Part 3: Fava beans and a nice Chianti

[sirpercival]

Thrash, the Uruk-hai, and the goblins stare in shock as the flying man disappears again, but after a moment Thrash steps back and bellows, "They're here!  Go, you maggots!" He concentrates for a moment, and there's a strange ripple through the air -- then suddenly the Null Zone evaporates.

The tattooed orc reaches into a pouch, his face splitting into a vile grin.  "Watch out behind you...!" he calls, and with a flick of his thick wrist, a half-dozen Witchlight Marauders (the smallest ones, the same kind he had produced in the Warrens) land on the dais, with meaty thuds.

The rearmost goblins are devoured almost instantly, and the rest of them let out a chorus of terrified yells.  Some of them vanish with distinctive *pop*s.  The Uruk-hai look nervous, and stay near the walls of the chamber.

Thrash then makes a couple of strange gestures ((Ror, spellcraft pls)) and two huge designs, made of the same chalky substance that covers the orc's body, spring into being on the dais.  They begin to shift and crawl, shepherding the Marauders toward the space where the flying man disappeared.

[FireInTheSky]

Ror's Rolls:

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Spellcraft: 1d20+35 = 47.

MM requested the other rolls at the end of the previous IC thread.

Knowledge (Religion) - The Nothing: 1d20+35 = 47
Knowledge (Religion) - Vinglot: 1d20+35 = 38
Percentiles: 87%

EDIT:
RorO will give RorA/RorB/RorC/RorD the go, using the newfound knowledge from Star to try and avoid killing any new allies.  They will also steer clear of the Witchlights, since that's probably where we're going to focus our energies.

[GuyFawkes]

Rolls! (From the previous IC thread)

KoATB (direct knowledge):

Rolled 1d20+44 : 4 + 44, total 48

KoATB (Guardians Archives): [roll]1d20+44[/roll
Percentile roll:

Rolled 1d100+2 : 47 + 2, total 49

[GuyFawkes]

KoATB (Guardians Archives):

Rolled 1d20+44 : 6 + 44, total 50

[phaedrusxy]

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Know(re) for Vinglot 34, 58%
Know(rel) for Maegnus, The Nothing 32, 40, 81%, 11%

[Bozwevial]

The dizziness has barely passed before a flood of information roars into Darayat's mind. His eyes light up at Star's mental contact. <Star! Wonderful to see you again! And Corlin, Shallen, Malena, Peralia, Cyradel, Vint! I have missed a lot, haven't I?>

To Arkesh's warning, he responds, <Arkesh, is it? Look, I just fell down a flight of stairs, do I seem like a brilliant assassin to you? I mean, I won't say no to brilliant, but now's not the time. Truce while we deal with Thrash, and then we can talk this over? And you can just call me Darayat. Much quicker than 'harbinger of destruction.'> Rubbing at a rising lump on the back of his head, he takes a deep, steadying breath.

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Probably ought to transfer some bookkeeping over here, eh? Anyway, full-round action to drop into prophetic trance, swift action to burn Economy of Motion for an IP, then recovering Redoubled Focus. When the initiative count actually comes up, that is.

IP: 3 of 6.
HP: 144.
Maneuvers readied: Dual Thorn, Redoubled Focus, Hazel Trigger, Lesser Metamagic Trigger.
Stance: Potent Trigger.

Ongoing effects:
Prophetic Trance: 12 rounds remaining.
Greater Invisibility: CL 16, 32 round duration, 26(?) rounds remaining.
Mirror Image: CL 16, 7 mirror images, 32 minute duration (less some amount of time).
Fly: CL 16, 32 minute duration (less the above amount of time).
See Invisibility: CL 16, 320 minute duration (5.33 hours) (less a piddly amount in comparison).
Freedom of Movement: CL 16, 320 minute duration (5.33 hours) (probably not running out any time soon).

[MetroMagic]

Here’s a location recap. Following the map:

Thrash and his minions are in the large chamber at the bottom of the map near the center with the big square dais in it. The chamber is about 50 feet high, with ornately carved rock everywhere; it’s a spectacular example of Dwarven architecture with a broad flat dais and its circle of inset runes, and a grand staircase descending broadly from the dais to a polished rock floor. Thrash is on the dais, at the center near the portal arch. Almost all the goblins are off the dais on the floor. The Uruk-Hai are mostly on the floor; one is near the portal to ‘urge’ the goblins off the dais and down the stairs, with a whip.

Darayat is flying in the air at the bottom of the steps, just off the north side of the dais.

Team Evil is outside the chamber on the wide river passage to the northeast, and is approaching the chamber from that direction. They are now only a couple of rounds away, if that.

Team Evil’s Force creature is hovering in the air above the dais at the north center of the chamber, about 20 feet up to spread the Fear effect over a wide area.

Team Good (the originals plus Group10 of copies) is Earthgliding underneath the chamber inside the rock floor, and slightly northwest of it, except for Sable who is directly underneath the dais.

Team Good’s Group3 and 4 are Polymorphed to Water Elementals and are sweeping downriver toward the chamber, They are moving very fast, speed of current plus speed of creature, and will soon overtake Team Evil’s original position.

Except for Halfaz3 and 4, who fought a heroic delaying action singlehanded – well, doublehanded, there were two of them – against the remaining Goblins in the auction area AA and are just now jumping into the river, Polymorph form to be determined.

Team Good’s Group7 and 8 are Earthgliding in from the north, deep below the cavern floor to pass underneath the riverbed. They are moving slowly and won’t be at the cavern for a while.

The Elf-Witchlight battle is in the north-east section of the warrens, pretty far away from the chamber.

Parrots are everywhere! Sqaaak! If you catch sight of one they are mostly in Imp Fiendish Raven form to foil the LE Forbiddance.

Goblins are everywhere also. If you catch sight of one, don’t let him catch sight of you. He has lots of friends.

[FireInTheSky]

Parrots are everywhere! Sqaaak! If you catch sight of one they are mostly in Imp form to foil the LE Forbiddance.

They're actually in (Fiendish) Raven form.


Ror10 pulls a piece of chalk out of his belt pouch, slices his thumb on his axe, and quickly sketches a very precise design on the back of his shield.  A middling amount of magical power swiftly coalesces around him, and then, just as quickly, is gone.  (Charges a Quickened Lesser Ritual of Speech, and immediately discharges it).

Ror10 uses a Sending to contact Thrash with the following, which RorO puts on the link simultaneously: Thrash!  You DARE defile Dumathoin's Works with your evil purpose?  Tremble, for His Hand shall smite you down where you stand!

Ror10 then immediately ends the spell (but not the ritual), since he has no need to hear a response, whether or not Thrash sends one.

Back on the Link, RorO says, <I am going in to destroy him.  If you wish to retain your copies and other benefits, you can come with me, but I am going in regardless.>

RorO and Ror10 move toward the surface, headed for an area recently hit by RorA/B/C/D and now devoid of life.  He's not headed for the Witchlights - he wants Thrash.  We now have a TON of firepower, lots of which can focus on the Witchlights.

RorO ascends from the ground, leading with his glowing emerald axe, until he is floating 5' off the ground.  (If the immediate area around him was Forbiddanced, it isn't any longer.)  Once he has emerged fully, purplish-white fire explodes from RorO's chest, forming in front of him into huge vaguely humanoid creature with wings, but no arms.  The entire chamber now crackles with raw magical energy, making the hair on everyone's arms, legs, and neck stand up.

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Immediately after the creature has formed, RorO steps forward into it.  RorO grows from his normal ~4' to 25' tall, grows a pair of wings, and his entire body bursts into the same purple-white flames.  Where there were two creatures, there is now only one.

RorO bellows out from his new height, Thrash!  The Hand of Dumathoin comes!

[MetroMagic]

Not only does the Magical energy make the hair on everyone's arms, legs, and neck stand up, but there is now a subtle pulse from Ror’s Magic as he Casts, a ripple passing through the world shifting to accommodate the Effects. There is a strange sense of synesthesia, heady and disorienting; the taste of hot steel, the sound of piquant cinnamon and malt wash across your senses. Even the Elves in the far-off Witchlight battle pause for an instant, as the momentary disorientations flood across the link. Arkesh curses softly, swearing on the Link, her warning that these are the potent traces of…

First Age Magic.

Thrash turns to face Ror, eyes wide. Evidently he has not missed the signs either. He upends the pouch at his belt, spilling out the rest of its contents in his haste. Four more Tertiary Witchlight Marauders roll out onto the dais, along with a shower of berries.

In its sheath at Darayat’s side, Maegnas vibrates gently, tolling softly in resonance like a bell with each rippling pulse.

The emerald sparkle from Ror’s axe reflects off the highly polished rock, repeated from thousands of edges in carvings and runes across the ceiling and walls. A deep green faint glow lights the air, as if memories are stirring in the rock, forgotten Ages ago.

[Scout89]

Halfaz34 polimorph into Thorks and start making their way to the big room with a square dias.
Meanwhile, HalfazO turns into an Efreet. Then he assumes the Assassin Stance, turns on his Flaming Aura and charges at the Uruk-Hai with a whip using the maneuver Searing Charge.

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Attack (Shimnack, 15-20, x2)

Rolled 1d20+26 : 10 + 26, total 36

Confirming

Rolled 1d20+24 : 6 + 24, total 30

Damage

Rolled 8d6+7 : 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 6, 4 + 7, total 34

Crit Damage

Rolled 2d6+7 : 6, 5 + 7, total 18

Halfaz10 moves in to protect RorO's flank.

[MetroMagic]

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Halfaz – You may still crit! Roll twice to hit, +2 Time bonus. Star is still supplying the combat map on the Link. She hasn't said much, too busy, but you're in combat too and she isn't letting you down now!

And don’t forget the +2 Luck bonus from Janis, you’re still in The Plan^TM, and +5 Morale bonus from Ror’s Circle. You’re definitely close enough to Ror to get the +5, one of the benefits of charging in with him. All of the plusses also apply to your crit confirmation roll. Were those counted in or do we have to adjust your rolls upward?

[MetroMagic]

In Dragon form Throisar is faster than others in the party so... you have time to pause, set up Haste, and continue, arriving just ahead of them anyway… Hastily. Done.

The Haste is in place when Throisar bursts into the chamber almost at the same time as Ror and four copies, Halfaz, and Halt with one copy; it appears that the Dragon is going into the chamber to crunch Goblins, one of many favorite snack foods for Dragons, they're like peanut nougat bars, both crunchy and chewy at the same time. Or some other targets, but the Uruk-Hai and Thrash are much less tasty, and kind of tough when they're raw. Both types of Orcs need tenderizing first; thorough pummeling should work.  :-)

The Dragon is deep forest green, massive and powerful, fully mature in size, an engine of sinuous muscle and destruction. Its scales fairly glow in the faint green light spreading around the chamber; with the distant battle flickers coming through the rocks, its menace of dark greens against shadow is simply terrifying. Ahead of the Dragon, a wave of fear washes through the Goblin horde and droves of them fall wailing to the ground, preparing to die.

As the Dragon rushes toward the center and comes closer to Ror… suddenly there is not one Dragon.

There are twenty-four more. None are Hasted, and they have no Magic, but they are all awaiting instructions from Throisar. He has become an army of his own.

Darayat too is thrust into the middle of Ror’s approach, and instantly there are twenty-four more of him also, without Magic, awaiting his instructions.

Both ThroisarO and DarayatO, the originals, can see all of their copies spring into place on the combat map, and their life force levels are much dimmer. Six of the copies glow half as brightly as the originals, and eighteen of the copies glow only one quarter as brightly. But the Dragons are no less impressively horrible, their teeth are no less sharp, and nearly the entire mass of Goblins begins shrieking in terror, with nowhere to escape from so many.

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The copies don’t know what they can and can’t do; they know exactly what you knew when they came into existence. But you and they quickly figure out the following, in OOC game mechanics terms: The copies have the same ability scores, and attack, damage, and save stats as the originals. They have no Magic items though they have mundane copies of similar appearance, they have no memory for Spells, and they have no touch for Completion-type items, which they can’t get to work for them. They have all of your EX abilities and none of your Casting and SU/SLA abilities. Other than that, they’re fine, thank you. Have a nice day.

[Scout89]

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Thanks, Star, for another opportunity! This time is with all the buff.

Attack (+2 from the charge, +2 from Star, +2 from Jannis' plan, +5 from Ror)

Rolled 1d20+35 : 5 + 35, total 40

Confirming

Rolled 1d20+35 : 19 + 35, total 54

Damage

Rolled 8d6+7 : 6, 4, 1, 4, 2, 6, 4, 3 + 7, total 37

Crit damage

Rolled 2d6+7 : 4, 1 + 7, total 12

[sirpercival]

As Ror transforms, Darayat and Throisar sprout copies, and Halfaz charges, several things happen at once.

RorABCD move to the corners of the room and goblins begin to melt, their structural integrity destabilized by whirlwinds of negative energy mixed with force needles.  Two Uruk-hai are caught in the area as well, and they stumble, looking distinctly uncomfortable, though they remain standing.

Halfaz's charge bites into the flesh of one of the Uruk-hai, which seems not to disturb it unduly.  It grins at him and licks its lips, readying an enormous sword in both hands.

Standing behind his wall of Marauders, Thrash considers the new and improved Ror, and then a slow smile splits his misshapen face.  "The Silent Keeper sets his Hand against me, using the ancient Art?  Pardon if I am not overly cowed."

Then the orc spreads his hands in a wide gesture, and from them erupts a silent burst which ripples through the chamber in almost-slow-motion.  It picks up dust from the floor and washes over the Marauders with little effect, though as it moves, reality briefly seems to stutter out of phase.  Then the wave reaches the foremost copy, which likewise loses focus, and then simply... dissolves.  The ripple is no longer silent, carrying along a remembered echo of chanting and more whitish dust.

Then the tide breaks over Ror, Throisar, Halfaz, and the rest of the copies, filling the entire room and beyond.  As it washes over Ror, all of the copies - every single one, everywhere - disappear.  The wave is now a roar of a thousand voices, and below a bracelet on Ror's wrist there is a small trickle of blood.  Many of you feel an inexplicable loss...

The dust clears and Thrash stands triumphantly.  "Where is your Art now?"

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I'm going to let MM handle the Knowledge & %% rolls.

Ror's Spellcraft (I'll let the same roll count for all of this) picks up what Thrash has been doing -- he's using Ritual magic!  Some of it Ror has never seen before, though he can deduce its purpose.  First he used some sort of targeted ritual to disrupt the Null Zone, then he summoned two Crawling Glyphs which have rituals you don't recognize built into them.  The Glyph scribed on his skin you do recognize (Time Vortex).

You don't exactly know what it was that he just did (though you're 99% sure that he did the same thing to groups 1 & 6 before they disappeared), but it wiped out every active ritual within a very large radius, including the crawling glyphs that he summoned.  This includes rituals which were held by the Bracelet, so all the copies disappeared (though there was no damage since the spell ended).  Rituals which have not yet been discharged are still there, but anything that was actually running is now gone.

Bloodfused rituals will come back as normal as if they had been suppressed.

So, the upshot is that there are no more copies right now.  This will speed up bookkeeping tremendously, so now it's time for: initiative, everyone!

[Sneaky_Sable]

Sable watches from within the embrace of the dias' stone, looking up with eyes that see through stone, flesh, and steel. No one remembers he is here, for he stopped actively thinking about his position minutes ago. Tiny, forgotten, easily overlooked, impossible to detect, and at this point hardly even thinking about the act to come the weasel thief swims through the stone beneath the active antagonist. Having enemies become allies was nothing new to the native of Meridian City.

Watching the effect roll across the room, watching duplicate after duplicate wink out of existence, Sable could only find the expression to smirk.

. o O ( And THAT'S ... why I don't like depending on magic. ) he thought to himself as he snuck.

Hell, it's how he lived day to day. The ancient saying of "Let's Him and You fight". He drew the dagger gifted to him, for it was about to serve him well. He prepared himself for the task at hand. It was adorable that Ror wanted to tackle this foe potentially alone. If Sable had his way, the hand of Dumathoin would never even know Sable was involved.

[MetroMagic]

Bral Portal Cavern


Ten foot squares. Roughly 250 feet across, and just under 600 feet long. Most sections are about 50 feet high; some arch up as high as 75.

The point near the top of the map where the river seems to disconnect slightly is correct as shown, from the perspective of someone walking its margin along the continuous cavern floor and passing over the bridge above the river at that point. There, the river falls below the gravity plane and falls back up, one of several wild rapids rides in its course.

The dais and broad, grand steps surrounding it are huge, about 100 feet on a side. The dais itself is about 40 feet square.

[MetroMagic]

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No rolls needed; Ptolemaeus can’t miss this one. He can SEE it happening.

To Ptolemaeus’ eyes, the wave of slow-motion reality stuttering that erupts from Thrash’s gesture is not colorless; unmistakeably, it is a wash of silvery-blue, smoky mist, the telltale of Temporal Prime. Along with the silvery-blue visual on the Link, the identification on the Link is: Chronomancy! The Spell that Thrash just threw Disjoined the Rituals from Time; their forward Time momentum ceased to exist as Ptolemaeus watched them unwind and turn back to Disjoined chalk, blood, and sounds of words, the echo of Ror that everyone heard.

This was the kind of Magic that tore apart the Pattern of the First Age. Wanton Chronomancy was exactly what the Guardians were formed to prevent.

First Witchlight Marauders to destroy the fabric of space, now Chronomancy to destroy the fabric of Time. Gruumsh’s shaman was living up to his Deity’s name: The Destroyer.

[FireInTheSky]

Can I tell if  whatever Thrash used to nullify the rituals was the same thing he used to get rid of the Null Zone?


Ror growls out a response to Thrash's challenge.  Where is MY Art?  Look around you, fool.  It is in the very rocks you are standing on.

On the Link: <Sable, set off another grenade.  Let's make him waste time and resources getting rid of them.>

[MetroMagic]

Just at the mouth of the Portal chamber, Gleron pauses; he had decided to depart from the copy of Sheerak that he pirated, and is just about to do so, when the Tiefling’s body suddenly starts to dissolve away from him. He makes a mad scramble back to the Troll who has been shambling along with the party, first tearing his mind away from engagement with breathing, blinking, all the autonomic motions that a mind does without much thought, pulling himself free of the Tiefling’s substance, moving his ring and making the leap back to dominate the mind of the Troll and re-engaging with the next body’s functions there.

It takes only an instant, but an instant can feel very, very long when it might be a fatal one. Gleron makes it back to the Troll, but is left with the shaking feeling that he’d better count his mental fingers and toes to make sure that all of him broke free of the Tiefling before she completely Disjoined, and did not take part of him with her. Gleron has just traversed terra incognita for him, a strange and terrible path where it was not the familiarity of death that released him, nor his usual orderly, voluntary departure. It was the Disjoining of his host Sheerak2 from Time itself, and he’s not entirely sure that some measure of Gleron was not lost in Time too.

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FORT save DC 28; Ror doesn’t recognize what Thrash just threw at him but can tell you it was definitely above a 9th Level Spell. Due to the Combat Map, Gleron had a brief warning that he would not normally have, so roll the Save twice and add +2 Time bonus. Lucky, isn’t it? +2 Luck from Janis, too; you’re still in The Plan^TM. And a percentile roll, 1d100+2 for Luck. Hope for an 00 or better! We’re all rooting for something extraordinary to happen!!

[phaedrusxy]

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fort saving throw

posting actions will have to wait...