Middled Out Pt3

...approaching more carefully works.

With Duncan's leadership, you're able to do a little bteter than you might otherwise. The crunches are reduced and at least you're able to go only one directoon.

Soon, you're moving down the tunnels, travelling lower, lower, lower into the earth. After a good five minutes or so of steady decline, the sounds are /definitely/ getting louder.

Constantin has arrived.

Sarcis stays a bit quieter than most as she breaths out a sigh through her nose and looks at Sasha with a forlorn gaze. A long, forlorn, gaze. And then back forward as they continue deeper into the earth and the sounds grow louder. A furrow of her brow and she shrugs, gesturing with a sort of - go on, stop...?

Sasha shrugs at Sarcis....as if to say 'I'm not stealthy! SEE!?'.

Constantin creeps forwards, shield out, sword held at his side in a low guard. He's not quiet -- he's wearing metal armour, after all -- but he's also not trying to be loud.

Yelrona stays behind the man with the shield, bow at the ready

Finally, you reach the bottom of the descent and round a corner and then...

Well, then you're underneath a sky. Rather suddenly, actually. A sort of sky, actually, that is rather a much taller ceiling than should be possible. Distant lights are in the sky, miles high, like stars but more like city lights in the distance, like viewing Alexandria from the sky at night, except you're on the... floor.

It's strange.

r In any case, you're suddenly not where you were, and there's /dozens/ of humanoid earth elementals, xorns, and more /all around you/, going about... some...sort of business?

Like you just stumbled int oa busy market except its all elementals.

And Xorns.

And other earthen-looking creatures.

Soooo.

You don't seem to be in a tunnel anytmore.

GAME: Yelrona rolls knowledge/the planes: (1)+7: 8 (EPIC FAIL)

Constantin stops, dead, looking upwards at the world without a sky. "Oh my." He sheaths his sword, then looks around, trying to see what's on offer at the market.

Sarcis looks about and her eyes widen, almost immediately she starts talking in a sort of graveling tone. A bit like rocks running together and crumbling. She motions to the others to just wait for a moment. After a moment she adds in Trade, "I told them we mean them no harm."

"I... think we may be on the Elemental Plane of Fire," Rona observes. "Or... wait. That's not right."

Several of the smaller earth elementals turn and stop and stare at Sarcis curiously.,

They don't seem hostile, rather, but there is a certain degree of... puzzlement stemming from them. One speaks, it's voice like an avalanche.,

Several more pipe up shortly thereafter.

Constantin looks towards Sarcis, hopeful for a translation.

Sasha also looks to Sarcis.

Yelrona looks at everyone looking to Sarcis, and decides to keep an eye on their surroundings.

Sarcis stares, listening, and nods her head a few times making more noises back at them. She glances away, seeing Sasha and Constantin looking toward her. "Hm? Oh I got nothing, just making rock noises." She makes a couple more noises, pauses, then gives a slow slink of a smile along her painted lips. "Kidding of course. They are commenting on it being odd, and we should be careful. They also ask why we came here. I told them we're here to find Xorns."

Yelrona , having genuinely forgotten that that was what they'd been hired for, looks around for any tracks the missing Xorns might have left.

Constantin grins towards Sarcis, "Thank you." A pause. "There are other xorns here too, right? I wonder how we'll be able to tell them apart."

"I should be able to," Rona says uncertainly. "We've been tracking _our_ Xorn all this time, after all. They leave individual marks, just like people do. At least in theory."

There are indeed other Xorns. You're all able to recognize them, after all, given that you've seen them at Happy Valley before.

Unfortunately, it's gonna be hjard to tell which is which, yes.

Constantin glances towards Rona. "I trust your eye, then." He bites his lip, and doesn't look so confident, himself.

Sasha tilts her head. "If only they had identifying marks...."

GAME: Yelrona rolls survival+3: (20)+13+3: 36

GAME: Sarcis casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 6 DC: 13

GAME: Sarcis rolls spellcraft: (9)+9: 18

Sarcis purses her lips as she looks at the elementals a bit of short conversation and then a glance around. A furrow of her crafted brows as she ponders and then, pauses, with a finger in the air and words on her tongue. "Hm." She holds up her finger again, "Maybe, we have a different aura than the others that live in this realm. If we do, then perhaps the Xorn from our realm will too." A few mumbled words as Yelrona goes about looking for Xorn tracks and the world colors anew.

"Hmm," Sarcis looks at all of them, then back at the Terrans, "I think, we have a lingering aura about us. Conjuration perhaps?"

"That would make sense. Summoned elementals radiate a conjuration aura back home."

...says Rona. "I guess we are summoned materials. Which raises the question: who summoned us?"

"Well," Constantin notes somewhat airily, "we know that they, at least, have good taste."

Yelrona grins. "And don't care much about modesty."

Duncan has been staring at the strange sights all this time. He finally snaps out of it to remark, "'Summoned'? Are we sure we were summoned? It may have been some sort of portal, and we just stumbled through it, right?"

Sasha says, "That's....creepy."

"I don't think that we assumed we were summmoned." Sarcis glances toward Duncan, "More that we have an aura of Conjuration. Incicentally, when we summon a creature to our realm, they have a similar aura. There is probably a spell in Conjuration that could work as a portal, more than a summoning." She reaches up and taps at her chin before looking around to see if she sees any Xorn with a similar aura. "Any luck, Yelrona?"

Yelrona nods to Duncan as she continues to look for tracks, then looks up at Sarcis' question. "Well, actually..."

Constantin flashes his dimples. then nods. "Would that it would be so easy." He nods, looking around at the market once more.

GAME: Sarcis rolls Perception: (8)+12: 20

... passing through the crowd of elementals is not fun or easy. There are a lot of elementals here and other creatures, odd ones, made of stone or other materials. Yes, there are even Xorns, but it's hard to guess if they're the ones you want or no.

A moment passes and a great segment of earth rises in the distance, drawing everything's attention. A...pillar? Platform? Either way, it's a rise, like a stage, where several elemnentals are now above the others, looking down upon the gathered.

As they start to grow closer Sarcis leans this way and that. She spotted a few different creatures but- "There!" She gestures toward a pair of Xorn, "They look like they have the same aura!"

Sasha says, "uh oh." She says....backing up."

Constantin turns and starts striding towards the xorns that Sarcis pointed out. "Let's go talk to them quickly before all of this pillar-raising finishes."

Sasha says, "that would be a better idea than what I had."

Yelrona stops what she's doing as the pillars raise and Sarcis finds their targets. "OK," she agrees. She keeps her bow out and an eye on the various figures, letting others handle talking to the Xorn.

There is a great sound. Percussion coming from the elementals. Vibrations. The music of the earth, so to speak. Rythmic crashing, crumbling, raging avalanche.

"I think we stumbled into a, uh, rock band." Sarcis shakes her head as if this were all some sort of cosmic joke. As if the powers that be made a pun that would make even the stoutest cringe. "I suppose we should be glad they aren't heavy metals." She grimaces and tries to make her way toward the Xorn as well.

Constantin pauses for a moment. "If there's dancing, we should be very careful not to wander into their pit." Because that would be bad. He tries to pick up the pace.

Sarcis nods, "We'd be in a mush pit instead of mosh pit."

"We should hurry," Rona agrees. "At any moment we could face lava pouring from some hidden channel in the stone. Hard rock is bad enough, but a soft rock channel like that could be devestating. We should get the xorn and go."

Sasha rubs her face. "So....we stumbled into a party...did we?" She says rubbing her face.

"Yes, let's go quickly, before it pops." Constantin hurries. "Let's stay focused." He doesn't look for glowsticks. He doesn't.

Yelrona looks to Sarcis. "You seem to be having the best success of any of us dealing with the locals... can you convince the xorn to follow us back?"

"I was planning on it, as soon as we get close." Sarcis says with a sigh, not because of what Yelrona asked but because - well - this was growing more difficult with every passing second. "Let's..." a nod to Constantin, "Yes, exactly."

You can in fact get closert to the Xorns once ytou've identified them. And Sarcis can definitely find them with enough scouting of the crowd!

Unfortuantely, the elementals are clearly enjoying the show.

And thaaat's when something bursts from the pillar above you.

Oh hey.

It's a giant.

A stone giant, actually. He rises up and begins bellowing in Terran!

The respond from the elementals is... .rumbly.

Yelrona looks over the giant. It looks like a rock, but... what is it, really?

Duncan reaches for his hammer out of reflex at the sight of the giant. But then he halts the motion. "What...what's it saying to them?"

Constantin pauses. "A giant. Lovely." A pause. "Is this politics?" His lips purse. "This feels like politics."

Sarcis sighs, "It's political rhetoric in a concert." She looks up at the giant for a few moments, then back down to where the Xorn are. Back up, down, "Ahhh damn it, and he's using some sort of magic I think. We- we might need to stop him." She frowns ever heavier.

Sarcis pauses, frowns, "Oh damn it. It's actually against Happy Valley no less."

Sasha says, "And....we need to snap them out of it. I don't want to hurt the stone giant....but we may have to.""

"You mean stop him, -stop him-...?" Duncan reaches for his hammer once more. Then he looks at the xorn and the other listeners. "Or...or stop him, by convincing them?"

Constantin puts his hand on his sword. "I really am a blunt instrument when it comes to persuasion. So, can we disrupt the magic, or do we just need to boot him in the stones?"

Yelrona says, "Would interrupting the music help matters?"

"Probably." Sarcis says to Yelrona with aquick glance, then back up to the Giant. "HEY!" She yells out, then her voice switches to the other language of this plane. Her voice mirroring the sound of rocks grinding and gnashing together. She points up at the Giant as she yells out her words as loud as she can.