Solarious said:
Always everyone's favorite way to start the day!
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Ain't it now?
And speaking of starting the day badly, see what happened to a certain poor NPC, who gained a name and lost a few important things in the same day:
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The Angels make their return to Trillia’s home, carrying a
bag of holding that contains Dala’s corpse and the chest, which now contains both halves of Desro. After some discussion, they decide to at least try bringing Dala back, with Luna being especially interested in trying to attempt a
reincarnate spell.
Nameless and Trillia visit the Guild of Starlight and Shadows (where their new position as an incredible source of funds is now outshining their reputation as the two most skilled members) and pick up a number of ingredients for their attempt.
While there, they also buy a couple of
identify scrolls to use on the magical items recovered from Desro. The one that most interests Nameless is a small dragonshard that they found attached to a heavy gold ring that Desro wore (which turns out to be a
Ring of Mind Shielding). The dragonshard has been enchanted to work with a user who knows the
dimension door spell, allowing it to be used one extra time in the day, and simply needs to be attached to any ring (magical or otherwise) to work. Nameless pockets it and trades the
Ring of Mind Shielding for some of the many items they are purchasing.
After they return, Gareth uses a scroll they obtained to
speak with dead. Dala’s fleshless body stirs, or rather her head does, craning awkwardly to face towards Gareth, though the eyes remain closed. Nameless asks the first question - “Would you like us to try to bring you back from the dead?”
The corpse’s jaw moves awkwardly and then it mumbles, “No.”
“Damn!” says Luna, disappointedly. “I want to
reincarnate someone!”
“We’ll find you somebody,” says Nameless. “Anyway, we have one question left.”
“Doesn’t really matter now, does it?” grunts Korm. He looks at the corpse and asks, “You sure?”
“Yes,” mumbles the corpse, before its head lolls back.
“Well, that wasn’t very satisfying,” says Gareth.
“So, what do we do with her?” asks Six.
After some discussion, the Angels decide that the corpse should be taken to Mazin Tana to be given a proper cremation. Dala’s body is replaced in the
bag and Gareth leaves. The others take the chest with Desro’s body and head to Karr’Aashta’s Investigations, Nameless having pointed out that since he put them on Desro’s trail in the first place, he’d probably be interested, not to mention have information about the bounty on Desro’s head.
***
Karr’Aashta stands back up, closing the chest. Despite its gory contents, there is only delight on his face. “You guys are good! I didn’t even know he was back in town, though with his ability to disguise himself, you can understand why. How’d you meet him?”
The Tharashk inquisitive leans back in the comfortable chair as the others, sitting around him in the meeting room beside his office, explain the details of what happened. He asks a couple of questions here and there and makes a note or two, but for the most part simply listens.
Once they’re done, Six asks, “Did Desro have any known associates? We want to know who these two who escaped are.”
Karr’Aashta considers for a moment and then shakes his head. “He really preferred to work alone, without any regular set of allies, usually hiring a few people as needed for the job. Just like the two he had that first time Raog and you folks went after him.”
“Would anyone in the city have a chance of knowing something about who he hired this time around? Those people were powerful,” adds Nameless.
Six slides across the crumpled note that they’d found, from Desro inviting the two to join him on this job. Karr’Aashta reads it and then says, “You already know how easy it is to find information in this city if you search enough. I’ll do some checking. Let me hold onto this one.”
“When checking, try to find out if he hired any lycanthropes,” adds Nameless.
“You think they were lycanthropes?”
“Don’t know, but whatever they were, they had a strong resistance to weapons. Even magical ones.”
“Hmm - that’s interesting. I’ll keep it in mind.”
The Angels ask a few more questions, with Six asking if Karr’Aashta could show them any files he has on Desro. Karr’Aashta demurs, saying that they contain information he can’t share with anyone, but at Six’s suggestion, says that he’ll provide them with details from it later.
“If I may ask,” says Karr'Aashta, “Did he have a heavy golden ring?”
The Angels exchnage slightly awkward glance and then Nameless says, “Um, yes. But it’s now at the Guild of Starlight and Shadows. We sold it only a couple of hours ago.”
“No harm done. It’s simply that Desro stole that from someone he killed. Someone I know. I’ll check on getting it back.”
Before they leave, Karr’Aashta asks if he can keep the body, so that he can collect the bounty he had been working on. The Angels agree, with Nameless adding the caveat that he just needs to make absolutely sure that the body is cremated. Karr’Aashta says he will do so and, in thanks, hands over a Kundarak banknote worth 2,000 galifars.
Shortly after the group returns to Trillia’s, Gareth rejoins them and says that Mazin Tana will take care of Dala’s corpse. After some discussion, they decide to let Balan Cord know about what happened, and to attempt to
scry the enemies who fled the next morning.
There is also some discussion of finding a permanent place for the group to stay and give Trillia some relief from their presence. Trillia admits with a smile that she wouldn’t cry if they moved out, but also says that she thinks they should wait till their return from the Shadow Marches before actually buying a place.
***
The next morning, the group is gathered in Trillia’s spellcasting chamber, watching Nameless as he stares into an ornate mirror (with—naturally—stylized tentacles running up and down its sides) and completes his
scry spell. The vial full of now coagulated blood from the fake Dala is held in his hand.
The mirror goes blank and non-reflective to the others, but Nameless sees the outline of a humanoid figure from chest upwards. There are no features and all he can make out is the silhouette, as if he were looking at someone through a bed sheet. Though he doesn’t recognize it, the alienist knows immediately that there’s some significantly powerful protective magic at work.
“They‘ve got some serious protections up,” says Nameless, and then explains what he sees.
“Try a
detect magic,” suggests Trillia, and Nameless does so. As he concentrates, an amulet-like space around the silhouette’s neck begins to glow, revealing multiple auras. “Abjuration, transmutation and illusion,” he lists for the others.
Ending the spell, Nameless says, “I’m quite sure that protection’s from an item, so it’s permanent. Further
scry attempts won’t help. Drat! I prepared a couple extra just in case I needed to try multiple times.”
“Still, you learned something,” points out Trillia.
Gareth says, “So you have some more? Then what about that mind flayer wizard? I know we said we’d focus on these ones first, but if we can’t get to them and you already have the spells prepared, we might as well take it out.”
“You sure?” asks Nameless a little uncertainly, looking around at the others. “I only have one
teleport ready, since I expected us to jump them inside Sharn.”
“I have two,” says Trillia a little reluctantly.
“Let’s do it,” says Luna, who’s already been looking bored. “We’ve already cast all these spells on us anyway, so we might as well get some use from them.”
“I agree,” says Korm. “We’re all ready to kick someone’s ass, so it might as well be the mind flayer.”
“Okay,” says Nameless, turning back to the mirror. “Let’s see what our friend is doing right now. Get comfortable. This’ll take another hour.”
“Oh man!” grouses Luna, only a second before Gareth says, “Fine - I’ll walk Luna and be back,” which draws a glare and a growled, “Bite me. Or even better, let me bite you.”
Nameless grins and continues with the spell.
***
Messal’rok, mind flayer arcanist, walks through the Chamber of Pillars, muttering to himself under his breath. It’s been a rough couple of days. Things started out well, with the capture of that human wizard, which had made Naxaliyen exceedingly happy. He’d said something about having a way to open the Seal, and even though Messal’rok thought his master was being a little too optimistic, he knew better than to voice the opinion.
And things went completely to Dolurrh and back during the planned opening. The wizard’s damn allies not only returned but managed to kill Naxaliyen, as well as a number of others. Messal’rok barely escaped. And what in Xoriat was that spectral hobgoblin? The beholders destroyed it, but just to be on the safe side they were re-sealing the chamber it came from.
Anyway, he had bigger problems. Naxaliyen was dead. Dozens of his followers had been killed and others were on the verge of fleeing to the nearest faction. And that’s why Messal’rok was here. If Xaelij agreed to accept his allegiance, things might improve. In fact, considering that Xaelij didn’t have Naxaliyen’s mind-reading powers, there might be certain benefits…
Messal’rok’s thoughts are broken by a harsh call of “Halt!” Ahead, standing on the further side of a relatively open space, are the guards he expected. Each looks like a burly bugbear, but Messal’rok knows exactly how they were grown and that the appearance is quite deceptive.
“I am Messal’rok,” he says aloud, walking forward. “Xaelij is expecting me.”
The guards exchange glances and one says gruffly, “We were not told to expect you.”
Messal’rok’s tentacles flex in irritation and he begins to explain that Xaelij must have forgotten and that he must be allowed to pass. It takes a few minutes of argument, but finally, a guard grudgingly steps back and knocks the butt of his polearm against the small gong hanging on a pillar. Messal’rok sighs inwardly in relief. Things are finally, or at least potentially, looking up again.
And then everything goes wrong.
There’s a whiff of air behind him, and as he spins around, a group of figures appear ten feet away. Even though four of them are half their previous size, there’s no mistaking them. It’s those damn humanoids again!
“Kill them! Kill them now!” screams Messal’rok, backing away as fast as he can, hands blurring in the motions of a spell. This time he’ll show them!
As the female wizard in the rear speaks a set of words, causing the four shrunken enemies to spring back to normal size, and the two guards move to intercept them, Messal’rok completes his spell.
To his disappointment, only a single pseudonatural wolf appears, snapping at the human wizard. And then, to his shock, it actually misses, stumbling on the floor in its eagerness to seize the target*.
The wizard smirks and says, “No - this is how you do it,” and casts the very same spell, causing two such wolves to appear, flanking Messal’rok. He frantically twists away from one**, but the other bites deeply into his leg, pulling him off his feet.
As Messal’rok tumbles painfully to the ground, out of the corner of his one eye, he sees the warforged striking one of the guards in a blur of motion and moving away, while the human warrior with the flames covering his armor cuts into Messal’rok’s
summoned wolf.
But what he focuses on is the sight of the large orc rushing forward through the pillars at preternatural speed. He bellows an orcish war-cry as he comes, ignoring the slash that one of the guards inflicts as he passes by. Messal’rok’s hands rush desperately through the motions of a spell, but as he is about to complete it, the snapping jaws of a wolf make him pause for one vital second.
The last thing the mind flayer sees is the gleam of the orc’s sword as it comes down.
***
Korm turns from the dead mind flayer to meet the attack of one of the guards, while Six engages the other.
“Hurry up,” says Luna, “I heard something coming.” She casts a spell, causing a
fog cloud to appear and spread forty feet in width.
“What she said. Move!” says Nameless. At his command, one of the wolves seizes the corpse and begins to drag it back through the pillars.
With the aid of the other wolf, Six drops his enemy, and turns to help Korm. To his surprise, Korm is barely looking at his foe, staring past and above him, beyond Six.
As the warforged spins around to see what is coming, two rays of bright light shoot past him at his allies, while a third strikes him square in the chest. And behind the beams comes the floating one-eyed, multi-stalked orb that fired them.
“I am Xaelij!” it snarls as it comes, “Surrender or die!”
* Natural 1 trumps a
true strike-aided attack. Start of a trend for the day.
** And Nameless rolls a natural 1 for one of his wolves.
