Invasion of Mori - IC [3.5][CE/NE][planar]

As soon as Rose has helped dispatch whatever is left after his fear is lifted, the tiefling seems to fill with rage. In what might be an impressive display of physical prowess, the tiefling jumps straight up with a shout. As he lands, Rose smashes his hands into the ground and lets out an explosive howl. The ugly tiefling's contorted face make him look even worse than normal.

"DAMMIT! What in the Nine Hells was that!?! I will NOT do that again!"

A cloak, a ring, and a wand show up as magical. The wooden wand is recognizable as the one that discharged acid arrows early in the fight. The worm's robe was ruined in the fight, but though it was expertly made, it is not magical. A few arcane scrolls survived as well.

The rubble left over from the iron golem gives off faint traces of residual magic, though Silhouette recognizes them as such. Something strikes Snargle as unusual about a surviving fragment of the statue which contains a strange glyph inlaid in a different metal. The gargoyle finds the iron itself to be the only thing of use: it could probably be melted down for weapons, though he is no longer with a tribe in need of simple manufactured weapons.

The altar itself radiates a powerful and terrible evil, though something about it is not quite abyssal.

Snargle picks the strange metal up out of the debris. "Anybody know what this is?"

Gabriel manages to identify the substance as thinaun, a rare metal with the property to capture souls.

Silhouette gathers up the cloak, wand, ring and scrolls and wraps them all in the cloak to make a tidy bundle. She then inspects the altar and frowns at it.

"This needs to be destroyed."

A minute later, smoke rises from the twisted wreckage of the now-demolished altar. Revealed underneath is a small recess in the rock, from which you draw several gems and a pouch of freshwater pearls. One of the gems, a brilliant green emerald, is magical. A few vials of liquid and a magic shortspear are also hidden in the compartment.

OOC: Taking 20 for you, because I get the feeling people want to move on.

(hee, yar...and with adamantine weapons, it wouldn't take long. )

Silhouette adds the new goodies to the wrapped package.

"I think that will be it unless we want to tear down the walls."

She pauses and says, "Which we don't, Snargle. Not now."

Intermission

The return to the Lair of Shadows is uneventful. The kaorti are busy establishing a cyst a respectable distance away from the portal (at Roillard's insistence), the kobolds have been questioned for knowledge of any treasures or loot, then turned into undead or cleaned away, and a small forge hums as Hanaav gets busy churning out items to order.

"Excellent; that is one thing less to worry about. We have probably set it back 30 years," Roillard notes with satisfaction. "I do not doubt your thoroughness, but I would never assume such a being dead permanently. In any case, by the time it recovers, we should have a firm grip on the world.

"Tell me," he continues, "were there by any chance any notes that you found? Perhaps a ledger? I am certain that their clan had considerable financial assets, and I would like to double check just to make sure we have taken them all. The last message from our dark lord was quite insistent that we help pay some of his mercenaries."

[sblock=Gabriel, Silhouette]There seems to be something a little unusual about Roillard's request - he has not been this forward in the past. It isn't clear if he has some ulterior motive or if he's just worried about not being able to send the necessary funds.[/sblock]

After some confusion, it transpires that the enchanted emerald gem is itself an encoded recording device. Roillard offers to take it and decode it, promising to inform you of the results as soon as he has them.

OOC: Everyone gains 13,000 XP. The gems and pearls were worth enough for you to send back some and retain 30k gp for each of you. Among the items to divide are:
a wand of acid arrow (47 charges),
a cloak of resistance +5,
a ring of fire resistance 20,
3 scrolls of Magic Circle vs. Chaos,
one scroll of Dismissal,
two rings of protection +2,
one ring of spell storing,
one potion of barkskin +5,
one potion of haste, and
three potions of cure serious wounds.

Everyone can now readjust their characters with new items, etc. Remind me if I listed any items during the adventure that I did not include above.

Silhouette politely tells Roillard, "No need to trouble yourself. Since Gabriel and I will be held responsible for the shipment of goods and treasure through the gate, we'll analyze the gem's contents. If there's anything there that concerns your cult, we will of course provide you with a full accounting."

"In any event, I think it's time we set an eye on our larger goals. Unless, of course, your cult is threatened by any more tribes of vermin?"

She selects one of the rings of protection, the wand of acid arrow, and the ring of fire resistance as her "booty of choice."

(That doesn't mean it's final, of course. If anyone else wants any of that, let me know. Those are just the things that jumped out at me as most desirable for her. Mori, as far as the emerald goes, what would be needed to decode it? She can make Use Magic Device rolls to activate it blindly, for example...and if Gabriel is helping, or there are scrolls, we can use Identify on it.)

Roillard blinks. "Of course," he says, "that would make sense given your tasks. Well, I will be in my quarters if you need me for anything. Please keep me informed."


After several hours of study, Silhouette and Gabriel manage to decipher the message in the gem:

Gem Journal of Kirris the Black

Tenth of Secondmonth. Picked up a job for the Lady of the Black Hills. I don’t like it, but we need her money and her association, and it’s true that now is the best time. Still, who knows what Roillard still has hidden up his sleeve?

Twelfth of Thirdmonth. The latest batch of pups is coming along nicely. Divinations reveal that some have the gift. We will not be without warriors and sorcerers in the next generation.

Fifteenth of Thirdmonth. We have finally found the Tomb of Theophilus! As suspected, it lies in the Black Hills. We may be able to retrieve the Black Rage within a month. Our association with the Lady is paying off. We should organize a strike force to deliver on our promise before she grows impatient.

Sixteenth of Thirdmonth. Debacle. Total and utter failure. Though we killed one of the demons and stole its weapon, I lost the entire strike force. They knew the risks, but the tribe cannot afford to keep losing trained warriors in this fashion. Well, we are better on defense. Perhaps they will come for us and further thin their numbers – what then? I have no real interest in Roillard’s Lair, but I would be forced to counterattack after a successful defense.

Ah, Roillard, how did it come to this? To think that of the original group you and I would be left in the most pitiful straits, fighting tooth and nail over such a ridiculously small patch of land. Ikagenni would be amused, if his intelligence network were good enough to pick up word of this. No, that is not quite right – what you truly have is not the land, but the gateway in it. And what I have is not really land, but rather the feelings and future of a tribe. Each of us pins our hopes on small things.

I suppose I can’t expect you to understand. You never did like associations like that. Even within our little circle – Ikagenni the White, Roillard the Grey, and Kiriss the Black – regular contact was too much for your antisocial tendencies in the end. I could see that, though what you did to Lirre was abominable. She was one of us. Talnen had it coming: he was of little use and would certainly have opposed our plans for power. But why Lirre? Why not Ikagenni? Even now, that smug bastard has grown larger than us both! Why did you not kill Ikagenni back then, instead of Lirre, who posed no threat?

Maybe that’s it. In the end, we can’t understand one another. I wonder if you will come with this group of planar outsiders, or if you will use them as you treated all the others. I suppose it doesn’t really matter.