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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2018043" data-attributes="member: 9626">Critical Knowledge“For your honor, courage, and sacrifice for the sake of our city and our people, I thank you,” Facetous continued, as a day of honor to the heroes proceeded.  The invaders had been routed, and while the extraplanar dragon survived the fight, it was driven away by the city’s most powerful defenders, who returned to the city to help drive the enemy out.  However, though many of the attackers were killed, the leaders, including the plain man who seemed to be in charge and his night hag and arcanosheen followers, managed to escape.      The speeches, banquets, and congratulations continued all that day, broken only by the occasional memorial service to Joddark and the others who fell in battle, and a moving ceremony where Err’s body was returned to the city and then buried at home.  While all of this was going on, however, Tal was getting more and more nervous.  The people of Dragovigis didn’t respond to his continued appearance in their town, and it’s possible they didn’t even know about his earlier exile, but Facetous would certainly have to deal with the situation soon.  The fact that Tal still lived so long after Facetous became aware of Tal’s presence was a good sign, but Tal couldn’t relax until he heard from Facetous himself that he was safe.    At last, the time of judgment came later, as the false night of the moons became true night.  Tal received a message that he was to speak to Facetous, in private.      Upon his arrival, Facetous gave Tal a curious look.  It didn’t seem especially angry, but it was strange enough to be frightening to Tal.  Finally, Facetous looked away and asked Tal, “Do you remember, Tal Moinen, what I said the last time you were in my city?”    Tal gulped and said, “Yes, sir.  You told me if I ever returned, I would be killed instantly.”    “And yet here you are, again in my city.”    “…Yes, I am.”    “Tal, I don’t know how you have returned to my city without my awareness, though I have my suspicions.  However, I imagine that, once again, the powers that be in this world have given you and your friends an exception to my rules.”  Facetous sighed bitterly at his.  “I admit I’m growing weary of this game.  If indeed you are part of a plan to change the current state of things, then I suppose it would be worth it to rescind my previous orders.  Besides, you did work to save this city when you could have turned your back on it.  That should deserve some mercy.”    Tal sighed with relief, and then decided that since he owed Facetous his life, he should tell Facetous what he knew so far.  Besides, Facetous might be able to help with their next move.  “Thank you, my god.  You are correct in your assumption.  We are working to help save this world.  In fact, we know what is threatening this world, specifically.  It involves an object known as the Quill of Destiny…”    Before he could even blink, Facetous had grabbed Tal, and was holding him so tight that he nearly squeezed the life out of him.  With a tone of urgency, but not anger, he said, “Now listen to me.  I don’t know how you learned of this item, but you must never, EVER mention it again!  Every god this world has ever had is forced to protect the secrecy of this object at all costs.  I don’t care what your destiny is.  If you even risk spreading knowledge of the Quill, the gods will unite to utter destroy your very existence.  You will not only be annihilated; your very memory will be gone.  It will be as if you never existed.  I can’t protect you from this, and neither can anything else.  Now, do you understand?”    Shocked, Tal numbly nodded.  Facetous visibly relaxed and let Tal down.  “Good.  Now, I don’t want to hear another word of your plans.  The danger is just too great.  I only advise you do what you think is best, provided it involves not mentioning my city or the Quill to anybody.  Now go.  You must prepare to depart with your friends as soon as possible.”    Tal hurried off, and soon he and his friends teleported back to the area around Methosilang, where Bath and Xalem became official citizens, giving them the ability to teleport into the city later.  From there, they prepared for their next mission: capturing The Blade of Minds and learning the location of Bas herself.    After taking a few days to again sell the treasure the obtained in the dragon statue and buy new equipment, they began to use the device TIE gave them to check on their prey.  However, in the first few days of their surveillance, she apparently didn’t move more than a couple hundred feet from one spot.    “Maybe she’s with Bas now?” Robin asked.    Danae shook her head.  “Based on what we saw with the Nightmare Prince and the earlier battle you two fought against The Lady of Blood, it’s likely that each of the Strife Masters has its own temple, lair, or base of operations.  She’s likely there, and if so, attacking it would be a suicide mission.  We should wait until she’s moving.”    It took almost a week, but finally, she began to travel across the continent.  Realizing that this was their chance, the party mobilized immediately.  After determining the path The Blade of Minds was starting to take, Danae quickly teleported the entire group to a spot about a mile ahead, where the area became hilly and their prey would probably have limited mobility if she chose to walk between the hills.  With a little time to prepare, the entire party became invisible and gained the ability to fly.  They then waited for The Blade of Minds and her escorts to come into view.    She was far from alone.  Besides the Blade of Minds herself, who wore gem-based armor and carried a sword of the same material, there was a short humanoid in a gray robe (probably a gnome or halfling,) a strange humanoid that appeared to be made out of gold-colored clay, a demon with a bony, brain-filled protrusion that extended from the back of its head to the ground, three human-sized gray robed cultists that traveled a bit away from the Blade and seemed to be of a lower status, and four stone giants who didn’t wear the standard robes but did have a number of crystalline objects.      Bath was already fighting the temptation to dive right at the demon, but the party was interested in a more tactical approach.  Wong and Tal began the attack by focusing on the strange gold creature and The Blade herself.  Wong moved up to try and strike her at a critical nerve juncture, stunning her and making it easier to capture her, while Tal fired a ray of disintegration at the gold creature.  However, while both attacks struck true, The Blade and the creature were too powerful to be defeated so quickly, and both moved to respond to their sudden attackers.  Before they could, however, the rest of the party continued the ambush.  Danae in particular was brutal.  Before their enemy could react at all, she rained a volley of meteors down on them.  The attack instantly incinerated the small cultist, nearly killed the four giants and three regular cultists, and even heavily wounded The Blade of Minds herself!  Danae looked a little worried at that last part.  After all, the last thing she wanted to do was accidentally kill their target.  That would make everything much more complicated.    But as she pondered this, the rest of her friends continued the attack.  Bath began to attack the demon, while Robin started picking off the giants and lesser cultists.  By the time The Blade of Minds could react, only she, the gold creature, and the demon remained, and it was obvious to all of them that retreat was their only chance.  The demon and gold creature simply teleported away, and The Blade of Minds somehow disappeared into thin air!  As they fled, the demon warned the party, “I’ll be back, and with reinforcements!”    The party was again alone, but they realized they didn’t have time to gather all the equipment of the fallen.  If the demon was telling the truth, then they’ll be outnumbered on a massive scale in a matter of seconds.  They quickly fled to Methosilang, and then examined TIE’s device.  For the first thirty seconds or so, it didn’t show her at all, as if she simply disappeared.  After that, however, she reappeared back at the battle site, then immediately returned to her original position.    The group looked at each other with embarrassment and despair.  They had failed to catch her, and now that she knows she is a target, there’s no telling if they’ll get another chance.  They began to wait, hoping that they would get another chance, but afraid that it might never come, or worse, if it did, that it would be a trap.    OOC Notes: This part of the adventure was pretty open-ended.  I honestly didn’t know if the party would be able to capture her, and it was pretty close for a while there.  But after this game, I had to think of a new way to handle the fight, since a half-dozen ambush battles would have gotten tedious quickly.</blockquote>

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