Knights of the Daystorm

[Velenne]

Perhaps one of the other players would be so kind as to explain what they have done to their "ship".

If I may be so bold...

You see, if you might recall from the pre-elven-quest era of this story hour, our adventurers had "inherited" a sailing vessel from a group of "former" pirates. Former, only because they were now dead and would not be needing the ship any longer.

And so it was that over time, the little ship has slowly evolved into a sort of home base for the group. The remaining pirates have been converted, of a sort, by Fredrick (helped along by a few gold pieces from Collin) but in truth were never wholly bad people. The truly wretched ones were dead, leaving behind those that merely had no other options open to them in life but piracy.

Along the way in their adventures, our group aquired an elven artifact that unlocked several doors in the ruins of the Temple of Elemental Justice (no relation to the Evil kind -at least not that we're aware of just yet). Behind these doors were what we now know to be called Elemental Keys (mistakenly called Anchors in Collin's journal. He had misunderstood Caretaker's words). They are, in no particular order:

Earth - a wooden staff
Water - a blue vase
Fire - a long red ribbon
Air - a set of chimes

Each Key has several unique powers. Most importantly, they are used to unlock the Elemental Anchors (located randomly in the world) and therin access a particular element's fundamental powers. The Vase, as is relevant here, has the odd ability to repel all water. In addition, if placed wholly within an object, allows perfect maneuverabilty within the water (even so far as to submerge said object).

So as you can see, Collin's first instinct was to try it on the ship. Unfortunately, the ship has no windows in the front of it. So in order to maneuver, Collin had to turn the vessel sideways and propel it along as such. Propel may be somewhat of a euphamism. Skyrocket, perhaps? Well let's just say, moving along at 250 miles an hour has its advantages.

The ship kicks up no wake as the water is actually repelled from the sides. And so it moves deftly across the ocean leaving no trace.

The next obvious step was to create some kind of way for Collin to pilot through the front of the ship. Docking procedures from the hull of a sideways ship are...tricky at best. The elves were gracious enough to lend Collin some knowledge of carpentry (we won't get into the specifics of that) Taking a few days with the party, and crew, at hand, he oversaw the renovations. The crow's nest was covered, a 3-paned window added to the front of the ship in the hold, and several rooms were added, including a small kitchen!

The final touch came from the marvelous Sheeji, whose expertise and talents have come in handy innumerable times. Using a permenant illusion, she changed the ship into a tropical island, complete with a great viney tree where the mast was, a small treehouse for the crow's nest, a cottage for the castle, and even a picturesque waterfall in the back end. (Sorry, I'm not overly familiar with the fore-aft-poop deck terminology) And so it was that the pirate ship was turned into our party's private sanctuary, complete with all the trappings an adventuring party would need.

Next, Collin plans to inscribe a summoning circle in the hold, and add a few permanent defences to ensure our privacy and safety. Recently, the island was invaded and now Collin questions the wisdom of leaving such a prize out on the open waters while the group is out saving the world.

 

[Jeremy]

And that is their "ship". <groan>

You see each of the items has a particular use for which it was intended, the dual powers of the Water Key, well, no I'm not going to say that until they figure it out, regardless, it was not meant to move ships around. But it can through will power move any closed container through water at about any rate imaginable. So Collin temporarily turned the ship into a box. Then he made it into something of a submarine. Then into an island which Tylette still firmly maintains is an actual island.

Don't even get me started on what Zerin has started doing with the Wind Key. <mutters>

 

[Vadicus]

Curious Ship

There is something to say for rocketing along peaceably--which, mind you, in the middle of the ocean seemed a leisurely pace...well except when the ship passed a bird or dolphin--and for having seen land hurtle toward you where land was no where in sight, yet it nearly instantly shows itself, and then for stopping on a dime just before your boat scrapes bottom along the beach.

Khuuld still has nightmares about his ride in the "crow's nest".

 

[Jeremy]

Collin stared at the streaming wave of mud and muck with a look of intense concentration knowing that any second it would be leave a temporary tunnel for them to escape through, but he was cutting it close.

"NOW! GO!" He called as the rushing current stopped. The mountain of muck he had collected had filled every crevice of the lab and was less than five feet from them, but the precision would hold little consequence if the tunnel, supported only by entropy and it's own sticky nature, collapsed.

Zerin charged in, shield raised with Frederick directly upon his heels, Tylette followed swiftly and Collin was only an instant behind her. They dashed through the tunnel as it began to fold in on itself and dove out the other end as it gave in to gravity.

Another day at the grindstone.

Twin doors of ancient make stood before them. In the wan orange light of their continual flame rods they appeared very similar to the locked arches of the Temple of Elemental Justice. Set into the door was a familiar symbol, the large plaque with three triangles and a disk that when brought together formed a symbol resembling a mountain range. Collin opened the small steel box that contained Tiztserak's blackened amulet and pressed it into the inset disk on the doors.

At first nothing happened, then a low hum began and the doors began to glow softly. Brighter and brighter they grew until a single crack appeared as the doors parted slightly. They ground inward ever so slowly still glowing brightly until the amulet fell into Collin's waiting hand. The doors faded back to normal and swung the rest of the way open.

"Well now, that is an unexpected bonus. Bring that amulet to me child." A voice came to them from the depths of the chamber. The vaulted hall before them was lined with columns that had rotted to muck; each was mounted with a continual flame torch that glowed with a ghostly blue flame. At the end of the columned procession was a large dais also rotted away to filth above which floated a massive vertical ovoid chunk of granite that slowly rotated in the air. The granite was still solid but it was covered in leeching purple and white vines oozing bile and puss. Surrounding the huge Anchor were five braziers that burned with black fire and crackled black arcs of charged energy that flicked out and struck the Anchor constantly.

Sitting rather nonchalantly in front of it was a tall and very gaunt man with his legs crossed.

"Come and get it." Collin taunted with a menacing tone as the group entered the room. Tylette added her sentiments in an even less polite manner.

Perhaps it was the two empty potion vials at his hip, or maybe the twin seven and a half foot tall humanoids in front of him with the huge shoulders and arms that drooped down almost to the floor, but Tiztserak's clone did not seem perturbed by their entrance. He rose to his feet and stated rather matter-of-factly, "You will give me that amulet and the staff."

Collin and Frederick exchanged worried glances as both of them had read about the creatures before them. Clay Golems. Utterly impervious to Zerin's blade, talons, and bite. They informed him of that over the mindlink but he still began advancing.

"So?" He replied over the mindlink as he grabbed his shield in both hands and strode forward.

"Oh please. Deal with that would you?" Tiztserak motioned his two guardians forward as Frederick and Collin began casting and Tylette drew upon her energies. Tiztserak was apparently a little slow on the draw and began casting a moment later.

Tylette reached out to try to link the Fate of the two golems before her as Zerin stopped about twenty feet in front of them and readied his shield to smash the first golem to come into his range. But Tylette's power failed against their unliving bodies and their shambling gate proved slower than Zerin had anticipated.

In a flash Collin's spell was complete and he entered the whirling time slipstream of his haste spell, he was able to begin and finish a second casting while Frederick's now ponderously slow looking movements were still working on his first. Of course he second spell brought Frederick too into the accelerated time slipstream. Zerin saw Tiztserak's eyes widen a little.

In a flash accompanied by a bellowed roar Frederick’s spell was complete. The entire party felt heartened as their strength and toughness increased. In Collin’s case it nearly doubled. Recognizing the seemingly slow movements of those around him he swiftly took advantage of Collin’s spell and began casting Negative Energy Protection on himself. It was then Frederick noticed that Tiztserak was not one of the people who appeared to be moving slower.

The tight cluster the group was in that allowed Frederick’s spell to affect all of them worked against them as Tiztserak targeted the cluster. His hands rose and with them wailing ghosts and spirits rose out of the ground with terrible wrenching cries of agony. There were so many of them that they formed a solid dome that encompassed Tylette, Collin, and Frederick. The horrible moans of the spirits tore and clawed at their sanity and Collin, who had simply seen too much death, snapped. All plans forgotten he simply fled in panic from the grisly apparitions and their terrifying screams.

Opaque as the spirit wall was Tiztserak turned his will on the dragon man and tried to bend his will, but the slave had been charmed one too many times by his draconic owners and shook off the influence easily.

Frederick gritted his teeth and forced the mental image of Equitus in all his glory into his mind, forcing the cries of the spirits from him. Over the mindlink he told Zerin, “Cut off the head and this all ends now…”

While Zerin did not particularly like leaving the others undefended he couldn’t deny the logic so as he charged forward his mighty wings unfurled and launched him up and over the twin golems. Their arms were longer than they looked, but their pathetic attempts to strike the fast moving extremely heavily armored dragon man were almost laughable. Tiztserak back-pedaled quickly as the creature sent all of his bulk hurtling straight at him, shoulder set firmly behind his shield.

Meanwhile Frederick was not idle, bracing himself he cast a spell on himself and stepped onto the air, climbing through the roof of the dome. The spirits gouged and clawed him but he paid them little mind as his target came into view. “Now it ends.” The 40’ column of fire and holy power that slammed down on Tiztserak and totally engulfed him accentuated his cold statement admirably. When the flame strike cleared and he saw Tiztserak stumble out of it hammered but not charred he altered his second casting subtlety and instead launched a searing blast of radiant energy at the necromancer. Unfortunately his spell protections held true and diverted the powerful blast just enough for him to avoid it.

Of course that was not going to help him much if Zerin got to him.

Tylette raised her arms to her face and ran through the wall getting savaged by the spirits as they drained her life away, she came out the other side dazed and tried to see what was going on. Collin didn’t fare much better as he ran panicked the other direction.

Tiztserak backed up as fast as he could but had no room behind him as Zerin closed, he cried out in desperation and hurled his most powerful remaining magick at just the dragon man. Frederick felt his heart clench as he recognized the spell.

Circle of Death.

 

[Jeremy]

The black wave washed over Zerin and he applied all his might to holding on to his spirit.

But it was for naught. The spell ripped it from him and left his lifeless corpse hurtling through the air the fall in a heap at Tiztserak's feet. Tiztserak's smile was terrible in the flickering blue torchlight.

He reached down, touched the ground at his feet and impenetrable darkness sprung up around him. His laugh echoed through the room.

Tylette didn't know what to say or do. Frederick was enraged. His red rimmed eyes held a fierce light in them as he scraped mud and muck off himself and balled in his fist. The bright light of day shone forth from his hands as he imbued the little mud ball with daylight and tossed it into the darkness.

Light blasted out all sides of black shroud and it winked out leaving a very suprised Tiztserak standing in mid-cast. He finished and summoned forth a babbling Allip from the void but just then Tylette said something over the mindlink that stopped Frederick in his tracks.

"Anyone mind making a detour by the Temple of Elemental Justice?"

Frederick stopped in mid air even as the Allip's mad babble hit the wall of his Faith and will and it's life draining touch sparked off his god's magical protections. He folded his arms and smiled a viscous smile at Tiztserak as he thought to Tylette, "No. Make it hot in here."

With a thought the Fire Key unwrapped itself from around Tylette and coiled in her hand, when she tossed it in the air before her Tiztserak's head snapped to her so fast his neck audibly cracked. His eyes went wide as she cried out three magical commands.

Tiztserak fell to his knees shouting, "You don't know those words! You don't know those words!! You can't know those words!"

As sash spun in mid air it trailed fire all around spinning faster and faster until it appeared a solid spinning disk of fire. It lit up the room as it flashed once and began to grow into a portal of immense size, through the portal all manner of creatures could be seen, some so gigantic they could not step through, but some could fit through just fine. As seven 16 foot columns of fire jumped down through the portal and landed around Tiztserak's mumbling, babbling form he looked up at Tylette with huge glassy eyes.

"But you don't know those words..."

Tylette looked to Frederick, standing in mid air with his arms crossed, she heard Collin's screams, she saw Zerin's lifeless body, and she turned her gaze to Tiztserak.

"Burn."

 

[Jeremy]

The sixteen foot tall fire elementals surrounded Tiztserak as the portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire continued to widen. They pounded on his frail form smashing him into the ground and tearing through his energy buffer. All Tylette and Frederick could see was a maelstrom of fire. When the elementals straightened there was nothing left but a scorch mark.*

The clay golems halted their advance and sagged forward and the summoned allip and spirit wall faded away leaving only the crackling black electricity attacking the Earth Anchor and the roar of the fire elementals and the portal.

It was just about then that Collin ran back into the room, a little out of breath from his ordeal. He surveyed the situation.

Frederick stepped down out of the air and saw to Zerin, but there was nothing he could do. Zerin could not be raised, he would have be resurrected or buried.

As the gate continued to spin and grow, four huge fire elementals stepped down and looked at their brethren. Tylette began gathering their attention when she was nearly blinded by a greater fire elemental coming through the portal. The massive monstrosity would have been almost 4 stories tall had it been able to stand erect.

Everyone basically stood around and gaped.

The portal flashed again and slammed shut in a wake of fire that spread across the ceiling and dissipated. There was no sign of the Fire Key.

“Um, ok. You guys see that door? Go that way and work your way out of these caverns. Just kill anything you see moving, ok? Go. Wait, you, the little one, you stay with us. The rest of you hurry up.”

Frederick looked up from Zerin’s still corpse and nodded grimly. Collin got the hell out of the way.

“So now what?” Tylette asked, but she was met by shrugs. Turning to face the gigantic rotating granite she studied the braziers arranged around it. Backing up and standing behind one of the columns she instructed the remaining fire elemental to destroy the braziers. It complied and smashed them to scorched kindling.

”Burn away those sickly vines too.” It reached up with its fiery arms and brushed away the poisonous creepers like a torch through cobwebs. “Well that was easy, I guess go help the others, just work your way up through the cavern. Good luck!” Tylette had a huge grin on her face picturing what those elementals were going to do when they found the giaks and gourgaz. She briefly considered psionically looking in on them but decided against it. “That’s one evil horde that won’t be razing any towns. Anyone got any ideas what do with the rock here?”

“I might,” Frederick answered. “Stand back.” Frederick approached the revolving granite monolith and examined it. As it turned there was a small channel running up it vertically that would come around every few seconds. Frederick asked Collin for the Earth Key and held it up next to the channel, comparing them. After a whispered prayer to both Equitus and Terraj, he inserted the staff into the Anchor of Earth.




*When I say scorch mark, I meant nothing but a black char mark on the ground. No ash, no nothing. They took him from 70 hp to -77 in less than 6 seconds. They are SO not supposed to know the command words to those items...

 

[Velenne]

Let's Kick the Tires and Light the Fires, Big Daddy!

My dice have really begun to hate me lately. I'm going to need to take them down to New Orleans and get them re-hexed like Jeremy's dice. Rolled a 4 on that Will save ... and the last time I won init? I've got it written down:

Aug. 14, 1988



This was a bad day for Tizzy too. He deserved what he got, though, so we don't feel sorry for him.

 

[Jeremy]

The torch light in the hall dimmed as the monolithic Anchor of the Earth ground to a stop. The sound of earthfall behind a static hum grew then clanked to a stop.

There was just a moment of silence for the party to wonder what it was they had done before draconic runes began forming in a flowing script before Frederick that only he could see.

"Is this bad, Col?" Tylette whispered in the dimmed light.

A tremendous crash like a column of lightning audibly washed over the entire party accompanied by a blinding flash of white light from the Anchor as it was touched by Frederick and suddenly begun to spin faster than his eyes could pick up! The entire party was thrown bodily to the ground as the immense wave of energy bowled over them and washed out into Terraj's Breath. There was a great heaving sound as of a great giant clawed for breath followed by an upward thrust of the land as if the entire cavern shot straight up forty or fifty feet. A loud crackling like a sheet of ice over a lake slowly splintering turned their dazed gazes towards the Earth Anchor that was spinning so fast it hummed. Underneath it the crackling sound was granite, growing underneath the anchor and spreading out in every direction in a creeping gray color lit by the brightly glowing anchor. As it moved along the floors, ceiling, columns, and walls it accelerated exponentially, doubling and redoubling in speed until it shot past the group faster than their ship could travel.

"No Tylette," Collin said, beaming at Frederick, "This is very, very good."

Brilliant smiles broke out across the room as the solid granite floor they stood upon broke out in a plush carpet of seemingly impossible thick grass. Ivy wove and intertwined up and around the now sculpted granite columns and when it reached the torch scones revealed them as burnished gold glowing with lively green fire.

Terraj's Breath breathed Life.

The Earth Anchor slowed in it's rotation but still glowed brightly. Frederick looked to corpse of Zerin, looking peaceful in the soft grass and sighed. Looking back to the Anchor he wondered aloud, "Do you think the Keys are meant to remain in place? I wonder what would happen if I..." Frederick snaked out a hand and removed the staff from it's place mid-rotation.

The Anchor dimmed, blinked, and went cold. A slowly spinning ovular granite monlith stood before him. He watched it for a moment, then shrugged and turned back to the rest of the group.

"Well? Now what. Can any of you lift Zerin?" Looking at the dainty little arms of Tylette and the even thinner framed Collin Frederick shook his head, "Nevermind. Can either of you Summon something that can lift Zerin?"

Collin answered, "Yes. For about one whole minute."

"Well that's not going to help us much, even knowing the way out and assuming the Fire Elementals have cleared the way it'll take much longer than that," Tylette interjected. "So what do we do?"

"Hmm." Collin grinned* and excitedly pulled out a scrap of parchment and a quill and began writing in a flowing hand. He rolled it, sealed it with his signet ring and began casting a spell. The temporary summoning circle formed on the ground and as a sphere coalesced and dissipated a Hound Archon stood before them with imperious looking glowing orbs regarding them.

Collin bowed before the celestial and quickly handed him the note. "Please Teleport yourself to New Galdomond and hand this to the first Adventurer you see. If they have time to reply, please bring the reply to us. Thank you very kindly for your aid."

After an exceedingly brief description of the common room of the New Galdomond inn, the Archon disappeared in a flash of tiny white motes of light.

After about two minutes passed Collin sat down and pulled out his journal. Looking up from the edge of it he added, "You may as well sit down, this is going to take a while. Perhaps a good long while as they may need to prepare new spells on the morrow."




*That insufferable Collin "I'm-being-clever" grin.

 

[Jeremy]

Indeed, though they did detect they were being scryed, no calvalry showed up. Collin explained in the interim he was requesting Lilly or Lisara show up and teleport them out and he assumed they were preparing spell getting ready for the jaunt.

The amount of time the party had spent fighting or sneaking their way through Terraj's Breath was probably about 5 hours, the amount of time they had spent locked in one room or another catching their breath and restoring their energies was probably closer to 100 hours. Frederick was patient but he wasn't that patient. And besides, he was in debt and had been in debt for a very long time.

"I'm going to have a look around," he said as he started picking up his gear.

"Let Sheeji look around first, just to be safe."

Collin made her ghostly and able to travel through floors and walls again as she made herself invisible and zipped off. A couple hours later she and Frederick headed off together. Amazingly few mishaps later they returned with four small coffers, then again with three larger coffers, then again dragging a sarcophagus screeching over the granite.

Frederick winced as he set down the last, "I'm really not trying to be greedy, my share goes straight to Argus*."

Tylette and Collin didn't seem to share the moral pin-pricking Frederick was under, one summoned creature later the containers were opened and the party found they were not dirt poor for once. At least, until Frederick could give his away that is.

Back to the waiting.

After many more hours Collin received a sending from Durchek. "Yeah, they can't get to you. Teleported and ended up outside a mountain. Still got the scroll ya need. What'cha want us ter do?"

"The whole mountain is 'anchored?" Collin wondered aloud. He was beginning to think Fate had it out for him and was taking it personal. It didn't occur to him that the Archon got out ok. He sighed and responded, "No. Thank you for your efforts. They are appreciated."

Collin relayed the message and began gathering his things.

"Well where are they then with the scroll?" Frederick asked. Collin just shrugged. "You mind if I do a sending to find out?" Another shrug from Collin. "Ok."

"Don't, I can handle it Frederick. Just a second, you guys figure a way out of here," Tylette dropped in as she sat down and began to go into a trance. She entered the Astral and decided to search for Durchek.

Fate apparently was toying with Tylette too.

Collin and Frederick decided the fastest way out, assuming the way was clear was to each Air Walk then use the Air Key to blow them along. Sort of a poor man's Wind Walk. Collin added invisibility to the plan and it was agreed upon. "Can't be to careful, we know that at least a few of those damn chickens survived.**"

Tylette finally came out of her trance and reported, "Durchek is Durcheck. Bored as ever and sitting in the common room of the Inn. Looks like it's up to us."

Leaving Zerin on his grassy bed, the party set out swiftly. Navigating the twisting warrens as fast as possible they actually found cornering to be their biggest problem as the Fire Elementals had been exceedingly thorough. That is until they reached the now granite plug they had placed in the hallway so close to the surface.

"Oops. Forgot about this..."



*Argus is the priest of a small congregation in Crescent Lake. He performed a favor for Frederick on good faith long ago on their first visit to town. Frederick is still trying to pay him back.

**Some of the undersized cockatrice have proven remarkably durable.

 

[Calim]

we game tomorrow...

and your only half done with the last session...