Climbing the Tower of Babel (In Character Thread)

[Meijin]

We begin with six dreams

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?543369-Climbing-the-Tower-of-Babel-(OOC)&p=22614662#post22614662

[Kaptin Keen]

For long days under blistering sun, Okoa (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1364343) pursued his enemy across the trackless savannah.

You wont escape me, he thought to himself, when his muscles refused another step, no one runs like Okoa, and no one knows this land like Okoa. And so he ran, day after day, following the tracks of the other man, the foreigner.

They had come, these enemies, to Okoa's village, to raid, to plunder, to take slaves. They had not expected determined resistance, and the bloodshed had been legendary. In the end, all Okoa had known and cherished was gone - but all the invaders also dead. Except the enemy.

And so the game began.

And now, Okoa saw him. Still miles off, but struggling. Staggering. Propably thirsty, hungry. Less prepared for this land than was Okoa.

As evening fell, they approached a lonely peak, rising in singular majesty from the plains. Smoke curled around it's summit. The enemy fled up the hill, found shelter somewhere, a cave perhaps. Okoa was satisfied with this.

He made up his mind to finish this the next morning. Settle it for good.

As he lay down and slept, he dreamt. He followed the enemy into the cave, but it was deeper than expected. Through twists and turns, he went - always, the enemy just a few steps ahead. Wispy smoke curled through the passages. Strange red lights glowed.

Then, finally, a door. Runes inscribed on it's surface. There was a ringing in Okoa's ears. He reached out - his hand pushed against the heavy door ...

((sorry for wall of text))

[Xanyo]

Jexerie sat cross-legged in his home, a meditative position. He slept, though his mind was even more active than when he is awake.

Within his dream, he steps left, right, forward, backward, in, out, and a few directions that defy description. He steps through a three dimensional temporal model, moving in a complicated dance.

An outside observer would find themselves struggling to comprehend the colorless world Jex moved swiftly through. Not only is it significantly more complicated than most worlds the observer may have visited. In addition, the dream is somewhat... volatile.

Distances fluctuate, stretching and compressing, never staying the same for long. Yet, Jex stepped through the dream in practiced strides, using these changes to bring himself closer to his destination.

His destination. He did not know where he was headed. He was aware of that. Even so, he trusts his subconscious. Wherever it took him, it was sure to be interesting.

Ahead of him, fourteen directions pulled together, shaping into a seven dimensional door. Jex stepped up to it, the world becoming more solid the closer he approached. The door was formed of pure light, it appeared. An interesting portal, with something on the other side.

Jex knew there was something on the other side of that door. He knew it was important. He knew he must find out exactly what.

He stretched forth his hand, getting closer to it in seven different ways, not counting the three temporal. He grasped the handle, and drew the door open, stepping through.
Jexerie, Erudite (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1410583)

[Book Wombat]

As Lyle walked over the seemingly endless hills he saw the town his father described.
A small town with squat houses built on stilts to withstand the boggy ground near the swamps.
As he drew near the fragrance of Belfweed, the incense beings use to keep the swamp stench at bay, Maybe there will be some he thought. While he walked down a narrow alley he encountered an inn with a sign stating it was the The Shaky Goat, he thought this might be a better place to rest then outside in the forest as he had the last three days.
He walked in and saw that it was mostly empty except a few humans drinking something that smelled of fermented rats ugh why do humans drink disgusting things? he pondered on that impossible dilemma. He climbed the steep stairs to his room for the night and fell asleep on the bed.

He dreamt of beings which melted and fires which floated, bells buzzing and mosquitoes ringing and then a circle of black appeared in the midst of all and the dream became silent but his curiosity of what lay beyond grew, he stepped closer...

Lyle Swampleaf (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1409672)

[cecil1994]

His reflections painted the hall. Every mirror was alive with him- running, sweating, delirious copies, each unique, each true. Some of them stood still. Some of them had different eyes.

That was fine. Even asleep, Erasmus was a very gracious host.

End of the hall. No door- that would mean someone was asking him to leave, or that he didn't want to stay. Just another mirror with another Erasmus (holding a book bound in well-groomed fur and titled in nonsense characters and held in a hand that was faithfully his) who beckoned to him. He pulled the two of them from the mirror and only one of them arrived and the other reflections were shying away now because they were great believers in monogamy but that was fine. He sat down in a wicker chair, and read.

It wasn't in any language he knew, so they lent him the appropriate tongue for a while. The taste of it was still heavy in his mouth when he closed the book.

He met the mirror's gaze. They wore a sorrowful expression. He pretended it wasn't his own.

"She deserves better, you know."



"You're right. You're always right. Can we leave a note?"

The two of them look down. They're holding an envelope, immaculately sealed, peppered with the appropriate tear stains.

"Thank you. Are you coming with me?"

Erasmus (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1404065)

[JbeJ275]

As he camped in the Turkish hills covered by naught but a sheepskin fleece on the barren earth his mind and his magic still ran across the plains. While the experience of coming to while his body still slept was a relitivly new one. Yet he could not deny the strange compulsion to soar through the night.

Bounding from hilltop to hilltop in single steps he spun through the world below, dodging the spirits in the wind. His feet seemed to sink, the ground soft like molasses. Eventually he came to great door at the bottom of a valley, an arch of white stone lay there to greet him. As he wandered towards the door the air turned to light, twinkling more than any diamond he had seen. He stepped through the doorway to a world of liquid ruby and waited to see what lay beyond.


https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1169662

[dextercorvia]

Nothing ever happened at Wawel cave. It doesn't matter that the dragon has been dead for decades, none of the locals will come near its lair. Abramowitz, forced to carry out penance for his grandfather's misdeeds sits outside of the cave, as usual propped against a rock waiting for nothing so much as another of his disgraced relatives to relieve him. Trained as a warrior, this monotony wears on the man. He just barely closes his eyes and the dream comes again.

Now, even in his dreams he cannot escape this cave. Knowing he is asleep, but no longer caring, Abramowitz walks through the entry. Despite being unable to see in the dark, he can see just fine. In fact, it is brighter further in the cave. The light is coming from someplace further in. He passes the shrine, and continues deeper, further in than is possible.

Turning around, Abramowitz can no longer see the way out.

Abramowitz (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1395928)

[Meijin]

You awaken, surrounded by darkness and iron.

A push swings open the doors of your alcove, and you emerge into an equilateral nine-sided chamber, blinking and disoriented, along with your five companions.

The wooden room has no curved lines. Fifteen feet up, the ceiling is made from the same rich, dark brown timbers as the walls and the floor. Horizontal diameter looks to be about 30 feet.

Each of you has emerged from a 6x3x3 niche or sarcophagus built into one wall, lined on all sides with iron. The doors of the boxes swing outward, and are covered on the outside with wood. If you close an alcove door behind you, the wood fits together almost seamlessly with the rest of the wall. Each wall with an alcove is adjacent to exactly one other alcove wall and one wall without an alcove. In other words, you emerge in sets of two, each pair separated from each other pair by one of the three walls lacking sarcophagi. The walls with niches are otherwise bare and wooden, except for Abramowitz's, which is covered in depressed shelves packed full of books.

The wall between Okoa and Abramowitz has a 6 foot high iron door, rounded at the top, with a large padlock on a chain fastening it shut.

The wall between Accalon and Erasmus is not wood like the rest, but looks like one big mosaic of stained glass. The glass is mostly light blue, with some dark blue and green, and a faint warm light washes in through the glass.

The wall between Lyle and Jexerie features a 6 foot high mirror, rounded at the top, the same shape as the iron door, built into the wall.

In the center of the room sits a plain low wooden table, only a few feet off the ground. It bears an orange globe that dimly but warmly illuminates the room, an hourglass with most of the sand in the top bulb, an iron key, and a glass vial of ruby liquid stopped with a cork.

[Kaptin Keen]

... what in the hells?! Thinks Okoa to himself, am I still dreamning?

With slow and deliberate calm, he slides an impressively sized sword from his back, holding it ready but not raised to strike - signalling, perhaps, the intent to defend but not attack. Yet.

Why are you people in my dream?

[Book Wombat]

This is all a dream, or is it? he thought to himself. Who were these people? What were these objects for? The key had a purpose he knew but the hourglass? The vial?

Um hello? I could ask the same thing.

[Xanyo]

"Your dream, my oversized acquaintance? You have interrupted my abstract dream, pulling me from a nonreality far more interesting than this one.

Anyway, I am not certain we are still dreaming. I decided you to dissolve into smoke, yet you still pester me."

Jexerie stands at a medium height. His hair is straight, even and blonde. His eyes are a light blue, and examine each of you in turn. His clothing is a simple white outfit - plain breeches, a long simple shirt, and simple cloth shoes.

Let's see... a rude and large man - clearly a warrior of some sort. Likely a savage.

The second tallest? He seems to have only a dagger. No armor, just some flamboyant and dark clothing. A spellcaster, presumably. Arcane.

Next in descending height is the blue-eyed one. Very healthy looking. Fit. Well balanced physique. More weapons than any of the others. Significant presence.
He fights, for certain. Beyond that, uncertain.

The next human is about my height. Lightly armored,
bearing a crossbow. Kind of weak. More of a presence than the blue-eyes. Looks agile. A stealthy one, perhaps?

Lastly, a... halfling? The only nonhuman. Strange. Dextrous. Almost certainly very stealthy. Likely a thief.
Well-equipped. Prepared.

Jexerie steps in front of the mirror and examines it.

"Does anybody have some writing with them? I wish to ascertain whether or not this is a true dream. If it is, the writing should be impossible to read. Otherwise, we are either fully awake, or in some sort of artificial dream."

[Book Wombat]

I only have some chalk for marking stuff, I could write something though.

[Xanyo]

"No good. If you write it it will be added to the dream. We need something already written.
A spellbook would work, if anyone has one."

[cecil1994]

There is a dove on Erasmus’ shoulder. It probably wasn’t there a second ago; it looks quite comfortable. Like he would look wrong without it.

“You seem convinced. If it matters that much to you, here.”

He pulls the fur-bound book his pack, and opens it. It’s clearly gibberish.

“Then again, that book was nonsense even before we came to this place.”

He pockets it. Squints inquisitively at the young man with the uppish words.

“Do you understand what I’m getting at?”

[Book Wombat]

No, but we can start with our names. Mine's Lyle.

[cecil1994]

He looks faintly embarrassed.

“Erasmus. Sorry. Bad habit.”

[Xanyo]

"My nomenclature is Jexerie. Now, are you trying to say that whether or not this is a dream is presently irrelevant? That we should focus on the situation at hand?"

He walks to the table in the center and bends over, examining the objects.

"'twould appear that we are limited on time. Something may happen when this hourglass runs down, and I suspect we shall not wish to be around to find out.

The key is almost certainly for that door, but I do not know what the ruby vial is. If anybody can identify it, that would prove most informative."

He straightens and walks back to the mirror.

"I'm curious though. Why is this mirror shaped the same as the door? If it were for symmetry, the stained glass would share the shape,
which, it seems, it does not."

Jexerie reaches out with his right hand, resting it on the glass of the mirror. He pushes on it, slowly and firmly.

[Kaptin Keen]

I seek my enemy, the pale man - Rimbo, his fellows called him. To spill his blood is all I desire. My name is Okoa, son of a chieftain,
dancer, poet ... and blessed by the gods of war.

If the mirror intrigues you so, I suggest trying to unlock the mirror door with the mirror key.

Okoa strides to the window - to get a closer look at it, and to see if it opens. Surely the plains are just beyond.


Just for clarity, the pale man is the Belgian colonial Rimbaud. Not some misspelled Rambo :p

[JbeJ275]

The tall man in dark robes doubles over, into a vicious coughing fit. Then turned his eyes on the others, he stayed silent for a few moments as the others talked slowly assuming a smile.

Hello, I am Accalon. Pleased to meet you all, now I do not believe this could quite be a dream. But perhaps it is not wakefulness either? We must see.

With that Accalon pauses for a moment peering at the object with immense concentration.

Damn it to Hades, it is still not working.

[Book Wombat]

What is? Do you people want me to do anything?

[Meijin]

https://imgur.com/a/A2W7T

Jexerie's hand meets its counterpart. With a push, the mirror swings backward on a hinge. Behind, a wooden corridor opens up, roughly five feet wide, heading straight off into the darkness. Above the corridor, the ceiling comes to a 45 degree angle, lending the look of a gothic vault, or a geometrical drawing. Five feet into the corridor, the floor is painted with a large image of a snake coiled around a golden crown.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle takes the key and searches the lock for traps
Can I take a 20?

[Meijin]

Lyle carefully approaches the heavy iron door and begins examining the lock, using every trick he knows. Carefully and without jostling it, he sets about peering at the lock from every angle, squinting at it, gingerly prodding it, blowing into the mechanism and listening for a rattle, and more.

All the while, the sands in the hourglass rush down, down, down.

Lyle continues his search.

[Book Wombat]

How much sand is remaining?

[Xanyo]

Jexerie pulls a torch with a heatless white flame from a pouch on his simple belt. He steps into the mirror corridor, then looks over his shoulder.

"The sands are flowing. If you wish to examine the main door, do so, but I would appreciate it if somebody would accompany me into the corridor."

He makes eye contact with Accalon and Abromowitz as he speaks, then turns forward and makes his way into the corridor.

[Meijin]

It looks like more than 75% remains

The light from your ever-burning torch flickers off into the darkness as you head into the corridor. In your peripheral vision, the walls feel narrower than they are. The hair on the back of your neck stands up as you step past the image of the serpent. As you head deeper into the darkness, your world is reduced to an unchanging wooden corridor around you,
and a slowly receding patch of light coming from the room with the rest of your companions. It looks like a long walk.

[Kaptin Keen]

How about letting your 'oversized acquaintance' take point? Light the path, and I'll keep you safe.

Okoa, big sword still held at the ready, proceeds to follow Jex, front or rear as the other prefers.

[Xanyo]

Jex gladly allows the large one to take the assault position, and continues down the extensive corridor.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz is more than a little pole-axed at this turn of events. He is wordless as the others introduce themselves, but slowly he comes to his senses. "I am called Abramowitz. This is not what I was expecting, but I see no harm in following you through the mirror." The words tumbling out of his mouth seem absurd, but that is how dreams seem sometime.

He hefts his spear and enters the corridor.

[cecil1994]

“Close enough.”

The dove flies towards the corridor, taking up residence on whoever looks the least perturbed.

Erasmus moves to inspect the liquid. He uncorks it if it doesn’t seem particularly lethal.

if arcana is applicable

[roll0]
I’ll inspect the globe and the hourglass, too, but they seem less individually important.

[Meijin]

A short time later:

The hallway extends for a long ways into the dark. More than a minute has gone by, and some of you begin to wonder if setting off was a good idea after all. Suddenly, the corridor opens up into a hexagon, with a 15 foot high ceiling and diameter of about 30 feet. The walls are of the same wood. Three faces of the hexagon, including the one you came in through, have doorways, each separated by faces blank wooden walls. To your left and to your right, doorways without doors open into new dark corridors, similar to the one you are now at the end of. In the center of the room are three porcelain vases, each more than five feet tall, with brass lids over the top. They are clustered together, with one closer to each door. The one closest to you is emerald green. The one on the right is as brown as the wood of the room, but glossy. The one on the left is jet black. Hanging on a thin string from the ceiling over the three vases (or urns) is a little ball the size of an orange, similar to the one in the last room, but unilluminated.
Your patient searching pays off! And somebody definitely didn't want that door opened. The lock appears trapped; you identify a mechanism, as well as a tiny concealed hole in the ceiling that looks as though it might fire something. Moreover, having found that mechanism allows you to just barely make out some cleverly concealed threads of evocation. It looks as though, unless the second trap is disarmed or in need of resetting, passing through the doorway from either end will release a blast of fire extending a few feet from both faces of the door.
The bottle is common crystal or glass, with a flat base, an angular, flared base, and more angular diagonal lines coming together to form the neck.
The liquid inside is bright red, like cherries. Your knowledge of the arcane does not actually allow you to sense auras or identify magical items, but it at least looks similar to healing droughts you have seen in the past, albeit in a fancier bottle. The globe is warm, smooth and light to the touch, clearly a magic item that at least provides illumination. To a cursory look, the hourglass is plain and wooden, with a glass bulb and normal looking fine grained sand, but something about it gives you a strange feeling. You can also look at the Mirror Crew spoiler and see what your dove sees.
I'm not sure what you are doing, but I decided to move things along. Feel free to retroactively tell me you went down the mirror hallway with the others, examined the objects on the table, or whatever else. Also, earlier, when you invoked H-d-s, you felt a slight chill.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle asks Do any of you people know how to dispel magic? There seems to be two traps on this door, I might be able to disable the non-magical but I'm not sure of the magical one., Wait, where have the other people gone off to? Hmph, well I might as well try to disable the mechanism With that he attempts to disable the mechanism.
I take another twenty if possible.

[Kaptin Keen]

If Okoa had been a designer of glowy ball lamps, he'd have made them easy and intuitive to turn on and off. He touches this one gently, in the hope it will switch on.

Then, he proceeds to examine emerald urn. All the while considering the Gordian Solution to all this.


On a side note, he also examined the window in the other room, which elicited no result. Or I missed it. That's possible too.

[JbeJ275]

Accalon remains tense and nervous, with the mirror worrying him and his inability to trust those journeying there he simply stays by the door and keeps an eye on Lye's attempts to disarm the traps.

[Meijin]

Okoa strides to the center of the chamber, reaches gingerly over the three large vases and lightly taps the glowing ball. Perhaps he should indeed have considered a career as a designer of glowy ball lamps, as it begins emitting a warm, soft glow, adding to the light of the everburning torch. The emerald urn stands as high as your chest. It seems to be made out of high quality pottery or porcelain, lacquered in a somewhat shiny green outer coating, very slightly warm to the touch. It smells musky. The brass lid on top has a handle like a pot lid, and is fitted imperfectly, leaving some very small cracks in places around the edges.
Sorry, forgot this earlierThe window in the other room did not open to your push, nor did it have a handle to pull. It was notably cool to the touch, but otherwise unremarkable. The stained glass chips were not terribly high quality, a bit rough around the edges, set together with some sort of glue to make a mosaic patterned window.

[Book Wombat]

So, do any of you people know how to dispel magic? Lyle ask sort of annoyed that no one had answered his question before.

[Kaptin Keen]

Musky, considers Okoa, none the wiser. He gently lifts the lid, precariously balanced between cross purposes - wanting to peer inside, but wanting to jump away if it turns out to spew acid. Or vipers. Bloody gods damned vipers.


How thoroughly suspicious. Like someone glued together a mosaic to hide whatever is behind it.

Or, entirely innocuous. I should have broken it. I should propably break this urn too! Okoa generally favors a direct, hands-on approach to problem solving.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle attempts to disable the mechanical trap
[roll0]

[cecil1994]

The dove holds up a talon in a decent approximation of the human gesture “stop”. It vanishes. About a minute later, an identical bird returns (with a scrap of parchment wrapped around their leg).

“ALLOW OPHELIA TO OPEN THE URNS. I HAVE MANY OPHELIAS.”

~~~

Anyone remaining in the mirrored room sees a dove reappear on Erasmus’ shoulder. He prompts tears off the corner of a page and pens something there, in cramped, blocky handwriting.

The parchment is tied around the dove’s leg, and they fly back down the corridor.

“Afraid not. I’ve got your back, though.”

He aims his crossbow at the door.

Readied action to go invisible if there’s any creature beyond the door.

Oh, and he pockets the vial.

[Kaptin Keen]

Okoa has no patience for opening by proxy. He lifts the lid of the green urn.

[JbeJ275]

So, do any of you people know how to dispel magic? Lyle ask sort of annoyed that no one had answered his question before.

I'm afraid that my personal attunement to magic has not yet reached the neccesary force to try and remove someone else's magics.

[Book Wombat]

That's not very good, Lyle says frowning

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz enters the room and examines the brown urn.


Spot [roll0]
Search [roll1]

[Xanyo]

Jexerie examines the black urn, searching his memory for anything relevant.
Knowledge: arcana, psionics, religion, nature, the planes or dungeoneering
[roll0]

[Meijin]

The three adventurors cautiously move forward, each examining one urn.

The well-read Jex recognizes the jars as similar to Greek pithoi, commonly used for storage. However, these pithoi have no apparent decorative carvings on the side, and are instead lacquered or enameled.

Abramowitz checks the brown urn. It's cold to the touch. The lid on this one fits evenly over the top, with no cracks.

Okoa throws back his shoulders, strides up to the centermost emerald vase, and after checking it over for a moment gingerly opens the lid...

The dim light of the overhead lamp shines right down into the inside of the jar. Sleepily uncoiling itself from inside, a large serpentine creature lifts its head several feet above the top of the jar, looks around with dumb malice, and bares its fangs. Its body is a metallic grey-green, as thick as a man's thigh, but shaped strangely. The snake's body is angular, four sided, composed of a series of rhombohedral diamonds. Instead of coming to sharp points, every foot or so, each segment connects to another at a joint maybe the size of your wrist. It looks almost like an oragami snake, but rippling with living muscle, and armed with long, curved fangs. The snake's eyes appear to be black, inorganic angular crystals. Wrapped deep in its coils, you see the glittering of a golden crown. Jex's knowledge of nature identifies the now overpowering musky scent as typical of a rattlesnake, but this looks like no rattlesnake you've ever seen.

Okoa: [roll0]
Abramowitz: [roll1]
Jex: [roll2]
Erasmus: [roll3]
Snake: [roll4]




Lyle grits his teeth with concentration. Sliding a tiny wire into the mechanism, you take your best shot at fiddling with the internal parts. After taking every precaution, with bated breath, you give the triggering spring a sharp tug sideways, attempting to divert the mechanism, and...
It works! You breathe a sigh of relief. The dart trap on the door has been disabled.
You can go invisible on your action, if you'd like.


The hallway between the two rooms takes a full minute or two to walk down.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz startles at the oddly configured snake, leaping backward. He quickly recovers and brings his spear around to strike.


5' step "East" on the map.
Attack with longspear [roll0]
Damage [roll1]

[cecil1994]

If Lyle glances over their shoulder, there is nothing but open air.

Erasmas sights down his crossbow.

Spot: [roll0]

[Meijin]

The strangely angular snake hisses and rears back as you carefully line up a thrust and run it through, ramming your spear home with full strength!
Max damage. Nice!
Greenish black blood pours out, soaking dark against the pithos and spattering the three warriors.

Down the corridor you came from, you hear the frantic flapping of a bird approaching.
As the room is lit, the eagle-eyed bird should be able to see at least that something is going on.

The snake trains its dead eyes on Abramowitz and rapidly uncoils, springing out like jack-in-the box with fangs outstretched.
[roll0]

The snake hits! It slithers out of the jar and sinks its fangs, the only natural looking part of this creature, deep into Abramowitz's shoulder. You feel dizzy with a rush of poison. In a flash, it is wrapping around your legs, trying to trap you in its coils.

Five foot slither to pursue its quarry.
Bite damage: 1d3+4
Make a fortitude save and a grapple check.
Grapple: 1d20+5
If it beats you, constrict deals 1d3+4 more damage.

[dextercorvia]

As the snake latches on and squeezes, Abramowitz cannot breathe and slips into unconsciousness.

[Xanyo]

Jexerie steps back as the irregular snake appears and strikes.
And this is why you don't act so rashly in an unknown place such as this.

"The irregularity of the critter indicates that we are still dreaming. Or, at least, partially dreaming.
Therefore, it should be possible to make a metaphysical assault."

Jexerie steps 'NW' 5 feet and manifests Mind Thrust on the snake. He also expends his Psionic Focus to add 1 to the DC.
[roll0] damage, will save DC 16 negates.

[Meijin]

Will save [roll0]

For a moment, the air ripples and hums, as Jexerie concentrates, his eyes flashing purple. You make contact with the creature's mind, and for a moment you see its consciousness as an infinite 4 dimensional diamond grid. Somewhere, buried deep in there, a golden spark is glowing, but just as you locate it the diamonds constrict and force the intruder out of its mind. Unharmed by your mental assault, the snake flicks its tongue and begins to uncoil from the fallen Abramowitz, seeking new prey.

[Kaptin Keen]

Okoa momentarily rolls his eyes at the ceiling: Of course it had to be vipers. Gods damned vipers.

The big sword navigates a wide orbit, a huge arch with the rubix snake at it's apex.


Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

If possible, Okoa will 5' step to flank, for another +2.

[Book Wombat]

Hey, it worked, I managed to disable the dart trap. Now do any of you people know how to levitate objects? As far as I know that's a pretty simple spell. I think if we put the key in the lock with a spell, then the magic trap will be disabled. Lyle says hurriedly.
How much sand is there in the Hourglass?

[cecil1994]

"Nice work, but not right now! Abramowitz has already fallen!"

These words come out somewhat breathless- as the invisibility drips from Erasmus, he's quite clearly sprinting down the hall.

"Snake!"

SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE

[Book Wombat]

What snake?
Then Lyle turns around to look through the corridor.
Oh that snake.

[Meijin]

The hourglass still looks mostly full. Accalon and Lyle see their comrade drip back into visibility and take off down the corridor. If you peer closely down the hallway behind the mirror, you see a dimly lit battle against a snake.

With a mighty blow adding another wound to the rubix snake, Okoa severs it at a joint. The rhombosoidal monstrosity clatters to the ground, the segments separating in death, eyes and fangs falling out and clattering to the ground separately. Its wounds ooze dark blood. On the ground, the brave spearmean lies unconscious, slowly making his way toward oblivion.

[cecil1994]

Erasmus tilts his head, eyes blank.

"Snake's dead; any of you a healer?"

He keeps running.

[Kaptin Keen]

Well, Abramowitz has fallen, I guess he'd be appreciative of healing, answers Okoa. Having no healing of his own, he turns to examine the remains of the strange snake.

[cecil1994]

(three rounds in the future)

Ophelia enters the room like something out of a TF2 cinematic. The dove (with now-useless parchment dangling from their leg) tears off a part of Abramowitz's sleeve, and caws for assistance.

It isn't far behind.


Actually, I did the math, and the odds are better if we all attempt the checks alone. No penalty for failure other than time.
Feel free to invalidate this by healing Abramowitz before we get there, please.

Ophelia:
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

Erasmus:
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]

[Book Wombat]

Lyle looks sadly at the lock and I'm coming back lock, I shall disable your trap.
Then he starts running towards the Hexagon room.
Lyle runs at 80' towards the hexagon room, it should take around 3-4 rounds.

[Kaptin Keen]

The gods brought us together in this dream, but didn't see fit to include a healer? Sometimes I wonder at the wisdom of the divine.


He squats down, trying his best to inspect the wounds Abramowitz has suffered.

Are you supposed to such out the poison? Tie off the blood flow? Dammit, I should have listened to the old witch.


Healing, untrained: [roll0]

It's wisdom, right? Right!


Um ... I hope I'm not making it worse. If I'm making it worse, I'm sorry, friend.

[JbeJ275]

Accalon arrives from the other room, panting with exhaustion. He takes a moment to recover and recompose then speaks.

That is if the Gods wished us all to leave alive, I believe they are far to fickle for us to know. Or indeed whether it may have been other creatures which arranged this journey.

[Xanyo]

"The divines may very well be all-wise, but to them we are mere objects, insignificant, occasionally entertaining. That may be why we are here."

Jexerie wraps the fallen man's arm around his own shoulder and begins to lift him.

"Somebody help me with him. Not Okoa - he seems to be our best fighter."

[cecil1994]

Erasmus, after finishing up with the bandages, pulls the vial out of one of his pockets.

"I think this is a healing potion. Can anyone confirm that?"

does taste testing work in 3.5?

[Kaptin Keen]

It had better be! He's dead if it isn't - pour it in him, man.

[cecil1994]

He uncorks the vial, wafts it towards him.

"Yeah. Yeah."

Erasmus tilts the spearman's head back, and eases the potion down his throat.

"You're not going to die. Let Ophelia take the hit next time, ok? You're not going to die."

[Xanyo]

"Did anybody notice if that hourglass was attached to anything? I'd like to keep it with us, in case a Gordian solution becomes prudent."

Jex holds the spearman as the potion is fed.

[Meijin]

The ruby liquid flows out of the bottle and down Abramowitz's gullet.
[roll0]

[dextercorvia]

The warrior sputters a bit as the liquid goes down, but his breathing is improved.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle comes in the room panting, he stops and leans on a wall and says Anyone going to fill me on what happened?

[Kaptin Keen]

Well, in short:

I lifted the lid on one urn - thinking to myself, by the bye, that I hoped vipers wouldn't spew forth - and a viper spewed forth and bit Abramowitz. Then we killed the snake. Then you came.

[JbeJ275]

Well then this poses am issue, as our fellow has been injured we're in dire need of rest, yet who can say what area is safe to rest in if every pithos could hold anything.

[Xanyo]

"I do not believe we have anywhere near the time we need. Somebody help me carry out comrade, and would Ophelia please retrieve the hourglass?"

[cecil1994]

"I do not believe we have anywhere near the time we need. Somebody help me carry out comrade, and would Ophelia please retrieve the hourglass?"

"Mmm. On it."

One timeskip later, Ophelia returns with the hourglass.

"I vote we clear this room, one urn at a time. Shouldn't be too hard (that is, if we're all ready for it).'

Erasmus crouches behind the now-empty pithoi and readies his crossbow.

Readied action: shoot. If given advance warning, he'll cloak beforehand- looking to target flat-footed AC and thus get Sudden Strike.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz lays peacefully on the floor, only vaguely aware of the discussion around him. He dreams of hunting antelope in the forests of his homeland, but his dreams are punctuated by confusion as to the tightness in his chest.

[Meijin]

Well, Abramowitz has fallen, I guess he'd be appreciative of healing, answers Okoa. Having no healing of his own, he turns to examine the remains of the strange snake.

As Ophelia flies down the hallway to retrieve the hourglass, Okoa's examination of the snake's remains finds something. The glint of gold seen earlier, deep in the snake's coils, remains. It is a small golden crown, a thin circlet of uncertain metallic purity that shines faintly in the light.

[cecil1994]

If Okoa chooses to reveal this to the party, Erasmus does what he's named after.

Arcana or Planes: [roll0]

[Kaptin Keen]

Hmm - well if anyone of you has a pet snake, I have just the crown for it. It'll look like a little snake princess.

[cecil1994]

Hmm - well if anyone of you has a pet snake, I have just the crown for it. It'll look like a little snake princess.

o p h e l i a

gonna look fab

[Meijin]

Erasmus knows nothing in particular about the crown. It has no markings to identify; just a thin band of gold, thickened a little toward the front, bigger than a bracelet.

While it could fit a human head, Ophelia's head is tragically too small for this. She could, however, wear it around her body below the wings, as a fancy sort of belt.

[Kaptin Keen]

I'd wager there's every chance it turns the wearer into a snake, says Okoa, flipping it merrily onto his own head. And waiting.

[Meijin]

Okoa utterly fails to turn into a snake.

[Kaptin Keen]

Doesn't work. Propably not magical at all. Also, I'm not king. Once we leave this place, we can sell it for the gold.

Ok, ready to open the next urn?

Okoa reaches for the lid of the black urn.

[Book Wombat]

Um, maybe not the best idea to open that just yet. I'm going to search this place this room if there are any more objects, alright? says Lyle.
If nobody objects I take a twenty to search the room, 20 + 4= 24

[Kaptin Keen]

AAH-HAHAHAH! Laughs Okoa, uproarishly, I merely jest, my friend. Let's get everyone back on their feet before we further test our mettle.

He looks around the room, curiously.

I can't help but feel we must be missing something.

[Book Wombat]

I suggest we look at the other door in the nine-sided room, I disabled the dart trap but there is a magical trap too.

[Xanyo]

Jexerie takes the hourglass and holds onto it, checking it periodically.

"The door in the nonagonal room seems more like something we were expected to find. I intend to continue along the mirror path. If Ophelia would open one of the urns, we can be ready for any surprises, although I doubt we will find any more snakes."

Jex readies standard against opening of an urn, and keeps his distance.

[cecil1994]

"I agree with Jex. One snake in the hand is worth two in the pithoi, and all that."

[Xanyo]

This... interesting comment was greeted by Jexerie's raised eyebrow.

[Meijin]

Lyle takes almost a quarter of an hour to inspect the room with the surgical precision of a professional, examining every surface for minutes at a time with every tool in his arsenal.

While the search goes on, Abramowitz is tended to, and continues to dream. He is in safe hands now.

Jex, periodically checking the hourglass, finds the upper bulb to still be mostly full.

The full party of six dreamers has ample time to select preferred positions around the room.

Lyle finds no traps. The three corridors extending away from the room look almost identical. The brown pithos is cold to the touch; its tight fitted metal lid more so. The black pithos also has a well fitted kid. During your search, when you place your ear to the juncture between the lid and the lip of the container, you hear faint sounds of continuous movement of something small. It's too muffled to differentiate between scuttling, slithering, walking, jumping, buzzing, sliding, crawling, etc., but there is definetely either something small and energetic or several small something inside moving around near constantly.

[cecil1994]

“Hm. Does anyone have rope? We could simply tie the urns shut... unless they contain something we need, hm.”

[Xanyo]

"Whatever we do, we ought to do it quickly. I believe we only have thirty minutes remaining on this hourglass until I get desperate and flip it or have Okoa smash it, which may or may not help."

Jexerie chooses a position in the initial corridor as far back as he can while still being able to see, and be within thirty feet of, the two unopened urns.

[Kaptin Keen]

Hey! Okoa can do more than smash things, says the big man, obviously not really insulted. Propably we stumbled on someone's snake collection. Big snake in one urn, lots of small ones in another.

Cold snake. I guess. In the last one. I mean, sure it sounds strange, but people's hobbies are just weird.

[JbeJ275]

I geuss if someone was living here without anyone else a snake would make decent enough company, but more pressingly it's not my intent to stay here long enough to find the need to develop a hobby.

[cecil1994]

“I vote we evict it.”

[Kaptin Keen]

We're still a man down. We'll be waging a war of attrition, on ourselves. Unless someone has suddenly discovered the healing arts?
I mean ... you do expect me to stay in front of you, when we take our next serpent shower, right?

[Xanyo]

"I was hoping we could all stand at a distance with ranged attacks prepared,
and Ophelia taking the first hit. That way we do not wear ourselves down."

[Kaptin Keen]

Never send a wizard to do a man's job. Or, I mean, a bird. I meant a bird. Also, I haven't a single ranged weapon. But don't worry,
I'll keep my sword in my other hand.

Heck, I can propably tip off the lid with the tip of my sword. What say you?

[Book Wombat]

Well, I going back to the nonagon room and try to open the door. Anyone with me?
Lyle will wait for someone to come with him but will not go unless one other person will go with him

[Kaptin Keen]

We should propably do one, or the other. Maybe even neither. But not both at the same time, that feels like a poor deployment of ressources.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz holds his bow down, the scent of damp leaves fills his nostrils. Across the sun dappled glade, a majestic buck rubs antlers against the tree. It would soon be time to shed those antlers. He silently knocks an arrow and pulls back the string. A tiny creak in the wood causes the bucks tail to twitch, and his head to turn. Just enough

Twang

The string releases and Abramowitz collapses to the forest floor. The arrow pierces his own chest. Can you dream inside a dream?

[Meijin]

Fortunately, this being a dream and all, the arrow to the chest is not fatal. The deer is gone, and in its place, twenty feet away, is a balanced scales, as for weighing. In one dish sits a morbidly obese, evil looking rat, with teeth bared. In the other dish, surreal keeping balance with the rat, a statuette of a goddess or dryad of some sort. The sight of the statuette fills you with hope, and you intuitively sense it symbolizes healing and hope, while the rat guards her with gluttony, which is death. The rat looks ready to fight if it has to, but unlikely to charge without provocation. In your peripheral vision, you see thousands of impassive eyes. Behind you, a road leads away from the statuette and the rat, into the forest.
You need to make another fortitude save vs the poison. Also, in this dream, you currently have no gear, but you do have antlers,
a natural weapon with which you are proficient and can deal 1d6+int points of damage, double on a charge, use your intelligence bonus to attack. You are unarmored, but have two points of natural armor, a lovely tawny pelt, and four hoofs.

[Book Wombat]

Well? Is anyone coming with me to the nonagon room? I hope I didn't spend all that effort on a door we weren't even going to open.

[cecil1994]

Well? Is anyone coming with me to the nonagon room? I hope I didn't spend all that effort on a door we weren't even going to open.

“Let’s deal with these first, as we’re already here.

And I sincerely doubt inaction will solve this particular problem. If you don’t want to open them, it’s ok, I will.”

If no one says anything, he’ll cloak 10 feet away and have Ophelia open one. What, you thought he would personally do it?

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz's nostrils flare. His tail switches in response to the danger. There is still an incredible tightness in his chest, but he scrapes at the ground with a hoof and tosses his majestic antlers into the air. He channels the phantom pain, the fear, and his own confusion into his core, calling upon his inner vitality.


He will attempt to spend 1 pp to manifest Vigor using Wild Surge [roll0] vs enervation (low is bad).
If successful he gains 10 temporary hp for 2 min.

Of course, we are in a dream so it might not be successful for any number of reasons.

[Meijin]

As you wild surge, you see the dream world shift chaotically, mirroring the disruption to your psyche. The forest and eyes around you vanish, replaced with an unending desertscape all around, punctuated by black obelisks. You are still just a few yards from the balanced scales with the rat and the statuette. The power takes effect in full, and the psychic display angers the rat, which clambers off the scale and rushes toward you, fangs bared. The statuette hangs unnaturally in the air, the scale barely dipping.
The Dream Rat's Charge: [roll0]
On a hit, the Dream Rat's damage: [roll1]

[Kaptin Keen]

With a shrug, Okoa flips the lid off the brown urn with the tip of his sword.


Unless that would require a roll - then he'll just sabrage it instead. That will presumably require an attack roll, but those are his favourite rolls.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz instinctively puts his head down disrupting the Rat's charge. He snorts at the changing scenery and stamps at the sand. His thickly muscled flanks quiver. He bounds past the rat darting toward the statuette.


Withdraw action, double moving to the statue. (I've fluffed it at running past the rat, but that would probably defeat the purpose of the withdraw, so it is more like a circling.)

[Meijin]

Your hoofs gouge the desert sands as you gallop past the Rat, deftly evading its bite. As you approach the statuette, your hands reach out, grasping towards it. Standing just in front of it, you make out an image of the sun and moon carved into the base of the scale, along with the words "Huginn" and "Muninn," gouged deeply into the silver. Distorted as though underwater, you hear the oncoming charge of the Dream Rat, now endlessly pursuing. *Edit:* The rat tears a thin ribbon of flesh from your flank as it grazes you with a filthy, infected looking fang. Along with the pain, you have a vivid sense of existential anguish; a striking sense that somewhere, in some other world, you are already lying helpless, at the brink of death.
Move action if you want to pick up the statuette. It's a dream, so you get hands as well as antlers.
Dream Rat Charge: [roll0]
Dream Rat damage if it hits: [roll1]

[Kaptin Keen]

Okoa tries to get the tip of his blade under the rim of the lid - discovers this to be more fiddly than expected, and instead raises the blade to his shoulder.

Snake champagne for everyone! He says.

Then the big blade sails in a circle, clipping the urn just below the top, neatly shearing off the lid. Or so is the hope, anyways.


Attack: [roll0]
Damage, if needed: [roll1]

[JbeJ275]

As they prepare for this pathos to break, Accalon stands wordlessly at the back of the room. As he grips his dagger in one hand he pulls at the weave of magic with the right preparing himself to throw the Blast.

While these people seem acceptable, and many are practitioners of magic themselves, he knows that many people have a tendency to act irrationally with the knowledge of exactly what he was.

[cecil1994]

Erasmus vanishes. It’s a jagged transition- piece by piece, like someone taking careful bites.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle takes out his short sword in case whatever is inside the urn attacks him.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz with his haunches turned to his foe, is unable to fend off this scratch. He feels the trickle of blood and vitality flowing out of him, but still he reaches out, with what, he isn't sure. The dreaming man plucks the statue from the scale.

He turns then, a blur of tawny fur and antlers, retaliating against the foul rodent.


Move action, pick up statue.

If that doesn't do anything too weird, then he spins in place and attacks the rat:
Attack [roll0]
Damage [roll1]

Vigor 18 rounds (9 temp HP left)

[Meijin]

The Dream Rat's reckless charge throws it right onto your antlers! Recoiling in pain, it begins circling, then lunges forward for another strike! Deep in the wells of its eyes, there is a looming stone door. On the base of the statuette, the words "Huginn" and "Muninn" are inscribed once again, glowing faintly.
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

https://giphy.com/gifs/cheezburger-video-games-link-smashing-yReqDtUAwWoec

With a mighty heave, Okoa swings his sword, neatly striking the brown pithos at the lip with prodigious force. As it is some sort of ceramic, rather than cleanly severing at the top, the jar cracks and shatters into shards and slivers.

It is as though you had burst a waterskin filled at a particularly un-potable pond. Brackish, mud brown water, along with slime, silt, green-brown algae and scummy froth bursts forth from the container, soaking Okoa and forming a puddle approximately 15 feet in diameter.

Amidst the shards from the pot, there is a hefty leather bag shut with a gold-embroidered drawstring. It is not unguarded. Floating in the air, dripping with the slimy water in which it was (up till recently) immersed, a horrific shape greets you. Three human heads, lashed together tightly by their knotted black hair, with the eyelids sewn shut. One head looks like that of an old woman, tone and deeply wrinkled, frothing at the lips and biting in all directions. A young man's head screams constantly, without pausing to draw breath. The third head is horribly disfigured with scars and burns and drools, its mouth hanging open dumbly. The three heads wheel about in the air.

The water is freezing cold, colder than a night exposed on the savannah, colder than the block of precious ice you once captured from a caravan. It chills you to the bone, and you take [roll2] damage.

If you would like to jump back to one of the squares behind you as the pot explodes and the water sloshes out, you may make a reflex save to do so. View the following spoilers depending on what you do:
As the pot explodes, lightning reflexes drive you back, away from the spreading water and shards of pottery.
As you dart back, you feel a rush of cold unlike anything you've ever known. You manage to fling yourself away from the brunt of it, but still take half of [roll3] damage.
Muddy, brown, algae-filled water spreads around your feet, chilling you with the worst cold you have ever experienced. Take [roll4] damage.

If you have knowledge: Dungeoneering or Nature, you may make checks about the water. The puddle is centered on the space formerly containing the brown pithos, now containing the three-headed creature, and spreads out to every adjacent square. The bag is in the center. The creature is not charging out to attack just yet, but it it spinning erratically and screaming, and so poses a plausible threat. I'm going to roll initiative for anyone who wishes to respond with violence.

Initiative:
Okoa: [roll5]
Jex: [roll6]
Accalon: [roll7]
Lyle:[roll8]
Erasmus: [roll9]
Three-Headed Thing: [roll10]

[Kaptin Keen]

A sheen of ice clings to Okoa's hair, eyebrows, beard, and he shivers like a small dog in the snow.

... is very ... very cold, he manages to warn. He raises his sword, ready to strike, but currently leery of going near the water.


In other words, on his initiative, Okoa readies an action to cut anything down that moves into range. Unless it's friendly. No!


Deciding that nothing made from the animated skulls of the dead can be good news, he brings his sword back around for a powerful return stroke.

[cecil1994]

Guck crashes against the empty ground. Erasmus (warm and dry, though quite disturbed) takes aim.

(A different Erasmus is pondering the horror, and flying Ophelia in a deadly arc. This does not interfere with the shot.)


Crossbow, targeting Flat-Footed: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1d8]/roll] (if vulnerable to sneak attack, add [roll1])

Knowledge: Arcana or Planes, on the off chance the creature isn't an abberation: [roll2]

Ophelia flies into flanking position with Okoa. If he isn't right next to the creature, they'll attack from a spot that will let him get flanking next turn.
[roll3] (vs flat, subtract 2 if not flanking)
Damage: [roll4]

[JbeJ275]

As the hideous creature spills forth Accalon acts, in a panic he releases a blast, the thin tendrils snaking towards this monster before impacting into it.


To Hit: [roll0]
Damage [roll1]
Is it possible for this thing to be frightened?

[Xanyo]

What in all that is incomprehensible...

Jexerie reaches his mind out, feeling for the mind(s) of this aberration and, once found, attempting to rend the internal psychic connections. He also tenses his legs, ready.

Mind Thrust, expend Psionic Focus for +1 DC. [roll0] damage, will save DC 16 negates. Ready move action against enemy approach.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz was not much of a religious man, or else he might have recognized the names of Odin's ravens, thought and mind. However, he is sure enough of himself that he recognizes this as more than just a dream. "I know what you are, Rat. You are the taint on my soul of my Grandfather's betrayal and my fear that I will follow him. I can accept that burden, but I will not let you rule me."

He can feel his grasp on the other world slipping as his artificial vitality continues to dwindle. If I die on this spirit journey, I will die everywhere.

He rears back on his hind legs and brings his antlers crashing down onto Grandfather Rat.


Attack [roll0]
Damage [roll1]

[Meijin]

As the spinning trio of heads readies itself to act, the adventurous are quick on the draw. With a resounding *crack,* Accalon's eldrich light explodes against it. As Ophelia dive bombs the heads, Erasmus lines up a shot and fires true. The heads collapse to the ground and begin visibly decomposing, their life force spent.

Aftermath (contains OOC, posting on my phone which can't do spoilers well):
As Ophelia flew in to combat the heads, you saw her slump unconscious mid-flight and fall down into the puddle of brown moldy water. She is not dead, but looks to have fainted from the cold.
Jex readied himself, but never needed to expend his power points on the mind thrust.
The gilded bag is still in the middle of the puddle, amidst the shards of the pithos, right in front of Okoa
Okoa is standing and drenched in the tainted water. I already rolled damage for this round, so you have one "free" turn. Starting the turn after this, I'll assign cold damage each turn, so long as you're standing in/close enough to the water, or have enough of the plant on you.

Everyone but Abramowitz gains 80 experience.

[cecil1994]

The Erasmus in charge of Ophelia shrugs. The dove vanishes, and another appears.

He looks at Okoa. "You doing ok? I could feel the cold of that thing, and I was fifteen feet away."

[Kaptin Keen]

Okoa leans down, picks up the bag, and steps out of the water.

Very cold. Very, very .. does anyone have a blanket?

[Meijin]

Okoa's front is doused in muddy water. The largest bunches of the fungus are draped on him like kelp; there's a fair amount of them but they could be peeled off pretty easily. Smaller but still visible bits of the fungus are on his clothes and, to a lesser extent, his skin. It is still very, very cold.

To which square would Okoa like to move?

[Kaptin Keen]

To which square would Okoa like to move?

Good heavens, I dunno. Any square out of the water. At which point he'll strip naked if that's what gets him warm and functional again.

[Meijin]

You recognize the Grandfather Rat for what it is, and fear flashes into its stupid eyes a moment before your antlers connect,
splitting its body open like a ripe fruit. A black mist rises up and away from the corpse, drifting off into the night and leaving behind an ordinary, nonsymbolic rat. Inside its body, you see a stone door, seven feet high.

Ok, I'll read that last turn as a move action to grab the treasure, a 5-foot step out of the water to right next to it, and a move action to take clothes off. You still feel really really cold, but somewhat less so.

[Book Wombat]

Uh...That was quick Lyle manages to say. Now whats inside that bag?

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz sighs in relief, though his totem form relays this as a snort and a tail flip. The shaman dreamers of his homeland are called whisperers, so as he pushes against the stone door, he whispers, "This is my dream, and this is my path. Open for me."

[Book Wombat]

Lyle walks to the bag and says to no one in particular Lets see what's inside this bag

[Kaptin Keen]

What, this bag?! Asks Okoa, who picked it up earlier. Of course, Lyle could be talking about some other bag, but Okoa holds it out in case this is, in actual fact, the bag in question.

Okoa's fingers are, at any rate, too frozen to get the string open.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle accepts the bag from Okoa and opens the drawstring, Yes, this bag he says as a confirmation to Okoa. When the drawstring comes off he looks cautiously inside the bag.

[Meijin]

The bag weighs just a few pounds, and can be held in one hand. It contains:

An assortment of gold and silver coins. Enough that you'll have to count them to know how many there are. The denominations and markings are various: Chinese silver coins with a hole in the middle all tied up with a cord, some old Roman coins, thin gold slivers from Austria, little bars from the dwarves of Moradin's Peak, gnomish half-fyrleiks, and wedge-shaped pieces of eight.

A lute of exceptionally high quality, carved with dragons all along the woodwork, painted red and green.

Three jade rings, 5cm in diameter, glowing faintly and covered in words you do not recognize.

A glass vial of ruby red liquid with a stopper, identical to the previous one.

A heavy, 3-ft diameter brass orb.

A shortspear with obsidian blade and feathers along the shaft.

[Xanyo]

"The vial is doubtless another invigorating solution. How is our spearman holding up? We could heal him up; however, as this seems to be slightly less than real, it is possible that he will recover soon."

Jex takes another concerned look at the hourglass, tipping it ever so slightly.

What I wouldn't give to know what this senseless thing means!

"The rings seem like they may be magical, but I do not believe any of us are capable of identifying their function. A few of you could try wearing a ring and hope for a significant beneficial effect. I am unfortunately without plausible speculation as to their enchantment. With this lack of understanding,
they may very well be enchanted simply to glow.

The orb is likely related to some puzzle or the like within this place. We should keep it handy.

If our spearman recovers, I believe he would appreciate this weapon. He has certainly earned the right to it.

The lute seems to simply be made by an expert craftsman, though it could have further secrets."

In case it may be relevant:
I speak Common, Elven, Draconic, Aeran and Undercommone.
And let's roll a few knowledge checks too:
Arcana
[roll0]
Psionics
[roll1]
Religion
[roll2]
Nature
[roll3]
The Planes
[roll4]
Dungeoneering
[roll5]
Psicraft check(just in case)
[roll6]

Jexerie is trying to see if he knows anything at all about these items.

[Kaptin Keen]

Still shivering from the cold, Okoa manages:

... wait ... the bag ... had a spear in it ... I'll take the bag, then!

Since being the natural risk-taker of the group has fallen to him, he slips on one of the rings. This is almost certain to ensure it's cursed - but hey, all in the name of science, right?

[Book Wombat]

True, this bag is probably a magical one that can hold a lot of stuff in it.
He takes out his bedroll and gives it to Okoa Here you go
Then Lyle examines one of the rings looking a the script. He takes a twenty if applicable if not [roll0]

[Xanyo]

"I... am embarrassed not to have noticed the nature of the bag itself. I shall choose to believe that this reinforces my partial dream theory, as oft in dreams you assume something to make sense when it does not.

It seems that my hypothesis that no more urns wold be occupied by hostiles is wholly incorrect. The final urn may be so; however,
it would be foolish to make that assumption.

Now, I don't suppose anybody has a mop? This algaeic brown mold may prove problematic if we are unable to contain it.
I believe we could assemble a makeshift mop with a pole or spear and some frayed rope."

Confound it all. I should not have so rashly resorted to my brutish mental rending. Had I instead concentrated belief into more tangible energy, I should not have been so useless in these combats, and would be able to clear this brown mold with ease. Ah, well, as my mentor used to say 'no sense in regret unless you can revert time.'

[Kaptin Keen]

Sure there's ... some way to kill this mold? My mother always used vinegar. Though admittedly, my mother never fought this type of mold. But if she had, she'd have won, I'm sure.

Naked, rubbing warmth back into his frozen limbs, Okoa isn't exactly up for another fight just yet. Also, he doesn't have vinegar on him.

[Xanyo]

”It survives by feeding constantly on the heat around it. A dangerous drop in temperature would kill it instantly. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of mental focus for me to manipulate reality, and I cannot shift my focus to a different manipulation until I have had a night’s rest, or I would destroy this nuisance now.”

[JbeJ275]

If I just sit here, and spend a significant amount of time throwing magical destruction through it do you think that could destroy it properly?

[Xanyo]

”No.

Unless you can freeze it, you aren’t going to hurt it with anything. This stuff has devoured entire planes. A little bit of zapping won’t do a thing.”

[Kaptin Keen]

I still say vinegar should do the trick. Never met a strain of mold that could resist vinegar.

[Meijin]

The door looms, impossibly large, up, up out of the body of the rat. It swings open lightly at a push. Inside the doorway is blackness. In the blackness, a man is floating, alive but unconscious, suspended in the fetal position in midair, within a thin, translucent, pale-green sac. It looks like a prison, or a womb. As your eyes adjust to the dim light, you see that the figure is... You. Your body is marred with a nasty looking bite, and with bad bruising around the chest, perhaps a broken rib or two.





The statuette grows warmer


Arcana, The Planes:
Spheres have meant many things to many different people. Greek wizards consider them a perfect shape, resonant with universal harmonies.
Chinese sages link the circular to the cosmic egg of Pan-Gu from which came the world. Brass is often linked ritualistically to fire, drawing on the City of Brass. Without more context, the meaning is over determinate: you don't know which system of signs this heavy sphere is meant to signify within.

Nature: The feathers look like norther grouse plumage.

Psionics: The material of the rings, along with the faint inherent glow, gives them away as Cathayan Mind-Jade. It's actually just jade, mined in areas highly receptive of psionic power, similar to the crystal power containers more common in India. Although psionically resonant jade can appear anywhere, it is most common in a few mines in China, hence the common name of Cathayan Mind-Jade. The rings look like psionic items.


今回、グーグルの翻訳はあなたの試みのように足りない。すみません。

is still mostly full.

Okoa continues shivering, despite having moved more than five feet away from the deadly puddle. The bedroll helps him preserve some body heat and modesty, but he is still grimy with mold. He takes [roll0] nonlethal damage from cold over the course of the next few minutes.

Lyle kindly gave Okoa his bedroll; and took the bag from Okoa. When you moved close to the big man, your extremities began to feel slightly numb, your cheeks and nose flushed red, and your teeth chattered. Take [roll1] nonlethal damage from interacting with the mold man.

Okoa tries on a ring. It's a little on the large size, but it feels smooth and a bit warm, so not altogether uncomfortable. You continue to feel coldThere's no vinegar in sight :-(

[Kaptin Keen]

Okoa keels over, unconcious.


Okoa has been using anything to hand to try and scrape the mold off. Just in case you missed that. If he failed, he failed.

[Xanyo]

Jexerie looks at the fallen man.

"I can't fix that.

Anyway, The rings aren't actually magical at all. As for the sphere, I suspect it is somewhat resonant with universal harmonics, as that is the Greek connotation, and these pithos are Greek.

The feathers are from a Northern Grouse, but that doesn't matter whatsoever."

[cecil1994]

Erasmus looks a little torn.

“Well... don’t suppose he’s in any condition to refuse Ophelia now. Sorry about that, friend.”

dex check: Ophelia [roll0]

[Kaptin Keen]

Okoa's right hand twitches slightly, and he manages to mumble incoherently. His left eye almost flickers open to glare at Erasmus.

[Xanyo]

"If we can't clean him, he's going to continue freezing and sinking deep into unconsciousness. Someone and Ophelia give me a hand."

Jexerie proceeds to attempt to remove and discard as much of the mold as he can, as quickly as he can.

Dex Check
[roll0](it's in OOC, an 11)
Here comes the nonlethal damage. I can last a few rounds, but it would be best for me to not take a ton of nonlethal.

[Meijin]

Ophelia flies in to aid Okoa, and perhaps to finally win him over. Tragically, when she gets near him, she collapses to the ground unconscious. The second Ophelia is down.

Jex braves the cold and towels off Okoa with moderate success. You're making progress.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz is puzzled. This figure in front of him looks like his father more than he remembers. He had almost forgotten the statue. He looks from himself to the statue and back. The idol reminds him of his mother, a woman so kind she was willing to marry a traitor's son. Reaching out, he brings the statue as close as possible to his enwombed body, pushing it against the green yolksac. I look so damaged and pathetic. How stupid to finally get an adventure and be away from the ridicule of my past only to die from a snake. I am descended from dragon-slayers. No serpent will be my death.

[Meijin]

Abramowitz;

The statuette is still warm, and feels warmer the closer it gets to your injured body. Nothing happens on contact, but there is a perceptible build-up of tension waiting to be released. Desert sand faintly swirls around your hoofs.

[Xanyo]

Jexerie frowns as he continues to clean Okoa.

"At this rate, our manpower will be depleted in the next room. I doubt the healing potion would help Okoa - he sleeps deeply."

[roll0]

[dextercorvia]

Stag-Abramowitz pushes harder against his own shrouded body. I cannot hide forever in this dream world. I have to get back into my own body, no matter how painful. I suppose it will be like being born a second time. He takes the prong of an antler and plucks the membrane.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle picks up the dragon lute and studies it.
[roll0], take a twenty if applicable

[Meijin]

*I'm posting from my phone, which doesn't like spoilers*

Jexerie is beginning to look a little chilly. [roll0]
You have some difficulty finding the last few strands of the stuff.
***If you or anyone else keeps trying, take [roll1] from further cold***

Lyle can't identify much about the lute. It's a fairly simple instrument. While it would take training to play it well, you can pick out basic notes if you want to. It looks well enough made to be valuable.

***Abramowitz***
You feel a stinging pain as the membrane rips, slides and sloughs off of the form in front of you. Spacetime seems to stretch and wobble as the border between your two selves starts to break down. You feel a stabbing pain in your ribs. The statuette flashes in your hand and a deep voice painfully loud rings out "Huginn!" Your vision goes black, your head rings, and your body numbly tingles. After a moment, or an hour, or many hours, it stops. Everything is black and claustrophobic. If you still are where you were before, the stone door has surely shut behind you. All of your joints feel compressed tight as a coiled spring.

[Xanyo]

Jexerie shivers.
Almost...
He goes for the last few bits of algae, feeling in a bad way from the cold.
dex check [roll0]
I am so glad I took Psionic Body.

[Meijin]

Jexerie fights through the intense cold and manages to clear the last strands of algeic mold off of the giant man's unconscious form. The plant detritus joins a growing pile a few feet away. The plants, on the ground and in the shallow puddle, appear to be wilting rapidly. This species seems to need water or heat fairly constantly to survive.

Over the course of his cleaning, Okoa took an additional [roll0] nonlethal damage. He looks very cold.

[Book Wombat]

After he finished examining the lute finding nothing conclusive he plucks a few strings.

[Meijin]

The lute rings out a few high, clear plinks. Nothing immediately seems to change.

The hour glass is still mostly full

The thin layer of water is beginning to evaporate, leaving the brown water plants to start withering.

Okoa and Abramowitz's bodies still lie on the ground.

What course is next for our brave adventurors? At the cost of some casualties, treasure has been gained. Unexplored hallways loom ahead, and the first room still sits behind you unexplored. The black urn remains.

[dextercorvia]

Something has changed. Jarring scene changes are not unusual in dreams, but Abramowitz knows this isn't just a dream. What could it mean?

For the longest time, he just feels. He feels the pressure in his chest. A rib is out of place, almost certainly broken, and every time he moves pain shoots through his whole body. Only shallow breaths are even remotely tolerable. "Why can't I move?" He wonders, and then he remembers hunting. When I shot the deer, I became the deer. Have I rejoined my damaged body? In the womb?

Unsure of why, he inhales sharply, choking on the pain, and then yells out the words that haunt him, "Huginn! Muninn!"

[Book Wombat]

After plunking the lute for a bit more he sets it down and asks I still would find it better to first examine the first room then going already to a third room, with two men down as Jex said, I have no idea how to get them back to normal. So should we go back or continue?

[Xanyo]

"Seeing as thus far, each urn we have opened has incapacitated one of us, it seems prudent to leave the final one be. Especially as I am ripe for incapacitation.

Then again, there may be something useful within.

Confound it all! Nothing here makes sense, and I like it!"

Jexerie stares frustrated at the urn.

[Book Wombat]

Um, you like being incapacitated?

[Xanyo]

Jex raises an eyebrow at this comment.

"I like things that don't make complete sense. It means that there is something more to learn. Being incapacitated is significantly less enjoyable."

[cecil1994]

“At risk of making sense, we could let Ophelia open the next one. Her competitor is a little out of the picture.”

“If not, I’d suggest heading for the other room’s door at once.”

[Xanyo]

"We aren't going anywhere unless somebody gives me a hand with carrying the wounded. I already dropped Mister Abromowitz rather heavily in order to assist Mister Okoa. We must either carry them and be significantly disadvantaged in battle(although, I can fight equally well under such burdens), or we must leave them behind, which would only be relatively moral if we were, indeed, certain that we are dreaming."

[Book Wombat]

Also, who's Ophelia? I thought there was only six people. But I could be mistaken.

[Xanyo]

"Ophelia is Erasmus' avian facsimile he seems capable of summoning at will."

[Book Wombat]

Um, what's an avian facsimile?

[Xanyo]

Jexerie sighs internally.

"Fake bird. It's a fake bird. Can we please continue now?"

[JbeJ275]

Accalon pipes up after a long silence.

I though a facsimile was a creature that travelled with those who had certain types of magic? And I’ld be only to happy to continue, please, lead the way.

[Xanyo]

"I cannot feel my extremities;
it would be unwise for me to lead.

But for comprehension's sake, would somebody please help me carry these people!"

Jexerie wraps Okoa in the bedroll, then struggles to pick up Abromowitz.

"I spend at least half my day in meditation; I am not strong enough for this. The only way I'm moving anyone on my own is by dragging!"

The normally calm man seems to be getting somewhat frustrated. He addresses Lyle.

"You there. Halfling. Help me with Abromowitz. Accalon, Erasmus, get Okoa. We're taking the left doorway, and no I do not have a reason to choose that one over the right. Move."

[Kaptin Keen]

Okoa twitches, mumbles something about birds, and remains firmly unconscious.

[Book Wombat]

Hey, I have a name you know, it's Lyle. Alright?
he grumbles as he gets in position to help Mister complicated-words, Also Why not the way we came from? We still did not finish examining that room. And I didn't disable that trap for nothing you know? Or probably you don't

[Xanyo]

"The door was an obvious way to go at the beginning, while the mirror corridor was concealed. We are expected to go through that door. As it seems the one(s) who designed this place do not have our best interests in mind, it may be that the main door leads to more danger than the mirror, which, while admittedly dangerous, seems to be shaped around puzzles, which can be completed without injury. I suspect this route is safer. Of course, we can probably go back at any time.

Probably."

With Lyle and Abromowitz in tow, Jexerie enters the left corridor.

[Meijin]

As you cry out, the statuette is suddenly in your hand. With each word of power, it flashes with green light. You are healed for [roll0] damage, and gain fast healing 1. In this form, your vigor is also still up, and (other than what has been now healed), your body is as damaged as it was when you fell unconscious. The flash of light briefly illuminated a glimpse of your (once again human) body. You are crouching down in a somewhat cramped space. The ceiling looks as though it could open.

You fade in and out of semiconciousness, your body too chilled to move, your brain delirious. At first you catch bits and pieces of the conversation around you; more nonsense about that taunting bird. Gradually, your mind slips further and further away from reality. You find yourself on the savanna, at night. Around you large herds of purple crystals the size of deer graze peacefully. To your left is smoke, fire and the sound of screams. To your right, a glassy oasis spreads out perfectly still, surrounding a tiny island with a single hut.

Lyle, Accalon, Erasmus and Jexerie see a flash of green light escape the lid of the black pithos, accompanied by a yelled "Huginn!" The noise is only somewhat muffled coming from within the jar. A moment later, another flash, and you recognize Abramowitz's voice calling out "Muninn!"

Ahead of you, the left corridor stretches out into the darkness. Who, if anyone is holding illumination, and how far if, at all do they want to go?

[Kaptin Keen]

What a strange place - but Okoa has no time to reflect upon it. Screams and fire mean trouble, and trouble means there's no time for idle reflection. Okoa is the fastest runner on the savannah (at least he likes to think so), and he sets of immediately towards the burning village (so he assumes).

He does a quick mental review of his inventory: Is he armed and armored? Does he, by any chance, have healing potions strapped to his belt?

[Book Wombat]

What was that!? Is just me or did you people hear Abramowitz? And I don't agree with you Jexerie, I think there is something valuable behind the door with chains, or there wouldn't be traps right?

[cecil1994]

At the wilder's voice, Erasmus snaps. "Yeah, ok. At risk of hypocrisy-"

He loads a poisoned bolt and fades into the air. Ophelia picks up the lid of the black urn if she can, or knocks it off if she can't.

Sorry about that. Seems like it won't be a harmful one, and we need to get Abramowitz back.

Fifteen feet away from the black pithoi, if it is.

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz attempts to uncoil his cramped body, pushing against the ceiling of his confinement. As he strains he calls once again on his unknown benefactors, "By Huginn and Muninn!"

[Meijin]

Abramowitz pushes as Ophelia lifts, and he stands to full height from within the black pithos. This is somewhat disconcerting, given his unconscious body across the room.

[Xanyo]

Jexerie looks from one to the other, and back again.

"I'm tempted to light this one on fire, just to see what would happen. Is it even alive anymore?"

[dextercorvia]

"This dream gets stranger and stranger. I'm back with you lot now? I've never troubled myself much with any philosophy or religion, but this place is odd enough to make me wonder." Abramowitz climbs from the pithos and steps toward his body. It's battered form still surprises him with how much it resembles his father. He kneels down next to his own body, only slightly less disturbed by encountering himself a second time in moments. He places the statue over his heart.""Spirits, Huginn and Munnin, bear my soul aloft and let it return to flesh and bone."

[cecil1994]

“You think your first, um, edition is going to wake? There’s a chorus in there somewhere.”

Erasmus checks the body for a pulse, muttering something about dying to be alive under his breath.

[Meijin]

The words of power on the statuette have faded to the faintest of glows. They pulse slightly at your incantation, but do not activate. It might be your imagination but the glow seems to be getting incrementally brighter, very slowly.

The fallen Abramowitz has a very, very faint pulse.

[Book Wombat]

After being shocked for a moment by the sight of two Abramowitzes, Lyle gets his control over his body again and says like usual What was that?

[Xanyo]

"I haven't the faintest idea!" Jexerie replies cheerily, "Perhaps Abromowitz can enlighten us a bit further!"

[dextercorvia]

"Are you the same as before? I just thought this was part of the dream." He pauses looking down at his own body lying on the stones. Abramowitz shakes his head vigorously. "I dreamt, but it was more than a dream, you know? That is where I found this statue, which healed me. But, I think in this place dreams are realer than I'm used to. Somehow I traveled from the dream back to this room, but I think I'm still dreaming." He points at his almost corpse and then see that Okoa has also fallen. "Let me try the statue on him, I don't remember his name, though."

He gently lays the statue on the man's frigid chest and invokes once more, "Huginn and Muninn!"

[Meijin]

The statuette remains inert. The words are still glowing very faintly.


Arcana, religion, psionics and spellcraft checks from anyone who wants.

[Xanyo]

Jexerie takes a close look at the statue, searching his veritable library of knowledge.

Arcana, psionics, religion and psicraft, respectively:
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

[Meijin]

Religion: Huginn and Muninn are odin's Ravens, Thought and Mind. They circle the world daily, and every day return to bring him wisdom, before setting out again the next day.

Psionics: You can't identify this item as either psionic or not. However, as Abramowitz activated it, it is likely either a generic wondrous item (psionic or magical) or some sort of psionic activation item. Power stones and dorjes rarely key off of command words as this seems to, so it seem most likely some sort of wondrous item. It could be spent entirely, or it could be recharging on an unknown time-frame.

[Book Wombat]

Well, it seems like we got our spear man back, and have we decided which direction we're going to go in? How much sand(or other fine material) is left?

[Meijin]

The hourglass is still mostly full. Although it does seem to be constantly draining downward, there has been no noticible shift in the proportions of sand in the upper and lower bulbs.

[Book Wombat]

Weird, did you people notice that the amount of sand hasn't increased in bottom? Or is it just me. he says confused. Also does anybody have food? I didn't bring any because I was hoping to restock on food in the village I stopped at but I got tele-dreamed here so I couldn't.

[Xanyo]

"It is entirely possible that we do not need to eat here, but I do have twelve days of trail rations."

Aaand, don't ask why I fell asleep in full travel dress.

Jexerie stares at the hourglass for a time, attempting to watch individual grains.

[Book Wombat]

Aand why did you sleep in full travel clothes? Though what I find interesting is that all my stuff came along for the ride even though I put it on the side of my bed, my armor is also been some how put on.

[JbeJ275]

Yes, yes you both had stuff, we get it, lucky you. Says putting has dagger back onto his belt and trying not to stab himself.

And more to the point, does anyone understand how this one here just cloned himself? We might have enough people to find a way out if we could do that while the first is still alert.

[Book Wombat]

Uhhh, what did you say just now? says Lyle very confused.

[JbeJ275]

Uhhh, what did you say just now? says Lyle very confused.

Well we currently have two of the same person right? Neither of whom are dead, if we can repeat the process each of us can work through more than one body, more than one mind and this should immensely expidate our escape.

[Book Wombat]

Ex-pi date? asks Lyle even more confused, Can anybody use simple words here?

[JbeJ275]

If there are more of us, we’ll do stuff faster

[Book Wombat]

Aaand how are we supposed to get more people? asks Lyle 87% confused.

[JbeJ275]

Aaand how are we supposed to get more people? asks Lyle 87% confused.

Thae magic pithos.. err jar rather.

[dextercorvia]

"I think it had something to do with almost dying, and that our dreams are closer to reality here. I'm not really sure it is something I'd want to bank on again."

[Meijin]

You have all your gear. You're at full health. Your intelligence is substituted for your strength.
The savannah becomes a familiar blur as you race towards the burning village. Herds of grazing crystals scatter as you pass. After a ten minute run, you find yourself at the lip of a little valley. Maybe 1000 feet away, a village's huts are burning. 100 feet away from you, around a small watering hole, in the shade of a Baobab tree, are monsters. Two men, eight feet tall and impossibly thin, with blond hair, pale skin, and blank skin where their faces should be. They are operating some sort of large metal machine, which they feed big metal orbs, tend to, and take cover as every minute or so it belches out fire, smoke, and a thunderclap. One of the blond monsters turns, noticing you, and begins to gesture in agitation to his comrade.

A clatter and a blur of motion in the corner of your eye interrupts your discussion. Jex has vanished. The hourglass has fallen to the floor, miraculously unharmed and still the same side up. On closer inspection you see (and hear) your vanished comrade, who has appeared in miniature inside the lower bulb of the glass, just an inch high.

You lean in and peer closely, attempting to distinguish the path of an individual grain amidst the tiny torrent. The rush of sand is strangely dizzying, and your world spins. Lightheadedness assails you, and in a flash, you find yourself standing halfway up a little sandy hill. The elevation is mild, under 30 degrees, and it looks like you could make your way around the hill in a few seconds. An enormous stream of fine sand, in a torrent as wide as you are, comes pouring down from above, spilling onto the center of the hill. Outside the hourglass, you hear the sounds of the conversation trail off, as your comrades notice your absence. You are trapped in the hourglass!

[Xanyo]

"Huh. I think I need to check about the dreaming thing."

Jexerie pinches himself.

"Ow! Okay, not ordinary dream... Trapped in hourglass, shrunk? Pile of sand -"

He trails off as he sees his companions stare. He quickly yells at the top of his lungs.

"Avert your gaze! Looking too close at the confounded thing is how I ended up in here! Abromowitz, try to smash this thing!"

For the love of confusion, I can't escape this thing on my own with mere telepathy!

...I guess this is what happens when you try to comprehend alternate truth without meditating a time on it first.

Hoping his companions can get him out, Jexerie curls up and braces for impact.

[Kaptin Keen]

No reason for foreplay. Okoa deftly swings his sword from his back and into his hands. He moves into charge range, activates Rage, and charges.

Initiative: [roll0]
Attack: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

They seem to be large? If so, Okoa will use Expansion - which only lasts 1 round - to gain reach, then charge, attack, 5ft step to be able to still attack on round 2. If Expansion, then additional +2 attack and damage.

[Book Wombat]

So I guess there's one more down. Should I smash it? Lyle asks Also, I think the more we wait the more people who are getting injured or being incapacitated to borrow a word. But also if we smash it we might lose a valuable item. While talking he draws the iron key out for no reason.

[Xanyo]

"You know what? I just realized that I am minimally incapacitated by this, so long as I can see out. My presently available power is telepathic in nature, so line of effect is not required."

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz has his spear poised to shatter the device when he hears the stop call. "It's your call."

He loops a leather strap around the hourglass and ties it around his neck like an oversized amulet. "Will this do?"

[Xanyo]

"Like a charm. Thank you. Now, shall we continue onwards? We aren't accomplishing any more by standing here."

[dextercorvia]

Abramowitz bends down once more -- this time to pick up his unconscious form. He balances his body on his left shoulder, and hefts his spear over his right. "I suppose it is time to carry my weight," he says with a wink.

"Ready whenever you are."

[Xanyo]

"Onwards, then. Left doorway.

You know, I may actually be better of in here. I'm weakened from that mold, and being in here seems relatively safe, compared to being where our foes can reach me."

Jexerie settles down in the sand as Abromowitz takes him forwards.

[dextercorvia]

"If I nearly die again, I'll try not to land on you." The burdened warrior heads in the indicated direction.

[Book Wombat]

I still don't understand why we shouldn't go back to the nonagon room, Lyle argues there are two things that we should look at before continuing, the door and the picture made of colored glass. Did you notice light came through it?

[JbeJ275]

Eh, if we don't decide on one pathway to take and stick with it I'm not sure we'll ever get out. Comments Accalon, I say we go with the left and we can head back to check that path if this one ends up being dangerous.

[Book Wombat]

What's left or right to another? Lyle states.

[Meijin]

Time has come. It looks like some of you are moving along. I'm assuming that everyone is going down the hallway, dragging both unconscious bodies, unless you say otherwise.
Lyle, everyone else is moving on, if you're going to do something else that's fine, but let us know at this point.

The path stretches out into the darkness. Holding one of the glowing orange spheres, you advance, casting eerie shadows on the wooden walls. This looks to be a long walk.
Five, ten, minutes pass. You begin to marvel at the size of the building, or wonder if you are not caught in some unending magical tunnel. Just as your mind begins to wonder, you see a dim glow ahead of you. Drawing near, you find yourself at a doorway, with no door. Through the doorway lies a large chamber, lit with a steady, dim, diffuse glow. In the back of the room, a small tree grows, boughs ending about fifteen feet up, near the ceiling. In front of the tree is a shallow pool, maybe five inches deep, and at its center, a large stone alter inscribed with old looking runes. Other than the tree and the altar pool, the room is a large bare wooden chamber. The walls are draped with a few light silks in green and gold. On the altar is a box of candles, a pair of candle holders (containing burnt down stubs), a censer with a few sticks of incense, and a brass ladle.

The tall, pale, faceless man is felled by your massive stroke as you swell momentarily to enormous size. He falls cloven in two, spurting blood. His companion levels what looks like a hollow spear with a long blade at you and a mechanical apparatus at his end. With an explosion of noise, the tip flares flame and smoke, propelling a bullet right at you.
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

He's about 40 feet away from you, but a bit around the curve of the lake so you can't charge. At this distance you can make out more of the tall figures moving through the smoke and flames. They are firing indiscriminately at women and children. It's a massacre. The men of the village are bound hand and foot together under guard, at the center of the village. This is maybe 1000 feet from you.

[Xanyo]

"Mister Abromowitz, please get me a good view of those runes. I may know a little about them. And if somebody could light one of those candles, that may reveal something. That tree looks like it could be interesting too."

Jexerie sits in a meditative position within the hourglass, searching his mind.
Knowledge Arcana(or any of my other knowledge skills) to recognize the runes [roll0]
Knowledge Nature for the tree [roll1]
If relevant, I speak Common, Elven, Auran, Undercommon and Draconic

[Kaptin Keen]

The shot would have felled Okoa, but with great size comes great respo .. no, wait, great constitution.

Okoa's own safety isn't relevant to him, he'll gladly die here to stop the slaughter - he even knows that he won't survive another hit, but ... he'd rather die trying than live with the knowledge he walked away from this.

He charges the second monster.
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Since Okoa was Expanded on the first attack, his damage was actually higher - a large weapon and another +2 str. But that's sort of irrelevant. The important bit is that, now he isn't large anymore, and may receive an attack of opportunity as he charges.

[Book Wombat]

Lyle follows the rest with not much choice. I'm going to search this place, if anybody has objections please say them. He takes a twenty, if not possible then [roll0] EDIT: That's a critical one...