Hunting Fiends pt14
Sasha says, "This will be bad. You have any idea what's upstairs?"
Morgan looks to the others "Ok they have a gate in there most likely to the Abys, they are very evil so we better get to this right away."
Sasha takes a deep breath. "All right. Just....be careful."
Iskandar rolls his arms a few times and tilts his head to one side and then the other. "I'm ready." He draws and arrow and readies his bow. "Remember - the time for stealth is past. We have to move in formation, like an army."
Morgan nods "if you want I can blast the door and what might be on the other side if you all want if you dont have a better idea."
Up the stair you go, of course, treading carefully after Kore who knows the way. Just as you reach the top, you see of the cultists standing before the portal in a large, central, if barren, chamber within the library, abandoned and emptied entirely. There, set into a framework of ivory, is a swirling, black portal that stinks of corruption. You don't need to be attuned to it to understand it, but ther eit is.
And there in front of is one of the robed cultists, spatered with blood. He casts one look over his shoulder at you and then dives inside.
Sasha says, "he's definitely baiting us to go into the portal. What do you guys want to do? I'm all for blowing up the portal."
GAME: Morgan rolls spellcraft: (17)+27: 44
Morgan looks to the portal "Well tht is not to the abyss its to the the godly reakm of Animus. Sadly I do not know to much of the realm besides what relgious text of Eluna teaches."
GAME: Sasha rolls knowledge/planes: (18)+knowledge/planes: 18
GAME: Morgan rolls Knowledge/Planes: (9)+Knowledge/Planes: 9
GAME: Morgan rolls Knowledge/the Planes: (12)+14: 26
Sasha says, "they must've been here a while to corrupt a portal."
Morgan sighs "She is right.... Listen every one we need to go in and stop him or the abyss with become more powerfull..." she then says a few naguhty words.
Sasha rubs face. "Fine. Lets get this over with."
The portal remaisn there, silent. The were rats are busy recovering.
Seems that they're not going to help with the portal, or maybe they have other intentions here...
Constantin has arrived.
Sasha has posed.
GAME: Serraphine rolls Spellcraft: (17)+7: 24
Constantin looks at the portal, and winces. "That looks ugly. Entirely ugly. Clearly, we're meant to follow, fight and die." He pauses. "Of course, my usual response to this is to spring the trap and kill the bad things inside." Another pause. "This is just a lot ... bigger ... than usual."
GAME: Constantin rolls spellcraft: Trained Use Only: 0
GAME: Constantin rolls knowledge/the planes: Trained Use Only: 0
Iskandar walks up to the portal and rubs his beard in thought. "Wherever it leads, we can use one of the scrolls to return, right?" He looks mostly to Morgan for confirmation. "If the cultists or their demons create another one, all our efforts here is for naught."
Serraphine scratches at her chin and tilts her head to the side as she stares at the portal. A little squint as she leans to one side and then the other, "No-o-o-ope. That portal aint right." Another scratch and then she reaches into her never ending bag of cookies that has ended giving her cookies.
It's like that proverbial buttered toast on the back of a cat question. A never ending cycle of perpetual energy waiting to be harnessed.
Serraphine withdraws an empty hand and frowns down at it. "That portal's been corrupted. Sure isn't right. But it probably leads to whatever is left of the animus. THat much is right. Probably a lot of power but it's a bit... it's not clear."
Morgan nods "gates are a pain in the ass to make but I bet they could make many with out any one knowing." she looks to Serraphine "they are corupting a dead realm to expand to the abyss most likely. If we go in we need rest, I am low on spell and I bet we are low on healing spells also."
Constantin nods. "This sounds like a job for scary archmages and shit."
Sasha says, "very low on healing spells....and channel energies."
Sasha says, "and that poison is still affecting me."
- $ head"
Serraphine stares at Morgan. Stares. "We need to do better than guessing. This whole thing is silly. You know what. I'm done guessing." A squint at Morgan, "And I don't much care for your tone." Serraphine turns and then starts off toward the portal and a jog. She wasn't going to walk through it, that'd be silly, and give people too much time to stop her.
Constantin looks around. "And if we wait, set a guard on the portal, recover our energies and throw these assholes in," he gestures at the cultists, who undeniably deserve the epithet, "we at least vex the demons who fought so hard to stop us."
Morgan looks to the others "SERRAPHINE NOCK IT OFF AND WORK WITH US." she looks pissed "IF you do that you could kill us all, let us rest and we can go in and set the cosmos right."
Constantin huffs. "Fine. Stop complaining, if Serraphine doesn't immediately come back out of that portal as a fine mist of gore, we're going to have to save her and the fucking world with it." He sounds ... irritated.
Serraphine keeps on going, tossing an un-lady like gesture to Morgan right as she hops on through the portal.
And nothing.
No red mist. Nothing out of the ordinary. Well besides the constant swirl and flow of the portal in front of them. The supposedly corrupted portal that leads to the rest of animus.
After a good six seconds, just Serraphine's head comes back through.
"Are you coming?" She says and then back through the portal.
Iskandar laughs. He puts away his bow and then steps through the portal after.
Sasha sighs at this.
Sasha looks to Morgan. "if we get through this...I'm taking a long vacation."
Sasha says, "If we don't...well, I think we deserve the vacation we get dammit.""
Constantin points at the cultists. "This is your fucking fault!" Then he jumps through the portal.
Morgan walks threw the portal "I so fucking hate her now."
Sasha also walks through the portal.
Inside the portal is, well...
You know, there's a lot of darkness and lightning. It's like stepping itno storm clouds. A pathway ahead of you shows the way to what appearws to be a blacked and scorched tower in the distance.
... there are a lot of demons.
Most of them are smear marks on the ground or floating in the air.
Constantin lights his sword up for comfort's sake. It's like a stuffie, only flaming and lethal. "Oh my." He starts forwards. "Well, shit, this looks like it sucks -- better get it over with."
Sasha says, "Sucks to be them. Well...lets get this over with."
Iskandar peers about to examine the demons. "Serraphine did all this...?" he whispers in awe. "Now that's what I call a paladin." He looks around for some sign of her.
Serraphine is currently nudging one of the bodies with the tip of her sword. One of the floating ones. She blinks and sees them finally all start to show up then gestures toward the tower. "I'm guessing that way, wasn't me. We missed the party because of all the talking." And that's when the Paladin starts off toward the distance with a perpetual frown and no cookies.
GAME: Morgan casts Light. Caster Level: 11 DC: 17
Morgan gets a coin from her pouch and makes it glow "Who here needs light spells."
Sasha says, "I've got one, but it seems you have us covered, Morgan."
Constantin follows. "Well, I've got my sword." It lights the way. Or something. Probably just illuminates more gore. Still, he follows Serraphine closely.
First, there's the demons.
Most of them are of the smaller sort and look quite deceased. Scorched by lightning powerful enough to overwhelm even the vaunted demonic immunity to it. That alone says something intrugiing that most of your are experinced enough to notice.
Second, of course, is that the darkness around is solid, thick like pea soup. Not even the lights of your blades and magic do much to dispel it. You're able to push towards the tower, sure, but the darkness isn't really abaiting.
Third, of course, is the fact that it seems like approaching that tower is going to take a while. Even after a few minutes, despite its apparent proximity, you begin to feel as if you're not making actual progress /towards/ it.
Sasha sighs softly. "It's like the tower is walking away from us."
Constantin shrugs. "Maybe it is." Scowling at the darkness, he pokes it experimentally with the tip of his sword.
Iskandar accepts a glowing coin. He extends his arm and holds it out as far as he can reach. "Whatever slee these demons, must be a force for good...right?"
Constantin keeps driving forwards. "No, I don't think that's a fair statement." A pause. He tests out moving perpendicular to the tower. "I wonder how the rules are different here."
Iskandar watches for a bit. The he nods in understanding when he realizes what the swordsman is doing. Iskandar himself draws his bow and an arrow. He fires it high in the air, intending for it to arc and then land in front of them, where he can collect - it if they ever get there.
That, interestingly enough, /does/ seem to be working. Going perpindicular, that is. To the rest of your eyes, once Constantin starts moving like that, he starts... blinking forward.
It's hard to track. Aggravating on the eyes.
Iskandar squints. He calls out to Constantin, describing what he is seeing. "Don't go too far!" he warns. "We need to stay together "
Constantin pauses, and yells. "Then walk sideways -- follow me, I'm not doing anything special!"
...well, then.
TEleporting forward by going perpindicular is working. It's weird, but each step you go forward is... weird. You just appear forward a step. And then another step.
The tower is getting closer now, so that's a plus. Looms overhead, casting a long, darkened shadow.
Constantin continues his advance, working ever closer. He's the wrong person to consider the shadow, the right person to try to get closer.
Iskandar does his best to follow Constantin's example. But he stops every once in a while to watch. Which means he has little chance of catching up, unless Constantin slows down to let him.
...and then you're there. At the foot of the tower,
The door is... much larger than it appeared. In fact, this close, the door is easily fifteen feet tall. Maybe a bit more than that.
It's going to be a bit tough to open it when you can't reach the handle.
It appears to be made of solid... ink?