Soulriders 5.0: Legend of the Unending Games

Moore, Balyss and Ithea finds Elder Magi Tepen in the command center. Once they're all in, "As you may know, we have reason to believe an attack on Aurora is imminent. Through unknown means they are interdicting communications and may be able to prevent Aurora from moving to another plane to escape. As of now, Gisfal is taking the initiative in preparing the defense."

Tepen is seated, hands folded on the table, "What's worse is that the team from Vacuum is currently unable to return under their own power. According to a recent report from a contracted messenger, something that was done in Vacuum has scrambled any dimensional magic around that group. Further, they  have been split up many times over. Jaela, Canderella and Vivantha are accounted for, they are stuck in the first mount of Gehenna. The others are currently in unknown locations and may or may not be alive."

"Afina's group has not yet returned or sent word, though we hope and pray that changes soon." Tepen looks ot them, "I fear this is a scheme of the devils to try and overcome us, to sacrifice several pawns to put us into checkmate. We cannot allow that to happen."

Moore nods. "I think the agents of Mount Celestia know what's going on. I would count on aid from them, though I know not when it will arrive. I asked Elena to try and contact whomever we can rely on, as I believe there to be more aid to be brought to us in our time of need." Moore says with a serious expression -- he's still trying to remain positive, nonetheless.

"Is there anything we can do right now?"

Ithea wants to scream internally, but makes sure not to show it as she asks seriously, "Is the prevention for Aurora specifically somehow? Can people still travel between planes? It didn't feel like we were really blocked from returning from Earth, for example, but if whatever is causing interference can prevent any that would seek to give us aid from giving it...well, just wondering if we basically should just work on the assumption that we're on our own, and if we get aid, well that's fabulous then."

A moment later Tepen blinks and then slowly rubs his head. "A correction. We can confirm the other groups are alive, at least. My apologies, it's been a stressful day."

Once that's done, "It seems to be. Your return wasn't impeded, nor was Canderella's agent. For that matter, based on what Jaela's group was struck with, I suspect it's ineffective against a small scale. I suggest we assume we must act alone and welcome any relief as a blessing. Further, I instructed her to tell Jaela that should Aurora escape, we will be on Ysgard, in our previous place. Should the devils follow there, the locals will relish a chance to engage them."

"You'll have to forgive me as it isn't a spell I am intimately familiar with, but then that would mean we could open gates to other planes to get allies here, correct?" Moore asks.

"In theory, assuming what we know is accurate and it there aren't other measures interfering," Tepen says, "Or that other measures aren't in the offing."

"I think so, and that's why I asked for clarification on how this blocking worked, although I'm having trouble thinking of allies that wouldn't have their own means of getting here and learning of what's going on. Even those not of Mount Celestia," Ithea replies.

Ithea muses on the thought briefly, before adding, "I wish we'd had time to form more of a rapport with the child of Jormugandr, now that'd be something to bring with us as an ally. Although devils are usually immune to poison, I suspect its breath would have worked on them. A fitting painful surprise, and a good defense. But with Muirfinn no longer with us, he might try to test us again, and we lack the time for that currently."

"Moore, do you think Silver and Lord Crystalle may lend us a hand to avenge their losses? We may have done something with the necromental, but I don't know if that creature was made from all of Crystalle's worshippers, or a single one. We may not have accomplished much of their request, which might leave them feeling unfavorable to aiding us."

"Time is our greatest limitation," Elder Magi Tepen says, "They may attack in a minute's time for all we know. Above all, we must have preparation and haste. How fast can someone deal with Crystalle?"

"I think he'd be willing." Moore says. "Regardless of what we accomplished, we're the first to treat with them at all. I think he'd see an opportunity to have a favor from us, too, so I think it's possible. I don't think it'd too much time at all, I know where to find him."

"Moore, would you be willing to go alone? As Tepen says, we probably can't spare many, not when they could attack any minute," Ithea asks. "If you take the orb that served as the core of necromental with you as proof of what we managed, that might also help with the dealings."

Moore nods. "Yes. I'll just need someone to get me there. Lord Crystalle seemed capable of getting us back, so I think I can hitch a ride, in essence."

"I'll send you there," Elder Magi Tepen rises, "Above all, hurry, Moore."

Moore nods and then bows to both Tepen and Ithea.

"I will."

Quick question for Ithea: Once Moore's gone, what's your plan?

"Good luck."

Ithea waits for Moore to leave before asking Tepen, "Alright, so hopefully we get some reinforcements there, but as you said, we may not be able to count on that. You mentioned that Gisfal's already working to prepare the defenses, do you know what he's got so far? I don't want to waste his time going over what he's doing when we're on the clock."

Tepen goes out and deals with Moore, quickly coming back at a jog. He sits right back down, "He's gone. Wish him luck. As for defenses, are soldiers are rallying and on high alert. A loose screen of positive energy protected air elementals are scouting around Aurora for any sign of the enemy. Gisfal says that due to the terrain, deploying troops outside of Aurora is not practical. He's turning the courtyard into a killing field and stationing defenses around the dome, in the even they can penetrate it."

"Do we have someone working on preparing defenses against undead? Protection spells and such like death ward? Or too inpractical for this kind of situation?" Ithea also asks.

"As best we can," Tepen says.

As he does, Elena pops right on in. "Working on it. Kascha's saying Rosa most likely won't be ready for battle, but she'll have her gear in case she has no choice but to defend herself. She's resting in her quarters. The short version is that Rosa's traumatized by coming into contract with Lixer's essence. With her unbound soul held by him, without a body to protect her or a spirit's natural hardiness? That's really bad, she says."

"Thank you. Tell her to rejoin the defenders as soon as possible." Tepen says, glancing at Ithea. "Pardon, I didn't mean to override your rank there, Ithea."

"No, don't worry about it. You really didn't anyway. I had already told Kascha that I didn't expect Rosa to be ready for battle. It's good that she's at least ready to defend herself if necessary," Ithea replies with a small smile. "Speaking of that though, what about other non-combatants? Are we basically just stuffing them deeper into the structure or what? What protections are in place for them?"

Keeping them protected while also not turning them into obvious 'Look, that area is protected, must be important, let's wreck it!' points of interests for their opposition was a tricky balance to put in play. Even evacuation could be risky with whatever magic was being used to prevent Aurora from traveling.

"Yes. If it falls that they come to harm, we've lost already." Tepen says, "If they die, we have all already fallen and Hell has won." His face grows tight at that, "We will not let that come to pass."

Not too encouraging, but maybe that's the best they were going to be able to manage.

Ithea nods to Tepen, and continues. "I'm going to go see Gisfal and see if there's anything I can help with. Since he's already taken charge, best if he just tells me what to do instead of us possibly switching places. He should probably also know how much of my magic I've expended on Earth, as well as the others that went with me, so he knows where we'd be best deployed."

"Good luck," Tepen offers, and quietly, "For Lifasa. Best to remember that this day most of all."

Ithea just nods, before she goes hunting for Gisfal in the courtyard.

Ithea heads to the courtyard, finding everyone at the gates. Going to look, she sees a commotion out there. Portals are opening, forces at the ready - and out emerges Afina and company from one. From others come Moore and mineral quasi elementals, coming out from the writhing portals.

Sylvie looks around, starting to drop into a battle stance, before stopping, "We made it?"

"That was odd, I suppose we weren't as clear as we could have been?" Afina says, resolving to better trust Sylvie's concerns in the future. "Lets go... wait, what's going on here?" she says as more portals start to disgorge elementals around Aurora.

"...good, welcome back all of you," Ithea says with relief. "Moore, you managed to get help, good."

"Afina, we're preparing for an attack from Lixer's forces. Gisfal has been preparing the defenses, I was about to ask him where I could help since he's been in charge so far."

Moore comes tumbling out of one, looking as if he had a bit of a bumpy ride. He raises both arms to the others in greeting as he flies to the courtyard!

"We made it in time! Oh, welcome back!" Moore greets the others. Ithea explains most of it, but he decides to fill in some other gaps. "They've sealed off Aurora's ability to move and some other things. You all made it back in the knick of time."

"Oh, Ithea, before I forget, defeating that necromental saved the spirits we were asked about. So don't let that weigh on you." Moore says with a smile.

"Not a moment to rest is there?" Afina says. "What information do we have to confirm this attack?" she asks, fluttering along with Ithea to find Gisfal and organise the defences. "Cresiel, stick with us for now? I'm afraid that base on the deep ethereal will have to wait."

"Is that so? I suspected, but had no way to be sure. Thanks," Ithea replies, before searching for Gisfal, since he was probably drawn to the portals as well.

She still figures he's best suited for explaining their current defenses to the new arrivals as well as herself.

"Some of it was Moore's divinations that drove us back to Aurora quickly, though I believe there was already some warning for those here, but I am unsure as to the source for that," she answers Afina.

As reinforcements march into Aurora, "Divinations and enemy action both support it," Gisfal says, rather tersely. "Jaela's group has been delayed indefinitely through further enemy action and will likely be unable to have a meaningful role. The operating theory is that this is Lixer's plan - a powerful counterattack after we expend our own forces and he does his best to stop our officers from returning in time to help."

Cresiel looks about, "Of course. If there are fiends coming, I will be ready."

"When you say they've sealed off our ability to move, do you mean the portals or have they actually blocked our motive power?" Afina asks at Moore's interjection. "Because there's no reason we can't just fly Aurora out of whatever magical field they've set up when they're giving us this much warning." Seems a bit suspect really. Why tip their hand when they're not ready to attack?

Or did the attacks on those bases send his forces out of order so Lixer's own attack has been aborted right when it was about to strike?

"Well, he managed to get us to expend some of our resources, but he didn't prevent all of us from returning it looks like. So mixed blessings there," Ithea says, before filling in Gisfal on what resources, mostly magic, her group has spent in their attack on Earth.

"What about dispelling it? Has anyone tried that?" Afina presses as she tries to get caught up herself.

The elementals follow, about 100 making it in before the portals give up the ghost. Gisfal turns to reply, but suddenly Aurora shakes all over. The light of the Positive Energy Plane turns red and flickers. There's a long, horrifying moment where it lingers, before the red light fades away and the Positive Energy Plane returns to normal.

"What?" Tannin turns and stares at it, "The hell just happened?"

And now it's too late isn't it? "Sylvie?" she seconds Tannin's question, addressing the girl with all the answers.

Ithea moves over to the gates and stares outside of Aurora, trying to figure that very thing out.

Detect Magic and....I dunno, Spot or Spellcraft? I'll take 12 for either of those (Spot 63 or Spellcraft 52)

Sylvie goes just out of the gate, looking around.

> roll 1d20+50 Spellcraft
<Kobot> Kotono rolled 1d20+50 Spellcraft --> [ 1d20=1 ]{51}
> roll 1d20+54 K:A
<Kobot> Kotono rolled 1d20+54 K:A --> [ 1d20=2 ]{56}
> roll 1d20+54 K:P
<Kobot> Kotono rolled 1d20+54 K:P --> [ 1d20=9 ]{63}

Sylvie whistles, "Some serious magic just got canceled. It's a bit much even for me, but I think the effects in place were released."

Ithea meanwhile studies the magic there. A massive spell just was canceled, magic fading away.

"So they've abandoned their attack?" Afina asks. It makes sense, Lixer just had three of his big supports knocked out from under him... he might have even been planning to use forces at Finality for this attack only to find they'd all been wiped out.

"They may have. Could be a trap," Sylvie cautions, "But my instincts say we should see about moving to greener, safer pastures while we have the chance."

"There's still the situation we left behind on the astral to deal with, we could go there," Afina suggests before asking Ithea and Gisfal, "Has Jaela's group returned as well?"

"Seems like it. I agree with Sylvie, whatever spell was there, it's very much gone. Let's take advantage of that."

"The only trap I could think of is perhaps if they were hoping to capture Jaela's group teleporting here after we'd left, but I believe they were already informed of our next destination."

"Alright, we'll go to your planned destination until that group returns, then we'll need to visit the astral plane. We were a little bit too successful in Hopelorn," Afina says, shaking her head. "Elena, can you get someone who has a spare casting of Gate to come down here? Tepen or Vul'lath usually do," she then asks so they can get moving.

For his part, Moore is going to see if whatever was warping divinations is still in effect.

He's going to try casting Divination. I know it's 10 minutes, so he'll just sit off to the side.

Ithea raises an eyebrow. "How is it possible to be a 'little bit too successful'?"

That'll take longer than this, so I'll deal with it after this, Moore.

Tepen quickly emerges, coming out and casting Gate. This time it isn't distorted, Aurora passing through to Ysgard. No diabolical interference, no troubles, only a return to the chilly realm of eternal battle. "We all need to catch up," Tepen announces, "Shall we retire to the command room?"

"We destroyed the entire city," Afina answers baldly. And a little bit proudly.

Just a little.

Calleigh flits over to Tepen and sits on his shoulder, resting. "It was loooooooong and quiet! There were explosions and skeletons and big scary devils and stuff. And the solar."

Sure.

"Lets go, Tepen," Afina agrees with his suggestion. "Everyone this is Cresiel, a solar we found in Finality. He'll be staying with us for a little while," she then adds for introductions.

Soon enough the group is together and out of the courtyard, back in the meeting room.

"So," Elder Magi Tepen begins, "What happened?"

A chance for both groups to expo as little or as much as desired. You can glaze things over or go into great detail as you please.

"To catch up Afina and the rest of her group, our mission on Earth was a mixed success, given Moore's news. We had requested guidance to find Lixer's outpost from Lord Crystalle and in exchange for the information he asked that we free the souls of some of his followers. Moore confirmed that destroying a necromental Lixer was puppeteering on Earth freed them. The necromental was one of the traps-slash-defenses Lixer left behind. He emptied the outpost for the most part, and we had a casualty, which is why I call it a mixed success."

Raising a hand up before someone asks about the casualty, she continues, "The Jarl was able to ressurrect Rosa, though sbe's been  left shaken. She's recovering, but expect her to be unavailable for some time."

"We destroyed what we could of the area, so it'll be difficult for Lixer to set up a base there again even if he didn't care about the location being compromised, though some enemy forces qere still around when we returned back to Aurora due to Moore's divinations. Not much happened since then, we began preparing for an attack after being told Gisfal and Tepen qere handling defences. You popped in just before whatever that spell was shattered and well, here we are."

Afina leads in with her team's experience in Gehenna. "We arrived on the slopes of Krangath and despite our efforts at stealth were quickly attacked first by native yugoloths and then by undead wraiths. After defeating them we summoned some elementals to occupy further natives before using Calleigh's wand of silence to obscure all sound as we made our way to Hopelorn without further interference. Once inside the city we were intercepted by a... Gloom?" she looks at Sylvie for confirmation. "Some sort of warped former human anyway. We convinced him to leave us well enough alone and soon made our way to Finality. Surraruthru was instrumental there in using his illusions to block sound as we cast protective spells and blasted our way into the base without being noticed by the patrolling flesh golems. Coincidentally the room we burst into was where Cresiel was being held. We killed the imps working on him and then freed him, though it required powerful magic from Tryll - I think they were planning to use him in the making of one of those skulls like we fought at Castle Crumbling," she gives Cresiel an apologetic look there, knowing it's not nice to consider.

"From there we skirted around the outer area of Finality, the layout of isolated rooms with sound dampening magic in each allowed us to defeat every devil we encountered without alerting those in the next room. We managed some minor looting before we found the main chamber, occupied by hundreds and hundreds of undead and devils. They were still unaware of our presence and we employed surprise to assault the chamber, slaying masses of monsters at a stroke. To be honest I thought we might only manage to strike key targets and sow confusion before having to escape, but we managed to keep the momentum on our side and might well have conquered Finality outright, but whatever the devils were working on was starting to destabilise the structure and the energy backwash was killing devils everywhere. They were trying to get it under control when Sylvie called a retreat, so it probably wouldn't have worked for them regardless but that was when a chaotic rift Tryll had opened at the outset of battle finished forming. The results were immediately catastrophic."

She pauses a moment, just to let everyone form a nice picture in their minds at those words - she has her own sense of drama after all. But she spares everyone soon enough, "We came to, mercifully all together, on the astral plane surrounded by elemental manifestations much like you'd see on Limbo. On Sylvie's advice we started moving elsewhere before forming a gate due to the planar interference, and soon saw parts of Hopelorn strewn about amidst the raging elements, with its inhabitants - devils included, amidst it all. As we emerged from the morass we beheld a portal ripped into the Silver Sea, miles across and gushing forth the stuff of both Gehenna and Limbo into the astral plane."

Another pause just to let people gauge their own imaginings against the reality she described. "Once Jaela's group returns, I want us to go there and clean up the mess. While Hopelorn's ruins will offer its share of looting, we share some responsibility for the portal - though if anyone asks we should stress it was unreliable devil experiments that caused it, it would do our reputation no favours among those we could call on as allies to leave such devastation in our wake without attempting to fix it. Those who looked down on us for our actions with Annalise and Baleruk would only find fresh fuel here."

"A shame about Rosa," Afina says after hearing Ithea's tale. "We don't honour Lief and Muirfinn by throwing our own lives away, but I'm glad she's come back to us. How did the golems perform?" she asks out of professional interest.

"Smrgol held his own quite well. I think he's deserving of some of the profits he managed to recover from Earth, if he's interested." Moore says. "The, ah... the other ones weren't quite as... robust? There were some magical arrows that unfortunately caused them to be destroyed."

You mean Smrgol, Baleruk's his senpai!

"It was expected, the Shredstorms were designed to be expendable, though I'd hoped they'd at least cost their worth to the devils. I'll have to reconsider the design for them. Good to hear about Smrgol, though."

"Your ironwyrm golem, Smrgol, was fantastic. His lack of flight was a bit of a bump as there were many gaps where we had to teleport him across, but otherwise he did well at getting enemy attention, dealing damage, and didn't require much direction. The shredstorms, well... they weren't really suited for the mission unfortunately. Both were destroyed, I'm afraid. Sorry," Ithea gives an embarrased apology. "I overestimated their ability to excavate, and they didn't get much chance to attack before one of the defenses destroyed them."

"Um, speaking of, do... er... do we know what happened?" Moore asks, waving his hands in a general direction all around.

"I was going to try and do some divinations to see if it was still blocked. Er... maybe that was already answered?" Moore asks with a look around.

"I don't think divinations are needed. Whatever spell was being used around Aurora was dropped and as was suggested, seems very likely the attack was dropped. Probably Afina's group returning was the tipping point for them. They must have decided the losses they'd incur wouldn't be worth the effort."

"My suspicion?" Afina says in response to Moore, "Lixer was planning to attack us but our own assaults pre-empted him. He was probably set to muster forces from his bases and had set up spells to block Aurora right before they were deployed, only to abruptly have a big chunk of his forces wiped out by our attacks. He'd just have to hang his head and go home then. I can't imagine any other scenario where he'd go to the trouble of putting up that barrier and then not attack immediately afterwards, it's too much of a warning giving us time to prepare and counter it otherwise."

Surraruthru nods to Afina. "First, let's not forget the vampire in the alley I got us past, also. As for the abandoned attack, it seems like the most likely. The defenses at Hopelorn were pretty minimal, so it didn't seem like they really expected us to have any knowledge of it. I don't know what potions they were making from that Balor, but there were certainly enough undead and devils in the main room to serve as a strong back up or primary force against Aurora. More so with whatever that green power was and those potions, if they were meant to be used to power up those forces. Whoever it was on the throne was probably one of Lixer's lieutenants or a general. I could easily see that group being empowered and then thrown through a gate at Aurora for a shock and awe type of attack.

Losing that, and whatever allies he had in Hopelorn since it was destroyed, could have been nearly crushing on their own. Combined with Earth and Void teams' success, we likely hamstrung his operations. We also likely cost Lixer any credit he may have had on that plane. While that probably got us a whole slew of new enemies, I doubt may there would be many left who want to side with Lixer, since the last group to do so lost their entire city for it. The fact that we did it without being discovered or raising alarms probably makes a lot of groups nervous. They're probably going to start examining our forces and abilities much more closely."

Surraruthru stops to consider... "We may be able to take advantage of that. It makes our diplomatic position for allies that much stronger of an argument, especially with the aborted attack. We could also play it into the underground ears and use it to emphasize Lixer's slipping power. Maybe get a few of his allies to pull back some of their support, at the least."

Moore nods to the others and then to Surraruthru. "That's a good idea. I can return to Lord Crystalle and explain the situation, perhaps he would know of others in Earth that we might be able to abandon Lixer and his operations entirely. I'll be happy to spearhead that, if you'd all like."

"We're sorry we weren't more useful. Direct reality modification is really strainuous! Straining? Strenuous! Yeah! We did what we could and added some chaos to the mix, which is always a good then when Devils are involved! Then it went boom! BOOM! And things got weird! Weirder than usual! And there was some sort of devil lady or something who wanted to play with negative energy which really isn't very fun when you think about it and we were skeletons for a while and I had to be quiet for sooooooooooooooo long and it was really hard but I did it and that's what counts!" Calleigh adds. "We can help out now though. We're real good at finding things and people and stuff, so if Moore wants to get help with divination and scrying and finding and maybe explosions? and other things we can help! Maybe!"

Moore smiles at Calleigh and nods. "If you'd like to help with that, I'd welcome the assistance."

"We can't be certain why Lixer chose to postpone his attack, though Afina may have the right of it." Tepen admits, "We just don't know his motivations there, though I would be surprised if Hopelorn didn't play some role in it. Anyway, divination would be helpful. Also, have you all been fully appraised of Jaela's situation?"

Moore shakes his head. "I haven't, no."

"Her mission was a success, as the crypt on Vacuum was destroyed," Tepen explains, "However, the escape proved tainted, as something was invoked that is scrambling their ability to return home with magic or communicate directly with them. Further, they have been split into several groups thrown across the planes."

"Speaking of," Elena appears, "Good news. Balyss got an omen. She believes that Mei is in the Gates of the Moon."

"Oh... so I wonder... hmm... If he'd been able to do that to all of us it would've been a catastrophe, but..." Moore seems to consider for a moment. "Is there anyone currently unaccounted for?"

Elder Magi Tepen smiles in relief, "Good news. Thank you, Elena." Turning from her as the ghost girl vanishes, "We know they're alive, but information on the others is still not there. Likely Balyss is working on that now, once she confirms we are not being so strongly interdicted."

"Separated and fresh from expending themselves in battle, they'd make perfect targets for devil assassination squads," Afina points out. "If they can't come here do we at least know where they are so we can send reinforcements?"

"We know Mei is safe in the Gates of the Moon, Selune's realm. The devils cannot strike her there. Jaela, Canderella and Vivantha are on Gehenna's first mount." Tepen says.

"I'll see if Balyss needs any help in locating the others, then." Moore says. "Especially since it sounds like we want to get back to the issue with the Astral and Hopelorn as quickly as possible."

"In general Gehenna should be safe enough, but if the devils task a group to chase them down they could be in trouble. Do we have a specific location for them? For that matter are Mirajane, Mirima, Adrian, and Moonlight all unaccounted for?"

"Correct," Tepen says, "We're still working that out and hoping for word from them."

"Alright," Afina says. "Everyone we have that can be divining these things is working at it, and I don't think there's anything left to discuss. Lets adjourn until we hear more news?" she suggests, fluttering out of her high chair.

The high chair comment makes me want to go 'aaaaaaw!' at Afina.

Anyway, what's everyone's plans now?

I'm gonna draft Sylvie and any of the brain trust that aren't busy to comb the library for references to massive planar rifts that've happened before and find out how they turned out!

Moore can help with divinations and that sort of thing first and then anything else that comes up after that, including the library stuff if they still need help.

I could try Divination, but I'm basically out of spells slots for Divinations that would be useful. I'd need to rest. If I don't need to do that, then I'd probably check in on Kascha, then start looking at my room/lair.

Okay, going to start splitting y'all off. Merc and Yuth, waiting for your two cents.

Count Tryll in for brain stuff. Calleigh may wander off though. Or fall asleep in a book.

Okay, I'll integrate you into that thread. Still waiting on Ithea here before I close this topic up.

I've got no priorities I can think of. Ithea probably just wants to unwind/sleep if nobody asks her to do something else, honestly.

Okay, moving you into your own thread as well. This thread is now locked.