Twisted Infinity

[Wrahn]

Ata, Glangim~

The processional begins to form even before sunrise, it appears most of Dun
Faerin will escort Derricks body to the Gates. Some still carry ale from the
wake.

Aegrin Stonesplitter aproaches Ata and Glangim, looking at Glangim, “I be
understanding that Derrick asked ye to carry him down. If so, ye best be
getting with the clan.” He turns to show you where to go and disappears.

Looking around the gathering processional in confusion, all of them appear to
be gone as well. There is a feeling of disorientation and both of them can
begin to see the city change and grow around them. The ceiling expands, as
does the cavern the city is built in.

The disorientation diminishes after a moment and it is apparent, that Dun
Faerin or what was once Dun Faerin is quite prosperous and much more heavily populated. Or it would seem that way if there were any people. Dominating the city is a titanic statue of a dwarf holding a warhammer over it’s head, though they can not see who the statue is suppose to represent, as it’s back is to them.

A rhythmic pounding can be heard, coming from the high gate, the gate that
leads to the surface. A group of six dwarves run by carrying block and tackle
and some relatively impressive ropes. Following behind them is a grizzled
dwarf, neither Ata or Glangrim recognize and a drow elf.

“The wards be holdin’. That is a right fine job you did.” The dwarf speaking
to the drow, neither of whom seem to notice your presence.

“It won’t hold them forever. I would guess if they don’t break through the
walls before tomorrow, they will teleport through.”

“Ah, don’t be worrying your head about that. We’ll be long dead before then. Ya know, there is still time for you to be fleeing deeper, there is no need to dying up here with us.”

The drow smiles, “A lot has changed since we were enemies. In my life I would have never believed that I would argue for the right to stay and die with a bunch of dwarves.”

“Nor me be thinking it would have been likely that in King Glangrim’s time that
we would be sending our families to the drow for safety.” The Dwarf laughs,
but is cut short by a cracking noise. “I knew we should have used more
reinforcement on those gates. Ah well, it was inevitable. Dun Faerin was a
good home, I will be proud to die for her.” He says unslinging his hammer,
moving toward the gate.

The sounds of battle can be heard over the low building of the city. Horrible
noises too, inhuman. A winged demonic form flies low across the roof tops,
with a dwarf holding on with one hand and hacking on it with an axe in the
other. The streak into a building and neither comes out.

There is a horrible scream rising back from the gate. Something large rips
through the 30ft high gate corridor. They can see it, it looks like a cross
between a demon and a dragon as enters the main courtyard, unleashing it’s hell breath.

Ata notices first the massive statue begins to tip forward, The dragon doesn’t notice in time to avoid the only thing larger than it falling down crushing it. A great cry rises from defender as the dragon tries to rise from the crushing weight, and fails, lying still.

The sound of the combat continues. Finally the lone dwarf, the drow friend
from before staggers back to in front of the ale house, he slips to the floor
and stops breathing. The air and streets seem to fill with demons of all
shapes and sizes and then are gone, leaving the body of the dwarf there.

The disorientation seems to pick up again and they watch the body decay to bone and then even the bones turn to dust in the silence.

 

[Wrahn]

Elly (or better know as she with too many names)~

Elias smiles at her, “You certainly know how to make this difficult, don’t you.” He leans down and kisses her gently, but breaks off before it can become more serious, “If we start that I will never leave. Come, get dressed, if you want to see me off, we need to get away from the town.”

The two lovers make it out onto the road, out of the sight of the town without too many more delays. Elias looks around and then locks eyes with Elly and smiles. And then he is gone like a memory. In his place stands a beast, magnificent in it’s splendor. The moon and even the stars seem to reflect a thousand ways off his scales. He is as large as a house, his sheer size is intimidating. But as Elly looks at him, she can still see him in his eyes.

“I will return as soon as I can.” His voice is still the same, except several octaves lower. He lowers his head to her and lightly nuzzles her, a draconic version of a kiss. Then his muscles bunch and he springs into the air, his great wings beating in the air, carrying him aloft. He makes one circle, to insure Elly sees him in silhouetted against the half moon and then quickly fades into the distance.

Elly begins returning to the town, to gather her possessions and to get underway, since she was already up. She is almost at the first building of the town when she feels “funny”.

She looks around to try and pinpoint a source, but doesn’t immediately notice anything. She is almost ready to give up when she notices the sun rising. It is far too early for the sun to come up. She is strangely not overly concerned about it, almost like it was a dream.

Time seems to increase in it’s passage around her. Soon days are flying by and soon after that it is almost a strobe effect as the day passes in a blink of an eye. It is impossible to say how much time passes when the effect finally stops, but at least decades, maybe centuries.

She still stands outside of the town, but the town has been fortified. It has a strong, thick stone wall, bristling with spears, which looked silver tipped. There is a moment of silence as the scene comes into focus and then she watches a silvery bolt of energy streak from the town and thunderously explode behind her. As she turn to see what the bolt was firing at, the entire scene comes to life with the deafening sound of battle.

She turns to look and sees a scene that will she will carry with her to the end of her days. A horde of demons, so large that she could not see the end of it. Every shape and size, every imaginable and unimaginable form moving in the sea of seething demon flesh. The sky is likewise filled with flying demons.

The town looks battered, and there are sever steaming demon corpse around it, but it is obvious that nothing can stand against a horde so vast. As the army advances on it, more silvery bolts shoot from within the confines, killing demons by the score, but it like taking a bucket of water out of the ocean, there is little discernable effect. When the demons get close to the wall, however, they twist in agony. Some explode messily. The town has some formidable protections, apparently. Yet the horde pushes forward. Demons die by the hundreds, some try to turn back, they cannot resist the wall of bodies pushing them forward, to their doom.

Eventually the tide parts and the town is completely engulfed by the horde, except a hundred feet from its walls, there is a circle of dead demons. It is hard to tell from Elly’s perspective, but there is a seems to be a ripple through the horde and then terrible screams of pain coming from the horde. It is difficult to understand exactly what is happening, but some of the demons have fused together to make one larger demon. Horrifically all the demons are still alive and seem to be in terrible pain, screaming horribly.

The screaming changes pitch and Elly realizes the thing is speaking through the screams of it’s victims, “Shulvoros is not amused mortals, it is time to die.” Shulvoros holds it’s hands out and incants a spell. Three silver bolts strike it, but seem to disapate without hurting it.

Shulvoros completes its spell and there is a distortion around the town. Then it is gone and the demons surge forward.

Just before the demons reach the walls there is an immense roar heard from above the clouds. It stops the demons in their tracks, looking up. The roar is answered by another roar and then another. The demons seem to know what this is as they start scrambling back from the wall.

Decending from the clouds is an immense Red Dragon, larger than anything Elly has ever seen, it is flanked by two dragons nearly as big, a Copper and a Green. Their breath destroys anything that caught in it, as the strafe the fleeing demons. More dragons descend from the clouds, magic erupting from them. Cyclones decend from the clouds, wrecking havok on their flyers and ground forces alike. Scores of dragons do battle with the horde.

Elly had heard legends of the dragons coming together in the time of the Star Comets. The stories did not do the power of a wing of Dragon credit. She begins to hope that victory may indeed be possible.

One Dragon catches Elly’s eye, a silver, Elias. He is much larger than he was, but she is sure it is him. He is battling what looks to be a Balor. Elly tries to go to him, to help him, but she is just an observer here. Exhaling his freezing breath finally sends the demonic thing crashing to the ground. He spreads his wings to gain some altitude and is caught full in the chest by a bolt of dark energy coming from Shulvoros. She could swear that he looks straight at her and then he falls from the sky.

Seconds later, a Gold, as large as the first red carried a half dozen demons that are attempting to claw through its hide, and itself, crashing through Shulvoros, his component demons flying apart.

The disorientation flashes again, she looks back to the city, it is barely a pile of rubble, there is no life anywhere around it. Skeletons of dragons litter the ground, only to be buried by blowing dust.

 

[Wrahn]

And Finally We Begin...

All~

Everyone’s respective scenes fade to darkness. A moment without time seems to pass and everyone becomes aware of the smell of oil. As they all become aware, they can see a titanic gear move past the platform they are standing on.

There is a distant sound of well maintained clockworks going on off the side of the platform. As they take in their surroundings, they become aware of one another. They also become aware, coming down a flight of steps ahead of them is a man.

Perhaps a man. Whatever it is, it moves like a man but is completely invisible, except for the robe it is wearing. The robe is reddish orange with trim of a dark blue with runes on it. When he reaches the bottom of the stairs he stops and pulls his hood back, revealing nothing but open air.

He speaks, in a perfectly normal voice, “I apologize for bringing you here like this, but there is much at stake and I don’t have a great deal of time. I am Gha’uem and I have shown you the future. I have done this so that you might help avert it.”

 

[Someone]

[Wow, that sure was worth the waiting]

Tares quickly invokes a See Invisibility spell, still trying to recognize the place: the last days have been both frustrating and exciting, a mixture that he had not feel since he was mastering his first cantrip. How´s that he never found this place with the Mirror? His intuition was right: there´s always something beyond.

“I´m Tares Hehrog, a… practitioner of Magic of certain fame where I come.” Says the sorcerer on the cautious side; the others here could very well come from different worlds or time streams. “Though you surely know it, these people…” Tares eyes them sideways “…may not. If time is of importance, I have to ask you to explain yourself, even when I find certain things… intriguing.”

 

[Wrahn]

[Thanks ]

Disturbingly See Invisible shows nothing other than what you see with your own eyes.

“There are terrible forces in play, Tares Hehrog, forces, at the moment you are unable to deal with. Forces that if you became aware of them, they would become aware of you.”

“We currently exist outside of time. Thus we are safe from those forces and they should not immediately become aware we are talking. But once you are returned to the place and time where I took you from, they may become aware of what has happened if you bring back too much information.”

“Thus my purpose here is to show you the end result of the problem and set your feet upon a road that will hopefully prevent what is destined to happen.”

 

[Pyrex]

Dimitri, Cleric of Pelor

Pausing a moment to try and absorb what he has just seen, Dimitri looks at the others who have been brought here and at Gha’uem, the formless entity who has done the bringing.

Tares' introduction snaps Dimitri back to the present; and though he has many questions he chooses to follow Tares' course and introduce himself then give the one who brought them here a chance to explain.

"I am Dimitri, from the Abbey of St. Belfast, in the town of Penthrift near the river Guell."

Dimitri is 6' tall, with blue eyes and blond hair just starting to fade towards gray. Even though he's only wearing simple brown robes & sandals and carrying little more than a walking stick a subtle sense of peace and warmth seems to radiate from him.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

A startled looking hawk shifts form momentarily before settling on the guise of a young man of peasant stock in simple brown clothes.

"I see. What may we know without endangering ourselves in our own time?"

A True Sight spell on the man reveals a man-sized formless, shifting mass.

 

[Lichtenhart]

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Elly screams as Elias is struck and falls and as the vision turns to dust and then nothingness. She is lost in her pain as Gha’uem begins to speak, but she catches his last words 'you might help avert it', and remembers that she was not called Arumanna because she settled down and cried. So she stands up, wipes her tears, and looks at the people around her.
"Glanten, is that you? It's been ages, my friend, I hope you found what you were looking for. And... Tares Hehrog the Archsorcerer, and Dimitri the Wise! I've heard of you, and I would have liked to meet you in more pleasant circumstances. I am but a traveling minstrel, but I'll give you all the help I can offer. I have...many names but you can call me Ellywick Faeral Turgen. Oh, well, just Elly for you."
Then she turns to the being that brought them here, and she's unsure of her feelings towards him. A part of her hates him for what he has showed her, but if he's not lying and there's a hope to prevent that from happening, he's her best friend in the whole world.
"Yes, Gha’uem, we're listening. What should we know and what should we do?"

 

[Wrahn]

[ooc: True Seeing reveals nothing except what your eyes see.]

“What you have seen is the end of the world, but what you don’t know is it is the end of everything.”

“Have you heard the saying, “A pebble can start an avalanche?” The right pebble in the right place can also stop one, or in this case six pebbles.”

“But I do not expect you all to do this out of the kindness of your hearts. As some of you have undoubtedly noticed, your personal development has reached a kind of plateau. In fact you have reached the apex of what mere mortality can achieve.”

“However it is possible to become more, to transcend what it means to be merely mortal. The are many paths to this power, mostly involving subjugation to some concept or divinity. But there are a few rare ways that allow one epic power on their own terms.”

“In return for agreeing to stop the fiends, I offer you access to the Path of Contention.”

He pauses briefly, “We are running short on time, the power requirements to do this are immense. I am going to need to return you all to your place of origin. If you choose to accept my offer and save you world, go to Sigil, the Blaunth Counting House. Retrieve lot number 6821E. All six of you will be required to get it, however.”

 

[Lichtenhart]

"I didn't ask for anything. If I can prevent that from happening, that'll be enough of a reward to me. But now you got me curious: what are the other paths? Or to stop that future from becoming reality we all must walk the Path of Contention?"
Elly again wonders if they can really trust this being that doesn't show himself. He listen to his voice carefully looking for those little signs that label a lie.

OOC: Sense Motive +15