Game: Great minds think alike (Part II)

The Masked Gnoll hovers over a ruined building, the heavy rain hammering down on him. Suddenly, a fiery red lightning bolt strikes the house, and it explodes in a giant fireball.

Ian's magic is brutally interrupted, and the large gnoll is blown through the air like a cobblestone in a sudden tornado. The group on the other side of the street is pushed aside by the strength of the explosion, the churning fire coming dangerously close to them.

[OOC: All except Ian and the Masked Gnoll make a Reflex save. The Masked Gnoll needs to make both a Reflex and a Fortitude save. All saves against DC 17.]

As Ian approaches the burning building, he quickly realizes this way will be blocked for quite some time: The fire's heat is unnaturally strong, and he can't go closer than ten yards to the building - unless he tries hovering high above the fire.

[OOC: The last I described about the birth is maybe three minutes ago. Last Ian checked, though, the creature was still with its lower half inside the ground - possibly even dead, as it was not moving at all.]

The Masked Gnoll is blasted aside by the heat and pressure of the lightning explosion. While his strong body resists serious damage from the explosion itself, he is catapulted through the air for a full twenty yards, away from the group, before falling down again - and crashing into the rotten remains of a stone tower. The ancient walls reach twenty feet high, and while the gnoll's falling speed is decelerated by the tower's half-rotten roof (which exists no more after the gnoll crashing through it), the fall down the tower itself is still high enough to be quite painful. Down at the ground, a mud-covered stone floor waits for the Masked Gnoll.

[OOC: 11 points of damage for the Masked Gnoll.]

Blackthornes and Azure manage to escape the effects of the explosion, but Saath gets burned by the astonishing heat as a large flame blasts into his face.

[OOC: 4 points of damage for Saath.]

As Ian observes what happens, he realizes that everywhere in the mud, little grey snake-like creatures come creeping out of the ground.

Ms. Daisy answers the Masked Gnoll in her language. "Ophelia fine? Ms. Daisy protected her, but Ms. Daisy doesn't know if Ophelia fine. Ms. Daisy's leg hurts... so much..."

Walking in the shadows as he passes through the buildings, Saath sees a strange scene: A single marilith rises up from the ground, or rather through the ground, of a building he passes. The fiend is half-transparent, and illuminated in a pale grey light. Each of the six hands holds a finely crafted weapon, as ghostly as her body. The tanar'ri's upper half is stunningly beautiful: A naked woman with long, curly black hair and large, green eyes. Her lower snake body shows a few heavy scars, though.
So far, it seems the marilith-apparition (or whatever it might be) hasn't noticed Saath.

Ian comes closer to the tower. From his high position, he notices the tower doesn't seem to have any way in or out, except of the roof. Although the tower looks as rooten as all buildings around here, a closer look shows the walls are still intact - more than those of any other building Ian has seen in this City of the Stranded.

[OOC: Umm.. misunderstanding. The flames were in the building right before you while you were transporting MG telekinetically. You've passed the building now and hover in front of the tower where MG crashed. That tower is NOT burning.]

After about three feet, Ian suddenly falls down - and his rapier appears and falls down to the ground, as well.

[OOC: Reflex save for Ian against DC 15, Reflex save for MG against DC 12]

Both MG's and Ms. Daisy's wounds close as Ian heals them with his wand. Ms. Daisy seems to be at perfect health again, and says in Badger-language to the Masked Gnoll, "Pain is gone. Ms. Daisy feels fine again. Is Ophelia fine, too?"

The marilith phantom moves towards the wall opposite to Saath - and walks right through it, leaving Saath's line of sight.

Both Saath and the group staying near the burning building notice that the number of small snakes coming out of the ground has risen amazingly: There's at least two or three of them per square yard. For now, though, they don't seem to be aggressive.

Saath reaches the crushed roof just as Ian finishes healing Ms. Daisy and the Masked Gnoll. He can see them on the ground while the heavy rain storms in on him.

As the small group stands waiting, one of the snakes - black scales showing up under the mud - begins slithering upwards on Blackthornes' left leg. The animal hisses constantly as it begins to bend itself around the leg.

Naruk points towards it, "Blackthornes, take care! Powers... I think we should move on."

Now he points to another creature that enters the street: A translucent, phantom-like marilith, which comes from the row of houses that Saath just passed.

As Ian and Saath speak, sparks fire up everywhere in the sky, and crackling energies slowly gather in the clouds...

The ground below Ian and MG sinks in half a yard, creating a conical shape pointing downwards.

[OOC: Reflex save for Ian and MG to escape slipping down to the center of the reversed cone, against DC 13.]

It seems like the slightest movement could let the rest of the ground crash down to whatever lies below.