Renew the Pact: The Hand of Asumit, p11
Log Info
- Title: Renew the Pact: The Hand of Asumit, Part 11
- Emitter: Whirlpool
- Characters: Cesran, Seldan, Cryosanthia, Serene, Karelin, Aya, Merek
- Place: The Void Demon Tower in the Ethereal Sea of Mana
- Time: Tuesday, July 13, 2021, 8:33 PM
- Summary: The adventurers confront the multiple Asumits, anticipating immediate battle. One addresses the group, the others continue their strange arrival and departure through gates. Questions are thrown and largely unanswered. Insults follow. Asumit explains he will be King of Nothing, and that what they are witnessing was not caused by him, but rather far back in time by someone who wanted more than fate allotted them. His lack of hope is criticized, and then he says he'll help everyone understand. A being appears, tendrils of nothingness, which Asumit names the Unraveller. Asumit is touched by it, and breaks apart. Becomes nothing. Karelin leaps in, striking hard with his holy blade, which immediately breaks and starts to disintegrate. He breaks off. Cryo casts her Icicle dagger and takes up a defensive position in front of the party, hoping her spell-blade will be more durable than a real one. Seldan joins her, casting a spell to help understand this enemy, while Cesran carefully examines the room and states the source is elsewhere. The tentacles move to attack.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Serene 6'2" 175 Lb Eldanar/Charn Female Glacier meets granite meets strawberries.
Cesran 6'1" 185 Lb Human Male A tall dark-skinned man
Cryosanthia 6'9" 291 Lb Sith-Makar Female A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman.
Seldan 5'11" 187 Lb Human Male Ginger-blonde human in armor wearing Eluna's symbol.
Aya 4'7" 105 Lb Shadow Elf Female Mul'niessa. Braided hair. Simple clothing.
Merek 5'10" 215 Lb Human Male A black-haired, dusky male with golden eyes.
Karelin 6'2" 256 Lb Human Male Tattooed Korite warrior. Tall, dark and scarred.
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-=--=--=--=--=--=--= NPCS of Note =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Griva Brassbringer Khazdi Female Head of the Alexandrian Chapter of the Resurrection Society
Asumit Male Summoner Mage, Enemy of Magic
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-=--=--=--=--=--=--= As the GM =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Whirlpool 5'0" Otyugh I am stinky!
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Lost Time, in some reaity
The adventurers entered the tower at the bottom of the Sea of Mana. Inside, it was a disorienting muddle of sensations. Directions appeared to shift, passages would flickering and out of existence. Echoes of their other selves would appear. It was impossible to tell which way to go.
Silverguard Serene steeled herself, to grapple with Discord and question the blade, which was offering tantalizing promises. Just as she is about to, Merek steps in with a spell.
The way is clear.
Well... in a manner of speaking. It does not look clear. Up is down. Down is left. Right is right and ... well, anyway, you're going somewhere but the logic of direction and reality is inverted. It feels inversed, even if it isn't. Or is it?
It's hard to say. Just being here is bringing on a headache. But things seem to be ... stabilizing the closer you get to a core. It's taking on more reality. The walls are alive, though, and they seem to be watching you. Then again, isn't the whole structure containing a certain kind of life?
Or Anti-Life, perhaps? It just is.
Finally, you step into what appears to be a large chamber that descends in a great groove, darkness coiling around your feet and clinging to you as you move.
"We've been expecting you," says a voice as things seem to finally snap into solidity. A room full of eldritch markings, all over the walls, a wizard's workshop if there ever was one. Gateways mar the walls, open wide and swirling. Diagrams along the floor, scrawled eldritch runes, piles of books and scrolls, marked with madness and hate.
"Welcome to the Nexus of Unreality."
There stands a man. Several men, actually. Several identical men. All of them are winged and dressed in a variety of robes or rags. Some are clean, some are dirty, but they are unmistakably all the same man. He waves a clawed hand dismissively towards Karelin.
"I wouldn't try it just yet. I remember you in Versis. You as well," he addresses Serene.
Asumit is smiling. All dozen of him.
Here, nowhere, nowhen
"Ah... um. Hi." Cryo says, looking over each Asumit. She grimmaces, not really a smile. "is one of you in charge or are you all doing your own thing?"
Suddenly aware that they are in a very dangerous position indeed, Seldan straightens, his thoughts his own and, once Cryosanthia steps in to speak, given no voice. Not yet. His entire bearing and demeanor are impassive, quiet.
Karelin's lips skin back from his teeth in a feral grin. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me how you feel Asumit, I can see it in your eyes." He starts circling slowly, though the dozen of them make his orbit somewhat erratic -- like the three-body problem expanded.
Merek pulls away the cavalier hat which he wears, then he takes a look along to Asumit. "You know what, we came here... We you know. Nice, defense equipment." The man thinks about it while he takes the time to lift up both hands, "You know what. We aren't getting to you through diplomacy. Let's get to the point where you try to kill us with some craziness, then we fight. I've already danced with enough alternate realities. Thank you, name's Merek, and you uh. Well, you've hurt my friends, so I'm going to need to kill you."
The man is absolutely fed up with this world's shit today.
Cesran is looking over the diagrams and runes slowly, taking them in to be cataloged and analyzed as to what they are and can do, "Careful, there is most certainly a trap in here." He warns as he continues to look around one hand up near his eyes incase he needs to interrupt his gaze for anything too magical.
"So you knew we were coming, but didn't do anything to stop us. What's the end goal here? You've brought multiple versions of yourself here to help you do whatever you are going to do. Obviously it's something that you couldn't do yourself. Have you decided which one of you is going to be the godhead or are you just going to switch. Do you have a schedule set up yet?" He takes a moment to look at each version trying to access any spellcasting ability.
Aya arches a brow at the greeting of the twelve, and the dozen dolts dabbling with demonic designs of destruction, themselves. "Unreality... So, is it true that you seek to unmake everything? -That- is the best goal that all of you, combined, were able to muster?" They may not be able to reach him through diplomacy, as Merek noted... but her question doesn't necessarily fall under that realm.
Serene's reaction to seeing Asumit.. all of the Asumits.. is somewhat minimal. A slight parting of the lips. A slight tightening around the eyes. A slight flaring of her nostrils. Her hand strays to her hip, first, but stops.. then reaches back over her shoulder and draws her Dragonier gifted sword from the makeshift baldric securing it at her back. The bared blade glows with a soft, silver-white light. Then she speaks, and though her gaze remains fixed upon the repeated Asumits, her words are for everyone else. "Remember that he is mad. When we engage, cut off his escape and be wary of our surroundings. This creature will not hesitate to flee."
"Such quick, cutting remarks," says one of the Asumits. Others step through the gates. More come back through. They all seem to be quite busy, really, as one turns to speak to you.
"But you do me too much credit if you think I am responsible for the end of things. Oh, no. That was set in motion long ago, long before any of us were a thought in the eye of the Gods. We lay in the mirror place, now, where we simply play the hand that was dealt to us. Once, I might have wanted power, a king of nothing may yet still be a king of sorts, but I have seen what your eyes have not."
He walks towards a gateway, slowly, but there are plenty of him still around.
"An ending comes. You might as well try to fight the sea itself. The question is," he continues, "what will remain."
"All your words are the ones of tyrants. Whether or not you are the one that put it all into motion, you do support it arriving to that destination," Merek will note to Asumit. "These are all you, from different timelines, alternate realities, are they not?" he asks Asumit. "And tell me, you really think that with so many endless possibilities, that there's no path forward?"
Karelin keeps circling the talking-Asumit. "So. What did you see? You sound like you want to tell, so tell. Don't draw it out -- you know our violent tendencies."
"Those who say there is no hope are those without hope themselves." Seldan, who'd crossed his arms somewhere in this, speaks up for the first time. "The possibilities are without end, and none may see them all. Perhaps it is that he sees what it is he wishes to see."
Cryosanthia glances to the side at Merek. She exhales and adjusts her wings, their thumbs hooking together to hold them neatly behind her. She straightens, tall, turning to focus again on the many representations of Asumit. Her eyes are expressionless, sapphires with slit pupils. Her tail curls around her ankles and she makes a small inclination of her head towards the Asumit that is addressing them. "I swim in the sea, I don't fight it."
She tilts her head, her lips curling, and then the things she was thinking to ask are spoken by others. She breaks her formal pose and takes out her paper bag, gestures at the gates, "So, you're... all gathering in a place, a refuge composed of yourselves? Sounds... uncomfortable. And hey, would you like a candied cricket? I'm curious if they taste the same across different realities or not."
She shrugs, uncoiling her tail. "Also, what they said. Are you positive you didn't miss anything in all your looking? Is there a thing we can look in to see the stuff too? That's reckless. One of us is sure too."
Griva looks horrified. She steps back.
"Dear gods," she says, her voice reduced to a raspy whisper. Her eyes are still bleeding, but they're now glowing peculiarly with magic.
"If the gods intended to state their opinions on the matter," Aya notes, glancing back to Griva, "now might be an opportune moment."
Cesran frowns as more seem to come through the gate and unlike their own duplicates these ones seem to be intent on working together for some sort of purpose. He continues to study what's going on and what the other versions are doing. "So that's your plan then to survive. This place repels magic, even the magic from the Sea of Mana. You plan to ride out the end in a soap bubble and are doing your best to make sure that it doesn't burst. So that whatever comes next, whatever is after the end, you, all of you, will be here."
He looks towards the others, "This is the source of the problem, but it's not in this room. Those are Gateways and they lead to alternate realities, but specific ones. Once where different choices were made, but they all lead to a single point." He rubs his temple a bit, "It's like there is a drumbeat in my head that says everything ends." He does his best to try to explain to the rest of the party what he's seeing with his enhanced sight and what all of this means.
"Trees and branches, in reverse, because of a deep pond." Cryosanthia says, as if Cesran's explanation made sense to her. Perhaps she comprehended enough to construct a basic simile. She taps a toe-claw, thinking some more.
"A cockroach." Serene sums up Cesran's explanation with a word. Though she looks no less ready to begin Great Violence, she holds her hand for the moment still. While steeling her thoughts against an obvious means to destroy this place.
Aya frowns at Cesran's explanation. "So this is a refuge... -and- the cause?" Which seems paradoxical... though given the current state of their location, perhaps paradoxical is the correct answer?
"Ofttimes does the apparent answer to a puzzle but create more problems," Seldan observes, his arms still crossed across his chest.
Paradoxical is, in fact, the correct answer. It's two ports in the sea of mana. A pair a docks.
But not two Dachshunds, thus not a pair of Dachs.
Fireballs might yet be the solution.
"So a big weight might have pulled all of these together. Which, would be this tower. Which, is here because of a Shard of Animus... anchoring it." Cryo looks around for confirmation from her colleagues.
"So this place, is the plan you don't want us interrupting? Unplugging your escape route? Since... you've abandoned altering what may come... and instead... caused it, with here?"
"Mn. Not quite the dullard, are you?" says one of the Asumits in passing to Cesran.
"He's right," says Griva of Cesran at the moment, "It's not here. The source of the cysts is here, but not here."
She squints her eyes, pain written all over her face.
"Everything is going to end. Who will be king of what's left?"
One of the Asumit's throws his hands out to either side of him. They start to disappear into the doorways.
"One of us, I suppose, but in truth, scattered remnants of time, worlds lost -- all because one thought that they were owed more than fate granted them. Is this fate?"
"..does it matter? Let me introduce you to a friend who has taught me a great deal about the nature of things. May the Unraveler teach you what I have learned."
And then the Asumit still talking to you ..
... unravels. Like a stray thread being pulled apart, he collapses into nothingness, not even dust or bone remaining.
Then the the air around him begins to unravel, threads of ... something that was reaching towards you ....
The unraveler comes.
<OOC> Karelin tries to remember -- Fighting Defensively -4 to hit / +2 AC -- it's marginal, <OOC> Karelin tries to remember -- but Power Attack/FF Haste from the boots full attack. He's not really feeling nonviolence :) <OOC> Karelin says, "Attack is ghost touch and holy" <OOC> Karelin says, "Attack is +5 if DR is a thing." GAME: Karelin rolls 1d20+43+1-4: (20)+43+1+-4: 60 (THREAT) (Auto-Crit) GAME: Karelin rolls 1d20+43+1-4: (15)+43+1+-4: 55 GAME: Karelin rolls 1d20+38+1-4-5: (2)+38+1+-4+-5: 32 GAME: Karelin rolls 1d20+33+1-9: (7)+33+1+-9: 32 GAME: Karelin rolls 1d20+28-8: (3)+28+-8: 23 GAME: Karelin rolls fort: (16)+17: 33 <OOC> Whirlpool says, "You don't die." <OOC> Whirlpool says, "However, your sword gains the broken condition on first strike, like its barely holding together." <OOC> Whirlpool says, "You're looking at your sword and it seems like its decaying before your eyes." <OOC> Karelin says, "He'll stop striking. 5' step back, and put away the sword." GAME: Karelin rolls 1d10+31+15+2d6: (9)+31+15+(9): 64
Karelin cuts at the tendrils, blurry-fast in the first cross-wrist strike. His sword doesn't survive. He pulls it back, but the runes wink out and the blade itself isn't whole. He jerks back, instinct making the sword a shield, but now he's acting like it's a rust monster.
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "casting Icicle Dagger, and moving." <OOC> Cryosanthia says, "repositionning to in front/in the middle would be some movement. <OOC> Cryosanthia says, "Assuming the tentacles can't AOO, so not defensive casting - and that will let others know <OOC> Whirlpool says, "Okay, Cryo. I assume everyone is relativelyt close together, so that works." GAME: Cryosanthia casts Icicle Dagger. Caster Level: 10 DC: 15
"Aaaaand. That's it. I don't understand anymore." Cryosanthia says. "Wait, who was owed what now?"
And then Asumit vanishes, making a point by being swallowed, devoured, disassembled... unravelled by The Unraveller. The irony of an entity that erases existence having a name is not lost on the whitescale.
And tentacles are reaching out. She drops her bag of candies.
"I, um?" Cryo's right hand flips through a quick casting. Light twinkles along her scales, magical energy swirling out from her chest and down her right arm, finishing in a glow. In her hand, an Icicle Dagger manifests, creating a tiny patch of fog.
"Stay close, I can parry." She looks ready to do so, a keen eye kept on Karelin's efforts, and results, "As much as it might help."
<OOC> Seldan apologizes: Activating haste from my armor as a free action GAME: Seldan casts Magic Circle Against Evil. Caster Level: 16 DC: 21
Reacting to this new threat, the blond haired Silverguard drops into a ready crouch, activating an aspect of his armour and moving faster than normal. Quickly, he traces a set of runes in the air. Unusual ones, in an archaic pattern. Normally, his use of magic will bring a boyish grin to his face, the simple rituals a moment of meraki that reveals itself on his countenance. Not so this time, his face is fixed with grim determination. "'Ware their touch. I will see what she reveals to me on how to fight this."
GAME: Cesran rolls knowledge/The planes: (16)+27: 43
Cesran looks around and takes in all the information that he's been able to observe and analyze. He sees Karelin's attack against the threads and the sword become broken. "Stop don't attack the threads. Those aren't the unraveler. This whole tower is. We have to find a way to destroy it. That's the only way we can stop this from unraveling everything."
Combatty
===================== Current Initiative Order - Round 1 =====================
---Init--Name------------AOO-Notes--------------------------------------------
24 Karelin 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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20 Cryosanthia 5 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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20 Seldan 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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18 Cesran 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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13 The Threads Of
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12 Serene 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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11 Merek 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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10 Aya 6 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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