The sun lamp is going down and the two moons of Shkhari are coming up.
After a long wait, Diana finally closes up shop. As she turns a sign that says, ‘open’ to ‘closed’, you notice that she is wearing what might be her best clothes: a blue sari with big, hooped jewelry. She sees you walking towards her tent and beckons you in with her index finger. Inside of the tent, there are candles set up, disturbingly with skulls as holders, on her scrying table. A transparent, clear gem sits in the middle. ”Well, we’d better get started learning about this Gi-Back fellow. Oh, and say whatever you want to eat. The gem will make it.”
Back at the Tainted Toe, the other members of the party sit at the bar. In the back of your minds, you remember that there as an elf with you at your first meeting with Gi-Backa, and wonder where he went. As you sit at the bar, the barkeep brings you your orders. A bowl of assorted tree nuts sits lonely on the table. Other drunkards around you start falling down.
The bartender looks at you and says, ”Well, it’s closing time, people. One last call for alcohol, so finish your whiskey or beer”
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Fillion follows Diana into her tent and presents her the flowers he'd gotten her.
"I had hoped you'd appreciate their beauty," he begins, "though they pale in comparison with your own beauty."
She instructs him that the gem on the table will summon whatever food he desires.
Interesting. Is this evidence that she is rather a powerful caster, or simply that she has nifty toys? Still, it guarantees no turnips, and steak for dinner is nothing to sneeze at.
Diana is very focused on getting straight to talking about Gi-Back.
While one can't hope but admire her focus and determination, the fact remains that she is almost as much a mystery as the giant.
"I appreciate you upholding your end of our bargain by talking about the giant, though I hope we'll also have time to get to no one another better," and with that, he flashes her his most charming smile. "And you will be eating too, won't you? I'd hate to be the only one enjoying this lovely meal."
"Thanks you for the flowers. You are so sweet." She takes the flowers with pleasure and puts them among books, but not before taking one and putting it in her hair.
"And why yes," she answers. "I will be eating."
"Pork loin with potatoes," she says to the gem, and it pops up on the table. She sits down and digs in.
"Please, join in."
As the rest of the party exits the bar Gonzo appears just outside the door, soot turning his already dark feathers pitch black. Silently, he falls in with the rest of the party
Cilla waits at the entrance with her horse Zak.
Wasn't there an elf with us too? Was he delivering flowers?
Diana puts down her fork. She offers one hand to you, then another.
As you take both hands she says the following incantation:
Spell to get through desert:
Desert star, be my guide
Out of town into a new day's light
Desert rain, wash away
Sins and sorrow, make me feel okay.
She starts to shake, as if she were having a seizure. Her eyes roll back into her head.
You think that you even see the image of a skeleton with skin drooping off of it instead of her normal, "human" body.
In a deep voice, almost coming from the earth, she says,
"The giant you are looking for is Gi-backa, founder of the Arcane Inquisition, an organization that shuns the true, natural use of magic! He has 11 cohorts, the Inquisition made of 6 different races, each with a male and female representative. KILL THEM! KILL THEM! KIL ..."
She returns to the way she was before, gasping deeply.
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"Diana, darling, are you alright?" Fillion asks in an appropriately concerned yet calm voice.
Don't want to freak out whatever was just here in case it's lingering at all.
"Is the spirit still with you? It mentioned an arcane inquisition? Do you know of this? Are you in some sort of conflict or trouble with them? Is that too many questions?"
Probably shouldn't have thrown the questions out so quickly. Stupid word vomit. How does concern work? Oh yes...
"Take your time, catch your breath," he said, moving closer so he could put his arm around her. "Let's make sure you're okay before we look for answers."
And Fillion sat there holding her until the shaking and gasping ended.
Diana says, "Thanks you, Fillion. It was just ... a little fit. I will relay to you what the 'spirits' said.
This mysterious giant fellow comes from a dark background, and he has associates with him; eleven. The organization he works for, as you heard in my fit, is the Arcane Inquisition, and is made of 2 members of each of the major peoples of the discs, meaning there is a giantess ad male and female representatives from the minotaurs, alabasts, fengari, humans, and dwarves.
But let's get down to the real business and eat."
When you finish eating and leave her tent, she gives you a gift: a kiss half way between your ear and lips.
She waves to you as you make your way to the others and the gate.
When everyone reaches the gate, Gi-Backa awaits your arrival, leaning against a pillar near the portcullis.
"Are all of you ready to make the journey to the headquarters of my organization?"
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Interesting. Perhaps delightfully twisted and deep. Some sort of organization deemed evil and kill-worthy by the "spirits" yet claiming to control and combat rogue misusers of magic.
Can't help but wonder how the inquisition views Diana...and whether they're right.
If they're against all magic-users, that means at least a portion of our group would be targets.
No idea who I can or can't trust in this hodgepodge band. Probably best to play it close to the chest for now.
Then, he says companionably to Oracion, "Are you going to be alright walking through the desert with your eye sight and all? Perhaps the mister master fellow would be a pal and rent you a pony to ride?" and then flashed a smile at the giant authority figure.
Gi-Backa smiles back.
"Horses? Oh nonononono ... " he laughs.
"Where we're going we don't need horses."
Gi-Backa presses a small hand-held device with a button in the center. Unlike anything you've ever seen before, it is adorned with gears and fancy curly-q designs.
With every jocose laugh, you start to dematerialize a little more.
Swirling voices. Flashing lights. The sensation of falling into a pit.
These are all the sensations you feel.
As your molecules glue back together, you look around and notice that you are standing on the edge of a cliff.
"Here we are at HQ. All you have to do to go inside is jump." Gi-Backa urges you on. As you look down, a yawning cavern is all you see.
"Go on."
Cilla waits to see what happens to Ash.
As Ash acrobatically twirls through the air, a light spirals around her.
A magical swirl opens near the bottom and you hear a light, emotionless female voice say, Lifeform detected.
As Ash plunges headlong into the center, and she is gone.
"Next," says Gi-Backa, as if he is used to that.
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"Well, that's certainly...interesting," the elf said, having just watched the oracle disappear.
"Hey blind girl, did you see what happened?" he asked. "The knife girl jumped off the cliff and poofed." Then he added after a thoughtful moment, "Seems to be some sort of short range teleportation construct much like the one the mister master fellow used to bring us here. Guess I'll try it out next."
And he stepped forward with a thought of, I should have bought some rope.
Cackling madly, Gonzo stared into the pit. "Now this is interesting!"
Turning to his blind companion, and the morose elf he asked, "Ready to jump?", still grinning with a crazy glint to his eye.
Oh well, let's join the crazy train.
Cilla mounts Zak and lines up with Gonzo and Oracion.
Right before he jumped, Gonzo, rather serenely, said, "And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell, ten fathoms deep..on the road to hell!" Then, he leapt off.
Gonzo is particularly graceful when he free-falls into the portal. After everyone jumps, Gi-Backa looks around, and jumps in after you.
You look around you at a cozy room. A fireplace in a corner crackles happily and 11 figures sit at a table playing cards. A closer look reveals that there is a large, female giant, almost as intimidating as Gi-Backa, a male and female minotaur, a male and female fengari, a male and female human like yourself, a short and stubby dwarf and a slightly taller, slimmer female dwarf, and two lithe alabasts. All of them sport masks like Gi-Backa.
They turn and look at you.
"Ah, I see Gi-Backa has come back from his recruitment mission." the minotaur states.
"Hasn't brought a fine one in years!" laughs the human, as his female counterpart slaps his arm.
[Acrobatics check for damage. DC 18: fail, you take full damage (3d6 - ), pass you take half.]
At the bottom of the pile, Gonzo groaned as he hurried and checked that his vials were intact.
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In retrospect, maybe we should have staggered our jumps more. Meantime, if they put some sort of ramp in place here, people would simply roll out of each other's ways. Oh. OW! This actually kind of hurts. Jumbled in a heap? Probably not what they call a great first impression for the Inquisition.
Glancing around, Fillion takes in the make up of the council and the mixture of races as well as hearing the dismissive comment from the male human. He also briefly notices that it looks like everyone in his group got a bit roughed up by the jump.
Right, social protocol would dictate making a strong and confident first impression. Not threatening, just confident.
Turning his attention back to the gathered council, he says, "Well, you've unceremoniously dumped us here through your poor application of transportational magic and your glorious leader has bothered to tell us neither about the rough landing nor the actual mission at hand. Who'd like to be the first to avoid wasting any more time?"
What the hecking heck! as she gets back to her feet and inspects Zak.
"No, I don't believe we've heard of you," the bovine man says.
Following Gi-Backa's entrance, the members of the organization stand and say, "Welcome to the Arcane Inquisition."
The male dwarf says and smiles, "Please, have a seat." and points to some chairs.
As he wiggled out of of the pile, Gonzo noticed most of his companions had got hurt in the fall. Gonzo can heal two of you, if you wish"
Then turning to the inquisition, the Fengari sat down, a single dark brown vial in his hand.
"Gonzo doesn't suppose you have any healers, for we should be in top shape for whatever you need up to do. Gonzo couldn't help but think this Inquistion was rather odd, what with the falling entrance and nonchalant response to Aisling's declaration of assassination as a job.
So far other than being bad hosts, the Inquisition don't seem that bad, from what you can tell, anyway. "As for you, Master Fillion, we promise not to waste too much time," the dark-skinned female dwarf replies sassily.
The male alabast says to you, "And for Gonzo, healing supplies, of course."
"All questions will be answered in due time," Gi-Backa replies. "Now please, take a seat."
You see weapons of various types hung up on the wall. Shields are mounted on pedestals. But the most prominent feature of the room is the runes. Everywhere, runes are ascribed. On the floor, there are warding and trapping runes, a precaution against demons and angels.
On the wall there are runes that will fire fireballs at unwary invaders.
Those that sit down, arms shoot out of the arms and legs of the chair. For those that don't, Gi-Backa pulls out another button contraption and pushes it. Metal scoops up over your feet.
"It's nothing personal. Really, this this just a precaution so you don't, you know, lash out. What we're about to tell you is a bit ... shocking.
"You already know me, Master Gi-Backa Al-Wazir, so let's introduce you to the rest of the Inquisition."
He goes around the table.
Female Giant - Ael-Tayan Or-Raz
Male Minotaur - Daedelus Bloodhorn
Female Minotaur - Hathor Bittercream
Male Human - Nicademus Cooper
Female Human - Charlotte Bejanne
Male Fengari - Cacaw Goldenbeak
Female Fengari - Quail Featherspell
Male Alabast - Kai Yammasu
Female Alabast - Alimar Salima
Female Dwarf - Frigga Silverspear
Male Dwarf - Bruenor Battlehammer
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"If I may interject," Fillion said, casually and subtly pointing at the arcane markings so his companions would take notice, "the reason you've not heard of the assassin known as the Phantom is that she is thorough. Very thorough. Usually when a person angers her, they're dead before they've drawn a breath to say anything negative about her. Just thought it fair to make you aware."
And as he concludes speaking, he offers a smug smile.
"Hey, hey hey," Bruenor says. "Let's not be too hasty little girl. These are just an assurance that you don't attack us. We're valuable people that want to be left alive."
"I'm very sure of that, Rafael," Gi-Backa says. "But Ms. Ashling, as the rest of you, needs to be restrained; if what you say is true, then even more so than the rest of you."
"The job?" Gi-Backa picks up. "A hag hunt. Hags are, mysterious creatures, and we know that they have a nest on a faraway plane. We'll get you there as soon as you're ready."
"Hags," buts in Hathor (no pun intended), "Are not witches. They are creatures of pure magic and are the peoples who most misuse the arcane.
There are eight kinds of hags: mountain hags, sea hags, swamp hags, fire hags, ooze hags, air hags, and wood hags, and each kind have a gem that controls their respective element. Sea, blue turquoise, fire, red rubies, ooze, green emeralds, air, yellow beryls, wood, deep brown quartz, swamp, light green peridot, and finally mountain hags with clear crystals."
"Hags appear beautiful to humans, but are truly ugly in their real form."
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"Hag hunt? Interesting. So, aside from being ugly, you've really told us nothing they actually do wrong. 'The peoples who most misuse the arcane' is a touch unspecified."
"Then," he added, looking as if he really wanted to start pacing, but being incapable because of the magical floor bonds, "assuming we agree to take the case, what can you tell us about how to kill them and how best to defend ourselves?"
Then, directing his gaze specifically towards Bruenor, Fillion added, "And be sure to use your best manners, or my dear friend the Phantom may decide to use you as a dagger sheath."
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I'm fine with killing, especially if it's one of those ugly things. My brother studied things like that, said their magic was foul. But let me ask you how do you determine misuse of magic? what qualifies? If thats all you want done then let me go and we can work out a contract. Anger in her voice still stirring, but she is slightly calmer.
"Ash has a point. There seems to be a lack of information, almost evasion, and nothing bothers Gonzo more.
Then, Gonzo spoke in far different language. "Və burada Gonzo nəhəngləri paragons deyil, lotu-potu idi düşündüm."
As Gonzo speaks he looks to see if there is a good way to release this binding, the lack of freedom unsettling the Fengari
"Over, the years, hags have been reported to have been collecting object. But not just any ordinary objects: objects that could start an apocalypse, as detailed in the book of the Old One." Bruenor goes forht to say.
"We determine arcane misuse as magic that is detrimental to our universe. Certain magiks tear holes in the fabric of time and space: many spells of which the hags cast have had this effect. Another is something that, according to any religion, and we have recruited many, are signs of the end of existence itself. Surely, the Gods know about this threat, but only Sol and Lun have tried to prevent it so far."
Gi-Backa raises an eyebrow and smiles at Gonzo. " And I see you know our language, little one, lakin bu, eləcə də danışmaq olar. Nə qədər ağac bir Woodchuck chuck bir Woodchuck ağac chuck bilər bilər?"