Adventure in Eberron: The Paradox Wars

[The Demented One]

Mahogany's voice may carry some meaning, by the monster does not understand any tongue spoken by mortal race. It does, however, hear the sound of a competitor, something more than prey. Though it cannot properly roar a challenge back with a mouth full of Vaajek, it locks eyes with Mahogany, its nostrils flaring.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Old man!! I appreciate you attempting to get it's attention on you and off myself, but in my current position I think it's just a little too late!!" He roars for the first notable time since meeting him in common instead of abyssal. As he shouts, his shape becomes very slightly less distinct, and the ash cloud around him seems to thicken.

[The Demented One]

Suddenly, the monster's eyes begin to glow violet, and violet light streaks out from its nostrils and mouth. It shakes, losing its hold on Vaajek and dropping him. Violet light begins to coruscate across its hold body, refracting into bizarre patterns along its carapace. It head glows steadily brighter and brighter, until it is a blinding beacon of pure violet. Then, without a noise or warning, the light dissipates, folding back in on itself to darkness. With a heavy, seismic thud, the monster falls to the ground, its carapace shattering as it does.

The tower heaves as the monster falls, see-sawing atop the ruins beneath it. However, it soon returns to equilibrium, perfectly balanced atop a pile of fallen towers and rubble that stretch all the way to the cavernous depths of Sharn.

Battle Over. Everyone gains 5400 XP.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

He pushes the meat off of him as he gets up, his sword less blackened and the ash surrounding him completely gone. Vaajek takes a few steps forward and shrinks instantly into space, the same instant reappearing closer to the center of the tower, looking around at the rest of the group and sliding his sword into the sash around his waist.
Now that he isn't flying, teleporting, fighting or being eaten, you get a better look at him. He stand an astounding seven feet in height, covered in thick muscles and dark grey skin, apparently, covered in a thin layer of oil of some sort. His appearance would lend you to believe that he is some sort of massive, not-so-frail elf. He's draped in black, including a long, sleeveless, tattered coat and thick bracers over pitch-black claws. The whites of his eyes are black and his irises blood red, almost glowing with abyssal menace. His most pronounced feature is a gaping hole in the center of his chest slowly oozing dark dark blood.
"Kejmak Vall..."

[dyslexicfaser]

Gahz

The elephant shrinks and swiftly resumes its human form - a form as massive for a human as he had been for an elephant. He is clad in the greens and browns often favored by druids and rangers, offset by what he is convinced is a very dashing straw hat and bare feet. He looks at the monster's carcass thoughtfully, the terrible destruction wrought upon Sharn momentarily brushed from his mind.

The creature baffled him utterly; first regressing in time from undeath to a living, possibly adolescent form, then seeming to keel over with little to no input from them. And then that strange purple light, the same light that had washed over the Ocelot II... they had to be connected. He'd never seen anything quite like it, and he'd seen a lot of creatures, both magical and mundane in nature.

Finally, he shakes himself like a dog coming in out of the rain, and looks up at Vaajekk and the others gathered. "Uh.. yes.. well met. " He obviously has no idea what Vaajekk just said, but doesn't let that stop him. "I am Gahz. You were all on the Ocelot II?"

[Ellas Aramond]

The fire-shrouded warrior looks down at the others, curious as to who it was that he was fighting alongside. He finds himself slightly unsettled by the sight of Vaajek and Rabina, but does his best to conceal it, not wanting another fight on his hands.

He floats back down onto the toppeled tower, and re-stores the wand in a slot along his right bracer. As he does so, his flames decrease in intensity, allowing a better look at his form. If a holy knight and a fire elemental were ever fused together, it might look something like The Silver Guardian. There is not a single part of his body that hasn't been covered by crimson armor or silver fire, and his eyes are little more then white orbs on a vaguely human face.

"In a sense," he says, in response to Ghaz "I'm known as The Silver Guardian. There is something I must ask though. I was able to rescue a young woman from the ship. Do any of you see her anywhere?" As he asks, his eyes check the surroundings in case she was teleported anywhere.

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Spot check: (1d20+30)[33] to see her.

[The Demented One]

The Guardian cannot see the girl anywhere. However, after the space of about a minute spent searching her, there is a burst of purple and a popping noise, and she reappears right where she stood when she disappeared, still cowering in fear.

After a moment, she looks around, confusion replacing the fear. "What just happened? That thing went away, you're all in different places, and...and Sharn's still burning." She looks around at you - Vaajek, with a gaping hole in his chest; Rabina, with her mysterious veils and eerily glowing skin; Drann, wreathed in silver flame. She begins nervously walking back, heading towards Mahogany.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

"Well now, Mahogany is m'name, leastwise that's what 'm called, nick's name if you will, from before the whole topknot went the way of winter if you catch m'drift, heh heh." the elderly fellow replies as everyone comes together.

"Worthy of song that!" he says, looking over the corpse in fascination but his face turns grave glancing out over the city, "Leastwise if aught were 'bout to hear of it."

He turns around at the flash of light.

"You alright there lass?" Mahogany says, walking with his limpy gait towards her. "You missed these wondrous folk battlin' as horrible a beast as you ever heard round the hearth is all."

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

Rabina

Rabina sprints up to the fallen beast, legs flapping under a skirt long enough to be modest but with enough slits to be the opposite; Ganitai follows at a few paces, with the air of an indulgent mother following her fleet-footed child.

Rabina kneels, replacing her veil carefully after dropping her shroud; her armor remains in place, but she stows her shield carefully on her back.

Her fingers flick outward towards the fallen beast; she strokes it, almost lovingly.

::What have you done, where have you gone[?] Not by steel or spell[.] I did not do this, could not, did not[!] Why so, why gone, why fallen[?]::

Her other hand reaches outwards, pointing at each of her new 'companions'; then into her pack, drawing forth a silvery sphere and several rolls of parchment, each laboriously scraped and conditioned to newness. The sphere draws out two small limbs tipped with quills, and begins writing...

Parchments:

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The woman knelt over the beast, her soft white hair flowing in a gentle breeze, befouled only by the sulphurous odor of a burning Sharn- a blasphemy, an offense against time and history.

"What could have done this, Ganitai? And why?"
Her eyes glistened with tears behind her veil, and her hands clenched and unclenched, rounded nails drawing half-moons of blood from her palms.
The beautiful Kalashtar pulled her close, fingers dancing across her temples and brow, lips following.

"I don't know, my darling. But we will find out, and we will stop it."...

Weight x29348[Unit191] Height 19349xx Temporal Worldline Relational Density 1934932409832409234[xho'has'takUnit]...

OOC

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Manifesting Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions on the carapace locale, and Read Thoughts on each 'ally'.

[The_Snark]

Sinan

Sinan watches the beast fall to the ground curiously; the girl's reappearance is mildly starting to him, and he peers at the space where the violet flash was, frowning and occasionally muttering to himself. "Same color, same color... no sense of displacement... lasted no more than a minute or two..." He walks towards the others, attention still completely elsewhere. "... all beneficial but the first... Sharn itself, too, perhaps..."

As he reaches them, his head snaps up, and he smiles. "Ah! Hello there, hello. Sinan is the name. I was a passenger on the ship... wonder what did it... or who..." he falls off into a mutter again, musing on the ship's whereabouts, before returning to a normal voice. "Yes! Yes, the ship. Do you think we ought to look for the remains of that? I don't know that anybody could have lived, but there might be some... or elsewhere in the city... I'm afraid I'm not terribly used to this sort of thing, you know," he explains, as if there were people used to the destruction of the most famous metropolis in the world. "Would've had to run from that monster if you hadn't been here, I think. Terrible thing. Many thanks, many thanks..."

Shiny

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Rabina's attempt at mind-reading slides off Sinan like water off a duck's back. A duck that, in fact, had been behind a glass window in the first place, and never even got wet.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

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Vaajek's thoughts are all pretty much bitter and violent.

The demon watched as the woman reappeared, caring little about a pathetic mortal. His keen eyes weren't for nothing though, as he began to look away from the human girl he instantly looked back at her. He started walking toward her, his hand not going for his blade just yet. "Familiar... A curious face you've got, human."

[dyslexicfaser]

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If Read Thoughts is like Detect Thoughts, then Gahz is also duck-like. He has mind shielding.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Shiny

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Behind Mahogany's amiable face there seems to be nothing there. There is no barrier, it's just as if there is no mind to read.

[Ellas Aramond]

The fires surrounding The Guardian flare up slightly as he watches Vaajek approach the woman. He's not sure what the demonic man is, but he doesn't trust him, causing him to be concerned with her saftey.

"Good idea," he says to Sinan, never taking his eyes off Vaajek. "Someone on that ship just might have been lucky enough to have their fall slowed."

Shiny

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Drann's mind is mixed between relief that nothing had happened to the young woman, and concerned about Vaajek.

[The Demented One]

"Fa...familiar?" the girl asks, stepping back and brushing her deeply red hair out of her eyes, vibrant green and flecked with silver. "I don't know what you're intentions are, but you will put that sword away before you talk to me." she says, her voice without so much as a tremor. "I just fell out of an airship into the flaming ruins of Sharn, and I am not going to have some...some deformed miscreant try to take advantage of me."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Vaajek peers at the girl and bares his teeth at her, "If you'll note... my sword is in my belt... and you'd best hold your tongue when you think to call me a miscreant... Jekkay F'Koll..." He arches his fingers with an audible cracking noise.

[The_Snark]

Sinan

"Er, perhaps we can finish bickering later? I don't mean to harp on the subject, but the city is rather burning as we speak," Sinan hazards, and suddenly looks to be lost in thought again. "Do you know, I'd never been to Sharn before. My first time here and something sets the whole place on fire. Doesn't seem quite fair... Have any of you been here before?" he asks, returning from his reverie.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Mahogany stops halfway to the girl and his eyes widen in shock. He stares into the distance and rubs a hand across his bushy hair.

"Lands..." he whispers.

He turns to the others.

"Folk, great as the lotta you are, might you take a bit of advice from this old man? We got our hands full and that's a fact, and we're like as not gonna have'm fuller. Now we're all jumped up over it all, leastwise I feel halfway outta m'skin, so lets take a look see and point words'n'swords to the like as that brute, fair enough?"

He nods to Sinan, "Been round couple or three, leastwise if I'm counting right, though never was quick to numbering. Fulla life and sorts from all about. Was right fine..."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Vaajek turns to the old man, and realizing separating from the rest of the group(if they should happen to leave the realm of the living for any reason) would mean a severe drop in his power. "...I have spent most of my time in Xen'drik and the Underdark. Sharn is new land to me, though Breland is not entirely foreign."

DM Only, possibly also Rabina.

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Vaajek projects a violent tone into the server girl's head through telepathy, like the sounds of battle on Shavralath, his tongue the usual abyssal, "Kerran Vaarkoth Kejmol Dann!"

[Ellas Aramond]

"I used to be based in Thrane, The Guardian explains as he moves closer to Vaajek, wanting to be able to intervene should anything get out of hand. "But that was before I was in Xen'drik for a few years. I have been to this city a few times though."

[dyslexicfaser]

Gahz

Gahz offered, ignoring Vaajekk and the girl's little spat, "I've been through once or twice. Some of the most amazing use of levitation spells I've ever seen, and the markets..." Gahz trailed off, his eyes unfocused as he thought back to his last trip through Sharn. "Nevermind."

Gahz had finally thought of something constructive to do. He began muttering and hand-waving, working his will on the sky high above Sharn to bring forth a downpour, enough rain to quench the flames devouring what little is left of Sharn.

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Quench and Cloudburst aren't going to cut it for this job. Casting Control Weather to bring forth a 4-to-6-mile-in-diameter rainstorm: he'll be occupied for the next ten minutes.

[The_Snark]

Sinan

"Well. You will all have to tell me about it sometime. I believe that's customary in some places, yes? A wake, I recall. Sort of a remembrance." Sinan notes Gahz's spell. "Ah, yes. We ought to get to work, hmmm?" He takes an oddly proportioned staff from his back, just too short to make a good walking-stick. Ridges spiral up at irregular intervals, each one at a slightly different angle; the staff is reflective, like a mirror, but where a mirror would reflect bright light even in the smoky haze of Sharn's remains, the staff remains stubbornly dull, making the reflections difficult to see.

Sinan begins an odd spell using the staff, sending tiny orbs in all directions as he finishes a minute later.

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Casting Greater Prying Eyes through the runestaff, for (1d4+19)[20] eyes. The eyes have orders to investigate the surrounding mile of ruins, returning if they spot living or hostile creatures that Sinan can't see already.

[The Demented One]

Gahz's spell soon brings forth the rain, a cleansing rain the likes of which have not graced Sharn for months. Slowly but surely, the fires begin to die down, and the soot and ash are washed away.

While Gahz weatherworks, Sinan scouts out the ruins with his arcane eyes. After a few minutes, they return to him, bobbing up and down in the air. As he points to each of them, the relay what they have seen. The devastation is complete, stretching from the tops of Sharn down to its subterranean foundations. No living creatures could be found, although they managed to find a few undead dotting the ruins, half-rotted zombies barely holding together, nothing like the beast you just faced. In addition, one of the eyes found something strange about a half mile beneath you, an orb of blue crystal, taller than a man, lying cradled in the smoking ruins. The eye excitedly relates a path to Sinan.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

Rabina

The storyteller clutches her forehead, and collapses into her companion's arms, sobbing wildly.

::NO. [!] Not [!] PLEaSE NoTOh my love oh please pro:tect keep hold save SA:VESo many dead things, so ter:rible, oh so terrible, no words, no words Oh, dead, so many, so great[!]::

Her hands clench and unclench, tearing her palms apart; her lips meet her teeth with distressing frequency. She stumbles away from Ganitai and to her knees.

"P-please, please? What- they-they-they burned, burned: all dead, dead. So great. Please stop it, stop them. Help. Please."

Moisture leaks from beneath her goggles and her arms reach up and out, searching for contact.

[The Demented One]

The girl shoots Vaajek a filthy look. "I know you did that, I'm savvy to the witchcraft you're using. What are you, some filthy-blooded sorcerer? An aberrant mark maybe, degenerate mutant spawn?" She glares at him fiercely, until Rabina's outburst.

She heads towards the fallen storyteller, not entirely sure it is safe, and kneels by her side, helping to support her. She awkwardly talks to her as she would a child, nervously babbling soothing, reassuring promises.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The demon gave her a hard, angry stare in silence for just a moment then bared his teeth and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up off the ground and stared her deep in the eyes. He uses his other arm to grab her hand and shoves it into his chest-hole, causing some blackened blood to ooze out onto her hand. With a hand in there, she ought to notice there's no heart. "I am kajubaan... demon."

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Intimidate: (1d20+32)[38]
With a hand in there, she ought to notice there's no heart, but it's still warm and gooey, so undeath isn't a good explanation for why that particular vital organ is gone.

[The Demented One]

After a second's silence, the women begins screaming. "GAH! Put me down, just let the hells go of me! The...the Silver Flame, or the Host, or the Blood of Vol comples you!" she shouts, kicking at Vaajek futilely.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

After a few seconds of letting her squirm he drops her, letting her fall on her backside and looming over her.

[dyslexicfaser]

Gahz

After he comes out of his spellcasting trance, Gahz sees the confrontation taking place, specifically Vaajekk looming over the sitting girl. Gahz frowns, but decides not to intervene unless Vaajekk takes it further than intimidation. He has little taste for engaging in battle with someone - something? - that is at least nominally his ally in such a dangerous, surreal situation.

He begins moving through the group, casting another spell, one that will alert him to their direction should they be separated and general level of health. He feels more comfortable if he can keep a metaphorical, mystical eye on them.

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Casting Status on all 5 teammates, plus the girl. Provided nobody objects, natch.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

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I'm just wounded.