A little recap on players choices in the Promise
Hans: Horrific ripping no complication: 1 success
Flint: Welcome!, resisted the Plague of Death, seductive whisper with ease their burden complication: 1 success
Carlos: Seductive whisper, no complication: 1 success
Jude: the ripping with optional complication: Fail!
Samson: Horrifying ripping with complication: 1 success ( it should be a -6 not 5)... You still need to choose a table and roll for a HJ roll.
Alecto: Seductive Whisper no complication: 1 success
Markus: Fail
The murky darkness makes the thrum of the drums coming from the west eerie and disconcerting. With no stars and a swirling darkness all around the thrum of the drums seem to echo all around. The blown up ATVs and crushed mystic knight disappear beyond the darkness now dead and lifeless. The specter of the Queen of Promise dissipates as bolt of electricity arcs over her ethereal body. A successful knowledge arcana roll would reveal while "gone" she may not be destroyed. The pitter-patter of footsteps and angry snarls nearby would indicate the battle at the front gate may have drawn more murder wraith patrols, and yet without their captain to lead them they give a wide berth to the heroes. Two glistening swords lie near the heroes, both near the augmented mystic Tesse. One is lodged in her stomach having been thrusted between her shoulder blades, and the other near her bloodied body standing upright having pierced the earth. Tesse while wounded struggles to get up as does Crystal Clad. Herr Klaus is quick to assist them both as it would seem this battle took a lot from the two ladies.
Passing the wreckage of ATVs the lifeless mystic knight whose body had been crushed by Flint moments before chortles after you as you enter the tower, " You are too late Heroes. My master's undead army is unleashed!! If you hurry to the top you can meet your demise!". Indeed from the sound of the drums and thunder of feet an army has been unleashed. If it is coming towards you or to the gate is unknown, perhaps both places. The mystic knights gleaming sword lies on the ground awaiting a heroes hand. With the three cool swords in hand, a bloodied glitter boy suite etched with runes and a evicerated body of the former pilot still in the cockpit the heroes breech the looming doors and enter the tower.
The tower is primarly a large entry room made of black rock and a massive stair case that just goes up and up. The stair case is most unusual, and it in itself is most challenging. To some it seems a daunting vertical climb. Others see it as a crumbling rocky case that is falling apart. Then some see it as a challanging riddle, ripe with many moving parts. Still some will see as a fearsome set of stairs that for some reason due to its inspiring beauty or horrific countance gives one pause to proceed. A very few will see these stairs as a mind bending naussea inducing set of towering stairs. Regardless of how a hero takes the long stair case falling into its trap will leave one fatigued.
Player directions
The top of the stairs lies a wide open set of double doors. Scara's voice can be heard yelling, " You promised! You lidless bastard! " Silience... Scara's rattled voice continues, " Your ring? Its Geists now! Bound to her, for all good it will do! No I will not give it to you, or her!" Silence... As you enter you see Scara holding a softball sized orb. Anyone attuned to the psionics or magics of the world gets a feeling of dread when they glimpse the orb.
Feeling of dread, what magic users see
Behind Scara is Ben lying lifless on the floor. His squid body seems charred as if electrified. A dias is off to one side with a ring sitting gently on a red pillow. All arround the ring with outstretched lifeless clawed hands are iterations of the individual known as Cade(he was supposed to be protecting Ben and Diamond clad). Each version of Cade has a slightly more lifeless twisted smile and gleem in its eye.
Cade’s
The room is filled with books and wonders from accross the megaverse. It is an unusual bright and cheery place that seems out of place in this dark gloomy realm.
Library
Scara shakes the orb and yells, " No, No. I know you are not Cade! I am beseeched by all on every side. Heroes at my doorstep, Geist will not come, Cade the temporal wizard killed 20 times, and you... you promised to save my Ben!! Demon!!" with such anger she tosses the cryatal ball threw a window out of her Library. She shakes her head realizing for the first time she is not alone. Her eyes and mouth radiate the sadness and loss of her one time husband. It would seem that perhaps she tried to even save Ben at some point her hands are bloodied and a knife is on the floor near Ben. Or perhaps the blood is due to a failed ritual.
Scara
Her voice is hollow and defeated," She will not answer me... Geist has abandoned me." She looks at the dias with dead bodies of Cade, " Cade... I knew whim once, he seemed gentle. He would not stop trying to get the ring. I told him it would kill him. Each time he came back, he changed... He said more nasty things, or his eyes looked less like the man I knew... He could not get the ring."She kneels at Ben and sobs, " I lost my mind, Ben! Ben!! Jude, I have seen through Tesse's eyes and she still has feelings for you. I have also seen how you look at Crystal. She points to a silver bowl sitting at a desk, it has a dagger next to it. Those that made it to Rene in the red vault suspect its purpose having seen its sister bowl in action. " A long time ago, Rene gave me that bowl. I can use it, to save Crystal or Tesse. One will die to save the other. Spill their blood into the bowl and have them drink... Or spill mine, and perhaps you can have the blood of their creator save them both." Both Crystal and Tesse seem too weak from their ordeal to offer any resistance and leave the choice up to the assult team.
The tower shakes and the thrum of drums gets louder. Scara manicaclly laughs, " Geist's war is almost upon us. I have lost control of the army gained... The army of Urukiah, or orcs... A undead gift from a middling realm. They are lead by Geist's son." She laughs again and looks down at the squid man she holds in her hands. Quietly she continues, " Ben believed we could do good here on Earth. I beleived that too, long ago... I was wrong Ben, so wrong, can you forgive me?" She raises her hand high and a hard glow emits from around the ring the heroes seek on the dias, and also from the eastern section of the library. In the eastern section, a wall melts away revealing several cages filled with folks that had been taken from gloom. The folks seem fatigued, suffering from a lack of food and water, but otherwise ok. She also sweeps her hand pointing to a nearby desk with 8 glowing vials.
" The spell arround the ring has been vanquished, take it and the folks from gloom yet transformed into a Ceal. The defenses of this tower were well made, if they brought you any harm drink a vial and recover some lifeforce, even you robot." She glances at Alecto breifly in wonder and recognition. " The doors to the Library can be sealed, and the path way on my balcony can hurdle you towards the entry gate. The gate was designed to endure, but as you may have figured out it needs a control rod to function. Take the control rod out and it will seal the army in this realm." From her window, a flash of light erupts at where the gate would be presumably located. " The balcony path is precarious to say the least, and I..." She holds a hand out to Caravello, " The waltz on Sandis Prime, elegant in its simplicity, and yet takes great grace to perform. It is the key.". If 'Vello is so willing she dysplays the waltz. Tears are streaming down her face while she dances. She stops and sobbing lies next to Ben, " Go now take the high road, it maybe unstable, narrow, and require a certain level of agility or brains, but it will get you the gate before the bulk of the army arrives. Probably scouts or Conner, Geist's son activated it. Beware, Conner he is well trained, nearly the match for his father, Lord Coake." The tower shakes again. " You must make your desicion now. The orcs are in the caves below dystroying the morring supports for my tower. Once dystroyed the tower will fall and anyone in it will be destroyed. Taking those from Gloom will only complicate your passage over the bridge. You must make many choices now with little time. Will you save Tesse or Crystal? Or perhaps kill me to save them both? Will you take the 30 souls with you or leave them to die? Who umong you will have the courage to stay behind and remove the control rod from the gate?" She cries into Ben's dead body, " I do not envy you."
Herr Klaus who had been silient moves the two women to the bowl and readies them for the assult teams decision. In his german accent he pointedly says, " I will remove the choice of who stays behind. I will do it. You must go on and make sure Geist is stopped. We cannot leave anything to chance. Markus, you still have my letter no? See that it gets to where it needs to go." He hefts his hammer and straightens his uniform a bit more.
Greed strikes
Samson
Player directions:
Choice Choices Choices. Ok so...
- Step 1 you must overcome the stairwell with your lowest attribute score. Fail roll =1 fatigue
- Benny oppertunity to describe what kind of stair you see and a pic to boot! Do it and gain a Benny!
- Step two decide who dies between Crystal, Tesse, Scara. Killing Scara will save them both. Kill Tesse will save Crystal, kill Crystal will save Tesse. No roll needed. Looks like Alecto killed Scara using the ritual dagger and spilling her blood into the basin. This will save Crystal and Tesse.
- Step three decide if you will be bringing along those gloomers in cages, if doing so they add a -2 complication to the below roll.
- Step four, agility or smarts roll at -2 to dance across the bridge and beat the horde to the gate in the nick of time. Taking the 30 some odd gloomers with you will make this roll a -4. Fail and you take a wound and 1d6 gloomers fall to their deaths. Looks like Flint has chosen to take all the gloomers with, so please make this roll at a -4.
- step five, decide who stays behind. Herr Klaus will stay behind. He will and cannot be talked out of it. If you want to knock him out and do some other plan or have someone else stay behind that is fine. Having either Klaus or another player stay behind and make a sacrifice is the only way to truely make sure the army cannot get through.
- Please end your narrative with your character going through the gate, and yes it would appear someone went through the gate ahead of you.