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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hairy Minotaur" data-source="post: 3586912" data-attributes="member: 11574">The voice of (a) God“You need to go to the Overlord.” Haimish explains“Really, that’s all? What for, if that’s your advice why not just come out and tell him to kill himself? It’s the same thing.” Kessen responds“Let me finish.” Haimish starts, “Lord Palmere was not the poor victim we all think he was. He had preliminarily reached an agreement with a Virdistan merchant to receive half a ton of a new metal recently unearthed near there. Apparently this unscrupulous merchant decided he’d hedge his bet and also contacted a few other Highcastle merchants, at least one of them replied back. Lord Burghondy, upset he had lost the initial bid, planned to buy into the game again and eliminate the apparently only threat to him winning the bid. Hence Burghondy eliminates Palmere and has him brought up on charges as well, stemming from the demons that ran amok from his abode. Lord Burghondy was wining and dining the Virdistan merchant away from Lord Palmere while we were at the party.”“What’s so special about the metal that Burghondy would pay millions for it?” Xanthos asks“It ignores all other metal, so someone could create arrow out of this stuff that would ignore tower shields and full plate and hit the wearer as if he was naked.” Haimish reveals“You could start a coup with that stuff; you could eliminate most of the city’s forces before anybody could react to what’s happening.” Turgar commented“Exactly, so you take this info to the Overlord that Lord Burghondy plans to overthrow him. The Overlord is so reactionary; he’ll investigate regardless of whether you have any actual proof. He’ll find the proof and you’ll be a hero and Burghondy will die horribly.” Haimish concludes“Can we free Lord Palmere with this information?” Xanthos inquires“Well, you might get his name cleared, but they beheaded Lord Palmere yesterday. The Maalites don’t let people take up space in the jail for long. Then there’s always the matter of informing the Judge he made a mistake, which would most likely be the hardest part of the endeavor.” Haimish states“That’s not justice.” Xanthos objects“No, but unless you want to end up like Palmere, I suggest you find a constable quickly and get to passing along this info.” Haimish answers“You make it sound as if I have no say in how this information is to be used, I think we could get the assassin’s guild to turn on Burghondy and kill him for us.” Xanthos speculates“Would you rather have this metal in the hands of assassins?” Haimish asks“At this point I don’t see a difference, a ruthless overlord or a heartless organization, either is bad in my book.” Xanthos answers“Doopa thinks books are bad too, Doopa not learn anything from book that man selling book couldn’t tell Doopa when Doopa grabbed man by throat.” The ogre smiles“Extortions and intimidation are not the way things get done in a civilized land.” Turgar huffs“Doopa not know what ex-tortoise shins have to do with Gnashdrool son’s speech but Doopa likes intimidation. Two thumbs up worth.” Doopa agrees“The assassins are killers, the Overlord is containable and plus travel options are limited, the doppelgangers could go anywhere. Plus who would you rather have as a buddy, the assassin’s guild or the ruler of the city?” Haimish countersXanthos mulls it over and decides he would do as Haimish has suggested and give this information to the Overlord, he leaves alone to find a constable amid requests to the contrary from Kessen and Turgar.Menthos is called to meet with Statinisor regarding the job the party did below the temple.“Please sit down, Helle informed me you were able to retrieve some members of each priest unit that was lost below in the catacombs. Excellent work, as a reward I offer you this Fire Ruby, please do be careful not to drop it in a place you hold dear. It tends to have an explosive nature about it.” The head Kador statesMenthos accepts the ruby and notes it is hot to the touch and places in an insulated pouch on his belt.“Helle has also told me of your shifter’s troubles with the assassin’s guild. We could help you out with that, and even get you out of the city while we worked on that. Does this seem like a solution you might explore?” Statinisor asks“I think so; I could use some fresh faces and cleaner air.” Menthos advises“Excellent, the temple has recently acquired a crumbling border fortress on the southern edge of the Majestics. We’ve instilled a quickly rising warrior within the temple to serve as overseer of the rebuilding project. Recently the keep has been beset with bands of scavenging goblins. This has caused half of the work force to muster into a defensive unit. We’d like for you to help rid the surrounding land of the goblins so that the keep can focus on rebuilding rather than repelling.” The high priest relates“Goblins you say? That’s more my speed. Where exactly is this keep?” Menthos inquires“About three days travel north from Bulwark, Kindoras Keep was raised by Highcastle eighty years ago to assist the small towns of the northern plains in defense against raiding barbarians. After the barbarians were defeated by a gaggle of squirrels, chipmunks, and mice with their forest preserve leaders, their threat greatly diminished and the keep fell out of repair. We acquired the property from the Overlord and here we are.” Statinisor answers“Sounds like a good deal, I’m up for it.” Menthos accepts“Excellent, we will let Alenia know that you are coming and to prepare your room.” Statinisor states“What about the rest of my guys?” Menthos asks“What about them? They seem to lack a fire you possess; they can pitch a tent like the rest of the defenders do. You however get four walls and a leak proof roof, as well as a bed. Free accommodations for as long as your stay warrants, hopefully you’ll be able to stay through the completion of our new defensive weapon we are going to field test at Kindoras? It will be especially handy against those beings that prefer a colder environment.” The high priest responds“Frost giants? You didn’t say anything about frost giants. Suddenly this sounds like a bait and switch tactic here and a pretty lame one at that, almost as if you were a used cart salesman. In fact my brother mentioned somebody with your description selling him a lousy cart that broke down after two city blocks, that wouldn’t be you would it?” Menthos asks“Your paranoia knows no bounds, there hasn’t been a frost giant sighting south of Omen in centuries. I see no need for that trend to discontinue.” Statinisor replies“Then why the need to field test this new weapon array?” Menthos inquires“You seem to have the ability to ask the right questions little one don’t you? I have another gift I’d like to impart upon you, I think you’ll it’s utilitarian nature useful in many ways.” Statinisor offers“I already posses the gifts of gab and a great physique, not to mention I drive the ladies wild. I don’t need think I could stand another boon, it might make me irresistible.” Menthos answers sarcastically“Oh I’m sure of that; here take hold of my mantle. The destination we are traveling to would take months on foot.” Statinisor repliesSkeptic but nonetheless intrigued, Menthos takes hold of Statinisor’s robe and watches the smile brighten on Helle’s face just as the room gains an airiness quality and then without moving themselves, Menthos and Statinisor “fly” through the room then the temple, then the city flies past them, soon Menthos watches as the land south of Highcastle whizzes past. Strange foreign lands come and go; even an expansive jungle passes them by until, minutes later they stop in the middle of a dark cave. “Kind of spooky in here.” Menthos’ voice echoes through the chamber“Soon you will here the voice of my deity, stand strong against the words and listen to the enunciation, for there is power in the words.” Statinisor states“What kind of quackery is this? I’m no god fearing man.” Menthos objects, but soon realizes that Statinisor has abandoned him here alone.“Hey!, Hello? Anybody in here?” This time however no echo is heard from Menthos’ wordsSilence prevails as sweat begins to bead upon the teifling’s brow. Then a cascade of vulgarity and vileness assails Menthos’ ears, he clamps his hands over his ears but to no effect. The sounds tear through his flesh defense as if he had no hands with which to hold to his ears. Panic erupted in Menthos’ mind as fear clawed it’s way across his brain to squeeze the very reasoning from it. Unable to resist the power of the words, Menthos through his will against the voice in an attempt to push them sounds from his mind. Slowly the stream of hellish insults reduced themselves to a mere trickle as Menthos was able to pluck out of the stream of vile four words in infernal that repeated themselves over and over again. Menthos soon found himself repeating the sounds, those sounds then became words, the words became power, the power became an understanding, and the understanding became a mastering. *Hours passed and soon a haggard Menthos, bleeding from his ears and eyes stumbled out of a cave hundreds of miles south of Highcastle, collapsed into the waiting arms of Statinisor high priest of Kador. In the time it took for Statinisor to speak his word of recall the two men were transported back to the Temple of Kador in Highcastle. Menthos tried to sleep soundly that night but his dreams were filled with visions of burning souls and flayed bodies of those that were not worthy enough to swim in the lake of fire. Usually these nightmares brought Menthos to a waking sweat filled with gasping breaths, tonight however they merely annoyed him as if he’d rather be dreaming of his fantasy harem, and he seemed to tolerate the fire dreams this time. Maybe they held less scare power over him he thought, whatever the case he relished not having to rouse himself from sleep for it.That morning at breakfast, Turgar was the first to notice something different about the teifling. Nothing visually apparent, just the air about him seemed ancient, the dragon shaman made a mental note to try and determine what exactly Menthos was doing with the Kadors. Haimish too noticed it, when the warlock sat down to eat, Haimish made an observation that this person was trouble, which seemed odd as he’d known Menthos for weeks now and while he had gotten that impression before it had seemed to wane in the coming days as Menthos had gotten Haimish out of his stoning and had been able to provider the party with a free place to sleep and eat. This morning however the feeling was back again and no longer an impression but a certainty that this man was trouble waiting to happen. “I’m headed north soon, I accepted a job for the temple to help them deal with some goblins that are harassing a keep they have. If any of you want to come along and play with some inferior creatures, I certainly wouldn’t fault you for coming along.” Menthos announces as he tears into a chunk of grapefruit.“Goblins? Doopa will bring roasting sticks and basting sauce!” The ogre excitedly announces“Totally uncouth, why on earth would you eat one? You live with them.” Turgar inquires“Why you think that is? Less energy spent chasing small goblin mean more energy spent eating.” So speaks the wise DoopaTurgar realized that while Doopa may not be the sharpest vorpal blade in the bunch, but his limited weapons could get the job done. He would not be taking Doopa lightly anymore, too many times his understanding of a given situation outshine his dimwittedness. “I could use some easy hunting, I’ll go north with you.” Haimish announcedTurgar accepted as well, more out of not wanting Doopa to get any glory than for a desire to travel with the warlock any further. Kessen decided he would wait on Xanthos, he wasn’t going anywhere with these people unless he could count a friend among the ranks.*Menthos now has use of Dark Speech from the BoVD</blockquote>

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