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Adelie scowls suspiciously at Tragershen.
”You’re murderers. The foe had surrendered. If these items are as powerful as you say, giving them to you seems likely to do more harm than good.”
Tragershen seems taken aback. "The foe was an undead monstrosity and a thrall of Orcus. What option did we have? We couldn't restore it to life. If we let it go, we would have faced it again with many more of its kind. I assure you if amicable relations were possible, I would have been open to it."
"I will only evaluate the items; I won't take action without them without agreement from you. Is that acceptable?"
”It. Had. Surrendered,” Adelie snarls. ”Of course it was going to come back with more of its kind. More of its kind are on the way right now, with priests. And then, if it had attacked us, killing it would have been justified. But it was not attacking, and if mercy is at all possible, then it should be the goal, regardless of the enemy you face. Otherwise, you’re just another murderer.”
Adelie pauses after hearing Tragershen’s last statement. ”Will you promise to give them back immediately after evaluating them?”
Aurora glances to those still with her on the other side of the river, then towards the tunnel connecting the sides, and shrugs. Off to rejoin the others, then.
"What would you have us do with it? Take it back to Zelkor's Ferry as a prisoner until it went mad with starvation? Does your mistress of wolves have a prison for such things? Would she tolerate them in her forest? We've come her to put an end to Orcus and his minions. That means killing or destroying them."
"Let it go in exchange for information, of course. I'm shocked that 'avoid murder whenever possible' is such a controversial stance among people who apparently consider themselves not evil."
Anzath recovers these items from Bedlam's cold, dead hands:
Extracts:
Enlarge Person, Cure Light Wounds, Invisibility, See Invisibility
Alchemical Doodads:
Unstable Accelerant, Bottled Lightning, Burst Jar, Congealer Spray, Flash Powder, Ghast Retch, Vermin Repellent, Marker Dye, Alchemical Grease, Deodorizing Agent (Why didn't Bedlam ever use this?), Alchemical Solvent, Blasting Jelly.
When Aurora comes crawling out of the rat tunnels to join them, Anzath will confer with the holy woman, "Vill he turn?"
If the answer is 'no', she'll start placing rocks from the big pile onto his corpse.
If the answer is 'yes' she'll recommend waiting around for it to happen, so that they can put him down immediately.
"Then come. Let us bring your concerns to the others."
Tragershen turns and walks out with the others. When he reaches them gathered around Bedlam, he simply states "Adelie has concerns we need to discuss."
"It vanted to be free, I set it free," states Anzath assuredly.
"Adelie is concerned that by dispatching the ghoul we committed murder."
Turning back to Adelie, Tragershen continues. "I've studied the arcane arts for decades. The creature you saw here wasn't a sentient being. It was a corpse moved to action by evil magic. Certainly it moved and spoke like it was alive and aware, but that was just the dark magic at work."
"Just before we met you, we encountered marauding bandits that were attacking refugees. When their leader was defeated, several bandits surrendered to us. We took those men back to Zelkor's Ferry where they stood judgment before the authorities there. But this was simply not the same thing."
Adelie eyes Tragershen suspiciously. ”They’re not sentient...? Are you sure? Well, okay then. But you still ought to have asked me before killing it. I was in the middle of talking to it.”
Tragershen tilts his head. "Well, not sentient in the sense that elves, humans and the other living races are. The necromantic energy gives them a cunning, an intelligence. And often they can call on the memories of the corpse they inhabit."
"But you are right. You were engaging it, and Anzath should have stayed her hand. At least until things were resolved."
”That... sounds sentient to me.”
He sighs. ”Well, it doesn’t matter. We were probably going to end up killing the ghoul anyway... It was just an abrupt end to an interesting conversation.”
He hands Tragershen the shiny knife, the bag, and the lamp. ”Here you go.”
Talathel listens. He genuinely seems to be trying to absorb what he has heard. Then he adds his piece:
"It is a strange turn of events when a druid argues that an unliving abomination should be spared for any longer than necessary. As Tragershen says, they are a walking, talking, flesh-eating corpse and not akin to us. But we are an unusual group and I should expect unusual beliefs."
"In any case, thank you Adelie, for your assistance in gathering the others, in retrieving those items, and for your perspective."
"Set them down, please." Tragershen asks.
"Thank you for doing that unpleasant task." He casts prestidigitation on Adelie, cleaning off anything that might still be clinging to his airy form. Then he does the same to the items recovered.
He examines the bag for a minute before opening it. ”A bag of holding, with some gold left in it from a previous owner.”
Next, he looks at the dagger. ”Magnificent, but I’ll need more time than what I think we have here.”
Finally, he goes to the lamp. When he has focused on the lamp, his eyes fly open in shock. "Quickly, gather around!"
When everyone is present, Tragershen says "This lamp here is a powerful item indeed, and we need to decide how to use it. It has a power djinn called an efreeti in it. I've read accounts of these being opened before. Most likely, the efreeti would serve us for several minutes a day, every day, until it perishes on this plane."
"But, there is are two other possibilities. One, the efreeti may have gone mad in its captivity and it will most likely slay us all. Or two, it may be a particularly powerful efreeti and it will exchange its freedom for three wishes."
"We could summon the efreeti and see what happens. Or we could take it to Riddleport and sell it. The price it would fetch would be formidable. More than enough to have Bedlam and Mone restored."
Dis being dead be boring....me be need'n un 'obby....me be wundering if me can haunt dem....Boo!
"As... wonderful," Aurora says the word with some distaste, "as selling it would be: Recall our debt to the dragon. And on the topic of raising Bedlam: He has died before, and we have used powerful favors to restore him, only for him to die again. Do we really wish to use such powerful magics again, if it should come to it?"
Her nose crinkles and she folds her arms over her chest, looking aside.
"Ve kould vish to kill dragon..." offers Anzath.
"The power of a wish isn't such that we could slay the dragon with it. We could try, but we would have to be in quite close proximity, and the dragon would have to be somewhat compromised already."
"And to be clear, there is no guarantee that the efreeti would offer us wishes. In fact, the odds are very much against that possibility." He considers a moment, then says "Frankly, we would be better off selling it and trying to find scrolls that have a wish inscribed on them for we to cast."
"Bedlam has been useful, and I would like to think that should any of us fall here, we would take reasonable steps to query their spirit to see if they would like to be restored."
"As to our debt with the dragon, we could reserve the dagger to pass to it. And we could even buy gems from the proceeds as an offering."
Adelie looks bewildered.
"I knew you were somehow involved with a dragon, but - you owe a dragon money? How'd that happen?"
"Vell... One day I VILL kill dragon. I vould rader not give it magik lamp. Make it MUCH more diffikult," Anzath seems to be muttering mostly to herself, and pulling heavily now from her own flask.
Her face twitches as she answers Adelie, "Ve entered kontrakt vid dragon to save Zelkor'z Ferry."
Adelie squints at Anzath, trying to absorb this revelation. "Uh. Wow. I guess that makes sense. Are all the people in that place in on this? Mone and I will do what we can to help you, once I get her back... I did promise her a chance to see a dragon, and I'm sure she will want to help you. She really liked you and Lolly, you know."
Yes! Yes! She scratched my ears and tried to give me a silly shirt. Help her, Adelie!
Anzath pauses, then pours out a little bit of whisky for Mone. She then returns to the task of covering Bedlam's body with stones.
Anzath pauses, then pours out a little bit of whisky for Mone. She then returns to the task of covering Bedlam's body with stones.
As Anzath starts gathering stones, Tragershen says "This magical sack we found may be able to bear the weight of the dwarf in it."
"Anzath, do you still have a scroll of sending from the church? If so, perhaps we could impose on that wizard to retrieve us."
As Anzath starts gathering stones, Tragershen says "This magical sack we found may be able to bear the weight of the dwarf in it."
"Anzath, do you still have a scroll of sending from the church? If so, perhaps we could impose on that wizard to retrieve us."
Anzath hands Trag the scroll case. "Az you vish," she says with a smirk, then proceeds with the grim task of stuffing Bedlam's dead self into the magic bag.
"The odds of the the lamp resulting in a disastrous outcome are simply too great. Especially with Bedlam and Mone already deceased and our resources depleted. Thus, I believe it best that we withdraw, sell the lamp, and assess then if we have the resources to bring back the fallen as well as the motivation."
Be a bit stuufy in 'ere! Me nose be stuufy; mak'n me be talk'n funny!
Tragershen turns to Aurora. "Would you be willing to contact the Wizard of Sarenrae and ask if he'll teleport to us and take us back to Riddleport for some compensation? Perhaps for first dibs on buying the lamp?" He is offering the scroll of sending that Anzath has been carrying.
"To be clear, I strongly recommend that we keep this lamp far from that dragon. It is too risky to let it have the lamp or to try to pit the lamp against it."
"I agree," Aurora says with a nod. "Letting the dragon have it would be far too risky."
If the rest of the party is in assent, Aurora will take the scroll of sending to contact distant the wizard with the group's SoS.
Anzath hands the half-forgotten scroll case to Aurora, who flips open the ivory receptacle and sees the two tight-wound parchments inside. These Sending spells are bit above her level, so she takes a deep breath and concentrates:
Aurora's first attempt fizzles as the magic gets out of hand--but she wisely manages to back off from the casting before there's any damage to herself or the scroll. She shrugs at the party and decides to try the other one...
...What the Fey Folk is going on?
At last! Aurora forwards Tragershen's message to Sylvester, Official Cult Wizard of the Temple of Sarenrae (Riddleport Branch). It takes ten minutes to process the spell, so everyone shifts from one foot to the other, casting vague glaces back at the staircase, and pretty much fidget nervously.
And then Tragershen explains that Scrying takes an hour to cast.
Their waiting is uninterrupted, blessed be the hour. The party's ears begin ringing with the characteristically subtle bells of Scrying magic. Tragershen waves around the djinni's lamp encouragingly.
A Message crackles in Tragershen's ear: "That is a very interesting find, you did well to report it, Wizard. Will arrive to collect in a moment."
POP goes the teleport spell. The wizard and a Sarenraean paladin stand in the room. The paladin half-draws a blade at the sight of Anzath, but then, when he sees the emblem of Sarenrae on her armor, he mutters, "Oh, it's the stalker!"
Sylvester the Wizard approaches the group and explains quickly, "Good to see you again, researchers. This place is unsafe. I can take two of you out under my own power today and come back for the rest tomorrow. I could bring you all out tomorrow, having time to prepare the proper array of spells. Or, I can use scrolls from the library and extract the rest today, but it would be a costly use of resources. In any case, I must have the magic item now. It must be properly secured."
Anzath continues to shift uneasily, even after the appearance of the Sarenraeites. These people obviously make her uncomfortable.
"Ve have stirred up nest of ghoulz," she informs Sylvester, if all the scattered corpses don't make it obvious. "Dey are likely to return in numberz. Dere iz temple somewhere below. Ve kan likely sekure up nearby, but ve are down one dwarf."
"We can send the device through with you, but we will need to get a fair market price for it so that we can continue our mission here."
"We could cover the cost of scrolls for an expedited extraction from the proceeds. Around a thousand gold per use?"
Adelie descends to near ground level and curiously examines the wizard and paladin.
"As Anzath says, we will probably be facing many ghouls and priests soon if we stay. We could climb out through the tunnel we found, but it would be a tight squeeze for the rest of you and we would need to clear the collapsed portion first. In any case, I'm against leaving a small group behind with an unknown number number of potentially powerful priests on the way."