[LPF] Mopping Up

[sunshadow21]

OOC: Hadn't caught that; either way, last way was not a good week to be trying to update the game seriously for me.

Time passes, and the effects on Tonris start to fade in bursts, until only half orc head and the bear hands remain. As the party is watching this, waiting for the final effects to wear off, they hear someone coming in the entry way. Prepared for the worst, they take up defensive postions, but find that is only Andolyn, along with some of her adventuring friends. She is relieved to see that you are alright, though a bit concerned about Tonris' appearance as the paladin with her hastens to secure the area around the altar and identify it's properties. You find a seat, and as you are telling her and one of her other companions your story, the final effects fade, and Tonris is back to normal. Andolyn is quiet for a few minutes before speaking, "You have done well. When you get back to Silverton, if you could let Lord Maskon and my husband know that I shall return as soon as possible, but that I have some business to attend to elsewhere in the meantime, I would appreciate it. If you are willing to wait for my return I will try to answer whatever questions you may have about what just transpired here." With that, she joins the paladin in investigating the altar.

The trip back to Silverton is uneventful, and you are able to deliver the message to Lord Maskon before Gendrew insists on being your host and having you stay in their rented home until such time as his wife returned. The passing days are filled with good food, relaxation, and whatever other errands/hobbies/tasks that the party members feel like doing. After about a week, Andolyn shows up just before supper, tired, but not looking overly worried. After a quick supper, she invites you all into her private study, and after putting up the proper warding spells, brings the conversation around to the events in the cult's lair. "Now then, I am sure that you are all at least a bit curious about what was going on with that cult and the altar, and while I cannot guarantee that I have all the answers, or that I will share all of them that I do have, I am willing to at least hear what questions you have, and hopefully satisfy most of your concerns. To get the obvious question out of the way, the altar is secure for now until it can safely be destroyed. It is in good hands, and you need not worry about that detail."

 

[sunshadow21]

OOC: The encounter is over, but I'll wait to calculate xp until the end of the question and answer rp session as that is the last thing remaining before the game ends.

[sblock=rewards]Experience
CR 7 The Sanctuary 3200 xp total/800 xp each[/sblock]

 

[DalkonCledwin]

"That isn't the obvious question, nor the obvious answer. The question that should be asked, is why were these people trying to create an altar to entities that predate the Demons that we have all come to know and love as a whole?" Tonris says, having been the only one that actually touched the Altar and thus the only one that actually knows the Altar's true purpose.

 

[sunshadow21]

Andolyn smiles as Tonris speaks. "Perhaps inevitable would have been a better word than obvious. As to your question, the entity the altar was built for is, unfortunately, only just barely known to me or anybody I know, which means it is an obscure and ancient entity indeed. What little I was able to glean seems to suggest a creature that thrives on pure chaos. Driven deep into the far depths of the Abyss by the demons we know today, it seems to have recently found an small, but unstable, forgotten outlet to the Material Plane, and was trying to secure a source of, well, we aren't really quite sure what it is trying to accomplish, truth be told. Whatever it is, it is almost certainly not what those cultists you found were trying to accomplish; to it, the cultists were probably convenient vessels and no thought was given to the possibility that they might have their own agendas. The cultishs' intent was much clearer; they sought to encourage chaos to force a change in the Material Plane back to it's primordial state so that the act of creation could begin anew, only with them at the helm controlling it this time."

 

[Scott DeWar]

"das ist question i ask too. They vanted got hood, Ja? is easier to limbo a world they want made." Heinrich shakes his head in dismay.

 

[sunshadow21]

"If it was godhood they sought, they would have made extremely dangerous and capricious gods. No, I do not think they sought that specifically, though it is, in effect, what they would have achieved. Rather, it seems more that they sought a playground to play out their own fantasies, desires, and interests, and thought that the Material Plane would be an ideal playground that would provide them with both a playground and an opportunity to get vengeance on those who dared to cast them out of 'normal' society at the same time. To read any further intent into their actions, as well as the actions of the strange entity, is to over complicate the situation. Neither was thinking long term, simply what seemed to accomplish their immediate goals."

 

[Scott DeWar]

"Ja." he says simply. He does glance suspiciously at torus several times though.

 

[Satin Knights]

Arianna is disinterested in the guesses upon guesses as to what the cultists were up to. When the Storm Lords want to unleash chaos, the skies swirl and waters churn from horizon to horizon. This little rock made weirdness in one little room. It is not the work of godlings. Arianna feels a bit uncomfortable when Andolyn says the alter is "safe" without giving specifics. She just sits quietly listening to the others.

 

[sunshadow21]

[sblock=Arianna]You get the impression she is being as truthful as the situation allows. The only thing she really seemed to hold back on was the details of the handling of the altar, and you are pretty sure that those details are not being shared with much of anybody who does not absolutely need to know them. Otherwise, she simply seems tired and relieved that the situation was contained when it was, and she seems to be answering your party members' questions as truthfully as her own knowledge and the need to keep word of the altar from spreading any further than absolutely necessary allows her to.[/sblock]

 

[Satin Knights]

[sblock=gm]Okay. That is good. I was sort of dreading it going the other way and sensing that she was leader of the cult. [/sblock]