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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1515022" data-attributes="member: 1210">No Face Angel <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />“This is probably not our most shining moment,” comments Horbin dryly.“Angelfire!” Londo groans.  No hands, no face...”You’re useless,” the Mask of the Devourer sneers to Angelfire.  “I should devour you now and put you out of your stinking misery!”“No!” barks Londo.  “Surely it will better if you simply move to a new host- someone more capable of fulfilling your needs.”  A grim smile traces his face.”Are you volunteering?”  The Mask’s voice is jovial, but tinged with threat.“Oh yes,” Londo answers, never blinking, and the Mask flows from Angel’s featureless head to his, pulling itself eerily up his arm and over his face until he bears the Devourer’s visage.”Much better!  Fool!  Now I can see!”“I’m not sure if I like this,” Horbin whispers to Lester.***With the Mask off of her, our heroes determine to use the strongest magicks at their disposals to try to repair her- after they regain their spells.  For Horbin, that’s only a few more hours.  So they explore a little further, Londo leading Angel along and the voice of the Mask, always sneering, echoing behind.As they walk along the frosty crust above the floor, Sybele says to Thrush, “This place gives me an idea!”“What’s that?”“We should open a casino!  With all the money we’re gonna make from the demilich, and Felenga, we’ll be rich!”Thrush smiles.  “Yes- once we’ve dealt with our enemies.  And then we should retire, and raise our children.”That word makes Sybele shiver inside.They don’t find much trouble, but our heroes do find a magical cloak.  The entire party has magical cloaks that they don’t want to give up, so they give it the Lerxst.  She puts it on gratefully, and then gurgles in displeasure and sinks to the floor drooling.“Oh no!” Horbin exclaims.  He whips the cloak off of her, but it has no effect.  He groans.  “Didn’t we just tell her how safe she was with us?”“You can fix her,” Lester smiles.  “I have faith in you.”***That evening, after regaining his spells, Horbin the Holy communes with his god.  Orbius pesters him to check the loyalty of his simulacrum, but Horbin refuses to commit.  “Only if I run out of better questions to ask,” he finally half-agrees.Is the girl’s intelligence drained? No.Is her wisdom drained? No.Is her charisma drained? No.Will a greater restoration fix her? No.Will a heal or mass heal fix her? Yes and no.It must be a curse, Horbin thinks.Is the darkweaver in this tower? No.Is there treasure above us in this tower? No.Is Till conscious most of the time? No.Is he is some kind of suspended form? No.Do we still have to face the darkweaver to kill Felenga? Probably.Will completing our quest here weaken the Temple of Elemental Evil? Yes.Will the Temple of Elemental Evil attempt major military campaigns in the spring or summer?* Yes.Before the summer? Yes.This month? No.Do the uprisings Malford is putting down have anything to do with this? No.Are there spies for the Temple of Elemental Evil within Malford’s court? Yes.Are any of these spies in his bodyguard? No.Are any regular attendees at court? Yes.Are any noblemen of Dorhaus? No.What the hell, he sighs.Is Orbius’ simulacrum still loyal to him? Yes.Well, that’s something, anyway, the cleric thinks.Horbin relates the gist of what he’s learned.  “We need to warn Malford,” he says grimly.  “No problem,” reassures Lester.  Shortly, Orbius trumps to Var, then back to Lester.“Those are my only two trumps left,” groans the L.  “Oh well, easy come, easy go.”And he sighs, thinking of all the rest of his old friends whose cards he had- Thimbleton, the illusionist; Stone D. Mason, dwarf and lord of Platinum Peak; Hobbes, the tabaxi psion/thief, and Mary Nine, the fur golem; Malford himself (until the King took it away); so many others... some of them people he hasn’t seen or spoken to in a long, long time, like... hell, probably even Malador!  Whatever happened to that half-voadkyn, anyway?  Traveling, probably... adventuring somewhere.  Or secluded in the woods...Some of them were dead, of course, like Alcar; others of unknown fate- what was the name of that one poor soul that Felenga turned into a chicken-legged, cursed freak?What ever happened to her?Questions for another day.**While Lester ruminates on his old friends, Horbin pulls out all the stops in trying to fix poor Angel, and after a combination of heal, remove curse, miracle, greater restoration, break enchantment and regenerate***, he succeeds.“Thank Coila!” Angel exclaims. Time for a new tower.  There’s no more mass flying available today, so Horbin utilizes a wind walk, and soon our heroes have arrived at the next one they’re going to investigate.  Entering, they find it to be another tower full of smashed and jumbled furnishings, but it takes them less than two minutes to come upon an inhabitant.In a room that looks like a bedroom that had been kicked by a giant, a young, white-skinned woman sits wearing a grey robe.  A white smock covers it.  As the party tromps in, she lifts her head and speaks in that creepy-sounding dialect of Abyssal that we might just as well call Moilian.  To those that can understand her- mostly Orbius, with his permanent tongues- she says, “Hello- are you hurt?”  She sounds almost hopeful.  “Are you feeling poorly?  I am a fully functional medron!  I can help you with your wounds or hurts.  It has been so very long since I have laid eyes upon a living being!”  *Before asking this question, Horbin asked what season it was.  It’s spring- the date in game is 3/10/368 O.L.G.**And, eventually, potentially, the Early Years thread. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />***Or something like that.  Next Time: Meet Dr. Tarr!  And Dr. Tarr, meet... the Mask of the Devourer!</blockquote>

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