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Spellchaser Chronicles (Pathfinder - Planescape) (Updated 11/19/10)
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<blockquote data-quote="Miles Pilitus" data-source="post: 5381241" data-attributes="member: 41553"><p><strong>Episode 5 – Jesters and Jihadies</strong></p><p></p><p>Back in the main room, we start discussing which of the city's movers and shakers, the so called "Golden Lords" of Sigil we should approach for Simon's purposes to try and obtain a warehouse the size of a small village. Simon protests once or twice that he isn't going to need that large a space that he only has a few followers, but Johnny's headband chimes in with the accurate count, which is big enough to surprise Simon when it's placed on the table. He now realizes that he's definitely not talking about a back room or an empty warehouse somewhere. I lay out the three Golden Lords that I know of who deal in large amounts of real estate.</p><p></p><p>I start with the dog-headed bitch, making blatant each of Kylie's insinuations against the King of the Crosstrade. The room agrees that we're likely to get fleas if get into bed with that dog. I move along to Zadara, expressing the simplicity of dealing with the Misers. Just hand them enough money and promise them more and they'll do what you want just fine. The last option I present is Jeremo, the Lady's Jester. And after explaining that yes, he does mean That Lady, and no, noone knows why nothing's happened to him yet, Simon decides that Jeremo is probably the best of our options as even a dragon's horde might not be enough to get what we want from the titan. We talk for some time about how to present ourselves after Monti mentions that we may stand out in the Lady's Ward without formal attire. Which is a very good point. So we're going to have to go shopping tomorrow morning for some better clothes. Manuel and Jonathan are already in possession of outfits, while Camille's clothes change shape according to her will, so she should be set. And Kará isn't leaving the house. So Simon, Remé, and Xallis need clothes. I though I stil had a decent outfit or two hidden away in my closet, so I was set.</p><p></p><p>We then send some time hashing out "Impossible" things, working ourselves round and round before we hit upon the conclusion that the sense stones in the Civic Festhall might have what we're looking for. The problem is, they are rumored to lose their magic if they are taken from the festhall. Well, okay, it would be the problem if we intended on stealing them. We plan to go there and try and procure a copy of the stones made by the sensates for the two that we're most lost on, Sight and Virtue. The other two we figure out a few solutions to try. And with our plans decided, we head off to bed, with me checking my closet for a piece or two to have Montesquieu resize for me.</p><p></p><p> * And when you get to your closet, you realize how much your tastes had changed in the five years we spent traveling, didn't you? </p><p></p><p> It's not that so much as just how much all of clothes I had looked like apprentice's robes, even the nice ones. And I know I'm an Arcanist of skill, I don't need to wander around in a robe to prove it to other people. </p><p></p><p>In the morning we send those who don't have to go shopping for a nice long breakfast at a place in the Clerk's Ward near the clothing shop that I take us to. And proceed to join in with the rest of the Octogothans in hunting for clothes. Simon asks for someplace to start with his outfit. I take a look at his simple traveling robes and suggest his first step should be to forget that clothes come in the color brown. He gives me a sharp look as I hand him off to one of the tailor's apprentices to help change his look. Xallis is already digging through the racks with abandon, handing clothes to Remé to either try on or hold onto for him to try on. My friends occupied, I start chatting up one of the journeyman tailors, congratulating Celandine on how far she had come in her craft since I was in the city last. She greeted me warmly enough, saying that even bad dating experiences are part of life. My pride properly wounded, my old Aaismar friend proceeded to be useful. I hadn't paid attention to style changes in the city, but she had and helped me out with designing a new wardrobe. I wound up wearing the best fits out of there, trading in my cloak for a coat that would provide similar protection in addition to helping negate some of the extremes of temperature. I had measurements taken, paid, then arranged for the remainder of my order to be delivered to Chaser's Manse.</p><p></p><p>When I emerge from my own reverie of shopping and reconnecting, I see that Simon has already purchased a new set of robes, trading brown wool with green accents for black and grey layered silk with green accents. I'm about to applaud him when we hear a small boom from the back of the shop and Xallis wanders forward dressed in a slightly scorched purple zoot suit. Remé follows shortly after, dressed in a dress whose color scheme matches Simon's (of course). She apologizes to Xallis, but reminds him that she's not a doll to play dress up with. Xallis smiles and shrugs it off, getting up and cleaning himself and his clothes. Everyone else pays and I say goodbye to Celandine before we leave the shop and gather up the remainder of the company and head off to the Palace of the Jester.</p><p></p><p>I'd never been to the Palace of the Jester. I mean, I knew where it was, but I never had a reason to spend too much time in the Lady's Ward when I was growing up in the city. It was impressive. It was positively the largest building I'd ever seen outside of concrete and rebar. – I wonder about that. – We could see it from several blocks away as we approached, the spires and their bladed pinnacles reaching hundreds of feet in the air and leaving off any need for me or Manuel to guide our group in as we approached close enough. The building was even more impressive up close and buzzing with people, both in and out of the building but also the courtyard that the Palace shared with the city courts. And the suggestion that we acquire some new clothing was definitely warranted, even with our new clothing, we may have been the worst dressed people there. Okay, no, Jermo's household were the worst dressed people there: strange garish clown outfits so varied one couldn't reasonable use the word uniform in describing them without removing all meaning from the word. We had just spent less on our clothing then any lawyer or noble wandering around here if you had combined all of what we spent. Even so, we were still dressed well enough that we weren't likely to be ordered around as servants or about to be arrested for public vagrancy and could actually conduct our business here. Without having to ask, Simon was able to identify the people who would be servants of The Lady's Jester and petition with them for an audience with Jeremo. Which we were able to get immediately. I suppose that's one of the good things about working with eccentric personalities, the lack of having to battle their schedule book. Of course, it probably helped that we had a dozen bottles of good wine to use as a lubricant in our endeavor.</p><p></p><p>We were lead into the Jester's Palace and Shopping Mall. I'm serious. It seems Jeremo's openness about his household had extended to allowing all sorts of street vendors operate out of small alcoves along the main hallway, including several franchise businesses that I hadn't seen since I was last in New York City. Though why is it always the crappy franchises that spread so far. I know there are several bagel shops that I remember serving better coffee then the green mermaid does. But I didn't have enough time to find out if they still served the same lousy coffee here, the sub-jester knew where he was leading us and not slowing down long enough for us to rubberneck. A few strange turns that should have lead us straight back to the front door, and then up a set of stairs that continued past the floor we took them to into the ceiling we were lead to a closed set of oak door with the words engraved in a most severe Blackletter font, "The Joke's On You." As the door was opened, we saw that TJOY was a restaurant done in a style that seemed to be trying to play to both to the name of the place as well as the somber style often associated with Her Serenity. Heavy oak finishing and candle lighting contrasted with strange table designs and servers in outfits even more garish then those worn by Jeremo's runners.</p><p></p><p>And in the center of it all, on top of the largest table, stood the Natterer. On his servants the mismatched colors and clown pattern seemed garish, but Jeremo managed to make all the chaos, with shifting color patterns buried in shifting patterns. Our mini-jester had left us at the door and was working his way towards Jeremo when I finally realized that we had a problem. We didn't have a name for this little gathering of lost sheep and fools. Okay, we had a name, but it wasn't one that I liked. It was originally an off-hand comment, not an introduction. But Xallis had seized upon it. I mention this fact to our assembled selves, and said we've got twenty seconds to think of one. Simon expressed doubt that we were going to need one. Eighteen Seconds. Jonathan says that his old crew used to be called the Chain-Breaker Pirates, but without a ship it didn't make much sense. Ten seconds. No, less. Jeremo was moving quickly towards us. Five. No one else was coming up with any ideas. I didn't want to label us Agents of the Spellchasers. Three. Two. "And whom am I speaking with?" Jeremo introduces himself with the question, his hand sweeping all of us, clear implication of looking for a company name. Crap.</p><p></p><p>I introduced us as The Luckless Fools. We were once again stuck with the sobriquet. Simon took over from there, I didn't pay too much attention for several moments as I let the thought sink in, only to be broken out of my fugue state as Remé tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a table shaped like a star that we were being led to by Jeremo.</p><p></p><p>As we sat down, a wine glass rose through the table at each occupied position. Simon suggested that we crack open a bottle of wine, leaving a perfect straight line for the Jester, declaring his great sorrow at a lack of wine crackers at hand. Remé's mind served instead as our multitool and Jeremo told us all to turn our wine glasses upside down and for the pouring to begin. Simon had been handed the bottle and turned Jeremo's wine glass upright, but was chided for doing it wrong. Confused, Simon set the glass the way Jeremo requested and began to pour wine into the small basin at the bottom of the glass. Which proceeded to pour through some passage unseen into the bowl of the glass sitting against the table. As minor confusion and great amusement met this small magic, a table of wine was poured as we tested the bottle that Simon and I had acquired so long ago in an abandoned and haunted manor where we first met. The wine had held up through all the trials and tribulations it had seen, still not turned to vinegar. It was a little dry to be drank alone, but there were aspects to the taste that were interesting. We all savored the wine for a few minutes in quiet before Jeremo cut to the quick and asked why we sought him out. Simon worked his way around the crux of the matter for several minutes before I stated bluntly that he was a leader of men and needed a place to house his agents. Which was the opening line for an interesting philosophical debate between Simon and Jeremo about the purpose of strength which ended in Jeremo offering Simon two deals, with the decision of which deal being made by a game of chance which he produced from some hidden pocket somewhere. The game was simple, you would roll the dice and from the result of the dice would appear so many sticks. The winner of the game was the person who could build the largest tower of sticks with a single roll of the dice.</p><p></p><p>Simon took one look at the dice, then agreed to the game, taking the proffered die in his hand and beginning to shake it. Jeremo did the same, and after 30 seconds of rattling, both dropped their dice down between their hands, Jeremo with a slam and great fanfare, Simon letting the rattling die come to rest as he brought his hand down to the table. From there, the tower-building began. Jeremo's hands moved quickly, but he had not rolled well and had only a few pieces with which to build his town, managing a pyramid with the final piece a raised spike. Simon had rolled even worse and his entire tower consisted of a single stick sitting on its end. Jeremo laughed and scooped the dice up from the table, suggesting that perhaps Simon didn't want to win. Simon shrugged it off with some comment about consider it a gift to the universe and accepted the lesser of the Natterer's two deals.</p><p></p><p>Business mostly finished, Jeremo asked where Simon could be found until the space could be made available. Simon's answer of Chaser's Manse caused a sharp uptake in intrest from the seemingly random grand dealer of the Cage, and I decide to direct it towards myself by finally giving my name. At which point Jeremo muses that my father has been gone for a long time, his business doing no business. And mentioning that we left the city the day before the problems began in the Faction War. Oh yeah. I had well and truly realized that little fact in the past few days I'd been home. I'm not that dense.</p><p></p><p> Am I, father? </p><p></p><p> * May I enter a comment of No Comment for the time being? </p><p></p><p> Sigh </p><p></p><p>I brush the Jesters comments to some strange coincidence of timing of my final training exercises. With that hope-fully not transparent lie placed on the table, Jeremo stood and said he had business elsewhere and it seems that today's joke was a lunch meeting without food. Our business concluded, we left, grabbing a few sandwiches from a vendor on the way out while Jonathan and Xallis ducked into a bathroom to change back into their armor before we headed to the Civic Festhall.</p><p></p><p>Several minutes after leaving the Palace of the Jester, Simon said that he felt the presence of a following mind and asked us to seek a route that would make it easier for him to pick out those trying to track us. Manuel and I converse for several moments, decided to travel through the Lower Ward again and the Hive, since we would run into less problems if the trackers Simon noticed decided to try an ambush. Hivers are like to complain too hard if you blow up a building, or at least nowhere near as loud as a guild will if you've scratched the paint of any of their edifices. After fifteen minutes, Simon's tension visibly released itself as he felt our trackers fall off as we entered the less sanitary parts of the city.</p><p></p><p>Let's hear it for false hope boys and girls. We hadn't lost them, it seems they just decided they knew where to set up the ambush. We were deep in the Hive, walking down the alley of a Slaadii Ghetto when our pursuers decided to light the street on fire. Magical fire rained down from the rooftops, catching us all by surprise. Well, all of us but Jonathan and Manuel it seems. Both had dived off to the side of the streets and managed to hide from the conflagration just inside the buildings. That left four spellcasters and a vampire standing on the street as we got a brief taste of the Elemental Plane of Fire. It hurt. Manuel and Jonathan motioned towards the roof of a building, with Manuel opening up one of his mini-portals to a spot half-way up the building and ducking through. Before anyone else could attempt to use the portal a row of heads appeared over the lip of the building that had fire-bombed us. Remé returned the favor, releasing from her forehead a rushing wave of blue energy that I would later see had frozen several of our enemies solid. First Jonathan, then Camille rushed through the portal; Jon managing to scrabble his way to the roof while I used the portal to allow my to reach the skies above the buildings, where Camille ran through the portal, grabbing Manuel and hauling him the rest of the way to the roof then disappearing over the lip of the building. I finally managed to shake off the shock of several square feet of burns and dived through Manuel's portal, unfurling my wings as I passed through and reaching the meager skies above the tenements we fought in-between. I saw a dead man on the ground, a giant sword sticking out of his ribcage but still being circled by the new bladesmen (and woman) of the Luckless Fools. Simon's voice echoed through my head that there was still one more hostile up there. I'm serious. He used the word Hostile. Not knowing where to aim a magical bolt, I gathered up my will and fired a shimmering sphere of magical energy at the corpse on the ground. As the magic disco-ball exploded on the corpse, it covered everything in a 20' area in a thick layer of–</p><p></p><p> * That's the visual signature of your Glitterdust spell? An exploding Disco-ball? </p><p></p><p> Yeah, that's always how I imagined the spell working when I was trying to imagine it. Now, that's just how it comes across. </p><p></p><p>Anyways, the last of the enemy Arcanists now covered in more glitter then a ten-year old girls trapper-keeper, he had nowhere to run or hide. He was pinned between Jonathan and Manuel, with the thief of the planes dragging a long mark on his back to gather his attention as Captain Jonathan Oldblood laid him out with the basket hilt of his rapier.</p><p></p><p>Finally having a chance to examine our foes, I was confused by their nature. They were Githyanki, servants of the Witch Queen of the Gith race. Who I do not remember pissing off. We needed answers, but all were going to be gathering was questions if we didn't move off the streets to somewhere less public. Manuel stripped the bodies of worldly possessions before dropping them off the building into a pile of trash for the Dusties to collect later. Our lucky winner would be coming with us until we found a disreputable bar with a back room to question him in. Hard job, I know, trying to find a dive in the Hive. It took us all of two minutes to find a bartender who wasn't asking too many questions and had a back room. We lay the gith on the table, Jonathan tying his hands and feet under the table to make it harder for him to escape while Simon prepared himself for the questioning.</p><p></p><p>We didn't bother to wake up the Gith for the questions, it would have just been awkward. Simon could just collect his answers to our questions from his sleeping mind. And what an interesting set of answers he gave. It seems the Gith wizards had noticed Simon and came to the conclusion that he was a tool of the Mind Flayers and decided to act on their own initiative to eliminate a threat the the freedom of the Githyanki <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />s, pardon me, the known. He finally woke up at some point in the questions, and we got to meet the zealot instead of just his memories. Very pleasant, I assure you. Like a nice root canal at the dentist. After several minutes of working ourselves in a circle of trying to figure out a way to not kill him why he shouted at us that he would hunt Simon until he was dead we finally decided to give him what he asked for. Camille and Remé stayed behind after we left the tavern, with Camille saying that she could take care of the mess. As we walked away, Simon informed us that there was no additional body to find and had us stand still so Remé could transport Camille and herself to our location.</p><p></p><p>And with that fun new barrel of questions heaped upon us, we finally managed to reach the Civic Festhall. A bariaur greets us at the doorway with a disapproving look. It seems we've been remembered for the havoc we caused yesterday, which means we are unwelcome until Simon applied a bit of golden charm to smooth over any problems his people caused yesterday. That solved, she introduces herself as Annali Webspinner and we are able to ask her to help us, that we potentially need to commission a copy of a pair of sense-stones in their collection. This seems to raise us to the top of her "My Problems" Queue, and she pulls us into a small meeting room just inside the main doors of the festhall. When she asks why, we look at each other for a brief second before deciding to give her the whole story, and ask for her help in peeling a power. She looks thoughtful for a second then grabs a runner from a hallway, bends him down to her level then whispers a few words into his ear before she releases him to run off. She now looks at us with a level of seriousness that could sober a man three days dead of drink, and swears us to secrecy. We oblige, and she begins to relate how the once-lively Sensates have begun to grow dour under the leadership of their new factol, the once-lover of Erin Montgomery who lead the faction before him but disappeared with all of the other factols in the opening days of the Faction War. Annali says that she knows a dark about the disappearance of the Sensate Factol. She did not vanish into Her Serenity's mazes, but instead jumped through a portal into Carceri and hasn't been heard from since. At this point, her story abates as the runner has returned with a pair of stones carried into the room on a cushion. He sets the stones on the table and then leaves, bowing deeply the the goat-woman on his way out the door. These are the stones she thinks match what we quest for: The Virtue of a Liar and the Sight of a Blind Man. Xallis and I agree to evaluate the sensations so reach out for the stones. My stone is a pale white frosted glass sphere and even before my hand touches the stone, I can feel it's magic begin to pull me in and take over my senses. I touch the stone....</p><p></p><p> I'm in darkness, yet I can feel the world around me. I've lost my eyes, my ability to see the world, and yet I continue onward. I'm standing in the Clerks Ward, listening to the hustle and bustle of life pass around me. But nothing is truly pure, and as I stand there listening and feeling the world around me, I see/hear a loud shout of a merchant off to my left, I see the flashes of the cobbles as my feet hit the ground and I feel it around me. My eyes have been taken, bu still the riot of the world can reach me. </p><p></p><p>As I remove my hand from the stone I cough a little, I've never had the chance to use a sense stone before, and the experience is like a sudden hit of some wonderful drug. I'm able to translate the confusion of senses that the old man who recorded the stone experiences since I've dealt with it ever since my magic first sparked, all my power rolling across my finger-tips, my senses extended well beyond their appointed places to feel the ebb and flow of the world's energy around me. It's what where looking for, I say to the other Fools as I see Xallis nod about his own sense-stone. I rotate the cushion to bring A Liar's Virtue closer to me and place my hand on the transparent glass sphere whose surface is covered in so many tiny cracks it seems to fragile to touch. But my mystic senses tell me better as I bring my hand closer, this stone could probably withstand being thrown against the stone walls of the room we were in. I bring my hand gently upon the second stone....</p><p></p><p> I'm frocked, tending a small congregation of a costal town. Days and weeks blur together as I see myself doing all those things that are expected of me, but I can feel the hollowness of my actions. Even though I'm responsible for these people's souls, I no longer trust where I'm sending them. Yet, we're at the mercy of the winds and the storms. The people must believe that there is something watching out for them, some reason for them, at the least, to go on living. </p><p></p><p>I'm better prepared to emerge from this one, from the memories and regrets of a disenchanted priest. I feel pity for the man, struggling against forces he couldn't understand, thinking that because tradition demanded faith that faith was the best thing for him to provide his people. Xallis seems to have weathered the Sight of the Blind better then his first stone and he confirms that these are the things we're searching for, and Simon asks Annali to name her price. The bariaur nods at us and says that she needs to know what happened to Factol Montgomery, to have closure if not a new direction for the faction. I think most of us agree before she finishes her sentence, with Jonathan and I saying that we will try to bring her back, if possible. We agree, but send a runner back to Spellchaser Manse with a list of supplies we need from the house, as well as the last member of our company.</p><p></p><p>She thanks us then leads us through the festhall, up several stories to a large set of apartments near the back fo the building. As we approach, I can see the magic binding the door shut, then see it fall away as Annali walks up to the door and places her hand against it. She tells us that no-one else has seen this room since the disappearance and to take what we need in trying to find her. Manuel enters the room first, pulls out a piece of chalk and starts marking the few portals that are in the room, including one which he marks the symbol for the Prison Plane on the stone of the portal's arch. The rest of us take time to search the room, using my memory as a guide for what personal effects work the best in trying to find someone. Most of my divinations are minor tricks, but I know the rules, so I'm able to guide Jonathan to an old hair comb of the factol, which still has a few strands of red hair sitting in it. Simon finds what may be the biggest prize, a book of prayers to Dian Cect, personally penned by the Factol. During this investigation of the room, Kará arrives, dressed in armor for battle instead of the simple white dress she's been wearing until now. She listens to our current quest, then nods in agreement with our decision, thanking us for our efforts to help her restore her husband to her side. Now loaded up with our supplied for travel, we place the divination keys we've located in our bags to keep them safe. I turn to Manuel and offer that it's about time we got on the road. He nods and does something to the archway marked with a chalk symbol of damnation. It howls open, and it's only because we're trying to get there that none of us lose our footing as we pass through the portal.</p><p></p><p> * Abe, if you don't mind my asking, what was so bad for the girl about your dating experiences with her? </p><p></p><p> Celandine? Well, the biggest might be the fact that I just disappeared without telling her where I was going; vanishing right before one of the most wild times the city had ever seen. She even told me for several years she blamed me for the Faction War, as absurd as it seems.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Miles Pilitus, post: 5381241, member: 41553"] [b]Episode 5 – Jesters and Jihadies[/b] Back in the main room, we start discussing which of the city's movers and shakers, the so called "Golden Lords" of Sigil we should approach for Simon's purposes to try and obtain a warehouse the size of a small village. Simon protests once or twice that he isn't going to need that large a space that he only has a few followers, but Johnny's headband chimes in with the accurate count, which is big enough to surprise Simon when it's placed on the table. He now realizes that he's definitely not talking about a back room or an empty warehouse somewhere. I lay out the three Golden Lords that I know of who deal in large amounts of real estate. I start with the dog-headed bitch, making blatant each of Kylie's insinuations against the King of the Crosstrade. The room agrees that we're likely to get fleas if get into bed with that dog. I move along to Zadara, expressing the simplicity of dealing with the Misers. Just hand them enough money and promise them more and they'll do what you want just fine. The last option I present is Jeremo, the Lady's Jester. And after explaining that yes, he does mean That Lady, and no, noone knows why nothing's happened to him yet, Simon decides that Jeremo is probably the best of our options as even a dragon's horde might not be enough to get what we want from the titan. We talk for some time about how to present ourselves after Monti mentions that we may stand out in the Lady's Ward without formal attire. Which is a very good point. So we're going to have to go shopping tomorrow morning for some better clothes. Manuel and Jonathan are already in possession of outfits, while Camille's clothes change shape according to her will, so she should be set. And Kará isn't leaving the house. So Simon, Remé, and Xallis need clothes. I though I stil had a decent outfit or two hidden away in my closet, so I was set. We then send some time hashing out "Impossible" things, working ourselves round and round before we hit upon the conclusion that the sense stones in the Civic Festhall might have what we're looking for. The problem is, they are rumored to lose their magic if they are taken from the festhall. Well, okay, it would be the problem if we intended on stealing them. We plan to go there and try and procure a copy of the stones made by the sensates for the two that we're most lost on, Sight and Virtue. The other two we figure out a few solutions to try. And with our plans decided, we head off to bed, with me checking my closet for a piece or two to have Montesquieu resize for me. * And when you get to your closet, you realize how much your tastes had changed in the five years we spent traveling, didn't you? It's not that so much as just how much all of clothes I had looked like apprentice's robes, even the nice ones. And I know I'm an Arcanist of skill, I don't need to wander around in a robe to prove it to other people. In the morning we send those who don't have to go shopping for a nice long breakfast at a place in the Clerk's Ward near the clothing shop that I take us to. And proceed to join in with the rest of the Octogothans in hunting for clothes. Simon asks for someplace to start with his outfit. I take a look at his simple traveling robes and suggest his first step should be to forget that clothes come in the color brown. He gives me a sharp look as I hand him off to one of the tailor's apprentices to help change his look. Xallis is already digging through the racks with abandon, handing clothes to Remé to either try on or hold onto for him to try on. My friends occupied, I start chatting up one of the journeyman tailors, congratulating Celandine on how far she had come in her craft since I was in the city last. She greeted me warmly enough, saying that even bad dating experiences are part of life. My pride properly wounded, my old Aaismar friend proceeded to be useful. I hadn't paid attention to style changes in the city, but she had and helped me out with designing a new wardrobe. I wound up wearing the best fits out of there, trading in my cloak for a coat that would provide similar protection in addition to helping negate some of the extremes of temperature. I had measurements taken, paid, then arranged for the remainder of my order to be delivered to Chaser's Manse. When I emerge from my own reverie of shopping and reconnecting, I see that Simon has already purchased a new set of robes, trading brown wool with green accents for black and grey layered silk with green accents. I'm about to applaud him when we hear a small boom from the back of the shop and Xallis wanders forward dressed in a slightly scorched purple zoot suit. Remé follows shortly after, dressed in a dress whose color scheme matches Simon's (of course). She apologizes to Xallis, but reminds him that she's not a doll to play dress up with. Xallis smiles and shrugs it off, getting up and cleaning himself and his clothes. Everyone else pays and I say goodbye to Celandine before we leave the shop and gather up the remainder of the company and head off to the Palace of the Jester. I'd never been to the Palace of the Jester. I mean, I knew where it was, but I never had a reason to spend too much time in the Lady's Ward when I was growing up in the city. It was impressive. It was positively the largest building I'd ever seen outside of concrete and rebar. – I wonder about that. – We could see it from several blocks away as we approached, the spires and their bladed pinnacles reaching hundreds of feet in the air and leaving off any need for me or Manuel to guide our group in as we approached close enough. The building was even more impressive up close and buzzing with people, both in and out of the building but also the courtyard that the Palace shared with the city courts. And the suggestion that we acquire some new clothing was definitely warranted, even with our new clothing, we may have been the worst dressed people there. Okay, no, Jermo's household were the worst dressed people there: strange garish clown outfits so varied one couldn't reasonable use the word uniform in describing them without removing all meaning from the word. We had just spent less on our clothing then any lawyer or noble wandering around here if you had combined all of what we spent. Even so, we were still dressed well enough that we weren't likely to be ordered around as servants or about to be arrested for public vagrancy and could actually conduct our business here. Without having to ask, Simon was able to identify the people who would be servants of The Lady's Jester and petition with them for an audience with Jeremo. Which we were able to get immediately. I suppose that's one of the good things about working with eccentric personalities, the lack of having to battle their schedule book. Of course, it probably helped that we had a dozen bottles of good wine to use as a lubricant in our endeavor. We were lead into the Jester's Palace and Shopping Mall. I'm serious. It seems Jeremo's openness about his household had extended to allowing all sorts of street vendors operate out of small alcoves along the main hallway, including several franchise businesses that I hadn't seen since I was last in New York City. Though why is it always the crappy franchises that spread so far. I know there are several bagel shops that I remember serving better coffee then the green mermaid does. But I didn't have enough time to find out if they still served the same lousy coffee here, the sub-jester knew where he was leading us and not slowing down long enough for us to rubberneck. A few strange turns that should have lead us straight back to the front door, and then up a set of stairs that continued past the floor we took them to into the ceiling we were lead to a closed set of oak door with the words engraved in a most severe Blackletter font, "The Joke's On You." As the door was opened, we saw that TJOY was a restaurant done in a style that seemed to be trying to play to both to the name of the place as well as the somber style often associated with Her Serenity. Heavy oak finishing and candle lighting contrasted with strange table designs and servers in outfits even more garish then those worn by Jeremo's runners. And in the center of it all, on top of the largest table, stood the Natterer. On his servants the mismatched colors and clown pattern seemed garish, but Jeremo managed to make all the chaos, with shifting color patterns buried in shifting patterns. Our mini-jester had left us at the door and was working his way towards Jeremo when I finally realized that we had a problem. We didn't have a name for this little gathering of lost sheep and fools. Okay, we had a name, but it wasn't one that I liked. It was originally an off-hand comment, not an introduction. But Xallis had seized upon it. I mention this fact to our assembled selves, and said we've got twenty seconds to think of one. Simon expressed doubt that we were going to need one. Eighteen Seconds. Jonathan says that his old crew used to be called the Chain-Breaker Pirates, but without a ship it didn't make much sense. Ten seconds. No, less. Jeremo was moving quickly towards us. Five. No one else was coming up with any ideas. I didn't want to label us Agents of the Spellchasers. Three. Two. "And whom am I speaking with?" Jeremo introduces himself with the question, his hand sweeping all of us, clear implication of looking for a company name. Crap. I introduced us as The Luckless Fools. We were once again stuck with the sobriquet. Simon took over from there, I didn't pay too much attention for several moments as I let the thought sink in, only to be broken out of my fugue state as Remé tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a table shaped like a star that we were being led to by Jeremo. As we sat down, a wine glass rose through the table at each occupied position. Simon suggested that we crack open a bottle of wine, leaving a perfect straight line for the Jester, declaring his great sorrow at a lack of wine crackers at hand. Remé's mind served instead as our multitool and Jeremo told us all to turn our wine glasses upside down and for the pouring to begin. Simon had been handed the bottle and turned Jeremo's wine glass upright, but was chided for doing it wrong. Confused, Simon set the glass the way Jeremo requested and began to pour wine into the small basin at the bottom of the glass. Which proceeded to pour through some passage unseen into the bowl of the glass sitting against the table. As minor confusion and great amusement met this small magic, a table of wine was poured as we tested the bottle that Simon and I had acquired so long ago in an abandoned and haunted manor where we first met. The wine had held up through all the trials and tribulations it had seen, still not turned to vinegar. It was a little dry to be drank alone, but there were aspects to the taste that were interesting. We all savored the wine for a few minutes in quiet before Jeremo cut to the quick and asked why we sought him out. Simon worked his way around the crux of the matter for several minutes before I stated bluntly that he was a leader of men and needed a place to house his agents. Which was the opening line for an interesting philosophical debate between Simon and Jeremo about the purpose of strength which ended in Jeremo offering Simon two deals, with the decision of which deal being made by a game of chance which he produced from some hidden pocket somewhere. The game was simple, you would roll the dice and from the result of the dice would appear so many sticks. The winner of the game was the person who could build the largest tower of sticks with a single roll of the dice. Simon took one look at the dice, then agreed to the game, taking the proffered die in his hand and beginning to shake it. Jeremo did the same, and after 30 seconds of rattling, both dropped their dice down between their hands, Jeremo with a slam and great fanfare, Simon letting the rattling die come to rest as he brought his hand down to the table. From there, the tower-building began. Jeremo's hands moved quickly, but he had not rolled well and had only a few pieces with which to build his town, managing a pyramid with the final piece a raised spike. Simon had rolled even worse and his entire tower consisted of a single stick sitting on its end. Jeremo laughed and scooped the dice up from the table, suggesting that perhaps Simon didn't want to win. Simon shrugged it off with some comment about consider it a gift to the universe and accepted the lesser of the Natterer's two deals. Business mostly finished, Jeremo asked where Simon could be found until the space could be made available. Simon's answer of Chaser's Manse caused a sharp uptake in intrest from the seemingly random grand dealer of the Cage, and I decide to direct it towards myself by finally giving my name. At which point Jeremo muses that my father has been gone for a long time, his business doing no business. And mentioning that we left the city the day before the problems began in the Faction War. Oh yeah. I had well and truly realized that little fact in the past few days I'd been home. I'm not that dense. Am I, father? * May I enter a comment of No Comment for the time being? Sigh I brush the Jesters comments to some strange coincidence of timing of my final training exercises. With that hope-fully not transparent lie placed on the table, Jeremo stood and said he had business elsewhere and it seems that today's joke was a lunch meeting without food. Our business concluded, we left, grabbing a few sandwiches from a vendor on the way out while Jonathan and Xallis ducked into a bathroom to change back into their armor before we headed to the Civic Festhall. Several minutes after leaving the Palace of the Jester, Simon said that he felt the presence of a following mind and asked us to seek a route that would make it easier for him to pick out those trying to track us. Manuel and I converse for several moments, decided to travel through the Lower Ward again and the Hive, since we would run into less problems if the trackers Simon noticed decided to try an ambush. Hivers are like to complain too hard if you blow up a building, or at least nowhere near as loud as a guild will if you've scratched the paint of any of their edifices. After fifteen minutes, Simon's tension visibly released itself as he felt our trackers fall off as we entered the less sanitary parts of the city. Let's hear it for false hope boys and girls. We hadn't lost them, it seems they just decided they knew where to set up the ambush. We were deep in the Hive, walking down the alley of a Slaadii Ghetto when our pursuers decided to light the street on fire. Magical fire rained down from the rooftops, catching us all by surprise. Well, all of us but Jonathan and Manuel it seems. Both had dived off to the side of the streets and managed to hide from the conflagration just inside the buildings. That left four spellcasters and a vampire standing on the street as we got a brief taste of the Elemental Plane of Fire. It hurt. Manuel and Jonathan motioned towards the roof of a building, with Manuel opening up one of his mini-portals to a spot half-way up the building and ducking through. Before anyone else could attempt to use the portal a row of heads appeared over the lip of the building that had fire-bombed us. Remé returned the favor, releasing from her forehead a rushing wave of blue energy that I would later see had frozen several of our enemies solid. First Jonathan, then Camille rushed through the portal; Jon managing to scrabble his way to the roof while I used the portal to allow my to reach the skies above the buildings, where Camille ran through the portal, grabbing Manuel and hauling him the rest of the way to the roof then disappearing over the lip of the building. I finally managed to shake off the shock of several square feet of burns and dived through Manuel's portal, unfurling my wings as I passed through and reaching the meager skies above the tenements we fought in-between. I saw a dead man on the ground, a giant sword sticking out of his ribcage but still being circled by the new bladesmen (and woman) of the Luckless Fools. Simon's voice echoed through my head that there was still one more hostile up there. I'm serious. He used the word Hostile. Not knowing where to aim a magical bolt, I gathered up my will and fired a shimmering sphere of magical energy at the corpse on the ground. As the magic disco-ball exploded on the corpse, it covered everything in a 20' area in a thick layer of– * That's the visual signature of your Glitterdust spell? An exploding Disco-ball? Yeah, that's always how I imagined the spell working when I was trying to imagine it. Now, that's just how it comes across. Anyways, the last of the enemy Arcanists now covered in more glitter then a ten-year old girls trapper-keeper, he had nowhere to run or hide. He was pinned between Jonathan and Manuel, with the thief of the planes dragging a long mark on his back to gather his attention as Captain Jonathan Oldblood laid him out with the basket hilt of his rapier. Finally having a chance to examine our foes, I was confused by their nature. They were Githyanki, servants of the Witch Queen of the Gith race. Who I do not remember pissing off. We needed answers, but all were going to be gathering was questions if we didn't move off the streets to somewhere less public. Manuel stripped the bodies of worldly possessions before dropping them off the building into a pile of trash for the Dusties to collect later. Our lucky winner would be coming with us until we found a disreputable bar with a back room to question him in. Hard job, I know, trying to find a dive in the Hive. It took us all of two minutes to find a bartender who wasn't asking too many questions and had a back room. We lay the gith on the table, Jonathan tying his hands and feet under the table to make it harder for him to escape while Simon prepared himself for the questioning. We didn't bother to wake up the Gith for the questions, it would have just been awkward. Simon could just collect his answers to our questions from his sleeping mind. And what an interesting set of answers he gave. It seems the Gith wizards had noticed Simon and came to the conclusion that he was a tool of the Mind Flayers and decided to act on their own initiative to eliminate a threat the the freedom of the Githyanki :):):):):):):)s, pardon me, the known. He finally woke up at some point in the questions, and we got to meet the zealot instead of just his memories. Very pleasant, I assure you. Like a nice root canal at the dentist. After several minutes of working ourselves in a circle of trying to figure out a way to not kill him why he shouted at us that he would hunt Simon until he was dead we finally decided to give him what he asked for. Camille and Remé stayed behind after we left the tavern, with Camille saying that she could take care of the mess. As we walked away, Simon informed us that there was no additional body to find and had us stand still so Remé could transport Camille and herself to our location. And with that fun new barrel of questions heaped upon us, we finally managed to reach the Civic Festhall. A bariaur greets us at the doorway with a disapproving look. It seems we've been remembered for the havoc we caused yesterday, which means we are unwelcome until Simon applied a bit of golden charm to smooth over any problems his people caused yesterday. That solved, she introduces herself as Annali Webspinner and we are able to ask her to help us, that we potentially need to commission a copy of a pair of sense-stones in their collection. This seems to raise us to the top of her "My Problems" Queue, and she pulls us into a small meeting room just inside the main doors of the festhall. When she asks why, we look at each other for a brief second before deciding to give her the whole story, and ask for her help in peeling a power. She looks thoughtful for a second then grabs a runner from a hallway, bends him down to her level then whispers a few words into his ear before she releases him to run off. She now looks at us with a level of seriousness that could sober a man three days dead of drink, and swears us to secrecy. We oblige, and she begins to relate how the once-lively Sensates have begun to grow dour under the leadership of their new factol, the once-lover of Erin Montgomery who lead the faction before him but disappeared with all of the other factols in the opening days of the Faction War. Annali says that she knows a dark about the disappearance of the Sensate Factol. She did not vanish into Her Serenity's mazes, but instead jumped through a portal into Carceri and hasn't been heard from since. At this point, her story abates as the runner has returned with a pair of stones carried into the room on a cushion. He sets the stones on the table and then leaves, bowing deeply the the goat-woman on his way out the door. These are the stones she thinks match what we quest for: The Virtue of a Liar and the Sight of a Blind Man. Xallis and I agree to evaluate the sensations so reach out for the stones. My stone is a pale white frosted glass sphere and even before my hand touches the stone, I can feel it's magic begin to pull me in and take over my senses. I touch the stone.... I'm in darkness, yet I can feel the world around me. I've lost my eyes, my ability to see the world, and yet I continue onward. I'm standing in the Clerks Ward, listening to the hustle and bustle of life pass around me. But nothing is truly pure, and as I stand there listening and feeling the world around me, I see/hear a loud shout of a merchant off to my left, I see the flashes of the cobbles as my feet hit the ground and I feel it around me. My eyes have been taken, bu still the riot of the world can reach me. As I remove my hand from the stone I cough a little, I've never had the chance to use a sense stone before, and the experience is like a sudden hit of some wonderful drug. I'm able to translate the confusion of senses that the old man who recorded the stone experiences since I've dealt with it ever since my magic first sparked, all my power rolling across my finger-tips, my senses extended well beyond their appointed places to feel the ebb and flow of the world's energy around me. It's what where looking for, I say to the other Fools as I see Xallis nod about his own sense-stone. I rotate the cushion to bring A Liar's Virtue closer to me and place my hand on the transparent glass sphere whose surface is covered in so many tiny cracks it seems to fragile to touch. But my mystic senses tell me better as I bring my hand closer, this stone could probably withstand being thrown against the stone walls of the room we were in. I bring my hand gently upon the second stone.... I'm frocked, tending a small congregation of a costal town. Days and weeks blur together as I see myself doing all those things that are expected of me, but I can feel the hollowness of my actions. Even though I'm responsible for these people's souls, I no longer trust where I'm sending them. Yet, we're at the mercy of the winds and the storms. The people must believe that there is something watching out for them, some reason for them, at the least, to go on living. I'm better prepared to emerge from this one, from the memories and regrets of a disenchanted priest. I feel pity for the man, struggling against forces he couldn't understand, thinking that because tradition demanded faith that faith was the best thing for him to provide his people. Xallis seems to have weathered the Sight of the Blind better then his first stone and he confirms that these are the things we're searching for, and Simon asks Annali to name her price. The bariaur nods at us and says that she needs to know what happened to Factol Montgomery, to have closure if not a new direction for the faction. I think most of us agree before she finishes her sentence, with Jonathan and I saying that we will try to bring her back, if possible. We agree, but send a runner back to Spellchaser Manse with a list of supplies we need from the house, as well as the last member of our company. She thanks us then leads us through the festhall, up several stories to a large set of apartments near the back fo the building. As we approach, I can see the magic binding the door shut, then see it fall away as Annali walks up to the door and places her hand against it. She tells us that no-one else has seen this room since the disappearance and to take what we need in trying to find her. Manuel enters the room first, pulls out a piece of chalk and starts marking the few portals that are in the room, including one which he marks the symbol for the Prison Plane on the stone of the portal's arch. The rest of us take time to search the room, using my memory as a guide for what personal effects work the best in trying to find someone. Most of my divinations are minor tricks, but I know the rules, so I'm able to guide Jonathan to an old hair comb of the factol, which still has a few strands of red hair sitting in it. Simon finds what may be the biggest prize, a book of prayers to Dian Cect, personally penned by the Factol. During this investigation of the room, Kará arrives, dressed in armor for battle instead of the simple white dress she's been wearing until now. She listens to our current quest, then nods in agreement with our decision, thanking us for our efforts to help her restore her husband to her side. Now loaded up with our supplied for travel, we place the divination keys we've located in our bags to keep them safe. I turn to Manuel and offer that it's about time we got on the road. He nods and does something to the archway marked with a chalk symbol of damnation. It howls open, and it's only because we're trying to get there that none of us lose our footing as we pass through the portal. * Abe, if you don't mind my asking, what was so bad for the girl about your dating experiences with her? Celandine? Well, the biggest might be the fact that I just disappeared without telling her where I was going; vanishing right before one of the most wild times the city had ever seen. She even told me for several years she blamed me for the Faction War, as absurd as it seems. [/QUOTE]
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Spellchaser Chronicles (Pathfinder - Planescape) (Updated 11/19/10)
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