Game: In the Spire's Shadow

"I have to agree with the modron," says Zhegre. "Unless there is prewailing belief that killing prophet and stopping his rebirth will stop prophecy from coming true, I do not see any counterforce being applied by your proposed plan."

He attempts to rub his beard, comes away with a smear of Ooze, and grimaces. "You make a cogent argument that something is obwiously manipulating ewents to bring us together in this quest, and apparently at power lewels suggesting, well, a Power." . o O (Or the Lady, but let's not go there...) "So it seems it would behoove us to pursue further details. You mentioned contacting the Fraternity of Order -- anyone particular in mind, or should we simply troop to Fortress of Disciplined Enlightenment and begin our own researches?"

Zhegre nods much more decisively. "Now that is most sense I have heard all day."

He figures this is the best they'll get here and is ready to go. He briefly considers asking how they'll get back, but then realizes all they really need is one of Sigil's two-way trash portals once they've gotten their hands on a presumably legitimate target. That question resolved in his mind, he settles down and listens or watches patiently anything else the rest of the party feels the need to do before they make tracks for Automata.

"Ever heard of a Cleric that could Bind the Soul but not Raise the Dead?", mumbles Baba.

He clears his throat. "Power doesn't come on it's own, you know. Real prophecy's rare, if you've been listening - and it means power of the purest and most direct kind. If the Powers haven't done anything about it, they won't do anything, don't need to- or, like the rest of us, might not know where it's going to go and can't do anything more about it than my second cousin can about his prison term on Ice. Even if there is a Power who wants to do something about it, they're so deep in rivalries that another will stop it."

He shrinks into his coats. "This is Outer Planes screed. Belief. Never cared about it myself, really." The conjurer begins to trail off... "Probably end up in Bytopia when I'm done, though, so..."

Finding his voice again, he says "We could go to the damned Athar. Guvners are the best bet, but anything to do with the bloody powers, Athar're watching - and screaming at loudly."

P&~P perks up even more at the mention of Automata. It says, "Prophet or no prophet if you are going to Automata it would make sense for me to go with you. As a member of the Fraternity of Order I should be able to get everyone into the Fortress. From there we can consult ancient books, tomes, scrolls, maps, charts, and the Librarian for all the information we could ever need about this prophet. We could learn more about the prophet than he/she/it could ever hope to know about himself/herself/itself! And with this knowledge... This power... We could convince the prophet to flush himself/herself/itself down the privy! Or we could trick the prophet into it. Either way it will be glorious."

Exhausted, the modron plops down and stares at its new companions, panting. After a few seconds, the modron continues writing in its book about what has happened since it arrived on Ooze. Paying close attention to the part about the portal it was trying to go through leading to Limbo.

In response to P&~P, Zhegre replies, "It seems like you will be most useful to our quest, as one might have expected from circumstances surrounding our gathering here."

He looks around. "I do not know about rest of you, but personally I think we have spent as much time here as will be productive, mm? And so I suggest we take our host up on his directions to portal off of Ooze and to more... eh... hygienic climes."

If there is still discussion to be had, Zhegre will wait through it patiently. If people begin generally heading in the direction of the portal the old man described earlier, Zhegre would hang back for a moment and ask him quietly, "Would you like to come with us? You mentioned that you had wery little time left. Perhaps would be comfortable to spend this in more ciwilized lodgings." Somehow Zhegre expects the man to want to stay, and isn't going to force the matter.

Oh, and an area of minor curiosity before they go. Zhegre's been trying to recall if he knows which deity's temple got sucked into Ooze when the Greenwell incident occurred, or maybe try to identify the broken statue -- no training in K(local(Sigil)) or K(religion), but in case it's common knowledge, here are a couple of Int rolls:

Kadar makes ready to leave but before he does he turns to the old man.

"I aplologise for my harsh words earlier" states Kadar, "I hope you can understand the issues with trusting you at this time, however I will do my best to stop this prophecy if your words are true."

Having said his piece Kadar moves over to the door to await any companions who still wish to speak to the old man.

P&~P closes its book, walks over to Kadar, and waits quietly.

"Aye, or perhaps canny enough to realize that if you truely wish for our success, then you'd freely offer such -even stopping us if we didn't ask..."

Linji answers with an odd smirk, revealing his mismatched teeth.

Kadar smiles at Zhegre and moves over beside him. "Thankyou, I'm sure we could all use a little extra help."

(OOC- Sense motive check on the old man, sorry his evasiveness is bugging me, I'll let it go after this)

[ooc: Ok Duckluck, tell me if that helped... ]

The modron continues to stand next to Kadar. It is standing perfectly still, but you anyone close by can hear its gears spinning furiously. A few numbers occasionally escape from its voice modulator. This continues for a couple minutes before the modron's eyes shoot open. Interrupting whatever is happening at the moment, the modron exclaims, "After a careful analysis of our chances of survival in the basement, I have come to the following conclusion. Considering the nature of creatures of Ooze, there is only a 7.2% chance that they will be immune to our magic. Bearing that in mind, we have a 90.1% chance of complete-party survival!"

P&~P beams a smile at everyone.

Before we go, M`rek will use his detect magic hability on the mysterious old annoying man...can he detect any auras or such?
...he will keep it up as we leave to also scan through the door if necessary...

Roll to detect auras/identify school:

Zhegre finishes the rolling words of the Battle Blessing: "...tam spolecnost mi wzdawa hold, to s chuti priznavam!" He feels the magic take hold, and nods firmly.

Settling his warhammer in his fist, he takes a last pitying look at the marble wreckage of the once-lovely temple hall, and heads to the portal room.

{OOC: Speaking of which, which way did this guy mean? Do we climb up over the remains of a staircase that once led downward, or do we descend the frame of a stairwell that once went upward, or what? How's the gravity and the light here, and do we need a Climb check?}

M`rer shakes his head in bewilderment at the aura on the old and tries again to identify it, then he will join his friends, regardless of the result...this is just to try and know better our "sponsor"...

Spellcraft roll (retry)

Kadar follows along up the ladder behind Baba.

(climb check if necessary)

Thankful there's a ladder here, rather than having to scramble over a broken staircase in heavy armor, Zhegre steadily climbs up behind his new companions. He steps off to the side of the door -- unless someone else really badly wants to take point, he'll get into position to be the first one to face whatever the door opens on to.

(Note: if the ooze is seeping out the top of the doorframe as well, obviously the room beyond is full and anyone with any sense will keep to the side of the door as it opens, so as not to get drenched in ooze.)

. o O (Jellies don't groan. Not that I've heard of, anyway. And mephits do, but I don't know if this sounds like them. Whatever it is sounds alive, at any rate...)

Zhegre will throw the bones on a longshot K(the Planes) check to try to guesstimate what might be behind the door (and thus how to prepare for it), based on what he's heard about the denizens of Ooze:

Right then...

*grips warhammer*

*mentally focuses on the feel of a burning hands spell*

"Ready when you are," he whispers.

The modron steps forward, but not too close to the door, and says, "Hold a moment, if you would. I have a cunning plan... Using the magic at my disposal I will be able to learn the thoughts of the entities on the other side of the wall. If there happens to be any intelligent entities beyond the door I will be able to determine their number and thoughts. With some guidance, I can discover so much more... If there are no objections, please allow me to stand next to the door."

(OOC: if there are no verbal objections, P&~P will step forward and cast Detect Thoughts)

Kadar seems a little disappointed that even more thought is going into this attack. However, he accepts that he must wait until the time is right - that being when everyone else is ready to go too - and steps aside accordingly.

After concentrating for a few seconds, P&~P turns to the group and says, "the creatures in the next room are three in number and seem to possess limited intelligence. I'm hoping that some fire and loud noises will be able to scare them into submission."