The room is huge, and every wall, even the floor and ceilings in some areas, are dotted with huge mirrors; the sort of looking glasses that one may use to get a full picture of themselves before a ball or banquet, or to see how dapper they appear before they set off to war. The mirrors display images all across Hyboria, from the sands of the Shem, to the Faron Wood, the vast mushroom forests of Subternia, to the endless deserts of water that separate the continents. The old wizard walks among the mirrors, holding a strange, folding mirror in his hand as he does so before offering it up to the makeshift band he and Atreyu have created to plunge into the ruins of Atlantis.
"Listen very carefully to what I say." Gandalf says as he walks through the Room of Mirrors. His eyes flit from the Witcher, to the Warforged, to the insectile artificer. His mustache twitches as he then looks to the Pyromancer, then the Kokiri Bard. "We have no idea what is in the ruins, so be careful. I can't tell you what traps to expect, what environmental hazards, what enemies may live there. All I know, and I don't even know this for sure, is that this Godzilla should be down there. I advise you to move with caution. And don't forget your mission. Here..."
While he's offering the folded mirror with one hand, he offers another, smaller mirror with the other.
"The big one folds out. To get to Atlantis, you'll step through this mirror here..." He motions to one of the mirrors on the wall that shows a darkened cavern lined with the ruins of an ancient civilization. "...and you'll appear there. To get back, you'll have to unfold the big one and jump through it, and come out there..."
He pointed to one of the big mirrors on the ceiling.
"This smaller mirror is how I will hand you the Triforce of Courage once we have it, since it sounds like we'll need it to set Godzilla free of whatever imprisonment he's under. Sleep. Cage. I imagine that, whatever it is, it's quite potent. Just remember that the Triforce is extremely important. You cannot allow it to fall into the wrong hands, no matter what, even if the mission fails. Do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening."
Gandalf moved closer to the mirror, dipped his hand into it, showed the heroes gathered there how it rippled and moved like water.
"I'm afraid time is not on our side. Who is first?"
Lightning pounded the sky and thunder vibrated their bones as they stepped out onto the ocean and storm battered beach that formed the lolling tongue of a cave mouth that threatened to swallow them into the underdark. Growths along the wall glowed a series of light blues, teals, and pastel greens, illuminating the cavern only enough that they could see past the entrance to the first of what appeared to be old, moldered buildings in the bowels of Hyboria...
The wind howled outside.
The smell of ozone rolled over them from the storm while the musty dampness of the cavern rolled out to greet them while the raging weather masked any sounds that could come out to meet them. A chill breeze rolls past their shoulders as cool air is sucked from the depths of the cavern...
Kit-Tik listens intently as Gandalf and Atreyu explain the plan, and shows great interest in the room with the magic mirrors. What convenient devices! he thinks to himself. As Gandalf hands over the two mirrors to the band, Kit-Tik suggests (using telepathy to speak to everyone), "If everyone allows, this one can keep the two mirrors relatively safe within his bag of holding. No risk of it getting crushed during travel or combat. Kit-Tik will check on the mirror daily to share information with Gandalf and receive the Triforce once its been acquired."
The thri-kreen waits to see if anyone objects or has any other suggestions.
Stepping deeper into the cavern reveals that it is densely populated with old houses, buildings thousands of trine old, somehow preserved by the cold and the dark and the briny air. The cavern is dark, but opens up, the ceiling some thirty feet or more overhead. A few bats chitter above them in the dark.
The glow lines the walls all along the room, but it is dark around the houses, where the bizarre glowing growths aren't as numerous. Some dot the roads here and there, and in the center of the chamber there is something large and glowing brighter than anywhere else. Not bright enough to illuminate the darkest recesses of the cavern, but bright nonetheless.
A cover a crystals...or what appears to be crystals, stands in the center of the cavern. They glow a faint blue, enough to dimly illuminate the sunken city around them.
Exploration of the cavern reveals that many of the occupants of Atlantis died as soon as the city sunk, some having fallen in the streets. There are still skeletons, some intact, laying in the open. A cursory glance into some of the houses reveals there are mummified bodies inside many of the buildings laying amongst the rotten walls and furniture...
Oten, with his javelin in hand, looks through the first few buildings they encounter, each time emerging with the same conclusion. "Not a living soul to be found here. It seems I have been seeing more death than life of late. We should press on."
With that, he marches forward at the head of the group, weapon at the ready.
Shirin nods to Kit-Tik, “A better place than any I have,” then enters into the portal with a grim look. The darkness of this new environment was better on his eyes than the bright light of Celestia, though seeing nothing but death and decay wasn’t good either.
”I think it safe to add, any souls down here, whether it living or otherwise, should be regarded as a threat. I can think of no sane reason for anyone to remain here.” Shirin will stick off to the side of the cavern, keeping a keen eye out for threats, traps, and cover equally. He’ll walk abreast of Oten as space allows.
"Something is speaking to me." He states, looking around for the source of the message. "It's asking what we're doing here, and saying there's nothing here for us. It says..."
Kit-Tik pauses and looks at Shirin.
"It says its quarrel is with the Witcher. It's urging me to turn back, but says if I don't, if we don't, it'll devour all of us."
The chamber continued to open up, the dim light making it possible to make out more and more buildings that were submerged in the gloom of the cavern's interior, but casting many, many dark shadows between and behind buildings, near walls, in the recesses...the lingering darkness of the room becomes more and more apparent with what Kit-Tik says.
The crystals in the middle of the room become more prominent, easier to make out as the band closes in. They stand some eight to ten feet in height, and there is some sort of split in the floor between them. The light teal glow illuminates everything roughly twenty to thirty feet around them.
The band can also see many recesses that clearly lead to other areas of the cavern, other areas around the city...
"The first sign of life or sentience down here. And I think they just proved you correct, Shirin. Let us not act in haste. Something feels off here." He looks around, seeking the source of the voice in his head before speaking and projecting his thoughts in an attempt to communicate.
"Whatever you are, you approached us with negotiation first. So if you would like to resolve this situation with words, let us give that a try. You have stated your demands. We know the 'what,' we cannot respond without knowing the 'why.' What is your business with the Witcher, and what lies ahead that you would turn back?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Shirin looks at Kit-Tik, then Oten. He thinks about the types of monsters that live in subterranean environments, speak telepathically, and have a hunger for flesh.
"Bold one, isn't it?"
He pulls on the handle of one of his longswords, removing it from its sheathe and revealing a brilliant, silvered blade.
As the party walks through the mirror Cinder sighs. "Another cave. Yay." She follow after the group mostly keeping to herself her eyes flicking from point to point within the rocky halls of the caves system. Her devilish eyes pierced through much of the gloom here, but it didn't make it any less unnerving. "So question," she asks the witcher, "What have you managed to piss off that know wants to probably eat us? Just curious what it is before we stab it and or set it on fire."
"Bold indeed,"Oten rumbles as he detaches his breastplate, revealing it to be a shield. "Did it bother anyone else how in those buildings, there were all the signs of advanced stages of decomposition, but some of the bodies appeared very well preserved? Mummified even?"
The creaking sound grows louder, and figures begin to emerge from the buildings where the noise is. Five animated corpses walk out into the common where they can just be made out through the gloom of the cavern, then they stop, standing stark still and watching the party as it approaches the center of the room.
Oten continues to listen to a voice inside his head as he watches the corpses emerge. "It seems we have two choices. Option 1: We sacrifice one of our own to a servant of the Nothing and abandon our quest. Option 2: We fight."
Some internal mechanism within Oten begins to audibly spin, and heat begins to distort the air above his shoulder vents as his body prepares for action. "I know where I cast my vote."
Shadows move along the wall. Something shimmers to the left. Another shadow, this time obviously something, goes to the right. It billows past a recess in the cavern that signifies another corridor, leading toward another part of the sunken city. As the thing moves, another thrall, this time like a zombie but...well...not a zombie....its face disturbingly elongated, emerges from one of the buildings and begins to walk toward the party.
Another figure, the shadow that have moved to the right along the wall, begins to take shape as it moves closer to the group.
"I would advisse you to remember that I gave most of you an offer to ssurvive." It said. Its body began to become clear. A wolf, large, bigger than most humanoids, stalks toward them, padding slowly forward on paws like plates. Shadows boil on its back like mist rising from a pond. "But then...none of you will be here to remember..."
A huge tongue drops from its mouth and it lips its muzzle in anticipation...
Shirin quickly assesses the situation, thinking to himself,
"Standard undead zombies...long face, looks like a Bodak.. and that one.. wolflike, controlling undead... could it be Gmork? Not sure. Care to clarify, mindreader?"
Then he barks to the others as he takes a defensive stance, "Zombies are fodder, don't look at the one with the long face, and dont get too close to it - control it. It's the wolf's pony show, I'm guessing that's our necromancer."
He thinks to himself the undercommon phrase,
"When in darkness, do as the drow do."
Shirin will move to cover (if applicable), casting Faerie Fire (Dex 13) on the approaching crowd of enemies. (centered on the crowd, hoping to hit our wolf, the Bodak, and as many of the zombies as possible.
Cover would the outcropping of glowing crystals behind you in the center of the room. They're big but you can move amongst them.
Faerie Fire shimmers into life around the zombies and the Bodak, but the wolf creature snarls and slinks backwards toward the wall to avoid the effect, moving for the darkness along the borders of the cavern.
The Bodak moves forward, slowly moving head on toward the band...
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Monsters. Snarling. Unyielding. Uncoordinated. It's all noise. Tuto's mask flares, but instead of bright blue, it is a dark purple. He puts a hand to his temple. Everyone is yelling. He can't hear them. They have to go away! The noise has to STOP!! Tuto pulls out his whistle, and gives it a sharp blow.
(Tuto casts Shatter at 3rd level, 10ft sphere centered at the wolf for 15 Thunder damage. DC 15 con save)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hwr_BaekgM
AURYN
King of the Monsters
Nature has an order...
...a power to restore balance...
...I believe he is that power...
The room is huge, and every wall, even the floor and ceilings in some areas, are dotted with huge mirrors; the sort of looking glasses that one may use to get a full picture of themselves before a ball or banquet, or to see how dapper they appear before they set off to war. The mirrors display images all across Hyboria, from the sands of the Shem, to the Faron Wood, the vast mushroom forests of Subternia, to the endless deserts of water that separate the continents. The old wizard walks among the mirrors, holding a strange, folding mirror in his hand as he does so before offering it up to the makeshift band he and Atreyu have created to plunge into the ruins of Atlantis.
"Listen very carefully to what I say." Gandalf says as he walks through the Room of Mirrors. His eyes flit from the Witcher, to the Warforged, to the insectile artificer. His mustache twitches as he then looks to the Pyromancer, then the Kokiri Bard. "We have no idea what is in the ruins, so be careful. I can't tell you what traps to expect, what environmental hazards, what enemies may live there. All I know, and I don't even know this for sure, is that this Godzilla should be down there. I advise you to move with caution. And don't forget your mission. Here..."
While he's offering the folded mirror with one hand, he offers another, smaller mirror with the other.
"The big one folds out. To get to Atlantis, you'll step through this mirror here..." He motions to one of the mirrors on the wall that shows a darkened cavern lined with the ruins of an ancient civilization. "...and you'll appear there. To get back, you'll have to unfold the big one and jump through it, and come out there..."
He pointed to one of the big mirrors on the ceiling.
"This smaller mirror is how I will hand you the Triforce of Courage once we have it, since it sounds like we'll need it to set Godzilla free of whatever imprisonment he's under. Sleep. Cage. I imagine that, whatever it is, it's quite potent. Just remember that the Triforce is extremely important. You cannot allow it to fall into the wrong hands, no matter what, even if the mission fails. Do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening."
Gandalf moved closer to the mirror, dipped his hand into it, showed the heroes gathered there how it rippled and moved like water.
"I'm afraid time is not on our side. Who is first?"
Lightning pounded the sky and thunder vibrated their bones as they stepped out onto the ocean and storm battered beach that formed the lolling tongue of a cave mouth that threatened to swallow them into the underdark. Growths along the wall glowed a series of light blues, teals, and pastel greens, illuminating the cavern only enough that they could see past the entrance to the first of what appeared to be old, moldered buildings in the bowels of Hyboria...
The wind howled outside.
The smell of ozone rolled over them from the storm while the musty dampness of the cavern rolled out to greet them while the raging weather masked any sounds that could come out to meet them. A chill breeze rolls past their shoulders as cool air is sucked from the depths of the cavern...
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
Kit-Tik listens intently as Gandalf and Atreyu explain the plan, and shows great interest in the room with the magic mirrors. What convenient devices! he thinks to himself. As Gandalf hands over the two mirrors to the band, Kit-Tik suggests (using telepathy to speak to everyone), "If everyone allows, this one can keep the two mirrors relatively safe within his bag of holding. No risk of it getting crushed during travel or combat. Kit-Tik will check on the mirror daily to share information with Gandalf and receive the Triforce once its been acquired."
The thri-kreen waits to see if anyone objects or has any other suggestions.
Ro Aleron (Ro the Red) -> Illithid, Wizard 8 (Chronugist) // AURYN
Stepping deeper into the cavern reveals that it is densely populated with old houses, buildings thousands of trine old, somehow preserved by the cold and the dark and the briny air. The cavern is dark, but opens up, the ceiling some thirty feet or more overhead. A few bats chitter above them in the dark.
The glow lines the walls all along the room, but it is dark around the houses, where the bizarre glowing growths aren't as numerous. Some dot the roads here and there, and in the center of the chamber there is something large and glowing brighter than anywhere else. Not bright enough to illuminate the darkest recesses of the cavern, but bright nonetheless.
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
A cover a crystals...or what appears to be crystals, stands in the center of the cavern. They glow a faint blue, enough to dimly illuminate the sunken city around them.
Exploration of the cavern reveals that many of the occupants of Atlantis died as soon as the city sunk, some having fallen in the streets. There are still skeletons, some intact, laying in the open. A cursory glance into some of the houses reveals there are mummified bodies inside many of the buildings laying amongst the rotten walls and furniture...
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
Oten, with his javelin in hand, looks through the first few buildings they encounter, each time emerging with the same conclusion. "Not a living soul to be found here. It seems I have been seeing more death than life of late. We should press on."
With that, he marches forward at the head of the group, weapon at the ready.
Shirin nods to Kit-Tik, “A better place than any I have,” then enters into the portal with a grim look. The darkness of this new environment was better on his eyes than the bright light of Celestia, though seeing nothing but death and decay wasn’t good either.
”I think it safe to add, any souls down here, whether it living or otherwise, should be regarded as a threat. I can think of no sane reason for anyone to remain here.” Shirin will stick off to the side of the cavern, keeping a keen eye out for threats, traps, and cover equally. He’ll walk abreast of Oten as space allows.
Kit-Tik pauses, panning his head as if listening.
"Something is speaking to me." He states, looking around for the source of the message. "It's asking what we're doing here, and saying there's nothing here for us. It says..."
Kit-Tik pauses and looks at Shirin.
"It says its quarrel is with the Witcher. It's urging me to turn back, but says if I don't, if we don't, it'll devour all of us."
The chamber continued to open up, the dim light making it possible to make out more and more buildings that were submerged in the gloom of the cavern's interior, but casting many, many dark shadows between and behind buildings, near walls, in the recesses...the lingering darkness of the room becomes more and more apparent with what Kit-Tik says.
The crystals in the middle of the room become more prominent, easier to make out as the band closes in. They stand some eight to ten feet in height, and there is some sort of split in the floor between them. The light teal glow illuminates everything roughly twenty to thirty feet around them.
The band can also see many recesses that clearly lead to other areas of the cavern, other areas around the city...
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
Oten cocks his head at the same time as Kit-Tik.
"The first sign of life or sentience down here. And I think they just proved you correct, Shirin. Let us not act in haste. Something feels off here." He looks around, seeking the source of the voice in his head before speaking and projecting his thoughts in an attempt to communicate.
"Whatever you are, you approached us with negotiation first. So if you would like to resolve this situation with words, let us give that a try. You have stated your demands. We know the 'what,' we cannot respond without knowing the 'why.' What is your business with the Witcher, and what lies ahead that you would turn back?"
Shirin looks at Kit-Tik, then Oten. He thinks about the types of monsters that live in subterranean environments, speak telepathically, and have a hunger for flesh.
"Bold one, isn't it?"
He pulls on the handle of one of his longswords, removing it from its sheathe and revealing a brilliant, silvered blade.
(Monster knowledge check, if needed: 22
As the party walks through the mirror Cinder sighs. "Another cave. Yay." She follow after the group mostly keeping to herself her eyes flicking from point to point within the rocky halls of the caves system. Her devilish eyes pierced through much of the gloom here, but it didn't make it any less unnerving. "So question," she asks the witcher, "What have you managed to piss off that know wants to probably eat us? Just curious what it is before we stab it and or set it on fire."
There is a strange, creaking noise, like old hinges and dried leather, coming from the buildings north of their position...
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
"Bold indeed," Oten rumbles as he detaches his breastplate, revealing it to be a shield. "Did it bother anyone else how in those buildings, there were all the signs of advanced stages of decomposition, but some of the bodies appeared very well preserved? Mummified even?"
The creaking sound grows louder, and figures begin to emerge from the buildings where the noise is. Five animated corpses walk out into the common where they can just be made out through the gloom of the cavern, then they stop, standing stark still and watching the party as it approaches the center of the room.
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
Oten continues to listen to a voice inside his head as he watches the corpses emerge. "It seems we have two choices. Option 1: We sacrifice one of our own to a servant of the Nothing and abandon our quest. Option 2: We fight."
Some internal mechanism within Oten begins to audibly spin, and heat begins to distort the air above his shoulder vents as his body prepares for action. "I know where I cast my vote."
Shirin begins the motions Igni with his offhand, "Mhm. Dried out corpses should spark right up."
Initiative Roll when needed: 17
Shadows move along the wall. Something shimmers to the left. Another shadow, this time obviously something, goes to the right. It billows past a recess in the cavern that signifies another corridor, leading toward another part of the sunken city. As the thing moves, another thrall, this time like a zombie but...well...not a zombie....its face disturbingly elongated, emerges from one of the buildings and begins to walk toward the party.
Another figure, the shadow that have moved to the right along the wall, begins to take shape as it moves closer to the group.
"I would advisse you to remember that I gave most of you an offer to ssurvive." It said. Its body began to become clear. A wolf, large, bigger than most humanoids, stalks toward them, padding slowly forward on paws like plates. Shadows boil on its back like mist rising from a pond. "But then...none of you will be here to remember..."
A huge tongue drops from its mouth and it lips its muzzle in anticipation...
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
"Kill them!" The wolfen creature roars...and then the creatures around it begin to surge forward...
Post Order
Shirin
Dungeon Master
Tuto
Kit-Tik
Dungeon Master
Cinder
Dungeon Master
Oten
Dungeon Master
It is Shirin's turn!
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
Shirin quickly assesses the situation, thinking to himself,
"Standard undead zombies...long face, looks like a Bodak.. and that one.. wolflike, controlling undead... could it be Gmork? Not sure. Care to clarify, mindreader?"
Then he barks to the others as he takes a defensive stance, "Zombies are fodder, don't look at the one with the long face, and dont get too close to it - control it. It's the wolf's pony show, I'm guessing that's our necromancer."
He thinks to himself the undercommon phrase,
"When in darkness, do as the drow do."
Shirin will move to cover (if applicable), casting Faerie Fire (Dex 13) on the approaching crowd of enemies. (centered on the crowd, hoping to hit our wolf, the Bodak, and as many of the zombies as possible.
Cover would the outcropping of glowing crystals behind you in the center of the room. They're big but you can move amongst them.
Faerie Fire shimmers into life around the zombies and the Bodak, but the wolf creature snarls and slinks backwards toward the wall to avoid the effect, moving for the darkness along the borders of the cavern.
The Bodak moves forward, slowly moving head on toward the band...
Post Order
Shirin
Dungeon Master
Tuto
Kit-Tik
Dungeon Master
Cinder
Dungeon Master
Oten
Dungeon Master
It is Tuto's turn!
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
DM of Legacy of NIMH
Monsters. Snarling. Unyielding. Uncoordinated. It's all noise. Tuto's mask flares, but instead of bright blue, it is a dark purple. He puts a hand to his temple. Everyone is yelling. He can't hear them. They have to go away! The noise has to STOP!! Tuto pulls out his whistle, and gives it a sharp blow.
(Tuto casts Shatter at 3rd level, 10ft sphere centered at the wolf for 15 Thunder damage. DC 15 con save)