Act II: The Hall of Snurre Ironbelly the Foul, Fire Giant King

Brief Recap: Last turn ended with Thag leading many Fire Giants accompanied by Githyanki knights into the room. Thag is obviously in league with Thae-Rune Ibn.

Still In the Githyanki Temple

Bronk looks at his Bardock and decides he is not much of a threat at the moment. His brother is out cold.

He looks at his brother's face in the purple lights of the Temple, and remembers his childhood in Rasheman, the last time he saw his sibling. It seems unreal that his brother, gone all these years, is before him now. He doesn't know what he will do or say when he awakens, and considers tying him up. But first, he must attend his wounds in the brief pause in the melee, and he begins downing healing potions.

As the rush of Fire Giants begins, led by the traiterous Thag, Humphrey downs his potion of Control Fire Giant and yells to Thag--"You and your men will attack the Githyanki knights and Thae-Rune Ibn, solidifying your claim to the throne, and assuring Thae-Rune Ibn does not kill you once we are dead!" He then whips his staff over his head and begins spinning it in a circle, releasing six charges at once, each to be used by him on the party (and himself), and casting plane travel to extricate them from this battle, taking them to a different plane, where they can escape (hopefully).

Blade pops open a healing potion and swallows it down. He has no idea what the wizard was up to, but it seems like a good time to remain hidden with the power of the cloak. Things are getting complicated. Blade pulls his giant -slayer sword from it's sheath on his back.

He expects to feel it humming in his hand. But the sword feels like any other, and the familiar killing lust and warning of danger are not there. Blade can't tell if the sword has lost its intelligence or its magic, or if the sword is just suppressing its intelligence and not communicating with him. It feels no different than the Dragonslayer now.

Bronk hears Humphrey activating his staff, and he doesn't like the sound of it. The normally calm magician sounded like he was straining on this one, his voice pitching high and low and speaking syllables that Bronk didn't know humans could speak. Something was about to happen. Bronk concludes that the mage is finally going to prove his worth and "bamf" the whole team out of the place and back to the palace in Heklamar. At least that's what he hopes.

He grabs his brother in a fireman's carry. With Humphrey's Strength spell, his brother is light as a feather. He runs toward the mage, ready to jump into whatever portal presents itself.

Bibi grasps her amulet, and the darkest of the remaining stones falls into her palm. It is gray, almost black, and the lavender atmosphere of the Temple seems to draw blue and green sparks from the stone. She closes her hands on the stone and silently prays.

Thae-Rune Ibn, intent again on Bibi, floats off the dais toward her. With great speed he speaks the words to a spell, and stretches one hand toward Bibi, the other holding his sword.

As he glides toward her, a very large and charred hand reaches from the floor below and grabs him around the waste, pinning his sword to his side. King Snurre rises on one elbow, Thae-Rune Ibn grasped firmly in his left hand.

He looks across the room at Humphrey, and spits, "I hate thee magician, foul troll." Then to Thae-Rune Ibn he says, "And Thou as well, demon! But this I do gladly!"

King Snurre then turns Thae-Rune Ibn upside down and pile-drives him into the floor, raises him, then dashes him a second time.

As he raises his arm a third time, Humphrey's now shrieking voice almost cracks, and the magician transports himself, Bronk, Bardock, Blade, Bibi, Ghotu, and Mog away from the Hall of the Fire Giants. Reality itself falls away as the staff takes the company from the Prime Material Plane and into unknown dimensions.

Bibi awakens with the gray stone still pressed between her hands. Her prayer was halted, the stone is unused. The feeling of the impending change is gone, as if left behind by Humphrey's spell. She looks around to see the company members are with her, at the same distances and directions as they were in the Temple. Bibi feels as though she has just awakened from a deep sleep. The rest of the company looks just as stunned as she does. She looks for Humphrey and sees him leaning heavily on his staff, his head down. Ghotu stands with his axe and shield, Bronk stands with Bardock on his back. Blade pulls back the hood of his cloak to reveal himself, and Mog dispels his Invisibility spell.

Bibi looks up at the sky and sees only blackness, or blankness--a dark gray unlike a night sky extends in all directions, except for what look to be the lights of a city off at the horizon in one direction, probably several leagues away. There are no stars nor any other celestial objects. Bibi is thankful there is no moon in sight. The landscape is barren like a desert, with no life of any kind. The ground is gray sand. No wind stirs the air, which seems thin.

Blade drinks a Potion of Healing and heals 22 up to 86/115. Bronk drinks a Potion of Healing and heals 25 up to 81/100. Mog drinks a Potion of Healing and heals 15 up to 56/98.

Bibi looks around and thinking to herself. She wonders what she should do now? If the stone that Blade has isn't the stone that she was looking for then were is it? Does Thae-Rune Ibn have the stone, is the one Blade has just a decoy and if that is the case will he still be able to call the dark queen. Being in this unknown place at this time is filling her with doubt. When she hears Blade begin to speak she moves towards him.

Blade looks at the starless sky, realizing that they had no way to tell where they were.

"Where the hell are we?! If I had known that you would transport us to some godforsaken desert in the middle of nowhere with your hocus pocus claptrap, I would have left you in your stupor shitting upon yourself," Blade says indignantly to Humphrey. "take us back to our homeland. I am calling in my debt." Blade crosses his arms waiting impatiently for Humphrey to do as he said. "Damn magicians, " he mutters to himself. "I had the situation well in hand."

Bibi whispers to Blade "Blade, could I see the stone for a moment." She wants to compare it to her locket again and if Blade allows her to hold it she will cast detect magic (and use a plot point) to try to discern all she can about the stones origins.

Blade reaches behind Bibi's ear and seemingly pulls the stone out of it. "Take it...it's yours. " he says.

"Thank you" she can hardly believe that he would be so willing to give her the no matter what it may or may not be. Than again, he is unpredictable.

[DM NOTE: Since Bibi is using a plot point, and (mainly) since this is a good time for it, I will rule that Bibi's Detect Magic spell works like an Identify spell so she can identify the Stone.]

Bibi holds the Stone in her hand and looks closely at it before casting the spell. It looks very different now. It is larger, and egg shaped. There are designs and runes carved into its surface that she can just make out in the dim light. She casts her spell.

The stone is not the Obsidian Stone, of that Bibi is certain. When she casts her spell, she receives the knowledge that this is a very old magical item of great power, but not the Obsidian Stone. She also notices (from her spell) that there are layers of enchantments cast on this object. She thinks back, trying to figure out what this item is.

Bibi rememers the words of Thae-Rune Ibn: 'I shall require back my Wizarding Stone, thief, wherever you are,' he said. 'It has far better uses than fooling traiterous hags like Eclavdra.'

A sick feeling wells up inside Bibi. If this is not the Obsidian Stone, then where is it? Does Thae-Rune Ibn have it? Certainly Eclavdra had believed this item to be the Obsidian Stone, she had tried to use it to destroy the party. And when she had done so, when she had tried to activate the Stone's power, Thae-Rune Ibn had appeared. If Bibi remembers correctly, he appeared the very instant she invoked this item's power. Just before she was destroyed.

If Thae-Rune knew this wasn't the real Obsidian Stone, then he must know where the real one is. He must have it, fears Bibi.

And if he has the Obsidian Stone, then the Githyanki could summon their Dark Queen.

Bibi is comforted by the memory of Snurre grabbing Thae-Rune Ibn and pile-driving him into the black volcanic glass floor. But she wonders if the Fire Giant King was able to finally kill the Githyanki mage. She also wonders what effect Humphrey's command to Thag had. They were transported out of the Temple before she could see how Thag responded.

After she has learn all she can about the stone Bibi says to Ghotu, "Is my horse all right?"

Ghotu checks beneath his plate cuirass and withdraws the pouch, then hands it to Bibi. She feels the horse moving inside, and when she opens the drawstrings she smells horse manure and hears a frightened whinney. Her horse is fine, though it appears the animal must have emptied its bowels during the recent battle. Bibi lets the horse out onto the sand and turns the bag inside out, emptying its contents. She has some straw in her own pouch which she uses to replenish her horse's temporary home.

"I am not sure where we are. However, I can take us to where we wish to be. Mog, you must assist in casting spells into my staff. I will absorb them then I will transport us back to Heklamar, where we can rest and consider our next move, assuming the stone you have captured is not the Obsidian Stone," he looks at Bibi when he says this [having deduced it from the previous encounter].

When the Mog does as he has asked, and he has used the Fingers of Drick to fully recharge his staff, he transports the party back to Heklamar, to a room he has rented just for this purpose.

[DM NOTE: Humphrey cannot control where we go to such accuracy. He can try to take us back to our world, that is all.]

Mog looks up at the starless sky, and says, "Mog cannot tell where we are either. One of the celestial spheres, beyond our Plane. Such places are dangerous."

Mog casts Speak with Dead , Heat Metal, and Speak with Animals into Humphrey's staff, charging it with 6 charges, just enough to get the party through another jump. [NOTE that only spells with a target can charge the staff.]

Humphrey tells the others to gather round. He takes a moment to gather his strength once again. Even though the spell is powered by his staff, it is still a taxing thing for Humphrey to do, especially at his age, for the spell is one of the most dangerous. He begins the incantation and spins the staff around his head. . .

Ghotu thinks, great, here we go again. He knows the wizard will try to take them to Heklamar, but anything is possible. He readies his axe and shield, prepared to possibly be right back in the Githyanki temple. He almost hopes they return to the temple, if only to see if Snurre is still alive. Of course he rather hopes they end up in that tavern in Heklamar with the Vulvanian whores.

Posting Instructions: Can Humphrey get us back to where we came from? Or does the company decide to go to the lights on the horizon. There aren't many other options, and we can't proceed until this decision is made. I will add more to this turn, this week, when someone posts and makes a decision.

Blade has the Stone in his pocket; Humphrey's staff is out of charges.

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