(Hey, sorry, not trying to ghost, wife had an emergency surgery on Friday to remove her gallbladder. I'm on solo daddy duties while she's recovering. I'll be able to post more tomorrow. I was just going to have Tene attack her again or attack the dais to see if he can break it if he can tell they are trying to get under it. Not sure which would help more)
Yes, definitely deal eith real.life. wishing her a speedy recovery.
Th dais is a big stone block: attacking it could possibly damage it, but anyone can try to move it by mundane or magical means. You dont have to be a clou unkess you want to be.
The air tightens and a single, practical light brightens at the far edge of the sanctum. No fanfare. No flourish. A woman steps through the threshold with a scholar’s silence—coat folded, travel-worn satchel at her hip, eyes steady and unflinching. This is Tasha: neutral, precise, the kind of guardian who measures consequences before she moves.
She scans the room once, as if reading a lab report. Her hands move with casual expertise, not theatre. She does not raise a hand to stop the fighting. She does not reach for a weapon. She looks at Drelnza, then at the Lanthorn trapped beneath the dais, and speaks.
“You came for the lantern. You tore open what I left closed. I did not come to save you from justice, only to make sure you understood what you are.”
Tasha’s voice cools the fevered air. “You have three practical choices, and I will answer plainly. Take the lantern and try to use it; you will learn how delicate its tuning is, and if you misuse it you will break what remains of her tether. Destroy the lantern and the seal breaks in a way you do not want. Or lift the lid, speak to her, and accept that there are costs to unmaking what was made.”
She steps closer to the dais without touching it, as if measuring the stone with her mind. “I did what I could for my child. I did not make a monster to be cured with violence. I made a mechanism to keep a dangerous thing from becoming a catastrophe. If you insist on brute force, I will not stop you—but you should know what you will invite.”
Her eyes find each of them in turn, steady and unyielding. “This is truth, not a bargain. Decide with that in mind.”
Sparhawk looks at the women, "I know of you, if you are who I believe you to be. Tasha. I have met the three from the hourglass coven. I apologize for our entrance here but we must save our worlds from the rifts being created. If the lantern is the artifact that we seek, my choice is clear."
The strange armored orkish bugbear paladin glances at Drelnza.
"Drelnza, I will honor a temporary truce if you agree." Sparhawk will go to the Dias and using a steel pole for leverage will try to lift the Dias enough so that Kos or Tendril can retrieve the Lantern. While he heads that way, some of his wounds and broken bones seem to heal ( 20hp (Lay on hands).
(OOC: This assumes that Drelnza stops fighting, if she continues, he will need to make a different choice.)
Kos waits to see if the lid can lifted or dealt with in some way before deciding on whether or not to drop concentration on his spell.
(ooc: can't talk or manipulate objects while being a misty cloud.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
Drelnza drops down from the ceiling onto the curved ceiling, blood drying on her lips, Heretic humming in her hand. The sanctum is quiet now—gravity reversed, the dais cracked, the Lanthorn pinned beneath it. The homunculus lies twitching, its gem-core flickering faintly.
<this is that gem thats been flaring up each time the lantern fires. If you got close enough you'd see it clearly. It's like a little mechanical insect with a bright red gem on it.>
She doesn’t attack. She doesn’t flee. She speaks. “You want the lantern. Of course you do. Everyone wants the thing they don’t understand.” Her voice is calm, but there’s a tremor beneath it—like a string pulled too tight. “You think it’s a weapon. A prize. A tool. But it’s not yours. It’s mine. It’s the only thing keeping me from becoming what I was made to be.” She steps closer to the dais, not touching it, but letting the weight of her presence settle.
“Take it, and you’ll see what happens when the leash breaks. Maybe you’ll survive. Maybe you’ll kill me. Maybe you’ll wish you hadn’t.” She looks to Tasha, who remains silent. Then to the others, “I won’t stop you. I won’t beg. But I will warn you: if you lift that lid, you better be ready to finish what you started.”
“My only interest is saving our worlds from the rifts created. I have no intent to use anything as a weapon from this room. We are prepared to die to save our worlds.”
to Tasha
”can you tell us of the lantern?”
(Sparhawk considers if breaking the glowing gem with the creature within would be wise. He assesses his friends for injuries (what are you guys at for hp?)
Drelnza isn’t standing tall anymore. She’s crouched near the cracked dais, Heretic slack in her grip, its edge dimmed. Her breath is shallow, her posture strained—like a marionette with half its strings cut. The homunculus lies shattered nearby, its gem-core flickering once, then going dark. She tries to rise, but something holds her. It might be the backlash from the homunculus’s collapse—a feedback loop severed mid-channel. It might be Heretic itself, its sentient edge recoiling from the broken resonance. Or it might be Tasha, who stands just behind her, one hand raised—not touching, but commanding.
“Stay,” Tasha says quietly. And Drelnza does. Her eyes flicker with hunger, confusion, pain. She’s not paralyzed in the magical sense—she’s paralyzed by the fracture in her design. The Lanthorn was her regulator, her leash, her anchor. With it pinned and the homunculus gone, she’s adrift.“I can feel it,” she whispers. “The pull. The unraveling.”
She doesn’t attack. She doesn’t flee. She waits—held in place by a convergence of broken systems, maternal control, and the last threads of restraint.
Tasha steps toward the cracked dais, her voice low and even. “The Lanthorn is not a weapon. It’s a regulator. A planar gyroscope. Daoud built it to stabilize the boundaries between worlds—light, shadow, life, death. I modified it to do something more delicate.” She gestures toward Drelnza, who watches in silence. “It doesn’t just cast spells. It channels intent. Each lens is attuned to a different resonance: emotion, memory, hunger, restraint. The homunculus doesn’t activate it randomly. It responds to stress, to pain, to imbalance.” She kneels beside the dais, not touching it, just observing the fractured stone.
“When you take it, you remove the failsafe. You unmoor the sanctum. You sever the last tether Drelnza has to what I built to contain her.” Then she looks up, meeting their eyes. “But if your world is dying, and this is the only way to save it—then take it. Just know that you’re not taking a lantern. You’re taking a lock. And whatever it was holding back will be free." She stands, brushing dust from her coat. “If you’re ready for that, I won’t stop you. But don’t pretend you weren’t warned.”
Tasha kneels beside the cracked dais, her fingers hovering just above the fractured stone. She speaks with the calm of someone who’s already run this simulation a thousand times. “The Lanthorn isn’t broken. Not yet. But it’s out of alignment. The lenses are cracked, the homunculus is gone, and the resonance is unstable. If you want to take it—and not unleash what it was holding—you’ll need to stabilize it first. All things in the planes obey the Rule of Three. For this artifact the criteria for stability are a reinforced housing: First, a sturdy frame. The frame is damaged and must be re-bound. You’ll need a containment field—arcane or divine. A spell like Magic Circle, Glyph of Warding, or even Mending if you’re clever. Second, a functional conduit: The homunculus was the activator. Without it, the lenses won’t respond properly. You’ll need a new conduit—something with a soul, or a shard of one. A familiar. A summoned spirit. Even a willing creature. And third, you must focus the intent; the Lanthorn doesn’t just cast spells, it channels purpose. You’ll need to imbue it woth prupose, bind it to a cause. That means one of you must attune to it, not just hold it. And that will change you.”
She stands, brushing dust from her knees. “Do that, and you can take it without breaking the seal. Fail, and you’ll see what Drelnza becomes without it.”
If the fighting is over and the talking continues then Kos will float out from under the granite slab and end concentration on his Gaseous Form spell, but if not then he remains a misty cloud under the cracked slab?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
<She's a vampire but you coukd think of her like a werewolf, in that she's held at bay but according to her mom, Drelnza will not be under control if the lantern you need is destroyed or removed. So, not actively fighting, but still considered hostile.>
In case you wondered, the homunculus is a construxt. It doesnt have blood. Tasha does. The chalice indicates her presence. She's a human and alive.
Once the fighting has stopped and Sparhawk asks what he thinks Kos will emerge from under the broken slab and drop concentration on Gaseous Form so that he can answer, "Well, first we need to fix the frame before it breaks even more or even altogether."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
Tasha: “The frame must be re-bound. You’ll need a containment field—arcane or divine. A spell like Magic Circle, Glyph of Warding, or even Mending if you’re clever.”Put your spoiler here.
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
(OOC: If we don't have one of those methods, we are pretty sparse on resources with three pcs, I'm thinking Sparhawk could do a heal or lay on hands on the lantern to bind it together?, not sure what Kos and Tenebril have?)
(Hey, sorry, not trying to ghost, wife had an emergency surgery on Friday to remove her gallbladder. I'm on solo daddy duties while she's recovering. I'll be able to post more tomorrow. I was just going to have Tene attack her again or attack the dais to see if he can break it if he can tell they are trying to get under it. Not sure which would help more)
(Yikes Razzec, take care of the wife and kids!!!!!)
Yes, definitely deal eith real.life. wishing her a speedy recovery.
Th dais is a big stone block: attacking it could possibly damage it, but anyone can try to move it by mundane or magical means. You dont have to be a clou unkess you want to be.
Anything from Kos?
The air tightens and a single, practical light brightens at the far edge of the sanctum. No fanfare. No flourish. A woman steps through the threshold with a scholar’s silence—coat folded, travel-worn satchel at her hip, eyes steady and unflinching. This is Tasha: neutral, precise, the kind of guardian who measures consequences before she moves.
She scans the room once, as if reading a lab report. Her hands move with casual expertise, not theatre. She does not raise a hand to stop the fighting. She does not reach for a weapon. She looks at Drelnza, then at the Lanthorn trapped beneath the dais, and speaks.
“You came for the lantern. You tore open what I left closed. I did not come to save you from justice, only to make sure you understood what you are.”
Tasha’s voice cools the fevered air. “You have three practical choices, and I will answer plainly. Take the lantern and try to use it; you will learn how delicate its tuning is, and if you misuse it you will break what remains of her tether. Destroy the lantern and the seal breaks in a way you do not want. Or lift the lid, speak to her, and accept that there are costs to unmaking what was made.”
She steps closer to the dais without touching it, as if measuring the stone with her mind. “I did what I could for my child. I did not make a monster to be cured with violence. I made a mechanism to keep a dangerous thing from becoming a catastrophe. If you insist on brute force, I will not stop you—but you should know what you will invite.”
Her eyes find each of them in turn, steady and unyielding. “This is truth, not a bargain. Decide with that in mind.”
Sparhawk looks at the women, "I know of you, if you are who I believe you to be. Tasha. I have met the three from the hourglass coven. I apologize for our entrance here but we must save our worlds from the rifts being created. If the lantern is the artifact that we seek, my choice is clear."
The strange armored orkish bugbear paladin glances at Drelnza.
"Drelnza, I will honor a temporary truce if you agree."
Sparhawk will go to the Dias and using a steel pole for leverage will try to lift the Dias enough so that Kos or Tendril can retrieve the Lantern. While he heads that way, some of his wounds and broken bones seem to heal ( 20hp (Lay on hands).
(OOC: This assumes that Drelnza stops fighting, if she continues, he will need to make a different choice.)
Kos waits to see if the lid can lifted or dealt with in some way before deciding on whether or not to drop concentration on his spell.
(ooc: can't talk or manipulate objects while being a misty cloud.)
Drelnza drops down from the ceiling onto the curved ceiling, blood drying on her lips, Heretic humming in her hand. The sanctum is quiet now—gravity reversed, the dais cracked, the Lanthorn pinned beneath it. The homunculus lies twitching, its gem-core flickering faintly.
<this is that gem thats been flaring up each time the lantern fires. If you got close enough you'd see it clearly. It's like a little mechanical insect with a bright red gem on it.>
She doesn’t attack. She doesn’t flee. She speaks. “You want the lantern. Of course you do. Everyone wants the thing they don’t understand.” Her voice is calm, but there’s a tremor beneath it—like a string pulled too tight. “You think it’s a weapon. A prize. A tool. But it’s not yours. It’s mine. It’s the only thing keeping me from becoming what I was made to be.” She steps closer to the dais, not touching it, but letting the weight of her presence settle.
“Take it, and you’ll see what happens when the leash breaks. Maybe you’ll survive. Maybe you’ll kill me. Maybe you’ll wish you hadn’t.” She looks to Tasha, who remains silent. Then to the others, “I won’t stop you. I won’t beg. But I will warn you: if you lift that lid, you better be ready to finish what you started.”
“My only interest is saving our worlds from the rifts created. I have no intent to use anything as a weapon from this room. We are prepared to die to save our worlds.”
to Tasha
”can you tell us of the lantern?”
(Sparhawk considers if breaking the glowing gem with the creature within would be wise. He assesses his friends for injuries (what are you guys at for hp?)
Drelnza isn’t standing tall anymore. She’s crouched near the cracked dais, Heretic slack in her grip, its edge dimmed. Her breath is shallow, her posture strained—like a marionette with half its strings cut. The homunculus lies shattered nearby, its gem-core flickering once, then going dark. She tries to rise, but something holds her. It might be the backlash from the homunculus’s collapse—a feedback loop severed mid-channel. It might be Heretic itself, its sentient edge recoiling from the broken resonance. Or it might be Tasha, who stands just behind her, one hand raised—not touching, but commanding.
“Stay,” Tasha says quietly. And Drelnza does. Her eyes flicker with hunger, confusion, pain. She’s not paralyzed in the magical sense—she’s paralyzed by the fracture in her design. The Lanthorn was her regulator, her leash, her anchor. With it pinned and the homunculus gone, she’s adrift.“I can feel it,” she whispers. “The pull. The unraveling.”
She doesn’t attack. She doesn’t flee. She waits—held in place by a convergence of broken systems, maternal control, and the last threads of restraint.
Tasha steps toward the cracked dais, her voice low and even. “The Lanthorn is not a weapon. It’s a regulator. A planar gyroscope. Daoud built it to stabilize the boundaries between worlds—light, shadow, life, death. I modified it to do something more delicate.” She gestures toward Drelnza, who watches in silence. “It doesn’t just cast spells. It channels intent. Each lens is attuned to a different resonance: emotion, memory, hunger, restraint. The homunculus doesn’t activate it randomly. It responds to stress, to pain, to imbalance.” She kneels beside the dais, not touching it, just observing the fractured stone.
“When you take it, you remove the failsafe. You unmoor the sanctum. You sever the last tether Drelnza has to what I built to contain her.” Then she looks up, meeting their eyes. “But if your world is dying, and this is the only way to save it—then take it. Just know that you’re not taking a lantern. You’re taking a lock. And whatever it was holding back will be free." She stands, brushing dust from her coat. “If you’re ready for that, I won’t stop you. But don’t pretend you weren’t warned.”
Tasha kneels beside the cracked dais, her fingers hovering just above the fractured stone. She speaks with the calm of someone who’s already run this simulation a thousand times. “The Lanthorn isn’t broken. Not yet. But it’s out of alignment. The lenses are cracked, the homunculus is gone, and the resonance is unstable. If you want to take it—and not unleash what it was holding—you’ll need to stabilize it first. All things in the planes obey the Rule of Three. For this artifact the criteria for stability are a reinforced housing: First, a sturdy frame. The frame is damaged and must be re-bound. You’ll need a containment field—arcane or divine. A spell like Magic Circle, Glyph of Warding, or even Mending if you’re clever. Second, a functional conduit: The homunculus was the activator. Without it, the lenses won’t respond properly. You’ll need a new conduit—something with a soul, or a shard of one. A familiar. A summoned spirit. Even a willing creature. And third, you must focus the intent; the Lanthorn doesn’t just cast spells, it channels purpose. You’ll need to imbue it woth prupose, bind it to a cause. That means one of you must attune to it, not just hold it. And that will change you.”
She stands, brushing dust from her knees. “Do that, and you can take it without breaking the seal. Fail, and you’ll see what Drelnza becomes without it.”
“Will binding it with these rules stabilize it and end the rift in our worlds?”
Kos, Ten, what think you?”
(ooc: Kos has 26 hp and 15 temp hp.)
If the fighting is over and the talking continues then Kos will float out from under the granite slab and end concentration on his Gaseous Form spell, but if not then he remains a misty cloud under the cracked slab?
<She's a vampire but you coukd think of her like a werewolf, in that she's held at bay but according to her mom, Drelnza will not be under control if the lantern you need is destroyed or removed. So, not actively fighting, but still considered hostile.>
In case you wondered, the homunculus is a construxt. It doesnt have blood. Tasha does. The chalice indicates her presence. She's a human and alive.
Once the fighting has stopped and Sparhawk asks what he thinks Kos will emerge from under the broken slab and drop concentration on Gaseous Form so that he can answer, "Well, first we need to fix the frame before it breaks even more or even altogether."
Tasha: “The frame must be re-bound. You’ll need a containment field—arcane or divine. A spell like Magic Circle, Glyph of Warding, or even Mending if you’re clever.”Put your spoiler here.
“Kos, Tenebril, do you have a way to bind the lantern? A mend spell or other spell she mentioned?”
<Doesn't have to be one of those, just suggestions.>
(ooc: is the lantern magical?)
(OOC: If we don't have one of those methods, we are pretty sparse on resources with three pcs, I'm thinking Sparhawk could do a heal or lay on hands on the lantern to bind it together?, not sure what Kos and Tenebril have?)
Extremely