"Now that we've got a moment to catch up, how'd you come to be on this island, and what are you doing here?" He says as he drinks some of his water, washing his rations down.
"Ha! Why luck of course. Lureene would you care to take a break from your reading to give Darvesch an explanation on how we ended up on Priyya's remote island getaway? After you're done, we can discuss our next course of action from here."
Priyya largely ignores the discussion around her, watching the banyan tree and pondering what exactly just happened. Her sense of duty and obligation set off a lively chat in her head...
Dealing with one deity is tricky enough. Now, it seems, I'm indebted to yet another one.
Lureene looks at Alis, What, has she lost the urge to talk now? Resolving to have Priyya check her out to see if she is feverous in any way, she takes a drink of water before starting in on the tale…
”Well, we were all traveling incognito on the White Pearl to Port Eldarion. She was formerly captained by Kovack, and crewed by Aerys here. Ieana was another passenger on board, who kept to herself during our voyage. Anyway, we think Kovack was enspelled by Ieana, which caused him to grow infatuated with her, and she used that influence to arrange for the shipwreck of the Pearl. She poisoned us, along with the crew, and left us to die.”
She pauses and takes another drink of water before continuing, ”She would have gotten away with it, if not for the First Mate, who rescued us. Unfortunately he paid for that charity with his life.” Here she gives Aerys a sympathetic smile, before going on. ”We are not sure why she came here. ‘Lis performed a Tarot reading, which indicated she was in search of something possessed by the Red Mountain Devil. We were tracking her and Kovack, hoping to catch up with them, but we were delayed by the giant cannibals, and had to rescue you.”
"The Red Mountain Devil? So, what's our target? The Devil or Ieana? To do what she did.. She must answer for her crimes." Darvesch pauses to struggle with the internal dilemma he's facing right now, to kill Ieana outright, or to capture her for proper judgement.
He takes a deep breath, "I assume if we go to the Devil, we'll run into Ieana? Which is who we're really after, right?"
Lureene nods to Darvesch, ”Yes, Ieana is our true enemy here. But I do not relish the thought of facing both Ieana and the Devil simultaneously though.” She chews a stray lock of hair, and adds ”One thing to keep in mind is how will she get off the island? If she does not use magic, then she would need a ship. If there is a ship to pick her up, the most likely place would be the inlet where the lighthouse is built. That means she would be returning to the giant village at some point.”
"If we go to the giant village, and wait for her there, she'll have already obtained what she came for. If we go straight for the Devil, and confront her there, hopefully before she has obtained what she came for, we'll have to deal with her and the Devil." He stops to think a moment, "While there would potentially be great benefit in getting to her before she's got what she came for, I think it'd be best if we try to cut off her escape at the village."
Alis listens idly while Lureene and Darvesch talk, her main focus on Priyya and her seeming state of reverie.
I wonder if she's received another vision...
Lureene responds to Darvesch, "I think it may already be too late for that. Judging by what happened last night with that storm over Red Mountain, I fear she already succeeded in her goal." She sighs, "Fortunately, we do have the element of surprise here. If she returns to the village, she would be expecting the giants to greet her, and not us. We could set an ambush for her."
"I concur. Let's get going quickly, I want to make sure we're all set up for this ambush." He stands and adjusts his armour, fastens his shield strap, and tightly grips his axe.
"Yeah, that was some pretty crazy lightning," Sasha muses while she watched Lureene chew on her hair. "Sooo you two really think that wizardess will go back there, to the village? Only time I take all my stuff with me is if I'm not coming back somewhere."
"Maybe she was gettin' one of those giants to carry it all for her? Kinda don't see her or the Captain carryin' that big crate of hard tack or that keg of wine you were tellin' me about. Well, not unless she was usin' magic anyways. Can't say I know much about that..."
Lureene pauses, then nods slowly "Sash, you are probably right. Ieana would probably not risk coming back here." She shrugs helplessly, "Which raises the next question: What is her next move?"
She nods at Aerys, "That would seem the most likely explanation. She is quite powerful caster, a simple flight spell would be well within her power."
As the others talk, Priyya sees Aycenia appear from the same location where the large butterfly disappeared. The dryad seems almost surprised when she notes the priestess looking straight at her and she blushes slightly. She casts a lingering glance over her shoulder at the direction she came from and raises her hand hesitantly as someone might who was uncertain if they should wave goodbye or not.
The exotic woman smiles gently, speaking to Priyya and Alis in a soft voice so as not to interrupt the others, "Forgive my absence. At the behest of the dark-haired woman, last night I journeyed far from this place and it weakened me greatly. I might not have made it back but for the long-limbed one carrying me."
She looks around. "Has he left so soon?"
"So, that's it?" he thinks for a moment.
"Now.. I'm not one to consort with devils, but do you think this Red Mountain Devil would know what her next move is, or where she's heading?"
Lureene shakes her head, ”Speaking from one who has had personal experience with fiends and devils, I would NOT trust anything they tell you. Even if you had binded it in some way, I would not put any credence into what it tells you.”
"Well, I don't like the idea of helping it. But, Ieana now has something that theoretically belongs to it. I'm sure it wants whatever she took back, and it gains nothing by lying about where she went." He pauses to think a moment, "Besides, do we have any other ideas? What else can we do at this point?"
Priyya notes the dryad's confusion, as if she was just awakened from a deep sleep. It strikes her as no small coincidence that she should appear from the same spot where the butterfly vanished.
Alis would comment if she saw the butterfly, but it seems like Aycenia did at least.
She gives the taller woman a gracious nod to greet her. "You have my thanks for your generosity, Aycenia. I shall make certain we attend to your request as soon as we have dealt with Ieana. So long as she remains free, there is no telling how great a threat she presents."
"As for Mal," she motions evenly to those breaking fast, "he is a lion in the guise of a man. Eagles don't eat flies, nor lions bread. He is hunting."
For a moment, she watches Aycenia's reaction to see if the news perturbs her or not. When she overhears the comments about bargaining with devils, a nimbus of golden flames begins to flicker about her person. "Demon or devil, the only negotiations I intend to make with that creature involve the edge of my blade, or the steel hail of my bow."
"Normally, I'd agree with you, but I don't see any alternatives. We can use the fact that we're looking for the person responsible for stealing the Devil's item as incentive for giving us the information needed to find where she went. At this point, I don't really care what the item in question is, I just want to find Ieana and bring her to justice. We can bring justice to the Devil another day," Darvesch snaps quickly.
"We literally know nothing about Ieana. Why did she go to great lengths to come here? Why is she looking for something that belongs to the Red Mountain Devil? What is she planning to do with it? Where does she plan to go when she has it? And unless someone in this group knows something that I don't, the best.. person ... to ask, is the big Red Devil himself." He huffs, and takes a deep breath.
Aycenia seems baffled by the noise of raised voices in her home. In a quiet voice, she asks, "You can speak with monsters?"
Lureene responds loudly to the dwarf, "Master Darvesch, I think you are assuming Ieana stole the item in question. I believe a bargain WAS struck betwe--".
Lureene jumps in surprise as Aycenia announces herself. By the gods, she is a quiet one!
She does wave Aycenia over and responds quickly, "We did not plan on speaking with it, but if it can shed any light on Ieana, like what was it guarding, then it is another piece of this puzzle." She pauses and takes a calming breath, "Aycenia, were you aware of the storm which took place last night over Red Mountain? Do you know what that signifies?"
"True enough, that is an assumtion on my part. Maybe a deal was struck, only the Devil would know. Either way, it can tell, at least, what the item actually was, and what Ieana could do with it. Then, hope we can get some information on where she would be going." He shrugs his shoulders and gently kicks rocks beneath his feet, growing weary of talking and anxious to go do something.
Lureene nods, feeling time slipping away while Mal was hunting for the others. "Yeah, it would certainly have some answers of that I am sure." She turns to Priyya, "Some thing to keep im mind before we storm his lair with swords and spells blazing."
"But..." Aycenia seems truly and deeply confused by what the succubus and the dwarf are suggesting, "if you cannot speak with it and it cannot answer, how will it tell you anything?"
She shakes her head putting the strange thoughts from her mind and instead focuses on the rest of what you were asking.
"As for the lightning, I could see it, every creature and plant on the island could feel it even. It was a magic as old as that buried far below even the deepest, oldest roots. It came from the stone by the base of the Red Mountain. Something far below forced or perhaps drank all the water from the lagoon there and I could feel the presence of the dark power grow. It was like the clouds parting before the sun only... wicked."
"Aycenia," Alis speaks up, "are you saying that the Red Mountain Devil is incapable of communication? What about the giants?"
"If it can speak then I have never heard it. The giants appeased it with sacrifices of men and animals, not words."
"We're still being forced to act without knowing all the answers. I guess it can't be helped though..."
She shakes her head in annoyance. "I'm still not certain I understand why it was necessary to wreck the ship here and kill everyone aboard. If the charts of the area accurate, and they must be since most sane sailors are able to avoid The Shiv, I can see it being too far to fly from the mainland even with magic."
"But why not just sail to Port Eldarion and then charter a smaller vessel? Hell, she could have had us sail close by and then simply flown ashore."
"If it can speak then I have never heard it. The giants appeased it with sacrifices of men and animals, not words."
Lureene chews on her favorite lock of hair, "Sooo...if this fiend cannot communicate via words, then perhaps it uses telepathy to converse with its victims, should it ever have the urge." She sighs, "Or perhaps it is not from the Lower Planes at all...but in any event it sounds like Ieana did succeed in achieving what she came here to accomplish. In that case, we need to find her!"
"Maybe she didn't want anyone knowin' where she'd been goin' to?" Aerys offers.
"Maybe she thought it would be fun?" Sasha shrugs before her eyes light up. "Ooh, or maybe she likes to hurt people, ooor... ooor... maybe she wanted bait for the cannibals!"
She holds her head up very straight and feigns a snooty voice, "Oooeeeww, I'm sooo much better than these mere moooortals. We wizards were cleeeaaarly meant to lord over their useless liiiives for our own enjoooyment!"
"Well, you know, like that but with more S-sounds or something."
On hearing Sasha's response, Lureene wonders what Princess Alexis would think of that attitude Sasha is demonstrating about wizards. Not too favorably, she imagined.
"Sash, that really doesn't make any sense for a wizard to act in such a way, especially since she acted very low-key during our voyage aboard the Pearl...Also, you do realize I am a wizard, right?"
She turns to the other ladies, and adds, "Aerys may be onto something here, in that she wanted to cover her tracks. If she chartered a vessel from Port Eldarion, it would be a simple manner to retrace her steps. This way, everyone assumes the Pearl is lost at sea, thus no one else sends any rescue ships looking for the crew. That gives her plenty of time to complete her objective, without any threat of interruption."
"Good points, all. So we've got a wizardess who doesn't care how many people she has to kill to reach her goal. Her goal appears to have something to do with some ancient stones that sent lightning into the sky and purged the water from that crab-claw shaped lagoon at the base of Red Mountain. Yet that same region is also home to a powerful devil or monster of some kind that seemingly guards it."
Alis taps a finger against her lips as she thinks on the details. "Now that mountain is the tallest landmark we've seen on the whole island. I've got to think that if her sole intent was to end up there, she would have simply done so. Instead, Ieana takes Kovack with her, has supplies brought from the ship, charms a ranger into bringing them safely to the giant's camp where she dominated the chieftain into providing accommodations for her, and informs him of the possibility of more survivors."
She looks at the map of the island and shakes her head. "Ieana went as straight for the giant's village as you can from where they reached shore. It was no accident, especially not if she stayed there and had supplies brought. Yet even with an artifact level weapon close at hand, that doesn't seem to have been her goal there. She could have just made Klorak give it to her..."
"So there was something she needed or need to do in the cannibal's camp before traveling to Red Mountain?"
Alis nods slowly. "It looks that way... But like Sasha said, she cleared out of there when she was done instead of traveling light–"
Lureene exclaims, "The tainted area under the lighthouse! It has to be that!"
"Oh, and don't forget she didn't take many of those rations either. Hell, doesn't even look like enough are gone for two people to have been eating off of them."
Priyya's expression darkens. There was a far greater taint of evil on her new tropical hunting reserve than she would have preferred. Of course if it needed purging then it would be quite the coincidence for someone with her talents to have washed ashore.
I wonder if Súmalya is as prone to pulling at the heartstrings of other deities as her mortal servants.
"There is something of great evil down there, it's true. Do you have any insight into what it might be, Aycenia?"
The dryad seems surprised when all eyes turn to her. Brushing her blue-green locks from her face, she gives a shallow sigh. "I have been told there are caves below there, carved out by the waves long ago. Whether it was the waters or those who build that great stone... tower?, something foul was uncovered — the roots of the trees shrink from it."
That thought makes her grow quiet again. She gets a faraway look in her eyes for a few moments and an uncomfortable silence fills the banyan tree, broken only by the sound of Mal announcing his return and the noise of a cooking fire being prepared.
"As we said, the trees and I," Aycenia gives a shiver, "it was their afterlife. The giants would make sacrifices to the Red Mountain Devil so it would leave them be, but there were others offered to slavering things beneath their camp, those offerings they did not begrudge. Even now, the trees say that things stir there, that there have been those who descended there recently, although of the two and two who entered, only one returned. They say the others now walk below..."
"Two groups of two and only one person left alive, yes?" When Aycenia nods, Priyya turns her gaze upon her traveling companions.
"We saw two giantesses leap down there last night. That leaves one other 'pair'. Any wagers on who that might have been?"
From her tone, you gather that it is a rhetorical question.
Eyes wide, Sasha hops to suddenly. "Hey, that wizard chick and the captain guy were a pair, right?"
When Priyya gives her a glance that would parch an oasis, she simply says, "What?!" holding up her hands in confusion.
Alis restrains a laugh at Sasha's statement of the obvious. "Well, at least that would explain why so few rations were taken. There was no need for her to feed two people..."
"So what now then? Return to the village and see what lays below? Set up an ambush for someone who may or may not be coming back? Or do we head straight for the mountain and try to deal with that devil?" At a look from Priyya she adds, "...one way or the other?"
"If there is any chance Kovack is still alive down there, we need to try rescuing him. If nothing else we can cleanse whatever evil lairs down there."
She then steps away from the group, and prepares to summon Grak from the Nether region where he resides.
"Well, if he still lives, even if there's a small chance, I think we need to take the risk, and rescue him. We might miss out on Ieana though. It's up to you." Directing his last statement to Alis.
"Well, I suppose there's no telling how long it will take to search those caves, but we're still much closer to the lighthouse than the mountain. I think it took us... perhaps an hour to travel from the village to where we left the trail?"
She looks to Sasha who thinks for a moment then nods in agreement.
"OK so about an hour out of our way there and another back if we decide to proceed to the mountain. Unless we plan to slog thru the jungle the whole way, a course of action I, for one, would not enjoy, we would have to head back to that trail anyway..."
Before the group departs, Priyya finds a moment to take Aycenia aside.
"When we attacked the giants last night, their leaders sought to bring to bear a powerful weapon against us. Not knowing the true extent of its power, we kept it from them. Yet when I attempted to wield it against them, it turned on me. It is an evil thing, perhaps intelligent. The level of power it exudes surpasses any that a mortal smith should be able to create."
We have already brought strife and argumentation into her home, but how much more has Aycenia benefited already?
Confident that the cost she asks is not out of line with what has and what may yet be gained, she continues, her meaning plain, "We cannot take the sword with us. It is too ungainly and should an enemy wrest it from us in battle it could be catastrophic. I don't trust simply burying it, tossing it in the sea, or hiding it. Such evils have a way of making themselves found, much like whatever is in those caves."
She looks evenly into the dryad's gentle eyes and says, "I promise that we will yet help you with the accursed island to the south, you have my word as Surya-ka-Vahaak. Yet I would implore you to keep watch over the giant's sword for now so that we may focus wholly on the task before us. Can you do this, Aycenia?"
The dryad hesitates, a look of worry dimming her sunset eyes. "I would not wish for these tasks of yours to be any more difficult or dangerous..."
Aycenia looks to the women around her, perhaps feeling a sense of sisterhood. With a gentle smile, the she clasps her hands together, and nods her head demurely. "I will keep the sword safe for you, do not let it be a concern."
As an afterthought, she looks at Gelik and Jask and adds, "Do any of your companions need to stay and rest? No creature of this island, not even that devil will intrude here unbidden."
"If you could look after those two men, Jask and Gelik, it would be most appreciated, fair Aycenia. Aerys, Sasha, did either of you want to come with the rest of us, or would you prefer to help out here?"
She glances at Aerys briefly.
When Lureene finishes her summoning ritual, she is surprised and please to see Grak's coloration is completely different than what she remembered him before. Instread of the dark gray-green coloration Lureene remembered, Grak now has assumed a more angelic appearance, with pearlescent white scales flecked with gold and with golden veins on his thin white wings. His eyes are a startling shade of sky blue.
"Grak, you look...beautiful!"
Aerys snickers at Alis' comment and glances towards the sleeping figure of Gelik. "Sash, you get goin' with the princess and Sa– Priyya. I'm thinkin' Miss Aycenia might be likin' some help with the old guys here."
"Aww, well OK." She sighs and gives Aerys a friendly hug. "Be sure to give Gelik a good whack if he gets handsy with her."