al/pages
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://git.acl.cool/al/pages.git synced 2025-12-15 20:11:17 -05:00
Code Issues Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions

save

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
Alexander 2025-11-08 22:37:39 -05:00
parent aac8a4366a
commit de06187e77
1 changed files with 6 additions and 3 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

9
acl.cool/site/draft/umbral4.dj
View file

@ -28,9 +28,10 @@ The party has no wish to engage, and Clementine's "pass without trace" should be
Coming finally to the oddly-flat top of the Brog Burgest, party members are struck by expanses of smooth, solid cloud that extend in layers both above and below as though to sandwich the peak between two massive sheet cakes. The path gives on to an open-air enclosure in which torches of purple and orange burn atop plinth-raised statues of dragons in various states of noble contortion. In the opposite corner to the party's ingress, a beholder--- a conventional beholder, apparently--- erects yet another statue and torch, its back to the middle of the room. Coming finally to the oddly-flat top of the Brog Burgest, party members are struck by expanses of smooth, solid cloud that extend in layers both above and below as though to sandwich the peak between two massive sheet cakes. The path gives on to an open-air enclosure in which torches of purple and orange burn atop plinth-raised statues of dragons in various states of noble contortion. In the opposite corner to the party's ingress, a beholder--- a conventional beholder, apparently--- erects yet another statue and torch, its back to the middle of the room.
Party members are wary to attack, and anyway hope to turn the creature to peace and altruism, so after Almuth checks the creature's alignment--- Lawful _Neutral_; now there's a boon--- they announce their presence. In an instant the beholder is all anger and anxiousness. If the interlopers don't leave _right now_, he says, they will surely die! He wishes them no particular harm, but no particular safety either, and if they fail to heed his warning, he shan't feel the slightest remorse except that their presence should interfere with his plans, and so, in any case, so as not to spoil to fruits of his meticulous labors, but just as much so as not to die in fits and screaming, they _must leave this very instant!_ Party members are wary to attack, and anyway hope to lure the creature into altruism, so after Almuth checks the its alignment--- Lawful _Neutral_; now there's a boon--- he announces their presence. At once, the beholder is all anger and anxiousness. If the interlopers don't leave _right now_, he says, they will surely die! He wishes them no particular harm, but no particular safety either, and if they fail to heed his warning, he shan't feel the slightest remorse except that their presence should interfere with his plans, and so, in any case, so as not to spoil to fruits of his meticulous labors for the pleasure of his good friend Themberchaud[^dragon], but just as much so as not to die in fits of horrible, flame-wrought screams, they _must_ leave at _this very instant!_
Alas, the heroes are too slow, and _too slow_ to-boot, to escape what follows. Before the blustering beholder can be convinced to make his motivations clear, a great rush approaches from above. The hole its source punches in the cloud layer puts that of Louisa's fall to shame; a mature red dragon alights at the far end of the summit-plateau in a solitary column of Sun, engendering instant panic. Alas, there is nowhere to run on the peak of a mountain from a fully-grown dragon--- but the adventurers need not fear! As Almuth reaches out to his Goddess in a last ditch, hail-mary effort to save his party, his Goddess reaches back. {% Some visual here with Almuth interacting with Eldath would be pretty sick. %} Hearing the cleric's words, she plies her power to a subtle adjustment deep within Themberchaud's psyche, a faint push in a new direction, a slight reshaping of how he weighs investment risks.
Alas, the heroes are too slow, and _too slow_ to-boot, to entirely escape what follows. Before the blustering beholder can be convinced to make things clear, a great rush approaches from above. The hole its source punches in the cloud layer puts that of Louisa's fall to shame; a mature red dragon alights at the far end of the summit-plateau in a solitary column of Sun.
@ -45,4 +46,6 @@ Not ones to stick around in the face of certain obliteration, the party members
[^redcap]: [Redcaps](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Redcap) are evil, bloodthirsty fey--- gnome-like in appearance--- known for their brutality and need to kill for self-sustainment. [^redcap]: [Redcaps](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Redcap) are evil, bloodthirsty fey--- gnome-like in appearance--- known for their brutality and need to kill for self-sustainment.
[^hag]: A [night hag](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Night_hag), a hag from the Hells. [^hag]: A [night hag](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Night_hag), a hag from the Hells.
[^dragon]: [Themberchaud](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Themberchaud), the Wyrmsmith of Gracklstugh, the Father of Flame, the Everburning! What a pickle...