"I don't know about all of you...but I think I need to find a nice, pillow shaped rock to pass out on."
Anri wipes the sweat off her brow.
"I hate tombs. So very, very much."
edit: Did so, got a stance that slows any enemy that ends their turn next to me, and an immediate interrupt attack that does 3W. Pretty nice!
Before he gratefully takes a rest, Lisbarr warns everyone that Ruinblade sounds like a bad idea.
"That sword doesn't have anything like a sense of humour. I don't want to touch it."
Akemi eyes the great blade suspiciously, thoughts of sundering it cross her mind.
Anri sits down, and closes her eyes.
"...all of this started because I looking for some fun and a bottle of rum. I don't know about all of you, but I'm not sure if I should quit drinking forever, or if the first thing I should do if we find civilization again is take a bottle, a cute guy, and a room."
She tears through her Haversack for a moment, and shakes her head.
"And I'm out of wine."
She looks a little like she's going to cry.
Ruinblade lies glowering on the floor, a blackened menace, yet radiating power.
"If you seek Acererak and his ending, I am your only hope."
Akemi warily ponders Ruinblade in her own silent way.
Religion
Lyan was never much of a student.
Lisbarr gives the blade one of his piercingest gazes
Piercing is all very well, but probably not Lisbarr's style when it comes down to it.
Rothel, seeing that the others are starting to relax a little and consider bedding down for the night, begins inspecting the curious blade that was speaking to Moghadam as an equal.
Lisbarr gets little other than a strong sense of purpose from Ruinblade, but Rothel makes short work of identifying the sword's nature and purpose.
Ruinblade is (obviously) sentient, and it is more than a mere blade. Crafted by Moghadam, it also serves as the wraith's phylactory. Unless it is claimed by someone other than its creator, Moghadam will return within 24 hours.
On a more mundane level, the following applies.
Ruinblade is a +4 terror greatsword with the following properties and powers.
Weapon: Greatsword
Enhancement: Attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +4d8 psychic damage, or +4d10 psychic damage against undead
Property
Ruinblade deals 1d10 extra damage against undead.
Power Encounter (Immediate Interrupt)
Trigger: An enemy scores a critical hit against you. Effect: You become insubstantial until the end of your next turn.
Power (Divine, Radiant) Encounter (Standard Action)
You can use turn undead (Player's Handbook, page 62). You cannot use this power with an implement, but you gain a bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls with it equal to Ruinblade's enhancement bonus.
Power Daily (Free Action)
Trigger: You score a critical hit using Ruinblade. Effect: The target is weakened (save ends). While it is weakened, the target cannot deal ongoing damage.
Goals of Ruinblade
See the plans of Acererak disrupted.
Slay the servants of the demilich.
Destroy the demilich and his phylactery.
As a magical and sentient weapon, it is also capable of becoming another type of blade - its sole desire is to be wielded in vengeance.
Anri has quickly recovered from the realization that she is out of wine, and is now trying to make the best of things.
She is now searching the alcoves for anything that might be interesting, shiny, or otherwise out of the ordinary.
She says as she does, "You know, you never know what you might find in these kinds of places. I found a duck in an old castle dungeon once. Well, okay, one of my partners during that expedition picked it up and...well, we don't talk about what happened to Horace. The point being: you find odd things in places like these."
Norrin tries to console a fellow binge drinker.
"There, there Anri, we can buy heaps of quality wine at the Haven once we hock the talking sword!" exclaims Norrin, while he helps himself to Moghadam's stuff.
He finds some sheet music for the songs: Bored This Way, Hasbromance, and Polka Face, as well as a hefty tome titled: Two Hundred and Fifty Six Shades of Grey.
"Ooh, a definitive guide to the Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format," reads the half-orc.
Norrins rootling does indeed bring some interesting items to light.
Aside from Moghadam's doubtful taste in literature, the wraith appears to have had a taste for shiny things.
Gems worth 50,000gp are packed neatly in caskets, each clearly labelled and arranged by size, colour and purity of stone. Residuum to the value of a further 15,000gp is also neatly packaged in small bags. A defaced jade statuette of Acererak has been hurled to the ground, but beneath it is a portrait of Moghadam as a living being. The rarity value of such a depiction gives it a value of 19,000gp.
Staff of Storms +4 (worth 125,000gp)
Implement: Staff
Enhancement Bonus: attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d6 lightning or thunder damage per plus
Power (Lightning, Thunder) Daily (Free Action)
Use this power when using a power that has the lightning or the thunder keyword. After resolving the power, deal 1d8 lightning and thunder damage to every creature in a close blast 3.
[b]Ioun Stone of Perfect Language
Level 22 Rare
This white and pink rhombic prism makes you more persuasive and gives you a knack for language.
Head Slot 325,000 gp
Property:
You gain a +5 item bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Streetwise checks. In addition, you can understand any spoken language, and when you speak, all creatures hear your words in their native language.
Power Daily (Free Action)
Guardian's CapeLevel +4
This dark blue cape can be activated to allow you to teleport and switch places with an ally.
125,000 gp
Neck Slot
Enhancement Bonus: Fortitude, Reflex, and Will
Power (Teleportation) Daily (Move Action)
Teleport to the space of an ally within 10 squares of you; that ally simultaneously teleports to your original space. You need not have line of sight or line of effect to the ally's space.
Trigger: You make an Insight check.
Effect: You treat the check as if you rolled a natural 20.
Black Lotus Extract
This thick oil is dark blue, though it becomes invisible when applied to a weapon or object.
Consumable: Assassin poison 0 gp
Power (Poison) Consumable (Minor Action)
You apply the poison to your melee weapon or five pieces of your ammunition. Until the end of the encounter, when you hit a creature with a weapon attack using the poisoned item, the creature takes 8 extra poison damage.
Power (Poison) Consumable (Minor Action)
You apply the poison to a handheld object. Within the next hour, the next creature other than you to hold or wear the object for more than 1 minute takes 40 poison damage.
Fantastic Recuperation x 3
Level: 16
Component cost 3,600
Category: Restoration
Market price 9,000
Time: 1 hour
Duration: Instantaneous
Skill - Heal. No check
You absorb the fatigue that you and your allies have suffered and cast it away. At the end of the ritual, you and your allies gain the benefits of an extended rest without spending any time resting. You cannot use this ritual if you could not normally begin an extended rest.
Greater heroes accrue greater fatigue and require more effort to recuperate. At 21st level, this ritual costs 9,000 gp to perform. At 26th level, this ritual costs 45,000 gp to perform.
Abjure
Adjure
Filled with righteous authority, you order an immortal entity to serve you.
Component Cost: 3000 gp
Market Price: 7500 gp
Key Skill: ReligionLevel: 16
Category: Binding
Time: 1 hour
Duration: 8 hours or until discharged
You command an immortal creature whose level does not exceed yours. The subject of this ritual must be able to see and hear you and must remain within 5 squares of you for the entire time necessary to perform the ritual. Because most creatures do not willingly submit to this ritual, you must usually make the creature helpless or restrain the creature by means of a Magic Circle ritual. Unless it is prevented from doing so, the creature can leave at any time. Finally, you must be able to communicate with the creature, or the ritual automatically fails.
To determine the extent of your authority over the subject, you engage in a special skill challenge during the time it takes to perform the ritual. The DCs for the checks in this challenge are equal to the subject’s level + 10. Religion is the primary skill; each time you or an ally succeeds on a Religion check in the challenge, you or an ally can use Diplomacy, History, Arcana, or Intimidate for one subsequent check. Once you have amassed 3 failures or achieved 10 successes, the skill challenge ends. Consult the following table and apply the effect associated with the number of successes you achieved.
Number of Successes Effect
0 or 1 The creature has authority over you and can issue one command that you must obey, a task that requires up to a day of effort.
2 or 3 You have immediate authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform one task that takes no more than 5 minutes.
4 or 5 You have moderate authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a day of effort.
6 or 7 You have significant authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a week of effort.
8 or 9 You have great authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a month of effort.
10 You have ultimate authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a year and a day of effort.
When the specified task is completed, the ritual is discharged, and the creature (or you) is released from service. You can request any kind of service that does not compel the subject to obey multiple commands, force the subject to engage in combat, or ensure the subject’s death. (The subject can engage in combat to achieve a task if it wishes, but combat cannot be required.) If the task is impossible, such as commanding a creature that cannot fly to soar into the sky, the creature can ignore the command.
Consult Oracle
Consult Oracle
A ghostly, shrouded figure with glowing eyes appears before you, offering brief, cryptic answers to your questions.
Component Cost: 3,600 gp
Market Price: 9,000 gp
Key Skill: ReligionLevel: 16
Category: Divination
Time: 1 hour
Duration: 10 minutes
You coax forth an oracular spirit from the space between the planes. Oracles have no tangible presence and no agendas; they exist only to observe events. This makes them unparalleled sources of information because they have the potential to have seen and heard everything, even information otherwise known to only one creature.
Make a Religion check to determine how many questions you can ask an oracle before it vanishes.
Religion Check Result Number of Questions
9 or lower One
10–19 Two
20–29 Three
30–39 Four
40 or higher Five
Each question is answered immediately, so you know the answer to one question before asking the next. You must phrase your question so that the oracle can answer it with a single word or a brief phrase. For the oracle to know the answer to a question, the answer must be known to at least one creature, even if that creature is no longer alive. The oracle has no foreknowledge and only a limited ability to judge what it sees. The oracle can tell you the order in which to activate the glyphs in front of the Gate of the Black Drake, but it can’t answer the question “Will we do well if we venture through the gate?”
Ten minutes after you finish performing the ritual, the oracle leaves, even if you have unasked questions remaining.
Magic Circle
Magic Circle
The circle of symbols scratched into the ground glows and sparks briefly as the demon tests the boundary. “This will not save you for long!” it hisses.
Component Cost: 100 gp
Market Price: 250 gp
Key Skill: ArcanaLevel: 5
Category: Binding
Time: 1 hour
Duration: Until broken
You inscribe a circle on the ground, a circle emblazoned with arcane symbols of protection. If drawn correctly, these symbols make it difficult for creatures of a particular origin to enter or pass. When performing the ritual, you choose aberrant, elemental, fey, immortal, natural, shadow, or all. The last option applies a –5 penalty to your check. The circle requires 1 minute to inscribe per square inside the circle (and it must be a circle).
An affected creature whose level is lower than your Arcana check result minus 10 cannot pass through the circle, affect creatures through the circle’s boundary, or affect the boundary in any way. Other creatures of an affected origin take force damage equal to your Arcana check result when passing through the boundary, but doing so breaks the circle. Unaffected creatures can take a standard action to obscure the inscription and break the circle.
Ruinblade radiates disapproval as the half-orc proposes to sell it.
Akemi looks towards Rothel and Lisbarr before moving to pick up the blade, hestitantly.
Rothel, typically uncertain of what goes on in the minds of mortals, misreads Akemi's glances. "I am not possessed of a mind to want to bear a blade of a sort, regardless of the most curious nature of the personality incarcerated within. If you have a particular preference to wield just such a weapon, it will brook no argument from me. It is not out of concern, mind you, as I feel I am borne of a superior will and intellect beyond that which is necessary to ward off any attempted intrusion into one's deeper recesses of thought. Amongst all things to consider, it remains purely in the purview of the fact that I do not find I have much need for the likes of a large blade in situations of conflict."
As always, not quite simply stated by Rothel, he doesn't want it.
"Swords are clumsy weapons. It's all yours. Not going to lie, the staff looks more my speed, but I'm really more fond of small blades, so somebody else can take that as well."
Anri takes another look amongst the Alcoves as she speaks. After all, scholars sometimes keep a stash nearby.
Akemi grasps the blade's handle, hefting it up into her hands. It is a strange blade, intelligent. The long dark shadows playing off of it seem to hint at hidden edges and lines along its length.
Her apprehension stays put. This blade has a mind of its own still, and was not to be trusted.
Ruinblade quivers at Akemi's approach.
"Your courage is a fine thing. Are you willing to become one with me? Work with me? I sense it in you. You have purpose."
Lyan watches Akemi carefully as the transaction occurs.
The blade feels volatile to her. Such a strange sense, to hold a blade sentient, one filled with loathing and dedication. She looks back towards the group as she lowers the blade, letting the edge touch the stonework floor.
In a slow motion, she does the unexpected. Akemi removes her mask finally. The smooth porcelain slips off her face. The woman beneath may never have been beautiful, her nose was a bit large, her features a bit flat. A deformative injury on her cheek seems to be the root cause, as if she had been struck hard there by some blade, and the bones hadn't reset properly.
Struggling with the proper language, she speaks, her words slurring "It...needs me. The wraith will return." Her eyes raise up, "Unless someone takes its place. It...needs a proper soul. I am the stranger here, This is not my world, I have no life beyond this so.. I will accept this burden. She adds with a edge of hope in her voice. "Perhaps after the lich is slain, I will be freed."
She wipes a tear from her eye, "Be strong, I will always aid this quest forever more. You have my oath." She clenches her fist around the blade's handle. "Fight. End its terror...." She turns away from the party, her back to them as even now in this last moment, she finds she has not the strength to look them in the eye.
A soft glow accompanies her, the light of Ioun. It surrounds her and the dark blade and Akemi is no more.
A porcelain mask clatters to the floor.
Akemi had four items on her, her mask, sword, vestements and neck item. I thought it'd be nice for the mask to be kept, not sure what your stance is on the other three, I figured they'd be either evaporated with her, kept to be sold or some such, or maybe offered to the temple of Ioun when they get out of here. Up to you of course, but I think only Rothiel could actually use the mask.
"...Oh."
Anri just stares.
"Oh nuts. What do we do?"
"Damn. That sword might have been useful.
"And so was Akemi."
As Akemi makes her astonishing decision, her friends falls silent, too stunned to even try to stop the avenger. Ruinblade sings as she willingly offers herself to its purpose, glowing with a new and more intense aura.
When it speaks again, the voice has changed. Akemi's tones overlay the blade's original harsh notes.
"Our purpose is now one. We will work to bring down Acererak and you will honour this sacrifice by aiding our search. Who will bear me? Who is worthy?"
Rothel stares at the blade in shock, for once speechless. He scrutinizes it heavily, trying to find an explanation for what just took place before him.
Rothel assembles the pieces of the astonishing scenes just played out before him. Ruinblade and Akemi have become one. With the avenger's sacrifice, the blade has absorbed her sense of justice, tempering its own passion for vengeance with her knowledge and devotion.
As part of Ruinblade, Akemi continues to serve her friends, and with the fall of Acererak will come her final release to the Raven Queen.
After looking around at each remaining member of the party and how they are armed, Lyan silently picks the Ruinblade up from the floor.
As Lyan lifts the blade, he feels a chilling sensation as its sentience explores his own. The presence of Akemi is clear however. Although Ruinblade longs to fulfil its task, it will take no unwilling owner.
The choice to wield me must be yours alone.
The tone is familiar and unlike Ruinblade's earlier barbed remarks.
I so choose.
Shape me as you will, master.
The greatsword flows in Lyan's hands and takes on the sleeker lines of a longsword. The hobgoblin smiles.
Holding his hands together in prayer, Norrin says, "I'm going to miss Akemi the Avenger. She taught me how one can say so much without words."
"And her selfless embrace of her destiny has made me realise that my immaturity is just a way of avoiding having to come to terms with my own, brief lifespan," admits the half-orc.