Into the Wormcrawl Fissue IC

[Tar Palantir]

Simon

Simon raises his hand, and says, "Just one. Are we getting paid. I don't believe I remembered to ask that yesterday. I'll go either way, I suppose, but it'd be a nice gesture." He looks at the others, then whispers, "I think I deserve something extra for putting up with this Sasso person. No sense of humor." He winks, then clears his throat and fiddles with the elegant hilt of his rapier

[Adumbration]

"I was born ready." Today the killoren hair and eyes are deep, lusterless black. A cruel grin plays at his face every once in a while, revealing slightly sharper tooth than is generally acceptable from civilized races. Even though he stayed up till wee hours of the night reading up on dragons and liches, no signs of fatigue show on his face or demeanor.

"How soon can we expect to encounter the dragon? I can make us invulnerable to it's breath weapon, but it consumes my resources, and only lasts a day."

OOC:

Spoiler

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He spent the time on researching on dragons and liches. Let's just say that I get a look at the basic abilities of dragons and liches from their monster manual entries?

[Dorizzit]

Sassan smiles politely at Simon. "My name is Sassan, and I have a fine sense of humor. I just haven't heard anything funny."

[Tar Palantir]

Simon

Simon shrugs his shoulders and answers, "Sorry, I'm not good with names. As for not hearing anything funny, remind me to tell you about Lord Dulroth some day. You'll die of laughter."

[Frosty]

OOC - Anara does some research on liches and undeath unduring the night. She already knows a metric ton about dragons (she has a +33 modifier), but she's kinda weak on the knowledge of undead. Can she take 20 since she spends a few hours? If not... knowledge (religion) (1d20+12)[16] By the way, does Knowledge (local) help at all in this campaign, or was it a waste of lots of skillpoints?

Anara floats into the room, yawning as she secures her mail-kini top in place. "I spent a wee too much time in the study last night. The creatures of undeath are not my specialty. Now, if this thing was a Red dragon when alive, I can prepare a few spells that'll take some of the sting out of his energy breath. My orbs are fire-based, but I've got equipment that can switch that to sound-vibration based damage. Anyhow, we'll need to gather around me for the teleport.

[Adumbration]

OOC: Right, research. Same as Frosty, but for undeath AND dragons.

Knowledge (religion): (1d20+1)[9]
Knowledge (arcane): (1d20+1)[14]

No ranks in either, but hey, we're at a library, right?

[Diarmuid]

Gammon

Gammon would have taken the evening to make sure he's up to snuff on his undead understanding. He's mostly interested in the weaknesses, as he knows some monsters require certain types of materials, or enchantments to truly injure.

Spoiler

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If possible, take 20 on knowledge religion in the library, for 30 total.

[Zid]

The result of your studies:

Much to his enjoyment, Gammon finds that Liches are most badly hurt by bludgeoning and magic weapons, both things he has in great supply. As for dragoliches, your combined studies find a ages old book. "Ye olde tavelguide of the northeren lands." Within, a travelling bards mentions a northen hero that claimed to have fought a dragon whose breath was a cloud of worms, worms that burrowed into the skin of his companions and turning them into undead. (You also learn the basic data on the undead type in the MM)

Manzorian seems somewhat offended by Simons suggestion: "I offer you a chance to save the world! If you succeed, I can surely give you gifts worthy of a King. The hoard of Dragotha is a price worthy of any man (or woman)."

After being transported far away in a small boat, you find yourself in the middle of the lake of unknown depths. The guide tells you that the teleportation wards are weak enough here to allow teleportation.

[Zid]

The teleportation spell wears off, and you find yourselves standing beneath a dusky sky. Even though it should be daylight now, the thick clouds block out the sun, giving the area a greyish discoloration. The ground is barren and rocky, dotted in places by thick copses of strange fungi. To the north, you see a the northen wall of the fissure- a steep three hundred foot drop going west to east, dotted by small caves and openings. Eastwards, the ground steeps slightly upwards, while it continues to descend westwards.

Just a few feet before you stands a line of poles, with about twenty to forty feet between each. On some, humanoid corpses are bound, most in skeleton form. Someone has bound small pieces of leather on them, making it seem as though worms are eating the corpses.

[Adumbration]

As the killoren starts to shake out the disorientation brought on by the travel, he suddenly turns his gaze towards east and goes rigid. His eyes move, unseeing. "Hello," he whispers, "what do we have here?" Then the visions fill his mind. "A mist filled gorge," his eyes flickering to another direction, "a great worm... and a man consumed by worms. East. We must go east." He turns towards the others. "I was contacted by a spirit. It showed itself as a caged animal. Perhaps the ally Agath spoke of?"

[Frosty]

Letting go of everyone after the Teleport spell she cast has finished, she looks around. Anara shrugs, saying, "East is as good a direction as any. Let's go cautiously."

She utters a few words of lesser power, and a steed of pure black comes into existence. Its hooves appear to walk on air silently and Anara mounts it quickly. Smiling, she says, "Caution...with style! I can give one other person a ride if you want to see the view from the air."

[Tar Palantir]

Simon

Simon comes out of the spell with a slight twirl that leaves him leaning against a conviently located pillar of stone. He loosens his rapier in its sheath and adjusts his oppulent garb, then says, "East, west, wherever the fun is! And with my luck, we'll run into it wherever we go."

He takes a moment to admire Anara's spellsteed, then says, "Wonderful spell. A personal favorite of my good friend Eldric Shimmergloom, captain of the Menesbran Knights. He chased me for three months after I made off with the more valuable pieces of the king's treasure and the virtue of his more beautiful daughters. Last I saw him, he got himself caught in a gate to Acheron. Poor fool. Should've known better than to run right at me, regradless of what I said about his mother. Ah, well. I'll stay on the ground for now." With that, he draws his rapier and moves a short ways from the rest of the group, so as to have a little space to fight in case of an ambush.

[Diarmuid]

Gammon

The dwarf shakes himself to clear the fogginess from the teleportation.

"Bah, no matter 'ow many times I do that, it always gits me."

Looking around at the bleak scene before them, he spits on the ground in front of a couple of the grisly displays. Removing his shield from his back, he fastens it to his left forearm. Reaching down to his belt, his hand eases into the loop at the end of his warhammer's handle as it has down thousands of times before.

"Me legs may not be as quick as some o' ye, but I'll 'appily walk afore ye and meet whatever threats come to us 'ead on."

Following the strange winged one's words, he heads off towards the east, his eyes searching the surrounding areas for danger. Remembering their end goal, he makes sure not to neglect the skies in his searching.

[Adumbration]

"Thank you, but I think I shall use a mount of my own." The killoren withdraws a special, ornate bottle he prepared last night just before finally going to sleep. A plume of smoke seems to twirl inside. With a smooth motion Gorantar uncorks it, and a vaguely horselike creature, made out of wisps of smoke, forms before him. "This one cannot fly, but I bet it can move at least as fast as yours." The blackhaired killoren swings his legs over it. Despite it's flimsy appearance, it seems to hold his weight.

Spoiler

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Ride checks to actually mount it - DC 10. The spell is Bottle of Smoke, SpC pg. 37.

(1d20+2)[18]
In case that fails:
(1d20+2)[6]
Third time's the charm - if the previous fail:
(1d20+2)[9]

[Frosty]

Anara Shufti

Looking around, everyone is either content to hustle on their feet, or have mounts of their own. "Giddiyup, Shadowfax!" she says, half jokingly. The Phantom Steed rises to a good 30 feet above the ground, so she is well withing conversation distance. "I doubt we'll need to go that fast. After all, master Gammon and master Simon most likely won't be able to keep up...and I'm not sure about mister fire pillar, Sassan."

[Dorizzit]

Sassan leaps up, and hovers once more. He breathes deeply before flame shoots out of his hands and feet, rocketing him around in a quick loop before he skates up into and impressive jump, easily clearing thirty feet of distance. "I assure you, madam, I will be more than capable of keeping up!" he calls up, smiling contentedly.

[Tar Palantir]

Simon

Simon laughs happily at the displays of magic and skill. He mockingly scolds, "Now now, no more attempts at upstaging each other. We're a team, remember? Now let's go...do that thing the wizard hired us for!" He manages to look quite impressive and dashing even as he has no clue what they're supposed to do. He can't be expected to fight well, look great, and pay attention to boring old people, can he? Of course not. The boring people could handle that while he handled that delightful little archmage. He looked over at her and winked as he thought of this, before moving up beside the surly dwarf, wondering all the while why all dwarfs are surly.

[Zid]

OOC: I actually messed up the directions here. You are going eastwards, not westwards.

As the troup continues on, the thick dust of the fissure settle in your throats, and you are forced to sip from your water almost continually to wet your tounges. After an hour or so of steady progression withour any sign of life, you see five distant figures in the horizon. Four seem mounted, while one is large and winged. One of the mounted ones glow with a certain light, and emits a small cloud of smoke from his body. They are still far away, but seem to have noticed you as well.

[Diarmuid]

Gammon

Letting his hammer fall to hang by it's leather thing, he raises a gauntleted fist to shade the eyeslits in his helm. Gammon peers into the distance, and notes the four figures, and the the wings of the one especially.

"I kin likely keep the three widdout wings busy fer a bit, and if I really need to, I kin click me 'eels together and fly fer a bit...but tha' only werks a few times a day. When they get close enough, I'll try ta trip up their mounts by startin' a small quake. If one o' ye wants ta try talkin' to em...be sure ta let me know aforehand. Unless they speak common or dwarven, I wont unnerstand a werd they be sayin."

Having said his peace, he shakes a bit to settle his armor properly and takes up his hammer from it's leather cord again and heads of towards the mounted foes, an almost excited gleam in his eyes.

[Frosty]

Anara Shufti

Before she does anything else, the Archmage starts speaking words of insight to give her great awareness of all magical effects within her sight. She weaves her hands in an intricate pattern, and soon her eyes glow blue with arcane divination. She looks at the incoming creatures, trying to gather information., trying to detect any magical auras from their equipment or from their body, if any, and also any active magical effects.

Anara spontaneously loses one of her prepared spells (level 7 Body of War) 
to cast Greater Arcane Sight.  She can identify any and all magical effects
within her line of sight automatically, and she can also tell the spell level of the most
powerful spell and spell-like ability of the creatures she look at.

Anara also tries to see if she recognies any of those creatures or 
know anything about them.

knowledge arcana: (1d20+33)[46]
knowledge dungeoneering: (1d20+33)[39]
knowledge The Planes: (1d20+23)[39]
knowledge Nature: (1d20+16)[23]
knowledge Religion: (1d20+11)[13]

[Zid]

As Anara concentrates on her magic, she sees two mounted characters dismount, while the larger one stays on his mount and one slowly starts to ride towards you. The main party is a thousand or more feet away from you.

One of the humanoids casts spells on the other ones. It is too far to see what spell is actually cast, but she sees abjurations starting to go up among the creatures there. The dust clears a little bit, and then she sees the two larger shapes more clearly. She remembers something she saw in a book a long time ago, and wonders if one of the creatures could be a devil, while the other might be some kind of fire elemental. She knows that she will be able to see more when she comes closer, but sees the other shape suddenly cast a strong spell, it´s magical aura shining through the strange dust: "Foresight". As the dust clears, you also see a humanoid bound to the back of a horse in his hands.

The lone rider approches, and you see his steed: a demonic horse, perhaps the result of some wierd magician experiment hundreds of years ago. It has strange scaled skin, and long fangs. The rider is dressed in a black plate armour, adorned with hundreds of eyes. Behind his saddle hangs a banner showing a hand holding a eye: the symbol of Vecna.

He stops a few hundred feet from you: "Ho travellers! I come as an envoy, and should be honoured as such! We are the followers of Darl Quetos, the Hand of the Lich-Lord almighty Vecna. We have no quarrel with you, and wish only safe passage west, in exchange for our safe passage west, and we shall give you the same east. What say you?"

OOC: You have several rounds to cast buffs before the rider arrives, should you wish to.

[Dorizzit]

Sassan looks contemplative, and then begins whispering. "Hm...Normally I wouldn't give passage to followers of the Diety of Secrets...but our mission is more important and time is of the essence. What say you guys?"

[Diarmuid]

Gammon Hammerhurl

The holy warrior snorts loudly at the rider's claims. He looks around to his companions to gauge their takes on the situation and lets them know how he feels. His voice is loud enough for those close to hear, but not so much that the emissary would normally be able to hear him,

"I've ne'er needed ta ask permission from one such as 'im fer safe passage, an' I dont mean ta start. Vecna'd be just the sort ta be in league with this dragon-lich thing and 'is patron. Even if we were ta just pass 'em by...they're likely ta tell anyone 'oo talks to 'em about our passin' and 'oo knows what other evils they'd get up to.... But I'm no fool as ta start a pissin match with a camel neither, so if ye'all dinnae wanna git yer hands dirty, I kin abide by that.....fer now."

While talking, Gammon begins to idly swing the hammer around his wrist by it's leather thong.

[Tar Palantir]

Simon

Simon throws in his two copper pieces on the matter, while simultaneously pondering that he has only ever been offered one, "Perhaps we should first ask them a few questions about the area and our quarry. Surely a servant of the Lord of Secrets has picked up a few himself."

[Adumbration]

"Even though I wished for the element of surprise, perhaps all we can hope now, no matter what we do, is swiftness. I am loathe to let my enemies pass. But, if you wish, we can postpone it, and try deceit. But let us make this decision fast, lest they hear our plans and we lose all our advantage."

[Diarmuid]

Gammon

The dwarf looks up at Simon as he makes his suggestion,

"Lords o' Secrets dinnae get their reputation by spillin tha beans whene'er they're asked aboot somethin. Ye dont se Dumathoin blabbin' about where 'e 'id the Anvil o' the Makers do ye? Now, I'm all fer making these louts tell us what they know...but I was'na plannin' on askin em all nice-like."

Though his plate helmet hides his face, you can hear the smile in his voice as he says the last bit.

[Frosty]

As the dust clears, you also see a humanoid bound to the back of a horse in his hands.

OOC - I am confused as to what is meant by this. Do we see that someone has been taken prisoner? This will determine whether I cast buffs or not as they approach.

Anara Shufti

As the rider approaches, Anara lets her Raven Familiar, Fluffy, out from under her cloak. Fluffy perches herself on Anara's shoulder as Anara directs her phantom steed down to join the others. "If we are to talk, who shall do the talking? Simon?"

[Tar Palantir]

Simon

Simon answers Anara's query, "I would assume so. I'm the most charming and likeable of the group, no offense intended, and I'm quite the diplomat, if I do say so myself. If that's what we decide to do, I could talk a snake right out of his skin, and have him thanking me to boot." His grin is that of one who has never known failure, absolutely radiating confidence and charm.

Spoiler

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+36 to Diplomacy and +34 to Bluff. -1 Sense Motive, though. Not my fault it's Wisdom based . Plus I can use a luck reroll on an abyssmal skill check, so no worries on that front.

[Frosty]

Anara Shufti

The mature archmage nods, adding, "Just be sure to take them seriously. I don't think they're the joking type."

Anara spontaneously loses one of her level 1 prepared spells to cast
Detect Chaos when any of the potentia enemies get within 60 ft so she can
see whether or not they are of the Chaotic alignment.

[Frosty]

Anara Shufti

Looking around to check out her companion's spell effects, she notices one that she forgot to prepare today. Talking to the KIlloren, she says, "Master Ludluck, may I ask you for a blessing upon my familiar, Fluffy? I carelessly forgot to imbue her with the superior version of the Resistance spell. Might you cast it on Fluffy?"

Fluffy the Raven says, "Caw! And you forgot 3 weeks ago in that one battle against the Pit Fiend too. Nearly got me killed you did!"

Anara looks sheepish.