The Planewalkers' Journies

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Grasping the small bit of demonic slime from her component pouch, Lorraine begins to chant. It grows, spreading over her entire body, though the chaos does touch it slightly, giving her form a sickly, greenish sheen rather than the expected red. She dives to the ground, hearing the creature's nonsensical and maddening cries more clearly as she sets onto the ground.

It continues to gibber forth, spitting its own dart of acid at Lorraine while slowly sliding towards Asp and Nora. The spittle skims harmlessly over her shoulder, missing her by a wide margin, while a pair of tendrils shoot out once it draws close enough to strike, and though Asp ducks out of the way, Nora isn't quite fast enough. The creature latches onto the harried cat and holds it firm, bringing up a mental cry of pain in Asp's mind.

Lorraine casts Babau Slime successfully, and descends back to the ground.

The Mouther still gibbers as it acts.
Lorraine:

Spoiler:

You now feel the pressure of its insanity first hand, but your mind is strong enough to fight it off.

Rosalyn:

Spoiler:

Your sanity breaks through the creature's gibbering, and you find yourself lucid but trapped in a box of dirt.

It seems to be a pretty slow creature, from what the lot of you can tell; it took about as long to move that short a distance as it'd take the rest of you to make your own move.

It spits acid at Lorraine, moves towards Asp and Nora, and makes two attacks against them. It misses Lorraine and Asp, but strikes Nora for 1 damage and successfully grapples her.

Battle Mat

Initiative

Gibbering Mouther: 21
Rosalyn: 17
Asp: 12
Shawn: 11
Lorraine: 8

[Seethe]

The first thing Rosalyn noticed as soon as she came to her senses was that she was surrounded by dirt on all four sides. There was only one direction she could go, and that was up. And so that was the way she went, jumping up into the air the same way she had just seen Lorraine do, landing outside next to the monster.

Seeing that Nora was in danger, Rosalyn immediately and without thought jumped into the mess herself, hoping she would be able to save the cat from an untimely demise.

(Rosalyn attempts to enter the grapple with the Mouther.)

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Jumping from Shawn's box, Rosalyn runs towards Nora, grabbing the tendril and doing her best to separate it from her. Tugging at the squirming pseudopod, she pulls it free from Nora as it retracts into the mass of the creature. Its eyes focus on all six of those present, and its chattering cry grows more anxious, words blending into one another now as its maws spew forth disassociated tangles of the Common language.

Rosalyn "jumps" out of the box and lands near Asp and the Mouther. She succeeds on her CMB check to break the grapple.

Battle Mat

Initiative

Gibbering Mouther: 21
Rosalyn: 17
Asp: 12
Shawn: 11
Lorraine: 8

[Kelne]

Nora celebrates her freedom by running flat-out away from the Mouther, halted only by the abrupt cessation of, well, anything to run on.

It's times like this that Asp sometimes wonders whether he should keep a wider variety of combat spells on hand. Still, no changing things now.

Intent on helping Rosalyn, Asp pulls out a sharpened hunk of iron and hacks at the creature. While it looks as if it could fall apart at any moment, the weapon could nevertheless be dangerous in the right hands.

Alas, those hands probably don't belong to Asp.

(Attacking with the dogslicer, no doubt provoking an AoO in the process. Nora withdraws.)

[Idran1701]

Limbo

While Nora backs up to the limit of the existing ground, Asp draws the fragile-looking knife, slashing at the creature. Unfortunately, the blade is just too awkward in his hands to score a hit. The Mouther keeps pulling its form away from the slow, clumsy swipes, leaving itself completely untouched by his attack.

Nora withdraws to the edge of the battle.
Asp draws the knife and attacks, missing. (Also, you may have been confusing this with something else; neither drawing a weapon nor attacking provoke an AoO.)

Battle Mat

Initiative

Gibbering Mouther: 21
Rosalyn: 17
Asp: 12
Shawn: 11
Lorraine: 8

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Shawn holds off from acting, waiting for the right moment to strike, while Lorraine moves closer, drawing her sword as she watches the creature. Sword grasped in both hands, she slashes at it once close enough to do so. Though she feels some resistance to her blade cutting through the flesh, she scores a solid hit, bringing a scream up from the Mouther that interrupts its gibbering, if for an instant. Aaron watches the attack from a distance, smart enough to keep himself away from the creature after seeing its response to Nora.

Enraged, it strikes out again. Another shot of acid is spit out from one of its half-ruined mouths at Lorraine, but she easily manages to avoid it in time. It shoots four fanged tendrils out, two at Asp and one each at Rosalyn and Lorraine, and though Asp jumps out of the way of both his attacks, both Rosalyn and Lorraine find themselves bitten. Rosalyn pulls the mouth off her easily, while a hissing sound issues forth when it contacts the protective slime about Lorraine. The shock issues up another scream, and the creature seems to collapse in a pile between them, still...breathing(?), but its multitude of eyes glazed over and unfocused.

Shawn delays her action
Lorraine draws her sword and moves towards the mouther, hitting for 6 damage.
The Mouther misses with its acid spit and misses twice against Asp. It hits Rosalyn and Lorraine for one damage apiece.

Experience: 200 for each

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine attempted to finish the scummy thing, driving her blade into it from above. If it continued to move or breathe after that, she would try again, and again if necessary. She'd try again and again until it either ceased to live, or until her arm fell asleep.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Lorraine stabs the corpse again and again. Its hide at first resists the numerous strikes, but it becomes easier and easier as she adds wounds to the Mouther's body. Eventually it collapses entirely, bright-purple ichor leaking out onto the shaped land.

[Kelne]

"And it serves you right, too," Asp tells the fallen Mouther sternly, before turning back towards Nora, "It's alright. It's dead now." Nora is having none of these reassurances, and remains firmly ensconced at the edge of the solid ground, fur fluffed up in a rather alarming manner.

Asp shrugs, confident that she'll come around once they're away from the thing. "Is anybody hurt?" he asks.

[Seethe]

Now that the threat of the monster was gone, Rosalyn had enough time to think about the implications of the fact that she had been out of it for a moment, and wasn't sure what she had done during that time. Whatever had happened, she had apparently done something to warrant someone putting that wall up around her...

Sheepishly, she lowered her gaze to the ground directly in front of her, afraid to look anyone else in the eye at the moment, worried that she might find a less-than-happy look directed her way.

"Just a scratch..." she quietly replied to Asps question.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Although the arrow still jutting from Asp's pack may suggest to her just what had happened, Rosalyn doesn't notice it, keeping her gaze on the ground in front of her. And though she looked down merely to avoid meeting Asp's eyes, she does manage to catch sight of something. A glint of silvery metal inside the creature, coming from one of the innumerous wounds left in its body by Lorraine's final attacks. The others in the group notice it soon after, buried in the center - the stomach, perhaps - of the Mouther's corpse.

[Besyanteo]

Something shiny caught Lorraine's eye; Something inside the Mouther. She wasn't keen on reaching in and taking it out, though. She got out a cloth and started wiping off her sword.

"Anyone else see that?"

[Seethe]

"Uh... Yeah, I do," Rosalyn answered, the shiny object distracting her a bit from her troubled thoughts.

She wasn't too thrilled with the idea of reaching in for whatever it was either, though. Seemed a bit morbid. But she couldn't really think of any other options, aside from leaving it. Putting her bow up, she drew her sword...

"Maybe I could cut it out," she thought aloud. Better than reaching in blindly. "Any other ideas?"

[Shinigori V2]

Shawn rolled her neck, before extending a hand again. If things went according to plan, large tree roots would erupt from the ground and carefully begin pulling the mouther apart to get to it's sweet, sweet innards.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

With a bit of concentration, Shawn manifests tree roots from the earth. It takes a lot of mental effort on her part to keep them as they pluck the creature's body apart piece by piece, as they move in ways trees usually do not. In fact, they dissolve back into chaos every so often as she loses her grip on them, but nothing keeps her from taking the time she needs to start again when necessary, and soon the Mouther's body is in pieces scattered about. Its anatomy is certainly strange to behold: there's absolutely no bone structure to it at all, though there are random shards of bone scattered throughout. No functioning organs of any kind either, in fact, but for a massive, acid-filled sac at the center of its mass. Not even a brain of any kind is to be seen. The Mouther seems to be made up of nothing but eyes, teeth, flesh, and disconnected, useless body parts enveloped in its thick tissue.

Exposed to the air, the acid begins hissing furiously, sending up an awful smell. There's little left inside, thankfully, but some possessions of a former victim seem to have survived. The unfortunate victim's teeth sit in the stomach of the creature, seemingly immune to the acid, not far from a small handful of platinum coins wrapped in half-dissolved scraps of cloth and covered in drips of purple-stained gold and copper, likely the remains of coins that didn't survive. Next to it or the only other two items still in one piece: a thick, pink statuette of a swan, about the size of a man's fist, and a well-stoppered vial of pure white liquid, closed tightly enough that not a drop of acid seems to have leaked in.

---

Shawn takes 10 on a Control check, and after about 5 minutes finishes disassembling the Mouther.

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine, covering her mouth and nose as best she can with a scrap of cloth from her own things, will go over and examine the various items that were in the mouther as best she can. Not for the first time since she joined the guild, she wondered if perhaps she shouldn't have allowed her studies to include divination...

(Making what I think it still a K: Arcana check.)

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Lorraine examines the objects gingerly; thankfully, exposure to the air seems to have hurt the effectiveness of the acid some. The coins and figurine show no obvious signs of enchantment, though her lacking in the area of detection keeps her from saying anything definitive. The same goes for the vial of liquid, as she un-stoppers it and gives it as best an examination as she can manage; it's likely enchanted, but she can't say anything more than that. It gives no scent that she's familiar with, which if nothing else would at least rule out any of the common potions she's encountered in her travels.

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine re-stoppered the potion, and set it along with the rest of the contents of the mouther's "stomach", save for the teeth which were too grisly to consider moving, out of it's corpse and over to somewhere more clean.

"Well, if there's anything special about any of it, I can't figure it out. This bottle could be full of milk for all I can tell, but I highly doubt it. Can any of you cast an identification charm or spell of some kind?"

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Taking the items, Asp casts a spell of magic detection. He looks them over, and finds that while the coins and statuette have no enchantments, the potion has a faint aura of illusion magic. He can't determine the specific nature of the enchantment, however. He passes this information along to the rest of the party.

---

Asp casts Detect Magic. He succeeds in his K:Arcana check to identify the school, but fails in his Appraise check to identify the item. Sorry for the NPCing, Kelne, but I was wanting to move things along. You can fill in the details later, or yell at me later if him doing this at all was out of character.

[Seethe]

Not being too attracted to the idea of carrying all this stuff around while it was still covered in the contents of a monster's stomach, Rosalyn tried putting the shaping skills she learned at the guild to use to form a stream of water nearby to wash the stuff off in.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

As Rosalyn concentrates, a trickle of water bubbles up from the ground nearby. The new creek flows along the landmass before reaching the edge, spilling off and rejoining the plane, carrying a small bit of the remains of the Mouther with it. It looks crystal clear, the cleanest water she's ever seen. Her training seems to have paid off well. With a few quick dips, the items are soon clean, not even a drop of the residue of its acid clinging to them.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Having collected the treasure, and identified it as best they can, the group heads back out, once more making their way towards the portal. Some swear they hear the echo of gibbering in the distance as they continue through Limbo, but no other Mouthers show themselves to attack the party. If there, perhaps they're merely smart enough to avoid them after the recent scene.

That isn't to say they're alone in their trip, however. After another few hours' walk, their travels take them through a swarm of strange-looking animals. Winged creatures, vaguely resembling bats with smaller, insectile bodies, each a different color. They scatter as the party approaches, but some work up the curiosity to come closer, flitting amongst the travelers. About a dozen of them fly back and forth between them, slightly disrupting the shaping of the air around them, but not enough to be worrisome. As Aaron tries to snatch one in his beak, his face is soaked with the sudden appearance of a water bubble shaking his head and snorting, he decides not to try again.

The temporary companions stay with the party all the way up to the portal: a rotating ring of sandstone, slowly spinning about in the plane. It's inactive at first glance, but once they near to a few dozen feet, it flares into life, sparkling with a golden sheen. A pair of the animals settle on the outer edge, while the rest don't even seem to notice it, instead continuing to play about in the air.

[Seethe]

"Looks like we're here," Rosalyn commented.

She then looked at the container for the chaos matter. If they hadn't filled it up yet, then now was probably the time to do that.

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine just stood patiently, waiting for the others who'd actually been assigned to do this to get on with it.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Rosalyn moves to the edge of the landmass, to where the air fades into chaos. She disconnects the two halves of the chaos-matter container, pulling them apart and letting the substance of the plane fill it. The strange creatures flitting about seem to have enough brains to stay out of it, and soon it's full enough for her to seal it once again, a roiling chaos churning inside, but showing no signs of leaking out. The oddly-designed mass of glass and metal seems to be doing the trick, giving them a full, yet nearly-weightless, gallon of chaos stuff.

[Idran1701]

Bes points out that I forgot to tell you exactly how much money was there. 80 platinum coins total in addition to the figurine and potion.

[Besyanteo]

While Rosalyn has been busy with the chaos matter, Lorraine has been writing on a spare bit of parchment, looking at the statuette for the swan every now and then.

"... I think I've got a fair division, if anyone wants to hear it."

[Shinigori V2]

"Go for it." Shawn said, yawning.

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine nodded an continued.

"As best as I can tell, the statuette is worth about a hundred gold, but the potion's value is much harder to place. It could be worth anywhere from fifty to three hundred gold, and we won't know better until we get someone to identify it for us.

"I'm interested in the potion to advance my studies, so I'd like to take it and three of the platinum pieces, two of you will take twenty nine platinum pieces, and one of you will take nineteen and the statue. That was, all of you get two hundred and ninety gold, or very close to it.

"What I get might be close in value to about three hundred and thirty gold, but it's more likely to be much less. Is everyone ok with that?"

[Shinigori V2]

Doesn't really matter to me." Shawn says.

[Kelne]

"Sure, no problem," Asp says cheerfully, "I'm not sure what I'll use my share for really, so if anyone needs anything extra for something, let me know." Asp had a rather relaxed attitude towards money and property. As evidenced by the fact the statuette seemed to have made its way into one of his pouches. He'd probably realise that at some point. Maybe.

[Seethe]

"Fine with me too," Rosalyn answered.

In her case, it wasn't that she didn't care about money. Having no magical abilities of her own, she had to rely on material things more than people who could use magic. However, she didn't want to be difficult about it.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

After the treasure is distributed, the group heads through the portal. Passing through the portal, each member finds themselves tumbling out onto a beach, next to a very wide, pure flowing river. Fish swim about within, a few aquatic humanoids, even dolphins. The sun sparkles pleasantly overhead; it looks to be a pleasant summer's day on Elysium today. A trail winds from the portal (A large, fallen tree trunk, its now-dead branches bowing to the ground to form an arch) down the bank of the river, and away from it towards the horizon. It looks to lead up to a small village can be just barely seen in the grasslands, with small farms stretching out on either side. Trees dust the land all about; not nearly enough to be called a forest, but more than one would expect to find in a meadow. Birds flit about, squirrels and chipmunks run from place to place.

Most importantly, though, the container seems to be holding its contents well. The stuff of chaos churns about inside the strangely-designed jar, solidifying from time to time as Limbo does, but falling apart quite quickly after.

Asp: You've heard enough about Elysium to know that to get somewhere, all you've got to do is start walking and do good deeds along the way and you'll get there eventually. Doesn't even matter which direction you go.

[Kelne]

"This way," Asp says, picking a direction at random, "And remember, good deeds are the key to progress." A good philosophy for life in general, really, and not just in Elysium.

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine followed after Asp, going quickly and quietly.

[Idran1701]

Elysium

Picking up down the road, the quartet continues to their destination, while Rosalyn keeps a close eye on the Limbo container. The next hour is calm and peaceful, with beautiful surroundings and the light scent of blossoming flowers carried by a slight breeze; a vast change from Limbo, to be sure. A trio of golden-furred rabbits that seem to glow with light duck into a burrow as they pass. A flock of birds overhead weave amongst one another, frolicking in the sky. And in the distance, the sound of rapid hoof beats echoes over the plains, growing louder and louder. It takes a moment to place where the sound is coming from, but they soon spot a trio of cows charging towards them. Behind them, a figure on a horse gallops towards the cattle, trying to catch up, but barely able to keep pace. They pose no threat to the group, but even with as much as the figure's pushing their mount, it still doesn't look as if they'll be able to reach the cows alone.

They're about a quarter mile away, it looks like, so the group has plenty of time to either prepare or avoid them. Even at the speed they're going it'll be about a minute before they reach you.

[Seethe]

"Good deeds, eh?" Rosalyn asked a few moments after noticing the runaway cattle. "Guess that means we'd better catch stop cows before that guy loses them."

But how to go about doing that. That was the question...

[Kelne]

"This looks like a job for magic!" Asp said decisively, stepping to the fore and readying a spell of prestidigitation. He'd let the cows close the distance a bit before filling the air with brightly coloured streamers. He wanted them to stop, rather than turn aside.

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine considered what Asp was proposing. She doubted she had time to stop him, so it was something of a moot point, but she was concerned that that particular spell might not work quite the way he hoped...

[Idran1701]

Elysium

After letting the cows close some of the distance between them, Asp makes the first attempt, casting Prestidigitation to send a burst of colored streamers into the air. While it does have a reaction, it's not the intended one, as the cows change course, breaking to the left so as to avoid the startling colors and motion entirely.