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<blockquote data-quote="Ormazd" data-source="post: 5767863" data-attributes="member: 24334"><p><strong>Madness</strong></p><p></p><p>The party had swiftly defeated the Ragesian ambassador and his inquisitor comrade, and summoning the Inquisitor's thoughts from beyond the void, Alain saw visions of his harsh upbringing, brutal initiation into the ranks of Inquisitors, and most urgently, a conversation between he and Nina Glibglammer, Steppengard's suspicious gnome adviser, basically outlining a plot to poison the nobility and drive them insane.</p><p></p><p>There's a catch: the Book of Eight Lands specifically protects the nobility from poison. If the Book is removed from this plane of existence, then the protection would no longer apply.</p><p></p><p>Alain describes the visions; "We must get to the book!" he declares. "Shouldn't we warn the guests?" Van suggests, emerging from the shadows. "There's no time!"</p><p></p><p>They run off to the Vault. "Can I just use this moment to say I told you so?" says Merrick. The heroes' desperate conspiracy story seems dubious to the guard, who repels them at first. </p><p></p><p>"I'm Merrick. I'm in the book, that means I should get to see it."</p><p></p><p>"Very well. I will allow you to examine the book, but you mustn't remove it from the ch-"</p><p></p><p>THE BOOK WAS GONE.</p><p></p><p>"It's worse than we feared. The guests have already been poisoned."</p><p></p><p>The guard was flabberghasted. "How could this happen?" The party demanded to know who had been there recently. Nina Glibglammer? The Ragesian ambassador? "Why, yes, the ambassador examined the book not long ago."</p><p></p><p></p><p>"We didn't have time to properly search the bodies. We must return to the ambassador and see if we can't find something. You, good sir, go now and warn the nobility that the Book of Eight Lands is gone and their protections are likely gone with it."</p><p></p><p>The guard shuffled off reluctantly, and the party returned to the scene of their earlier battle. The book was nowhere to be found, but the ambassador had carried a scroll that they quickly determined was a scroll of Dimensional Hideaway.</p><p></p><p>"Now that we have a shred of proof, I'll get to Kwin and try to put the gnome under arrest." Van replies, heading off toward the banquet hall.</p><p></p><p>"Just kill her!" Merrick quips wholeheartedly.</p><p></p><p>"The spell would have left a magical trace we should be able to detect," Alain proposed. "Back to the vault!"</p><p></p><p>Van charged up the stairs and found himself in a hallway filled with guards. "The Book of Eight Lands is GONE! The nobility have been POISONED!" he shouted. </p><p></p><p>"Er, what's this now?" replied the most senior of the guards.</p><p></p><p>"You heard me! Nina Glibglammer has conspired with the Ragesians to wipe out the nobility of Dassen in a single stroke--tonight!"</p><p></p><p>The guards shifted uncomfortably. A creepy tiefling popping out of nowhere and shouting apparent nonsense set them off a bit. "Er, that's quite an accusation, you know."</p><p></p><p>Van's pleas weren't getting through. "The book is gone. Go and see for yourself. If that isn't proof enough, my companion Kwin is attending the banquet and can tell you more. Please, I need to see him."</p><p></p><p>The guard who had been sent off earlier and had finally mustered the courage to report to his superiors chimed in: "The book *is* gone; I can vouch for him." </p><p></p><p>Flames smoldered in Van's eyes. "If you don't open that door and warn the nobility, everyone in the castle could die tonight--starting with you.</p><p></p><p>Muttering, the guard went to the door of the banquet hall, and in dismay, found that it had barred from the inside. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Alain and Merrick had returned to the vault and were carefully searching for the entrance to a pocket dimension. Alain spotted an indescribable inconsistency in the reality of the room and reached into nothingness, withdrawing the Book of Eight Lands. "Aha, here it is." </p><p></p><p>Screams from the banquet hall filled the air. "Get that door open!" cried Van, blasting the door with arcane force as the guards hacked at it with their halberds.</p><p></p><p>"I. Told. You. So." said Merrick as he and Alain rushed to meet the commotion.</p><p></p><p>Van's second blast splintered the door and set it off his hinges, just in time to see Mad King Steppengard, in a bloody ecstasy, bring his heavy sword down on poor lady Namin. The nobility seemed to be snapping out of a mystical haze, which was quickly replaced by terror as they became aware of the carnage around them.</p><p></p><p>Nina Glibglamer cackled delightedly in the midst of the bloodshed, and met Van's eye before shrugging off her gnomish form. From within her tiny body spewed an incomprehensibly huge mass of fleshy, bulbous tendrils and horrific screaming faces. </p><p></p><p>"How dare you shed the blood of innocents!" Van shouted, summoning infernal chains that pulled the Mad King to the ground. </p><p></p><p>Merrick and Alain arrived to join the battle against an opponent unlike any they had faced before. The thing that had been Nina Glibglamer had a terrible presence that tore at the minds of anyone nearby and filled their thoughts with dark compulsions. The heroes were driven temporarily insane one by one, used as tools of evil, killing their ally Duke Gallo. Alain was compelled to cower in the hallway and his spells were sorely missed.</p><p></p><p>The king struggled at his infernal chains, crawling maniacally toward his next victim, lord Megadon. The king's guards, entranced, attacked anyone who tried to harm Steppengard, and crossed swords with Kwin, who had stepped up to defend Lady Timor.</p><p></p><p>Things went from terrible to worse when the Glibglamer-monster somehow forced itself into Merrick, using him like a puppet and blasting the crowd with surges of lightning. When the halfling was able to force the creature out, he was wracked with terrible psychic pain and fell unconscious before being revived by Lord Dashgoban.</p><p></p><p>The phasing-hideous-slime-abberation flickered out of sight for a moment and the party used the small reprieve to kill the Mad King, ending his bloody killing spree. His oddly loyal guards stopped fighting immediately, and the surviving nobility were able to flee.</p><p></p><p>The tentacle monster reappeared and forced its way into Kwin. Forced to attack their friend, they were able to expel the malevolent force only after Kwin lay dying on the floor. They continued to pound on the monster with powerful spells, but it had entered an incorporeal state which resisted damage. Van stooped to stabilize the dying knight, only to be be invaded by the horrific thing before he could help. Kwin gasped his last breath. </p><p></p><p>Filled with malevolent energies that sapped his (usually unrelenting) will to live, Van struggled against the monster's control, his weak will unable to withstand the sheer insanity emanating from their foe. His companions attacked him to damage the thing inside, and it was expelled, but the presence hadn't left him completely, wracking his soul with a terrible madness. Unleashing firey spells in the face of death, his infernal power finally failed him, and he succumbed to the pain.</p><p></p><p>Merrick urged the bewildered guards to fight, and with their help he and Alain finished the thing off. It shrieked and writhed before shrinking down into nothingness. The monster had been defeated, but at what cost? The king was dead, along with a third of the nobility. Only intensive study of the book of Eight Lands would determine who might be next in line for the throne. And it seemed the Ragesians were in league with monsters far more terrible than giants and dragons.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ormazd, post: 5767863, member: 24334"] [b]Madness[/b] The party had swiftly defeated the Ragesian ambassador and his inquisitor comrade, and summoning the Inquisitor's thoughts from beyond the void, Alain saw visions of his harsh upbringing, brutal initiation into the ranks of Inquisitors, and most urgently, a conversation between he and Nina Glibglammer, Steppengard's suspicious gnome adviser, basically outlining a plot to poison the nobility and drive them insane. There's a catch: the Book of Eight Lands specifically protects the nobility from poison. If the Book is removed from this plane of existence, then the protection would no longer apply. Alain describes the visions; "We must get to the book!" he declares. "Shouldn't we warn the guests?" Van suggests, emerging from the shadows. "There's no time!" They run off to the Vault. "Can I just use this moment to say I told you so?" says Merrick. The heroes' desperate conspiracy story seems dubious to the guard, who repels them at first. "I'm Merrick. I'm in the book, that means I should get to see it." "Very well. I will allow you to examine the book, but you mustn't remove it from the ch-" THE BOOK WAS GONE. "It's worse than we feared. The guests have already been poisoned." The guard was flabberghasted. "How could this happen?" The party demanded to know who had been there recently. Nina Glibglammer? The Ragesian ambassador? "Why, yes, the ambassador examined the book not long ago." "We didn't have time to properly search the bodies. We must return to the ambassador and see if we can't find something. You, good sir, go now and warn the nobility that the Book of Eight Lands is gone and their protections are likely gone with it." The guard shuffled off reluctantly, and the party returned to the scene of their earlier battle. The book was nowhere to be found, but the ambassador had carried a scroll that they quickly determined was a scroll of Dimensional Hideaway. "Now that we have a shred of proof, I'll get to Kwin and try to put the gnome under arrest." Van replies, heading off toward the banquet hall. "Just kill her!" Merrick quips wholeheartedly. "The spell would have left a magical trace we should be able to detect," Alain proposed. "Back to the vault!" Van charged up the stairs and found himself in a hallway filled with guards. "The Book of Eight Lands is GONE! The nobility have been POISONED!" he shouted. "Er, what's this now?" replied the most senior of the guards. "You heard me! Nina Glibglammer has conspired with the Ragesians to wipe out the nobility of Dassen in a single stroke--tonight!" The guards shifted uncomfortably. A creepy tiefling popping out of nowhere and shouting apparent nonsense set them off a bit. "Er, that's quite an accusation, you know." Van's pleas weren't getting through. "The book is gone. Go and see for yourself. If that isn't proof enough, my companion Kwin is attending the banquet and can tell you more. Please, I need to see him." The guard who had been sent off earlier and had finally mustered the courage to report to his superiors chimed in: "The book *is* gone; I can vouch for him." Flames smoldered in Van's eyes. "If you don't open that door and warn the nobility, everyone in the castle could die tonight--starting with you. Muttering, the guard went to the door of the banquet hall, and in dismay, found that it had barred from the inside. Meanwhile, Alain and Merrick had returned to the vault and were carefully searching for the entrance to a pocket dimension. Alain spotted an indescribable inconsistency in the reality of the room and reached into nothingness, withdrawing the Book of Eight Lands. "Aha, here it is." Screams from the banquet hall filled the air. "Get that door open!" cried Van, blasting the door with arcane force as the guards hacked at it with their halberds. "I. Told. You. So." said Merrick as he and Alain rushed to meet the commotion. Van's second blast splintered the door and set it off his hinges, just in time to see Mad King Steppengard, in a bloody ecstasy, bring his heavy sword down on poor lady Namin. The nobility seemed to be snapping out of a mystical haze, which was quickly replaced by terror as they became aware of the carnage around them. Nina Glibglamer cackled delightedly in the midst of the bloodshed, and met Van's eye before shrugging off her gnomish form. From within her tiny body spewed an incomprehensibly huge mass of fleshy, bulbous tendrils and horrific screaming faces. "How dare you shed the blood of innocents!" Van shouted, summoning infernal chains that pulled the Mad King to the ground. Merrick and Alain arrived to join the battle against an opponent unlike any they had faced before. The thing that had been Nina Glibglamer had a terrible presence that tore at the minds of anyone nearby and filled their thoughts with dark compulsions. The heroes were driven temporarily insane one by one, used as tools of evil, killing their ally Duke Gallo. Alain was compelled to cower in the hallway and his spells were sorely missed. The king struggled at his infernal chains, crawling maniacally toward his next victim, lord Megadon. The king's guards, entranced, attacked anyone who tried to harm Steppengard, and crossed swords with Kwin, who had stepped up to defend Lady Timor. Things went from terrible to worse when the Glibglamer-monster somehow forced itself into Merrick, using him like a puppet and blasting the crowd with surges of lightning. When the halfling was able to force the creature out, he was wracked with terrible psychic pain and fell unconscious before being revived by Lord Dashgoban. The phasing-hideous-slime-abberation flickered out of sight for a moment and the party used the small reprieve to kill the Mad King, ending his bloody killing spree. His oddly loyal guards stopped fighting immediately, and the surviving nobility were able to flee. The tentacle monster reappeared and forced its way into Kwin. Forced to attack their friend, they were able to expel the malevolent force only after Kwin lay dying on the floor. They continued to pound on the monster with powerful spells, but it had entered an incorporeal state which resisted damage. Van stooped to stabilize the dying knight, only to be be invaded by the horrific thing before he could help. Kwin gasped his last breath. Filled with malevolent energies that sapped his (usually unrelenting) will to live, Van struggled against the monster's control, his weak will unable to withstand the sheer insanity emanating from their foe. His companions attacked him to damage the thing inside, and it was expelled, but the presence hadn't left him completely, wracking his soul with a terrible madness. Unleashing firey spells in the face of death, his infernal power finally failed him, and he succumbed to the pain. Merrick urged the bewildered guards to fight, and with their help he and Alain finished the thing off. It shrieked and writhed before shrinking down into nothingness. The monster had been defeated, but at what cost? The king was dead, along with a third of the nobility. Only intensive study of the book of Eight Lands would determine who might be next in line for the throne. And it seemed the Ragesians were in league with monsters far more terrible than giants and dragons. [/QUOTE]
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