Powerful new evil.....here's the scoop!

[David]

Well, your since you can have a one sentence paragraph, then your last sentence and your last paragraph are the same thing...

Grumpy the Grammarian

[Andy]

Just to help remember for next time; it seems that

- Portals can be activated for that few (~10-15) minutes between dawn and dusk. If Flora can give us an exact time between opening and closing of the 'felucia' portal, that would help.
- Gere can attempt to activate a portal, but if she fails, she doesn't get any more tries until the next dawn or dusk.
- Flora is quite capable of noting when they are active or not (besides just looking at the darn thing)
- Our Target can percieve us at Torvag Baragu (as a presence there), but doesn't necessarily seem to be there.

Supposition:

I think perhaps this is one of those deals where we need to travel through all the portals before the whole place will open up to us and reveal where our target is...sort of like putting together a puzzle. Saying our target is 'behind door 1' may be slightly simple a view of the whole situation.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to what we see next. I'm also curious how David plans to mesh inter-stellar travel with the whole 'sphere' world cosmotology...

[Artec]

I agree Andy, we probably should go through all the portal. It will take time but best way we have now to locate the big bad.

[aaronthecow]

yep, he got it all

[David]

Hiya Ray,

I was thinking this might be what you could do with the low level party -- send them off to explore one portal while the higher level party goes and checks out another. The only difference is that if the high level party finds the "enemy" they're supposed to do battle, whereas the low level party needs to run before Iuz' left-over gas asphixiates them (I just left the Furyondy board, so I have poopie humor on the brain)....

As for Elf, the name of the planet where you met the FRAAL (grays) was SHATARA. "I do not know of the Felucia of which you speak...!"

Flora says the portals that we've triggered so far seem to have a lifespan of about five minutes. She says this is odd, since most of the ley line stiles she's used remain open so long as a being with an Otherworld trait is present; mortals without a guide are the only ones who should get marooned like this. But, if these stone circles were built by mortals instead of Sidhe, then their triggers might work differently. Either way, technically almost all of the archways of Tovag Baragu are active most the time, but only one or two seem to allow true access.

[Jeff]

[glow=blue,2,300]I GOTS AN IDEA!!![/glow]

Maybe we should just wait for Vertigo (the DM has confirmed that this is her name) to show up and then we blast her? Its worth a shot.

[David]

Well, that is one possible strategy, Jeff. If you think about it, however, we are reasonable certain she has some sort of scrying ability (at least) which has allowed her (or some other powerful being) to keep tabs on the party while they were at Tovag Baragu. Were the group to simply "wait her out" then she could use this information to show up at a time of her choosing, effectively putting the battle on her terms. That, as the General Sun Tsu points out, is not a good strategy...

[Andy]

Tetsuko was ready to stand forth and call her out...but it really does need to be a team effort. And certainly if we split up, the low-pow team will run into her first...that's just the way these things work.

[Artec]

Isn't letting the low level group go "portal hopping" just dangerous, for them? If they do meet up with the God they just may Die.

[aaronthecow]

yep

[charbidge]

Taking the fight to her puts in in her territory, which conceds her a tactical advantage. Bad. Taking the fight to her means WE choose when the fight starts, which gives us a strategic advantage. Good. The low level group is a scout group with the mission to get information to enable the higher level group carry the fight to the Big Bad on THEIR terms. Good, They ARE, however, an EXPENDABLE scout group. Bad.

[David]

Keep in mind, if Flora is correct, then the stone circle leads to AT LEAST eighteen different realities and probably MANY more. The high-level party is going to either need to be lucky or somehow be in more than two places at once to figure out which location is correct before Old Wicked does...at least given that Iuz has a head start...

[Artec]

Hye is there a game tonight, of tovag?

[Jenn G]

I am always in favor of developing new characters, even if they have a high death risk. However, will this stretch out this campaign even longer?

[David]

Tovag Baragu -- The Stone Circles

More than one scholar has remarked that whereas the destruction wrought by the Bakluni wizards on the Suloise has been the longer lasting, having persisted to the present day as the Sea of Dust, the Invoked Devastation which the Suloise first unleashed against the Bakluni must have been the more thorough. Even a thousand years later, ruins of Suel cities may be found in the desolate Sea of Dust, whereas the Dry Steppes, which are far more habitable, seem to contain no remnants of the Bakluni cities at all. A notable exception is Tovag Baragu, known in the East as the Stone Circles. This large feature still stands near the salt lake of Udrukankar at the western edge of the Flanaess.

Tovag Baragu ("Navel of the Oerth" in Bakluni) is a set of five broad circles composed of huge, smooth pillars of an extremely hard white rock. The pillars are sometimes fluted but more often entirely featureless, and they are set in a broad pavement of blocks made from the same material. The entire structure is circular and more than a mile across. It is perfectly level, though the land about it slopes westward towards Udrukankar. On its western border, one may descend from the platform in a series of broad shallow steps that ends rather abruptly some 20 or 30 feet above the salt flats. The eastern border of Tovag Baragu is of a height with the surrounding terrain, and dust and vegetation have invaded its margin.

It must have been a great work to transport the pillars, which are some 40 feet high each, to their present site. There is not rock of that sort within 200 miles, and indeed the origin of the stone is not known. Perhaps the blocks could have been transported on barges if the large rivers that once flowed across the steppe were present when Tovag Baragu was built. Also surprising, especially since so little else survived the Invoked Devastation, is the pristine condition of Tovag Baragu. There is no erosion, and not so much as a tilted pillar or canted paving stone. The local tribes make no claim that their ancestors ever constructed Tovag Baragu. This is most unusual given the nature of the locals and the undoubted accomplishments of their ancestors. For instance, nomads will solemnly aver that the rocky pinnacles north of Lake Udrukankar were once a vast lighthouse constructed for the lakeside city which stood there a millennium ago! Perhaps they are correct. Tovag Baragu does bear some fleeting resemblance to the badly eroded ruins one may encounter in the Jotens and Crystalmists, which have been attributed to an ancient civilization of stone giants. In the absence of evidence, however, Tovag Baragu cannot be said to have any certain origin, though the most obvious one is that of Bakluni construction.

Local human and centaur nomads hold Tovag Baragu to be holy, and many of the Dry Steppe tribes make it the subject of a yearly pilgrimage and festival, where they trade, contract marriages, and meet in ceremonial commemoration of the Suels' destruction while their priests call down further curses on that land. The entire event lasts two weeks, and those attending it or traveling to or from it must abstain from feuds or warfare and are themselves immune from the same. For much of the rest of the year, the site is abandoned and it is considered ill fortune to see it even on the horizon. This is readily understandable; some of the phenomena that may be encountered there are disturbing even to the civilized mind.

One effect which is frequently observed by those who wander among the circles is that distant objects seen between them are sometimes magnified. Similar augmentations of the other senses may occur as well. In this manner it is possible to learn some astounding things, as in the case of Celene--but that is a topic for another account than this one. With concentration, it is sometimes possible to sharpen the focus, or choose one's target. However, on occasion things may be seen through the pillars which are almost surely distant in time or planes rather than in space. One of the most frequent is a glimpse of a great lakeside city, usually at night. Another is of a verdant plain crowded with the peculiar mammalian life which may be found on occasion near the Sulhauts. More rarely one may see or hear regions which must surely be those of the Outer Planes.

These views would be entertaining rather than unnerving were it not that on occasion a connection is formed, and objects may pass between Tovag Baragu and the area depicted. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, these openings are rather fleeting. They may however account for some of the unusual creatures in the southern part of the Dry Steppe.

It remains to be mentioned that the locals believe Tovag Baragu has an effect on the weather. This is well substantiated, since those few outsiders allowed to observe the yearly ceremonies may see that the weather-summoning powers of the nomads' priests are greatly augmented. Whether in fact Tovag Baragu operates unguided is an open question.