To Gain the Spark IC

[Barbarian MD]

Gram approaches a likely establishment.

"Good day to you, sir. I would like to buy a rather specific weapon from you." He relays the details that were conveyed by Serah.

[Barbarian MD]

Gram listens to the man name a price, and then leans in close over the counter.

"I am sorry, but you misunderstand me. I mean to merely purchase the use of such a bow, and I cannot pay in gold for such use. What I can pay you with is information." He bulldozes past the man's objections.

"You will give me this bow, and my companions and I will release the ancient demon locked within that arrow. When that happens, a great battle will ensue, one in which I hope that no innocents are killed. You should allow me to use this bow, and then you should begin to run--as quickly as you can--from this place. Warn those that you meet, but do not turn back. I do not wish anyone to be hurt.

"The arrow must be destroyed, or else others will use the power contained within the bow to end the multiverse. I mean to stop that from happening."

He leans back. "That is my information, the price of this bow. When we are finished, I shall return your bow to you, if I yet live. If you do not allow me the use of this bow, we will find someone who will, and you will still need to run away. If we cannot find another bow, I fear that my companions will try to take your bow, and I do not honestly believe that I can stop them. They are devils, and crafty ones at that. I would rather not give them cause to sin against you in such a way, but they may very well do it.

"So, please, give me the bow now, and start running."

[industrious]

He...blinks. Was a celestial attempting to threaten him? In the Ysgardian native's mind, that ranked up with succubi magistrates and public defender devils.

Wordlessly, he points to one of the crossbows on display, still too busy processing the new information to actually speak.

[Barbarian MD]

Gram nods and reaches for the bow with one hand, but stops, his fingers hovering just over it. The thoughts of the proprietor are wide open to him, and the silent accusations tear into his heart. He holds up his other hand.

"Sir, I swear to you: I do not mean to threaten you. Without your permission, I will not touch this bow, and I will not touch your property or your person. Should you deny us, I will fight and most likely die to protect you from my companions. But it will be a futile gesture--I do not think I would win in the end, and my companions would take it from you anyway. If you agree, they will not have cause to sin. What is more, this is a matter of vital importance; we will be saving the lives of everyone in the multiverse, should we succeed.

"Now, do I truly have your permission?"

[Barbarian MD]

Gram takes the man's silence as an affirmative, and picks up the arrow and bolts. "Thank you. Godspeed, man. Pray for us, that we may end this. Now, run, as quickly as you can."

The Warden teleports back to the others. "Are we ready?"

While the others make their own preparations, Gram begins to pray quietly, asking for power from his God in the form of particular magic.

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See Invisibility, True Seeing, Shield of the Archons

When everyone else gives the affirmative, the archon steps back, aims, and fires upon the arrow, praying quietly all the while to his God that he has made the right decision and that He would grant him the strength to see this done.

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Gram is located at whatever the maximum range of the crossbow is from the arrow.

It is my hope that a battle will draw people back to this game. Either that, or Gram will die horribly in single combat, and we can call this game over.

[industrious]

The End of Time


When everyone else gives the affirmative, the archon steps back, aims, and fires upon the arrow, praying quietly all the while to his God that he has made the right decision and that He would grant him the strength to see this done.


When everyone else gives the affirmative, the archon steps back, aims, and fires upon the arrow.


When everyone else gives the affirmative, the archon steps back, aims.


When everyone else gives the affirmative, the archon steps back.


When everyone else gives the affirmative,

Click.

The arrow splinters at the strong pulls it forward, shattering into hundreds of pieces of darkwood. Hurtling through the air, they turn darker still, fading away until there is nothing left but a thin black mist, slowly coalescing into a solid whole. Two eyes appear in the middle of the smoke, glowing faintly white.

The sky turns dark, a night without neither stars nor moon to guide any sort of light. Distant mountains crumble, the grass withers and decays into dust, and the archery range has long since ceased to have existed. All that is spared are those twenty feet around the target that had been the Creature's prison for so very long.

Then the Creature's eyes turn upon the group, and they cannot help themselves. They know that it is impossible for it to be looking at all of them at once. They can see that it only has but two eyes. But the Creature stares deep into each of them, and all feel terror grip their very souls.

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Roll initiative. Everybody is shaken, with no save.

[Ryuuk]

Serah

During Gram’s absence, Serah continues to stand facing the diagram she’d drawn, eyes closed. Lost in thought, for all intents and purposes, she gone. The world seemed so much simpler now, at least parts of it did. Her new guest was ferociously feeding her the more complicated bits, the only important ones. Things beyond understanding, things that those trapped on the wheel would call blasphemous or forbidden. Things that even the mad dwellers of pandemonium or the abyss would hesitate to ask. And there was oh so much of it… And her gue---, no, her teacher, wanted more. The Creature’s inner workings would be a start, it would appease him, for now.

Compared to Lord Glaaki’s realm, the conflicts of the wheel seemed petty and unimportant. All beyond the material was in a way, part of the same. Their components just changed, but certain elements stayed. These thoughts weren’t exactly new, but it was the first time she could see them without scoffing, or throwing them aside. Who would have thought that a hole in ones chest would make things so much clearer, free someone of their irrelevant bias. Entranced by Lord Glaaki’s whispers the Angel and the Dukes influence was blocked out. That or they simply backed away, along with what remained of her maimed and heartless self. When realization dawned, it didn’t bother her. All that mattered was the task at hand.

The archon’s appearance brings her back. She spits out a glob of strange ooze but continues as if nothing had happened. She turns turns to Gram with glazed over eyes. “Ah, so you brought it, good, just a moment.” Serah looks down and changes, somewhat. In an instant, her wings melt into her and her skin turns a rosy red. It’s subtle, but as she stretches what hints of frailty she’d carried since the exchange at the well seem to vanish. “This will do for now, it should be enough. I’m as ready as I could ever be Gram.”

---

She stares into the creatures eyes, aware of the reaction it was causing in her body. It was odd, she saw as ‘her body’, not as ‘her’. Was it due to Lord Glaaki’s whispers? To the exchange? In the end, it didn’t matter; she just had to rein it in...

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Initiative was 39, 37 after shaken.

DC 30 Will save: (1d20+24)[30]
Balam's Reroll if below 30: (1d20+24)[31]

[Ryuuk]

Serah

"So you are the beast within the arrow. Quite a presence..." She only allows her body to tremble for an instant before forcing it under her rein. A tangential thought puts her as the knight who's mount has refuses to move forward and must be pushed. She dismissed it, but it captured the essence of things.

She moves away from Gram, and presumably from Calebros if he's visible, strafing around the creature. Watching the chaos, away from its presence, she decides its best to stay close. With a wave, a series of black orbs form and burst all around the creature, leaving wretched feathers in their wake. A flight of vrocks surround the creature, standing between the Creature and the party. Each one has a long spine driven somewhere into their bodies, and dead looking eyes staring out of their head. They all focus on the creature.

"Take it down."

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HP: 173/173
AC 61

Swift: Activate Travel Devotion
Move: Strafe around it
Standard: Haures' Major Image DC 25 Will to see through it if it interacts with them. Her Vrock Hit Squad will fly around it and react accordingly if attacked, they won't 'attack' it yet.

Noteworthy:
Balam's Icy Glare: 2d6 Cold damage if it fails a DC 25 Will save
Haures' Incorporeal Movement: 50% miss chance as long as she moves at least 10ft per round.

[industrious]

The Creature doesn't react; not out of sloth or lack of interest, you can tell, but something more. One is reminded of a cat, playing with its prey. Then more of the mist from outside the bubble creeps and joins with the creature, and you realize its something else: it's still regaining its strength. Even after that initial explosion of power, it required time to accumulated more.

[Barbarian MD]

Gram immediately begins to scan the area, searching desperately for a weapon "never-forged."

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Spot check, perhaps? Any weapons lying around? (1d20+32)[41]

Any indication, either from knowledge or wisdom check, about what happens if we go farther than the 20' radius?

[shadowedsoul]

Calebros

Realizing that he can't do much to the beast until he can find a never-forged weapon Calebros unstoppers his eversmoking bottle before maneuvering around in the hopes that the beast will only be able to attack one of the group at a time if they're not standing next to each other.

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Swift Action-Keep Assassin's Shadow Step Active
(Move or Standard or something, I don't really know and the srd isn't all that helpful)-Unstopper Eversmoking Bottle (50 ft. spread of smoke, will increase by 10 ft. per round until stoppered again)
Move Action-Move 25 ft. around the edge of non-existence in the opposite direction of Serah.

Hide Check-(1d20+83)[98]
Move Silently Check-(1d20+59)[62]

[AmberVael]

Typhae

Typhae watches, and waits. The trigger is pulled, the arrow shatters, and time flees along with it. Yet... she can still feel the connections to everything else, can't she? Isn't that what her wings are? Wouldn't she be powerless if everything was truly destroyed?

As if triggered by those thoughts, her wings begin shifting colors wildly, but their number seem to increase. Those that were normally invisible begin to show, waving before her in the air and streaming across the tiny landscape that remained.

They almost look like they're fraying...

Yet, despite this, they flare with power, coiling around Typhae and copying her image, shifting it all around her defensively and making it difficult to see where she really was.

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Initiative: (1d20+11)[15]

She'll cast Greater Blink, Arcane Spellsurge (swift), and just after her turn ends, Greater Mirror Image, which will give her (1d4)[1] +3 images, and another image per turn.

[industrious]

The beast does not move, but its eyes in the center of the column glitter like stars through fog, and locked in such close proximity to the monster, it's presence burns.

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Everybody take (15d6)[62] damage(untyped, but bypasses DR). No Save.

Calebros's smokescreen billows and quickly fills the area; it is nigh impossible to make anything out now, any details either of their corner of the world or the wider world outside the bubble surrounding them. But the creature's eyes still glow through the thick black cloud, and as they turn to the astral dancer, Typhae feels her blood run cold.

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Touch Attack:(1d20+40)[54]
Supernatural Ability: Temporal Stasis, with a DC 35 Fort Save to negate.

[AmberVael]

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Wheeeee...
Roll (1d20+22)[30]
I failed.

[Barbarian MD]

Gram winces as the energy lashes over him.

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So, do we have to survive three rounds with this thing before we can do anything to it? Would a wisdom check reveal that bad things would happen if he tried to strike it?

If shield of the archons saves him from damage and then is shattered, he's going to cast it again with his free time.

[Ryuuk]

Serah

As Serah burns, four voices scream into her ears in protest. She couldn't help but feel amused, her own body and Lord Glaaki had joined the Angel and the Duke's chorus. It didn't matter, she just focused and returning the damaged flesh to how it used to be.

She dismissed the Vrocks, and as curiosity got the better of her, she tried to match its gaze through the smoke with Balam's.

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HP: 164/173
AC 61

Free:Dismiss the Major Image, after each Vrock dramatically burns to a crisp.
Standard: Spending a use of Opportunistic Peity to Heal 54 HP
Free?: Balam grants a Gaze attack that deal 2d6 Cold damage with a DC 29 Will to negate. It'll probably be inconsequential, but she'll try to match it's burning gaze with an icy glare.

(2d6)[12] Cold

[industrious]

Serah attempts to stare back at the creature, to match its gaze, which was as the stars burning cold, with her own.

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(1d20)[14]

She finds her stare overwhelmed; her copy of an invocation of a nigh-forgotten entity was powerless against the very real and present abomination that stood before her.

[industrious]

The very presence of the creature is enough to make nearby reality and causality little more than suggestions. One more, they feel their bodies ripple and shudder under the strain. The Creature's gaze turns to bear on Gram, now. And while he is relieved to find that his Shield has protected him, it cannot take the strain, and shatters under the stress.

[Barbarian MD]

A sphere of magical energy briefly ignites around Gram, catching the brunt of the force, but the sphere buckles and shatters with an audible "crack." Shards fly past Gram as he shields his face.

In a moment, another one forms and disappears around him. No fear yet touches the seasoned Warden's features, but hesitancy and doubt begin to rush in. "Serah, how does this work? How much longer do we have to endure this before we may act?"

[Ryuuk]

Serah

Ignore her wounds, Serah simply watches the creature with great care, looking for any sign of another attack like the one that Typhae suffered. She felt lucid though, even with chaos around here, she was calm.

"Just endure Gram. You just broke time, it'll take a bit for it to bounce back into a proper shape. We should find something its vulnerable to once that happens. In the mean time, keep you guard up. We cannot afford to lose another one."

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124/173 HP

Readying an action to teleport and break Line of Effect, as discussed in the OoC thread.

[shadowedsoul]

Calebros

Not particularly happy with the situation, Calebros continues hiding in the corner like a little girl and gets ready to jaunt should the beastie target him with anything.

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Ready action teleport, not moving otherwise.