"load stone?" The blue humanoid questions before shouting something up to his colleague in their strange language that sounds light and breezy, the red Aarakocra nods in response and flies off, rotating back to get himself through the door in the correct orientation. "My colleague has gone to fetch our Akiin, he is eager to meet visitors after Griff came back and reported on his adventure. But I must warn you, if you act aggressively toward him it will be the last thing you do."
Muir smiles at the guards "There will be no violence from any of us. We are friends of Griff and emisarries from Sergor. Could you tell me am I on the ceiling or are you all or how do I join you and may I join you all?"
"You are on the ceiling, compared to the big down yes, come, walk over here" comes the response from the blue skinned humanoid as if he was giving the simplest instructions in the world. He beckons over as he lowers his weapon completely and stands more at ease though he doesn't stow it away.
"How are we on the ceiling when it's them that're upside down?" Sam asks logically. "I can't say why they're not falling like they should be but obviously I cannot stand on ceilings like a damned fly... And Boris certainly cannot!"
Muir shrugs “I am not sure myself Sam but perhaps we can just uhh walk along the walls” Muir takes walks along the walls of the room to try to get to the ground
Gewyn touches down on the floor after exiting the portal, looking entirely nonplussed. Almost suspiciously so. He casually inspects his fine clothes and tugs on his sleeves to make sure everything is sitting right. "I think it's an issue of perspective, Sam. If there is a 'big down' in this realm as our new associate here mentioned, that implies the existence of other, smaller 'down's. You're just oriented towards one of the smaller ones. Speaking of our new acquaintances..."
He turns to the blue-skinned individual and says politely. "Hello there. In our culture, it is custom to share our names when we meet someone new. My name is Gewyn. If it is okay to ask, how shall we call you?"
The blue humanoid gives a few confused looks to the protest bit doesn't seem to want to comment on how, though he gives Gewyn a nod, "I am Strato, pleased to meet you Gewyn, what are the names of you other travellers?"
"Wait... so... really?" Sam asks, confused. "That way is down?"
(As Sam is convinced, does he fall to the real floor? Very curious to know if we have Coyote and Road Runner physics going on here...)
"Sam, Elthana, Órga, Boris, Vin, Nef, and Muir," Sam says, quickly pointing at each as he rattles off the names. "Nobody is looking for violence, just would like to try to get one of these load stone things so as to save people and property back where we're from..."
Elthana gets mixed up on her way through the portal, but luckily with her slow fall she is able to descend upon the ceiling without any damage. She listens to the exchanges and is glad the guards here take them for their word as the conversation begins. She follows Muir and starts walking towards the wall and attempts to head to the floor to join the others.
She takes time looking around the room and the portal, glad that the Akiin will be joining them soon. As Sam introduces her, she nods to the blue skinned humanoid. "Pleased to meet you as well Strato." Moving closer to Gewyn, she whispers to him, "You seem almost at home, been here before?"
As Sam approaches the wall and attempts to descend to the floor the others follow.
Muir is the first to get the hang of it, he leans his body against the wall and braces his hands against it, after five minutes of concentrating he changes his gravity and slowly brings his feet forward, off the ceiling and stands upright completely sideways compared to everyone else, from there he walks down toward the floor and makes his way slowly to that orientation.
Sam is not to far behind in his success, he takes one foot and places it on the wall rocking himself back and forwards untill his gravity is mostly in the corner, he pushes ahead leaning forward as he walks down the wall as if, from his perspective, he was walking up a steep hill. Toward the center Sam is able to self right and even lean back a little more as his understanding of the ground approaches rapidly, he stumbles a little toward the floor landing heavily but safely.
Elthana and boris take the longest, a little more than ten minutes. Elthana uses her training in dexterous acts and tries to run as far as possible up the wall before fighting her understanding of the change in gravity, it takes many attempts but she perseveres and manages to crouch Inna ready stance on the middle of the wall before standing and doing the same when she gets to the floor.
Boris struggles and seemingly doesn't understand how he managed to get on the wall but quickly forgets being on the ceiling and loyally follows Sam's path.
All the while Strato keeps half an eye on Gewyn, Órga, and Vin, though he is mesmerised by the other party members attempts to get down. He successfully stifles several giggles and puts away his weapon to watch.
Whilst the last party members are joining the group on the floor, the red Aarakocra returns, with him a Large blue skinned humanoid seemingly of a different race to Strato sweeps into the room.
This new man is around 12ft tall, round and has pale blue scars running all over his bare chest like lightning, his bulk is muscular in a way that presents practical strength and he wears a finely woven brown sleeveless shirt with matching lower robes that completely obscure his bottom half. He is adorned with gold and gem jewellery rings necklaces and bracelets to an extreme degree and his round face is fixed in an excited large smile as his long grey hair floats weightlessly around him. He beams, smiling ear to ear as he speaks with thunderous volume "WELCOME AND GREETINGS TRAVELLERS! I AM AKIIN LORD OF THIS LAND, I AM TOLD YOU ARE EMISSARIES OF SERGOR HAMILTON, COME COME, REST AND GATHER YOURSELVES, I AM TOLD PORTAL TRAVEL CAN BE QUITE NAUSEATING THE FIRST TIME. HOW ARE YOU ALL? WHO ARE YOU ALL? HAHA!" The crystal room vibrates with the bass of his voice and his eyes light up as he looks from group member to group member.
Sam is still confused about which side up is but since everyone else has decided on one direction he finds it hard to argue no matter how much the backstreet boy in him wants to.
Sam runs through the introductions again, starting with the animals. "Ógra, Nef, Boris," Sam says, pointing to each in turn. "Then you have Elthana there, Vin, Gewyn, Muir and I myself am Sam. Nice ta meet'cha. You the one in charge here then? 'Cause we really need to talk to someone about the possibility of getting a load stone before a big chunk of back home crashes into another chunk..."
Muir listens to Sam get right to the point and chimes in to gloss it over a bit "You see what my friend Sam here is saying is that when the planes aligned and the portals on our world opened, the portal linked to your world began to weaken the lodestone causing the floating land of the treasury crash to the city of marbelstead. We are hoping that you can help us with either a new lodestone or a way to charge the current one in the treasury. We don't know what devestation other portals have brought so time is of the essence for our world. Oh my how rude of me...I meant to ask how my friend Griff is doing now that he is back home?" Muir adding that last part hoping to bring some copperation and good will
AKIIN smiles at Sam and extends a massive hand to shake, "HAPPY TO MEET YOU ALL! A LODESTONE HUH? I MUST HAVE GIVEN THAT THING AS A GIFT TO SERGOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO!" as Muir pipes up the Djiin laughs "GRIFF IS DOING WELL, WE THOUGHT HE DIED! HAHA, HE CAME BACK A DAY OR SO AGO AND IS SITH HIS FAMILY, THOUGH HE SHOULD GET BACK TO THE PALACE SOON. ALL OF YOU COME WITH ME WE SHALL EAT AND DISCUSS THIS LODESTONE!"
As Akiin leads you all out, you see that not only the portal room but the entire palace is made from crystal, your footsteps echo down long grand corridors and you come to a room furnished with giant puffy semi solid clouds for seating, and desks made from the same crystal gem as the building. There is oddly no fireplace but a centrally located plinth with a transparent pipe leading to it and a crown shaped red crystal on top.
AKIIN takes a seat on a large cloud and gestures for others to take seats, "WE SHOULD KEEP THIS BRIEF IF YOUR CITY IS IN DANGER BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO EXCUSE ME FOR BEING INQUISITIVE, THE LODESTONE I GIFTED SERGOR IS A RARE ITEM THAT WAS THE RESULT OF A SUCCESSFUL SKIRMISH TO A HOLY SITE. WHAT EXACTLY IS THE LODESTONE USED FOR IN THIS 'TREASURY' HOW HAS IT BEEN APPLIED?"
"I'm not what anyone would call a magical scholar, mind you... But it is a load stone. It somehow carries the load of the floating land. I assumed that was the intention, given it's name and all," Sam answers even though he knows he should be letting others do the talking.
"A skirmish, you say?" Sam then asks in return, his curiosity piqued.
Elthana follows the rest into the room with the cloud chairs and such. She feels a bit in a dream as she moves around trying to understand what she can. She's thrilled to see that the Akiin is so gracious and is looking forward to talking with them. But her heart sinks a bit as she hears the lodestone is rare....
She takes a seat in one of the cloud like chairs and tries her best to answer the man.
"Lord Akiin, yes, we are in need of either a replacement lodestone or a way to fix the one you have graciously bestowed upon Sergor Hamilton all those years ago. You see, that stone is used to elevate a portion of our city. This portion is called The Treasury, it is my home as well as Sergor Hamiltons, and this stone is used to make it float above the rest of the city some 1500 feet in elevation. As my friend Muir has said, several portals have opened suddenly, including the one here, and has since affected this stone so that it is not functioning properly. The result of this is that The Treasury portion of the city is now careening on a trajectory to hit the main portion of the city in mere days. We need to figure out a solution as soon as possible."
"Not here,"Gewyn whispers back to Elthana. "But suffice it to say I am as of recently not entirely unaccustomed to moving between planes with different approaches to gravity."
As they are led to the other room, Gewyn looks around with an sense of awe that he considers appropriate for his role as guest here. He pauses a moment to examine his reflection and fix his hair in a pane of crystal, despite it being more refractive than reflective. And despite having an actual mirror tucked into his belt. And despite being able to alter and perfect his image at will.
He flops onto a cloud cushion large enough to seat three and sprawls out to take up the whole thing. "Sorry, my Lord Akiin. I know there are matters of importance and urgency to discuss, but I must say, the beauty and creativity of your architecture and design could hardly be rivaled by anything in our plane."
Muir excitedly sits down on the cloud soft and cushioning on his rear end. Losing focus on the lodestone when hearing about the skirmish. Sam asks about the Skirmish but Sam's questions are not pointed enough for Muir....so he begins "A skirmish how long ago and Sergor was present fighting with you at what holy site? Was this in your plane or ours? How has he lived so long? You've known him over centuries in our world"
Akiin gives Gewyn a smirk, "THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENTS, THIS PALACE IS MY LIFES WORK ALONG WITH THE WELFARE OF MY PEOPLE AND OUR DEVOTION TO VOX TONTRITOR" listening to the group the djinn laughs out loud at Muir's questions "SERGOR FIGHTING? HAHA NO! THIS SKIRMISH WAS UNDERTAKEN BY MY FIGHTERS IN THIS PLANE... THIS IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR LODESTONE THING I PROMISE. THE LODESTONE WAA FOUND AT A HOLY SITE, THE DEATH PLACE OF OUR LORD VOX'S SON. IT IS CURRENTLY OVERRUN WITH A KOBOLD CULT AND WE ARE WAITING FOR IT TO PASS US ONCE MORE SO WE CAN PROPERLY LAY HIM TO REST. THE KOBOLDS ARE THE ISSUE, OUR LORD VOX TONTRITOR HAS HAILED THE KOBOLD CULT AS A THREAT, THEIR SPIES AND THEIR FLYING OUT POSTS ARE TO BE DECIMATED AND THEIR COLD BODIES GIVEN TO OUR LORD VOX AS A SACRIFICE. THIS BEING SAID, IF YOU FUND ANY KOBOLDS PLEASE BRING ME THEIR BODIES AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED.
SERGOR IS A BUSINESS MAN, AND BUSINESS IS WHAT WE HAVE, I WILL NOT DIVULGE INFORMATION PERSONAL TO HIM UNLESS HE ASKS ME TO, I ASSUME HE SENT NO MISSIVE, AS I HAVE NOT BEEN PRESENTED ONE YET?"
As he looks around the group he regards the animals particularly warmly and mutters names over and over trying to commit each of your names to memory, his eyes stop on Elthana, lingering longer than the others, "YOU LOOK FAMILIAR, HAVE WE MET BEFORE?"
Elthana looks on sternly and takes in each word as the man describes their plight. "Kobolds, right. I am sure my team and I can help you with this. If we were able to rid the area of them... wait, familiar?"
She looks at the man, considering what he had said. "No, sir, I have never been here before. But.. have you seen a man that is petite in frame with a dark complexion, with hair like mine? He is my brother." She swallows, and looks around at her friends before continuing, "or someone who looks um, very similar to me... she is my..." she gulps and looking very uncertain, continues, "my sister."
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"load stone?" The blue humanoid questions before shouting something up to his colleague in their strange language that sounds light and breezy, the red Aarakocra nods in response and flies off, rotating back to get himself through the door in the correct orientation. "My colleague has gone to fetch our Akiin, he is eager to meet visitors after Griff came back and reported on his adventure. But I must warn you, if you act aggressively toward him it will be the last thing you do."
Muir smiles at the guards "There will be no violence from any of us. We are friends of Griff and emisarries from Sergor. Could you tell me am I on the ceiling or are you all or how do I join you and may I join you all?"
"You are on the ceiling, compared to the big down yes, come, walk over here" comes the response from the blue skinned humanoid as if he was giving the simplest instructions in the world. He beckons over as he lowers his weapon completely and stands more at ease though he doesn't stow it away.
"How are we on the ceiling when it's them that're upside down?" Sam asks logically. "I can't say why they're not falling like they should be but obviously I cannot stand on ceilings like a damned fly... And Boris certainly cannot!"
Muir shrugs “I am not sure myself Sam but perhaps we can just uhh walk along the walls” Muir takes walks along the walls of the room to try to get to the ground
Gewyn touches down on the floor after exiting the portal, looking entirely nonplussed. Almost suspiciously so. He casually inspects his fine clothes and tugs on his sleeves to make sure everything is sitting right. "I think it's an issue of perspective, Sam. If there is a 'big down' in this realm as our new associate here mentioned, that implies the existence of other, smaller 'down's. You're just oriented towards one of the smaller ones. Speaking of our new acquaintances..."
He turns to the blue-skinned individual and says politely. "Hello there. In our culture, it is custom to share our names when we meet someone new. My name is Gewyn. If it is okay to ask, how shall we call you?"
The blue humanoid gives a few confused looks to the protest bit doesn't seem to want to comment on how, though he gives Gewyn a nod, "I am Strato, pleased to meet you Gewyn, what are the names of you other travellers?"
"Wait... so... really?" Sam asks, confused. "That way is down?"
(As Sam is convinced, does he fall to the real floor? Very curious to know if we have Coyote and Road Runner physics going on here...)
"Sam, Elthana, Órga, Boris, Vin, Nef, and Muir," Sam says, quickly pointing at each as he rattles off the names. "Nobody is looking for violence, just would like to try to get one of these load stone things so as to save people and property back where we're from..."
Elthana gets mixed up on her way through the portal, but luckily with her slow fall she is able to descend upon the ceiling without any damage. She listens to the exchanges and is glad the guards here take them for their word as the conversation begins. She follows Muir and starts walking towards the wall and attempts to head to the floor to join the others.
She takes time looking around the room and the portal, glad that the Akiin will be joining them soon. As Sam introduces her, she nods to the blue skinned humanoid. "Pleased to meet you as well Strato." Moving closer to Gewyn, she whispers to him, "You seem almost at home, been here before?"
As Sam approaches the wall and attempts to descend to the floor the others follow.
Muir is the first to get the hang of it, he leans his body against the wall and braces his hands against it, after five minutes of concentrating he changes his gravity and slowly brings his feet forward, off the ceiling and stands upright completely sideways compared to everyone else, from there he walks down toward the floor and makes his way slowly to that orientation.
Sam is not to far behind in his success, he takes one foot and places it on the wall rocking himself back and forwards untill his gravity is mostly in the corner, he pushes ahead leaning forward as he walks down the wall as if, from his perspective, he was walking up a steep hill. Toward the center Sam is able to self right and even lean back a little more as his understanding of the ground approaches rapidly, he stumbles a little toward the floor landing heavily but safely.
Elthana and boris take the longest, a little more than ten minutes. Elthana uses her training in dexterous acts and tries to run as far as possible up the wall before fighting her understanding of the change in gravity, it takes many attempts but she perseveres and manages to crouch Inna ready stance on the middle of the wall before standing and doing the same when she gets to the floor.
Boris struggles and seemingly doesn't understand how he managed to get on the wall but quickly forgets being on the ceiling and loyally follows Sam's path.
All the while Strato keeps half an eye on Gewyn, Órga, and Vin, though he is mesmerised by the other party members attempts to get down. He successfully stifles several giggles and puts away his weapon to watch.
Whilst the last party members are joining the group on the floor, the red Aarakocra returns, with him a Large blue skinned humanoid seemingly of a different race to Strato sweeps into the room.
This new man is around 12ft tall, round and has pale blue scars running all over his bare chest like lightning, his bulk is muscular in a way that presents practical strength and he wears a finely woven brown sleeveless shirt with matching lower robes that completely obscure his bottom half. He is adorned with gold and gem jewellery rings necklaces and bracelets to an extreme degree and his round face is fixed in an excited large smile as his long grey hair floats weightlessly around him. He beams, smiling ear to ear as he speaks with thunderous volume "WELCOME AND GREETINGS TRAVELLERS! I AM AKIIN LORD OF THIS LAND, I AM TOLD YOU ARE EMISSARIES OF SERGOR HAMILTON, COME COME, REST AND GATHER YOURSELVES, I AM TOLD PORTAL TRAVEL CAN BE QUITE NAUSEATING THE FIRST TIME. HOW ARE YOU ALL? WHO ARE YOU ALL? HAHA!" The crystal room vibrates with the bass of his voice and his eyes light up as he looks from group member to group member.
Sam is still confused about which side up is but since everyone else has decided on one direction he finds it hard to argue no matter how much the backstreet boy in him wants to.
Sam runs through the introductions again, starting with the animals. "Ógra, Nef, Boris," Sam says, pointing to each in turn. "Then you have Elthana there, Vin, Gewyn, Muir and I myself am Sam. Nice ta meet'cha. You the one in charge here then? 'Cause we really need to talk to someone about the possibility of getting a load stone before a big chunk of back home crashes into another chunk..."
Muir listens to Sam get right to the point and chimes in to gloss it over a bit "You see what my friend Sam here is saying is that when the planes aligned and the portals on our world opened, the portal linked to your world began to weaken the lodestone causing the floating land of the treasury crash to the city of marbelstead. We are hoping that you can help us with either a new lodestone or a way to charge the current one in the treasury. We don't know what devestation other portals have brought so time is of the essence for our world. Oh my how rude of me...I meant to ask how my friend Griff is doing now that he is back home?" Muir adding that last part hoping to bring some copperation and good will
AKIIN smiles at Sam and extends a massive hand to shake, "HAPPY TO MEET YOU ALL! A LODESTONE HUH? I MUST HAVE GIVEN THAT THING AS A GIFT TO SERGOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO!" as Muir pipes up the Djiin laughs "GRIFF IS DOING WELL, WE THOUGHT HE DIED! HAHA, HE CAME BACK A DAY OR SO AGO AND IS SITH HIS FAMILY, THOUGH HE SHOULD GET BACK TO THE PALACE SOON. ALL OF YOU COME WITH ME WE SHALL EAT AND DISCUSS THIS LODESTONE!"
As Akiin leads you all out, you see that not only the portal room but the entire palace is made from crystal, your footsteps echo down long grand corridors and you come to a room furnished with giant puffy semi solid clouds for seating, and desks made from the same crystal gem as the building. There is oddly no fireplace but a centrally located plinth with a transparent pipe leading to it and a crown shaped red crystal on top.
AKIIN takes a seat on a large cloud and gestures for others to take seats, "WE SHOULD KEEP THIS BRIEF IF YOUR CITY IS IN DANGER BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO EXCUSE ME FOR BEING INQUISITIVE, THE LODESTONE I GIFTED SERGOR IS A RARE ITEM THAT WAS THE RESULT OF A SUCCESSFUL SKIRMISH TO A HOLY SITE. WHAT EXACTLY IS THE LODESTONE USED FOR IN THIS 'TREASURY' HOW HAS IT BEEN APPLIED?"
"I'm not what anyone would call a magical scholar, mind you... But it is a load stone. It somehow carries the load of the floating land. I assumed that was the intention, given it's name and all," Sam answers even though he knows he should be letting others do the talking.
"A skirmish, you say?" Sam then asks in return, his curiosity piqued.
Elthana follows the rest into the room with the cloud chairs and such. She feels a bit in a dream as she moves around trying to understand what she can. She's thrilled to see that the Akiin is so gracious and is looking forward to talking with them. But her heart sinks a bit as she hears the lodestone is rare....
She takes a seat in one of the cloud like chairs and tries her best to answer the man.
"Lord Akiin, yes, we are in need of either a replacement lodestone or a way to fix the one you have graciously bestowed upon Sergor Hamilton all those years ago. You see, that stone is used to elevate a portion of our city. This portion is called The Treasury, it is my home as well as Sergor Hamiltons, and this stone is used to make it float above the rest of the city some 1500 feet in elevation. As my friend Muir has said, several portals have opened suddenly, including the one here, and has since affected this stone so that it is not functioning properly. The result of this is that The Treasury portion of the city is now careening on a trajectory to hit the main portion of the city in mere days. We need to figure out a solution as soon as possible."
"Not here," Gewyn whispers back to Elthana. "But suffice it to say I am as of recently not entirely unaccustomed to moving between planes with different approaches to gravity."
As they are led to the other room, Gewyn looks around with an sense of awe that he considers appropriate for his role as guest here. He pauses a moment to examine his reflection and fix his hair in a pane of crystal, despite it being more refractive than reflective. And despite having an actual mirror tucked into his belt. And despite being able to alter and perfect his image at will.
He flops onto a cloud cushion large enough to seat three and sprawls out to take up the whole thing. "Sorry, my Lord Akiin. I know there are matters of importance and urgency to discuss, but I must say, the beauty and creativity of your architecture and design could hardly be rivaled by anything in our plane."
Muir excitedly sits down on the cloud soft and cushioning on his rear end. Losing focus on the lodestone when hearing about the skirmish. Sam asks about the Skirmish but Sam's questions are not pointed enough for Muir....so he begins "A skirmish how long ago and Sergor was present fighting with you at what holy site? Was this in your plane or ours? How has he lived so long? You've known him over centuries in our world"
Elthana reaches over and puts a hand on Muir's arm, "Please, focus. We are here to help Northmorrah, not pick apart the past."
Akiin gives Gewyn a smirk, "THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENTS, THIS PALACE IS MY LIFES WORK ALONG WITH THE WELFARE OF MY PEOPLE AND OUR DEVOTION TO VOX TONTRITOR" listening to the group the djinn laughs out loud at Muir's questions "SERGOR FIGHTING? HAHA NO! THIS SKIRMISH WAS UNDERTAKEN BY MY FIGHTERS IN THIS PLANE... THIS IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR LODESTONE THING I PROMISE. THE LODESTONE WAA FOUND AT A HOLY SITE, THE DEATH PLACE OF OUR LORD VOX'S SON. IT IS CURRENTLY OVERRUN WITH A KOBOLD CULT AND WE ARE WAITING FOR IT TO PASS US ONCE MORE SO WE CAN PROPERLY LAY HIM TO REST. THE KOBOLDS ARE THE ISSUE, OUR LORD VOX TONTRITOR HAS HAILED THE KOBOLD CULT AS A THREAT, THEIR SPIES AND THEIR FLYING OUT POSTS ARE TO BE DECIMATED AND THEIR COLD BODIES GIVEN TO OUR LORD VOX AS A SACRIFICE. THIS BEING SAID, IF YOU FUND ANY KOBOLDS PLEASE BRING ME THEIR BODIES AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED.
SERGOR IS A BUSINESS MAN, AND BUSINESS IS WHAT WE HAVE, I WILL NOT DIVULGE INFORMATION PERSONAL TO HIM UNLESS HE ASKS ME TO, I ASSUME HE SENT NO MISSIVE, AS I HAVE NOT BEEN PRESENTED ONE YET?"
As he looks around the group he regards the animals particularly warmly and mutters names over and over trying to commit each of your names to memory, his eyes stop on Elthana, lingering longer than the others, "YOU LOOK FAMILIAR, HAVE WE MET BEFORE?"
Elthana looks on sternly and takes in each word as the man describes their plight. "Kobolds, right. I am sure my team and I can help you with this. If we were able to rid the area of them... wait, familiar?"
She looks at the man, considering what he had said. "No, sir, I have never been here before. But.. have you seen a man that is petite in frame with a dark complexion, with hair like mine? He is my brother." She swallows, and looks around at her friends before continuing, "or someone who looks um, very similar to me... she is my..." she gulps and looking very uncertain, continues, "my sister."