So the party was right, Praska was responsible. Does them having access to all those high level divination spells take some of the fun, or at least surprise, out of it for you?
Give the party's willingness to cast
commune,
augury,
moment of peril,
thought capture and
find the path, I consider it a bonus when I manage to keep
anything secret for any significant period. But I try to structure the campaign
assuming they'll learn things by divination spell. Also, the Black Circle's main schtick is divinations and the thwarting thereof, so I do have ready-made and plausible countermeasures when I want them. It's all good.
Hey, while I'm here: another smallish update. For the record, the Story Hour has now fallen about 30 runs and 2.5 years behind the actual game, which is still going but kind of entering the home stretch.
By which I mean we may only have 2-3 years left before it all ends.
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 295
Shadows of the Past
After the party exchanges celebratory words about the effectiveness of grapple-happy elementals, Kibi looks thoughtful.
“That was great, but weren't we here looking for the Cauldron? I thought our divinations told us Praska was in Kivia.”
“Good point,” says Dranko, grimacing. He's still a bloody mess from Praska's
harm. Morningstar heals him up, and she and Ernie top off the rest of the group.
Morningstar casts another
circle dance to divine the direction to Praska, and gets the same reading as last time: east. Also the direction is
not sharply up, which means she's either underground as they are, or extremely far away. Perhaps she teleported back to Kivia? Or maybe she never was in Kivia at all, and has some means of foiling the spell. Who knows?
Kibi, focused on the main goal, casts
locate object to find the Null Shadow Cauldron. He expects it to be shielded, and so is surprised to get a clear reading – off to the south-west, and downward.
“Huh,” he says.
“What do we do with it when we find it?” asks Morningstar.
“Give it to Abernathy so he can suck the magic out of it,” Dranko jests.
“Or store it in the basement with our other evil stuff,” Flicker laughs. “Heck, we can keep the other stuff inside it.”
Aravis rubs his hands together. “It won't be too much longer before I can cast
Mordenkainen's Disjunction.”
“Isn't that a bad idea?” Dranko asks. “I mean, if the thing's an artifact, couldn't you lose your powers?”
“That's a chance I'm willing to take,” Aravis answers. “Besides, what better way is there to follow in the footsteps of the Archmagi, than to lose all my powers?”
* *
There are other doors leading out of the ancient subterranean guild hall; Flicker checks the one most likely to lead in the direction of Kibi's spell, and finds it neither locked nor trapped. He gently pushes it open and the Company peers inside.
It's a fairly large space – maybe twenty-five feet on a side – with a number of tables and desks pushed up against the walls. All are empty save one in the far corner, upon which rests a quill pen and an overturned ink-pot. The last of the ink is still dripping onto a fast-drying stain on the stone floor. Before anyone can contaminate the scene, Morningstar strides over to that desk and casts
thought capture.
She recognizes Praska's mental voice:
Crap. Crap crap crap crap! How did they find me?
Interesting. So they had taken her by surprise. She casts a second time.
I bet that stupid halfling is going to... wait... dammit! Stop thinking!
Morningstar can't help but chuckle. And it makes sense, since Praska clearly knows and expects that Morningstar can cast thought-scooping divinations.
She casts a third time, and gets a follow-on thought to the first one.
...find me? Crap. Then there's a pause.
Son of a... the stupid cauldron! It must have been the cauldron that they found!
Considering that Praska might
also be able to cast
thought capture, Morningstar thinks very deliberately:
Yes, Praska. It was the stupid cauldron.
Dranko issues the following
sending to Tomnic via Ernie:
From Dranko: Praska is confirmed powerful Black Circle. Recommend that powerful, trusted priests apprehend and strip all her friends, including Marigold. Use vast caution, speed.
Tomnic replies:
Thank you. I will take that under advisement. Do you know where she is now?
Since Ernie only had the one
sending, Morningstar casts the next one as Dranko dictates:
Licking her wounds. In Kivia? Not sure. All divinations are suspect. She's as powerful as Morningstar, and you know what that means. Dranko. Feeling a need to convey some humility, but with only two words remaining, Morningstar appends:
Huh? Morningstar.
Tomnic's answer:
Morningstar, we know how powerful you are. You have a reputation. We will set to work on Praska, and double-check everyone inside the temple.
While
sendings are being composed and delivered, Flicker has been sitting and thinking hard.
“Which one of us do you think is the stupid halfling?” he asks out loud, but mostly to himself. While Ernie stammers modestly, Flicker thinks some more before standing in a hurry. “Ooooh!”
He starts investigating the perimeter of the room, carefully tapping on the walls and running deft fingers along the stone. While the others look on he does a completely thorough search of the space, and just when they think it's probably a fool's errand, he crawls under one of the tables. The rest of the Company hears a clear “click!”, and a small piece of stone swings inward to reveal a small cubbyhole filled with parchment.
“Ha!” they hear the halfling shout. “See? She was afraid I'd do that. Who's stupid now, Praska!”
The many pages of parchment are covered with scrawl, and Flicker stows them safely in his pack. He spends another few minutes completing his search but there's nothing else of note, and specifically no sign of the Cauldron.
With Kibi (and his ongoing
locate object) navigating, Flicker continues to take point on the exploration. There's a small complex of rooms and short hallways, and in one of these they find a table with various containers upon it: a lead bottle with a stopper; a small metal tub with a hinged lid; and three wooden boxes. Flicker checks them for traps, while others check for magic and evil. All tests are negative, so Flicker opens each one.
The bottle contains a thick liquid with an eye-watering vapor rising off of it. The alchemists in the group guess that it's contact poison, probably potent. Flicker hastily puts back the stopper. The metal tub is half-filled with mercury.
The first of the wooden boxes contains a handful of emeralds – their particular shade of deep green is highly reminiscent of the Null Shadows recently encountered. The second box contains about thirty carefully chiseled flakes from various types of gemstones: emerald, sapphire, topaz, even some diamond flakes. Flicker guesses that the flakes alone could fetch twenty-five thousand gold pieces if he worked the market.
The third box contains finger bones. Ew.
Another room en route to the cauldron is small and empty, but with a large black circle inlaid into the floor. It glows faintly of teleportation magic. Aravis casts
arcane lock on the door, in case something teleports in while they're searching.
Finally they find the room with the cauldron – a 20 x 20 square chamber nearly identical to the room in which the cauldron resided back at the Cosnor estate. The room itself is full of shifting shadows, and indeed is partially
in the Plane of Shadow. The Null Shadow Cauldron, source of so much suffering, sits in the center. There are no Null Shadows to be seen, but the taint of them is palpable.
Morningstar is prepared for this: she casts her second prepared
shadowblast into the room, and the shadows ripple and vanish. The Cauldron itself still squats there like a black iron toad. The tang of Null Shadows has been diminished but not eliminated; they can see a shimmering “lid” of sorts still across the opening of the cauldron. The thing is still a gateway to Shadow, but Morningstar's spell has, for the moment, sealed it off.
After some quick debate as to the best way to be rid of the thing, they decide to try the simple and direct method first. Aravis casts
greater dispelling on the cauldron, and it seems to work: at least it no longer detects as magic to Ernie.
Then, with the rest of the party backing out of the room in case of emergency, Aravis pegs it with a
disintegrate while its magic is suppressed.
Fwoosh. Just like that the Null Shadow Cauldron is reduced to metal filings.
“Can we do a
sending to Praska?” asks Ernie. “I want it to say:
“Destroyed your cauldron. Neener neener neener.”
Aravis suggests: “
You don't have to worry about us finding you through the cauldron any more.”
They spend another hour clearing out the rest of the place. There's nothing as interesting as what they've already found, though they do find Praska's bedroom and procure a few strands of hair from her pillow along with her spare Black Circle robe. There's also a standard Black Circle Ritual Chamber(tm), with the expected inlaid circles and mathematical equations written on the walls.
Finally, in another mostly-intact building that centuries ago was a large inn, they find signs that it was more recently inhabited by somewhere between 25 and 50 people. They appear to have all left a couple of years earlier. Morningstar goes to the biggest of the rooms and casts a final
thought capture.
I'm sure not going to miss this place. I hear our new headquarters is in a mansion in Kallor.
Ha!
So, with the Cauldron taken care of, the Company agrees on their next priority: find Praska.
...to be continued...