Shilsen's Eberron SH (Finished - The Last Word : 9/20/15)

[Vorput]

::sidles up to thread::

::glances around::

::BUMPS::

 

[carborundum]

I'm so missing the story I started from the beginning again. Awesome how much stuff was foreshadowed back then!

How's it going with the writing/ playing?

 

[shilsen]

I'm so missing the story I started from the beginning again. Awesome how much stuff was foreshadowed back then!

How's it going with the writing/ playing?

If by writing you mean grading and working on my dissertation, then it's going great As for playing, we hit a, ahem ... climactic moment and are currently taking a break from this campaign and playing a 4e Eberron game for a while.

And I actually started on the next writeup this week, so hopefully I'll be done with it soon.

 

[Dilandau Kale]

By climatic moment do you mean a TPK?

 

[shilsen]

By climatic moment do you mean a TPK?

Not ... exactly

 

[Dilandau Kale]

I'll take that as meaning near TPK or all knocked out and taken prisoner.

 

[shilsen]

I'll take that as meaning near TPK or all knocked out and taken prisoner.

Let's just say - yes

And here (surprise, surprise) is an update:

* * * * * * * * * *
Some time later, and far, far away…

Honar sits across a table from the Angels, with two men beside him. One of them is heavily muscled and bearded, with the hilt of a large sword protruding above the back of his heavy plate armor. The other, clean shaven and younger, has the twin hilts of matched shortswords extending above his dark leather armor.

“These are two friends of mine – Mallum,” says Honar, indicating the older man, “And Prine. Mallum’s a member of the Shield and Prine is a scout who sometimes explores the Vast. Both of them are interested in accompanying you to Khesavuthir. I told them they would receive equal shares of what we find there. That’s correct, right?”

“Yes,” says Gareth, adding quickly, “But excluding the gear we lost on our previous visit.”

“Of course,” says Honar, before turning to his friends, “Right, guys?”

“Sure,” says Mallum, and Prine nods, before asking the Angels, “You’re sure this place is Khesavuthir?”

“Yes,” says Nameless. “That’s quite certain.”

“And there’s apparently some especially powerful dragon there?” continues the scout. “Honar told us about it, but I’d rather get the details from you. And anything you can remember about the place.”

The Angels begin to fill the trio of Io’lokari in on Khesavuthir and they listen intently, asking a question or two, until Six mentions that Xagygyrag uses and has knowledge of blood magic.

There’s pin-drop silence for a second and an amusingly similar expression of wariness descends on the three faces before the Angels. Honar says, “Excuse me? Blood magic? You didn’t tell me that this dragon possessed blood magic?”

“We didn’t think it was important,” says Gareth, glaring at Six. The warforged, inwardly amused at the trio’s response, doesn’t respond.

“It is important,” says Mallum, sounding worried.

“Why?” asks Luna. “What’s so special about this blood magic?”

Prine chuckles sardonically. “Ask the dragons. All we know is that they’re hell-bent on nobody using or learning about it. Io’lokar,” he gestures around him, “Was built by the survivors of Io’vakas, that ruin a few miles outside town. They destroyed the entire city and almost everyone in it because some damn yuan-ti in Io’vakas were investigating blood magic.”

“But we’re not trying to use blood magic,” points out Gareth. “We just want to destroy the evil dragon and recover our gear.”

“And whatever stuff we find there,” points out Luna.

The Io’lokari exchange glances and then Honar says politely, “Do you mind giving us a few minutes? I’d like to discuss this with my friends.”

“Of course,” says Nameless and the Angels leave, Gareth frowning deeply, and leave the room.

As soon as the door closes behind them, the paladin rounds on Six. “What the hell did you tell them about blood magic for?”

“Because they wanted all the information that we had about the dragon and the place. And it’s true,” says the warforged placidly. “Would you have preferred that I lie to them?”

“No,” grumbles Gareth with an ill grace. “I just don’t think that we should have brought the blood magic up.”

Korm, amused (as are the others) by Gareth’s attitude, chuckles. “Not as long as it gets in the way of getting all your things back, right?”

Gareth’s frown deepens, and his mood doesn’t improve as the others continue to tease him. But it significantly worsens when Honar and the others return to say, politely but firmly, that they cannot get involved in anything which even tangentially relates to blood magic – and just as politely but firmly urge the Guardian Angels to stay far away from it too. Honar, seemingly a little embarrassed at the current state of affairs, says that he and his friends would be happy to help with any other endeavor, but not one of this kind.

With Gareth doing even more complaining once they are gone, Six finally says, “I have a suggestion for finding out what we can do – or learn – about this.”

Some time later, the Angels are seated in a comfortable meeting room with Elabenna. Six explains to her in detail about the issue of blood magic at Khesavuthir and, before the collegiate diviner can get truly alarmed, that they have informed the Chamber, who said they would deal with it. “We wish to know what has been done about it and if any of our items were recovered from there,” Six explains. “Would you be willing to use a sending for us and ask Essirise?”

“Certainly,” says Elabenna, and she quickly casts the spell. When she completes it, she says aloud, “Greetings, Essirise. Am with the people from Khorvaire. They wish to know what has been done about Khesavuthir by the Chamber. Were any items recovered?” She recites the reply as she hears it – “Khesavuthir discovered and disposed of by the Conclave. Please do not pursue that matter. Chamber still discussing involvement in Khorvaire. Hope for positive results soon.”

Six turns to Gareth and says, “Well, Khesavuthir is clearly not an option any more.”

“And neither is recovering everything I lost,” says the paladin through gritted teeth.

“We lost,” points out Nameless dryly, “Though admittedly I lost little equipment and only my life.” Before Gareth can retort he says, “But I’ll be happy to find out where your things are if they’ve been removed from Khesavuthir. I do have a discern location prepared.” He glances at Elabenna. “Do you mind waiting while I cast it?”

“Not at all,” she replies, before adding with a smile, “I’m curious to hear what you discover. The information you have given me is valuable enough, but watching your … discoveries is very interesting too.”

“I know!” says Luna. “That’s why I’m going to be writing an advice column in the newsp…”

“Silence while I cast please,” says Nameless hastily. “I need to be able to concentrate.”

The shifter sticks her tongue out at him but subsides and the alienist focuses on his spell. Ten minutes later, he completes it and says, “Gareth, what item should I focus on?”

“How about my cloak of displacement?”

“All right.” Nameless is silent for a few seconds and then says, “It is in the tower of Nymbrixion, in the Light of Siberys, in Argonnessen.”

“Can we get it from there?” asks Luna, a second before Elabenna says urgently, “That’s the portion of Argonnessen where the dragon army, the Light of Siberys, is based. I strongly recommend not going there!”

Luna sighs and says, “Look – it’s quite simple. It’s our … well, his,” she indicates Gareth, “Stuff and he wants it back. Can’t you contact the dragons about that? Um, tell them we’ll give them a reward.” Luna rubs her nose thoughtfully. “You have to phrase it right and be all diplomatic and sh*t.”

Ignoring the snort of laughter from Korm in the corner, Elabenna nods slowly and says, “I can do that. Not right now, however, since I need to prepare the right spell.”

“Sure,” says Luna. “That’s nice of you. Now tell me something – what is the, er, etiquette when a dragon dies?”

“Pardon?”

Luna waves her hands and says, “In case we can’t get our stuff back easily, I’m thinking of other stuff we can get. Look at Gareth! He’s so pathetic,” she says, drawing a dirty look from the paladin, “And all demoralized. We can’t work with a demoralized paladin, so we need to get him more stuff. And he has a thing for dragon hide armor. He’s been fixated on it for a while. It’s a little unhealthy, I think, but I don’t judge other people’s fetishes.”

“What?”

Ignoring Gareth’s exclamation and the fact that Korm is now choking with laughter, Luna bashes on regardless. “So I wanted to know what happens with the skin, and the hoard, of a dead dragon. I just want some plain talk for once. So…?”

Elabenna waits until certain that Luna is done and then says carefully, “I see. What happens with a dead dragon and its belongings depends on who the individual dragon is, where and how it died, whether it has family, etc. Just like with any person in Io’lokar, actually. But if you want to obtain a dragon’s hoard, or skin, I recommend that you go and slay one of the rogues in the Vast.”

“Rogues?”

“That is what we call the dragons that dwell in the Vast. They very rarely have mates, only sometimes have followers, and often dwell alone. And they constantly fight each other and it is completely acceptable in Argonnessen for a rogue to slay another and take its territory and possessions. And if a non-dragon slays a rogue, so be it.” She hesitates, and then adds, “But I would highly recommend not moving around Argonnessen in dragon hide armor. Or dragon hide of any kind, to be precise.”

Nameless replies, “Thank you for this information and advice. We will consider it carefully. But now we have to take our leave.”

The Angels depart, only Six staying behind for a short time to talk to Elabenna about the Wayfinders Guild and his plans to bring some of them to Io’lokar. Elabenna is quite interested and excited at the possibility of meeting more travelers from Khorvaire, but she also mentions to Six to be careful about this, since the Masters of the city might not view it as positively as she does.

Once they are back in Nalyna’s home, where they are staying, the Angels discuss their next move. There is consensus, mainly so they can get Gareth to stop complaining, that they should pursue this idea of a dragon-hunt in the Vast.

“But we need to research this carefully,” says Nameless, “So that we don’t end up facing something like Xagygyrag again.” The other agree and decide to give at least a day and maybe two to research, taking the help of Honar, whom they again contact in this regard. He is quite happy to hear of this new plan and agrees to go along, as do Mallum and Prine. Nameless specifically mentions that he is interested in any dragon whose hoard might contain items which would help them against the aberrations in Khorvaire. “If we are going to do this,” he says, “Let’s make sure that it helps us in the long run.”

Once Honar departs, Nameless decides to again try out the crystal bowl recovered from the aberrations. After placing the chunk of warpstone near the bowl, the alienist makes mental contact with it. And once again, he sees the misty background, overlaid with a network of dots, representing the armies of Xoriat in Khorvaire, especially in the Shadow Marches.

This time, Nameless decides to focus on the ziggurat. The mist shifts slightly to place the area of the ziggurat at the center of his vision. Then the alienist concentrates further, sweating with the effort, looking first into the past and then into the future, attempting to work out both where the armies came from and where they are going. Intriguingly, Nameless quickly discovers that the armies did not start from the area of the ziggurat, the closest one emerging from a spot at least fifty miles away, and promptly moving away from it. In fact, though their movement seems somewhat random, Nameless can now see that the armies are slowly but surely spiraling away from the ziggurat’s location, and in the process pushing the inhabitants of the Marches inexorably away from it.

Having noted this, Nameless concentrates further, slowly shifting his gaze to Breland. There, as with the Shadow Marches, he notes both the current presence of the armies and their movements over the next few days. And then shifts to Droaam, Aundair, Thrane and Karrnath. The strain of concentration grows steadily and finally when he comes to Karrnath his control slips and the vision granted by the bowl gradually fades away. But not before Nameless has gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about the locations and plans of the aberration forces.

The alienist conveys what he has learned to the others, while making detailed notes of his discoveries. “It looks like there are no major attacks for the next three days at least, which gives us – and Khorvaire – a little time,” he says, before warning, “Though we should be prepared for the possibility that this information is flawed or compromised. The aberrations certainly know that we have this bowl, so whether they’re taking advantage of that in some way to feed me false information … well, I don’t yet know.”

“True,” says Six, “But this is still valuable, as long as those you give this to are careful with it. And trust us, which isn’t always the case.”

“Yes. Which is why I will take it to Jaela Daran tomorrow. If they don’t trust the Keeper of the Flame, they won’t trust anyone.” He smiles grimly. “And if we can help out with eliminating an army or two in Thrane…”

* * * * *
The next evening, the Angels are back in Nalyna’s house.

“I’m tired,” yawns Luna. “Why’d we leave this so late in the day?”

“Don’t look at me,” says Korm, jerking a finger at Gareth. “Someone here wanted to show off by taking out an aberration army for the Keeper.”

“I was not showing off!” says Gareth. “We were in Thrane and Nameless knew where they were, so it made perfect sense.”

“Yes,” agrees Six. “And finding the army exactly where the bowl showed Nameless that it would be helped confirm what he has discovered.” The warforged pauses thoughtfully. “Though it might have been showing off when you cut off the leader’s head and shouted, ‘I have the power!’”

Nameless, who had gone to the door, returns with Honar. The warrior greets the group and places a large parchment on the table. As he unfurls it, he says, “I found some likely targets for our dragon-hunting expedition.”

“Oh good!” says Gareth, rubbing his hands. “This should be fun!”

 

[Dilandau Kale]

Nice little between action chapter

Ps I suppose it would be a bit much asking for a rough outline of what happened?

 

[shilsen]

Nice little between action chapter

Thanks.

Ps I suppose it would be a bit much asking for a rough outline of what happened?

I'd prefer to just reveal it when we get to that part of the story. 6 more sessions to go.

 

[carborundum]

I'm still not getting enworld subscription updates, so this was a nice surprise!
It's great to read more of your SH, shil! Like coming home

Can't wait to read more, good luck with your dissertation! (What's the title, if it's not too secret?)