Gordian Nought

D&D 5E - Forgotten Realms

@JBRam2002@rush99999@Cu Chulainn@The Large Dumbo@Lauder
White men can jump.

Especially when helped from behind.

The monk wasted no time following. Both deftly landed on the pillar. Once through, a metal door was haphazardly flung, landing as a canopy over the escape route. Seeing Mara, he disengaged further down the spiral staircase, frantically looking at the four avenues beckoning and imploring which of their directions was the safest. Noticing the portal and the robot adorned spider, the Albino ran for the glimmering light in the darkness.

Upstairs, a Goliath was reunited with his gear, while Zana, Ysalain and Uregaunt took note of the series of rapid events. However, the sealed exit did not remain their long as invisible hands attempted to drag or grasp the metal, but to no avail. Soon, knuckles were heard upon the iron, with two indentations rapidly imprinted upon the ferrous substance, attempting to cave the egress through the middle fissure. All the animals below heard the two rumbles, stirring with a slight frenzy.

@The Grey Dust@Daemanis @JBRam2002
Once you free each of your mounts, you detect the adamantine chains slither into a narrow abyss, its chains cackling for several seconds before ceasing its trek. Now ornamented, with both of your mounts, you observe a never-before-seen Albino and Mara running, with sudden booms upon the metal now covering the focus of the ceiling. It appears that either Mara is chasing the white man or that both are fleeing from the happenings above. The surrounding cacophony of beasts begin to purr and roar, as if prompted by the unseen fists’ duet.

D&D 5E - Forgotten Realms

@JBRam2002@rush99999@Cu Chulainn@The Large Dumbo@Lauder

As the floor rose and eventually halted at the lipped edge, the central pillar indenture now served as a square hole allowing more ambient light to stray from the lower level. Those near the eastern wall could see Cerise hovering below.

The eight large doors are locked, but all share a placard, written in Common, to which each of you will note bears a name. Those tall enough to see into the grating of the door can discern a large window on the other side, open to the darkness.

The greeting of the Goliath and observation of Uregaunt were not kindly returned by the newly awakened as Mara attempted to grapple the invisible female, but oddly groped nothing but air. To the monk, the footsteps emanating from the unseen woman resonated louder than her constitution appeared to possess. To Thanath, it was unclear whether this new addition to the party was deaf and dumb, or just plain rude.

Her route nonetheless beelined first to the northern bench, to a beaker containing blue liquid, to which its navy contents began to glimmer inside the lady as she consumed its contents. Her body flashed in a cerulean glow, yet her gem remained unaffected. Seemingly addicted, the concealed girl quenched her thirst, likewise with crimson and avocado fluid; her silhouette shimmered again scarlet and green, but the stone in her forearm impassive to the colors surrounding, remaining as white as the diamond in the Albino’s chest. The veiled lady again returned invisible with only her lips apparent with jade, cherry, and cobalt dashed upon them. They remained sealed after drinking. Not to speak. Nor to breathe.

However, the lips fanned its perspective from the Paladin with the makeshift shank and the warlock with the mystical blade, and the mysterious blanch bloke between them.

The man spoke again.

“More importantly, who am I? What in Oghma's name is going on?”

He scrambled to his feet, apparently scared as if the seemingly partnered girl was staring into his soul. He looked at the hole in the center of the room, not caring the four surrounding him would have ample opportunity to restrain him if he jumped.

The lips finally parted but only to lick the residue from its vermilion borders, again rendering her invisible.

(We will need attacks of opportunity, if so desired, from Uregaunt, Thanath, Ysalain, and Zana, as he is going to leap into the hole.)

@The Grey Dust@Daemanis

You hear the above inquiries mingled with the boom of loud footsteps bellowing through the ceiling. The spiral staircase now is 10 feet away from the pillar riddled with levers all in the up position. The eight doors are closed, seven of them with names. Each of you recognize your respective names upon an ingress. Looking into the door, you discern your mount shackled and asleep, barely breathing, but bearing the gem in similitude to the hue emboldened upon you. Upon further investigation of the room, a door is actually slightly ajar, with its placard engraved in a peculiar language. The room is peppered with many different plants: mistletoe, birch, juniper, yew, and ash.

There are three long corridors that outstretch seemingly North, East, and West, ending with large wooden doors. The southern exit pools into a courtyard with the shining portal glimmering about 20 feet away.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Torus

@Hekazu

D&D 5e - The Lost Lands

"…nice and cozy, last night…"

Yester evening’s blackout wilted into wrinkles, emaciated upon Wick’s forehead, as she stood in the lower lever bar area, now riddled with glass and applause. The shirtless bard served as another enticement, tickling the fancy of a hidden yearning, which was not evidently satiated by the pooled mattress shared by Katia and the warlock. Was this yen unique to her new reincarnated physique? Or youth? Or had the darkness urged a betrayal of her vows?

While deviating her vision away from the chiseled torso of Cesar, she swept the broken debris away from their exit. Glancing at the frantic wizard provided some comedic solace as virgin fear still perforated her stoic demeanor. Not of the unknown, but of the recent sensual past.

“The Hall has my lot. Today will be anointed with either feast or famine. Friends or foes. I dread that fortune no longer whispers but booms serendipity upon our venture.”

Noting the avians' flapping heralded distant squawks, Wick motioned the gnome with a welcoming arm, beckoning Birbin to lead the way.

“Let’s go, friend."

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

"What else can you tell us about your Master Leosin? What does he look like, and where was the last place you knew he was at? And has he told you anything before he departed?"

Torus eyed the prideful monk as Kyra also questioned him. His tongue spun another test for the brother, discerning the urgency and need of this request.

“Scars are like luminaries. Bright, vain, and pregnant with glowing intensity against the sea of shadows. My intention was not to soil your honor nor uproot your dignity. But to simply trawl or cut bait. In this dark hour of need, I hunted to see if our stars actually aligned. Sometimes, cornering an animal often reveals a hidden savagery.”

He allowed this additional subtle slur to sink in; its parable premeditated to analyze the monastic’s commitment and salve towards his friend. Nothing more. The druid could feel the familiar madness of Xaron rising, but her thoughts and emotions palpably absent. Was she really gone? Or had she become a part of his liminal persona, impossible to extricate without overt conscious effort? Likely the fatigue fashioned his hardened mind similar to putty, now softened and malleable to the whims of vile fermentation, by the exhaustion that plagued all.

His glossal ring, a brand of his former possession, rang true, once more.

“Domestication of the future mandates identifying the dangers of the strange unknown. As much as possible. My hail of insults is a net to merely capture the brio behind your search for Leosin.”

The pirate awkwardly shifted his gaze to the priestess, while quickly appeasing the other caustic scorns his vernacular connived. The Tethyrian fang suddenly elevated high in his grasp.

“If we are to fish the same monstrous whale your master still harpoons, the bones of this old sailor will offer this pole to your expedition.”

@Hekazu@Norschtalen@The Harbinger of Ferocity

The Hub Planet - Vasishka - Open

This distress signal compounded by the live feeds now streaming in had incriminated the sadistic Zelthis, with little sway for his innocence. However, Vropda noted that the shapeshifter’s phrasing was peculiar. Decreeing viciously and intermittently with a foreward of Simon says and later punishing the sentry grunts if they followed any direction without such a preamble, Nick had reached a level of maniacal sophistication which had not seen for some time. The Council deemed that he could be regulated; she always had her doubts. ACASIAS had fortunately captured and deciphered the audio; it was a reference to an elementary game played by school children on Earth, a primitive planet, several hundred light years away.

Fascinating.

He was out of control; the engineer now knew what must be done.

With the gravitation manipulator in hoe, the captain hastily communicated by root via command prompt glove as her ship prepared for launch.

> CONTAIN
> VACCUM
> EXTRICATE

The location of the trickster turned traitor was ascertained. The fungal machination worked imperceptibly and automatically, with the chamber already quarantined and reinforced. The two security guards would have to be sacrificed, but this, in the mind of Creft’s sister, would be a mercy in lieu of the promise of future torture.

However, the biological computer stalled on the second order with an unexpected hesitation.

> ARE YOU SURE It questioned.

This was ACASIAS’ reminder to Vropda that the death would be quick but extremely painful. She knew that he could be salvaged; his harvested cells withstood almost everything science could inflict upon them.

The rapid decompression would suddenly instigate a severe form of ebullism, gas within blood, lymph, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid would literally be bubbling due to the quickly reduced ambient pressure, while slowly icing his bodily liquids due to the glacially low temperature. The water vapor within his respiratory tract would quickly cool forming icicle roots branching and filling every alveoli of his pulmonary system, inducing a thoracic-wide frigid atelectasis. Then, the rapid hypoxia would induce flaccid paralysis if his corpus was not yet frozen, while the severe hypocapnia would force the pH within each cell to become acidic, due to the inability to evacuate carbon dioxide, the body’s way of removing volatile protons and atomic waste from the Krebs' cycle. Without this, the internal milieu would begin to burn with the build-up of undesired potassium, phosphorus and calcium, inducing seizures and instant rigor mortis, in a person whose consciousness was possibly still trapped in such a rigid in situ.

This could all occur in one to six hundred seconds, not necessarily in that order, all the while his corpus would shrivel and expand due to all the pathologic processes occurring almost simultaneously.

> ARE YOU SURE It asked again.
> YES Was the response.

A few moments later, her cephalic monitors provided the necessary imagery and confirmation of three floating carcasses in the confined area, grated and equalized to deep space. The slits then closed and oxygen was suddenly restored in the room. The process, in total, took no more than 1-2 minutes.

Nick would have to hover, in the meantime, until reinforcements would be able extricate his body from the lack of gravity.

Vropda messaged all within the Council.

> THREAT PURGED

@Hekazu @JBRam2002 @Zverda@Corporal Lance

D&D 5E - Forgotten Realms

@rush99999

The stoic marching does not stop in lieu of your friendly greeting.

@Daemanis

The lower room's foci bears a spiral staircase, with the breadth of the helix, enough to permit the pillar slab to descend to meet its pinnacle strand. You hear the familiar bark of your mount from one of the cells, as well as six additional beasts, some hideous, others fantastic. With the room, three candles are arranged in a triangle above each thick gate. Moreover, four corridors splat in each cardinal direction, dim light adorning each of their paths. The southern hall was brief, as it opens to the courtyard bearing the portal of light, seen earlier by you and Thanath.

Lower Level - Updated

D&D 5E - Forgotten Realms

@The Grey Dust@JBRam2002@Lauder@Daemanis@rush99999@Cu Chulainn@The Large Dumbo

So, the ceiling with the slow fan is real. The floor is rising but will "likely" stop in 5 more feet. The doors above the pillar slabs and below the fan are now closed and locked, presumed due to pulling the last lever.

AdAM can only see North, South, and East, hence the 3 halls. Cerise is able to see under the rising floor what AdAM sees, but does not see AdAM.

The invisible person is awake now, stirring when the Albino was healed. The loud footsteps are coming, presumably, from her.

D&D 5E - Forgotten Realms

The emerald sheen shrouding and emanating the diamond soon dissipated as a breath and then a cough took hold of the snow skinned man, whose irises shared an evergreen hue, enthralled with vivacity and curiosity. However, this too frittered away, bleeding his ocular wreathes dry of any color, devoid in similitude as the albino’s rind encasing his the mysterious corpus.

He lept to his bare feet, without the aid of his hands, staring at the 5 membered audience. Blinking slightly rapidly, his face did not betray any emotion of fear nor surprise, as he spoke.

“Who are you?”

Realizing the floor was elevating, he echoed in a hushed tone.

“Where am I?”

As these two inquiries were beheld by the party, simultaneously, the last mantle was shed, near Mara, as very loud footsteps were audibly appreciated upon the slab hosting the invisible female in its bed. The covert silhouette brashly leaped off in the direction of the questions, her footsteps vociferously slow and ominous. All that could be discerned were the resonance of boots on the rising cobbled stone.

Pillar Room

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

“Go…”

The tiger barked ferociously, as shadows irked back an echelon.

“Aye, Brannor. We will not lurk over you, like vultures, waiting for any sign of deterioration or vibrancy.” As the monk swept out, the pirate followed his staggering exit. Motioning to Kyra with his Tethyrian cane, the druid ushered the priest towards the door. “Let us depart, las. It seems we have a shepherd missing from his flock.”

Not lingering any longer, to discern whether the cleric would follow his lead, the briny elder tailed Waladra into the hallway, waiting until enough of an expanse separated the duo from the sight, but likely not from the feline’s acoustic grasp of their delayed conversation.

“Master, you say?” The dribbled inquiry delved further.

“Did he flee like a deer in cowardice? Or was his disappearance linked before the events here in Greenest?”

The salty senior just sighed, attenuating his line of questions for a reflection.

“Hundreds of mighty oaks are born every year from the amnesia of squirrels, forgetting where their cache of nuts was buried, before the blanket of winter diguised their treasures under snow.” Freed finally from the torture of Xaron, the sailor’s thoughts fiddled, with ease, about the discordance of forming a search party in lieu of their new mission, to locate and destroy the hoard of a dragon queen. With another tap of his staff, Torus provided a rebuttal to their lost leader.

“My mind doubts your teacher actually desires to be found, lest such a thriving opportunity be squashed from its onset. If he desired reinforcements, someone amongst your fold must know his whereabouts. I don’t believe our attention during such a tumultuous season should be so easily forfeited, while Tiamat’s harvest grows.”

The interrogation again continued.

“Lad, what is so fruitful about reaping this one man?”

@Hekazu@Ryonara@Lucius Cypher@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Norschtalen