Terexaltherin thanks Emoree, indicating to her that this information is very helpful. He telepathically sends to the rest of the group, So don't say anything about their mutant status. We probably don't want to bring up the Dark Traders right off, but we should continue building the idea that we're opposed to a group fitting their description, see if they volunteer some information.
I'm guessing these questions are something the Dark Traders are having them ask people--let's just explain that we're tracking the trail of some people that have been coming and going from this area. We claim no right of passage, but would like to negotiate for it, and possibly for some information. I think I'll still not reveal my capabilities, it might be useful for them to underestimate me if things go badly.
He lands on Azzim's shoulder like he belongs there. Sorry for taking your spot, Laurana, he jokingly sends to her.
Laurana sent Terex the mental version of a Hmmph! Azzim however wasn't bothered which annoyed her even more.
He bowed to the figure before replying with an open welcoming tone, "We are scholars and travelers from far away. We are on the trail others who have been coming this way, but we don't claim any right of passage, rather we hope to come to an agreement..."
The Amphibian steps away with Azzim out of earshot of his own men. "My name is Atho, commander of the North quarter. Scholars, if they significant knowledge would be welcome normally. However, two years ago the Prince made a deal with a group of sinister Travelers - that we allow those who carry the Starling through and no one else. This arrangement seems sinister me and some of my men but so far it holds. Perhaps if you wished to come to Niwon, the capital, you could discuss the matters with the prince, especially if you offered things of value as well..."
Terexaltherin, feeling that this might be a possible ally, decides to break his silence and speak to Atho (and let his friends know what he's saying).
He reaches out with his mind, not giving a clue as to who is speaking exactly. We know of these travelers, for we have fought their kind many times before. They are a scourge, ravaging the land for their own profit, often even causing calamities so they can sell the wreckage left over after them. We came here tracking their influence, and if they have an 'agreement' with your prince then you are all in grave danger.
We will most certainly want to speak with your prince, but we will need your advice as to how to approach him and what to bring. And it would be best, as you seem already to understand, to be wary of who among your people may be their agents.
While he waits for a response, the little dragon reaches out to Emoree to suggest that she keep secret the true extent of her intelligence and her telepathic abilities for the time being. He warns there could be hidden enemies here, so it is best to be watchful and wary.
Atho looks both hopeful and worried... "Oh, they are powerful then? We were no sure. Our prince would loath to challenge powerful forces, we are a small principality whatever our lineage. These dark travelers promised wealth if we allowed those carrying their 'Starlings' to pass and only those (which is easy since very few come this way now). And they threatened ruin if we disobeyed. Still, their promise of wealth has not materialized. If you can offer trader or resources, that would certainly sway the thinking of the prince. Whatever you do when you talk to the prince, do not challenge his right to Kalthinia, it all we have now..."
Terexaltherin thinks for a moment, then 'speaks' to his allies. I could trade some of my wands and scrolls. Lyra, do you have some more radios to spare? It might be useful to give them one that can transmit in case the Dark Traders show up. We might also offer ongoing trade, but we'll definitely need to offer some things up-front to prove we're not like the Dark Traders.
Azzim listened to Terex's suggestion before telling Atho, "The dark travelers as you call them are dire threat indeed, although they are likely relatively few in number and they may not be in a position to carry out their threats." Azim didn't say it but he was thinking that The Organization's presence would mean the dark traders would be too busy to back their threats up.
He added, "We are not without resources, we have exotic goods for trade and I can offer my services as a healer and as a diviner. If you have sick or other problems I may be able to help, spirits willing..."
We could maybe mention the work we're doing on the outside of the wasteland areas, just without mentioning the name of the nation, Terexaltherin suggests.
He added, "We are not without resources, we have exotic goods for trade and I can offer my services as a healer and as a diviner. If you have sick or other problems I may be able to help, spirits willing..."
Arlo frowns, knowing other paladins can Lay on Hands to heall others, but he cannot.
"We mean you no harm."
So Atho takes (under a guard) those who are willing to Niwon, the "Capital", a town of about 500 amphibian mutant(?) humanoids. On the way, he makes a point of avoiding being seen and takes the party through a secret gate in the town walls, though several check-points and directly to a room where Prince Algeon is studying documents. As he greets him, Atho says "Cousin, Prince, this group tell quite an interesting tale. I leave it to you, as is you right, to decide the truth and the value of what they say"
Emoree has stayed in the background investigating as the party has negotiated with amphibians. As the party leaves, she sends a sudden sequence of images - pictures of the various large mutant creatures guarding the borders of amphibians area, apparently taken from the amphibians' own minds, along with an implicit offer to help them negotiate better relations with these creatures.
Terexaltherin, still perched on Azzim's shoulder, sends Emoree a sense of gratitude, along with the sense that it was a good idea.
He then turns his thoughts So we can offer help negotiating with the neighbors, agricultural assistance and knowledge... I think I'll remain silent for now with the Prince, just in case. We should share what we know of the Dark Traders now, however, along with these offers.
Lyra bizzezzed herself loading a shell into the 30mm motor at the back of the Spider bots body. She had put it there as a path-clearing device to blast way ahead. If they had to fight their way out it helped to have something that could level a building ready to go. Once loaded she moved to the cockpit and checked all systems and external cams. She electrified the Spider bot body to discourage someone or things from messing with the Mech.
(During the walk to Niwon, you detected low levels of radiation, not enough to worry about for a few days but enough to possibly be a problem in a year or a life time)
The "Prince" is somewhat less Amphibian-looking than Atho (who is in-turn less so than the average soldiers). He's in a well-appointed room of a restored building that you guess was once a high-end office suit for the previous tech society. As Atho introduces you, he seems slightly startled but quickly pulls himself and addresses you in calm, diplomatic language, speaking in the common of Kalthinia though strangely (you're guessing archaically) accented. "I am Prince Nalwinona, welcome. You are the unexpected travelers in a very out of the way location. I assume you come with a different than the starling carriers we have periodically come through here. Tell it to me more..."
The prince is amendable to a trade for agricultural knowledge as well as a bit of magic. He is not sure how to treat his deal with the dark travelers - should he prevent the Starling holders from gaining passage? He also confesses, secretly whispering, that he believes the dark travelers left magic that somehow spies on him and the kingdom...
Seeing that his companions are hesitant to speak, Terexaltherin takes the initiative. Greetings to you, Prince Nalwinona. We are scholars who are studying the cataclysm that once befell these lands, because we fear that the very same beings who created the 'starlings' may well have designs to weaponize or at least profit from it. As such, we seek to learn both of these dark travelers and the cataclysm to stop their plans.
We can scan the area for magics like you describe to stop their spying, and we will of course trade for the knowledge you have of these things.
After Terex 'spoke' Azzim bowed before adding, "Indeed your Highness we are scholars. I have made a study of this world's agriculture and my colleagues have studied told technology of the land before everything changed. This has some practical uses, I know a blessing for bountiful harvests. Also we can build things, useful things."
He cleared his throat and said, "Regarding scrying spells that might have been left here, if wish your highness, we could attempt to find remove them. Finally I am a healer, if there are sick and wounded I may be able to help, spirits willing."
Prince Nalwinona places his hand to the noble crown of his head, the skin a slightly gray and shinny tan and sends back to Terex telepathically, ::This form of communication is best, yes, away from prying eyes. Let me tell you myself and others of my family looked for the day when some enemies of these dark travelers would be appear. Aid we indeed seek. But I believe there is more than spells of spying, though there may be that, so be it. But these foul creature seem to have enchanted certain of my household as well as others here, to report any deviation from our pact. How shall we deal with this? Some of these enchantments are obvious, the stable keeper is little more than a shell now - but there may be others...You seem to understand high magic, what shall we do? Atho I trust absolutely but there is a reason he brought you here in secret...
As you were approaching the palace, you noticed that a substantial amount of the town is under water via canals and other constructions with the inhabitants seemly breathing and living in both under water and surface areas.
Azzim replied "It will take time to find everyone that has been suborned by their magic and we shall have to act in secret. It would helpful to come up with a ruse to allow us to inspect your household members individually."
I'll be good for that, I can stay hidden while searching for magic, Terexaltherin offers. However, depending on exactly what they've done, it might not be possible to remove without alerting them. If they have some sort of active connection they will know when we sever it. There is a possibility we could deceive it, but again, it depends on exactly what has been done.
That said, we should consider the possibility that we will need to help you defend yourselves. Based on those who came here bearing starlings, how far is it to their goal from here? If it is close we could investigate where they are sending these starling-bearers and return before any possibility of a strike. If not, it will depend on how successful we are at circumventing their surveillance.
::I, for one, would enjoy being ruin to your 'dark travelers'::, Arlo spoke over the mental communication, a nautral at it by this point.
The Prince nods and says out loud "I will declare a festival day tomorrow, the entire town will appear for worship and festivities" and telepathically suggests you find an unused chamber until then.
The next day, the party keeps watch while the town engages in a heterodox ceremony honoring two swamp creatures and the seal of Kalthinia. During this time, Azzim is able to determine, through detect undead and other spells, that stable keeper and an old hermit are each some sort of undead (possibly Juju zombies). Also, you find a mirror in a convert ballroom has some strange scrying enchantment on it. And that's it.
She shifted back from an elf form to her Advanced Andriod one
"What do you think of my disguise darling, been keeping as a holo alt look."
Arlo blinked. "Not bad, dear. It appear the king has found some sense, so we're gonna hopefully kill some Dark Traders soon."
"You know we really should try and get some alive, Gift has the Mind probe she has been wanting to try for ages."
Hmmm... they *might* be immediately aware if we disable their enchantment and destroy the undead, but they will almost certainly be aware at some point when they try to scry or contact the undead and can't. Let's get rid of them and continue our investigation quickly, aiming to be back here before any reprisal can come, Terexalthering suggests. I do have a couple teleport scrolls with me, if we had some way of being alerted when there's an attack we could teleport back to help.
To Terex and the others, Azzim raised the question of what to do, "So we found the obvious watchers, but the question becomes which ones did we miss or perhaps just how much effort did the traders go to here? They must know there's a chance the organization would act, although I suppose there are so many worlds that they only encounter us every so often."
He started to pace before suggesting, "I could try divination magics to learn more. In theory those could be noticed, although I'd rate that as difficult. What do you think?"
It's better to know than to risk missing something, Terexaltherin opines.
He mentally reaches out to see if Emoree is in range and has noticed anything herself.
She enjoys herself at the small party night
"So we if we can't take the puppets how about we track coms lines V the mirror."
The Amphibian's ceremony is rich in celebration and symbolism, combining hints of religion with an honoring of history and a general community exuberance. The Terex and Azzim scout out the town and find the fairly clear suspects while Lyra and Arlo blend-in, enjoying the festivities.
Investigating the disguised undead, they ping as fairly powerful - akin to liches or graveknights. The question of where to confront them looms... (as well as what come afterwards).
The same day, Emoree sends to Terex an image of her meeting and negotiating with the creatures on the amphibian's borders. She might convince these to aid the amphibians if they get into trouble.
The dwarf paladin isn't surprised by thew news of the disguised undead. Arlo does his best to look like he's having a good time, while mentally practicing to quick draw The Arlosword.
Azzim said, "Ok so these undead we know of are somewhat powerful. The question is if we take them out are there more? I'm going to try a divination contacting the most powerful entity I dare. Divinations are tricky things, I hope I'm asking the right question..."
Before asking his question, Azzim knew he needed to prepare. Contact with planar entities was grueling at the best of times doubly so if a deity answered. He prepared a special daught to focus his mind and downed it in one.
He then sat cross-legged and meditated as he cast his divination. It seemed to anyone watching that nothing much was happening beyond Azzim making a low chant of "Ommmmmm..." But suddenly after nearly ten minutes he floated off the floor still cross-legged and he was surrounded in a brief but powerful aura of blue white light, and when he spoke it was in tongues, "यदि वयं तेषां अमृतभृत्यद्वयं नाशयामः तर्हि कृष्णव्यापारिणः प्रतिकारं कर्तुं शक्नुवन्ति वा?"
The dwarf paladin observed Azzim as he sought to complete his ritual. Arlo had known of the powerful contact other plane, but had never seen it performed. The paladin held his holy symbol for luck.
After the amphibian's ceremony, Azzim uses a power ritual, at full power, to send his mind up and up towards the true outer planes, rising to levels of insight and awareness beyond all previous experience, colors shimmering and merging, language ceasing and restarting, space and time contracting, reversing and expanding ... Arlo's holy symbol appearing for one moment in a flash ... until finally he finds himself a tiny presence before a Great Creator and through the power of his spell he states his question and gets a booming, impatient (but somewhere kindly) "NO, not until/unless the flow of people using the starlings is disrupted..." and then he find himself falling and falling, down and down to his present plane. It take him a minute to find himself, in Prince Nalwinona's antechamber, but he's intact and even confident, having gotten a bit more than he expected...
As the ritual faded, Azzim blinked in surprise, "It's never done that before!" Seeing the questioning faces around him, Azzim explained "I was expecting a one word answer to my question. Usually you need to be very careful choosing a question and to take the answer with a pinch of salt but this time it feels different."
"I suspect I contacted one of this world's greater powers. I asked 'If we destroy their two undead servants, will the dark traders retaliate swiftly?' and a booming voice answered 'NO, not until/unless the flow of people using the starlings is disrupted...'"
He glanced around the room before suggesting, "I think we should take the undead out. I'll pray for suitable protective magics. Also I suspect if we do act to stop the flow of starlings retribution will fall on us rather than anyone else."
Hmm... we'll want to disrupt that flow eventually, but probably back at the source rather than here, Terexaltherin comments. But yes, let's destroy these undead. They should both be possible to catch alone somewhere we can avoid collateral damage. I'd say destroy the scrying enchantment first, then go for the hermit, and the stable keeper last. That's probably the best order for avoiding any warning getting to any of them, nor any news out of what happened. If at all possible we should ambush them. The hermit shouldn't be too hard to surprise, but the stable keeper might be harder. We should ask where he sleeps, that might be our best bet.
Destroying the Scrying spell is a simple dispel that goes without a hitch. It's possible to find a moment when the hermit is alone and apparently off-guard, emerging along from one of the pools that the amphibians use for bathing.
Lady Lyra dose the deactivation, a methodology of hiding her presence and then taking out the enchantment, She then rigs it with a simple alarm should anyone try to activate the now-dead device.
With the undead Hermit, she received her sniper Rail gun rifle, and from a distance tracked its movements for a while.
COMMS
"I have target A, in my sites, give me the word and all pop it"
The rail is ready to power up.
Terexaltherin offers to help anyone who needs it be invisible for the ambush, though he adds that a powerful undead might have life-sense.
He hides himself not far from where they've observed the replaced hermit getting out of the pool.
Once the undead creature is within his range, he sends to Lyra, All right, now!
Once she fires her shot, the little dragon will spring out of ambush and fire off his wand!
Arlo unsheaths The Arlosword and wades in with his paladin know-how and godling might!
Struck sorely by Terex, the Hermit transforms ... into a 20' tall amphibian corpse-figure and confronts Arlo - slamming him with a mighty slap that sends him 20' in the air to land in a heap and doing 15 points of damage while attempting to suck out his life force it then mutters curses in Aklo (but loudly) and stalks to Terex's general location, peering about to find the tiny dragon.
The "hermit" has huge rents in its body from Terex but you realize its sound may be loud enough to reach the town and the "stable hand"... about a quarter mile away...
|
Alya was about a quarter mile away.. Close to the stable hand, She had her own way of dealing with him. aFor now her farsight scop was tracking the events. As it moved on Terexaltherin and his fire command came.
A tinny Nedel of condensed matter moved at impossible speed covering the distance from her to her target. Just as it was about to make a its call.
What came out of simply nowhere was an impact on the side of the undead Neck. Something traveling at impossible speeds blow a hole right through it and can kept on going.
Recognizing the danger of being heard, Terexalthern swaps to his silence wand. He targets himself, then flies close enough to the creature to keep it in the radius while still hopefully keeping himself out of its reach.
The undead giant has a gaping hole at the base of it's skulls but doesn't stop. Now silent, it targets Terex with a slam but misses.
The momentary outcry fails to attract the attention of the stable hand though a few other amphibians seem to notice and start approach the hermit's hut (though there's a fair distance).
She waited as her weapon re-spooled its power cells for another shot.
This thing was devastating and range unlike anything this world knew, but you could not change the fact it was slow.
Arlo continues to hack at the large undead, to bring him down to size!
Azzim had been waiting for the right moment to act. He was flying with improved invisiblity, warded against evil, with a non-detection enchantment when he took a thin gold chain and uttered a syllibant word of power while gesturing at the giant undead.
Golden glowing chains sprung up around it! Chains that if they struck would hold it fast and prevent planar travel!
Azzim's spell immobilizes the giant horror and the party makes short work of it.
Lyra reports the small group of ambinian guards headed towards the outlying area where the hermit lived while the stable hand is occupied with a particularly surly horse.
We need to move quickly and deal with the stablehand, Terexaltherin suggests to the others. We'll leave this giant formerly-undead corpse here for the guards to puzzle over. But we need to get to the other one before any word of what happened here gets to them.
Azzim was already flying in that direction as he replied over the link, ::Agreed, let's get to it. I only hope there are no bystanders near the stablehand.::
As he approached, Azzim tried to spot their next target.