The Creation Schema:THE FINAL BATTLE FOR POSSESSION OF THE SCHEMA

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 298
11/12/06
“THE DUNGEON of CHAMPIONS PART 7: THE DROWNING ROOM”

They reach the floor to the room. Above them is a 10x10 circle that is sealed with wax. Looking to the walls 60ft away they are spiked and there are signs of them moving in the past.

“What do we do?”

Cedious looks long and hard for an exit. He sees none. “Cut the wax.”

“WHAT!” Calls out Talon.

“I don’t see any other way to get out. It could be another illusion like the blades.”

“Testing our determination?” comments Xen.

After a few stabs into the wax water begins to trickle out. “Get ready.”

“For what…?” and suddenly tons of water spills out. The stone lid is slammed down from the water closing off the exit back down into the tunnel. The spiked walls also begin to move.

“Crap!” Yells Cedious whom is still levitated above the water. The others are knocked off their feet and fortunately stop themselves before striking the spiked walls.

Talon and Wall fight the water to reach the stone slab. Without saying anything they concentrate on the slab. In the meantime the spikes close in. After two failed attempts, they remove the lid stopping the water from flooding the room. Now everyone nearly is flushed out from the draining water.

“Up!” shouts Cedious.

They climb up and …. Nothing.

The room here is 15 x 15 and now empty. The spiked walls stop below.

10 minutes go by and they slowly retract.

One of the walls retracts beyond its original starting point and thus reveals the hidden exit to the next room.

 

[megamania]

And for a special treat- the map of the dungeon.... each square = 5 feet

There were some minor changes as I went but this is the basic concept of the dungeon.

 

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 299
11/12/06
“THE DUNGEON of CHAMPIONS PART 8: SLAUGHTERSTONE EVISCERATOR x4”

They climb through about twenty feet of tunnel then onto a dark room. Once more Cedious’ magical lantern doesn’t show much. The room is 40ft wide and over 120 feet long. The ceiling is forty feet up. There is a large 80x40 foot slab above them.

“oh….crap….” is said by all. All fear this slab falling down onto them instantly killing them.

Then it gets worse.

“Something … BIG … is here with us.” Says Pebbles. Xen adds at least two… one at each end. They make a point to advance far enough down the room to clear the overhead slab but still have the creature (s) move to them.

Before them are two large stone and adamantine constructs with four ten foot long blades that chop before it.

“How bad can it be?” says Talon and he regrips his weapon and poses with it.

“More behind us. The good news is they are slow.” Says Xen as he looks above to see if the slab is falling yet.

Talon is sliced badly by the first attacking construct. As they fight it through the poor lighting Cedious spots something on them. Each has a chain with a small chest on it. He will know what is within them before he dies he promises himself.

Wall powers up psionically and becomes HUGE. Then he attacks the constructs. They drop one after several moments of attacking it. Talon and Pebbles both are hurt but carry on.


Meanwhile, above them Pelor frets about possibly trying to reach them somehow. He worries that they need his healing to survive this.

The second construct falls and Cedious moves in quickly and tries to open the chest without checking it first. Chain Lightning strikes him and several of the others.

“By the powers of the Host- can you not wait until these things are defeated?!?” shouts Pebbles as the steam and smoke wisps from her singed hair.

“errr… sorry.” Says Cedious whom then thinks “Not” and sticks his tongue out once the dwarf turns to face the two next constructs.

Within the chest is a heavy iron key. He moves to the second one and looks for a trap this time (and misses it). A second chain lightning trap is released. Talon screams out in more anger than pain. Cedious finds a second key that matches the first one.

Eventually the second set of two Slaughterstones are defeated. This time the group makes a point of staying away from Cedious and the slab overhead as he opens the traps. He disables the third spell and finds a third key. The fourth chest has a trap but he trips it when trying to by pass it. His incredible reflexes allow for nearly no harm to come to him. The energy arcs over the constructs then dies off.

“What now?” he says as he holds up the four keys.

They look for key holes and not until Cedious goes to the ceiling does he find them. Two key holes at each end of the slab.

Everyone huddles in one corner as Cedious turns a key in two of the holes. One end of the slab falls down creating a ramp that would have entrapped / crushed anyone on the opposite side of the falling end. They walk up the ramp to a exit that leads out. Another 5x5 hole.

 

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 300
11/12/06
“Chaos Storms”

“These storms are becoming more fierce.” Says the Emerald Claw soldier.

“A storm would be one thing but these storms ….. are unnatural.”

“Colored lightning that always strikes. I have heard undead rise where ever they strike.” Says a third soldier.

“I have heard of buildings coming to life when struck by the lightning.”

“Both of you are wrong. If the lightning strikes it negates magic.”

“Less talk and more packing or I will negate you.” Snarls the Emerald Claw rogue.

“Life Stealer….” The three of them say in unison and begin to pack quicker.

Outside of the safehouse (the last remaining that either Cedious or the Blue Dragon has not destroyed) the supernatural storm rages. Lightning of various colors flash and strike relentlessly.

A lone figure in a cloak peeks out into the dim light of Stormreach. The storm concerns this humanoid as it always peers up as lightning flashes. The creature begins to caste a spell to leave when a bolt strikes and ….it is gone.

The storm continues for another twenty minutes then mysteriously ends as quickly as it came.

 

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 301
11/25/06
“THE DUNGEON of CHAMPIONS PART 9: At The Top”

This passage leads up 75 feet on a 45 degree angle. Cedious carefully levitates and “walks” the ceiling with his hands. The whole time he is watchful of traps and dangers of all sorts. He reaches the top and just as he is about to land he spots a trigger for a trap. It is a mechanical trap designed to fire down the length of the hallway. He disarms it easily and calls for the others to follow. Then he inspects the room.

The far end has ash on the walls, ceiling and floor. Heat rises from the exit that plummets downward. A faint hint of a glow can be seen that marks the exit at the bottom. Cedious wisely decides to wait for the others to climb and make their way up. No one falls this time which is a nice change.

Together they look at the sot and ash then at the tunnel leading down.

“It could be hard to climb down if the sot is there also.” Mentions Pebbles. She is more concerned about the glow at the bottom coupled with the possibility of sliding uncontrollably down to it. The glow reminds her of lava.

Cedious goes first. Once more he uses his Ring of Levitation and tries to be careful about touching the floor. He does often but with no hidden traps set off.

Wall comes next. He is prepared to enlarge if need be to block the tube. Pebbles is behind him with Xen and Talon waiting on the top.

Sure enough, Wall slips on the ash and he comes down the last 35 feet of the tunnel sitting on his backend. Occational sparks fly as his armor strikes through the ash and onto the stone. Cedious floats to the ceiling and presses there allowing the dwarf to continue past him.

Wall pops out the exit and bounces once. He narrowly avoids falling into a burning area below. Cedious drops and glides down sliding on the ash and tumbles to a stop before falling into the flames. Hearing mo screams of pain or even discomfort, Pebbles goes next and slides down to the others. The ash is quickly breaking up and making the stone work clear which makes it easier for them to climb down. Xen comes next with no problem. Once clear Talon rolls the length of the tunnel receiving many bruises and bumps
Until he also is spit out and just stops before the fire pit below.

“Uh-oh” is all Cedious has to say.

Far above, Pelor gets the sense of great heat and nervousness from the group. The lizardfolk are still hoping for descriptions of the activity but get nothing.

 

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 302
11/25/06
“THE DUNGEON of CHAMPIONS PART 10: FIRE PIT”

The room is roughly 100x100 and 50 high. 25 feet from the walls begins the burning pit. In the center sits a large block 20 x 20 that is not on fire. There is no visible exit.

Pebbles calls up its Red Wyrmling and has it fly to the island where Cedious is now running to and leaping at. He finds himself falling short but grabs the edge and holds on for dear life. The flames lick at his feet.

“Anything?” calls out Pebbles.

The rogue looks about. “No. There seems to be…..uh-oh….” And he backs away from the edge.

Two HUGE Fire Elementals rise from the flames and begin to lash at the dragon and halfling. The wyrmling is struck solid but ignores the flames.

Xen begins to fire his magical arrows at one immediately as the others spread out to attack and look for a way out. The elemental’s long reach becomes a problem for the melee fighters. After one round of attempting to attack one, Talon backs off. He can not stay there long enough to do any real damage against the creatures.

Cedious jumps through a burst of flame from a near miss and lands back on the main deck. The dragon flies away from the island but is struck again for the effort. Wall attempts to attack but again finds their long reach to be big. To make matters worse, he has not the will power remaining to use his psionic powers.

Pebbles calls to the dragon. “Find a way out!” Then she prepares a spell and calls for everyone to fall back to the entrance chute. A blade barrier appears that weaves in and out of the elemental giants keeping them away from the others. Wall attempts to trade blows with some cover but can not make an effective attack. Cedious pulls out his Decanter of Endless water and hoses down anyone on fire. The elementals are too hot to put out using the decanter. Xen, from the safety of the blade barrier attacks the elementals then.

No exit is found.

Xen kills off one elemental and begins to attack the next one. “Arrows are getting low.” He comments while concentrating on firing through the barrier at the elementals.

The dragon disappears within the flames.

Cedious curses.

Wall curses.

Xen begins to count his arrows down.

Pebbles wonders about meta-magic abilities to learn.

Talon looks at his burns and curses.

Dragon merely continues to search.


Far above, Pelor and the lizardfolk wonder what is happening. Pelor is running low on healing magic he can use with his stasis spell.

Then the dragon swoops up and comes to Pebbles. “Nothing but fire down there guys. But the flames within the pit are burning on something… a fluid possible.”

“That sneaky Bastard!” sings out Cedious.

The last fire elemental drops and the moment the barrier is dropped Cedious runs to the edge to look in. Pebbles doesn’t stop. She falls into the flames and splashes through the gas/oil mixture that was set on flame. The fires above light up the submerged area well. The water is 25 feet deep and there is a tunnel that leads out.

Coming to surface and burning she calls out for the others to follow and dismisses the dragon before going under again.

 

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 303
11/25/06
“THE DUNGEON of CHAMPIONS PART 11: LONG WAY UP”

Cedious once more uses his ring of levitate to go carefully up the tube. Eventually he reaches the top. He guesses several hundred feet of tunnel to reach this area. It is a small room with two doorways. One is dark and the other has something glowing within it. He peeks into the glowing room and sees a multi-colored glowing wall. Fearing no problems at this point he collects one person at a time and brings them up.

By time the last person is up, Pebbles has already searched the wall that glows and guesses it to a magical wall. She doesn’t know the details to it but recalls it takes several spells to pierce the wall. She doubts she has these spells readied for the day. Once everyone is within the room a voice speaks.

=Welcome and Congratulations young competitors from the north and planes.=

Everyone stops and turns to the wall.

“Who are you?” asks Cedious as he debates how bad the damage would be to charge the wall.

= I am The Creator. I am Thundaar. I built this challenge. Did you like it?=

“What the #@%^*?!?” Curses the rogue in agitation. “Did we like it?!?”

=I found it very entertaining to see you go through it. Though you had a big advantage over the others that have tried to pass it.=
“Being…?” And far above Pelor is becoming nervous. Status suggestions Cedious is angry and that leads to many bad things are about to happen.

=You are smaller, much smaller than the Minotaur peoples that this was built for.=

“Where we come from when one wins they receive a prize. Where is our gold? Asks Talon

=No gold- only the satisfaction of completing it and proving yourselves worthy.=

Everyone looks at the wall like someone stepped in dog manure and just walked on a new rug. “Can we leave then?” asks Xen.

=Through that door.=

As they leave Pebbles looks over her shoulder. Through the wall there is a shadowy image of a floating Minotaur head or skull. A demi-lich!

The darkened room is empty except for the ceiling which has a round door. Not sure what will happen when they open that door and in great need of rest, they sleep here for a while.

On the surface, Pelor is invited to sleep within the towers with the lizardfolk. He declines as he goes to sleep in the tower.

The next day, the door is opened and the room fills with water quickly. They purposely leave the door open to drown the entire dungeon as they swim to the bright surface which is a mere forty feet away. They are within the walled off area of the temple. With spells carefully chosen before, they all leave using Wind Walking.

The lizardfolk watch them leave in silence. A lone seagull flies over and lands beside the leader. Slowly it enlarges, molting and growing scales. Soon a Large Bronze Dragon stands beside him.

“The secret is safe then.” It says as a matter fact and in draconic.

“Yes. The Dragonmarks are safe. Your secret remains safe.”

“Good.”

 

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 304
12/09/06
“THE DEATH OF CEDIOUS”

Using the very powerful and quick use of Wind Walk, the group quickly heads south and reaches the shoreline of Xen’drik. With a good guess they pick the correct direct to go to follow the shoreline and reach Stormreach.

The group is on a high and feeling very big and powerful. This is usually when things go bad the quickest. And it does.

“Storm is brewing. We better land and cut off the powers. I doubt we will do well being misty and in the wind gusts for long.” Suggests Xen.

“Good point.”

Even as they begin to close in on the shore a flash of lightning occurs and strikes within 100 feet of the group. It strikes the water. Once the steam lifts there is a large block of ice revealed.

“Holy crap!” Exclaims Cedious in amazement. “Magical Lightning!”

“Chaos Storm. Remember what that Captain said that brought us here the first time? Magical storms with multi-colored lightning. The lightning is said to alter as much as destroy anything it hits.”

“I bet I can dodge lightning.” Offers Cedious with a smirk that defies logic.

“That’s not very wise. What if you screw up? What if you are hit?” warns a nervous Talon as he looks to the dark and flashing storm cloud overhead.

“None sense…” the small rogue halfling says.

A mere 500 feet away, a blast of lightning strikes a tree. As the smoke clears a shadowy form of a Treant can be seen pulling, tugging and finally ripping itself free from the struck tree. It swings at the trees near it them smashes into the jungle.

“Don’t see that everyday.” Is all Cedious can say.

He runs ahead of everyone with his rapier held up to draw the energy to him.

“Is he alright? Did he breath in some mind numbing toxins?” asks Xen.

“He is such a half-wit.” Answers Wall shaking his head. He hopes to clear the beach before the next strike. He has no intention of being struck if he can.

One strike comes within 20 feet of Cedious. A rock explodes and is reduced to pebbles that shower down onto his leaping and dodging body. Pelor is considering a spell to knock him out so that they can safely carry him to cover.

Another strike, this one 40 feet away. A large section of glass is seen in the blasted sand.

“I can’t believe this is happening. He will get himself killed!” comments Pebbles whom is also heading for cover, as the cloud seem to roll directly over them now.

“HAH! See? I’m a god! I’m a god of…..”

BOOM!

No more Cedious once the smoke clears.

“YOU STUPID IDIOT!” Shouts Talon whom turns and begins to run to the crater.

“CAREFUL! No one knows for sure what the storms are!” reminds Pelor and he thinks about spells to bring him back to life. He hopes for a part... a finger, ear or even a toe will work.

Nothing.

The group stands around the crater and the distant roar and flash of the passing Chaos Storm slowly disappears.

“The BASTARD!” says Pebbles in anger.

“We know. We all cared for him greatly.”

“NO! He had the party treasure with him!”

 

[megamania]

THE CREATION SCHEMA
SEGMENT 305
12/09/06
“UNWANTED GUESTS”

Still questioning what possessed the halfling to become suicidal, the group eventually reaches their target- Stormreach.

It is late and the sun has long since set but they still decide to look around and try to find some Emerald Claw members to harass. They find none. But they have a hard time getting any answers also. Further more, several buildings, including known Claw hideouts, have been either heavily damaged or outright destroyed. A few of these were giant structures made from stone.

“Claw ticked off folks other than ourselves.” Says Talon with a smile.

Wall gets grumpy and marches into the closest tavern that is not locked. The tender sees him and nods. Then Pebbles and Talon walks in and he nearly drops the glass he is cleaning. “weareclosed.sosorrybutweareclosedyoucancomebackanotherday!”

Everyone stops and looks at Talon and Pebbles. “Allow me.” Says Wall whom then directs his frustration on the barkeeper. He grabs his arm and his chin and hoists him up and onto the counter. “What is going on?”

“youmustleavebeforethedragonreturns!” (slightly mumbled from his hurting jaw.

“Did he say a Dragon?” asks Xen.

“And more importantly- a Dragon involving us somehow?!?”

“pleasepromisetoMMMUMMPH!” Walls slaps his gloved hand over his mouth. “Calm down and say everything slowly. You are giving me a headache dammit!”

“verywell….very well. A few days ago a rather large Blue Dragon came here and began to hunt down the Emerald Claw. It was also searching for Cedious the halfling thief and you two.” And he points at Talon and Pebbles.

Talon smiles and looks at the dwarven cleric. “We’re famous.”

“Now please go. I did what you asked.”

Pelor says it is time to go as he rests his hand gently on Wall’s shoulder.

“What is going on here?”

“Lets check their base at the dock.”

They go and discover the dock has been destroyed and the cavern collapsed.

“Now what?”

“Ask more people.”

 

[Solarious]

"NO! He had the party treasure with him!"

Good to know that Pebbles cared so much about Cedious. But I'm fairly sure Cedious made it out of there. Somehow. Although I don't think he'll like the cirumstances any more than being dead.