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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 3047689" data-attributes="member: 12037">“Does that include resurrection or not?”- a mercenary, going over his hazard pay details Session 8/5/06 - The Lost City (continued)Malbi decided it was best to take advantage of the time Jackal was spending trying to find them a portal to work on the Green Marvent problem. The Sign of the One was watching him closely on this one, and this was a good way for him to either find himself in their good graces again or to injure his reputation there even further. He had set out with Grum to the Hall of Speakers to make use of the resource they had given him.The Hall was a large place, bustling with members of several factions. As he entered he saw a familiar face, the Red Haired Man who called himself Tylaric Stormwing. Grumbling to himself, he passed by the man, who was busy helping a young woman carry her mass of paperwork somewhere, smiling with her and laughing. He hated keeping up this pretense, even if it was necessary.Malbi confirmed his appointment with Renthal, the wizard who would be performing the contact other plane spell for him. He headed around the side passage of the building, nodding to several Signers who he had a passing familiarity with. They seemed to ignore Grum and he did the same. They went on until they found the small room where they would meet Renthal and he was already there.He paced back and forth, obviously nervous, and for good reason, casting the spell was a very hazardous affair. “Let’s get this over with.” He turned to face Malbi, and jumped at the sight of Grum before waving nonchalantly and walking to the back of the room to sit down on the floor. “This might take a while to get started.” “How many questions do I get?”“Seven. Best make them good.”Renthal lit a candle and leaned back closing his eyes, incanting.Malbi watched for several minutes before sitting down himself, which Grum had done long before. Grum didn’t really care too much about what was going on here; he had come along more for protection against any assassination attempts. No one in the group ever went anywhere alone. This isn’t to say, of course, that he didn’t care about finding Green Marvent; he did care about that. The motions of finding him, however, were inconsequential to him. What would happen when they did find him occupied more of his thoughts.Finally, after several more minutes on top of that, Renthal opened his eyes. “It is ready.”Malbi looked up. “Okay, I’ll ask questions and you do your thing. First question.” Malbi rose from his sitting position in anticipation. “Question: Is Green Marvent still operating in the Plane of Fire?”The wizard closed his eyes as if concentrating. The voice that came out of his mouth was not the voice Malbi had heard before. It was deep and echoing, though there was no echo in the room. “No.”Malbi nodded, and the Renthal opened his eyes and turned them toward Malbi, swiveling his head in his direction afterward, waiting silently.“Okay… Is Green Marvent operating in the Inner Planes?”Again the response came back negative.Grum let out a snore, and Malbi scowled in his direction. “Is Green Marvent intending to cause a faction conflict?”This time, “Yes.”“Aha! So his goals do involve a conflict among the factions… Not that that will help me find him. Here… Is Green Marvent working for a faction?”“No.”Malbi nodded again, “Is Green Marvent on a Lawful plane?”“No.”“Is Green Marvent on a Chaotic plane?”“No.”“Hmmm… I’d best check… Is Green Marvent on an Outer plane?”“Yes.” Renthal blinked, opening his eyes. He gave out a long sigh of relief. “Glad that’s over. Now, I’ll be on my way, and good luck finding Green Marvent.”“Wait!” Malbi wasn’t ready to give up yet, he needed more questions. He almost had it narrowed down.”Renthal looked at him carefully. “I agreed to do this once for the faction. It’s dangerous. I can’t just cast it all day, and they understand that. I’m sure you got in the right direction, and you’ll just have to live with that.” He started to make his way out of the room.“We’ll double your pay!”He paused in his tracks and licked his lips. “Ten thousand gold pieces. That’s what I’m getting.” He looked back at Malbi.“Cast it again, and you’ll get twenty thousand, and we’ll look after you if it goes wrong. The effects aren’t permanent after all.”“I’m basically a shell for a while if I fail… I have enemies…,” his gaze went to the corner of the room.“We’ll take care of it. Twenty thousand gold pieces.”He thought for a moment, but this wasn’t something he could just pass up. “Fine. I’ll have to prepare another. Give me thirty minutes and I’ll be back.”“Good man,” Malbi smiled. He would have Green Marvent’s whereabouts by the end of the day.Renthal left the room, and Malbi turned to Grum, started to say something and decided to just wait in silence until he got back, which was in less than twenty minutes. Gold was a great motivator; he had learned that lesson quickly operating in Sigil. Renthal sat down again to recast his spell and finally they were back at the questions. He had picked out his questions, and it wouldn’t take seven to find the right plane.Malbi smiled, “Is Green Marvent on an Evil plane?”Renthal’s voice resumed its former deep echoing resonance which had been present previously. However, the answer was not one that Malbi was looking for, “That is unclear.”“Unclear? Um… I mean… Is Green Marvent on a Good Plane?”“That is unclear.”That shot that plan down fairly quickly. Now he had to use what few questions he had to narrow it down plane by plane and hope that this unlucky streak was over. They were contacting a greater deity, after all, though Renthal had been vague about which one in particular. He sighed and hoped to get lucky and pick the right plane. “Is Green Marvent in Hades?”“No,” the voice boomed. Grum snorted and woke up, looking around blinking.“Is Green Marvent in Gehenna?” He hoped he wasn’t.“No.”A sigh of relief then on to the next one, “Is Green Marvent in Carceri?”“No.”“Is Green Marvent in Elysium?”“No.”“Is Green Marvent in Bytopia?”“No.” Renthal’s eyes fluttered and he fell back onto the floor. “That really takes a lot out of you,” he said sitting up again. “I hope you found what you were looking for.”“Close… very close.”“Well, I’m not doing that again. No way in the Nine Hells am I doing it again.”And that was that. Malbi went to find Factor Dhoren. He’d be interested in the results.</blockquote>

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