Spark to the Flame - An MtG Game (IC)

[Xiagu]

Dawn-Fang

Spoiler: OOC

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I dunno where we left the body exactly; I implied in one of my posts we left it in the hallway, so that's what I'm working with here.

Also Dawn-Fang recasts Guidance.

Dawn-Fang feels the ground shake and drops to a lower, crouching stance. They were already glancing around the room, but now they look with a new urgency. Arin catches their eye as he ducks under the desk. That reminded them. Their patient in the hallway.

The kitsune reaches for the map for a second before changing their mind. Their eyes flick to Radek and Darevod. "You two, hold onto that stuff," they say, then dart out of the room, slipping past Liandra.

As Dawn-Fang pads over to the body, they keep their eyes peeled for anything in the hallway that looks in danger of falling from the shaking. They whisper a prayer and check up on their patient, verifying that they're still alive.

[Majin]

Radek AC: 17, Psi Points: 39/44, Psychic Focus: Third Eye "Three weeks? That can't be right..." Radek says, as he sees the date. His thought process is however interrupted when the ground begins to shake. He grabs the map from the table, and begins to move out. Radek gritted his teeth. "If you really need to. If you spot something that gives a clue about this place, that would be most helpful", Radek responds to Darevod. He wanted to get out fast, but he could really use some answers soon. Everything he'd seen until now had just raised more questions. Not like there had been much time to think about the situation. Radek once more activates his third eye, trying look for an exit from this odd building. Spoiler: OOC Show Activate Piercing Sight to see through walls within 30 feet. Search for exit. Perception: (d20+5)[7]

[Amaril]

Arin

Arin blinks in disbelief as the others start talking about getting out and heading for the door. They act like magic is no big deal, but don't know what to do during a quake?

"Wait!" he calls out from under the desk. "It's not safe! You have to get under cover!" How can they not know this? Everyone knows about quakes, even little kids.

[miinstrel]

Darevod Transmuter, 8th Level The circles fade as Darevod rolls up the strange map and slides it into a side pocket of his bag. As he begins to rush off to find the secrets housed in the next room, Arin's cry gives him pause. Until now the youngster had been just a voice on the periphery of his awareness, but enough was enough. Darevod turns and blinks at the cowering lad. He walks over, the same odd bob to his movement, and goes directly under the table not having to duck an inch. With the wisdom of age he explains, "Lad, we are in a strange land brought here against our will, against even our knowledge by someone or something who's name we don't even know. We woke up gasping from a vat of liquid that's shell was immune to magic. Immune. I'm not sure if you grasp how entirely interesting that is," he says holding up the shard of glass laced with golden strings. "By nothing other than my tenacity and intellect are you even standing 'free' here in this room able to cower at such a natural occurrence as an earthshake on a wholly unnatural kind of day. At least for me. I take it this kind of chicanery isn't common where you're from either," he continues with some annoyance. "We were meant to die this day, I'm sure of it, and by some infinitesimal fluke we survived. I don't intend to stay still long enough to give them a second chance. Now I've a bird that needs finding and questions that need answering. You shake under this table if you like. We're leaving." He stares at the lad for a moment before reaching up a wrinkled hand, pinching his cheek with an encouraging smile and slapping him just hard enough to sting. He turns and heads back toward the door they came through, intent on forging a path out of this mess and back to his companion, Horace.

[Jangoose]

Dawn-fang's protective instincts kick in, and they dash to the door to check on their patient. Quick paws verify that she is indeed still breathing.

Back in the supply room, the rumbling builds. Liandra tenses, hand on sword, ready to spring into action. Though she can't quite hear the words that Darevod says to Arin under the desk, she can only hope from the look on the boy's face that they were the words he needed to hear. They would all need to find their courage if they were to find their way home.

Radek reaches out with his mind to search for an exit, but beyond some of the immediate rooms near you, he cannot see much.

@Radek : Rock and dirt surround the structure, though how deep it is you cannot say. In the rumbling, it is difficult to pick up detail, or maintain concentration, and so you only manage to shout a strangled half warning as you notice too late the cracks spreading across the nearby archway.

In the hallway, rocks begin to tumble down, crashing around Dawn-fang and their charge.

Spoiler: OOC

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Dawnfang +1 White, Darevod +1 Green

@Xiagu: Also, please give me a Dex or Strength save with a +1 from Radek's warning.
@SpinningDice and @Miinstrel: you are close enough to provide physical and/or magical assistance.
@Amaril and @Majin: you are close enough to provide ranged/magical assistance only.

[spinningdice]

Liandra

Liandra moves forwards, unsure how strong Dawn-Fang is under that fur she attempts to scoop up the unconscious figure and make it into the nearest doorway. "Stay in the doorways, the structure there will be a little stronger. Once the shaking dies down we need to move, we don't know how long this building will hold" assuming it even was a building, we've seen no windows so far...

Spoiler: OOC

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While within 10ft you get +4 on saves from my Aura of Protection

[Majin]

Radek AC: 17, Psi Points: 37/44, Psychic Focus: Third Eye "Hmmh, I just wanna get out of here as fast as I can... No time to be hiding under a table", Radek says while scanning the surroundings. "Wait, fox, watch out!" Radek shouts as he notices the cracks in the ceiling. "Damn it!" Radek triest to push falling rubble away with his mind, if he can. Spoiler: OOC Show If rocks start falling, push them away from Dawn-Fang with Mastery of Force.

[Amaril]

Arin

The pinch and slap do well to shake Arin out of the stupor Darevod's speech leaves him in. "But...what...okay," he mumbles, scrambling out of his hiding place to follow the pack. The sound of the ceiling falling around Dawn-Fang makes him flinch. "That's not...that's not how it works," he says faintly at Liandra's advice, though he doesn't really expect anyone to hear, or care.

[miinstrel]

Knowing he would be fine if the rocks did begin to tumble, Darevod rushes forward and grabs the body's arm dragging it with all of his tiny might out of the doorway with Dawn-Fang.

Spoiler: OOC

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STR check/save: (1d20)[16]

[Jangoose]

With a sound like thunder, the rocks begin to fall. A flicker of panic crosses the kitsune's mind. With no time to dodge, they instead turn their frame into the coming rockfall, bracing their paws and moving to stand over the unconscious body of their patient.

It is not enough.

Though Dawn-fang holds their ground at first they are quickly pushed back. It is all they can do to prevent the avalanche of earth from killing them both.

At Radek's warning, the others spring into action, Liandra and Darevod dash in together. Darevod nimbly darts in to pull the body out from beneath Dawn-fang and the piling rubble, moving with a strength of purpose that belies his tiny form. Liandra heaves the body onto her shoulder to carry it to safety.

Dawn-fang's body is nearly about to give way when relief finally comes. As Radek's mental discipline clicks into place, the force of the rocks lessen. "Damn it!" he grunts through clenched teeth as he shoulders the burden with his mind.

For a few brief moments, Dawn-fang is free to claw their way free of the rubble as Radek holds it back, and then the force gives, and the weight of the earth crashes down, sending dust and debris into the air. Everything goes dark.

When the dust clears, the passageway is thoroughly blocked. You can faintly see the light from the partially covered archway to the ritual room you came from, but the passage leftwards and up is thoroughly blocked by tons and tons of earth and stone.

In the stillness that follows, a weak cough rings out.

@Juri: You wake up in a haze of dust and darkness. Around you, 5 of the least likely faces you could imagine look on with concern.

Spoiler: OOC

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@Dawn-fang: Strength 5 + 4(Liandra)
Your left paw is is injured in the strain. You will take a -2 to checks involving that paw until you have the time to properly tend to it.

Dawn-fang and Juri each take [roll]3d10[/roll] bludgeoning damage Roll failed since you can't add them in edits. Roll posted in OOC

Radek uses 6 power points on the Move aspect of Master of Force. It is enough to lessen the strain on Dawn-fang, but not enough to stop the rockfall. Radek takes 6 damage from the psychic backlash of straining against a weight they cannot lift, and their Psi-Limit is temporarily reduced by one (to 5) as they recuperate.

[Xiagu]

Dawn-Fang

Dawn-Fang does their best to shield Juri from the rocks, and braces against a large fallen slab that threatens to crush them both. For a moment they lose their footing in the shaking, and in the split second it takes to catch themself, they go from holding off the slab to struggling to keep it from crushing them. They manage to hold it off for long enough for Liandra and Darevod to pull Juri to safety, but only with Radek's help can they dive for freedom themself.

The kitsune slowly climbs to their feet as the dust settles, looking rather the worse for wear. Panting for breath, they lean on the nearest person for support, which happens to be Radek. They look up at the tall telepath... and break into a short coughing fit. "Was that you?" Dawn-Fang asks, after they recover. "With the rocks?"

Their ears swivel when Juri coughs, and they glance down at the newly awake monk with relief that she'd made it.

[Majin]

Radek HP: 59/59 AC: 17, Psi Points: 31/44, Psychic Focus: Third Eye By the Pact, that was stupid..." Radek mutters, rubbing his head, and helping Dawn-Fang up. That was way too much to try and lift. His teacher would have scolded him for acting so brashly, and not even defending himself. "Screw that ass..." Radek pushes the headache away, and responds. "Yeah, just a little force manipulation, though I think I kinda overestimated myself there. You alright?" Radek glances down at the newly awakened person as well. "Hey, can you walk? Looks like we're in quite a hurry here."

[Xiagu]

Dawn-Fang

Dawn-Fang raises an eyebrow for a moment as Radek mutters to himself.

"More or less," the kitsune says, feeling over their hurt left paw. "Much better than I'd be without your help." They give a meaningful glance to the pile of rubble where they'd been standing, then turn back to Radek and bring their paws together for a short bow. "Thank you."

[OutOfThyme]

Juri

Juri let out another cough as she rose to her feet, aware of the fact that she wasn't wearing much. She glanced from one member of the assembled group to the other - none of these people wore anything remotely resembling one of the Great Clans. Were they perhaps barbarians of some kind, or was this some kind of Kolaghan sorcery?

Getting into a fight, in her state, however, probably wouldn't be the best use of her strength.

"Tell me, strange Ainok," she says, gesturing in Dawn-Fang's direction. "Where are we?"

[Xiagu]

Dawn-Fang

It takes a few moments for Dawn-Fang to realize that Juri is talking to them. They blink and point at themself, as though to say "Me?". "Nobody knows, strange human," they say, with a bit of amusement. "But there's probably not any 'ainok' here. I'm Dawn-Fang, kitsune healer from Towabara. You may find that where you're from makes as little sense to us as that did to you." They chuckle, which turns into a cough. "In any case, I'm glad you're alright."

[spinningdice]

Liandra
"Glad you could join us, I'm afraid we've had only about half an hour or so more than you to work out what's going on, but we all hail from different lands, or maybe worlds. We all understand each other and we seem to have been captured for some ritual that went wrong." she looks around at the others nearby "Did I miss anything?"

Assuming no one else says anything "Your gear should be through there."

Spoiler: OOC

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There was another captive that died, did we see anything that would have been their gear, or was that the book?

[OutOfThyme]

Juri

"Regardless of where we are, I need to return to my clan," said Juri, trying to process the fact that she quite possibly wasn't in Kolaghan lands anymore. The Kolaghan were brutish in their sorcery, so her doubts about this being a trick waned by the minute.

"My name is Juri, of Clan Ojutai. For now, I suppose, we should work together to stop whoever has brought us here." Juri bowed slightly to the others, wincing slightly as she felt her injuries flare up. Once Liandra pointed out that her gear was in the adjacent room, Juri's eyes lit up.

Ojutai's Fang wasn't lost to her after all!

She immediately rushed into the adjacent room - where anyone still in there would see her grab a sword in a simple black scabbard, a set of white and blue clothes, and another small object. It didn't take long for Juri to change into her tunic and the rest of the clothes and rejoin the others in the hallway.

With one hand resting on the pommel of the sword - now at her left hip - she looked to the others. They knew more about the situation at hand, so it only made sense to trust their judgment.

At least, for now.

[Jangoose]

As you settle in and introduce yourselves anew, you take stock of your current situation.

You currently have access to the gear and storage room as well as the hallway beyond and down. You have access to your original* gear as well as a selection of generic tools and equipment. This site was clearly being excavated or restored, though you don't know why. Various non-magical archeological tools, robes, weapons, and food supplies can be found in the room. Nothing in particular stands out to you, but with enough digging you can probably find/scrounge up anything you expect you will need for the immediate future (rope, knives, picks, chalk, bags, food, etc.).

With an hours work, you could theoretically gain access to the ritual room again. Its entry arch is nearly completely covered by rubble. The leftmost route appears impassable.

As you chat, the ground trembles faintly a few times, as if reminding you that it hasn't finished with you quite yet.

@Liandra: Your scan through the area that contained the personal items reveals not much else: another set of clothes and a curious set of hook-like daggers. Though your budding second sight suggests they are non-magical, they look sturdy and well made.

Spoiler

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For reference, the book/map were found in the ritual room, separate from the personal effects.

[miinstrel]

Darevod Transmuter, 8th Level "Dead bodies make more dead bodies..." Darevod lectures at Juri as they crawl from the wreckage of the tunnel. "But life begets life begets let's get's out of here. Excavate later, exit now. No stopping, only starting to leaving." The Vedalken scurries the other way down the hallway toward freedom, getting a much needed head start with his stumpy legs.

[Xiagu]

Dawn-Fang

Dawn-Fang nods and sighs as Juri mentions some place (or organization?) they've never heard of. It wasn't unexpected, but it still left a bad taste in their mouth. Or maybe that was all the dust.

They head back into the gear room and scrounge up some basic medical supplies and something to carry them in. The kitsune ties a makeshift wrap around their injured wrist; it wasn't great, but it'd have to do for now.

Rejoining the others in the hallway, they find Darevod already scurrying ahead and pad along after him.

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm not actually trying to do anything with the wrapping, it's just a fun detail. I assume it'll take a short rest to actually properly treat it.

[Majin]

Radek HP: 59/59 AC: 17, Psi Points: 31/44, Psychic Focus: Third Eye "Radek", Radek responds to Juri. "This whole situation doesn't make any sense, really. I suppose you also claim to be from some made-up place, yeah? And haven't even heard of Ravnica?" Radek stuffs some food supplies into his duster's pockets and heads out after Darevod.

[spinningdice]

Liandra tucks the daggers away, she also picks up some rope and as much food/water as she can easily fit in her pack before heading out after Darevod.

[Jangoose]

With new resolve, Darevod heads down the hallway, and down the stairs beyond, the rest of you following soon after.

Though the ground rumbles from time to time, nothing seems to come of it, and it soon fades away into the ambiance.

---

You descend a few short stories, though in the tense quiet it seems longer. The stairwell lets out onto a broad landing, and you find yourself in a dimly lit crevasse. Above you, the roof of the cavern is hidden in shadow, but below you, the depths of the cave are lit by a ruddy orange glow. The balcony you are on hosts a long dry fountain, and a pair of brooding statues flank the stairwell you came from.

Scattered across the opposing rock face you can see other archways and balconies, houses and rooftops carved into the rock. For the first time you find yourself noticing the absurd scale of the construction, and wondering how truly massive the original architects of this ruin must have been. Though the materials may be simple, the craftsmanship is notably exceptional. You see no signs of recent life down here, but the buildings remain in near-pristine condition. A bridge of stone slats extends to a balcony on the opposite side of the gap, though bridge is perhaps the wrong word to describe what you see. The slabs follow no ordinary rules of architecture (or even physics), fixed in space by unknown artifice. They float with neither support nor structure, and yet exude a sense of stability and permanence. At the bridge, a short runed pillar marks the anchor point.

Out in the open cave you feel the currents of warm air drifting lazily around. You can hear a faint skittering, the sound of disturbed rocks skidding freely.

[Xiagu]

Dawn-Fang

Dawn-Fang looks around the cavern and lets out an awed breath. "I've never seen a cave this size," they murmur. "How deep underground are we?" On Kamigawa, this would have to be deep in the Sokenzan... maybe it's fortunate we're somewhere else. Floating bridges had never really been the ogres' style, anyway.

Curious as to what, if anything, is on their side of the crevasse, Dawn-Fang pads towards one of the sides of the landing, away from the bridge. They hold up their lantern and peer out into the dimness, looking to see if there's anything close by above or below. They're also wary of that skittering sound, and keep their pointy ears perked.

[spinningdice]

Liandra
Liandra takes a few tentative steps onto the bridge, ready to leap back should it's mysterious stability begin to fail.

[Majin]

Radek HP: 59/59 AC: 17, Psi Points: 31/44, Psychic Focus: Third Eye "Pretty damn deep", Radek says. If everyone else were some kind of weird underground mole people, maybe that'd make some sense. "At least I won't be bumping my head into the ceiling." Radek goes to check out the pillar. Maybe magic would still make sense, even in this situation. Spoiler: OOC Show Arcana: (d20+8)[21] - Examine the pillar with the runes.

[OutOfThyme]

Juri

Juri stops by the start of the bridge, and listens, trying to pinpoint the direction that the odd skittering sound comes from. This sort of towering architecture was not alien to her - after all, Clan Ojutai liked to build its monasteries on mountainsides with all manner of intricate architecture. But Juri had never been this far underground. Were they in a mountain, or was this an underground cavern of some kind?

Spoiler: OOC

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Perception roll on the noise: (1d20+7)[24]

[miinstrel]

Darevod Transmuter, 8th Level Darevod lets out a long whistle as they emerge into the enormous cave. "Too big. Big as a city!" he exclaims. Holding his hands to his mouth he calls out loudly, "Horace?" With no response he moves to the edge of the chasm and kicks a small rock in to see how deep it goes.

[Jangoose]

@Dawn-fang: You pad out into the cavern and peer over the landing's edge, scanning the wall up and down. Above you, you can see two other small balconies and their accompanying clusters of buildings. Below you you see that your section of the cave overhangs a foundry near the foot of the cave. An abandoned project in jet black metal rests at its center still shrouded in scaffolding

@Darevod: You kick a small rock out into the chasm. From the sound of the bouncing you estimate the cavern floor lies a good hundred feet below you.

@Juri: The skittering continues, and you perk up at the sound, straining to listen carefully. Through the noise of the falling rocks, you can just pick out the sounds of scuffling that suggest a something alive is involved. From the scraping you would suspect something scaled or otherwise hard and plated. The noise comes from above you.

As the others look around at the cave, Radek and Liandra turn their attention to the bridge area. Liandra slowly inches out onto the bridge, but grows more confident as it becomes clear that the bridge can easily hold her weight, as sturdy in the air as solid ground.

@Radek: The pillar is topped by 4 stacked rings, each with its own set of runes. Though you have never seen the symbols before, you know without any hesitation that they represent numbers. Your second sight insists the pillar is magically powered, but, as with what you can see of the bridge, no trace of any functional enchantments are left on the surface. This is quality artifice, not like the paltry enchantments you learn in school on Ravnica, old magic, baked into the very being of the warm dark stone.
Your hands idly brush the rings as you take a closer look, and a set of runes briefly flash. With a whir, the rings spring into action, spinning into a new alignment.

So smoothly, you barely notice at first, the bridge begins to move, rising swiftly to a new location.

Above you, the skittering sound gets louder.

Spoiler: OOC

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@Liandra: the bridge is rising, though your caution leaves you well prepared to take action. [+1 White]. Acrobatics and/or Athletics checks you take to stabilize on the bridge or jump back to the balcony are at +5. You are currently about 8 feet from the start of the bridge, and about 5 feet above where you started (though rising quickly)

[spinningdice]

Lhiandra drops to a crouch and turns around ready to leap/dash back from the bridge. She hesitates, reasoning that the movement is slow and deliberate, not a collapse and she has rope to make a descent.

Spoiler: OOC

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Athletics (1d20+7)[15] to keep footing.