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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1757876" data-attributes="member: 9626">Aftermath and A New ThreatAs the party was examining Khaspar’s remains, not to mention removing anything of value from the body, Tal noticed a strange, black fluid was leaking from the broken machine.  It evaporated as it leaked out, and Tal realized it was the same as the essence of Bas that he helped destroy in the dwarven village, so long ago.  He quickly told the others, “I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that we can now use teleportation magic while in the Manor.  The bad news is that Bas likely knows that we are here and that her servant is dead.  She’ll be sending her most powerful forces to finish us very soon.”With that news, the party hurried to finish their investigation of the Manor.  They first examined Khaspar’s machine, and were surprised to find another person was still in it!  He appeared to be unconscious, but he woke up shortly after they pulled him out of the machine.  After waking up and realizing where he was, he thanked the party and explained how he was.  “My name is Jarrle, and I’m a wizard of Methosilang.”Danae suddenly took interest.  “The same Jarrle who’s famous for his research in shadow magic?”  Jarrle nodded.  “Yes, that is I.  I was studying the undead for research, when I was captured by some of the Nightmare Prince’s minions.  He was trying to get me to reveal Methosilang secrets until a few days ago, when he seemingly forgot about me.  I guess you made sure he had bigger concerns,” he said, while looking at Khaspar’s broken body.The party took Jarrle along with them as they fled the manor.  When they reached the stairs, Tal used his staff to open a hole in the wall, letting them all see what was happening by Bas.  Already, the sky was getting dark with clouds of flying demons and other monsters, and they knew this place would likely be wiped clean by the demons soon enough.  Escape suddenly became a concern, since they can’t use the subway by now.  However, Alkurvas had an idea.  “The subways were running using the same power that the machine provided, so they’re likely out of order by now.  We can probably escape the immediate area using them, and then get home after we find our way back to the surface.”The party quickly fled, though they did stop long enough for Tal to disconnect the planetary trap from the library, remove many of the protections blocking the books, and pile both the trap and the books into a portable hole for future investigation.  In addition, they grabbed Venymaran’s petrified body, and brought it along as well.  They also stopped to get the children from the courtyard, and then to rescue the slaves from the Slave’s Tunnel.  They encountered no resistance so far.  As Alkurvas explained it, the destruction of the machine didn’t affect the bodies of Khaspar’s many half-machine slaves, but it did free them from his control, and most of them were probably currently getting revenge on The Nightmare Prince’s remaining followers.The next few days were tedious, but they were fairly easy.  Danae periodically teleported their supplies back to Methosilang, but the party themselves went with the former slaves, at least until they safely reached the nearest Methosilang city.  From there, they parted ways, and the heroes returned once again to Methosilang.  However, before they began their journey, they had a discussion with Alkurvas.  Tal began, “Alkurvas, I suspect I know why you have been so knowledgeable about this place.  You’re another avatar, aren’t you?”Alkurvas smiled, and Tal got excited.  He already suspected who this was, and as a bard, it was quite the honor.  “You’re Merida, the goddess of music, right?” he asked, and Alkurvas nodded, and changed appearance slightly.Now, he/she was ready for their reward, and this time, the heroes who saw Lady Memory in the dream so long ago had an image of themselves wandering in darkness, or fighting a roper or some other underground monster, or just traversing some strange caverns.  At any rate, all of them imagined themselves underground, and they appeared to be someplace that was no where near Methosilang or any other community of the kingdom.  “Now that you had your lost memory,” Alkurvas/Merida said, “What is your question?”The party discussed this for a while.  Danae in particular was hoping she could learn more about her own past.  She knew that her mother died the same time she was born, and yet any attempt to raise her had failed.  She, like her father, needed to know if some force was preventing her soul from returning.  If so, what?  And if she refused to be raised, why?  What would make her want to avoid seeing her husband and daughter again?  But Danae also knew that this wasn’t the time for selfishness.  Bas was the priority, and finding a way to stop her was the priority.  The others agreed, and the question of how to stop Bas was asked Merida.He/she replied, “That’s not an easy question, I’m afraid.  After all, if we had an easy answer, we would have stopped her ourselves.  The problem is really a matter of solving three riddles: how to find her, how to defeat her, and how to destroy her permanently.”Tal smiled.  “Well, at least we have an answer to the first question now.  We saw her body personally.”But Merida shook his/her head.  “And?  You saw a valley, nothing more.  Teleporting directly into the valley is impossible, for the same reason you couldn’t teleport directly to Khaspar’s Manor, and our enemies can’t enter Methosilang just as easily.  And you still lack a sufficient visual target to teleport to nearby.  The Manor would work now, sure, but now entering it would be suicide, and the Manor itself will surely be razed to prevent exactly an attack of this sort.  You still need to find a way to learn Bas’ physical location, and it won’t be easy.”He continued, “Second, you need to defeat her.  First of all, you’ll need an army, or you’ll be simply overwhelmed.  Delaspie is no longer strong enough to withstand her forces, and of course the undead and orcs will be no help.  That means you will have to mobilize Methosilang.  Of course, they’ll need your help to stop Bas’ most powerful servants, including the Strife Masters, and any other allies of power that you find will be most helpful.“Finally, destroying Bas will be needed to prevent her from gaining strength again.  If she manages to totally emerge from the crater, she’ll be nearly unstoppable, but as long as she is trapped, she can be destroyed, though it will be very difficult.  Remember, we gods need two elements to survive: our spiritual body, and the mortal connection through an avatar.  Bas is a fallen goddess, so in many ways these two bodies have become one with her.  When she fell, her spiritual form became a physical one, and both were nearly helpless.  Somehow, she regained enough of her spiritual might to attract worshippers, but still she remains trapped in her physical body.  If you can destroy it, you might be able to destroy her.  At worst, you’ll sever her last way of accessing the Material plane, making her totally helpless.  But that, I’m afraid, is all I can say for now.  When you continue on your journey to Methosilang from here on, I won’t be coming with.”  He said his goodbyes to the party, and began his preparations to leave.However, the party first had two other friends to say goodbye to: Roryn and Viett.  Roryn, though still insane at the end of the battle, was fatigued after his period of rage, and was subdued by the party long enough for Galeron to finally heal him of his insanity.  With their mutual enemy defeated, Roryn realized he had to move on.  “I will take my brother with me, if I may,” he said before leaving.  “My people should be the ones to bring him back from the dead, if indeed he wants to be brought back.  Thank you for helping us defeat The Nightmare Prince, but Viett was always the one to choose our battles for us.  If he truly won’t be coming back, I will have to spend a long time deciding what to do with my life now.”  As they left, however, Alkurvas had one last thing to say.  “Those two are similar to you in some ways.  Like you, they had a very strange dream, but it was not the same person, nor for the same reason.  Whoever sent that dream apparently broke some rule to do it, and their current fate demonstrates the fate of those who break the rules.  I’m not sure if your Lady Memory broke the same rules, but if she did, she was far more subtle about it.  Still, be careful.  The fates have a way of correcting divine crimes.”With their final goodbyes said, the party returned home.  After their long journey on foot, everyone was eager to return home using teleportation magic.  Back at Methosilang, both old and new friends of the party decided to stay in Tal and Tsine’s manor, while planning their next move.  They, as always, had a lot of shopping to do, and spent the next few days unloading most of the equipment they found in Khaspar’s lair, and buying new equipment.  The only three noteworthy items were the ones they found in the armory that “Sigmund” directed them to.  Not surprisingly, these didn’t turn out to be as reliable as the party hoped they’d be.  One of the items, an intelligent sword, was actually quite beneficial.  Its moral alignment was dedicated to both freedom and good will towards others, so it was clear why none of Khaspar’s minions could wield it.  However, it and Robin got along very well, and Robin immediately took it for his blade.  The cape and ring that were also in the room were less helpful.  The cape was apparently Wings of Flying according to all magical examinations, and Robin decided to take that as well.  However, when he tried to test it out in the courtyard of the manor, though he thought he was flying freely in the skies of Methosilang, the rest of the party noticed that he was actually prancing around like a ninny inside the courtyard, and Danae immediately realized the cape was cursed.   Robin refused to listen to them when they explained that his experience of flying was just a delusion, though even he couldn’t explain how exactly the entire party was flying right behind him!  Eventually, though, they were able to get it off of him (especially considering how futile his attempts to fly away from them were!) and he spent some of his money to get a real pair of Wings of Flying.  The other item from the armory, a Ring of Protection, was kept in storage at the manor, and its effects will prove humorous as well when finally used.However, as they explored the town, it was also even more obvious than normal that things in town were becoming worse as paranoia further gripped it.  Many people were even treating the party with overt hostility, and apparently many of the town’s nobles have been tried for treason!  Some have already been judged and even executed, but everyone is being very quiet about the details, and it seems the crown is keeping everything quiet at the moment and strongly discouraging the populace from talking about the trials.  Fearing the worst, Tal tried to track down Lerissa, and found that she was also arrested, but apparently hasn’t been tried yet.  The reason for the arrest is still being kept quiet, though, as are all details of the arrest itself.Finally, a few days after their initial arrival, the party itself was the victim of the law.  They were all resting at Tal’s home, when suddenly a voice shouted from outside, “Tal, Galeron, Thorrun, Robin, Fnipper, Danae and Tebryn!  We have your house surrounded!  We are placing your under arrest for treason!  We request that you come out and surrender without a fight.  Resist and we will use the full force of the army of Methosilang to arrest you!”Tal looked out the window, and realized that they weren’t kidding about the full force.  The police knew how powerful the party had gotten, and they weren’t taking any chances.  The speaker, in fact, was Princess Amira Stael, the eldest daughter of King and Queen Stael, the current successor to the throne, and a paladin of no small regard herself.  With her were a couple clerics of Bha-Ael and casters from Danae’s spell guild, and strange creatures that resembled polygonal pentagons.  Meanwhile, Jarrle, who noticed that his name wasn’t called and realized that his already poor reputation would be tarnished even further if he was caught here, checked to see if the back way was clear.  When he peaked out of a window, he saw a strange cylindrical creature with five arms, a number of tiny spherical monsters, and more of the odd shaped creatures with varying numbers of sides.  Meanwhile, circling above the hose was a number of mounted knights, who were riding griffons that themselves looked odd, like they were some sort of improved or flawless-looking variety.  Also waiting in the air, though he was invisible and thus unseen except by the newly-resurrected Violet, was a strange wizard.  When Tal described him to Danae, she immediate recognized him.  “Damien,” she simply said.  “He’s a strange one, he is.  He was actually discovered in an expedition to a recently-excavated tomb from the olden days, before the Puppet and the Head that Rules the Claw.  However, despite his strange origins, he adapted to the new world around him very quickly.  He’s been working towards a position in the royal family for a while now, but he doesn’t seem to be totally allied with them either.  Still, he is very powerful, and if he was recruited for this arrest, he won’t hesitate to strike us down if we try anything funny.”The group quickly met to plan their next move.  There were plenty of concerns; the statue of a succubus that was currently in their house being among the most problematic, as were the piles of books that they got from Khaspar’s library and that now litter the floors of the rooms!  Danae had already gotten a good look at them, and they included some very interesting tomes, including one that seemed to be research on the trajectory of extremely large objects over very long distances.  Between this book and some of what they heard up to this point, this could suggest that Bas is getting very close to using the moons as cataclysmic weapons!  However, it was currently buried with piles of far more disturbing books on dark magic, torture, and demonic creatures, and they really didn’t have time to hide them all again!  Finally, Tal came up with a plan.  He noticed, for one thing, that Sinael was practicing in the training room below and that the police apparently didn’t even know he was with the group.  He quickly sent a message down to him using the buildings communication tubes.  “Sinael,” he began, “There is a secret room near your current location.  Go there, and don’t come out until tonight.  Once you do, try and hide the books and Venymaran’s statue if you can.”Next, Tal tried to stall for time.  He called out, “Amira, we won’t resist, so don’t worry.  However, in light of the many years of service and great good we have performed in the service of Methosilang, would you consider letting us arrive at the prison under our own power, instead of losing our dignity in this way?”There was a pause, but not a long one, “While I do personally recognize and appreciate your service to the city, the evidence that we have gathered casts even some of your greatest accomplishments in a new light.  Further, you know that we can’t trust adventurers as powerful as you to remain free.”Tal tried negotiating this point a few times, but Amira would not budge.  Finally, Zethar had an idea, though he clearly seemed reluctant to use it.  “Let me try to speak to them,” he said.  “I will reveal my true nature to them if it will help you, and they don’t think of me as a member of your team yet.”He walked outside, and spoke to Amira, “People of Methosilang,” he shouted, “I am Zethar!”  As he said this, he revealed his true, Eladrin form, and Amira and many of the other spell-casters of the group knew what he was instantly.  “As you know, it is a product of my very nature that I am a good being, and I have traveled with this group and found now ill upon them.  Does not my witness give them some right to have dignity in this situation?”There was another pause, and a longer one this time, but Amira finally said, “While we recognize the truth of your nature and respect your claims, I’m afraid the court of law still takes precedent in this situation.  Also, while we know that you are a bastion of goodness by your very nature, your kind are also known for their tendency to ignore or defy laws for the sake of the greater good, and thus we can’t recognize your vouching for them as a legitimate form of law.  However, as you are not charged with any crimes, you are allowed to go free if you so desire.  In addition, if you want to bear witness to the party at the trail, you are of course welcome to.”Zethar returned to the party to decide what to do next, and Tal said, “It’s okay, just go.  If we go quietly, we can at least keep the house from being searched for a while.  Watch it, and take care of Venym at least when you can.  But despite your prejudices, don’t kill her!  We gave our word that we would protect her, after all.”Reluctantly, Zethar agreed, and left the manor as a free man.  Tal, Robin, Thorrun, Galeron, Danae, and even Jarrle were led outside, and taken to a nearby wagon which was protected by an anti-magic field.  The party, after finishing their greatest mission and again helping make the world a safer place, were taken to prison for treason.  And all Galeron could think of was “Not again!”OOC Notes: Unfortunately, no one could remember exactly what Alkurvas told the party, so I had to improvise here in the story hour.  As you noticed, we had yet another new player, who is currently playing Jarrle.  Meanwhile, Roryn’s player Jared will be playing Damien for a short time.</blockquote>

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