Game: In the Spire's Shadow

Initiative:
Kobold: 25
Zhegre: 21
Polp: 14
Kadar: 12
Thoqqua: 7
Cloak guy: 7
Running Feet: 6

The kobold shifts his aim and tries to blast the cloaked creature, but the monster dodges the icy blast with unnatural grace.

Zhegre's attempt is similarly fruitless. This thing is fast.

Zhegre's distraction does have one silver lining, however, in that it gives Polp a chance to stab the creature between where the ribs should be. The blade comes out red hot and covered ash.

Kadar tries to get the thoqqua to crush it's master, but angry two ton fire worms are notoriously hard to control and the flaming monster smashes past the cloaked figure without quite hitting it and charges down the tunnel toward the pounding feet. In front of you, the running figures are revealed to be demons, three dretches, and a Babau, obviously trying to get the drop on you while you fight their masters. The demons try to stop the Thoqqua, but the angry beast thrashes wildly, trapping the demons between its own heat and that of the melting tunnel floor beneath it. The Dretches' demon resistances aren't enough to stave off this heat and the two die horribly. The remaining two demons flee back down the tunnel they came from. Meanwhile, having already burnt through Kadar's pants, the Thoqqua has now started burning his skin, cutting right through his fire resistance (5 damage, after reistance). It also chafes horribly.

Meanwhile, the hooded figure sizes up Zhegre, deems him the biggest threat, and makes to smite him with its fire. The first blow connects and Zhegre is burned by abyssal fire. His mind is set ablaze and for a moment Zhegre fogets everything but the crackle of flames and the smell of burnt flesh, it is only through the power of Zhegre's magic circle that the dark force possessing him is cast out. Zhegre reels backwards, narrowly dodging the second swing of the torch, and winces in pain. The torch has melted straight through his chest plate leaving a circle of burnt flesh six inches wide. There is something stange about the burn, but there is no time to look now. {22 damage.}

Initiative:
Kobold: 25
Zhegre: 21
Polp: 14
Kadar: 12
Thoqqua: 7
Cloak guy: 7
Fleeing Demons: 6

The kobold tries to blast the creature in the cloak, but he simply doesn't have the accuracy to hit the swiftly moving figure.

Zhegre swings hard with his hammer, feeling the power of something greater than himself aiding in his strike, but the ash-creature dodges with unnerving grace.

Once more, Polp proves himself capable as his blade slips into where the monster's kidneys should be, but not too surprisingly at this point, aren't.

Kadar, meanwhile, is still holding on to dear life. His attempts to calm the thoqqua fail miserably as it is simultaneously too smart (it has 6 Int) and too dumb (it's an Elemental). However the ash-fiend is controlling it, it probably doesn't involve feeding it carrots and patting it on the rump. Kadar's proddings and urgings are enough to keep the lava worm from bucking Kadar or simply burrowing through the wall, but little more. The thoqqua's hide continues to sear your flesh {2 damage}.

Edit: forgot someone!

For some reason, the fiend in the cloak seems to only have eyes for Zhegre. It snarls out a vicious curse, and then lets loose two massive, feral blows of its torch. The first one goes wide, but the second comes down across Zhegre's chest and hits right where the first blow melted a hole in the armor -- and bounces off. The fiend reels backwards as if Zhegre had struck it, and the strange flame it carries flickers weakly for a moment before blazing once more. This brief lull provides Zhegre with enough time to look down at his armor where he is shocked to see that, where seconds ago there was a six inch hole, there is now a beautifully embossed symbol of Tharmekhul giving off a coppery glow in the torchlight. It would seem someone has a friend. {Zhegre's plate mail is now +2 and Fire Resistant. Permanently. I'm also going to give you a +1 Divine Intervention bonus to all your rolls for the rest of the encounter. Enjoy.}

Initiative:
Kobold: 25
Zhegre: 21
Polp: 14
Kadar: 12
Thoqqua: 7
Cloak guy: 7
Fleeing Demons: 6

The kobold hits the ashen creature hard with his frost wand sending it crashing backward. For the first time in the fight, the beast's movements become erratic and start to slow. It looks like you've wounded it.

Zhegre, however, is still missing constantly. Hopefully Tharmekhul will be understanding.

Polp gives the beast another solid stab, this time to the lower thigh. Where a human would have a major artery, this creature has nothing but fine white ash.

Kadar hops off the thoqqua and returns to where the rest of you are, his movements hampered slightly by the burns on his legs and the fact that he has lost his pants.

The thoqqua dives head first into a nearby wall, melting and burrowing its way through.

The Ash fiend swings its club twice at Zhegre, but misses both time. Good armor.

The running demons are now well out of sight.

Round 4!

The three of you lash out with your weapons and slay the foul fiend. It makes one last gasp and collapses into a pile of ash. The torch flickers angrily.

Make a search check, a Knowledge the Planes (Abyssal) check, a history check, and any other check you feel like making.

{{I'm going camping for a few days. I'll be back Monday or Tuesday, with the resolution of this adventure and the most important part: loot!}}

Zhegre starts to cast his spell, but is shocked by the appearance of two demons (the same ones Kadar saw) fleeing blindly in the direction of the group. Suddenly, the leading Babau explodes upward in a rush of rock and magma as a vengeful Thoqqua devours it whole. The last Dretch meets the same fate moments later. The Thoqqua turns your way briefly and waves its tail as if to say goodbye, and then charges off, burning its own escape tunnel, and collapsing it behind it. "I'd hate to meet that thing in a dark tunnel," Captain Driban mutters, shuddering a little.

Zhegre is about to seal off the tunnel, but Driban waves him off and moves forward to take a look further down the tunnel. After a moment, he calls, "All clear, looks like we got them all"

As the rest of you move forward to investigate, you see that you were almost at the Ash creature's inner sanctum when it chose to attack. The inner sanctum, or whatever it is, appears to be a massive shrine of some sort. It is built in the shave of a massive decagon and each of its ten walls (along with the floor and cieling) is a massive block of milky quartz. At the center of the room is a circular outcropping of amethyst apparently grown straight from the quartz. The amethyst juts ten feet in the air and forms a natural altar or pedestal, but, strangely has nothing on it besides more of the orange abyssal graffiti you have come to loath. The only entrance to the room is the one you came through, and it appears to have been burnt through by the thoqqua some time in the distant past. Certainly this chamber seems far older than the magma tunnels you just left. Probably a lot older.

Careful examination of the Abyssal graffiti here and in the tunnels paints a vivid picture of what happened here. Millenia ago, before the dwarves, gnomes, or kobolds came here, this citadel was ruled by an unknown race who wielded great power and created many great arcane artifacts. Unfortunately for those unknown people, the Outlands is not a good place to be if you want to just be left alone. The people of the citadel grew rich and complacent and began to slacken in their defense of the citadel. The demon lord Alzrius, lord of the living flame, sensed the people's weakness and summoned a disciple to wield a piece of his fiery body and lead an army to incinerate everything and everyone within the citadel and claim its treasure for himself. The twisted disciple did his work and did it well. The graffiti suggests that no one in the citadel survived his fires, but even after he had slain the inhabitants, he felt something calling him, a voice in the back of his mind pulling him, tugging him, leading him here. Alzrius tried to get him to resist the pull, the living flame told its disciple that they were walking into a trap, but the disciple would not, could not listen. The disciple led his thoqqua through the rock until it burned into the quartz prison. As the first of his demon followers followed after him, the disciple walked to the center of the room and touched the amethyst plinth. In an instant, he and his followers were trapped in the ancient prison. They sat there fore centuries stewing in their anger and being tortured by their angry god. Unable to escape, they went ever madder. By the time a group of dwarves unwittingly released them they were little more than blood-hungry killers (not that they'd started much better). The demons slaughtered hundreds before the dwarves were able to make a new door with a new seal and trap them under the earth once more. The dwarves probably left after that.

As you return to the task at hand, you become aware of something glorious and grand shining atop the amethyst pedestal. You can't quite make it out, but it appears to be the answer to your prayers and and the object you desire most in the whole planes. It beckons toward you urging you to claim it, take it, conquer it. You really, really want to.

{{Will saves everyone. Oh, and feel free to say what in particular your character sees atop the pedestal. Feel free to make it something that couldn't actually fit on a pedestal.}}

[Sorry I disappeared, guys. My laptop stopped working a few days ago and now appears to be bricked... two weeks after my warranty expired. I'll try to keep at it, but my posting will probably be pretty sporadic for a bit. Anyway, this new version of Planewalker doesn't seem to have the same dice roll code the last version did, so we're all going to have to learn the new system. If you don't want to do that, you can always just give me your modifiers and have me roll for you. I don't mind. Anyway, I don't know if you made your saves or not anymore, so I'm just going to assume you all did. Lucky you.]

 The four of you manage to overcome amazing temptation and come to your senses before disaster strikes, but the kobold continues to walk toward the plinth. "That's a big gem... big gem", he says salivating slightly as he slowly lurches into harm's way. He's obviously trying to fight the magic, but without help it looks like he'll succumb to its grasp.

Polp's tackle (and the subsequent dog pile) knocks the wind from Driban and causes him to gasp, Wha.. huh. Off. Get OFF! I'm... I'm not going to touch the pillar... just... just let me breathe!" Once the crush is off him, he says, "Th-thank you. You saved my life. Hah, take that you evil silicate! No souls for you! You can kiss my scaly brown..." Suddenly, there is a deafening BOOM from the quartz pillar and you have to duck to avoid razor-sharp quartz shrapnel. A radiant silver cloud fills the room and obscures your vision. The shards of quartz hang motionless in the air as if suspended in a liquid you can't feel. Your teeth tingle with magic, and Polp's seed earing twists toward the center of the room, as if it were trying to reach the power there. Kadar's cloak purrs softly.
Echoing out from the center of the room, you can hear a voice that is somehow lower than a drum but higher than a bell, louder than a shout, but quieter than a whisper, and totally alien, but infinitely familiar. As it speaks, the crystals in the air shake and ring like wind chimes in a hurricane, but somehow they augment and form the speech, rather than drowning it out. You have passed all the tests laid before you to reach this place, and in so doing, have set us free.. The voice (or is it voices?) speaks in a language you don't recognize, and yet you can understand every word. You are still lost in thought (except Kadar, obviously) as it continues. We thank you for what you have done for us, even if you did not know it was for us. We will leave our greatest treasure in your care. Its power is great, but we will not need it where we are going. Goodbye friends, and I hope, for all our sakes, that our worlds never meet again.
As the voice utters its parting words, you can see a shadow pass through the cloud as the quartz stops its motion, and then whatever it was that spoke to you is gone. Suddenly, the cloud around you implodes and is sucked toward the center of the room where it coalesces into a single gleaming point of light. Below it, the pillar and its graffiti is gone. The milky quartz walls, once rough and aged, are now smoother and more reflective than any natural mirror. In all the mirrors, you can see the reflections of yourselves and that tiny point of light stretched out to infinity. The point of light, for its part, has resolved itself into a single glistening sphere that floats a few feet above the ground at the center of the room. It radiates power. Driban is the first to speak, "So, uh, are you cutters seeing that ancient mystical artifact too, or is it just me again?"

[Ya gotta love a Cypher.]

The grapefruit-sized sphere is warm to the touch and radiates just a little too much light to be stared at comfortably. What Kadar can see by squinting at it suggests that it is made of quartz, or something like it, but it feels perfectly smooth, like glass. As Kadar holds it, he notices that it is hard to hold onto, as if it were repelled by his presence. As he tightens his grip on it, it starts to vibrate slightly, producing a faint hum. In the back of Kadar's mind, old senses he doesn't quite understand tell him that that he is touching an artifact of supreme magical power and metaphysical import, and he still has no idea what it does, besides glow and hum. Strangely, the orb does not seem particularly dangerous.

Looking around, you can see no remaining quartz shards, they seem to have all either been absorbed by the sphere or melted into the walls. As Kadar moves the sphere, he notices that it appears to be weightless and is, in fact, still floating, but with him holding it. Zhegre notices a similar effect and also notices that the sphere's magic appears to be neither divine nor arcane but something more primal. Polp whispers and listens to the sphere but it just goes on humming wordlessly.

Meanwhile, Driban looks puzzled and holds up a large yellow fruit, "Was this grapefruit here a second ago?"

{Sorry, about the wait. I've been busy and my internet connection has been problematic to say the least.}

As Zhegre feeds positive energy into the orb it begins to pulse and a blinding blast of light and force bursts outward staggering the rest of the group and knocking Zhegre to the ground. After you regain your bearings, you notice that all your injuries have been healed, and the burns in your clothing seem to have repaired themselves. The orb floats innocently where Zhegre was holding it. Captain Driban picks himself back up and reaches to grab the orb, "Let's not do anything like that again, unless we want it to turn us into little piles of ash." On the way back from the inner sanctum, you come upon the corpse of the Disciple you killed earlier. His body has turned to fine white ash, still draped in a ragged black cloak. The torch that once bore the flame of Alzrius, is now cold and burnt, obviously the dark spirit that once dwelt there is gone. Behind it, the mephits have also turned to ash. The kobold is suddenly quite anxious, "They... they were unnatural fire creatures, of course they turned to ash when they died. I'm sure it had nothing to do with what I said." Still, you notice he shuts right up after that.