Game: We're Still not Quite Dead Yet

OOC: Just for the record and consistency's sake, I'm posting to whom a telepathic comment is directed to in parenthesies before the italicized quote.

OOC: Eru'maho has enough tact and more than enough good sense to speak fairly softly, consider the rest of the group, who is walking considerably further back excluded . I also want to minimize the druid-hate-fest for the time being. Tyui will give you a chance, I'm sure.

(To Eru'maho) "I am hurt you take such a dim view of the source of my power. But it is ironic that you should speak of 'crutches.' Your power is on loan. If you were to set this forest on fire right now, your power would be gone. Mine would not."

OOC: Because I know Tyui can't answer until 6:30 in the evening, I'll answer to speed things along.

Teleportation is blocked as a quality of the ground, not the air. Teleportation is no easier. You also lack a mental image of your destination.

You continue your march, as you walk, the trees begin to slowly thin, and the air become thinner, less humid and less acidic. Eru'maho signals you to stop, after, as he predicted, eight hours. You are standing at the edge of a cliff. There is a steep drop to water. The muddy brown waters are fed by small streams and waterfalls from inside the jungle. The waters are not the black ones of the Styx, though they look deep, and if there are fish, they're probably big and scary.

On the other side of the extremely steep drop (about a 100 foot gap, well over 200 feet down), there are hardly any trees, but the fields are covered in brownish blades of sharp grass and huge jagged boulders, all of them tower well over your heads. You can see holes, and ledges, some quite large, dotting the far cliffside.

OOC: Speeding things along a bit. Sorry for bieng so slow. I was waiting on one of you to post.

2e cannon trumps the 3e MM in most cases (I'll always note exceptions). Faces of Evil is like my Bible. :twisted:

"There will be no Gherelths on the other side of this river, I assure you...for what that is worth coming from a Yugloth. As the silver liquid goes, none of you have any use for it, except perhaps the druid--though I may be incorrect. I know that I can definitely use it. I am prepared to identify the item properly for you. The spell that I use does not require a pearl, and is considerably faster. You are free to identify it a second time, but I will not pay you. Make what you will of what I tell you. I could be lying. Obviously."

"Faster does not mean in a few seconds. I have better things to do with my magic than that. Wait until we find a place to stop."

.

Bruce and Sidharta:

As you flew over the river, the obsidian triangles you carried violently exploded. Thankfully, they passed through your gaseous equipment and body harmlessly.

All:

You find yourself in a moderately sized cave. The enterance is a bottleneck about five feet wide, and the cave stretches about thirty feet back and is ten feet wide. The floor is flat, and the roof high enought that Yebana (who has returned to her original form) could hold her ears straight up without touching the celing--barely. (about 7 feet)

Yebena, who resisted Eru'maho's spell and flew accross on her own, takes the tubes from Sidharta and claims the back corner of the cave. After clearing away the dust on the ground telekinetically, she sits and begins to cast a spell.

When Yebena finishes: "These are more interesting than I initially thought--and even more useless to the rest of you. The liquid essentialy stores arcane magic, which can then be called to mind later with some limitations. As far as I can see, I am the only one who would benifit from it, but you are welcome to identify it on your own if you don't trust me."

Yebena scratches a circle around herself into the rock with a clawed finger, and withdraws a lead and steel staff from insdide an extradimensional pocket in her robe. She reclines against the wall, facing the rest of the cave. She closes her eyes and holds her staff lightly. It is clear she is not sleeping by the way her ears follow any noises in the cave. It is somewhat ironic that Yebena is 'resting', since she has hardly moved in the past 24 hours except to cast a few spells and to walk to the back of the cave.

You also sense cookies, and happy chickens, and that Yebena is NG.

It's fortunate in this case that the natural 1 does not have any serious effects (Because I still need to think of some).

Yebena does not open her eyes to answer Bruce, but her ears pivot in his direction, while her head remains pointed towards the cave's enterance, wehich is somewhat disconcerting.

"It is not 'liquid magic,' as you have somewhat quaintly put it. The substance stores the magical imprints resulting from arcane spells cast into it, which can be used to store and later call a spell to the mind of the user. This means that only someone who memorizes arcane spells would derive any benifit from it. It is slightly less powerful than a scroll--in that actually casting the spell depletes one's own energy. It is considerably more flexible, and quicker, however, and usable multiple times. You might call the stuff a liquid scroll."

OOC: I don't borrow plot from Shemmy. That sets the expectations for this game far too high. Yebena is telling the truth, the stuff isn't liquid magic. It's just an equivilant to a scroll, and the cheapest item you found in the pile.

"It is concievable, probable even, that you could imprint such a power into it, but it would likely become unusable and serve only to fill up metaphysical 'space,' since it imprints the spell directly into the mind of the user, like any wizard does when they prepare a spell. The diference between magic and psionics is such that while I can usually mimic a psychic power with my magic, I could not simply use such power as it is because of the difference in thier natures. I draw power from external sources into myself when I study my spells. A psion or sorceror draws power from within themselves instead. A simple item like this would be unable to alter the being of one who draws power from themselves, since that power will inevitably flow in a certain way for each individual. Such items do exist, of course. This is not one of them, however. The liquid is only useful for those who can easily alter the way that arcane or--possibly--psionic enrgy passes through them."

(Bruce) "To change topics somewhat, there is the question of the release of prisoners taken previously to be adressed. I beleive that you had expressed interest in the releas of one in particular. You needn't speak now, if you would rather keep your personal business to yourself, but I expect an offer. It would be a fairly simple matter to make spell components out of her instead."

OOC: Now would be a good time to make plans and handle party business. If nobody has anything to say, just post and I'll make annother acordingly.

"Very well, mortal."

OOC: I'm undecided how that should work. I'm leaning towards a scroll-like approch--which means it wouldn't work, because the powers aren't on Yebena's spell list, but experimenting isn't a bad thing. At the least, it ensures that Yebena is being honest about what the items are.

OOC: Quick reminder, Tyui, razorvine is usually described black or blackish green.

Sidharta:

The ring (as in the item type) has no special activation conditions, and provides a bonus to all feats of strength or stability (climb, balance, resisting a disarm, resisting trip, resisting bull rush, initiating an unarmed disarm, resisting or initiating a grapple, etc.)

OOC: a +4 bonus to all of the above and others that aren't listed. Also, any preferences for the next day's paln?

Just remember, there's no bonus to damage, attack, and lifting or carrying. That'd make it too good.

OOC: Which would make it an epic item, well out of the range of what you can afford in this game, even without the 2x price modifier for no space. (it'd be giving a +8 to strength) That aside, finding someone with the caster level and the time to make an epic item is almost impossible. That's a side-adventure we don't have time for, probably, and in any case, strength probably isn't the ability you want to be boosting.

EDIT: after looking in the SRD for epic magic items, a belt of epic strength +8 costs 640,000. No space would be 1,280,000 gp. Good luck, man. Maybe you want to start investing

I'm waiting on everyone else to post. I'll be pushing things along regardless this evening.

OOC: BERK and Dunamin, your languages known aren't filled out fully. Bruce has 2 more languages, Canzon has 4 excluding Celestial, Infernal, and Draconic, which are free. I am assuming that Yugoloth is is one of them. Sort of, anyway.

Speaking and learning to understand Yugloth is extremely time consuming and dificult. Even the oldest and most brilliant pit-fiend linguists have never managed to speak it better than a completely average Nycaloth. Being able to 'speak' Yugoloth (as a bonus or learned language in D&D terms) means you are about as fluent as a hydroloth (meaning that you understand the basic vocabulary and sentance structure of the language, but have no real grasp on all the double, triple (etc.), or contextual meanings of the words or sentances.)

Those of you who are sleeping are woken up, and those who aren't are disturbed by Yebena's voice. Nobody, can make out what was said save that it was in Yugoloth (being half-asleep doesn't help either). Yebena's voice is poetic and elegant and she says the eqivilant (in number of words) of several sentance.

Canzon, who was more alert can also tell that it was spoken with a very heavy Ghennan accent, and adressed to a Yugoloth of lesser rank, but that is the extent of his understanding.

There is a heavy thud, and you can see a winged, gargoyle-like figure silouhetted against Carceri's dim red sky. The first Nycaloth steps inside the cave, and is followed by a second and a third. Each wears wickedly hooked black armor and carries a large spear of similar design over a cloak with a jungle camoflage pattern on it. They do not carry any other weapons in thier hands.

The three Nycaloths, hunched down in the cave, block out almost all of the already dim light. Yebena opens her eyes (improving the illumination in the cave somewhat), and regards the three Nycaloths indiferently. She remains seated and shifts her staff from hand to hand.

OOC: Yes, common aside.

"Because you have triggered the wardings of this place when you crossed the river. It is probably a good thing, however. These three know the caves and can lead us that way. It is much quicker."