IC: Disjunction

[Watcher]

OOC
Dice Rolls

Spoiler: Disjoiner of Fate

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Disjoiner of Fate

This simple rod has split down the middle. Magic yet remains in it, but it is a shadow of what it once was.

[Watcher]

Taker has heard stories. Certain, exceptional beings have defied their inborn nature and changed themselves by the force of their own will.

This isn't that.

He's also heard stories of redemption and of falls from grace sponsored by the gods.

This isn't that, either. This was violent and forced, and both Taker and Knave feel uneasy when they focus inwards. There's an indistinct ache deep within them that promises to grow worse with time.

Knave knows what this means. An outsider disconnected from their nature will die. Their bodies will shut down bit by bit until they eventually just... dissolve into nothing. It's a slower death than internal bleeding but no less deadly.

There may be a way to stop it. A deity certainly would have the power, but why would any of them help you? The Elite of the Coalition might have the power to reconnect you to your Evil natures, but you just failed the Pocket Plane and the Coalition in, frankly, a spectacular way. If they don't kill you on sight, you're in no position to ask for favors.
Healing magic won't undo the problem, but it can mitigate the symptoms. The Disjoiner of Fate has split down its length, and most of its power scattered when it exploded, but the healing magic you can squeeze from it could kick the can down the road.

Maybe you'll find another solution later, assuming you're not torn to shreds by the angels waiting patiently outside the rift. Zalgoth senses planar anomalies forming from the death throes of the Pocket Plane. Time grinds forward. You're slowed, but you can move.

Spoiler: OOC

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You can take actions now, but you're staggered. You're in a weightless environment, but you can will yourself to float in all directions at your speed. If you leave the bounds of the rift, the angel army will attack you (and you will probably die). Conjuration magic is possible now, but without a Knowledge (Arcana) or Spellcraft check, who knows what will happen if you use it?

[Watcher]

Zalgoth knows that simply healing the damage done to the party would take a large amount of energy, and it would return them to their Evil natures in the process.

Saving yourselves without returning to Evil is a more complicated process, but it could be done.
The first step involves attuning to a source of magic that isn't aligned to Good, Evil, Law, nor Chaos. Those are exceedingly difficult to find in the Outer Planes, but they're present on the Inner Planes and plentiful on the Material Plane.

The final step involves healing yourselves throughout the process so you don't melt.
The plan is missing several steps, and Zalgoth doesn't have the details hammered out of the two steps he does know, but it's somewhere to start.

After the party evades the celestial army, of course.

[ngilop]

Zalgoth shouts We need to get to safety... do either of you see a way through this collapsing plane that doesn't involve pushing our way through the fathering celestial host?

[Feathersnow]

we could beg them for mercy? Positive plane types are unpredictable about how they respond to groveling

[Athaleon]

"Have to get off this plane. Back to the Abyss. The plane itself might sustain us. I can't... can't get us there." Taker was gasping like a man near-drowned and in a great deal of pain.

Spoiler

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Pure shot-in-the-dark conjecture from a Demon who rolled poorly on his Planes check and didn't know much to begin with.

[Watcher]

Indistinct whispers fill the silence between your words. When Zalgoth focuses his eyes just right, he can almost see something moving.

Inexplicably visible scrying eyes blink into existence and float through the rift. Soon after, tidy lines arc through the rift like a hundred harmless lightning strikes. Blobs of magic form and contort like tongues exploring a new gap. One such tongue forms right next to Knave and washes over him intangibly and harmlessly. It's just an image.

Spoiler: Knowledge (Arcana) DC 13 or Spellcraft DC 23

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This magic is usually invisible, but whether due to the state of the plane or one of the anomalies, it's become visible, making it easier to understand their purpose.

The scrying eyes were cast by those sensitive enough to the planes to notice the disturbance and powerful enough to investigate immediately.

The tidy lines are mostly conjuration spells taking advantage of the thin spot in the Astral Plane. Many of them are intentional. Some of them are not. The rift is a lightning rod, and those spells are taking the paths of least resistance.

Most of the tongues are various conjuration spells searching in the wrong place for something to summon. They flicker out quickly when they don't find their target.

Spoiler: Sense Motive DC 14 (Celestials)

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The celestials don't react at all to the light show in the rift. They'd like you to believe that they're unflappable. More likely, they expected this kind of display from a dying plane.

Whoever is in charge, the army of angels in front of you is unlikely to accept your surrender. They're prepared to ignore everything you say and attack. They take the undisturbed flow of souls extremely seriously.

Spoiler: Sense Motive DC 26 (The magic)

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It's hard to get a read on magic spells, but it's not impossible.

The scrying eyes are barely interested in you. They focus on you for at most a couple seconds before moving on.

The tidy lines fade as quickly as they come. They can't perceive you; they're merely passing through.

The tongues lean towards you, and if they can reach you, they pass through you harmlessly. Then they fade away. Apparently, you're not what they're looking for.

Spoiler: Perception DC 30

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Most of the tongues probe around for a moment and fade away. One of them probes but does not fade. It's larger than the others, and it moves slowly in your direction.

[Watcher]

Indecision grips the party. The edges of the rift decay into silvery Astral Plane-stuff. The angels wait patiently, not closing in. The scrying eyes wink out one by one, followed by most of the ethereal tongues, though one or two linger longer than the others and lazily drift in your direction.

Maybe it will turn out all right.

Spoiler: OOC

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Perhaps I made this part a little opaque. I can move on if nobody wants to steer in a particular direction.

[ngilop]

Something about the ethereal tongues draws Zalgoth, he reaches out his tentacle fingers towards it. Almost as if in a daze.

[Watcher]

The ethereal tongue closes the gap and engulfs Zalgoth's hand. There's a tugging sensation, and the tongue grows longer and wider, promising to swallow Zalgoth entirely.

It wants to take you somewhere else. The others can see it, too. Zalgoth loses opacity as the magic pulls him bodily into another plane. It's an open invitation, but there's no way of telling where it will take you. It could be better, or it could be worse, but it's not here.

[Feathersnow]

Knave shrugs and tries elsewhere...

[Athaleon]

Taker moved toward the ethereal tongue. To stay was certain oblivion, and he could not leave the plane by his own power. To embrace the unknown was his only chance.

[Watcher]

The tongue grows larger and indistinct. It engulfs the party happily, and it fades from view along with the backdrop of shattered hallways and celestial armies. They are replaced with a night sky and Golarion's barely-gibbous moon. It's the smoothest calling any of you have ever experienced. It almost feels like an illusion, but the solidity of the Material Plane cannot be denied.

Terrified gasps pull your attention down to the ground. The belated reassertion of gravity and reality is disorienting.
You stand within a circle of standing stones at night. A crowd of lightly-armored humans and halflings carrying spears hesitate outside their bounds, staring at the party. In the center of the stone circle sits a plain stone altar dripping with the blood of a young woman. A hooded, robed figure stands over her body, still holding a bloody dagger in one hand and a prepared spell in the other.

"Demons!" cries one human man.

The robed figure cackles. "Yes! You're too late! The ritual is complete! I command demons! Nobody can stop us now!" he crows.

Some of the less valorous humans flee on a dirt path into a mixed evergreen and deciduous forest, and the rest seem likely to follow suit.

It seems you've been called right into the middle of some mortal drama. The hooded murderer also seems to be under the very mistaken impression that you're under his control.

Spoiler: OOC

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You were called bodily into the Material Plane, so you're Extraplanar, but death is permanent.

Your disjunction from Evil remains, but besides that, you are no longer under any manner of magical effects except your own.

Once this scene is over, you'll have the opportunity to regroup and take stock.

[ngilop]

Zalgoth takes in everything around. Everything feels different, yet somehow.. distantly familiar. He looks at the supposed demonologist then to the woman bleeding, the first thought is whether or not the female is alive. Which confuses Zalgoth, why.. why is he concerned about some puny mortal who may or may not have been killed in a sacrifice to summon demons? The sound of the robed man bragging snaps Zalgoth out of those atypical thoughts and he raises his tentalce hands and unleashes a barrage of arcane bolts "None control me. least of all you!" Suddenly Zalgoth lurches and falls to his hands and knees wretching in dry heaves. The realization he attacked the man not due to some sort of pride, but because he wanted to serve justice for the female on the altar literally sickened him. what is wrong with me, wait.. why I do I consider myself male now? I was above foolish mortal cares. He thinks to himself as he manages to stand back upright.

[Feathersnow]

Knave readies a dose of drow poison and turns invisible. Once this fool is asleep, he can run away and let nature take its course...

Yes, we are terrible demons! Indestructible forces of evil, truly! And we are bound to this mortal's control. You should focus on him, for we surely will go away in peace once he is gone! He should have abjured us against pointing out that!

[Watcher]

The robed man crumples like paper from Zalgoth's magic missile, and most of the crowd disperses in terror. The beginning of Knave's proclamation scares away most of the rest, who don't wait to listen to the rest of what he says. One dark-haired young man remains, trembling but standing firm. He sees the robed man struggling to stand when he hears the end of Knave's bluff. He lunges forward and sticks his spear in the robed man's stomach.

The robed man makes a pathetic "Guh..." sound and falls into the puddle of his victim's blood at the foot of the altar. The brave young human waits apprehensively. The fiends before him don't vanish in a puff of smoke, and his bravery is spent. He turns to run after the others.

[Athaleon]

Taker was so bemused by the proceedings that he just floated above the altar and watched it all happen. He considered possessing the mage who'd called them, but thought better of it when he saw how easily the fool was bested. None present seemed even to be particularly well-armed, let alone having the wherewithal to seriously threaten any one of them.

[Feathersnow]

Knave attempts to dose the brave man, the last one out, with the drow poison, refraining from using his ability to sneak attack, as that would probably kill him.

We can ask this one some questions

[Watcher]

The brave one flinches in pain. He reaches for the poisoned dart but falls to the ground before he can, out cold.

The echoes of the rest of the fleeing humans and halflings fade entirely. From his lofty vantage point, Taker sees distant flickers of torchlight filter through the trees. Those, too, disappear when they get too far south. Only three humans remain, all unmoving.

[Watcher]

A minute passes, and the brave human man doesn't wake up, signalling to Knave that he'll be out cold for anywhere from 2 to 8 hours before the poison wears off. Unless you're very very unlucky, you expect you'll be able to interrogate him before the sun rises.

A collection of candles, herbs, and occult paraphernalia pepper the altar's surface. The ritual the murderer spoke of consumed half of the reagents, but enough remains to get a picture of what the ritual involved. Moderately pricey reagents augmented by the power of blood in exchange for powerful outsiders. Obviously something went wrong, but even so, this ritual seems beyond the murderer's capabilities. He may have drawn on some other power, but the moon's phase is unremarkable, and there are no divine icons among the ritual items.

The thought of that kind of immense power reminds the party that they'll need such a source of power to heal themselves before they fall apart. The husk of the Disjoiner of Fate in Taker's possession can mitigate their symptoms, but it's not a permanent solution.

[Athaleon]

"If none of you have any clues as to where on the Material plane this is, I have a mind to follow those people and figure it out. Someone more knowledgeable than this," Taker waved dismissively at the dead warlock, "had a hand in the Calling that saved us."

Spoiler

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Taker could catch up easily with the villagers with Greater Teleport and then follow them in stealth. It should be easy to interrogate one for some more information.

[Feathersnow]

You are faster than me. I'll watch for this... guy... to wake up. I'm not sure I have anything that can bind him without seriously hurting him, and I have a mind to let him go once we learn what we can.

Knave was always among the least malevolent of fiends, but he is aware of how soft-hearted he suddenly feels. He tests how the other fiends will react to this mercy.

[ngilop]

I am not sure about you two. But, I am changing and I am not sure how, why or what I feel about it. He looks to the dead cultist and to the unconscious human before he continues I felt something for the woman on the altar.. i think it is called pity..? I am not sure until i had had time to come to grips with what is going on i trust myself to be alone.. so I will stay with Knave while you go off and investigate, also... my appearance is a bit more unnerving to mortals for some reason

[Watcher]

Taker was right. In such a large group as they were, the humans and halflings favored speed over stealth. In between huffs of breath, they chatter to each other, alternately murmuring or shouting. They nervously look over their shoulders, but none could possibly see Taker at night unless he wanted to be seen.

"Connell! I think a group split off into to the forest!" a human woman shouts.
"Damn it! How far back?" a human man responds.
"Not too long ago. I could catch them," she says.
"Do it, then. We need everyone at Chert Falls," he orders.
"We won't get everybody," she comments, but she peels off into the forest.

"What then?" asks a halfling man who keeps pace with Connell.
"I..." Connell huffs to catch his breath while he thinks. "We prepare an evacuation. Ennis doesn't control those demons, so-"
"Ennis is dead," the halfling interjects.
"Okay... okay, if the demons attack, we distract them while the rest escape," Connell says resolutely. His huffs for breath grow ragged with anger.
"We could call for heroes. Adventurers love this stuff," the halfling suggests.
"...Fine. But none will come, just watch," Connell grumbles. "For now, we have to assume we're on our own. And if Ivo himself comes... we could take him."

The conversation dies, but Taker learned a handful of names and a little color of the area. He has his choice of random villagers to separate from the herd, including the human woman who separated from her group voluntarily. Connell himself would be missed, and he is surrounded by witnesses, but there's not much any of them could do to stop Taker if he wanted to take a leader.

Spoiler: OOC

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Knave and Zalgoth can do what they want at the stone circle and skip to the end of the 3 hours to interrogate the brave human whenever they like (so you don't have to wait for Zalgoth to come back). At any point, Taker can choose to end his reconnaissance mission and rejoin them.

[ngilop]

Zalgoth goes over to the bloody altar and the body of the warlock and tries to figure out exactly what ritual was being attempted and who or what was being summoned. When the human wakes up, i feel it would be best if you questioned, as you would not startle as much as I, well more so than he is already. Zalgoth says to Knave during his inspection of the altar

[Feathersnow]

I'll just be a disembodied voice, check

Knave's true form could be squished like a bug, but, without seeing him, the human would not assume that.

[Watcher]

Zalgoth finds some scraps of paper on the altar and the body of the murderer. They don't make sense at first. They don't form a complete recipe, and they don't even seem to be from the same ritual.

With that, Zalgoth realizes that there were actually two separate rituals performed here. The first one is simple. The caster temporarily knitted two ley lines together, allowing him and anyone else to treat them as if they were a single ley line. It will last one week before they naturally separate again.

The sigils of the second ritual are a mix of two different styles, a dead giveaway that the ritual wasn't an original work but an altered copy. With the components scattered nearby, Zalgoth manages to piece together the entire ritual.

The second ritual involved:
5,000 gp in material components
Attunement to two ley lines
A blood sacrifice of an innocent
Knowledge (Planes), 4 successes; Knowledge (Arcana), 2 successes; Heal, 1 success.
Backlash to the primary caster

The result should have been 3-4 outsiders of approximately your power, instantaneously called to the ritual site and bound to the primary caster's control.
There were two points of failure. The most obvious alteration was removing a requirement for a Knowledge (Religion) check and replacing it with Knowledge (Planes). Without a divine sponsor sending specific outsiders, the ritual grabbed whatever outsiders it could reach. The party was pulled from a rift where the planar boundaries were weak, and so 1,000 gp remains in material components that should have been consumed.

The other point of failure was the primary caster's own incompetence. He failed to secure his control over the party and didn't realize it. This wasn't the kind of ritual where someone can get "close enough" and succeed. The outsiders are in the Material Plane instantaneously, and the door for controlling them is firmly shut.


Now that Zalgoth knows to look for them, he detects two ley lines. An exceedingly powerful "orange" ley line runs north-south, in the same direction as the gravel road to Chert Falls. It heals 1 hit point per day to each creature in its radius and offers healing spells to attuned casters.
A much weaker "blue" ley line intersects it, running southwest-northeast. It provides a bonus to occult rituals on top of the normal bonus for attuning to a ley line.
The altar itself and the circle of standing stones are nonmagical. Their purpose is to mark the location of the confluence of ley lines. They look quite ancient, indicating this confluence has remained stationary for millennia.

[Watcher]

The brave human man stirs fitfully but does not open his eyes or get up.

[Feathersnow]

Knave turns invisible and saddles up to the man's ear.

Hey, you! Tell me what you know! Who sent you? What is this place? Tell me everything and you can leave.

[Watcher]

The man jolts from his half-unconscious state with a surprised yelp. His movements are slow as he looks around in a panic before Knave's words register.

"I- I don't know!" is his reflexive response. He thinks about it for a second and realizes that he does, in fact, have the information Knave seeks. "Wait! I mean, I'm from Chert Falls. It's—" he breaks off, unwilling to hand over the location of his home to what he thinks are demons. He changes the subject. "This is some kind of place of power. I don't know. Ennis—" He cuts himself off again. He peers over at the mostly-cooled body of the murderer. Fear, then disgust, then hatred flash across his face. His gaze turns to the dead woman on the altar. "Althea..."

The man steels himself and speaks more clearly. He nods at the murderer's body. "Ennis there was a local. Some outsider named Ivo showed up one day, acting all nice. When he left, Ennis left with him. We thought they were gone, but then people started going missing. I... I don't know who figured it out, but Ennis and Ivo took them! We gathered up some men to get Althea back, but... we were too late. He already killed her. They were friends, and he—!"

The witness remembers who he's talking to. His anger is extinguished, and the fear washes back in. "I don't know why Ivo wanted you here. But..." an odd gleam enters his eye. "He's... the only one who could threaten you. He already tried to control you." He's not as slick as he thinks, but he's eager to turn his captors against his town's enemy.