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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2841689" data-attributes="member: 1210">Deciding What to Do8/8/371, 10 p.m., Pesh CityWithin a large vaulted chamber dominated by a massive table of stone chased with copper they meet.  “Ah, Prayzose.”  Marius the Chronomancer smiles as the Emperor of Forinthia makes his entrance and takes a seat.  Emperor Prayzose nods back to him.  “How did it go?”“He agreed,” Prayzose says with a smile.  “We will have our seventh Arrow soon.”“In forty-nine days.”“In forty-nine days,” Prayzose agrees.  Dekrasode sneers.  “Cleverly done, o Emperor.  You have shifted the balance among us.  Now you will have a companion in goodness amongst our number.”“There should be a certain level of balance,” Lord Alyth of Fendobarz points out.  “As it was, evil was strongly represented, while good was only...”  He gestures at Prayzose.  “Now, with this new addition, there will be two good Arrows.  Until the death of Asmodeus, it was three to one evil to good.  I approve.”Dekrasode sneers again, but Emperor Prayzose only nods.  “The balance is improved.  Our forces cannot win a permanent victory without a certain level of equity between good and evil.”  But the Emperor frowns in distaste as he says this.“Though pure Law is most important,” declares Alyth.  Marius nods agreement.  “Yet until he is installed, we remain vulnerable.”  Prayzose frowns.  “And we know that Lester and Sybele and their friends seek the Bastion’s overthrow.  We must be fastidious in our defense of it.”“Cluma maintains the guard even now,” Dekrasode declares.  “Yet are you certain our would-be seventh Arrow is not setting us up for a fall?  Is he truly sincere about joining us?  I know you can be persuasive, yet I find it hard to believe that he would work with us... and he is in a fantastic position from which to betray us.”  The dragon’s voice is droll.  “Harder to believe than that I would work with you?” Prayzose asks ironically.  “Yes, I am sure of his sincerity.  I simply pointed out the issues of balance that we have been discussing amongst ourselves.  He can see which way the wind is blowing, and he has no desire to see Law and Evil triumph over the multiverse.  Law, yes; Evil, no.  And his presence will aid us in bringing a balanced reign to things.”“Forty-nine days,” muses Marius.  “I wish I could speed up the framework...”“The rules must be obeyed,” Lord Alyth states firmly.  “It is impossible to manipulate this time frame.  You know as well as I that attempting to cheat the rules will poison our own ethos.”Marius sighs.  “I know.  Yet, for now, we remain vulnerable.”“We must remain vigilant as well, and all will be well,” Emperor Prayzose says.  The other Arrows gathered nod.  “And I believe that, if it comes to that, a determined defense by us would undo them.”“Remember too,” Lord Alyth points out, “that any damage done to our fortifications will be repaired as if the battlements were new each dawn.”  The others nod, considering.“Well,” Dekrasode says after a moment, “I must be off.  There is work to be done.”  With a glint of teeth, he adds, “I will be moving on Khelm very soon.  Their careful neutrality in the Great War cannot be maintained.  All places must take sides.”Prayzose nods with a sigh.  “Absolutely.  But try to be gentle.  Give them a chance, and a clear understanding of the consequences, and they may come over to us.”Dekrasode laughs harshly.  “Oh, have no fear- I will follow all of the proper forms.”***8/18/371 O.L.G., 5 p.m., SigilThe party has arrived, once again, in the City of Doors.  The strange, unnatural environment sets Sonja on edge.  There is no soil anywhere; all the building materials, a haphazard mix of wood, stone and odder stuff, have been imported from other planes.  As the group moves along the streets, heading towards the market- where they plan to sell the equipment taken from the Warlord of Orokeuse and his bodyguards.  Despite the orcs’ warning to return it and their veiled threat to make war on Malford, the party plands to head straight for the marketplace after a quick trip to the Eyebrary.  Baron Lillamere still has misgivings about selling the orcish gear, but....“Psst!” A small figure, colored like the surrounding plaster, stucco and mortar, trots up beside Sybele.  It has big eyes and is small of stature.  “Hey, for a thousand gold, I can tell you something that you need to know,” it says to her.The constrast in their stature is comical.  Sybele, after all, stands about 9’ high.  The little creature is only halflway up to her knee.  “Are you a fey?” she asks.  The figure only grins.  With a sigh, she passes over the little extortionist’s payment.“You’re being hunted,” the creature chuckles promptly. “I know that,” Sybele replies, rolling her eyes.  “Well, the hunter has a lot of eyes on you.”  He winks at her.  “We’re everywhere, you know.”“What do you mean?” she asks, puzzled.  She scratches her head.“Do you mean that the fey are watching her?” Baron Lillamere asks grimly.“Some of us,” the urban faerie nods.  “A lot of us.  You know, if a leshay asks one of us for a favor, we give it some serious thought.  It’s awful nice to have a leshay owe you one, and it’s a pretty bad thing to incur their wrath.”  He winks at Sybele and grins.  The smile almost seems bigger than his face.  She grins back.“Are you watching me?” she asks.“Nah, not personally- but there are plenty of us here that are.”  He giggles.  “Even here, we’re everywhere.”“What kind of fey folk dwell in a place with no nature?” Gerontius snorts.“House faeries, and fey of the forge, and so forth and so on,” the little thing pipes up indignantly in response.  “Why, there are all sorts or urban fey!”Meanwhile, Sybele muses to herself, I think I need to provide him with a good hunt.  She projects it across the party’s telepathic link.Or we could just kill the leshay, Lester replies.  I think that would be harder to do than you think, Sybele retorts mentally.  We would just make more enemies of the fey, and we don’t want that!  Besides, everyone at that party seemed to think this guy was a bad guy to piss off.  He’s probably pretty tough.  And... it kind of sounds like fun: I need to be an entertaining hunt, make it a lot of fun for him so he doesn’t want to end the hunt.  “Hmph,” snorts Alcar with a shake of his head.  I need to arrange to meet with him, and to run, Sybele explains.*** At the Library of Boccob, our heroes consult with the Eye of Boccob (whom our heroes call the Eyebrarian, for in place of a head he has a single great eyeball).  He warns them, “I believe the forces of Law have chosen their new Arrow.”  He tells them that, by ancient cosmic Law, there must be a forty-nine day ritual wait (“seven times seven days”), but that once the new Arrow is appointed, the Bastion of Law will be much strengthened.  As long as the ranks of the Arrows of Law are not at their full measure of seven, the Bastion becomes vulnerable. “We need to get on it,” says Lillamere.  Chakar, meanwhile, seeks information about a group of monks he has heard about called the Perfect Masters.  They are said to have transcended their mortal limitations, and learns that there is a Perfect Master named Pan Lo in Sigil somewhere. While the others make ready to hit the marketplace, he tavels through the streets until he finds an address that he was given, which proves to be a dojo.  Two young monks guard the entrance.*“Hello, stranger,” one of them says to him.“Hello,” Chakar says.  “I seek a master named Pan Lo.”The two monks exchange a glance.  “Pan Lo has been here, and has taught our sensei much,” one says.  “But you may only enter if you fight me.”The battle is over in seconds.  Chakar’s mastery of martial arts is so great that the door guard never has a chance; almost casually, the dwarven monk pins him.  When he lets the man back up, he is admitted to the dojo without further ado.  Inside, he meets the dojo’s sensei, who informs him that Pan Lo is no longer there; he has come and gone.  He tells Chakar, “Perfect Master Pan Lo has moved on.”“Do you know where he went?” Chakar asks, masking his disappointment.“Yes.  He went to Avernus, the First Hell, to meet with an infernal monk called Master Scar.”Chakar departs for the Eyebrary, musing over what he has learned.  Hell is not friendly to myself or my companions, he thinks.  ***Meanwhile, back at the Eyebrary, Alcar attempts a commune.  He considers carefully, and then begins his questioning.Do I have the Heavens’ blessings in my quest to overthrow Bile Mountain?  Yes.His heart leaps.  An answer!  It seems that the celestial powers will give him certain answers.  Hoping, he continues:Do the Bile Lords have a weakness?  There is no answer.  Grumbling, he ends the spell.  Somebody’s mad at me, he tells himself again, glumly.Orbius, too, does some divining.  All his attempts to ferret out information about Bile Mountain or the Bile Lords end in failure, although he does learn that Boccob is an entity that could unlock the mountain.  A few other lines of questioning are more fruitful, and his contact other plane yields a few useful tidbits.What will it take for the halflings of Valonia to agree to temporarily relocate?  Lots of wine.How many arrows does the leshay have left in the quiver it is using to hunt Sybele?  Ten.Is the balance of the universe tipping in favor of Law or Chaos?  Law.Will destroying the Bastion of Law bring it into balance or swing it towards Chaos?  Both.Which of the Arrows are aware of our movements?  None.Where is the true Arion?  Gutter.  (This one makes Orbius laugh, as he reflects that his guess would have been a bar.)What are our odds of success in Bile Mountain?  Poor.What are our chances of taking out the Bastion of Law?  Fair.How long until the next Arrow of Law is appointed?  39 days.When can we attack the Bastion with only evil Arrows there?  Unlikely.***8/19/371 O.L.G., 9 a.m., SigilBreakfast is... interesting.  Many eyes are on our heroes; when they killed Asmodeus, they made quite a name for themselves.  Most of their conversation is telepathic.  What to do, what to do?  Chakar brings up his desire to follow Pan Lo, but the others point out that they are wanted in Hell (especially after their indiscretions with gambling and divination spells).  Reluctantly, Chakar agrees to wait to seek out the Perfect Master, at least for a time.  (Little does he know that the monks he met are already sending word of his visit to Pan Lo.)Despite the Eye’s divinations, Lester wants to attack Bile Mountain.  Lillamere argues strongly for the Bastion of Law.  The party debates for hours before finally reaching a compromise.  They will attack Bile Mountain for two weeks before switching to an assault on the Bastion.**“All right, then!” Inoke says happily.  I’ll help against Bile Mountain for as long as you guys want to go against it.Then let’s go! cries the Lester telepathically.  They don’t call me the Angel of Adventure for nothing. Next Time: Our heroes begin their Revenge on Bile Mountain!*Please imagine this scene with bad dubbing. <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=":)" /> I made a point of describing the monks as having poorly-dubbed dialogue to the players, so it’s only fair that I clue the readers in. **Remember, a Cydran week is 9 days.  According to Orbius, this leaves them 20 days to deal with the Bastion.  This compromise was reached out of game after about 2 weeks of debate and planning among the players.  I was not privy to said planning and debate, and the fact that my players were so passionate about this whole thing makes me think I must be doing something right as a dm. <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>

Verification