Amaruve regains his senses, and re-lights his flame, Acooff!
He'd call out to Vasht, who appears to have gained omnipotence, but he probably isn't the ideal voice of this party at the moment. Not so much because of his shape, but due to his complete lack of composure.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
The wall she meant to back into never materializes, as Perspicacious takes in the full view of her surroundings, and not just the large bear now creating fire with its sneezing. She goes to put the rapier away and stand. (Con Save: 5) ...and joins the party in voiding her stomach on the ground... er, ceiling? Hard to tell, as her head swims.
Noticing the bear now looking up... no, down, at something, she spots the familiar form of her friend Vasht. "Vasht! We're here! Can someone please tell me what is happening?"
(No need for a Con save, AP., but thanks for joining the heaving party, just the same! I wasn't entirely clear: Amaruve's nat 20 brought everyone's attention to Vasht, but it also briefly untethered him a bit from the more-or-less normal physics you're all enjoying. Things get a little screwy here)
At the sound of the tiefling's cry, the creature floating amidst its ring of crystal moves its chin down, just fractionally, and notices the party on the black expanse below. Almost as if in slow motion, it starts as though surprised. It then outstretches its arms and lowers toward you, the cracked heart of the Nova held loosely in its left hand. Afterimages of the creature hang in the air in the wake of its passing, and the crystal halo is pulled partially downward, now forming a slowly rotating funnel to mark its descent. Finally, it slows to a halt perhaps six feet above the ground.
It is Vasht. It was ancient before, perhaps millennia old, but now... Its hair still hangs full and undulating like silk under water, but it now reaches the small of its back where before it barely reached the spirits' shoulders. Its eyes, once the bright blue of a clear winter sky, are now blank spaces entirely devoid of color or shadow. There are no lines on its perfect androgynous face, but somehow, the mark of age is dwells in its tired, alien expression.
It opens its mouth to speak, and the sound that issues forth is distorted and echoing. It comes not from the creature itself, but from the thousand crystal shards above. It says, "My friends. My poor, dear friends. I've finally found you." It smiles "You may relax. For the space of this moment, you may rest. There are no quests to complete here. There is no wrong you must right. Be at peace."
It looks to the professor and Cordelia. "You both have uncovered much in the last few leaps, but I'm sure that you all have many, many questions. I recognize that my assistance thus far has been... challenging at best. But I believe we are close. Your journey has already been long, but I believe in just a few dozen more leaps we will find a way to break the cycle and utilize a leap to bring you home."
It quite literally beams as the light within itself intensifies briefly. It looks expectantly at you in anticipation of your response...
"Journey? Leaps? What are you talking about? Where is this place? Take us back to my laboratory at once!" The professor yells upwards, shaking his cane in the air.
Vasht frowns at the professor's outburst. Then, looking slightly upward, it gestures to a few nearby chunks of crystal which swirl toward him. A quick series of multi-colored symbols appear in the air between Vasht and the wreckage of the Novascope, and Vasht's frown deepens.
It studies the symbols for a moment and mutters to itself. The voice coming from the crystals is hollow and ringing as it asks, "Tell me, friends... Jean, are you whole? Amaruve, how long have you been in this form? When did you last attempt to return to your original shape?"
The crystals spin away as its voice suddenly booms, "What is the last thing you remember?!"
Jean sluggishly got to her feet. With a wry smile she answered "Whole? That's debatable. Apart from a sense of nausea I feel fine physically. I feel like my mind got shattered into pieces and stitched back together, but I can still feel the stitches."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Cordelia came to along with everyone else but has been transfixed by STR-DST (Dusty). She tried to make sense of what just happened, ignoring the large bear in the room. For a moment, she was just like the professor - lost in thought!
(Planar knowledge: 18)
Vasht's appearance pulls her out of her head and back to this reality. She looks from Vasht to the professor to Jean and back to Vasht. She clears her throat, "Vasht, this is the first time we are meeting you in such a form. I believe we are at the beginning of these 'leaps' while you are still in your own present. If you could explain a few things to us, I'm sure we would appreciate the help."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd[Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player] Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale Ru's Current Status
(Actually, that's good, Ru. Cordelia has watched TV- she knows how this time travel crap works)
"This isn't poss... If their subjective experience of time is so far removed from my own..." Its eyes widen hugely. "Then there's still hope!" Its attention snaps back to the party. "Listen to me, all of you! We can prevent so many mistakes if you simply-"
But its voice cuts out. Its lips continue to move, but the crystals around it are silent. Vasht screams silently, but his body is drawn upward and away from you as the crystals gather to encase him entirely.
The symbols of the Tower on the back of your hands burst into amber flames. Then you are overcome by a crashing wave of the white light made water.
Cordelia's hand burns with flames as she reaches out toward Vasht. No! He knew something, something that could-!
She looks back to the professor and attempts to run to him, unsure of what would happen to him. Unsure of what was happening to her.
That's when things blacked out for her.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd[Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player] Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale Ru's Current Status
Amaruve listens to Vasht's questions, and wonders how to return to his original shape. He uses Wild Shape to take the form of a man, No... He can't. He tries to take the form of a wolf... He can't. He tries to shift taking the form of the Wildhunt. The form of his people.
His legs stretch and his body condenses, he is more like a man, but his form is much more fierce than a man. His ears, teeth, and nose more prominent. His sense of the scene grows sharper as each sense becomes more acute. He has fingers and toes and can speak, yet his form is more beast than it would have been a day prior.
"Mear moments" he replies, "I cannot" his voice before was deep and quiet but clear. Now it booms, with a gravelly distortion. "And you?" Amaruve asks the powerful being.
Amaruve shifts into his bestial man-like form as Jean and Cordelia engage with the creature. The horror of his lost body presses down on on him like a weight, and then time begins to slow as the tide of light hits the party. Amaruve feels his body revert back to the form of a black bear, and in his mind alone he hears the voice of Vasht:
Ages. I have been searching for you... for ages.
Then, before the light consumes them fully Amaruve hears one final word, small and faint as if from a great distance:
You each open your eyes, and you are surrounded by people you do not know. The human men and women crowded in this small, cramped space look like trouble. They are all wearing black leather pants and matching black leather jackets. Across the back of one of these outfits, you see the words "Thunder Steins" emblazoned above a graphic of overflowing beer barrels pouring lightning into the mouths of skeletons. Torn cloth bandanas, all moss green, are wrapped around their heads.
Looking down, you realize with a start that you are dressed in exactly the same fashion. It's at that moment that your vision doubles. Each person is the room is suddenly two people. Somehow standing within and around each real, leather-clad individual is a member of your party. Looking at your hands, feeling your body, you realize that you feel both yourself and the body of the person you are now inhabiting.
You also realize that it is cramped in this space largely because of the enormous bear that occupies roughly half of the room.
A slot opens in the wall and a pair of eyes is suddenly visible. "Hey, you lot!" a voice growls, "No summoning familiars before the match starts!"
(Okay! We're finally in our first leap! If everyone would please level up to Level 2 for me? For this arc, your bodies will function as your normal one does, so no changes to your character sheet are required. As always, you are fully restored when we take a leap. Dice mechanics will be standard 5e rules. Gordra: You still depend on your staff to ambulate, and we'll see how that affects your actions moving forward. Here we go!)
The professor looks around the room at his travel companions, seeing their new dual-body forms that seem to be within the same space. He will look down at himself, his scaled hand still clutching his cane, yet at the same time this new hand which he can move and feel with no cane in it's grasp.
He attempts to cast Light on his cane, to see if it illuminates the room.
Gordra's cane illuminates with a bright light. It would seem that you have retained your ability to cast spells.
The walls are revealed by the light in the cramped circular space, and you can see that they are made of curving planks of wood. You appear to be inside an enormous barrel. There is another slot in the wood opposite from the man who just spoke. You can see that each slot is centered in one of two small doors cut from the walls.
The light shines outward, and you hear a "Gah!" as the man steps away and shields his eyes. "Fine, ya witchy bastards. Dohn' come cryin' tah me when ya get tha boot!"
Gordra extinguishes the light and leans in close to Cordelia. "Ms. Luna, this is not a dream, this is not a hallucination. This seems like something from one of your Dr. Whom teleplays you've told me about. What is your device telling you?"
(Of note: Perspicacious, in addition to the loss of your horns and tail and the general weirdness of your body, you now feel a pleasantly warm weight in one of your pockets)
Amaruve regains his senses, and re-lights his flame, Acooff!
He'd call out to Vasht, who appears to have gained omnipotence, but he probably isn't the ideal voice of this party at the moment. Not so much because of his shape, but due to his complete lack of composure.
Extended Signature
The wall she meant to back into never materializes, as Perspicacious takes in the full view of her surroundings, and not just the large bear now creating fire with its sneezing. She goes to put the rapier away and stand. (Con Save: 5) ...and joins the party in voiding her stomach on the ground... er, ceiling? Hard to tell, as her head swims.
Noticing the bear now looking up... no, down, at something, she spots the familiar form of her friend Vasht. "Vasht! We're here! Can someone please tell me what is happening?"
(No need for a Con save, AP., but thanks for joining the heaving party, just the same! I wasn't entirely clear: Amaruve's nat 20 brought everyone's attention to Vasht, but it also briefly untethered him a bit from the more-or-less normal physics you're all enjoying. Things get a little screwy here)
At the sound of the tiefling's cry, the creature floating amidst its ring of crystal moves its chin down, just fractionally, and notices the party on the black expanse below. Almost as if in slow motion, it starts as though surprised. It then outstretches its arms and lowers toward you, the cracked heart of the Nova held loosely in its left hand. Afterimages of the creature hang in the air in the wake of its passing, and the crystal halo is pulled partially downward, now forming a slowly rotating funnel to mark its descent. Finally, it slows to a halt perhaps six feet above the ground.
It is Vasht. It was ancient before, perhaps millennia old, but now... Its hair still hangs full and undulating like silk under water, but it now reaches the small of its back where before it barely reached the spirits' shoulders. Its eyes, once the bright blue of a clear winter sky, are now blank spaces entirely devoid of color or shadow. There are no lines on its perfect androgynous face, but somehow, the mark of age is dwells in its tired, alien expression.
It opens its mouth to speak, and the sound that issues forth is distorted and echoing. It comes not from the creature itself, but from the thousand crystal shards above. It says, "My friends. My poor, dear friends. I've finally found you." It smiles "You may relax. For the space of this moment, you may rest. There are no quests to complete here. There is no wrong you must right. Be at peace."
It looks to the professor and Cordelia. "You both have uncovered much in the last few leaps, but I'm sure that you all have many, many questions. I recognize that my assistance thus far has been... challenging at best. But I believe we are close. Your journey has already been long, but I believe in just a few dozen more leaps we will find a way to break the cycle and utilize a leap to bring you home."
It quite literally beams as the light within itself intensifies briefly. It looks expectantly at you in anticipation of your response...
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
"Journey? Leaps? What are you talking about? Where is this place? Take us back to my laboratory at once!" The professor yells upwards, shaking his cane in the air.
Vasht frowns at the professor's outburst. Then, looking slightly upward, it gestures to a few nearby chunks of crystal which swirl toward him. A quick series of multi-colored symbols appear in the air between Vasht and the wreckage of the Novascope, and Vasht's frown deepens.
It studies the symbols for a moment and mutters to itself. The voice coming from the crystals is hollow and ringing as it asks, "Tell me, friends... Jean, are you whole? Amaruve, how long have you been in this form? When did you last attempt to return to your original shape?"
The crystals spin away as its voice suddenly booms, "What is the last thing you remember?!"
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
Jean sluggishly got to her feet. With a wry smile she answered "Whole? That's debatable. Apart from a sense of nausea I feel fine physically. I feel like my mind got shattered into pieces and stitched back together, but I can still feel the stitches."
Cordelia came to along with everyone else but has been transfixed by STR-DST (Dusty). She tried to make sense of what just happened, ignoring the large bear in the room. For a moment, she was just like the professor - lost in thought!
(Planar knowledge: 18)
Vasht's appearance pulls her out of her head and back to this reality. She looks from Vasht to the professor to Jean and back to Vasht. She clears her throat, "Vasht, this is the first time we are meeting you in such a form. I believe we are at the beginning of these 'leaps' while you are still in your own present. If you could explain a few things to us, I'm sure we would appreciate the help."
DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd [Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player]
Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale
Ru's Current Status
Jean groaned. " 'Own present'? This is time strangeness?"
(Actually, that's good, Ru. Cordelia has watched TV- she knows how this time travel crap works)
"This isn't poss... If their subjective experience of time is so far removed from my own..." Its eyes widen hugely. "Then there's still hope!" Its attention snaps back to the party. "Listen to me, all of you! We can prevent so many mistakes if you simply-"
But its voice cuts out. Its lips continue to move, but the crystals around it are silent. Vasht screams silently, but his body is drawn upward and away from you as the crystals gather to encase him entirely.
The symbols of the Tower on the back of your hands burst into amber flames. Then you are overcome by a crashing wave of the white light made water.
Then there is darkness.
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
Cordelia's hand burns with flames as she reaches out toward Vasht. No! He knew something, something that could-!
She looks back to the professor and attempts to run to him, unsure of what would happen to him. Unsure of what was happening to her.
That's when things blacked out for her.
DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd [Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player]
Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale
Ru's Current Status
Amaruve listens to Vasht's questions, and wonders how to return to his original shape. He uses Wild Shape to take the form of a man, No... He can't. He tries to take the form of a wolf... He can't. He tries to shift taking the form of the Wildhunt. The form of his people.
His legs stretch and his body condenses, he is more like a man, but his form is much more fierce than a man. His ears, teeth, and nose more prominent. His sense of the scene grows sharper as each sense becomes more acute. He has fingers and toes and can speak, yet his form is more beast than it would have been a day prior.
"Mear moments" he replies, "I cannot" his voice before was deep and quiet but clear. Now it booms, with a gravelly distortion. "And you?" Amaruve asks the powerful being.
Extended Signature
Amaruve shifts into his bestial man-like form as Jean and Cordelia engage with the creature. The horror of his lost body presses down on on him like a weight, and then time begins to slow as the tide of light hits the party. Amaruve feels his body revert back to the form of a black bear, and in his mind alone he hears the voice of Vasht:
Ages. I have been searching for you... for ages.
Then, before the light consumes them fully Amaruve hears one final word, small and faint as if from a great distance:
Narimel
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
Things are dark for a little while. And then...
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
You each open your eyes, and you are surrounded by people you do not know. The human men and women crowded in this small, cramped space look like trouble. They are all wearing black leather pants and matching black leather jackets. Across the back of one of these outfits, you see the words "Thunder Steins" emblazoned above a graphic of overflowing beer barrels pouring lightning into the mouths of skeletons. Torn cloth bandanas, all moss green, are wrapped around their heads.
Looking down, you realize with a start that you are dressed in exactly the same fashion. It's at that moment that your vision doubles. Each person is the room is suddenly two people. Somehow standing within and around each real, leather-clad individual is a member of your party. Looking at your hands, feeling your body, you realize that you feel both yourself and the body of the person you are now inhabiting.
You also realize that it is cramped in this space largely because of the enormous bear that occupies roughly half of the room.
A slot opens in the wall and a pair of eyes is suddenly visible. "Hey, you lot!" a voice growls, "No summoning familiars before the match starts!"
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
(Okay! We're finally in our first leap! If everyone would please level up to Level 2 for me? For this arc, your bodies will function as your normal one does, so no changes to your character sheet are required. As always, you are fully restored when we take a leap. Dice mechanics will be standard 5e rules. Gordra: You still depend on your staff to ambulate, and we'll see how that affects your actions moving forward. Here we go!)
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
The professor looks around the room at his travel companions, seeing their new dual-body forms that seem to be within the same space. He will look down at himself, his scaled hand still clutching his cane, yet at the same time this new hand which he can move and feel with no cane in it's grasp.
He attempts to cast Light on his cane, to see if it illuminates the room.
Jean leaned close to the person she perceived as Cordelia and murmured "Are we... Gladiators?"
Gordra's cane illuminates with a bright light. It would seem that you have retained your ability to cast spells.
The walls are revealed by the light in the cramped circular space, and you can see that they are made of curving planks of wood. You appear to be inside an enormous barrel. There is another slot in the wood opposite from the man who just spoke. You can see that each slot is centered in one of two small doors cut from the walls.
The light shines outward, and you hear a "Gah!" as the man steps away and shields his eyes. "Fine, ya witchy bastards. Dohn' come cryin' tah me when ya get tha boot!"
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder
Gordra extinguishes the light and leans in close to Cordelia. "Ms. Luna, this is not a dream, this is not a hallucination. This seems like something from one of your Dr. Whom teleplays you've told me about. What is your device telling you?"
(Of note: Perspicacious, in addition to the loss of your horns and tail and the general weirdness of your body, you now feel a pleasantly warm weight in one of your pockets)
Imani Jones - Lv 11 Warlock of The Living City - Variant Human| Fate/False Revelation
Wick Stumbleduck - Lv 4 Lore Bard - Forest Gnome | Elustran Days
Khurah - Lv 3 Star Druid - Half-orc | Boats, Rocks, and Ruffians
Dale Swanson - User of the Sound of Silence Stand - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Sunset Investigations
Ayaci Vikerfjell - Lv 8 Rune Knight | Variant Human | Storm King's Thunder