Something Wicked this way Comes...

[LordDice]

"This is where the first Stoneshapers connected to...it must be. For ages the Falgen have been borrowing power from this place to move our stone.

Turning to Sid he continues "We dragged you from here, when I was but a boy. Binding you to myself..."

"Dozens of generations of Stoneshapers experimenting with magics, You and I were the closest they ever came. By taking a piece of your stone into myself I've been able to change the very nature of my Dwarven body."

"I cannot seem to go further though...perhaps your Kin have the answers mine sought after"

Addressing those he can feel watching ""I am Karazi, The Living Stone. I would speak with an Elder if yours if possible"

[Mr. X]

An immense boulder detaches itself from the the wall and moves toward you.

Slow, almost glacial like, it is followed be a river of smaller stones and pebbles that eventually conjoin together into a form not wholly humanoid... It is so enormous it nearly fills the whole of the chamber, and when it speaks, it's voice is like the deep rumblings of the quaking earth...

"Karazi the Living Stone... You have questions... I shall answer where I am able.

[LordDice]

"What is this place really ? Feeling so safe and secure... It's like no place I've ever been upon the world, I'm coming to suspect it isn't even a part of the real world is it ?"

"I came to feel safe, there was a connection here though Sid I guess. Those like him and yourself that Stoneshapers have called upon for ages. And called upon them I have, many times. But never like just now, always just a few came...never the shear numbers such as before. What has changed that so many of your Kin would leave to assist us like that ?"

[Mr. X]

There is a long, and perhaps, pregnant pause before the enormous elemental speaks again... Peering at the structure it has formed for its head, you find it completely implacable... Much like Sid. Despite the years you've spent together, you've always found it impossible to get a real read on your stoic companion, and the mountainous being that stands before you now is no different.

"Changed... It is you that has changed, Living Stone."

It rumbles before you.

"You were the first of your kind ever to come here... Your kind are like the moss that grows in our cracks... Their lives of little concern to the stone on which they grow..."

It passes an appending structure over its head.

"The earth is strong, but it is blind...

You have found direction for the world and are guiding and protecting it to its end...

You have become its shepherd...

... And we follow."

[LordDice]

"I see, I didn't even realize I had changed that much...but you are correct."


Turning from the Elder he looks again upon this place that feels like such a home to him, unconsciously even working the stone as he looks around...reshaping it to match his memories of the Falgen halls.

Eventually deciding to expand upon the Chamber he starts making a few tunnels and rooms, Spending some time he carefully details out a sleeping chamber.

Epic battles come alive as the stone on the wall ripples under his magics, a timeline of his life coming to be upon the walls. Great battles and small victories alike.

Finally he lies down upon a classically shaped Dwarven bed...to rest for the upcoming day.

[Mr. X]

For Karazi:

There is a sense of serene peace as you drift off to sleep in this place... One which you've not felt in a long time...

But your dreams are fraught...

In the earth you sleep, deep and dark, and at peace...

Something drips on your cheek... wet, tasting heavy with iron...

... You realize that you are but one stone in a cobbled street. Upon you a man kneels, robed in the tenements of Nerul, his hands clasped in suplication... Blood pouring from his chest.

Over him stands the horrid visage of a skeletal knight, armored in the heavy black plate of Great Gate, it's sword thrust through the mans chest.

Down the road, bodies fill the streets... While the living kneel, pray, and are summarily struck down by the undead soldiers.

Through the slaughter, a small cadre of priests passes, blessing those they see, and raising to unlife those who have been executed.

One speaks:
"Your God has called you forth this day. Let go your souls, for the disease cannot touch the soulless."

...

... Your vision slips... Pulling you away from the scene, racing down the streets, under countless similar repetitions of the slaughter, under the foundations of the city's towering black castle, it's spiked battlements and spear like towers a testament to times when it stood against enemies not upon the ground, but then which came from the skies...

It's foundation high upon the cliffs overlooking the western sea, you can see out to the two immense standing stones protruding from the water... Pitted and ancient, they are the Great Gate, it is said, from which all men first emerged...

But below in the water... Your bones ache...

... A palpable wave of fear washes over you, as you watch the waters far off begin to boil... As millions upon millions of sea creatures panic and flee from some thing that only they can see...

... Already a crab crawls over you, seeking the perhaps relative safety of the land... And then another, and then many more, as the veritable stampede begins...

...

You snap awake, the mercury of the Font sweating from your brow, and you jerk up to find your palace greatly expanded, and you are acutely awake of the life and willingness to serve of every stone within this realm...

Regaining your feet, the urgency of your vision is immediate... And the power of this place is yours.

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Karazi, you receive the Divine Rank 1.

[LordDice]

Bolting awake with a feeling of dread he tries to hold on to the details of the vision even as they start to slip away. With a sense of purpose he prepares himself. Must return to his brother and share this news, if it is the Titan...not even soulless undead could truly hold against it.

As the jolt wears off he realizes he can still feel everything like the dream...every rock around him and every soul within the rocks, as they slide around in an eternal dance, waiting but content for the earth itself has no worries.


Snapping himself out of it he snaps his armor back into place and picks up his staff, striding with focus as power sparks off into the wall forming a Path back to his Brother.

[Barthac]

Taalkar spits sand out his mouth, glaring angrily at the empty skull in front of him.

I'm startin' ta think you do that on purpose. You know you and this guy, he points at the skull, have a lot more in common than I thought.

He continues as he stands to his feet, No brains in either of yer skulls! he guffaws loudly and slaps Frederic on the back. Glancing at the wizard's bone foot and then back at the skull he gulps. He had gotten more right than he meant to.

The real question, he continues awkwardly, trying to break the silence, is where in the nine hells did you take us?

[Mr. X]

Fredric shakes sand out of his robes as you smack him, clearly not having fared any better than you in the transition.

"Something I learned very early in my studies, was that magic rarely works precicely the way you'd like it to, and is often less than comfortable in its results. To say that one grows accustomed to the uncertainty would be to put it too simply. One does, however, learn to... How might you put it, "roll with the blows"?

He straightens his cloak.

"As to where we are, I cannot say for certain."

His red eyes peer unblinkingly up at the sun.

"Given a few hours, I might be able to determine which direction North is, as the sun moves, but for now..?"

He shrugs.

"My guess is that we have arrived in the Dead Lands, south of the Southern Forest... If I am correct, we are, quite literally, off the edge of the map."

He purses his lips.

"Fascinating, is it not?"

[Barthac]

Taalkar scratches his head, Did you bring us to the ass-end of nowhere on purpose?

[Mr. X]

"Ahh, no. I did not... Rather, given the infinite possibilities available to us, am reasonably pleased with myself that I managed to land us in the correct plane at all. To say nothing of our placement within it."

He shrugs.

"I believe that I can return us to the Collage forthwith, if you have no further desire to explore this particular desert."

(For a moment, you get the feeling that Fredric would like nothing more than to forget the war, and spend the rest of his eternal life cataloging the bones strewn before you... But it is a passing moment, at best.)

[Barthac]

No offense, lad but why don't you leave the plane hoppin' up to us next time. Every time I travel with you, bad things happen.

Taalkar looks around, Where did Claudus get to?

[Mr. X]

Fredric purses his lips, but nods.

"If you possess the means, perhaps you are correct."

At that moment, there's a shuffling of sand, and Claudus appears from behind one of the ruins.

"Forgive me, I am here. I was..." he falters for a moment, "Caught a bit dizzy from the traversal."

He blinks twice rapidly, as though clearing his head, before looking expectantly from you to Fredric.

"Are we able to return to the Collage by your magics? If we are, we ought be off. Time is of the essence, is it not?"

[Barthac]

I agree. Freddy, you get Claudus and I will meet you at the college.

Taalkar concentrates on Fredric's study and wills himself to appear there.

[Mr. X]

Fredric nods, and takes Claudus by the shoulder. The pair vanish suddenly with an odd popping sound.

It takes you only a moment focus, and your surroundings fade, like watered paint, the details mixing and co-mingling until the focus into the interior of Fredric's Collage study.

Fredric and Claudus are there already, and a moment later, your brother appears. Returned from whatever errand engaged him within his own plane.

"Well..." Fredric begins, "That excursion was quite fruitful, I feel.

The formulae for the planar gateway appears fully functional and stable, and I can begin work on constructing a more perminant portal immediately.

So it remains to us only a few decisions; if and how to go about rallying the remaining unblighted people here to Clearwater and seeing them safely protected off this plane, and determining what to do with the foulblood Jory, and by extent, Malthos."

He passes his cold gaze over you all.

"Your thoughts?"

[LordDice]

Looking up from a lump of stone he's been playing with he catches the last of what Fredric was saying. "Getting the Unblighted is going to be an issue I'm guessing. Mostly getting them here. We'll need to send quite a bit of Stone through the gateway too, or create a spell that just generates whopping amounts of stone whilst over there"

"I'm still working on my idea for Jory, I think it should work as a cure that we may be able to ritualize. I'll go check on him in a little while and see if the effects have worn off or not"

"e'll have to see about Malthos though"

[Mr. X]

Fredric nods as Karazi departs.

"If a cure can be managed, it will no doubt be of great help."

He turns to Taalkar.

"I know that there is little love lost between you and Malthos... Have you any plans for dealing with him? Would you be open to negotiating an alliance?

For Taalkar:

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As your brother departs for the dungeons, and Fredric talks of undesirable alliances, you get an itch in the back of your mind...

... An inkling, really, but one with unmistakeable certainty and foreboding...

A great battle is coming... Soon...

... Within the month, certainly... Perhaps within the week...

... It will occur to the West...

... At Great Gate, like as not.

... Whatever you're planning on doing, you'd best do it quick.

[Mr. X]

For Karazi:

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Returning to the top floor of the dungeon tower, you find the Blighted prisoner hanging chained from the wall as you left him.

The soft glow of cerulean light fills the room from the Seal branded upon the man's forehead, as the man himself hangs listless in his chains... His eyes rolled back in unconscious catatonia.

[Barthac]

That blighted son of motherless goat-herder. He glances over at Fredric uneasily.

I know ye have a soft spot for him, but do you really think that's such a great idea? Malthos has attacked us at every meeting. Hells, he even murdered me once. Whats to stop him from stabbing us in the back. It would be the Battle of Beluvah all over again.

[Mr. X]

Fredric chews his lips uncertainly.

"Desperation...?"

He bobs his head non-commitally,

"You are correct, though... I do hold a soft spot for him. As such I shall defer to your judgement as to what, if any, alliances might be struck."

[LordDice]

Seeing the man in agony hanging there he doesn't waste any time, casting a more substantial Polymorph upon the man, un-Blighting him...hopefully for good this time.


As the man stirs he comments "We'll see if this helps, rest for now...things will become better"

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This would be the Polymorph Any Object turning him back into a normal human, much like the previous Polymorph test, cept this would be permanent.

[Mr. X]

For Karazi:

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The spell you cast, not unlike the previous one you worked on this man, is complex, but not beyond your scope... And so should be no more difficult that any other...

And yet...

As you work the spell, you realize that this man's soul has been spoken for... And to cure him of the blight is to rob power from a being even greater than yourself...

As your magic begins to take hold, an insurmountable weight weighs upon you... Your vision waivers, and the world falls away from you...

... There cease to be walls around you, or ceilings above you...

All is absent mist... But for the crushing weight upon you...

Turning your eyes skyward, there is no sky... Only the millions of rolling, maniacle eyes staring down upon you...

... The titan awakens...

... And you would rob what is rightfully its...

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You may drop the spell at will, if you wish, or you may make a Caster Level check (Effective caster Level + Divine Rank), to attempt to overcome the titan's power, and rescue this soul.

[LordDice]

Straining under the weight of the sheer pressure of magics conflicting he falls to a knee straining his magic "One soul at a...time"

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Caster Level would be 20 I guess.

[Mr. X]

The weight of the thing is crushing, but your powers burn forth, shearing away the illusions of mists and eye-filled skies, and bringing you back into the dungeon chamber...

Before you, the man hangs limply in his manacles, exhausted.

The Seal branded into his forehead remains, but burns no longer...

His skin is clamy, and soaked with sweat, but is smooth... And blight free.

[LordDice]

Taking a deep breath...more difficult than expected. Standing back up he comments to the now blight-free man hanging there "Whilst you will probably never know the part you truly played here, I thank you.


Reshaping the room he's in, he melts the chains into a small cot for the man to lay upon, whilst creating a small cell inside the room for the man.

"Now for the other part...lets hope the Titan doesn't have such a hold upon your daughter as he did upon you"

Closing his eyes stands perfectly still for a moment, feeling for the newfound divine energies from his Home, in the middle of the Cell a shape starts to form upon the floor, a statue of a girl lying on her deathbed you could mistake it for easily.

After a few moments an almost oppressive feeling of magic fills the room, runners of pure mana dancing upon sharp edges and small pools forming upon the floor as they quickly start to race towards the girl.

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This would be Gift of Life, the divine ability. I felt like it needed a little flare. This is trying to raise his daughter by the way, to keep my word to him.Obviously I'd like to raise her un-blighted....but I dunno how that works.

[Mr. X]

As your power fills the room, a pooling miasma seeps from the statue to contest it...

The man shrieks, as thunder and lightning blind and deafen him, while spines and teeth and eyes erupt from the miasma, only to be driven back by your immense power...

... At length, the battle subsides, and the remaining energies wash over the statue...

... It's skin softens...

... Her lungs draw breath...

... And she lives again.

[LordDice]

Gasping a little at the effort expended therein he collects himself a bit "Well... I guess that was to be expected too... But my word is kept, and your daughter returned. You'll need to stay here for a short time for observation...but it shouldn't be long and will hopefully be a lot more comfortable. I'll ask for you to be well looked after"

[Mr. X]

The man hangs exhausted from his chains, and begins weeping at the sight of his sleeping daughter.

"Thank you... Thank you..."

[Barthac]

Taalkar chews on his upper lip thoughtfully as his thoughts return to the barren desert. Is that what is going to happen everywhere? he thinks. He glances down at his feet as he idly pushes a loose stone with the toe of his worn boot. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the bone foot of the man... wizard... thing, standing next to him. They had joined forces with Frederic as soon as they had met him. He was obviously in this fight for a different purpose and made for a strange, if useful, comrade.

Bad times make for strange bedfellows, he mutters into his beard. Turning to Frederic, If'n Malthos would help us, I guess we could reach some sort of deal. I just hope he doesn't stab us in the back to get back his pot of gold.

[Mr. X]

"Heh." Fredric chuckles. "I am certain that Malthos has much better things to worry about than a pot of gold."

He removes an iron key from a ring at his belt, and hands it to you.

"This is the key to the foul-blood Jory's cell. Take him, and see if his connection to Malthos is as certain as he claims.

To that end..."

He withdraws a broken serpentine dagger from a pouch... The same ritual dagger you took from Malthos when you first encountered him so long ago.

With a waive if his hand, he fuses the blade back to the hilt, and with an additional wave, the strings of vile enchantments peel off his gauntleted fingers, and entwine themselves into the blade, making the evil thing whole once more.

His work complete, he hands the dagger to you.

"A peace offering, of sorts, should it be necessary."

Lastly, he withdraws the Iron Brand, which Malthos murdered you for only so recently.

"And, I expect that where you are going, you shall need this. Its work here is largely complete, so I trust that you shall find good use for it."

He hands you the Brand.

"I must remain to see to the construction of the Gate.

When you find your brother, if the direction is still relevant, the the Southern walls of Timaril are constructed largely of basalt blocks. Similar stones are plentiful enough upon this island, which I trust shall ease your passage."

He clasps his hands together.

"Farewell, and good luck."