shilsen
Adventurer
Six grunts angrily, looking down at his superstructure, where mangled metal mingles with scorched wood and leaking alchemical fluid, “Too close! That attack was far too reckless and foolish. If we’d done it smart, we should have walked away without a scratch – or at least a lot fewer scratches. Mordain’s work may have helped us survive many things we shouldn’t have, but we can’t just count on it. Especially once we’re in the Mournland, where you four can’t heal during a fight. We’ve got to be smarter!”
Nameless, feeling the smart of his own wounds, says, “Fine. When we’re in the Mournland and get in a fight you can pick the strategy and we’ll all listen to you. Now let’s get inside.”
The Angels revive Korm and Gareth, Mordain’s modifications having kept both alive, with the paladin’s necklace of adaptation having prevented him from drowning in the interim. Having done so, they examine the room thoroughly. One hundred and sixty feet long and broad, it is crisscrossed by the channels which the nagas swam through, and is absolutely bare otherwise, except for the same cyclopean and ophidian carvings on the walls as on the outside. A simple lever controls the opening and closing of the stone door, and Six discovers that there is a particular carving outside, manipulating which does the same. A set of stairs lead up to the level above, and Six soon discovers a hidden trapdoor leading to stairs leading below. With Nameless confirming that the manifest zone is below them, the Angels descend cautiously.
The bottom level – one hundred and eighty feet long and broad – is almost bare too, except for a simple stone structure like a cactus, with multiple arms, and two streams running down from the top level, which flow to form an X shape through the center of the room. There is a shimmer in the air over the central one hundred and twenty feet of the chamber, extending to a height of about twenty feet, which resembles a heat haze. “And that,” says Nameless, “Would be the manifest zone.”
The Angels descend and walk up to the shimmer, studying it carefully. “Do you think it’s safe?” asks Gareth.
“Probably,” says Nameless, “But in view of the sort of powerful effects it has had in the area, and the unanswered question of what the existence of the seed may be doing to it, we should exercise cauti…”
At which point Luna sticks her muzzle in it, though perhaps with some hesitation, since she seems to slow down considerably as soon as her nose enters it.
Nameless sighs. “Or we could let Luna shove her head in it. What does it feel like, Luna?”
Luna replies, “I…t f…e…e…l…s k…i…n…d…,” her lips moving extremely slowly.
“Why are you talking like that?” asks Korm.
Luna pulls out, again slowly, and then shakes her head. “I wasn’t. I was talking normally, but it came out like that. And it feels almost solid, since when I moved my head in and out, I felt strong resistance. Like moving through one of your solid fog spells, Nameless. Oh, and I felt smarter somehow.”
Nameless looks thoughtful. “I think I know what it is. Time on Xoriat is different to time in our world, moving at one-tenth our speed, so a minute here is six seconds there. The zone must be manifesting similar time. And that’s very unusual. That would be a likely manifestation of the seed being present in our world. As for the smarter angle, I’m not sure what you mean or what that could be.”
“One way to find out,” says Luna, before stepping bodily into the manifest zone. Of course, due to the fact that whatever part of her enters slows down considerably, the process takes longer than it should, and involves the others having the unenviable sight of Luna’s hindquarters jiggling and flattening themselves as they move forward substantially faster than the preceding parts of her body.
Once inside, Luna walks back and forth for a little bit, seeming to do so in slow motion to her companions, before a broad ursine grin slowly spreads across her face. She returns to the edge and exits. “It makes me a better spellcaster. I’m sure of it. If I stayed in here and prepared spells I could cast an earthquake. And that would be awesome!”
“What?”
After some experimentation and all having entered the manifest zone, the Angels confirm that Luna is correct. Being inside the zone does boost their powers somewhat, leading to improved spellcasting ability, access to more power spells, and other such abilities. The downside, unfortunately, is that one immediately loses the increased abilities on leaving the zone*. And since time does flow much more slowly inside the zone, at a rate of about one-fifth the passage of time outside, resting and preparing spells in there would mean days of time passing in the world beyond.
“One thing’s for sure,” says Nameless, once they have finished experimenting with the area, “These are very unusual results. I’m growing increasingly certain that it’s due to the seed.”
“Yeah, yeah,” grumbles Luna. “I want my earthquake spell. Why can’t I have it outside the area? That’s not fair!”
“It’s a manifest zone, Luna. It just is what it is. Fair isn’t a factor. I’m fairly certain that spending significant amounts of time inside leads to an increase in one’s powers, which probably explains why those damn nagas and athachs were that tough.”
“Power is useful,” says Gareth, “But will this place warp us like what we have seen of Gurr’khan? If so, where is the safety point?”
The alienist shrugs, “If you spend sufficient time here, especially within the manifest zone – yes, it probably will. As far as how far is safe – who knows?”
“I am not keen on increasing my abilities at the cost of my humanity.” He grins at Nameless, “That is what we have you for. I do not think we should stay here a moment more than absolutely necessary for us to do any research we need. The ill effects that this place causes are not worth the temporary benefits. If need be, let us rest and prepare spells at home and teleport here to cast any necessary spells.”
“Actually, I’m quite beginning to like this place,” says Nameless. “It has all sorts of magical defenses, even against ethereal and astral movement apparently, and that can only benefit us. And we could use another house, remember?”
“Yeah!” Luna growls, deeply and menacingly, “That reminds me, I need to go back to Sharn and rip out…”
“Maybe we should go check the rest of the place,” says Korm hurriedly, gesturing at Nameless from behind Luna.
“But I…,” begins Luna, before Korm quickly adds, “And there might be treasure and gems and other shiny things.” Then, as Luna turns and rushes for the stairs, he nods and follows her.
When the Angels return to the level above, the first thing they notice is the lack of blood. There is not a trace of blood on floor, walls or ceiling, though very copious quantities of it was spilt and had been everywhere only minutes ago. Every bit of blood from the nagas, the athachs, and even Gareth where he fell, is gone. Even the quantity spilt outside by Korm, Luna and Nameless is gone.
“Did someone come in here and remove it?” asks Gareth, sword in hand.
“No,” says Six, pointing at the corpses which still remain. “It’s the blood that was spilled on any part of this place. See, there’s still blood on the corpses.” He picks up a naga’s corpse and turns it over. “See, the blood on it that touched the stone is gone.”
“Hmm – that’s not the kind of self-cleaning I like,” says Luna, frowning at the walls around her, before shrugging. “Now let’s go up and find some treasure!”
The Angels proceed up the stairs and, over the course of the next half an hour, discover that there are two levels above. The third level is divided into many large rooms, some apparently used by the nagas and the athachs, but most of them empty and bare. The uppermost level is divided by partitions into a maze, but there is no indication of its purpose either. “This is weird,” says Korm. “Almost no possessions, no indication of what they did here. It’s almost as if they were just sitting here and waiting for something.”
“Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing right now,” says Nameless. “Tomorrow I’ll attempt a legend lore on this place. But for now, let’s go check on the dolgaunts and dolgrims.” He smiles grimly. “We need to let them know the ziggurat is under new management.”
The town, however, turns out to be completely deserted now, except for the twenty or so dolgrim corpses that show where the cloudkill passed. Or deserted of dolgrims and dolgaunts, to be precise. The giant fungi growing all over the place, and the other organic components to the structures, are still present. The Angels discover all sorts of unusual fungus here, some of it ambulatory, some of it a weird amalgam of plant and animal parts, and a couple of species which seem predatory. It is unclear exactly how the giant creature that formed and attacked Luna relates to the others, but the gigantic patch it came out of is already growing back slowly, though it will probably take weeks to reach the thickness it originally had. Luna ensures that will take more time by the simple expedient of setting a large section of it on fire.
“You know,” Nameless wonders aloud, “Maybe it would be a good idea to transplant some of the larger fungi to other parts of the world, since that would give the more powerful druids access to this place with a transport via plants.”
Gareth looks at the alienist as if he’s gone insane. “May I just point out that these plants are,” he begins to count off on his fingers, “1 – grown by aberrations, 2 – warped by a manifest zone, and 3 – just icky. You really want to put them in the world outside?”
Korm says, “I’ve got to agree with Gareth. These fungi are seriously wrong. And take that from someone who ate parts of two different aberrations today.”
“Fine, fine,” says Nameless. “Let’s check those pillars out.”
Now that he is in range Nameless confirms that they are heavily magical. Experimentation reveals that they detect and react to certain things in the area. Three of the primary things they detect are anything flying more than fifty feet off the ground, anything invisible, and anything with strong magical auras on it. In each case, they react with a bright purple flash and target the triggering creature or creatures with a dispel magic from each pillar. This ability evidently resets after ten minutes. Curious to see if the effect is triggered by spellcasting, Luna casts a spell in their vicinity, but the pillars do not respond.
After having examined the fungi and the pillars, the Angels return to the ziggurat. As they walk back up to the door, Korm points at the crack he put in it. “Is it just me, or is that crack smaller than it was?”
Six looks at the crack, now only about half its original size. “No, it’s not just you.” The warforged turns to Gareth. “Why don’t you try to detect evil and thoughts in this area and on the ziggurat?”
Gareth hesitates and then nods, “All right.” He concentrates and his eyes glow with silver light. Instantly, to his complete lack of surprise, he detects a strong evil aura on the ziggurat. Gareth turns slowly, scanning the area around him. The aura of evil permeates the area, but its strength diminishes slightly as he looks away from the towering structure before him. “Let me try something,” Gareth says, walking away from the ziggurat, continuing to detect for evil. As the distance increases, so does the power of the aura diminish, till it is only of moderate strength when he reaches the stream.
The paladin walks back to the others and explains what he discovered. “And now for the next one.” When he attempts to detect thoughts, he detects no presence of thought in the ziggurat. At least for a couple of seconds, before he has the mental equivalent of standing on the beach in the surf up to one’s knees, and having a giant breaker appear and roll over one in a single second. All that Gareth is certain of is that there is a hugely powerful and alien consciousness inside the ziggurat. He also has the impression that it is both quiescent and completely unaware of his presence. He cannot ascertain anything else, since the contact snaps off instantly, but he has no reason to complain about it. If there is one thing Gareth is quite certain about from the instant of contact, it is that a longer duration would probably have rendered him completely insane.
As it is, Nameless now knows what he looks like after contacting Cyäegha, since Gareth lands flat on his back, blood leaking out of nose and ears. And feeling as if his brain were about to run out through those orifices too**.
Nameless looks at him with mock-solicitousness, “So, was it purple for you too, Gareth?”
Gareth, trying to stand up, ignores him, muttering indistinctly, “Let’s not do that again.”
As Korm moves to help him, Luna says brightly, “Let’s make him sit in the manifest zone.” Gareth shouts, “NO!” and then grabs his aching head. “I don’t feel that good.” He describes what it was he just experienced.
Interesting. Hoping that Gareth doesn’t bring up the fact that he was the one who made the suggestion to detect thoughts, Six quickly says, “Maybe it’s some form of possession. Maybe you should try to use your abilities as an exorcist. After moving away from the ziggurat, of course.”
Gareth nods and moves away, accompanied by the others. Once near the stream, he calls on the Silver Flame and attempts to purge any possessing influence on himself, but there is no change. “Nameless, do you have any idea what could heal this effect? A restoration?”
“I’m not sure,” says Nameless. “Perhaps we can find out tomorrow with the right divinations. Now let’s go inside and get some rest.”
“I’m not going to stay in there all night!” protests Gareth.
“You want to stay outside alone? Because I’m staying inside, and I think everyone else will be. I need to study the carvings.”
“All right,” says Gareth, grumpily. “Spending the night in an evil, brain-sucking ziggurat built by aberrations on top of a manifest zone which warps people is just what I’ve always wanted to do.”
* Rackhir has been talking about getting access to Mind Blank for a long time, so I provided a way for him to do so. The fact that it only works inside a 120 ft wide area was purely coincidental and plot-based and has absolutely nothing to do with me being a sadistic bastard who enjoys giving his players hope and then jumping on it with hob-nailed boots.
** He took a 4 point penalty to Int and Wis too.
Nameless, feeling the smart of his own wounds, says, “Fine. When we’re in the Mournland and get in a fight you can pick the strategy and we’ll all listen to you. Now let’s get inside.”
The Angels revive Korm and Gareth, Mordain’s modifications having kept both alive, with the paladin’s necklace of adaptation having prevented him from drowning in the interim. Having done so, they examine the room thoroughly. One hundred and sixty feet long and broad, it is crisscrossed by the channels which the nagas swam through, and is absolutely bare otherwise, except for the same cyclopean and ophidian carvings on the walls as on the outside. A simple lever controls the opening and closing of the stone door, and Six discovers that there is a particular carving outside, manipulating which does the same. A set of stairs lead up to the level above, and Six soon discovers a hidden trapdoor leading to stairs leading below. With Nameless confirming that the manifest zone is below them, the Angels descend cautiously.
The bottom level – one hundred and eighty feet long and broad – is almost bare too, except for a simple stone structure like a cactus, with multiple arms, and two streams running down from the top level, which flow to form an X shape through the center of the room. There is a shimmer in the air over the central one hundred and twenty feet of the chamber, extending to a height of about twenty feet, which resembles a heat haze. “And that,” says Nameless, “Would be the manifest zone.”
The Angels descend and walk up to the shimmer, studying it carefully. “Do you think it’s safe?” asks Gareth.
“Probably,” says Nameless, “But in view of the sort of powerful effects it has had in the area, and the unanswered question of what the existence of the seed may be doing to it, we should exercise cauti…”
At which point Luna sticks her muzzle in it, though perhaps with some hesitation, since she seems to slow down considerably as soon as her nose enters it.
Nameless sighs. “Or we could let Luna shove her head in it. What does it feel like, Luna?”
Luna replies, “I…t f…e…e…l…s k…i…n…d…,” her lips moving extremely slowly.
“Why are you talking like that?” asks Korm.
Luna pulls out, again slowly, and then shakes her head. “I wasn’t. I was talking normally, but it came out like that. And it feels almost solid, since when I moved my head in and out, I felt strong resistance. Like moving through one of your solid fog spells, Nameless. Oh, and I felt smarter somehow.”
Nameless looks thoughtful. “I think I know what it is. Time on Xoriat is different to time in our world, moving at one-tenth our speed, so a minute here is six seconds there. The zone must be manifesting similar time. And that’s very unusual. That would be a likely manifestation of the seed being present in our world. As for the smarter angle, I’m not sure what you mean or what that could be.”
“One way to find out,” says Luna, before stepping bodily into the manifest zone. Of course, due to the fact that whatever part of her enters slows down considerably, the process takes longer than it should, and involves the others having the unenviable sight of Luna’s hindquarters jiggling and flattening themselves as they move forward substantially faster than the preceding parts of her body.
Once inside, Luna walks back and forth for a little bit, seeming to do so in slow motion to her companions, before a broad ursine grin slowly spreads across her face. She returns to the edge and exits. “It makes me a better spellcaster. I’m sure of it. If I stayed in here and prepared spells I could cast an earthquake. And that would be awesome!”
“What?”
After some experimentation and all having entered the manifest zone, the Angels confirm that Luna is correct. Being inside the zone does boost their powers somewhat, leading to improved spellcasting ability, access to more power spells, and other such abilities. The downside, unfortunately, is that one immediately loses the increased abilities on leaving the zone*. And since time does flow much more slowly inside the zone, at a rate of about one-fifth the passage of time outside, resting and preparing spells in there would mean days of time passing in the world beyond.
“One thing’s for sure,” says Nameless, once they have finished experimenting with the area, “These are very unusual results. I’m growing increasingly certain that it’s due to the seed.”
“Yeah, yeah,” grumbles Luna. “I want my earthquake spell. Why can’t I have it outside the area? That’s not fair!”
“It’s a manifest zone, Luna. It just is what it is. Fair isn’t a factor. I’m fairly certain that spending significant amounts of time inside leads to an increase in one’s powers, which probably explains why those damn nagas and athachs were that tough.”
“Power is useful,” says Gareth, “But will this place warp us like what we have seen of Gurr’khan? If so, where is the safety point?”
The alienist shrugs, “If you spend sufficient time here, especially within the manifest zone – yes, it probably will. As far as how far is safe – who knows?”
“I am not keen on increasing my abilities at the cost of my humanity.” He grins at Nameless, “That is what we have you for. I do not think we should stay here a moment more than absolutely necessary for us to do any research we need. The ill effects that this place causes are not worth the temporary benefits. If need be, let us rest and prepare spells at home and teleport here to cast any necessary spells.”
“Actually, I’m quite beginning to like this place,” says Nameless. “It has all sorts of magical defenses, even against ethereal and astral movement apparently, and that can only benefit us. And we could use another house, remember?”
“Yeah!” Luna growls, deeply and menacingly, “That reminds me, I need to go back to Sharn and rip out…”
“Maybe we should go check the rest of the place,” says Korm hurriedly, gesturing at Nameless from behind Luna.
“But I…,” begins Luna, before Korm quickly adds, “And there might be treasure and gems and other shiny things.” Then, as Luna turns and rushes for the stairs, he nods and follows her.
When the Angels return to the level above, the first thing they notice is the lack of blood. There is not a trace of blood on floor, walls or ceiling, though very copious quantities of it was spilt and had been everywhere only minutes ago. Every bit of blood from the nagas, the athachs, and even Gareth where he fell, is gone. Even the quantity spilt outside by Korm, Luna and Nameless is gone.
“Did someone come in here and remove it?” asks Gareth, sword in hand.
“No,” says Six, pointing at the corpses which still remain. “It’s the blood that was spilled on any part of this place. See, there’s still blood on the corpses.” He picks up a naga’s corpse and turns it over. “See, the blood on it that touched the stone is gone.”
“Hmm – that’s not the kind of self-cleaning I like,” says Luna, frowning at the walls around her, before shrugging. “Now let’s go up and find some treasure!”
The Angels proceed up the stairs and, over the course of the next half an hour, discover that there are two levels above. The third level is divided into many large rooms, some apparently used by the nagas and the athachs, but most of them empty and bare. The uppermost level is divided by partitions into a maze, but there is no indication of its purpose either. “This is weird,” says Korm. “Almost no possessions, no indication of what they did here. It’s almost as if they were just sitting here and waiting for something.”
“Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing right now,” says Nameless. “Tomorrow I’ll attempt a legend lore on this place. But for now, let’s go check on the dolgaunts and dolgrims.” He smiles grimly. “We need to let them know the ziggurat is under new management.”
The town, however, turns out to be completely deserted now, except for the twenty or so dolgrim corpses that show where the cloudkill passed. Or deserted of dolgrims and dolgaunts, to be precise. The giant fungi growing all over the place, and the other organic components to the structures, are still present. The Angels discover all sorts of unusual fungus here, some of it ambulatory, some of it a weird amalgam of plant and animal parts, and a couple of species which seem predatory. It is unclear exactly how the giant creature that formed and attacked Luna relates to the others, but the gigantic patch it came out of is already growing back slowly, though it will probably take weeks to reach the thickness it originally had. Luna ensures that will take more time by the simple expedient of setting a large section of it on fire.
“You know,” Nameless wonders aloud, “Maybe it would be a good idea to transplant some of the larger fungi to other parts of the world, since that would give the more powerful druids access to this place with a transport via plants.”
Gareth looks at the alienist as if he’s gone insane. “May I just point out that these plants are,” he begins to count off on his fingers, “1 – grown by aberrations, 2 – warped by a manifest zone, and 3 – just icky. You really want to put them in the world outside?”
Korm says, “I’ve got to agree with Gareth. These fungi are seriously wrong. And take that from someone who ate parts of two different aberrations today.”
“Fine, fine,” says Nameless. “Let’s check those pillars out.”
Now that he is in range Nameless confirms that they are heavily magical. Experimentation reveals that they detect and react to certain things in the area. Three of the primary things they detect are anything flying more than fifty feet off the ground, anything invisible, and anything with strong magical auras on it. In each case, they react with a bright purple flash and target the triggering creature or creatures with a dispel magic from each pillar. This ability evidently resets after ten minutes. Curious to see if the effect is triggered by spellcasting, Luna casts a spell in their vicinity, but the pillars do not respond.
After having examined the fungi and the pillars, the Angels return to the ziggurat. As they walk back up to the door, Korm points at the crack he put in it. “Is it just me, or is that crack smaller than it was?”
Six looks at the crack, now only about half its original size. “No, it’s not just you.” The warforged turns to Gareth. “Why don’t you try to detect evil and thoughts in this area and on the ziggurat?”
Gareth hesitates and then nods, “All right.” He concentrates and his eyes glow with silver light. Instantly, to his complete lack of surprise, he detects a strong evil aura on the ziggurat. Gareth turns slowly, scanning the area around him. The aura of evil permeates the area, but its strength diminishes slightly as he looks away from the towering structure before him. “Let me try something,” Gareth says, walking away from the ziggurat, continuing to detect for evil. As the distance increases, so does the power of the aura diminish, till it is only of moderate strength when he reaches the stream.
The paladin walks back to the others and explains what he discovered. “And now for the next one.” When he attempts to detect thoughts, he detects no presence of thought in the ziggurat. At least for a couple of seconds, before he has the mental equivalent of standing on the beach in the surf up to one’s knees, and having a giant breaker appear and roll over one in a single second. All that Gareth is certain of is that there is a hugely powerful and alien consciousness inside the ziggurat. He also has the impression that it is both quiescent and completely unaware of his presence. He cannot ascertain anything else, since the contact snaps off instantly, but he has no reason to complain about it. If there is one thing Gareth is quite certain about from the instant of contact, it is that a longer duration would probably have rendered him completely insane.
As it is, Nameless now knows what he looks like after contacting Cyäegha, since Gareth lands flat on his back, blood leaking out of nose and ears. And feeling as if his brain were about to run out through those orifices too**.
Nameless looks at him with mock-solicitousness, “So, was it purple for you too, Gareth?”
Gareth, trying to stand up, ignores him, muttering indistinctly, “Let’s not do that again.”
As Korm moves to help him, Luna says brightly, “Let’s make him sit in the manifest zone.” Gareth shouts, “NO!” and then grabs his aching head. “I don’t feel that good.” He describes what it was he just experienced.
Interesting. Hoping that Gareth doesn’t bring up the fact that he was the one who made the suggestion to detect thoughts, Six quickly says, “Maybe it’s some form of possession. Maybe you should try to use your abilities as an exorcist. After moving away from the ziggurat, of course.”
Gareth nods and moves away, accompanied by the others. Once near the stream, he calls on the Silver Flame and attempts to purge any possessing influence on himself, but there is no change. “Nameless, do you have any idea what could heal this effect? A restoration?”
“I’m not sure,” says Nameless. “Perhaps we can find out tomorrow with the right divinations. Now let’s go inside and get some rest.”
“I’m not going to stay in there all night!” protests Gareth.
“You want to stay outside alone? Because I’m staying inside, and I think everyone else will be. I need to study the carvings.”
“All right,” says Gareth, grumpily. “Spending the night in an evil, brain-sucking ziggurat built by aberrations on top of a manifest zone which warps people is just what I’ve always wanted to do.”
* Rackhir has been talking about getting access to Mind Blank for a long time, so I provided a way for him to do so. The fact that it only works inside a 120 ft wide area was purely coincidental and plot-based and has absolutely nothing to do with me being a sadistic bastard who enjoys giving his players hope and then jumping on it with hob-nailed boots.
** He took a 4 point penalty to Int and Wis too.
