Post by David on Mar 1, 2016 15:52:13 GMT -5
Kahan appears just outside the Citadel of the Empire during a huge imperial celebration. The historian notes the flags of the various noble houses incuded, indicating some prestigeous change to the government. Around him is a massive throng of pure Suloise citizens, coming to hear and celebrate the imperial announcement. Kahan is clothed in a blousy white tunic and loose-fitting pantaloons, in the contemporary fashions from end of the Suel Imperium. The coins in his pocket mostly disappear, replaced with local currency. Even his hair cut and style reflects the current moment, such that the cleric of Wee Jas blends seamlessly with his environment.
Then Mikhail appears with Brock, Tolus, and Esmerelda. As they step into this time period, it appears as if the four have accidentally bumped into one another -- a largely-unchanged, vaguely-Nereganti highborn youth with long dark hair and dark skin as well as a high priest of Kord the brawler, a nearly-naked, collared Flan slave, and a simple peasant in indigo garb. The people around the group instantly note Mikhail as a dark-skinned foreign "menace" within a district reserved for full citizens and as a result call for the authorities. But the young man disappears silently before anyone can really react.
Next Taarna, Cymoril, and Tarjar arrive, similarly clad in the clothing and armor of this time -- as the noble last Scion of the house of Taraak, a champion and divine daughter of Wee Jas in ancient armor, and a heroic warrior-son of Kord. All of the groups could see three of the scarlet-robed travelers headed into the throng and another four headed away. Esmerelda sends Drusilla, now a smaller, tawnier-colored owl, to tail the later while Tarjar and Cymoril try to sweep toward the former three. Brock jumps to catch up with them as a parrot (speaking in Common) tells Taarna that it will tail these three. Unfortunately, the pressing horde of people sweeps the lots of them into the massive Citadel and keeps the earth-bound groups apart.
On a raised dais, a dark-robed man steps out and the crowd goes silent, with discretion even from Tarjar. The mage stands high above the throng, his voice magically-enhanced as he invokes an ancient Suloise prayer and announces the date as well as that the arch-mage Xodast will step down as the Defender of the Empire, passing the Cone of the Magi to Uattho of Crusk in turn. Uattho partakes of the ceremony, accepting this great honor from the dark-robed wizard, Slerotin. The three scarlet-robed visitors from ahead of the PCs are clearly intent of reaching these two major historical figures. But the crowds and local security keep everyone from disturbing the arch-mage that will create the 300 mile long tunnel through the Hellfurnances and out of the Sea of Dust (tomorrow) or the cleric/mage that will gather a group of survivors and found the Theocracy of the Pale thousands of miles to the East...
With the announcement made, the crowd flows out, taking everyone with it. Tarjar, Brock, and Cymoril catch up with the three scarlet-robed people. Brock puts the tall, gangly one (just the Master of the East Wind aka 12th lvl monk!!!) in a strangle hold and Cymoril bearhugs the young blonde female, leaving Tarjar to beat to death the red-headed, freckled man. One security guard arrives, but is distracted by a parrot flying in his face, buying time for Tarjar to kill both men and carry off the woman. The three heroes race through the streets of the government district, taking cover in an office. Suddenly, the parrot is gone and a Nereganti young man stands on a nearby roof. He transmutes rock to mud in the street outside and front entry, effectively barring any passage after the party, but also triggering a magical alarm system that warns of a Baklunish druidic attack on Suendrako...
Taarna leads the rest of the group in pursuit, but cannot keep up. The ranger then tries to track her friends, but there are so many other people that it's impossible. A monkey joins Taarna and she sends it to scout from a higher perch. Cymoril and her group had slipped out a side door and were waiting in the crowd, trying to find the others. Tarjar was "making out" with the unconscious woman to ally any suspicion.
Reunited, the group decided to bribe one of officials in one of the nearby government offices in order to obtain citizenship papers for everyone. Taarna leads the group there, claiming as a noble scion of House Taraak that her entire group had been robbed. A 500+gp bribe helps the clerk find the correct forms. An hour later, the whole party now has a means to travel between sections of the city.
But, unfortunately, most of the heroes' loot is gone, unable to exist in two places at the same time. Several other ancient, note-worthy items are missing from other heroes too -- Taarna lacks Grizzly and Brock no longer bears Grandfather while Mikhail's ancient Nereganti sceptre of telekinesis is also gone. Taarna leads the group to the nearby Temple Distrcit, locating a Temple of Lendor. There, she negotiates for many cure light wound spells as well as restorations for Cymoril, Tarjar, and Kahan (since Esmerelda has already restored Taarna). The heroes have almost only gems, so Taarna then leads Tarjar, Brock, and Mikhail-the-monkey into the Majestic Marketplace to trade. Working with two different gnomish traders, the ranger obtains enough local currency to pay for the spells and even buy culturally-appropriate clothing for Mikhail. When the group returns, Esmerelda and Kahan cantrip Mikhail into appearing like another Suel. Then the clergy of Lendor heals the group and lets them nap in nearby chambers.
Four and a half hours later, the group questions their young, blonde captive, but she will not speak and, as a native psi, her mind is shielded. Kahan charms her and uses his knowledge of Suel culture to convince her that he is actually a Brotherhood mole in Taarna's group. Kahan learns that the other group's mission was to head to Xodast and warn her. That done, they were to then ambush and murder the Magi of the Bakluni, so that the Rain of Colorless Fire could never be called down. The heroes are unsure of how much time they have...until Mikhail feels the terror and fear as thousands and thousands of people die to the north. The empath nearly crumples under the strain and is forced to eshew all of his telepathic skills in order to keep his wits about him. In the same area, a massive region of extra-planar reality appears on Oerth, disrupting all of the established laws of physics. Along with this distortion, thousands of daemons enter Oerth, led by a daemon-lord of nightmares...!
The heroes cast a few protective spells, gather in Esmerelda and Mikhail's bags of holdings, and the young druid teleports them all to 100' above and outside of Tovag Baragu, appearing in the fog-shrouded capitol of the Bakluni, Udrukankar, above the Lake of the same name... Mikhail and Taarna feel terror as they hear a civilization dying all around them...
Status:
Kahan: 37 of 44, 61 of 66 PSPs, PROT FIRE, cast cantrip as well as / LL, charm / prot F, know
Brock: 59 of 68, NPP, JUMP, 18/00 STR, cast / / STR, NPP
Tolus: 52 of 56, STR 18/30
Taarna: 96 (full), NPP, LL
Esmerelda: 49 (full), NPP, cast / aid / NPPx2
____Drusilla: 21 (full)
Cymoril: 74 of 88
Tarjar: 94 of 101
Mikhail: 78 (full), RC, PROT FIRE & LIGHT, LL, 19 STR, 88 of 123 PSPs, cast resist cold / charm / prot fire / prot light
Then Mikhail appears with Brock, Tolus, and Esmerelda. As they step into this time period, it appears as if the four have accidentally bumped into one another -- a largely-unchanged, vaguely-Nereganti highborn youth with long dark hair and dark skin as well as a high priest of Kord the brawler, a nearly-naked, collared Flan slave, and a simple peasant in indigo garb. The people around the group instantly note Mikhail as a dark-skinned foreign "menace" within a district reserved for full citizens and as a result call for the authorities. But the young man disappears silently before anyone can really react.
Next Taarna, Cymoril, and Tarjar arrive, similarly clad in the clothing and armor of this time -- as the noble last Scion of the house of Taraak, a champion and divine daughter of Wee Jas in ancient armor, and a heroic warrior-son of Kord. All of the groups could see three of the scarlet-robed travelers headed into the throng and another four headed away. Esmerelda sends Drusilla, now a smaller, tawnier-colored owl, to tail the later while Tarjar and Cymoril try to sweep toward the former three. Brock jumps to catch up with them as a parrot (speaking in Common) tells Taarna that it will tail these three. Unfortunately, the pressing horde of people sweeps the lots of them into the massive Citadel and keeps the earth-bound groups apart.
On a raised dais, a dark-robed man steps out and the crowd goes silent, with discretion even from Tarjar. The mage stands high above the throng, his voice magically-enhanced as he invokes an ancient Suloise prayer and announces the date as well as that the arch-mage Xodast will step down as the Defender of the Empire, passing the Cone of the Magi to Uattho of Crusk in turn. Uattho partakes of the ceremony, accepting this great honor from the dark-robed wizard, Slerotin. The three scarlet-robed visitors from ahead of the PCs are clearly intent of reaching these two major historical figures. But the crowds and local security keep everyone from disturbing the arch-mage that will create the 300 mile long tunnel through the Hellfurnances and out of the Sea of Dust (tomorrow) or the cleric/mage that will gather a group of survivors and found the Theocracy of the Pale thousands of miles to the East...
With the announcement made, the crowd flows out, taking everyone with it. Tarjar, Brock, and Cymoril catch up with the three scarlet-robed people. Brock puts the tall, gangly one (just the Master of the East Wind aka 12th lvl monk!!!) in a strangle hold and Cymoril bearhugs the young blonde female, leaving Tarjar to beat to death the red-headed, freckled man. One security guard arrives, but is distracted by a parrot flying in his face, buying time for Tarjar to kill both men and carry off the woman. The three heroes race through the streets of the government district, taking cover in an office. Suddenly, the parrot is gone and a Nereganti young man stands on a nearby roof. He transmutes rock to mud in the street outside and front entry, effectively barring any passage after the party, but also triggering a magical alarm system that warns of a Baklunish druidic attack on Suendrako...
Taarna leads the rest of the group in pursuit, but cannot keep up. The ranger then tries to track her friends, but there are so many other people that it's impossible. A monkey joins Taarna and she sends it to scout from a higher perch. Cymoril and her group had slipped out a side door and were waiting in the crowd, trying to find the others. Tarjar was "making out" with the unconscious woman to ally any suspicion.
Reunited, the group decided to bribe one of officials in one of the nearby government offices in order to obtain citizenship papers for everyone. Taarna leads the group there, claiming as a noble scion of House Taraak that her entire group had been robbed. A 500+gp bribe helps the clerk find the correct forms. An hour later, the whole party now has a means to travel between sections of the city.
But, unfortunately, most of the heroes' loot is gone, unable to exist in two places at the same time. Several other ancient, note-worthy items are missing from other heroes too -- Taarna lacks Grizzly and Brock no longer bears Grandfather while Mikhail's ancient Nereganti sceptre of telekinesis is also gone. Taarna leads the group to the nearby Temple Distrcit, locating a Temple of Lendor. There, she negotiates for many cure light wound spells as well as restorations for Cymoril, Tarjar, and Kahan (since Esmerelda has already restored Taarna). The heroes have almost only gems, so Taarna then leads Tarjar, Brock, and Mikhail-the-monkey into the Majestic Marketplace to trade. Working with two different gnomish traders, the ranger obtains enough local currency to pay for the spells and even buy culturally-appropriate clothing for Mikhail. When the group returns, Esmerelda and Kahan cantrip Mikhail into appearing like another Suel. Then the clergy of Lendor heals the group and lets them nap in nearby chambers.
Four and a half hours later, the group questions their young, blonde captive, but she will not speak and, as a native psi, her mind is shielded. Kahan charms her and uses his knowledge of Suel culture to convince her that he is actually a Brotherhood mole in Taarna's group. Kahan learns that the other group's mission was to head to Xodast and warn her. That done, they were to then ambush and murder the Magi of the Bakluni, so that the Rain of Colorless Fire could never be called down. The heroes are unsure of how much time they have...until Mikhail feels the terror and fear as thousands and thousands of people die to the north. The empath nearly crumples under the strain and is forced to eshew all of his telepathic skills in order to keep his wits about him. In the same area, a massive region of extra-planar reality appears on Oerth, disrupting all of the established laws of physics. Along with this distortion, thousands of daemons enter Oerth, led by a daemon-lord of nightmares...!
The heroes cast a few protective spells, gather in Esmerelda and Mikhail's bags of holdings, and the young druid teleports them all to 100' above and outside of Tovag Baragu, appearing in the fog-shrouded capitol of the Bakluni, Udrukankar, above the Lake of the same name... Mikhail and Taarna feel terror as they hear a civilization dying all around them...
Status:
Kahan: 37 of 44, 61 of 66 PSPs, PROT FIRE, cast cantrip as well as / LL, charm / prot F, know
Brock: 59 of 68, NPP, JUMP, 18/00 STR, cast / / STR, NPP
Tolus: 52 of 56, STR 18/30
Taarna: 96 (full), NPP, LL
Esmerelda: 49 (full), NPP, cast / aid / NPPx2
____Drusilla: 21 (full)
Cymoril: 74 of 88
Tarjar: 94 of 101
Mikhail: 78 (full), RC, PROT FIRE & LIGHT, LL, 19 STR, 88 of 123 PSPs, cast resist cold / charm / prot fire / prot light