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Message: <blockquote data-quote="megamania" data-source="post: 2631968" data-attributes="member: 9255">EBERRON10/01/05SEGMENT 129“Time is a Problem it Seems”Cedious leads the group around another trap and to the door.  He opens it and the buzz of 1000’s of flying insects can be heard.“You wanted a swamp and you got a swamp.” Says Cedious.Looking in, the air is thick with gnats, mosquitoes and flies.  The very room is a colossal swarm.  Cedious drops to the ground and looks around.  Taskerdoo and Logan come down next.  The trees here are all thick willow trees with moss.  The umbrella of vegetation could conceal anything within its hold, even another large elephant man.  Looking, Cedious sees a huge face hidden in the brush.  Clearing it, it is a face of a dwarf.  The head sits about 3x3 foot.  A lone lizard crawls over the bushy carved eyebrows.  If Cedious is curious at whom the sculpture represents he doesn’t voice it.  Taskerdoo merely notes there are others here.There are at least a dozen busts and possible standing stones hidden within the willows and tall grass and hanging moss.  They look around even as Black sands and Sharshek drop into the soft earth behind them.  Vale more falls than jumps down (reminder- put points into Jump skill) but shakes it off.  The others have already moved forward without him.A narrow but deep trough of swamp water flows along the five trees and the various stones.  Cedious hops over a narrow area with no effort.  Logan sloshes through then stops to sniff around.  The fighter and barbarian wander in a separate direction hoping not to cross the water directly.  Vale inspects the dwarven face.Cedious stops and circles a willow.  Logan sniffs and growls quietly as Taskerdoo wanders what Cedious is up to this time.  He calls up a Detect Magic power and scans the area.  The very rooms and the five adventurers glow but that is all.  Then he hears Cedious speaking and something comes in and out of the detection range.  Someone, with magical items, is among them!Cedious peers through the thick vegetation and sees something move.  A glint of armor or polished metal has caught his eye.  “Hello?” he says not expecting an answer.“What brings you here?” comes a voice hinted with a hiss.“Who is there?” says the halfling rogue suddenly on full alert.  He peers into the darkness caste by the willow tree.  A glow appears as the hiss of a sword being drawn can be heard.  Cedious already has his out.  Out steps a thin, almost gaunt lizardfolk with full plate armor on.“I am Assath, I repeat myself – who are you?”  The lizardfolk has a walk and presence that reminds the rogue of the rich and riotous. “I am ..an adventurer.  What brings you …here?”  He begins to make motions to draw Taskerdoo over.“A thief no doubt.  I and my strikeforce are here to destroy a great evil.”  The lizardfolk in metal armor lowers his sword but it remains readied as a precaution.Cedious wonders where the others are when Logan sticks his nose through the willow’s hanging branches and sniffs a few times.  Suddenly he snorts projecting nasal fluid out as if unhappy with what he has sniffed out.  Using the wooden sword, Taskerdoo pushes aside the branches and looks at the source of magic he saw.  The weapon and armor are both magical.  “Hello.  I am Breland Taskerdoo and this is Logan.”  He quickly assumes this person is a paladin and worries about Black sands.“I am Assath.  I am here to destroy a great evil.  You are also an adventurer?”“Adventurer …ah yes.  Yes I am.”  The halfling druid / mage quickly begins to think about the tracks outside the trap and wonders about the role this paladin has here.  “What evil do you seek?  Is it a vampire?  We destroyed a vampire already.”“The evil essence of a demon.  He was trapped within this prison and we came to kill it.  The defenses of the trap are very strong however.  In the three weeks we have been here- only myself remains.”Taskerdoo doesn’t miss the time reference.  To have been here for mere weeks, tracks would have been left.  “How did you come in here?”“We traveled across the cavern over the colored runes to a stone block.  We entered and have remained.  We battled many guardians and now only I remain.”“How many rooms have you traveled?  Do you know how to leave?”  He looks up to where the door should be (35 feet up).“Rooms?  We have traveled this swampy dimension for the first few weeks here.  When my comrades were killed I wandered until I came to these stones and decided to stay here.”Cedious looks at Taskerdoo.  He thinks the lizard is crazy.  Taskerdoo thinks something else.“What year is it?”A suspicious look crosses the paladin’s eyes.  “668.”“That is not weeks!” exclaims Cedious.The paladin gives him a sharp look.   “You have an appearance I can not place.  Where do you originate from?”“Talenta Plains.” Answers the druid / mage.“Sharn.” Says Cedious with little enthusiasm.“I have never heard of such places.”“You have never heard of Sharn!?!” exclaims Cedious in disbelief and annoyance.  “Where have you been – in a cave?”“In a way…”, whispers Taskerdoo, Where do you hail from?”“Vigil.”“Not what you are but…” Taskerdoo softly kicks the rogue.“Where is that?”“Vigil …,” it is the paladin’s turn to suspect serious confusion of the adventurers.  “Vigil is east of the beast lands, along the shoreline.”“Beast lands …large reptiles……?”The paladin tries to be certain these strangers are not liars.“That is Talenta Plains in my ….tongue.  You said you came here in 668.  What were the other countries doing?”  The druid is beginning to understand the problem.“The goblin nation is to the South West of Vigil….”  He is interrupted by Vale calling out for the location of Cedious and Taskerdoo.  “More…?”“Why have you not left this swamp?” asks Taskerdoo.  He knows the next step will be difficult but also understands it is just a matter of time before the ½ giant arrives then who knows what will happen.“The swamp is long and large.  I suspect the entire dimension may be a swamp.”“Have you tried the door?” says the rogue in annoyance.  If he had thought of it, he would have asked for the half giant by now.“There is a way out?”“I hope so.”  Taskerdoo watches Cedious walk to the edge of the willow and point up to the door “floating” 35 feet up.“I see nothing” says the Paladin.“This may seem crazy,” begins Taskerdoo, “But could you walk about ten paces that way?”The paladin looks at the druid trying to decide what the true purpose of this is but sees no harm forth coming so begins to walk.  When he reaches the “wall” he steps into it.  A visible ripple can be seen but the paladin doesn’t seem to notice that he is walking no where.  Taskerdoo suspects this paladin has somehow become a part of the trap.  He is suspended within time and space in such a way he is unaware of it.  WHAT OF THEMSELVES?!?!Suddenly the paladin whips his scaled head to the direct of the original door.  Taskerdoo had just begun to spider climb the wall to prove a point.  “How do you explain this?”Trying hard to see through the haze created by the insects, the paladins answers quickly- “Flight.  Magical.  Something approaches.  Something …unkind to the world.”Cedious and Taskerdoo turn to each other and mouth the name silently- Black sand.</blockquote>

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