Lashonna wonders if you'd like a peek at this Heskin, and assuming you answer in the affirmative or at least say nothing, she goes on to produce a small lock of hair tied with a gold wire on a fine gold chain — she explains she "procured" this bit of hair from Heskin’s barber (letting it be understood that this item is not the only one of its kind in her possession). She picks up a scroll of Greater Scrying.
The cloaked figures spare condescending glances at Heskin, their eyes glowing faintly with infernal fire before they move out of sight toward the ship’s unseen bow. Soon thereafter, a blazing red-skinned humanoid with an immense, bulging frame strides almost casually through the scene. The rain sizzles into steam as it strikes his burning skin. As he reaches Heskin, he looks down at the man and then looks toward the bow, crying out, "Darl! It looks like your pet might be taking on water!" With that, the creature explodes into a tremendous belly laugh. A few moments later, another two figures step into view. The smaller of the two is a shifty-eyed humanoid bird who wears a hooded cloak and carries a repeating crossbow. The other is a towering man clothed in flowing blue robes trimmed with eye designs. His cowl protects his face from the wind and his hands are obscured by long, rainsoaked sleeves. He squats before Heskin and speaks to him in a low voice, "Only a few hours more, Heskin, and we shall see if you live or die."
Suddenly, the blue-robed man’s head whips around to look directly into the scrying sensor. His face is pale but commanding, and twists into a snarl as he stands. "It seems we have guests, my friends," he says. "Perhaps allies of this cur?" He turns back to the bound man, and as he does he pulls back his left sleeve, revealing a rotten, black-nailed appendage that seems to writhe and twitch with its own life. "We can’t have your friends watching us, so it seems your journey comes to an early end, Heskin!" The putrid hand unfurls and reaches out to caress Heskin’s brow. Heskin shrieks in mortal pain as the fingertip freezes the skin it touches into an angry black scar. The blue-robed man then makes a fist and utters a single unintelligible word. As he utters the word, Heskin’s eyes bulge, the cords in his neck throb, and he slumps against his bonds, dead. The scrying link is broken, and the image fades from view.
"My, that does look stormy!" Vug notes.
Valgrim lets Lashonna proceed with her divination and thinks long and hard on everything he has just seen and heard. "So to clarify, a druidic Order of the Storms stopped the Age of Worms and Dragotha 1500 years ago and they and their library are hidden at their stronghold on this stormy island that appears on no maps. So it appears, we have to travel to this island and convince the Order to share the location of the phylactery with us. Oh and it appears another team of evil emissaries is already ahead of us seeking this library for their own reasons, so we're going to have to deal with them as well. Is that the gist of it?"
"Bubba, any knowledge on the creatures we just saw with the blue-robed man, the one called Darl? The two horn guys, the one with the repeating crossbow, the red-skinned humanoid? How did he kill Heskin? Anything else you saw?"
Directing his attention back to Lashonna, Valgrim continues, "I also have a couple of questions. One, if Balakarde was aware of the Order and this Library, why did he go directly to the Fissure, instead of seeking the phylactery, as we are doing? If he knew the location of the phylactery, how did he obtain such knowledge? Or was it just a scouting mission that went bad, since he has not been heard of since?"
Valgrim looks at Friar, "For my second question, Padre, I feel Bubba needs some heavenly inspiration." Valgrim waits for Friar to work his Touch of glory magic on the bard and then continues speaking to Lashonna. "Not that we don't trust you Lashonna but we don't, having just met you and all. And also, you did not answer my prior question. I need to know why an agent who claims to have rooted out the Ebon Triad in Maskholm missed a base of operations we found in a day. Lashonna, are you working for the forces of good, seeking to keep balance, or just out for your own interests? I ask because you are in an evil city that has devils flying overhead and advising an amoral King Midas who the people want overthrown and who is constructing a great ziggurat that reminds us in an ominous way of the ziggurat at Kuluth-Mar, an undead city and birthplace of Kyuss? Is he trying to recreate the scene that made Kyuss a god and bring him back to our Plane? If so, why are you not stopping him? I'm sure you have all this knowledge about the Age of Worms and Kyuss' apotheosis, as you have just said. Wouldn't your actions/inaction seem suspicious to you if you were in our place? These are not the actions of a good and noble person." Valgrim looks serious as he waits for answer and looks to Bubba for his reaction.
Friar inspires himself and Bubba with his Touch of Glory, curious to hear Lashonna's responses too.
Vulcan frowns as the scrying unfolds. "Well that went well." he mutters shaking his head. Showing clear interest in the references to the Order of Storms, Vulcan listens with rapt attention.
Good catch.. So 37 sense motive then.
Lashonna smiles wanly as she listens to your questions. Her expression remains inscrutable but you detect a tinge of sadness.
"You are right that I am not exactly a good and noble person, at least by your standards. While I don't approve of Midas's petty cruelty and will be glad to see him toppled, he is but a pawn. As it is often said, I like to keep my friends close and my enemies closer."
"I am older than I look, and my race tends to take a long perspective as it is. That may seem cold and aloof to you, but I assure you that while I tend to tolerate much lesser evil, the Age of Worms threatens all that I hold dear and that is why I am committed to stopping it. You don't have to trust me. I know Balakarde didn't, and that may be why he disregarded my advice and foolishly went straight for Dragotha. I am not privy to his reasoning, though. He was paranoid at best and amply magically shielded from divinations."
"About the Ebon Triad, I didn't see them as more than a nuisance at the time, and they haven't been active in Maskholm since we put them down, so I must admit to being remiss in pursuing them. That's the downside of seeing the big picture - so many details elude you."
"For reasons of my own, I cannot accompany you to Tilagos, but I sincerely think you need to find that phylactery. Dragotha is a key player in the Age of Worms, and if you can destroy him, you may thwart it altogether."
Sensing no look of deception from Bubba, Valgrim sighs but continues, "Agreed, Lashonna, Dragotha is a major player in fulfilling the Age of Worms. He is Kyuss' general after all. That was made clear from the visions in Kuluth Mar. If we can topple him, maybe we can end this once and for all. Okay, now can you gives us an approximate location of Tilagos? And how are we going to get there? If it's surrounded by storms, we may not be able to wind walk there."
Bubba shares his knowledge of Darl's party with the party. He uses his Loremaster ability to roll a 20 on Knowledge check on Hand of Vecna artifact.
"I'm thinking we wind walk to the general area of the island, assuming we know where it is, and once we can't proceed any further, we use a Scroll of Water Walk to walk the rest of the way. It is an island after all, so it must be surrounded by water. It will cost us 375 gp or 75 gp each."
"I can keep a bird's eye view by flying above. Storms don't really affect me the way they do others."
Friar's spells for the trip:
8th—fire storm (DC 24), holy aura [D]
7th—holy sword [D], Holy Word, Summon monster VII
6th—cold ice strike (DC 22), fire seeds [D], heal, heroes' feast, wind walk
5th—breath of life (DC 21), communal air walk, flame strike [D] (DC 21), life bubble (DC 21), quick shield of faith, spell resistance
4th—blessing of fervor (DC 20), blessing of fervor (DC 20), death ward, freedom of movement, holy smite [D] (DC 20), spell immunity
3rd—communal resist energy, invisibility purge, magic vestment, magic vestment, sacred bond (DC 19), searing light [D]
2nd—bless weapon [D], communal endure elements, communal protection from evil, remove paralysis, spiritual weapon, status, weapon of awe (DC 18)
1st—bless, detect evil, liberating command, remove fear, shield of faith [D], shield of faith, shield of faith
0 (at will)— create water, detect magic, detect poison, stabilize
[D] Domain spell; Domains Glory, Sun
Valgrim has no more questions and is ready to head out, once we buy 2 Scrolls of Water Walk (150 gp each).
"Lashonna, do you have any information about what we can expect to find when we reach Tilagos? Or what the method to reach the library might be?"
"Sadly, I don't. I has taken me several years to assemble what little I have told you, and that's all I know."
As you approach the island, you are buffeted by the wind (except Vulcan) and find that there is really only one way to safely approach the island. Safely being used in a strictly relative sense.
The beachhead is littered with driftwood and the splintered ruin of well over a hundred ships. These skeletal wrecks crowd the rocky shoreline, a veritable city of barnacle-claimed vessels peopled with dead sailors. Broken skeletons wrapped in threadbare rags hang out of yawning breaches in the ships’ hulls, and tattered sails whip in the fierce winds sweeping the shoreline.
One ship stands out from these weathered hulks — a recent victim of the wind and rocks, although a victim nonetheless. This gigantic sailing cog lies broken in two against a jagged rock on the eastern edge of the beach. Beyond the shore, the rocky beach angles up slightly to an ancient maze of ruined walls and standing stones.
"I wonder if he is the sort to raise dead to leave them to slow us."
Vug chugs her mutagen, Barkskin, Heroism, See Invisibility and Spell Resistance.
Two days have passed since you scried on Heskin. The ship looks like the one you scried on, but you didn't really get a good look at it. There aren't any fresh bodies lying around it, but you'll have to get closer to really see anything.
"That might be the ship Heskin was captive on. Worth searching? Or just follow the trail into whatever trap they've laid for us?"
Despite the pessimistic message, the bard's tone is unworried and calm.
"We might as well search it first." Vulcan says quietly.
When we land, Friar casts Freedom of movement and Shield of Faith on Valgrim.
Valgrim thanks Friar for the buffs and leads the search of the wreck.
Valgrim also does a Survival check to find any tracks:
As you approach the shore you notice a band of orcs working on the splintered ship, lead by a towering barbarian. As they become aware of you, they fan out and ready their bows but do not immediately attack.
If you want to attack them, roll for initiative.
"Repairs for a return trip, presumably. It would seem they reached the island more or less safely."
Bublaka looks at the others, trying to take their temperature on dealing with the half-orcs. "Shall I hail them in peace?"
"They haven't attacked us yet; that's a good sign, isn't it? Maybe they're looking f-for something else."
Hoping they will see the humor in the request, Bublaka starts with, "Hail the shore! Permission to come ashore?"
The orcs stay their hand. They don't lower their bows, but you got their attention. Their leader growls back in Orc:
"Who are you and how did you get here?"
Vulcan hovers silently, watching the exchange.
"Really, that's your question?? You see a draconic looking dwarf and a man who has not yet touched the ground, who all just flew and walked through a storm unharmed that destroyed your ship obviously on an island that exists on no maps and that is your question??? Well, I'll tell you, I am Valgrim Twin-Axe and I am looking for your boss Darl and I'm going first to kill his Efreeti, his two tieflings, and his tengu lapdog. Then I'm going to cut off Darl's skeletal hand and I'm going to shove the Hand of Vecna up his a$$!! Now start talking, where is he???!" Valgrim grips his falchion tightly.
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Shaking his head and smiling, Bubba mutters, "So much for diplomacy." He readies an action to haste the party if the orcs react as expected - violently.
"Alright, I'll pry your magic out of your cold dead hands" the orc growls, still in Orc (although he obviously understands Common).
Roll for initiative, and I'll get a map up.
"Your funeral jackass." Vulcan says, speaking for the first time.
Who knew they were so loyal to Darl?
Map is up, and Vug goes first, then the orc chief, then the rest of you.
Vug hesitates and the orc chief sends a deadly barrage of arrows at Valgrim, hitting him three times for a devastating 107 points of damage.
You are all up.
(oops, missed the update)
Vug flies to T17 and throws a stink bomb at R17.
with Heroism and PBS:
Fort DC 24 or be nauseated for 1d4+1 rounds.
Valgrim reels from the damage, which only angers him more!
"You will regret that orc! Bubba, haste and inspire us, if you will so I can teach this cretin a lesson!"
Valgrim moves to T17, rages, and dazing assaults the orc, first time using this!
Bublaka does indeed cast haste and begin inspiring, reciting a ballad of five dwarves that defeated an army of orcs single-handedly. (He might be taking some poetic license to get the desired effect, but you know bards...)