Astralgate AG-1 [IC]

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Prologue

"Welcome to the Astral Gate Complex, or AGC. This will be your home away from home for the next few years."

The speaker is an elderly balding human male, walking backwards down a hallway as he leads a gaggle of a dozen or so humanoids of various races on a tour of the installation in which you now find yourselves. A small dragonmark curls its way up from under the collar of a military jacket, behind his left ear, and up to the top of his head, where it forms a spiral design on his scalp. Though some of you might not recognize which dragonmark he bears, he was introduced to you as General Hammond d'Deneith, and in any case the fact that he wears a military uniform marks him as either a House Deneith or Karrnath representative.

"This is the moment you've all been training for. In just a few minutes, you will be sorted into excursion team and assigned your first mission. Good luck, everyone."

The man leads you to a door at the end of the hallway guarded by two Deneith soldiers. They open the door to reveal a large, well-appointed conference room, and seated around the central conference table are representatives of each of the sponsors of this venture. Seven Dragonmarked Houses--Cannith, Deneith, Tharashk, Orien, Kundarak, Medani, and Sivis--and three nations--Zilargo, Karrnath, and Aundair--have representatives here, with their different uniforms indicating their positions and interests. Deneith and Karrnath are handling the military arm of the operation; Cannith, Kundarak, Orien, and Zilargo are handling the research arm; Tharashk, Medani, Sivis, and Aundair are handling the exploration arm.

Each of the members around the table stand and give a short speech on their particular goals, how proud they are of your dedication, something about world-altering implications, blah blah blah. You've heard all of this stuff before, when you were first recruited, and if you hadn't already agreed with their goals and means you wouldn't have made it down here...or anywhere else, unless a one-way trip to Dolurrh counts. While you listen to the speeches, assistants pass out small insignia for you to attach to your clothes: a small white "A" in the Common alphabet with a ten-pointed star above it (representing the ten sponsors) on a dark blue background. General Hammond steps to the front of the room once the last speaker has finished, and he motions for you to gather around him with a clipboard someone has handed him.

"All right, everyone, team selection time. Will Lieutenants--oh, that reminds me, you've all been given the honorary rank of Lieutenant in the Aundairian and Karrnathi armies, as well as the rank of honorary heir in the Houses represented here, to give you a position in the command hierarchy. That means you can requisition gear, order around guards, and such. We'll get to that later. Anyway, will Lieutenants Garrow, Oreth, Smith, and Tarris please stand over here, you're Team Astral Gate Three, or AG3; Lieutenants Fairchild, Aqualis, d'Kundarak, and Rorik, please stand over there, you're AG2; Lieutenants Falir, Kaw, Saskilis, and Lonthra, over there, you're AG1. AG1, with me, you have the honor of the first mission, teams AG2 and AG3 can catch a few hours' rest, your assignment won't start for another 12 hours."

You four are led to the main portal room, a heavily-fortified chamber on the lowest floor of the AGC. The walls are solid adamantine for the most part, with a few magically-reinforced glass windows providing a good view from the command room next door. In the center of the portal room lies a disk three feet or so across, surrounded by busy Cannith and Orien artificers. The disk is ringed with 52 fist-sized sapphires, with one massive head-sized topaz in the center. The outer gems are each inscribed with an arcane rune, presumably in ancient Giantish or Archaic Draconic, though you weren't briefed on the exact details. The disk lies in the center of a large mithral-and-gold ring, seven feet in diameter with the ring itself being three inches thick. It appears to be a larger version of a ring gate and is covered with a series of runes complex enough to make a Siberys dragonmark look like a child's scribbles.

As you watch, all but one of the artificers stand back out of the way of the larger ring. The expression on their faces isn't very comforting, since they look like they're expecting a magical explosion or something, but the central artificer appears unafraid as she taps on a sequence of eight sapphires in the disk and places a hand on the central topaz. Then she, too, steps out of the way as the large ring levitates up and rotates so that the opening faces you. It spins, faster and faster, turning every which way as beams of light leap from the touched sapphires to strike certain rune clusters on the ring. Eventually the spinning comes to a sudden stop, and with a flash of light the space within the ring becomes a window to another world.

Once the gate is stabilized, the artificers send a few homonculi through, presumably for information gathering, at which point General Hammond turns to you with a fatherly smile. "Looks like your first mission is to Kythri. That should be exciting. You have half an hour to pack and get ready, then report back here for the briefing. Once again, welcome to the program."

Spoiler

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This is the IC thread for the totally-not-a-Stargate-ripoff Eberron tristalt game; the OOC thread is here.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Present

Now rested and prepared, the four of you are back on the portal level, seated around a table in the command room. One of the Zil researchers is giving your pre-mission briefing. "And so, in summary," he concludes, "your goal is to make contact with the natives, initiate some diplomacy, find any magical items or other valuables that you think the Inter-House Oversight Council--those people you met upstairs--would be interested in, and bring back all the information and goods you can. If any of you have been on a Xen'drik adventuring party...well, it's kind of like that, but without the whole 'shoot first, speak with dead later' philosophy."

"Thank you, Professor," Hammond says, standing and dismissing the researcher. "I know this is very short notice, seeing as we recruited some of you as recently as a few days ago and you haven't really had a chance to familiarize yourselves with your teammates, but I have the highest confidence in your abilities. You four were assigned to AG1 because I and the rest of the command staff believe you to be the best and most-experienced of our recruits. I wouldn't have chosen this rapid timetable, myself, but what the IHOC wants, the IHOC gets, and I'm sure you'll quickly get to know each other on the mission. Now, does anyone have any questions before you head out?"

[Ahus]

Lot stands at attention, or at least what passes for attention for his diminutive gnomish form.
General, I do have a few questions before we set out.
What is the command hierarchy within this team?

How are we to report actions and return once we have gathered whatever intelligence, artifacts, etc. from the other side.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Shuffling behind the rest of the group during the presentation is a thin, brown haired man who apparently isn't listening to Hammond at all. Instead he is busy reading a paper a small, winged humonculi is holding up in front of his face while frantically scribbling notes on a different paper. Only at the mention of his name is his attention diverted from his work.

Rist hurries after the rest of the group, but again doesn't seem to be listening to Hammond at all, but rather spending all his attention on the portal and its activation, until he is dismissed once more.

As they all gather again the scholarly man is dressed more like an adventurer, in armor and with a crossbow in his hand, but he looks terribly uncomfortable wearing it. The winged homunculus sits on his shoulder, and next to him stands another one, shaped as a crossbow with limbs.

"I have one, eh, question, general." He adds, raising his hand. "Do we have any general guidelines regarding the protocol for contacting aliens?" He hesitates for a moment, before finishing, rather embarrased. "I forgot to attend the course."

[Theroc]

Prologue

Nashia's stance was relaxed though her eyes were alert, she was confident she could handle whatever rolled her way, just like she always did. However, when she was told this was going to be 'years' her eyes widened briefly.

"Years? That wasn't in the original deal I made. I may have to revise my rate... or something..." She murmured, being a mercenary, she'd signed on for pay rather than particular service or loyalty. Granted, she also never turned on a client, despite offers. She didn't say anything further than that, and merely followed the tour.

Present

After listening to the briefing, Nashia raised a brow. Make contact with unknowns peaceably and hope they didn't open fire themselves? Completely random. Hm... she wasn't fond of the idea, but she'd roll with it. After all, she's done fine under pressure before, she'll do it again. Pay is pay, the job is the job.

"Glad my skill was noticed, the compliment is appreciated. Any advice on what IHOC would be interested? I can only carry so much extra gear, after all."

[RecoveringGamer]

Damned underground facilites... Lonthra whines to herself, always so cramped.

The giantish warrior sits on the ground, hunched over. She paid attention to Hammond as much as her racing mind could allow. She'd done a lot of things in her life, but Lonthra had never travelled the planes. It was a destiny few are able to realize, and even fewer survive. She didn't have any questions that could be answered, by anyone save the gods. The irrational worries, anxieties, and fears built inside of her like a boiling pit of tar rising from the recesses of her mind.

She had steeled herself for hundreds of fights over her lifetime, mentally prepared herself and honed her mind until it was sharper than any blade wielded against her. This is a battle I can't prepare for. It's hard for her to admit, but she is vulnerable on this new path of hers. I have no idea what I'm doing...

"No questions," she says to Hammond, in a vigourless tone.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Hammond ticks off points on his fingers as he answers everyone's questions. "The command hierarchy is...fluid. As I mentioned, you all were assigned the same effective rank as far as the Houses and nations are concerned, so there's no official structure within the team as of yet. Based on your actions in the field, some of you may be promoted, but that will be addressed as it happens. Essentially, none of you can order the others around, yet, you just answer to me.

"As for getting back to Eberron, the device leaves a visible portal open at the destination site. As far as we know, travel is two-way between the portal and this facility for magic, light, and sound, but only one-way for physical objects and creatures. Once you get to your destination and the portal closes, we'll be sending you a portal every 12 hours until you complete your mission, so you can rendezvous with it for any communications or return when that happens."

The general hesitates before answering the question about first contact guidelines. "Well, that's a tricky thing. See, I'm not sure how much you all know about planar geometry--I'm not an expert myself, I just attended the intro course--but this device apparently has the ability to link with remote planes, which is why we're bothering to use it. Aside from the fact that it has pinpoint targeting and apparently unlimited magical charges, and is centuries ahead of what our best artficers can design, of course," he adds with a grin. "That means that when you step into Kythri, you're going to be making contact with creatures who haven't visited Eberron or had contact with anyone from our plane in nearly a century, so we really have no idea how they'll react. The natives used to be on fairly good terms with us, but...well, there's a reason we're sending a team with combat experience.

"As for what the IHOC wants, heh," Hammond laughs, "you mean, aside from 'anything and everything valuable'? These are the Dragonmarked Houses we're talking about, anything that could give them an economic advantage would be good. Rare metals, magically-infused gems, more ancient artifacts, whatever else you can find. Even a massive stash of platinum or adamantine would be appreciated. Aundair and Zilargo have more intellectual needs, they're part of the reason we're sending you to talk to people instead of just stealing everything valuable you can find; discovering what's been happening on the plane for the last century or so, picking up ancient tomes, and that sort of thing would satisfy them. Karrnath...hmm." The general ponders for a moment, then shrugs. "Probably nothing they'd want on this mission, but keep your options open. And remember, you don't have to get everything on this trip. If you find some sort of ancient airship or something else that you can't carry or get through the portal, just mark the location and we'll send another team after it."

He clasps his hands behind his back and looks around at you all. "Any more questions, or are you ready to get going?"

[RecoveringGamer]

Lonthra looks to the others to see if they have more questions for Hammond. She isn't sure whether delaying the inevitable journey is better or worse for her racing mind.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Rist

The young scholar shakes his head in response to Hammonds questions. He is eager to see what lies beyond the portal.

[Ahus]

Understood sir, in otherwords improvise. Discover and eliminate any hostiles. Support non hostiles in exchange for technology or valuables. We will have limited communications and are on our own to figure out how to get back. Just like during the war... With your permission sir.

Lot nods curtly and turns on his heals toward the gate room.

Lieutenants, shall we.

[Theroc]

"Let's just hope this sortie won't be as long as the war..." Nashia added, nodding to the others. "I don't think there's much else to be asked, we're heading into an almost complete unknown. Let's just hope there's more friendlies than hostiles."

[Ahus]

I wouldn't worry too much about that miss. I've seen how fast one can go from being one to the other if only temporarily, and personally been the cause of a great many of said conversions.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

General Hammond dismisses you all with a final "Good luck" and you all are escorted to the gate room. Once you are inside, the artificers on duty activate the portal, showing you precisely the same scene you saw before. The artificers' precise targeting seems to fill the guards and magewrights in the room with confidence--until one artificer says under his breath to another "That's a relief; after the homunculus didn't make it back, I thought..." and then breaks off when he notices people are listening in. "Well, I, um...never mind," he stammers with embarrassment. "Everything's fine. We have this under control. Off you go."

The team leader glares at him, then turns to you four with a conciliatory smile. "While it is true that we're still working out some kinks, and despite Artificer Lorrenth's appraisal of the situation, you're in no danger from the portal, don't worry. If you run into any trouble on the other side, just let us know and we'll bring you back." She motions for you to continue, and you all step through the softly-humming metal ring into what appears to be a perfectly normal cavern of some sort.

You all feel a sensation of intense pain for an instant as you step through, as if your body is trying to tear itself into a thousand pieces. The pain ends when your feet make contact with the ground on the other side of the portal, but confusion begins, as your feet suddenly lift off the ground and you feel yourselves falling up. One quick bump on the head later, you find yourselves lying tangled in a pile on the ceiling--in a clear space, fortunately, there are no stalactites around here. From your new vantage point you can see that the gate is flush with the wall of the cavern and there is a foot or so of stone between the top of the gate and the ceiling. A small homunculus is standing a few feet away from you near that gap, feebly jumping as high as it can every few seconds--which isn't really that high, only a few inches or so--in an attempt to get back through the portal.

Despite the dim light and near-silence, you can make out a few interesting details. First, the portal you came through isn't just a portal, it appears to have the same kind of ring around it that your home portal did. Second, the gap around the portal is perfectly spherical, as if it was carved out when the gate ring started gyrating upon activation; aside from that carved-out volume, the cavern ends right at the portal. Third, there is a small reddish-orange glimmer of something reflective below the portal, or rather above it from your new perspective. Fourth and finally, the area you are currently in narrows into a small, curvy tunnel a short distance from you on the opposite side from the portal, and through that tunnel you can hear the sound of very strong winds and small objects being pelted against stone. That tunnel is the only exit from this area.

"The portal will stay open for five minutes to allow for recon and communications," echoes a voice from the portal, but the sound is distorted enough that you can't tell whether the speaker is young or old, male or female, human or demihuman. "After that, you're on your own for twelve hours." There is a short pause, then, "We, uh, we can't see or hear you right now. If you're still there, could you give us some sort of signal?"

[DeusMortuusEst]

Rist

Head still spinning from the portal trip and the unexpected landing Rist scrambles to his feet.
"Interesting." He mumbles, staring at the roof. "I wonder if it's the portal that's upside down, or if we're standing in some kind of reverse-gravity field." As he notices the reddish light above the portal he start smiling. He searches with his thoughts for a moment until he finds his messenger, who is resting on a rock nearby.
"See that light there? Get closer, tell me what it is." He pauses for a moment, eyeing the tunnel opening for the first time.
"And you." This time he links up with his arbalester "Go guard the tunnel opening. Tell me if someone approaches, but don't attack unless I tell you so. Retreat if they seem hostile."

[RecoveringGamer]

Lonthra groaned, disoriented. What the... she thought to herself. Her anxiety was forgotten, replaced by shock.

The words coming from the portal brought her back for a moment, and in anger she grabbed the homunculus and threw it back in the portal. That should let them know what they want.

She then slumped back down, willing her head to stop spinning.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The distorted echo of metal colliding with stone comes through the portal after Lonthra returns the homunculus, along with a long string of obscenities in Dwarvish and Common. "Message received, loud and clear," says the same voice, sounding annoyed. The portal dims and winks out of existence, leaving you in an even deeper darkness, with only the bits of light from the tunnel to illuminate the area. The gate ring does its usual gyrating dance and settles down flat on the "floor"--your ceiling--when the portal disappears.

Rist's messenger homunculus flits up to the ceiling and flutters around the shiny object, examining it from different angles, and his arbalester homunculus hops into the tunnel as ordered. Shortly thereafter, the messenger returns and perches on the artificer's shoulder. He receives the mental impression of a red-orange gem set in some sort of grayish metal...thing...buried in the rock above. The homunculus sends along a quick impression of the portal device back in the AGC with its large central topaz, with some questioning overtones.

[Ahus]

Lot

Seeing the initiative from the much larger Lonthra.

I was about to suggest that someone do that. Frankly I might need a bit of that when this is all over.
Lot says looking up at the gate.

Lot turns to the artificer Rist.
I'll scout ahead, why don't you try to figure outboard these gods forsaken things operate and how to get us home when the time comes. I do not want to be stuck here waiting for a ride home if we find that the inhabitants of this plane don't like us too much, and we need to make a run for it.

These homonuculi, will they only respond to you, or will you allow me to direct the actions of one whilst scouting?

Part of Lot's shadow bolts off after the arbalester. Lot disappears into the shadows in the cavern and sets off after the two in a ghostly silence.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Rist

Distracted by the mental images from his messenger Rist hardly hears the questions from Lot.
Hmm, yea... He stares up at the closing portal for a moment, before snapping back.
"Sorry! Yes, that sounds like a good idea, you go scout ahead. I'll tell my arbalester to listen to you as well, but please try not to break him, he's brand new." The artificer smiles and waves after the disappearing Lot.
"This man." He thinks sending the image of the scout to his homonculus. "Obey his commands until I tell you otherwise and keep me updated about what you see."
Turning back to the portal he studies it for a moment, but the faint light in the cave makes it hard to see any details.

Touching his headband Rist focuses for a short moment and mutters a few arcane words and the headband starts shining with a soft light.
"That should do it." He muses, as he walks over and stands directly under the portal.
"Now, how do you work...?" He wonders as he absent-mindedly pats his messenger on its tiny head.

Spoiler

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Infusing the headband with light, shines like a torch for 1 hour.
Knowledge checks to see if he can figure out how the portal works.
Knowledge Arcana: (1d20+14)[22]
Knowledge: The planes (1d20+14)[20]

[Theroc]

Nashia cursed verbally as she fell to the ceiling. "Blood and Ashes, why is up... down?" She muttered in mild frustration, pausing to adjust her equilibrium to the new paradigm, not quite moving into action as quickly as the others as events slowly filtered into her perception. The shift obviously was one thing she was NOT prepared for.

Spoiler

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OOC: Sorry for the delay, been sick and having family issues

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Lot

Rist's arbalester skitters along down the tunnel, pausing occasionally to make sure you're still following. You estimate that the tunnel is only about forty feet long, but the twists and awkward angles make it take longer than expected to reach the other end. When you do reach the exit, you discover the reason for the sounds you heard in the main chamber: the tunnel stops suddenly and opens into a great yawning void, and strong crosswinds ruffle your clothes and pelt it with pebbles as you approach the opening. The stone is flat for several dozen yards around the opening, at least, as if the opening is in the middle of a cliff face and you are looking down the side...except that you see no ground at all, the stone just ends.

Suddenly, a sheet of flame fills the air in front of you, stopping about a foot in front of your face but otherwise filling your vision. The heat is painful, but bearable, and moments later the flame dissipates. Once the afterimage is gone, you can make out several floating objects of various sizes in the distance, some large enough to be floating mountains or the like and some small enough to be flying creatures and everything in between. Small bursts of fire, waves of water, and chunks of stone pop in and out of existence as you watch. It seems the Churning Chaos lives up to its name.

Rist

Your examinations tell you that this gate ring is very similar to the one in the AGC back on Eberron. Of the few arcane runes you recognize, most relate to interplanar travel and the rest relate to wardings of various sorts; none give you any hint as to how to control the ring. All the other runes are beyond your comprehension; as one of the Zil elemental binders in the AGC put it, trying to figure out this device is like a Brelish schoolchild trying to work out a tensor calculus problem written in Aerenal, an analogy made even more appropriate by the fact that most of the artificers he was talking to had no idea what "tensor calculus" was.

One thing you do know, however, is that to everyone's knowledge the Eberron gate ring's gem-studded artifact from Xen'drik was unique; they didn't mention discovering any other such artifacts during their recon, and they seemed to believe that their artifact just opened gates willy-nilly. Given your new information that the gate ring is not, in fact, unique, the topaz embedded in the ceiling in the middle of the ring would seem to be another control artifact buried in the rock face. You would probably need to dig it out to work the portal device from this side.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Rist

The young scientist carefully notes the various runes and their positions before turning back to the rest of the group.
"It seems as if this ring is similar in construction to the one we just passed through. I'm not sure, but I suspect that there's a controlling device buried in the rock above us."
He points to the faint light shining in the roof.
"I can't promise that I can activate the portal even if we dig it out, but I suspect that the research team on the other side would be very interested in anything we can find out about the portal on this side."
Rist shrugs and looks back at the tunnel.
"On the other hand, we probably should scout ahead as well, and I don't have any useful digging equipment with me. I could probably improvise, but that would take a while."

[Ahus]

Lot
Stumbling back surprised by the shooting flame, Lot checks to see that his eyebrows are intact.
Lot then picks up a small stone from the floor-ceiling whatever near his feet and tosses it casually out of the cavern.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Lot

Your eyebrows are indeed intact and there isn't a single scorch mark on your clothes. For whatever reason, the flames didn't come close enough to burn you, though based on the shape of the opening you're sure it should have.

When you toss the rock outside, it sails gracefully through the air like any other rock...until its path starts curving slightly, and when the rock falls, its "down" is to your left.

[RecoveringGamer]

Lonthra was half-alert now after her small bout of anger, but now the disorienting location starts a churning motion in her stomach; she may get sick. "What is happening..."

[Theroc]

Nashia was really unsure how to proceed where down was up, and looked to the other two before attempting to follow without falling... up?

"This makes no sense. What in Xoriat is this place?" She grumbled, attempting to slowly follow Lot, not really sure how this sort of thing was even possible. Sure she could manipulate aspects of reality... but this place... just made no sense.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Lot

Your eyes follow the strange path of your thrown rock, and when it finally drifts/falls out of sight, you catch a glimpse of motion out of the corner of your eye. Three small streaks of elemental energy are quickly falling/flying your way, one ball of fire and two small whirlwinds. They are flying/falling as if their "down" is to your left, just like the rock did, but when they approach within about a dozen feet of you, your own gravity suddenly shifts and after a bit of a tumble you find yourself standing on what used to be a wall, now aligned with your visitors. They land on/fly up to the tunnel entrance and stop a foot or two in front of you. (Or perhaps they sidled up to the entrance, or matched altitudes, or something. The Common tongue was simply not built for describing variable-gravity situations.)

Suddenly, the fireball darkens and solidifies into what appears to be an eight-foot-tall, naked, genderless elf with flaming red eyes and hair; the whirlwinds speed up, gather plenty of sand and gravel from the rocky tunnel floor, and form it into what appear to be stocky, gray-skinned, solemn humans with glowing amber eyes. The elf tilts its head at you and smiles in what you assume was intended to be a friendly manner, and in an inquisitive tone it loudly asks, "¿φερτ qθοδ ηιc θτ θνθμ?"

Everyone Else

The sound of wind and fire coming from outside increases suddenly, then abates for a bit, and you notice a few flashes of light coming from where Lot went, though with all the twists and turns in the tunnel you can't make out any more than that. A strong voice, gentle yet hard-edged, echoes back to your chamber. Whatever language it's speaking doesn't sound familiar to Lonthra or Rist.

Nashia Only

Spoiler

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You're not quite sure with all the echoes, but you think the voice is speaking Celestial.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Rist

While waiting for a decision on how to proceed from the more experienced adventurers of the group Rist spends some time knocking loose some small rocks from the cave wall, to study later.
"This looks almost like granite you know, but it's a lot softer. He says, looking over his shoulder at Nashia. I've never seen it before, I wonder what it might be."

But before he can continue his examination the lights and voices from the tunnel distracts him from the rocks, which he absent-mindedly puts in a pocked before heading towards the tunnel.
"Perhaps we should make sure that Lot is allright, don't you think?" He hangs his warhammer in his belt and draws his crossbow and loads it. "Hopefully it won't come to combat, but it just won't do to not come back with any research at all."

[Ahus]

Lot
Lot recovers his balance on the wall/floor, and winces, slightly due to discomfort though primarily out of indignity. As the ?elf? takes shape before him Lot slowly raises his hand in greeting.

Lot closes his eyes for a moment as he tips his head slightly in the direction of the creature. Their mental connection established, Lot reaches out with his thoughts to the creature.

Greetings, denizen. My companions and I have come from another world on a mission of exploration and peace in the spirit of commerce.

Lot, then moves his back to the wall/ceiling/floor/area-on-which-he-was-previously-standing, and taking his eyes off of the new arrival, for but a moment, and hollers down the tunnel.

Hey all. We are not alone. They seem friendly but... GET OUT HERE.

[RecoveringGamer]

Lonthra doesn't say anything but moves to where Lot is, recovered from her disorientation.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Rist

Right after you hear the voice echo down the tunnel, you receive a mental impression from a very disoriented arbalester summarizing the last few minutes, which essentially describes lots of heat, lots of falling, lots of flashes of light, lots of confusion, and tentative caution at the appearance of something unknown.

Lot

The elf-thing tilts its head at you when you call back down the tunnel, and a moment later its smile broadens. "I offer you greetings, explorer and merchant. We are indeed friendly to you," it says in flawless Common, mimicking your accent perfectly as far as you can tell. Its voice is indeed overlaid with tones of warmth and friendliness, and it's hard to imagine a being with a voice this beautiful having violent intentions of any sort.



[I'll assume the rest of the party joins Lot here. If Nashia wants to do something first, she can put that in her next post.]

Everyone

When the other three join Lot at the opening, the three newcomers spend a moment appraising them. The stony being to the elf-thing's right leans over and says "ηαβετ μαγνθμ ετ κθαε εστ γιγασεβερρον αλιqθιδ vοcατθσ με σιμιλισ σεμελ." The elf-thing nods to Nashia in a friendly manner, then frowns slightly and replies "κθομοδο ετ cοαεqθαλισ πλθρεσ νεcνοσ νον ¿ηιc κθομοδο μιλλεννιι περvενιθντ?"

The elf-thing smiles once again and, very apologetically, admits, "I am afraid I do not recognize this language with which we are speaking. My companion believes you are from the plane of Eberron. Tell us, is your plane still ruled by...what were they...." It makes vague gestures with its hands, describing something humanoid and about Lonthra's height. At a murmured comment from the stony one, the elf-thing nods. "Ah, yes, goblinoids," it says brightly, its eyes flaring orange. "Is your plane still ruled by the Dhakaan Empire?"

Nashia

Spoiler

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The beings are definitely speaking Celestial. The stony one said "That female" (meaning you) "appears to be of celestial descent, and that one" (meaning Lonthra) "is, I believe, descended from giants; I was summoned by one of those once. They must be Eberronians." The elf-thing responded "Perhaps, but that plane has not been reachable for millennia; how could they have possible gotten here?"