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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3983499" data-attributes="member: 198">And here's the next one. Two segments, as usual...* * * * * * * * * *The next morning, Nameless announces that while the carvings on the ziggurat include few words, and some of them are impossible for him to decipher without more time, he has found a constant term which he is fairly certain is what the makers of the ziggurat called it (or the area as a whole) – R’lyeh.He then proceeds to cast a legend lore, attempting to learn more about the structure. When he finishes, his eyes go milky white for a few seconds, and he finds himself reciting, in an unusually deep voice: “Stone brought from beyond the stars, mortared of sorrow and liquid pain, touched by the warper of flesh and master of ooze, the dark altar waits. Blood it seeks and blood it dreams of, in its ancient, abysmal, uninvaded sleep. That is not dead which can eternal lie. When the final sacrifice is made, when ichor of its aberration creators and blood of their druid enemies mingle to feed it, then will the stars be right. The ancient walls shall be broken and the keys turned. And R’lyeh shall arise, and the future shall be written in blood.”Nameless stops and looks at the others. “That confirms or tells us a few things. This entire thing is a giant altar, more than a temple, which explains why it absorbs blood, though not how. And Kyrzin, who I’m certain is the warper of flesh and master of ooze, built it or contributed to its construction. It’s intended to help in awakening something. And apparently the final sacrifice that was needed involved aberrations and their druid enemies – presumably the Gatekeepers – bleeding on its stone. Which happened yesterday.” He grimaces a little and continues, dryly, “As usual, the forecast is very good.” Six says thoughtfully, “The line you said mentioned the blood of aberrations and of the druids ‘mingling to feed it,’ right?”“Yes.”“I was just thinking that with the changes that Mordain did to us, and Korm actually wearing one of those aspects he does, we’ve got people in this group who have more mingling of aberration and druid blood than probably anyone in the history of Eberron. Maybe that’s what the nagas were sitting and waiting for – us!”“See, Korm,” says Luna, “I told you eating that crap would screw you up!”Korm, already smiling grimly at the news, shrugs. “Says the woman who has two aberrations inside her. I think you count for mingling of aberration and druid blood too.”“Symbionts are not aberrations!” Luna says indignantly. “They’re harmless. And helpful. And cute!”Gareth sighs. “You know, being cute does not automatically remove every negative quality something has. But it probably explains something about you and gnomes.” He glances at Nameless. “What are you grinning for?”Nameless, who actually was smiling thinly, does grin now. “I was just thinking, at least this end of the world won’t be my fault!”“I’m so happy for you! Anyway, my turn now. I’m not feeling any better than I did yesterday.” Gareth uses an augury to ask whether a limited wish could improve his condition. The answer, unfortunately, is “Nothing.” “What does that mean?” asks Luna.“It means either my spell didn’t work,” replies Gareth, “Or a limited wish will not have either a positive or a negative result. Nameless, could you use one on me anyway?”“I’d really rather not,” says Nameless. “It will drain me somewhat and your spell provides no indication that it would work. Your affliction seems to be similar to what a failed contact other plane causes, in which case you’d need a greater restoration.”“A what? We don’t know anyone who could pull one of those off!”“Maybe you could ask your Keeper of the Flame. We will be visiting her tomorrow, right?”“Yes, but I can hardly meet the head of my Church and say, ‘Hi, Jaela – could you restore me?’!”“Keep saying that and maybe it’ll get better with practice.”Luna interrupts at this point, with the words which usually send shivers down her companions’ backs, “I’m bored. And I’m leaving. You guys can come along too, of course. I have things to do.”Six asks cautiously, suspicious of the anticipatory grin on her face. “Where are you going?”“Back to Sharn. Payback’s a bitch, baby! And she has a control weather ready now. I’m going to form a blizzard right on top of our district. A blizzard miles wide. Which will sit there and rain snow and cold on them Now they’re going to pay!” She dances a few steps in pleasure.Six looks at Korm. “Can she actually do that?” The Gatekeeper nods and shrugs. “She’s Luna!” Which really does seem to say it all.The warforged turns back to the world’s largest dancing bear. “Luna, you can’t just drop a blizzard over half of Sharn. Think of the damage that it’ll do. And you don’t even know who was really behind our eviction, so you don’t know who to affect. Why don’t you wait and find out who it was and do something more precise – like training birds to take a cr*p on them.”“That’s okay,” says Luna confidently. “The blizzard will be so big that it’ll cover our entire district, so I’ll definitely get the bastards who wanted me out. It’ll be awesome!”Nameless, who has had his head in his hands at Luna’s announcement, looks up. “And that means you’ll get even more people who had nothing to do with it. You are not going to wreak havoc on the innocent people in Sharn. Either figure out a way to annoy the people who are responsible for this and only them or give this up. Follow Six's suggestion and train birds to sh*t on them when they’re walking around. It will ruin their clothes and make them spend money on cleaning them.” Gareth adds his voice to Nameless’. “He’s right. This storm will hurt many – especially the poor who do not have the resources to withstand such an event. You need to find a way to make your actions focused only on the people who negatively affected us. Plus the Deneith members are hired warriors. Actually, all of those who evicted us are hired by someone higher up. The people who did the actual hurting are those who complained and those who signed the papers. Those who showed up to our home were just doing their jobs – even the dwarf Kestran.”Luna scowls. “Don’t be trying to confuse me with words! They could have refused if they knew it was wrong! Which they did! Just following orders is not good enough! It’s divine retribution. I am merely acting as an instrument of the gods! It’s a storm of righteous justice! Which Sharn desperately needs!” She waves her paws wildly as her excitement grows, like a giant hairy prophet of doom. “The blanket of white will prime the canvas for a new, more just, Sharn! Those people threw me out of my house in winter! Without my things! While I’m pregnant! After I just fixed it up! And I was going to have a house warming party for them! And everything! I was going to serve food and everything! I have a bottomless mug of beer! And now it will always be winter there ... just like in their little cold hearts!”Korm mimics beating his head on the closest wall of the ziggurat. “Luna – you’re wearing more valuable things than most nobles can afford. You can change the climate as you wish and walk through a volcano with the right preparation. I don’t think the ‘poor, barefoot and pregnant in the cold’ argument really works.”Luna has the grace to look just the slightest bit embarrassed at Korm’s point, and Six quickly puts in, hoping that she might see sense, “And if you go on this path you will blow it with the Prince and anyone else of note. No one is going to want to be with a psycho that casually kills countless unknown people just to annoy the few that slighted her.”Unfortunately, Luna being abashed lasts only a second or two. She snorts. “I won’t kill them – just make them cold. I’ll center the blizzard outside Sharn, so only a few districts will be affected. And if you’re so worried about the cold, then I will reduce it to gale-force winds and put them higher so as to affect only our old neighborhood. It’s not as satisfying, but I’m willing to be nice. So there!” She waves her paws at the rest of the group. “I don’t even know how you all can run off and not deal with our own personal affairs! Something from Xoriat will always be about to bust through, but this is important! They think they can just throw us out and get away with this, and you want to let them!”“We do have more important things to do,” persists Six, beginning to get annoyed, “And we’re thinking a little more long-term than you. If you do this, we lose all assets in Sharn. Sharn’s investigators are more than competent. They will know who did it and seize all our assets; the house, bank accounts, pending magic items and whatever else they can grab. And they may be able to lay claim to our assets outside of the city too.” Gareth nods and mutters sadly, “And unfortunately, considering how famous we are, I won’t even be able to say that I do not know this crazy woman and have never had any relations with her.” Then he says, more loudly, “Seriously, Luna – don’t do this. Making thousands of innocent people suffer just to feed your need for revenge is not just insane, it’s evil.”Six continues, “And we did address this all ready. We fixed things with Balan, and Balan will grease the wheels of Sharn ‘justice.’ You know what I think of the city. If you want to burn our connection with Sharn, I don’t need much convincing, but we need time to end our affairs first and do it the right way. Seriously, woman – suck it up! You’re crying like a girl who didn’t get a pony.”Luna may not be crying, but she does howl, rearing up and shouting her anger to everyone getting in the way of her vengeance. “I can't believe this! Once again – a blizzard is not a plague! Making someone cold and miserable is not killing them! The entire government is upholding this injustice! And just following orders is not an excuse! Remember the war crimes trials after the Last War? They all knew these were slimy, middle of the night, scheming maneuvers and all went along! And everyone here is fine with it! The others simply stare in awed fascination at her fury, nobody interrupting. Korm murmurs, “You think she’ll blow up?”Nobody answers and Luna rages on. “Well … Luna is not fine with it! And how come you don’t tell them about evil?! What they did to me was evil! I was just going to make them cold! And unhappy to be where they are! Where they didn’t want me to be! Here is the situation – come up with some way to make these people very, very, very, very sad that they ever even thought of messing with poor Luna or face the fact that Luna has sunk into depression and has no desire to do anything at all but avenge the loss of her home.”“Okay, fellas,” whispers Nameless. “She’s gone to third person now. This is definitely not good.”Luna continues, “If they’re going to take my house, let’s see some cash … right now! And if that’s the case, Luna is never setting foot in Sharn ever again. Ever!!! Until then ... I’m going to our other house to build rooms and sulk. Carry on!”For just a second the others think the tirade is over, but Luna barely pauses to take a breath and then bashes on. “Okay … it’s just a mile wide blizzard. How can that be evil? Anyway ... it’s amazing how much faster the politicians would decide they wanted to resolve this if there was a blizzard happening!!”She glares at Gareth. “So, Mr. Paladin – how cold can I make it without being evil? And what if I just become a polar bear and want to create a climate I can be happy in? Maybe if being evil is wrong I don’t want to be right!!” As Gareth tries to work out if there really is a question he should answer in there, Luna continues, “As I said, I will give the rest of you a chance to resolve this and get the full value of my house and all improvements out of the house right now!! And I will just never return to Sharn! EVER!! In the meantime, I just can’t concentrate on this other crap. So I am going to Karrnath and working on my new house. You guys let me know when things are resolved to my satisfaction or carry on as you will. You know where to find me – unless I get bored and go somewhere else. So just get me fair market value for my house right now!! And your precious Sharn will be left alone and can fend for itself!”Again, for a moment it seems Luna is done, but then as she glares around she sees Six and remembers something he said. Which sends her off again. “Hello!!! It’s not that I didn’t get a pony – but that my pony was ripped from me in the middle of the night!!! I just don’t understand why we can’t resolve this first! How long can it take to sell our house so I know I’ll never ever have to go back to Sharn again?! I can’t rest with this up in the air! I hate all those people! I want my money! You all go now and take care of this!! No one likes how Luna deals with things – so you deal with it! But do something!!!”“You want to tell her that if she just shuts up, we can go back to Sharn and deal with the house?” Korm whispers to Nameless. The alienist instantly shakes his head, “I may go to Xoriat and talk to Great Old Ones, but I’m not stupid!”Unaware or uncaring, Luna shouts on, “Then Luna will go to the Mournland. Why are my needs always last? All I do is give! And this is how I am repaid! I wouldn’t raise a tail to help if all of Xoriat moved into our old house and ate Sharn! I hope it does! A plague on their city!! And there is never anything nice for druids! Life has just lost all its meaning!!”“Anyway, I am leaving – goodbye! I will stop near our old house and summon the largest super-duper air elemental I can – and I want them to blow freezing cold wind in the general area of the miscreants involved – and I will tell them in Auran and have them take off their roofs!! And I will get four of them to stay around our house and howl as loud as possible so the neighbors will know the wailing of Luna’s poor heart!! And if that is evil ... so be it!! Oh, and I’m going to find that shifter witch and scrawl in red paint on her door – Loyal member of the turncoats! And on the side of her house ... ‘I can be bought very easily’!!!” Luna begins to laugh at the prospect and then, after a couple of moments, growls at the others, “What are you staring at?”Korm sighs. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But now I think I need to lie down.”Nameless says, “The feeling is mutual. But let me see what I can find out about things out there.” He dons the farspeaking amulet and contacts Balan Cord.Over the link, Balan says, “I’ve got good and bad news. First the good, which involves you guys owing me a big one. I talked to a couple of people and most of the issues are either resolved or will be soon, and a lot faster than would be the case without me pushing. You should thank that reporter buddy of yours too. Having an article making the rounds of Khorvaire about the attack by the lich on your house helped me drop a couple of hints what the next articles are going to say. And that was a good idea about the donation to the widows too, Nameless. That helped. You guys can be back in your house any time it suits you. The bad news is that I was right – you will have to leave Upper Tavick’s. That’s got nothing to do with the Watch, so it’s something I can’t do anything about. And it’s not personal. It’s just that a bunch of the particularly rich folks in Ocean View figure that having you in the area puts them at risk, because of the enemies you’ve made. And they’ve got the legal excuse to get you out. You can’t actually buy property in that area unless 30 current residents sign a petition for you to do so. I told you that got side-stepped to let you get the Gray House simply because Talleon from the Citadel arranged it and the house not only had no owner at the time but was temporarily under Watch and Citadel jurisdiction due to the Emerald Claw cell there. So now it’s easy for people to bring up that move and get it reversed, especially since Bestan ir’Tonn, the councilor from Upper Tavick’s, seems willing to listen to the complaint. I’m guessing you’ll have till the end of the month to sell the place and leave, and have to vacate at that point even if you can’t sell it. If that’s the case, the property will remain yours and you can continue trying to sell till you do, but can’t live there. Selling shouldn’t be an issue, since I hear a couple of current residents would be willing to buy. I doubt you’ll get top price considering the situation, but even so you should be able to hold out for over 25,000 galifars easily, I believe, and maybe a fair bit more if you can get a few people to bid against each other. That’s about it.”When Nameless relays what Balan said to the others, Gareth says, “Thank Balan for us and let him know we plan on either selling the house or leaving it as a rental property. The money is nice, but we are not desperate for it. We may have Fett live there. It never hurts to have contacts in Sharn.” Nameless replies to Balan, “We’ll be holding on to the house for the foreseeable future. We’ve found a new place to live and don’t need it currently. Once we’ve finished up our present business, we’re going to start digging. Wealthy people always have skeletons in the closet and we have magical resources for finding information the likes of which Sharn has not seen since the start of the Last War. It will be completely legal and above board I assure you, but they will regret these maneuverings.”Balan sighs and replies, “Fine, fine. You guys do what you want. Just make sure it is actually all legal and above board. I’ve got enough connections with you and have done enough that I’m going to start looking like a complete idiot if you do anything silly. Anyway, stop in when you do get back to Sharn and if it takes a while before you do, check in with this gem every couple of days in case I have more news or some need for you. Thanks. And congratulations on the new place, wherever it is.”Luna promptly says, “We will never be returning to Sharn.”Nameless says, “You might not be. The rest of us want some payback and it’s still the best place to pick up the sort of magic we often need.” To Balan, he responds, “We do greatly appreciate your efforts on our behalf. It has been difficult restraining Luna from doing something rash and your actions have made this considerably easier. You can always call on us, if we can be of assistance to you.”“Unless it involves us coming to Sharn,” says Luna.Balan simply laughs at the comment about Luna doing something rash and then Nameless and he end the conversation. When they do, Gareth says, “I think the next time we get a decent magical item we should give it to him as a gift.  He really has put his neck out on the line for us.” Then he turns to Luna, “Is that good enough for you to calm yourself down? I don’t know why you are so worked up – we still have three residences, not including all the people who would love to have us as guests. And you never liked Sharn anyhow – it was too urban for your tastes.”Luna scowls, “I want my share of the money of what the house is worth as I will never be returning to it!! Or Sharn!!! I can’t imagine how you could think this could possibly make me happy!! What did we pay for the house? Was it under 25,000 in galifars? If so, then my share is 5000. And I want it right now!! And any and all other money which I am entitled too so I can get my own place! Otherwise you go to the Mournland alone. Clearly you just don’t care about Luna!”I’m so glad we sold Emrena’s spellbooks! Nameless instantly produces 5000 galifars from the petty cash and hands it to Luna. “There you go. Now you’ve got no stake in the house, so don’t complain about whatever we do with it.” Before she can respond, he turns to the others. “Let’s get out of here. We have people to see and places to go.”</blockquote>

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