It wasn't something Magma liked to do, taking from the dead, but this battleaxe was a piece of beauty and the warrior who wielded it before wouldn't want it left behind to rust and age in the dust. Magma picked up the axe and examined it closely. Assuming no one else had objections, Magma would take the axe as his own.

Magma was starting to head out for scouting when the cry came. He saw what happened but couldn't believe his eyes. Like something sucked the soul right out of his companions body.

Not being a mage or a holy man, Magma was caught not knowing what to do. How do you fight a gemstone? He thought to attack it but if he did destroy it, what would happen to Af'til's soul?

Battleaxe and Shield ready, Magma stands ready to fight if there be a reason, but such magic as this - he keeps out of the way of those who know it better.

OOC: Since I do know what this is, but my character would not, I am going to play this at a distance.

Having found nothing of interest in searching the bodies of the fallen, Ulthok is just watching the drama unfold between Cor and Conall as they speak to each other.Then when Af'Till starts to cut open the beetle his interest is peaked.

Moving over to one side where he can watch what he is digging out of the rancid mess inside the beetle he is at first impressed as to the gems Af'Till is pulling from the beetles innards.

Then suddenly things get very ugly as he is reaching for some very shinny stone of some kind what looks like a very large diamond erupts from inside the dead beetle hovering in the air and spinning rapidally.Somehow af'Till is entrapped by this thing and he collapses then as they watch an image of him leaves his body and is sucked into the gem. Oh this is bad very bad.

First thing into his mind is how do you fight a gem. and next is they have to somehow keep it from attacking anyone else untill they can figure out what to do.his first idea is to cover it somehow when Alaisdair beats him to it.He is throwing his cloak over it and trying to tie the end shut.

Ulthok also removes from his pack the cloak he wore before he obtained the elven cloak just in case it looks like they may need more coverage.Not really sure what to do next he does not want to destroy the thing untill they can try to recover Af'Till.So he cries out to the groupDoes anyone know what we face here and how can we control this thing and save our friend?

A QUICK RECAP OF THE LAST 2 YEARS
You the party were a fast reaction force of Special Guards working for the King of Shana’tara under the leadership of the Human female Bard/Druid the Lady Drusillia Liadon .Included in the party were the male Human Paladin Conall, the Human female Fighter/Mage Haila, the male Gnome Thief/Illusionist Flit, the male Dwarf Cleric Cor, the male Elf Ranger/Cleric Af’til, the male Elf Ranger Hawk, the male Halfling Thief/Mage Ulthok, You were called to the King's chambers and told that the King's daughter one Althena Sunblayze long in seclusion at a distant monastery was kidnapped two days ago the word of that just now reaching the King. He at once ordered the party to go and seek any answers and to rescue her if you could as fast as you could. So assigning a Pegasus trooper and his mount to each party member you all flew out to the Monastery to investigate. During the course of this investigation the party was joined by 2 others, the male Human Cavalier/Psionist Alasdair and the female Human Ranger Talia Sister to Haila. In the ongoing search it was discovered through a Goblin captive found at the Monastery that Althena was being held in magical tunnels formed beneath the Mountains of Steel. The Goblin it was discovered later was under the loose psionic control of the King's daughter. As such with this information you all remounted the winged steeds and did then go to the mountains. The party then spent the next year in real time (but only a day and a half in game time) in those same tunnels trying to find the girl. You found her but in the process lost 4 original members to death, including the party's leader, the Lady Drusilia; the others were Taila, Flit, and Hawk. But in the end you did manage to rescue along with Althena two new friends the male Firbolg Giant Samson and the female Elvin Druid Cynil along with a small number of Dwarves.

With the King's daughter in hand you’re last remaining Thief, the Halfling Ulthok, then did teleport with her back to the King's castle. The King with his daughter once again safe then had his wizard’s teleport the whole party back and then recalled the Pegasus trooper’s home. Out of this came a sense of a great evil awakening and something not altogether normal about the girl as she was the center point of it all. With the death of your leader the King did disband you and called upon the Cavalier Alasdair to form a new guard as its leader for a very dangerous quest yet to come. The Paladin Conall he made the Lady Althena's bodyguard and second in leadership to Alasdair in this new formed Special Guard. The dwarf Magma a representative of a nearby Dwarven King and ally of Shana’tara, who had been found among the few surviving dwarves, was declared as third in leadership. Then you the party reformed by Alasdair and being 10 in number did finally get word from the Shana’tarian King of the mission that lay ahead. You were told the tale of the Steel Maiden, a sword of intelligence and great evil and the need to recover it before the dark king himself did so. You then had revealed to you the truth about Althena’s linage, she being the daughter of Allanon and the last of the race of Valar, as told of in the world’s history and past. Why rescuing her had been so important, she being the only one able to carry said sword without being corrupted by it and of her knowledge of its hiding place.

So agreeing to undertake the mission to retrieve and somehow destroy the sword unanimous by all once again by Pegasus you were taken to just outside the City of Helm's Dike. There you boarded a ship and set sail for your next port of call, the Port City of Chard Rush. After a few days travel you entered a bad storm losing the ships main mast and then found yourselves in the eye of the storm. It was here you where attacked by 4 black sailed ships and by the whole episodes end you ended up losing yet another character that of the Giant Samson and dropping you to 9 in number. The ship you were on was badly damaged but you were luckily saved by a second friendly ship and after sinking the damaged ship taken to the port city of Chard Rush in the Country of Ravenshorn. Then while in the port city you realized you were being watched by something clearly evil and then a little later when Althena did have a vision of a disturbing nature you all decided to depart Chard Rush in the middle of the night. Your escape of the watchers for the moment successful the watchers rage was such that by mornings end the port of Chard Rush was in flames, its people dead.

From Chard Rush you moved north and traveled for two days until you reached the fort of Panzer. Here it was that the party decided to rest for a few days and here finally it was revealed the deep nature of a couples love that of the Lady Althena and the Lord Alasdair to the point of almost blatent public displays of affection. So upsetting was this that the Paladin Conall feeling he had failed his duty left in the night with but only his weapons and armor leaving all else behind.
With the morning upon them the having realized that Conall had left before them mounted and did give chase to find him confronting a number of foes. But before they could join him from beneath the earth arose a great beast, an Earthquake Beetle and with its first breath all of Conall’s foes but he and their leader were slain.

In the course of the battle, the party eventually victorious, though none of the party were killed, the leader of the brigands was slain and having revealed to Conall his true nature as that of a fallen Knight, was sent off with a prayer of good faith by the Paladin.
But a battle thought done was not as the Ranger Af’til while searching the belly of the beast did release a new foe, a deadly gem with beams of light so terrible that they caused death instantly. And so it was that the Ranger Af’til’s luck did run out and he found himself its first victim, and so began round one.

ROUND ONE
In what seemed like only in seconds that what was clearly victory on the part of the party had suddenly turned against them with the coming of a new enemy and the loss of one of their own. With the day fading fast and the light of the sun going down the party faced a foe easy to see as it glowed a bright white and was the size of two clutched fists placed side by side, the only question now how to destroy it....

The first of the party to act was the Cavalier Alasdair, quickly throwing his cloak over the gem he was dismayed to find his cloak did not wrap around the gem having hit some kind of invisible force field.
A moment later a bright white ray the same as had hit Af’til did shoot forth aimed it seemed at no one and the cloak was gone, burned to ash....

The next to act was Conall his Axe of Hurling to hand and without any hesitation at all he let it fly. The Paladin’s aim true he watched in amazement as the Axe hit nothing, almost as if the gem was in truth not there. His action for the next round as yet to be decided....

Cor thinking fast knew this gem was a true danger having in one hit seemingly killed Af’til, draining his soul from his body. The words of a Dispel Magic spell spoken, he as it had been with Conall, watched with eyes wide as the spell had no visible effect. The gem unharmed in any way....

Magma having taken the axe to hand felt the power within it come to life as if something had been awakened. As a voice into his mind did come his mind was torn from it by the cry of Af’til’s death and the emergence of the gem from the body of the Beetle.
Stunned Magma watched as the Alasdair’s, Conall’s and Cor’s attacks did fail. Having no experience in fighting an enemy such as this he did hesitate to act his mind embroiled in what ifs.
How do you fight a gemstone? If I attack it and destroy it, what would happen to Af'til's soul? Not being a holy man or one familiar with magic the dwarf fighter was caught not knowing what to do. So for the moment he watched his thoughts on what to do ruling his mind, yet a voice in the background clamoring to be heard....

The same as with Magma so it was with Ulthok as the Halfling Thief/Mage stood uncertain of what to do and how to fight this new enemy. With no action other then the removal of a clock from his backpack and a yell to the rest of the party, Ulthok’s turn this round was done....

Althena at first was shocked, Af’til’s dying scream unlike anything she had ever heard before, but was quick to recover. With her crossbow empty she turned to her next best weapon...Her mind.
Sending forth her Psionic ability of Domination she attempted to take control of the Intelligence within the gem only to find none there. Whatever this gem was it was clear to her it was not alive.....

Cynil and Haila both too far away to do anything this round would have to move closer if into combat they so decided to go....

This first round of combat over the party at a loss in general of what to do next could only hope not to be hit by the gem’s attack. For clearly it had proven itself deadly by its killing of the Ranger/Cleric Af’til and it’s seemingly immunity to attack.
Round two on the way would the party fair better, or would they yet lose another of their number.

The first move this round was the parties to make....

OOC: Ok all the game has officially restarted and as the Intitive after round one was the parties I went ahead and just reposted along with the recap my last post before the Hiatus.
Also Welcome into the group 3 new players.

Eol Fefalas, now playing Cor
Dragon Mistress, now playing Cynil
And Dragon Mistress's sister Brianna bringing in a new character shortly to replace Af'til

So its up to you guys to let me know what happens next and I will post next Sunday the 21st so ya got a few extra days to figure it out. But as always in combat if enough of you post before then I will post more. Good hunting and check the Q/A )

Cynil moves only partway forward, (half move) having seen what did not work, she thinks carefully on what she could possibly do. The unnatural abomination perplexed her. She delves into her mind seeking some knowledge of this phenomenon.

“Does anyone have some Holy Water?” she calls out.

If nothing presents itself as a way of attacking it. She will move to heal whom ever seems in most need.

(OOC not sure what spells she has available.)

(DM OOC: Your available spells should be listed on your character sheet on the the character thread and the copy that I sent to you. Also feel free to change your spells as you see fit as your now playing Cynil.)

Posted on 2007-01-13 at 18:19:50.
Edited on 2007-01-13 at 23:52:16 by TannTalas

Magma thought quickly about this new foe. It had been dormant inside the creature, that much was obvious as the creature certainly never had it soul sucked out of it. In fact, until it was exposed to light and the air by Aftik, it had remained dormant. It had created a shield of force around it to protect itself now and Magma sorely wished he had a way to cancel magic.

“The light of day give life to this thing, perhaps we need to cloak it in darkness!” Magma calls out to the magic wielders of the party. Then he lets his mind merge with the new battleaxe he has picked up – hoping beyond hope that magic will know how to defeat magic.

Ulthok has watched everything that has gone on around him since this thing has been brought out by our now dead companion, and has been at a lose he has never fought an inanimate object before.

The thing seems to have avoided every attack that has been throwen at it, it could not be dispelled and physical attacks seemed useless.Covering it seemed to be in vain also.

Thinking to himself he thought maybe instead of just covering it he could get it into an interdimensional space like a bag of holding so he calls out again,Do any of you carry a bag of holding maybe we can cover the thing with that. Because this thing seems so dangerous he is unwilling to wait to long for an answer from his companions,if he gets a yes he is willing to help whom ever has it to get the thing into the bag by moving as fast as possable with the boots of springing.

If the answer to his question is no he really feels at a loss he can not think of anything he has or can do that will rid them of this menance he has not felt this helpless in a very long time.Once again he speaks to the other magic users. Maybe one of the other magic users can cast either a wall of iron or stone around this thing to at least give us time to think I don't have any thing to shield use from this.

The threat of the gem before them perplexing with no one sure of how to destroy it, only by chance had no one else died from its rays.
The party had tried magic with seemingly no success…
They had tried missile weapons with seemingly no success…
What would it take to destroy this non living attacker who had already taken one of their own…..

Cynil moving forward her mind in deep concentration wished for the knowledge of how to destroy this slayer of Af’til but only a thought of perhaps holy water came to mind. Voicing her thought to the rest of the party she readied herself to provide her healing as possibly needed by any as she saw no way to help other then that.

Ulthok too seemed at a loss as how to destroy the floating gem before them, its rays always seeking them out yet almost as if in random directions. Calling to the rest of the party his idea of possibly incasing the gem in a Bag of Holding, or perhaps behind a wall of Magic, he moved to place himself to be ready for his next action.

Magma like the rest was at a loss as how to attack and destroy the gem before them his mind awash with such thoughts. Then as if from nowhere he finally heard the voice calling to him from the axe in his hand, his mind drawn towards it.
To destroy it you must attack it in melee, but beware, to destroy it is to release many enemies. With this thought in his head the dwarf faced a hard choice to tell all how to destroy it thus releasing yet more attackers. Or to say nothing and hope the gem could somehow, as Ulthok had called out, be contained. Only Magma could decide.

The rest of the party Alasdair, Althena, Haila, Cor and Conall with no idea and seemingly in a daze did not act and it was only by a slim chance that Conall was not hit by the Gem’s next attack. The deadly beam of light passing so close to the paladin’s face that he felt the breeze and heat of its passing intimately.
If the gem was to be destroyed or contained the rest of the party would have to act soon or more of them would die.

(OOC: Ok to Dragon Mistress, Alacrity, and Dragonmist thank you for posting you 3 at least gave me enough to work with. To the rest of you I must say I am very deeply disappointed that none of you, with the exception of Eol who was at least in contact with me as to why, posted since I restarted the game 12 days ago.
Yes though I did talk to 2 of you over the phone and by IM I am still very unhappy as I was told by 1 of you that you would post here by this Sunday, but you did not. And with the 2nd of you I was unable to get a straight yes or no if you were going to continue playing.
If you the players who did not post want out just tell me and I will replace you with players who want to play in my game, no hard feelings on my part. Please I ask this of you just let me know eithier way I really hate dropping players due to non-posting or no contact. But to keep this game alive I unfortunately am setting next Sunday as the deadline to post or let me know if you want to quit. If no post or contact you will be dropped and replaced.
Next post, next Sunday as normal.)

“Odin’s Beard,” Cor groused, blinking away the stunned daze that had seemed to fall over him. Cynil had called out for holy water – though, what use holy water might have been he couldn’t imagine – and Ulthok had called out for some magical aide – again, Cor couldn’t fathom what magic might affect this abomination – but it had taken the thing’s attack on a similarly perplexed Conall to actually stir the dwarf cleric to action. “Wake up, boy,” Cor, certaining his grip on the Rod of Smiting, calls to the paladin, “To arms or die where ye stand! Magic an’ plinkin’re not the answers here! Smash the bloody thing tae shards!”

With a resolute laugh and a mighty bellowing warcry, the cleric of Odin charges forward, aiming to smash the soul stealing gem with a powerful downward stroke of the rod. There would be consequences, of that he was sure – not the least of which could possibly be the permanent loss of poor Af’til’s soul – but better to die trying, he thought, than to die standing still like an idiot. You’d be laughed out of Valhalla if you were even let in to begin with!

((OOC: Short? Yes, but it is something… sorry for the extreme delay, Tann. Took me a while to “find” the character, I guess… I’ll do better. Let’s bludgeon the thing! Consequences be damned! ))

Halia was at a great loss as what to do with this new foe before her. Her eyes locked in fear on the gem. She quickly straightened and looked at her companions. One had already fallen she lets her gaze linger at his body for a moment so she can remember what he looked like, to draw it later. Seeing Cor charge to attack the soul gem. She knew she couldn’t leave him alone she quickly charged to his side to attack the gem also, using her long sword. Fear of dying so young pounding in her ears. She slashed at the floating foe hoping for the best, preying to any god who would listen to keep her safe during this seemingly impossible fight.

Cynil suddenly has a thought and gets out her highly polished steel mirror. Should one of those rays come close she is going to try to send it back at the gem. Realizing that might still be dangerous for her, she looks for a broken branch to to attach the mirror to. (split branch and set the mirror into the split and the wrap the split end with grass to close it tight on the mirror.)

To destroy it you must attack it in melee, but beware, to destroy it is to release many enemies.
So the voice of the axe told him, but how does one attack a gem without destroying it.

"If we destroy the gem, many enemies will be upon us." He calls out to his companions, and as he does a thought comes to mind.

If we must defeat it without destroying it, then we must bend the thing to our will. Magic items with thought and identity often have to be willed to work for their wielders
With that thought, Magma moves forward with a risky plan. Get to the gem and grasp it with his hands, thereby hoping to force the gem into subdual. It was dangerous, and seriously crazy, but Magma put his faith in the stalward resistance to magic that was innate to all dwarves.

So it seems that some of the party has come to the conclusion that the only way to deal with this new enemy is the same way they would deal with most others and that is head on.Ulthok is not sure that getting that close to an object that is constantly shooting out rays that seem to kill you instantly is the best idea,but never let it be said that he would not back his parties deceision.

Not sure if this thing had any form of vision or if all it's attacks where just random which would make any precaution useless but being an animal of habit Ulthok does things in his usual manner.

Pulling the hood of his elven cloak up so he blends in better he looks for a spot where he can get in close to where the ones who have started moving towards the gem are , but still possably use the dead beatles body as some cover.With his precious sword Idreanl drawn he moves fast while keeping low (not to hard when your just over 3 feet tall) he will move to a spot where he can be useful but still have some cover if possable.

With sword in hand and a spell upon his lips he waits to see what happens as the three make their assult on the soul gem.

So it was that seemingly the party had finally begun to realize the danger they were in and had finally started to react. The Gem before them more dangerous then any but Magma could know, and he only learning of it a moment before.
But would this knowledge come in time.......

Ulthok knew now that the Gem before the party posed a much deeper threat then anyone had to this point realized. The Gem though smaller then any enemy yet encountered was much, much more dangerous then anything they had yet battled before. With a single ray of light it had with no words or sound taken from them the Ranger/Cleric Af’til, his body not yet cold.
Ulthok drew his cape about him and drew the sword Idreanl from its place at his side and moving quickly while keeping low he positioned himself to attack the next round his actions for this one over....

Magma having taken the risk of opening his mind to this new axe was overcome at first by the words from it and knew even as the others attacked it was for him time to act.
Moving towards the Gem with the words of his new axe still repeating in his mind, and an idea of how to mayhap deal with it, the Dwarf cried a warning to all as he himself moved forward, but to no avail as Cor and Haila’s attacks went in....

The first to hit of course was Cor, the Rod of Lordly Might on target and finding no resistance as had the other attacks before cracked loudly upon the gems outer surface and pieces of it did fly. But to the dwarf’s amazement it did not shatter and it was here that he heard the words of Magma telling them to hold their attacks but the Lady Haila in full swing was unable to do so in time....

Her longsword striking true as had Cor’s Rod before her, the gem stood no chance of survival having in damage reached and surpassed its level of protection. With an almost anticlimactic popping sound the gem became dust and slowly fell to the ground....

Cynil reaching for her mirror, while at the same time looking for a stick to attach it too, became aware of the Gems destruction and that now there was no need for it, did stop and for a moment did stand quietly seemingly awaiting the next turn of events. To her and everyone’s dismay she did not have long to wait....

As if all sound had been silenced with the Gem’s destruction the 8 surviving members of the party for a few short moments heard nothing, no birds, no wind, no clanking of armor, not even the sound of their own breathing, nothing...
Then as if from bare air the sound of many voices could be heard as if moaning in great pain, the moaning increasing in volume as more and more voices were added. First there was 1, then 3, then 7, then 15, then 30, all the time coming closer. 35, 45, 55, and finally 60 voices raised in seemingly never-ending pain the souls of those once trapped in the gem free and all around them.

None carried any weapons, or armor did they wear yet the look of eternal hatred for those before them yet living was real. From an enemy of 1 Gem the party had gone to an enemy of 60 souls, no longer living, yet truly not undead. Faced with such odds what would the 8 do next.....

SOMEWHERE ABOVE
Unknown to the party below this new battle they found themselves in was about to be watched by two separate and different personalities, one friend, the other foe.

The friend, one Rayne Fireheart, a Pegasus Trooper/Scout, had been sent by the Shanna’tarian King with an important sealed message to give to the parties leader, one Alasdair MacKenzie, or to his successor if dead, and by a mere hour she had missed them at the Fort of Panzer. Flying fast upon the back of her Pegasus, one of her 4 Animal Companions with her, two flying behind her the 4th within her pack, she had now finally caught up to the party only to find them about to do battle badly outnumbered. Though her orders had been simple, to deliver the letter intact, the situation below made that harder then ever. Up to her now was the choice to eithier watch or attack.

The Foe having helped in the destruction of the Port of Chard Rush had finally caught up to the party thanks to the Ones magical scent and was not at all happy with the scene below her. Yet cloaked in Invisibility and as such hidden from those below Soulcatcher knew not what to do as her orders were in effect to do nothing, but clear it was to her that those below were heavily outnumbered and would surely parish. Sending a call to the Master she did ask for his presence and aid.

The Party of 8 outnumbered nearly 7-1 was surrounded by the souls of the Gems victims. Seemingly undead, yet very much in pain as if alive, the 60 souls did move to attack, the Initiative of this first round of battle in the hands of the party, their fate, their mission, their lives hanging in the balance.....


(OOC: Ok good posting you 5 it was nice to see some player question marks were answered this week. Lets all Welcome our new player Brianna who is of course playing Rayne Fireheart, her stats if you want to see them are posted on the Character Thread. Welcome me lady I hope you will enjoy my game.

Now to the hard part as he did not post in the last 20 days since the restart of this game and after repeated attempts, over the phone, in the Q/A and in emails, to get him to post it is with heavy heart that I must officially announce that Kyle has been dropped as Conall.
Over the course of this week I will be looking over the user list to see who I will invite to take Conall over but at this time I really do not want to think about it.
So until I decide to invite a new player I will of course run him as an NPC.

Again to everyone that posted thank you. Next post next Sunday or sooner if everyone posts before then.)

Well this was exactly what the axe predicted, and like it or not, it happened. Magma took a fighting stance to the horde of ghostly creatures now facing him. “Well my new friend,” he said out loud to the axe in his hand, “Now we see just how useful you are.”

Magma didn’t take his eyes of the creatures but called out to his brethren, “Cor! This be you line of work, I think!”

Ulthok watched as Halia's sword shattered the gem but before he could be glad that the threat was now gone something wierd started to happen.he could not hear anything he thought he went deaf, but he soon knew that was not the case, as the area was suddenly filled with the horriffic sound of many voices raised in great agony.

It seems that destroying the soul gem released all of the beings that it had devoured and for some reason it looked like they wanted to take out their anger on him and his party.As he watched first there was one, than 3, than 10,finally at the peak of the noise he has lost count but there was over 50 he knew.So they went from one enemy to many against each of them.

First thing he he wonders, from the look of the beings that are now all around them, are they fighting living ,undead, or something inbetween.It does not matter to him he just does what he does and his first thought is to bring in some help.So reaching in his spell pouch he withdraws a small bag that contains a small candle.Manipulating the candle and bag in the proper manner he speaks in a language unknown to most seimine ym yals ot serutaerc eerht level dia ym otdnes dna llac ym rewsna esaelp ecaps fo cirbaf eht slortnoc ohw eno.

As he finishes the spell summon monsters level 3 he feels the magic flowing through his body he waits to see what comes to his aid.