Planescape - Divided We Stand • Chapter 1: The Drawing of the Five

[Antithetist]

"I acknowledge you as master because you have so commanded it, master," came the weary reply, slowly woven in among Khalil's thoughts. Then, with a glimmering, hopeful thread, it asked, "Would you have it otherwise, master? Would you release me from my service, maser?"

"I think that would be unwise at this point," Khalil replies measuredly, moving away from the globe for the timebeing to survey the others' work on the room's repairs, and nods his approval. "Excellent," he says. "It seems we have some time to investigate."

He moves back to the other room, where Etrigan is examining the other globe. "It speaks to you?" he asks. "Its counterpart in the other room calls me its master, though it seems weary of serving."

 

[Shayuri]

Etrigan looks up...or rather down, as he's standing upside down...and snorts. "Speaks to me? Hah! It speaks to some mage, probably long dead by now, who captured and bound it to service. I'm many things, but not that."

He glanced around, noting the other sphere. "This mage must be using living minds to stabilize the chaos of Limbo and create this structure. Nothing else would work. It's actually rather brilliant...if appallingly unethical."

"What I'm still not sure of is what mechanism drew us here. This place is in long disrepair. It doesn't seem as if the mage brought us. Maybe some magical device that malfunctioned, or that we somehow accidentally triggered..."

Then he brightened and addressed the brain in the tank.

"You there. What do you know of any...planar portals or summoning devices that might be found in this place? In fact, what IS this place, exactly?"

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Vorrin nods curtly at nobody in particular, and marches smartly into the newly-repaired room to take a peek around the corner. As he goes, he glances briefly at the paintings on the walls.

The walls were covered in peeling ivory paint, a testament to the hall's former glory. Paintings and plaques leaned up against the walls and lay scattered on the ground, most slashed and hanging in tatters. One painting remained intact: it depicted a finely dressed man, seated on a throne before a small mountain of gold coins, jewels, and other treasures.

Then he brightened and addressed the brain in the tank.

"You there. What do you know of any...planar portals or summoning devices that might be found in this place? In fact, what IS this place, exactly?"

"It's dark to me, you Heartless half-head," the brain replied in languid, surly strokes. "You brought nine of us together, and after Caradoc finished thinking up the central room, I haven't had any contact with the other eight. Just me and this room, for I don't know how long."

"You come and go often enough, though, I imagine one of us thought up an exit for you. I hope it sends you to the deepest, flaming pit in the Abyss."

 

[Voda Vosa]

Feleghost moves in as well. He searches for anything out of the ordinary, or even, hidden threats. Traps perhaps? Whichever threat might hunt him dow.. Ops! Feleghost tripped over a lose tile and curses in dwarven.

Spot: 18
Listen: 21
Search: 13
MS: 9 Rolls

 

[Baronsquee]

Vorrin casts his eye quickly round the room, before strolling over to the intact painting to take a closer look.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Investigating the door at the end of the hall, Feleghost heard strange gurgling sounds from the other side. He couldn't quite make it out, but it sounded something like two voices, saying something like:

"BLARGGHRROAWEIGLLARGGLLL..."
"BLEH! PFLEH! BLECH BLEH!"
"ARGLE? ARGGRRHOORWAAGLARGLFLRG..."
"FLECH! PEH GLEHECH BLECH!"

Meanwhile, Vorrin examined the intact painting further. The man in the painting appeared stern, experienced, and humorless, with a well-groomed white beard and a heavy purse. In the corner of the painting was an odd symbol, which Vorrin didn't recognize.

[sblock=Images]

A Bearded Man

An odd symbol
​

At the moment, no one in the group has the necessary knowledge to identify these.[/sblock]

 

[ethandrew]

Pinder stayed in the first corner of the room. Every had seemed to acclimated to their sudden appearance in this strange place rather quickly. But Pinder, for all his education, was surely flumoxed. Sessay seemed content to sit quickly next to the chimp, his breath warm and quite odiferous.

Though quite glad to be out of the situation he found himself in moments before arriving in this place, he couldn't shake the suffocating atmosphere, the pervasive perversions permeating the decayed furniture, disarrayed wall hangings, and eery sounds and globes. None of this held a candle to the company he found himself in, intelligent beasts capable of speech and reason, the likes of which he'd never seen.

Either the young druid was dreaming, dead, or he was very far from home indeed.

 

[Baronsquee]

While he inspects the painting, Vorrin mutters a few words of conversation to his new companions.

"Etrigan and I were drawn here from Sigil. How about you, human? And the monkey and dog - from the Beastlands, I assume?"

 

[Voda Vosa]

Interrupting, the dwarf says. "I hear somethin'... someone sayin' somethin' from di other side of di door. Dey say somethin' like dis:

"BLARGGHRROAWEIGLLARGGLLL..."
"BLEH! PFLEH! BLECH BLEH!"
"ARGLE? ARGGRRHOORWAAGLARGLFLRG..."
"FLECH! PEH GLEHECH BLECH!"

 

[Shayuri]

"You poor bastard," Etrigan murmurs as the reality sets in. Doomed to live out their years as disembodied brains, with only the most primitive access to the outside world and geased to constantly imagine the same room until they died.

All so some mage could have a summer house in Limbo.

He re-oriented his personal gravity again, rotating it so he could cross the wall to the floor...then again so he could join these people he'd been flung together with.

Once back on the same gravity plane as everyone else, he clapped his hands as he walked over to the others.

"All right, I think we've dilly-dallyed long enough. Time to start opening doors and looking around, because from what I've gathered from the brain up there, we do not want to be here when the owner returns."