Planescape 3.5e - Cold Black Mask

[Zurai]

"My pardons Cinder..." she asks quietly when he winds down a little on his topics of magical discourse. "Was I entirely off-base in calling out Hagen's odd speech? The description seemed very apt for my home plane. Otherwise, I fear I have little to offer to this discussion but stoic silence."

Sindr immediately blushes and blurts out, "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, Pierce. All th' 'xcitement t'day's gone t' m' 'ead! Yes, we need t' know ev'rythin' we can 'bout that mask! Wha' kin y' tell us?"

[sblock=OOC]Klanes +12 or K:Arcana +14 on Acheron, Anarakadu, Darkspine, or Thuldanin?[/sblock]

 

[Ambrus]

István returns upstairs with the bread, cheese and jug of water, and raps softly on the chamber door before nudging it open with his foot and slipping inside. The gnome deftly tears the bread and cheese into quarters and proceeds to hand out equal portions to each of the room's four large occupants without comment.

OOC: Cage-rattler, how much did the tiefling ask István for the bread, cheese, water, milk and flour?

 

[Cage-Rattler]

OOC: Ambrus; one silver piece and two coppers for the whole shebang.

Hagen accepts the food with a smile while cringing a bit at the resurgence of Sindr's country dialect.

Sindr Mogh:[sblock] ooc: (Knowledge: Planes check: 1d20+12; [16, 12] = 28). Acheron is known as "The infernal Battlefield", the final destination of the spirits of soldiers who blindly followed orders and rebels without a cause. Legions of these souls clash constantly with each other over territory -- huge, war-scarred iron cubes, some as big as entire continents, which float in a great void. The gods Gruumsh of the Orcs and Maglubiyet of the Goblins make their homes on Acheron, as well, and their followers wage constant war on each other.
Thuldanin is the second "layer" of Acheron, and is rumored to hold the wrecks and remains of every tool of war ever made. Legend has it that everything that ends upon Thuldanin, living or not, is eventually petrified into black iron.

(Knowledge: Planes check: 1d20+12; [11, 12] = 23). The name of "Darkspine" seems vaguely familiar; you remember seeing it once when about towns built around portals leading to other planes.

The word "Anarakadu" is unfamiliar to you.
[/sblock]

 

[Dire Lemming]

Anthony shakes his head vigorously. "No, I got more'n enough. Been savin' it, don' know what for, but it might as well be this. C'mon, I'm not lettin' it alone until you take some. Then we can talk about these Black B****es that'er causin' trouble."

 

[Cage-Rattler]

Dinah stared at the young aasimar for a moment, then suddenly swept him up in a tight hug.

"Tony; you silly, piking...you're the hendest blood in the Hive, you know that?" She pulled back and grinned at him, noticeably less burdened. Once they worked out how much coin was needed to pay off immediate debts, Dinah turned to Anthony with something of an odd question.

"Tony, you haven't had anything strange happen to you in the past day or so, have you? Maybe something you've seen or heard?"

Anthony Orchidaceae[sblock] ooc: 4 gold to help out with Dinah's finances.[/sblock]

 

[Dire Lemming]

[sblock=OOC] She needed help scraping together 4 gold pieces? I've got way to much jink. Also, what's "hendest" mean?[/sblock]

Anthony tries to shrug off Dinah's comment, which is made rather difficult with her hugging him. "Yeah... Well, you mean besides accedentally walkin' into a portal to Elysium and meetin' a Deva with nothin better to do than take me to a portal back to the cage? Well... Just today when I was looking for customers in the bazaar..." he goes on to explain the story of the strange primes to Dinah in the same way he explained it to Lilly. "Why? This got something to do with those cross traders you mentioned?"

 

[Cage-Rattler]

Anthony Orchidaceae:[sblock] Hey, most people are lucky to have two coppers to rub together in the Hive. Even the richest person in the Marble District is still dirt-poor by most standards (Player Characters especially). "Hende" is a compliment meaning that someone is a real solid blood -- the coolest person around. From the Mimir.net Dictionary of the Cant, which is a nifty resource if you want to jangle-up your adams' brain-boxes. [/sblock]

"Why? This got something to do with those cross traders you mentioned?"

Dinah fixed Anthony with a steady gaze. "Aye, maybe. A couple of those Black Dog pikers came through about an hour ago, told me to be peery for a group of primes. They seemed to know you, Tony; or know of you, at least -- ain't too many aasimar touts out here. They said that they'd let us alone once they had these primes in hand; I told them to sod off."

 

[Dire Lemming]

Anthony is clearly troubled by the news that the clients he had picked up were attracting trouble to his friend. Not that there was any way at all he could have predicted anything like this happening. "I'm sorry... It's strange though. Why would they have come here instead o' just comin' after us. They only just got 'ere earlier today. If the devil worshippers had wanted somefin from them they coulda picked a more efficient way to get it... Hmm... I'll go talk to those primes again tomorrow. They seem like pretty capable bashers. If I can get em interested in lookin' into these 'Black Dog' berks things oughta work out... What did the two that came here today look like? Think I oughta be peery of em myself."

 

[Cage-Rattler]

Dinah shrugged. "Who knows what goes through a fiend's brain-box? Maybe they don't want their claws dirty. Maybe it gives them the giggles to watch other sods do their work for them."

What did the two that came here today look like?

"One of them was definitely a Doomguard; you'd have to be blinder than a canaloth not to be able to spot the sinkers. Had a shaved head and was missing an ear. The other one was younger, but my guess was he was the higher-up of the two. Tattoo on the side of his face; I'd guess he was an Indep. The Doomie called him 'Old Shock', I think."

 

[Zurai]

Hagen paused and looked thoughtful.
"Acheron, was it? I'm afraid I don't know very much about that particular realm; save that's one of the so called 'lower' planes, and it serves as an eternal battlefield of sorts. Do any of you recall what I said about Acheron exactly? Perhaps there is a clue in my words."

Sindr does his best to think back. "Y'said... "long buried in th' scarred realms o'iron. Long buried 'midst ev'ry war machine that ev'r 'as been an' ev'r will be. Now fr'm Thuldanin t' Darkspine."..." He closes one eye and thinks hard. "Scarred realms o' iron... tha's prob'ly Acheron, li' Pierce said. Thuldanin's the sec'nd lay'r o' Acheron; 'tis said it contains the wreck'ge o' all th' tools o' war ev'r made, an' all the 'habitants o' the lay'r 'ventually turn t' black iron. Li' tha' mask, there. As fer 'Darkspine'... I've 'eard o' it, bu' all I kin recall is it's got sumthin t' do wit' portals t' other planes. Mebbe it's onna th' gate-towns?" He opens his eye and pulls in his tongue, looking expectantly at his companions - especially Pierce and Hagen.