Ianna listens attentively and reflects before responding, "There are no easy answers. I try my best not to take from this world what cannot be replenished. It is my prayer that I add to the world in my own small way. Though Grastle Hollow was a trying experience for me in many ways, I struggled against Calios not with blade or spell, but with words of encouragement, inspiration, and love. To love the world, to love each other, we must cultivate what is good and restore what has been broken. But even my actions of aid, caused indirect harm to some. So my heart sings with your pain, conflict has an emotional and spiritual price few feel comfortable to confront.
However, I think you may be imbuing more meaning into chronomancy than it warrants. Fire is neither good nor bad. Magic that controls fire can be used for weal or woe. So, likewise, chronomancy. You have cast evil magic. Did you not feel a difference? Nevertheless, I think it speaks well of you that you are not running after power and instead approach it with restraint. Wisdom, and love, should guide you. Not fear."
"Then let us have hope this Shyka can aid us - and the Aestherics mesh well enough with our explanation in the debriefing I'm sure they'll have. I'm not comfortable with more people getting their spoons in this time-pot than need be; it's already cumbersome enough with us as it is."
"Agreed. Given their reckless use of memory magic, can you imagine?"
"And, I hope for less aid and more understanding of how he or she did what she did."
With some disguises, the party (and their escort of Drosil and two Aestheric wizards) make their way into the poor district of the city without any issue, meeting 'Helen' and going through the similar journey into the heart of the Aestherics. The two wizards are quiet but answer any questions or prods at conversation with a friendly demeanor, while Drosil remains silent as a grave.
After getting out of their boat, the party walks into the now-familiar ancient elven building where the Hand's Council meets. Apparently the council has been waiting on them, as they are all present and look to be talking over some issue with each other as the party walks in.
Jasper scoffs at Heff. "It's just an utter waste of resources. Kill the heads and let the body die. Entertaining the idea of war is-" He falls silent as the party walks in, giving one of his twisted grins and slipping back into his seat. "The heroes return!"
Heff and Krokar stand, but Drosil makes a beeline strait for Heff, getting right next to him and causing him to arc a brow and take a step back. "You're an idiot. They're not made for subtlety and manipulation. They're made for lighting the forge and striking the iron while it's hot. Put them-" Drosil breaks into another coughing fit, doubling over and ruining the intimidating effect of his confrontation. The rest of the council looks concerned and Krokar reaches out a reassuring hand but Drosil straitens back up. "Put them under Krokar. They like him more anyways." His voice sounds like a scratched glass panel on the verge of shattering into a thousand pieces as he slumps into his chair, falling silent.
There's a moment of silence from the council, then Krokar awkwardly breaks the silence as he gestures for the party to sit and clears his throat. "Well, I wouldn't put it like that but I agree. But first let's get you debriefed. Please, tell us what happened. Then let's talk about your future here." Drinks and food are brought in for what the council clearly anticipates to be a long conversation.
Toramin hands Heff the two rings of mind shielding that he and his sister borrowed from him. To those sensitive to such things Ianna's aura once again unfurls.
The paladin arcs a brow at Drosil's pique. I do not particularly care for any of these people -- besides for maybe Alia; but I only despise Heff.
But he has no real interest in mollifying Drosil, so he starts in narrating what transpired in a very organized fashion: starting with Panrick, going though the avenues of investigation and many false starts they pursued, and then on to the events at the Soul Forge. There is no mention of time loops or any thing that touched upon. They escaped after a burst of intense primal magic and do not know the ultimate fates of Stone-River, Calios, Maliose, or the Forge.
Then in an effort to divert questions away from matters uncomfortably close temporal magic, he registers his dismay and refusal to comply with Drosil's command not to tell the Voices in the Stone of "clear dwarven matters" in violation of their accord. He then restates his compromise position of informing Yana and letting a high priestess of the Watchful Mother, and Voice in the Stone, of the Forge and leaving it to her wisdom whether on not to inform the rest of the Voices in Stone.
As Dalton knew the dwarves would likely be able to counterpoint the attention of the group nicely between themselves, he sought to get his earnest report out and over with:
"Your mission has been accomplished. The necessary target has been nullified. There was some collateral damage that was unavoidable. This organization remains as much as secret as it was before, and the city is aware their threat - at least the one we were sent to deal with - is now impotent. Grastle Hollow can rest easier."
As Dalton knew they would come back around to them, he focused his attention on those who wouldn't be as knowledgeable (or so he thought) about his specialty. "As you probably know, I am a transmuter. However, I have been investigating a school-agnostic niche of the arcane named primal magic. Perhaps you've heard of it. Essentially, it's the essence of magic in its purest, unrefined form. It is unwieldy and unpredictable. The former makes it risky and cumbersome to use, but the latter makes it a potentially useful tool. My research aims to decrease the risks and increase the use with study. However, a few situations my friends here and I have been involved with have gotten very dicey. Enough for me to gamble on introducing the entropic element of primal magic. I was forced to resort to it once in Akropash, and it may have seen us through that harrowing time. A similar incident occurred in Grastle Hollow. It seems Nethys was with us." Desna too.
"I raise this note as I've only utilized this sort of magic a few times in my life. I believe it is dangerous, at least for myself. Perhaps Alia the Wise is of a potency where she could direct it with ease, but I am not of that level of expertise yet." Dalton felt no shame in admitting this; she was surely quite a bit older than he, and he had not trained for this path all his life. "But to state we're not made for covert operations, Drosil? I absolutely agree!.. yet the connotation with your claim is where I diverge. Only Miss Featherfeet excels in those areas, it is true, yet being inserted into operations with a deficit of intelligence regarding the various situations in play is a hindrance to anybody, expert or novice."
Dalton stepped back, signaling to the others he had spoken their piece - and set Toramin up for what he assumed would be a series of firmly-worded complaints.
Toramin nods fiercely in agreement with Dalton's sentiments. We are the worst spies, and the Aestheric leadership is so tight lipped it will get us killed.
Ianna listens to the two buttressing reports with calm dignity. Her grandmother had trained her that speaking last is often the wiser course.
Rilka witnesses the confrontation between Drosil and Heff. She sat as instructed, looking a little sad since she liked working with Drosil. He had been her sponsor after all. Following the reports given by Toramin and Dalton, Rilka glances at her other companions. Ianna looks to be composing a report in her head; not quite ready to speak. What can I add to what they’ve said? she thinks.
Heff briefly jumps in. "After more talk we agreed that we haven't been as forthwright with information as we should have been. A combination of my paranoia and Drosil and Jasper's caution at letting in such lightly-vetted members." He goes back into silence, letting the rest of the party speak their piece.
Alia moves, like a piece of granite coming to life. "We have discussed the matter and believe we have reached a suitable compromise. We will tell the king of the Forge. If he deems it necessary than he can tell the rest of the Voices."
She turns to Dalton. "I have some knowledge of primal, or wild magic. It embodies the nature of unpredictability. A very risky endeavor, one less traveled but full of riches if one treads carefully. Tiasar knows more of that magic than I."
"A combination of my paranoia and Drosil and Jasper's caution at letting in such lightly-vetted members."
"The same Drosil so upset with our doings preferred to keep us underinformed, as you put it?" Dalton had a difficult time seeing what bond held this handful of people together. "It would seem our performance is not the only which might need review."
He turned to Alia, bowing slightly.
"Though I did own a jewelry shop - and I suppose I still do - it was not riches I sought from that nook of magic, but rather the confirmation of conjecture. A curiosity of an elaborate sort, one could say. I've used it for defense in each rare case where it's been invoked, but as you mention, Wise Alia, it is as more fortune than forte that made the protection occur. Tiasar is a practitioner himself?"
"Calios chose his target well", Bjorkus says chiming in. "Grastle Hollow was hamstrung as much by its own bureaucracy as it was Calios's terror. Without our involvement I don't think they would've ever rooted him out."
"We left him buried in magma under Grastle Hollow when Maliose attacked. There's a guardian down there that offered to watch him but I don't know if he any more able to fight off Maliose than we were."
"Though whether that guardian, Maliose, or Calios escaped the surge we do not know."
Drosil looks up sharply as Dalton talks about what he said. Jasper chuckles. "I don't think you realize that Drosil was complimenting your abilities, and criticizing Heff's misuse of them."
"I don't know how often he invokes it, but I know enough to know he has a much more thorough knowledge of it than myself."
Krokar gives a concerned look. "So we can only guess at Calios's status. And this Malose character...what do we know of him?"
"I think that Dalton's anger stems not from Drosil but from the fact that our approach towards Calios was inhibited by the fact that this council had reasonable suspicions about what the blackguard was actually doing in Grastle Hollow. It saddens me that mistrusts persists between you, after all that was said and discussed last time. If actions do not change, underlying resentments can only continue to curdle."
Ianna offers in mediation.
"Lich. Half-fiend. Potential relation to Orcus. His evil leaves a strong stain. He appears to be one of the puppet masters behind the Xilres venture and may be a link between Calios and whatever that necromancer is called."
Toramin remains bad at remembering the names of the wicked.
Dalton gave the group time to respond to Ianna's foray into the conversation.
'You are correct, Jasper, at my misunderstanding. There is a reason I chose the phrase "review" though; I don't often jump to conclusions, as I would imagine you wouldn't when carefully considering an account of what happened. For all the care and caution we attempted to exercise - especially, as Drosil noted - outside most of our areas of expertise, defending from an unknown is essentially undoable. That is not jumping to a conclusion, rather approaching it head-on, step-by-step, as our first-hand experiences here have indicated."
"Regarding Calios? I suppose a lava chamber wasn't a certain enough prison. I attempted to petrify him to no avail. I could not ascertain whether my magic wasn't potent enough or whether he was naturally secure from the effects of the hardening , but I'd assume the latter. More permanent prisons are not creatable by me. I don't have a first room, let alone a fourth," noted the mage, looking to Alia.
"We have long ago worked out our own differences, don't take this squabbling over idealogy and methods as a sign of us falling apart. If you're talking about between us and you...well we're trying to do better. I don't believe we left out any information for this mission."
"I don't believe we left out any information for this mission."
A fistful of platinum for a diviner...
"We have to assume Calios is out. Anything less would be folly. Malose seems to be even more troubling. Fiends are bad, liches are worse, and I can't imagine a combination. I've never heard of this person though, and if he has such terrible power it's very surprising he could go under the radar."
"Except for the Sky Forge as a likely reason that Calios was in Grastle Hollow stealing all the adamantine."
Ianna might prefer to talk about feelings and around the point; Toramin, on the other hand, is far more direct.
"That much adamantine would fetch a hefty price, but somehow I don't think funding was lacking. What would he need that amount for? I don't doubt the stealing was happening; I wonder as to the motive."
"I examined Calios. I do not know whether he can be petrified, but his essence could not be harmed in the manner you attempted."
Ianna quietly interjects.
"He was using the Sky Forge to build something."
"Free. Running amok. Whatever. Sky Forge."
"Adamantium is expensive not only for its rarity but also it's potent properties. Perhaps Calios seeks to armor himself in it, or perhaps this Malose is building some kind of weapon."
Toramin gives Krokar an odd look. "This is not the first time we have spoken to this body about Malose. On a different matter, what happen to the team sent to investigate the resting place of the blue dragon who made Bjorkus' sword?"
Krokar gives a confused look, Drosil and Jasper look surprised, and Heff looks irritated. "Wait, you've spoken to us about Malose before? When?"
"We are currently working on magic to help with the extreme conditions of the deep ocean. It is leading us far further down than we expected."
"Literally the last time we were in this room, and earlier when Gabriel told you of the mage who banished him to the desert. Perhaps, someone has been modifying your memories. Perhaps there is a god of poetic justice."
Heff frowns. Toramins joke doesn't seem a joke to him. "Are you sure? Gods be damned."
Jasper growls. "You better be f+%&ing with us Gearsmith."
Krokar groans. "I hate magic."
Toramin gives a slow blink. "My sister is present; it's polite to use the dwarven name and not the Andrilian rendering."
Looks like I will have the joy of repeating this conversation every time we see them.
He does not particularly care if they were rude to him, but his sister is an important scion of one of the central families. They would not speak so to the Queen of Andril or to her immediate family.
"Peace, brother. I am not offended; you make too much of me."
Ianna murmurs as she lies a gentle hand on her brother's arm.
"I would say you deserve this but you wouldn't know what I'm talkin' about", Bjorkus laughs.
"Alia, do you have some kinda spell that can detect when someone's memories have been tampered with? It sounds like Malose got to all of you somehow between our last meeting and now. You could all be compromised."
"If it happened, it might not have even been Malose. If we are raising the specter of boogey-men, why not Rygat? He would be intimately familiar with your methods."
But my money would be on, Nareth. He is as high handed as the rest of you and has motive in keeping you under-informed in this matter.
"Yes, but I will have to wait for tomorrow to cast it. Rygat left us long before we started using memory magic, and regardless he is not a caster."
"I pray that none of you were violated in that manner. The loss of autonomy would be quite terrible. Do you have any questions for us?"
"I wonder if you can make one comment without insulting us." Jasper chuckles. "Not that I care, I'm honestly curious if it's even possible."
Krokar shakes his head at Jasper. "Come now, insults are beneath us." He leans forward, resting his muscled forearms on the table. "I think that's everything we have for now. You're free to ask us anything else you deem necessary. Once you're satisfied, you have more than deserved a good rest." He grins. "And then we start training for the next mission."