Lómë -- the Jewel of the Desert; Ghar, Lorennia, Phineas-- "Shadows Uncounted."

[Complex_Assault]

Ghar will attempt to go into the library through the back door, looking for potential trap materials along the way. (wooden clubs, stakes, rope, cloth, etc.)

[LorenniaNailo]

"Sure doesn't," I respond.  "Hope you like climbing, because I don't think he's just going to let us in." I sigh.  "I'm going to try anyways, but I can't guarantee your safety."

I plan on approaching Zerathos openly (but not to within reach), trusting in my ability to outrun him if he decides to make a hostile move.  No weapons in my hands, because I'm fairly sure they wouldn't help anyways.  If I get within 15 feet, I skip the pleasantries and the obvious, starting off with, "Do you have a plan?" in a carefully neutral voice.

[GameMaster]

Lorennia and Phineas
Zerathos glances at Lorennia, then stares hard at Phineas.

His face impassive, his voice flat, he asks plainly, "Have you come to execute me at last for my crimes, Master Rose?"  Nodding, he continues.  "Whether I resist or kneel and allow it done depends entirely on whether your companion still has the dagger within her possession?"  He looks up and down Lorennia, seeking the dagger.  Not seeing it, the to her eyes, the question plain on her face.

[LorenniaNailo]

I pull the hilt of the knife out of my sleeve, then put it back in once it's obvious Zerathos has recognized it.  But at the same time, I answer, "No executions until we open the gate.  Malgrathor already told me he goes free if you die, and I don't trust him to free the rest of us from this plane rather than freeing us from our lives.  You two can talk penance and vengeance all you want after this gate is open."

Of course, I cannot stop Phineas from doing what he will, and wouldn't try even if I could - I can only hope he recognizes the danger in such an act.

[GameMaster]

"You have spoken with him!?" Zerathos is stunned for a moment, but recovers his composure.  "Yet you're not here to kill me?  Come, we have little time."

He turns and leads you Lorennia, Phineas [and Ash] into the Library.

"I won't labor you with history lessons.  Malgrathor has taken my sword.  Not doubt you know what that means."

You both notice at once his sword is in fact missing, but he quickly notes from your faces that you do not in fact know what it means.

"I see..." he continues.  "The dagger is a fragment of my sword, broken from the blade and fitted with a handle.  It is the only thing in all the Multiverse that I know can hurt him, the only thing that gives us the tiniest sliver of a chance to keep him trapped here in this prison with us."  He glances momentarily to a mirror on a wall, and winces.

He looks hard at Lorennia, who mentioned opening the Gate.  "Even if you found the temple out in the Endless Wastes, whereever it is-- We cannot risk allowing Malgrathor to leave this place.  When he does, he will carve the Ruby Heart from the Prime Material Plane, killing the Multiverse itself so that his "children", the primordial oozes of the world, can once again rise to power and feast upon the corpse of existence itself.

"This isn't just Life, Death, Redemption or Damnation that we are fighting for-- It is the very existence of all peoples and all things."

[LorenniaNailo]

"So how do we bind him here?  Surely all he has to do is wait for you to die of old age - or thirst - and it's all over anyways."

And surely this Ruby Heart is better protected than anything we can manage here, I carefully do not say.  I want to see where this goes.

[GameMaster]

Zerathos nods.  "We all die, within a day, perhaps two for some of us.  But there is one in the desert, an eternal and broken thing that can never die again, who hates Malgrathor with all that is left of his soul.  If we can find him and get the keys to him, he can hide them forever.

"There is no other way.  If Malgrathor escapes..." Zerathos shivers uncontrollably in his memories.

"You don't know what he's capable of..." he whispers, clearly caught re-living some Hellish tortures of the past.



Low thunder echoes around you all.

"It's true, you really don't..." an amused, deep voice from the shadows.

Zerathos's eyes widen in absolute terror.

[GameMaster]

As Malgrathor enters, from somewhere out of site, floating blue letters arrive in the room, attempting to arrange themselves into something.  After a moment, both Lorennia and Phineas can read the words written in the Common tongue:

"Be ready to catch!"

Then at once, they burst into sparkles and are gone.

[LorenniaNailo]

Um...okay?  I...get ready to catch anything between a baseball and a body.  This whole thing is starting to spin rapidly out of comprehension.

"Let me guess," I say mockingly towards Malgrathor, trying to snap Zerathos out of it.  "You could have left here any time, including all those times he" (pointing at Zerathos with a thumb) "ran out to abduct people and destabilize governments, you just chose not to, for...some...reason."

[GameMaster]

[Lorennia has a readied action:  Catch]


Malgrathor
The humanoid ooze slimes his way toward your group, a crooked attempt of a smile on his burnt ooze face.  Hideously burned across the other side of his face, head, and shoulder, his seared flesh is transforming into the smoke that permeates the entire world of Lome.

Standing before Zerathos at only four feet tall, the god-thing stretches to double shit size, towering over him.

"You, traitorling, shall suffer most of all.  You shall watch me devour all of your friends.  You will watch all these people you attempted to protect suffer and die.  And when you yourself die, I will claim your soul and drag it back within me into the depths of lower planes you've never imagined can exist, and I will drag you through them again and again, twisting and breaking your soul so that it never finds rest.  I will open the Gate within the Pyramid of Eternal Sands, stride forth out of this trap you've set... Everyting you've tried to protect will suffer, everyone you've tried to save will die, all the Prime Material World will crumble, and MY children will once again rise to feed upon the corpse of Ao and his so-called gods!"

His voice crescendos as he peaks in his prophecy of what is to come... by the end, he is all but spitting in his anger and determination as he shouts the words so loud they echo in your heads painfully.

[LorenniaNailo]

[Keeping the readied action: Catch]

I chuckle.  "So...you can only leave through the Gate within the Pyramid of Eternal Sands then?  Not the one here in the city?"  (punch Zerathos lightly in the shoulder to emphasize the point)  "That actually explains a lot.  Well, I'm glad we have a few centuries for all these elves to die of old age."  I chuckle nastily again.

[GameMaster]

Zerathos was visibly shaken by Lorennia's indifferent demeanor towards their dire circumstances. He seemed trapped in a bleak past, devoid of hope and redemption.

Malgrathor
A menacing growl emanated from the depths of the ooze. "I've grown weary of your tongue, your insolence ends now!" A fog-like tentacle solidifies from the fog and is latched to Lorennia's head, covering her mouth and nose, and hoisting her into the air, bringing her face-to-face with Malgrathor.

"If only Corellon and Angharradh could witness the demise of their cherished offspring at the hands of my true power!"

Lorennia was elevated further, soaring 10, 20 feet above the ground.

Malgrathor then turned his scornful gaze towards Zerathos. "Enough of this charade, enough of you all!  I'll unearth those accursed keys myself, from your lifeless corpses!"

Suddenly, solidified from the fog, tentacled are latched onto the faces of Zerathos and Phineas. You feel yourselves jerked and pulled high into the air as Malgrathor's form grows exponentially. The trio is now suspended in the air, 40 or 50 feet high.

With a ferocious burst, Malgrathor bursts through the front of the Library, ripping a vast section of the wall apart in the process.

"CURSE YOU ALL!"

The drunken man who had followed Phineas to the Library sobered up instantly at the sight of the chaos inside but remained frozen in shock. He was the first to be snatched up and flung into the gaping maw of Malgrathor, his final moments filled with muffled screams and sickening crunches.

Malgrathor's gaze then shifted to the nearest bystanders. His tentacles, materializing from the fog, ensnared several people from the nearby tavern. They were wrapped around their heads, limbs, and torsos, and drawn into his enormous mouth, consumed one after another.



[Continued in MAD GODS]
https://waroftheplanes.com/index.php/topic,88.0.html

[Phineas]

**move back carefully from the drunk getting eaten by the ugly glutton, Malgrathor  ...  heeding the words and getting "ready to catch"**

<<this is getting crazier by the second but it can be managed.>>

"If we need to get out to the Sands quickly, I know how we can do that  ...  remember my drawing, Lorennia and I think that we need to go quickly ..."