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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 275707" data-attributes="member: 1210">The City of VarHaving emerged from Faerieland the party tries to get their bearings.  Milosh casts alter self and Sith casts fly; they rise up to get an idea of where they are and see low mountains to the south, thick forest north.  None of them really want to go into thick forest here; most of the thick forest they've seen recently has been fae woods.  Dorhaus' trees were mostly burnt down years ago by demonic forces led by a man (?) named Fuligin, now slain; but the scars of his occupation remain.  South it is, then.  A few days pass as they move as quickly as possibly across a series of low mountains.  Soon they find themselves descending towards a city.  As they come closer, though, they find that the city's outlying areas are ruins.  More signs of Fuligin!  But the central area sports a great number of rebuilt and new buildings, and it seems to be a thriving city with a thin population.  There are some humans but most of the locals are half-elves, with a great number of gnomes and elves as well.  In fact, the king is a gnome and the queen is a half-elf; he's another old pc, but I digress.Anvar insists on warning the local authorities about the activity in the Temple of Elemental Evil and the surrounding areas.  The party decides to seek out someone capable of magically informing Anvar's master of his location and condition, thereby breaking the geas that they've been travelling under at last.  The party members each have their own in-town agendas for shopping and the like as well, of course.Anvar informs one Captain Mellifleur of the Elemental Evil activities and it is clear she will pass word on to the King; he is one of the adventurers who originally overthrew it, after all!  Furthermore, she offers a substantial reward to Anvar if he should destroy the evil cult this time, and makes it clear that the offer includes his allies.Horbin informs the local Dextrites of the renewed activity at the Temple of Elemental Evil.  He is a cleric of Dexter.  Dexter is one of the major religions of the campaign, in fact probably the single largest one; it is part of a "monotheistic" system that venerates Galador (the Light), Dexter (his blind son) and Prayzose (Dexter's descendant, the missing Emperor of Forinthia).  His church gives him a holy mace to help overthrow the temple.The more chaotic members of the party, exploring Var, find it a haven of free religion.  It seems that King Malford issued a religious amnesty a few years ago, and since then many lesser-known cults and faiths have established shrines or temples in his capitol.  Indeed, they find a shrine to Na'Rat, the diety of Clambake, an old god known as the Lord of Changes and the Chaos-Bringer!  Within the shrine is a large obelisk and an unctuous man named Xath.  "Greetings!" he cries out.  "Please, come within!"  Clambake and he exchange greetings; as fellow clergy of a very rare (but rapidly resurging) religion, they have much to speak of.  Milosh and Sith peer curiously at the large black obelisk.Vito takes the time to look in on some "business associates" in town.  He speaks with Mylkacock, a halfling "friend" of his.Krunkshank spends time at a local shrine to the elements, created (it is said) by the L, also called Lester or simply the Elementalist.  The L was one of King Malford's adventuring companions, but apparently he has a reputation as a scoundrel; he's been in jail in another country before.  He's not in evidence in the town, unfortunately; he's a legendary figure to elementalists everywhere, the elementalist who destroyed another branch of the church (the Temple of Elemental Evil).Meanwhile, at the Temple of Na'Rat, things have suddenly changed.  Xath asked if they wished to feel the touch of Na'Rat; they both agreed, and touched the obelisk... and gained chaos attributes.  Milosh's charisma suddenly rose, a great benefit for a sorcerer like him, and Clambake spontaneously adopted a battle cry: "For the Old Ones!"  Milosh, still uncertain of what to do with himself since his brother's death, touches it again... and turns into a mindless ooze on the ground.  Shocked, Clambake steps away.  Xath smiles beneficiently and says, "Change comes in many forms, brother."The ooze reaches out and touched the obelisk again... and again... and again...Eventually, the ooze changes into an outsider and regains intelligence, but it has also grown feathers, gained the cold subtype, an extradimensional space up his butt (the entrance to which can be quite large thanks to his alter self spell), a complex symbol, a battle cry of his own, a new name (Spukoni) which he can't speak himself, and quite a few other chaos attributes... but he actually came out all right.  I was amazed.  *My chaos chart involves a roll of 1d400, and I try to keep on increasing the number of things on it. At that point, with the pcs still reasonably intact, they leave the shrine, knowing they got lucky.Shopping ensues... Spukoni buys a pearl of the sirines, Vito a stone of alarm.  They discuss what to do next.  Anvar tells them about the reward if they overthrow the Temple and a debate breaks out.  They worked for them for a while, they know what they'd be up against... and it would be ugly.  But the rewards are potentially great- and otherwise, they'll have to take a ship home, which means marching to the nearest coastal city, finding a boat and sailing for months.  It's very unlikely that anyone could teleport them that far, either.*In my game, due to the sheer size of my world, I limit teleport to 100 miles/level, teleport w/o error to 500 miles/level, and... er... succor, whatever it's called these days, to 1000 miles/level.Anvar announces that he intends to make for the Temple regardless of what the rest of the party decides to do.  Krunkshank stands with him as he can learn so much from him, and the party decides to head back as a group- although since the party is almost entirely chaotic, this unity likely won't last long.  They sleep for the night and make ready to leave once they tidy up a few pieces of business.A few days of hard drinking and waiting on things to be finished crafting and the like later, the party rides out of Var mounted on garen, zebra-like animals that come in two colors of green, brown and yellow.  They make good time that first day, and by nightfall they stop to make camp, cook dinner and rest.It's at this point that it behooves me to point out that, typically, the party sleeps in a rope trick that Milosh casts.  As a sorcerer he can cast it all day long, if he desires.  They time the watches so that they wake him up before it expires, clamber down and cast another one.Tonight, they all climb up one by one.  Milosh is last.  And as he enters the rope trick...A sudden flash of grey white light, dizzying, disorienting!  A sensation of motion, tumbling, falling!A blur of silvery grey all around, in every direction... floating in space..."What just happened?" whispers Krunkshank.Nobody speaks up.  They just kind of float there in a silvery void, with nothing visible anywhere... in any direction."Where are we?" Clambake asks."Uh- " says Milosh, "maybe the astral plane?"  He puts on his innocent face."How could that have happened?" asks Sith."Maybe my rope trick malfunctioned..." Milosh says.  He really doesn't want to explain about his extradimensional space....[edited to put in Horbin's bit]</blockquote>

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