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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 73103" data-attributes="member: 114">Quickly they start to wind this new platform downwards, peering over the edge in the hope that their companion may have somehow survived. Ten, twenty, thirty feet - then Lysander feels a strange prickling of his neck hairs, and as he looks round a creature shaped like a huge, beaked brain floats down towards them, lashing out with barbed tentacles. Several tentacles strike Crail, wrapping around him and (you've guessed it) paralysing him.Juma leaps forwards and with his tremendous strength frees Crail from the creatures grasp before it can fly off with him, then he and Lysander attack the creature itself, while fending off its blows.  In a few seconds the creature is destroyed, leaving them that bit more exhausted, that bit more tired.They proceed further down, a full 100ft, and at the bottom they can make out the form of Azrin apparently lying spread-eagled but otherwise unharmed on a strange symbol etched into the stone of the floor.  what happened to Azrin...Tumbling head over heels, suddenly Azrin finds himself stationary but in a pool of utter blackness. A chill grows over his whole body. There is a robed figure vaguely visible. It speaks. "Your soul is now at the very edge of my prison". He can feel his body dying. He attempts to turn the figure, but the channels to other planar power remain closed to him here. "Do you seek to free me?" the figure asks. "NO" shouts Azrin. "It doesn't matter what you seek. I am all. You are nothing". As the last fragment of his life is just about to ebb away, the figure speaks once more. "You serve me now, whether you wish it or not".Suddenly he is conscious, lying spread-eagled on the floor and apparently all in one piece. He had rather expected that this fall would have left him spread thinly across the rock. What has happened here?The remainder of the company bring the platform to the base of the cavern, and find to their surprise Azrin apparently only just alive, and lying spread eagled on a large version of the holy symbol that they have found on the ochre-robed priests. He seems none the worse for wear, and rejoins the party.Juma asks, astonished "Aren't you going to question him? Isn't it strange that he survived that fall? How do you know he isn't a doppleganger or something?" For some reason the rest of Azrins companions are happy to accept him as he is though. DM notes: Huh? Considering their normal level of paranoia, I'm astonished that they didn't follow this up more. Still, fun for the future... Further investigation of the bottom of this cavern reveals a mirrored doorway which summons more of the paralysing brain-creatures (quickly killed), an image of a black sun, a pillar with rungs, upon the top of which the obelisk appears to be balancing by its point, and a pool of water cascading off the side of the obelisk. Spotting around, Crail notices a scroll tube in the pool. He uses a grapple hook to fish it out, then takes it off and tosses the tube across to Azrin."Arrgghh" Crail suddenly screams, grasping his wrist - the touch of the water is chillingly cold, and his fingertips start to blacken. Azrin fumbled his attempt to catch the scroll and now has no inclination to touch it. He hurries across to Crail and attempts to use his healing skill to keep Crail alive. It is to no avail. Before Lysander can return to them the poison reaches Crails heart, and as the flesh on his arm, torso and neck blackens and crisps, he squeals and dies. Dms note: 11 points out of 2d6 CON damage exactly equalled poor Crails Constitution. The young thief dies to rise no more.</blockquote>

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