The Encounter with Imorphixius

From Purple Vortex

[Angel Dreamer]
Buddha
[Kim_Lundin]
[medianduel]
[xido]

     The night sky becomes hazy with a roiling for which appears from nowhere, quickly seeping into the clearing from the surrounding woods. The sifting cloud reaches in and snuffs out the fire just as the entity's body takes from the invisible state it was in. The small earthquake that knocked Kim from his feet satisfied his concern over the adventurer, and as a human-like body emerges from invisibility into the moonlight, its nearly-black flesh can be seen still dripping with the smatterings of Qorian Cooing Teef flesh and blood. Long, silvery chains extend out from its body in every direction, nearly sixteen in all, most dripping with the sanguine blood of the poor, innocent animal. The finely-wrought chains were so masterly crafted as to appear more like woven cord, a cable of metal linked by a Master Craftsman.

     As the fire dies quickly and silently, the darkness once more takes hold, while only a portion of moonlight glimmers off the metal coils and the blood-covered body of the strange being before them. While Deren looks on curiously, somehow strangely smiling in a nearly-demented fashion, the creature's eyes - or, rather, the place where eyes would be - glow a strange, putrid green light from the wells of sockets which have no eyeballs or open orifices. The extremely absurd, almost alien appearance of the being instills a whole new level of fear into all members present.

     From above the scene, the light of the clearing goes out, while Medi's friends all become bathed in a strange, bright green glow emanating from the now-visible entity. The human-sized figure looks unforeboding, as if it is not so dangerous as they once feared.

     The figure crouches slowly and with concentrated movements while the strange humming energy ceases, and only Angel is left standing with Buddha, who were both hanging against a nearby tree during the onslaught.

     Vulk appears surprised after losing his footing, not expecting an energetic attack in that manner. He reaches for his sword, which is flung away by an unseen force at an extremely rapid speed. Vulk's eyes open wide, then slim down into black beads on his face. He disappears, phasing out of sight in one place, and into another nearby location, on his feet opposite the group, just behind the armored cleric, Deren. Without looking at him, a tentacle reaches out from the entity at break-neck speeds to attempt grasping Vulk, as he phases out of sight once more, not to be seen after his dimension door movement. Angrily, the dark figure looks backward behind him, spurned into aggression by the inability to catch the mortal githyanki while he had the chance.

     Looking at Kim quickly, the entity wraps his chain-cables around the staff once more with shocking speeds, wrenching it from Kim's hands and sending splinters into his palms. Without a half of a moment's pause, Kim is lifted violently from the ground and flung away from the scene about fourty meters or so. He slams hard into a tree with a great force, feeling as though some bones were broken in the event.

     Without wasting time, the figure can see Angel and Buddha's reaction surging on, and conjures forth a strange, jellyfish-like object in its hands, which it immediately throws into Angel's face. The disgusting 'SHPLOP' sound it makes as it wraps around her head is enough to make a tough man groan, but Buddha merely cries out.

     "Angel! You...! Son of a B---!" Another cable flies toward him, wrapping around his body is one swift motion, an action that takes less than a second, and squeezing tightly, forcing the rest of the words out into gasping breath from Buddha's mouth. "Hack! He...elp!"

     Vulk quickly reappears back in front of the figure, looking both shocked and angered. The figure make a quick and futile attempt to snatch the Githyanki, though the able-bodied planar warrior vanished once more from sight, using some form of psionic or spell-like ability. Appearing in front of the cleric, the armored man runs forward to grab him, and grapples the gith from behind. Disappearing as one of the tendrils shoots backward from the figure, the strange chain-cable pierces straight through Deren's armored shoulder, making the old priest cry out in pain.

     Turning backward, the figure's eyes light up a deep crimson red. An echoing, hollow voice that comes from some other reality speaks loud and low, "Give me that scroll, or else suffer the wrath of an eternity of pain and suffering, you Githy scum!"

     "I've already been there," the guttural words come from behind the grimacing cleric, as Vulk stands into sight. The tentacle slides aggressively out from Deren's shoulder, which makes him cry out and grimace once more.

     "Your friends come with me," a simple command is issued, which waits for no reply. Buddha's body snaps inward, closer to the figure, while its black body leaps with astonishing speeds toward Angel, snagging her in its roiling grip. Its body takes a mad turn toward the horses and Kim, snatching him from the tree's base, and flaying open the sides of the horses while it careens past them, literally opening up their innards in a loud and deadly moment of injustice.

     Only Vulk, Deren, and Medi are left near the clearing when the entity and all those in its grasp disappear once more from sight, flying away over the treetops.

     Though only several moments had passed since its appearance, the wake of destruction left behind the figure was phenomenal. The smoldering coals of the fire crack and sizzle while the fog rolls away from the clearing once more.

     Deren falls to one knee, cringing in pain and holding the armor plate below the wound in his shoulder. "Damn!" he says loudly to himself.

Kim groaned heavily as he was lifted away by the being, feeling an intense pain in his chest where two of his ribs had been broken. His vision turned cloudy due to the pain and the blow he had received when he was thrown. A stomach-turning feeling overcame him as the entity flew away, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

     As the entity leaves the premises with haste, blinking out of sight with the others in his grip, Vulk looks up quickly to the sky, then angrily down at the groaning priest.

     "You! You led that thing to us, didn't you?" he cries out in his harsh Githyanki accent.
     "This is all a damn plot to get something from us, isn't it?!?"
     Enraged, the Gith leaps to his feet, and charges at the priest full speed. With fists ablaze, he pummels the cleric of the Great Temple twice, then, before striking a third time, halts. He backs up, panting with violent urges from his past, while the cleric takes the opportunity to lash out with the flail form his side. The spiked ball on the end of the chained handle swings wildly in front of the Gith and misses completely.

     "Rrghgrrah!" the only sound that escapes the priest is an animalistic grunt while he swings once at the Githy.

     "What is this all about!?! Why are you following us? What do you think we want from you?!" Vulk is becoming violent again, though this time he does better to suppress his external violence, and simply cry out at the top of his lungs at the priest, Deren.

     Deren rises to his feet, somewhat unstable on them, and keeps his guard up.
     "You have no idea what you are dealing with. The power of the Temple compels..."

     The priest is interrupted by Vulk, "I don't care about your damned temple! What has that creature done with my team members?!?"

     "The entity is the Manifested Power of the Great Temple, the principle Messenger of the Gods of Chaos. The old ones shall awaken again, and bring their Forces to this world once and for all," Deren responds confidently.

     "You are a lunatic," Vulk replies with disdain. "What do you want from us? Is he taking them as a sacrifice..? What?!"

     Deren says nothing, but simply makes a discrete gesture.

     "Tell me now, priest, or else you will meet the same fate as them!" Vulk takes a few steps forward again, this time willing to do more damage as incentive to answer his inquiries.

     Without hesitation, the cleric casts a spell of black, negative energy upon the Githyanki, and Vulk is suppressed behind a curtain of black, which causes great pain to his physical body. He croaks with anger and confusion at the abiity, then disappears from sight.

     That ability to blink in and out of reality is going to be trouble for me, Deren thinks to himself within his head. I have got to suppress him, and quickly. Walking slowly back to his horse, still standing fearfully in the woods, tied to a nearby tree branch and shivering with fear over the aggression of the previous few moments. Deren straddles the quivering creature.

     Vulk watches him silently as he straddles the horse, rearing it to make way across the plains, and back in the direction of the Temple, where the being looked as though it was heading before it disappeared from sight with his companions.

     When the cleric has ridden safely from sight and hearing distance, Vulks makes an owl-call, to signal Medi to come and take him from his position in the trees above the clearing. Watching the draconic elf mage circling back to get him, Vulk wonders if this was all part of the plan. Sure that he was taking the bait, he waits while Medi sails over to him.

     Kim, Buddha, and Angel are carried away in the creature's coils.

     (Continued on Down in the Sewers.)