Taking up guard duty at the door once more Strange feels one of his talkative moods coming on, something that has not happened since his conversation with that mentally challenged guard back in Theranin those many weeks ago.

"I think it best that we.. hmm.. remain here until all wounds and ailments are fully treated.  Those shadows don't seem to be leaving that room anymore.  If need be I can possibly.. hmm.. reactivate the trap so that nobody else blunders in."  His wings shift slightly as he pauses for a beat, "We cannot leave this place until we have.. hmm.. recovered Dale's sword, but a small group of us might do well to.. hmm.. scout out what lies ahead.  Azul Irkul.. hmm.. can wait."

Lyria listens to Strange, all the while examining Dale since it seemed that even after healing his wounds, the magus seemed to be quite weak. "If it helps, I may be able to restore some of your strength though I'm not sure how effective it will be," she said modestly to Dale. "Hold still and take a deep breath. You will feel a dull pinching senstation in your head. It's only mildly uncomfortable and will be over quickly." Waiting for him to comply, she quickly rattles off a series of three spells back-to-back-to-back. The sensation Dale feels is like that of a dull aching migrane, like a vice slowly being tightened around his head. Before he could even really describe how it feels to himself, it was over. Moving again, he nearly fell over as he found his strength largely returned to him. "Hopefully that will help you continue. I would hate for you all to be stuck here longer than you have to be. I know I certainly can't wait to leave." Lyria almost fell over mid-sentence, the casting of so many spells wearing on her stamina.

OOC: Dale gains 8 STR back.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:16, Sun 26 May 2013.

Lorelei winced again upon arriving to the others though she flashed Lyria a soft smile at the healing as she took the spot on the wall she tended to rest again. She was impressed that Lyria's magic even seemed to cover the weakness left by the poison in Dale's body but revised that as the young mage nearly collapsed from her spell craft. She spoke softly, a little easier then before.

"I can wait till tomorrow for the poison to leave my veins, it seems you need rest now as well"

"Perhaps that's what you should have done today, as well," Kass replied to Dale with a slight smirk, and started rummaging about in her pack for the things she'd recovered from that room, the two vials, the keys and the book. "Here, take a look at these." She handed them all to Dale once Lyria had cast a spell to return his strength.

As for the subject that Strange brought up, she spoke up, "Do we have any parchment? We could write a warning, rather than just trap the room for some intrepid rogue to break through and get himself killed," Kass suggested.

The spellcasting is unpleasant, but the restoration of his strength is distinctly less so.  "Ah, thanks.  That helps a lot."  He's no longer being crushed under the weight of his own armor, so that's cool.

"Perhaps that's what you should have done today, as well."

Dale smiles and flicks a small rock at the cheeky tiefling.  Then he looks over the vials first, then leafs through the journal.  Gren is usually interested in that kind of thing, so he makes room where he's sitting to share space with the half-ogre.

Perception on vials: 5.
Spellcraft on vials, if preferable: 17.

"We could write a warning, rather than just trap the room for some intrepid rogue to break through and get himself killed," Kass suggested.

"Oh, here."  Dale digs around in his pack until he pulls out a small wooden case with chalk in it.  He hands it to Kass.  "That should hold up on stone, for a while anyway."

In response to Strange and Lorelei, Dale says, "I'm well enough to move on for now, I think.  This place is a lot more dangerous than I thought, and we don't want to slow our progress too much.  Lorelei and I will just have to be more careful than normal."  Yes, he recognizes that him not being careful is how he gets into most of his messes, but that's hardly the point.

---

12/17 Strength.  Thaaat's better.

Gren sat next to Dale with a grunt.  It sounded like once again some of the party were in need of a break to patch their wounds.  He looked over the book as Dale first looked over the vials.  He seemed most interested in the first and last entries.  When Dale was done, Gren ran his gloved hands over the vials trying to aid Dale in revealing their secrets.

Aid Dale to identify vials, Spellcraft 15

The journal seems to be made up of a bunch of small entries with dates at the top of each entry. The book itself is made of a dark brown, almost black, indistinguishable leather with the all-too familiar rune inscribed in gold on the front cover. Near the bottom is the name R. Haussen embossed in gold script as well. Most of the entries just describe day-to-day activities of a normal man but the last entry in particular stood out as different from the rest.

Journal of the 5th Gate Weaver of the Immaculate Flame:

Wealday, 996th Winter of the Second Age

Well today marks the thirty-fourth consecutive day of attempting to open the damnable portal. Mathias, or Arudal as he's known by the fools down in Theranin, is eager for results and not pleased with our so called failures. It's not like we're sewing up the hem of a pair of pants here! Conjuration is tricky and even one small error in our rituals could have frightening repercussions. Of course Arudal will hear nothing of it and only tells us to work harder, work faster, and work more intelligently. Coming from a man who adopted his pseudonym from a Dwarf that's had to have been dead for centuries, that's a hoot. I swear this work is going to be the death of me yet.

That was the final entry in the journal. The next page had the quill the man had been using to write his entries tucked in-between the pages where a blot of ink had seemed out onto the page, staining multiple pages.

Still standing at the door as if prepared for an assault from the shadows Strange glances to Dale, "Do you have any magical means of.. hmm.. locating your sword?  I fully concur that we should explore this place more, but.. hmm.. returning your weapon to you should also be a rather high priority."

He was not interested in journals and potions, just his rings which he toyed with in one hand.  He was disappointed that he did not get a chance to search that altar.  In his experience the religious folk often kept rings as sigils to their gods.  Perhaps he could sneak back in there some other time...

"Well that explains the same name connection.  I wonder what this guy was trying to conjure and how many other conjurers there are."  He looks at the title '5th Gate Weaver'.  "Well, presumably at least four.  Three if Mathias-Arudal is one.  Maybe the statue and other extraplanar things we've run into so far were some sort of practice."

Once Strange asks about tracking James, Dale sadly shakes his head.  "We've been working on extending the range of our connection but haven't had much luck yet.  But I'm sure we'll find him or he'll find us."

"We do seem to be getting some answers from these journals we've been lucky enough to find.  I think the shadows were the result of a failed conjuration attempt.  The statue was perhaps a success; an intended guardian for this Cult of the Immaculate Flame.  It looks like Arudal, or Mathias, and his cult used this place as a stronghold for a time.  Long after the Dwarf's death of course.  Conjuration magic should be easy enough to detect.  From now on before we enter a room I'll try and sense that magic.  Maybe It'll help spoil any more nasty surprises."

Gren holds up a one of the healing potions.  "Since I used by last one on Nori, I think it's only fair that I hold onto one of these."  With the other one in the hands of Dale, he would let him decide who should hold onto it.

"Lorelei, do you think you're okay to keep going for the rest of the day?" Kassadria asked the quiet monk, since it seemed that everyone else was up for finishing exploring for the day. Kassadria smiled a little when Dale suggested she take one of the healing potions, but shook her head, "You keep the potion. I can keep myself out of trouble." Anyway, she already had two potions that would help her to stay safe in combat - though she hadn't used them yet.


OOC: What's the date today? How long ago was that last entry?

Lorelei let out a cough as she considered Kassadria's request. The wounds where mostly healed to be sure, but her body still felt like led compared to how it normally felt. Thankfully she didn't wear overburdening armor like Dale did. After a moment she sat up properly and nodded softly.

"I can continue, though I will be much less effective in combat"

Considering that the wounded felt it best to come along Strange spoke up once more, "I shall keep to the front then to watch for traps and.. hmm.. possible attacks."  His wings shuffled irritably at the thought of being slowed down by wounded companions but he knew well enough that it was probably a better option than leaving them vulnerable here.  The pair of rings in his hand clink against his stony skin as he plays with them, rolling one over the back of his knuckles like a coin.  It was still rather a mystery where he was keeping them since he did not carry a pack of any kind...

Nori had remained silent through all the talk about conjurers and creatures from other plains. He despised magic almost as much as he did elves, the constant trickery and chants were almost too much for Nori's mind to grasp. He preferred a straight up fight against a foe he could kill and be killed by, like the guardian that had almost sent him to his grave.

He growled low, "'f we run'to creatures like before, none o' us are gonna beh much 'elp either way." He stood from his corner and moved toward the rest of them, "Still, aye owe Gren a life debt so aye'll do wha' I can." He glanced at Dale, "Ya think, w' gonna 'ave to go back'n there?"

"Bah!  I see no reason to go back into that cursed chapel.  I saw no other passages out of there.  Let the shadows have it."

Gren moved towards the room that had one point been full of smoke.  The smell of smoke and ash still hung heavy in the air.  Gren took a long pull from his wine skin to remove the taste from his tongue.  "Strange, check the door, but do not open it till I check for the tang of magic.  Perhaps one of you pointy-ears have better hearing that I.  Once the door has been cleared press your ear to it.  If there are any more chattering mephits or the like perhaps we'll hear them first. Caution will be for every room."

He wished he had more healing potions.

It didn't take long for the group to prepare themselves and head back down into the depths of the fortress and to the only unopened door that they had discovered thus far. After a quick and thorough investigation by Strange, the gargoyle gave them the sign that the door was clear to be opened. Strange was able to hear some sort of humming coming from the other side of the door but the door itself was thick and did not make for an easy eavesdrop. The others who tried to hear hear similar noises but nothing else of substance. The humming could be coming from anything; it would be a stab in the dark to try and identify what was making the noise.

When Gren attempted to detect magic and make sure that the door wasn't magically trapped or altered or messed with in any way, he was transfixed by what he saw. The door did not radiate with any magical energy but instead the doorjamb all around the door glowed as if magic was trying to push its way through the small cracks. The bottom of the door was the prime example as magical aura, like a rolling fog, was gently wafting out before dissipating in colorful swirls. Something was going on in the room beyond, something magical in nature, and likely something powerful if it was able to produce such an aura.

Before they reached the smokey room, Kass wrote in chalk a brief warning on the stone beside the doorway to the dark temple - DO NOT ENTER shadow demons await. Hopefully that would dissuade anyone from going into that room.

"Nori," Kassadria spoke in a hushed voice once Strange and Gren had done their checks, concerned that whatever was on the other side of the smokey room door may overhear them, and indicated to the dwarf that he should go first through the door with her close behind, or the other way around. It would be a safe assumption that whatever was beyond this door, it probably wasn't good, and if it had anything to do with Arudal, or whatever his name was, they should try to put a stop to it.


I slightly assumed that Gren and Strange relayed their findings to the group. If that assumption was false, then I'll edit. :O
This message was last edited by the player at 11:29, Sun 02 June 2013.

Dale draws the spare longsword.  He's supposed to stay out of direct combat, but that doesn't mean he's going to walk around unarmed.  He nods to Strange that he's ready to open the door.

"Magic pours from around the door.  Whatever lies beyond is probably more trouble than its worth.  We should leave, take the pass through the mountains to the Dwarven city and satisfy ourselves on their ale." whispers the large sorcerer.  His club rested in his hand.  He was certain the group would not listen to reason.  Something was motivating them them that Gren had yet to comprehend.

"This is the pass through, Gren," Kass hushedly reasoned with the half-ogre, "You really want to get caught in another blizzard on top of this mountain? There are clear signs that this place is associated with the dwarves and our Arudal, so perhaps this very door will open onto Azul Irkul." She had her sword drawn, and was huddled at the door like the others, waiting to go through. She would bring up the rear unless it was obvious that she should go in first due to darkness or some threat right at the doorway.

So with a deep 'hmmm' from Strange, the gargoyle set about getting the door ready to be breached. Together, Nori and Dale stood ready to be the first to enter the room behind Strange, with Gren and Lorelei following close behind with Kass to guard their rear. With a strong heft, Strange pushed the door open emphatically, quickly rolling to the right while Dale took the left and Nori the center, weapons poised and ready for the threat. Gren and Lorelei moved forward quickly filling the gap they left behind them, leaving Kass to guard the doorway.

The scene was something not of this world. The room was enormous with a domed ceiling, easily one hundred feet tall at its highest point. Still visible through the years of dust and decay were beautiful masterworks of carved stone adorning the dome detailing the birth of the Dwarves from the stone through the hands of their god. The carvings continued down the walls though they seemed to be newer, detailing the might of the Dwarves and the stoutfolk's many conquests. The entire floor seemed to be carved from one stone where the rest of the rooms of the fortress the group had seen had neatly sectioned stone slabs connected together through masonry. Carved and inscribed onto the entire surface were glowing runes and a myriad of scrolling languages. There were multiple places where the rune that the group had become so familiar with was represented. Each corner of the room held a large brazier of carved stone and forged iron though only two of the four were lit. This was likely due to the inhabitants of the room and the scene that presented the otherworldliness that stopped the group dead in their tracks.

Where many of the other encounters they had faced in the fortress had been a struggle on the mind due to their aberrant nature the warped creatures that they had encountered, this one had a similar mental effect if for an entirely different reason. Rather than horror being the key factor, disbelief and a glimpse into the primal unknown were to blame. On both the north and the south walls of the room were enormous fixtures that could only be described as doorways or gates; one shimmering and warping with heat and glowing orange and red with the light from the flames that periodically burst forth from the portal's entrance and the other greedily sucking up the light in its end of the room, the entire gate itself seeming to be made of shadows and shimmering in and out of reality as if it desired to hide itself. Both radiated magic and the portals that opened up into different planes of existence were the obvious cause.


Of course, the portals themselves were not the main cause for distress as spread along the outside of the circle that made up the runic system were creatures from these planes; representatives of chaos and destruction, fire and shadow, death on swift wings. Nearest the gate of flame, creatures that looked like floating cloaks of living flame hung in the air, smoke and ash circling around them in a vortex of heat. Exactly opposite them were creatures that hardly seemed to be there at all but when they showed themselves were nightmares that made the shadows from the chapel look like little more than entertainment a father might perform for his child with his hands in front of a fireplace before bedtime. They seemed to be attached to the shadows, pouring forth from them with giant wings and long horns, maws full of razor-sharp teeth and claws long as large daggers. The only give-away that they were there at all sometimes were their ruby-red eyes that had no direction of sight within them. Oddly enough though, neither of these primal planar horrors moved from where they stood, instead seeming to engage in a tense standoff with their counterparts across the room.







They were not alone though. In the center of the room, standing on a symbol that looked to be a mix between shadow and flame, was an absolutely gorgeous female drow, hair as crimson red as the heart of a burning ember and skin as dark grey as the shadows from whence her people originally sprung. Dressed in a form-fitting corset and a veil of fabric that barely covered her shapely legs, she was indeed an exotic beauty in a league all her own. There was no doubt that she was connected to these gates though as golden runic symbols danced along her arms and out toward each gate. As the group barged into the sanctuary, she lowered her head from where it had been hung back to survey the motley crew.


"I wasn't aware that I was to be expecting visitors. Nevertheless it is a pleasure that I admit I am ill-prepared for." The woman's voice was dark like tinted glass and equally soft like silk but carried the weight of someone that was used to giving orders and having them followed. "I would come greet you personally but as you can see, I'm a bit tied up at the moment. Ever since stumbling upon these two portals on accident and having the misfortune to be caught in the arcane activation sequence that opened them, I have been stuck here holding these creatures at bay. I fear what would happen if they were to break free of my control." The fear in her eyes at the last comment seemed genuine as she looked back and forth from flaming spectre to shadowy phantasmal killer. "Please tell me that you have some means of helping me out of this sticky situation?" She sounded as if she was keeping desperation only barely at bay with her request, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she transfixed her eyes to those of the group.

Dale stands gaping for a second once the drow stops talking.  "Of finding some other means of holding them back?"  Well, he doesn't want to outright say Not so much, no, so he'll take a look.

Very carefully so as not to mess up any of the delicate balance between the doorways, the monsters, and the drow, and with either Nori or Kass to back him up, Dale approaches the runes around (and on) the woman.

Cast read magic.
Spellcraft to glean information from the runes: 15.

Runes are usually simple enough to copy.  Powering them, on the other hand, is more difficult.  Maybe he could find a way to power her spell without using her directly.  Or at all.

Dale speaks to whoever is closest to him to help him work through the problem at hand.  "I wonder if opening that," he gestures vaguely toward the fire gate, "thing there is part of what Arudal and company was trying to do or if it's some really nasty side effect."

---

Move to -H23 unless Strange says not to or one of the monsters makes a move toward him.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:38, Tue 04 June 2013.

Kass waited for everyone else to file into the room and gasped at the sight of what lay within. She watched the Drow carefully, once she had ascertained that the creatures around the circle were indeed stationary and not turning to attack them. She couldn't help but notice a pattern forming; first they had fought fire creatures, mephits and elementals, and then they had fought creatures born out of the shadows. They had defeated the fire elementals using water, and the shadow creatures had been escaped from by removing the light source.

She had a quick look around the room; there were two burning braziers at the side of the room with the portal that appeared to be to some realm of flame. On the other side, symmetrical otherwise, the braziers were not lit. Perhaps the braziers had something to do with these portals staying open? According to this Drow woman she was the only thing keeping things at bay, and clearly they couldn't just leave everything as it was, here... Kass followed Dale to cover him and see if she could read any of the runes or markings.

"The journal did mention a portal," the tiefling said, "Perhaps they were trying to create some twisted being of shadow and flames." She leaned close to Dale to whisper to him.

OOC: Move to -J23, same as Dale. If anything aside from our party moves, she would try to react to that ASAP.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:57, Tue 04 June 2013.

Strange voiced no objections as the others moved further into the room.  In fact, he barely seemed to be paying attention to them at all.  His focus was entirely on the shadow creature closest to him, and as he shuffled forward to stand unblinking in front of it it was easy to see why he was so fascinated.  The wings, the claws, the bestial appearance, and even the glowing red eyes were all too familiar.

"Hmm.."  Could this be the creature that inspired the Architects to carve such monstrosities as him?  The magic held no interest for him.  The others were better with such things anyways.

Gren sneered as he passed into the room.  He knew this was a bad idea!  Unlike the others, who moved about freely, he froze.  He did not want to accidentally smudge a rune.  "Help?  I don't even understand what magic you are using to keep these creatures at bay."

His head swiveled from one side of the room to the other, hoping a clue would reveal itself.  "Who are you and how long have you been here?"  Could she be lying, he wondered.  "You say there was a sequence that activated these portals?  If we can understand what you did, maybe we can figure out how to reverse it."

The fire beings they encountered earlier drew strength from flame.  The shadow creatures existed only in the light.  Perhaps if the fire braziers were extinguished both types would simply disappear.  Of course, he wouldn't even consider doing such a thing until he understood more of what was going on.


16:35, Today: Gren Boarshead rolled 20 using 1d20+8. spellcraft.