The Psionicle, Part II

[GnomeWorks]

Hmm... sorry about the wait, guys, I was waiting for one of you to say, "We go south." I'll make sure to remember that when you talk about leaving, that you are actually doing that (and, of course, it may or may not be applied to other things later on... )

---

As you ride uncomfortably or walk with your snacks - err, mounts - snow begins to fall lightly upon the vast plain. All around you, the empty expanse of the fields shows to you just how small you are to the world. You catch glimmers of movement in the snow - possibly rabbits or brain moles, searching for meals, or maybe something more sinister than that.

---

Around noon, Osius manages to spot a creature - a white rabbit, standing up and sniffing the crisp air. He swings his sling and lets loose, and a stone suddenly connects with the rabbit's head. It flops over, quite dead. It is not a very big rabbit, but will serve for a decent meal, or two spare ones. Osius recovers his rock.

---

The day passes by uneventfully, and you put several hours of plains behind you. The shadow of the city can be seen from where you are, and it has stopped snowing. The sun begins to set, and as it does, it comes out below the clouds and colors the snow a brilliant color, like the color of flame.

As you stop for a moment to regard this rarity of beauty in your cold world, a sudden chill passes over you for a moment. Although its sharpness passes, it remains, almost as though something were present, but unseen.

The sun sets - it is now night, the first of winter.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

"Ah, Garanasseur at last! Well, let's get on in, and out of this bitter cold, eh?"

 

[Zhure]

"C'mon Snack, let's go warm up."

Osius leads his horse toward the city's walls.

 

[GnomeWorks]

As you approach the dark stone walls of Garanasseur, a torchflame appears slightly above and behind the wall. A figure looks out at the group, and the light is extinguished. There are the sounds of running, and yelling can be heard a few moments later. The torchlight appears again.

As it does, the chill you received earlier comes again - and does not fade in its intensity. A most unusual sound reaches your eyes, as though a thick harpstring was plucked very gently.

The sound fades, and as it does, it is replaced by another - an extremely high pitched whine that sounds as though it is on the very edge of your ranges of hearing. As you turn about to seek the source of this sound, you can make out the shape of a two-footed, roughly reptilian creature. You note that its weight must be great, as it sinks in the snow deeply - but there are no tracks anywhere around it, and the snow around it is unmarked, save for your prints and those of your mounts.

The torchlight vanishes, and you can hear the sounds of hurried running, and you can hear distant calls for guards, running away from you.

The beast snarls, and snaps its jaws at you, revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. It whips its tail back and forth, and screams at you again.

---

Roll initiative.

 

[Jarval]

Jansson draws his sword, stepping forwards to attack the creature. (+6 to hit, 1d6+2 dmg).

"Gods! What on earth is this thing?"

 

[Dalamar]

"Why do these things always happen to me?"

Syld uses his Staff of Lesser Ectoplasm to fire an ectoplasmic missile at the lizard.

 

[GnomeWorks]

The End of the Battle with the Ethereal Marauder

Check the battle out in the OOC thread, here.

---

The creature's eyes begin to glaze over, and it falls back down into the snow. As it does, the flaming colors of the sun dance over it, and the creature fades slowly into a dense, light gray fog, which then proceeds to dissappear from view.

Shardorn, who was about to get down from her mount, stays seated. "That, my friends," she says, "was an ethereal marauder. They seek sustenance on this plane, and can shift between our plane and theirs at will. As you can see, however, they are not very dangerous - at least to those who are prepared."

Now that the gray mist is gone, you can see the outline of the body of the beast, as though it had lain there undisturbed for many months. You can see the remains of a skeleton, and there is no flesh or skin that can be seen. However, what you do see is the remains of its last meal - bits of flesh and bone, with a few scraps of fur intermixed.

As you examine the corpse, the sound of great mechanical workings splits through the crisp air. The sound of a rusting gate opening can be heard, and a voice cries out to you, "Come on! We're not going to leave the gate open for long, more beasts might enter. Come!"

 

[Jarval]

Shardorn, who was about to get down from her mount, stays seated. "That, my friends," she says, "was an ethereal marauder. They seek sustenance on this plane, and can shift between our plane and theirs at will. As you can see, however, they are not very dangerous - at least to those who are prepared."

Jansson goes over to the creature's remains and pokes at them with his sword.

"Well, it's a strange creature to be sure. Do you think there's likely to be more of them?"

the sound of great mechanical workings splits through the crisp air. The sound of a rusting gate opening can be heard, and a voice cries out to you, "Come on! We're not going to leave the gate open for long, more beasts might enter. Come!"

"Ah, there maybe more then. Shall we head to Garanasseur?"

Jansson mounts his horse again, waits until the others start moving, and rides towards the sound of the gates as a rear guard.

 

[Zhure]

Osius makes sure his morningstar is clean and that Snack is well.

"This is probably a dumb question, but how will a gate keep an ethereal marauder out?"

 

[GnomeWorks]

"This is probably a dumb question, but how will a gate keep an ethereal marauder out?"

While guiding her mount through the gate, Shardorn addresses your question.

"I do not know much about that. However, it seems that objects and creatures here on this plane are vague, blurry objects on the ethereal. They retain their hardness and tangibility there, though, so a gate or wall here works equally well on the ethereal."