A Wellspring of Regret

[Nina]

The party feel back into the ruins the the woods and hills to the north fully aflame. The made for the south side but found flames licking around from the east.

Tooli stepped forward wand raised and intoned a spell in a language none could decipher, then she cursed. "I have no spell to command the wind and what i do have is not enough. I fear there is another witch, out of sight, who is working the fire to surround us and burn us out."

 

They heroes rush around for several minutes looking for a clear way out to no avail. The heat growing from the flames burning against the rubble of the walls of the ancient ruins and the smoke filling the air chocking them. It was only a matter of time.

 

"Tooli!"  Antares called to his charge. When she turned to him he pointed west to the lake. "The falls the fire is not at the top if we can get up there."

 

Tooli ran to the lake side, the others following. "I can make a narrow passage on the water that will hold our weight. Be careful though, we do not know how deep the water is and if you can't swim..." she lets her voice trail off.

 

Raising her wand she speaks another spell and a portion of the water barely two feet across rises and inch or so above the rest lake.  "Hurry I must go last"

 

Spoiler

If you step upon the water bridge you find it solid but spongy. You must make several dex saves to make it all the way across. if you go very slow at 1/2 your move you need to make 4 dex saves at dc8, if you move at you full move make 3 saves at DC 12 if you sprint make 2 saves DC16. if everyone makes it across you find thatthere are rocks you can stand upon at ther foot of the falls. Theses are not raging falls and there are several breaks where rocks above force the water to the sides  and the top is only 20-30 feet. if you can get a rope up and tied off everyone but Antares can climb he will have to be hauled up or levitated someway.... If any one falls into the lake further action will halt. go one at a time in whatever order you wish. make all of that one persons rolls and post her crossing.

 

Go!

 

[Asarasa]

Kathra was comfortable on the water, familiar with boats, and had done her time hauling nets at Land's End. But when dwarves built bridges, they built with stone and they were built to last. The big dwarf woman gave the bridge of water a doubtful look, but finally gave a grunt as she felt the heat of the rising flames grow closer.

"I'll take the path first," Kathra proclaimed stoutly. "If I should fall, worry not. I can recover myself."

Kathra took one step, planting her foot solidly. She frowned. The magicked water took her weight, though it bowed some. She took another. It seemed stable enough. Her third step was too close to the edge of the path of raised water, the spongy surface giving out under her foot. 

Before she could plunge into the cold water, Kathra spoke one of the words graven upon the Vow on her soul. There was a flash of silver and Kathra reappeared more than twenty feet further down the water bridge. She gasped and shook her head, fiery braids flying wildly. "Ware!" she shouted over the roar of the flames. "Stay to the middle as much as you can."

Being far more cautious, Kathra carefully made her way across the path she felt was far more precarious than it was actually was. She finally made it to the base of the falls, skidding on the  broad, flat, wet rocks. She glanced up the tumbling water and snorted. "Next! I'll see about securing a rope."

Hoping the major battles were done for the day, Kathra expended the last of the strongest magic of her vow and with another flash of silver, she teleported to the top of the falls. Taking the thick coil of rope from her pack, Kathra set about securing it for the others to climb up, and fashioning a loop at the end if hoisting was needed.

Rope secured with a clove hitch to a sturdy spar of rock, and the end fashion in a figure eight knot with a broad loop, Kathra tossed the rope down the falls for the others. Her jade eyes widened at what she saw. It was hard to discern through the distortion of the water - and possibly the magic - but there was something below in the water. Something not all that much wider than the magicked bridge.

"Careful!" Kathra called out through her cupped hands over the falls and the small lake. "I can't see clearly, but there seems to be some manner of structure or ruins below Tooli's bridge."

 

Spoiler

Spells: 1st-3/4, 2nd-0/3

Cast Misty Step twice, once to recover from a failed roll, and once to skip to the top of the falls.

Moving at Half Speed.
Asarasa Request: [3 1d20+4] Rolls:
[2] Result: 6 - fail
[13] Result: 17 - succeed
[5] Result: 9 - succeed
Asarasa Request: [1d20+4] Roll: [4] Result: 8 - succeed (barely)
 

 

Edited January 31 by Asarasa

[SalmonMax]

Maighan strolled over to the rope, took hold of her musical instrument and strummed a tune on it that started quiet and slow but quickly built to a soaring crescendo. By the time the melody closed, her feet were hovering an inch or two off the ground. She stooped over, scooped up the rope, and began levitating straight up, using her grip on the rope to maneuver herself laterally towards the cliff. At the top, with a tug, she pulled herself over the lip of it and lowered back to the ground.

 

"It's a very pretty waterfall, isn't it? Suitable for a climactic duel perhaps, or a dramatic suicide."

[Exile_Jeane]

Spoiler

Here we go, 4 dc 8 reflex saves...

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+2] Roll: [17] Result: 19

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+2] Roll: [5] Result: 7

Whelp. Into the Drink she goes!

 

A small voice in her ear urged Marida to jump down and investigate the ruins Kathra reported, but she wasn't feeling up to fighting any primordial lake monsters that may or may not be lurking below.

 

One quarter of the way across? No problem. Another quarter of the way across? Her burden of a dead witch sent her off the bridge and into the dark water below. "Shite on 'e biscite!" the Grugach warrior called before she hit the very very cold water with a splash.

 

 

[Nina]

The fire spread with supernatural speed till it was blazing all along the bank of the small lake and was now burning within the  border of the ruins as dried brush and refuse from the archeology dig ignited from the heat.

 

Two of the party had made the crossing when Marida carrying the body of the witch made her attempt and fell!

 

Brarga saw Marida and the witch topple off and stepped onto the bridge to run and help but at the instant Marida hit the water, the water bridge collapsed, and Antares had to pull the Dragonborn back lest he end up in the lake as well.

 

Marida struggled for only an instant. She hadn't even dropped the witch when she felt her feet touch some solid Surface under the water. Getting her balance, she stood and noticed that the water about her was lowering. In fact, the water in the whole of the lake seemed to be dropping, draining away into a huge pit with no visible bottom!

 

Marida was standing on a surface flat and dry.

 

It jutted out from the end of the lake near where the falls still poured into a black abyss. It was wide, four horses could walk along it abreast and still leave room for a man to walk on either side. Looking over the edge, or from the shore one could see that the construct was the same thickness as its width. Toward the end pointing toward the shore the object narrowed sharply into a pyramidal point. At the base of that pyramid was a deep indentation also shaped like an inverted pyramid. There were unknown runes carved all about this indentation. The whole thing was made of solid stone that was to them now familiar, it was the greenish marble of Heart Stone!

 

Spoiler

Assume everyone is now on the construct it has been only a minute. Tooli levitate Brarga and Antares to the construct while Kathra and maighan climbed onto it from the falls where it comes from out of the rock there.

 

Post at will

 

[Shameless]

With the flames surrounding them, Brarga had been about to trust in his strength to help his comrade.  Still It was for the best that Antares had stopped him as the waters receded, revealing a construct that was certainly not of modern origin.   "Out of the Fire, and onto the Unkown.  This is a growing habit of ours I think."  He mused.  "Is this really what it seems to be then?"

[Exile_Jeane]

"Ye were a tricksy one, weren't ye?" Marida asked her dead trophy as she kneeled to strip the woman and see what trinkets or clues she might have for the party's more scholarly members. Goblin arrows and spearheads joined the discard pile, removed from ashen flesh to let the healing ring on her finger do start doing it's work of knitting her wounds. 

 

"Bin that way since 'Ve known ye," she offered sardonically without looking up at the half-dragon, "Bet ye e' haif copper this es what had the boggins so rilled, one way o' thae other."

 

Spoiler

Investigate to search the witch's body.

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20] Roll: [7] Result: 7 Huh. 7, my not so old friend.

 

[Nina]

After extracting the arrows Marida started rifling the witches robes only to drawback hand going to her hilt.

 

The witch moved, groaned and coughed, her black eyes fluttering open.

[SalmonMax]

"Easy now," Maighan cautions the witch, eyes glinting. "You're well and truly in our custody now. Any magic or attempt to escape is ill-advised."

 

She smiles. "I wouldn't worry too much. This is a heroic lot. If you don't give them an excuse to, I expect they won't kill you."

[Asarasa]

"Aye, I wouldn't be so sure of that," Kathra said brightly in passing, jade eyes studying the Heart Stone plinth they were standing upon. "I don't make common cause with those trying to kill me and my companions, lest they can offer direct aid in dispatching a greater evil." The burly dwarf woman nodded towards the edge of the column and the unknown depths beyond it. "Leastwise, we won't be cruel in asking for compliance. There's two ways out of this."

Kathra continued on towards the tapering end of the unexpected pillar, eyes roving over the multitude of runes. She wasn't unduly concerned the lack of balustrades or guard rails putting a barrier to a surely deadly fall - such was common among grand dwarven stonework. She paused, frowning down at the indentation in the tip of the pillar, a hand on her hip. Then she glanced over a shoulder at the fey eladrin.

'What say you, Maighin? Think you we have a Key to fit this improbable Keyhole?"

Edited February 13 by Asarasa

[SalmonMax]

Maighan blinked at that, then reached into her pack to produce the Keystone she'd gotten.

 

"Well now. I might just at that."

 

She brought it to the plinth and warily held her hands out, positioning the stone over the plinth...clearly ready to drop it if it yelled 'boo'.

 

"Ah...how do they work here? Any magic words? Gestures? Sacrifices?"

[Nina]

Maighan crouched over the beckoning opening the Key held tightly. She looked closely to see it there was any particular way to insert it when suddenly the Key lept from her hand and positioned itself directly over the receptacle.

 

The Key began spinning this way and that becoming a blue then it slammed into the keyhole with a silent bust of magical energy!

 

The fire raging along the shore and within the ruins, which had been all but forgotten, was snuffed out by and unfelt wind. Smoldering trees, once green and mighty, fell like dead husks. The clutter and detritus of the ruins and the camp and the surrounding grounds were thrown away from the yawning chasm which had once been a lake.

 

All of this went unnoticed by our heroes.

 

The Pillar broke free from the cliff face where the falls still plunged into the abyss. It swung upright the pyramid point pointing toward the sky. The heroes went with in and indeed felt no change in body yet their senses were struck by a strange vertigo for they were standing upon the side of the soaring pillar as is it were still a floor and not a wall!

 

Their shock and amazement lasted barely a moment for now a brilliant beam of multicolored light shot from the Key and the pillar began to spin, showering a rainbow spray across the land. Again, while our heroes could see this which caused distress they felt no change nor movement of body. Before any of them could react or even utter a coherent word the spinning became something else.

 

The Pillar seemed to unfold, its side stretched out the climbed above enclosing them as the whole edifice turned inside out and now the Party was blinded, bathed in the radiant rainbow of light.

 

Now sensation of movement.

 

Spinning

 

Loss of balance.

 

Up becomes down becomes right becomes left becomes up again.

 

The rainbow recedes leaving darkness, the party is on its knees, they can feel the Pillar below them but see nothing, sound returns, a wind far off and lonely.

 

Light begins to creep back into sight. The pillar of Heartstone they kneel upon emits this glow. The heroes can see now, the greenish marble of the Hearstone is a pillar no more, instead it stretches far away into a void before and behind, not a pillar anymore but a bridge stretching across the empty space of a black void. The only sound their breathing and that far off wind.

 

Antares is the first to stand. He moves close to the edge and peers over and gives a sound like a neigh as he shakes his head.  The witch, still in Marida’s clutch, whimpers.

 

The Lonely wind blows.

 

Spoiler

Post immediate reactions and what you are doing. I am available to answer questions.  be disruptive have fun bennie's will be givien for really entertaing posts.

 

 

 

 

 

[Exile_Jeane]

Oh, trees take her that was an experience and a half. Marida tightened her grip on the witch instinctively, breath heaving through her lungs and weapons rattling. Huff huff. This magic stuff was for the fae, it was.

 

"Do all of ye still haif a full count 'f ye fingers and toes? Or hooves en ye case, Ser Antares," she called out to the group, adding the last bit with an apologetic grin in defiance of the void around them before looking down at her hostage, "Speak quickly, Witch, aboot all ye know about this or I'm tossing ye like a kaiber into the void tae see how far et goes. Speak well an' we'll see ye home an' out e' our hair soon as we can."

[Shameless]

Brarga let out an annoyed  snarl, and somehow managed to not spill the contents of his stomach at the multitude of different feelings and sensations assaulting his draconic senses all at once.   Blinded by a scintillating rainbow of light, beset by vertigo so powerful as to bring even Brarga to his knees, spun around so much as to not know what direction he faced, it certainly a different thing than he'd experienced.  If all that weren't enough, then there was the dying of the light, leaving them with only the sensation of the pillar beneath them, and then the low moan of a faraway wind.  Just as this was starting to eat at Brarga's mind, light began to return, a soft glow at first from the pillar they now stood upon, revealing a startling transformation, and Transportation it seemed.
 

   Using his powerful arms to steady himself he rises from his knees, the aches of his injuries making themselves felt as he drew himself up.  "That was a wholly unique experience that will be something I never forget, no matter how hard I try."
 

He looks at the others, satisfied that they were all there, and nods at Marida's comment.  "Yes, everything's accounted for.  Anyone want to hazard a guess at where we are?"  He could see the void to either side, and knew falling off the pillar, well bridge now, would be "Bad" with a capital "B."  "Stay to the middle, I don't want anyone to find out if there's a bottom."
 

His mentor and former Commander had spoken at length of the myriad and varied adventures he'd had as a member and then leader of the Eighth Independent Company, and nothing in all his stories,  which Brarga had a better memory of than his youth, was anything like what had befallen this troup thus far.
 

"From the burning forest to a yawning abyss.  Just what the in the world have we gotten ourselves into this time?"
 

He looks to the witch, and his eyes narrow.  
 

He pulls his attention from her over to the others.  "Is everyone else alright?"

[Asarasa]

Braced with a knee and a fist on the ground, stomach roiling, Kathra's head finally began to clear. She stood up slowly with a groan, chest heaving, gorge rising.  Standing up straight once more, she stretched her thick shoulders and burped.

At least, she thought it was going to be a burp. Instead, she spewed forth a fan of rainbow light - akin to the multicoloured display of the Key - each distinct colour of the prismatic release spreading apart and fluttering like a ribbon in a wind as it fell into the void with its own particular musical note. Kathra stared, everyone stared, as the spectrum of musical scales faded away into the endless void and the distant sound of the lonesome wind rose once more.

The wind reminded Kathra of the last time they had shifted planes on which they stood. Though different, this void feel similar to the desert where time and distance seemed nebulous at best.

"Right, that happened. Leastwise, there isn't any sand here," Kathra drawled, giving Brarga a dry look. She glanced one way down the span of Heart Stone, then the other, then down at her feet, before looking back up at her companions. "I... don't think I moved from where I stood when the Key did... whatever it did. If so, I think the Key should be that way... " The big sounded far from certain as she pointed. "We'll need to recover it to fulfill our bargain and save Renn. Which means that way... " Kathra pointed the other way, "... goes where?"

Edited February 23 by Asarasa

[SalmonMax]

Maighan giggled as she got to her feet and looked around. What an adventure this was!

 

"Mortalkind is rather amazing. I've never encountered any people so fond of asking questions before they even look for the answers themselves."

 

She pointed at Brarga. "What in the world have we gotten ourselves into? Why nothing in the world, clearly. A world beyond, or a world between...seldom heard and never seen... But as for what it IS...it is a path. Clad not in silver but in ancient stone! And what is a path FOR?? To be followed, of course! With friends, or all alone."

 

The elflike eladrin gave Kathra a curt nod then. "And as fun as it would be to send you waddling off after the Key..."

 

Her slim-fingered hand turned, displaying the Key Stone nestled in it.

 

"No need. It seems the magic that brought us here foresaw our need to leave it. Convenient! Shall we then?"

 

She waited for everyone to decide which way they wanted to go...her destiny was to accompany them, after all, not to lead them.

Edited February 24 by SalmonMax

[Nina]

While reactions and comments were made Marida knelt astride the witch her hand holding the wicked casters throat. The witch squirmed.

 

Marida brought her full attention back to her prisoner and her grip tightened.

 

“Wait mistress,” the witch gasped, “I do not know what magic this is, but I can help you I know things I will serve you if you let me live!”

 

This brought everyone’s attention back to the captured witch.

[Shameless]

Brarga looked at the witch, and spoke clearly, something that took a certain effort given the current circumstances.   "And What assurance would you offer us, to buy your life, and our trust?"   It was a simple question, and in truth, it was likely to be Marida's call.  She was currently the one with the easiest means of killing her after all.   He didn't think they could truly trust this witch, but as much as he hated it, Magic might offer the answer to this.  "Is there some way to guarantee her compliance to any oath she'd make?"

[Nina]

The witch looked defiant but there was fear in her eye.

 

It was Tooli who spoke up, “Have her swear by the Bridge of Erythemees. If she breaks that oath she will wander the world until the sun burns out, a powerless shade, never crossing into the afterlife, never know peace or rest.”

 

 Tooli turns away and looks down the long road, “or throw her over the side and be done with it we have things to do. We should go this way.” She nods to Maighan, “You have the key, you should lead.”

 

Spoiler

Knowledge of the Bridge or Erythemees requires a dc15 religion check

 

[Exile_Jeane]

Foe or no, it sat wrong with Marida to simply condemn someone to an unknown fate in a magical void. Besides, the goblins, if they ever got a hold of the woman who led them into such a ruinous battle, surely would do even worse given half a chance. The witch was in quite the situation.   

 

"Swear an oath by yon bridge tae do us nae harm by action er inaction and I'd bae happy enough tae welcome ye as a boon companion of forced fate 'ntil tha time we can split paths. Seems to mae ye are nae more happy to be here than us," she offered with the mercy of a victor, "What say ye?"

[Nina]

The witch hissed and her head turned to and fro but in the end she slumpped in resignation. "I swear to serve as to my ability and to cause no harm nor hindrance, I, Agmeara of Cholchiss, Second of the Barren Circle so swear by the Bridge of Erythemees, that should my oath fail I be denied crossing and respite."

 

In the dark distance the Lonely Wind blew and chimes could be hear riding that wind, everyone felt a chill and goosebumps raised on flesh. Then the sound faded and the wind as well.

 

"Right then can we go now?" said Tooli, unmoved by events.

[Shameless]

Brarga nodded, then looked to Maighan.  "You take the lead with the stone, we'll head this way."  He said, as he pointed behind himself.  "We have no idea which way leads where, unless one of you has the means to determine that, so we simply need to choose.  I choose this way."  He spoke evenly, as it wasn't a challenge.  There were times to make a decision, and this was one, but if someone had a better reason to choose another way, he'd hear it of course.  If not, then he was ready to shoulder the responsibility.

[Nina]

Tooli looks crossly at the dragonborn but says nothing and shaking her head goes to stand by Antares as the party readies itself.

 

Marida draws ot some rope to bind the witch but Tooli stops her. “Leave her free, we may need her magic and not have time. She serves you now. She won’t break that oath.”

 

If looks were daggers. The witch turns from glaring at Tooli and bows her head to Marida. “Your will, Mistress.”

 

Marida cuts her eyes from between Tooli and the witch and tells the witch to walk ahead of her so she can keep an eye on her.

 

The party sets off Maighan leading the way. It’s width makes it hard notto think of the construct as a road and so that is what they call it.

 

The Road stretches on and after about quarter of a mile from where they started they come to a section that branches off the main. The branch is narrower, still wide enough for a single wagon, and goes off in a straight line from the main road. The main road continues straight.

[SalmonMax]

Maighan pauses at the crossroads, peers off into the darkness. She experimentally holds the Key up in her hand, watching it as she turns to face one way, then the other. Surely it would move, or glow, or otherwise indicate the path they were meant to take? If not, then they'd have to guess and follow one, possibly turning back if it turned out to be wrong.

[Nina]

They key rests in the Eladrin's hand quiescent, then suddenly one side glows brightly.

 

The side facing Maighan.

 

Then the glow fades and another side glows which fades and another lights. 

 

In turn each side glows, briefly and in no discernable order and it continues like this for several moments, blinking from side to side to side then it goes dark. and then the side facing down the main road lights and remains lit.