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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 2950538" data-attributes="member: 198">Enter the SnookumsOnce they begin to pay attention to the camp, the Angels notice that someone or something has been in it, though there are absolutely no tracks entering or leaving. It takes longer to realize that the dead runehounds are just beginning to smell, probably because everyone’s olfactory faculties have been blasted by the recent experience. Six suggests that they move to another of the omnipresent oases and they do so, moving to one half a mile to the northeast.  A few hours later, after they have cleaned off as much as possible and are resting and discussing the day’s experiences, they are interrupted by the raven skull rod. Its eyes glow with a blue light and it screeches harshly for a few seconds. Then the beak moves and it begins to speak in a harsh whisper. The words are in goblin. “If you vermin hear this, know that I shall find and make fodder of you. Speak ‘nightfall’ and reply, if you dare.”Trillia, who had the rod lying by her bedroll, looks around and asks, “Should we reply?”After a quick discussion, the group decides to reply and assume that the speaker is the Naxaliyen they were told of, hoping that will surprise him. Trillia begins, “Nightfall,” as instructed, to access the linked rod, and then says, “Naxaliyen, can we set up a meeting and discuss points of interest to both of us?”There is no response for a couple of minutes and then the rod speaks again. “How do you know me? What do you want? You are not Dhakaani, correct?” Though the voice is fixed for the rod and effectively expressionless, the Angels get a sense of uncertainty.After some more discussion, now beginning to turn to laughter and giggling as they try to increase the confusion, the group replies, “We have tentacles. Information. Not all of us. Give us magic and books where we want and we will leave.”The pause this time is longer, and then the rod replies, “What in Xoriat are you? You are here to steal the treasures of Yarkuun Draal? The heart of the city is hidden from such as you.”“Unless this Naxaliyen has another linked rod, that’s the last message he can send,” says Trillia. “Each one is only usable thrice a day.”“So we get the last word?” asks Korm, beginning to grin broadly.“Yes,” says Nameless, matching his smirk.“Excellent,” says Six, pulling out a writing tablet. “Let’s make this a group effort.” He writes a word and hands it to the next person, who does the same, and passes it on. Soon, the final, awful message is complete. “We, the people, have a survey, in order to form a perfect union. So bend over, and kiss your own ass. Amen.”Trillia looks at the tablet and laughs. “So this is what you want me to send?”“Why not?” says Gareth. “At least now they’ll really have a reason to kill us.”“Wait!” says Korm. “You said we can send 25 words at a time, right?”“Yes. Why?”“There’s space for two more. Give me the tablet.” He scribbles two words and hands it back. Trillia reads it and gives an explosive burst of laughter. This time it takes much longer to compose herself. “Love, Snookums? SNOOKUMS?”“What?” chorus the others. After Trillia repeats herself, the entire group collapses in laughter. Finally, she manages to stop laughing long enough to send the message.“You know,” she says afterwards, wiping away tears, “It’s been a while since I went adventuring, but I’m pretty sure it was never like this. Or like anything we did today. Did they change the rules, or are you bunch just insane?”“No,” says Nameless, “It’s just us. We are insane.” The group waits for a while to see if there’s any response, but there isn’t, so they proceed with preparations to turn in for the night.Luna, who is very intrigued by the symbiotes asks if she can try one out. Trillia, who has taken the band Korm found and placed it in a box, says, “You really should let me identify them first.”As Luna grudgingly agrees, Korm says, “Are you sure you want to risk using them? They are creations of the daelkyr.”“Better to use them against the aberrations then, I think. If they help us defeat them, what‘s the harm?”“That’s how it begins,” says Korm darkly. “But that is not how it may end.”Then he grins and says, “That band probably makes you fat. You saw what it did to the hobgoblin meat factory we found.”“I’ll risk it,” says Luna. “All the hair hides the fat, anyway.”“Yes,” comments Gareth with a grin. “And that’s even more true when you wildshape.”“Bite me,” replies Luna. “Or rather, let me bite you.”***Later that night, during the second watch, Six notices something large flit across the face of the moon Olarune. The creature, whatever it is, has a roughly humanoid shape and large batlike wings. As Six quietly points it out to Nameless and Trillia, both on watch with him, the creature flies lower and in a wide circle. It seems to catch sight of the translucent hemisphere that makes up the group’s shelter and flies cautiously closer, finally coming to a landing on the ground about fifty feet away.As it takes a step forward, Nameless drops a solid fog around it, while Six and Trillia wake the others. There is a startled cry from the creature, and then it speaks in a guttural tone, muffled slightly by the fog. “I am a messenger from Naxaliyen. Are you those who spoke to him?”“Yes,” replies Nameless.“May I enter and speak to you?”“Sure.”The creature emerges slowly from the fog and makes its way to the edge of the tiny hut and after a moment of obvious hesitation steps through. In the increased light within, it looks like a combination of a gargoyle and a goblin. Its forehead has three holes in it, a drop of green slime leaking from one, while a six-inch long pink tentacle emerges from another, moves back and forth as if testing the air, and then retracts.“What the hell is that?” asks Luna.“It’s had its brain partly drained by a mind flayer,” says Trillia, “Allowing it to be controlled from a distance.”“Pretty,” says Korm, the distaste evident on his face.“Well?” asks Nameless.The creature stares silently at him for a moment and then closes its eyes. Unsure what it’s doing, Six flicks out his chain in readiness for battle. “What’s it doing?”As he speaks, the messenger opens its eyes, which are now completely yellow and glowing softly. It speaks, in a voice that is now much smoother and lacking the guttural nature of its original speech, though accompanied by a soft gurgling sound that is oddly disquieting. “I am Naxaliyen.”“Huh?!”Unsurprised, Nameless explains to his companions, “The mindflayer can take control of the creature from a distance.” Turning to the creature, he says, “So - what do you want?”The creature stands stock-still, with no physical movement other than its head and eyes, as if it were dead beneath the neck. Turning to look at Nameless, Naxaliyen replies, “Our earlier discussion was … unsatisfying. I wish to continue the conversation.”“So how did you find us?”“It was not ea…,” begins Naxaliyen, before quickly changing tack, “…as difficult as you may have thought.” The pause, and what he was in the process of saying, is duly noted by the Angels.“So,” he continues, “What do you want in Yarkuun Draal?”“As we said,” explains Nameless, “We are primarily interested in information and knowledge about the city. And exploring it. Call us tourists.”Naxaliyen emits a gurgling laugh and says, “Tourists? I think not.” The laughter stops suddenly. “What of my people? Why did you slay them?”“It was simple self defense,” says Six. “They attacked us and we defended ourselves.”“Why should I believe you?”“I am a paladin of the Silver Flame,” says Gareth, as if that were explanation enough.Naxaliyen gazes at him for a moment and then says, “The Flame. Yes. I have heard of your little faith.” Turning away dismissively, he continues, “But you entered their lair.”“So?” asks Six, “Maybe we just wanted to ask for directions.”“You are humorous,” says Naxaliyen dryly. “Anyway, let that be. What do you want?”There is a chorus of answers. “Information.” “Books.” “Artifacts.” “Magic.”“Why should I give you this?” asks Naxaliyen. “Why should we not simply destroy you if you come to the city again?”“Because you’d (a) have to catch us, (b) have to defeat us, (c) would lose many of your ‘people’, and most importantly, (d) would not get the information we can give you in exchange.”“What information?”Nameless says, “About the name we told you in our last message.”There is a pause and then Naxaliyen asks, “Snookums? What is Snookums?”“You must not speak that name,” says Nameless, with a deadpan expression. Luna and Trillia both begin to laugh but then barely stop themselves.“Huh? Why not?”“Because Snoo…,” begins Six, but Nameless slaps a hand over his mouth and says, “Silence. We do not speak the name.” Luna turns a slight shade of blue trying to keep from laughing and has to turn her back and wander away for a moment.Naxaliyen is clearly a little confused, but continues, “So you have no interest in the heart of the city?”The adventurers exchange glances. “No. What is it?”“That is not necessary. All you need to know is that if you lie to me about this, I shall find you and destroy you.”The discussion continues for a few minutes, with Naxaliyen finally agreeing to send the group a certain amount of information and artifacts from the city, in exchange for a combination of information about “Snookums” and the promise that the group will leave the area. He mentions the ‘heart of the city’ again, seemingly trying to get the adventurers to admit to some knowledge of it, even as he reiterates that it is protected from them. After the agreement is reached, Naxaliyen turns and looks at Korm. He looks the big orc up and down for a long moment and then says, “Are you a druid?”Korm holds his gaze silently for a second longer than he had, and replies simply, “Yes.”“Gatekeeper?”“Yes.”“And you are not here for the heart of the city? You will leave too?”“No. I am simply here to protect my companions. And I shall leave with them.” And I shall return with them when we choose to.After another pause, Naxaliyen turns away. Looking around at everyone, he says, “I shall send you what I have promised. If you lie, or if your information is not valuable, you shall pay.” With that, the yellow light fades out of the creature’s eyes and it shakes its head. Without a word, it turns away and walks out of the hut, to take to the air. It depicts a wide circle in the air and disappears into the darkness, heading north.“Well, that was interesting,” says Korm. “I wonder what this ‘heart of the city’ is about.”“Maybe it’s that dimensional seal you think is here, Trillia,” says Six.“I doubt it. If there is one, which I’m quite sure of now, the aberrations would want it destroyed, not protect it from us.”“Maybe some aberrations don’t want them destroyed,” surmises Six. “If they’re destroyed then they return to Xoriat, right?”“No, no,” says Trillia animatedly, settling down to explain. “If Xoriat becomes coterminous with Eberron again,  then the aberrations will transform Eberron to match their world. So it’s something that is a very positive outcome for them. Some scholars theorize that the daelkyr are actually less concerned about destroying the dimensional seals than most other aberrations, since they are immortal. Others, like mindflayers, for example, are not.”“Interesting,” says Six. “Aberrations are … complicated.”“That’s okay,” says Korm, tapping his sword. “This uncomplicates them very well.”</blockquote>

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