Post by David on Apr 22, 2009 16:29:07 GMT -5
The heroes (Ichi, Maedhros, Idky, Squattingbeaver, Lowdog, Yavin, and Robyndella with Meldenya) spend a quiet night, resting, healing, and learning from the spirits in their dreams. Ichi is content and the ghosts of Charn refuse to communicate with Maedhros, but 'Beaver awakes to have a rudimentary understanding of Ninevehn, the language of the people of Charn. Lowdog has vivid dreams of the animals on this world, learning a great deal about all animals in the process. Yavin, meanwhile, gains some insight into the cosmology of Charn and their understanding of spell-jamming and the universe. Robyndella, finally, learns the spell scintillating sphere from the long-dead magi.
In the predawn hours while Squattingbeaver is on watch, the shaman notices something in the darkness beyond the party's camp. Looking to investigate, he catches the charming gaze of the vampire which had survived the crash of the skyship. Although 'Beaver's orange ioun cube protected him from the undead's magic, he found himself facing a half dozen hungry jackals. In the confusion, the vampire fled into the night.
That morning, Maedhros cast a Leomund's secure shelter and Squattingbeaver begins the process of tanning the dragon hides the party had captured days before. In the afternoon, the group headed to the Shrine of the Ancients and the Egg of the Eons therein. En route, the party casually dealt with a number of ghouls and shadows, but Maedhros' turning, no longer crippled by the magic of the runestones, dealt with the undead easily. The Shrine proved to be an ancient, unadorned stone building in the shape of cube 30' long on a side. The cube had a single entrance -- a 10' heigh archway into the dark interior. The building was on a small island in the middle of a pond some 45' wide and up to 10' deep.
'Beaver assumed beaver-form and swam across. He was attacked several times by a beaver made of water, though, no one else saw his attacker. Finally, however, the shaman made it to the other side. Maedhros crossed on his magic broom, narrowly avoiding a collision with his mirror image intent on ramming the half-elf. Ichi crossed next, also on his magic broom. To those on shore, the monk kept skimming the water, but the martial artist swore he battled and defeated his own double. Yavin crossed directly, swim-walking in his chainmail. When faced with his mirror image, the cleric calmed his mind and accepted that he did indeed have fears, passing through them unscathed. Robyn and Lowdog followed suit, so the whole party reached the island.
Inside was a opalescent pedastal with a pulsing white egg attached to the top. Yavin stepped forward to claim the egg, but the pedastal transformed into some kind of crystaline ooze and attacked. The cleric momentarily stopped the entity with a mind thrust, but when Ichi struck it, he was paralyzed. Worse even Lowdog's magic weapons had nearly no effect. Squattingbeaver invoked a prayer and the combined magic missiles of Maedhros and Robyndella destroyed the creature. Lowdog then stepped out of the cube and Yavin touched the Egg...
...And suddenly the whole party was amid a group of high-spirited explorers. As in a dream, they were not the individuals they had been, but analogous members of this expedition, intent of finding evidence of their forefathers, the First-Comers to Charn. These people, no different physically than the humans of Oerth, discovered the stoneworks and Pink Palace of the city that would one day become Luxor and set about building a new city of wood. They sifted through the ruins of a lost civilization and unearthed the clay tablets of their ancestors, scratching the surface of a deep sea of lost secrets...
Ichi elected to end these visions of the past and returned to his own mind and body, but the rest continued further back in time to...
...The building of the age-old stoneworks around Luxor. Most of the city is well-established and the dark-haired priests rule from their three ziggurats around the Palace. Tensions build and schemes hatch, leading to the Great Scism in the capitol, when the witch Elsabeth manages to manipulate the priests of the Lawgiver, the Sun, and the Morningstar to help her bind the deva, Elvi to her power. This leads to the destruction of the civilization after a great war between the witches and their charmed/manipulated allies (everyone!) against the slow-to-react sects of three priests. The civilization of the Nineveh is broken and the survivors flee across the face of Charn...
The heroes flow farther back into the past...
...A band of refugees escape to a virgin world. Coming through an ancient portal on small island offshore of what will become Racine, the ragged band of Sumerians are finally safe. They are but a handful of survivors from a much larger slave revolt against their vile masters, the Suloise. Having escaped, the slaves knew that nowhere on Oerth would be safe, so they used the "Baklunish" portals to travel to a number of worlds before finally settling on this uninhabited one. In order to make sure no Suel overlord could find them, their greatest priest raises the water and sinks the island. Maedhros' incarnation his time was a Suel man, quickly sacrificed to the gods in thanksgiving for their freedom on this new planet...
'Beaver has seen enough and returns to his body, but Idky, Maedhros, Yavin, and Robyndella continue...
...To a time when primative people scratched out a crude existence in simple huts. These humans had no writing and were struggling to survive -- not on Charn, but on Oerth! They had only the simplest of horticulture and could not work metal at all. Their greatest spell-casters are simple shaman, but their ethnic origin is not Flan, but Oerdian. Maedhros' incarnates as a sympathetic elf, wondering if he should help these crude kin, but warry lest they repeat their great hubris again...
Intrigued, the heroes continue traveling back...
...And are now citizens of the Great Civilization! Known by many names of the three main worlds it is found on, the heroes live in the capitol, the island-nation of Toleman on yet another world. These people have harnessed tremendous magics, using powerful ioun stones and other crystals to perform a variety of magical services. There is no hunger, war, poverty, disease, or indeed anything these humans cannot do. Having learned magic from the elves, Maedhros' incarnation as the elven ambassador worries nonetheless that these humans of The Great Civilization, these Tolemen, Morganti, and Altaneans, know not to respect the limits of mortality. Although they've mastered magic, even embuing the non-skilled with magical tatoos which perform potent spells on their behalf, even as they've learned of a new form of mind-magic unaffected by dweomers, even as they've driven the last vestiges of vile monsters beyond the frontiers of the wilderness, yet do these god-like "children" lack the judgement of their elven "elders". Full of hope, they seek to do good, "improving" everything that they encounter. Finally, they seeks to change and manipulate other life, creating new races to suit their whim, lead by Robyndella's incarnation as a magical geneticist. But it doesn't end there, for in their hubris, the Great Ones challenge the god themselves by venerating the Lost Gods of the First Sentients. This is too much and for the multitude of their arrogant crimes, the Gods unite and wipe the First Humans from the face of Oerth, Maneä, and Terrax...!
Still farther the heroes travel...
...To a time when simple cro-magnon are again struggling to eek out a simple existence. They hunt mammoth and avoid predatory sabre-tooths; hunter-gathers living in caves and simple shelters. They lack magic and only have a crude spoken language. A lone elf, again Maedhros, teaches the brightest of a single tribe the secrets of cantrips. It is the least he can do for his old allies against the foul reptile folk. Although the Slavers' power is now broken, some few lizard men still hunt and eat humans, although the elves have learned well to hide themselves and avoid such barbarism. Perhaps he will chose one of these round-ears to come with him to the wonders of the elven cities, hidden nearby...?
All but Yavin have seen enough and they too return to the present. The cleric of Celestian, however, continues father back...
...Finding a vast, complex civilization of bipedal reptiles ruling a thousand worlds in various universes. These lizard beings of all shapes and sizes travel between stars and use gates to cross worlds and even realities. They find a suitable, primitive race, humans, to use as slaves and food. These creatures are intelligent, adaptable, and tasty, serving their masters well so that they are taken from their homeworld and seeded throughout the K'thoi Empire and beyond, until worlds without number. But after centuries of work and abuse, these "simple" humans plan for more from their short brutish lives. They learn magic and pray to their gods for help. Among the other mammalian races they sow the seeds of rebellion. The humans then knit together and lead a great revolt of elves, orcs, dwarves, drow, goblins, and others, breaking the back of the K'Thoi and sending the Empire into decline. Yavin's incarnation takes it all in, venerating the one of the only two god the cleric of Celestian has heard of, a young An, now the being known as the old, retired, withdrawn, Anu, High God of the Heavens. Fighting alongside his ally, Corellon, these young gods battle the dark, hungry, twisted deities of the reptiles, ultimately taking on their mantle of authority...
...Yavin makes one further trek farther into the past, but cannot make sense of the visions. He sees various, primitive ape-like creatures, something between gnome and bugbear, battle others of a similar kind. These are crude beings without language, more beast than person. Meanwhile bipedal, winged lizards begin to cooperate after centuries of civil war...
Dazed and a bit confused, the heroes are all once again in the Shrine of the Ancients. Each has learned something from these images of a possible past. DM's note -- you guys can use this experience to justify purchasing new skills, even using the eeps you earned from the "trip" to do so. For instance, Robyndella has long studied chronomancy, an art MASTERED by the Tolemans, so I'm going to take a skill in the spell list as a result of her remembering her experiences there (that wouldn't have been allowed if she'd blown her INT check, BTW). Please feel free to talk to me about other, similar ideas if you have them!.
The heroes then returned to their shelter in the late afternoon and got ready to hunt the vampire.
Current status:
Idky: 46 of 50, cast CLW and remove paralysis
Beaver: 37 of 48, shapeshift, cast CLWx2, GBsx4, speak with spirits
Ichi: 39 of 64
Robyndella: full (37), cast MM
Meldenya: full (14)
Meadhros: full (43), cast MM and shelter
Lowdog: full (79)
Yavin: full (31), 69 of 73 PSPs
In the predawn hours while Squattingbeaver is on watch, the shaman notices something in the darkness beyond the party's camp. Looking to investigate, he catches the charming gaze of the vampire which had survived the crash of the skyship. Although 'Beaver's orange ioun cube protected him from the undead's magic, he found himself facing a half dozen hungry jackals. In the confusion, the vampire fled into the night.
That morning, Maedhros cast a Leomund's secure shelter and Squattingbeaver begins the process of tanning the dragon hides the party had captured days before. In the afternoon, the group headed to the Shrine of the Ancients and the Egg of the Eons therein. En route, the party casually dealt with a number of ghouls and shadows, but Maedhros' turning, no longer crippled by the magic of the runestones, dealt with the undead easily. The Shrine proved to be an ancient, unadorned stone building in the shape of cube 30' long on a side. The cube had a single entrance -- a 10' heigh archway into the dark interior. The building was on a small island in the middle of a pond some 45' wide and up to 10' deep.
'Beaver assumed beaver-form and swam across. He was attacked several times by a beaver made of water, though, no one else saw his attacker. Finally, however, the shaman made it to the other side. Maedhros crossed on his magic broom, narrowly avoiding a collision with his mirror image intent on ramming the half-elf. Ichi crossed next, also on his magic broom. To those on shore, the monk kept skimming the water, but the martial artist swore he battled and defeated his own double. Yavin crossed directly, swim-walking in his chainmail. When faced with his mirror image, the cleric calmed his mind and accepted that he did indeed have fears, passing through them unscathed. Robyn and Lowdog followed suit, so the whole party reached the island.
Inside was a opalescent pedastal with a pulsing white egg attached to the top. Yavin stepped forward to claim the egg, but the pedastal transformed into some kind of crystaline ooze and attacked. The cleric momentarily stopped the entity with a mind thrust, but when Ichi struck it, he was paralyzed. Worse even Lowdog's magic weapons had nearly no effect. Squattingbeaver invoked a prayer and the combined magic missiles of Maedhros and Robyndella destroyed the creature. Lowdog then stepped out of the cube and Yavin touched the Egg...
...And suddenly the whole party was amid a group of high-spirited explorers. As in a dream, they were not the individuals they had been, but analogous members of this expedition, intent of finding evidence of their forefathers, the First-Comers to Charn. These people, no different physically than the humans of Oerth, discovered the stoneworks and Pink Palace of the city that would one day become Luxor and set about building a new city of wood. They sifted through the ruins of a lost civilization and unearthed the clay tablets of their ancestors, scratching the surface of a deep sea of lost secrets...
Ichi elected to end these visions of the past and returned to his own mind and body, but the rest continued further back in time to...
...The building of the age-old stoneworks around Luxor. Most of the city is well-established and the dark-haired priests rule from their three ziggurats around the Palace. Tensions build and schemes hatch, leading to the Great Scism in the capitol, when the witch Elsabeth manages to manipulate the priests of the Lawgiver, the Sun, and the Morningstar to help her bind the deva, Elvi to her power. This leads to the destruction of the civilization after a great war between the witches and their charmed/manipulated allies (everyone!) against the slow-to-react sects of three priests. The civilization of the Nineveh is broken and the survivors flee across the face of Charn...
The heroes flow farther back into the past...
...A band of refugees escape to a virgin world. Coming through an ancient portal on small island offshore of what will become Racine, the ragged band of Sumerians are finally safe. They are but a handful of survivors from a much larger slave revolt against their vile masters, the Suloise. Having escaped, the slaves knew that nowhere on Oerth would be safe, so they used the "Baklunish" portals to travel to a number of worlds before finally settling on this uninhabited one. In order to make sure no Suel overlord could find them, their greatest priest raises the water and sinks the island. Maedhros' incarnation his time was a Suel man, quickly sacrificed to the gods in thanksgiving for their freedom on this new planet...
'Beaver has seen enough and returns to his body, but Idky, Maedhros, Yavin, and Robyndella continue...
...To a time when primative people scratched out a crude existence in simple huts. These humans had no writing and were struggling to survive -- not on Charn, but on Oerth! They had only the simplest of horticulture and could not work metal at all. Their greatest spell-casters are simple shaman, but their ethnic origin is not Flan, but Oerdian. Maedhros' incarnates as a sympathetic elf, wondering if he should help these crude kin, but warry lest they repeat their great hubris again...
Intrigued, the heroes continue traveling back...
...And are now citizens of the Great Civilization! Known by many names of the three main worlds it is found on, the heroes live in the capitol, the island-nation of Toleman on yet another world. These people have harnessed tremendous magics, using powerful ioun stones and other crystals to perform a variety of magical services. There is no hunger, war, poverty, disease, or indeed anything these humans cannot do. Having learned magic from the elves, Maedhros' incarnation as the elven ambassador worries nonetheless that these humans of The Great Civilization, these Tolemen, Morganti, and Altaneans, know not to respect the limits of mortality. Although they've mastered magic, even embuing the non-skilled with magical tatoos which perform potent spells on their behalf, even as they've learned of a new form of mind-magic unaffected by dweomers, even as they've driven the last vestiges of vile monsters beyond the frontiers of the wilderness, yet do these god-like "children" lack the judgement of their elven "elders". Full of hope, they seek to do good, "improving" everything that they encounter. Finally, they seeks to change and manipulate other life, creating new races to suit their whim, lead by Robyndella's incarnation as a magical geneticist. But it doesn't end there, for in their hubris, the Great Ones challenge the god themselves by venerating the Lost Gods of the First Sentients. This is too much and for the multitude of their arrogant crimes, the Gods unite and wipe the First Humans from the face of Oerth, Maneä, and Terrax...!
Still farther the heroes travel...
...To a time when simple cro-magnon are again struggling to eek out a simple existence. They hunt mammoth and avoid predatory sabre-tooths; hunter-gathers living in caves and simple shelters. They lack magic and only have a crude spoken language. A lone elf, again Maedhros, teaches the brightest of a single tribe the secrets of cantrips. It is the least he can do for his old allies against the foul reptile folk. Although the Slavers' power is now broken, some few lizard men still hunt and eat humans, although the elves have learned well to hide themselves and avoid such barbarism. Perhaps he will chose one of these round-ears to come with him to the wonders of the elven cities, hidden nearby...?
All but Yavin have seen enough and they too return to the present. The cleric of Celestian, however, continues father back...
...Finding a vast, complex civilization of bipedal reptiles ruling a thousand worlds in various universes. These lizard beings of all shapes and sizes travel between stars and use gates to cross worlds and even realities. They find a suitable, primitive race, humans, to use as slaves and food. These creatures are intelligent, adaptable, and tasty, serving their masters well so that they are taken from their homeworld and seeded throughout the K'thoi Empire and beyond, until worlds without number. But after centuries of work and abuse, these "simple" humans plan for more from their short brutish lives. They learn magic and pray to their gods for help. Among the other mammalian races they sow the seeds of rebellion. The humans then knit together and lead a great revolt of elves, orcs, dwarves, drow, goblins, and others, breaking the back of the K'Thoi and sending the Empire into decline. Yavin's incarnation takes it all in, venerating the one of the only two god the cleric of Celestian has heard of, a young An, now the being known as the old, retired, withdrawn, Anu, High God of the Heavens. Fighting alongside his ally, Corellon, these young gods battle the dark, hungry, twisted deities of the reptiles, ultimately taking on their mantle of authority...
...Yavin makes one further trek farther into the past, but cannot make sense of the visions. He sees various, primitive ape-like creatures, something between gnome and bugbear, battle others of a similar kind. These are crude beings without language, more beast than person. Meanwhile bipedal, winged lizards begin to cooperate after centuries of civil war...
Dazed and a bit confused, the heroes are all once again in the Shrine of the Ancients. Each has learned something from these images of a possible past. DM's note -- you guys can use this experience to justify purchasing new skills, even using the eeps you earned from the "trip" to do so. For instance, Robyndella has long studied chronomancy, an art MASTERED by the Tolemans, so I'm going to take a skill in the spell list as a result of her remembering her experiences there (that wouldn't have been allowed if she'd blown her INT check, BTW). Please feel free to talk to me about other, similar ideas if you have them!.
The heroes then returned to their shelter in the late afternoon and got ready to hunt the vampire.
Current status:
Idky: 46 of 50, cast CLW and remove paralysis
Beaver: 37 of 48, shapeshift, cast CLWx2, GBsx4, speak with spirits
Ichi: 39 of 64
Robyndella: full (37), cast MM
Meldenya: full (14)
Meadhros: full (43), cast MM and shelter
Lowdog: full (79)
Yavin: full (31), 69 of 73 PSPs
