"Hold up. Why can't we just destroy it? Or get it, uh, disjuncted? I remember some guy I was bodyguardingg talking about how disjuncting things can destroy even powerful magic stuff."
"And this big dragon, he's good, and we're a hundred-percent sure of that? Because once he's got it I don't think we'll be able to take it back if he doesn't want us to."
"It will be difficult to find an arcane caster who can cast Mage's Disjunction, and it certainly won't be cheap. What's worse, there is only a small chance that the spell will actually destroy the artifact. And worse still, the spell poses a huge danger to the caster - it can permanently destroy their spellcasting ability."
"Most casters would not take that risk once, let alone make several attempts to ensure the artifact's destruction."
"There is also the glaring issue of how we will gain an audience with Mengkare in the first place. Hermea is a secluded island society of his design, a sort of social experiment to cultivate humankind into a more perfect form. The island is heavily guarded, and almost seldom is anyone given permission to enter. I highly doubt they would open the gates for us, and sneaking in is guaranteed to incur Mengkare's wrath."
"Tell 'em we're trying to prevent Tar-Bufont from getting brought back."
"I'm no expert of them, but aren't gold dragons supposed to be good? Mother said the golds wear Sarenrae's loving gaze as their scales and hate injustice more than the high abbot. Even if there are exceptions, as there always are for universalities, if the dragon was evil and running a country, wouldn't it be at war with everyone or gathering slaves that run away, instead of having to turn away volunteers?" He shakes he head. "Men can be bought. Organizations can be infiltrated. But a dragon with a nation behind it, even a small one, I not easily stolen from, and trying to buy treasure from a dragon...what can you possibly offer him that he doesn't have or couldn't simply take? Their minds are particularly resistant to intrusion as well, I can tell you. As you say, an audience would be hard, but I think inevitably it is a more secure resting location. And didn't you say he collects artifacts? He may know the location of other pieces we could then find and store with another goodly guardian, like a silver Dragon or maybe we can magically contact an angelic being or such by the time we reach sufficient strength or resources, so the pieces are never together but held by powerful creatures of light who by their very nature would want to keep it from those who would misuse it."
"Yes, I completely agree that it would make an excellent resting location, if we managed to gain an audience. And what about our journey there? None of us can teleport, and travelling by ship leaves us open to attack."
"In any case, Daramid will be expecting a report from us. At the very least, we should inform her of what we've found."
"A scroll of Sending should be sufficient means to at least inform the dragon of intent. Perhaps if we do get an audience, transport would be arranged as well. Sending is a very secure means of communication, provided we take efforts to prevent scrying...which if you're all being scryed on they already know these plans and any others you come up with anyway, so...yeah...But there's no real way to not get a sending outside of an antimagic field , so we could send it directly to the dragon king himself to prevent interceptions."
Jones shrugs. "I suppose there's no harm in that. We'll add that to our expenses for when we reach a proper town."
After an hour, Croon is treated to a sight of a dead man, a woman cooing softly ad stroking his hair, a crazed half-dead...thing sitting in the corner muttering to itself, and two people covered in blood and ooze, sitting in the compartment.
"What in Hell happened down there?"
"Quite a lot."
Jones described what they found - from the Mi-Go and their experiments, to meeting Vanne and agreeing to join forces, to the brief, mind-breaking encounter with Shib-Niggurath.
When explaining what happened to his friends and Mayor Greedle, his voice gets colder, and he lowers his head until the brim of his hat covers his eyes.
"And Darius, as you can see...is especially worn out."
At this point he switches to Draconic, hoping Zin is too distracted to notice.
He also shows Croon the two pieces of Mi-Go technology.
"Mi-Go, you say? And Shub-Niggurath himself made an appearance? Fascinating..." he breathes...then quickly backpedals.
"But terrible, yes. You should get your injured some medical attention, though I fear returning to town is...ill-advised. Not that anyone here could help you in the best of times."
"...You did at least get me a Mi-Go corpse, right?"
"No, it didn't occur to us that you might want to study one."
"Ah. No, we forgot. If we're willing to wait, I'll go grab some and some shambler bodies as well, if Jones is up for it. We'd have to dig through some rubble, though. Probably. Maybe just swim through some flooded halls. We'd need protection from the pressure too."
"Probably best if Zin and Vanne wait here while we do so."
"I'd be happy to help, though I'll need to prepare another Water Breathing extract. I believe my Ant Haul from yesterday is still active, so I could help with moving rubble and bodies."
"If we maneuver the submersible closer to the entrance, we shouldn't have to spend too much time in the intense pressure. We did leave quite a few bodies scattered through the building." He smirks at that.
"That would be splendid! A real alien creature to study...it's more than I'd hoped!"
"So, you said we should avoid returning to town. Does this mean the townsfolk have condemned us entirely?"
Jones looks toward the distant town on the horizon.
"It's because of Greedle's disappearance, isn't it? We're the most obvious suspects, of course. We vanished only a few days after arriving in town, and the mayor disappeared around that same time. To say nothing about how we were treated with suspicion from the moment we came here. Even after we saved several citizens from that giant octopus...and that couple's infant child from the Dagon priests...and that woman from the Colour Out of Space..."
He pounds his fist against the side of the boat.
"None of it mattered. These people will remember us as monsters, even though we've done more to help them than they could possibly understand."
"Hey, maybe if we brought the mi-go corpse to town that would convince them."
"Greedle's gone?" Croon says, looking startled.
"No, I'm fairly certain it has more to do with how you slaughtered the local priesthood in a rain of fire and blood."
Jones is pretty sure he just went over this.
"Greedle is dead. Another victim of the Mi-Go's experiments, of which I will spare you the gruesome details. There was nothing we could do to save him. I'm sorry."
"And yes, I suppose you're right about our 'slaughtering the priesthood'. Perhaps we could have done more to expose their crimes and conspiracy, before we vanished into the sea for a day."
"Can't say I'll shed any tears over the man, corrupt as he was, but I suppose nobody deserves that."
"The future of this town is actually looking pretty bright."
"Indeed. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some corpses to retrieve."
Jones hops back into the submarine.
Jones and Sledge can easily enough retrieve the corpse from the bottom, one of each mi-go and skum. Croon is overjoyed!
"Vanne, can you repair magical equipment? My headband and Darius's cloak were nearly destroyed in that last fight."
Thrushmoor: You've been there.
Thronestep: Thronestep is the capital city and seat of power for Razmiran, as well as the dwelling place for Razmir, the Living God, Master of the 31 Steps . All in Thronestep worship Razmir, most in the hopes that he will lift them up from the squalor to join his faithful on the Steps, taking them from the enormous slums that are the Stones area of the city.
Caliphas: The capital of Ustalav, and its most open and welcoming city to outsiders. Due to being a port, it is very cosmopolitan and visitors from all over the world are common.
Razmir is, perhaps, the closest any mortal can be to a god (that is, a very high level Wizard), but his divinity is a sham. He's built the entire country on a cult of personality and "divinely smites" any naysayers.
Interestingly, his priests can still cast divine magic, proving that strong enough faith, regardless of divinity, can create a divine spark.
Jones describes the nearby settlements, and the super-wizard cult in Thronestep.
"I think Thrushmoor is our safest bet."
"That sounds fair."