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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 4103838" data-attributes="member: 198">“…harnesses.” Six sits back in his chair after completing his narration. Sitting across the table from him are Tarya d’Cannith and Jerim d’Cannith, the two who had been there during his last meeting with the House, when he signed over all rights to the harnesses and their manufacture. And now I’m glad I did, though I’d rather they hadn’t used it this quickly. I did warn them to be careful, but let’s see if they blame me for it.Luckily, the Cannith members are much more concerned about the news than interested in assigning blame. They are also uninformed about the quori, necessitating a quick explanation from Nameless. Once he is done, Tarya says, “Is there any other information about this that you have?”“No, we’ve told you all that we know.”She pulls a wry face, but nods, “Thank you. We had actually been planning to contact you, since we had discovered that Cannith West is producing these harnesses too. We’ll … see what we can do about it. Let us know if you discover any more, please.”“We will,” says Six. “And could you contact me if you learn anything about dealing with this problem?”“Yes, we will.”“I’d like to ask one more thing,” says Six. “I know from the time your artificers studied my harness that it’s impossible to remove, though maybe it could be done while continually repairing the warforged involved. I know some artificers can drain magical items to create others. Could that destroy the harnesses?”Tarya hesitates and then shakes her head. “I doubt it. I presume you know that someone creating a magical item normally has to invest some of their personal energy into it. That is what an artificer can draw from one item and use to create another. One of the interesting things about the harnesses is that though the creator needs to be trained in the construction of magical items, it requires no such personal energy. That is why we could produce so many in a short time.” She grimaces slightly. “But if we find a way to deal with it, we’ll certainly let you know.”After leaving House Cannith, Six suggests to the others that they split up, since there are a number of others they need to speak to. The Angels head in various directions, visiting Trillia, Smith, Lalia, and Balan over the remainder of the day. All of those they meet are informed about the situation with the daelkyr and Xoriat, while Six also fills Smith in on the case with the warforged. Though naturally alarmed, all of the four are used to dealing with difficult situations, and they individually promise to help as they are able. Smith also promises Six that he will warn the warforged to beware of the harnesses and also to keep an eye on those who have already been fitted with them, in case of strange behavior.  Eventually, the Angels meet back at the Gray House. Before turning in at night, Nameless collects them together with Fett and says to the changeling, “As we’ve told you, we’re going to be quite busy and likely outside Sharn in the immediate future. While we are, I want you to do a couple of things. I want you to find out who was behind us getting kicked out and, as discreetly as possible, to begin looking for embarrassing, criminal, or social black marks in their individual history or those of their families. Information sufficient for us to learn more via divination magic would be fine, but if you can just find the information yourself, that would be fine too. I just want this to be air-tight. If you have any questions about the accuracy of the information obtained, please inform us of it too. Also, any possible points of pressure on their businesses, including things we could either disrupt, shut down or supersede. Any loans that could be bought up and called in, legal disputes where we could assist the other party, etc. Ideally these would be things we could hit them all at once with or in a short period of time. With a certain amount of the most damaging stuff in reserve for leverage to persuade them of the wisdom of letting us alone and not screwing with us in the future.”Fett grinning broadly, nods. “Not a problem.”Looking at Luna, Nameless says, “See? I keep my promises. I said we’d make them pay.”The druid grumbles, “Yeah, but a storm above their houses is more fun!”“Yes, and more imprecise and problematical. Gareth, I’d like you to use your knowledge of legal matters to ensure that everything we end up doing is legally above-board. I have no intention of breaking any laws.”“All right,” says the paladin.“Good. Does anyone object to me giving Fett a couple of thousand galifars to get started on this?”The others shake their heads, though Gareth adds, “That’s fine, though that much is probably not needed.”“Yes,” says Nameless dryly, “I appreciate your taking the ‘greedy bastard’ position in the group, Gareth.” After handing over the money to Fett, he says, “Let’s get some rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”* * * * *The next morning, Nameless awakes to a sensation of warmth that spans his forehead. Going to the mirror on the wall, he sees that the permanent imprint of the tentacled eye, which he has borne since consigning his soul to Cyäegha, has extended its tentacles into a dark network which spans his entire forehead. It resembles a dragonmark, but not one of the more common ones. The eye in the center has actually extended from his forehead and is now at the end of a tiny tentacle a couple of inches long. The tentacle moves back and forth of its own volition. Well, that’s interesting! The alienist focuses on the mark and calls on its power.There is a faint popping sound and then the skin splits in two-inch long sections all over his body. Dozens of eyes push themselves out of the splits, and a couple of seconds later, Nameless’ face and arms – and, beneath his clothing, the rest of his body – is covered with the orbs, each rolling back and forth as it peers in a different direction. Each eye is a facsimile of the one on his forehead. As they appear, Nameless feels a wave of power wash over him, further – albeit temporarily – changing his already unique state.*The alienist laughs aloud, and then pauses, noticing the harshness of his own tone. For a long moment, Nameless looks at himself in the mirror, remembering what he had once been as Edgar Thorn, and thinking of whom – or perhaps more properly, what – he has become. If Nameless is pleased with the change to himself, he is positively giddy once he prepares his spells and casts one which he has been looking forward to for many months. Mind Blank! And that’s the end of everyone and their second cousin spying on me. The alienist pauses to think for a moment about his companions, who will not have the same protection. Well, I can’t protect everyone.A while later, Nameless walks down to join the others. As usual, he wears a magical disguise, making him look exactly like he does but concealing his tentacle and the permanent blue glow from his eyes. The mark and the tentacular eye, however, are clearly visible. Korm looks up from his breakfast and cocks an eyebrow. “Very nice. What happened? And are you feeling like letting it all hang out today?”Nameless shakes his head, causing the third eye to bob back and forth. “You can’t see the tentacle, can you? I have the hat of disguise in use. But this seems immune to it. It’s a mark of my transcendence.”“I’m not an expert on those things,” says the Gatekeeper, “But that looks like a dragonmark. Is it?”“Yes,” says Nameless shortly. “Aberrant.”“Really? What does it do?” asks Korm.“You’ll find out,” says Nameless. Korm grins. “So you want to be mysterious? Suit yourself. I’d say something about weird and freaky, but…,” he says and then frowns for a moment. A second later, his face changes, the eyes becoming bulbous, the flesh darker and grayer, and mandibles appear from either side of his mouth. “I guess I finally digested that stonesinger, um, flesh.”“That’s ugly!” says Gareth. “Now if you could do this, I’d be impressed.” A bright silver glow appears around the paladin. “I have reached the culmination of my skills as an exorcist of the Silver Flame too.”Six, sitting away from the table and sketching something, shakes his head. “I have got to find some new friends!”Nameless chuckles harshly, and then Luna says, “More importantly, does that dragonmark let you fly an airship?” The alienist sighs. “I should have known you’d ask that. And no, it doesn’t. As I’ve said only twenty or thirty times, only the Lyrandar Mark of Storm allows that.”“Sh*t!” scowls Luna. “Then what good is yours? Just like Gareth and his dumb Siberys mark…”Nameless quickly cuts her off. “I’ve got something else for you.” Reaching in a pouch, he produces the pearl necklace they found in the strange ambulatory, perhaps illusionary, forest in the Mournland and hands it to Luna. “I studied it,” he says, “And used an analyze dweomer to be on the safe side. It has multiple properties. If you use the command word, which is ‘Sundar’, then…”Luna, who has put on the necklace already, immediately says, “Sundar!” Instantly, she feels a tingle of magic and the other Angels see that she suddenly appears prettier and generally more attractive. It is a combination of many things, her garb appearing cleaner, her skin healthier, her teeth whiter, and many such little things. Nameless winces slightly and says, “Yes, of course you’d activate it before I can explain what it does. Anyway, it also seems to have some of the effects of the Mournland itself. It protects against divination magic, just like a nondetection spell does, and also makes it impossible to contact the user through magical communication.” The alienist pauses, wondering if he should mention his suspicions, but then decides not to, since it’s not as if Luna will care anyway. Note to self : Keep an eye out for whatever it is that’s going to possess Luna from the Necklace. There must be something. Gareth’s sword had a demon. I had a gate to Xoriat. Six’s harness would have left him open to the Quori and there were the magic items that enabled the Quori to possess us. There is zero chance that we stumbled across that necklace by accident. Someone or something has to be behind it. I’ll warn Six about it, since he’s suspicious of such things too and never sleeps.Unaware and uncaring of such thoughts, Luna replies, “Fine by me. Way too many people keep calling us all the time anyway! Did you find out anything about those gems we found in the Seed?”“Yes. As you know, they are all similar to a continual flame, but there’s a lot more to them. When pressed against a surface, they remain attached until removed.”“Cool! What else?”“There’s more, but what’s especially interesting is that their abilities, or rather the magnitude of their abilities increase dramatically as their numbers. Any object that a gem is attached to slowly repairs itself from damage, but it does so much faster as more gems are attached.”“That’s awesome! I’m definitely going to stick them all over our house. And my room! And bed!”Korm winces and then looks at Gareth and Six. He says, the words a little indistinct due to the mandibles which are still present around his mouth, “Did anyone else just have a vision of a naked gnome in the middle of a giant, glowing bed?” “Not until you mentioned it!” says Six. “I really need to get other friends!”Nameless ignores them and continues, “The last thing I could work out is that the gems also radiate a powerful non-detection effect. A single gem radiates an effect a foot long, wide and high. If two are in close proximity, then the effect becomes two feet long, wide and high, so eight cubic feet. Ten would be a thousand cubic feet. And so on. Just for the record, we have 333 gems which means,” he calculates in a couple of seconds, “36,926,037 cubic feet. I’m quite certain they were designed to make the Seed impossible to locate via normal divination magic. Of course,” he adds, a trifle smugly, “That didn’t work on me, as you know.”“How much could we sell them for?” asks Gareth.Luna looks at him like he is insane. “Sell them? Why?!”“Because they’re not that helpful to us and we can probably sell them for a lot and buy better equipment.”“You want to take a number of gems which we found inside a Seed crafted by a daelkyr lord and sell them, so they’re spread across who knows how much of Khorvaire?” asks Nameless. “Considering the circumstances under which we found them, have you failed to consider that they could be eggs or seeds of some kind themselves? Oh, and tell me again why Jaela thinks you’re actually a paladin?”Gareth scowls. “Well, if they’re that dangerous, we shouldn’t use them. And if they’re safe enough to use, they’re safe enough to sell.”Korm nods. “I agree.”Even Gareth looks a little surprised. “With me?”“No, I was talking to the Endless Blade. It said you’re a greedy bastard.”“If you don’t like it,” frowns Gareth, “Then just divide the gems five ways and we’ll each use them as we wish.”“Hell, no!” says Luna. “We’re using them for the house!”“Even if they are dangerous,” says Six, “Can you think of anyone better equipped to keep them safe than us?” He waves a hand to indicate the others in the room. “And how much more could they affect all of you?” And I shall be as careful as I can be around them.Gareth continues to argue, but nobody else is convinced. Nameless does promise to keep them in the portable hole for the moment. Luna, though she would apparently prefer to start decorating right now, reluctantly agrees.“And I’m already being way too understanding in being in Sharn.” She scratches her chin thoughtfully. “But since I’m here, maybe I can get Fett to do something. I want some people hired to spend every day marching back and forth in front of that bitch Meira’s front door, with signs that say ‘TURNCOATS MUST GO!’ and ‘SHIFTERS SHOULDN’T TURN ON SHIFTERS!’ and ‘SHAME!’ And one should have a sign that says ‘ASK ME WHY WE’RE HERE’ and he should be loaded up with pamphlets explaining the manipulation of the courts and the hatred of good tax-paying citizens by elected/appointed officials and the miscarriage of justice that took place under the cover of night!”Nameless starts laughing. “When have you ever paid taxes? Are you seriously trying to tell me that someone asking you for taxes wouldn’t just disappear forever?”Gareth chuckles, “Someone trying to collect taxes from Luna wouldn’t disappear. Someone trying to collect taxes from Luna would become a permanent stain on the ground. With his head on a nearby pike with a magic mouth on it shouting, ‘NOBODY TAKES MY TAXES BECAUSE I AM POOR, INNOCENT AND CUTE!’”Luna scowls and then begins to laugh, “Okay, okay – so that’s true. But I still want to…”“Shouldn’t we be heading for the Mournland now?” Six asks quickly. “Yes,” Korm replies, just as fast, “We really should get moving. Really!”* * *A few hours later, the Angels are talking to Lamaan d’Cannith. Though they try to persuade him that there is no reason for him to visit the Lord of Blades’ camp now that they have confirmed that the Lord of Blades is dead, he insists that he will have to do so. Finally, the Angels tell him to go ahead, and that they will ride ahead and confirm that it’s safe. Since they have something else to deal with, they won’t be back for a while, so he and his expedition should go on. Lamaan agrees, thanks them and gets the expedition on the move while they ride away.As they ride on, Six says, “I’ll try to persuade the warforged to leave. Nameless, you’re sure you can sense something in that direction?”“Not just something. It is Xoriat. I’m certain.”“I presume it’s the portal Jaela mentioned,” opines Korm. “This should be educational.”Once they near the warforged encampment, the Angels again stop at a distance and let Six go on ahead. It takes a significant amount of arguing and persuasion, but he eventually manages to persuade Prophet to take his people and leave the camp, with the plan to return in one day’s time. The Angels watch as the warforged, nearly fifty of them, depart the camp and head into the higher levels of the Glass Plateau to the north. Then they quickly begin to search the camp to see what it holds. The one really interesting thing they find is two levels below the surface – a fully functional creation forge. After a little discussion, they decide that if the Cannith members find it, they are even less likely to leave than otherwise. With a combination of earth-moving spells and elementals, they completely block off that section so that it will be next to impossible to find and enter.With that done, the Angels ride on towards the Seed’s original location. As the miles roll away swiftly beneath the phantom hooves of their mounts, they reach the spot at which Nameless had originally picked up the strong abjuration aura from the dimensional seal, but now it is gone. Continuing on, they stop their mounts a little before the edge of the bowl-like area formed by the jagged crystalline cliffs. Moving up slowly and quietly, they look over. Where the seed had been, a little over half a mile from where they stand, is a huge portal. Over thirty feet tall and at least twenty wide, it looks like a jagged rip in the air, full of a chaotic whirl of colors, which constantly shift and change. Around it are a half dozen hemispherical structures, made of some pale green material, reminiscent of the structures you saw in the cavern around R’lyeh. There are scores of creatures moving around the structures and the portal, but the Angels are too far away to work out most details. There are certainly a number of creatures larger than human sized there, including a giant humanoid form. Seconds after the Angels arrive, the portal flashes and the whirls of color shift to form an inward-moving spiral. And then they go out for a moment, leaving a blank white space. A huge black globe with waving tentacles appears in it, clearly the silhouette of a beholder, except it stretches a good twenty feet across. The shape shrinks swiftly until it is the size of a normal beholder, which then pops out of the middle of the portal. As the colors reappear, three more beholders, one of the same size and two smaller, float up to greet the new arrival.As Six pulls out a spyglass to get a better look, Gareth frowns worriedly. “I wonder if we can take that many of….” He doesn’t finish the sentence, almost biting his tongue in half as a huge fist hammers into the back of his head. * Nameless now has an unique aberrant mark. It is usable 1/day and lasts 1 rd per character level. When active, it grants him resistance to fire 10 and cold 10, immunity to disease, +4 save vs. poison, SR 25, +2 to CL, DR 5/byeshk, and cannot be flanked.</blockquote>

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