[Game Thread] Chapter Five: Everything Changes

[Makenshi]

"Then next we must vote on the first 'Hybrid'." Mirik looks around the room, his face appearing a little grim. "We have two volunteers. Lekan Alyyryk of the Kashyyn, from Tyyryk, and Nevh Rudaa of House Yesterwind, from Quall. Both have the full confidences of the Sei and Archgates, for what that is worth. We will do as we did before."

Results Alyyryk: 9 Nevh: 7   Halva: Abstain (he says he has confidence in both of them) Caldawn: Alyyryk Shali: Nevh Sharak (Aldamil): Alyyryk Ikra (Lalian Shedeth): Alyyryk Aria: Alyyryk Quall: Alyyryk Rinn: Nevh Elern: Nevh Kast: Nevh Phare: Nevh Tsuun: Nevh Tyyryk: Nevh Xolar: Alyyryk Nihl: Alyyryk Kaira: Alyyryk All the religious representatives except for Jester: Abstain Fenrir: Alyyryk

When the result is announced Jar grimaces while Alyyryk closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath. The two must have spoken at length given how reserved Jar's reaction was this time compared to before. Before they can continue though Zilira's head snaps to the side. "She's here."

"What?" Kato looks at the Goddess. "What are you talking about?"

"The other Hybrid. No time to explain, so if you'd all please co-operate myself and Coiya are going to push you somewhere safe now. This fight isn't for mortals." "And that includes all of you." She sends to Nevh, Morgan and the others, even Kala.

They all feel a strong tugging sensation before they find themselves in pitch darkness, although those with the ability to see in darkness will find themselves in a shadowy replica of the palace's grand hall, with everyone save for the Archgates, Lalian, Tiaan and Seneca having been shunted with them too.

OOC Ok then, chance to act/react. Hope you don't mind me assuming that you didn't fancy a head to head fight with the Blue Woman.

~MTWC

[Blue]

She looked up and let out a deep breath.
Nevh had figured the vote would turn in Alyyryk's favor but she hadn't expected the vote to be so close.
It was a relief, of course, that she had at least a little more time. Two weeks wasn't much but many would have given much to extend their life for but a single day.

She tried to remember everyone's vote, a process that was surprisingly simple considering how it fitted the geography.
Every Eastern country but Quall for Alyyryk, every Northern country but Tyyryk and Tsuun for her, Pharé for her and every Southern country but Shali for Alyyryk and Fenrir for him as well. Quall would flip its vote on the second go and everyone would have to find an alternative for her if they wanted one. Those who voted for Alyyryk would divide and, although those who voted for her might seek alternatives, they already voted for her once and so the possibility is already one they had come to accept. The result was too close.

When Zilira alerted them of an assault from the Blue Lady, Nevh smirked.
Took long enough.

Ideally Alyyryk would be altered right away. No ceremony or whatever. Those weren't necessary and preferably avoided to elude more opportunities for interruptions. Then again, Alyyryk didn't have two weeks.

She didn't fight the power that would send her aside.
Once in the shadow grand hall, a quick look around was enough to realize what kind of place they had been shunt in.
Safe wasn't how she felt at that moment.
While they'd wait for the storm to end, Nevh would make good of the shadows and hide while she could.

Ooc Standard action to cast Invisibility. Move action to retrieve one of her rocks with Deeper Darkness. 5-ft. step away from her position and hide in plain sight.

[SpatulaOdoom]

Abstaining from the vote is a clever move on Vulcar's part as it keeps any suspicions of attempting to rig the situation in one way or another to a minimum. What does surprise him is that they accept Nevh or Alyyryk as the only potentials for the initial vote. Before they can get down to it though the expected attack begins and Morgan is shunted into the shadowy plane.

Morgan, now on his feet, crosses his arms across his chest and harumphs.
”As expected, yet another interruption.”
With a shrug he snaps out a few defensive spells, turning his skin grey, and turns to scan the assembled, stopping on Alyyryk.
Spies in our midst for sure. Let's see if we can flush one or two out, shall we?
”Well then, the die is cast. I'll not insult you by asking if you're sure. Shall we continue?”
He pats his satchel.

ooc I'm going to roll a bluff check to convince people that he's got a dagger or two in his Handy Haversack. Hopefully it'll provoke someone into revealing themselves now that the “big guns” are elsewhere and busy. It's what Morgan would do in Zera's place. Initiative 21 AC:25, Flat/Touch:21 HP: 144/144 Saves: Fort 17 Ref 17 Will 24

 

Spells with a * have been expended.
1st: Nerveskitter*, Shield, Protection from Evil, Silent image, Ray of Flame, Tiaan's Comprehend Languages*, Ray of enfeeblement
2nd: Insight of good fortune, See invisibility*, Glitterdust, scorching ray, Mirror Image, Rope Trick
3rd: Dragonskin*, Anticipate teleportation*, Unluck, Bands of Steel, Heroism*, Unicorn arrow
4th: Voice of the Dragon*, Enervation, Greater Invisibility, Dimensional anchor, Spell Enhancer, Black Tentacles.
5th: Teleport, Sending*, Moonbow, Telepathic Bond*, Dragonsight*
6th: Body of Stone*, True seeing, Flesh to stone, Greater dispel magic
7th: Spell Turning*, Energy Absorbtion*, Prismatic spray
8th: Moment of Prescience*, Mind Blank*

Active spells: From CloakMage Armour, Tiaan's Comprehend Languages, See invisibility, Heroism, Dragonskin, Anticipate Teleport, Dragonsight, Voice of the Dragon, BaneTelepathic bond, Oh crap activates a self-targeted Resilient SphereContingency, Body of Stone, Energy Absorption, Spell Turning, Moment of Prescience, Mind Blank.

Maybe active spells: Insight of good fortune, Shield

Current effects: Immune: Ability Score Damage, Blindness, Critical hits/sneak attack, Deafness, Disease, Drowning, Poison, Scrying and similar divination effects, Spells that Detect/Influence/read emotions and thoughts, Stunning.
Low light vision x2, Dark Vision 160ft, Blind Sense 80ft, 1/2 penalty to spot from range, Can see invisible and ethereal creatures.
+4Strength-4Dexterity, 1/2 speed, +4 armor, +5 natural armor, +2Morale on attacks/saves/skill checks, +10 Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate
Resistance to all energy types 10 Fire20, DR10/Adamantine.
Anticipates Teleportations within 80ft by 1 round.

[Makenshi]

OOC I'm going to need to know what spells are active on both of you at the moment and I'll be needing initiative rolls. It's also no worth posting any more actions since I just need info on the above (or, to be more exact, info on Morgan's spells) before I can update. ~MTWC

[Blue]

Nevh spells active and time left for each Initiative 15 -Armor of Darkness: duration ~1.5 hour -Embrace the Wild: duration ~1.5 hour -Divine Insight: duration of ~16 hours -Magic Vestment, extended: duration of 16 hours -Mage Armor, Greater, extended: duration of 17 hours -Magic Weapon, Greater, extended: on unarmed strike, duration of 17 hours -Magic Aura: All items -Heart of Water, Air, Earth: whole day -Heroism, extended / See Invisibility, extended: ~3.5 hours -Voice of the Dragon: duration of ~3 hours -Pass without Trace: Less than an hour. Not sure how much left if any. -Invisibility: 20 mins *Magic Circle against Evil (item)

Mrith effects active Initiative 18 -Endure Exposure [from Candrasachem, but he isn't there]; daylong -Draconic Flight; daylong -Draconic Toughness (+14 temp hp); daylong -Dragon form -Humanoid Shape (to appear human); daylong

[Makenshi]

Alyyryk seems surprised by the suggestion for a moment before he nods, moving towards Morgan. Jar has an expression of sadness on his face, but as before he does not interfere this time.

Before Alyyryk takes more than a few steps though Morgan finds himself inexplicably surrounded by some fort of magical sphere. It takes him a moment to recognise the man standing in front of him as being Brigadier Wade Varius of Elern due to his features having all of a sudden become as iron-like as Morgan's own. His appearance as well as the sphere's was frankly unseen, which, combined with his sudden metallic appearance meant that he must have manipulated time somehow. Looking supremely annoyed, Wade reaches out and swipes at the seer. As soon as his hand makes contact Morgan feels as if his body is being wrenched in different directions all at once. [Morgan takes 72 dmg.]

He smirks lazily at the bruises, cuts and various other injures caused. "Turn that."

OOC Just to clarify then, Wade is standing adjacent to Morgan, both of whom are within a sphere of force of some description. There's not that many people still around who can/will get involved in this fight, and you guys have beaten their initiatives (though barely in the case of Vulcar, who was channelling the spirit of Morgan in his dice rolling for initiative), so its Morgan > Mrith > Nevh.

~MTWC

[SpatulaOdoom]

Despite the pain and fatigue Morgan musters up a bloody grin.
”Pain is temporary. Making you look like a predictable bumbling idiot is forever.”
He must be angry, had he not been he'd probably pushed time back to before he acted and attempted to remain hidden. It wouldn't have worked, due to Morgan's vision of the alternate events, but hopefully Wade didn't know that he knew what Wade knew.

The tall mage's hand dives into his haversack, finding that a particular scroll, marked with a blue ribbon, just “happened” to be on top. And that was what made the Handy Haversack such a wonderful item in Morgan's opinion. Whatever you wanted was always right on top when you opened it up.
Taking a step back Morgan read from the scroll, targeting the sphere of force energy that entrapped them.

He's betting on the sphere being a psionic copy of the Wizard spell Morgan used so often. It was a wonderful spell, no doubt, but exactly unlike a Wall of Force, a resilient sphere's strong seeming mesh of mana was delicate in the face of dispelling attempts.

As the spell energies consume the scroll, eating it in a flare of cold fire, Morgan flicks the disintegrating paper aside. Drawing on his belt's temporal energy the Archmage's hands flicker through the motions of another spell in a heartbeat.

 

Move: Grab Scroll from Haversack
Standard: Scroll of Dispel Magic: targeting the force sphere.

IF: the dispel worked on the force sphere
THEN: Swift: Activate Belt of Battle draining all 3 charges for another standard/move
Standard: Cast Greater Dispel Magic from personal spells targeting I'm perfectly happy having you roll all necessary dispelling checks. Morgan's current CL is 16Wade and Move: Move 15 ft away from him.
ELSE: Swift: Activate Belt of Battle draining all 3 charges for another standard/move
Standard: Cast Rope Trick from personal spells and Move: Climb in.

I'll edit to reflect the results of the if-than-else.

[Makenshi]

Morgan's initial Dispelling attempt is successful, causing the sphere to wink out of existence, however his second attempt despite having rolling two 19's, so he is either a very powerful caster and/or has something that makes his effects difficult to dispelfails to dispel any of Wade's active effects, much to Wade's amusement.

~MTWC

[Blue]

Mrith was furious. That someone would disrupt the peace of a meeting as meaningful as one assembling representatives of every nation was already unacceptable; that Zera would actually try to steal daggers to make more terrors like the one they referred to as the Blue Lady was something to be avoided. Desperately.
The man looked like stone so her traditional lightning breath didn't seem to be the best idea. But there was more to lightning that a good zap. She thought perhaps the thunder's roar would be a good idea but opted to begin with ice and see how it went. He was alone, so keeping him where everyone could take turns at him sounded like a good idea.

She flew up and breathed a wall of ice around him as she passed by then make a sharp turn to hover next to him. Her mouth was already steaming with eldritch energy, ready for her next exhalation.
The icy breath would quickly crystallize, the cold energy itself weighting down around Wade to contain him.

Nevh, seeing the opportunity to make a prisoner, decided to break out of her invisibility by casting a Dimensional Anchor at Wade instead of swiftly killing him.

 

Swift action to activate her Law Devotion. +5 sacred bonus to AC for 1 minute.

Move action + Standard action to move and use her Frost Breath during the move - turns it into a Exhaled Barrier and makes the effect an Entangling Exhalation.
The wall of frost is turned into a 5-ft. wide wall with strafing breath after a Flyby Attack.

Frost wall lasts 4 rounds.
10 cold damage, Reflex DC 30 for half.
If damaged, takes 5 additional continuous cold damage and is entangled for 4 rounds

Nevh uses a standard action to cast Dimensional Anchor upon Wade (attack roll 17), which ends her invisibility and is no longer hiding.
Dispel DC against her arcane spells: 36
She uses her move action to move.
Swift action will be used depending on the use of an immediate action from Wade and if things manage to affect him.


Mrith
AC: 33 Touch AC: 21 FF AC: 29
HP: 250/236
Saves: Fort 20 Ref 12 Will 13

Nevh
AC: 45 Touch AC: 34 FF AC: 33
HP: 160/130
Saves: Fort 18 Ref 26 Will 32

[Makenshi]

Although the wall successfully lands on Wade, he doesn't seem bothered by the cold, which perhaps wasn't surprising for someone working with the Blue Woman.

i.e. you weren't far from hitting himHe is distracted enough for a moment that Nevh's spell almost hits him, but the manifester turns his attention back to the rest of the room just in time to dodge it.

OOC Waiting on this swift action from Nevh...

~MTWC

[Blue]

Action Seeing her aim fail, Nevh activates her anklets with a swift action to get double base land speed for 5 mins

[Makenshi]

Most of the guests, including Vulcar and Celes, move away from the fight, seemingly not wanting to get involved. Even Vice, who had fought beside them before, was taking a more defensive stance as he moved away rather than getting directly involved, while Aela Ailen (Niafem), created a teleportation circle for everyone to retreat to, lit up by a bright globe of light.

Not all of the guests were so inclined though, with Alyyryk, Bane, Cipher, Kala, Malhas, Hunts Alone, Ajikis and Sei'Eil[eti] seeming to have no intention of backing down either.

Malhas moves away from the table and Quickeningsnaps off a Dimensional Anchor, with an "Anchor" which hits its target but fizzles out on impact, causing Malhas to frown, and resort to his own dispelling attempt. "Greater Dispel." The spell hits home once again, but just as with Morgan it fails to have any affect, much to Wade's amusement and Malhas' shock.

Kala moves to stand in front of Morgan before touching him to Heal the mage.

Not much use in his human form, Ajikis shifted into his draconic form, turning into a large Amber Dragon. With a powerful thrust of his wings, he propels himself on top of the shadowy table, which is somehow able to take his weight, perhaps from being a part of the plane itself rather than a physical object.

Hunts Alone glances up at the high-ceilinged hall they were in before smiling and thrusting his hand into the air. He calls out "Draconic for 'sky fall'Svant wielg" as he thrusts his hand back down, conjuring a bright, glowing comet with appears almost at the top of the hall for a split second before hurtling down and smashing into Wade, who stumbled as he tried to step away, causing the comet to smash into him at full force, breaking apart and knocking him prone. Hunts Alone then moved around the table to get a better look at the now prone Elernan.

Alyyryk creates an area of grease over the comet's rubble, to make it even more difficult for Wade to get up, while moving around to spread out.

Having seen the failure of penetrating the man's resistance Bane conjure black tentacles from the ground to try and restrict Wade even further, although he manages to fight off their initial attempts to grapple him.

Sei'Eileti takes a page out of Hunts Alone's book, calling down a comet of her own (albeit using Sylvan rather than Draconic). "Son of a-!" It has little trouble smashing into the prone Wade, cutting him off in the process.

Cipher tries another Dimensional Anchor, which once again fails to pierce Wade's resistance.

Growling in annoyance, Wade simply vanishes from sight, just as he had appeared from thin air in front of Morgan. Looking around there is no sign of where the Elernan could have gone, although without a dimensional anchor or similar effect on his person he had likely flew the scene with a teleportation or planar transportation power, under cover of whatever power he was using to stop time.

~MTWC

[Blue]

Nevh looks slightly annoyed but resigns herself to the situation and made way to her chair.
He got lucky.

Still, that was one thing less to be concerned with for the time being.
She sighed.

Mrith was more flustered. She dismissed the magic maintaining her humanoid appearance and returned beside Nevh as a medium-sized emerald dragon. She was still steaming with anger.

[SpatulaOdoom]

Morgan turns a slow circle, scanning the room. He hadn't slipped into the Ethereal plane, nor had he teleported somewhere else within the room, his anticipate teleport spell would have alerted him to that. Morgan had hoped that, like the palace itself, there would be wards against teleportation and dimensional travel in the co-terminus planes around here. Apparently not. Either that or they had been part of what was lost in the freeing of Zilira. Perhaps the bastard had used his time manipulation power to make his escape. Either way he'd decided against pushing a poor hand and folded instead.

Morgan glances around the assembled, most of whom were getting ready to dive through the escape teleportation circle.
”Anyone else care to give it a try? Might be your very last chance to take a stab at immortality.” He raises an eyebrow. ”No?”
With a shrug the lanky mage resumes his own seat.
”Well... Not the ideal result, but at least we now know who the second Elernen spy is.” The mage grins. ”And he didn't get a damn thing out of it. All that power, godling I'm sure, and he didn't even manage to take my head on his way out the door. Wish I could see Zera's face when he realizes he's been outmanoeuvred twice in one day.”
Morgan's smile fades as he reminds himself that the first manoeuvre most likely is far from over on the material plane, and the final cost of that one could be high indeed.

[Makenshi]

With the danger over, people nervously move to return to their seats, while Niafem enters her own circle presumably to get those who passed to return too.

"That bastard!" Marcell finally snaps after what appears to be an intense effort to control himself. "Wade!" He shoves himself back into his seat, hand over his face as he tilts his head back. "That damned...damned...bastard!"

Alyyryk, still looking around nervously, raises an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't like him?"

"Personally? No, but he was a good soldier. In hindsight perhaps a little too good for someone as...prone to inaction as he was." He sighs. "If someone as high up as Wade is not only working for Zera but, by his display there, one of those damned Godlings to boot, then we're going to have to be a lot more careful." He glances around the room. "All of us."

"Agreed." Malhas takes his seat a little more calmly, having regained his composure now. "I am very skilled at penetrating spell resistance and more powerful a mage than..." He glances around the room. "Well, every other mage here, discounting perhaps the two Godlings of Coiya, depending on how specialised or not they are. He was either a powerful manifester or usually resistant, both in spell resistance and against dispelling attempts. Of course, there are items that can boost it but-"

"There's a Power too." Marcell interrupts. "Dispelling Buffer."

"As I was saying, there are items that can boost such things, as well as other powers, spells and abilities. At least from what we know already Zera has been preventing them from becoming full-fledged quasi-deities such as Bane and Cipher, otherwise we might have been in even more trouble."

Vulcar takes his own seat calmly, though he does put a comforting hand onto Celes', giving her a brief, supportive smile before turning to address everyone else. "This only hammers home my earlier point. We have to work together to put a stop to Zera. He thrives on dividing people. By creating distrust and suspicion."

Malhas, who had generally stayed out of the earlier debates unless addressed, spoke up again too. "It also emphasis what Nevh said. The longer we give him to screw with us the more he will. Even if we hide the dagger outside of his reach, how do we know we aren't sending one of his Godlings or another agent to become the next Hybrid? We should create the second now as well to avoid that. Keep him on the back foot."

That suggestion causes more than a few nerves, with a fresh round of debate occurring as a result.

OOC If you want to try and swing things one way or the other, you'll need to make a check, though feel free to post anyway even if its just reactions.

~MTWC