Adventure: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Multiverse
Assembled at the fortification gates that surrounded the Elucidate was the band of intrepid mages who had volunteered to accompany the expeditions planar expert. He'd stated that he sensed some planar magical residue leftover from their fight with the summoned horde and he wanted to take advantage of it. The prospect of other worlds was always an intriguing one, in Aleteros colleges those courses never failed to fill up immediately, and it was just as true for season magicians as it was for fledgling novices. That meant this assembled crowd was no surprise. Now they only awaited their planar guide.
It wasn't long before Taebor reemerged. Donning a rakish hat, leather coat, a far cry from mage robes, and hauling a large trunk strapped across his back, he looked ready to trek off into uncharted jungles. Taebor was another member of the expedition who was rather widely known. Tales of his extraplanar travels were widely shared and a wide variety of forms from academic articles to pulp novels. He had mapped one of the hells, warned of planar alignment that would have unleashed a scourge of dimensional locusts, sailed the astral seas, and a number of other exploits of varying levels of believability. It had been no surprise that the famed explorer was part of this expedition. That reputation didn't seem to have led to an ego though, the man had been quiet for the first few weeks of their arrival.
Now Taebor was in his element though, he seemed larger than life as he whistled a jaunty tune and waved his hat at the other mages. "Let's be off! I must say, it's a rare treat when an expedition has the added benefit of being close enough to home that we can pop back for tea at the end of the day!" With his trunk bouncing on his back, he hiked off down into the valley.
Magic was thick in the air, shimmering motes swirled about like pollen on a spring day. The atmosphere changed though as they returned to the battlefield that they'd left only hours before. The broken, burned and battered bodies of the horde still lay where they'd fallen, no one had seen it as their responsibility to clean up corpses. Unnatural twilight hung thickly in the air. Taebor didn't miss a beat for his part, stepping over bodies he marched over to the edge of the copse of trees from which the horde had emerged. "This seems to be the spot," he announced. The group was well aware of that fact.
Carefully setting down his trunk, Taebor unlatched the heavy brass seal and the trunk unfolded down the middle to reveal racks of delicate instruments. Looking glasses, crystals, rolled parchment and less readily identifiable substances. Taebor sorted through the materials, then pulled out a copper tripod. Extending the legs till it stood as tall as himself, he screwed a scope onto the top and dangled an amethyst on a string from the bottom. Then he placed an eye to the scope and assessed for a few minutes before he jotted down notes onto a pad he'd pulled from a pocket. "Huh, that's odd," the planar explorer softly commented.
Looking up, he called to the others, "It's good you came, the energies of this place are making the readings murky. I could use some assistance stabilizing the field. With these results it must interference..." he trailed off, his tone less certain than his words.
"So, I'll need two people to hold these tuning crystals on either side of this grove, then fire some magic into them, the stronger the magic you've got the better." He said holding aloft two fist sized milky white stones. Bringing out a great glass lens the size of a dinner plate, "Then I'll need someone to go into that grove and hold this, it'll focus our metaphorical eye, though it might sting a bit..." Rummaging through his trunk, Taebor pulled out a tightly bound scroll, he unrolled it onto the ground, "Now, images will start appearing, I need someone quick with their hands to be prepared to jot down what they see, this will be our map."
Looking over the group Taebor counted off, "That leaves us with a couple of extra bodies. It's good to have a reserve. The reserves are to jump in if they see someone else floundering, or if anything unexpected comes up. You never know when dealing with dimensional forces. Now, everyone take a deep breath, once we start we have to ride this out of we lose our window."
The Cartography Team
OOC: Decide amongst yourselves who will fill what role!
Attuners (2) - These members will be powering the attuning crystals. They require 3 Potency worth of magic to function per round, each spell you cast into the crystal will use your potency to determine how charged the crystals are.
Lens Handler (1) - This individual will be holding the lens within the grove that will peer into the cosmos. Taebor said this job is going to hurt.
Mapper (1) - This individual will draw the images that are called up to do the actual mapping. It will require speed and precision. You'll roll 1d6 per Finesse you possess, on a 5 or 6 you're successful at diagramming what you see.
Reserves - For any mage who does not have a specified role, you may step in and aid one of the other positions if they should fail a check, run out of magic, or take an uncomfortably large amount of damage. You determine where you'll jump in to help. You can only take over one of the positions if the original holder asks to be relinquished of their duties, they then become a reserve and you take their spot.
Note: Anyone with the utility specialization rolls and extra 1d6 if a roll is required, counts as an extra potency for charging purposes, and takes less damage from handling the lens.