Nik sighs at Jek's questions.
I could use magic to try and charm him. Probably not worth the spell...
Looking up at Baraxx volunteer, Nik replies "Sure. Behead him. I'll sprinkle the holy water."
While Baraxx gets to chopping, Nik pulls a vial of holy water out of his haversack and answers Jek's questions himself.
"Kiranshalee is another drow goddess. She does undeath and vengeance. About as evil as Lolth, but they don't like each other. I doubt Kestrod'll help us find Erehe. We can just follow the fighting."
Nik's eyes open wide as he puts two and two together.
"Hey, think they'll look at my shamblers and suspect we're on their side? Think we could talk our way into the manor before we save the multiverse? Might make it easier to get close to Erehe. I guess we'll have to off Verdaeth too, huh?"
If nobody objects strenuously Baraxx goes ahead and takes the vampires head off with a swipe and steps back, blade dissolving into nothingness after the strike.
Nik sprinkles the decapitated corpse with the holy water, ending Kestrod for good.
"Hopefully his ghost or whatever won't be an issue. Hmmm. You know, it'd be a shame to let that undead corpse go to waste. Hey Jek, still have that barrel?" Nik asks, having been unconscious for the reloading of the barrel.
"There might be room left..."
Jek offloads the barrel, takes a deep breath, and lifts the lid for Nik to see.
"Hmmm." Nik says as he wrinkles his nose at the contents of the barrel. He pulls out a femur. "What is-"
Then he remembers.
Nik's eyes shrink back to normal size. He pulls out the three corpses and then dumps out the bones into a pile as he explains: "Oh. Um. Right. There's those bones. I bet they go with the circlet. I'm not a big fan of slavery, but he might be handy to have around..."
Nik loads two of the three deceased drow back into the barrel alongside the remains of Kestrod. Then, he pulls out the golden circlet from his haversack and looks back and forth between it and the bones.
Rinika lightly pushes the crown back down. "Maybe check that out when the sounds of you getting gutted won't attract another drow patrol? Let's sneak on over to the manor."
"I'm gutted." Nik replies, not looking gutted at all.
With a shrug, he pulls out a sack, sticks the circlet and bones into the sack, and puts the sack in the top of the barrel.
Nik hops onto Horsington, makes sure his Crossbow is ready and loaded, and orders his shamblers to fall in line and attack anything that picks a fight with them.
Nik does not sense the skeleton warrior within 300ft. The circlet does nothing.
Nik flies about twenty feet above the ground over the group on his horrific steed while his other shamblers follow on foot on the way to house Tormtor's estate.
You can clearly see through the double portcullis gate that allows access to the house of Tormtor. Within well over 40 githyanki warriors run through combat drills, in the skies you see at least a score of red dragons mounted by more githyanki wielding long lances. A particularly large red dragon clearly marks your approach and lands in front of you, asking in elvish and then common, ”State your business with House Tormtor or be gone.”
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I vote gone.
Savi is too scared too say what she’s thinking. As the dragon speaks, her eyes are fixed on its very big, red fiery maw, which may as well be the gate to hell. Y’know, that particular gate to hell that chews on fairies and swallows them as bacon bits.
Githyanki: Tall and slender humanoids with rough, leathery yellow skin and bright black eyes sunken deep within their orbits. Long and angular features with almost flat noses. Their ears are sharply pointed and serrated along the edge.
Nik likewise lands to reply.
"We urgently seek an audience with lady Verdaeth. We must speak with her about Erehe and Kestrod, among other things." Nik explains; he does so in common, happy to hide his knowledge of Elven for the moment.
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Lunk’s gloves second Nik’s words in elvish, and humbly asks the dragon if passage might be granted for this reason.
Jek takes a moment to admire the red dragons and slowly changes focus to the lances. Hmmmmm....
Are there any githyanki guards nearby?
Are there any githyanki guards nearby?
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Rinika will sidle up to a single or small group of guards.
Rinika slyly engages the gith with her typical modus operandi. They are clearly confused by her questions but a single warrior with bright pastels painted across her armor in intricate designs answers, ”We came to test our strength against the drow. They have not proven a challenge.”
The dragon bellows, ”They are leading the battle at the gate of Erelhei-Cinlu. I can tell that you urgently need to speak with them and that you have served our cause by spilling our enemy's blood. I will take you to them.” Gusts of wind blow across the area as the dragon begins to take flight, hovering with it’s claws and mouth nearly touching the ground, ”Climb into my claws and teeth.”
"Great, good job! I like your armor, it's fun. Anyway I gotta go, bye!"
Rinika trots back over to the group and hops into the most comfortable, warmest place: the mouth.
After settling in comfortably, she begins to get curious about her ride, and she starts asking them questions too. "How do you like it underground here? Do you get to fly much? Where did you come from? Do you fight often or is this more of a sit back and glare at each other conflict?"
Savi crawls into her bottle. It’s a tight fit now that she’s fully grown, but the bottle doesn’t have teeth. She adjusts her sleeves so her new outfit has a blindfold.
Lunk casts message on Savi and hears her say, Just… do whatever the others do. I’ll pretend we’re on a flying carpet.
Lunk plays a few bars of I Can Show You The World on his ocarina.
Nik nods in agreement, trying to hide his excitement and terror at being carried by a red dragon.
He quickly recasts Prestidigitation to make absolutely sure the shamblers (and himself) don't offend the dragon's olfactory sense. He then orders all of them, even Horsington, to stow their weapons and climb onto the hind claws and hold on as tightly as they can until they land. Nik tries to take a spot on one of the fore-claws (closer to its mouth and Rinika).
Baraxx looks over the situation then slowly floats a few feet above the ground.
"Mind if I fly myself?". If the dragon objects, he'll shrug and land on a clawed forelimb.
As Nik and Baraxx use their own means of flight the dragon says with a mouthful of catfolk, ”Shuit yourshelf.” As you fly it enables a magical form of communication so as to not constantly roll Rinika around in its mouth with its sulfurous tongue. ”I fly as high as I can but not as much as I would like, it is cavernous here but not as much range as I would like. The conflict has been fought to a stalemate with no side able to get the upper hand, my daughters and the githyanki guard house Tormtor and Everhate against attack. The drow then are able engage in offensive war, currently they are attempting to take the city.”
A stone wall 30ft tall blocks the entrance to the city of Erelhei-Cinlu, heavily armed battlements line the top of the wall and open fire as you buzz their airspace.
Horsington takes a ballista bolt through its chest, which stays there and the wound oozes black fluid. The dragon is also struck in a grazing blow but the bolt is deflected off its thick red scales.
Lunk flips off the guy who shot at him, then finger-waves.
Baraxx curses in infernal, then taunts the shooters with an incredibly rude gesture.
Nik orders Skellington the 6th and 7th to climb on the dragon and leaves the rest behind, ordering them to defend themselves with their claws.
After a heavy ballista bolt hitting his ride gets his attention, Nik takes aim with his own crossbow and fires a single bolt back.
He follows it up by asking Horsington to flash a very rude gesture with his overlarge-claw arms.
As they get farther away, Nik puts his crossbow away to pull out his Lesser Extend Rod again, and uses it to cast Infernal Healing on his ride, ordering it to pull out the bolt.
before this post
Items with limited uses per day
. 0/3 Lesser Rod of Metamagic, Extend
Supernatural Abilities
. 8/9 Power Over Undead (30' burst; DC 18 will)
. (1 at a time) Corpse Companion
Spell-like Abilities
. 7/9 Bolster (Undead) (+2 profane on attacks and saves; 1 temp hp/HD; +2 turn resistance; 4 round duration)
. 1/1 Pyrotechnics (DC 14)
Spells Prepared:
. 5th (2+1/day) Possession (S), Undead Anatomy II, Wall of Force
. 4th (3+1/day) Enervation (S), Black Tentacles, Dimension Door, Flaming Sphere, Greater (DC 20; +1 CL)
. 3rd (4+1/day) Vampiric Touch (S), Fireball (DC 18), Fly, Haste, Tiny Hut
. 2nd (6+1/day) Command Undead (DC 17) (S), Flaming Sphere (DC 18; +1 CL), Glitterdust (DC 17), Levitate, Mirror Image, Resist Energy (+1 CL)
. 1st (6+1/day) Ray of Enfeeblement (DC 16) (S), Feather Fall, Grease (DC 16), Infernal Healing, Infernal Healing, Infernal Healing, Warp Sense (+1 CL)
. cantrips (at will) Detect Magic (+1 CL), Ghost Sound (DC 15), Mending (+1 CL), Prestidigitation
Horsington descends 10 feet while recovering from the ballista bolt collision and gesturing rudely.
The crossbow bolt hits Jek's shield with a satisfying *tink* sound.
"Everyone ok?"
"Horsington will be, in a couple of minutes..."
The Battle of the Great Gate
The sound of metal clashing upon metal and the cries of combat are broken by exploding fireballs or the rumbling of some other sorcery. From within the surrounding towers, dark elven archers fire volley after volley of crossbow bolts down at the advancing enemy. Still more warriors, most of them male, repel attackers that try to scale the wall or magically fly. Ghouls and other undead accompany the defenders, greedily tearing at living flesh. A small pack of chasme flying overhead drop a handful of bar-lgura into the enemy hordes, and the apish fiends seem to have little regard for life, even their own.
The attackers are mostly drow warriors of both sexes organized into segregated units. Bugbears and troglodytes form powerful supporting phalanxes to either side. Ladders and grappling ropes carry the assailants into battle at the top of the wall, where a lone, unarmed drow holds off a score of warriors until she's brought down in a flurry of strokes, and turns to mist. Attackers flying on the backs of hieracrophinxes or by means of magic try to gain the other side through the hail of missile fire.
The fight looks as though it's raged for a long time, and seems likely to continue unabated for a good deal more.
The dragon deposits you behind the attacker's lines. Five drow in fine leather armor watch the battle from astride nightmare mounts. Six displacer beasts and six warriors guard them.
As you land and the dragon deposits you but before it can provide introduction Baraxx goes rigid and begins speaking in tongues.
One of the drow nods and waves their hand at you dismissively.
Baraxx watches the battle with some interest as they fly over, eventually muttering to himself "Seems less chaotic than the Blood War, even with these Lloth loving elves doing the fighting. '
After delivering his message he looks around at the group, eventually he says, when the group gets a chance to converse, "Well, that's my job done. What next?"
The drow look upon the party with a little bit of scorn as they linger at their warcamp, their apparent purpose served.
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I wish I spoke Githyanki...
After a few nervous glances around at the very large army surrounding what are probably their generals, Nik finally clears his throat and speaks up.
"We need to talk to Lady Verdaeth about Erehe and Kestrod. As soon as possible."
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Sitting on the tallest of the fiendish mounts is a drow woman, she wears long black and purple robes covering her fine chain mail. At her side is a drow man with a perchance for the macabre, clothing covered in skulls, bones, and symbols of death. He also wears strange lenses over his eyes that make them appear red.
The woman is taken aback when Nik mentions the name, ”Kestrod…” She looks over fondly at the drow man but quickly recovers from showing this moment of weakness, ”These people… might know something of your past, Erehe.”
The man ponders for a moment, ”Lay down your weapons, spell components.” He adds, ”Please.”
Nik, who hasn't bothered to reload his crossbow after buzzing the enemy airspace, shrugs and pulls his crossbow off.
Putting it on the ground alongside a quiver and spell component pouch, he says.
"Shamblers, sit next to our stuff."
Probably shouldn't mention Baraxx's sword...
Nik looks to the others to also leave their pointy objects behind.
Hmmm, maybe I should've waited to help Kestrod off himself... oh well... maybe we can leave out exactly why he can't come... just say he isn't doin' too well... yeah... he was suicidal and all...
Baraxx shrugs and hands his single dagger to one of Niks shamblers and holds his hands up in a "that's it" gesture.
very tempting to hand that dagger point first to the Drow, but that would probably start a fight he thinks to himself, letting this thing play out now that his task was completed.
“It’s just a sewing needle,” Savi says of her sword. Still, she leaves it with Lunk’s katanas.
The pair dismount and Erehe pulls out a small block of granite that disintegrates as he begins casting a spell. A dome of stone forms around the party and the pair. Erehe says, ”Prying eyes and ears. We can’t be too careful.”
Verdaeth asks while being vague about what she already knows, ”What do you know about Erehe’s past? He lost his memories, as we have said.”
Baraxx leans against the stone dome wall and crosses his arms.
Jek slides his chakrams over his lance and sets them near the other weapons. When the stone dome appears he looks at it in wonder and presses his hand against it.
"Fun..."
Nik takes a deep breath.
"Good idea about the stone."
He sighs deeply and then tries again.
"Um- so- what we know is that Kestrod knew Erehe. So I guess they must've been together at some point. Kestrod told us that Erehe forgot something, and he mustn't ever remember it or... well... I guess I have to explain another thing: there's this guy called Tenenbrous that might be about to destroy the multiverse.
Maybe.
Kestrod seemed to think the whole multiverse is at stake, anyway.
I guess he knew something that the aforementioned big bad evil guy needed, too. He was a captive when we...
saved him...
and he was suicidal...
and...
uh...
now he's very dead. Died and turned undead and permanently put to rest dead. Super dead. So he won't spill any beans. So, about Erehe, well..."
Nik pauses for another deep breath.
"If you don't think you can put Lolth down forever or similar amazing feats of stopping god-grade-unstobbable things, I think we have to ask for...
For something or some way to make sure Erehe doesn't ever remember what he forgot.
Um- ever..."
Nik looks around at the others.
"Should we mention how Kestrod asked us to- er- what he asked us to do?"