[Planescape] Squaring the Circle Redux - IC

[Sephiroth no Miko]

Blade gives her assent as well, in her usual solemn and serious fashion. Then a long, uncomfortable silence descends upon the cavern as no one speaks.

Finally, after several expectant moments, Rupert realizes (perhaps with the help of a well-placed nudge) that he too, is required an answer and he clears his throat and whispers, "Uhm... *yip* I swears too, yes, yes... no kill Mayder-thingie..." He shrinks timidly behind Burrow as Daru ib Shamiq's sightless gaze sweeps his way but the fiend moves on.

It sighs, an oddly melancholy sound for one of its kind. "The Maeldur can carve temporary paths through the fabric of the multiverse, granting the fiends the power to come and go as they please to any plane, any world. None of them will admit it, of course, but it's true, all the same.

I don't know where the Maeldur is actually. It's been moved many times and I stopped keeping track years ago. But I know how it can be found. I made sure of that in the early days-- I was always thorough. What you need is a green gem called the vuulge. It's an artifact that confers the power to know the Maeldur's location. It also allows you to speak with the behemoth in a language it can understand.

The arcanaloths discarded the vuulge long ago, after they learned to speak with the Maeldur directly. Fools. It passed from hand to hand until it fell into the clutches of a tanar'ri named Tapheon. But he doesn't know what the vuulge is-- doesn't know what it can do. Not surprising. Few, if any, of the younger fiends even have any idea the Maeldur exists. But it knows they exist, oh yes-- the Maeldur knows all the fiends. Pity.

No matter. Tapheon is holed up in a place known as the Fortress of Indifference, on the 348th layer of the Abyss." With that, Shamiq sits upon his mound of slime and ooze stoically, awaiting any questions you may have.

OOC: Isida, I NPCed Blade briefly to keep this moving since I didn't think Blade would kick up a fuss. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Ferrix]

"Ah hell..." the halfling says with a split between the potential for a lovely attack upon the Abyss and some sort of contempt at the annoyance of going through all of this.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

"Monstrous thing..." Blade says softly, though it's not clear if she's speaking of the tanar'ri, Maeldur, or even Shamiq. She had given her assent, though it pained her to do so. Only in just cause do I give my word, and only for the fate of the universe will I break it. "Then we will go, confront Tapheon, win the vuulge, and find Maeldur. The nature of his power is vast, and to have that power in the hands of evil will only breed more pain. Let us make haste, for every day he remains captive is a day in which the forces of darkness can pervert his power to a vile use."

 

[deadestdai]

Flaust yawns theatrically as Blade finished her "eversoserious" reply.

I fink we should jus' go and bobs this Vulva or whatever it's called from this Tapheon sod and leaves his sodding self alone. Never know what 'arm thems horde types will to to us if we go in spells fizzin' and stickers stickin'!

Stepping out from behind Zoe, she continues.

How'd we gets there anyway?

 

[Thanee]

Zoe Windwalker

Listening to the vows, the others had taken, Zoe gladly notes, that none of them did the mistake, she had feared some of them would. Kiaros' answer especially was particularily clever. This didn't surprise her one bit.

Leaning over to Blade, she whispers into her ear:

Spoiler

“I'm afraid, we come a few centuries, or even millennia too late to prevent this kind of corruption...”

Then she turns back to Shamiq, all the while contemplating, whether it would be wise to confront this demon in his lair. He didn't ask for his own safety, after all.

“So, since the deeds we'll do for you certainly are in your very own interest, I suppose, it would be in your best interest as well, to tell us as much about this Tapheon and the place where he resides as possible. What do we have to expect from him? Do you have any idea what kind of forces this fiend has under his command? Maybe you even know of something, he desperately wants?”

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Vlad sighs. He may follow Wee Jas, which had often brought him into some interesting situations, but trucking with fiends was far beyond the pale. He was able to reconcile his own personal morals with more abstract ideas, such as the greater good or somesuch, but he couldn't help but think that the scope of their current mission was extremely narrow. In a multiverse filled with great evils and horrid viciousness, their mission boiled down to satisfying the curiosity of themselves and a diseased warrior. Of course, this synopsis wasn't necessarily meant to diminish the threat of the Maeldur. But, still, Vlad had the urge to return to his laboratory and his daily meditations, return to Sigil and the Mortuary, leave this quest, which would likely end in the premature death of at least one of his comrades, if not himself, and convince the rest to forsake it, too. Instead, he waited and listened.

 

[Ashy]

Burrow's frown deepens more and more by the moment. The mephling had ready many, many books on the subject of fiends. If there was any one thing that resonated from each and every one of them, it was this: fiends cannot be trusted in any manner whatsoever for any amount of time. Burrow knew that the party was getting themselves into a horrible, sodding fix. It was now the least he could do to tag along and hope to help them pull through it...

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

*At Zoe's whisper, Blade shakes her head slightly, the small spikes on her cheeks picking up glints of light.*

"This I know, but there is always a chance, however astronomically slim, that some good can come of this, and of him. Is it not for that chance that we take this quest?" she asks rhetorically, and then gives a short bow to Shamiq. "We shall take our leave of you, Shamiq. I offer you the blessings of Heironeous in good faith, even if you do not follow him."

*With that, Blade will give another bow, and then turn to leave.*

 

[Sephiroth no Miko]

“So, since the deeds we'll do for you certainly are in your very own interest, I suppose, it would be in your best interest as well, to tell us as much about this Tapheon and the place where he resides as possible. What do we have to expect from him? Do you have any idea what kind of forces this fiend has under his command? Maybe you even know of something, he desperately wants?”

"My interest?" Shamiq snorts. "Have you not been listening to a single word I've said, mortals? Must I spell everything out?" It looks into the impenetrable wall of your mistrustful faces and sighs again, wearily. "...You would not believe me in any case. All I have to say is this, then: the ramifications of your decision concerning the Maeldur's fate will affect far more than you can ever imagine. Even if you choose to do nothing at all. But it is not I who thrusts this choice into your hands."

It waves one withered, scabrous arm dismissively. "In any case, Tapheon is a broken sot who lords himself over a motley crew of disaffected tanar'ri... though he is not without his talents. Tapheon fancies himself a bit of a fleshshaper, you see, though a third-rate one at best. Pfeh. He desires only one thing-- revenge against the balor who broke him. More than that, I couldn't say."

Blade:

Spoiler

Upon giving Shamiq her blessings, she hears its decrepit voice in her head; sinister as it sounds, the voice also seems to hold a vast reservoir of regret behind it. "The wrongs the Maeldur has suffered are countless, many of them by my hands. You speak of Heironeous, so perhaps you will listen where the others will not. To kill the Maeldur would be an easy, but unjust, solution to its existence. But the skeins of the Maeldur's fate are tangled-- I can only hope you will make the right decision for it, and everyone else, when the time comes."

 

[Thanee]

Zoe Windwalker

“I will trust you as soon as you lie dead before my feet, fiend,” Zoe says scowling, but it does not seem to be her intent to start a fight, just to make clear what she thinks from the creature before her.