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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2326907" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Twenty-SixthIn which: let’s make a deal.Although the journal and notebooks are helpful in shedding light on why Petros came to Bountiful, they do not give the party one crucial piece of information.  If Petros’s soul is in the gem, how are they going to get to his body?Annika returns presently with the notebook and the information there sets off another round of speculation and strategy.(See attachment at the bottom of this post.)As the investigation continues, Gemil turns his eyes up towards Anvil.  “Might I have a word… privately?”“Why?”“You want to talk to Petros, I can tell you how to make that happen.”Anvil looks over at the others.  They are still pouring over books, debating various strategies.  However, they seem no closer to coming up with a way to contact Petros than they were an hour ago.   Anvil takes the skull and withdraws to Petros’ bedroom.“Yes?”  Anvil prompts Gemil when they are out of immediate earshot.“I would like a favor.  If you are able to restore Petros to his body, or to some body, I will still be trapped in this skull…  helpless.  Subject to his… whims.  I have no desire to spend the rest of my existence like that.”“What is it you want of me?”“I want your word, Justicar.  If I tell you how you can communicate with Petros, I want you to promise me you will take back to Ebis.”“Back to Ebis.” Anvil repeats the phrase carefully, considering it.  If that is the letter of the agreement—“Now now.  Let’s not get tangled up in technicalities,” says Gemil, perhaps anticipating Anvil’s line of thought.  “You will take me to a place I know inside the Empire of Ebis.  I do not demand immediate action, but you will do it in a timely manner.  Likewise, I will not lead you into some kind of trap, or attempt to otherwise engineer your death while you doing me this service.”“Will you kill us afterwards?”“I will grant you safe passage away from my abode.  Beyond that, while I have no intention of killing you...  well, one never knows where our future paths might cross.”Anvil considers carefully.  Unfortunately, no one in the group appears to be on the verge of an insight.Anvil takes the golden skull, places it on the bed, and casts detect law at it.Upon seeing the result, he addresses Gemil once more.  “Very well,” he says, “you have my word.”###Gemil explains that, following Petros’ notes, it should be possible to transfer his soul into the gem and Petros’ into the golden skull.  Petros had, in fact, done it previously and detailed the procedure.  Once the transfers have been accomplished, the party will be able to converse directly with Petros and find out what he knows about whatever is going on inside the keep.Lira scowls at Gemil.  “But if this is successful, what’s to keep us from just leaving you in the gem, trapped?”Gemil almost manages to look wounded.  “You gave your word.”“He did,” Eva clarifies, indicating Anvil.  “I didn’t.”“Ah…” Gemil does not seem overly concerned.  “But you’ll have to move Petros back into the gem if you’re going to put him back into his body.”  “Assuming he still has a body to go into,” Lira points out.Gemil’s omnipresent grin twists.  “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”“Do we know Petros’s soul will only go back into his own body?” Thatch asks.“What other body did you have in mind?”“Well…” Thatch shifts, uncomfortable.  “I mean, Sir Cyrus is just lying there…”Gemil positively howls with laughter.“Oh, that would be delightfully ironic.  Putting the soul of a wizard into the corpse of his companions, months dead…  I don’t think he’d thank you for that one.””No one asked you what you think,” Eva snaps at him.Gemil does not volunteer any other information, but he does continue to chuckle quietly to himself.###Late that evening, Annika is finally ready to attempt the transfer.  With Petros’ notes and Gemil’s consultation, she has rigged up an elaborate apparatus with the gem in a holder at one end and the skull at the other.“You will remember your promise?” Gemil asks, rolling ruby eyes up suspiciously at the party.Lira shrugs.  “This was your idea,” she reminds him, and Annika sprinkles some kind of powder over the delicate metal armature and begins to recite an incantation.The light in the gem pulses and a glow envelops the arcane machinery.  “Umm…” Thatch asks, “Is that supposed to happen?”  Annika ignores him and keeps chanting. Then, for an instant, the light in the gem winks out entirely.  The party feels a passage, almost like a gust of wind, and as the light returns to the gem the skull cautiously opens its jaw, and a new voice, slightly hoarse and deeper than Gemil’s croaks, “What…?  What has happened?”“Petros.” Anvil says, in a way that is only partially a question.“Yes.”“You are in the golden skull.  We have switched you and Gemil so that we might speak with you.”“What is the date?”“February 16th,” Lira supplies.“The year!” he croaks urgently.  “The year!”“152.”The skull seems to relax a bit.  “Only a matter of months then.”The party nods.“I hope you will excuse us,” Reyu puts in, “but when we arrived we did read parts of your journal.”“Ah,” Petros sighs.  “I suppose, under the circumstances, it could not be helped.  If that is so, you already know most of my story.  It is as I said.  I went into the keep at dawn, thinking they would be at their weakest.  That proved to be a fatal miscalculation.  I had to fight my way past hundreds of skeletons.  There were ghouls as well—which I was overcoming—when I was suddenly surrounded by several wights.  My spell resources had already been depleted on the skeletons.  I was overwhelmed.”The group waits for a moment in respectful silence.  Finally, Thatch speaks up.  “Umm… What’s a wight?”The skull’s ruby eyes examine the party members in turn, all of whom shrug uselessly.  Petros explains.  “They are undead, but, unlike the skeletons, quite intelligent in their fashion.  They kill by draining their victim’s life energy.  When the prey perishes, the body rises to become another wight in thrall of its creator.”“Well that’s pleasant,” Eva mutters.“You think that’s what happened to your body?  That it’s still in there, as a wight?”“I imagine so, unless the ghouls ate it first.  They are flesh-eaters,” Petros explains, in case the party is unfamiliar with ghouls as well, “in this valley they have little sustenance.”The party excuses themselves to go upstairs for a private consultation as to their next move.Petros calls after them, “There is a great evil here, if you do not eradicate it, someone else must!”**********Upstairs in Petros’ sitting room, Eva is unconvinced of the wizard’s logic.  “I don’t see that this is our problem.  We’ve found Petros, we can take the jewel to a high cleric who can resurrect him without a body, and our job is done.”Reyu is more pensive.  “We must consider that if we do not deal with what has happened in this valley, more innocents are likely to suffer.”Kiara does not approve of any plan that involves her going anywhere near the keep again.  “Petros said that the Sovereigns have quarantined the valley.  If they aren’t going to do anything about it, why should we?”Annika gives Kiara a reassuring squeeze.  “I don’t want you to go there again, but I also don’t think Professor Alexandra would be thrilled if she asked for an archmage and we gave her a glowing gem.”“Also,” Eva points out, “if we don’t get Petros back to his body, he probably can’t operate the tower, which means we’re going to have to walk all the way back out of the Sovereignty.”“Don’t worry,” Benedic assures her, “I got you through the Ketkath once, I’ll get you back again.”“Oh good.”Lira, who has to this point remained uncharacteristically quiet, finally speaks.  “That keep is certainly a challenge, and Ehkt has just given me the ability to turn undead.  I don’t see how it’s our problem, but I don’t think I’m supposed to walk away from it either.”As Anvil has already made it clear that the infestation of skeletons is an affront to Kettenek’s Justice, and Thatch has yet to find a place Anvil is going he is not willing to follow, the party—despite some misgivings—agrees to enter the keep and attempt to replace Petros’ soul in its usual home.###Everyone takes the time to carefully study Petros’ portrait in the tower’s foyer.  The archmage has sharp features, and a distinctive black goatee.  Petros (in the skull) assures the party that the portrait is a good likeness, and should allow them to recognize his body.Assuming his body is still in one piece.</blockquote>

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