Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 129424" data-attributes="member: 726">Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 141c Aravis’s body is still out in the hallway, and his mind is still voyaging in the Crosser’s Maze.   He sees Grey Wolf represented by a bright patch of energy, suspended between the two massive planes that are practically overlapping.   For several rounds he has tried to find and manipulate the dark energy the Black Circle priests are using, to no avail.  He has also seen thousands of dots of light hovering between the planes – all of them planar travelers on the verge of crossing over at the completion of the ritual.  Strangely, only about two dozen are likely to come out in this particular vicinity.Realizing that he’s not doing any good outside, Aravis drops out of the Maze.  When his head clears a few seconds later, Grey Wolf comes flying down the stairs, streaking toward him.   Both of the wizards take a round to cast haste (Aravis via his boots of speed), and then enter the fray.  Both are able to shake off the effects of the mind fog right inside the door.Ernie sees that Kay won’t last much longer, and pulls out one of his more potent magic items: a heal scroll.  He starts to read it, but the power of the spell proves too much for his abilities, and he is unable to manifest its effect.  He utters a vicious oath:  "Gosh darn it all to heck!"Kay, realizing that Ernie’s attempt to heal her has failed, disengages from her foe, flying up and away toward the center of the room.   Morningstar shouts that she should fly towards her, so that she can cure her blindness.  Meanwhile, Flicker is finally flanking the enemy fighter (with Thriss providing the flanking opportunity).  He manages to hit with a damaging sneak attack, much of which penetrates the stoneskin.  The woman wheels to face the new half-sized threat, smiles contemptuously, and launches another dizzying series of attacks with her bastard sword.  Blood flies everywhere, and Flicker drops to the ground unconscious.  Ernie shouts in alarm.  "Flicker’s down!"  Step, shaking his head clear, runs forward toward the woman. Dranko readies his decanter, to spray it directly on whichever of the two enemy spell-casters tries to cast.  That turns out to be the halfling woman, who is knocked down by the blast of water.  But she is still able to stand back up and concentrate enough to cast another spell: a slow spell, aimed at Dranko.  The half-orc feels his muscles slowing down, and the world around him seems to speed up slightly.   But Dranko doesn’t stay slowed for long.  Morningstar blankets the area with a dispel magic, and while it fails to penetrate the enemies within the minor globe of invulnerability, it does get rid of the slow spell.Mokad casts another spell on himself, and his body shimmers.   Immediately after that, Kibi arrives, flying directly over the heads of Mokad and the enemy halfling.  He thinks he remembers reading about the minor globe spell,  and has some recollection that powerful spells can blow through its protective bubble.  He pulls a scroll of cone of cold out and reads it, hoping for a better outcome than Ernie's.  He finishes the spell, and a blast of frost covers his foes.  When it clears, both of them are covered with ice, though Mokad seems more annoyed than injured.  The halfling looks worse for the wear.  "Should have worn warmer clothes, too," Dranko suggests.  But Mokad is no longer looking at Dranko.  He is looking over Dranko’s shoulder, looking at Grey Wolf, who has just flown into the room.  Mokad’s brow furrows in worry.  Grey Wolf wastes no time; he casts lightning bolt at the fighter who has just felled Flicker.  The electricity strikes the woman, but much of it is drawn into the breastplate with the lightning bolt design on the front, and she takes little damage.  But there’s no time to worry about such things.  With his haste allowing him more movement, Grey Wolf flies over to the World Spheres and positions his body so that it touches both of the great globes.  There is a terrible jolt, and the ever-present churning in his guts becomes overwhelming.  He drops unconscious and falls to the ground, no longer touching either of the Spheres.  Edghar, to whom Grey Wolf has given orders to feed him the poison pellet as a last resort, also blacks out.  And now the edges of the Spheres are actually touching, and still moving toward perfect alignment.   Each of the Spheres has a black core, and these have not yet met, but their merging seems inevitable.  And well does the Company remember the words of prophecy that the Eyes of Moirel spoke to Grey Wolf through Skorg:  "Stand in shadow. Stand ‘twixt the shadows. When the sky is revealed and the arcs touch your frame, the window will open. Your flame must be extinguished before the cores converge on your soul."...to be continued...</blockquote>

Verification