Pizazz's Beyond Annihilation

Kurik looks about at the swarm of Gith suddenly around them, and Mal, and Zendrak and Mordekai all spread out...and of course the massive red scaled beast bearing down on everything.

He pulls the magic about himself and with a staccato of *BAMFS* the group vanishes and appears a bit further down the hallway, just out of the reach of the Gith.  Zendrak nods to him, and releases his spell.  All of existence collapses in on itself, sending the group into a tiny spot of blackness.  A moment later existence explodes back out around the group, color and sound and smells assaulting their senses. 

A hazy blue smoke drifts off of everyone as they find themselves standing in the middle of a forest. The air is summery and warm, the land smells of fresh fronds and rich soil. Bird song fills the air, though abruptly quiets at the surprising appearance of the group. Nearby a broken down stone and wooden cabin lays in disrepair, a tree growing out from within and through the broken roof.  On the ground, under a layer of moss and dirt you can see arcane symbols of a magic circle glowing blue, but slowing fading into a dull stone color.

Zendrak glances around, wounded from numerous strikes during the fight, and badly burnt from flame, and walks over to sit on the edge of a broken down well.  He mutters, "The damned Lich must be using a Gith Creche as it's hiding spot for its Phylactery."   He sighs heavily and hunches over, trying to regain a second wind but looking drained.

Kari looks around at the cabin, trying to decide if it looks sturdy enough to use for shelter. She wipes some sudden sweat off of her brow with the back of her wrist then hisses quietly when the liquid gets inside her cracked skin. "Well, we need a better plan if we're going back there. Not tonight though, I think we could all use a rest. Are you alright Mal?"

Coughing up blood, Mal sits up and looks around a tad bit confused. "Where did the dragon go? Where are we and why am I not dead?" Spitting out some more blood she stands, a little unsure of her footing, "So yea lets not do that again. I am going to go over to that cabin over there and fall back unconscious, anyone care to join?" With that she walks over to the old falling down cabin, that looks a hell of a lot better then she does.

Zendrak nods to the two women and lays down on a flat grassy spot and closes his eyes. He seems content to lay there, unmoving and seemingly go to sleep.

 Kari looks at Kurik and lets out a tired breath. "Should we keep a watch in this new place? We could always just wake up the others and make them take a turn when it's time."

Kari, hurting and bone weary manages to keep a first watch, with others taking turns as the time passed. However this spot seems safe enough as you go unbothered throughout the rest. The afternoon, and eventually much of the night passes and the group finds themselves feeling renewed as morning light starts to grace the skies the next morning. (Full rest achieved). 

As the group wakes and begins cooking food, and a bit despondently going through the motions Zendrak stands up, "We now have some sense of the compound we deal with and the foes at hand protecting the Phylactery. They will undoubtedly be on high alert for some time. And if any of them know Ruin, and have a deal with him, then our job will be made harder, for we revealed our purpose to that woman...and she managed to escape......making our job more difficult. What is our approach then?" 

"If we wished to go in disguised, I can cast a spell (Seeming) to make all of us appear like some of the Gith we saw. We at least now have some knowledge of the place to aid us in that sense."

 Kari thinks about that idea, nodding her head thoughtfully. "That could work, I have a bit of guard training so I think I could pass myself off as one of their warriors. What do you think?" She grins as she imagines herself acting as one of those knights that they fought against.

"We can at least give it a shot." Mal says and then utters a strange sounding word as her armor changes its look to match exactly the armor the gith were wearing.

With a wicked smile, "I am ready."

Zendrak considers this, "Yes, very well, that should do. Which part of the complex that we saw should I try to teleport us into? The spell will not be faultless though so...we may end up off target." 

Besides Seeming, does anyone do anything else to prepare the next day before teleporting? 

"It might be good to try teleporting further down the hall that we were running down. At least we wouldnt have to sneak through a nursery that way. Before we go I can ask my ancestors one question about what we might find around us. Or at least, that's the type of question I have in mind. Would you rather know if we would be show up closer to the dragons or closer to the shellacery?"

Mordekai casts Seeming on the group, then launches into a customary 10-minute monologue. This time, mostly about dragons and their overbearing tenacity and menace. At roughly the halfway point his speech switches gears and moves on to the strengths of a group who are able to unite to overcome a red dragon, and rounds of with a commendation for the wisdom in knowing when to run away from a particularly big and angry red dragon when half the group are almost dead.

Everyone gets 18 temporary hit points.

Zendrak answers Kari without pause, "Phylactery." 

Kurik pulled out his sword and looked at it through the spell.  While it looked like the Gith blade, he could feel the magic in it and knew it to be flametongue.  Content, he slid it into it's sheath.  He looked at the others, "Alright, let go... into another den of dragons."

Kari takes a minute to focus her intentions. "When we teleport into the hallway, will we be closer to the phu- phylactery than we were the first time we teleported in?" She holds her bones in her hands and rubs them together as she breaths deeply in and out, then she spills them on the ground and carefully counts up the runes that are showing.

She carefully examines the ruins, those representing weal and woe, luck and ....not luck....the opposite of luck? bad luck?  Anyway, she counts them up and it seems that indeed it seems the runes are telling her they will be closer. 

Shrouded in the illusion, and looking like a group of Gith, Zendrak prepares and casts his spell that lets him seek the Phylactery and then, seeing everyone is 'ready'.....he casts his spell.  

All of reality collapses away into nothing.

With a sickening feeling of free falling through nothing reality and gravity suddenly reasserts itself and color, light and sound explode into existence around you.

The group appears in an intersection, just a bit further down the hallway than where they left nearly ten hours ago. You hear a heavy clanging sound issuing repeatedly somewhere nearby.  

Looking back down the hallway that you'd previous come from, you see it stretches about 100 feet to the last intersection you had been in before departing this place. Across that open area the hallway continues to the heavy large steel door that leads through to the bunk room with the chess sets. 

Another straight carved hallway leads that way, also about a hundred feet before opening up into a room. From here you can see what looks like long tables. Gith seem present, sitting and eating, though being over a hundred feet from here they haven't noticed you yet.  Beyond the dining hall, you see a wide stairway that leads up to another level. 

The two other directions, the hallways look less carved and more naturally. Wider than ten feet with winding walls. The way opposite the dining hall opens up after twenty feet and you see what looks like an armory. Dozens of suits of plate armor and half plate hang on wooden stands throughout the room. The armor is crafted in the baroque style favored by the githyanki, and the suits of plate armor have empty sockets and fittings where gemstones are meant to be set (though none are present in the suits here). The natural hallway continues on after the armory but you can't see where because it winds out of your vision.

The passage opposite the other intersection opens up pretty quickly as well.  Here the sound of the banging. becomes obvious. A smith is hard at work, her back to you.  A female Githyanki is busy repairing armor at a forge. A wooden trestle table and an iron anvil are arranged nearby. The forge radiates heat that goes up a chimney. Numerous greatswords hang on weapon racks mounted to the walls, in various stages of completeness.  

The rough hewn hallway continues past her, also to somewhere you can't see as it rounds a corner.

The Githyanki with you that has just a hint of "Zendrak" to his face looks at the group, and then points towards the dining hall. 

For the moment, it seems no one is around and your presence has gone unnoticed.

Mal sees the way Zendrak is point and then looks down thew hallway at the number of gith sitting at a table eating. Of course it has to be that way, well might as well get this over with. As she gestures for Zendrak to lead the way, whispering, "Let's get this over with. Move with purpose."

Then she will follow Zendrak as he leads the way.

Zendrak glances at the rest of the group, making eye contact with Gith-Kari and Gith-Mordekai in particular, making sure they seem ready to proceed.  Zendrak speaks into everyone's mind with his thoughts alone,  "It is highly likely the Gith down the hallway will question us, given you don't look like anyone they know. What is our story and who is doing the talking?" 

"Do we have to go that way?  Can we look for another way around?  They wouldn't speak common as their primary language I assume, so unless someone has a spell to help with understanding languages, approaching and speaking to them in common would give us away immediately.  This place seems like a bit of a labyrinth.  If you're picking up that the phylactery is in that direction, it doesn't necessarily mean the straightest route is the quickest, or easiest."

Mordekai will quietly peer around the corner of the wall ahead (towards the forge on the map) to see if there are any gith along there.  (Perception: 18, and Stealth: 26 if needed - although he's not planning on going far, just getting a peek.)