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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 2531490" data-attributes="member: 726">Sorry for the delay...busy life, basically.  Speaking of which, our daughter just passed her 6 month checkup with flying colors.  She's a chubby, happy amazon who loves pulling daddy's chest hair (Ow! Ow ow ow!) and smiling at pretty much everyone.Eridanis, I'm always glad to welcome a new reader!  (StevenAC has probably earned me many readers by providing such a great format.)  I think the Crosser's Maze is still my favorite extended adventure.  It's neck and neck, I think, with the Battle of Verdshane, which you may have already read by now.  And energy_One, you're absolutely right.  I have the best players ever.  I don't know how on earth I got so lucky, but I ain't complainin'!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Hey, while I'm here, have an update.  I found it in the offing.  Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 253The Rotunda“I think this qualifies as one of the worst thing that’s ever happened to us,” says Ernie, looking around the cavern at the dozens of dead bodies.   “You charged right at it!” says Yoba, admiration unmistakable in her voice.  “You were so brave, and you drove it away.”   She looks up at him more literally than usual, as he’s been enlarged for the combat.  “You’re larger than life,” she adds, grinning.Ernie blushes, and Dranko bites his tongue, but Yoba’s continued gushing is interrupted by a rumbling cry of terror.“GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!” Kibi’s earth elemental is still suspended at the top of Aravis’s reverse gravity.   It’s the only time the poor creature has ever been separated from the ground, and it’s not taking it well.  Kibi does the merciful thing and dismisses it.While Ernie casts a healing circle on the assembled heroes, Dranko can’t help but grin himself.  “Damn, we’re good!” he exclaims.  * *There follows a period of rejoicing and healing, and a great deal of discussion about whether they should go through the bright blue Way right now, or wait until the next day.  On the one hand, they’re pretty tapped from the fight, and who knows what further perils await on the other side?  On the other hand, any force that might oppose them will have an extra day to prepare defenses beyond the Way, and also there’s the lingering fear that the Cleaners might come back.   The first hand wins, in particular because while Morningstar is able to heal Grey Wolf, Sagiro and Snokas are still blibberingly insane, and she won’t be able to fix their poor brains until tomorrow.  “What do you think is on the other side of that Way?” asks Jack.“We think we’ll find the object that’s powering the Slices,” answers Dranko.  “That’s my guess.”“And if you do...whatever it is you came to do, what will happen?”“We’ll all go home,” says Kibi.“All the Slices should go back where they came from,” adds Aravis.“If you’re about to fix things,” says Ox, “I’d like to try to get back to my home Slice.  And someone ought to go back to Bakersfield and warn people of what might happen.”Kiro, Ox and Jack all decide they ought to get a head start now.  “I know how things work, and that there are spells that take people from plane to plane,” says Jack.  “When you get out of this, I’ll get someone to cast sending, and we’ll get together then and divvy up the stuff.”Kiro and Ox are likewise content with this sort of arrangement.  The three of them leave through the Way in, headed back to Bakersfield and perhaps beyond.  Only Yoba stays.“Would you mind if I went with you?” she asks Ernie.“Please!  But... what about your goblins?  Don’t you need to go back to your people?”“You can plane shift me back, right?” says Yoba.  “I want to see this through to the end.”“I’d like nothing better,” says Ernie, smiling at the thought.* *The Company spends the rest of the day looting corpses.    It’s gruesome work, picking through rotting remains searching for valuables and magic items, but Dranko and Flicker are more than up for the task, making up for their companions' flagging enthusiasm for the job.  The others help move the bodies to a far end of the cavern, since they intend to stay the night here.  (No one wants to risk coming back to find that the Cleaners have unexpectedly returned; if there’s any sign of encroaching tentacles, the plan is to leap through the Way and take their chances with whatever they find.)By the time the Company grows tired and ready for sleep, Dranko and Flicker have piled up several dozen items, a heap of potions, scrolls, rings, weapons, armor, wands, staves, and assorted wondrous items.  Flicker has also amassed a impressively varied coin collection which he guesses is worth in excess of three thousand gold pieces, and probably much more to a collector. Finally, before bed, they hold a short memorial service for the departed One Certain Step.   Dranko has collected Step’s ashes, to be returned to the Church of Kemma when they get the chance.   The Company is silent and exhausted, each reliving fond memories of Step’s time with them, and wondering if they really are but one Way removed from bringing Het Branoi to an overdue end.* *The next “day” finds the Company standing ready.  No Cleaners or other foul things have appeared during the watches, and all assembled are well energized by Morningstar’s heroes’ feast.  Prep spells have been cast, guesses have been made, prayers uttered, and Sagiro and Snokas have been healed back to sanity.  Now they are poised in front of a rippling, pulsing Way, their faces bathed in its garish blue glow.As one, they go through.  The transit time from this Slice to the next is shorter than normal, as if the structure of Het Branoi is eager to carry them.   A second later the Company emerges.Aravis, his keen intellect and senses augmented with greater arcane sight, takes in a breathtaking scene in just a handful of seconds.   He stands in a large round stone chamber, some eighty feet across and familiar on two accounts.  For one, the stone pattern on the walls is the blue-diamond slate that he has seen several times throughout their journey in Het Branoi.  For another, the floor is covered with black circles, lines, scrawled formulae and complex diagrams, in a manner immediately reminiscent of Mokad’s ritual room in Kallor.  The Rotunda, he thinks.He himself stands near one edge of the room, a bright blue Way at his back, and near the opposite edge stands the Pillar.  The Pillar is what immediately draws his attention.  It is a tall cylindrical column, stacked alternately with rings of obsidian and transparent crystal.  A black liquid moves about beneath the surface of the crystal sections, as if dark oil is trapped between two pressed sheets of glass and is oozing like a living Rorschach blot.  Each stacked ring is a foot tall, and there are half a dozen each of black stone and clear crystal, making the entire Pillar twelve feet high.  Shining out from the topmost clear section is a blazing blue light, as if from small azure star, and out from this light strands of energy are shooting in a constant barrage of arcing zigzags.    Some of these energy ropes smash into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room, but one halts in mid-air, as if it’s struck an invisible blockage..  A blue Way slides open at the end of that energy strand.  Aravis thinks he can see a world through the Way – a field, some nearby trees – and then the Way slides shut, vanishing as if into an invisible slot, just as did the Way that brought them into Hey Branoi in the first place.  He has witnessed the birth of a Slice.Aravis takes in all of this over the course of five seconds, during which time he is increasingly aware that some malign force is hammering on his psyche.   For from the Pillar a great Evil is emanating, an Evil the likes of which he has never before felt.  It is crushing in its intensity, a pure physical malice that would make the likes of Lord Tapheon seem petty by comparison.   He turns to Dranko who stands next to him, and the half-orc is shielding his eyes from it as if it’s a bright sun that burns.   Dranko has felt this before, and in a similar place.  In Mokad’s lair, there was a book that radiated Evil like this.   Dranko was knocked out just from its presence.  Aravis turns to the rest of the Company, but only Dranko and Sagiro (warded with a protection from evil spell before coming here) are standing.  The rest of the Company is sprawled on the stone floor, unconscious.  ...to be continued...</blockquote>

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