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Entry tags:
Dawn of Magic
Everybody was present last week . . . Bonnie ("Leif"), Marc ("Mushamee"), Martin ("Kaeso"), Mike ("Rufus"), and Stéphane ("Vinz"). This summary is short – despite the fact that we played a full-length game session – because the entire evening's events consisted of a battle against the clock, on a combat map, and people were being very, very careful with their choice of actions!
Time: Evening, Odin 21, 1002 Imperial Reckoning.
Place: Bizarre tunnel complex beneath Spirit Anaconda's temple, Teclá.
Last Event: Sacrificing Vlad's soul to a giant serpent to gain access to the portal within its mouth.
With the serpent's jaws open, the adventurers waste no time. They don helms, raise shields, and draw swords, and then file through the portal. Instantly, they find themselves transported to a small, cubical chamber with stone walls. Rufus senses that the room is suffused with weird energies. Peering through the walls, he sees corridors leading off into the darkness in the four cardinal directions, as well as straight up.
Moments later, a mental presence communicates empathically that there is a rod in five parts beyond the walls of the chamber, and that the group has just 10 drips of a water clock – in this case, a blood clock – to fetch these parts and assemble the rod. To emphasize this, a telepathic voice speaks:
"You must assemble the rod in the time of 10 drops of blood. Begin."
With that, the ceiling and walls grate aside, leaving the party standing in a five-way intersection. Passages some 40 feet in length extend to the left and right, ahead and behind, and directly up. At the far end of each tunnel is a glittering segment of the rod. Guarding each of the four horizontal halls are four skeletal beings with stiffened serpents as staffs. Overhead, the fifth shaft appears to be unguarded.
The heroes spring into action. Mushamee, Rufus, Vinz, and Leif each run for a different horizontal passage. Kaeso whips out a flight elixir, drinks it, and goes airborne a moment later, flying directly upward.
Mushamee's incredible speed lets him weave past the four guardians in the southern passage with little effort. Dealing a few swift blows to drive off his foes, he snatches the first piece of the rod and promptly starts back with it. The guardians cannot corner him or even significantly hinder him. He is in the intersection plotting his next move before the fifth drop of blood.
Rufus attempts something similar in the eastern passage, but as he lacks Mushamee's celerity, he quickly finds himself beset by the four guardians in his path. Their staffs prove more than capable of denting his armor, and each blow delivers a horrible poison that saps his life energy. Soon, he is pressed against the wall, fighting for his life!
Vinz heads west. He, too, lacks Mushamee's fleetness of foot, but uses canny tactics to avoid being encircled. In five drops of blood, he gathers his chi to deal four devastating blows that slaughter his opponents. After that, the passage is clear. Vinz dashes to his objective unchallenged.
Leif charges up the northern passage. He uses brute strength to knock down and trample his foes. They land a few blows, but these do little to slow the ogre-sized warrior. He easily wins his segment of the rod, and savagely forces his way back to the intersection.
Kaeso flies straight up, his elixir propelling him much faster than anticipated. Such is the nature of weird science! He hits the ceiling, grabs the piece of the rod there, and then plunges back into the intersection. Seeing Mushamee and Leif converging on the same spot with their fragments of the rod, Vinz moving unobstructed toward the western bit, and Rufus beleaguered many yards from the final part, Kaeso jets past Rufus and snatches the eastern objective.
Back in the intersection, Leif and Mushamee clear a path for Kaeso. Kaeso zooms past Rufus and his foes, through this opening, and toward Vinz. Leif tosses his part of the rod that way as well, and Vinz skillfully traps it between his sword and his shield. With just two drops of blood left on the clock, Kaeso and Vinz meet at the end of the western passage with four of the five segments. Kaeso starts to assemble the artifact, while Mushamee runs toward him with the fifth and final part.
At this stage, Mushamee has slain two guardians, Vinz has destroyed four, and Rufus is still battling four more in the eastern passage. The remaining six – pursuing Mushamee, Kaeso, and Leif up the western passage – are rapidly converging on Kaeso and Vinz. Leif raises Necros' Spirit Reaper and engages them, slowing their pursuit.
With only one drop of blood remaining, Kaeso has the rod all but complete. Mushamee reaches Kaeso and joins the last segment of the rod to the other four. At first, nothing happens, and Mushamee and Vinz turn to join Leif in destroying the remaining guardians. Moments later, though, the floor starts to shake and the skeletal beings simply crumble to ash. This saves Rufus' life . . . he picks himself and his dropped Spirit Knife up, and limps toward his allies, barely alive.
All five adventurers head for the intersection, Mushamee and Kaeso bickering over who will carry the completed rod. It soon becomes evident that the strange, cross-shaped area is rising. After a few moments, evening light appears in the shaft overhead, while the four horizontal passages start to slope away and down, and take on a stepped shape. The adventurers realize that they are standing atop a step pyramid that is rising from the earth. Kaeso applies his sense of artifacts to the rumbling structure, and detects that it is a device that will greatly amplify Spirit Anaconda's dominion over death.
As the pyramid slowly rises, Leif and Vinz take a moment to heal up. There's little to be done for Rufus here, though. The hope is that the quest is complete and that it will be possible to treat Rufus in a less-hostile setting.
Eventually, the pyramid is fully above ground. It stands among several others just like it in Spirit Anaconda's temple complex. The heroes see the high priest standing nearby, his arms extended above his head as if summoning the new edifice. He seems pleased, so it is clear that whatever the group has done, it was the right thing . . . from Spirit Anaconda's point of view, at any rate.
Time: Evening, Odin 21, 1002 Imperial Reckoning.
Place: Bizarre tunnel complex beneath Spirit Anaconda's temple, Teclá.
Last Event: Sacrificing Vlad's soul to a giant serpent to gain access to the portal within its mouth.
With the serpent's jaws open, the adventurers waste no time. They don helms, raise shields, and draw swords, and then file through the portal. Instantly, they find themselves transported to a small, cubical chamber with stone walls. Rufus senses that the room is suffused with weird energies. Peering through the walls, he sees corridors leading off into the darkness in the four cardinal directions, as well as straight up.
Moments later, a mental presence communicates empathically that there is a rod in five parts beyond the walls of the chamber, and that the group has just 10 drips of a water clock – in this case, a blood clock – to fetch these parts and assemble the rod. To emphasize this, a telepathic voice speaks:
"You must assemble the rod in the time of 10 drops of blood. Begin."
With that, the ceiling and walls grate aside, leaving the party standing in a five-way intersection. Passages some 40 feet in length extend to the left and right, ahead and behind, and directly up. At the far end of each tunnel is a glittering segment of the rod. Guarding each of the four horizontal halls are four skeletal beings with stiffened serpents as staffs. Overhead, the fifth shaft appears to be unguarded.
The heroes spring into action. Mushamee, Rufus, Vinz, and Leif each run for a different horizontal passage. Kaeso whips out a flight elixir, drinks it, and goes airborne a moment later, flying directly upward.
Mushamee's incredible speed lets him weave past the four guardians in the southern passage with little effort. Dealing a few swift blows to drive off his foes, he snatches the first piece of the rod and promptly starts back with it. The guardians cannot corner him or even significantly hinder him. He is in the intersection plotting his next move before the fifth drop of blood.
Rufus attempts something similar in the eastern passage, but as he lacks Mushamee's celerity, he quickly finds himself beset by the four guardians in his path. Their staffs prove more than capable of denting his armor, and each blow delivers a horrible poison that saps his life energy. Soon, he is pressed against the wall, fighting for his life!
Vinz heads west. He, too, lacks Mushamee's fleetness of foot, but uses canny tactics to avoid being encircled. In five drops of blood, he gathers his chi to deal four devastating blows that slaughter his opponents. After that, the passage is clear. Vinz dashes to his objective unchallenged.
Leif charges up the northern passage. He uses brute strength to knock down and trample his foes. They land a few blows, but these do little to slow the ogre-sized warrior. He easily wins his segment of the rod, and savagely forces his way back to the intersection.
Kaeso flies straight up, his elixir propelling him much faster than anticipated. Such is the nature of weird science! He hits the ceiling, grabs the piece of the rod there, and then plunges back into the intersection. Seeing Mushamee and Leif converging on the same spot with their fragments of the rod, Vinz moving unobstructed toward the western bit, and Rufus beleaguered many yards from the final part, Kaeso jets past Rufus and snatches the eastern objective.
Back in the intersection, Leif and Mushamee clear a path for Kaeso. Kaeso zooms past Rufus and his foes, through this opening, and toward Vinz. Leif tosses his part of the rod that way as well, and Vinz skillfully traps it between his sword and his shield. With just two drops of blood left on the clock, Kaeso and Vinz meet at the end of the western passage with four of the five segments. Kaeso starts to assemble the artifact, while Mushamee runs toward him with the fifth and final part.
At this stage, Mushamee has slain two guardians, Vinz has destroyed four, and Rufus is still battling four more in the eastern passage. The remaining six – pursuing Mushamee, Kaeso, and Leif up the western passage – are rapidly converging on Kaeso and Vinz. Leif raises Necros' Spirit Reaper and engages them, slowing their pursuit.
With only one drop of blood remaining, Kaeso has the rod all but complete. Mushamee reaches Kaeso and joins the last segment of the rod to the other four. At first, nothing happens, and Mushamee and Vinz turn to join Leif in destroying the remaining guardians. Moments later, though, the floor starts to shake and the skeletal beings simply crumble to ash. This saves Rufus' life . . . he picks himself and his dropped Spirit Knife up, and limps toward his allies, barely alive.
All five adventurers head for the intersection, Mushamee and Kaeso bickering over who will carry the completed rod. It soon becomes evident that the strange, cross-shaped area is rising. After a few moments, evening light appears in the shaft overhead, while the four horizontal passages start to slope away and down, and take on a stepped shape. The adventurers realize that they are standing atop a step pyramid that is rising from the earth. Kaeso applies his sense of artifacts to the rumbling structure, and detects that it is a device that will greatly amplify Spirit Anaconda's dominion over death.
As the pyramid slowly rises, Leif and Vinz take a moment to heal up. There's little to be done for Rufus here, though. The hope is that the quest is complete and that it will be possible to treat Rufus in a less-hostile setting.
Eventually, the pyramid is fully above ground. It stands among several others just like it in Spirit Anaconda's temple complex. The heroes see the high priest standing nearby, his arms extended above his head as if summoning the new edifice. He seems pleased, so it is clear that whatever the group has done, it was the right thing . . . from Spirit Anaconda's point of view, at any rate.