Angus looks puzzled, clearly out of his depth on this one; he addresses Phar in Centaurish: "I can hear this blade of his talking, and now ye tell me there's a big club that can talk as well... I've never before in my life heard of such things. I guess whatever wizard made them was lonely? And wanted someone to talk to? Do these weapons have real minds and real souls? Or is it a fancy, magical trick of some kind? And if it's not a trick, which poor lads had to die during their creation?"
"No one died when I was forged," Cruel Justice says to Angus telepathically.
"I can dismiss it, sure. Eike, jump down so we can properly secure you."
After Eike complies he dismissed the spell.
Eike complies with Maur's orders and the spell is dismissed. Wieland takes away all of the cultist's gear but doesn't force him to strip off his armor.
Caerth hesitates.
”Does tossing wooden symbols into the forge summon hellhounds?” he asks the duergar before estimating how long it would take him.
Then he has an idea.
”I’ll send Screech. Someone write a note to warn the village!”
Without further explanation, and not gathering the unholy symbols yet, the half-orc druid runs off to the surface where he hopes to find his owl companion.
"No, it wouldn't summon them," Xander replies. "The symbols would just burn."
Phar begins scribbling a note on some old parchment with his ink pen. He tries not to make the details too complicated. Once he's finished, he follows heads to the surface to find Caerth and give him the note.
Meridith rushes along with the half-orc druid, but she immediately heads for the grotto to prepare the launch. Wieland and Timmins keep an eye on Aries and Eike, as they escort them out of the temple. They too head for the grotto with the two prisoners in tow.
Brutus watches their backs.
Once Caerth reaches the surface, he can see that the sun is high above him. It doesn't take him long to find Screech. The bird rests in a niche along the old tower. Screech hoots at Caerth when the burly druid disturbs the owl's sleep. He's annoyed but happy to see Caerth. He flies to Caerth's arm when called. The bird is happy.
"Xander, will dousing the forge with water help? Or sand? Can we take the thing out without disturbing the coals? Or is there a keyword to close it? I mean, you have to be able to work without having bunch of demons around."
"You could douse it with either," Xander replies. "Usually it takes the magical poker to gate in the hounds, but since I did it recently, it could happen again... or not."
The duergar goes with Maur and Quinn to the forge. Xander looks into the hot coals. "I don't believe it."
"Qi has survived!" Cruel Justice says happily.
"Your forge isn't as infernal as you think, duergar."
Frustrated, Aureus follows Maur and Quinn to the forge room.
Xander helps Maur and Quinn douse the flames and retrieve the Star Arm from the inside the forge, carefully. Xander does uses a normal set of tongs to pull out the adamantine baton. He gives a douse in his water barrel before setting it down on his work table.
"It seems to have survived unscathed," Xander says, impressed. "It's good that Tarrak didn't get this one too, although he didn't seem to care about it like the other one."
"There is another one of them here?" Aureus says as she enters the forge room.
"Where is it? Why are these weapons all here?"
"I don't know why the Star Arms have all seem to have ended up on this island, but Tarrak has the other one. Well, I think it is one of the other ones. It is made from adamantine too. A powerful mace."
"Azurak," Cruel Justice says.
"We, the Star Arms, have an urge to be together despite our different abilities and morality. It is not surprising that the others are here, although I couldn't sense them."
"The Hell Forge is warded," Xander says. "And the mace never leaves Tarrak's side. He never let me look at it, but it looked dwarven."
"What about Ta’kira’kerymor? Sword-breaker? She is a dagger!"
"Hmm, no, I don't remember seeing an adamantine dagger," Xander says. "Maybe Tarrak has it too."
"How many of you are there?" Aureus asks.
"Five... that I know of... we are kindred. Born of a fallen star from beyond this world."
Xander goes over to his anvil to retrieve the bastard sword he had been working on. He brings it over to Maur and shows the dwarf his craft. "I'd like to take this with me and finish it, if you will allow it. It's not marked with any evil inscriptions. That really was Hirasean's way. Perhaps giving it to Lord Pendour's widow can be recompense? I didn't like how the cult chained him to the tower's flagstaff. It was not dignified."
Aureus goes into the duergar's personal chambers but she avoids the temptation of touching anything, especially the dresser Xander mentioned being warded.
"Wow, this furniture is nice!"
"I built it all myself," Xander notes with a sly grin. Then he sighs, "I hate having to leave it all behind, but it would take too long to take it all apart and transport it off the island." He hands the unfinished blade to Maur and goes with Aureus into his bedchamber. "Here, let me dismiss the f
ire trap. There we go, as promised." He hands over a scroll, a satchel with gold, and a velvet bag with gems to Aureus. "I have held up my end, so I hope it will be enough to for Lady Pendour and you all."
Xander and Aureus rejoin the others. Quinn is examining
Qi with interest. Maur is examining the blade.
"Anything else?" Aureus asks.
"The weapons on that rack were all created by me, but there isn't any magical weapons," Xander replies. "Feel free to look if you want, but we really should get going." He pulls a set of keys out of a hidden pocket. "I can lock the door behind us and seal the room with an
arcane lock. That should keep any of the remaining cultists out of the forge."
Aureus nods. She refrains from going through the weapons rack. She clears her throat to get Maur and Quinn's attention.
"Time to go."
OOC: The bastard sword is made of alchemical silver and its hilt is inlayed with platinum and gems. The blade itself needs to be inlayed too, but Xander had planned to use gold for the inlay. The handle needs to be strapped with leather too.
