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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9808277" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 11: A BREACH OF DUTYPC Roster: Amris Goodwitch, celestial elf witch (wizard) 4                     Avoroth Bleakborn, fiendish human cleric 4                     Gonkle Bu'Onk, fiendish orc fighter 4                     Wilbur Von Schattenwalde, shadow human druid 4Game Session Date: 19 November 2025 - - -Obsidian Omega Shi was waiting at the outer boundary for the planar scouts when they returned to the town of Elsewhere, Amris and Gonkle riding their Hell-born horses while Avoroth piloted the floating casket being pulled aloft by his and Wilbur's own fiendish steeds.  The kolyrut was made entirely of metal and no expression could be seen upon his unyielding face, but his posture told of eager anticipation.  He had them unbind the box from the two horses, Victor and Blackie, and then stand it upright.  Obsidian Omega Chi placed a metal hand upon it and it glowed briefly before opening up like a coffin.  Inside the upright casket stood another kolyrut inevitable, indistinguishable from Obsidian Omega Shi other than gleaming with a newly-minted luster.  A black, oily substance oozed out of the original kolyrut, dripping from his eyes, mouth, and joints and onto the newer model, seeping into its interior until it could no longer be seen. Its task complete, the old body of Obsidian Omega Chi started walking back the way the scouts had come, headed for the transitive gear connected to the gear holding the modron mining camp - and, presumably, the mysterious Factory where kolyruts were created, not that the scouts had any recollections of that part of their mission.  The newer model stepped out of the forcecage coffin and congratulated the group on a successful mission.  "My old body returns to add its memories to the collective at the Factory, but as I must remain here in Elsewhere, I now have a new body that allows me to continue my ongoing mission.""Oh?" asked Avoroth.  "And what mission is that?""The Obsidian Protocol.  It has been deemed too dangerous to allow mortals to know how to build inevitables, thus the Factories typically kill any mortal who gets too close.  You were marked as servants of the Obsidian Protocol" - and here he indicated the arcane marks on the backs of each of their left hands - "and thus were able to speak with those at the Factory without hostility, but had to have all memories of the Factory erased to prevent knowledge of where it was from spreading to other mortals.""You promised to answer any questions we had," prompted Avoroth.  "So what exactly is this Obsidian Protocol?""The Obsidian Protocol itself is an omnipresent force that sleeps within all inevitables, set to awaken whenever a threat to the continued existence of reality is detected.  Once awakened, the unit it awakens in becomes one of the Obsidian Omega series, it abandons all previous duties in order to determine what the threat is, how best to end the threat, and - if no other option remains - how to cauterize local causality.  This final option causes the unit to detonate into an orb of annihilation that expands to whatever size is necessary to prevent the total destruction of reality."His audience - the four planar scouts - had their eyes widened in shock at the enormity of what Obsidian Omega Shi was explaining.  Without a doubt, he had their full, undivided attention."Although inevitables do not serve any particular god, the Obsidian Protocol is effectively equivalent to a God of Inevitables."Avoroth was thinking about something Father Solaire had said, about "keeping an eye on the kolyrut."  "So that's why Father Solaire keeps a watchful eye on you - it's not a lack of trust, it's making sure you don't go blowing up a section of reality to save the rest of it.""Correct.  He hopes to be able to stall the final resort long enough to evacuate Elsewhere if it were ever deemed necessary.  And the full knowledge of my purpose for being in Elsewhere would likely cause a panic amongst the populace; thus, it is best that such knowledge be kept to yourselves.""Okay," replied Wilbur, "but what can you tell us about that mysterious, robed prick who set those ten washouts after us?"  The druid gave him a rundown of their recent encounter with the wizard at Elsewhere's sole temple, back when the town was still parked on Avernus.  The kolyrut theorized it might be Timaeus Summerfrost, the last Material Born human who lived in the village that eventually became Elsewhere, before it began its annual plane-hopping.  "9,532 years ago, he was banished from Elsewhere by Father Solaire for threatening the safety of the town.  If he is still somehow alive, that would explain his attitude toward ownership of the village.""Elsewhere's been plane-hopping for that long?" gasped Amris.  She had had no idea the full history of the town in which she, and the other scouts, had been born."It has, and Timaeus is the cause of Elsewhere's plane shifting.  The symbol of the Lady of Pain within the church, I believe, is somehow connected to the planar door that was stolen from Sigil ten years prior to Elsewhere's first shift.  The theft of the door involved magics powerful enough to awaken the Obsidian Protocol.  Although I have deemed Elsewhere itself, and its plane-shifting qualities, not a threat to reality, if Timaeus is the one who created it, his powers are potentially a threat to reality itself.""What about the Elsewhere Compass?" asked Avoroth.  "I was recently told it only had about an 83% accuracy rate, even back when it was properly functioning.""I believe the 83% accuracy rate is due to the compass predicting where Elsewhere is supposed to go each year, but there might be a way to manually control where it goes.  Unfortunately, that means someone has, at least on occasion, been controlling where Elsewhere goes.  I estimate a high probability it was Timaeus who gave Asharen the instructions on how to build the Elsewhere Compass in her dreams - and very possibly he who has shifted the town from its intended course upon occasion.""I have a question," interjected Gonkle, who up until now had been silent."Certainly.""That letter we signed, didn't it say something about you'd pay us for bringing you back that box from the Factory?""It did," replied Obsidian Omega Chi, and he passed over their stipulated fees.After a few days of rest, the group was picking up the last items they were purchasing when the alarm bells - a ring of eight bells on tall poles spaced equidistant around the perimeter of the circular town - began ringing, all at once.  This was the indication enemies had infiltrated the town and for all defenders to fight back against whatever invading force had shown up.  However, the bells were quickly silenced not long after they had begun their warning peals.Gonkle and Wilbur were both standing in the open-air blacksmith shop of Angalvir, a flame-haired azer from the Elemental Plane of Fire who crafted most of the new weapons and armor in Elsewhere.  The fiendish half-orc had paid to have a magical enhancement added to his masterwork plate mail armor and had just buckled it into place (with Wilbur's assistance); as expected, Angalvir had done an excellent job and the fit was perfect.  The shadow druid had purchased a magic scimitar, enhanced to aid his hand when striking an enemy with it.  Both spun about towards the street behind them, seeking to spot any intruders in the town, but saw nothing untoward.  Still, knowing combat was likely inevitable, Wilbur cast a bear's endurance spell on Gonkle, intending to buoy him up for whatever upcoming fight was about to occur.It was Amris, inside a magic shop nearby with Avoroth, who looked out the window of the shop and first saw the invaders: a pair of formian warriors scrambling down the street.  The celestial elf had just purchased a wand of magic missiles and the fiendish cleric had bought a periapt of wisdom he now wore on a silver chain around his neck.  "It's more of those ant things!" she told Avoroth and the wizard who ran the shop; they were currently the only ones inside the small building.Wilbur stepped out of Angalvir's blacksmith shop and saw the approaching formians - or at least one of them, who had split away from the other one and was headed directly towards the shadow druid.  Tamaskan stepped up beside her master, flaming tail held upright behind her, and crouched in a defensive posture, ready to pounce upon their enemies.  But the formian warrior ignored the pair, intent on his true target: Angalvir, who was grabbing up a hefty hammer to help defend the town.The other warrior made a bee-line straight for the wizard's magic shop, opening up the front door and stepping inside.  He held some sort of softly-glowing net in his hands and casually tossed it over the head of the wizard shopkeeper.  Over at the blacksmith's shop, the other warrior did likewise, catching the azer in a similar net, which almost seemed to be made out of mist.  In both cases, the targets just stood there as if dazed, not trying to get themselves untangled from the misty nets covering their upper bodies.Amris scrambled over the counter and stood by the dazed wizard, hoping the barrier would give her some protection from the centaurian ant.  She fired off the first charge of her new purchase, and a pair of magic missiles went flying across the room to strike the formian in the chest.  Avoroth's first inclination was to do likewise and scramble behind the potential safety of the counter, but not wanting to look cowardly in front of the elf woman, he swallowed his fear and charged the warrior, swinging with his masterwork quarterstaff while privately regretting he hadn't had time to cast any of his "combat preparation" spells, which would either increase his fighting capabilities or shore up his defenses.  His blow was a solid one, though, and he was glad he hadn't embarrassed himself in front of what he considered to be his female flunky.Gonkle chased after the formian warrior headed towards Angalvir, splitting abdomen from thorax with a single overhead blow with his magic falchion.  The ant-thing lay there in two pieces on the ground, twitching and bleeding out, but it was already quite dead.  Wilbur, however, looked back the way the warrior had come and saw a second wave of invaders approaching: another three warriors, although the one in front, for some reason, didn't seem to have a mouth or even any mouthparts.  But not liking the odds, he cast a summon nature's ally spell and brought forth a hippogriff from the Plane of Shadows, sending it flying high up in the air above the approaching trio, so it could wheel about and swoop down at them.  Tamaskan stayed by her master's side, wary for additional threats since Gonkle had already dealt with the closest threat to them at the moment.The hippogriff didn't get to attack in quite the manner Wilbur had hoped, for the mouthless formian - a breed called a taskmaster - saw the overhead threat, dominated it with a mere thought, and sent it diving down at the shadow druid who had summoned it.  The taskmaster headed straight for the azer's blacksmith shop, passing the magic shop building along the way, with one of the warriors following him and the other arcing off towards the front door to the magic shop, around the corner.Inside said magic shop, Avoroth was already regretting his dashing heroics, for the warrior reared up and stabbed the stinger at the end of his thorax forward between his four back legs to stab the cleric of Boccob in the thigh, injecting his insidious venom into the human's bloodstream.  Avoroth felt an almost immediate wooziness take over him and realized he had - once again - been sapped of a significant percentage of his physical strength.  As he struggled with the suddenly hefty weight of his quarterstaff, he vowed to stock up on antitoxin for as long as they were stuck on this formian-infested excuse for an outer plane.  But in the meantime, he staggered back out of immediate striking range of the warrior and cast an aid spell upon himself, to at least partially make up for the lack of his pilfered strength.Amris, from behind the counter, cast a Melf's acid arrow spell at the formian, striking it in the side.  Gonkle, not in a position to see the advancing taskmaster and warrior approaching to his left, ran forward to the magic shop to see if Amris and Avoroth needed his help - after all, one was just a girl and the other a weakling cleric!Wilbur had just finished casting a shillelagh spell upon his runestaff when he saw the hippogriff swooping down at him from above.  He dodged out of the way in time and then hastily dismissed the shadow creature from the plane of Mechanus.The taskmaster smashed open a window to the magic shop, peered inside, and dominated the human wizard shopkeeper before moving off, heading towards Angalvir.  Inside the shop, the wizard started sleepwalking his way over to the front door, even though it was currently blocked by the formian warrior who'd stabbed Avoroth.  The wizard didn't seem to mind, patiently waiting for the fight to be over so he could stumble out of his shop and go meet his new masters.  The warrior stabbed its stinger at Avoroth again, but this time the cleric got out of the way in time.  And then the formian, whose carapace was still being eaten away by the acid from the elf witch's previous spell, was slain when Amris cast another magic missile spell his way.  It collapsed in the doorway and the wizard took the opportunity to continue his journey, stepping over the insectoid corpse and out into the open air, not even bothering to remove the mind fog net that had weakened his defenses against such telepathic domination.Gonkle had by this time turned the corner, saw the formian inside the shop was dead, and charged the two other warriors at the far end of the shop.  Avoroth, in the meantime, scrambled over to the broken window, stuck his head out, and saw the back end of the taskmaster as he headed towards Angalvir.  That was enough for the cleric to cast a spiritual weapon spell at the retreating taskmaster, but then he had to climb through the window to keep the force-quarterstaff in view so he could keep it striking the formian mentalist from behind.  He nearly fell head-first out of the narrow window, and caught his robes on a jagged piece of glass; So much for my dignity! he thought bleakly to himself as he did a little hop-step to keep himself from falling face-first onto the brick street.The taskmaster ambled right past Wilbur, ignoring the druid - and his attempt to whack him with his runestaff, which failed - as he dominated Angalvir once within visual distance.  The azer began a sleepwalking pace toward the spot where the two warriors were congregating and fighting off a battle-crazed Gonkle, who was doing a lot more damage to them than they were able to inflict upon him.  One did get him with a stinger, although the strength drain the orc suffered was only a mere fraction of what Avoroth had experienced.Wilbur chased after the taskmaster and struck at him with his runestaff, once again failing to deal any appreciable damage.  Tamaskan charged the mouthless ant-thing, getting a grip on one back leg.  The taskmaster turned about and swung its claws at Wilbur, who was quick enough to dodge in time.Amris ran out of the magic shop's front door - clambering over the warrior's corpse - and called for her owl familiar, Pivot, who'd been perched upon the lower branch of a tree just outside.  "Go attack one of the ants!" she commanded, casting a shocking grasp spell through her familiar doll and into the owl's talons.  They crackled with ambient electricity and then discharged as the little avian touched the carapace of one of the formian warriors Gonkle was fighting.  The orc saw the owl's maneuver and immediately shifted targets, taking that one out and cleaving his falchion into the body of its partner.  Avoroth took time to cast a quick bless spell upon the group of scouts as he chased after the formian taskmaster, keeping it in sight so his spiritual quarterstaff could continue its attacks.And during all of this combat, the two shopkeepers continued their ambling way towards the nearest pickup point, where formian warriors would be waiting to take them away to their nest.  The nets were sagging and parts of them were dragging along behind them, but they took absolutely no notice.Wilbur slammed his shillelagh-enhanced runestaff at the taskmaster, while Tamaskan continued gnawing at his leg.  The insectoid stabbed at the druid with its venom-tipped stinger, getting a hit in through Wilbur's armor and draining away a portion of his strength as well.Amris cast a magic missile spell over at the warrior Gonkle was fighting, and between that spell and the orc's next strike with the blade of his falchion, the ant-thing fell to the street, dead. Avoroth cast a shield of faith spell on himself, allowing the hovering quarterstaff made of solid force energy to do his fighting for him while he got himself properly prepared for combat.  Wilbur and Tamaskan continued their attacks, and the druid saw the wizard shopkeeper stroll by Gonkle, who was wiping blood from his blade.  "Tackle that guy!" Wilbur called over to the orc.  "Don't let the ants get him, or Angalvir!"  But before the orc could comply, the dire fell fox had sprinted the distance between them and tackled the elderly wizard to the ground - unknowingly, placing herself in the front lines as the third wave of formian invaders turned the corner and approached.This third wave consisted of only two formian warriors, and it seemed as if they had arrived specifically to take their dominated victims away.  But they both stabbed at Tamaskan with their venomous stingers, and the dire fell fox was injected with about the same amount of venom as had Avoroth; the results were nearly identical, in any case.  Amris activated another change from her new wand and sent two more magic missiles flashing into one of the new warriors' carapaces.  Gonkle ran up and took out both warriors in rapid fashion, his blade slicing deep into their armored shells, leaving them bleeding in the street like the others.That left only the taskmaster still in sight of the planar scouts as their sole remaining enemy.  It stabbed at Wilbur again, but he used his innate ability to blend into the shadows of the building nearby to avoid any damage from the insect's claws and stinger.  But with Tamaskan keeping the wizard from wandering away, Gonkle was able to likewise grab up Angalvir while the others all surrounded the taskmaster and attacked for all they were worth.  Avoroth's spiritual weapon by this time had winked out, so he was forced to use his own quarterstaff as a club and whack at the insect, while Wilbur put his runestaff to good use.  Eventually, it was weakened enough Pivot was able to claw at one of its multifaceted eyes, and that staggered it sufficiently for Amris to take it out with a final blast from her wand.With the taskmaster dead, its dominated victims awoke from their trances, and Gonkle and Tamaskan released them."Listen!" called out Gonkle.The others listened.  "I don't hear anything," remarked Amris."Yeah," the orc grinned, his tusks gleaming in the sunlight.  "The sounds of battle are dying down.  I think the rest of the town had as much success as we did!"That indeed proved to be the case.  Subsequent investigations into the whole ordeal revealed one of the other scouting parties had been dominated by a formian taskmaster and had been sneaking formians into Elsewhere, waiting to strike to kidnap key individuals, mostly magic crafters.  Unfortunately, it seemed the town's mayor, an anarchic human known for regularly changing his name on a whim, was among the missing."That's not good!" exclaimed Amris when she found out."It most certainly is not!" agreed Wilbur.  "We need to track them down and find out where they took him!" - - -And that - no surprise - will be the focus of our next adventure...where we'll now be 5th-level PCs.</blockquote>

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