... The elven wizard Lathalamas turns his head at his young charge’s desperate and horror-filled cries. He smiles silently yet broadly in response, looking back tenderly through tear-filled eyes of no longer pain and defeat but of joy, relief and reckoning. The former archmage to King Amstillion himself and the High elf royal court and a living legend from the Great War admired by the not just all elves but the many human soldiers he saved and served with, steps over to the floating spinning staff and holds the massive, now glowing brilliantly-blue gem above his head. It instantly glows much brighter and begins pulsing with infinite speed. The ground, the trees, the brush and very air around you becomes still, as if time itself has stopped. For what seems like a great span of mere seconds, everyone remains conscious but momentarily immobilized by a force of magic and nature not experienced nor understood since ancient times. The only one not frozen in time is the elven archmage. He slams the pomegranate-sized magical star sapphire down upon the spinning staff where the tentacle emerges from it. A brilliant light and mighty force explodes forth from the contact. All are blinded and hit with an invisible force that feels like the impact of a giant tree being swung like a toy. Blinding light and force rip the hearing from your ears, the sight from your eyes and the very breath from your lungs. You feel yourself fly backwards, end over end into the dark oblivion of the very void itself…
IC ~ … You continue to fly backward, end over end, in darkness and through what must be all of time and space. You try to focus, to understand, to snap out of it, to do anything but you cannot. For what seems like an eternity, you just fly backwards end of over end until you lose all conscious reckoning or understanding.
The next thing you realize, you are no longer flying backwards but merely floating. When you stopped and just where you are, you do not know. Your mind, intellect, identity and very being, float alongside you in the darkness. You reach for them but they are fleeting. Suddenly, you realize a reddish glow has appeared all around you. All sense of fear, misunderstanding and uncertainty is replaced by your old self coming back to you. As you try to remember, a bright bluish light approaches. It comes near you and shines on you for a brief moment. It is in that moment that you see something incredible. There is an armored human knight with a great sword over his shoulder in a sphere of soft blue. He talks with a magnificently armored dwarf warrior that holds a massive two-handed war hammer standing in a sphere of soft red. They appear to communicate somehow and even look over towards you occasionally, almost as if in consideration of something. As soon as you begin to think, they both look at you and shimmer out of existence. You suddenly realize that you are no longer floating in blackness.
You look around and then realize, in some impossibly and incredulously way, that you are now standing on the coast trail right above where your body lies! You feel tingly and electrified with a weird sensation as you look down at yourself. You float closer in both sudden shock and panic. Although you don’t know how you know, you are alive. You "stand up" and look around. There is now a large break in the fog and you can see all of the others lying about around you. You also notice that fallen trees line the trail on both sides. In fact, almost every tree around you has been bent eastward. Some of them have been broken and smashed upon the valley floor. You look westward and are both surprised and baffled to see that mere dozens of feet away, there is the edge of a massive crater in the earth where the demon, the wizard and the trail used to be. It must be near 100 feet across, as well as you can figure in your invisible, out of body state. Beyond the crater is a meager line of still partially standing trees and then the beach and Bay of Ghosts beyond that. There are no signs of anything at all within the crater and it must be near 30 to 40 feet deep at the center. In continuing to scan around, you easily get the impression that had you not been this far away and on the trail when this event occurred, you’d likely be vaporized or smashed to a pulp.
You continue to look around in your OBE state. Although you cannot see the spirits of the others, you do soon notice some lights and then figures approach the crater from the western side. There must be a dozen of them and they appear to be in much more shock and dismay than you are. A matter of seconds later, a familiar sound erupts from the silence. It’s a… bark?! You spin around softly to see that Sheba, is starting to slowly stand up over near Gentleman Billy and the gnome that was carrying him before it happened. Sheba barks again, louder this time. Looking at Sheba now suddenly makes you incredibly tired and feel fatigued. You start to drift back to yourself. As you fall back into your body, you think you hear voices and see flashes of light coming your way. You lie back down in your body, close your eyes and feel at peace.
The tranquil, momentary span of seconds is then rudely interrupted by a frantic and shaky voice. "Cap’n! Cap’n! Over here! Cap’n, we found ‘em!"
More voices and then flashes of dull but brighter light... You slowly begin to open your eyes and try to focus. You still feel woozy and efforts to make even the slightest move are near impossible.
"By the gods, Cap’n! Some of ‘um be alive! Soma them’s alive, Cap’n!"
Another voice, louder and deeper, arrives. "By Dagda, Manannan Mac Mir and all the gods. I… I cannot believe it..."
The other shaky voice blurts out "Cap’n! Cap’n, I found Billy! I found Billy!" Figures and lights move around you as you begin to focus more clearly.
The deeper voice responds. "Billy! Billy, can you hear me? Billy!"
The shaky voice answers with another announcement "Cap’n! There be other dwarves here! Sorta look like that one we found on the beach, only not burned!"
The deeper voice clears its throat and then barks off a flurry of orders. "Alright you men, lissen up! You two, creep up to the meadow the back way and check the bunker. You see anything hinky, you whistle. You men there, set up positions on the trail there. You others, stand guard over em here and help Shanny. Fetcher, go get Shanny and those potions out of me longboat and call the others in. All of ‘em! You got it?! And signal the ship to be ready to sail!"
Voices along with the sounds of others setting to their tasks fills the next minutes. Then the deep voice finally booms again. "Well dammit all, Fetcher! Help her over! We need to get Billy and these others stabilized and out of here. Fog or no fog, we couldn’t have been the only ones have seen and heard what happened!"
Moments later, a weird and shrill female voice arrives. "Ahhhh, they be touched by the ancients, Cap’n!"
The deep voice responds "Dammit, Shanny, can you help ‘em or not?!"
The shrill voice answers. "Ehhhhhhh…"
The deep voice grows louder and even more desperate. "Dammit, Shanny, for the love of the gods!"
The shrill voice finally proclaims its conclusions. "Charm of da ancestors will bring ‘em about. Then we give ‘em a few sips ‘o the Chokma elixir!"
The next thing you realize, a weird visage with missing teeth, leathery skin and bubbles for eyes is in your face. She touches what looks to be a strange sea shell on your forehead and a hot pain shoots throughout your body. It is then followed moments later by something salty and hideous being poured in your mouth and down your throat. You suddenly near choke but take a deep breath! The pain is excruciating but you amazingly have your senses back! A big man with a strange black mustache then helps you to sit up. In moments, you are somehow able to catch and slow your breath. You look around you again. You see the wild woman Shanny and her two young helpers attending to all present on the trail. Another group of men arrive and begin to help out.
After many minutes, all of your fellow members that were conscious before it happened, are all finally conscious again now and are looking about. Gentleman Billy, the old man in the bright-colored robes and the elderly half-elf are all still unconscious and already being loaded onto stretchers in preparation from departure. You suddenly also notice that the young nobleman is among the unconscious and being stretchered. Sheba is already pacing around Gentleman Billy woodenly and moaning little barks by her master.
The deep voice of the dark-haired captain calls out. "Alright then lads, make sure that their legs ain’t broken and then help ‘em up. Give ‘em a moment to see if they can stand and hopefully walk back towards the boats shortly. If they got broken bones and can’t walk, we’ll have ta stretcher ‘em!"
Another man, dressed like a sailor and smelling heavily of salt water and sweat, comes over and checks you out. One he realizes that you have no broken legs or other visible bones, he begins to help you up. You realize that you can stand with help and after a few moments, to your relief, feeling begins to return to your arms and legs. You clear your throat and move your limbs around to stretch. Blood begins to circulate again and after a dozen blinks and swallows, you finally feel like you did again. You think that you can make your way slowly. With a little help, you're able to gather any dropped weapons or equipment you had previously.
The others are gathered up a bit closer and the dark-haired, deep-voiced man comes over to assess your party. He looks each of you over quickly and then addresses your group. "Alright then. I am Captain Billings of the Seahawk. Sound off and tell me your names, if you can. Nod your head yes or no if you cannot speak..."
OOC: OK, then, everyone's PC is conscious and at the same hit points they were at before (unless noted differently below) The effects of the explosion sapped most of your strength temporarily by overwhelming subdual damage, but it's coming back slowly steadily. For now, you have some balance issues but are otherwise able to move at 1/3 normal movement. You are able to slowly gather all of your gear and weapons that were in your hands when you fell.
~ Please go ahead and respond IC to the good Captain and also to each other if you so wish. The action will then move forward again and we’ll hopefully be able to post with some more frequency from here on out, now that the party is all back together.
HPs/Status: Bog* 6/9 ; Caelvanna 2/8 ; Emm 6/6 ; Griffo* 5/10 ; *Hartnid 9/9 ; *Ulrich 8/8 ; Lauranna 3/3 ; Thalion* 5/5
WIH (primary/secondary): Bog – longsword* (1st spear thrown); Caelvanna – short bow (reg. arrows fired-13, silver arrows fired-8); Emm – scimitar/SC (threw spear); Griffo – longsword/shield (reg. arrows fired-15); Hartnid – flail/SC; Ulrich – staff/SC; Lauranna – short sword/SC (thrown 3 daggers*); Thalion – longsword/dagger (SC = spell component/spell to cast)
MO(all grouped together with Capt Billings and his men): 1: Lauranna, Bog, Thalion, Ulrich, Griffo, Caelvanna, Hartnid and Emm
Thalion has been AFK for a while now and I've been NPCing him in the interim. I did make mention in the game thread that Ulrich had handed him off to a sailor, but he was still kind of woozy and hadn't yet spoken.