bow. Bath was about to help them when a flash of motion flew right at her. Before she could react, a monstrous insect stood before her. It quickly struck her with a claw before dashing out of range again. As soon as the claw touched her, Bath felt her strength leave her! “What is that thing?” Blediggs asked as he helped the front ranks fight the scorpions. Danae looked at the creature for a moment, and then responded with dread in her voice. “It’s a thorciasid!” she yelled. “Think of them as the cockroaches of the gods! A few touches of its forelimbs or antennae and even the strongest of creatures will be sucked dry!” Realizing who their greatest threat was, she fired on the creature with her most powerful magic, but it was no where near enough to slow the beast. An enraged Bath charged the insect while the rest of the party continued to fight the scorpions. Both were quickly being brought down by the collective might of the near-epic heroes, but not before they were able to strike back. One of them struck Azat right in the chest with its stinger, injecting him with a lethal poison, and the other caught Tiana in its claws. Azat and Danae both had unusual responses to the threat, however. After being poisoned, Azat simply backed out of range and then yelled at the top of his lungs while his body began to change. When he was done, a were-leopard stood where Azat was! Robin and Tal, unsurprisingly, had a less than positive response to this. After all, the only were-leopard they knew was Phellis Mune, the Strife Master. They decided to let this strange figure handle this by himself for now and turned their attention to helping Bath. However, Azat wasn’t on his own for long, for Blediggs had no prejudice towards were-creatures considering all the strangeness he saw on the outer planes. He hopped in (no pun intended) to help. Meanwhile, Danae had a very good idea after seeing the thorciasid. She was a powerful wizard, after all; if she had to fight an enemy as powerful as that beast, she might as well use it for inspiration. She magically transformed into a thorciasid herself and moved to help Amon! With her help, the second scorpion was quickly killed. The first one was also defeated eventually by Azat, but at a high cost. Blediggs was stabbed repeatedly by the scorpion’s stinger and now was bleeding to death on the ground! The original thorciasid wasn’t exactly waiting around during all this, either. Bath was able to get some good hits in when she charged the creature, despite her reduced strength, but the monstrous insect had a way to deal with such active foes. It fired a strand of incredibly strong webbing at her. She narrowly evaded the first one, but the second blast caught her. As she struggled to free herself from the cocoon prison the bug trapped her in, Robin and Tal moved in to help Bath. The distracted creature left Bath alone until it could deal with the interlopers, giving Bath the time she needed to escape. Tal didn’t fair as well when the divine cockroach turned its attention on him, but before it could finish off the sorcerer, the rest of the party finished the scorpions and helped defeat the creature. It was especially confused when one of its own kind began to attack it, but it was killed before it could figure that one out. With their enemies defeated, the party then had to figure out what to do with its allies. They slowly moved towards Azat, who was healing Blediggs despite still being in his half-animal state. After seeing the looks the others were giving him, Azat sighed and answered the question before it was even asked. “I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I am a were-creature, but does that really matter? I’m sure experienced heroes like yourself have seen weirder by now.” “It’s not that,” Tal awkwardly began as Bath tried to detect evil as inconspicuously as possible. “It’s just that, well, the only were-leopard we know is one of our greatest enemies.” “Well, even if they’re evil in your world, they’re not in mine. Leopards are revered as servants of our gods, and those who have bonded with such creatures are honored ones. You can even check with the Delaspie records; they know I’m trustworthy.” Since he didn’t do anything to harm them, he just saved the life of their guide, and Bath didn’t pick up anything on her detection spells, the party decided to drop it and move deeper into the forest. OOC Notes: Well, that’s the last of the weekly updates for a while! The next update (in the Saturday after this one) will finish up this adventure, and then I’ll just be about an adventure or two behind the current plotline. And things kind of slowed down after this adventure for reasons I’ll get into more thoroughly at that point, so catching up will be extremely easy. [/QUOTE]
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