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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1401496" data-attributes="member: 15043">Ik-MataarTess roughly pulled Shaun and Elenya away from Lucius as Siabrey started to sob, rocking and cradling his shaking form.“We need to find that sword, now!” she said sharply, her voice carrying a tone of command they had only heard from her rarely.  “Go!  I’ll check under the bed!  You two check the dresser!”  They nodded, and it took the two of them to open it up.“What the?” Shaun said quietly.  He had fully expected to find clothes or jewelry in here... but instead what he saw was a veritable trophy case of items, large and small.  He and Elenya quickly began digging.  A small pile of items was losely tossed out, ranging from a pink rapier to several rings, before Shaun spotted a dim glow, hidden under several bundles of wrapping.  Gingerly, he pulled them away, and gasped.Laying on the paper before him was an enormous sword, easily a bastard sword, milk white in its color, with what appeared to be bronzed inlays along the blade, and a solid brass hilt.  It literally gleamed with power, and carefully, Shaun slipped it out of hte dresser, his heart knowing for sure.This must be it!  The sword!”Ah... finally.... someone decent, instead of that brute of a priest.” Shaun heard in his head.“What?” he said aloud.”Oh yes, I can converse with you... as you are currently holding me.  My name is Ik-Mataar, and I do hope that you do plan to use me as I was intended.”“How was that?” Shaun said, starting to walk towards the completely distraught Siabrey clutrching her Lucius.  ”To slay demons and their thralls.” the sword replied in his head, the voice sounding cheery as if it had been waiting to let someone know that information for quite some time.“Siabrey!” Shaun said, touching her shoulder.  He had never seen her quite this broken... even the dark night Elenya disappeared.  Her face was stained dark with tears, her red eyes seemingly larger due to the redness of her eyelids from her profuse cries.  Despite all this, her shattered face exploded into a  range of emotions from relief to joy as she took the blade briefly, before thrusting it into Lucius’ hands.  She noticed almost immediately his shallow breathing deepened and steadied, and his slight shaking stopped.  She gratefully cradled him close to her, whispering, “It will be all right, Luke.  It’ll be all right.”Over the course of the next several minutes, she felt his heat go down, and watched as his skin returned to normal color, as did his eyes.  Finally, he blinked hard several trimes, and looked up into her eyes.“What happened?” he said, his voice very thin and almost not present as he asked his oft repeated question.“I... I almost lost you,” Siabrey said, shaking her head slightly as tears of relief streamed down her face.  “I almost lost you,” she pulled him close, “but you’re fine... you’re safe!”  We’re safe!After watching the reunion quietly and with a smile, Shaun returned to the pile of items he’d pulled out of the dresser, and called over Pellaron to take a look at them.  Pellaron sifted through them, and Shaun eagerly grabbed everything that was not evil...Among the items found was a rather unique rapier, its blade pink in color, its hilt a red scarlet with an entangling leaf pattern to its pommel, where a rose resided.  The blade smelled faintly of roses, and Siabrey (once Lucius was able to walk over, as she refused to part from his side) noted it was magic.Another item was a ring that Tess quickly picked up and put on once it was okayed.  It was a simple gold ring with a large, clear crystal in the center.  As she put it on, her own face filled the clear crystal, and she felt more beautiful.  She knew this might be the case when she noted Lucius and Shaun both staring slightly longer than neccessary at her.So... this makes me more beautiful... it should be interesting to find this item’s history.The party also found three red arrows, three black arrows, and three blue arrows, which Tess set aside to be identified later.   Additionally, Pellaron pointed that another ring was one that provided resistance to elemental magic.  It was quickly foisted on Lucius.  Another strange item found looked something like a crossbow.  It had a trigger, though its grip extended down, instead of a butt one could place against one’s shoulder.  In addition, above the grip, extended forward, over the trigger and a few inches beyond.“I wonder what this does,” Tess said, pointing it at the wall.  She squeezed the trigger, and ten blasts of energy shot from the item, blasting indentations in the stone wall.“Ten magic missiles,” Elenya said in wonder, and Siabrye scowled as her sight noted that all the magic in the item was gone.  “You wasted it!” she grabbed it from Tess.  “Its all gone now!”  Lucius, with a tender, though weak, word, advised that it could possibly be refilled.  Numerous jewels and monies were found as well.  Finally, near the back, Siabrey felt something large, flat, and round.  Tugging, she managed to pull it forward, and saw the edge of a steel shield of unusual brilliance.   With a final grunt, she pulled it all the way out of its hiding place, and gasped in shock.The shield was large, but far lighter than steel.  Siabrey had encountered mithril items before, and that in and of itself was not too shocking.  What was shocking was the famiy insignia engraved on the front of the shield.... that of the Sipner family.The family of Siabrey’s mother.“That... that’s the Sipner family seal,” she said, sitting down.  The shield did not look like any she remembered from her mother’s shield hall, or any that any of her cousins or relatives would have carried.  Indeed, it looked positively ancient.  She knew there were stories of many in the Sipner family past that had been lost to never return, and likely this came from one of them.  She was about to set it back int the drawer, as she had no use for the shield, but then Lucius grabbed her hand.“I... I need a shield, love,” he said quietly, “and after how steadfastly a Sipner helped defend me today, I would consider it an honor to carry that shield.”  Siabrey smiled, leaned over and gave him a kiss of gratefulness... for the compliment, for him being him, for him being alive.“Aww... isn’t that sweet?  Can we go now?” Tess asked, rather huffily.  I personally don’t want to be caught in the High Priests chambers, with his stuff, and his body lying nearby.The party gathered up the items they would take, and the paladins grabbed Igbar’s body, Lucius placing a ring of gentle repose on it so that he would be in proper form for ressurection once he reached the Temple of Hieroneous.  The party, as they came back to the main hallway, heard the noises of the fighting between the demons and devils far louder now, and thus ran forward, away from the noise... and happily into the atrium of the Temple.A barbazu and four imps looked up in surprise at the party’s sudden arrival, but ten arrows and a fireball from Lucius caused them not only to no longer wonder, but to not even exist.  Gingerly, the party dashed towards the exit to the Temple, and glanced outside.The air of the desert was still, and quiet.  It did not take much searching though to find Kelir’s handiwork.  Splayed onto the cliffs far above lay the bodies of many humans in bloody Grazz’t clothing, and numerous small piles of sand on the desert floor attested to the grisly fate of many.Seeing and hearing nothing save the noise of fighting growing larger, the party dashed outside, and began hiking back towards where their horses were tethered.  To speed things up, Lucius used a spell he had known for quite a while to ferry people:  Tenser’s Disk.(DM’s Epilogue: The party narrowing avoided a spider demon in the bestiary of the temple... it was the creature making the chirping... a little mean part put in by me. <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=":)" />  It had been tethered up in one of the stables, and if it’d be released, it would have had some fun.As for the magic items the party found (All are created by me... save #3, which came off of the WotC boards):1- The Pink Rapier – “Heart’s Rose:Heart’s Rose was the lucky rapier of Vrees Helmsford, also known as the “luckiest bard alive.”  Vrees had a penchant for surviving situations where others could not; at one point, he was hit directly by a blast of fire from a dragon and walked out without a singe.  According to legend his sword was part of his luck.Vrees’ downfall came when he was busy with a barmaid one night, and had removed his sword from his person.  According to rumor, once she had parted him from his sword, the barmaid (really an assassin sent by a rival) stabbed him to death.Heart’s Rose is a rose colored  +1 rapier, with a crimson hilt that ends in flower-like motifs.  The elegant design of the blade marks its wielder as one of great stature and taste, granting a +1 circumstance bonus to all Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Bluff Checks.  In addition, some of Vrees’ famous luck remains on the blade, granting its wielder a +1 luck bonus to their saving throws.2- Ring with Clear Crystal – Ring of ElumarraElumarra was a beautiful forest nymph who lived many years ago near the walls of Iskeldrun.  Prince Lysander, heir to the Imperial throne, was out hunting one day when he suffered a fall, and the kindly nymph took him to help.  He fell in love with her, and she with him.  She gave him an exquisite ring, with a clear crystal that held its owners face.  Lysander, however, was killed only a few days later by an assassin, and Elumarra was crushed.  She killed herself in despair, and her visage disappeared from the ring.The Ring of Elumarra has a large, clear stone as its centerpiece.  A face will appear inside the stone depicted whoever is currently wearing the magic item.  The ring’s magic powers then go to work, infusing the wearing with a measure of its former owners beauty and grace, adding a +2 to all charisma based checks for the wearer.3 – Magic Missile PistolThis strange item looks like a long, thin cyllinder, with a rectangular handle and a trigger (in short, a common pistol). As a standard action, the user may aim and fire the Pistol, at which point ten Magic Missiles shoot out at the target. Like the spell Magic Missile, the missiles deal 1d4+1 damage and strike without fail.The Elemental Protection Ring and Arrows are special as well, but you’ll have to wait till later installments to see what those do!  )</blockquote>

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