The giant takes his swords, and with one last glare at the party, jogs off into the desert. He moves faster than a horse, and he's gone from sight within a couple minutes.
As the group relaxes without a bound demonic giant in their midst, someone notices that the gem-eye which was embedded in the leader's head has fallen out into the sand. The back of the gem has several long golden spikes on it, and there is a hole in the giant's forehead where it was.
Crissor watches the giant go with bated breath. He shakes his head at Nathaniel's comments. "No time like the present." he laughes a bit.
I think, we should first leave this place. If some other foes see us here, we are cornered again.
Nathaniel examines the gemstone while detecting its magical aura. It's an almond-sized star ruby set in a gold clasp, one side of which is festooned with several long spikes. He has no idea what it does, though the item has a strong aura of necromantic magic.
"Well quite frankly I do feel insulted, I would like to think that I alone would be more than sufficient gift for any deity." He smirks and takes out the book he has been collection the maps he makes and removes a page handing it to the half-elf. "Try to get the blood there, not perfectly sure if that will be enough for the spell, but was worth a try at least." He then casts the simple spell and starts examining the gem. "I can't make anymore out of it than you. If nobody else can I suggest we deal with it the same as with the mace, and return to study it later."
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Nathaniel picks up one of the huge scimitars in two hands and almost falls over, tottering back on his heels. Strapping it to his side, he frowns and turns to the gem. "I'm... going to try to pick it up. If it affects me, we'll at least know more about what it does. You should be able to knock me down easily in this form should I lose control. Wish me luck." Bending over, he lifts up the gem and examines it closer, before pressing it to his forehead.
The gem swiftly and painfully embeds itself in Nathaniel's forehead, a trickle of blood dripping down into his eye as the spikes dig through his skull. Other than the splitting headache he now has, he feels no different from normal.
Viorel looks a bit concerned as the gem takes it's place. "You know for someone with longer living heritage you sure do not have patience friend. Might be able to dispel it with time and get it removed that way, pretty sure that getting it out with force will result in a hole in your skull. Don't know if that is necessary untill we know what the thing does but that will also take time."
The mage then looks to the sky taking out his spyglass. "I don't like what that giant said about the drakes. Might need to use the glider to take out their air support before we can deal with them. Speaking of shall we continue as planned towards the keep?"
"Oh that can't be good." Crissor stiffens expecting a similar effect from when Peitry took the mace. Seeing as he hasn't gone into a blind rage or exploded, or some other horrible fate, the gnoll breathes a sigh of relief. "Okay how about not touching anything that belongs to the other side before we know what it does unless we plan on destroying it?"
A good point, Crissor.
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Nathaniel groans to himself as his hand traces the outlines of his eye and mutters "I am never, ever going to live this down, am I."
Sighing, he pulls down his top hat to cover the eye and sits cross-legged on the ground, beginning his ritual.
Emerging from a puff of smoke in his dinosaur form, Nathaniel feels to see if the eye is still present.
Groaning, Liette covers her forehead with her palm. "If'n he starts actin' insane, maybe we can give him the Asmodean mace while we're makin' silly decisions?" Exhaling a tired sigh, Liette looks in the direction the giant raced off in, and then up to Nathaniel.
"I'd much prefer we dispel it and get it out of his head 'fore we go on," Liette murmurs, then looks askance at Viorel before returning her attention to Nathaniel. Lifting one hand, Liette closes her eyes and extends her senses outwards towards the summoner, searching for the presence of evil.
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Liette detects no evil coming from the item or anything else nearby.
"The giants are another target for us to cleanse, but we should not be distracted by them. Let us continue our exploration and return to Kenabres."
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Ready to set off again, Nathaniel suddenly raises a hand warningly and calls out "Hold." Closing his eyes, he stands completely still for over a minute, brow furrowing slightly. Opening his eyes eventually, he continues "Bartimaeus has finished berating me for my foolishness; we can go now. I wish you could understand the language of his home; so many layers of meaning in the simplest insults." Uttering the last few words somewhat drily, he sets off with the rest of the party on their route.
Brushing an errant lock of white hair from her face, Liette notes, "I should invest in findin' a way to detect stupid when we get back t'Kenabres..." In saying that, the corner of the gunslinger's mouth quirks up ever so subtly into a smirk.
It's moments of levity like this that help make what they have endured survivable.
Kenan looks to Nahtaniel
We shouldn't leave you alone awake or at any place until we find out what this jewel does.
After the situation is cleared, Kenan collects his belongings and adjusts his equipment.
I'm ready to go.
Viorel starts to move with the others. "What tongue does the big guy speak then?" He then turns his head towards Liette. "You don't need magic for that. Now cure stupidity? There are limits to magic too." He chukcles.
"Oh certainly. At least we've piled all of our cursed demonic items in one frail elf. It's not like he can transform into a giant sword-weilding lizard or anything. Can you imagine?"
"Once we get back to the keep, if you enter into a fit of depression over the issue, you could always cut off your own head. That should remove the gem fairly easily."
None of those things budge the gem.
Barek spins his giant bastard sword in his hands. "Want to try cold iron?" he asks looking down at his blade with an amused grin. "Of course, the slightest shift and it could take off your head anyhow. You could try something smaller first, of course."
Dusting off her jacket while listening to the conversation, Liette gives a quick look over to Barek, then Nathaniel. "Can't Viorel or Abigail dispel the magic? That should at least reduce it to a mundane object long enough to hope it didn't leave a permanent hole."
She casts a glance over her shoulder, and wonders aloud, "I didn't look, did the guy you got it from have a hole in his head?"
