"Rules?" Iranaset asks, putting a hand on the girl's cold cheek. "Well, let's start with rule zero. Rule zero will be no prying. Ever. We will call that the rule of respect. I'm not much of a liar, so you should not have to be so cavalier in using your little tricks on me."
She feels the girl's stiff muscles, poking and squeezing them. "It has been so long since I last emerged on the surface. I've longed for this moment. This day when I would come back to the surface and find a soul ready to be shown the wisdom of flesh. And here it is, and here that soul lies. I'm sure you know such longing."
Iranaset moves a long silvered nail along the girl's face, tracing a line from her eye to her mouth. "I want to hurt her. I want to rip her. I want to open her chest and kiss her beating heart." Iranaset giggles as she admits her desires. "She will experience without limits; and when I'm done and she's writhing for more, I'll kiss her wounds away. Then she will be mine." The elf kisses the girl's forehead and takes her cheeks within one hand, squeezing her face into a pucker. She then begins to move the cheeks, making the girl look as if she's talking. "What did you have in mind?" Iranaset asks, mimicking a toddler's voice as she speaks for the girl.
"well.. old habits are hard to suppress... and I'm kind of a nosy person" say the succubus giggling.
"So, either a Kuthite or a regular pain-loving weirdo. I am not THAT much into pain but I don't mind it. It could get fun.
But I'm kinda afraid to ruin her. I was simply planning on making this family way more united, in an incestuous way. Tearing down every shred of moral boundaries they have. I won't mind adding a little bit of whip and burning wax to the mix, but what you have in mind seems a little more extreme. Something that risks to backfire, and to turn this house from a safe haven to a bright beacon leading straight to us.
But I understand .. a girl has her needs."
The succubus reach behind the half dragon, she puts her hands on her shoulders and whispers to her ears in a mellifluous voice.
"Why don't we leave her for simpler games...
Why don't we plunge into town instead? I can fetch you a girl, a boy, I'm pretty confident I can get you whatever strikes your fancy.
I'll seduce him for you, lead him where no one can her him scream.
And I'm also pretty sure I can make help you make him appreciate your little games way easier than you are used to...
This one... I'd like to have her with her body and mind intact for a while. At least until I make use of her identity and I need to read her mind for every little secret she knows."
She turns in front of her, she comes extremely close to kissing her lips but she stops, just a half inch away from them..
"Do we have a deal..... playmate?"
"Hmmm." Iranaset says, with a sly grin. She places a finger on Delyliath's lips and pushes her face away gently. "To be clear. You're telling me that if I stay out of your way you'll let me pour burning wax or whip someone? Or find me a stranger after I've clearly expressed interest in the little one right here?" She giggles as she asks these questions, unable to hide how incredulous the suggestion sounds to her. "And why oh why would I buy into such an arrangement, 'playmate'? If I didn't know any better I'd say you were giving me a turd and calling it apple pie."
Delyliath pouts.
"You really presume too much...
She murmurs
"I was merely looking forward to play with you without having to compromise our mission.
You must realize that if you push things too far here, if you let yourself go and kill her, if you leave her particularly cruel an unexplainable marks, or if she talks... chances are the paladins will storm this place and find us."
the succubus sighs
"I won't stop you... I won't even tell the others if thing gets ugly because of this.
But won't you rather go for someone with no strings attached?
Won't you rather play a game where you have no reasons to hold back?"
The succubus offers Iranaset her hands, hinting at taking her somewhere else.
"I swear, no tricks. Just you and me. And you call the shots.
It would be fun"
Iranaset nods, incredulity softening. She strokes Dana's hair gently, tucking her shivering body more tightly into the covers. "I wasn't going to kill her, you know." she protests weakly, taking the succubus's hands and standing. "And I'm very thorough... Her wounds would not have been visible to anyone but me... And I suppose you." she gives the succubus a once-over and a wink before starting her trek out of the room.
"I'll give you a day --maybe two for asking nicely, 'playmate' and see what you have in store for this household. But she's going to be pretty out of it in the morning." she says, her tone cheerful. She rakes her claws lightly along the wall as she descends the stairs.
As everyone was settled in the new HQ, with or without nice distractions available, Delilyath took her time to assess the situation with the rest of the party.
"so, we are in, hopefully without rousing any suspicion. We should think about how we intend to kill the high priest.
The first step is to know where he is. how easy he is to approach.
Seems like he is in the Citadel of Sarenrae. And by the sound of it it will not be an easy task to approach him.
I wouldn't expect any less since a crew as numerous as ours has been recruited to deal with the problem.
I plan to switch my identity to a local. Possibly Dana, or her mother. probably both as it suits the need. I can steal their clothes to dress exactly like them, probe their mind to act like them. I could investigate the city without arousing the suspicion on a group of meddling strangers.
But sooner or later I will have to take serious risks, like impersonating a paladin or someone else who is supposed to live and work in the citadel.
Maybe impersonating someone with authority in town and investing you with enough authority to make people believe that you have actual business being in the citadel approaching the high priest."
the succubus murmured something intelligible to herself before adding.
That's pretty much what I can bring to the plate. That and Galt-kissing him to death. Any other contribution?
she fell silent for a moment but suddenly opened her eyes wide as if something just occurred to her.
"Also, in case the plan involves killing the high priest in front of witnesses or where is bound to be discovered easily I suggest an escape strategy. Safe for a dimensional anchor I can pretty much be on the opposite side of the world with a complete different appearance in the blink of an eye, but I assume not everybody enjoy the same perks...."
"A way to actually be invited to the citadel would be to annihilate the gnolls, but then have one of our number not return. Bring a small body part back, and say that one of us was slain in the battle, and for our reward, if it's possible, we'd like the high priest to see if he can bring that person back. It would make complete sense, in that scenario, for a band of eclectic warriors to walk straight into his office. The only problems I can imagine is if the gnolls are bizarrely strong or if the whole paladin core attends the ceremony to congratulate us." Illia lays out the plan she's been thinking on. "Still, the only real upside is that one of his high level spells would be non-combat."
"Are you suggesting that someone act dead or you really mean that someone among us should get killed? Aside from the fact that many of us would react badly with the whole die and get resurrected plan, namely me, you, Drisquar, Anaxian, the ghost, the sword, the undead tiefling, I think the only one among us who isn't either an undead, a denzien of another plane or an item is Iranaset.
But even then... are we sure that this high priest is either capable or willing to perform a resurrection?
What if it turns out he is just an important preacher without a single spark of miracle working?"
Delyliath looked at the shy Erinyes with a patronizing look.
"well... we can start to see what this citadel looks like from the inside. I think there are going to be a lot of paladins walking around.. a little bit of magic to not attract their attention would be useful tomorrow.
We avoid doing anything reckless. we just take a walk through the city and see if the high priest is used to walk among the common rabble or if he is the secluded tower kind of guy.
I may have a couple of ideas in case we find out he is out of reach. But let's start with the basics."
The succubus looks around.
"any other suggestion?"
"I.. No!... Uh.. That isn't what.. I.. um.. Eee..." Illia quickly fell to pieces under the patronizing look.
Dris returns the kiss with equal passion, but breaks it before too long. He listens to the ideas put forth, then interjects "I think, for right now, the simpler the plan, the better. Start with some basic information gathering, maybe a short trip into the Citadel, which we have an invitation to, stuff like that. Once we see what we can learn over the next couple of days, we can start to plan more expansive ideas."
Anaxian had found the basement. It would do nicely.
Most people didn't realize how many corpses were around them. Birds. Rats. Insects. The ground beneath people's feet was an enormous graveyard. Sewers were all necromantic treasure troves.
Graverobbers were amateurs.
Anaxian's telepathic voice drifted up from below to reach the other members of their company as they talked in other areas of the house. "I will return shortly."
The little pale cat drifted out from the manor and into a nearby drain and ducked out of sight.
We're going to get a little Shawshank up in here.
Anaxian is going down into the sewer. He's going to cast Lesser Animate Dead on a couple of rat or cat corpses and order them to gather other dead bodies to him. Then he's going to wait until he has a decent sized pile of bones and cast Animate Dead. Rats and cats are 1/2 or 1/4 HD creature so I can animate a whole lot of them basically for free (by using Blood Money).
Then, once I have a decent sized horde of tiny undead I'm going to use necrocraft to fuse them all into an amalgam of bones and blades that looks something like a cross between a badger and a shark. The creature's claws will be made out of adamantine arrowheads, which will allow it to go through just about anything like butter. (I'm using Sovereign Glue and Marvelous Pigments as the binding agents for the bone and metal. Shouldn't take much of either) Construction will take about 3 hours, plus however long it took to gather them all.
That will give me a single medium sized undead (made out of the corpses of about 40 Tiny creatures). The Necrocraft will be designed specifically for digging.
Then I'm going back topside, disguising myself as a bird and mapping out a roughly straight line from the manor house to the graveyard.
Then I'm going to have my little monster start digging a tunnel beneath the sewers between the two.
So, I need to know how far from the graveyard the manor is, and how long it will take my awful pile of bones to dig it out. Based on my rough calculations it shouldn't take more than one night.
Once my monster is getting it's dig on, I'm going to leave it to its own devices and rejoin the others.
Sound good?
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"So that's it then? Tomorrow we'll be traveling casually?" Iranaset asks, by now having returned to the group. She stares at them with an impossible look that lies somewhere between malice and affection. "If we're going out tomorrow, I can't wear this." she motions to her traveling vestments.
"If one of you shapeshifting, teleporting, cuties don't mind, could you pick me up a sun dress or something weather appropriate? Preferably with an open back." she flashes her wings to drive the point home. "My measurements are 36-26-36 last I checked. Thanks in advanced."
With that she leaves the room and goes to the roof where she can meditate under the night sky.
"We all have our own infiltration methods. Are we going in as a group or do we want to wander off on our own? I'd prefer to slip in by night and see what skeletons lie behind the locked doors...."
"We all have our own infiltration methods. Are we going in as a group or do we want to wander off on our own? I'd prefer to slip in by night and see what skeletons lie behind the locked doors...."
"A scouting trip is an excellent idea. I'll send the twins as well and we can compare notes after. "
Alright, sounds like a plan. As night falls in Solku, various members of the party prepare to slip into the Lambent Citadel and scout around.
People who appear to be able to sneak in, and their disguises:
-Drisquar & Shimsil (as gust of wind)
-Podo and Kodo (Malfeasance's invisible, teleporting imps)
-The Summoner's Ghost (as a ghost)
If anybody else chooses to sneak into the Citadel overnight, they can, just with a reasonable disguise or way in without being seen.
So, some (or all) of the party will scout the church and report back, and then you can plan what to do the next day when the Citadel is open to visitors. Here is the nighttime description:
The Lambent Citadel is a huge, majestic building, carved from local brownstone, with simple mosaics inlaid under the yellow glass dome. On the outside, hastily-built wooden shacks and nicer stone houses surround the main building, which itself is a complex of monasteries and offices connected to a main hall. Inside, the atmosphere is understated and militaristic, the entrance lined with benches and paintings.
A few watchmen and paladins stand guard in various positions around the Citadel, though most seem to have retired for the night.
Of the offices and rooms connected to the Citadel, most appear to be storage for food and weapons or makeshift dormitories, where footmen sleep in wooden bunks and knights on somewhat nicer beds.
Some of the rooms appear to be full of piles of healing supplies and paperwork, but it's too dark to make out the details.
One medium-sized room, near the back of the Citadel, appears to be warded against teleportation and incorporeal creatures; you can't find a way inside it.
There is a fair amount of magic in the air, most of it old and faded, as one would expect from a temple of this size.
There is a fair amount of magic in the air, most of it old and faded, as one would expect from a temple of this size. A more recent spell hangs in the air, its aura identifiable as a large, mobile Illusion effect.
A large, invisible creature patrols the halls of the Lambent Citadel at night. It is hard to make out the details, without more light, but it appears spiked and skeletal.
Probably, yeah. If you just want to gust in, twirl around, and gust out, that's not going to take too long, especially when you consider that nobody in the party actually sleeps.
Sitting cross-legged on the bannister above the house, Iranaset tries to meditate. Just as she's drifting away she hears people leaving the house. With one eye open, she watches curiously as they steal away into the night.
"Oh how patient they are." jokes the elf as she closes her eyes once more. "I hope they have fun."
"Indeed." Anaxian's mind-voice said from the basement he'd claimed as his lair. [i]"With luck they will return with the means to produce an adequate map. Hopefully they will not attempt to discover and engage our target tonight."
Before they had left, Anaxian had given Efescent and Drisquar two small marble sized spheres of smoked glass and instructed them to have the globes hidden anywhere that they thought would be particularly useful for them to be able to scry on later.
Alright, sounds like a plan. As night falls in Solku, various members of the party prepare to slip into the Lambent Citadel and scout around.
People who appear to be able to sneak in, and their disguises:
-Drisquar & Shimsil (as gust of wind)
-Podo and Kodo (Malfeasance's invisible, teleporting imps)
-The Summoner's Ghost (as a ghost)If anybody else chooses to sneak into the Citadel overnight, they can, just with a reasonable disguise or way in without being seen.
So, some (or all) of the party will scout the church and report back, and then you can plan what to do the next day when the Citadel is open to visitors. Here is the nighttime description:
The Citadel was hastily built, so its stone foundation doesn't go very deep. However, construction workers have begun to dig basement cellars underneath, where food and wine are stored; these connect up with a small network of catacombs, built under the previous smaller church, and lead to several mausolea in the neighboring graveyard.
Not cool catacombs, mostly the unused in-progress kind.
Come to think of it, Anaxian's skeleton-badger-tunnels probably come pretty close to these, and with a bit of moved earth could connect up. Huh.
There's not much of a second story; stairways lead up to a second floor, but it's not so much a floor as open pews and balconies, with smaller religious altars and mosaics and the corners.
And, I forgot that Darkvision lets you read and make out details (I was thinking of Infravision for some reason). There's some light in the main section of the Citadel, but not in the storerooms and offices; these hold mostly weapons, paperwork, and healing supplies, and I can give further details if there's anything specific you want to investigate.
Since you can actually read in the dark, I'll mention that there are signs on the doors of various offices and storerooms, and the one that appears warded against Incorporeal creatures entering is labeled "Meditation Room"
Come to think of it, Anaxian's skeleton-badger-tunnels probably come pretty close to these, and with a bit of moved earth could connect up. Huh.
And, I forgot that Darkvision lets you read and make out details (I was thinking of Infravision for some reason). There's some light in the main section of the Citadel, but not in the storerooms and offices; these hold mostly weapons, paperwork, and healing supplies, and I can give further details if there's anything specific you want to investigate.Since you can actually read in the dark, I'll mention that there are signs on the doors of various offices and storerooms, and the one that appears warded against Incorporeal creatures entering is labeled "Meditation Room"
Dris, wielding Shim, takes his form of wind, and flies to the fortress, looking around where ever he can. . When he comes across the the Meditation Room, he will look for a good location to hide the marble Anaxian gave him, preferably in such a spot as to see who enters and leaves the warded room.
A few of the offices have names, but those are just the ones assigned to local priests and senior paladins. Navid Duryan, as a traveling high priest, does not appear to have his own room assigned.
TSG: Assuming you're willing to spend several hours looking through documents on various desks, you're able to find a useful note:
To the caretakers and acolytes:
The High Priest's meditations are not to be disturbed. Someone should bring him his daily meals, but other than that, it would be best to leave him be; he is concerned with much greater things than the rest of us.
Drisquar: You are able to place one of the spheres in a nearby potted plant so that it should allow a look into the Meditation Room when the door is open.
A large, invisible creature patrols the main hall of the Lambent Citadel, stopping frequently to stand guard outside the door to the Meditation Room. Occasionally, it appears to vanish for a few minutes and then return.
Your blindsense does not give you additional information on the creature.
The imps do a thorough job of scouting. If discovered they teleport away.
Imps also have See in Darkness, which allows them to see color. Also, there's two of them. This might allow the party to scour paperwork faster, especially if the ghost directs them to which stacks of paper to read.
Imps can also detect good auras, which show up pretty much where expected (on the paladins, and some of the sleeping clerics)
In the form of the young boy she assumed to enter the city, Delyliath roams the streets of the city like any tourist would do. Looking at the architecture and the various landmarks, but of course, her main focus was the citadel.
Approaching the streets around the citadel she tried to notice how many guards and paladins as possible.
She did not approached them at all, she just limited herself to exchange salutes if saluted first.
What she did though was trying to hear as many thoughts as possible.
Learn faces and names, and possibly, learning anything useful that may cross their mind.
She hoped to gather some useful intelligence that way, at the very least, having the information needed to impersonate some of those guards.
"I suppose." Iranaset answers, a little annoyed by the voice in her head. She rests her chin on her knuckles and opens her eyes again. All around her the city casts a pale glow, reflecting moonlight. "What are you doing down there, puss?" she asks.
"Painting." the voice answered. "And waiting for the graveyard to finish being brought to me."
Here is a summary of what the party was able to determine and accomplish during their first night (feel free to add or elaborate on anything I forgot):
1. TSG and Mal's imps found a note suggesting that Navid Duryan spends all day meditating in seclusion, somewhere in the Citadel.
2. TSG and the imps also discovered that there is a "Meditation Room" in the back of the Citadel which is warded against teleportation and incorporeal creatures.
3. Drisquar successfully planted scrying spheres in several potted plants around the Citadel, including one that should be able to scry into the Meditation Room when the door is open.
4. Shimsil, using his magic swordy-sense, detected that a large, invisible creature roams the halls of the Lambent Citadel at night, and appears to be guarding the Meditation Room.
5. Anaxian reanimated a bunch of squirrel skeletons, corpsecrafted them into a corps of efficient skeletal tunnelers, and with Mal's help built a tunnel all the way to the graveyard beside the Citadel, where the two of them have now created an impressive skeleton army that lurks just below the surface of the church's grounds.
6. Delyliath has acquired a great deal of knowledge about some of the paladins who stand guard by the Citadel's doors, church gossip, friends and acquaintances they might be friendly to, as well as anyone else they might dream about on long, boring night watches. This should provide a few good "cover identities" for any shape-shifters in the party who want to charm up some of the guards.
And now that it's day again, it would not be at all strange for the party to take a visit to the citadel.
Mal looks to Anaxian,
"It is time."
To Anaxian and the imps,
"Gather the others so we can discuss strategy." In a very monotone and as an afterthought "Please."
Once the group is together,
"I have a plan to propose. We sneak into Navid Duryan's meditation room or at least close. Then we release the horde to keep the compound busy. Hopefully the invisible thing will go to join the battle outside. While everyone is outside we murder him. Then we leave. We'll grab valuables on the way out if you like."
To the imps,
"When you were scouting did you find things that radiated magic that can be taken if opportunity presents itself? Once the battle is complete you two and any other teleporters can pop around and take anything of value. Simply grab what you can, teleport to the keep, then teleport back and repeat as needed."
"If your imps were able to infiltrate with only the cover of invisibility, I would surmise it would be an effective way for some of us to gain entry. At least for those who cannot teleport or bluff their way in." Illia offered her take.
"The invisible thing you say?" Said Delyliath a little confused.
"Do we know anything a little more specific about it?" asked the succubus a little worried about that unknown menace.
"I do like the plan. But I wonder if we can do better. Undead in the citadel would likely attract guards that wasn't assigned to the citadel a little more close to our target that what I'm comfortable with. If he is particularly tough, or this invisible thing interferes, the priest might be able to raise an alarm.
What about we use the gnolls?
We can gift them with a fancy diamond sword. I trust it will be able to convince the gnoll chief to launch an attack.
I can then take the appearance of a guard. make sure to raise the alarm and to lead as many paladins and guards to the walls further away from the high priest chambers, and I will still be able to join the high priest assault. I'm also sure that Shimsil has all kind of tricks up his sleeve to make the gnolls way more threatening than they usually are.
We keep the undead as insurance. If any guard is alerted and try to return to the citadel we will have the skeletons to buy us the time we need to finish the job and disappear"
The succubus pauses and think for a moment.
"Unless of course the gnoll attack or the undead rising on the graveyard doesn't goad the high priest to take things upon his own hands.
that would ruin our plans but at the same time would make things easier.
He would be exposed, and in the thick of battle anything could happen.
And I know quite a few of tricks on how transform a battle into a chaotic mass of doubt and betrayal."
"We can talk for a literal eternity. At some point we'll need to take action. The Gnolls could be helpful. We can drop Shimsil into the leaders hand with little trouble I think. Then we can rally them to attack in mass. We stealth close and wait to take out the priest. Once the Gnolls start the party we take out the priest before he can come to the aid of the battle. Delyliath, if you want to disguise as a guard to help sew chaos I support that. On our way out or if we need more time we release the undead horde. "
"oh no .. I'm all for taking action. As a matter of fact, if we agree on the plan I'd say we start right now. Unless you guys need time to provide the undead."
Delyliath looks at the diamond sword.
"What do you think? would you like to lead the gnoll tribes?"
"Actually I wasn't planning to kill any gnoll at all. Quite the contrary. I was thinking about opening the gates for them, spread panic and doubt among the guards, killing a couple of guards in plain sight while I look like one of them...
To be honest ... if we stack the deck so much on their side they might even take the city.
For sure to stop them would require nothing less than the city full attention.
If you manage to keep the gnoll chief alive we will find him.
Otherwise, I trust you will try to control whoever picks you up in order to return to us."
"Uh... Would have been a good idea to plan that so their attack occurs at night. We'll have to wait for them to get here."