= Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 24 =

4/21/06

After the party rests, they look out through the windows of the Extradimensional Space into the Kenlow's old 'bedroom', and since it looks safe, everyone emerges, crawling down the rope.

Atheele pokes around for more secret passages that might have been overlooked earlier, and Kenlow assists him for a few minutes, but nothing new is found.

Therath suddenly grins wickedly, and makes a general request for some glue.  Sarai asks him to hold on a minute, and digs through her possessions.  He explains his plan to Adune, who asks what is on his mind, and it's along the lines of making an explosive trap out of the jars of alchemical fire.

Akili comments that there are probably better uses for those jars.  Sarai admits that she doesn't have any glue, but she does have an albino mouse.  Akili rolls his eyes.

Kenlow points out the window when asked what direction to go from here.  Akili grins, and says he's up for that, fluttering his wings a little.  But, alas, since most of the party can't fly, an alternate path is decided upon.  Kenlow leads the way down a corridor, and into another, and through a secret passage, and down another stretch, towards the 'back door'.  He has to tear through several thick cobwebs along his way.

Once at the door, Atheele pokes around for traps, while Kenlow sniffs the door, and determines that Salervan had used this door... recently, in fact, which makes the cobwebs rather odd.

Atheele determines that it's a magical trap, and after a moment, Andune spots it as well, and while she spellcrafts it, Atheele muses, "Wait a minute... aren't there spells that deal with making a place look older and less used than it actually is?"

This is true, but just then Andune determines that it's a fire trap, and in fact it's an extremely powerful one.  She works on it for a while, trying to disable it... and is successful!

Opening that door and continuing down the hall, Kenlow and Atheele keep sniffing and checking for traps respectively.  Akili, recalling Atheele's comment about area spells, spellcrafts the environment to see if there are any active illusion spells.  He determines that this place was constructed with magic, and there's magic pretty much everywhere, but there isn't anything else particularly baneful in their immediate area.

When they reach the end, there's a large chain bridge, and underneath it there is a far more massive chain that links the building to the other side of the chasm.  On the far side are a pair of towers with arrow slits conveniently pointing towards the bridge.

Akili attempts to determine if there is any obvious reason for the large chain, and can't come up with one.  The chasm itself descends into blackness.  Kenlow takes a sonic sounding... and it is VERY deep.  Probably down to the bottom of universe.

Atheele notices that the wall on the far side is a different type of stone than the one they're standing on... in fact, the possibility occurs to the others that perhaps the other side of the chasm is a different world.

Akili draws upon his planar knowledge, and dimly recalls reading a book... while he was training in the Tower of Chaos... that mentioned a world bound by walls.  It may have been describing this world before him.  He also doesn't think it's Matro's world.  The World Bound By Walls was described as a world that was mainly one large medieval city, occupied by quite a large population.  He mentions what he recalled to the others.

Akili also voices the possibility that Matro captured another world, which is entirely possible.  The massive chain attached to the far end certainly doesn't appear to be part of the architecture.  Some discussion is made of perhaps severing the chain, and while that topic is debated, Atheele points out that there are two more chains, one on each side.  And they still don't know where Matro is.

Kenlow flaps his wings and leaps up to the sky, getting a better idea of their position.
From his vantage point in the sky, Kenlow determines that the group is standing on a curved crescent, with three chains connected to that world.

Sarai determines that the connection of the chain was done by an Elementalist.

Akili considers for a few moments, then Akili and Kenlow flap out and try to land on the chain in front of them, and Akili tests the sword function of the Scepter of Eryn on one of the large chains.  It seems to cut through just fine.

Sarai takes out one of the Salervans and ties it to the chain first, then Akili braces himself and cuts through.  He uses his Boots of Flight briefly to orient himself after the chain falls out from under his feet, then flaps over to the chain on the right, while Kenlow flies over to the one on the left - he seems to have something in mind.

Kenlow pulls out the Godslayer, touches it to the link, and sends 5 points of Lightning through it, snapping the link.  Akili cuts through the third one, then lifts up and begins flying back to the party.  The chain bridge spanning the chasm snaps almost instantly, and the worlds start seperating.

The rest of the party is waiting in the doorway of Kenlow's place to see what happens when the chains are broken.

One of the chains of the bridge snaps back, barely missing Sarai and gouges a giant furrow out of the wall.  The other one also snaps back, but it lands far away from everyone.

The rest of the party retreats into the cave a short distance, warily watching the retreating wall accelerate farther away.  After a brief moment, caution wins out over valor, and Andune starts casting Rope Trick--

There is a THUNDEROUS CRASH, reminiscent of the sound of stone crushing ice, only significantly magnified,  and the wall ceases retreating.  Where the party stands, there is no sensation of the earth shaking, but since Andune has just finished casting Rope Trick by this time, the party retreats into it, just in case.

As the party gathers around the viewport of the window, the wall on the far end starts approaching them.  It's not accellerating this time, but it's moving with a ponderous implacability, kind of like watching a mountain form.

The door in the wall of the far side approaches within a foot of the wall on our side, slows to a stop... and retreats again, and the door starts to rotate off of one side.  It CRASHES yet again, but doesn't seem to bounce back this time.  The distance between the doorway and the world on the other side is approximately twice what it was, about 150 feet.  After a few minutes of watching it shift a bit more, it finally settles.

Akili clambers out of the Rope Trick, followed by Sarai, Atheele, Kenlow, and everyone else.

Sarai finally remembers her spell component that she was having Manq prepare with the Sun Blade, and retrieves the feather, sticks it in a flask of water, and allows it to soak.  She also sets up a small fire to roast one of Matro's fingers, as she needs ashes of an item for her location spell.

Kenlow 'borrows' another Finger of Matro, and ever so slightly nicks it with the Godslayer.  It promptly stops wiggling.  Sarai is miffed.

O'yhat, Kaira, and Manq stay with Sarai as she continues cooking the hand, and the rest of the party goes in search of supplies.

Kenlow leads the way to a storage room, and finds it has been converted to barracks which are unoccupied.  They find eight waterskins.  Akili grabs one, and Andune pockets the rest.

Waterskins obtained, the seperate party returns to Sarai and the others, and Andune hands over four of her waterskins.

Ashes obtained, Sarai successfully casts her spell, and now has a Matro sensor that's roughly sky blue.  She pulls out a wiggling finger, and the stone turns slightly more blue.  She hands the stone to Kenlow, and has him fly around in a few directions to see if the stone changes color.  After flying around, he is able to conclude that down where Sarai is is where Matro is.  She holds up a wiggling finger.  She puts them in a bag as she flies down, then he flies back up to try again.  Kenlow determines that Matro is in the direction of the 'island'.

Atheele has Kenlow try one last time with the Salervan stone, but that's in a different direction.  There is some more discussion, and the party decides to deal with what is hopefully the last Salervan first before taking on Matro.  After all, they don't need that one making more Salervans in the meantime, or inconveniently showing up during the showdown with Matro.

Akili and Kenlow start by carrying Atheele and Andune off of the ledge and setting them on higher ground, and while they spot a few cat golems from the sky, they continue picking up and transporting people.  When they ask for who is next, Therath is unexpectedly missing.  Kenlow takes O'yaht, and Akili picks up Sarai and Kaira, and they all gather together.

After lots of discussion, they leave Therath behind, as by all appearances he intentionally ditched the party.  For watever reasons, it's far too dangerous for the party to search the castle for him with the enemy forces converging there.  Andune is the most reluctant to leave him behind, but Akili is very matter-of-fact: Therath had lots of opportunities to find the group again, and there's no guarantee he even wants to be found.  Finally, they start along their way, taking a slightly curved path to attempt to avoid the worst of the forces that are approaching the castle.

(Barrel of a gun: BOOM!  Arena/Ampitheater: BOOM!  Undead Salervan: BOOM!  Island in the center of the world: BOOM!  Andune asks, "So am I casting minor image so we can sneak-sneak-sneak--"  Sarai: "BOOM!")

They make a new plan: Andune casts Minor Image to make Akili and Kenlow look like dark clouds, and O'yaht casts Wind Walk to make her and the four other remaining party members almost weightless.   The two fliers pick them up, and they make great speed.

Some four hours later, the party approaches the tower.  Sarai turns back into a solid form, and checks her Salervan stone: it's now a a lighter-colored blue - he's been moving.

They determine where he's gone, circle around, and start heading over there - unfortunately, towards a group of eight bone cat-golems, but still no Salervan.  They finally conclude that he's on the island, so they make a beeline for it.  Sarai also hands off the bag of fingers and both sensors to Akili, and he confirms that they are going in the correct direction.

Akili starts to get rather worn out, so Atheele casts Bear's Endurance on Akili, which gives him sufficient stamina to keep going a little farther.  He consults the sensor several times, and picks the best spot to land.  From the air, they spot several more worlds, including one of ice, and a couple of desert or sand.  Kenlow spends the next few minutes picking his jaw up off the ground, and comments that the ice 'world' looks a LOT like the ice ceiling of Annor... and may well be the reason it had to be healed in the first place.

When Akili asks how Matro could have possibly siphoned some of the ice off - since the ice plains were still there - Kenlow replies, "That's a good question!  Let's go ask him."  Akili grins, and answers, "Point taken."

Since the flyers - Akili in particular - are exhausted, they retire to the rope trick room, and retire for the night.

The game is paused here.

CategoryCrystalQuestAftermath