2020-02-04 – Aerial delving – Heret
Apr 11, 2020 20:45:15 GMT
Pieni, Queen Merla, the Sun-Blessed, and 1 more like this
Post by Heret Velnnarul on Apr 11, 2020 20:45:15 GMT
3 Alturiak, 1379 AR
encamped on a body of stone and earth floating in the Elemental Plane of Air
Today provided ample distraction from the memories that this day is apt to bring.
As asked by GV, I attended at Portal Plaza this morning to await those others who would answer Raksus’ request for help. Passed a little time with Jenna, who seems more inclined to make conversation – most likely W has told her some things about me and she wishes to take my measure for herself. There soon arrived:
Arriving in Zot Goran, met by GV and Torven of the Errant Guard. T said the usual air currents in the Plane of Air were being disrupted by a sort of weapon or engine left there after an ancient war between the denizens of that plane and those of the Earthen Plane. The engine was housed in a floating mass of rock and had awakened from long dormancy at about the same time that the recent war ended. T would lead us to investigate.
Most remarkable journey! At first we all seven were sealed within a sphere of glass, the which was projected like a great sling-shot into the sky at astonishing speed. Yet before it could fall, it seemed to pass through some sort of bright veil and slowed to a halt in mid-air beside a sort of shallow, many-sailed ship, not altogether unlike the vessel that raided the village on the Kundar road some months past. The ship in turn was tethered to a dock; yet dock, ship, and glass sphere were all simply adrift in the empty air! Or, rather, I could hardly tell whether they (and we) were drifting, or utterly still, or falling, or rising – for there was no ground below to fall to, nor any fixed place to anchor my gaze. The Plane of Air! I had never thought to see it.
Aboard the ship we journeyed for some hours until the wind blew stronger and the ship rolled as on a stormy sea. Ahead was the destination, like a hill untethered from the land around, a great portion of the earth drifting and spinning. From some parts of it matter was being spewed out on strong winds, while in another place any detritus floating in the air around was being drawn in. This latter current soon caught the ship and dragged us faster and faster toward the rock. The crew’s efforts to slow our arriving had some success until the force of the current splintered a mast; the ship span off course and was wracked on the flying hillock – injuring all but, by Tymora’s whim, killing none.
We had landed not far from two openings into the mass of stone and earth. One, carefully worked and smoothed, was the source, or rather the destination, of the strong current of wind sucking flotsam in; the other an inelegant, roughly cut square hole like a door. B, possessed, it seems, of some expertise in such matters, declared it typical of earth elemental stonework, for those creatures can move through earth and rock and so cut doors and corridors grudgingly and carelessly, and only when they must accommodate others who lack their ability to traverse the stone itself.
Through the door and down a tunnel we came upon a series of large and slowly turning circles of stone, pierced by openings at different points, so that we would have great difficulty passing through them all without being trapped and crushed. To make matters worse, the mass of land through which we were travelling was all the while turning in the air, so that our corridor was slowly becoming a chute down which we must surely tumble into the grinding stones. But soon M, A, and I found ways to still their turning and avoid the traps among them, and we all advanced on our way.
Next came a gauntlet of swinging blades and hammers – but turned on its side, so that they projected from the left and scythed up and down across the right-hand wall. The next moments shewed the folly of some of my companions, for no sooner had I examined the matter and conveyed to my fellows both the safest route (the left-hand way) and my belief that I could render it safer still by jamming the mechanism than M launched himself down the right-hand side of the corridor and W down the centre. The former was cut and pierced by divers blades on the way, the latter quite badly knocked by the swinging wooden poles. Even S, who I had thought to have better sense, set off along the left-hand side, apparently concerned to tend the wounds of the other two. But B and T prudently waited and helped me disable the machinery so that we three could pass through entirely unharmed.
A few more corridors led to a large room of spherical shape, with a powerful wind swirling inside it, whipping rocks and dirt swiftly all around. Indeed the chamber contained a very tempest in miniature, with roiling clouds, booms of thunder, and flashes of lightning. This seemed to be the source of the problem that T had unfolded to us, for we could see the storm pushing air and matter out through an opening in the upper reaches of the room and sucking it in through another down below – presumably creating the troublesome currents for miles around.
B espied a reddish stone being flung around in the storm that seemed graven or branded with some kind of symbol, which M swiftly attacked. In the mean while, W, B, A, & S made for the crackling centre of the storm. T was nowhere to be seen until his boomerangs struck B and A – betrayal! But there was no time to reflect on this as a hulking creature of earth and stone appeared and also tried to attack B until I diverted its attention. S cast a shuddering magical force at the centre of the storm and it broke open into a huge creature of lightning. In a moment, M had also shattered the symbol, releasing a blazing orange circle of other symbols that M later said he recognized. The tempest began to disperse as the lightning creature swept an arm through T and the earthen monster and turned them both instantly to ash. It then made a strange piping sound that B later said was the auran language, and flew away through one of the openings in the chamber as the last of the storm died away.
All happened so quickly that I can hardly say what was the cause of what – was the storm ended by the release of the lightning entity or the breaking of the stone with the symbol? Nor do I know the reason of T’s treachery. He left behind a strange mask and a note reading: ‘Torven, the first seal is in there. Take it out and then destroy the evidence. Don’t let anyone escape.’ For whom was he working? There are many mysteries and intrigues here.
This great body of rock, and we upon it, drift now peacefully in the endless sky. S has sent a magical message to Zot Goran to ask for rescue, and we have made camp amid the wrack of our ship. When we return and give our account, I shall be careful to notice who is most surprised by our survival and least surprised by word of Torven’s double-dealing.
Own performance:
encamped on a body of stone and earth floating in the Elemental Plane of Air
Today provided ample distraction from the memories that this day is apt to bring.
As asked by GV, I attended at Portal Plaza this morning to await those others who would answer Raksus’ request for help. Passed a little time with Jenna, who seems more inclined to make conversation – most likely W has told her some things about me and she wishes to take my measure for herself. There soon arrived:
- Bones,
- Markas,
- Wil,
- Sheryl,
- Arkadius, a winged and pungent half-devil, magician, and proprietor of Port Ffirst’s messenger business (must ask W's opinion of him!).
Arriving in Zot Goran, met by GV and Torven of the Errant Guard. T said the usual air currents in the Plane of Air were being disrupted by a sort of weapon or engine left there after an ancient war between the denizens of that plane and those of the Earthen Plane. The engine was housed in a floating mass of rock and had awakened from long dormancy at about the same time that the recent war ended. T would lead us to investigate.
Most remarkable journey! At first we all seven were sealed within a sphere of glass, the which was projected like a great sling-shot into the sky at astonishing speed. Yet before it could fall, it seemed to pass through some sort of bright veil and slowed to a halt in mid-air beside a sort of shallow, many-sailed ship, not altogether unlike the vessel that raided the village on the Kundar road some months past. The ship in turn was tethered to a dock; yet dock, ship, and glass sphere were all simply adrift in the empty air! Or, rather, I could hardly tell whether they (and we) were drifting, or utterly still, or falling, or rising – for there was no ground below to fall to, nor any fixed place to anchor my gaze. The Plane of Air! I had never thought to see it.
Aboard the ship we journeyed for some hours until the wind blew stronger and the ship rolled as on a stormy sea. Ahead was the destination, like a hill untethered from the land around, a great portion of the earth drifting and spinning. From some parts of it matter was being spewed out on strong winds, while in another place any detritus floating in the air around was being drawn in. This latter current soon caught the ship and dragged us faster and faster toward the rock. The crew’s efforts to slow our arriving had some success until the force of the current splintered a mast; the ship span off course and was wracked on the flying hillock – injuring all but, by Tymora’s whim, killing none.
We had landed not far from two openings into the mass of stone and earth. One, carefully worked and smoothed, was the source, or rather the destination, of the strong current of wind sucking flotsam in; the other an inelegant, roughly cut square hole like a door. B, possessed, it seems, of some expertise in such matters, declared it typical of earth elemental stonework, for those creatures can move through earth and rock and so cut doors and corridors grudgingly and carelessly, and only when they must accommodate others who lack their ability to traverse the stone itself.
Through the door and down a tunnel we came upon a series of large and slowly turning circles of stone, pierced by openings at different points, so that we would have great difficulty passing through them all without being trapped and crushed. To make matters worse, the mass of land through which we were travelling was all the while turning in the air, so that our corridor was slowly becoming a chute down which we must surely tumble into the grinding stones. But soon M, A, and I found ways to still their turning and avoid the traps among them, and we all advanced on our way.
Next came a gauntlet of swinging blades and hammers – but turned on its side, so that they projected from the left and scythed up and down across the right-hand wall. The next moments shewed the folly of some of my companions, for no sooner had I examined the matter and conveyed to my fellows both the safest route (the left-hand way) and my belief that I could render it safer still by jamming the mechanism than M launched himself down the right-hand side of the corridor and W down the centre. The former was cut and pierced by divers blades on the way, the latter quite badly knocked by the swinging wooden poles. Even S, who I had thought to have better sense, set off along the left-hand side, apparently concerned to tend the wounds of the other two. But B and T prudently waited and helped me disable the machinery so that we three could pass through entirely unharmed.
A few more corridors led to a large room of spherical shape, with a powerful wind swirling inside it, whipping rocks and dirt swiftly all around. Indeed the chamber contained a very tempest in miniature, with roiling clouds, booms of thunder, and flashes of lightning. This seemed to be the source of the problem that T had unfolded to us, for we could see the storm pushing air and matter out through an opening in the upper reaches of the room and sucking it in through another down below – presumably creating the troublesome currents for miles around.
B espied a reddish stone being flung around in the storm that seemed graven or branded with some kind of symbol, which M swiftly attacked. In the mean while, W, B, A, & S made for the crackling centre of the storm. T was nowhere to be seen until his boomerangs struck B and A – betrayal! But there was no time to reflect on this as a hulking creature of earth and stone appeared and also tried to attack B until I diverted its attention. S cast a shuddering magical force at the centre of the storm and it broke open into a huge creature of lightning. In a moment, M had also shattered the symbol, releasing a blazing orange circle of other symbols that M later said he recognized. The tempest began to disperse as the lightning creature swept an arm through T and the earthen monster and turned them both instantly to ash. It then made a strange piping sound that B later said was the auran language, and flew away through one of the openings in the chamber as the last of the storm died away.
All happened so quickly that I can hardly say what was the cause of what – was the storm ended by the release of the lightning entity or the breaking of the stone with the symbol? Nor do I know the reason of T’s treachery. He left behind a strange mask and a note reading: ‘Torven, the first seal is in there. Take it out and then destroy the evidence. Don’t let anyone escape.’ For whom was he working? There are many mysteries and intrigues here.
This great body of rock, and we upon it, drift now peacefully in the endless sky. S has sent a magical message to Zot Goran to ask for rescue, and we have made camp amid the wrack of our ship. When we return and give our account, I shall be careful to notice who is most surprised by our survival and least surprised by word of Torven’s double-dealing.
Own performance:
- should have taken more control of the mission – it was undisciplined; had thought to let T lead but he did little and allowed some in the party to take foolish risks, which I see now was perhaps his intention;
- should have suspected T – more study of behaviour, more caution with others.
