"Very well," the drow says, "You've made a... case, of some sort. Do what you must. We'll be back in 24 hours, and we'll take the gem off your hands then."
The Erinyes give him dirty looks as they leave.
***
The Crimson Stranger steps out of the shadows of an archway. "Excellent work," she says, smiling. "And excellent time. I hear the city's still reeling, though."
"As promised, here is your reward."
The Crimson Stranger asks for the priest's soul, and as she touches the gem, it vanishes. "I hope your reward will be of aid to in future endeavors," she says. "I have business to attend to now, but I will return in several days, with a new, more valuable task, and I can answer any questions you may have then."
And, before she vanishes, "I'll just need to do something about that nosy elf—but I don't think his companions are too happy with him right now."
That night (or what passes for night in the Darklands), you hear a commotion from the outskirts of the ruins.
By the time you reach the site of the commotion, the dark elf you met earlier lies dead on the ground. His attackers have vanished, and left his possessions intact.
Anaxian pads over, calmly strips the body if valuables and returns to the group.
Saves us the trouble of doing it ourselves.
"Goodness. I did warn him his companions weren't fully trustworthy." The apparent concern in the ghost's words are contradicted by the absolute flatness of his tone; he might have been reading them from a ship's manifest.
"My sisters always were impatient. Guess I am too, a bit, but not that much."
Illia certainly looks a little dejected after the non-fight.
I wanted to see how I measured up to them now..
"That's what makes you more powerful than them. Let others do the mundane tasks you need, and save your own resources for what they can't do."
Delyliath looks at the Drow corpse with a certain satisfaction.
"well.. they say the pen is mightier than the sword..."
says giggling.
Then she turns to Anaxian.
"Tell me... the little trick you played with the high priest soul...
Is that expensive? can be replicated easily? I'd love to have a little drow gem. I think it would be a great match with my eyes and complexion."
Delyliath mimes the act of putting a necklace on. then she laughs.
"Who am I kidding. I would probably swallow and consume that soul within the month. Still... it is possible?"
"Always useful to have a candy necklace around, in case of a sudden craving" says the ghost, wryly.
Delyliath looks at the Drow corpse with a certain satisfaction.
"well.. they say the pen is mightier than the sword..."
says giggling.
Then she turns to Anaxian.
"Tell me... the little trick you played with the high priest soul...
Is that expensive? can be replicated easily? I'd love to have a little drow gem. I think it would be a great match with my eyes and complexion."
Delyliath mimes the act of putting a necklace on. then she laughs.
"Who am I kidding. I would probably swallow and consume that soul within the month. Still... it is possible?"
"It's a spell. If you can cast then it can be learned. "
The Crimson Stranger hands Anaxis a small box, and whispers something to him.
“There is a ritual you seek, to complete your transformation. The proper ritual requires five spells, and your master knew but the first when he died. This box contains the text of the second spell, and the gems and scrolls you will need to complete it.”
She pauses, and for second her face seems to show a brief glimmer of concern.
”Be careful, if you choose to walk down that path. It is harder for your kind, and I have seen good friends lose themselves to the addictive madness of switching bodies.”
***
From a pocket in her robes, the Crimson Stranger draws a strange creature. It appears to be a mechanical scarab, twice the size of her hand, but its claws end it tiny tools that glow with arcane tracery.
The concept of the creature is one that seems familiar, however. It is some sort of clockwork crafter’s automaton. It scuttles over to Shimsil, and clacks its claws attentively.
This creature functions similarly to a clockwork familiar, but with the feats Cooperative Crafting and Craft Magic Arms & Armor. As it is completely mechanical, it can work for 24 hours a day, anyone it aids in crafting can craft at 4x the normal rate and gains a +2 bonus to associated skill checks.
It also possesses the ability to break down magic items into their components. This should let the party “sell” unwanted items to “buy” crafting materials for similar items without having to go search around for them in a city somewhere.
It comes pre-charged with the necessary materials to perform approximately 5,000 gp in weapon upgrades.
***
The Stranger has a shield for Illia-. It is a strange, aerodynamic shape. ”I believe this should suit your fighting style well."
This +2 Mithral light shield can be drawn or stowed as a swift action, or as a free action with the quick draw feat.
***
The Crimson Stranger turns to Malefeasance’s imp Kodo, and kneels down, as if to whisper something in his ear.
As she places her hand on his shoulder, he goes rigid, eyes wide with terror.
The imp appears to be affected by a paralyzing touch attack, as the lich’s ability.
And then she steps back, and speaks to Kodo. ”Tell your master,” she says softly, ”My agents have ended the threat, and this is the first part of the reward I am claiming.”
Kodo twitches, nods, and vanishes. (He’ll be back in a day or so)
And finally, she turns to Malefeasant, and places her hand on the back of his armor, which begins to glow in a strange, fiery rune.
The rune can be covered, or glamered away, but it is otherwise always visible, and it gives off a faint red light.
Mal’s armor gains the Expeditious quality. (+10 to speed, 3x/day, as a swift action)
Malefeasance also feels a strange disconnect from his source of power, and may now prepare and cast spells regardless of his alignment or alignment-related actions.
The rune is in an ancient language you do not understand, but it appears similar to several ancient runes for “scholar."
***
To Iranaset, the Crimson Stranger hands a ring, inset with a large pearl. ”This may require a bit of cooperation with others,” she says, ”But it should also let you kill things quite a bit more effectively.”
This ring can store one level 2 spell or two level one spells, which can be prepared by any spellcaster and then cast by the wearer.
If a character stores spells in the ring during spell preparation, those spells do not consume a spell preparation slot.
This effect may be used as part of a Magus’s Spellstrike or Spell Combat ability.
***
Drisquar, TSG, and Delyliath each get a bag of diamonds worth 5,000 gp. More creative rewards may come later.
"Of course." Anaxian said with his dry mind-voice, plucking a rune carved scale from his chest and a small gem from… somewhere. A moment later there was a purple glow from the gem. It was all rather anticlimactic. "It is only a spell, but it is a rare one. I am aware that the favor of demons is not a trifling thing. Keep this in mind. I have learned the value of allies and favors in my time."
Anaxian tossed it to the succubus.
"One drow soul, ready for consumption or decoration."
At the Stranger's whisper, Anaxian was quite still. He looked up at her and nodded slowly, but his mental reply was for her ears alone. Whatever he said was unrecorded, but from that moment on he would always regard the Stranger as a worthy ally.
Loyalty was rare among dragons, but time would show that Anaxian was a very rare dragon.
Anaxian didn't respond or react in any way to the magic sword's demands.
"Hmm.." Illia goes through some trouble to take off her current shield, letting it clatter to the ground. She picks up the new one and plays with it a bit. Stowing and unstowing it, giving it a few practice twirls. Finally, she stops is it and goes for a quick hug on the Crimson Stranger.
"OOOH THIS IS PERFECT! With a shield like this I can finally wield a bow again!"
"Interesting little tschotchke, but I'm not sure it's autonomous enough simply to `fix you up.' It's a construct, not a minion." The ghost pauses for a second. "On the other hand, what modifications do you need? We might be able to strike a bargain here."
Delyliath looks at the purple glint in that gem as if it was the most beautiful thing ever.
"Now I should find someone who can work this and some of those diamonds in a fine necklace."
Delyliath approaches the living sword and the construct with curiosity.
"so.. any Idea on how this little thing works?"
Says the succubus poking the metal scarab with her finger.
"It would not be as useful but I would gladly offer you a pampering whetstone and mineral oil massage."
"What you need is Adamantine. It is of comparable hardness to diamond." Anaxian says padding up towards the little machine.
In his hands was a small leather satchel. Who knows where he kept it, but it was there now. From it he retrieved ten black arrowheads and piled them before the machine.
Unable to vocalize himself, he realized with frustration that he had no way at all to issue commands to the mindless construct.
Tell it to use these materials to build something suitable for sharpening a diamond sword. If I understand it's function, it should work autonomously once given a task.
Mal watches curiously.
That should work fine. The clockwork creature is designed to either obey simple verbal commands or just magically know, by observing a crafter at work, how to assist in that particular craft project.
The Crimson Stranger has returned to the ruins, once again. This time, she wears what appears to be a small crown forged from cold iron.
”Let’s get down to business,” she says. ”The matter with the High Priest was a small but urgent task that needed to be dealt with, and it was good to see that you had no trouble with it. But it’s not the job I had in mind when I gathered you all.”
”That task,” she continues, ”Is one that you should feel free to spend months on, and you may need to. You may wish to spend time crafting or buying things before you depart, and that is fine.”
"To put it simply, there are several objects and people I need gathered. One or two may reside on the surface world, but I suspect that the rest have been scattered somewhere within the depths of the Darklands.”
And, finally, the task at hand. “ The first, I have located. It is a skull, possibly decorated with metal or gemstones. You will, without a doubt, know it when you see it.”
"The skull has found its way into the hands of a collector of such things, by the name of Lady Mencara, the petty ruler of a petty drow city called Lavosha. It's not one of the major drow settlements that you'll find on a basic map. Her realm is little more than a single well-defended fortress town with a few outlying villages and farms full of serfs and thralls. With the right cover story, you could probably walk right into the town unmolested, maybe even do a bit of shopping or gambling."
“Eventually, you’ll want to find your way to the palace. Lady Mencara is fond of hedge mazes, menageries, and dragons, but her greatest passion is the dungeons beneath her palace. These are, I suspect, warded against teleportation and the like. Mencara's dungeon is a prison, torture chamber, menagerie, underground garden, and on its lowest levels a vault for her impressive collection of magical relics.”
“Feel free to loot the place blind, and inflict as much harm on the princess as you like. But there will probably be guards and wards stationed throughout his palace and dungeon, and it might be best to not let on to them that you’re planning on robbing him, unless you have a way to keep the guards from following you—we are talking about an actual drow army here, albeit a small one.”
“I can teach you a simple cantrip that will tell you the general direction to the skull when it’s nearby. When you find it, IT IS IMPERATIVE that you do not touch it. Do not allow the skull to come into direct contact with any magic items or the skin of any creature, living or undead.”
“Should an unforeseen circumstance cause the skull to become… agitated in some way, just shout the phrase (indecipherable) at it loudly until it stops, and you should survive.”
The "safe-word" phrase the Crimson Stranger has given you contains a word that appears to mean "patience" and a phrase that sounds like a name, "Queen Adrexa." If it is a name, it is not one that you are likely to have heard.
“If you have any questions, feel free to ask them; and feel free to make any preparations you need to before you depart.”
She also hands you a map of the Darklands between here and the city, which I will try to draw soon.
"When it's done i'd like it to improve my armor."
"A Drow city sounds interesting. "
"I've always heard they were good, friendly folk, those drow. I'm in for that one."
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Whoever told you that was attempting to get you killed.
"Heh.." Illia gave a slight laugh that seemed devoid of humor as she listened to the description of the dungeon. Prison, torture chamber, vaults, menagerie... "Sounds just like home." Illia did not seem excited about this.
"Well.. admittedly, compared to at least half the people we have on our jolly group, drows sound quite good and friendly.
Anyway, some of us would be viewed as quite valuable pets.
Or loot. Or Sacrifices.
And you Iranaset, should fear them the most.
You look too much elven to them.
And I'm sure you think that being tortured by the drows would be fun, but it doesn't matter how damaged you are. They are going to find something that you loath and fear eventually, and they are going to use it against you.
If they don't warp your flesh into something horrible first.."
Dris muses aloud "Perhaps a scouting foray is in order. Seems like this might be a bit tougher nut to crack than taking out that high priest. Maybe myself, Delyl and the mighty Anaxian can venture forth via my other form and see what we can learn. Delyl can scour the populace, I can circle the city in wind form, and Anaxian can prowl the streets"
He then chuckles at Shim's plan "Of course, if we have my esteemed companion here overtake the mind of some official, that could be rather beneficial as well. I can carry him with me too."
A sound plan. I am not sure if Drow are prone to keeping Cats as pets. I may need to make myself a different disguise. Once we are there I should be able to find something appropriate.
"Of course, if we have my esteemed companion here overtake the mind of some official, that could be rather beneficial as well. "
Delyliath smiles delighted by Drisquar admiration for her skill at subtle manipulation.
"I can carry him with me too."
Until she realizes she wasn't talking about her at all.
The succubus does what she can to mask her disappointment... which is obviously not enough."Of course, the sword... You work with a living incarnation of forbidden desires that could make the drow BEG for the chance to be my slaves... but why don't we rely on the sword and send the succubus to scour the populace?" says the succubus clearly insulted by the proposition.
"I really hope for you that Shimsil has other hidden talents, because you will need to rely on him for way more than overtaking drow officials"
Engaged she walk away from Drisquar and approaches Anaxian.
She reaches his level and scratches his chin as you could do with a cat saying.
"For the drow? I think you will have no need to disguise, you are actually quite nice for something no longer alive. I think we can pretty much enter the front gate as a succubus and a dracolich. They worship demons, and power, so I bet we would get more admiration there than we get here. Would you like to be my companion as we approach the city?"
"Um... I'm gonna go... Wash my hair..." Illia decided to stay as far way from Delyliath on the warpath as possible. And she did need to wash her hair.
Anaxian allowed the affectionate scratching and even appreciated the gesture, but no longer had nerve endings with which to enjoy it.
I will, though I will be maintaining my disguise as a still-living member of my kind. I find there is great value in being frequently underestimated.
Dris sighs quietly when Delyl is hurt by his words. He walks to her and attempts to smooth things over "Lovely, deadly Delyliath, you misunderstand. Shimsil is great at dominating a single official, yes, but you my dear, are far better suited to swaying the minds and hearts of the masses. You could easily turn at least half the city with your wily charms and honeyed words."
Anaxian had no patience for social posturing or emotional nuance.
At this point we all understand each others essential capacities. Drisquar's suggestions were apt and Delyliath knows it. This altercation is not what it seems. She is a demon. Without a common and immediate enemy to focus on, causing or resorting to internal strife is her nature. To her it is the fastest way to determine relative strengths and establish the social order she is used to. Next she will begin making alliances and attempting to subtly undermine whoever she considers to be the most threatening. We have just witnessed both, first with her somewhat uncharacteristic affections toward myself and then with her successful baiting of Drisquar. These sorts of things will continue. She is what she is. To expect otherwise is folly. Instead, we should seek to understand her nature and use it to our advantage. Were we to do anything else she would consider it a sign of weakness.
Anaxian's mental words carried no hint of judgement or condemnation. He spoke as though he were simply stating facts.
Delyliath, Drisquar is correct in his assessment that you would be better suited to larger scale social warfare. It is true that you and Shimsil have overlapping areas of expertise when it comes to controlling individual targets. Shimsil does not have the ability to sway groups the way you do. Therefor it is logical to focus his abilities in the arena where they can be used and focus yours where he has no capacity.
For now we need a base of operations near our area of engagement. Once we find that, we will turn you lose to do what you do best. For now, please attempt to curtail your inclinations to sew disorder among us. It may entertain you in the moment, but it will not serve you in the long run.
I propose you take me with you and scout the city, entering as you suggested. Once inside, we can take over a local building similar to how we did in the last city. Once established we can contact the others and move them in.
"oh lovely and deadly Delyliath repeats the succubus mocking the Azata. "If you want to rely on flattery you have to do better than this" the succubus shakes her head.
"Don't you worry, I'll give you your chance to be forgiven...
and possibly a demonstration on how good I am at dominating an individual..."
Delyliath smiles at Drisquar. A smile beguilling and slightly menacing at the same time.
so... do we move towards Lavosha?
she turns to Anaxian
I'm able to teleport. how are you going to reach the city?
Delyliath squints looking at Anaxian.
"I was starting to like you. Are you trying to ruin it?"
the succubus giggles clearily way more amused than mad.
"you are really overanalizing this. I'm not going to create internal strife, and I really don't feel threatened by anyone here.
If you knew what a succubus like me values the most you would know that.
Back in the abyss I was the threatening one to my fellow succubi.
I'm used to mortals fighting among themselves for the privilege to die in my embrace.
I just wanted to make Drisquar work a little bit for my attentions, least he start to take them for granted.
back in the abyss I made Nocticula's court dancers feel ugly and graceless in comparison.
Am I not beautiful enough to deserve a little bit of begging and admiration from time to time?"
My concept of beauty is not what it once was. You will need to seek a more qualified judge. I am sure you will have no end of volunteers.
As for reaching the city, I was under the impression you were able to take a small amount of weight with you during teleportation. Am I mistaken?
"This bickering buys us nothing. I have seen Houses fall when the commanders all insist on leading the vanguard."
"Drisquar, do not fall into her trap. She is literally an embodiment of unrequited sapients' desires, more beautiful and more dangerous than anything you are likely to meet in this world or the next. She is the living embodiment of the burning of `the topless towers of Ilium.'" -- -- "and will sow untold chaos among our opponents. Or among ourselves, or among the parts of your own broken soul, if you allow her."
"A drow fortress is always a blade balanced on its point, and only the hand of the patron demon lord keeps it upright. If his attention wanes, it falls, usually fratricidally. Our options are many if we keep our wits about us."
"My lady," -- the ghost turns to the Crimson Stranger -- "is Lavosha itself of value to you? Would you prefer the city intact, the blade still standing on its point, or left in flames at our backs? There is a tactical value to a base of operations, to a network of merchants, and a source of supply. But I have seen this group at work now,... and they revel in collateral damage."
"I would ask as well,... who is the patron lord of this fortress? "