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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8235784" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 37: Library Research and Dinner With the Izir</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p>Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid</p><p>Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)</p><p>Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)</p><p>Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)</p><p>Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p>(Note: This session was held on Discord.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>11 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 162)(immediately after)</p><p></p><p>Immediately after the huge fight with All The Spectres, we started searching the abandoned warehouse. Other than the broken summoning circle, with five bodies around it, there’s nothing here. The circle was similar to but not the same as the one in the basement of the Last Doorway. This circle seemed to be trying to summon some of the power of Orcus, to get the power to do something -- that power involved being turned into undead (whether the people using that knew it or not). The one in the Last Doorway was to summon Orcus himself, or at least a powerful avatar.</p><p></p><p>We went to the guard house. On the way, we talked about the fact that there were bound to be lots of dead people around -- those spectres left bodies behind.</p><p></p><p>At the guard house we found the same sergeant on duty.</p><p></p><p>Sergeant: You survived.</p><p>Vinya: Yes. There are five bodies in the warehouse. When you find out who they are, we’d love to know. They were doing a ritual that involved Orcus.</p><p>Sergeant: Oh. We’ll contact some artists to make sketches or molds of their faces so we can ask around and find out who they were.</p><p>Vinya: There are also going to be a lot of bodies around - there were approximately twenty spectres that have left bodies behind somewhere. They were just victims.</p><p>Sergeant: It might be easier to get the victims identified, once we find them. Families might be a bit reluctant to identify a family member who tried to call upon the power of Orcus.</p><p>Vinya: Maybe don’t lead with that -- you know, get the identification then give that information.</p><p>Sergeant: Yeah. We won’t. I’ll get my people working on making the death masks, finding the bodies, and getting people identified.</p><p></p><p>We told him we’d swing back at some point to see what they’d found. We also suggested that if they found anything urgent to get a message to the guards in Dhur.</p><p></p><p>We headed back to our inn, Bultir’s. We all wanted to talk to Bultir because he’d communicated with Elama (in her brain directly) about the worms rising in Anakim’s Ladder. When we got to the inn, Bultir greeted us effusively.</p><p></p><p>Bultir: I am so relieved to see you alive and back here.</p><p>Vinya: I’m sorry -- we wound out staying in a guard house in Alhim last night.</p><p>Bultir: I was concerned when you went to face the worms and didn’t return.</p><p></p><p>Vinya turned to look at Elama pointedly.</p><p></p><p>Elama: Huh?</p><p>Vinya: [nudged Elama toward Bultir]</p><p>Elama: Oh! You sent me that message.</p><p>Bultir: Alas, all I knew was in my dreams. Unfortunately, the whole inn shared them.</p><p>Elama: Pity. We are out of leads.</p><p>Bultir: I am sorry. In my dreams the worms were rising and that is all I know.</p><p></p><p>Vinya and Elama got a sense that he was holding something back about himself.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: What’s up with that? How do your dreams affect others.</p><p>Bultir, in her mind directly: The same way I do this. But sometimes when I dream I can’t control it.</p><p></p><p>Elama got a sense of great age or old memories about Bultir -- but he looks human. She used the helm of detect thoughts to read his surface thoughts.</p><p></p><p>Bultir, surface thoughts: I am glad they survived. The worms in the dream looked dangerous and that kind of dream is usually about something that is a threat to the whole world. Sometimes I wish the world would leave me alone. At least my previous death was quick.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: We can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on.</p><p>Bultir: All I saw in my dreams was the rising of the worms.</p><p>Marxine: You must know about the city.</p><p>Bultir: I grew up here. I have never known of worms in the city.</p><p>Vinya: Is there any record of worms like this in the city’s history. Has this happened here before?</p><p>Bultir: I’ve never heard of it. I know of the gate pointed to the Abyss and the Hells.</p><p>Vinya: Yes, we went to the Well of Screams. We met Jorcha in the Library. I believe y’all adventured together.</p><p>Bultir: Yes, we did.</p><p>Aldalomiel: How often do you share your dreams? How far does the sharing go?</p><p>Bultir: Usually it just goes a few rooms on either side of mine. This is the first time the whole inn was affected.</p><p>Vinya: Where do the dreams come from?</p><p>Bultir: Erkonin.</p><p>Aldalomiel: ??</p><p>Vinya: The world? Fascinating.</p><p></p><p>Bultir then brought us lunch, since food was included in the price of our rooms, and we took a short rest.</p><p></p><p>Over lunch, we decided to head to the library -- it seemed like Elderron could usefully do some research on the Sons of Kyuss and on the rituals and ritual circles that we found.</p><p></p><p>We all went there together and talked to Jorcha before Elderron settled down to his research.</p><p></p><p>Jorcha: How are you doing?</p><p>Vinya: Pretty okay. We had an exciting morning fighting spectres and wraiths in Alhim. People were trying to get power from Orcus.</p><p>Jorcha: That never works out well. No one gets what they want. Not even Orcus.</p><p>Vinya: That’s an interesting way to think of it.</p><p></p><p>Vinya then got lost in the weeds of pondering what it could possibly mean that Orcus wasn’t getting what he wants out of these deals.</p><p></p><p>Marxine stayed on point.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: How do we find these cabals and cults and stop them? We don’t want to play whackamole.</p><p>Elama: It makes me feel bad when we go around listening for and chasing screams, because it means someone is being hurt.</p><p>Jorcha: That’s an admirable attitude. So you’ve found two circles to Orcus. The last time someone tried to turn this gate to the Abyss, they were trying to summon or contact Juiblex.</p><p>Vinya: Okay. Not Orcus. How do we find these people? We tried in New Arvai and had no luck at all. We keep thinking about people being desperate and maybe people being more desperate in the poor part of town. But I’m not comfortable with the idea that poor people are more likely to be diabolists or demonists. That just seems like an unlikely assumption.</p><p>Jorcha: You’re looking for someone who’s looking for power. Or revenge. Those are the two most common reasons someone turns to fiends for power. In this case you’re looking for someone for whom being turned into an undead is less of a turn-off. And they’re not looking for political power -- this is ‘I can kill you’ power.</p><p>Marixine: Undead don’t have much political sway.</p><p>Jorcha: Someone may be looking for revenge. Or they’re an utter nihilist.</p><p>Vinya: So do we go around looking for a Revenge Seekers’ Club? Restaurants with drinks called Salty Tears of My Enemies?</p><p>Jorcha: Well, you’re looking for a group of people -- either several people who want the same revenge or one very persuasive person.</p><p>Vinya: Where do we find persuasive people? Temples? Actors?</p><p>Jorcha: Yes. Also politicians. My brother knows far more of political circles than I do.</p><p></p><p>Vinya spread out the map sections on the table to lay out the city schematically. She indicated the Last Doorway with the worms and the abandoned warehouse in Alhim. Even with the Library to form a third point, there just isn’t much to see. Even if there’s going to be some larger picture, it isn’t a very good connect the dots.</p><p></p><p>Elderron stayed to do research in the library while the rest of the party headed out to Do Things. We talked about exploring Alhim’s abandoned warehouse district to see if we could find some of the bodies, or find any more information about who the five who were doing the ritual were.</p><p></p><p>We walked around for a bit, without finding anything useful -- then we decided to go talk to Lt. Linnolim.</p><p></p><p>Elderron in the library did some research into those circles -- looking for a common calling card between them, beyond that they were pointed to Orcus. Any sort of lead that might be useful.</p><p></p><p>(Player: Any type of lead that you want to make up off the top of your head.)</p><p></p><p>He learned that Orcus takes some pleasure in seeing the living suffer, but mostly he likes to see things die. He wants to see the entire multiverse as a necropolis with all entities undead under his control. People who kill in his name get a little power -- becoming zombies or ghouls. People who make undead in his name get more power -- becoming wraiths, perhaps.</p><p></p><p>Elderron, in doing his research and remembering what the circles looked like, got the sense that whoever did the circle in the warehouse either did it by rote or had been given detailed instructions and followed them carefully. But they didn’t seem to know what the end result would be. It was like a paint-by-numbers. The one in the temple was not entirely finished, but he didn’t get the same sense -- he felt that the people there knew what the goal was. For one thing, they were already undead (the suffragans). They were spellcasters who had been turned into something other than Spawn of Kyuss by the worms.</p><p></p><p>He also found information that implied that there is a ritual to make the worms of Kyuss -- he couldn’t find all the details but it appeared that it turned either a corpse or a person (that was not clear) into a Spawn of Kyuss, which would then go around creating more Spawn, because that’s a contagious form of undead. Sometimes knowledge of that ritual is directly imparted by Orcus in a deal where he trades magical power, and becoming a potent undead, in exchange for that person going out and creating undead havoc.</p><p></p><p>He then looked into whether there are potent undead who could either pass in a city or live in a city and not get immediately killed. He found that it might be possible, but not for long -- because these agents of Orcus look more and more <em>dead</em> over time until they become a Herald of Undeath. As they grow in power they grow in stature as well. The Herald always eventually becomes an undead about the size of an ogre, about 10 feet tall, and very very dangerous. They almost invariably wind out with a big scythe that they wield to great effect - killing things with the scythe and some sort of nasty quick kill effect. They tend to collect armies of undead.</p><p></p><p>Heralds of Undeath have appeared in cities twice since the Severance, so this is a rare occurrence.</p><p></p><p>Elderron did a fantastic job at the library.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the party went to the guard house in Dhur to talk to Lt. Linnolim.</p><p></p><p>Linnolim: I’m glad that you aren’t all dead. Where’s your wizard?</p><p>Vinya: Elderron’s in the library.</p><p>Marxine: We’re trying to get a sense of the city.</p><p>Linnolim: I think I can help with that. You asked me the other day to try to arrange a meeting with the Izir of Dhur. I’ve made an appointment for you to meet with her over dinner, if that’s okay.</p><p>Vinya: Yeah. That would be great. We can collect Elderron on the way.</p><p>Lieutenant: That would be good. She’s expecting five. It’s always best if she gets what she expects.</p><p></p><p>The Lieutenant went with us back to the library to collect Elderron. On the way there, we told him about what we’d found in the warehouse in Alhim. We found Elderron at the library, explaining to him that we were having dinner with the Izir. One our way, with the Lieutenant again, Elderron told us what he’d learned about the Herald of Undeath.</p><p></p><p>The Izir’s palace is not called the Dojh, but it is clearly styled to look like a scaled down version of the Dojh af Kul-Izir in Bakar. At the Izir’s palace, Lt. Linnolim talked to the guards at the gate, telling them that we had an appointment for dinner with the Izir. The guards insisted that we leave all of our weapons behind, including Elderron’s staff. We did so.</p><p></p><p>While we were disarming ourselves, the Lieutenant went ahead to talk to the Izir and make sure she was ready for us. He came back for us a few minutes later. He took us to a room with low cushions and lap desks to put our plates on. Lt. Linnolim introduced us to the Izir, a halfling woman.</p><p></p><p>Izir: I am Imada Palmroot. You can call me Imada. Or Ms. Palmroot.</p><p></p><p>She invited us to sit on the cushions. Because we were all sitting on cushions, the height differences between various members of the party and the Izir were minimized. Lt. Linnolim then left. After he left, food began to arrive -- small plates and tapas-style food.</p><p></p><p>Imada: The Lieutenant informs me that you stumbled on undead, a number of undead, under the Last Doorway. And other different undead in Alhim. In both cases, you found circles to draw the attention of the Prince of Undead. It appears these are part of a series of bad events.</p><p>Marxine: You clearly know the problem we’re having. We are hitting them as they come -- which means we’re behind. Who would want this? This isn’t new -- we came here because we heard rumors of weird unrest and strange disquiet in the city. We’re from outside.</p><p>Imada: You’re from New Arvai. You should find the fiendishness familiar.</p><p>Vinya: Honestly, we were trying really hard to find cabals there and couldn’t find any for looking. Looking for people who are dissatisfied or desperate, or both, just isn’t a good search strategy. But we think we’re looking for someone who wants revenge or power. Someone who feels that this is the only way for them to redress some grievance.</p><p>Imada: There was dissatisfaction among the Kul-Izir’s courtiers a couple-three months ago. The Kul-Izir announced her heir and at least one courtier was unpleasantly surprised that he wasn’t chosen.</p><p>Vinya: That might be someone who could cause some undead mayhem.</p><p>Imada: It’s a sign that she chose well.</p><p>Vinya: What’s this person’s name?</p><p>Imada: Intororum. He’s a rock gnome. I believe she was doing him a favor by not choosing him. He is young and his exile after 100 years of service to the city would have been long.</p><p>Vinya: Exile. Always? For the rest of your life?</p><p>Imada: Yes. After one has been Izir or Kul-Izir for 100 years, your ashes are welcome back after you have died, but when you leave you leave. It’s mostly there to make sure that longer lived races wouldn’t have too great an advantage over the humans and other shorter lived races. Especially since humans founded Dhaqi.</p><p>Marxine: It prevents an accumulation of power and wealth in one person’s hands.</p><p>Imada: Yes. In practice, most Izirs don’t choose individuals who will live long enough to be exiled as heirs.</p><p>Vinya: Given that, why did Intororum expect to be chosen?</p><p>Imada: He may have believed that he was obviously the most qualified. I am...dubious.</p><p>Vinya: Why?</p><p>Imada: Because every time I talked to him, I got a solid sense of how intelligent and capable he thought he was.</p><p></p><p>We all got the sense that she was being pretty straight with us.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Does he have family? I assume he lives in Bakar if he’s in the Kul-Izir’s court.</p><p>Imada: He and his family actually live in Kalam, in a neighborhood called Alliq’s Arch. I haven’t seen or heard anything from him in at least a month.</p><p>Vinya: Would you describe him as persuasive?</p><p>Marxine: Were there people on his team rooting for him?</p><p>Imada: The people in his immediate circle were probably rooting for him, yes. Outside his immediate circle, maybe not. I believe the general sense was that he’d be heir to the next Kul-Izir or the one after that. As to talking people into acting against their better interests -- no doubt he could talk some people into doing exactly that. It would help if those people hadn’t interacted with him in a professional capacity. Those of us who have interacted with him in government have a different view of him than those in a social setting.</p><p></p><p>We ate a bit and absorbed that information, then the conversation went in a different way.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: What about the temples? The suffragans in the Last Doorway were wearing robes from the Hearthkeepers and Last Laugh. Was everything okay at those temples?</p><p>Imada: The temples of those orders in Kalam are missing officiants and Kalam is only one bridge away from Dhur. We believe those became the suffragans.</p><p>Vinya: What, the wormy dead guys just shuffled across the bridge and no one noticed?</p><p>Imada: Maybe they crossed at night. Those orders are tied for the second most cremations in Dhaqi after the Last Doorway.</p><p>Vinya: Okay. Do you know of any resentments among the people who work in the temples? It seems that a priest might be persuasive in the right way to get people to act against their interests.</p><p>Imada: There are some temples in Alliq’s Arch as well. Including the Last Laugh. The Last Laugh occasionally do get a little nihilistic, because everything is a joke to them.</p><p>Vinya: Seems like an order to keep on the edge of town.</p><p>Imada: Generally it’s a light-hearted nihilism. Sometimes not so much.</p><p>Vinya: Another area we thought might have people with the right sort of persuasiveness was the theater. But that might be outside your area of expertise.</p><p>Imada: I like the theater and do attend, but I don’t know the people involved or their interpersonal relationships and resentments.</p><p>Vinya: It looks like we do have some things to look into. Thank you. Have you heard anything about the new teachings in the Enthroned?</p><p>Imada: I have heard in some cities of Urnod that there has been a change in the messages they teach. I haven’t noticed that here. But they are not my preferred order.</p><p></p><p>We spent the rest of the dinner sharing news of Urnod with her -- she had questions about various things, which we answered to the best of our abilities, and we told her some about our adventures. She was an excellent conversationalist and the evening passed very pleasantly.</p><p></p><p>After we had recovered our weapons and left the Izir’s palace, we walked around more or less aimlessly as we talked about what to do. It was around sunset.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, to Elderron: How long does the process of becoming a giant zombie-ghoul-herald thing take?</p><p>Elderron: A few weeks, I think.</p><p>Vinya: Oh, boy. So he’s right on schedule.</p><p>Marxine: And no one has seen him in weeks.</p><p></p><p>We decided to head to Alliq’s Arch in Kalam -- just to try and get a sense of the area where Intororum lives. We were still a bit depleted from our big fight in the morning -- but we figured that we were just scouting and checking things out. Not really looking for a fight. We got there fairly quickly -- as Imada Palmroot had pointed out, it’s only one bridge between Dhur and Kalam.</p><p></p><p>Alliq’s Arch is a spiffy, upscale neighborhood -- there’s an actual arch, large and dramatic, over the streets at the entrance to the neighborhood. From what Imada Palmroot said, Intororum was from there and his family, presumably his natal family, still lived there. There were businesses, restaurants, and homes -- many of the shops were closed or closing up. Some of the stores had a few customers that were making their final purchases. There were also some bars and restaurants that were still open. We didn’t see a lot of people on the streets.</p><p></p><p>We walked around looking at the homes, trying to see if there was any sign of a gnome enclave within the community of Alliq’s Arch. We didn’t see any gnomes on the street, but we did see a few homes that looked to be mostly scaled to the gnomes, though they all seemed to have visitor spaces that would accommodate larger visitors. The gnome homes seemed to be in a few clusters, with a few scattered around that weren’t in the clusters. We didn’t see any homes that looked abandoned or unkempt.</p><p></p><p>So we went into a bar to listen to people. We found our way to Metorilen’s, a gnome bar, though they had a place where we could sit and be comfortable.</p><p></p><p>Vinya was sitting and listening. Elama went to talk to the bartender.</p><p></p><p>Elama: We’re looking for a guy named Intororum. He’s a gnome. We haven’t seen him in a while.</p><p>Bartender: No one’s seen him in a month or more. His place is still taken care of, but he might have a gardener taking care of it. If you see him, tell him to stop by. It would be nice not to have to worry about him.</p><p></p><p>Elama returned to the table where the rest of us were sitting.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Is anyone else missing?</p><p></p><p>Elama got up and went back to the bartender.</p><p></p><p>Elama, to bartender: Is anyone else missing?</p><p>Bartender: Uh??</p><p>Elama: I’m not a cop.</p><p>Bartender: Not that I’ve heard of. Why? Do you think people are missing?</p><p>Elama: We’ve heard of nasty undead stuff and we’re hoping that everyone knows where everyone is and no one is missing.</p><p>Bartender: I haven’t heard of anyone else missing. Especially not any of the gnomes on the Arch.</p><p>Elama: If you hear of anyone else being missing, tell the guard.</p><p>Bartender: I’ll tell the guard and they’ll tell the weird elves...sure.</p><p>Elama: [shows her badge to him]</p><p>Bartender: So you’re a temporary cop.</p><p>Elama: We’re adventurers. We just got here and weird stuff is happening. It’s totally a coincidence.</p><p>Bartender: Seems legit.</p><p></p><p>We finished our drinks and left the bar, talking as we went. We decided that, if Intororum is the potential Herald, he’s probably keeping a low profile until he feels like he’ll be unstoppable. He still has to do his undead mayhem, but he may decide to do it away from his home.</p><p></p><p>As we were talking, Aldalomiel’s jaw dropped when she saw a huge bird that appeared to be rotten. She smacked the person next to her and pointed. We all started to run to follow the huge undead bird.</p><p></p><p>Elama, as she was running, holding up her badge: Stop in the name of the law!</p><p></p><p>The huge, undead bird did not stop.</p><p></p><p>It continued flying, heading toward a lighthouse/tower that appeared to be in Kalam, though not in Alliq’s Arch.</p><p></p><p>Other people on the street were looking at it with an expression of horrified awe, which was pretty much what we were feeling.</p><p></p><p>We continued to run to follow it. Elderron had Oda fly up over the roofs, where it could watch more effectively. Vinya ran up the walls (with the slippers of spider climb) and continued along jumping from roof to roof, but keeping pace with the party, not running ahead.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8235784, member: 7016699"] Session 37: Library Research and Dinner With the Izir Dramatis Personae: Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest) Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul) Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster) Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin GM - Everyone Else (Note: This session was held on Discord.) 11 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 162)(immediately after) Immediately after the huge fight with All The Spectres, we started searching the abandoned warehouse. Other than the broken summoning circle, with five bodies around it, there’s nothing here. The circle was similar to but not the same as the one in the basement of the Last Doorway. This circle seemed to be trying to summon some of the power of Orcus, to get the power to do something -- that power involved being turned into undead (whether the people using that knew it or not). The one in the Last Doorway was to summon Orcus himself, or at least a powerful avatar. We went to the guard house. On the way, we talked about the fact that there were bound to be lots of dead people around -- those spectres left bodies behind. At the guard house we found the same sergeant on duty. Sergeant: You survived. Vinya: Yes. There are five bodies in the warehouse. When you find out who they are, we’d love to know. They were doing a ritual that involved Orcus. Sergeant: Oh. We’ll contact some artists to make sketches or molds of their faces so we can ask around and find out who they were. Vinya: There are also going to be a lot of bodies around - there were approximately twenty spectres that have left bodies behind somewhere. They were just victims. Sergeant: It might be easier to get the victims identified, once we find them. Families might be a bit reluctant to identify a family member who tried to call upon the power of Orcus. Vinya: Maybe don’t lead with that -- you know, get the identification then give that information. Sergeant: Yeah. We won’t. I’ll get my people working on making the death masks, finding the bodies, and getting people identified. We told him we’d swing back at some point to see what they’d found. We also suggested that if they found anything urgent to get a message to the guards in Dhur. We headed back to our inn, Bultir’s. We all wanted to talk to Bultir because he’d communicated with Elama (in her brain directly) about the worms rising in Anakim’s Ladder. When we got to the inn, Bultir greeted us effusively. Bultir: I am so relieved to see you alive and back here. Vinya: I’m sorry -- we wound out staying in a guard house in Alhim last night. Bultir: I was concerned when you went to face the worms and didn’t return. Vinya turned to look at Elama pointedly. Elama: Huh? Vinya: [nudged Elama toward Bultir] Elama: Oh! You sent me that message. Bultir: Alas, all I knew was in my dreams. Unfortunately, the whole inn shared them. Elama: Pity. We are out of leads. Bultir: I am sorry. In my dreams the worms were rising and that is all I know. Vinya and Elama got a sense that he was holding something back about himself. Marxine: What’s up with that? How do your dreams affect others. Bultir, in her mind directly: The same way I do this. But sometimes when I dream I can’t control it. Elama got a sense of great age or old memories about Bultir -- but he looks human. She used the helm of detect thoughts to read his surface thoughts. Bultir, surface thoughts: I am glad they survived. The worms in the dream looked dangerous and that kind of dream is usually about something that is a threat to the whole world. Sometimes I wish the world would leave me alone. At least my previous death was quick. Marxine: We can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on. Bultir: All I saw in my dreams was the rising of the worms. Marxine: You must know about the city. Bultir: I grew up here. I have never known of worms in the city. Vinya: Is there any record of worms like this in the city’s history. Has this happened here before? Bultir: I’ve never heard of it. I know of the gate pointed to the Abyss and the Hells. Vinya: Yes, we went to the Well of Screams. We met Jorcha in the Library. I believe y’all adventured together. Bultir: Yes, we did. Aldalomiel: How often do you share your dreams? How far does the sharing go? Bultir: Usually it just goes a few rooms on either side of mine. This is the first time the whole inn was affected. Vinya: Where do the dreams come from? Bultir: Erkonin. Aldalomiel: ?? Vinya: The world? Fascinating. Bultir then brought us lunch, since food was included in the price of our rooms, and we took a short rest. Over lunch, we decided to head to the library -- it seemed like Elderron could usefully do some research on the Sons of Kyuss and on the rituals and ritual circles that we found. We all went there together and talked to Jorcha before Elderron settled down to his research. Jorcha: How are you doing? Vinya: Pretty okay. We had an exciting morning fighting spectres and wraiths in Alhim. People were trying to get power from Orcus. Jorcha: That never works out well. No one gets what they want. Not even Orcus. Vinya: That’s an interesting way to think of it. Vinya then got lost in the weeds of pondering what it could possibly mean that Orcus wasn’t getting what he wants out of these deals. Marxine stayed on point. Marxine: How do we find these cabals and cults and stop them? We don’t want to play whackamole. Elama: It makes me feel bad when we go around listening for and chasing screams, because it means someone is being hurt. Jorcha: That’s an admirable attitude. So you’ve found two circles to Orcus. The last time someone tried to turn this gate to the Abyss, they were trying to summon or contact Juiblex. Vinya: Okay. Not Orcus. How do we find these people? We tried in New Arvai and had no luck at all. We keep thinking about people being desperate and maybe people being more desperate in the poor part of town. But I’m not comfortable with the idea that poor people are more likely to be diabolists or demonists. That just seems like an unlikely assumption. Jorcha: You’re looking for someone who’s looking for power. Or revenge. Those are the two most common reasons someone turns to fiends for power. In this case you’re looking for someone for whom being turned into an undead is less of a turn-off. And they’re not looking for political power -- this is ‘I can kill you’ power. Marixine: Undead don’t have much political sway. Jorcha: Someone may be looking for revenge. Or they’re an utter nihilist. Vinya: So do we go around looking for a Revenge Seekers’ Club? Restaurants with drinks called Salty Tears of My Enemies? Jorcha: Well, you’re looking for a group of people -- either several people who want the same revenge or one very persuasive person. Vinya: Where do we find persuasive people? Temples? Actors? Jorcha: Yes. Also politicians. My brother knows far more of political circles than I do. Vinya spread out the map sections on the table to lay out the city schematically. She indicated the Last Doorway with the worms and the abandoned warehouse in Alhim. Even with the Library to form a third point, there just isn’t much to see. Even if there’s going to be some larger picture, it isn’t a very good connect the dots. Elderron stayed to do research in the library while the rest of the party headed out to Do Things. We talked about exploring Alhim’s abandoned warehouse district to see if we could find some of the bodies, or find any more information about who the five who were doing the ritual were. We walked around for a bit, without finding anything useful -- then we decided to go talk to Lt. Linnolim. Elderron in the library did some research into those circles -- looking for a common calling card between them, beyond that they were pointed to Orcus. Any sort of lead that might be useful. (Player: Any type of lead that you want to make up off the top of your head.) He learned that Orcus takes some pleasure in seeing the living suffer, but mostly he likes to see things die. He wants to see the entire multiverse as a necropolis with all entities undead under his control. People who kill in his name get a little power -- becoming zombies or ghouls. People who make undead in his name get more power -- becoming wraiths, perhaps. Elderron, in doing his research and remembering what the circles looked like, got the sense that whoever did the circle in the warehouse either did it by rote or had been given detailed instructions and followed them carefully. But they didn’t seem to know what the end result would be. It was like a paint-by-numbers. The one in the temple was not entirely finished, but he didn’t get the same sense -- he felt that the people there knew what the goal was. For one thing, they were already undead (the suffragans). They were spellcasters who had been turned into something other than Spawn of Kyuss by the worms. He also found information that implied that there is a ritual to make the worms of Kyuss -- he couldn’t find all the details but it appeared that it turned either a corpse or a person (that was not clear) into a Spawn of Kyuss, which would then go around creating more Spawn, because that’s a contagious form of undead. Sometimes knowledge of that ritual is directly imparted by Orcus in a deal where he trades magical power, and becoming a potent undead, in exchange for that person going out and creating undead havoc. He then looked into whether there are potent undead who could either pass in a city or live in a city and not get immediately killed. He found that it might be possible, but not for long -- because these agents of Orcus look more and more [I]dead[/I] over time until they become a Herald of Undeath. As they grow in power they grow in stature as well. The Herald always eventually becomes an undead about the size of an ogre, about 10 feet tall, and very very dangerous. They almost invariably wind out with a big scythe that they wield to great effect - killing things with the scythe and some sort of nasty quick kill effect. They tend to collect armies of undead. Heralds of Undeath have appeared in cities twice since the Severance, so this is a rare occurrence. Elderron did a fantastic job at the library. The rest of the party went to the guard house in Dhur to talk to Lt. Linnolim. Linnolim: I’m glad that you aren’t all dead. Where’s your wizard? Vinya: Elderron’s in the library. Marxine: We’re trying to get a sense of the city. Linnolim: I think I can help with that. You asked me the other day to try to arrange a meeting with the Izir of Dhur. I’ve made an appointment for you to meet with her over dinner, if that’s okay. Vinya: Yeah. That would be great. We can collect Elderron on the way. Lieutenant: That would be good. She’s expecting five. It’s always best if she gets what she expects. The Lieutenant went with us back to the library to collect Elderron. On the way there, we told him about what we’d found in the warehouse in Alhim. We found Elderron at the library, explaining to him that we were having dinner with the Izir. One our way, with the Lieutenant again, Elderron told us what he’d learned about the Herald of Undeath. The Izir’s palace is not called the Dojh, but it is clearly styled to look like a scaled down version of the Dojh af Kul-Izir in Bakar. At the Izir’s palace, Lt. Linnolim talked to the guards at the gate, telling them that we had an appointment for dinner with the Izir. The guards insisted that we leave all of our weapons behind, including Elderron’s staff. We did so. While we were disarming ourselves, the Lieutenant went ahead to talk to the Izir and make sure she was ready for us. He came back for us a few minutes later. He took us to a room with low cushions and lap desks to put our plates on. Lt. Linnolim introduced us to the Izir, a halfling woman. Izir: I am Imada Palmroot. You can call me Imada. Or Ms. Palmroot. She invited us to sit on the cushions. Because we were all sitting on cushions, the height differences between various members of the party and the Izir were minimized. Lt. Linnolim then left. After he left, food began to arrive -- small plates and tapas-style food. Imada: The Lieutenant informs me that you stumbled on undead, a number of undead, under the Last Doorway. And other different undead in Alhim. In both cases, you found circles to draw the attention of the Prince of Undead. It appears these are part of a series of bad events. Marxine: You clearly know the problem we’re having. We are hitting them as they come -- which means we’re behind. Who would want this? This isn’t new -- we came here because we heard rumors of weird unrest and strange disquiet in the city. We’re from outside. Imada: You’re from New Arvai. You should find the fiendishness familiar. Vinya: Honestly, we were trying really hard to find cabals there and couldn’t find any for looking. Looking for people who are dissatisfied or desperate, or both, just isn’t a good search strategy. But we think we’re looking for someone who wants revenge or power. Someone who feels that this is the only way for them to redress some grievance. Imada: There was dissatisfaction among the Kul-Izir’s courtiers a couple-three months ago. The Kul-Izir announced her heir and at least one courtier was unpleasantly surprised that he wasn’t chosen. Vinya: That might be someone who could cause some undead mayhem. Imada: It’s a sign that she chose well. Vinya: What’s this person’s name? Imada: Intororum. He’s a rock gnome. I believe she was doing him a favor by not choosing him. He is young and his exile after 100 years of service to the city would have been long. Vinya: Exile. Always? For the rest of your life? Imada: Yes. After one has been Izir or Kul-Izir for 100 years, your ashes are welcome back after you have died, but when you leave you leave. It’s mostly there to make sure that longer lived races wouldn’t have too great an advantage over the humans and other shorter lived races. Especially since humans founded Dhaqi. Marxine: It prevents an accumulation of power and wealth in one person’s hands. Imada: Yes. In practice, most Izirs don’t choose individuals who will live long enough to be exiled as heirs. Vinya: Given that, why did Intororum expect to be chosen? Imada: He may have believed that he was obviously the most qualified. I am...dubious. Vinya: Why? Imada: Because every time I talked to him, I got a solid sense of how intelligent and capable he thought he was. We all got the sense that she was being pretty straight with us. Vinya: Does he have family? I assume he lives in Bakar if he’s in the Kul-Izir’s court. Imada: He and his family actually live in Kalam, in a neighborhood called Alliq’s Arch. I haven’t seen or heard anything from him in at least a month. Vinya: Would you describe him as persuasive? Marxine: Were there people on his team rooting for him? Imada: The people in his immediate circle were probably rooting for him, yes. Outside his immediate circle, maybe not. I believe the general sense was that he’d be heir to the next Kul-Izir or the one after that. As to talking people into acting against their better interests -- no doubt he could talk some people into doing exactly that. It would help if those people hadn’t interacted with him in a professional capacity. Those of us who have interacted with him in government have a different view of him than those in a social setting. We ate a bit and absorbed that information, then the conversation went in a different way. Vinya: What about the temples? The suffragans in the Last Doorway were wearing robes from the Hearthkeepers and Last Laugh. Was everything okay at those temples? Imada: The temples of those orders in Kalam are missing officiants and Kalam is only one bridge away from Dhur. We believe those became the suffragans. Vinya: What, the wormy dead guys just shuffled across the bridge and no one noticed? Imada: Maybe they crossed at night. Those orders are tied for the second most cremations in Dhaqi after the Last Doorway. Vinya: Okay. Do you know of any resentments among the people who work in the temples? It seems that a priest might be persuasive in the right way to get people to act against their interests. Imada: There are some temples in Alliq’s Arch as well. Including the Last Laugh. The Last Laugh occasionally do get a little nihilistic, because everything is a joke to them. Vinya: Seems like an order to keep on the edge of town. Imada: Generally it’s a light-hearted nihilism. Sometimes not so much. Vinya: Another area we thought might have people with the right sort of persuasiveness was the theater. But that might be outside your area of expertise. Imada: I like the theater and do attend, but I don’t know the people involved or their interpersonal relationships and resentments. Vinya: It looks like we do have some things to look into. Thank you. Have you heard anything about the new teachings in the Enthroned? Imada: I have heard in some cities of Urnod that there has been a change in the messages they teach. I haven’t noticed that here. But they are not my preferred order. We spent the rest of the dinner sharing news of Urnod with her -- she had questions about various things, which we answered to the best of our abilities, and we told her some about our adventures. She was an excellent conversationalist and the evening passed very pleasantly. After we had recovered our weapons and left the Izir’s palace, we walked around more or less aimlessly as we talked about what to do. It was around sunset. Vinya, to Elderron: How long does the process of becoming a giant zombie-ghoul-herald thing take? Elderron: A few weeks, I think. Vinya: Oh, boy. So he’s right on schedule. Marxine: And no one has seen him in weeks. We decided to head to Alliq’s Arch in Kalam -- just to try and get a sense of the area where Intororum lives. We were still a bit depleted from our big fight in the morning -- but we figured that we were just scouting and checking things out. Not really looking for a fight. We got there fairly quickly -- as Imada Palmroot had pointed out, it’s only one bridge between Dhur and Kalam. Alliq’s Arch is a spiffy, upscale neighborhood -- there’s an actual arch, large and dramatic, over the streets at the entrance to the neighborhood. From what Imada Palmroot said, Intororum was from there and his family, presumably his natal family, still lived there. There were businesses, restaurants, and homes -- many of the shops were closed or closing up. Some of the stores had a few customers that were making their final purchases. There were also some bars and restaurants that were still open. We didn’t see a lot of people on the streets. We walked around looking at the homes, trying to see if there was any sign of a gnome enclave within the community of Alliq’s Arch. We didn’t see any gnomes on the street, but we did see a few homes that looked to be mostly scaled to the gnomes, though they all seemed to have visitor spaces that would accommodate larger visitors. The gnome homes seemed to be in a few clusters, with a few scattered around that weren’t in the clusters. We didn’t see any homes that looked abandoned or unkempt. So we went into a bar to listen to people. We found our way to Metorilen’s, a gnome bar, though they had a place where we could sit and be comfortable. Vinya was sitting and listening. Elama went to talk to the bartender. Elama: We’re looking for a guy named Intororum. He’s a gnome. We haven’t seen him in a while. Bartender: No one’s seen him in a month or more. His place is still taken care of, but he might have a gardener taking care of it. If you see him, tell him to stop by. It would be nice not to have to worry about him. Elama returned to the table where the rest of us were sitting. Vinya: Is anyone else missing? Elama got up and went back to the bartender. Elama, to bartender: Is anyone else missing? Bartender: Uh?? Elama: I’m not a cop. Bartender: Not that I’ve heard of. Why? Do you think people are missing? Elama: We’ve heard of nasty undead stuff and we’re hoping that everyone knows where everyone is and no one is missing. Bartender: I haven’t heard of anyone else missing. Especially not any of the gnomes on the Arch. Elama: If you hear of anyone else being missing, tell the guard. Bartender: I’ll tell the guard and they’ll tell the weird elves...sure. Elama: [shows her badge to him] Bartender: So you’re a temporary cop. Elama: We’re adventurers. We just got here and weird stuff is happening. It’s totally a coincidence. Bartender: Seems legit. We finished our drinks and left the bar, talking as we went. We decided that, if Intororum is the potential Herald, he’s probably keeping a low profile until he feels like he’ll be unstoppable. He still has to do his undead mayhem, but he may decide to do it away from his home. As we were talking, Aldalomiel’s jaw dropped when she saw a huge bird that appeared to be rotten. She smacked the person next to her and pointed. We all started to run to follow the huge undead bird. Elama, as she was running, holding up her badge: Stop in the name of the law! The huge, undead bird did not stop. It continued flying, heading toward a lighthouse/tower that appeared to be in Kalam, though not in Alliq’s Arch. Other people on the street were looking at it with an expression of horrified awe, which was pretty much what we were feeling. We continued to run to follow it. Elderron had Oda fly up over the roofs, where it could watch more effectively. Vinya ran up the walls (with the slippers of spider climb) and continued along jumping from roof to roof, but keeping pace with the party, not running ahead. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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