Lady Kaede, her head held high as ever despite the disorientation, observes the world around her with narrowed eyes. As the new world of the Leviathan bends and contorts around her, a flicker of unease crosses her features, but her pride refuses to let her show fear.
As something streaks across the warped ceiling, a snort escapes her lips. "Well, this is certainly... peculiar," she mutters, her voice laced with a mixture of annoyance and grudging curiosity. The display of unnatural purple lightning earns an arched eyebrow. "A shortcut, they say? I wouldn't be so quick to trust that statement," she remarks, her hand instinctively inching towards the hilt of her katana.
Despite the unsettling strangeness, Lady Kaede maintains her composure. A samurai's duty calls for unwavering courage, and she will not falter in the face of the bizarre. Her sharp mind races, searching for any clues or hints that might help her navigate this unsettling new world.
Violet guides the band for miles across the walkway, across the rolling expanse of a world that doesn't match the norms of Hyboria. It's odd that at no time do any of them feel like they're going up hill. The land gentle rolls and is apparently somehow plum and level during their journey.
The Beholderkin finally stops, indicating to the following band members that she has come to what she was looking for. She takes a moment, this time requiring none of the pomp and circumstance of last time, as she kneels and begins to work a spot on the ground that slowly begins to shine with the same teal glow as before.
And then there's the smell. A very distinct smell as dry wind crawls up out of strange stonework of the walkway. It is the smell of the desert. The smell of dust and a dry heat that is undeniable.
Violet doesn't utter a word. Her eyes stalks just look about, at her new friends, and then she steps through, ninety degrees, into Hyboria...
Greko feels the heat through the new portal....Great he thinks to himself either he gets left behind in a strange world where he will be probably be eaten or he goes into the desert where his skin will crack...."Onward Baturday, Greko supposes...."As he lets out a big sigh
Noticing the others stop, Rum instructs Porkins to circle back, watching as Violet disappears after finding it far easier to create a portal from this side. He watches as Lady Kaede and Greko both fly through after Violet, but continues to circle until the others have all done the same.
"I will wait until you have all passed through", he says to those left as he circles above them all, still remaining vigilant.
Violet eyes watch others go through one by one. As Rum and Porkin's circle, waiting, Thea pads over and finally steps into the portal. Arriving back in Hyboria in the heat of the desert, she would look to the sky for the sun and turn herself towards it to feel it upon her skin.
...When all this time I've been so hollow inside...
Violet steps through and into the dry desert sands of the Stygian Waste's, and behind her emerges Lady Kaede. Behind that comes Greko the White atop Baturday, whose mighty wings pulls the old Lizardfolk high into the air overhead as if he has been jettisoned from Leviathan.
Judal and Thea emerge after that, and Thea finds herself disappointed. The disorienting quality of going from one plane of existence, and having spent so much time in the endless twilight that followed the Great Conjunction, the poor girl had forgotten that the world was wrapped in the veil of night now...perhaps permanently, as the single star that had been born of the collision of the Three Brothers circled the rim of the world and threatened to disappear forever.
The dry smell of the Waste fills their nostrils as finally Rum emerges from the otherside, through the door the Violet had found with her many eyes. Stars glimmer overhead and the milky streak of the galactic arm spans the sky from horizon to horizon and deathly, almost hallowed silence permeates like an intense cold. The desert is asleep on this long, long night.
Kazu's feathers ruffle as it fluffs itself, and it's color pallet takes on a cool blue.
A glance to the south reveals an impossibly long cliff face that seems to go from one end of the desert to the other, or at least so far as the band can tell from their limited vantage.
"The Southern Oracle is beyond those cliffs." Princess Zelda says, looking south. "But the only way to get there is through the Sphinx Gate. And the only way to find the Sphinx Gate is from Engewook's Observatory. Or that's what I was taught in my studies, anway."
For that short instant, she changes from being a Princess to a little girl again...unsure of herself...and unexperienced in the ways of the world...
Rum and Porkins take to the sky once they pass through the portal, although they don't rise too high, just enough to get a decent view of their immediate vicinity to ensure they haven't appeared amongst hostiles.
Once satisfied, Rum directs Porkins to land amongst the others so he may join their conversation as to how to proceed.
Hearing the Princess speak of Engewook, the Sphinx Gate and the Southern Oracle, sparks something in his memory.
"One of the original Remnants, Kit-Tik, was from the Stygian Wastes and knew of Engewook and the Southern Oracle. They spoke of three gates not one", he relays, a momentary look of sadness crossing his face as he remembers the events in Spook City.
"Which way to this observatory? South? I will scout ahead", he suggests.
New land, what's up? Certainly Judal has his Eldritch Sight up and running hard, scanning the area they've stepped out in for magic. It is only a thirty foot range but until he relaxes in this land he'll have it going non-stop. He's also immediately spying out the area for signs of life, specifically beasts of any sort. Birds, bats, rodents, any local resident... If there is a critter around then Judal is aiming to use his Beast Speech to chat it up and see what it thinks of the area. What it knows of it's dangers, if it knows anything about these Gates or Observatory or Oracles. If it knows anything about other people being in the area... The general 411 of the Stygian Wastes.
After wandering around the landing sight a bit and looking for animals and threats, Judal takes a minute at the largest boulder, rock or other significant landmark that he can find around here and casts a little enchantment... "Here Judal and the Remnants brought Princess Zelda to the Stygian Waste in search of the Southern Gate... May time never forget their heroic deeds!" Judal says as part of his casting.
If any seem to make note of his casting then Judal will look around a bit embarrassed for a brief moment before giving them a shrug. "Sorry, only so many words can be captured or I'd have listed us all. Some day historians would need these reminders... You understand, of course..." he explains and then drops the subject.
From the back of Balthor, the flying shark: "Sounds like a plan, Zelda-sama," Lady Kaede said, her voice quiet but steady. "Though perhaps before we set off, we could take a moment to gather ourselves. This...place... is heavy." This response acknowledges the plan, shows a flicker of Kaede's past deference to Zelda, but also suggests a moment of pause that Kaede might need to regain her composure, as you notice the sadness of the fall of Kings Landing still weighs on Kaede. As does the news, or lack thereof, of the downfall of her father, Shōgun Ashikaga, a man she most desperately wants to please.
Disoriented, lost, confused… Feelings Thea should be used to by now. She rubs her arm and chews her lip in silence, side stepping away from Judal’s conversation with the rock. They had their directions. So, she’d follow when everyone was ready to move.
"I'm...not sure which way." Princess Zelda replies to Rum, taking a hard look around her. "I'm really disoriented coming out of that portal. I don't know what way we're facing."
She looks up, studying the sky, trying to settle her gaze on any heavenly body, any constellation, but she struggles to find anything to give Rum guidance about which direction to go. However, a glance around reveals what looks like the lights of lanterns and campfires some miles to the east. That's where her eyes finally rest.
Judal searches around them, but there are no signs of life. The area is unusually desolate, even according to the lore of the Wastes. The rock, however, happily accepts his enchantment.
"We can't fly over them." Princess Zelda replies to Greko the White with a shake of her head. "Or that's what I was told anyway. The Oracle won't let you. But I don't know much about how it works."
Violet breathes a sigh of relief as they leave Leviathan behind... even though she doesn't recognize this new 'safe haven,' it's unlikely that it will be worse than what they could have encountered in her home realm.
"We made it through the Labyrinth in one piece," she says quietly. "Thank whatever is good that we didn't run into the Order of Gash... or worse, my father..."
She pauses a moment, then adds with a little giggle.
"Maybe if we had run into both of them we could have gotten them to fight to the death though and taken care of two problems at once."
Hearing that the Princess is a little disoriented, Rum dismounts and takes out his [magicitem]orb of direction[/spell].
"If it is only a direction you seek, this will provide a bearing", he says as he activates it and shows the Princess which way North is.
Noticing her look towards the lights in the distance, he adds, "That way is East. I suggest we go there first, find out the lay of the land here, find out if whoever it is there is friend or foe".
Hearing Violet mention the Order of the Gash, "I am not familiar with the Order of the Gash, Remnant Violet. Are they likely to note our passing through the labyrinth and follow us? And is you father likely to come after you for that matter? Knowing about them might be useful if they will be a problem to us".
"What good would an Oracle Gate be if you could just fly over or walk around it?" Judal asks rhetorically... "Though if one was transformed into a badger and burrowed underneath..." He thinks on it a moment before shaking his head. "No. No. Surely that was considered as well."
"Heading for the lights seems the obvious course, at least for the moment. If nothing else then perhaps we can get some rest before the trials to come."
Lady Kaede just sits there atop Balthor, face scrunched up in concentration, trying to unravel the riddle of the Oracle Gate. More to herself than out loud, she mumbles "But, what magics are involved with a gate that one cannot fly over or crawl under, but must walk through?"
Then, almost as if in another voice, she speaks more out loud, reciting something her father (the Shogun) once told her:
"The wise warrior knows that some challenges cannot be outsmarted. Gates, like trials in life, exist to be faced, not outsmarted. We do not choose every battle, but we choose how we face them. Once we find this...gate...let us step through with courage and see what lies beyond."
Deciding that others more wise than her are better equipped to understand this situation, she spurs on Balthor to take wing and fly patrol over the group as they make their way east, towards the lights that represent civilization (friend or foe, she does not know).
"I... I don't know... for sure," Violet says uncertainly. "The Order are... I don't even know. They worship pleasure and pain, which to them are inextricably linked together. Unfortunately... they like to proselytize their... um... religion? Whenever and to whoever they can... and they don't usually take 'no' for an answer...
As for my father... hopefully he is too busy fighting his own paranoid dilusions to come after me. But... I wouldn't put anything past him, either. Not after I watched him disect numerous monsters and adventurers while they were still alive, while he held me... and several more of his offspring... in chains to try different things on as a part of a 'long running experiment' for years..."
The beholderkin shudders at the thought of what her own father did to her. And of what the Order would do to all of them if given the chance...
Rum's eyes narrow as Violet explains the worship of pleasure and pain of the Order of the Gash.
"Remnant Violet, do these members of the Order speak into your mind and have mutilated bodies with tentacles growing from their faces? I believe these are the ones that we have come across before. At the time they overpowered us and took one of the Twilight Embers. The one who returned to us as we entered Subternia but left again shortly before we met you. He perhaps joined their Order", he says with a grim expression that turns to determination.
"If they do return, they will not find it so easy", he says, not in the form of a threat, more a simply stated fact.
When Lady Kaede speaks, he nods. "Kit-Tik mentioned that each of the three gates was indeed a trial. Only the worthy will find their way to the Oracle itself", he looks around at the others, hoping they will all prove their worth on this journey.
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Lady Kaede, her head held high as ever despite the disorientation, observes the world around her with narrowed eyes. As the new world of the Leviathan bends and contorts around her, a flicker of unease crosses her features, but her pride refuses to let her show fear.
As something streaks across the warped ceiling, a snort escapes her lips. "Well, this is certainly... peculiar," she mutters, her voice laced with a mixture of annoyance and grudging curiosity. The display of unnatural purple lightning earns an arched eyebrow. "A shortcut, they say? I wouldn't be so quick to trust that statement," she remarks, her hand instinctively inching towards the hilt of her katana.
Despite the unsettling strangeness, Lady Kaede maintains her composure. A samurai's duty calls for unwavering courage, and she will not falter in the face of the bizarre. Her sharp mind races, searching for any clues or hints that might help her navigate this unsettling new world.
Last to know and first to be blamed...
As a free action, can I regret my life choices?
Violet guides the band for miles across the walkway, across the rolling expanse of a world that doesn't match the norms of Hyboria. It's odd that at no time do any of them feel like they're going up hill. The land gentle rolls and is apparently somehow plum and level during their journey.
The Beholderkin finally stops, indicating to the following band members that she has come to what she was looking for. She takes a moment, this time requiring none of the pomp and circumstance of last time, as she kneels and begins to work a spot on the ground that slowly begins to shine with the same teal glow as before.
And then there's the smell. A very distinct smell as dry wind crawls up out of strange stonework of the walkway. It is the smell of the desert. The smell of dust and a dry heat that is undeniable.
Violet doesn't utter a word. Her eyes stalks just look about, at her new friends, and then she steps through, ninety degrees, into Hyboria...
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Not wanting to dawdle in this strange plane any longer, Lady Kaede guides Balthor to rocket straight through the portal back to Hyboria.
Once the pair has punched through, she quickly circles to get a lay of the land, as deserts are also new and strange to her.
Perception: 20
Last to know and first to be blamed...
As a free action, can I regret my life choices?
Greko feels the heat through the new portal....Great he thinks to himself either he gets left behind in a strange world where he will be probably be eaten or he goes into the desert where his skin will crack...."Onward Baturday, Greko supposes...." As he lets out a big sigh
Noticing the others stop, Rum instructs Porkins to circle back, watching as Violet disappears after finding it far easier to create a portal from this side. He watches as Lady Kaede and Greko both fly through after Violet, but continues to circle until the others have all done the same.
"I will wait until you have all passed through", he says to those left as he circles above them all, still remaining vigilant.
Judal continues on as if this was just a left turn. He's seen enough now where he's not particularly awed or surprised.
Violet eyes watch others go through one by one. As Rum and Porkin's circle, waiting, Thea pads over and finally steps into the portal. Arriving back in Hyboria in the heat of the desert, she would look to the sky for the sun and turn herself towards it to feel it upon her skin.
just an unstable unicorn.
Music for the setting...
https://youtu.be/njaAvrpZThU?si=fvciioeLLzZZDBag
AURYN
The Measure of Devotion
Part I
Long lost words whisper slowly to me...
...Still can't find what keeps me here...
...When all this time I've been so hollow inside...
Violet steps through and into the dry desert sands of the Stygian Waste's, and behind her emerges Lady Kaede. Behind that comes Greko the White atop Baturday, whose mighty wings pulls the old Lizardfolk high into the air overhead as if he has been jettisoned from Leviathan.
Judal and Thea emerge after that, and Thea finds herself disappointed. The disorienting quality of going from one plane of existence, and having spent so much time in the endless twilight that followed the Great Conjunction, the poor girl had forgotten that the world was wrapped in the veil of night now...perhaps permanently, as the single star that had been born of the collision of the Three Brothers circled the rim of the world and threatened to disappear forever.
The dry smell of the Waste fills their nostrils as finally Rum emerges from the otherside, through the door the Violet had found with her many eyes. Stars glimmer overhead and the milky streak of the galactic arm spans the sky from horizon to horizon and deathly, almost hallowed silence permeates like an intense cold. The desert is asleep on this long, long night.
Kazu's feathers ruffle as it fluffs itself, and it's color pallet takes on a cool blue.
A glance to the south reveals an impossibly long cliff face that seems to go from one end of the desert to the other, or at least so far as the band can tell from their limited vantage.
"The Southern Oracle is beyond those cliffs." Princess Zelda says, looking south. "But the only way to get there is through the Sphinx Gate. And the only way to find the Sphinx Gate is from Engewook's Observatory. Or that's what I was taught in my studies, anway."
For that short instant, she changes from being a Princess to a little girl again...unsure of herself...and unexperienced in the ways of the world...
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Rum and Porkins take to the sky once they pass through the portal, although they don't rise too high, just enough to get a decent view of their immediate vicinity to ensure they haven't appeared amongst hostiles.
Once satisfied, Rum directs Porkins to land amongst the others so he may join their conversation as to how to proceed.
Hearing the Princess speak of Engewook, the Sphinx Gate and the Southern Oracle, sparks something in his memory.
"One of the original Remnants, Kit-Tik, was from the Stygian Wastes and knew of Engewook and the Southern Oracle. They spoke of three gates not one", he relays, a momentary look of sadness crossing his face as he remembers the events in Spook City.
"Which way to this observatory? South? I will scout ahead", he suggests.
Perception: 13+13=26
New land, what's up? Certainly Judal has his Eldritch Sight up and running hard, scanning the area they've stepped out in for magic. It is only a thirty foot range but until he relaxes in this land he'll have it going non-stop. He's also immediately spying out the area for signs of life, specifically beasts of any sort. Birds, bats, rodents, any local resident... If there is a critter around then Judal is aiming to use his Beast Speech to chat it up and see what it thinks of the area. What it knows of it's dangers, if it knows anything about these Gates or Observatory or Oracles. If it knows anything about other people being in the area... The general 411 of the Stygian Wastes.
After wandering around the landing sight a bit and looking for animals and threats, Judal takes a minute at the largest boulder, rock or other significant landmark that he can find around here and casts a little enchantment... "Here Judal and the Remnants brought Princess Zelda to the Stygian Waste in search of the Southern Gate... May time never forget their heroic deeds!" Judal says as part of his casting.
If any seem to make note of his casting then Judal will look around a bit embarrassed for a brief moment before giving them a shrug. "Sorry, only so many words can be captured or I'd have listed us all. Some day historians would need these reminders... You understand, of course..." he explains and then drops the subject.
From the back of Balthor, the flying shark: "Sounds like a plan, Zelda-sama," Lady Kaede said, her voice quiet but steady. "Though perhaps before we set off, we could take a moment to gather ourselves. This...place... is heavy." This response acknowledges the plan, shows a flicker of Kaede's past deference to Zelda, but also suggests a moment of pause that Kaede might need to regain her composure, as you notice the sadness of the fall of Kings Landing still weighs on Kaede. As does the news, or lack thereof, of the downfall of her father, Shōgun Ashikaga, a man she most desperately wants to please.
Last to know and first to be blamed...
As a free action, can I regret my life choices?
Greko scratches his head...."Through the gates but not over them?" Greko squints to see the reason they couldn't fly over the gates to the oracle
Disoriented, lost, confused… Feelings Thea should be used to by now. She rubs her arm and chews her lip in silence, side stepping away from Judal’s conversation with the rock. They had their directions. So, she’d follow when everyone was ready to move.
just an unstable unicorn.
"I'm...not sure which way." Princess Zelda replies to Rum, taking a hard look around her. "I'm really disoriented coming out of that portal. I don't know what way we're facing."
She looks up, studying the sky, trying to settle her gaze on any heavenly body, any constellation, but she struggles to find anything to give Rum guidance about which direction to go. However, a glance around reveals what looks like the lights of lanterns and campfires some miles to the east. That's where her eyes finally rest.
Judal searches around them, but there are no signs of life. The area is unusually desolate, even according to the lore of the Wastes. The rock, however, happily accepts his enchantment.
"We can't fly over them." Princess Zelda replies to Greko the White with a shake of her head. "Or that's what I was told anyway. The Oracle won't let you. But I don't know much about how it works."
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Violet breathes a sigh of relief as they leave Leviathan behind... even though she doesn't recognize this new 'safe haven,' it's unlikely that it will be worse than what they could have encountered in her home realm.
"We made it through the Labyrinth in one piece," she says quietly. "Thank whatever is good that we didn't run into the Order of Gash... or worse, my father..."
She pauses a moment, then adds with a little giggle.
"Maybe if we had run into both of them we could have gotten them to fight to the death though and taken care of two problems at once."
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Hearing that the Princess is a little disoriented, Rum dismounts and takes out his [magicitem]orb of direction[/spell].
"If it is only a direction you seek, this will provide a bearing", he says as he activates it and shows the Princess which way North is.
Noticing her look towards the lights in the distance, he adds, "That way is East. I suggest we go there first, find out the lay of the land here, find out if whoever it is there is friend or foe".
Hearing Violet mention the Order of the Gash, "I am not familiar with the Order of the Gash, Remnant Violet. Are they likely to note our passing through the labyrinth and follow us? And is you father likely to come after you for that matter? Knowing about them might be useful if they will be a problem to us".
"What good would an Oracle Gate be if you could just fly over or walk around it?" Judal asks rhetorically... "Though if one was transformed into a badger and burrowed underneath..." He thinks on it a moment before shaking his head. "No. No. Surely that was considered as well."
"Heading for the lights seems the obvious course, at least for the moment. If nothing else then perhaps we can get some rest before the trials to come."
Lady Kaede just sits there atop Balthor, face scrunched up in concentration, trying to unravel the riddle of the Oracle Gate. More to herself than out loud, she mumbles "But, what magics are involved with a gate that one cannot fly over or crawl under, but must walk through?"
Then, almost as if in another voice, she speaks more out loud, reciting something her father (the Shogun) once told her:
"The wise warrior knows that some challenges cannot be outsmarted. Gates, like trials in life, exist to be faced, not outsmarted. We do not choose every battle, but we choose how we face them. Once we find this...gate...let us step through with courage and see what lies beyond."
Deciding that others more wise than her are better equipped to understand this situation, she spurs on Balthor to take wing and fly patrol over the group as they make their way east, towards the lights that represent civilization (friend or foe, she does not know).
Last to know and first to be blamed...
As a free action, can I regret my life choices?
Violet pauses at the Rum's question...
"I... I don't know... for sure," Violet says uncertainly. "The Order are... I don't even know. They worship pleasure and pain, which to them are inextricably linked together. Unfortunately... they like to proselytize their... um... religion? Whenever and to whoever they can... and they don't usually take 'no' for an answer...
As for my father... hopefully he is too busy fighting his own paranoid dilusions to come after me. But... I wouldn't put anything past him, either. Not after I watched him disect numerous monsters and adventurers while they were still alive, while he held me... and several more of his offspring... in chains to try different things on as a part of a 'long running experiment' for years..."
The beholderkin shudders at the thought of what her own father did to her. And of what the Order would do to all of them if given the chance...
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Provide feedback!
Rum's eyes narrow as Violet explains the worship of pleasure and pain of the Order of the Gash.
"Remnant Violet, do these members of the Order speak into your mind and have mutilated bodies with tentacles growing from their faces? I believe these are the ones that we have come across before. At the time they overpowered us and took one of the Twilight Embers. The one who returned to us as we entered Subternia but left again shortly before we met you. He perhaps joined their Order", he says with a grim expression that turns to determination.
"If they do return, they will not find it so easy", he says, not in the form of a threat, more a simply stated fact.
When Lady Kaede speaks, he nods. "Kit-Tik mentioned that each of the three gates was indeed a trial. Only the worthy will find their way to the Oracle itself", he looks around at the others, hoping they will all prove their worth on this journey.