The Necromancer's Pact VIII: The Rising Tide

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Relieved that exiting the tower was far easier than she expected she gladly answers Khaz's . "There wasn't a symbol on the top of the last tower. But I'll let you know what I find." She says before taking off into the air.

She wonders just how far they'd managed to travel and whether it was in the right direction....

[Dr._Bob]

Adalmar step forward towards the pine forest while the others stand cautiously just outside the tower entrance.

Almost pre-consciously the ranger has already been analyzing his environment. He notes the position of the moon, low on the horizon. He can smell water in the direction of the setting moon, and even his merely human eyes can see the dark moss on one side of the tree trunks in the moonlight.

"The moon is setting in the west," Adalmar points in one direction, then turns 90 degrees to his right. "North is that way."

Leaping upward in a spray of powdery snow, Tiriel flies toward the top of the tower. Her wings beat powerfully and she reaches the apex in only a few moments. Her feet sink into the loose snow at the top as she lands. Kneeling, she brushes away the loose snow and finds what she expected - a featureless disc set in the center of the platform.

Looking towards the moon, she sees that the forest ends not more than several hundred yards away, replaced by a familiar sight - the mirror calm blackness of still water, stretching away to the horizon.

[Koji]

Khazrael

"If these towers are use-activated, rather than time-activated, I'm sure the two wizards have the best shot at figuring them out. I'd bet that the activation device is up top, either outside or in."

Khazrael paces in the snow a bit. Despite his lack of heavy clothing, he doesn't shiver against the freezing cold.

"Maybe someone used one of the other towers, and that caused 'em all to work at the same time--it's reasonable to assume that since they're all connected, they all teleport at once, right?"

He watches Tiriel on top of the tower and yells, "Maybe you need a magic seeing spell!"

He utters a now-familiar arcane phrase and scrabbles up the wall to see for himself.

((OOC: I'll be using detect magic once I get up there to look at the stone on top.))

[Dr._Bob]

Khazrael clambers to the top of the tower, joining Tiriel.

Looking down at the featureless disc, he scans it with detect magic and reports seeing the "stag's head" or "dragon" glyph. Otherwise, the same strange aura emanates from this tower that permeated the previous one.

Together Tiriel and Khazrael watch the moon set. The sky is lightening behind them. Dawn will be here soon.

[blackfox]

Katrin

Katrin is at a loss for words. She paces around in front of the tower, worrying about the rest of the group and how to complete their eventual goal--warning the Iron Lord.

[Koji]

Khazrael

"I knew it--I bet this thing is the activation device!"

He scrabbles halfway down the wall and instructs the others to go inside and stand on the ettin platform, hoping to send them to find Trinark and Elthan.

(OOC: Once everyone goes inside, I'll give them about ten minutes to assemble. Once that's accomplished, I'll be using darkness to try and emulate the previous disappearance of the moon--seemingly what activated it the first time)

[Dr._Bob]

With Khazrael urging everyone on, you climb back up to the platform chamber and gather on the "ettin" platform.

The chamber is pitch black, as are all rooms within the windowless tower, making the experience particularly uncomfortable for those without darkvision.

When Khazrael casts darkness, everyone gets to share the experience of being completely blind.

"Is anything happening?" someone asks. No one experiences any vertigo or sensation of movement.

When Khazrael terminates the darkness and someone lights a torch, you find yourselves standing on the "ettin" platform in the same "stag's head" chamber. Nothing appears to have changed.

"It will be morning soon. Maybe it only works at night?"

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby has silently cooperated with Khazrael's experiment, but now voices his skepticism.

"I don't think it can be dependent on light or anything that changes like that," the little mage argues, "It wouldn't be reliable enough. For the creators and operators, I mean. I can't see it relying on anything but time or some trigger. And I'd imagine the dissolving of the tower has something to do with that.
"Actually, the teleportation could be dependent on light. Perhaps the presence of light starts them, seeing as we moved when the walls disappeared and the moonlight was let in."

[Dr._Bob]

Returning to the tower's base, you watch the sun rise over the tips of the pine trees.

Turning from the sunrise to the east toward the large body of water in the opposite direction, Adalmar rubs his chin.

"Could we be in Rashemen? Could this be the other side of the Lake?"

[Phasm]

Lissa

Lissa shrugs wearily. It looks like her lack of sleep coupled with the emotional stress of the past twenty-four hours is taking its toll on the normally energetic gnome. "You got me. I can't navigate worth beans once I'm outside a city." She twirls the end of her braid in the familiar thinking/stressed habit. "If we are on the Rashemen side of the lake, though, that's one big problem solved. Two actually; there's vampires on the other side." She looks up at Khazrael, then over at Achkby. "I don't suppose either of you magely types can send a magical message to the others? At this point, it might just be faster for everyone to meet up at the Iron Lord's place."

[Koji]

Khazrael

Khazrael kicks at the platform and curses its very existence.

"Who builds something that is this useful in an emergency and decides that it should ONLY WORK AT NIGHT?! Damn it! I hope those idiots have the sense to SIT STILL while we run after them!"

He gathers his thoughts and takes a seat. Mercurial as ever, he smiles at Lissa when she asks him about long-range communication.

"I have to gather my thoughts if I'm going to get my magic back in order. Unfortunately, even then, I wouldn't be able to communicate that far. The way I see it, we should wait until night time, gather up the others, wait another day, then meet back up here and hit the road again."

He looks at himself in his small mirror--really just a highly polished square of steel--and pushes his hair around a bit.

"Or maybe Tiriel could wing it up there, see if she can see any other towers, now that it's daylight. If they're looking, they'll see where we are."

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby shakes his head despondently, patting the case across his shoulder.

"Used to. It's been too long since I've really been ready for an adventure like this..."

He sinks into silence for a moment, but muses aloud, "Wait... why can't we tell if we're across the lake? I don't know much about navigating, but if the sun's rising over the lake... aren't we on the east side now?"

[Dr._Bob]

"Well, with the sun rising over there," Lumpy points over the treetops. "And with the water back that way," the half-orc jerks a thumb behind him, "it's a sure bet that we're on the east side of something. But whether we've been transported to Rashemen or not, is another question altogether ..."

Tiriel leaps from the top of the tower and circles above, enjoying the feeling of sunlight on her wings. As she flies in larger and higher circles, she sees no other towers nearby, just the dark lake to the west and endless pine forest in every other direction.

[blackfox]

Katrin

Katrin continues to pace around in irritation and frustration at not having accomplished anything. They had obviously been transported to the eastern side of the lake, but there was no telling exactly where they were, which was a liability as far as Katrin was concerned.

[namo]

Adalmar

He paces back and forth, frustrated. Kir far away, and this unknown place. He hopes it is Rashemen, because he has to. Otherwise, how will he ever be able to fulfill his mission ?

"When the evening comes, I can ask Mielikki for a spell that will help us orient ourselves somewhat."

Spoiler

Show

Adalmar is supposed to have visited the woods east of the Lake of Tears once or twice. Nothing obviously familiar to him right now ?

[Dr._Bob]

Tiriel lands in a spray of powdery snow. Tucking her wings behind her she reports seeing a trail to the north that seems to stick to the coastline. She saw no additional towers nearby, but perhaps the trail leads to a town or village ...

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

"We're on the East side. That's where we were heading. We have to keep moving. We have to reach Rashemen." Achkby announces authoritatively.

"Let's leave as soon as we can and press on. Good work on sighting that trail, it has to be our best chance of getting our bearing, and likely means progress toward the Lord. If anyone has parchment, we should leave a note here for the others, in case they manage to come through tonight. I'd rather wait for them, but we honestly can't afford to. If there isn't something to write on... well, I can chalk up the floor or walls. And then we need to start moving again."

On whatever material is available, Achkby scrawls the following message in Common:
"Next morning, followed path north. Hope to orient or move towards Iron Lord. Please follow unless you know better. --Achkby"
He inscribes the same message on a piece of paper he lays on the Falling Angel platform. If there's no paper, he rips some material from one of his sacks, and does his best to write on that. Unless someone has some spare leather.

[Koji]

Khazrael

He watches the halfling work for a while, then spits on the stone floor and grumbles.

"If those vampires catch up to us--or to them--it'll be trouble."

[namo]

Adalmar

He shakes his head. "If we are in the forest East of the lake, we need to head to the South East. To the mountains, and the Iron Lord's abode.

And if we are elsewhere" - the volume of his voice dips at that word - "we want to activate the tower again."

[blackfox]

Katrin

Katrin continues to pace around. "Is there any way of telling exactly where we are without talking to people who know? We have to pick a direction to go and then ask for directions to the mountains when we get to a town... unless you could tell where we were with the view from the top of the tower, Aldamar?"

[Dr._Bob]

Achkby leaves the note on the "falling angel" platform, and your party heads out along the trail.

...

The trail is little more than a footpath, which has obviously not been in use for a very long time. Adalmar is able to follow it easily, however, and traveling under the ancient branches of the enormous pines is fairly easy.

The path begins to turn eastward slightly, meandering deeper inland, away from the lake behind you.

The journey through the forest takes days. As Adalmar reorients himself, he suspects that you have found yourselves in the Ashenwood, a large forest south of Immilmar.

The trail you are on, he predicts, will eventually exit the eastern edge of the Ashenwood at the Running Rocks, a spur of the High Country. If he is right, you should be able to cut north along the edge of the Running Rocks, eventually reaching the Huhrong's Road, which will lead back west to Immilmar.

...

You travel through the days and into the nights, guided by the light of the full moon. Soon, you are rewarded by the sight of the granite peaks of the Running Rocks appearing on the horizon as the forest thins and eventually ends.

Katrin has been increasingly irritable and snappy, and you are reminded that it is her "time of the month". Indeed, each night, she transforms into her panther form and disappears, only to reappear in human form, tired and disheveled, in the morning.

As you climb upward into the foothills of the Running Rocks, the cold becomes more acute, and the wind seems to cut through your winter gear as if it wasn't even there. Adalmar suggests moving towards the mountains, hugging their bases in order to take advantage of what little shelter from the weather they can provide.

...

The next several days prove to be a test of your resolve and endurance. Inching northward along the edge of the Running Rocks, you are blasted by wind, snow and ice. Conversation drops off almost completely as each of you focuses on simply placing one foot in front of the other in grim silence.

Lissa depletes the charges in her wand as she tries to keep ahead of the frostbite that turns your fingers, toes, and noses purple, then black. More than once, each of you wonders what you are even doing here, questioning the point of the whole "mission". But it is too late to turn back. You have no choice but to move forward ...

...

As you near the northern limits of the Running Rocks, Adalmar spots movement along a ridge up above you.

A caravan is visible along the ridgeline, looking similarly worn and wind-blasted. Like you, the caravan appears to be heading northward, with the jagged peaks of the Running Rocks looming above. They are close enough to hail, but far enough away and above you to look like small black dots wriggling along the mountain trail.

Your small group debates whether to contact the caravan or not, but while you are considering your next option, you witness a great tragedy unfold ...

A massive build-up of snow on one of the highest peaks breaks free, sliding downward and accumulating even more mass and speed as it falls. The avalanche is enormous by the time it hits the caravan. You witness the desperate but futile attempts of the caravaners to outrun the wall of snow.

Awestruck, you hardly have time to register the loss of the caravan before Adalmar shouts, "RUN!!!" The avalanche continues to roar down the mountainside and is upon you before you can take even take three steps ...

You tumble helplessly in a cloud of opaque whiteness, torn from the other members of your party. When you finally come to rest, you can not even determine which way is up and which way is down. A voice calls out. It sounds like Tiriel ...

[blackfox]

Katrin

Katrin, having been raised in the temperate area of Sembia, had never seen an avalanche before, although she had heard tales of them. Frightened and fatigued, she begins to panic, shrieking Tiriel's name and flailing around with her arms and legs, trying to break the surface of the snow.

(OOC: Ooh, new people! )

[barawn]

Grumpy caravan member

I hate snow. I hate it even more, now. Note to self: add "personal hatred" surcharge on any jobs in this area.

Just then, a voice pierces the utter quiet of being trapped in snow. Wait... there's someone out there... Desperately, he attempts to stick his hand out up through the snow - anything, whatever he can. Straining as much as he can, he attempts to call for help. Maybe he can get out on his own. Maybe not. But right now, help would be good.

"Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! "

Draconic? What the heck was I thinking there? A random passerby who only speaks Draconic is going to help me?

Burrowing as best he can, he tries to free himself from the snow...

Oh, I'm going to be really upset if my stuff on my horse is lost...

[Diarmuid]

Buried Caravan Member

As the world stops tumbling end over end she found herself shivering, surrounded in white.

Oh no! The caravan, someone is likely hurt, and I'm buried in this tomb of snow and ice.

Hearing the voices call out for help, she is not sure she recognises the languages. Yelling out in the local tongue of Rasheman she adds hers to the voices of those yelling for help, while trying to struggle her way out of her icy prison.

[Kawaii Catboy]

Woman Buried In Snow

How the hell had she gotten herself into this mess?

Sure, she had been looking for work, looking to make a few gold to pay her way, but those commoners in the area just sent her away after exchanging her gold for goods. It wasn't her fault that she had to take the caravan to more hospitable places. And the weather sure wasn't her damn fault.

Neither was the avalanche.

Or her horse bucking her off while the dumb creature was crushed under the white powder.

Now here she was, freezing to dead in a big pile of snow. It was as far from the comforts she would have given her prized weapon for at the moment that she could be. And yet...

Was that a voice?

"...Hey. HEY!" She cried out, trying to wriggle out from her icy confines. "Over here, help me out!"

Maybe her luck hadn't run out fully.

[lacesmcawesome]

Snow covered man

The man had been resting before the fall, and was taken off guard. Damn, I should have known better than to let my guard drop in this weather! As the caravan toppled, he sprung from his sitting position, and hit the mountainside. He rolled into it, trying to get the least amount of injuries he could. He felt a tear in his clothing, and was sure that he had some gashes in his sides.

The man heard voices calling to each other. They sounded desperate, he needed to help. His feet dug into the mountainside, though it did little to slow him. Still, he managed to roll himself a bit towards the sound.

He tried to scream, but was drowned out by the rush of snow and rocks. A fist sized chunk of ice flew towards his head, and smashed his nose, breaking it by his guess.

[Thargor]

Heavily bound man

He had been pulling guard duty and been on the uphill side of the caravan as the avalanche struck. The last thing he remembered was drawing his weapon and turning to face the oncoming wall of snow, in what now seemed an almost comically hopeless act. Getting picked up by the onslaught and smashed through the nearest of the wagons put him completely out.

He woke up to the sound of calling voices. Orienting himself he seemed to be buried head down in the snow. His chain was tangled securely around his legs, one large spike digging painfully into his thigh. The canvas covering the wagon had ended up wrapped around his torso pinning both arms. An experimental wiggle served only to tighten his restraints. Taking as deep a breath as the canvas would allow he yelled,

“Help! Can anyone here me!”

Struggling to remain calm he began to wait.

[Matticus]

Dazed Half-Elf

Isn't this just great. Gods, my leg hurts..

Standing up, he looks around, dazed. These rocks weren't here a minute ago...

"Hello? Is anyone...still alive?"
He looks around, still dazed. Was that a voice? Which way did it come from? Over...There! He tries running in the direction he thinks the voice is coming from, but trips on his injured leg and falls flat on his face.

[lacesmcawesome]

Snow-covered Man

The avalanche had lightened up, and the man discovered that he had stopped moving. Still, he was buried under tons of snow, and it was pressing down on him. He heard the voices again, but they were muffled now. He had no way of telling which way was up, but he decided that he would try to tunnel towards the voices. After a few minutes of struggling against the snow, his hand broke forth.

He pulled himself up, and surveyed his surroundings. The environment was mostly white, no surprise there. Even in the dim moonlight, the snow sparkled brilliantly.

There was a man yelling, and it looked as if he was stuck under a wagon.

"I'm coming, hold on!"

It was difficult to maneuver through the snow, and the man almost sank under a few times. Once he had reached the other person, he found more stable footing. He grabbed a rather sharp-looking rock, and sliced through some of the canvas.

"Are you alright?"

[barawn]

Grumpy caravan member

Common. I'd swear that's Common. More than one voice, too.

Struggling towards the voice, he reached his hand out, and upward. Maybe it broke the surface. It's so ungodly cold, I can't feel a thing.

"If anyone can hear me, over here!"