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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1433388" data-attributes="member: 1210">Talking to the HandThe questioning of Mr. Grab commences back in Var.  Malford must attend to various affairs of state, and he warns Lester severely against blowing up any of the royal property again.  Lester reassures him as the King goes off, shaking his head.How does one extract information from an undead hand?  Much less when it’s a familiar and one is trying to extract information about its master?Orbius first tries to play up any resentment the hand might have over having been left in ice.  “We came to save you,” he tells Mr. Grab.  “Felenga was getting ready to make a new familiar,” he tries.  “Aid us and Galador will accept you!”  At that one Horbin splutters and mutters under his breath, a discernible tone of scorn threaded through his inaudible words.Sybele tries her 'slut' technique, rubbing herself on it lewdly, trying to entice it with promises of lascivious rewards.  This, too, fails to sway the hand.They try torturing it; Angel even threatens to delete it, her hands throbbing as the Deleter continues to squeeze and crush them; but of course, Mr. Grab is undead and feels no pain or fear.  Moreover, it has no mouth.  The party uses magical telepathy to allow it the opportunity to speak to them, but it spurns their offers.That night, Horbin grimly tells the party, “This isn’t going to work.  It’s a familiar, we aren’t going to get anything out of it.”“It could work,” Orbius insists.Ulla, Sybele, Angelfire, Thrush and Horbin go out to get drunk.  They succeed, Thrush, Sybele and Ulla beyond their wildest expectations.  Horbin gets nicely drunk, brooding over the affair of the hand; he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to be tormenting it.  He wants to heal it.  He vows to give it one last chance in the morning and then do so.Angelfire is retrieving a round early in the night when she catches someone’s eye.  He’s a dark, brooding-looking warrior type; and on his breast is Coila’s symbol.  She hands everyone’s drinks around and then goes to speak to the warrior.She doesn’t leave his side all night. She’s captivated, enraptured, visibly twitterpated.  Angel!  And he, too, seems almost blinded to anything else in the room.  They have a few drinks and talk and talk and talk.  The two vanish into a room together long before dawn.In the morning, nursing a twinge of a headache, Horbin gives Mr. Grab one last chance to help and then, when the hand remains defiant, casts heal upon it.  There’s a moment of spasming agony for Mr. Grab as positive energy explodes into it, and then it blows apart, exploding into bony fragments.“Why’d you do that?” Sybele demands.  “Orbius is gonna be pissed.”“Torturing the hand was a colossal waste of time and just puts us closer to our dark side,” Horbin rants.  “It was a familiar!  It’s not going to betray its master!  I don’t even know if it’s capable of betraying its master!”Around midday, Angelfire returns to the castle, her new friend in tow.  “Hi, I’m Horbin,” the cleric says, shaking hands with the newcomer.“Londo,” the warrior says.  There’s a palpable aura of evil around him.  But hey, Horbin hangs out with Angelfire, used to adventure with Sheva, not to mention Sith back in the day- evil doesn’t phase him.  As always, perhaps he can be a good example.Londo and Angel are inseparable.  It’s clearly a case of love at first sight- the others watch, bemusedly, as the usually grim Angelfire is all sweetness and light with her new honey- who, it develops, is not merely a worshiper of Coila, but actually a blackguard of her.*  Though not too talkative, he doesn’t do anything to annoy anyone right off the bat.  Patyn, however, scowls immediately upon meeting the man.  He doesn’t try to start a fight, but it’s clear that he doesn’t like Londo one bit and that he’s only going to tolerate him long enough to destroy Acererak and Felenga.The group spends a good deal of the afternoon together, having lunch with the King (who seems rather grumpy today).  Londo listens with interest to the conversation- it covers subjects from Felenga to the Deleter, the Bile Lords to the dragons whose hatching cave Sybele and Angel helped guard.  He soaks up the information like a sponge, and already he frowns inwardly at something he’s heard.Rex spends a good deal of time looking for Arion the Archmage, leaving a small gift of 1000 pp at his tower and searching through the bars.  Alas, he has no real luck, and soon enough night falls and the party slips into sleep, Angel in the arms of her new love.*Enter Angel’s new cohort, Londo Molari (Babylon 5 fans will no doubt recognize the name).Next Time: Londo makes a move that nobody expects- against Angelfire!  Why??  What happens??  Find out!</blockquote>

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