Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 21
1-7-06
Modifications/Additions from last game
When determining where the portal to Matro's world leads, the magically observed area is kind of desert-y, with lots and lots of bone scattered around, with weatherworn stone pillars that are so old as to look almost natural. There was a heavily beaten path leading towards a huge pile of rock in the distance. The sky appears perpetually overcast, with frequent bolts of lightning flashing among the clouds. Shriveled remains of plants and trees sporadically dot the landscape.
Akili does not change Kenlow; Kenlow does it himself with his Spirit abilities.
-Game Start-
The party starts looting the town for various items, equipping themselves as best they can, although Akili still wants to make a trip back to Davos to pick up his boots of flight that he's already paid for. Sarai develops yet another spell to prevent anyone else (Matro) from getting their hands on the Godslayer.
Kenlow returns to the group later, and he's changed. Kenlow's fur is now white, except for on top of his head, and his eyes are a deep blue, and his loincloth is also green, although he's still wearing the goatskin belt. Around his neck he has a black hood, the Godslayer is strapped to his hip, and wooden bracelets are around his wrists. Akili comments, "That's a nice change for you."
After making sure that no one wants to buy anything else - as Akili is pretty broke - he wings his way over to Davos for his boots.
Some time later, while Akili is still away, some figures come through Matro's portal, look around in confusion, then notice the rest of the party. Two of them are the large four-legged golems, a few wearing the garb of the black hand, and one looks familiar... Salervan familiar, in fact, although parts of him are different. Such as perhaps Salervan's brother.
Two of the party notice that he's wearing a chain shirt over the Black Hard garb, but there's something sticking out a little, making a noticeable bump in his chain shirt... however, due to the shirt, the nature of the bump can't be determined.
More combat ensues, with various spells being slung about by the party. Oy-aht manages to cast Blade Barrier around the entire group of soldiers and golems. The ring catches several of them, creating the sound of steel upon steel, tearing flesh, and intense screams. Salervan is untouched, though, as are the golems.
Andune fires a lightning bolt into the trapped crowd, and Kenlow attempts to blow Salervan into the blades, although he fails.
Salervan (if that's who it is) manages to make a gesture, and there is an explosion of electric energy around the party, which is pretty darned powerful, but the party bears it just fine. Then he dashes back to the portal. Kenlow uses all of his points to send a massive bolt of lightning through the portal, although the effects can't be determined. The rest of the soldiers and the golems also go back through the portal and disappear.
Sarai finally casts her new spell on the Godslayer, and it works correctly. Without wearing the ring associated with the sword, the sword is always teleported back into the scabbard upon being drawn. Jubliant, she runs off to find Kenlow, and to demonstrate her success.
Sometime later, while Akili has landed from a full days' flight, he attempts to obtain Eldar's attention once again, and murmurs, "Eldar, I don't mean to be a pest, but... it occured to me that Matro is... perhaps not a god, exactly, but not far away from one either, and we're going to be strolling right into his world - exactly where he has the most control. What's to stop him from killing us outright from a distance? Strong though we may be, all of us here are still mortal, and can't compete against godly magics. I'd expect he'd know close to immediately once we wandered into his world." After a short pause, Eldar replies, "As you might imagine, it is certainly in the best interests of the gods of this world for you to succeed. While you may not have the full support of each of us, you will have the support of most of us. If the aid of the gods is not enough, then that is unfortunate." Akili smiles a little, answering sincerely, "I imagined that very thing. I've learned to trust you, and I accept that as the best answer you can give. Thank you." He settles in near a tree that has lots of crackly leaves near it, since he has no party around him to keep watch, and eventually manages to sleep. It's the first time he's been alone in a very long time, and he can certainly tell.
Back at the party, at approximately 2am, a group of six golems emerge from Matro's portal, and trip the Alarm spell. Sarai notices, having cast the spell, and a few others notice, and combat starts, with more spells and lightning bolts being flung around.
This group is not defeated nearly so easily, and the party takes several heavy hits in the course of destroying them, which takes a significantly long time. But the party is victorious in the end.
Akili finally reaches Davos, and the city appears to be in good spirits, and is doing a lot of repairs to the city, and cleaning up the tunnels that were made out in the open fields. He successfully obtains his boots, and asks the temple priest about the unholy vorpal sword he obtained earlier. Surprisingly to him, no one is particularly concerned that he now has wings... although he eventually realizes that the whole Chaos Mage thing kind of overrides any other concern. He also gives the sword to the priest, not having any other use for it. Since he doesn't have enough gold to buy anything else, he heads back, experimenting with his new boots and combinations of them with his wings.
Kenlow has Oy-aht Bless some greek fire, which makes it a form of holy greek fire. He makes a guess of when the next group of troops will come through the portal, as they've been coming through pretty regularly, and hurls it through.
While still waiting for Akili, the group discusses various means to deal with the continual groups coming through. A suggestion is made to dig a giant pit under the portal. Then Therath comments to the group at large, "Hey, how about we take some of these bottles of greek fire, tie them to the ends of brooms and rakes, and just kind of leave them strewn about?" This is extremely funny to the group. However, in the end they create 'land mines' out of greek fire and cause a great amount of damage to the next group that goes through, and the survivors are quickly dispatched.
The very next day after that event, Akili finally returns, and shows off his boots. Andune fills him in on what they missed. Kenlow asks him how the view was, and Akili responds that it was magnificent, and that he should have thought of having wings a long time ago. Kenlow smiles, and offers pointers if necessary.
Oy-aht also says that she has a way to teleport home, and... the party finally goes through, Akili steps through, followed by Sarai, Kenlow, and everyone else.
On the other side, the party emerges into a small depression in the terrain, and there is a withered tree about ten feet from the portal. There is a body smashed against the tree, and it looks like it has been struck by lightning and set on fire. Sarai checks her stone, and it's *purple*. She checks it quickly on the other side, and it's white... they're not sure what to make of it. Atheele investigates the charred corpse despite its crispyness, and finds a gold coin that has a stylized head of Matro printed upon it. After a few minutes, the party realizes they're walking around on bones... disgusting, to be sure.
Sarai scans the overcast, lightning-studded horizon, looking for signs of an approaching Matro, and spots a shadowy tower in the distance. They decide to head that way, since it's also along the beaten path.
The path leads down into some canyons, passing by several caves. Akili notices that there's almost no sign of life, including birds or insects. There are several shriveled remains of trees, and no plants. It occurs to Akili to see if magic has any particular difference here, and both his chaos and divine sources of magic have the same feel. Mentioning that to Sarai, she casts a simple cantrip, making a stream of bubbles appear from her fingers. "Seems the same," she says.
Atheele then spots troops up ahead, and they're crossing the path, rather that walking down it. With all of the canyon caves around, it's hard to determine where they're going. The group hunkers down to allow the troops to pass... and after some time, something can be heard approaching. Atheele carefully peeks around the boulder, and spots one of the golem things coming down the path from behind us, with a soldier riding it. Atheele suggests attacking it, and Akili is agreeable, then Sarai comments that they should probably stay hidden, and that sounds like a better idea. They hunker down again, waiting... and then the thing springs upon them. Clearly, they were noticed. Combat begins, with Atheele getting the first shot, then Andune, and Kaira follows up, pulling off a very handy Spring Attack, although she misses. Kenlow goes next, performing a leaping attack with his lightning-charged iron-tipped quarterstaff, and strikes the soldier in the ribs. Akili then steps up and decks him with his plasma sword, and drops the rider. He attempts to attack the golem next, but misses. Sarai fires an arrow into the golem, but it doesn't seem to do much.
Oy-aht gestures, and summons an Eladrin Bralani, which is a rather powerful Outsider who wanders around and helps people, wielding a huge scimitar made of lightning, and attacks, but the golem manages to dodge.
Kenlow unloads again, and decks the golem several times, although it's still standing. Oy-aht unleashes her Righteous Might spell, which makes the bear quite massive, but before anyone else can react, the golem swings at Oy-aht, who manages to dodge the worst of the blow.
Leaping up on the boulder, Kenlow very picturesquely zaps the golem with a bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, the soldiers have noticed, and are preparing to join the fight. When his turn comes around again, Akili flings a Wild Strike at the golem.
The ground and bones beneath the golem become liquid, and the golem begins to sink. Keira is fortunately just out of the sinking effect radius, and uses her enlarged state and the immobility of the golem to to smack it with two huge clawed paws and two bites. It is totally destroyed. Oy-aht directs her summoned creature over to the soldiers. It gets fairly close, and fires a lightning bolt.
The game is paused here, with a huge army of soldiers approaching the party.
Notes: The damage for the last bolt has not been calculated. 118 rounds left on the summon, 11 on Keira.