Sagiro's Story Hour Returns (new thread started on 5/18/08)
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Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 163
>> note that for much of the following, Aravis’ player also ran Flicker.
The battle in Ava Dormo continues frenetically on its unconventional course. Morningstar quickly spreads the word for more of her Ellish sisters to start focusing their concentration on the ground beneath the ballista, and for others, if possible, to knock Octesian into the blade barrier. The sounds of the whirling blades clinking off the metal engine resound through the Dreamscape.
The battle becomes stranger. The earth beneath Octesian’s ballista is rippling like water, as Ellish forces try to disrupt the ground and enemy soldiers try to flatten it. Another bolt of green energy flies wide by a dozen yards.
Many Ellish soldiers have surrounded Octesian. Morningstar sees with horror that they are practically throwing themselves against him in the attempt to drive him back, and several of the ones in front are taking damage as they come in contact with the red armor. Octesian is a masterful swordsman in Dream, and his evil black sword is chopping through his enemies. Blood spatters the ground of Ava Dormo. June, Morningstar’s headstrong but devout and talented protégé, has struggled to the fore of the melee. She manages to land a damaging blow on Octesian’s shoulder. And then Morningstar, herself unable to reach the front line, watches helplessly as Octesian scythes his blade across in a perfect, vicious cut… and strikes the head clean from June’s shoulders.
Then, finally, the sheer number of Ellish warriors overpowers Octesian, and he is borne back into the blade barrier. Two more sisters are cut apart by blades, but these (as Morningstar thinks gratefully) will simply be expelled from Ava Dormo; the only thing here in the battle that is truly deadly is Octesian’s sword. A lump forms in Morningstar’s throat at the sight of June’s body.
Octesian is wounded, but manages to drop and roll mostly beneath the deadly plane of blades. He emerges from the killing zone some distance away from his attackers, and stands shakily, blood dripping from beneath the plates of his armor.
Then the metaphorical cavalry arrives. The rest of the Company has reached Aravis’s secure shelter, and Morningstar drops out of Dream just long enough to cast dream anchor, bringing in Ernie, Step, Grey Wolf and Flicker. Dranko and Kibi remain outside, to fly around and scout out the battlefield. Skorg looks at the new pile of entranced bodies sitting on bunks, glances at the battle-ready Portia and Attrius, and lets out a long sigh. He checks again that his healing potions are at the ready.
Ernie appears in Ava Dormo directly next to Octesian (fortunately not on the side with the blades), who is just finishing getting to his feet. The red-armored warrior looks appropriately surprised to see this new addition to the fight, and is surprised further when Ernie launches a furious attack upon Octesian’s knees, slashing Beryn Sur through the small gaps in his opponent’s armor.
“Hi there!” says Ernie happily. “Goodness calling!”
Flicker, still invisible, immediately flies over the blades to the ballista itself. He lands on the barrel, nearly deafened by the sounds of blades striking the metal below. Concentrating as best he can (not easy with the ground undulating beneath), he starts a close examination of the machine’s barrel. Fearless, he puts his face right up to the business end and peers in. Inside the dark interior of the barrel, dull green energies swirl, growing slowly brighter. Suddenly those energies flare up, and Flicker just jerks his head out of harm’s way as another bolt fires. He instinctively watches its flight, and grimaces as it clips the side of the distant stone tower. Gulping, he starts to fish an oil-flask and rag from his pack.
“I need help!” Octesian bellows. He lashes out at Ernie and his black blade shears through Ernie’s plate mail. Halfling blood spills upon the ground. A number of enemy soldiers leave off the mental battle for control of the ground beneath the ballista, and come to Octesian’s aid (as quickly as they can while skirting the blade barrier).
Step and Morningstar also converge. Grey Wolf, still with see invisibility up, spots a heretofore unnoticed humanoid figure flying high above the battle. He flies up a bit himself to get a better view, but decides pretty quickly to throw caution to the wind. He launches a fireball at the flyer. When the flames clear, the figure is still flying, wisps of smoke rising from his or her clothing.
Morningstar reaches Octesian and swings her Ell-blessed weapon, but is foiled by the red armor. Octesian sneers with contempt. Step’s charge is intercepted by a number of Octesian’s soldiers, who surround the paladin and land a number of telling blows. Step staggers back…
* *
Dranko and Kibi soar high above the battlefield; below them, the war rages on. In the Mud Zone, hundreds upon hundreds of enemy troops have survived the hail of arrows and broken into the forest to engage kingdom forces. Hundreds more have arrived near the Gate and are still slogging through mud, but the rain of arrows has grown noticeably sparser since the engagement began. And all through the forest itself, heard more than seen through the canopy, small battles are being fought in isolated pockets. There is no way of telling which side has the upper hand, but one thing is clear: if enemy soldiers keep arriving at the same steady rate, attrition will spell the death of the Charagan forces. At least the huge stone siege engine in the Mud Zone has not budged; stone arms hang lifelessly at its side, and Naradawk’s minions have given up trying to push it out of the mud.
From across the battlefield, toward the north-west corner of the Mud Zone, Dranko sees a sudden flash of flames high in the air.
“That was a flame strike!” he shouts to Kibi.
The two of them veer off at once to investigate…
* *
Aravis remains calm at the center of the storm.
He has brought the focus of the Crosser’s Maze to the very heart of the battle, and is sewing up the ragged tears in local space-time as a master tailor might mend a tattered tunic. But instead of thread, Aravis uses life-force. It is exceedingly delicate work. He is drawing life force from whomever he can – the Company, the officers, the soldiers in the field. There is an unexpected surge in the pressure beyond the tears, and he instinctively reaches out with his mind to patch a sudden hole. Before he can stop himself, he realizes that the soul he is using isn’t strong enough for the task, but it is too late. Just like that, a footman’s life somewhere out in the forest is snuffed out. Aravis is shocked and chilled in the realization of what he has just done, but he sets his mind back to the task. There will only be time enough to mourn if he succeeds in his task.
As Aravis sets his mind back to the business of shoring up space-time, he is startled to hear voices coming from alarmingly close by. He swivels the focus of the Maze around, fearing an attack. But no… there is nothing.
He hears the voices again, faintly. He cannot make out what they’re saying but he senses urgency. But where are they coming from? He takes precious seconds to comb the space-time around the planar gate.
A ha! There, not far away – a small opening into a tiny well-hidden demi-plane, facing directly toward the planar gate! Aravis moves his mind closer. It is a demi-plane no larger than a small house, and there are clearly many voices within, but he still cannot make out what they are saying. Could this be the launching point for Naradawk’s assault on the gate? For a few seconds Aravis toys with the idea of simply plastering over the opening with a wall of force. But at the last minute he decides to move just a tiny bit closer, hoping to overhear something that will confirm his suspicions. He moves his mind closer… closer…
* *
Flicker has managed to stuff a rag into an oil flask and set at alight. He holds it outstretched in one hand, and maintains a tight grip on the ballista barrel with the other. His body is contorted around so that he can still peer into the barrel, watching the swirly green glow, waiting, waiting.
It flares up. Flicker yanks his head away and jams the flask into the barrel just before it fires. There is a tremendous explosion and Flicker is nearly knocked off the barrel into the flashing blades. But the bolt still fires, albeit at a crazy trajectory. With a sigh, Flicker realizes that, although he thought he timed it perfectly, he used the oil just a split-second too soon. Of course, if he’s just a split-second too late, it could blow his arm off. But caution is not on Flicker’s list of virtues, and he immediately starts preparing another vial.
Grey Wolf watches as the figure above him drinks a potion and flies up even higher. He takes off after it, takes his best guess at distance, and launches another fireball. He’s pretty sure it hit, but the figure still doesn’t drop. It continues to flee.
Morningstar falls back from Octesian to heal Step, and gets a vicious attack of opportunity for her trouble. But here it becomes clear that Octesian’s ability to do real damage can be a liability as well, because just as Morningstar’s Dream self is damaged, so also is her real physical body. And since Skorg is standing by with healing potions, Morningstar’s Dream persona can be healed from “off stage” as it were. So even as Morningstar is healing Step, Skorg is healing Morningstar.
Ernie hacks again at Octesian’s legs, but all of his sword-blows are deflected by the red armor. Octesian ignores the halfling and steps again toward Step. He lands three devastating blows, and Step goes pale from pain and blood loss. Back in the secure shelter, Skorg sees three wide gashes open on Step’s body, and the floor runs red with the paladin’s blood.
“Oh my god!” Skorg exclaims. He is still dribbling the last of a healing potion into Morningstar’s mouth. “You two. I know you’ve got to watch Aravis, but no one’s coming in here in the next five seconds. Pour some of your potions into this guy, while I get the next ones ready.”
Attrius and Portia exchange a quick look, nod, and move forward to administer their healing potions to Step. As soon as the last drops have been swallowed, they move back to stand over Aravis…
* *
…who has finally moved close enough to hear what’s going on in the Demiplane. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realizes that what he’s “hearing” is actual telepathic communications between persons inside the pocket dimension:
“The fifth seal is breaking – Koenig, quickly! I need help here. Salk, you should have the softest sector for the next fifteen seconds – divert one third of your energy to the ninth seal. Ozilinsh, how are you holding up? Forty-one seconds before the next surge; Fylnius, I’ll need all of your help when that happens…”
Well, thank Pikon that he didn’t go ahead with that wall of force plan!
Aravis approaches the Demiplane from within the Crosser’s Maze and sticks his head in. Despite their desperate circumstance and critical task, the Archmagi have enough wherewithal not to startle. They are seated in simple wooden chairs set around a large and complex three-dimensional pattern in the air. The pattern is made of magical energy, and it pulses, streaks and blinks in places as Aravis watches.
“Hello Aravis,” says Ozilinsh calmly. “I hope that…oop, hold on.”
Ozilinsh concentrates for a moment and twitches his fingers.
“Alykeen, I’ll need to you evoke iron wards around my second quadrant in forty-nine seconds. That should hold the sixth through tenth seals for a good minute. Will you be ready?”
“Yes,” gasps another one of the Archmagi. Aravis sees that all of the assembled wizards are sweating.
“Good,” says Ozilinsh. “Now, Aravis, what can we do for you? Nothing too time-consuming, I hope!”
Aravis thinks for a second.
“I may need your life-force,” he says. “I’m going to blow open the Gate in a short while, and I’ll need all the life-energy I can get to remake space-time as quickly as possible. But I don’t want to do anything that will distract you…”
The Archmagi, listening as they continue their rituals, glance at each other. Some communication passes among them that Aravis, even tied into the Maze, cannot hear.
“Aravis,” says Ozilinsh softly. “When the time comes, do as you must. Our power is at your disposal. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we still need to keep up our end until you’re ready.”
“Fylnius!” shouts Alykeen. “We’re getting another surge. I need you to…”
Aravis backs out of the Demiplane and returns to his task: to prepare the universe for his great plan, wherein he will destroy a small piece of it, and build a new section in its stead. Gently he teases more life energy from his allies in Verdshane. Not long now. Not long.
* *
Back in Verdshane, a very light drizzle begins to fall from the clouded sky, reducing visibility. Dranko and Kibi fly lower, the better to spot things (where possible) between the trees. They continue to fly in the direction from where Dranko saw the flame strike. Kibi spots another spell effect in the distance; he guesses that this one was a cone of cold! And… is that black speck a human figure flying high above the trees? It’s still some hundreds of feet away. Kibi and Dranko continue to fly.
Greywolf continues his pursuit of his flying target, and launches a third fireball. For a moment he’s not sure if it struck, but he is rewarded a second later as a crispy body comes plummeting straight out of the sky above. It rockets past him, bounces off the back of the ballista, falls into the blades, and is quickly chopped to bits.
Flicker waits. He thinks he has timed everything just right. The rag should burn down just at the moment the ballista should next fire. All he has to do is anticipate. He holds his breath, peering into the barrel.
Wait for it…
Wait for it…
Now!
He crams the vial into the barrel just as it fires. The explosion is much bigger than last time, and it blasts Flicker off sideways almost thirty feet before he remembers that he can still fly.. A great cloud of crackling green smoke hangs around the ballista for a few seconds, and when it clears, it reveals that the barrel is kinked near the end at a near-90-degree angle. It’s bent almost straight upward!
Morningstar, standing defiantly before Octesian, chuckles with satisfaction.
“It doesn’t seem like you had much time with that thing,” she says with a smile.
Octesian answers defiantly. “Perhaps not. And I wanted to do it myself,” he says, “But I think you’ll find we distracted your precious Semek long enough. In a few days, when I need a good slave for my retinue, I’ll be sure to look you up. Things can’t be going well for your side back in the waking world. See you soon.”
And with that, Octesian vanishes.
Morningstar starts to curse under her breath, but stops as she feels a thrill running through her body. As if from far away she hears a soothing sound of waves breaking on a distant shore, and the faint sounds of gulls crying in salt air. It comes to her heart that her debt for Mrs. Horn’s life, made so long ago, has been repaid at last.
But on the heels of this blessed relief comes another message, this one a warning. The voice is that of her Ellish avatar.
“You are not finished here,” it admonishes. “You have done well, but there will be more battles fought in the Dreamscape before the end. And Octesian will not forget you.”
…to be continued…
>> note that for much of the following, Aravis’ player also ran Flicker.
The battle in Ava Dormo continues frenetically on its unconventional course. Morningstar quickly spreads the word for more of her Ellish sisters to start focusing their concentration on the ground beneath the ballista, and for others, if possible, to knock Octesian into the blade barrier. The sounds of the whirling blades clinking off the metal engine resound through the Dreamscape.
The battle becomes stranger. The earth beneath Octesian’s ballista is rippling like water, as Ellish forces try to disrupt the ground and enemy soldiers try to flatten it. Another bolt of green energy flies wide by a dozen yards.
Many Ellish soldiers have surrounded Octesian. Morningstar sees with horror that they are practically throwing themselves against him in the attempt to drive him back, and several of the ones in front are taking damage as they come in contact with the red armor. Octesian is a masterful swordsman in Dream, and his evil black sword is chopping through his enemies. Blood spatters the ground of Ava Dormo. June, Morningstar’s headstrong but devout and talented protégé, has struggled to the fore of the melee. She manages to land a damaging blow on Octesian’s shoulder. And then Morningstar, herself unable to reach the front line, watches helplessly as Octesian scythes his blade across in a perfect, vicious cut… and strikes the head clean from June’s shoulders.
Then, finally, the sheer number of Ellish warriors overpowers Octesian, and he is borne back into the blade barrier. Two more sisters are cut apart by blades, but these (as Morningstar thinks gratefully) will simply be expelled from Ava Dormo; the only thing here in the battle that is truly deadly is Octesian’s sword. A lump forms in Morningstar’s throat at the sight of June’s body.
Octesian is wounded, but manages to drop and roll mostly beneath the deadly plane of blades. He emerges from the killing zone some distance away from his attackers, and stands shakily, blood dripping from beneath the plates of his armor.
Then the metaphorical cavalry arrives. The rest of the Company has reached Aravis’s secure shelter, and Morningstar drops out of Dream just long enough to cast dream anchor, bringing in Ernie, Step, Grey Wolf and Flicker. Dranko and Kibi remain outside, to fly around and scout out the battlefield. Skorg looks at the new pile of entranced bodies sitting on bunks, glances at the battle-ready Portia and Attrius, and lets out a long sigh. He checks again that his healing potions are at the ready.
Ernie appears in Ava Dormo directly next to Octesian (fortunately not on the side with the blades), who is just finishing getting to his feet. The red-armored warrior looks appropriately surprised to see this new addition to the fight, and is surprised further when Ernie launches a furious attack upon Octesian’s knees, slashing Beryn Sur through the small gaps in his opponent’s armor.
“Hi there!” says Ernie happily. “Goodness calling!”
Flicker, still invisible, immediately flies over the blades to the ballista itself. He lands on the barrel, nearly deafened by the sounds of blades striking the metal below. Concentrating as best he can (not easy with the ground undulating beneath), he starts a close examination of the machine’s barrel. Fearless, he puts his face right up to the business end and peers in. Inside the dark interior of the barrel, dull green energies swirl, growing slowly brighter. Suddenly those energies flare up, and Flicker just jerks his head out of harm’s way as another bolt fires. He instinctively watches its flight, and grimaces as it clips the side of the distant stone tower. Gulping, he starts to fish an oil-flask and rag from his pack.
“I need help!” Octesian bellows. He lashes out at Ernie and his black blade shears through Ernie’s plate mail. Halfling blood spills upon the ground. A number of enemy soldiers leave off the mental battle for control of the ground beneath the ballista, and come to Octesian’s aid (as quickly as they can while skirting the blade barrier).
Step and Morningstar also converge. Grey Wolf, still with see invisibility up, spots a heretofore unnoticed humanoid figure flying high above the battle. He flies up a bit himself to get a better view, but decides pretty quickly to throw caution to the wind. He launches a fireball at the flyer. When the flames clear, the figure is still flying, wisps of smoke rising from his or her clothing.
Morningstar reaches Octesian and swings her Ell-blessed weapon, but is foiled by the red armor. Octesian sneers with contempt. Step’s charge is intercepted by a number of Octesian’s soldiers, who surround the paladin and land a number of telling blows. Step staggers back…
* *
Dranko and Kibi soar high above the battlefield; below them, the war rages on. In the Mud Zone, hundreds upon hundreds of enemy troops have survived the hail of arrows and broken into the forest to engage kingdom forces. Hundreds more have arrived near the Gate and are still slogging through mud, but the rain of arrows has grown noticeably sparser since the engagement began. And all through the forest itself, heard more than seen through the canopy, small battles are being fought in isolated pockets. There is no way of telling which side has the upper hand, but one thing is clear: if enemy soldiers keep arriving at the same steady rate, attrition will spell the death of the Charagan forces. At least the huge stone siege engine in the Mud Zone has not budged; stone arms hang lifelessly at its side, and Naradawk’s minions have given up trying to push it out of the mud.
From across the battlefield, toward the north-west corner of the Mud Zone, Dranko sees a sudden flash of flames high in the air.
“That was a flame strike!” he shouts to Kibi.
The two of them veer off at once to investigate…
* *
Aravis remains calm at the center of the storm.
He has brought the focus of the Crosser’s Maze to the very heart of the battle, and is sewing up the ragged tears in local space-time as a master tailor might mend a tattered tunic. But instead of thread, Aravis uses life-force. It is exceedingly delicate work. He is drawing life force from whomever he can – the Company, the officers, the soldiers in the field. There is an unexpected surge in the pressure beyond the tears, and he instinctively reaches out with his mind to patch a sudden hole. Before he can stop himself, he realizes that the soul he is using isn’t strong enough for the task, but it is too late. Just like that, a footman’s life somewhere out in the forest is snuffed out. Aravis is shocked and chilled in the realization of what he has just done, but he sets his mind back to the task. There will only be time enough to mourn if he succeeds in his task.
As Aravis sets his mind back to the business of shoring up space-time, he is startled to hear voices coming from alarmingly close by. He swivels the focus of the Maze around, fearing an attack. But no… there is nothing.
He hears the voices again, faintly. He cannot make out what they’re saying but he senses urgency. But where are they coming from? He takes precious seconds to comb the space-time around the planar gate.
A ha! There, not far away – a small opening into a tiny well-hidden demi-plane, facing directly toward the planar gate! Aravis moves his mind closer. It is a demi-plane no larger than a small house, and there are clearly many voices within, but he still cannot make out what they are saying. Could this be the launching point for Naradawk’s assault on the gate? For a few seconds Aravis toys with the idea of simply plastering over the opening with a wall of force. But at the last minute he decides to move just a tiny bit closer, hoping to overhear something that will confirm his suspicions. He moves his mind closer… closer…
* *
Flicker has managed to stuff a rag into an oil flask and set at alight. He holds it outstretched in one hand, and maintains a tight grip on the ballista barrel with the other. His body is contorted around so that he can still peer into the barrel, watching the swirly green glow, waiting, waiting.
It flares up. Flicker yanks his head away and jams the flask into the barrel just before it fires. There is a tremendous explosion and Flicker is nearly knocked off the barrel into the flashing blades. But the bolt still fires, albeit at a crazy trajectory. With a sigh, Flicker realizes that, although he thought he timed it perfectly, he used the oil just a split-second too soon. Of course, if he’s just a split-second too late, it could blow his arm off. But caution is not on Flicker’s list of virtues, and he immediately starts preparing another vial.
Grey Wolf watches as the figure above him drinks a potion and flies up even higher. He takes off after it, takes his best guess at distance, and launches another fireball. He’s pretty sure it hit, but the figure still doesn’t drop. It continues to flee.
Morningstar falls back from Octesian to heal Step, and gets a vicious attack of opportunity for her trouble. But here it becomes clear that Octesian’s ability to do real damage can be a liability as well, because just as Morningstar’s Dream self is damaged, so also is her real physical body. And since Skorg is standing by with healing potions, Morningstar’s Dream persona can be healed from “off stage” as it were. So even as Morningstar is healing Step, Skorg is healing Morningstar.
Ernie hacks again at Octesian’s legs, but all of his sword-blows are deflected by the red armor. Octesian ignores the halfling and steps again toward Step. He lands three devastating blows, and Step goes pale from pain and blood loss. Back in the secure shelter, Skorg sees three wide gashes open on Step’s body, and the floor runs red with the paladin’s blood.
“Oh my god!” Skorg exclaims. He is still dribbling the last of a healing potion into Morningstar’s mouth. “You two. I know you’ve got to watch Aravis, but no one’s coming in here in the next five seconds. Pour some of your potions into this guy, while I get the next ones ready.”
Attrius and Portia exchange a quick look, nod, and move forward to administer their healing potions to Step. As soon as the last drops have been swallowed, they move back to stand over Aravis…
* *
…who has finally moved close enough to hear what’s going on in the Demiplane. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realizes that what he’s “hearing” is actual telepathic communications between persons inside the pocket dimension:
“The fifth seal is breaking – Koenig, quickly! I need help here. Salk, you should have the softest sector for the next fifteen seconds – divert one third of your energy to the ninth seal. Ozilinsh, how are you holding up? Forty-one seconds before the next surge; Fylnius, I’ll need all of your help when that happens…”
Well, thank Pikon that he didn’t go ahead with that wall of force plan!
Aravis approaches the Demiplane from within the Crosser’s Maze and sticks his head in. Despite their desperate circumstance and critical task, the Archmagi have enough wherewithal not to startle. They are seated in simple wooden chairs set around a large and complex three-dimensional pattern in the air. The pattern is made of magical energy, and it pulses, streaks and blinks in places as Aravis watches.
“Hello Aravis,” says Ozilinsh calmly. “I hope that…oop, hold on.”
Ozilinsh concentrates for a moment and twitches his fingers.
“Alykeen, I’ll need to you evoke iron wards around my second quadrant in forty-nine seconds. That should hold the sixth through tenth seals for a good minute. Will you be ready?”
“Yes,” gasps another one of the Archmagi. Aravis sees that all of the assembled wizards are sweating.
“Good,” says Ozilinsh. “Now, Aravis, what can we do for you? Nothing too time-consuming, I hope!”
Aravis thinks for a second.
“I may need your life-force,” he says. “I’m going to blow open the Gate in a short while, and I’ll need all the life-energy I can get to remake space-time as quickly as possible. But I don’t want to do anything that will distract you…”
The Archmagi, listening as they continue their rituals, glance at each other. Some communication passes among them that Aravis, even tied into the Maze, cannot hear.
“Aravis,” says Ozilinsh softly. “When the time comes, do as you must. Our power is at your disposal. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we still need to keep up our end until you’re ready.”
“Fylnius!” shouts Alykeen. “We’re getting another surge. I need you to…”
Aravis backs out of the Demiplane and returns to his task: to prepare the universe for his great plan, wherein he will destroy a small piece of it, and build a new section in its stead. Gently he teases more life energy from his allies in Verdshane. Not long now. Not long.
* *
Back in Verdshane, a very light drizzle begins to fall from the clouded sky, reducing visibility. Dranko and Kibi fly lower, the better to spot things (where possible) between the trees. They continue to fly in the direction from where Dranko saw the flame strike. Kibi spots another spell effect in the distance; he guesses that this one was a cone of cold! And… is that black speck a human figure flying high above the trees? It’s still some hundreds of feet away. Kibi and Dranko continue to fly.
Greywolf continues his pursuit of his flying target, and launches a third fireball. For a moment he’s not sure if it struck, but he is rewarded a second later as a crispy body comes plummeting straight out of the sky above. It rockets past him, bounces off the back of the ballista, falls into the blades, and is quickly chopped to bits.
Flicker waits. He thinks he has timed everything just right. The rag should burn down just at the moment the ballista should next fire. All he has to do is anticipate. He holds his breath, peering into the barrel.
Wait for it…
Wait for it…
Now!
He crams the vial into the barrel just as it fires. The explosion is much bigger than last time, and it blasts Flicker off sideways almost thirty feet before he remembers that he can still fly.. A great cloud of crackling green smoke hangs around the ballista for a few seconds, and when it clears, it reveals that the barrel is kinked near the end at a near-90-degree angle. It’s bent almost straight upward!
Morningstar, standing defiantly before Octesian, chuckles with satisfaction.
“It doesn’t seem like you had much time with that thing,” she says with a smile.
Octesian answers defiantly. “Perhaps not. And I wanted to do it myself,” he says, “But I think you’ll find we distracted your precious Semek long enough. In a few days, when I need a good slave for my retinue, I’ll be sure to look you up. Things can’t be going well for your side back in the waking world. See you soon.”
And with that, Octesian vanishes.
Morningstar starts to curse under her breath, but stops as she feels a thrill running through her body. As if from far away she hears a soothing sound of waves breaking on a distant shore, and the faint sounds of gulls crying in salt air. It comes to her heart that her debt for Mrs. Horn’s life, made so long ago, has been repaid at last.
But on the heels of this blessed relief comes another message, this one a warning. The voice is that of her Ellish avatar.
“You are not finished here,” it admonishes. “You have done well, but there will be more battles fought in the Dreamscape before the end. And Octesian will not forget you.”
…to be continued…
thatdarncat
Overlord of Chat
Ok, I have to be up in about 6 hours... but this made staying up late worth it!
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Way to go Flicker! "Disable Device" was never more appropriate!
And c'mon Step my man! Hold your end up!
Thanks for the update Sagiro. Of course, I know we are still several weeks behind real-time...
Cheers
And c'mon Step my man! Hold your end up!
Thanks for the update Sagiro. Of course, I know we are still several weeks behind real-time...
Cheers
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
When Flicker (being played by Aravis' player) said "I'm going to try to disable device on the apparatus!", Sagiro gave us one of those looks. You know, the look that says that a certain plan is ludicrous and almost certainly can't succeed, but he's a good DM so he'll let us try. And in fact, the DC for what Flicker did was extremely difficult; I think it was DC 40. "How can you disable something with no moving parts?" Sagiro must have thought.
And then Flicker rolled a 19 followed by a natural 20 on two different disable device checks. DC 39 followed by DC 40.
Sometimes, luck is on OUR side.
At this point, the only time we had ever heard the name of Semek before is the Mirrors of Semek, where Flashing Day takes place. From run 12:
From Run 13:
And then Flicker rolled a 19 followed by a natural 20 on two different disable device checks. DC 39 followed by DC 40.
Sometimes, luck is on OUR side.
At this point, the only time we had ever heard the name of Semek before is the Mirrors of Semek, where Flashing Day takes place. From run 12:
From Run 13:
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Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Sagiro wins Seussian contest! Whoo hoo!
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Congrats Sagiro!
Hey, I want one of those!
Hey, I want one of those!
Tor Bladebearer
First Post
Wow, things are getting quite intense! It's exciting to see the culmination of a lot of these plot threads after sooo long.
But that visit to the Archmagi really scares me... I have sudden visions of Aravis accidentally snuffing out the Archmagi in one mis-step with the Maze...
Eagerly awaiting the next update...
But that visit to the Archmagi really scares me... I have sudden visions of Aravis accidentally snuffing out the Archmagi in one mis-step with the Maze...
Eagerly awaiting the next update...
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