OOC: My Finesse is 1 (he's more a control stat with his magic), but his potency is 2. So that means anyone taking Attuner slot 2 will meet the 3 potency/round requirement. He's at 6 hp right now after the valley fight deadly roll incident, so he cannot tan as the handler. So he will be Attuner 1. I do have the utility specialization as well, so while I want to be an attuner if I have to I'll use it on someone to enhance one of thei rolls/attempts.

EDIT: Woot the weekly healing came at the right time. I'm actually now at 8 hp and not 6 (Bless you guys for using a project to enhance the first aid wing or whatever). So if no one wants to handle the lens I can, or at least I can swap roles later if needed to handle the lens.

Steorra considered.

"I should be able to handle  one of the attunement roles. My Time magic is good at things like this, and I've got enough magic omph where anyone aiding me in attuning will make it stabilize, even if their magic is normally weak. I can pump 2 bursts of magic normally, but I may be able to get a third burst if needed." he says, as he holds up his Glowing Emerald for a moment before pocketing it again. The thing technically was a mystical power source, after all. He brought it with him in case of an emergency.

"I can handle the lens a bit as well - I've recovered some after the valley fight, but I'm not at full health yet. Nothing says we cannot swap roles as needed though."


Adventure Loadout

Spell Slots: 2 (Temporal Manipulation, Farhand)

Enchantment: Glowing emerald

Passive: Arcane Stability
This message was last edited by the player at 18:40, Wed 01 May.

Confident in Steotta’s stated ability from their jaunt together, Malleus squared his lean shoulders and offered his own competencies, ”Drawing from the shadows requires nuance and deftness; I will scribe for you. Besides, after Taebor I am perhaps the most familiar with extraplanar … complexities”

OOC: Finesse 4 and Utility

Loadout: Legerdemain and Shadow Bindings
This message was last edited by the player at 23:04, Wed 01 May.

Most of what the mage Taebor said went right over Arzin's head, but that was fine with the man-at-arms. He reckoned that he had seen enough of this strange place that he would know when he should step in to address some sort of Trouble -- there certainly seemed to be no shortage of *that*.

There was no Trouble to be seen -- at least not as of yet -- but Taebor soon busied himself with calling out all manner of assignments that needed to be undertaken.

Arzin cleared his throat after the mage had finished speaking. He pointed towards the large-ish crystal that Taebor had said needed to be held, focused, or some such.

"I can stand around and hold that," the ex-soldier volunteered, "assuming that no magicks are required on my part."

Arzin peered at the Lens, trying to decide whether he could simply set it atop his shield and balance it with the fingers of one hand, assuming that the shield itself was firmly grounded.

---

OOC: Arzin is volunteering to be the Lens-Handler.

Special Combat Moves (3):

1. Field Triage.
2. Counterattack
3. Apocalypse Now

Comments: The nature of Arzin's shield might be pertinent, seeing as how he is considering balancing the Lens atop it. Since he was in the heavy infantry during his service in the army, in my mind's eye I have considered his shield to be similar to the large rectangular, curved shield used by the Roman Legionaries (the scutum), as opposed to the smaller round shields used by, say, the Norsemen.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:57, Thu 02 May.

Attuner (Potency 1 but with Steorra we will manage). Declaring Wall and Spatial Awareness.

Full post loading..

Deciding on the positions they would take, the mages assembled. Steorra and Aurland each taking one of the attuning crystals and going to their designated points around the grove of trees. At Taebor's direction, Arzin removed his gauntlets so as not to scratch the lens, then carried the wide glass disk into the grove of trees and disappeared from view of the others. It wasn't entirely clear where he was supposed to take the thing, Taebor had said to the center of the grove, so he did his best to estimate the position. He was out of sight of the others, but well within earshot. Lastly Malleus took up a quill and ink and set himself by the scroll that Taebor had unraveled. They were all ready.

"Let us begin, gentlemen," Taebor announced, then he raised his hands and set his magic to work. Words of power rolled off his tongue and his fingers traced sigils into the air. Breaking off from the words of power, Taebor called out to Steorra and Aurland, "Now, charge the crystals!"

Note: Fully charging the crystals requires 3 Potency worth of magic, so if you already have Potency 3, it will only take a single spell, 2 spells for Potency 2, and 3 for Potency 1.

Even before the crystals were charged effects were starting to take place. A soft breeze had started, the blades of grass underfoot bent and the trees of the grove whispered. That breeze was blowing in towards the grove, like a slow inhalation of breath. Above Taebor images had started to flicker, ghostly lines and swirls. If this was a map it was unlike any that Malleus had seen before, but then his knowledge was of the shadow plane rather than the greater field of planar cosmology. The foreign nature of the images and the way they quickly flickered in and out of being showed that Malleus had signed up for a taxing job. Now to capture it all onto parchment.

Note: Roll your Finesse dice! If you're at 4, plus with your Utility specialization, you'll roll 5d6. If you get double 6s that'll count as a critical success!

Inside the grove, hidden by the trees and foliage, the group couldn't see how Arzin was doing.


And all of this was just a precursor, the ritual was only just beginning.

Unruffled by the breeze, Malleus folded himself into a sitting position - long limbs almost spider-like as his fine hair blew across his faces. It, at least, was not unfamiliar, his conversations with shadow creatures requiring a certain immunity to distraction. Ink nestled in a pot between his legs, scroll upon his knees, as the first of Taebor's images began to flicker in an out of sight.

Malleus frowned, the strangeness of these ghosts a frustration, but then his keen eyes caught a wisp of a shape he thought he knew. For a breath, two, he watched, ink beading at the end of the quill. Speed was not important, rhythm was, patterns. And so he watched a moment or two as they began to unfurl, then began to draw slowly, as those patterns made themselves known

OOC: Critical success!

07:03, Today: Malleus Murk rolled 21 using 5d6 with rolls of 2,2,6,5,6.  Mapping. – 21

"The center of the grove,, hunh?" Arzin repeated quietly to himself as he strolled easily into the pleasant grove. He was a little surprised that Taebor had not accompanied him to point out the exact spot where he was to stand, but then the man-at-arms decided that mathematical exactness must not be required.

~It's rather like being told "Take your squad to the top of that hill, and hold the ground. My judgment as to the "top of the hill" was good enough.~

As it turned out, Arzin rather liked his spot in the grove. Soon enough a pleasant breeze sprang up, and the gentle susurrus of the leaves rustling overhead was most soothing.

After a short while, however, the ex-soldier's eye was drawn to a small black hole in the ground, al little ways ahead of where he was standing. It was about the size that a small snake or toad would make, and Arzin found himself wondering what manner of creature was down inside there.

Before long, the hole had commenced to grow in size . . . first it became the size of a playing card, and before long it had increased to the width of the mouth of a bucket. The pleasant breezed had increased in power, and was now starting to gust around where Arzin was standing. It seemed to him that the wind was being pulled into the hole in the ground.

It seemed also that the Lens that he was holding was starting to heat up, noticeably so. If the heat continued to increase, it was clear to Arzin that it would soon become quite uncomfortable, indeed.

Raising his voice so that he could (hopefully) be heard above the swirling wind, he called out "Taebor! A black hole has opened up in the ground, an' it's growin' bigger an' bigger! The Lens is heatin' up, too!"

All of a sudden being off by himself and holding the Lens steady was not the pleasant, serene duty that he had supposed at first . . .

---

OOC: 11:51, Today: Arzin rolled 6 using 1d6.  Lens Damage.

Steorra silently imbued a casting of one of his spells into the crystal he was holding, using his own excess potency to help bridge the gap to Aurland's (slightly) weaker magic. Between the two of them, they should have enough power int he crystals with just a casting a piece.

He then heard Arzin grunt from the extreme pain the lens was causing him, and attempted to use his own time-space magic to refraft and disperse some of the backlash if he could.

OOC: Talon, if you allow me, to, I'd like to use my utility feature to allow Arzin to re-roll his damage roll from the lens burning him. But if there are other rolls or things coming then I'll retain the usage just in case.

Aurland held his position as he heard the calls of Arzin, looking to Taebor to give them some direction. He wasn't sure how unstable or temperamental the magic they were working would be. Especially in light of the recent revelations about spatial manipulation that their 'enemy' possessed.

Despite the cries coming from Arzin, Malleus continued to annotate the scroll at their steady pace, focused on capturing everything he could. His ears could differentiate between a warning and desperation, he hoped

OOC: Unfortunately the lens is not a Deadly Roll, no rerolls from the Utility feature here!

The ritual was begun and now the forces of magic gathered.

What had begun as a gentle breeze, little more than a soft inhalation of breath, was growing more violent. The grove of tree was pulling inwards on itself, leaves sucking into the center of the grove, tufts of grass coming loose from the ground, the swirling vapors clinging to the ground after the battle with the horde were sweeping towards this focal point. Steorra and Aurland felt their clothes tugging with the wind, but they kept their hands firmly on the attuning stones. The power they had poured into the relics was holding firm and the glowed brightly, like two beacons in the gloom. However, those beacons had to be maintained, their power was actively to keep this ritual going.

Attuners: Roll a 1d4, your crystal loses that much charge. It begins at a 3/3, if it hits 0, the spell is disrupted. On a roll of a 4 your gem remains stable and no charge is lost this turn.

"This... this isn't right." Taebor seemed to be speaking to himself, but his voice could still be made out. Returning to the words of power with renewed vigor, there was concern on his furrowed brow. Whatever results he was seeing from this spell were not what he had anticipated.

Back by Taebor, Malleus was working to diligently capturing the glyphs and sigils as they flickered through the air. It was fortunate that the scroll was one long unbroken sheet of paper because the shadow mage would have already filled in two pages with his notes. His work was steady, there wasn't urgency to his quill strokes, and his sharp eyes hadn't missed a single figure so far.


Mapper: You can roll your Finesse again! This time take off 1d6 from your total dice pool to reflect the increasing pressure of the ritual!

From within the grove of trees, Arzin called out that the lens was getting hot, but hidden from sight, it was hard to guess exactly what that meant.


The ritual was gaining momentum, fed by the magical powers of the valley. Effects of the arcane feedback were spreading. Lightning cut white hot lines across the sky overhead and the air was left with a metallic taste. But those were just pretty lights. More concerning was that shapes had appeared around the edges of the valley. Some lumbering, soft small, leaning, misshapen, many legged, their silhouettes were uniform only in their monstrously varied natures, and they were not solid, you could see the landscape beyond them. These incorporeal spectators seemed to have been drawn by the powers being unleashed here. Mouths crowded with too many teeth slathered with drool, faces with too many eyes stared hungrily. And a couple of those phantoms were edging forward...

These monstrous phantasms are closest to the Attuners. While they were not rushing forward in mass, which was fortunate because their numbers seemed to be in the dozens, several of them were creeping forward on their too many limbs. Drawn likes moths to a flame, their presence could not bode well for the ritual, or for the health of the mages.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:30, Mon 06 May.

It did not take Arzin long to progress (if that was the right word) from feeling a little discomfort in his fingers and hands to feeling intense pain. He stared down at his fingertips, which had now turned black, and the veins in his wrists had turned a charcoal-gray in color.

He managed to support the crystal for a very brief period of time by balancing one side against an armored bracer, but soon enough he had to revert to holding it with both hands.

The thought occurred to him that if he lost his balance and fell -- or dropped the crystal -- whatever fell towards the earth (be it his body or the crystal) would be pulled into the ever-widening hole ere it touched the ground.

Raising his voice once again so that he could be heard over the swirling winds, he called out "Need some help o'er here! I'm gettin' burnt to a crisp!"

---

OOC: 18:08, Today: Arzin rolled 5 using 1d6.  Lens Damage #2.

Notes: Arzin will use the "Field Triage" Maneuver (the brief balancing of one side of the Crystal against his bracer referenced in the IC post), which afford a little relief and will heal 2 HP.

Edit: Talon reminded me that I can use multiple Combat Moves (Reservoir-expending Actions) on a single Round. Accordingly, Arzin will use three "Field Triage" Moves (+2HP per Move), which will leave him with 4 HP when the dust settles at the end of this Round.

He has one unexpended "Move" at this point.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:31, Tue 07 May.

23:32, Today: Steorra Tellurian rolled 2 using 1d4.  Attunement.

I'd like to use my utility ability to add 1 to the potency charge, so the thing only loses 1 charge instead of 2.

"Aurland? Get ready to swap out with Arzin soon. If the gems get too low in charge I'll feed my other casting into it to recharge it, if needed." Steorra said. He'd have offered himself, but his potency was (a little relatively speaking) stronger than Aurland's so he wanted to reserve his casting if he needed to recharge the gems more.

Distracted by the tone in Taebor's voice, Malleus found his flow disrupted, the shapes tougher to capture and coming now at a more furious pace. His own thoughts intruded, the familiarity he had sensed, fleetingly, and what that might mean

22:00, Today: Malleus Murk rolled 14 using 4d6 ((5,3,4,2))

"These readings are all wrong, hold on just a little long, I need to recalibrate. The instruments... they must be off," Taebor called over the winds and arcing lightning. There was a frantic undertone to his words, whatever results he was getting from his spells were certainly of concern. There was time to worry about that later though, the mages helping with the spell had their hands full just maintaining the chaotic forces they were trying to harness.

Aurland's crystal held steady, the magic within it remaining balanced and not requiring topping off. Steorra struggled to keep the flickering charge of his attuning crystal within acceptable parameters. Neither of them paid heed to the monstrosities that had tentatively started to creep forward. It came as a surprise when Steorra felt something cool and slick winding its way around his ankle. Looking down, he saw a spectral tentacle climbing up him. Aurland felt a cool press on his back and looking over his shoulder saw one of the creatures had climbed on his back, its split mouth brimming with teeth inches from his ear. Neither seemed to be doing physical damage yet, but their touch left a lingering malaise. (Steorra and Aurland can only cast 1 Spell per turn while being siphoned by the spirits. This may limit their ability to charge the attuning crystals)

Further back, Malleus missed a few glyphs, but continued to get the majority recorded onto parchment. They were becoming a dizzying blur and it was getting harder and harder to commit the results to paper. With ink stained finger tips and a few glyphs getting smudged, though remaining readable, he wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer. (If you continue to act as the scribe, next turn you'll get 1 fewer dice)

Success: With the results of the last rolls success, another option will be made available at the adventures conclusion.


Optional Deadly Roll: Bolster - You may assist any of the other positions in the ritual. For the Attuners you can either dispatch their spiritual parasites or charge their crystals, for the scribe you'll grant them an additional d6, or for the lens you'll roll a 1d6 and if it's lower than what they got they'll take the lower result.

Continuing to scribe carefully and thoughfully in the midst of the flurry of glyphs, Malleus missed a spectral maw opening within them until it had latched onto his quill; blood joined ink and shadow as he continued to write, hissing out a shadow binding spell as he marked down the latest pattern. Like one of the blood-bound clans of his home city, this mistake cost him a knuckle from his smallest finger, though the pain brought its own reward in clarity

OOC: Going for the Deadly Roll, taking 50% hits but using the Bolster to enhance @Aurland's Attuning; plus one success on Mapping

21:35, Today: Malleus Murk rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,1,6.  Mapping. – 11

21:34, Today: Malleus Murk rolled 3 using 1d6.  Deadly Roll. – 3
 

Arzin heard Taebor calling out over the shrieking winds, urging everyone to hold on just a little longer so that he could recalibrate -- whatever that meant.

~He'd better hurry it up. Pretty soon I'm going to be burnt to a crisp, and the Lens will hit the ground -- mayhap be sucked down into that Hole . . . Vortex . . . whatever it is.~

The pain was excruciating. In spite of his efforts to wrap his hands and fingers in rags to give them a little relief, it felt to the ex-soldier like his blood was close to boiling in his veins.

~Well . . . I'll do my duty for as long as I can,~ he thought to himself, gritting his teeth resolutely.

Steorra braced himself.

"Oh gods these spectral things are so gross! And they feel as gross as they look! Like slimey seaweed snakes that want to slowly nibble on my magic." Steorra said alound as he grimaced. However, he couldn't worry about them right now. They needed to Help Arzin. But he also needed to sustain his crystal.

Steorra shouted to Arzin.

"Just keep holding the lens. I won't let it burn you up right now, I promise. But man is it gonna suck for me, but at least we'll both be alive. Just keep the faith in me, bud!" Steorra shouted over to the man as he suddenly forced his mana to surge into over-drive. Recalling a type of spell he used to be able to use in his prime, and forcing it to manifest despite his magic now worked differently since the dimensional shift, and aura of temporal magic suddenly sprang up around Steorra. He flared there, bright as a bonfire or even brighter, like he was some sort of emergent archmage...but this momentary transcendance of his normal limitations couldn't last for long, and he was using some of his vitality to supplement his weakened magic. He was running more on potential than actual energy right now.

And it sure did suck, since he coughed up blood and burn marks began to form on his body! Burn marks just like the ones that were forming on Arzin from holding the lens! A ticking sound of a clock could be heard while his aura swirled, causing the nearby spectral beings to freeze in time for a moment. As this happened, temporal afterimages of Steorra dropping his crystal and rushing over at unnaturally hasted speed to Arzin became visible!

The afterimaged reached Arzin, and with a surprising amount of force pushed the normally much-stronger man away from the lens while the afterimage of Steorra held onto it in his place. The afterimage screamed in pain as the lens burned and incinerated his flesh (steorra takes 1 point of damage from going into overdrive, and 4 points from the burning lens. This 5 total, which is actually the crsis damage takes for rolling a 2 but I'm narratively explaining the 5 damage that way).

Then...suddenly, the lens stopped again and the afterimage passed it quickly to Arzin, before vanishing! The soldier only experienced the most minimal of damager due to the residual heat of the lens - it seemed Steorra had taken one for the team, so to speak, and prevented Arzin from getting fully burnt this round. (Arzin takes only 1 point of damage from the lens!)

Back where Steorra was actually standing, he still was holding his crystal. Despite the paradox of his Time magic, but that was why he was the Magister of time, and not an atomized smear on the ground. However, as the afterimages faded and his aura of power subsided, the burns from the afterimage suddenly appeared on his body, causing him to cry out in pain! (Steorra takes 5 crisis damage. Thank goodness for weekly healing, which topped him off at 10 so now he is back down to 5. Lately, it seems 5 is the magic number for his hp lol).

As his overdrive faded, some of the residual mana was absorbed into his crystal, offsetting its drain this round.

Steorra gains 1 xp, and is down to 5 hp. I use my last spell usage for the adventure to imbue 2 more points into the crystal, which offsets the 2 points he would have otherwise lost letting it remain charged.

23:35, Today: Steorra Tellurian rolled 1 using 1d6.  Arzin.

23:35, Today: Steorra Tellurian rolled 2 using 1d6.  Deadly Roll.

23:53, Today: Steorra Tellurian rolled 2 using 1d4.  Attunement.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:57, Fri 10 May.

Aurland was not pleased with the ritual. He'd done his best to stabilize the crystal but his overall contribution to its powering was quite marginal. Then there were the strange spirits that were climbing on him, trying to disrupt the ritual and potentially kill him. He was beginning to dislike the ephemeral beings of this plane; they were so aggressive. Still he held fast, hoping beyond hope that the ritual would finish soon and that everyone would walk away intact if not unharmed. From the sounds of Arzin's calls that was a foregone conclusion.

Aurland will use his defensive specialty to reduce any chip damage he can affect to 0.

The ritual was coming to a head. Between the whipping winds and the press of the hungry spirits, the caustic energy rolling out from the grove, the tension in the air was palpable. Malleus was bleeding after one of the spirits had grown bold and set upon him, Steorra had flashed like a beacon for a moment and then was covered in burns. Aurland held aloft his crystal maintaining the charge. All the while those spectral monstrosities pushed in closer, growing bolder.

"Enough!" Taebor called out, clapping his hands together with a boom and dismissing the magic he'd been calling upon. A wave of power rushed out from the grove and the winds immediately ceased and the ghosts dissipated into mist. The planar explorer looked pale and his brow was beaded with sweat, but it did not look like the result of exertion. The man looked profoundly shaken.


"This was wrong. All wrong," Taebor muttered to him. Taking a deep breath the planar specialist visibly composed himself and he tried to put on a chipper face, with limited success. "When it comes to the planes, this spell is much like looking into the heavens. Every plane is a star in the sky, some closer, some further, but all of them making up a glittering constellation of the multiverse. This spell is the equivalent of setting up a telescope to peer into those heavens. However, when I looked into this telescope... it was looking into a sky without stars. Or more like a wall." Just stating it aloud clearly left Taebor shaken again. Wiping a handkerchief across his bow, he continued, "Or perhaps not precisely a wall, but rather a hole in the ground, because I did see something. But it was all wrong."

Walking over to where Malleus had diligently captured the results on the spell, Taebor ran a finger down the runes, giving appreciative nods as he went. "These are thorough, you did good work," he commented offhandedly, "And maybe there was more than just one result. I missed it with how strange the readings were. It looks like there were three planes? Imagine that, three stars in an entire night sky... But it's something."

"Also, what do we want to do with our access point? I can stabilize the opening, it would allow us to more easily access whatever it was we found, but it's a two way street and there seems to be dangerous beasts that call this place home. I could also seal it up too and ensure nothing is springing up right at the Elucidate's doorstep."

Decision Point:

Stabilize the Planar Rift: It will allow for planar spelunking, but provides a two way street.

Seal the Rift: It mend the planar tear caused by the hordes breach and ensure that other worldly entities have a less direct route to the Spellspire.

Note: We'll go with whatever the majority opinion is.


Ritual Results: Three successes have revealed three planar destinations that can be unlocked via projects.

Spoils of the Ritual

Note: These are non-exclusive rewards!

Hold the Door!: Points of transition are a staple of arcane theory and practical magic. While travel across worlds and planes is dangerous and unpredictable, opening a doorway which has already been created is a far safer and reliable form of magic. It still requires proper effort and preparation however.
New Spell: Ritual of Gates - You open an arcane gateway which has been previously used if it was opened recently or was not properly sealed. (Amount of time is variable based on conditions, but takes between 12 to 60 hours to perform.)

Marking the Minutes: When it comes to ritual time is always a factor. Ritual are not fast. They require precision and time for the mystic forces to congregation and stabilize. That doesn't mean there aren't ways to expedite the process though. Proper preparation, a steady execution and steady hand can cut down the time it takes.
Passive: Master of Rituals - You half whatever time it takes to cast a ritual that you're involved with.

I Prepared For That: While rituals are a matter of following careful and precise instructions, making it much like the arcane equivalent of baking, that isn't to say they aren't without surprises. The ability to maintain ones composure and continue to conduct the ritual while also dealing with these complications can be the difference between success and reality warping failure.
Passive: Master of Ceremonies - If any complications arise in relation to a ritual you're involved with, you're treated as an expert and gain a boon to handling those complications.

I Gaze Into My Crystal Ball: Peering into the cosmos and peering into the ether are not so dissimilar. Both involved sifting through a sea of chaotic energies and possibilities. In doing so, you can gain glimpses into secrets lost to time or thought to be scrubbed away.
New Spell: Ritual of Scrying - With an object to serve as a focus, you can ask a single question pertaining to the object. (Spell takes 2-8 hours to casts depending on the nature of the object.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:49, Fri 10 May.

"Information is power", offered Malleus, considering Taebor's words, whether the dismissive acknowledgement of his scribing or the ruminations upon what had been seen, "It may have been wrong, but we know more then we did before. Leave the gate open, stable but controlled. We need more understanding of this threat..."

Exhausted and pale himself, Malleus was familiar with the special pressures of information gatthering, perhaps less with the planar intricacies that Taebor described. Still, he had new insights now

"Stabilize", he offered, "We need more understanding"

"Besides, I have a feel fo the tempo of these ritual now; I'm sure we can wing whatever comes"

OOC: Vote to Stabilize; taking I Prepared for That

Aurland considered the situation at hand.

"I agree with Malleus. Knowledge is power, especially in these dire and unknown times. However, I don't think it is my place to make such wide-spanning decisions for the whole of the expedition. Perhaps if we'd known that such an eventuality was going to present itself and had the dispensation of leadership."

He shook his head, stopping his rambling.

"I vote we seal the rift. What has been torn can be opened again, under more controlled circumstances."

OOC: Claiming Marking the Minutes

OOC: Steorra is following an open-secret side agenda of pursuing a theory that he has that his Time School can be "evolved" or "Ascended" into something even greater. Into an Archmagic if you will. And what is greater than the time/space elements of his Time magic? Why...Dimension stuff of course! As such, I just cannot pass up that first reward because it can potentially be pimped out with a few projects into some sort of uber gate magic. What an absolutely fitting thing, role-play wise, for a reward pick! Something like this is what I was hoping for ooc when I joined this adventure!

Steorra almost began to drool with excitement when they finally finished the mapping, which allowed himt o finally fulyl grasp the basics of the dimensional concepts at work here! His theory that he could potentially glean the elements of a higher form of Time Magic by coming on this dimensional expedition were turning out to finally bear fruit! And boy was it a gamble" he risked his life on multiple occasions, left all the comforts he knew before, and even was subjected to having his inner core of magical power chewed up and spit out by the dimensional wave that struck the Spellsire when they first arrived. All on the gamble that it would force his magic to adapt into a new form. And this was a tantalizing hint or clue to his "secret" agenda. It was nothing particularly sinister or anything, but like Aurland wanted to one day create an entire planet Steorra had his own version of reality-warping he was hoping to achieve. Even if the chance was slim, and even if he had to sacrifice much to get there. One step back to go two forward!

And while the others gleaned the sorts of insights that Steorra had expected them to, he was grateful to Trebor for having this idea for the mapping, because Steorra had a burst of inspiration as he learned how to Hold the Door! with his magic. Not just spatial like farreach, or some sort of teleportation, this sort of magic could potentially cross planar and even dimensional boundaries. Even if it was a clunky ritual right now. But no matter...Steorra could potentially improve this, which in turn could potentially lead him to Dimensional Magic! Like the next step would be to make the spell let him open his own portals, and not piggyback on others.

With this new insight in hand, he had no reason to want this portal stabilized. Especially when it obviously led to dangerous shadowy regions and creatures and such. Certainly, it was a horrible idea to have such a thing so close to the Spellspire! If they needed to pursue this portal, then they could so so one he figured out how to Augment his new spell. But to leave such a portal open right int heir backyard was just asking for a catastrophe!

Steorra shook his head.

"No...we need to seal the portal. We cannot leave this obviously volatile and dangerous rift open right in our backyard. If we want or need to explore the realm on the other side of this portal, I will find a way to use my magic to let us do so. But we were just invaded by a small horde of monsters from an unknown enemy, but their side had to make an effort to do that. It wasn't easy or automatic for them, and as we grow our defenses it will be even harder for them to invade our territory in the future. But We aren't strong enough to handle having a sinister dimensional rift like this right next to our Spellspire. I reckon if those tentacled things actually fully came through, they would eat all of our magic and then proceed to eat our bodies and then proceed to crap us out and that would be the end of it!" Steorra said.

Vote: Seal the Portal!

Arzin exhaled raggedly as Taebor loudly clapped his hands and somehow brought the dangerously off-course Ritual to an end. His hands and fingers tingled with an ongoing numbness, and he shook them in an effort to infuse them with feeling.

He was unsuccessful, but counted himself lucky that the searing heat that had coursed through the Lens had ceased. The hole in the ground no longer pulsated with energy as it pulled the swirling winds down into it, but neither was it closed up.

The man-at-arms swayed as he struggled to maintain his footing against an insistent vertigo that threatened to bring him to his knees. Bending at the waist, he placed his hands against his knees and steadied himself somewhat in that fashion.

"Seal the Rift," he replied in a weak voice when Taebor asked his question.

"We lack both the understanding and the strength to control the powers that are found here, and 'tis plain enough that there are beings and forces in this place that wish us ill. We need to have the clarity to realize our own limitations, and the strength of will to work to o'ercome them."

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OOC: Claiming "I Prepared for That."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:24, Mon 13 May.

Taebor seemed relieved when the overwhelming consensus was to close the planar rift. Raising his hands and uttering a few words he nodded, "It's done. It was so fresh it was a simple matter. Nothing will be coming back through that way unless someone works fresh magic. Thank you all for your assistance. The results are disturbing, but I know more now than I did before. This land we've found ourselves in is stranger than I would have ever guessed, and the forces at work here do not seem natural. I have a great deal of research to do now." Furling up the scroll that Malleus had carefully transcribed the glyphs onto, the planar mage gave them a tip of his hat, then hiked back up the valley and towards the Spellspire.

OOC: Closing up the thread, you may resume posting in the Elucidate. Eldereth won't have any duties for anyone for the time being, so it's a good chance to perform any projects you had in mind, revisit locations that have been discovered, or initiate any adventures/explorations of your own that had come into mind!