Turn 4
May as well investigate the surrounding fabric of reality. Any notable spacial fucky?
{_} Your attempt to pierce the weave of reality with a mental needle, while still reeling from the shock of the rod's telepathic intrusion, backfires horribly. A rainbow of conflicting sensations blasts you; the sight of a nest of whipping squid-like tentacles mixed with the smell of marmalade and sound of a freight train accompanying a bizarre angelic chorus of donkeys only one among them. Unable to tune out the numberless distractions that lie beyond the veil, your mind quickly shuts down to protect itself amidst a sudden, crashing headache. You collapse, unconscious.
Approach the scrolls carefully, examine the texture of broken glass from afar, perhaps try to discern whether none of the mixtures or powders have been toxic, or might release toxic vapours that'd hurt from afar. Then animate a body off the pile. Have it approach the pile of broken bottles and see how it reacts. Manipulate it into carefully touching some of the stains. See the reaction the stains have upon the body: could it be acid/poison?
If, and only if no danger is detected from the contents of broken glass, examine the scrolls (preferably the unstained ones). Look for any sort of imprints of his teacher's hand in the text. Is it his own, or merely the works of others he collected, in these scrolls? Are they spell scrolls, or notes? When looking through them, go specifically after anything that can imply life lengthening and/or emotion removal (perhaps something about turning into a lich?)
{_} Seconds pass in silence. Nothing appears to be exploding, at least. You soon notice that the distinctive aura of magic has moved from the wall, and is now concentrated solely on the smattering of objects on the floor.
{_} This time, you manage to focus intently and effectively on animating one of the bodies from the pile. It shakes, then shambles upright, dutifully interposing itself between you and the pile on the floor.
The stains do in fact have some effect on the body, but it's hard to notice unless you look very closely; the preserved flesh seems to slowly harden on contact, as if calcified. You have it pick up one of the scrolls, and display it before you. An array of symbols in a circle is on the page, marked with the alchemical symbol for death (a circle itself, in the shape of a doorknob or dome facing upright) in the center, surrounded by a tripartite of others runes you don't recognize. The top of the scroll is helpfully marked with a bold title: "
PRESERVATION," along with concise instructions on how to prepare a body for long-term storage. The writing is very clearly Lakhmet's, your old master.
VERY carefully use magic to gently probe at the presence inside the Skull Rod, and ascertain as best as I can what it is.
{_} You launch a careful but full probing of the object's nature, and before long, you feel you have a fairly good idea of it. It is a sentry of sorts, a spirit bound inside a physical object -- the rod, in this case -- and given instructions to send telepathic messages to whoever bound it. You can only guess as to why it didn't immediately go off when you arrived on this plane; perhaps it didn't view you as a threat. In that case, it may also be able to distinguish someone's signature to decide whether or not they're worth reporting.
"ah, forgot the basics of spiritual communication. Most likely got possessed for a moment there. Am I going mad, or are you able to talk?"
{_} "Hurhurhurhur," the zombie chortles in a most disconcerting manner.
"Thiss is... fun." He sticks both fingers in his eye sockets, and yanks down, then up again.
"Eye live again... aye?" He ignores you completely.
Use magic so the orb can be use it's bones as spider legs
{_} You strike a focused, confident pose, channeling power directly down into the amalgamate orb of corpses below you. It shivers and shakes, but after nothing seems forthcoming after about twenty seconds, you finally lose patience, and commit a very dangerous act when practicing magic: Injecting raw emotion and frustration into your casting.
SHUNT!The orb
leaps from the ground a full five feet, wrapped in a sickly green eldritch glow that illuminates the mausoleum walls like a giant firefly. A low, thrumming roar, like the purr of some obscene great cat pierces your ears and sends tremors up your stubby legs. The orb begins to fall...
... And then jolts mid-air, arrested by the sudden appearance of a tripod-like formation of bone, holding it wobbly but aloft with bleach-white skeletal talons some two and a half feet tall. The weight soon proves to be too much to bear, however, and the ball tips over, its momentum carrying it around the room!
Dodge! Only your luck will save you!Zal-hasar (Xantalos) =
{_} Caught off-guard, you instinctively leap into the air -- a bit too soon, as the rolling ball of death catches your legs against the wall!
{_} Fortunately, it was just against the corner, which gave your body plenty of room to flex away from an otherwise nasty impact. The ball rolls away, and you fall with a splat on the flagstones, with little but mild bruises.
Froza (ziizo) =
{_} The sudden motion sends you scurrying for balance like a man on a rolling log in the river. Sadly, you are flung off; just in time for the orb to catch you on the floor.
{_}{_} Your body is caught in a vise between stone and dead flesh. The crushing weight pushes all air from your lungs, nearly collapses your ribs, and all but mangles your legs. The only saving grace is that it narrowly missed your head, and dazed as you are, the only way you know that is because you can still feel the
excruciating pain.Victor Superbia (Mallos) =
{_} You simply step back away from the door, allowing you to evade all harm from the orb.
Naoztxr'itra (7thOutpost) =
{_} The rolling orb doesn't have enough momentum to reach you on the other side of the corpse-pile.
A pair of verdant green orbs rush through the mausoleum doors, one exploding in your chest! Your bones and scales re-knit themselves, though the intense experience nonetheless leaves you
dazed.Zal-hasar waits for several more seconds to see if it has anything else to say, or if it is merely repeating itself/done saying the message. If it hasn't said anything different, he speaks.
"Lakhmet was destroyed. We are his apprentices."
Attempt to interact further with the signal being channeled through the body. Does it have anything else to say?
Additionally, what do I remember of what happened to Lakhmet? Was I there when he got killed, or are we just assuming?
{_} The now-familiar warm glow of healing spreads through you from a jolt in the back, soothing your bruises. With a groan, you push yourself to sit upright, making sure it's safe from the flesh-ball before you dare relax. In that time, you notice that the voice of the corpse you'd animated has fallen silent. Then, you realize that it's laying on its side, its legs and waist crushed, one hand missing. The orb really did a number on that one. You grimace. Still hopeful, though, you relay your message through your established link.
An excited murmur like a buzzing bee, but gentler, answers back. The words come through:
"Use... dais... escape..."{_} All you remember of what happened before you were sent here is Lakhmet calling you and your companion apprentices together, without much explanation before ultimately teleporting you away. He looked like he wanted to say more, but was very pressed for time.
Help this guy analyze the scrolls. Look for some utility spells and/or spells that, with creative use, can solve a wider variety of problems than most.
{_} You skitter off in the direction of the mausoleum, and succeed in reaching the doors, but the daunting visage of a strange, giant bony flesh-orb in the hallway gives you pause.
Raise a few corpses to fulfill my will
{_} Most available corpses to raise in the mausoleum are either taken up, or behind your two companions and the giant, tripod orb of flesh slowly grinding around the flagstones. Annoyed, you reach out towards the orb, intent on taking one out of the mass. The instant your necromancy touches it, however, the corpse you had your eyes on shudders, and then a spike of bone pierces his chest, another cleanly bisecting his skull. No luck there; and you seem to have only aggravated the abomination.
NPCs: Urist McNecromancer's Zombie and Froza's flesh-orb are no longer
Fresh.{_} The giant flesh-orb goes on to graze the pile of corpses in the center of the mausoleum, and then begins absorbing them into its bulk one by one, trying to obtain the bone mass necessary for proper locomotion. It still glows with the aura of Froza's powerful, out-of-control animating magic. Dangerously flailing and poking skeletal limbs with dangling ribbons of flesh strike out into empty air, a hazard for any who remain in the area.
{_}The zombie walks off to mind his own business. He idly presses his emaciated leg against the top of his gravestone, and pushes as though trying to knock it over, chuckling all the while.
Background: {_} Nix notices that the rod's attention is beginning to gravitate towards the center of the demiplane, an excited buzzing coloring its thoughts.
Name: Zakir Varuk
Race: Kitsune-Tsuki
Gender: Unknown. Check, or don't. Very ambiguous.
Location: Around the periphery of the demiplane.
Status: Unconscious (-1).
Items: Unadorned black robes.
Name: Zal-hasar
Race: Lizardman
Gender: Ambiguous (uses male pronouns)
Location: Sitting down just inside the mausoleum.
Items: Unadorned black robes.
Name: Froza
Race: Baby blue dragon
Gender: Female
Location: Lying face-up on the floor inside the mausoleum.
Status: Dazed.
Items: Cute little black sash and bow (neck).
Abilities: Dark Adept (Corpse control)
Name: Urist McNecromancer
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Location: In the graveyard, around the periphery of the demiplane.
Items: Unadorned black robes.
Name: Victor Superbia
Race: Humanoid black dragon
Gender: Ambiguous
Location: Standing just outside the mausoleum.
Items: Unadorned black robes.
Name: Nix
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Location: With Kevak, around the periphery of the demiplane.
Items: Unadorned black robes.
Name: Kithrax
Race: Incutilis
Gender: Male
Location: Just outside the mausoleum doors.
Items: Black sash (wrapped around his shell).
Name: Naoztxr'itra
Race: Ethergaunt
Gender: Male
Location: Inside the mausoleum, behind the pile of bodies, inspecting the back wall.
Items: Unadorned black robes.
1x Zombie (Dustan Hache)|Location: In the graveyard, next to Urist McNecromancer (Dustan Hache)|Items: Old rags
1x Fused Tripod Zombie Orb (ziizo)|Location: Inside the mausoleum.
GM notes: You may have noticed that the order in which your actions are listed per turn is random. This is because I'm rolling a d8 die to determine the order in which actions take place. NPC's get the same thing, just with die numbers more appropriate to the number that are around.