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Shemeska's Planescape Storyhour (Updated 29 Jan 2014)
- Thread starter Shemeska
- Start date
Clueless
Webmonkey
And Shemmy spruced it up for drama's sake but yeah - Kiro and Clueless were just about a perfect match of spells and speed combat for this particular fight.
We were hard (very hard) for the thing to hit - otherwise we'd have had something like 8 levels drained each in that first round - they have *that* many tentacles. And once we got the magic weapon cast.... we just went stabbity-death on the thing.
It was a good fight, legitimately won. He expected us to flee.
We were hard (very hard) for the thing to hit - otherwise we'd have had something like 8 levels drained each in that first round - they have *that* many tentacles. And once we got the magic weapon cast.... we just went stabbity-death on the thing.
It was a good fight, legitimately won. He expected us to flee.
Shemeska
Adventurer
"What the hell happened to you guys?!" A voice lulled them out of a dreamless slumber.
Clueless and Kiro both lay on beds in one of the inn's guest rooms, the closest one to where they'd collapsed in the middle of the hall. Florian stood over them, whispering a prayer of healing and firmly tapping each of their cheeks to get their attention as they regained consciousness. The others stood further back against the wall or in the doorway looking in with concern.
Clueless winced and muttered a curse as he tried to sit up. Dots of color swam across his vision and he slumped back down prone on the bed.
"Not something very pleasant." He finally answered, his voice still sluggish and groggy.
Kiro opened his eyes and blinked. "And I didn't even get a free sandwich out of it this time."
The implication was pretty clear and a wave of mutters washed through the room.
"Tell us what happened." Toras asked. "How many people did they send after you?"
Clueless gave a bewildered chuckle. "People?"
"I don't like the sound of that." Fyrehowl said.
"We don't actually know what it was." Kiro replied, sitting up a bit. "Some kind of fiend, but nothing I've ever seen before."
The lupinal twitched her nose. Something didn't smell right, something lingered in the air around both Kiro and Clueless, something distinctly fiendish, but on another level she couldn't place just what it was.
"Describe it if you can..." Fyrehowl asked.
None of them liked what they heard as both Clueless and Kiro described the astraloth, its appearance, its attack, and its eventual flight from the demiplane.
"What the hell..." Skalliska muttered. "I don't have any idea what that thing was."
It certainly didn't match up with any type of known fiend, yugoloth or not, both in terms of appearance or abilities.
"It's almost like someone felt imaginative when they made a batch of guardian yugoloths." Fyrehowl said.
"And then they promptly sent one of them after us." Clueless replied. "I feel so honored."
"You're alive though." Toras said.
Clueless frowned. "Barely. The thing was a few seconds away from leaving Kiro and me both just husks on the floor."
"We need to talk about what we're going to do." Florian said. "The partner of our dearly departed faux-Rakshasa, whoever or whatever she actually is, isn't willing to let things slide."
Clueless frowned again. "Now it's just gotten to the point of being pissy. She sends assassins after us that can track us down inside a demiplane... she's serious about killing us."
The cleric of Tempus strummed her fingers impatiently. "This little circle of retribution is getting out of hand."
“I’ve been at that point for a while now…” Toras said, pursing his lips and throwing a mock punch.
The mood was shared amongst the others. Each time that they’d encountered the ‘loths, the ‘loths had struck back, and the level of violence had increased each and every time. With the death of an ultroloth on their hands, they’d hoped that they’d dissuaded the fiends from further fickle vendettas, but Yethmiil’s mistress apparently had other plans. They needed to figure out what they were going to do to settle the issue; there was no chance of any sort of détente, they were far past that point.
"I'll be back later." Clueless said, getting up from the bed and stretching the last few remaining sore spots out of his muscles.
Nisha shook her head and muttered in scramblespeak, “Crazy you and me call.”
Without a word but with a look of determination, the bladesinger picked up Razor and made for the door.
“It shouldn’t take me more than an hour or two.”
Fyrehowl looked up at him hesitantly. "What won’t take you more than an hour? Only an hour ago something almost killed you when you went wandering off. Don't you think it's safer to stay in Sigil, at least for the moment, where you’re not as likely to have fiends trying to kill you?"
"Not that they won't try surrogate assassins..." Tristol muttered, remembering his own brush with death along those lines.
Clueless waved away the concern. "I'm not leaving Sigil. I just need to ask someone about something. I'll be back in a few hours."
He didn't provide any further details as to whom he was going to see, or just what he was going to be asking them once he got there. They were only left to wonder as he walked away and out the door, but once he was gone that wonder turned to concern in the light of what had very recently happened.
"Don't you think one of us should find out where he's going?" Skalliska asked. "You know, just in case he gets into trouble?"
Nisha rolled her eyes. "Nooooo chance of that happening... never... gracious no."
Without a word, Kiro started to get up.
Nisha chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder. "I got it handled this time around, don't worry about it. You stay put Kiro, I'll shadow him."
“You sure?” Kiro asked. “I’m feeling better, I mean I can…”
Nisha waved her hand dismissively. “I’m good at this sort of thing. Don’t worry.”
Nisha whistled to herself as she trotted after Clueless, carefully and adeptly staying out of sight. But as she followed him along surreptitiously through the streets of Sigil, Nisha had her own ideas about where the bladesinger might have been going: probably the Indeps, who despite their own 'we're not a bloody faction!' status, still had a decent if informal information network through a few of the wards and various spots across the planes. But no, no dice on that idea. A'kin maybe? No, he wasn't going anywhere near the Lower Ward, rather he was headed in a beeline towards the Lady's Ward. Perhaps... no that would be crazy, could he be going to bargain with the Marauder?
That was an icky thought, and a shudder ran through the tiefling's spine, but no, it wasn't the thought about the b*tch in a razorvine headdress. Even worse than her, it was the looming blocky faces of the City Courts, the Prison, and the Armory: Sigil's own little trio of institutionalized boring.
Nisha paused. Wait. What was she thinking about before?
Beats me. I wonder if Black Marian is over by the fountain today, or no, she only does that every other day, or was that the schedule for Cupgrass going on a bender? No, that's every day. Maybe I can trot behind a pony cab in just enough of an offset pace to annoy them into... but wasn't today when I was going to pick up that one thing for Tristol I'd promised him a month ago and then forgot about? Hmm, that must have been it... Oh cool! A thri-kreen!
Needless to say, Clueless was long gone by that point.
The elaborate symbol of the Athar glowed from its position on the wall, still shedding a phosphor glow in indication of the status of its former factol: locked away in perpetuity within the Mazes. Clueless had been there before along with the others when they'd delved into the labyrinth beneath the Palace of the Jester.
The last time they hadn’t lingered for very long, but they’d spoken with several of the figures contained within the symbols. Mostly he’d been interested in Shekelor at the time, but he’d also spoken with Terrance, or rather an elaborate simulacrum of the man, and at that time the former factol had held onto his secrets. Times had changed however, and the bladesinger had knowledge that might render the ex-hierophant’s tongue less prone to secrecy.
Clueless reached out and touched the symbol.
"I see that you've returned." Terrance said with a patient, if sad smile. "I remember saying last time that I wouldn’t mind speaking in the future about other things. So what brings you here?"
"Where is it?" Clueless bluntly demanded.
Terrance looked at him blankly, "I'm not sure that I know what you're talking about."
"You know exactly what I’m talking about." He fired back. “Remember my friend, the elven cleric...”
The factol tensed, like a man remembering a difficult time in his life, a bitter memory.
"Him? What about him?"
"I take it you remember him then."
"If 'him' is an accurate description. His body yes, but it wasn't him that I was speaking to when we did. As I mentioned when we last spoke, the fiend who was controlling him did not obtain their answers from me."
"Did you know who in specific was asking you those questions?"
The ex-factol turned to question in response. "You know?"
It was Clueless's turn to nod in reply. "The yugoloths, I’ve known that since the start, but you were loathe to discuss the whole affair. Did they admit their involvement to you?"
"Admit it?” Terrence scoffed. “He openly told me who he was even before he asked his questions. ‘Did your Great Unknown ever mention me? Did your Great Unknown promise you this? Do you still hold your faith old man, or have you simply abandoned this new and nameless divinity the same way that you abandoned Mishakal?' The fiend mocked me."
"What did you tell him?"
"That is personal I'm afraid. Deeply personal. But regardless of what exactly I said, I removed the smile from his face."
Clueless smiled. The factol still believed, even during imprisonment, even in the face of mockery.
“He asked you questions of course.”
"So very interested in gods, divinity, the nature of divinity, its purpose, its flaws, and the consequences of its death. Obviously my faction was concerned with many of these notions, and he as a yugoloth was as well, but from a -very- different perspective. I don't hate the gods, I don't hate their believers. I feel pity for those who cling to false powers, thinking they have embraced the truly divine. But him? He hated them, he despised them, he embraced the despair of lost faith, and he was hoping to see that in me as well."
Terrance frowned, obviously remembering the experience.
"The gods are powerful beings," The factol continued. "And I might even be capable of respecting that power and respecting their actions towards the furthering of many things and many goals, but I cannot respect their deceit. They aren't divine. True divinity is beyond us all, unknowable at least in this stage of our existence, but it exists and it is there if we are willing to step free of our cradle and look beyond."
Clueless motioned with his hand. “You’re changing the subject from my own question.”
Terrance smiled and shook his head. "I'm proselytizing as badly as any of their priests. I apologize. But I told you when we last spoke, I didn’t give them what they wanted, and it’s not something I’ll discuss. We can talk about much anything else of course, I do appreciate the ability to speak with someone else."
"I suppose you appreciate having someone to talk with." Clueless said, losing a bit of his previous edge, hoping to cajole the former priest. “It has to be lonely where you are.”
A shadow passed over the factol's features. "I never said that I was alone in my maze..."
Clueless looked at him curiously, wordlessly asking for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. For a very brief moment the Factol’s face seemed transfixed with emotions, somewhere between humbled, haunted, and terrified. But whatever he meant, he said nothing more, and the awkward silence served to prompt Clueless to continue trying to find out other things.
"Which one of them was it?" Clueless asked. "I already suspect which one of course."
Terrance frowned. "Helekanalaith.”
“The Keeper of the Tower.”
“Cold, pragmatic, and cruel.” Terrance said bitterly. He’d suffered the fiend’s questioning. “He epitomizes their kind. I suppose it was only a matter of time before he sought power beyond his caste."
So what exactly did that mean? Unless the Keeper had told his plans of revolution to the factol, an unlikely prospect, whatever he’d demanded from Terrance must have involved something of power, or a way to power. What was so special about a single specific godisle that had a factol refusing to so much as speak of its location, and had the yugoloths obsessed with it?
“He’s a bit of an ass…” Clueless said, suddenly and fervently hoping that the Keeper himself wasn’t aware of the current conversation. In fact that was a risk, that one ‘loth would work with the others, but so far that had never seemed to be the case. The entire affair on the Astral wasn’t something of his, he’d admitted so much himself, but then promptly refused to say anything more.
Terrance gave a curious look, but t*t-for-tat, the bladesinger gave no elaboration on the topic.
"But let me get to my point." Clueless said. "They're mining the dead gods. One of their kind, we don't know which one exactly, is doing something deep in the Astral and they're centered upon Aoskar's godisle."
Terrance closed his eyes and grit his teeth, "Faithless abominations!"
"You refused to tell them where it was, but they found it regardless." Clueless said. "Where is it Terrance? I need to know where it is."
The factol still had a look of fury on his face, a countenance completely at odds with his typical serenity. He’d taken the secret to the mazes with him, and he’d held out from betraying it to the yugoloths once, but it seemed to have all been for naught.
Terrance looked back up, “Listen well…”
Things had escalated in the past twenty-four hours. Ghyis Vast was dead, butchered at the hands of a Baernaloth, and the unnamed lord or partner of the ultroloth Yethmiil kal Suth had directed an overtly yugoloth construct to attack her enemies. The radical alteration of the status quo required more information, if information was forthcoming, and it required advice.
Kiro sat cross-legged in the center of a small extradimensional pocket. From the exterior, his room in the inn would have appeared empty, with the hidden space contained within a tiny wooden box sitting upon the edge of his bed.
"Aszira, speaker to the 9th of They-Who-Sit-Beneath-the-Spire." He intoned, requesting an audience with one of his superiors. The message was brief, it had to be, as within Sigil the sendings were at the mercy of any open portals to the Outlands through which to route themselves.
Kiro waited, inhaled and then opened his eyes as a silvery light flooded the tiny demiplane.
"What are your concerns Deodrathas?" The voice from the light asked.
"Things are developing quickly, and in unexpected directions. The issue of the yugoloths is more complicated than expected."
"The council is aware of these matters so far as I am aware. They have not given me any firm answers when it comes to the Baernaloth though. It remains one of two large variables, and one about which I have little knowledge or details upon. The golden ones are likely to know more, but they have not shared this outside of themselves."
Kiro nodded. "The group is likely to return to the Astral shortly, presumably to seek revenge on the other yugoloth. What can you tell me that I do not already know?"
The silvery light paused, either in thought or because the portals had shifted. "Follow them and continue to protect them. The council has deemed them important, and so far you have done well in shadowing them. You have full authority to take actions as you see fit should they encounter the archfiend."
"Archfiend?" Kiro asked. "Another ultroloth, or something else? Just who is involved in this?"
Another pause, "We have suspicions, but no firm answers. The yugoloths have been particularly secretive in certain affairs since the arrival of their new Oinoloth. One of our contacts in Khin-Oin was restrained and feasted upon, while still alive, by the Oinoloth and several others of his kind less than an hour after taking his position. A dozen severed heads were also hurled through the gate in Hopeless less than a day later, and what few remaining members of our kind we had there have gone silent intentionally or have vanished. We have gained considerably less insight into the fiends’ activities since then, and given their activities of late, this is incredibly troubling to us."
Very troubling, but there was no firm connection between the activities on the Astral and anything else the yugoloths were known to be doing on the lower planes. Where was the connection?
“Much of our resources have been devoted to the situation with Belarian.” Aszira explained. “For obvious reasons this is a priority, and the events on the Astral are smaller in scale, and for any immediate impact. On the former we are acting, and in the latter case, we need you to find out the truth of the matter.”
Kiro nodded. "I'm to discover just what they're doing on the Astral, and which of their kind is controlling it... Understandable."
Kiro had what answers he would be given, but many more of them were ones he’d have to find out on his own.
Three hours after he’d left, Clueless walked back into the Portal Jammer.
"So where were you?" Florian asked, glancing up at him.
The bladesinger raised an eyebrow. "I'd have thought you'd have tried to scry me, or maybe send someone to follow me. No?"
Tristol coughed and Nisha gave a guilty chuckle.
"I got distracted..." she said.
Clueless shrugged and did his best to avoid commenting on the fact that Nisha appeared to have been dyed a spectacular shade of green, and her hair a brilliant, florid red. Everyone else was doing the same.
"What?" The Xaositect asked.
Tristol cocked his head to one side. "And why aren't your clothes dyed as well?"
Nisha blushed and leaned over to whisper something to the aasimar. A moment later he returned the blush and she giggled.
"So anyways," Florian said, trying to ignore Nisha's adventures in skinny-dipping. "Run-ins with a dye factory or a winepress aside, where'd you actually go?"
"I went to talk to Factol Terrance." Clueless answered.
Florian gave a cockeyed look. "'Scure me?"
"Not the real one obviously. But the simulacrum of him, you remember in the room under Jeremo's palace?"
"Interesting..." Skalliska said. "Why?"
Clueless grinned. "Ghyris Vast mentioned Aoskar, and I knew that the Athar used to know of a portal that opened into the Astral near his godisle. I also knew that the 'loths had tried to find out something from the real Terrance in his maze some time back."
"Not too far of a jump from there." Fyrehowl said. "What'd his replica have to say?"
Clueless gave a determined grin. "I know where we need to go."
Clueless and Kiro both lay on beds in one of the inn's guest rooms, the closest one to where they'd collapsed in the middle of the hall. Florian stood over them, whispering a prayer of healing and firmly tapping each of their cheeks to get their attention as they regained consciousness. The others stood further back against the wall or in the doorway looking in with concern.
Clueless winced and muttered a curse as he tried to sit up. Dots of color swam across his vision and he slumped back down prone on the bed.
"Not something very pleasant." He finally answered, his voice still sluggish and groggy.
Kiro opened his eyes and blinked. "And I didn't even get a free sandwich out of it this time."
The implication was pretty clear and a wave of mutters washed through the room.
"Tell us what happened." Toras asked. "How many people did they send after you?"
Clueless gave a bewildered chuckle. "People?"
"I don't like the sound of that." Fyrehowl said.
"We don't actually know what it was." Kiro replied, sitting up a bit. "Some kind of fiend, but nothing I've ever seen before."
The lupinal twitched her nose. Something didn't smell right, something lingered in the air around both Kiro and Clueless, something distinctly fiendish, but on another level she couldn't place just what it was.
"Describe it if you can..." Fyrehowl asked.
None of them liked what they heard as both Clueless and Kiro described the astraloth, its appearance, its attack, and its eventual flight from the demiplane.
"What the hell..." Skalliska muttered. "I don't have any idea what that thing was."
It certainly didn't match up with any type of known fiend, yugoloth or not, both in terms of appearance or abilities.
"It's almost like someone felt imaginative when they made a batch of guardian yugoloths." Fyrehowl said.
"And then they promptly sent one of them after us." Clueless replied. "I feel so honored."
"You're alive though." Toras said.
Clueless frowned. "Barely. The thing was a few seconds away from leaving Kiro and me both just husks on the floor."
"We need to talk about what we're going to do." Florian said. "The partner of our dearly departed faux-Rakshasa, whoever or whatever she actually is, isn't willing to let things slide."
Clueless frowned again. "Now it's just gotten to the point of being pissy. She sends assassins after us that can track us down inside a demiplane... she's serious about killing us."
The cleric of Tempus strummed her fingers impatiently. "This little circle of retribution is getting out of hand."
“I’ve been at that point for a while now…” Toras said, pursing his lips and throwing a mock punch.
The mood was shared amongst the others. Each time that they’d encountered the ‘loths, the ‘loths had struck back, and the level of violence had increased each and every time. With the death of an ultroloth on their hands, they’d hoped that they’d dissuaded the fiends from further fickle vendettas, but Yethmiil’s mistress apparently had other plans. They needed to figure out what they were going to do to settle the issue; there was no chance of any sort of détente, they were far past that point.
"I'll be back later." Clueless said, getting up from the bed and stretching the last few remaining sore spots out of his muscles.
Nisha shook her head and muttered in scramblespeak, “Crazy you and me call.”
Without a word but with a look of determination, the bladesinger picked up Razor and made for the door.
“It shouldn’t take me more than an hour or two.”
Fyrehowl looked up at him hesitantly. "What won’t take you more than an hour? Only an hour ago something almost killed you when you went wandering off. Don't you think it's safer to stay in Sigil, at least for the moment, where you’re not as likely to have fiends trying to kill you?"
"Not that they won't try surrogate assassins..." Tristol muttered, remembering his own brush with death along those lines.
Clueless waved away the concern. "I'm not leaving Sigil. I just need to ask someone about something. I'll be back in a few hours."
He didn't provide any further details as to whom he was going to see, or just what he was going to be asking them once he got there. They were only left to wonder as he walked away and out the door, but once he was gone that wonder turned to concern in the light of what had very recently happened.
"Don't you think one of us should find out where he's going?" Skalliska asked. "You know, just in case he gets into trouble?"
Nisha rolled her eyes. "Nooooo chance of that happening... never... gracious no."
Without a word, Kiro started to get up.
Nisha chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder. "I got it handled this time around, don't worry about it. You stay put Kiro, I'll shadow him."
“You sure?” Kiro asked. “I’m feeling better, I mean I can…”
Nisha waved her hand dismissively. “I’m good at this sort of thing. Don’t worry.”
***
Nisha whistled to herself as she trotted after Clueless, carefully and adeptly staying out of sight. But as she followed him along surreptitiously through the streets of Sigil, Nisha had her own ideas about where the bladesinger might have been going: probably the Indeps, who despite their own 'we're not a bloody faction!' status, still had a decent if informal information network through a few of the wards and various spots across the planes. But no, no dice on that idea. A'kin maybe? No, he wasn't going anywhere near the Lower Ward, rather he was headed in a beeline towards the Lady's Ward. Perhaps... no that would be crazy, could he be going to bargain with the Marauder?
That was an icky thought, and a shudder ran through the tiefling's spine, but no, it wasn't the thought about the b*tch in a razorvine headdress. Even worse than her, it was the looming blocky faces of the City Courts, the Prison, and the Armory: Sigil's own little trio of institutionalized boring.
Nisha paused. Wait. What was she thinking about before?
Beats me. I wonder if Black Marian is over by the fountain today, or no, she only does that every other day, or was that the schedule for Cupgrass going on a bender? No, that's every day. Maybe I can trot behind a pony cab in just enough of an offset pace to annoy them into... but wasn't today when I was going to pick up that one thing for Tristol I'd promised him a month ago and then forgot about? Hmm, that must have been it... Oh cool! A thri-kreen!
Needless to say, Clueless was long gone by that point.
***
The elaborate symbol of the Athar glowed from its position on the wall, still shedding a phosphor glow in indication of the status of its former factol: locked away in perpetuity within the Mazes. Clueless had been there before along with the others when they'd delved into the labyrinth beneath the Palace of the Jester.
The last time they hadn’t lingered for very long, but they’d spoken with several of the figures contained within the symbols. Mostly he’d been interested in Shekelor at the time, but he’d also spoken with Terrance, or rather an elaborate simulacrum of the man, and at that time the former factol had held onto his secrets. Times had changed however, and the bladesinger had knowledge that might render the ex-hierophant’s tongue less prone to secrecy.
Clueless reached out and touched the symbol.
"I see that you've returned." Terrance said with a patient, if sad smile. "I remember saying last time that I wouldn’t mind speaking in the future about other things. So what brings you here?"
"Where is it?" Clueless bluntly demanded.
Terrance looked at him blankly, "I'm not sure that I know what you're talking about."
"You know exactly what I’m talking about." He fired back. “Remember my friend, the elven cleric...”
The factol tensed, like a man remembering a difficult time in his life, a bitter memory.
"Him? What about him?"
"I take it you remember him then."
"If 'him' is an accurate description. His body yes, but it wasn't him that I was speaking to when we did. As I mentioned when we last spoke, the fiend who was controlling him did not obtain their answers from me."
"Did you know who in specific was asking you those questions?"
The ex-factol turned to question in response. "You know?"
It was Clueless's turn to nod in reply. "The yugoloths, I’ve known that since the start, but you were loathe to discuss the whole affair. Did they admit their involvement to you?"
"Admit it?” Terrence scoffed. “He openly told me who he was even before he asked his questions. ‘Did your Great Unknown ever mention me? Did your Great Unknown promise you this? Do you still hold your faith old man, or have you simply abandoned this new and nameless divinity the same way that you abandoned Mishakal?' The fiend mocked me."
"What did you tell him?"
"That is personal I'm afraid. Deeply personal. But regardless of what exactly I said, I removed the smile from his face."
Clueless smiled. The factol still believed, even during imprisonment, even in the face of mockery.
“He asked you questions of course.”
"So very interested in gods, divinity, the nature of divinity, its purpose, its flaws, and the consequences of its death. Obviously my faction was concerned with many of these notions, and he as a yugoloth was as well, but from a -very- different perspective. I don't hate the gods, I don't hate their believers. I feel pity for those who cling to false powers, thinking they have embraced the truly divine. But him? He hated them, he despised them, he embraced the despair of lost faith, and he was hoping to see that in me as well."
Terrance frowned, obviously remembering the experience.
"The gods are powerful beings," The factol continued. "And I might even be capable of respecting that power and respecting their actions towards the furthering of many things and many goals, but I cannot respect their deceit. They aren't divine. True divinity is beyond us all, unknowable at least in this stage of our existence, but it exists and it is there if we are willing to step free of our cradle and look beyond."
Clueless motioned with his hand. “You’re changing the subject from my own question.”
Terrance smiled and shook his head. "I'm proselytizing as badly as any of their priests. I apologize. But I told you when we last spoke, I didn’t give them what they wanted, and it’s not something I’ll discuss. We can talk about much anything else of course, I do appreciate the ability to speak with someone else."
"I suppose you appreciate having someone to talk with." Clueless said, losing a bit of his previous edge, hoping to cajole the former priest. “It has to be lonely where you are.”
A shadow passed over the factol's features. "I never said that I was alone in my maze..."
Clueless looked at him curiously, wordlessly asking for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. For a very brief moment the Factol’s face seemed transfixed with emotions, somewhere between humbled, haunted, and terrified. But whatever he meant, he said nothing more, and the awkward silence served to prompt Clueless to continue trying to find out other things.
"Which one of them was it?" Clueless asked. "I already suspect which one of course."
Terrance frowned. "Helekanalaith.”
“The Keeper of the Tower.”
“Cold, pragmatic, and cruel.” Terrance said bitterly. He’d suffered the fiend’s questioning. “He epitomizes their kind. I suppose it was only a matter of time before he sought power beyond his caste."
So what exactly did that mean? Unless the Keeper had told his plans of revolution to the factol, an unlikely prospect, whatever he’d demanded from Terrance must have involved something of power, or a way to power. What was so special about a single specific godisle that had a factol refusing to so much as speak of its location, and had the yugoloths obsessed with it?
“He’s a bit of an ass…” Clueless said, suddenly and fervently hoping that the Keeper himself wasn’t aware of the current conversation. In fact that was a risk, that one ‘loth would work with the others, but so far that had never seemed to be the case. The entire affair on the Astral wasn’t something of his, he’d admitted so much himself, but then promptly refused to say anything more.
Terrance gave a curious look, but t*t-for-tat, the bladesinger gave no elaboration on the topic.
"But let me get to my point." Clueless said. "They're mining the dead gods. One of their kind, we don't know which one exactly, is doing something deep in the Astral and they're centered upon Aoskar's godisle."
Terrance closed his eyes and grit his teeth, "Faithless abominations!"
"You refused to tell them where it was, but they found it regardless." Clueless said. "Where is it Terrance? I need to know where it is."
The factol still had a look of fury on his face, a countenance completely at odds with his typical serenity. He’d taken the secret to the mazes with him, and he’d held out from betraying it to the yugoloths once, but it seemed to have all been for naught.
Terrance looked back up, “Listen well…”
***
Things had escalated in the past twenty-four hours. Ghyis Vast was dead, butchered at the hands of a Baernaloth, and the unnamed lord or partner of the ultroloth Yethmiil kal Suth had directed an overtly yugoloth construct to attack her enemies. The radical alteration of the status quo required more information, if information was forthcoming, and it required advice.
Kiro sat cross-legged in the center of a small extradimensional pocket. From the exterior, his room in the inn would have appeared empty, with the hidden space contained within a tiny wooden box sitting upon the edge of his bed.
"Aszira, speaker to the 9th of They-Who-Sit-Beneath-the-Spire." He intoned, requesting an audience with one of his superiors. The message was brief, it had to be, as within Sigil the sendings were at the mercy of any open portals to the Outlands through which to route themselves.
Kiro waited, inhaled and then opened his eyes as a silvery light flooded the tiny demiplane.
"What are your concerns Deodrathas?" The voice from the light asked.
"Things are developing quickly, and in unexpected directions. The issue of the yugoloths is more complicated than expected."
"The council is aware of these matters so far as I am aware. They have not given me any firm answers when it comes to the Baernaloth though. It remains one of two large variables, and one about which I have little knowledge or details upon. The golden ones are likely to know more, but they have not shared this outside of themselves."
Kiro nodded. "The group is likely to return to the Astral shortly, presumably to seek revenge on the other yugoloth. What can you tell me that I do not already know?"
The silvery light paused, either in thought or because the portals had shifted. "Follow them and continue to protect them. The council has deemed them important, and so far you have done well in shadowing them. You have full authority to take actions as you see fit should they encounter the archfiend."
"Archfiend?" Kiro asked. "Another ultroloth, or something else? Just who is involved in this?"
Another pause, "We have suspicions, but no firm answers. The yugoloths have been particularly secretive in certain affairs since the arrival of their new Oinoloth. One of our contacts in Khin-Oin was restrained and feasted upon, while still alive, by the Oinoloth and several others of his kind less than an hour after taking his position. A dozen severed heads were also hurled through the gate in Hopeless less than a day later, and what few remaining members of our kind we had there have gone silent intentionally or have vanished. We have gained considerably less insight into the fiends’ activities since then, and given their activities of late, this is incredibly troubling to us."
Very troubling, but there was no firm connection between the activities on the Astral and anything else the yugoloths were known to be doing on the lower planes. Where was the connection?
“Much of our resources have been devoted to the situation with Belarian.” Aszira explained. “For obvious reasons this is a priority, and the events on the Astral are smaller in scale, and for any immediate impact. On the former we are acting, and in the latter case, we need you to find out the truth of the matter.”
Kiro nodded. "I'm to discover just what they're doing on the Astral, and which of their kind is controlling it... Understandable."
Kiro had what answers he would be given, but many more of them were ones he’d have to find out on his own.
***
Three hours after he’d left, Clueless walked back into the Portal Jammer.
"So where were you?" Florian asked, glancing up at him.
The bladesinger raised an eyebrow. "I'd have thought you'd have tried to scry me, or maybe send someone to follow me. No?"
Tristol coughed and Nisha gave a guilty chuckle.
"I got distracted..." she said.
Clueless shrugged and did his best to avoid commenting on the fact that Nisha appeared to have been dyed a spectacular shade of green, and her hair a brilliant, florid red. Everyone else was doing the same.
"What?" The Xaositect asked.
Tristol cocked his head to one side. "And why aren't your clothes dyed as well?"
Nisha blushed and leaned over to whisper something to the aasimar. A moment later he returned the blush and she giggled.
"So anyways," Florian said, trying to ignore Nisha's adventures in skinny-dipping. "Run-ins with a dye factory or a winepress aside, where'd you actually go?"
"I went to talk to Factol Terrance." Clueless answered.
Florian gave a cockeyed look. "'Scure me?"
"Not the real one obviously. But the simulacrum of him, you remember in the room under Jeremo's palace?"
"Interesting..." Skalliska said. "Why?"
Clueless grinned. "Ghyris Vast mentioned Aoskar, and I knew that the Athar used to know of a portal that opened into the Astral near his godisle. I also knew that the 'loths had tried to find out something from the real Terrance in his maze some time back."
"Not too far of a jump from there." Fyrehowl said. "What'd his replica have to say?"
Clueless gave a determined grin. "I know where we need to go."
***
recentcoin
Explorer
Yay! Shemmy, it's awesome!
Bonus points to Clueless, too. Viva La Fey!
RC
Bonus points to Clueless, too. Viva La Fey!
RC
PhoenixDarkDirk
First Post
Does this mean Kiro's working for the rilmani?
Dialexis
First Post
Haha -that's hilarious -all these obvious hints and still people think he is a priest of Sutekh -much less Set.
Though I'm not Shemeska, I'll brave the answer: Kiro=Deodrathas is a Cuprilach (Rilmani) or Dialexis is a Mercane!
Anyways, as always, the update Shemeska is wonderful.
I am curious, do you still have the stats you created for the Astraloths? If so, have you posted them on any of these or other boards? As the expert on Yugoloths, I give canon-credence to your works -so, if you say there are astraloths -it is a good as existing in the FC III (at least in my mental version of the book, that is). I'd love to see (and use) the astraloth, but would like to use your version to give credence -if that makes sense.
And once again -terrific story -and story telling!
Shemeska
Adventurer
Dialexis said:
Hehehehe.
It was a surprise to the PCs and players alike.
Yes I do. I'll have to find them in my stack of notes, but sometime later this week I'll post the stats in the Rogue's Gallery for this storyhour [Assuming the thread still exists and wasn't demolished back during the big enworld crash.]
Shemeska
Adventurer
Krafus said:
Think about all of the other godisles the 'loths had: each of them covered by hefty wards to hide activity and largely to keep the githyanki and even moreso the Astral Dreadnaughts out of their hair. And then on top of that they used mostly renegade githyanki and enslaved humanoids or petitioners, nothing to directly link any of the godisle mining to the yugoloths themselves.
Now as to whether Aoskar's corpse, and the surrounding godisles are similarly handled, or if the 'loths are more open about themselves in the areas they're most interested in, well you'll find out soon [Aoskar's godisle is just one of several in the area. It's a constellation of godisles revolving in proximity to the massive psionic storm I've shown in the story already]
