Day 58C: Purgatory Caverns, Part 3

[Iron Dragoon]

Session Start: Thu Feb 12 11:56:41 2015
Session Ident: #terrorofdunes
* Now talking in #terrorofdunes
* Topic is 'Young Elf(24)>John(23) '
* Set by Kotono on Fri Jul 11 10:18:27
<Kotono> > It's hard, but you manage to pull Jetina up and out! Her sword is left behind, moments before the wood around it gives way and it plunges into the light. "What in Qupan's name is happening," Jetina clings to Veren.
<Kotono> <Veren> "An attack. Questions later, Kamhoff now."
<Kotono> <Moore> Moore will fly to go check his lab!
<Kotono> * Veren gets up and helps Jetina to her feet, trying to lead/hurry her towards Kamhoff's room!
<Kotono> > OOC: Acrobatics, Lucy'n'Jetina. Er, Veren and Jetina.
<Kotono> > roll 1d20 Jetina
<Kotono> <Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 7 > [d20=7]
<Kotono> <Veren> roll 1d20+20+3 Acrobatics/Inspiration
<Kotono> <Serith> Veren roll for Serith < 29 > [d20=6]
<Kotono> <Veren> OOC: if it makes any difference, I have a swift that gives me a move action, for reference.
<Kotono> OOC: Okay, noted.
<Kotono> Jetina takes a few tumbles going down, but this part of the ship is enduring - if slowly sinking. You make it to Kamhoff's lab. Here Kamhoff lies in a heap, Little besides him. He's shaking Kamhoff's shoulder, but the old mage isn't stirring. Macaron is there, licking Kamhoff's face furiously.
<Moore> Moore flies over and checks on Kamhoff! It's probably a concussion, but you can never be too sure...
> "Come on, let's get him up and out of here. Little, stay close, there are things that attack. Moore, here."
* Veren reaches into his pack and produces his healing wand, offering it to Moore as he strides over to lift the old man up.
<Kotono> OOC: Heal check if you're going to take the time to look over him. It'll take a few rounds to assess him, though, fair warning.
<Moore> There's not enough time to do that right now, so Moore takes the wand but just uses some of his own energy to heal Kamhoff twice.
<Moore> roll 1d8+5
<Serith> Moore roll for Serith < 7 > 12 [d8=2]
<Moore> roll 1d8+5
<Serith> Moore roll for Serith < 10 > 12 [d8=5]
<Veren > OOC: Nope. I don't, at least. My first concern is to sling him over my and Jetina's shoulders and drag him out. Moore's got the  wand now for emergencies, but I'm just trying to get him out.
<Moore> Moore looks around at the lab for anything that looks important that he can grab before they get out!
<Kotono> OOC: Quick perception check.
<Moore> roll 1d20+14
<Serith> Moore roll for Serith < 24 > 12 [d20=10]
<Veren > roll 1d20+14 Perception
<Serith> Veren roll for Serith < 22 > 12 [d20=8]
<Kotono> There, sitting on the table! The scroll of prismatic sphere! Moore can see it, just sitting there as the ship shakes.
<Moore> Moore will grab it and put it in his pack. "Let's go, Veren!" Moore calls, casting a Haste spell on himself and the others to get them out more quickly.
<Kotono> Thus the party runs out! OOC: Acrobatics except for flying Moore. Veren, you suffer a -2 due to carrying Kamhoff.
<Veren > roll 1d20+20-2 Acrobatics
<Serith> Veren roll for Serith < 26 > 12 [d20=8]
<Kotono> roll 1d20  Jetina
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 13 > 12 [d20=13]
<Veren > OOC: Shoulda used inspiration.
<Kotono> roll 1d20+13 Macaron
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 22 > 12 [d20=9]
<Kotono> OOC: Let me move y'all to #dunes.
<Kotono> ----
<Kotono> For Pepo, what stirs him is the headache. A migraine like nothing else, his head's throbbing being what drags him back to awareness. He feels like he's sprawled out somewhere, as if dropped on the floor and left to lie there.
<Pepo> How far was he blown away? Silently he rises on feet that grow more steady moment by moment, looking around to survey the situation.
<Kotono> OOC: Darkvision or low-light vision?
<Pepo> OOC: I have both!
<Kotono> Pepo can see. He lies atop a broken stalagmite, in a drafty limestone cavern. He can see about - he's at a dead end, next to an ancient, weathered skeleton. It looks like nay dark, natural cave to him.
<Pepo> Is this it? Did that world eject him as too troublesome? Or is he still trapped in its web? Either way, the lack of realization, of memories regained, offers little solace. Still, the dark is his home, and he melds with it, exploring how far this cavern goes.
<Pepo> roll 1d20+35 stealth
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 51 > 12 [d20=16]
<Kotono> Pepo wanders ahead. He barely goes 30ft before he can sight a rotted skeleton. Its skull is badly shattered - you'd imagine that's what did it in. Ahead the passage continues on.
<Pepo> This one's newer than the one he saw before. Doubting he'll get anything useful from smelling it, the cat continues onwards.
<Kotono> You come to an intersection, a four way intersection. Unnatural. Clearly carved. If it is assumed Pepo comes from the south, there are passages north, east and west.  Just into the north passage you can see someone sitting, back to you. Bolethon is there, hunched forward and over.
<Pepo> 'Bolethon?' his voice intrudes on the light mage's mind. He never saw him escape from the boat, either. 'How did we come here?'
<Kotono> No reply.
<Pepo> Still keeping himself hidden in the dark, he maneuvers around to see the man's front. Considering the two corpses he's seen in varying states of decay, and Bolethon's own 'not Bolethon' state, he's developing a theory on both where they are and how it relates to the land of Light.
<Kotono> Bolethon is there. He sags forward, his chest and pants stained red. Bolethon's throat has been cut, his life's blood all before you.
<Pepo> He sniffs it to determine the freshness... though even so, were this the original Bolethon, the blood would have dried long ago, surely?
<Kotono> He's been dead a few days, perhaps? Hard to say.
<Pepo> That doesn't match either possibility... unless Pepo's been unconscious a long time. But if he had he'd be afflicted with hunger and thirst. Taking a moment to mark this location with his scent so he doesn't get lost, the cat advances West.
<Kotono> The passage west goes about 90ft before it ends. There is nothing ahead - only blank, black emptiness.
<Pepo> Retreating back to the junction and poor dead Bolethon, Pepo takes the east passage this time.
<Kotono> As Pepo turns back and goes towards the intersection once more, a sudden and painful stab blossoms through his head. OOC: 2 damage.
<Pepo> He whirls back towards the blackness in surprise!
<Kotono> The blackness is there. The emptiness has not changed. But Pepo's head aches when he looks at it now. A shiver goes down his back.
<Pepo> Best left alone then, perhaps its mere proximity is injurious. Hurrying back to the junction, he adopts a more sedate pace when he continues on towards the east, silent and unseen.
<Kotono> Turning back once more, another lance of pain blossoms in Pepo's mind. OOC: 2 more damage.
<Pepo> He endures it and continues moving away, though if he suffers further he'll stop and search for another solution.
<Kotono> The intersection is reached and Pepo now goes east. He makes it a mere 20ft before he sees it's stopped by a shimmering, glowing wall of ectoplasm, sealing up the way ahead. IT glows a pale blue.
<Pepo> This at least he can deal with easily, a targeted dispel psionics should be enough to bring it down!
<Pepo> roll 1d100 wild surge
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 5 > 12 [d100=5]
<Pepo> roll 1d20+12 dispel and dazed 1 round afterwards
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 16 > 12 [d20=4]
<Kotono> No good. Pepo's dispel isn't enough to bring down the wall.
<Pepo> Stunned for a moment by his rash overuse of power, Pepo nonetheless makes another attempt.
<Pepo> roll 1d100 wild surge
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 6 > 12 [d100=6]
<Pepo> roll 1d20+12 dispel
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 23 > 12 [d20=11]
<Kotono> This time the ectoplasm crumbles away into dry dust. Ahead lies a short dead end - where a jail door awaits. In between the bars of the jail door is pulsing darkness, which prevents Pepo from seeing in - even with his darkvision.
<Pepo> Troublesome. Deciding to play it safe with his body and dangerous with his psionic power, he manifests a large bull-like construct which he sends to bash the door down and confront what's inside while remaining hidden himself!
<Pepo> roll 1d100 wild surge, augmenting 9pp on astral construct with muscle augment
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 78 > 12 [d100=78]
<Pepo> roll 1d20+15 strength check with charge to try and bash that door down!
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 24 > 12 [d20=9]
<Kotono> The door is battered open. It is now ajar and can be opened if Pepo wishes.
<Pepo> The construct can handle that pushing the door open with its bulk and forcing its way inside to deal with whatever obstacle or threat awaits.
<Kotono> The door is thrown open. Inside is Pepo. Pepo and Pepo and more Pepo yet. Dozens of empty eyed, lifeless Pepos stare from all directions, as if in storage. Each seems to lack something, little more than empty shells piled up.
<Pepo> Oh dear... it looks like his theory just took a brutal blow! Unfortunately he lacks the power to give them life, but they could at least serve as an emergency food supply. Disheartened that he hasn't escaped the fake world after all, he returns to Bolethon and heads North, sending the construct charging ahead in hopes of having more doors to bash down before it expires.
<Kotono> The passage ahead is long enough that the contract fades away. Going further ahead, Pepo finds a dead end. Nothing but smooth stone ahead, no sign of a passage forward.
<Pepo> Trapped. So what's left, slow starvation... those other Pepos could last a while at least, but the end result is the same. Suicide by black wall? Maybe it's a portal, or just a shroud? Having no other options to work with, he returns back to the black wall, examining it with detect psionics.
<Kotono> OOC: Psicraft.
<Pepo> roll 1d20+21
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 36 > 12 [d20=15]
<Kotono> The wall is emptiness. It's just a simple nothingness ahead. An absence of everything. As if all the world came to a stop there, revealing a blank canvas beyond.
<Pepo> Alright. He wanted to leave this world, didn't he? This is one way, and it's less certain than dying, so Pepo walks into the nothingness.
<Kotono> OOC: Fort.
<Pepo> roll 1d20+10
<Serith> Pepo roll for Serith < 26 > 12 [d20=16]
<Kotono> roll 20d6 halve this, more if you survive
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 66 > 12 [d6=2,2,1,3,5,4,2,5,5,6,4,4,2,1,2,4,3,4,1,6]
<Pepo> OOC: -10hp on the dot
<Kotono> OOC: After halving?
<Pepo> OOC: oh sorry, I survived
<Kotono> Pain. Pain without words or form or anything. How long this goes on Pepo does not know, but he soon finds himself somewhere else. Somewhere warm, like he's curled up on a lap and being petted. In fact, that's exactly what it feels like. His eyes are even closed, as if he fell asleep.
<Pepo> Unwilling to trust anything, he keeps his eyes closed and his breathing regular, as if he's still asleep. Does the lap he's on smell familiar?
<Kotono> It doesn't smell familiar at all. It smells like apples, ash and wind.
<Pepo> Nothing to do except confront it. Opening his eyes, he turns his head to look up at the owner of this lap.
Session Close: Thu Feb 12 14:27:23 2015