Escape from Aggrazzat
158th Layer of the Abyss

Part 5 of the Purple Vortex Campaign

From The Abyss
Entered from Searching for the Others

To Part 6: Utter Chaos Beside Vraisynn Palace >
   - Utter Chaos
   - Vraisynn Palace



Characters:
[Angel Dreamer] - Angel Dreamer char
[BadCat] - BadCat Char
[buddha_mjs] - as himself
[Kim_Lundin] - Kim char
[Klyle] - as himself
[medianduel] - Aramil Nightbreeze (Medi)

Game Moderators:
[xido] - Vulcarisksk, Buddha Mahjdahaus of Downriver (partial, with [buddha_mjs]), Demons, Imorphixius, Brother Deren
[Nightshadow] (resigned) - Caylandra, Brother Deren



     Seeing the building-top through Buddha's eyes in her mind, Angel's focus draws deep. Medi's power surge crackles through the bodies of the three, raising the hair up all over you, and temporarily alleviating Kim's itch. The intense energy flow brings a bit of higher awareness to all of you, and you can all feel the sensation of being dragged across space, however short. Where your bodies once stood, there is now nothing but whisps of green and purple flame, as the group falls flat on their feet atop the building next to the once-existing Green-fire Oven2.

A trap is set off by the surge, and a stone opens in the floor to slather a thick layer of ice and snow across the walls in a quick and violent spray. It freezes the entire area where you once stood, while your bodies vortex themselves away.

Vulc, not finding a viable option off of the rooftop without plummeting to a terrible doom, begins to panic at the thought of more of the bugs approaching their position on the high roof top. From the ledge he can't make out any more moving in from the streets, but some of them have begun scaling the wall to meet the group in opposition.

Buddha has brought down the two formians he had called out, and he begins to concentrate, not moving much, but staying alert to the slowly growing opposition. He remains in front of Lycander, who is now short of breath, and cringing somewhat helplessly on the floor of the rooftop.

Vulc takes out another formian worker as it tries to ascend, and looks quickly to Buddha, who retains his furtive stance while holding the ring he bears against the side of his head. Sensing a growing sensation coming off of the sage, Vulc furrows his brows in vivacious courageas he turns his attention back to the outer rim of the roof's small ledge, defending his hold on the roof from the three other formians that have begun to ascend the walls's edge. He cries out in fury as he defends the group's stand.

The sky begins to ripple and hazily darken just behind Lycander. Honing in on the forces given off by the group, Caelesta's wraith-like self begins to shift into sight, writhing tentacles of shadow-force seeping all around her body. She rests a hand on Lycander's shoulder, silently beckoning him to return with her to the ShadowRealm, within the Plane of Shadow, where he will reconstitute.

An odd vibrating sensation can be felt as something odd and intense occurs, centered on Buddha's body and within a few paces of him. He stands rigid, hand on temple, the other hanging at his side.

Aratil bites on his teeth one more time, and then his scales have finally come through his skin. As the battle intersified he thought he could use the protection. He looks around, waiting for more opponents to show up.

Angel and the two guys suddently appear out of thin air a few feet from Buddha. As soon as Angel sees Buddha, she runs at him and wraps her arms around his neck. "I thought I lost you," she whispers.

Aratil looks over his shoulder and sees some girl hugging Buddha and says, "must be that angel woman we're here for, but who's goig to get us out now we're here?"
He sees Celestia's portal for Lycander is still open and he decides to jump in, as they must leave before the entire layer comes after them.

"You're not that lucky," Buddha jokes in her ear as she hugs him. Watching as the draconic man leaps into the portal, he comments, "Well, now, THAT's a man who needs to go....NOW" and chuckles as he stares into his love's eyes for a few necessary moments.

Vulc moves in on the two others, watching the roof cautiously as he sais, "I think it's about time you all got home. This is no place for things like love and happiness... They'll be destroyed as quickly as they're created."

Looking to Buddha once, the Gith sais, "You have her now. All is well. I wish you both the best..."

His words are drowned by the loud noise that comes from the east. A low, boisterous rumbling is followed by a bellowing horn-like sound, like that of ship at sea (OOC: in OUR world). From the smokestacks of the factory nearby, a colossal pillar of smoke is fumed from the top, creating the low, horrid sound that makes every cell in the body tremble from the vibrations.

Four more formians ascend the ledge as the sound catches everyone a little off-guard, and Vulc cries out as the sound dies down a bit, "Well, it was a great time for our other fighter to take off, isn't it?"

The githyanki lunges at one of the bug-beasts, hacking away with his sword, which seems to be no problem for this bug, who is dodging it rather well.

Buddha instinctively hugs Angel a little closer as he watches, looking once more into her soft eyes, ringed around the lids with coal smoke. He thinks to her, You remind me of a raccoon right now and chuckles a little as he regains his composure to let her loose, to run toward one of the formians.
Caelesta, a bit disoreinted by the man who leapt into her barely-formed portal, slides out onto the rooftop at Lycander's side.

"Come with me," she whispers into his ear, looking cautiously at the bugs as she tries to tear him from the rooftop.

Lycander looks with eyes that resembles somethings akin to black marbles. His form unstable, switching like static from corporial(OOC.. Solid) to wraith-like in a ripple effect. He tries to grab Caelesta's hand, but to no avail because his hand, being incorporal, slips through hers like smoke through a sheet. He tries to speak but can only voice words when he's solid, what is heard by the strange woman is: "...Can't.....My Body....Return...To Shadow....Life....Waining....PAIN......Help....Move........" The voice that comes out is an odd and eccentric echo of his natural sound a misty mockery of his own words.

The huge cloud of coal smoke billows out from the stacks like black custard, slowly sweeping across the city's sky, the sound of the excretion still vibrating in the sheet metal buildings and walls.

Vulc turns quickly to slash at one of the formians and misses, his body falling sideways while the bug punches forward to grab the back of his head before he plummets off the roof's ledge. Gaining his balance momentarily, he leaps back and out of the bug's grasp.

Buddha lunges forward, then second-guesses himself, standing still in his place between the bugs and Angel.

Caelesta keeps her attention on the broken and weak Lycander, who she feels sympathetic towards, despite his scathing personality. Deciding to lift him from his cowering pose, she reverts to her shadowy form in order to move his cloudy substance once called a body. Rather then lifting him in the typical manner, she tries to encompass his incorporeal shadow with her own, swirling and enwrapping his own smoky haze. It seems too late when she begins to absorb him into her to lift him from his place, and she begins to feel the touch of power that resides within his soul. It begins to feed off of her very substance, increasing Lycander's own power as she is fed upon. Her shadow-face tried madly to escape the frenzy of surging power that now consumes her whole, her pain causing her to writhe and strain within and against him. After a mere few moments, she is gone, her very essence now a part of the shadow mage. His strenght returned to him, and the portal closing, Lycander's instincts take hold of him, pleading that he take leave to his natural realm.

Buddha, hearing her cries of pain and fury, looks back to them, gasping at the sight. Vulc, once in combat, now stands alone as the formians back off in fear of the horrendous event.

Lycander's shadowy form now looks nothing like human, his massive body now a heap of darkenss.

Angel's eyes go big, and she edges closer to Buddha, though for her protection or his is uncertain. Who are these people...

Medi, who has been watching the entire event unfold, turns to the formians and jumps amid them slashing with his katana.

Kim finally gets his senses back after the 'jump' to the rooftop. "Whoa!" he sais and spots the formians "WHOAH!!! Where did the ants come from!?" He makes a quick decission and joins Medi in a game of 'Formian Cutting/Punching'

Lycander's shadowy form rises from the rooftop to tower over the group. A burst of crackling energy flings the remaining formain over the edge of the building slamming into random things till finally the eventual squish in the streets. He speaks no words, and makes no gestures, but he does move toward the group.

"Ehum... big shadowy demon moving straight against us..." Kim sais "Big, STRONG shadowy demon."

Medi speaks a couple of words in Draconic, and his blade begins to glow a bright scarlet. He sets his feet and faces the Demon.

Buddha himself a bit uncertain of the events that had now taken place, backs up with Angel in his arms. This form had once saved them from near death, and now focused its formless self on his friends.....What to do? he questioned himself.

Vulc furrows his brows in curiosity at the apparition. What was happening? Glancing at the formians that fell from the rooftop, he felt a pang of overwhelming fear as he felt his decisions being a bit too hasty. Now the entire group may pay for them with their lives. In a fit of furious preventative measures, he lept at the mass of darkness, planting his feet before the hulking form of the once Lycander. Activating his blade to sever even astral forms, the gith stands against the seemingly hostile entity.

After the return to material form, Kim's itch starts up once more. As Caelesta's portal begins to close, Aratil is no longer visible, and Lycander feels inexplicably drawn to the vortex, as the release of energy begins to drain him once more.

Kim picks up an iron bar that lies on the roof and holds it with both hands 'This should work just like a quarterstaff...' He thinks '...If that creature CAN be damaged by a staff...'

Angel backs away from the shadow, dragging Buddha with her. "Ya know, I think we should be heading back to the tavern....fast," she calls to her companions.

"Great idea! But HOW!?" Kim shouts taking a few steps away from the shadow.

Seeing the githyanki face down the demon, Medi turns away and inscribes a large circle in the air with the glowing blade of his katana. Speaking a couple of words in a harsh tongue, a portal appears where he drew the circle. He yells, "This way guys, you're welcome to come as well Vulc."

Buddha grasps Angel's hand, following her as they head quickly to the portal, which swirls with a thick grey appearance, slowly brightening to a yet indeterminate color.

Vulc hesitates, still questioning the intent of the shadowy form as he faces it down with his silver blade.
"I still need what's in my cave!" he cries to Medi, who stands behind him, finishing his vortex spell.

From the distant exterior walls of the city, there is some commotion as flying creatures begin moving toward the tall building top.

Vulc curses in Gith, and begins to fidget as he stares down the shadow-wraith that towers above him and the others.
Why am I hesitating? he doubts himself.

Kim looks at the portal, then a quick look at the big shadow "Oh, I can't fight him anyway!" he sais and runs for the portal. As he turns on his heels to run, the iron bar still in his grasp, his vision only momentarily grasps a figure in its fleeting focus. The once irritating itch that had felt like static at the base of his skull, now sounded and felt like a high-pitched resonant whine, like that of crystal being sung at a constant rate. The sound now focuses directly eastward from his left ear, directing his eyes to look at the place where the beacon in his mind hones him in.

At ground level, some 300 meters past the smokestacks, stands a human male, dressed in brown robes, appearing just the exact same as Kim, staring up at him from his place beside a warehouse ground-window, amidst the company of an elf, a giant ladybug, a large half-Ogre, and an odd formation coming from out of the side of the building.

Kim gets shocked by the sight and stumbles on a piece of junk. It cuts him across the cheek, making him bleed a little. The pain is dull, but the whining pitch of the sound at the left side of his head is crying out like a child at his left ear, in such a way to be irresistable, yet somehow not painful.

The shadow-wraith once known as Lycander looms foreboding over the others until at once the mass is struck defenseless, and now remains comepletely mindless. It could have been caused as an effect of the new imposing ego within the confines of the shadow mage's consciousness, or the effect of the entity now approaching with the flying creatures. It could have been both, and it wouldn't really matter, but what happens next catches everyone by surprise. The hole within the space near the ledge where Caelesta appeared begins to tear back open, seeping through to the shadow realm once more. The vortex where Medi had drawn his sword begins to swirl more vehemently, and funnel into a pin-like hole of grey. The vortex has been nearly sealed by an ability of an approachign entity.

The wraith is now also mindless, and inactive.

"...What happened...? Why did it stop?" Kim sais confused "And is it just me... or is it ME over there!?" He points towards the warehouse.

As the vortexes whirl violently against each other, there is a horrible wind of energy that blasts at those above the buildingtop. Kim's attention is torn away from the other 'twin' of his, and his small body is pulled forward toward the new vortex that Medi has torn open. Vulcarisksk curses in Gith, and backs away quickly from the shadow-beast as it falls limply into a mass of shadow and liquid darkness, the only definitive characteristics being its deep-set black eyeholes.

Buddha cries out as he pulls Angel through the narrow vortex in front of Medi, grasping his friend's hand in the quick turmoil, and beckoning the half-dragon to run with himself and Angel.

Kim gets sight of the approaching creature that now flies toward them, as it begins crying out in Abyssal for the massive flying bugs to stop the group from retreating. In a sudden and confusing moment, the once-limp shadow-form of Lycander tears itself from the hold of its mental burden, and leaps on top of Kim's retreating form. The massive shadow encompasses him quickly, seeping into the skin of the human adventurer and fleeing from sight. The cloud of darkness only momentarily blinds Kim, then dissipates away from his sight, and without further notice.

As the flying man approaches with his small army of huge demonic wasps, he cries out once more, watching the group retreat to within the vortex.

Vulc follows Buddha and Angel, and grabs onto Kim, tugging him inside as he passes Medi with a look of beckoning. From behind all of them, the vortex leading to the shadowrealm begins to tear away at the buildingtop, breaking chunks of the roof away into oblivion, and making the top section of the building start to crumble under the force of the realms.

The black-and-green-skinned entity glares at the group as they retreat to the other side of the vortex.

Medi sheaths his katana and flies through the vortex that he opened.




Outside Vraisynn Palace, a disruption is caused by several human-sized entities appearing near the back wall of the palace's courtyards, just outside of most people's sight.

It seems like Utter Chaos until the group can escape.



Back to Purple Vortex
Part 6: Utter Chaos beside Vraisynn Palace and the arrival at Bogg's Boar Head Inn