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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2209557" data-attributes="member: 1210">“What was the scroll?” Lillamere asks.The vendor looks at him.  “It’s spoken for, like I told her.” “Right, I don’t want to buy it; I just want to know what it was.”  He is a very charming fellow when he tries to be, our Baron Lillamere is; and he puts on his best smile now.“Well, I guess it can’t hurt to tell you.  It was a spell that makes a construct alive and awakened.”Orbius and Baron Lillamere exchange a dire glance.  Over the telepathic bond, Orbius tells the others, I’m glad we stopped her... but I wonder what she wanted it for?  Then he issues a sending to the real Estelias, telling her what he has done.***Horbin, over a light meal, issues a sending of his own- to the Tiger Empress, who reigns over the so-called Tiger Lands in the eastern half of Dorhaus.  She is Malford’s rival; they are at war over the territory of Goldstone, which Malford seized long before she could put any people in it.  He badly wants to work out a  peace, for the good of the people of Dorhaus.  ***Speaking of sendings, Gerontius receives yet another one taunting him.  Fed up, he asks the party to help him hunt down and defeat this Luugi, whoever or whatever he is.  The group naturally agrees; Gerontius is one of their own, and if he’s being threatened by someone else on top of all their troubles with Asmodeus- well.  It seems likely that this ‘Luugi’ is a lesser threat than Asmodeus, and one that the party can likely eliminate, thus allowing them to focus their resources on Asmodeus.***As our heroes prepare to leave Sigil for Cydra, they receive another visit from Glaisig.  “Have you considered my offer?” he asks smoothly.  “We have,” states Baron Lillamere, “and we have some conditions.”“Indeed?”The group outlines their demands.  “You must pledge to keep your forces out of Cydra, and to withdraw from the Great War of Ethics,” insists Horbin.  Glaisig smiles.  “If we are successful, believe me, my master will be too busy with internal affairs to pay attention to your realm for a thousand years.  That is fine.  And as to the Great War of Ethics...”  Glaisig shrugs delicately.  “We have nothing invested in this conflict, and nothing to gain by becoming involved.”Baron Lillamere nods seriously.  “Then we are agreed.”“Know this, devil,” snaps Horbin the MFKG Holy.  “We work with you only for the greater good, and you will sink no hooks into us.”“Horbin, my friend, we seek to sink no hooks into you.  Our interests simply... coincide for the moment.”  Glaisig smirks.  “Now, soon I will contact you.  We will be setting up the opportunity for you to strike.  You will need to be in place on Avernus well in advance, but it should not prove difficult; there are great games being held by Tiamat in honor of her reclaiming of the First Hell.”“What do you mean?” asks Inoke.”Tiamat, the Queen of Evil Dragons, once ruled Avernus, the First Hell,” Glaisig explains.  “But she was overthrown by an overgrown pit fiend named Bel.  He held her in a cage for several hundred years.  But then, recently, Bel was slain and Tiamat has ascended to rulership again.  In celebration, she is holding great games in a city on her layer of Hell.”“Is it going to be safe for us to be there?” Orbius demands.“Relatively.  There will be many creatures from many planes present.  You will not especially stand out.  And Tiamat is... not happy with Asmodeus.  He was complicit in her overthrow.  She is a tacit ally.”  He frowns.  “But Asmodeus has special elite servants- mortals of unusual power.  They wear a special badge, a fist clutching a ruby rod.  Avoid them at all costs!  But if they see you, it’s too late.  Strike.  Because you will not escape them.  They will hunt you down if any of them escape.”“How tough are they?” asks Veil.”Think about it this way,” Lillamere tells her.  “These are servants of Asmodeus, right?  His elite?  They could be pit fiends.  The fact that they are ‘just’ mortals... it actually worries me a lot.”***Our heroes return to Cydra, then greater teleport to Lake Bellurnus, where Orbius’ divinations have revealed that Luugi awaits them.  Soon the party is flying over the lake, looking for any sign of enemies.  Horbin has already cast a water breathing on the party in case they need to go into the water.  Soon after that, they spot dark shapes under the water, and suddenly Gerontius is compelled into the water.  Lillamere shape changes into a black dragon (since he’s seen one with the assault on Lithos) and dives in after, Inoke and Horbin following as the cleric invokes freedom of movement.Gerontius swims forward towards the source of his compulsion a murky shape begins to resolve... one huge form, with a half-dozen smaller ones swimming all around it.  The small forms are nearly humanoid, but the big one is what makes Gerontius’ eyes bulge and his heart hammer in his chest. Luugi.  Surrounded by a thick cloud of mucus, Luggi resembles a cross between a fish and a slug, easily 20’ long, with baleful red eyes along its front side.  Two long tentacles trail in the water, making weird gestures- and suddenly our heroes find themselves drained by a horrid wilting!“It’s an aboleth!” rumbles the draconian Lillamere, and spews out a gout of acid that washes over the horrible monster, which writhes; and the smaller figures swim in on him.  They swarm over him, clawing and tearing at him to little effect.Then Horbin steps forward and pronounces a word of chaos that blasts all the skum into oblivion.  Inoke reels, stunned from the power of the word, but Luugi shrugs it off.  The aboleth wizard blows a hole in Lillamere with a puncture. “Gagh!” cries Lillamere.  “So that’s how you wanna play, huh?”  He punctures Luugi back!  The aboleth contorts as a hole is blasted through its head!Gerontius shakes his head suddenly.  “Whoa,” he realizes, “I was just going to... give myself to it.”  He shudders.  “So that was Luugi,” mutters Horbin.“That’s one down,” remarks Lillamere, “but the big one is yet to come.”Our heroes return to the air.  “Now what?  The day’s not over yet,” states Inoke.There’s got to be a worm gate somewhere near the Temple of Elemental Good, Lester thinks over the telepathic bond.  Let’s go find it and close it.“Good idea,” replies Inoke.  “Let’s get as much stuff out of the way as we can before our ‘opportunity’ arises, so no loose ends bite us while we’re busy.”Next Time: Our heroes assault another chaos gate!Some of you are probably wondering, Where the hell did this Luugi guy’s enmity come from?  The answer is, touching that Chaos obelisk in Var. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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