Shipwrecked!

[spiderwrangler]

"By Tempus' blood!" Darfel stands in bewildered amazement, looking down at where small golden scales lightly trace across the backs of his hands. He pushes up his sleeve and sees them continuing up his forearms, growing larger as they do so. A look of concern crosses his face, as he drops his axe and shield and turns his back on the group, fumbling at the closure to his pants. He grows still before securing things again and turning back around. "The scales... they go... EVERYWHERE..."

[M0rtimer]

"Ugh..." Is Jasper's only comment as he eventually awakens, more concerned with the groups surroundings when he eventually comes to than the strange sensation he experienced- One others seem to have gone through as well, although likely not exactly the same...

[Jacon]

Cranberry eyes widen when he hears Derful and he twists so his back is to the group and starts rummaging through his robes. When he turns back his eyes are wide and fearful.
" Your right Derful! This is horrifying!"
Cranberry starts to mutter arcane words and wiggle his fingers with one hand while another opens the belt of his pants so he can peer down. Whatever spells he's trying to cast don't seem to have much effect as his mutterings gets more and more frustrated.

[Theis2]

The fire dissipates around you, leaving you unharmed, but changed, some more than others. A few having grown scales and react to it in horror, while others (Henry) realise they have grown wings while the fire engulfed them. The biggest change however would be Ala. She's completely gone and in her stead, a large egg is lying on the ground. Besides the changes, you all feel a bit more powerful.

► Show Spoiler

Did not expect that reaction to the scales

[M0rtimer]

"That's more information than I cared to find out..." Jasper murmurs, getting up, seemingly somehow unchanged by the fire... Spending but a fleeting moment at watching an old wizard cast spells down his trousers before quickly averting his eyes, although quite frankly it was a moment he wish he could have been spared. The next moment he's watching Henry though, muttering a mild "What the fuck." at seeing his wings, his curiosity wondering if they were actually functional... Before noticing that they seem to be missing someone in the party- And the egg.

"...Guys, what the fuck happened to Ala?"

[thinkslogically]

[OOC: I can feel a new most-terrible pixel avatar coming on, but I can't decide if it'll be Cranberry or Darfel...

I've probably got time over the next couple of days to get some pixel doodles done. Do you guys want to update your character descriptions to include scale-patterns?]

[spiderwrangler]

Darfel whips his head back and forth, looking for his fellow holy warrior. "Ala!! Wait, is she trapped in this egg thing?! "

He knocks on the egg. "Ala, you in there?! Don't worry, we'll get you out! Stand back guys!"

Darfel lifts his axe over his head, ready to bring it down on the egg.

► Show Spoiler

You saying that's not the first thing you'd check if you were suddenly covered in scales?

[M0rtimer]

"Don't smash it!" Jasper yells out as he sees Darfel's intentions- "Fighting is not always the answer... At least not when it's towards a friend that might kill her!" Jasper says, shooting to action himself... In a far less destructive manner- Simply inspecting the egg, trying to see what he can deduce from it... From afar at first, but soon gets closer, if only to try and... Listen?

Still, even with whatever his findings might be, he can't already help to come to a certain theory... Which he voices during his inspection.

"Alright. So I have a theory. Albeit you are not gonna like it..."

"It boils down to the fact that we are idiots."

"This statue is likely linked to the red god... And he might be more of a god than we have first thought- Enough power to grant these... 'gifts'." Jasper begins, trying to shake away the image of scales in pants.

"And sure enough, we beat his trial, and then we receive our rewards... Except one of us is vehemently against him. And, well..." Jasper says, vision trailing off towards what... Is probably Ala..?

"... I suppose it's not foolproof. After all, we got more than one god worshipper here-" he says, vision briefly turning to Darfel- "Although, Ala was a paladin... Considering as far as we know the red god is evil, so... He probably wouldn't have been as much in favor of that."

"But I suppose that ultimately, whether my theory is right or wrong doesn't matter. What does is her current state, and how we'll fix it."

"...To be quite honest, I'm not sure if I do."

"But Ala mentioned we weren't alone here, now, didn't she?"

"Guess we'll have to get some answers from whoever they were."

[Jacon]

When Cranberry finally looks up and notices Ala is missing he stops what he's doing and rushes over to the egg and starts to gently knock on the egg while looking panicked.
"Ala?" He says outloud while knocking. Finally he sits down looking very dejected searching his mind for any arcane knowledge that might tell him what happened.

" We need to get our paladin back Lurtz, if the red god is connected to this we need to search out his worshippers and beat an answer out of them about how to fix this."
He says while gritting his teeth

[M0rtimer]

"That is what I'm proposing." Jaspers says, long having grown tired from correcting the old man on his name... Although to be honest, he probably should- Maybe next time he goes psychotic he won't think he's a threat to be killed, then.

"And I consider it very likely that whatever Ala saw going into hiding might be just that."

"So... Where did Ala say she saw it again..?"

[GathersIngredients]

Henry moans and groans painfully and tries to reach his aching back. "Holy shitballs, I got wings! It wasn't just some weird dream."
He stands up with visible effort and moves them about and stretches them experimentally. "So much for being inconspicuous..." he mumbles under his breath.

When they others point out Ala is missing, and a weird egg in her place, he frowns and joins the group that is gently poking at it and generally trying to get any sort of answer from it. "Perhaps the dragon god 'gifted' her a new life, to be reborn so she would get another point of view onto him?" Henry muses out loud.

[spiderwrangler]

Darfel lowers his axe... still not entirely buying the 'not everything is fixed by fighting' bit, but trusting his traveling companion enough to let him try whatever handwaving he wants to do first.

"I feel full of power I can use to bring glory to Tempus... if this dragon god thinks he can lay claim to me, he'll find Tempus was there first, and he'll get an axe up his scaly ass!"

[Theis2]

Upon realising that Ala is gone, they do exactly as other adventurers would do and starts touching and knocking on the egg. One by one, each group member gets absorbed by the egg, meeting Ala on the other side where they are suffocating slowly, but surely.

You poke and prod at the egg, but nothing happens. The only thing the wizards can really deduce from the egg is that it have some draconic characteristics, but nothing that really discerns it from one type of dragon over another. The closest to an answer of how this could happen might be a special form of a polymorph spell?

Looking around you for the unknown creature, you can't see it anywhere in this large empty room. The only thing you see here is the now empty bowl and gigantic shimmering dragon. And of course the empty hallway where you came in.

[M0rtimer]

Jasper falls silent, seemingly contemplating potential methods of action... They've been in this situation before- Knowledge of a hidden door, what they need behind it... But no method of actually opening it. And last time, they actually found the door, but that wasn't a big help- Who knows where to even start searching now..? Perhaps looking for the door would be worth a shot, but given bad experiences he simply continues his thought process for now...

Admittedly it wasn't exactly the same case... Maybe it could be convinced to come out? Unlikely- Even assuming it could currently hear them, it doesn't sound like it'd have a reason to come out given the party's current demeanor.

Maybe it could be... Threatened to come out..? If it was a follower of the red god- Of which Jasper was quite sure it would be- It wouldn't want them to defile it's statue. Although that plan is quickly scrapped- For luring it out in such a way would probably not exactly make it amiable... Plus, defiling the statue of a creature that has already managed to do all this was probably a bad idea.

It'd probably be safe if it was just one of them, though... It'd probably have to be Henry. After all, Darfel could...

Jasper seems to snap to a sudden realization as he perks up- Turning vaguely in the direction of the cleric.

"Darfel, I feel the need to apologize. I think you may have been correct- Smashing the egg may indeed be the solution."

"But before you do, one question I need to ask."

"You do still have that staff with the raise dead spell prepared, right?"

[spiderwrangler]

"Uh, I think so... I tied it to my pack.", he shrugs off his pack and loosens the staff.

"I'm all for smashing things, but if you're thinking that it might kill her... I've not ever raised anyone from being dead before... almost dead, sure, but not real dead. Before we do that... do you think we need to hatch her?"

OOC: Anyone have any knowledge about how to tell what kind of egg this is? If from a dragon, can we tell what type?

[Theis2]

You weren't able to discern it from one dragon type or the other. You can't see wether it's due to lack of knowledge or if it's not from any normal dragon type.

[M0rtimer]

"Well, honestly, I don't know what it will be do- Although there should only be a certain set of possibilities."

"Best result: smash the egg, Ala falls out, everyone is happy!"

"Worst result: smash the egg, ala dies,we resurrect and we get an egg again."

"Intermediate result would be that we have to ressurect, but get Ala back."

"...Actually, I guess the actual worst result is that Ala HAS been reduced to some form of... Fetal stage... But if that's the case, the question to ask is whether or not this egg would even still be Ala." Jasper says, briefly falling silent, before continuing.

"I had... Dismissed the idea of hatching it. Mostly because we have no idea how to- Or how long that would even take. Dragons are immortal... How long would we have to wait to be sure? A week? Months? Years? How do we hatch it? Do we have cranberry sit on it? Do we throw it in a fire?"

"If only there was someone that could help us with that." Jasper says, briefly pausing, before repeating in draconic- Just in case.

"Not to mention it'd allow to finish whatever has started... And if my theory is correct, it was not a gift given with best intentions."

"...But yes, perhaps we should first look for alternative solutions."

"There WAS someone else here. Someone who likely can tell us more. Either it was a mage that can teleport, or there's a secret passage hidden somewhere her- Let's look for that first. If that fails, let's see if we can talk it out by talking draconic."

[spiderwrangler]

"Fire would probably only work if it was a dragon that... did fire, right? Wait, there was someone else here? If you want me to smash it and be ready to use the staff, raise your hand."

[GathersIngredients]

Henry raises his hand... to scratch his head. "I really don't know what to do here. How about we all look around and try to find whoever Ala saw, first? Smashing the egg seems a bit drastic. Also, we don't know that this egg IS Ala. Maybe she was kidnapped by whoever else was around and replaced by the egg to throw us off the trail. Or the egg is a booby-trap and will explode, if we smash it."

Henry will look around to try and find the mystery observer, and turn on his new nifty dragon aura to help with spot checks.

[spiderwrangler]

"Yeah... suppose you're right. The staff is pretty powerful, I think she could be dead a week or more and I'd still able to use to bring her back. So no rush... unless she's suffering."

He scowls at the egg.


((OOC: We have eleven days to find Ala's corpse. ))

[Theis2]

You don't see anyone or anything new inside the cave or right outside it. Spending a lot of time searching the walls doesn't reveal anything either.

[M0rtimer]

Jasper sighs... Only one last thing to try- Speaking very loudly in draconic, knowing that to be the language the creature would most likely speak... Although also knowing he was not exactly a manipulator, or a bluffer. So instead... He'll just have to speak truthfully.

"Hello there. I'm not sure if you can hear me- We know that someone was within these halls, but no idea as to whom, or for that matter if you could hear us at this instance... But if you do- Please do hear me out."

"You've likely heard some of my colleagues rather frustrated at recent events... Likely not in a friendly mood. However, I realize that this anger is... Improper. Yes, we are confused by the current state of one of our friends- But ultimately, I accept that we took this challenge upon ourselves. We are responsible for these blessings. I for one, like mine... But regardless- I promise no harm will come to you."

"We only wish to ask for information. For we do not know what blessing was bestowed upon one of our friends. And we might not recognize it for it's true potential. And given no idea of what it might be... We might be forced to act rashly."

"You would not want a gift of your god to be wasted, would you..?"

[spiderwrangler]

Darfel gives Jasper a quizzical look. Wizards.

[Theis2]

The seemingly empty room still doesn't feel Jasper is worthy enough to actually respond to him.. Who would have guessed that you might get to miss the weird cave where you got slapped around so much. At least the slaps came with an answer to your questions, unlike the eerie silence here.

[M0rtimer]

"...Ala, wobble once if you can hear us. Don't wobble if you can't hear or can't wobble."

"..."

"Well, I'm out of ideas. I guess that means we go back to plan smash egg?"