From tbutler@birch.net Thu Aug 30 20:13:51 2001
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 09:13:48 -0500
From: Travis Butler <tbutler@birch.net>
To: Philip J. Moyer <pmoyer@jurai.net>, Chris Bremner <chrisb@thekeep.org>
Subject: [Amber/UnS] Taking out the Temple

[Note: Forgot to turn on logging right away. :( Main thing that
happened: Mitsune and Lily shapeshifted to ride the caravan in, and
brought us into a storage room. Log starts on the tail end of their
first report.

Connection kept bouncing on me, right at the most inconvenient spots. :P
Hence several of the OOC screams. :p]

ere's guest quarters past the entrance courtyard, and servant quarters
beyond the working region.  The main chapel is across the central
courtyard from the entrance courtyard.  The other sections of the place,
these guys weren't too familiar with."

Beowulf tries a quick seek in shadow for the Jewel, and tries to match
the tug with the map they're describing.

The tug points towards the main chapel.

Lian looks around. "Some magic here and there, but no wards ... good."

Beowulf asks, "Seems the Jewel is in the main chapel... joy. What's
everyone wearing out there? Think an SEP field will be enough to get us
through the building to the chapel?"

Lian asks, "How far is it from here to the chapel?"

Lily says, "It'll stop most of the people noticing us, but I suspect the
major priests would see through it. On the other hand, from what I
gather, most of the major priests are in the chapel most of the time
these last few days."

Lily says, "The warehouse opens into a circular hallway round the
central courtyard; the chapel opens onto that same courtyard, so if we
wanted to just rush right into the chapel, we could get most of the way
there unobserved."

Beowulf asks, "Working on their little 'come visit us'?"

Lian says, "Probably ... hm. If we just charge in, I'd want my mech.
It's got a big sword that mages don't like."

She nods.  "Far as we can tell."

Mitsune says, "Well, I'd like a little while to scout around and find a
good place for Makoto and I to start up our diversion, before you head
in guns-a-blazing."

Beowulf says, "How likely would they be to notice one of you if you
slipped over there to scout? Sounds like the best plan is... right."

Beowulf says, "Make the diversion, we charge in to the chapel to attack,
but let's know what we're charging in to first." He smiles.

Mitsune turns into a fly, then back to normal.  "Depends on how much
attention they pay to insects."

Lian taps the holey box on her belt. "I hope not too much ... my little
friends here could be quite useful in that case."

Beowulf smiles at Mitsune. "Nice. By the way, where are your
moon-beasts? That would be a fun thing for these folks to play with..."

Mitsune grins.  "They hauled them off to some animal pens.  Yes, a very
good idea."

Lian says, "Use the moon-beasts as the diversion, maybe ... rampage in
the pens should be nicely distracting, especially if they have more
monsters in there."

Beowulf asks, "Oh, have the priests already made their inspection of the
incoming cargo, or are we going to have to deal with them when they come
in?"

She nods.  "Listen for the screaming."  She winks, and then pauses
before leaving.  "They already checked over everything, so unless
someone needs supplies, you should be left alone in here for now.

Beowulf says, "Good plan to start with... but let's see what our experts
can find out." He bows again, grinning, to Mitsune and Makoto.

Beowulf nods. "Right."

Beowulf asks, "Oh, and let us know what you see in the chapel, OK?"

She says, "If we can take a safe peek, anyway."  And then they take off.

Anything you're going to do while you wait?

Lian checks her equipment and weapons, and gives basic guidelines to her
insectoid troops. Bugrom they may not be, but hey ... you gotta take
what you can get.

About two hours later, they return.  "Okay, there's a dozen priests and
about two dozen robed chanting monks in the temple in pretty much a big
circle. The temple is basically wedge shaped, narrowing as it moves away
from the central courtyard.  Most of it is open space with lots of
pillars; there's a big stone circle in the center they're ringing with a
stone altar; they seem to be doing the human sacrifice thing right now."

Beowulf acks. "Right. How many of the sacrifices are left?"

Beowulf says, "OOC The altar is around the big stone circle? Not sure
what you mean."

John says, "OOC Let me rephrase that."

There's a big stone circle.  It has an altar in it, the priests and
monks are ringing the circle.

Beowulf says, "OOC Ahhh."

Beowulf asks, "How much of the temple does the circle fill?"

Makoto says, "Most of the center third of the temple.

Beowulf nods. "What's your best suggestion for storming the place?"

Makoto says, "Knock out the pillars, and let the ceiling fall on them.
Then attack them as they emerge from the rubble."

He continues, "There's only three ways in and out.  Doors that go off to
auxillary temple rooms on each side, and the door to the central
courtyard."

Lian asks, "How difficult would it be to destroy the pillars?"

"I don't know.  They look pretty sturdy, but they are just stone pillars
with no particular magic on them."

Beowulf grins tightly. "Right. That would certainly disrupt them...
might be a bit hard to dig out the Jewel afterwards, though. Your
diversion should keep enough of them busy outside to come in to help, I
hope."

Beowulf asks, "How many pillars would we need to knock out to take down
the ceiling?"

Makoto says, "I don't know, as I haven't spent much time studying
architecture.  Most of them, I'd assume."

Beowulf blinks. "I'm sorry, let me rephrase that... how many pillars are
there in the room?"

He says, "Ahh, there were eighteen pillars.

Lian hms. "That might be a bit difficult ... eighteen pillars will take
some time."

Beowulf nods. "Hmmm... a bit too many to take care of myself, even with
a weapon that does massive damage."

Lian says, "Again, the mech would help. But it's not exactly stealthy."

Thoric says, "Frostrazor can cut stone, but it isn't much good at a
distance."

Beowulf says, "Stealthy... hopefully we won't have to worry as much
about that after the diversion starts."

Lian says, "If stealth isn't a requirement for getting to the chapel
anymore, things will be a bit easier."

Beowulf grins. "Of course, I could always conjure up some flying carving
tools to knock out the pillars. Wouldn't be too hard."

The mech would have some difficulties getting through the doors scaled
for humans here. :)

Lian . o O ( OOC: The mech wouldn't have that many problems ... the
walls, now ... )

Lian asks, "So, what's the plan?"

Beowulf says, "Hush for a moment, I'm thinking about what I can do with
grenades."

Beowulf says, "All right... I'll make up the flying cutters for the
pillars, and make some nice high-damage grenades with a 3' blast radius
for backup."

Lian asks, "How big are the pillars, Makoto?"

Makoto says, "They're about 3 foot thick, and ornately carved."

Beowulf says, "Everyone here ought to be able to hit a pillar with a
grenade, since they're not moving." He smiles a bit.

Lian nods. "How tall?"

He says, "Ceiling's about 30 feet."

Beowulf asks, "And how big's the temple room itself?"

Lian says, "We might want to weaken the ceiling too to make sure it
collapses."

He says, "It's about 90 feet long and about 60 feet wide in the middle,
a bit more at the widest end, narrows to abuot 20 at the far end.

Beowulf says, "If the ceiling doesn't go down with the pillars, a
grenade or two into it should help."

Beowulf blinks. "Smaller than I thought."

Beowulf says, "Did you see the Jewel in there when you were looking? My
guess would be that it's on the altar, but the head priest might be
keeping it on himself."

Makoto says, "Didn't get a good enough look to see where the Jewel was."

Beowulf nods. "Right. Somewhere in the temple, most likely, but still
not sure where."

Beowulf frowns. "One last thought... assuming we don't stop the ritual
in time, or something we do causes it to go haywire in a bad way, we
might be faced with another Outsider trying to manifest." He looks over
at Touga. "Pattern defence the best thing you can think of to try and
keep it out?"

Touga says, "I'll dump an Akira on it."

He continues, "And if that isn't enough, then we'll have to try to use
Pattern to stop it."

Lian says, "I should be able to create a seal, in case one tries to come
through."

Beowulf grins. "Right. Well, if you have to go, might as well go with a
bang... the Akira will be narrow enough for that, right?"

Beowulf says, "Anything else anyone can think of? If not, let's move."

Lily says, "If we're going to try to block all three doors, we need to
decide who goes to which door."

Beowulf says, "OOC Oh, make sure everyone's got their manifestations and
gear, if Makoto/Mitsune kept theirs off to scout."

John says, "OOC Righto."

Beowulf nods. "Right. Hmmm... the other doors are where in the chapel
rooms?"

Makoto says, "They're in the middle of the two side walls.  They lead
off into dressing rooms and storage for special temple item areas."

Beowulf nods. "Right... probably myself and Naru to block those doors,
as we're probably the best fighters in the group." He turns to Makoto.
"How tough did those folks look? Should one of us stay back to guard the
magi?"

Makoto says, "Where are you going to position your magi?"

He says, "I'd think pairing one magus and one fighting type at each door
would be best."

Beowulf nods. "Right. Well, if Lily doesn't think I'm being too much of
a sexist twit, I admit I'd feel more comfortable with her beside me." He
grins.

Beowulf asks, "Hm. Naru and Touga at the other door?"

Lian says, "I'd prefer to have Touga with me ... if our worst case
scenario happens, I'll need his mind."

Thoric says, "I'll pair with Naru.  I'd rather cast spells than get into
hand to hand if I can avoid it."

Beowulf grins at Lian, and avoids the obvious joke. "Righto." He turns
to Thoric. "Good enough; that should work."

Makoto says, "Oh...is the signal for the attack going to be you hearing
our diversion or do you want us to trump you or what?"

Beowulf asks, "Good enough. We ready, then?"

Lian says, "I'll need my mech before you sneak off to your position."

Beowulf says, "I think we should be able to tell when your diversion's
started, if it's working right; there should be lots of screaming." He
grins. "Although Aeris could also monitor and let us know when to
start."

Mitsune nods.  "Right.  We'll go get started then." She takes Makoto by
the hand and drags him off.

Beowulf asks, "You mean when we get inside the temple?"

Beowulf asks, "Ack, the chapel?"

Lian says, "Before we reach the door would be better."

Beowulf asks, "So you can burst in guns-a-blazing?"

Lian says, "I was thinking more along the lines of sniping from the door
at anything that tries to crawl out."

Beowulf nods. "All right... when we're outside the door here, as I'd
prefer not to announce our presence with you bursting through the wall
of the warehouse." He smiles.

Lian says, "Me neither ... but I'll likely need the Silmaril, and some
armor between me and the priests is always apreciated."

Beowulf hands out the grenades to the folks present. "Hopefully, these
won't be needed... but with a 3 ft. radius, they should be pretty safe
to use."

They arm up.

Lian gives instructions to her insect army. Once the ceiling is down,
they are to go in, find any priests or monks alive under the rubble and
make the short rest of their lives as unpleasant as possible.

Beowulf waits for the diversion, hand on whip, other hand in bag to pull
out the Knight for Lian when they come out of the warehouse.

You wait a while.  Finally, you start to hear shouting and the running
of feet and howls and gibbering off in the distance.

Beowulf says, "Right. Let's go."

Lian nods. "Showtime."

Thoric and Naru race off, heading for their position.

Beowulf goes out the door, pulls the Knight out for Lian, then runs to
the chapel doorr.

Lian climbs into the knight and closes the hatch, then attaches her guns
to the arm hardpoints. Quad-barrel plasma bolter left, railgun right.
Then it's off for the chapel with Touga.

Beowulf releases the cutting devices as soon as the chapel doors are
open, then looks for targets of opportunity in the group of
priests/monks while he waits for the pillars to go down.

The axes go flying into the room as the priests chant and sing loudly.
Some of them realize that axes are coming in and turn and start casting
spells, but many of them seem to be stuck continuing the ritual.  Then
Thoric and Naru start hurling grenades at pillars as well, and Lily
unleashes a Mindblast on the priests and monks, several of which
collapse.

The axes start whacking away at the pillars.

Beowulf shoots at the priests casting spells.

Lian kneels by the door once she reaches it and aims. Primary targets:
plasma bolter vs. pillars. Secondary: Mages.

Boom, boom, boom, pillars start going down from Lian's shots.

Beowulf asks, "OOC Cutting devices working too slowly?"

Elsewhere, the guards seem to be engaged in monster fighting.

The axes are working on it, but it's taking some time.

One of the priests fires off a nasty looking purple snake spell towards
Lily and Beowulf.  Response?

Another one does somethign similar to Naru and Thoric. A third purple
snake is headed for the Knight.

John says, "OOC You going to respond to the purple snake, Travis? :)"

Beowulf says, "OOC ARRRGH. :P"

Beowulf says, "OOC Right... using the magic sink on the whip to try and
stop it, and hope the power word ring can help. :)"

The combination of the magic toe ring and the improved whip manage to
suck up the spell.  Over on Naru and Thoric's side of things, Naru takes
a nasty brain blast, but Thoric manages to hack up and negate the spell
with Frostrazor.

Beowulf says, "OOC What about the Annadil rings? Naru should be wearing
one."

One of the priests chants something and a red jewel rises up out of his
shirt and floats before him in the air, pulsing madly.

John says, "OOC Ahh, thanks for the reminder.  ^^"

Lian . o O ( OOC: I think shooting the madly chanting priest would be a
good idea now. o.o; )

The priest who zapped Naru takes a super-econmy sized mindblast from her
ring and does the SCREAM AND COLLAPSE thing.

Beowulf asks, "OOC How far away are Bey/Lily from the priest with the
jewel, since we're at the side door? Close enough to use the whip on him
to try and grab the Jewel?"

Beowulf asks, "OOC Or just to smack him?"

John asks, "OOC How longis the whip?"

Beowulf says, "OOC IIRC About 15 feet, long enough to swing over things
with."

John says, "OOC the room is 60 or so feet wide here, so no, it's not
long enough."

John says, "You could try charging in and using the whip, though."

Beowulf asks, "OOC How close are the pillars to coming down?"

John says, "OOC They will probably come down within the next 10-15
seconds."

Beowulf asks, "OOC Right... which would leave me in the middle of them
falling if I charged in, right?"

John says, "OOC THere's a definite risk of that, yes."

Beowulf OOCLY SCREAMS and throttles his connection. :P

Beowulf asks, "OOC Did my charging in to snag the Jewel with the whip,
then trying to get back out of range of the pillars/ceiling make it
through?"

John says, "OOC No."

Beowulf says, "OOC Argh. :P"

Beowulf charges in to whip range and tries to snag the Jewel with it,
then retreats out of the range of the falling pillars/ceiling if he can.

John says, "OOC Pose 'er again."

You charge in to whip.  Lian fires at the priest with the Jewel.  A beam
fires from the Jewel, vaporizing Lian's bolts and now it's coming right
at the Knight.

Lian does the intelligent thing and tries to dodge aside.

The ceilign begins to shake and rumble; some parts of it are collapsing.
Lily dumps a cloud of freezing mist on one group of monks, who proceed
to shiver and collapse.  The room begins to bend and distort; you have a
bad feeling.

The Knight tries to dodge.  Unfortunately, the Knight is fairly hefty.
But you do make it so that only the left half of the Knight is
vaporized.

You wobble about on one foot.

The surviving priests and monks give up and try to charge for the doors
now.  Only the high priest still chants.

Lian gahs as half her mech goes bye-bye, grabs the Silmaril, and jumps
out through the BIG opening, away from the mech.

Beowulf exclaims, "Touga! Something coming through, do what you can,
NOW!"

Touga concentrates, calling up Pattern Defense and trying to force his
will on the shadow to seal it

The ceiling wobbles more.  The Jewel pulses, casting a red glow.

Beowulf tosses a grenade at the ceiling right above the priest, trying
to bring it down on him.

FWAKOOM!  The ceiling gives way and topples down towards madlyg chanting
priest boy.

Lian lands in a crouch and remains that way, immediately calling on the
Silmaril in her hands.

Outwhere Lian and Touga are, the ground cracks open, and black tendrils
erupt upwards. The ground is growing very hot.

Naru and Thoric find themselves beset by several oozing puddles of slime
that erupt up into snakey creatures to strike.

Beowulf asks, "OOC Can Lily use the Logrus to help defend them?"

John says, "OOC Ahh, that gives me an idea."

Lily calls up the logrus and forms the tendril into a basketball sized
sphere.  Then she throws it at the floating Jewel.  Immediately after,
she goes flying-cat and dodges upwards and to the side.

Beowulf says, "OOC The ceiling about to come down on him? o.o"

Lian grabs Touga and teleports with him.  Blink, they land over near
where the ceiling just fell on priest boy, who is rising up out of the
rubble, looking pissed, alongwith the Jewel.

The Jewel blasts the sphere of Logrusy energy out of the air.  Lian,
you're fairly close to priest boy.  Whatcha going to do?

Beowulf tries to snag the Jewel with the whip.

Beowulf says, "OOC By the chain, if possible."

Lian says, "Touga. Link up with me. Now."

Lily then flies to Naru and Thoric's aid.

Touga mindlinks with Lian just in time for both of you to get bathed in
JoJ glow.  It's trying to do something to you, and you have a feeling
you won't like it.

Lian holds onto her whip, guiding the tendril against the priest.

Beowulf lashes at the priest with his whip as he closes in, pulling
Morkeleb out for a second-handed strike as soon as he gets close enough.

Touga tries to concentrate on Pattern Defense. Lian's whip evaporates in
the glow of the light.  Lian feels the world starting to shift away
aroundher, and something that looks disturbingly like nuclear plasma is
starting to take its place.  Except then the priest gets whacked by
Beowulf, and followed up with a nasty blow from Morkeleb.  He loses his
concentration, and Touga and Lian stop being shifted into the interior
of a star.

Beowulf keeps pounding at the priest with Morkeleb.

And then the Cthonian bursts through the doors and walls and floor from
the courtyard.  Beowulf beats the unforutnate Priest down with two nasty
weapons. He collapses.

Touga and Lian reach out to mend the rip in reality which is starting to
open.

Beowulf asks, "OOC Where are Lily/Naru/Thoric? Safe, or caught with the
Cthonian?"

Lily turns and dumps another freezing mist on the huge snake like
Cthonian.  It doesn't like this.  Naru and Thoric continue battling
black slime creatures.

Beowulf OOCly screams, not again... :(

Beowulf uses a racked teleport to try and send the Cthonian as far away
as he can.

John says, "OOC iya."

Beowulf releases a spell from his ring, and the Cthonian is suddenly
covered in flowers, which then turn shimmery.  It vanishes.

Naru and Thoric manage to finish off the slime creatures.  Lian and
Touga finish imposing their wills and forming an elder seal over the
breach. The Jewel stops pulsing and falls to the ground.

Lian . o O ( OOC: When it vanishes, it vanishes -good-. )

Beowulf asks, "OOC Right. Every enemy taken care of in this room?"

Lian blinks a few times as she returns from mindlink-land. She looks at
the jewel on the ground with a mixture of longing and regret. "I think
this is the jewel you wanted, Bey."

Beowulf nods. "Yup. How well d'you think your seal will hold? If it's
good enough, it's probably time to notify Mitsune and Makoto and
vamoose."

Lian says, "Get out of here ... I have a last thing to do before I go."

Naru and Thoric stagger over to you.  "We done?" Naru asks.

Lily flies down and lands by you, then studies the Jewel with the Logrus
lens.  "It should be safe to pick up now," she says.

Beowulf OOCLY SCREAMSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Beowulf picks up the Jewel. "Right. What did you need to do, Lian? That
Cthonian got teleported away some, but will be back."

John says, "OOC We're going to quit soon, since we're about done with
this and Travis is bouncing like a rubber ball."

Beowulf OOCly nods.

Lian gestures vaguely at the surroundings. "Take care of this temple ...
burn it to the ground, and make sure nothing Outsidery will ever be
found again on this island."

Beowulf nods. "Right. You have anything specific in mind?"

Lian says, "I have. But you'll have to get out first, unless you can
survive in the heart of a star."

Beowulf asks, "OOC How much more do you want to go through, John?"

Beowulf says, "Going to do to them what they were trying to do to you? I
take it you have the tools to survive in a star?" He smiles a bit.

Lian says, "Ghosts don't burn."

Beowulf asks, "Aeris? How are Mitsune and Makoto doing?"

Beowulf says, "Ah, right... if you're sure..."

Aeris says, "They're rampaging down stairs.  Shall I tell them to bail
out?"

John says, "OOC I want to get y'all out of this shadow, then we'll
stop."

Beowulf asks, "If Lian's going to show this place star power, yup." He
turns to Lian. "You have a way to get back, then?"

Aeris yansk them out.

Lian says, "Meet you in Amber? You can buy us a drink before you head
down to Chaos."

Makoto and Mitsune that is.

Thoric says, "See you there, Lian."

Lian says, "Take care, Thoric."

Beowulf nods. "Right, then." He gathers the rest of the crew together.
"Watch out for the Cthonian."

Lian holds Touga back, as he is still needed.

Beowulf looks at Lian "...you got him covered, too?"

Lian nods.

Beowulf says, "Good 'nuff. See you in Amber." He has Aeris trump them
out.

John says, "OOC And then we cut, as the DM is fading."

Beowulf says, "OOC Boing, boing, boing..."

Jacqueline says, "at least you got the job done :)"

Beowulf says, "Ayup. :)"

Beowulf says, "Anything happen after I trumped out? o.o"

Jacqueline says, "....."

John says, "OOC Okay, see y'all later.  I go shower and bed now."

Lian says, "Well, if noone comes to hurt them, Lian and Touga will trump
back to Amber. Not really play-worthy, a trumping out. :)"

Jacqueline says, "oh, hey, anyone heard from gramma anthy lately? O.o"

Beowulf says, "True 'nuff."

Akemi has disconnected.

Gabrielle says, "Anthy is kickin' it in the World of the Dead."

Beowulf says, "OOC Ack. I was going to check after about a week had
passed since Tir'na'nog."

Jacqueline says, "well crap."

Beowulf says, "Actually, I'm not sure if the week has passed; I've lost
track of the days, again. :("

Jacqueline says, "it's easy to do that in this game :)"

Lian asks, "We're on ... 63? 64?"

Beowulf says, "Ayup. -.-"

Lian says, "One of those two, I think."

Jacqueline says, "oh shit.  we're close to D-Day"

Lian says, "Yup. I need to get my Borg. And replace the Knight. Argh.
Workworkwork ..."

Jacqueline says, "I have so much shit to do and only 15 days to do it in
o.o;;;;"

Beowulf says, "I thought we still had weeks to go. o.o"

Jacqueline asks, "D-Day is day 80, no?"

Beowulf says, "You can replace the Knight in fast-time in the Closet if
you don't want to fasttime Mechanus."

Beowulf says, "...right. <sigh>"

Jacqueline idles to driiiiiive

Lian says, "Mechanus -is- fast-timed ... and I might do something else
instead of the Knight."

Beowulf nods. "Wasn't sure, since you said something about not wanting
to mess with the timeflow before."

Beowulf says, "Anyway, I go sleepytime."

Travis Butler
tbutler@birch.net

...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.