Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [KQ] 'Raelf (GMOAB 4.5) Ground Control to Major Tom Message-ID: From: hutch@hfglobe.intel.com (Stephen Hutchison) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 02:47:28 GMT [ADMIN] Note that the 4.5 number assigned to me doesn't mean that the 4.3 or 4.4. articles ever existed. It's Just A Post, You Should Really Just Relax... ---------- 'Raelf collapsed to one knee, still holding the mind-fog spell, and the protective circle. But he was beginning to flicker, visibly, fire, water, air, earth, nothing - and around him, the only energy sources were hostile, and taking them in was the same as giving himself to that noxious mass in the tub. And all around, the Mother's forces were preparing for their final victory. Kron put one foot out, poised over the pool of flesh... [Time 15:00 - Parsely, Thyme, Rosemary, and oh yeah, ...sage ] A butterfly made of steel and lace appeared before him, landed on his head. Flick. FIREFIREFIREohyeahFIRE AIR WATER EARTH EMPTINESS. 'Raelf stood, staff once again at ready. The mental fog wall thickened, the protective circle faded into visiblility again. The butterfly-construct had carried enough uncontaminated energy for 'Raelf to copy the planeshift template in his staff, in order to bootstrap in a trickle of power from outside. A trickle, though, just enough to offset the drain caused by the effort of holding the screening so many minds. Then using the trickle, a bit more, enough to feed the staff with the energy to sustain the physical shields. But then the pressure resumed, and ... (At the Mages' Guild the front door froze half-open. The elevators stopped moving. The gateway energies which allowed the structure to hold its extra dimensions began to weaken, and the building began to vibrate like a tuning fork, at C# above high C. At the WorldGate, Traveller the Gold Elf saw the flames of the Gate Beacon beginning to ebb, and quickly stoked them up, bringing the massive extraplanar energies of the GateKeepers onto the Web. Somewhere, where physical laws were different, a black hole began to evaporate at a slightly higher rate as gravity-siphons pulled energy from it. The GateKeepers' Web absorbed the powerloss with relative ease.) His staff was at 1/3 charge. He could create at most two more serious effects, before he was forced to boogie out of here. There, Sandar Tol was using his warping powers on someone, hard to see with that thing in the pool glaring so brightly. Ah. ...Sage? He'd made it, after all - 'Raelf wasn't sure whether he should rejoice or despair - No way could ...sage stand toe-to-toe with this creature, unprepared, unless he'd learned more than just a few things. And there, that looks like the illithid they'd met in the drug warehouse, and some black-souled entity of no particular identifying characteristics, both attacking - no, they were both preparing to flee. Sensible, if craven. Hmm. Timeflow seemed to be warping - Mother is using too much of her power and events were becoming nonsequential. Time to play games with Sandar Tol, then, grab the timeflow and wrap it around him thus ... <> ... There. Recursive memory loop, ought to hold him long enough for ...sage to get clear. We hope. (Sandar Tol suddenly found himself remembering his entry into Great Mother, but backwards, then the entry of Cheyenne, and then backwards, and then Aa'a, then backwards, then Seer, but that hadn't happened yet, and >.. 1001000200230 restart 010329 re 10s, happy zombies march into Mother, feed feed feed ... {arrividerci, Black Goat you bastard, I'm going off to Mother} Step 1 go at 100900000090000000. SandarTolRemembersMommieDearest, Part 45. Fireflies began to spawn from his forehead. Ideas leaked out with each of the blinking bugs. The weaker members of the mind started to pounce, sensing weakness... --IA IA SHemNyuMiggurAthM'euNigguTherummnIaIaIa-- Sandar realized that somehow he had lost a few minutes of time. But Moderator was pointing out the albino drow, and near him that annoying priest had gotten out of his womb in Mother's substance. He gathered strength from the reserves allocated to him, and began the spell of twisting as the foolish drow dared to speak the Name... 'Raelf considered the situation. This was an unmitigated disaster. In fact, it might be good to get going. He started looking around for the rest of his group. There, the animated disasters Mother had spawned were all down for the count, but at a high cost - where the hell was everybody? Didn't see Mother eat anyone but Seer... "MARCEL! PREPARE FOR EVAC! BRING IN THE WOUNDED!" Then Kron did something drastic at the pool. 'Raelf fell to his knees under the aura of psychic shock, barely holding the mind wards in their place. The protective circle collapsed around him.