Omm can see every detail of his handsome mug in the dechained mirror.

"His name was..." Omm starts to answer while walking back toward the location where he last saw the dragon, and then, silence. "Felix? Franky? Froderick?"

Omm then feels badly about not remembering the chap's name, but not for too long. Truth is if the same happened to him, he was not so sure his companion's would remember his name either. He intended not to test out the theory.

With that thought in mind, and with mirror pointed in an angle to navigate by, Omm steps forward...


00:46, Today: Omm rolled 10 using 1d20+1. Initiative.

Arnie. It's chiseled into one of the faces of the pedestal on which his statue stands. A few cave pigeons have already settled on his bent shovel, but they flap away before any of you get too close. They don't fly away too far; there might be scraps. Even petrified, Arnie emits the odor of offal, no doubt tantalizing the pigeons.

Patrolling around is the stone dragon. When the party violates the perimeter of its sculpture garden, it levels its three unblinking eyes, all set in its forehead, at Omm -- seconds before the fighting man thinks to raise his mirror (DC 10 reflex save to avoid petrification).

OOC all surviving pc's can act and can roll the dragon's reflex save for it.

Felix, having been briefed on the plan ahead of time, quickly raises his mirror as soon as he sees the dragon coming.

Josh rolled 4 using 1d20. dragon's reflex save? did I understand correctly what I'm rolling for?

Omm is ready for Old Stone Bones, and quickly draws his mirror into position as the stone dragon reappears. "Get a good long look at yourself why don't you!?" he calls out in a taunt.

Holding the mirror in his shield arm, the warrior does his best to position the mirror at an angle that will allow the dragon to see itself.

He's not a complete fool however, for in his other arm, a sword is still at the ready.

07:56, Today: Omm rolled 21 using 1d20+1. Reflex Save.

Unfortunately Zar and Sidd are mostly busy directing their mirror at each other, maybe in misinterpretion of the task at hand.
''Imbecile!'' ''Git!''


OOC: Assuming that rolling high is bad, because the dragon manages to succeed in his save. If rolling high is good, Zar and Sidd are on a killing streak. ;)

15:35, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 15 using 1d20. Sidd: dragon save.
15:34, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 17 using 1d20. Zar: dragon save.

With Felix's brandishing of his unchained mirror, the population of the subterranean sculpture garden doubles. Following him, Omm, Sidd, and Zar each try to petrify the stone dragon with its own gaze, but it gazes no longer.

A trickling of water from the southern recesses of the cavern suggest an egress away from, and not back to, the dome of the mosaicked drake.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:47, Sun 18 May 2014.

Sidd, discovering a solid core of bravery, knocks with his hand against the mica dragon, to check whether it has really turned into solid stone. Awesome.

Zar turns to Arnie though, checking on his unfortunate compatriot. ''Poor fella. I am dabbling my way into mastery of magics, but against this I am powerless. Let's hope that any consequences in this dire realm are only temporary and that Arnie will be returned to us.''

''Shall we explore the course of the trickling water? Sidd! Light the way.''
And Sidd complies.

Placing a hand on the statue of Arnie, Omm replies to Zar, "Well, he isn't going anywhere, that's for sure. So maybe we can find a way to bring him back to his old self. Maybe some wizard scroll or somesuch?" he adds while shrugging his shoulders. Such things were beyond his knowledge, but knew wizards were able to tap into the great power held within the strange sigils they wrote on their scrolls.

There wasn't much to do now, but explore further. With that thought in mind, and no dragon running around, he leads the way to where the trickling water is heard.

Felix gives the petrified dragon a good whack with his crowbar for good measure before following the others out.  Then a thought occurs to him and he quickly runs back and hits the dragon a couple more times, hoping to break off a small piece that he can keep as a souvenir.

Felix's thwacking of the stoned dragon obliterates it. Thwacking might be inaccurate; it was the first thwack that did it. Mica is, after all, little stronger than shale, a sedimentary rock.

Amidst the pebbles and dust, Felix finds an onyx, banded with white stripes and opaque even in the brightest lights (60 gp value).

Feeling more lucky than rich, you follow the sound of trickling water out of the stone drake's cavern and discover:

A small grotto is set into the wall of the cavern. You can make out a wide stone basin emerging from the floor like a stalagmite. Oily black liquid is pooled within the circle, glowing with a faint violet hue in the dim light.

Omm cautiously approaches the liquid and takes a closer look in an attempt to discern what it might be. He then sniffs the air.

"Hey, what do you make of this here?" he asks aloud, hopeful his companions will have a clue what it might be.

Felix doesn't have any idea, but he decides that for a first test, he will lower one of the many gloves he carries into the liquid to see what happens.  Just a finger-length, if that, and without his hand actually in it.

''The color, my young friends, of this oily liquid lets me assume that this is the medium we use to interact with our host, the scribe. Some kind of scrying basin perhaps.''

''So how does it work?''

''A moment.'' Zar mulls this problem over. If neither staring into the bowl nor one of Felix's glove fingers shows any result he will have to become inventive.

It's a scrying bowl. Peer within and behold the object of your whimsy. Some things are harder to capture than others, and some are best not captured at all.

OOC Will Check for success for those who wish to peer. Variable DC.

Felix steps back to let the wizards take care of using wizardly devices.  In the meantime he tries to get as much ink as he can off of the glove - this one might be beyond salvage, but no reason it has to ruin the others when he puts it back in his pack.

''Aaaah!'' ''Ooooh!'' Zar and Sidd, both dabblers in the arcane arts, are drawn forward by the alluring promise of the scrying pool. Knowledge!

Zar is searching for a solution of their current conundrum. How to escape this demiplane and to savely return to the normal world? If possible though he looks for a way which does not only bring them back, but also lets them benefit from the experience. It must be possible to increase his knowledge and mastery of magic in this place?

Sidd is more practical. He remembers his joint labor with Arnie in the shit drenches of A Thousand Sands. He won't leave him here as a mica souvenir of the three mages! So he looks for a way to turn their friend back to human flesh.


17:45, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 19 using 1d20+1. Sidd scrying bowl.
17:45, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 14 using 1d20. Zar scrying bowl.

As dabblers in the arcane arts, both Sidd and Zarr know that scrying pools eschew the abstract, so within them, they won't find concepts such as "escape" or "restoration" or even "nourishment." They're strictly a person, place, or thing sort of deal as long as the thing's not an idea, nouns for the literal-minded perhaps.

They could gain a vision of the larder or the Tower beyond the Moon. If they were so inclined, they could even peek in on the Ladies in Waiting or the Hierophant. The Eye of Al-Hazred cannot behold virtue or sin, only their vessels or stages.

OOC Person, place, or thing. Lower DC for better known locations or persons.

Omm watches on as the others view the divining pool, sword at the ready in the event some menace leaps out of the dark, swirling liquid.

He could not think of anything to think about while using the pool, at least nothing concrete that would secure the party's passage out of this doomed demi-plane. Not that he knew what that word meant, but he had maybe overheard Sidd and Zarr talking about it at some point earlier.

"So, what d'ya see?" he asks after a time.

Stymied by the scrying pool's (or their own) limitations, Zar and Sidd concentrate on more direct things to research. Zar settles on the tower beyond the moon - surely there are many secrets worth seeking in that monumental abode. Sidd however sticks with a more obscure topic - namely the Fool himself. A trickster if he ever met one, and poised at the core of this mystery.

Felix listens as the two wizards mutter and bicker about how the scrying pool works and what they should use it for.  When he gets an opening he asks them Any chance we could use that thing to show us the rest of this "basement?"  Maybe find some other way out, without having to go back to that stupid knight?  Or at least let us see if there's going to be more trouble ahead like the dragon?

Zar gives the litle man his 'you are probably just stupid' eye. ''It's dark in here - not much to see. But go ahead, try for yourself, young man.''


OOC: Really, my guys' Will save, which is what we are required to roll, is probably not better than Felix' own. ;)

Given that invitation, Felix steps up onto a conveniently located rock and looks into the bowl.  He thinks real hard and twists his face into various positions (certainly not in mockery of any proper wizards, of course not!), hoping some image will show up...

Josh rolled 18 using 1d20+2. Will.

Heads a-bobb'n, you crowd round the scrying pool, each of you secretly convinced that Al-Hazred will only have eyes for you.

Each in turn has his own vision except for Felix who bethinks of nothing more or less than hope since he has no especial place in mind.

The Tower of Beyond the Moon stands in momentary solitude. But then as the last full light of day fades and the grays of early evening spread, a silvery span materializes and crosses the chasm.

Sidd, in his turn, beholds a canopy of flies which form the recesses of a cavern. The jester appears to be checking the contents of one of the fissures beyond the wall of insects, probably a 16th-century volume of maritime-themed limericks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:57, Thu 29 May 2014.

Zar and Sidd continue to stare into the basin. Sidd, inding the jester to be in the cave of flies, takes this as a pointer and searches those terrible crags with the help of the pool. What might there be beyond the veil of terror and flies? Other than books about maritime-themed limericks.
Zar stays with his original topic and shifts his point of view into the topmost room of the tower of the moon. Belatedly he wonders if there might be any kind of cost connected with the pool, and what it might be. It quite messes with his concentration.


21:14, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 14,2 using d20+1,d20. scrying pool, Sidd, Zar.