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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 2821177" data-attributes="member: 198">Written by AviLazar:Session 18 - December 31, 2005Waking up the next morning, I went to the Cathedral – pre-dawn – and began my prayers to the Silver Flame.  I have to admit, staying in the Cathedral is very nice.  I am able to pray with other members of the Flame, and even have a chance to speak with the Archierophant when she is not busy.After prayers are finished, Narik stopped by and introduced us to a merchant by the name of Hamatash.  Hamatash is a Riedran merchant who needs some powerful magic items delivered to his brother in Xen’drik.  I inform Hamatash that we are employed by someone and this might present some conflict.  After a lengthy discussion Hamatash’s plan – to have us deliver the goods to his brother in Stormreach – sounds as if it will cause little to no inconvenience to our employer.  Hamatash also suggests that we utilize the equipment ourselves, and although I am reluctant at first, he persists and we finally agree.  Hamatash did not radiate evil, and he sounded sincere, and while this is not always accurate – it is better then nothing.  Hamatash also pays us 500 galifars, each.  I think this is a very fair amount considering the mission is very simple.We start discussing on who could best use what items, and I lay claim to an amulet of natural armor.  The other items would not work with the magics I can cast.  Then  Flan comes into the Cathedral to meet us.  I am not happy to see him, especially not in this holy place, but I greet him.  He asks us to meet with Killian and we agree.  Then Flan makes a mistake of mocking Zeke, and I swear Zeke sensed my dislike for Flan.  Zeke yells “BURN!” and flies toward Flan.  He does not burn him, but turns to me and asks if he should burn him.  I suppress a chuckle and tell him not to burn Flan.  I then give Zeke some food and a pat on the head.  I have to note, Zeke is as unlikely a companion as I would ever expect, but he is amusing, and darn useful.  Flan then asks us about Nameless, implying that Nameless is not longer with the group.  I inform him otherwise, though truth be told I am not quite sure what Nameless’ intentions are – though I am still upset that he left us in the middle of battle.  After Flan leaves, I head to the Cathedral to pray a while longer, but I am stopped by Corven who needs me to go with him to the Esoteric Order to work on the cloak of charisma I would like to have.  I work with the homunculus Corven created while Corven works on creating another item.After a long day of work, we head back to the Cathedral, where I take in some early evening prayers and then Corven gets me as we go to Firelight, to meet Killian.  Killian, in his usual manner, talks to us about things – taking a jibe here and there when he can.  He asks us of our plans in Xen’Drik and I inform him that we cannot discuss it as it is someone else's expedition.  Killian offers us a job and I let him know that as long as it is not very intensive we would consider it.  Six jumps in with a loud “No” and Luna and Corven agree.  Killian persists with other offers, but the group refuses him, which is fine by me.  On a side note: the group is totally discounting Killian, and while I do not trust him – just as much as the group – he has yet to be proven to do anything wrong against us.  Being sleazy is a lot different from being a criminal.   Maybe, one day, we can dispel the magic in the room and see if Killian has any protections – that say protect his alignment from detection.We walk back home and are accosted by several children, who were sent by Bodo.  Bodo, apparently charged them money for our location.  I try and use this time to educate the children a bit, emphasizing that good grades in school will allow them to become adventurers.  They quickly run off.  Bodo will need a strict talking to.  We head off to sleep.The next day we wake up in the morning and Dala comes by the cathedral to give us some more information about the trip to Xen’drik.  She pays us 1000 gold so we can buy more supplies.  We spend the rest of the day doing various tasks, but nothing exciting happens.  Bodo is still attending classes, and I am working on the new cloak.  Zeke is floating around me all the time, and he makes things more amusing.In the middle of the night, I had a strange dream.  I was standing in a meadow with the entire group, minus Zeke.  Four creatures – which I was able to guess as Dal Quor – creatures of dreams – arrived and began to attack us.  We started fighting them, as more appeared.  After a few seconds, I am ganged up on by two of these Dol Quor and taken down.  Then, more Dal Quor appear, and two other people appear.  They help us defeat the Dal Quor and inform us to meet them at the Shrine of Il’Yannah the next day.I wake up in the middle of the night, with the rest of the group.  We all had the same dream.  Seeing that it is three in the morning, we all head back to sleep and will discuss the issue later.  In the morning we discuss the dream, though Six says he had no such dream.  That would make sense, since Six does not sleep and thusly cannot dream.  We head to the Shrine to speak with Havakhad.  We arrive and Havakhad is surprised to see us.  Havakhad dismisses his guards, and close companion – Selkatari – who does not seem happy about leaving Havakhad alone here with us.I start to speak with Havakhad explaining what happened, but he is not aware of any such dream.  All of a sudden, a strange feeling enters my head – almost as if something is trying to squeeze my brain…it is a brief pain, but a minor distraction – all of a sudden I see the rest of the group act weird, and they follow up with an attack at Havakhad.  I quickly yell to the group to stop, and I tell Zeke to not attack anyone.  Havakhad yells they are possessed by the Quori.  I immediately summon the powers of the Silver Flame and stun Six and Luna in their tracks.  Unfortunately, for these Quori, they did not realize I am an Exorcist of the Silver Flame.  Corven then shoots me with his wand of scorching ray.  Zeke follows up by blasting Corven.  I stagger for a bit, and Nameless enters the area with two guards.  The guards rush in to help Havakhad, and Nameless casts a web on the rest of the group.  Corven, again, blasts me with his wand and I attempt to stun the group again – but due to the pains of the fire, I fail to do so.  Luna, then casts a powerful flame strike spell and hits herself, Havakhad, and Six.  This melts the web, but then Nameless casts another web spell as I manage to stun the group again.  Havakhad then uses some power and draws deep wounds into Six, knocking him unconscious – such raw power…it seems almost impossible, and he did nothing.After this happens, I realize that I can suppress the possession by casting a Magic Circle Against Evil – and I do such, walking in between the group and giving them a chance to be free of these Quori.  I then perform my exorcist rituals and remove the Quori – which causes immense amount of pain to my comrades.Once the group is free of their possession, we speak with Havakhad who is confused why a Quori can possess a humanoid who is not willing.  Havakhad realizes it is the magical items we received from Hamatash.  These items were created, in an attempt to possess us so we could kill Havakhad.  We speak with Havakhad for a while and learn a lot about the Dal Quor and how Havakhad and those of his order have been fighting them for a long time.  Havakhad, apparently, is a powerful psionicist.  I have vaguely heard of them, only knowing people with this gift can manifest powers using their minds – similar in many ways to magic, but completely different.  We give, the now spent magic items, to Havakhad who says he will study them.  We find out that Nameless knew to show up to the Shrine because he received a note from some stranger (which Nameless did not meet) that we would be in danger.  Interestingly enough, the language in the note sounds very close the language “Havakhad” used in the dream.  Also, Havakhad asks us to not go looking for Hamatask that he will deal with this.  I find this strange – I would think Havakhad would want as much help as possible.We promise him that we will stop by when we return from Xen’drik and then leave.  After the meeting I head to the Deneith enclave to see Lalia.As I get to the enclave, the person at the desk recognizes me and just sends me up without confirming with Lalia.  I find this amusing…I wonder what would happen if Lord Sadran see’s me strolling on my own in the enclave…while I am of Deneith blood, I am more of an outsider then anything else.  I walk up to Lalia’s office, and see her working.  Her feet are kicked up on her desk, reading some papers.  Lalia looks beautiful and every time I see her I cannot help but smile.  I lightly knock on the door and she jumps up in surprise, but then once she realizes it is me she smiles.  Lalia tells me she was planning on stopping by the Cathedral later, to pay me a visit.  We talk for a little bit about the past few days and she shows concern and offers some sage wisdom.  I then ask her if she would like to go out to dinner and she agrees.  We go to a nice little restaurant where we eat and talk about various topics, and this eventually leads to her asking me about joining House Deneith.  She made a few very valid points: My father, Byron was a member of the house and still managed to keep to his paladin vows.  The house also understands of peoples personal obligations and I would not be forced to take on any assignments.  Lalia suggests that I could, and probably should, start with the Blademarks and maybe one day become a Sentinel Marshall.  I agree to her suggestion and Lalia tells me she will inquire about what I need to do – plus to gauge people’s reactions to me joining.  Luckily, I will not have to go through basic training.  As I walk Lalia back home, I hand her my signet ring and ask her to hold onto this for me – while I am away.  She smiles and takes it and then kisses me.  I walk back to the Cathedral, humming to myself, happy – which is not something I have been able to feel in quite a few months.The following day, we wake up to have a copy of the Korranberg Chronicle and Sharn Inquisitive left for us at the Cathedral.  They both speak about the Zokar incident, but the Sharn Inquisitive is very bent in its interpretation of the story.  While the Inquisitive is flashier, the Chronicle has the benefit of our first-hand account.  I have to say, Flim has kept his word and I do not mind helping him out.We finish breakfast, and then head down to the docks.  I instruct Bodo to behave himself, and ask one of the acolytes to keep an extra eye on him.  Zeke comes with us – as I do not think the Cathedral would let us leave him there – plus Zeke is good to have along.  Once on the ship, we are assigned rooms – Corven, Zeke and myself share a room.  We are then given instructions by the captain of the ship and set sail on our voyage.  This is the second time we have left Sharn since we arrived, and I do look forward to the change of pace.  I believe, if it is possible at all, to see a look of relief on the face of Six as we leave our problems – real and imagined – back in Sharn.</blockquote>

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