[KAUAI]The Rod of Seven Parts: Of Hexes and Gems

[Voadam]

Voadam had created a little cookfire with practiced ease and watched the goblin's efficient preparations.

"Yes indeed, the roasts smell good. Thank you." The wizard seems preoccupied though. "Trying to piece together the demonic politics and alliances involved here gets more confusing. Xiphid knew me as the Green Wizard of Althora. It is a recent title I earned and Xiphid would be one of the few demons familiar with me who would know me by that title from direct interactions. To a few others I have met who still live I am known variously as the Traveller, Shipmaster, or Consul. The shadow demon's quote

I come for lust and hunger home,
Not like you, for love of tome.
The Queen he cried, the Queen!
Fetch for me the Green.

sounds like Xiphid asked the Queen to send her agents after me. However he sent Traven independently of the spider wolves summoned by the Queen's agent. So Xiphid and the Queen might be allied but he is secretly working to steal her Rod for himself as well and has some of her former servants under his command. Demonic politics is full of shifting alliances and betrayals, it is difficult to track but this is the picture I am piecing together."

 

[Ambrus]

Sitting down, the goblin tears into the hunk of charred meat at the end of his knife with a mouthful of small pointed teeth. "Ah. Good ta hear tha it doesn't make sense ta someone aside from just me. So if tha demon-folk don't make no sense ta ya why ya keep hangin out wit em?"

 

[Voadam]

"I get involved. I make allies. I make friends. I make enemies. Feuds continue. Xiphid and I go back, he will come around to me again. Demons are elementally evil. They are not just evil creatures such as a man who turns his heart to evil. They are composed of supernatural Evil. Though the politics are complex, he is my foe. Figuring out the politics may provide an avenue to thwart him so I set my mind to figuring out his games. Blades. Magic. Politics. Different weapons I would use in our conflict. I've dealth with politics before, both mortal and supernatural, it is always complicated, but worth figuring out where things stand."

 

[Ambrus]

Maelicent chews a piece of gristle while he listens to the odd giant-kin. Voadam seemed easier to understand when he was describing his experiences with demons rather than trying to explain the demons' motives and activities themselves. Swallowing down his mouthful, the Gudwulf warrior resolves to try and keep the blathering wizard on track. "Aright. So tha demons keep comin back ta ya. So how da ya keep on stayin alive? How da ya beat em?"

 

[Voadam]

"They're violent and dangerous. Many are strong and magically powerful as well as significantly warded from harm. Different ones have different strengths and weaknesses, but I've learned a lot about them. Holy weapons, using my magic to make myself stronger when I found it would not work on them, having escape magics, defensive magics, allies by my side, letting allies know what works, these have all been instrumental at various times.

The shadow demon we fought, for example, its claws were blocked by the magic I called upon in our confrontration when it went for my throat. This was the first one I've encountered, so I thought enchanting Brakkus' blade with an enchantment of light might allow it to strike the demon. We learned that such a tactic is insufficient, his glaive still passed through the demon like it was a ghost. It did take the time though to call on its own more powerful darkness to smother mine and the light from Gamad's lantern so we learned it does not like bright light. It was Chev though with his prayer enchanted axe that was able to drive it off before it could get through my defenses or summon more of its kind to swarm us."

 

[Strahd_Von_Zarovich]

Gamad

Your knowledge regarding the denizens of the abyss is quite remarkable my human friend. I hope we will not encounter other dreadful denizens.
I read ancient dwarven tomes that were belonged to my mother before the elders killed her and banished her soul from the stone halls.
Each Demon lord posses a different army, some control the darkness but other can master the elements and the negative forces of the world, like the dread lord Orcus, Am I correct Voadam?

 

[SlagMortar]

"Mmmm. That does smell good. I'm glad you made it back passed the trees," says Brakkus while helping himself to a bit of rabbit.

It did take the time though to call on its own more powerful darkness to smother mine and the light from Gamad's lantern so we learned it does not like bright light.

"It may just be that it knew we would have trouble dealing with the darkness."

Brakkus stares off into space a bit at the talk of politics. He knew a few things about the games people play from back home, but it always seemed so underhanded and boring that he never found a great interest in it. As far as he was concerned, all these demons sounded nasty, and that didn't change whether they wanted to fight each other or not.

 

[Ambrus]

Maelicent tears off another piece of rabbit flesh with his pointed teeth before letting out a grim chuckle. "Heh. Damned trees have gotten ta be more trouble than they're worth. Would have burned tha whole lot of em down if tha wolf-be-damned magic storm hadn't put out tha fires. So tha demons got magic, tha mongrel-gnomes got magic, y'all got magic, even the wolf-be-damned trees got magic... So where do I have ta go ta get me hands on some wolf-be-damned demon-slayin magic?!? WHERE'S ME GOBLIN MAGIC!?!" The goblin finally gets so animated in his ranting that he starts spitting out small bits of meat, fat and gristle as he speaks before settling back down and taking his frustration out on the giant-rabbit once more.

 

[Mista Collins]

"Politics? Put me in the front line where I can see my enemy." Chev comments as me munches on a piece of rabbit. "This is pretty good."

Continuing to enjoy his morning meal, Chev still joins in the conversation in between bites. "Interesting indeed Voadam. My father wanted me to focus more on the axe and my prayers than knowledge of the evil that inhabits this world and others. I did learn some about the gods, but when it comes to denizens of the other worlds, I am near clueless."

 

[CanadienneBacon]

[sblock=Ambrus]The cubby has rocky protrusions that would have been sufficient to serve as tie-offs for rope so that Maelicent could have erected a clothes line. At 10 feet square, the cubby would, indeed, have made a fine impromptu smoker. Smoking generally takes a longish time, but time really wasn't an issue. The fire would have sped up the cooking process. Anyway, what I really wanted to say was cool idea, good thinking.[/sblock]

Maelicent climbs into the narrow cubby containing the dead Celine and, hauling the rabbit carcass in after himself, hangs a length of rope as an impromptu clothes line stretching from side to side in the cave. The goblin lays in a store of wetted down wood, dry kindling, and leaves, then hangs a portion of the dead rabbit on the line and exits, closing the cubby entry as securely behind himself as is possible. The cubby door, though closed during the smoking process, isn't a tight enough seal to prevent some smoke from entering the terraced cave; the air inside the cave grows thick with the smell of cooking meat and smoke. The crack and the breeze blowing up from the tunnel act as a natural chimney, siphoning off the worst of the smoke. Outside on the ledge, the goblin sets to building and lighting a small cookfire and commences roasting delectable morsels of rabbit. Having broken their fast on roasted rabbit, completed morning ablutions and prayer, and the gear cleaned and restowed, the group stands ready for action.