c02s04e09 - Inevitable Prison of the NetherSpace day 157 Trapped within the Inevitable Prison on Mechanus, The team seeks a way out. The demons say that the mountain is a waste of time, so naturally, that's the next destination. There's no other features in this gray space. the atmosphere seems to just fog out long distances other than the mountain ahead. Whose left of the Pirate Crew who came along? stuart the steward janet the notary gary the skald These three scooby doos hop on the back of Princess to keep out of trouble and gain some time on the way to the mountain. The ground we've seen is already incredibly small, sand grain gears tumbling together, but as the team approaches the mountain the ground gear churn more visibly; becmong like coarse sand that grabs at the feat of walking travelers, but not impeding. A small wind pics up, pusshing aay from the mountain. The only form of atmosphere notable in the captive space. soon the ground has an incline that continues to escalate... as the grade increases so do the size of the gears appearing among the churning gears.. the steeper the incline, the more the churning gears grab at whatever touches the surface of the mountainside. the air is thick and foggy as the heros climb-- gouts of increasingly strong wind blows aside thick clouds of distortion, revealing more distant nothing ness. the grade gets steep enough that climbing checks become necessary. Princess starts having trouble and takes a bad step, tumbling down the mountain side.the air condenses to drops of radience and begin dripping off skin. This triggers radiant damage and cling to anyone who flies, floats, or hops away from the surface The radiant drips are easy to disperse like bubbles and raindrops, but it is a constant nagging. Climbing further, the gears churn deeper and deeper, requiring more movement speed expended simply to stay above the grinding. The wind continues to grow in power, galing down the side of the mountain. At one point Gary slipped up and fell prone, getting ground half to death before Frank could fish him out of the grinding quicksand mountain. Princess isn't properly built to climb and eventually makes a terminal error- falling from too far to survive but worth noting.. she doesn't disperse. the dimensional anchor prevents her summoned body from disappearing and lays at the base of the mountain, ground into mulch. Further up, there's a radiant light at the pinnacle of the mountain. more like a volcano. The wind blows out of the top, pushing out radiantly-charged gears that tumble down into rivulets of radiant AoE til it cools into gearblocks that frank uses to sit on; summoning a flying princess triparrotops. The wind and gravity push these gearpads down the mountain until the gears churn up the locked gear clusters. Frank realizes since it's a volcano spewing up gears.. it's gotta be hollow; Frank lets princess get ground up and pulled into the mountain side in a cloud of blood... a few minutes later it spews out the top a bloody mess, tumbling down the side of the mountain, attracting radiant drops before the very dead mount flops to the bottom where the first princess was ground up and eventually sank into the churning gear tarmac. Eventually Frank drags the scooby gang to the top of the mountain-- misty stepping past the radiant damage at the very top -- finding a very much fabricated metal scaffold that rings the top of th emountain like an access port 200 feet across-- spouting winds at hurricane speed. In the center of the storm hangs a radiant ball of energy motionless in the middle of the windstorm. Staring down into the maw of the volcano.. its just gears being pushed out. The whole structure is some form of a Torus.. churning old gears inward, wind pushing the gears outward in a donut-like cycle. The winds are mean by nature-- forcing Frank and the scooby doo gang to sense regret in bad choices, regret in imulsive decisions.. Frank has a lovely moment reliving the taste of the sandwich he was eating when he came downstairs to fid his family and friends slaughtered. He's never been able to enjoy sandwiches again. Very emo introspective stuff. in time Frank can make out a surface on the radiant energy center... a series of toggles cover the orb like circuit paths. Frank cannonballs off the side of the volcano to plunge into the gears.. churning through to the collow wind intake pipe taht's feeding the prison space. the wincs punish his mind, dealing psychic damage every time he has a new train of thought-- his mind racing, escalating the damage taken-- the winds hurl him outward, upward from the volcano like shredded dead princess was-- but a lucky grab and he has a hand on the insanely hot orb of radiance, burning is hands while he grabs at little toggle switches for some sort of texture he can grab at with his fingers. Once he's got a grip and his wits back, Frank experiments. pushing the toggles around, he realizes the wind's flow is controlled by this orb, and he jacks it up, throwing the wind off kilter at a dangerous speed-- with enough discord the whole structure goes PoP like a balloon bursting. The gears come grinding together, shredding the environment as the structure is propelled by the psychic winds until the gears spin themselves apart, leaving Frank and the scooby gang hanging on for their lives to the metal scaffold that is bent out of shape horribly, but otherwise survived the shredding construct, now adrift in the NetherSpace. As the gears disperse in the weightless environment, the light source is a distant, cold light feeling "down". Floating adrift are mountain-sized chunks of gray earth. On the nearest mountain, a massive beelt-like construct the size of many city blocks Chews at the side of the nearby mountain; massive grinding gearbox teeth shredding the earth-- a long cool silver string like line of spider silk stretching forever from the spinnerettes of the beetle construct to the cold void far below. Other mountain masses hang in the Netherspace further from the void than the current chew toy. The massive beetle has long pipes along the side like engine exhaust.. the pipes all end with massive gear orbs identical to the one the team was trapped in moments ago themselves... three on both sides, minus the one destroyed by Frank. Also-- swarms of inevitable constructs perform tasks along the beetle's body as well as on the mountain surface-- too distant to see clearly-- swarms of inevitable orbs scuttle across the surface rock beneath the beetle grinder -- exchanges of radiant and black energy flick back and forth across various nooks and crannies across the gray stone surfaces. The absent prison Frank liberated is drawing lots of attention now from Inevitable drones clustering around the broken connection as the wind continues to pour out into the Nether. Fleeting images of various creatures now freed as well make haste away from the Inevitables while Frank and the scooby gang get used to moving about; while also geting some distance from the scene of excitement along the beetle's flank. . the shredded mountains have "crumbs" that are hanging in the nether.. one such landmass is a shattered temple that a murder of imps have taken interest. They're writing on vellum scrolls all these diferent mathematical circles and etches still visible on the broken floor, pillars and crumbling walls of the drifting temple crumb. Frank shoos them away and takes the scrolls. He also finds the radiant toggle orb from the prison cel. Now adrift in the Nether between planes of existance... the dimensional anchor surely has been destroyed with the gear prison-- the team can try to head back home. <<end of session> 1/3 to level 15 day 157 in the nether stuff obtained --------------- Inevitable prison radiant toggle sphere imp-drawn magic circles Stuff lost -------------- nothing.