A Secret in Merkabah pt 13
Emblem of Ea - Tuesday, February 16, 2021, 9:10 PM
Last episode, on A Secret in Merkabah:
In some sort of containment chamber, deep within the black-tech bowels of fallen Merkabah, the adventurers have encountered a source of brilliant light and searing heat:
Magicite crystals!
They cake most surfaces of the vault, and react to the presense of the group by coalescing first into a humanoid figure, that then creates nearly a half dozen smaller versions of itself.
With Seldan's cunning invocation of a Tiny Hut to provide shelter from the environmental threats, these beings are stymied to respond to the hasty engagement by the wary outsiders, who choose to engage!
We rejoin the battle in progress...
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-- Contents --=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- Merek A black-haired, dusky male with golden eyes. 4m 2h Morgan Short pixy like half elf with fair skin 1m 26m Seldan Ginger-blonde human in armor wearing Eluna's symbol. 2m 1h Serene Glacier meets granite meets strawberries. 2m 16m Stirling Powerfully built Arvek with enormous chrome gauntlets 16m 16m Stjepan Big, blonde jotun. 3m 1h Toha A woman shaped contrivance of leather and steel, with 0s 0s Un'eth An ebon-scaled female Sith-makar 9m 29m Whirlpool I am stinky! 1m 2d -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Light and heat. The creature, made of pure magicite, cracks and crinkles even as it threatens to overwhelm with both. While it hjas been aggressive, it hasn't so much as *directly* attakced you yet and has proven somewhat resistant to magic... unsurprisingyl. It's made of magicite, after all.
The room is filled with blinding white light.
The light is getting brighter and brighter, and Seldan can barely see at all, never mind looking at it. His spell was effective, but ... was it truly so, or did it speed it on the path to disaster?
With these thoughts in mind, he reverses tack, and begins a different spell, stacking three interlocking sigils together side by side in the air before him and speaking a phrase. They burst into violet fire before him, a spell that many here have seen him cast a hundred times. A strange and archaic method, but he shouts a final word and slashes through all three sigils with a knife hand. The violet fire turns black, and pulls _in_ on itself, targeting the nearly overwhelming magic of the crystal itself, seeking to pull it into the void with that blackness.
...the light dims. It's here you realize that it won't stay dimmed long. Magicite is too powerful, and dispel magic is not it's opposite, nethercite, or anti-magic as it were.
Still, being able to see the crystal creature more clearly has its advantages. For one, in it torso, you can see the shape of a man. There's... someone *trapped* in there, alive, given the fidgeting of their body. Another prisoner, perhaps. Still, it's clear they are in pain from their expression, crystal like vines wrapped around tghem, biting into their body and skin and burrowed into their skull.
It looks horrible.
GAME: Stirling rolls ref: (5)+21: 26 GAME: Morgan rolls ref: (1)+9: 10 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Serene rolls reflex: (6)+28: 34 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 5d6: (15): 15 GAME: Toha rolls reflex: (10)+7: 17 GAME: Seldan rolls reflex: (11)+21: 32 GAME: Magicite shrapnel damaged Toha for 15 points. 40 HP remaining. GAME: Stjepan rolls ref: (4)+7: 11 GAME: Un'eth rolls reflex: (20)+13: 33 (CRITICAL SUCCESS) GAME: Merek rolls reflex: (19)+12: 31 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 5d6: (20): 20
There's an explosion of crystal from it. It's clear that it's ability to act has been ... staggered by the dispel magic. Shards of crystal grow on it, leaving it looking rather like a statuesque porcupine, and then they explode outwards, in all directions. Avoiding them will prove difficult.
Anyone who ever has stepped on glass will tell you that the wost part isn't so much the stepping on it, it's the way that it digs in afterwards with every move. The more you move, the more it digs.
GAME: Stjepan rolls cmb +4: (2)+21+4: 27 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 5d6: (15): 15
Stjepan boldly rushes to grapple the human infused crystal, but is thwarted by it's jagged edges! (Placeholder)
GAME: Toha rolls weapon6: (14)+16: 30 GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+16: (7)+16: 23 GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-3: (19)+16+-3: 32 GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+16: (9)+16: 25 GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-3: (14)+16+-3: 27 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 5d5: (16): 16 GAME: Embedded shrapnel damaged Toha for 16 points. 90 AND 5 TEMP HP remaining.
Freshly pincushioned in the wake of the magicite explosion, Toha, leeking prodigious amounts of quicksilver from her various wounds, lashes out in her rage, bringing the tenderizing face of Piriona's earthbreaker form across some of the smaler golems pressing her and Serene.
GAME: Serene healed alllies for 72 points.
Serene turns her face in an attempt to shield her gaze from the glare... but as the glare fades when Seldan's magic attempts to strip the energy away from the golem, she sees the spikes grow just in time. She pivots, sideways, and crouches, pulling her cloak about her just as the shattered shards spray out. Then she rises, her eyes locking on Toha as she directs the magic she cast earlier the construct warrior's way.
With that business taken care of, Serene looks to the luminous golem once again, noting the figure inside.. and she seems to come to a decision. Her sword gets sheathed, then once again she channels Eluna's divine energy in a pulse that blankets over everyone close to her.
GAME: Morgan rolls Knowledge/Arcana+6: (9)+26+6: 41
Morgan smacks her self in her head "Use sound base attacks, sonic in nature. Shit I dont know any." She says hoping every one can hear her.
GAME: Merek casts Destruction. Caster Level: 14 DC: 21 GAME: Merek rolls 1d20+14: (16)+14: 30 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+22: (2)+22: 24 GAME: Merek rolls 10d6: (25): 25
Merek draws along the holy power of the divine into the magicite while he begins to get it by the spell resistance. It doesn't do a lot, still it's more of necromantic magic than it is considering anything else.
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+13: (9)+13: 22 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+13: (16)+13: 29 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+13: (20)+13: 33(THREAT) GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+13: (5)+13: 18 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 2d6+8: (11)+8: 19 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 2d6+8: (6)+8: 14 GAME: Li'l Magicite Golem damaged Toha for 33 points. 62 HP remaining. GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+12: (14)+12: 26 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+12: (10)+12: 22 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+12: (13)+12: 25 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+12: (9)+12: 21 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+14: (4)+14: 18 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+14: (11)+14: 25
The smaller ones have been staring at the invisiblity provided by Seldan's hut. They know that they're in there, but well, it isn't until Toha makes her appearance that they start acting.
And act they do, smashing into her again and again. Serene's revealed appearance is also resulted in *her* being tackled by them, but it's largely ineffective. Toha is far more dented, but then, those dents pop back out due to the magical pulse Serene used. It's helpful, to be sure, to have a potent paladin on your side, let alone two.
GAME: Un'eth rolls bab+strength-2+3: (13)+13+10+-2+3: 37 GAME: Un'eth rolls bab+strength-2+3: (7)+13+10+-2+3: 31 GAME: Un'eth rolls bab+strength-2+3: (11)+13+10+-2+3: 35 GAME: Un'eth rolls bab+strength-2+3: (15)+13+10+-2+3: 39 GAME: Un'eth rolls bab+strength-2+3: (8)+13+10+-2+3: 32 GAME: Un'eth rolls bab+strength-2+3: (7)+13+10+-2+3: 31 GAME: Un'eth rolls 2d6+strength: (10)+10: 20 GAME: Un'eth rolls 1d8+strength: (5)+10: 15 GAME: Un'eth rolls 1d8+strength: (1)+10: 11 GAME: Un'eth rolls 2d6+strength: (7)+10: 17 GAME: Un'eth rolls 2d6+strength: (9)+10: 19 GAME: Un'eth rolls 2d6+strength: (8)+10: 18
Given the concerns of magic, and the eating thereof, Un'eth attacks the smaller magicitic things the more direct route; tooth and claw. Also wings and tail, in this instance. When in doubt, hit it harder, more ferociously. This maxim has served her well, and crumbles a pair of the animated magical crystal creatures.
Cesran is dimly aware of what's going on around him. His brain feels like it's in thick, half-frozen mud. He can't move at all from where he is. He can make out only vague blurry shapes, like trying to see underwater. He sees fighting, but there is little he can do about it. Any spell he might cast is lost before he can even form the first syllable in his mind.
GAME: Stirling rolls ranged+1: (7)+18+1: 26 GAME: Stirling rolls 8d6+6+1 electric: (37)+6+1 electric: 44
Stirling watches the shots and magic taking place around him until the figure in the golem is revealed. He raises his deathray to his artificial eye and fires another crackling beam of lighting at the construct, breaking off more crystals. "If we can get part of the body free, I should be able to pull him out with a Freedom of Movement contraption." he adds as he racks the slide to prepare another shot.
There's an explosion of crystal from the creature. The great one. Not like the one *before*. These crystals don't streak out to hurt you, no. Instead, it seems to lose some of its mass as molten crystal spreads out from its feet on the ground, spreading, spreading, spreading...
Stjepan watches the molten crystal start to spread, and steps back, darting towards te cover of the hut. He might be big, but he gets low, putting some crazy magic between himself and the rest of the crazy magic.
GAME: Toha rolls weapon6: (12)+16: 28 GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+16 just in case: (6)+16 just in case: 22 GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-3: (5)+16+-3: 18 GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-8: (1)+16+-8: 9 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Whirlpool rolls 5d6: (16): 16 GAME: Embedded shrapnel damaged Toha for 16 points. 48 HP remaining.
Toha, in the wake of rending, mending, and rending anew, continues to savagely lash out with her great hammer, speckles of mirrored fluid dotting the area as the jagged crystals continue to get ground into her body with hre franti movements.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
GAME: Serene rolls 1d20+20: (1)+20: 21 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Serene casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 20 DC: 25 GAME: Serene rolls 1d20+20+5+5+1: (8)+20+5+5+1: 39 GAME: Serene rolls 1d8+5+5: (5)+5+5: 15
Serene snaps her fingers... or rather, makes the motion, as it is rather difficult for a gloved and gauntletted hand to actually snap... and a runed silver rod appears briefly in her hand. She points it at the spreading molten crystal and speaks a word, but her magic just flows ineffectively over it. She grunts, once, and then the rod is gone again as she draws her sword and apparently decides to try and break Cesran out in a more tried and true fashion.
GAME: Merek casts Create Water. Caster Level: 14 DC: 14
Merek looks to the molten crystal that is coming to the party, then he begins to open up the Plane of Elemental Water, which begins bringing that upon the molten liquid, turning it into a slag. The man nods a bit to the party. What can you do, it's what the man likes to use when there is a flame.
Cesran can feel the haze starting to slowly lift from his mind. Not yet enough with it to help any, but enough so that he can see people that he recognizes are outside. Outside of what though...that's still eludes him. Cesran winces as he feels the re-vibrations from Serene's sword and tingle of Stirling's death ray. Whatever he's in is taking the damage, but he can still feel the sensations. He tries to flex his fingers and move, but finds he's locked in place.
Stirling seems to be having some luck inflicting damage with his deathray and racks another shell to light up the golem once again with the bolt of lightning that erupts from his deathray to break more crystal shards off. "Just keep at it, its breaking up."
Clawing the thing to shreds might be rewarding; Un'eth even considered checking to see if it might be like that gnomish crystalline candy some of the Younglings discovered... but, no. She's fairly certain that the one trapped within is not Mul'niessa, so there are some qualms against consumption.
Instead, Un'eth rushes forward and lunges in not-quite-flight aided by powerful wingbeats. She leads with her taloned forelimbs as she impacts it to knock it from the congealing puddle. She is a dragon, not a pachycephalosaurus, afterall.
To be continued...