First World: weeping and gnashing of teeth and penguins

[WindStruck]

Eucalyptus responds to Slough. "Magic can be a fickle thing. She may not be able to affect it herself, no matter how seemingly powerful she is, but some unwitting pawns may be able to."

Then turning to Nemo he continues, "Which is why once again this calls into question just who or what 'The Last' is. This place is connected to that entity."

Spoiler: Edit: additional thing

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I'd also like to try attempting to use an at-will pixie ability, detect chaos towards Nemo, just to maybe get an idea of her alignment. But considering the vast numbers of way to hide/obscure it at this level, it's probably not a sure thing.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Slough speaks at the door and the dread words of the dark speech fall on deaf ears. Slough doesn't think that some form of defense is stopping the words - for some reason, the door simply isn't a viable target.
Dac tries burrowing around the world and sees that the same featureless stone extends beyond the door, forming a curved wall beneath the surface of the hill. Dac suspects the structure is the hill itself, with the earth, stone and ash on it only a shallow cover from prying eyes. Some tombs in ancient cultures are similarly built, though none Dac has heard of are more than five hundred feet in diameter. This one must be more than a mile wide.


In the meantime, Eukalyptus' arguments make the cute redhead roll her eyes.
Of course this place is connected to The Last; it was once a place of worship. It's one of the reasons you cannot be found here from a distance, for no-one is insane enough to extend their domain and awareness into this place - not even Kalchensis. You could utter any profanities you ever wanted against any deity or cosmic power, from the blasphemous to the anatomically impossible, and none but The First and The Last would hear. It was once used often for that purpose.
She frowns now.
As for your other point, there were rumors. Whispers that this now destroyed empire revered The Last. That they tried to gain attention through their acts of genocide and mass destruction, that they sacrificed to it not individuals but the burnt offerings of entire nations. Madness, of course. Mortals are so very prone to it. More to the point, if this site retains the permanence with which it was infused, and mortals being mortals they'd offer their greatest achievements to their so-called patron to seek validation for their efforts, what better place to put the horrors they made in the last days of the Empire?
She is angry now, though her face refuses to be anything but cute. Looking at her with True Seeing, you wonder if one such as her would be annoyed that her true form weren't more intimidating.
No, I am not manipulating you into releasing a greater threat into this world. But you are here, you have little choice but to rely on others to survive, I was directed here myself, and I was told to request this of you. Admittedly, slagging half the continent would be amusing to me - but given that all you'd destroy would be sources of malice and insanity and, frankly, not anything of worth, why would I ask it of you? And why would I be explaining things truthfully and to the point if nobody had bid me so? It's supremely annoying, you know.
As if it weren't obvious, the redhead's aura is overwhelmingly chaotic. So much so that beings of law among you are immediately stunned by contacting it.

[Necroticplague]

Slough thinks over the apparent lack of usefulness of her words. Usually, that works on most all object. The two categories that it doesn't work on are things with an intelligence of their own, or objects of indefinite toughness (like some of the older walls of force she's seen). Since the second would provide no more useful information how to act, she bring up the possibility of the first to the others: "Hey, anyone thought we could ask it to open? It might just be intelligent like the ship is, given what it is."
Testing her own theory, she begins asking the door politely in as many tongues as she can muster, however silly a concept.
(Common)"We come as agents of The Last seeking whatever may lie within your hallowed chambers. May you yet grant us entry?"
(Undercommon)"We come as agents of The Last seeking whatever may lie within your hallowed chambers. May you yet grant us entry?"
(Aboleth)"We come as agents of The Last seeking whatever may lie within your hallowed chambers. May you yet grant us entry?"
(Dark Speech)"We come as agents of The Last seeking whatever may lie within your hallowed chambers. May you yet grant us entry?"

[Vedhin]

Kharren closes her eyes, willing the past of the door to appear before her.

Spoiler

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I'm going to use Aftersight. I auto-succed the Wisdom check, so here's my Knowledge (History) check: (1d20+58)[63]

As if it weren't obvious, the redhead's aura is overwhelmingly chaotic. So much so that beings of law among you are immediately stunned by contacting it.

And that is one reason I am not using my alignment-detection abilities.

[WindStruck]

"Well Sorrryy!" Eucalyptus says defensively. "I wasn't trying to offend you, but would you honestly expect anyone to be entirely trusting of you?"

With the kissing and making up over, he studies the door. In particular, how the Ω are arranged, looking for some sort of pattern to it.

Spoiler

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As if it weren't obvious, the redhead's aura is overwhelmingly chaotic. So much so that beings of law among you are immediately stunned by contacting it.

Honestly it wasn't too obvious to me. She seemed to put a strong emphasis on exact phrasing of words, so I was wondering if she was a more lawful/devil type. Also, since my own character's alignment is chaotic, there's a reason I tried detecting that.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

The "Ω" symbols on the doors don't have any sort of elaborate pattern; they're just two of them, one on the center of the left and one on the center of the right. They're more of an obvious symbol than a hidden secret.

When Slough speaks to them, the doors remain as motionless and silent as they've ever been. You guess that permanence, even eternity was the idea behind the building, something as immutable as it was immovable.

Kharren glimpses into the past, attempting to reveal the history of this dismal place you found yourselves in. She sees nothing. A great deal of nothing as the hill, and this building beneath it, have stood in perpetual silence and darkness for century after century. Four and a half thousand years of nothing. And then a blinding flash and the mighty shockwave that accompanied it, bringing the entire empire's destruction so many centuries ago. Kharren doesn't see the cause, the source of that destruction, her knowledge of history not covering it at all. But the knowledge of what preceded it is almost too horrendous to contemplate even after all this time, even with the knowing being second and third hand, with the vast distance of time separating you from it.
The paladin sees the hell-pits; the concentration camps full of the weak and the sick and the old who, had the Empire been any other nation, would had either been protected and nurtured back to health or at worst abandoned to their fate. Not so in this nation of horrors whose centuries-old corpse you tread upon. Gathered into the concentration camps by the millions, the defenseless are exposed to magical torture that subjects them to the pain of an entire lifetime every moment, and not only that but suspends them in semi-stasis so that neither food nor water nor air is required, nor rest or old age or death a relief from their torment. She sees how their agony manifests physically and is gathered like sap from a cut and dying tree. How the vile liquid thus produced is mixed with molten metal and enchanted with foul magics, until finally the mixture is cast over the writhing ruin of what were once men and dwarves and elves, forming boulders of dark and pale stone. Stones that, when tested, will not break outright and repair themselves if damaged. Coffins that hold within not only the charred bones of their origin but also the souls of the people used in their creation, trapping them in perpetual torture for all eternity even as they are fueled by that life-force to last for century after century.
Almost as an afterthought to that horrendous vision is the construction of this tomb using the dark and pale stones, and the placement of offerings within for only a short time before death and destruction fall on the entire empire from above.

[Vedhin]

After taking a moment to recover from the shock of seeing the atrocities that occured making this wall, Kharren speaks, without a tone of obvious disgust, "I believe I know know why it is so difficult to gain entrance. The stones of this place were made using souls to bind themselves together"

[Mabn]

"My torso is a continuous freedom of movement item for any construct that holds it, if I can attach it the spirit may be freed. Unfortunately all my means of doing so are highly magical."

[Dunkoro]

We may need to take that risk nonetheless.

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: Knowledge check on the subject, since I'm noob

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Arcana:(1d20+45)[56]

"Er... I do not think Freedom of Movement would help in the matter... all my experiences with it entail allowing physical movement for physical beings..."

Eucalyptus ponders on the matter more and asks, "Do we have any magic available that actually deals with canceling soul binds or things that affect spirits?"

[Mabn]

"Just the selective disjunction I walk around with. If it hasn't worked already it probably wont."

[WindStruck]

After a bit more thinking the pixie adds, "I am able to cast something like Freedom of Movement myself... however if it has the slightest chance to work, I think I might have to somehow target an individual soul inside the stones... could anyone help do that?"

[Necroticplague]

"Well, the stone isn't invincible, just fast healing. So if we smash a part down, I can divert any released souls into my internal cosmology instead of back into the brick to repair it. And then release them back when we leave, conveniently sealing up the way behind us (or let them go back to their proper afterlife, whatever it is)."

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Eukalyptus considers what the group has learned about the ancient barrow. Surely magical, to repair itself like that. Hard to destroy. Even a Disjunction effect had failed. And souls and the agony of many people had to have been harvested for its creation. How many? Impossible to tell - but if each stone held only one prisoner... millions. Eukalyptus is familiar with the requirements for making magic items and, though he doesn't use it himself, of the power of souls in magic. An item might take ten souls. Or a hundred. But millions? Nothing short of an ar... Suddenly he realizes what the temple must be; an artifact. It would explain both its resilience and its resisting the first Disjunction thrown at it. Given its magnitude and apparently segmented nature a single disjunction, even if successful, might only destroy a portion. Freeing the souls used in its creation might also serve to destroy it... eventually. How long would it take the group to free the majority of them?


The group could probably destroy just the gate with a sufficiently strong spell of freeing, or with several applications of Disjunction. But for the barrow itself, either a lot more time or a far greater application of power would need to be used.

[WindStruck]

After pondering on the subject even more, Eucalyptus relays what he has deduced to the group. Typically an artifact was crafted by the gods themselves, but apparently this structure had the same sort of power and resilience. And while several powerful disjunctions could probably dismantle a few pieces of it, dealing with the backlash was risky business.

While everyone else is sorting out who's going to cast what, Eucalyptus flies up to one of the Omega symbols and gingerly touches the door. If nothing bad happens, he mimics what Nemo did, poking one of the bottom ends of the symbol, tracing his finger along the whole curve, and then poking the opposite end once reaching it.

[Mabn]

"Actually, by my calculations, our combined non-magical attacks should be able to destroy a single brick if focused, allowing our amorphous friend to absorb its soul and enter transporting us. I would very much like to destroy more, but now is not the time."

[Necroticplague]

"Yeah, we don't need to stop the whole thing from working, or even the whole gate. If need be, I could cram myself through a hole half an inch big, though I question everyone else's ability to do so. We just need to disable/slow down its self repair in a small portion for long enough to squeeze ourselves through. Should I help the assault, or just focus on the absorption?"

[Mabn]

"My plan relies on you absorbing the soul and then engulfing us and going through the opening. Attack if you think you can without jeopardizing that."

[WindStruck]

"I'd much rather take the time to break several bricks so that we can each get through without any aid. There may not be enough room for all of us, and my attacks may be the weakest among you, but just in case..."

He draws his adamantine rapier from his sheathe, and wills it to take the shape of a pick. It probably becomes something more like a "light pick" then.

"On second thought, if any of you want to borrow my weapon, you're welcome to."

[Zarthrax]

The Faceless Man ponders the news he's heard concerning the barrow they must enter.

Narrowing his eyes, he flies up to the top of the door's frame and looks at it closely. Finally settling on a target, he reaches out and touches the brick, focusing his hunger upon it....

Spoiler

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Binding check vs. the stored soul's HD(1d20+40)[42] (It gets an additional +4 to its roll if it has more HD than me.)
If it fails, (2d6)[5] Soulblight Damage, and a soul violation pact occurs.

If this succeeds, I'll spend the soul fragment for (26d6)[86] in healing and keep going. A soul usually can be shredded into a number of fragments equal to its HD, so if it's one soul per brick, I should be able to de-artifact it quickly. If not, then at least this area will be weaker...lol

[Necroticplague]

"O.k. I'll try melting my way through the thing after I set up the cosmology. Just give me a second while I modify myself to those ends."She grows back to her normal size as even more tentacles appear from her. These ones are small and weak, however, they are also coated in vicious acids, which should help compensate.Readied, she launches herself at the wall with full force, flailing her many limbs at the wall.

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Assuming a third true form

Spoiler: Form Details

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Dreamscape(engulfing cosmos (10 feet), soul string)43 form points
17 tentacles (diminuitive)17 form points
Secreting Flesh(acid,132)[using Conservative Form to apply without base cost]

Full-round attack on gate

Spoiler: Long full-round attack sequence

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Note: for convenience, templating the attacks as (weapon used:attack roll, crit confirm roll, damage). Claws and deepspawn tentacles are primary, rest are secondary and are granted by features.
Claw1:(1d20+31)[49],(1d20+31)[38],(1d4+146)[149]+(1d4)[1](132 points acid)
Claw2:(1d20+31)[40],(1d20+31)[46],(1d4+146)[150]+(1d4)[4](132 points acid)
Deepspawn Tentacle1:(1d20+31)[37],(1d20+31)[38],(1d4+146)[148]+(1d4)[1](132 points acid)
Deepspawn Tentacle2:(1d20+31)[42],(1d20+31)[32],(1d4+146)[150]+(1d4)[3](132 points acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[43],(1d20+31)[37],147+(1d4)[4](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[39],(1d20+31)[40],147+(1d4)[1](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[40],(1d20+31)[48],147+(1d4)[1](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[39],(1d20+31)[44],147+(1d4)[3](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[40],(1d20+31)[32],147+(1d4)[2](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[37],(1d20+31)[38],147+(1d4)[1](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[40],(1d20+31)[46],147+(1d4)[4](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[39],(1d20+31)[44],147+(1d4)[1](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[46],(1d20+31)[50],147+(1d4)[2](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[37],(1d20+31)[51],147+(1d4)[2](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[48],(1d20+31)[42],147+(1d4)[3](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[47],(1d20+31)[50],147+(1d4)[4](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[51],(1d20+31)[38],147+(1d4)[4](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[32],(1d20+31)[45],147+(1d4)[2](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[42],(1d20+31)[33],147+(1d4)[2](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[51],(1d20+31)[39],147+(1d4)[4](132 acid)
Tentacle:(1d20+31)[34],(1d20+31)[48],147+(1d4)[2](132 acid)

[Mabn]

dac joins this assault

Spoiler: attacks

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(40d6+340)[481]+(30d6+230)[345]

[Vedhin]

Kharren draws her blade and begins striking the hateful thing.

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I shall strike it down with righteous fury, Power Attacking for full, and I have an adamantine weapon.

(1d20+36)[53] (4d8+39)[51]
(1d20+36)[51] (4d8+39)[49]
(1d20+31)[34] (4d8+39)[55]
(1d20+26)[36] (4d8+39)[59]
(1d20+21)[24] (4d8+39)[55]

[WindStruck]

Eucalyptus looks aghast at all the tentacles, plus other powerful blows being directed at probably only a single brick.

If he can get in safely (maybe flying might help) he attacks as well.

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Also, I guess this is all assuming my probing of the Omega symbol did nothing. If the door actually opens, I suppose we ignore all this.

Adamantine Light pick: (1d3+7)[8]

...also forgot I can attack 3 more times in a round, though perhaps I shouldn't even bother...

*tink*

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Eukalyptus' attempt to invoke the symbol upon the door have no effect on it... but the shadow of the same symbol in his field of vision flickers. Sounds seem to warp in his ears, a curious silence eating away at what he hears at an odd pattern. It only takes a moment for him to find the pattern by listening. By covering the other sounds oddly and imperfectly, the silence is actually forming letters and words he can understand from the remainder - the symbol is speaking to him by unspeaking everything else. The words are garbled and faint but recognizable;

UNRAVEL THE FALSE AND ENTER

The entire group's attacks fall upon the stone above the gate, slashing the very air around it with their fierceness and the cacophony of actually hitting the stone's surface is such that your very bones vibrate. But every single time you hit the boulder it simply repairs the damage and none of the hits get anywhere close to shattering it outright. Given the stone's outside dimensions and its potential thickness you haven't seen yet, the latter does not really surprise you. But the former? The magic repairing the stone can't be a continuous effect - it must apply after every single hit...



The Faceless Man has another strategy in mind, robbing the barrier of its power. He reaches towards and into the stone, in the repository of soul-energy trapped within. He is surprised by how the creature or creatures inside are still alive after all those ages. He senses no rational thoughts though, no higher functions or ordered reason; the creature or creatures inside have been imprisoned in such agony and for so long that all that remains of them is utter madness. Perhaps a deity could repair them in the afterlife, or some really powerful magic but short of that, they would never again number among sentients.
As soon as he tears a piece and consumes it, the borders between black and white stone in the immediate area become almost imperceptibly hazy, the black no longer entirely midnight, the white no longer gleaming like bleached bone. A small but perceptible portion of the energy holding the stone immutable has been stolen. The Faceless Man feels an almost insane bubbling of relief as the soul-fragment is consumed, and the remaining soul-energy in the prison of eternal torment is struck with a brief moment of greedy madness, yearning towards oblivion.



Kharren's mouth feels like it's full of ashes as soon as the Faceless Man succeeds in his attempt. Destroying a soul, even a portion of a soul, might be a mere drop before the ocean of evil this abomination of a "temple" has been for centuries - but it is still an act of evil as far as the forces of Law and Good are concerned, in any faith and belief Kharren has seen so far. Does the group have to resort to such measures to succeed? And how would it change them if they did?

[WindStruck]

"Our physical attacks seemed to do nothing but something... something seemed to weaken the stones."

Turning to the faceless man, Eucalyptus asks, "What did you do? Did you manage to free one?"

[Zarthrax]

The Faceless Man tilts his head away from the stone, the taste of insane hope still wetting his tongue.

"....In a manner of speaking, yes, yes I did."

Turning back to the stone, he pulls another shard of soul loose and swallows it.

Spoiler

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Another binding check-(1d20+40)[47], but considering the targets, they probably auto-fail their will saves.
Spending it for another (26d6)[86] healing.

[WindStruck]

Eucalyptus narrows his eyes in suspicion at the somewhat evasive answer and begins detecting magic again. This time not at the door but on what the faceless man is actually doing.

Spoiler: spellcraft

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(1d20+35)[42]

[Necroticplague]

Slough backs off slightly, seeing her brutal chemical assault having minimal effect, despite enough force that would melted a passage big enough for a man through almost 4 feet of obdurium.
"Well, looks like one my assumptions was wrong. There does not appear to be a limit as to its healing speed."
Thinking on it, this is a unique challenge. Normally, when she's taken a soul, it was a simple diversion;stealing it away into herself as it tries to go to its proper afterlife. Of course, these aren't going anywhere, so it doesn't seem that applies. She can think of a few exceptions, though. Times when she managed to rip it out of a person who couldn't defend herself. Didn't like it cause you can't sell a mangled, digested soul, but it seems the technique might apply here. A third, ghostly arm appears through her robe. Slough takes a moment to focus before trying to plunge the arm into the rock, crushing one of the souls and feeling revitalized by the resultant energy.Finding it solid to even this phantasmal arm, she instead rest it upon the face, trying to drain it through the corrupting nature of that hand.

Spoiler

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Coup-de-grace on the gate to activate Harvester of Souls using my Ghostly Arm.Figure since inanimate objects are treated as having DEX0, they should count as helpless.
Damage:(1d4+138)[142]+(1d4)[3].
I gain 2 temp HP for HD of the soul harvested.

[Morcleon]

Cornelius stares intently at the artifact wall. He murmurs. "Perhaps a more powerful magic could work? I can destroy it with a multi-layered dispel or a disjunction. After all, we are protected from detection here, yes?"

"Regardless, there may also be another way around. Perhaps the words have another meaning to them..."

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Spellcraft: (1d20+50)[17](67)

No definite action yet, especially because disjoining an artifact carries significant risk for the caster.