Anachronism
Chapter 27 - In the Eyes of Death
The PC's were thrown from the crumbling world of Earthsea into a desert. They would end up spending over a month in this place, trudging through the sun baked land. First they headed for the mountains. There they had an unwelcome meeting in a small village located beside 4 temples. The PC's left there, after having bought all the sheep the village could spare for meat (and for the fun of slaughtering them). They PC's then were directed south, for nearly 2 weeks, where they would find the largest city around these parts.
A dust storm and some talking with Xej via his magic were the only distractions to their journeys. Apparently the land where Xej is, time travels 1/3 slower than here.
Without further ado they PC's reached the city known as The Godking's City. Here they found a city nestled on the edge of an ocean, centered by a huge sandy pyramid. They found out that inside was the Godking, a living king of these lands. They also found out he's been king for 500 years, ever since he conquered the old gods, whom he sends 3 lives to yearly to appease.
Thinking they may find allies in these old gods, they PC's headed back across the desert to where they started, the four temples. The 2-week journey passed without incident.
Arriving back at the small village, most of the party skirted around the outside to get to the temples, but Growly and Crane headed in to town. (no one knows why) The rest of the party meanwhile circled around behind, and assigned various invisible scouts to head out and explore the 5 buildings of the walled off temple area. A while later Growly and Crane arrived bloody and horribly wounded, with a courageous story of how they slaughtered 8 of the 10 village gaurds, including their most fearsome leader who took two whole blows to down. Apparently the gaurds got a few good hits on Growly as his body was horribly injured.
The scouts arrived back suddenly, speaking about something amiss, and Gorvagio came to tell how in the 4th temple, they had found only an old throne, and when Elric had sat upon it, he suddenly appeared attempting to hurt Gorvagio's mind. Gorvagio fled, as Elric's eyes were black as oil.
The PC's returned in force to the temple, excluding Wolanin who was still off scouting somewhere. They entered the temple where Elric attempted to attack them. A hold spell later, and a length of rope and he was removed from the battle. Before they could attempt to ascertain who was controlling Elric, Wolanin entered the building. At first he got a slightly shocked look on his face as he glanced around. Then he said only 4 words : "Guys, we should go."
Then things started to go bad.
Xaaj appeared from his invisible state, Masks blade narrowly sliding off of Marriene's magic armor. His eyes were solid black. And then Growly leapt forward his Vorpal blade whizzing towards Thorlin, but as he neared for the strike, the blade's humming stopped and the blackness in Growly's eyes dispersed. Thorlin had the anti-magic stone in his possession, and it dismissed the control over Growly.
Many in the party began yelling, "Flee! Run! It's a trap! Everybody run!" Queen disappeared with a pop. Gorvagio vaulted out of the room, his magical shields whizzing about him in protection. Marienne looked about, and began floating towards the ceiling. Wolanin shouted, "Gyshin, in the corners and floating near the ceiling! It's a trap!" and drew his sword and leapt towards the corner, his sword slamming against some invisible foe. Zaaj, his eyes still black backed away behind the throne unnoticed, and vanished. Crane shouting words to attack suddenly vanished without a trace!
Growly was again under the control of some evil presence, and swung his again blurring blade at the ethereal form of Marienne, her leg suddenly becoming solid with a wet thud, as his blade chops her left leg off. Hurting, she floats quickly towards the ceiling.
Thorlin leaps forward, his anti magic field enveloping Growly, freeing him again.
The cat like beings shimmer and appear within Thorlin's field and begin attacking him, he moves back trying to strangle the things while the group attacks the enemy they can finally see. But the creatures, in the anti-magic field are all but invincible, as magic weapons are required to strike them, and all of the magical weapons in the anti-magic sphere are nullified. Even strangling with his powerful hands, they ignore him.
Marienne's eyes glaze over with blackness and a lightening bolt arcs down and slams into Growly, he wavers on the edge of consciousness.
Thorlin shouts, "Stay in the ground!" and leaps up, his anti-magic field freeing her, and she drops into his arms. The cat creatures still clawing at him. He drops her and moves away, and she becomes ethereal and moves into the ground.
Thorlin leaps into the corner where Wolanin is battling, and the creature appears and scratches at them both. Thorlin, roaring in frustration throws the stone over his shoulder, the anti-magic field suddenly gone. And with a loud CRACK! his hammer smashes down onto the Gyshin, his body flipping away like a boneless dummy. About the room people stumble and shake in confusion after the loud crack. Wolanin leaps forward, stabbing the Gyshin, and Growly brings his sword down on it, blood spraying out as they hammer the semi-conscious Gyshin.
Meanwhile, Marienne comes out of the ground and rolls towards the stone, and as she grabs it, another Gyshin also leaps there and puts his hand on it. Simultaneous to her ripping it away from his grasp, he mutters some low word, and then disappears with a pop. Marienne throws the rock back near Thorlin.
The fallen Gyshin is killed with a blow from the Paladin, but its wispy form comes out of its body and flies into Thorlin. He struggles for a moment, stumbles, and then the wispy form is ejected. Growly wastes no time, his vorpal sword humming loudly as it slices through the transparent being. With a scream of frustration and rage it disperses.
But the battle is not over. The Gyshin are still among them. At that point, as Wolanin was backing up looking for a new opponent, the waving form of Zaaj appears, behind him, his eyes glossed over in blackness, and the Masks dagger waving in his hand. With a massive blow, and a shuddering crack, Wolanin collapses in a heap, blood fountaining from his body. Zaaj's black eyes continue to scan the battle.
At this point, the retreat was called. Marienne fled under the ground in ethereal, missing her leg. Queen had already retreated. Gorvagio had long since vacated the area. And as Thorlin was attempting to leave, suddenly he stopped, his eyes glazing over in blackness. Crane reappeared, his eyes black.
The three controlled warriors stood still. With a whip of his hammer, Crane topples over, his skull smashed in, probably dead.
Then, Thorlin turns away. Zaaj begins walking towards his back. Thorlin, his mind struggling, realizing he was about to be slain by Zaaj, managed to break free of the control. He leapt to the side as masks dagger whipped past. Turning, in a single motion, the hammer is let loose with a slam, and Zaaj collapses, stunned. Grabbing Zaaj, and Crane's Vorpal, Thorlin runs, smashing Zaaj into unconsciousness. Outside, down in the now deserted village, Marrienne, Queen, Thorlin, Zaaj, and Gorvagio all met. Queen had been regenerating Marrienn's leg, and also healed Zaaj fully, clearing his mind of the control. As they hid in a building, wondering why the Gyshin had no come to finish them off, Elric came running down. After assuring themselves that he was not controlled, he gave them Wolanin's sword and his put on Wolanin's glove. A short time later, they headed back into the temple, to see what resulted.
There they found that Wolanin's and Crane's bodies were missing, though they were both certainly dead. As they stood quietly, waiting, Zaaj hears something, a pool of blood has small bubbles coming from it. Opening a hole in the ground, they find this church build upon a huge half natural, half carve cavern. Delving into the darkness, they chose a tunnel (the jester hoping his luck would aid them), and walked off into a huge maze of tunnels.
It was almost 8 hours later that they finally found a strange portal. Sending through Dingle, Zaaj's ferret, as a scout they discovered it to be a one way portal, and after an hour of scrying, they could see Dingle sitting next to a huge crystal tree. The crystal tree that Xej had told them about. It was important! At last. They all jumped through, except Thorlin. As he stood there in the tunnel, he began smashing, hoping to cave it in, but as he did so, a dark shadow filled the hallway and began to advance. He leapt through the portal.
On the other side, it is sunny, warm, and beautiful, with a large slow flowing river winding through the beautiful prairie land. And beside the river, a huge tree made of crystal, with small droplets of crystal instead of leaves. They had found the crystal tree, and the shadow did not pursue them through the portal. What now?
Chapter 28 - The Nightmare Begins
Some might say, that what came to pass out on in the Gyshin world was simply the result of a foe too powerful to defeat. Others would claim that the party of hero's somehow got themselves into a situation they couldn't get out of. Even others would say that the Gods deserted them and left them to their defeat. The truth will probably never be known, but what events occurred is.
With the help of Queen's magic, the party discovered that the magical tree was a node for thousands of conduits that lead to different worlds. Each crystal drop showed the end of one conduit. These conduits allowed one to teleport through them to the destination and back, something not regularly allowed by the strange "teleport" locked worlds of the Gyshin. It was also discovered that if you pluck a crystal drop, it will briefly open a two way portal to it's destination.
Xej, using magic mirror, and speaking to the PC's learned of this, and traveled to the alley where he first appeared in Csili. He then teleported to the crystal tree and rejoined the group. They spent much time trying to find Growly, Crane, Olla, Kendrick, and Wolanin with magic mirrors, and discovered that they could reach none of them but Growly, who was apparently wandering across some plains somewhere. They then tried to reincarnate Wolanin, but the spell failed. Wolanin was either alive somewhere else, or was truly dead for all time.
Then they spoke for some time, there was some fighting between party members, and finally Xej recalled a dream he had had about a crystal or marble white bridge. They searched among the images in the crystal drops, before they found such a bridge, over completely still water. Xej plucked the crystal drop. Travelling through the portal, they found themselves on a slightly magical bridge, the water just under the bridge, glowing with magic. Other than this bridge, in perfect brilliant condition, they were surrounded by a ravaged city, tumbled into ruins, hundreds of years ago. Elric stayed behind, though no one noticed his missing invisible form among them. They began a search, for Queen said that with more time she would be able to research a way to unlock the worlds so that they could teleport freely. Then they took some time to rest after searching long and hard.
As they were resting, a small black bird, the first sign of life they'd seen, landed on a wall near them, and looked down to them. They eyed it warily. Then it tried to fly away. Thorlin's hammer flew, and struck it, sending it spinning off into the ruins. He went looking for it, while the party mulled around in confusion. As Thorlin was looking, he saw a motion about 200 feet away, and hurled his hammer. As he watched, he began to see more and more. The huge 9' tall, 6 legged, chitin covered horrors began to spill across the ruins, hundreds upon hundreds leapt and charged their way amongst the ruined buildings.
"Guys....RUN!!!" shouts Thorlin as he throws his hammer and bolts. Marienne stands her ground as most of the party takes to the air, only Thorlin left fleeing on foot. She holds out her wand and lighting arcs from it, slamming through at least 10 creatures. Though injured, they continue their charge. One of them, close enough for the kill leaps through the air, it's body hurdling towards impact with Marienne. At the last moment she becomes ethereal, and the huge creature flies right through her.
Battle Synopsis : the party managed to kill 3 Gyshin. Xej's Old Staff absorbed one. One two of them were killed by Thorlin, wielding Crane's old Vorpal weapon. But the PC's were far outmatched in this encounter. Gorvagio was incinerated by a huge meteor 15' wide that fell from the heavens and struck the ground near him. Even his godly shields did not save him. Zaaj was slain by a Gyshin after attempting to backstab him. Powerful magical bolts ripping through his body. Elric, Thorlin, and Marrienne were all captured, taken by the Gyshin. In desperation, Queen grabbed Jesus and tried to teleport with him. Presumably they lay somewhere in this land, unconscious for several hours, defenseless. And finally Xej managed to flee under the ground, and then across the earth, finally finding time to check on his friends, and find that only Jesus and Queen he could find. The party is all but defeated.
Chapter 29 - Dark Hours
Thorlin opens his eyes, wiping them clear of some jelly like semi-translucent material that clung to them. In fact, the slime covers him from head to toe. As he looks about, he finds himself in a cramped alcove, laying on his back, with an one open wall to his left. The cell is made of a porous rock, and the slime covers the walls, and everywhere upon him. He is naked but for a loincloth. As he turns to the open wall, his hand bonks into something, ahhh, it appears open, but an invisible force field blocks his escape. At least he can see through it. Looking out, he sees a cavern easily a hundred feet high, with hundreds of similar alcoves dotting every available space upon the walls. In each he can see other forms, other creatures. In the center of the room, glows a blue crystal, which throbs and hums. About the room, large circular tunnels, about 20 feet across shoot out at various angels and directions. They stretch away into darkness. As he lies, pondering, a spirit form Gyshin floats through the cell and up into a tunnel leading away at a 45-degree angel. Looking across, he can see Marienne in a cell, after some searching. They acknowledge each other with a wave.
A voice whispers in his head. "It is Olla. It is unfortunate that you are here too. By my count, that means there are only 5 of you free: Xej, Jesus, Growly, Zaaj, and some woman named Queen. Marienne told me of Gorvagio's fate. Elric and Kendrick are here as well.....this does not bode well."
* * * * * * *
Gorvagio looked around. The first thing he noticed was that he was not where he remember being, though things were fuzzy, much like the time he had been questing for that rare bird egg for some stupid spell, and he had fallen out of a large tree. The second thing he noticed was that he seemed a lot taller than before. The third thing he noticed was the look of terror on two familiar looking people. A tiny man (probably a halfling) dressed in full body armor, with a huge two handed sword crackling with energy put himself in front of the beautiful maiden (also probably a halfling), and said, "Thou evil creature will be slain!". Gorvagio was more than use to that line, having spent some time in the human lands, and always being hunted, and blamed for killing chickens, and stealing sheep. HA! Like he ever needed to steal sheep! He reached for his weapons to defend himself until he could explain to his foe that he meant no harm. As he did so, he found that his weapons were missing! Looking down, he choked. The woman was screeching something, and the knight was surely about to slay him, but he could only stare down at his fur covered, blotchy grey skin, and his huge arms. Some evil Gyshin had turned him into a troll!
Some time later, the paladin, whom Gorvagio faintly remembered as Jesus, and the wizardress, whom he thought was some kind of nobility, and he had all sat down, the wizardress explained everything. She had brought Gorvagio back to life. Now, he strained to remember, but he assured her that he had no memory of dying, and therefore certainly not died. He had never been killed previously on any quest in fact. (his eyes shone with pride) So, obviously, there had been some mistake. He would just go back and beat up the Gyshin, until one of them turned him back into his good small goblin self. For goodness sake, if humans didn't really accept him as a goblin, how would they ever accept him as a Troll! And all his goblin friends would laugh at him for hours! He'd be the laughing stock! And surely the king would rebuke his goblin champion status, after which point he would have to impale himself. And now, that wouldn't even work! He'd have to impale himself and then throw himself into a huge fire pit! He growled. The two humans looked at him with some fear in their eyes. Well? Now what? Where were they? What happened to the battle?
The pretty lady and the stupid metal man spoke to him for some time, explaining the events of the battle, but after only the first few sentences, he started to find it very difficult to pay attention. He could smell all sorts of things, the least of which was not the stinky metal man in armor. He was kinda mad at that guy, though he wasn't quite sure why. Seeing that he had stopped listening, the woman stopped speaking and asked if he was all right. "Yup, just feel funny."
"You'll feel funny for a while, as your goblin side and troll side struggle to merge. You should try to stay calm. So far you've been doing very well." She graced him with a beautiful smile.
He realized with a start that he was looking at her shoulder and drooling, but not from lust...he was hungry.
* * * * * * *
Xej spent the first few lonely hours gazing into his mirror, trying to summon up the images of his comrades. He was able to conjure up Queen, Jesus, and Growly, but other than that, he was unable to reach anyone. A great number of people were missing. Conversing with Queen, they quickly figured out a meeting place, and the four hero's left free met up in a grove of trees south east of the ruined city. There, Queen explained that Jesus and her, together, while unconscious, had had a dream. They dreamt about the white bridge, and falling off into the water. There amid the shards of the shattered water, she saw an image of a dark cave, with a snake wrapped around it, whispering, "here, here...".
"Definitely a sign from the Gods", says Xej.
"So, there is probably at least one Gyshin guarding the gate", says Queen.
"Let's go SLAY some Gyshin ASS!!!" shouts Jesus.
"Hunh?!" mumbles the troll.
"How we going to do this?" asks Queen, ignoring everyone but Xej.