Azzim started sweating bullets at the thought of getting close to one of those spiders, but he found himself saying over the link, "::If we think it would help, I could try to heal the spider if one of you can remove the box from it's side.::"
Taking Terex' message as something of threat, the spiders fall-back and fan-out, maintaining about a 200' distance between themselves and the party with plenty of dense foliage in between ... the offer of healing doesn't really seem to register on them - or registers very slightly. It's clear they aim to hunt the party ... follow and pick-off stragglers.
Eruander comments, "It's frustrating for me, they are so mad compared to ordinary beasts and insects... if you could remove that thing, it would be justified as least ... test if it is something we would want at least."
Rollo nods to Terex.
You could most likely get to the injured spider and remove the object without it even it knowing.
Gift watches the spider beings take up positions, the information comes in about a powerful magical artifact in one of them, and for the 1s time, the hive mind gets a glimpse of their combined immensely intelligent hive mind in action. Possibility and probability play out, future pathways are simulated, Tex heads in to grab the artifact, Rolo casts spells, Azzim moves to confront, and they all do in their own ways. Fights runs, talks, win and loses it's all there, play after play after play. Infomation pulled from all of the,. And A battle HUD comes up for each and every member.
Then gift zeros in on something, a patten, the spacing of the spider, the way they fanned-out, maintaining 200' distance and the artifact in the middle.
All this took milliseconds but then the time proditions change and a force arches from the spider with the artifact, linking the others and jumping to them. Her thoughts are clear, The artifact has a very high probability of being a weapon of some kind, an Anti magic/psion field, or something to entrap them. Gift ports away, but leaves behind a drone that goes to each one of them,
::"I have left drones behind, touch them and I can port you to me"::
Azzim was taken aback by the sudden rush of psionic information but he found the battle hud strangely comforting. There were many uses but he focused on self defence...
Very warily Azzim waited for somebody to go in and try to pull the item out of the spider. His plan was to fly in closer and use the Heaven’s Leap hex to port right next to whoever needed healing - either the spider or the team mate depending on the situation, and if things went badly he had Emergency Force Sphere memorized...
Terexaltherin quickly scopes out a good hiding spot of his own and situates himself while the other, more meaty-looking group members are moving, even casting a simple "don't-notice-me" over himself for good measure.
He keeps in contact with the others to let them know what he's doing, slowly gets closer to the spider-creature with the item and sees if he can grab it with his telekinesis.
The spiders spread out, moving easily through the dense undergrowth but intimidated enough that they're aiming to stalk not attack directly, maintaining distance. Terex moving more quietly in turn, easily gets close to large creatures, specifically the one with the silk-covered box embedded in it's thorax. At this range, it's clear the creatures are drawing some power from the item, it might even be responsible for them growing to their present size. The item seems tightly lodged indeed.
Rollo attempts to manipulate the object from his current position.
Telekinesis
He pulls the object to himself. Once only a few feet from him, the Sage allows it to settle on a flat rock. He then cast Detect Magic, while studying it.
Source Adventurer's Armory 2 pg. 3
Requirement(s) Katapesh
Your experience with magic items clues you in to their properties more quickly than others. You can identify the properties of a magic item using detect magic in 1 round.
Just like pulling off a band-aide.
Terex begins tugging telekinetically at the silk-covered box and finds it's extremely tightly lodged in the creature's exoskeleton - sending Rollo the image, the two together struggle with the thing - it seems resistant to magic but with some improvising and a lot of effort, you're able to tug it out. The spider that the thing gives single sharp shriek and seems to go into something like convulsions while the other creatures make answering grunts and fall back another 200' to the edge of the stable area around the path.
A cursory analysis by Rollo, as the thing lies on the ground, seems to indicate this a powerful confinement device - a prison for a powerful entity, possibly an entity that would be difficult to destroy. And it's leaking a little bit of that power though it's not close to failing - indicating it contains something.
Azzim flew right up to wounded and seemingly catatonic spider and he decided to try and heal it. So far they hadn't attacked and if they were intelligent they would hopefully view this favourably.
Surprising his distaste for spiders, he reached out and a powerful blue radiance pulsed out cleansing, cauterizing and closing the wound left by whatever had been embedded in its side.
He then quickly retreated up into the air, hopefully out of reach in case of any violent reaction.
Rollo frowns as he studies the device.Better call the Organization.
Azzim heals the spasming spider and the creature stops, preens it's sensory hairs and slowly backs away, emitting a low hmm... (at this point, the other spiders begin retreating...). Eruander comments "The hunters are retreating, I think that's the closest to gratitude these creatures will come"
From this plane, sending reports is far easier than receiving information from The Organization Still, Rollo stealthily sends a quick summary of the situation and request for advice... and after about ten minutes wait, the calm voice of Cordelia comes through, faintly and with some distortion... ::"I can't imagine such a thing appearing by chance, it could be a distraction, an opportunity, a dangerous trap or a key to the present situation. The ideal would be finding a way of transferring it to a nearby hidden dimension and analyzing it later. Be cautious and use your judgement. The 'power leak' you mention may be intentional, a feature of the object" (note the information comes through keeping Leander out of the communications...)
Gift from the hive mind knows what has transpired and pops back into being close to the others. She still shines with blue light.
::"If you do not want to place that leeky evil artifact into shine, I have pocket Dimension room that can hold it"::
She sends.
Toric mentally squirmed as he confessed. ::I do have a portable hole, but I'd rather it not be a place to keep elder-evil-poop.::
Rollo accidentally offers the elder-evil-poop to the bard.
Bards enjoys the esoteric, correct?
Azzim responded over the link "::Putting it a pocket dimension or a portable hole seems like a great idea, but first I want to try something... I'm going to seek a vision of what we're dealing with here, forewarned is forearmed and all that. This is a taxing spell, so I'll need a moment to catch my breath afterwards.::"
Azzim knew this was a difficult spell to pull off, and knew his best chance was to implore the spirits for good fortune. So he silently invoked them before whispering the words to a spell. To everyone watching not much happened, beyond a few flashes of radiance as his spell snapped into place. But for Azzim his mind mind was suddenly assaulted with discordant sounds and colors, with furious concentration he pictured the silk covered box, still dripping with spider ichor. With a voice that was no longer his own, he spoke his question aloud, "Who or what is in the box?"
Azzim casts his spell, he exerts his will, aided by powerful a fortune spirit, he can feel success as the vision appears and then wild assemblage sights, sounds and sensory information beyond his experience floods his mind, overwhelming it...
On waking, after a couple of minutes, he knows the thing is a "Duke" of the Icarian Shelf... The Icarian Shelf being a semi-legendary area of Far Chaos - Pandemonium - where certain exiled lawful deities reputedly reside and which exerts influence on material realm in the fashion of the Abyss. Here a Duke would an entity somewhere between the power of a Balor and a Balor lord. Of course, the exact alignment of the thing is hard to say, even with a little exposure to it's "essence"... Azzim is exhausted and Eruander's lesser restoration can only raise that to fatigued. Also, the thing's physical form resembles a cloud of swirling rainbows of whatever rough shape or size it chooses up to colossal and down to fine.
Rollo begins searching the archive that is his mind for any more information on this "Duke" of the Icarian Shelf.
Huh, that's... well, we'll need to know more before we decide exactly what to do with it. Knowing that it's a powerful being exiled to Pandemonium doesn't tell us that much about who it is other than someone with powerful enemies. Honestly, given how long they've likely been an exiled, knowing their past may only give us some clues--we might need to find a way to communicate with them as they presently are to get a sense for whether or not freeing them would ultimately be wise, Terexaltherin muses 'aloud' to the rest of the group.
Privately, he is not fond of this thing. It seems like a way to reduce a thinking being to more of a battery, which is distasteful to him even if the being so used turns out to be evil. The little dragon examines the 'box' itself more closely. Were there any kinds of controls or symbols on it?
He also directs his thoughts towards <Shimmer>. I'm guessing there's some planar magic involved in this object? Can you spot anything unusual about it?
Azzim found himself reeling and he needed to helped up off the floor. After Eruander's spell he felt a little better and Laurana started singing softly, while she didn't have Strandel's raw talent he'd always found her voice comforting and he felt the fatigue lifting.
The performances and company of a lyrakien ease the burden of travel. Once per day, a creature may spend a minute listening to a lyrakien’s performance— doing so removes the effects of exhaustion and fatigue from the listener.
Over the link Azzim explained what he had discovered and warned, ":: Whatever manner of being this so called Duke is, he's well beyond us. I do not recommend getting close to the box."
Gift offers up the hivemind to the research.
The entire party has made it's way 200' off the path to where the silk-covered box is lying and you're standing in circle around it talking. The brush has been cleared, Eruander is handing around a bottle of fortifying mead that cools you in the sweltering heat. Leander looks at the thing and sighs, "Perhaps we should have just evaded these creatures ... but maybe not..." he stares harder at the thing... "We need to deal with it. I can feel it exerts a baleful influence on this area. We will be returning here after our journey and we will find things much worse if we leave it to work it's magic..."
Terex and Rollo considers The Icarian Shelf - quite a bit has been written on it by various sages but it's like a number exotic planar areas who's very existence is doubtful. It is often described as area of exile or imprisonment for those originally-lawful deities who's activities threatened the very structure of the planes (quite distinct from hell, an area of those fallen). This "Duke" is certainly powerful, would be terrible to meet unprepared but the party has in fact faced more powerful entities a few times in it's journeys, Arlo's nemesis for example. You also don't necessarily have a quarrel with the thing but whether it wants to go home or destroy everything on the plane can only be determined by further investigation - or perhaps you could learn by helping Azzim piece together his terrifying experience of contact with the thing.
Looking in detail, the box is fairly "conventional" if powerful item - a prison for a being from the outer planes.
Rollo and Terex can see that <Shimmer> would certainly be the most effective tool for dealing with the thing. With a bit of work, it could be placed in a nearby demiplane and dealt with later - it might, probably would, change confining demiplane but it couldn't go beyond that, at least not for maybe decades. Something like a portable hole would not be advisable.
Gift links herself to SORUSS her intelligent tattoo, and moved to make a second mind to stay in the collective.
::"I am going to try and talk to this Duke, I think it is well aware of its surroundings."::
It was hard going, but she moved to make a mind file wall behind her and pushed a copy of her mind in.
Toric holds the elder-evil-poop at arms length, as he labourously with his other hand, opens his portable hole. The satyr curses to himself for not owning a chest, so Toric wraps the prison in his unused bed roll. Casting prestidigitation a few times on himself, Toric folds the portable hole up and puts it back in his belt.
"Well, that sucked."
Yeah, I do think it's best to take it with us, Terexaltherin agrees. <Shimmer> should be able to contain it temporarily... or we could talk to the Duke now, he adds as Gift goes to do exactly that. Hey, Strandel, hold off on doing that, he interjects as he notices what the satyr is doing. <Shimmer> can handle it once Gift's done with what she's doing.
As he settles down to wait, the little dragon turns his thoughts inward to the flash of... greed? Possessiveness? Whatever it was he'd felt on first noticing the powerful magic. He wasn't unfamiliar with greed--while he thought of himself as a good dragon, he was no saint--but this felt a bit... different.
Hmmm... maybe it was because of <Shimmer>? He'd gotten so used to having the sentient stone with him, they felt almost like an extension of himself, even though Terexaltherin was well aware <Shimmer> was their own being. Was he... wanting more of that? Hmm... maybe that was part of it. That was a desire to watch warily, it could get him in trouble.
But that didn't feel like quite all of it. Well, maybe he should pull on that <Shimmer> thread. What did he like so much about working with <Shimmer>? Well, his library was great, and Terecho... it was like... like having <Shimmer> with him expanded Terexaltherin, in a way. Maybe that was what he wants so badly? Yeah... yeah, that felt about right.
The item never made the bag of holding, Gift has it in front of her, floating in the air. How it got from falling into the bag and to where it is now is unknown, But there seems to have some psionic power at play.
For some reason, I just got a vision of apocalypse now....but then nothing. Huh.
Azzim was more than a little rattled by his vision but he grinned at Rollo's sardonic humor, he nodded "Yeah... Wasn't quite my life flashing before my eyes but could have been something. Let's hope she knows what she's doing, that thing is powerful and old enough to be extremely cunning."
::"I am contacting it with an AI simulacrum of my mind, it's missing our background and history knowledge, It's an avatar of me just for communication. This is then linked to one of my constructs which is then linked to me, there is a delay and checks. Also, we all have mind protections up. With a dive like this, you need firewalls within firewalls. Layers of defenses."::
Azzim was impressed, "::Sounds like you've done this before. Allow me to add one more layer... It's a minor spell but it affords some protection against mental interference from malign entities, and I think it best to assume whatever's in there is malign until proven otherwise.::"
Feeling perhaps a sense of duty, Strandel grasps the dubious silk-covered box intent on placing it into his portable hole. Upon grasping it, he immediately feels a sense of power and elation - "Wow, this might actually test my will if I hold onto it for a few rounds..." but once he tosses it into the bag ... it's strange (or not) how it appears on the ground and then hovering in front of Gift... Course magical weirdness is not unknown to Strandel.
Barely touching the thing, Gift only gets a faint, surface contact but the thing responds... ::"huh, who are you? Do you know who I am? Go free, that might be nice. Not sure what I'd do after all these centuries but I'm sure would be fun, why not... better than leaking out slowly like here, though that has it's fun too..."
Meanwhile, <Shimmer> communicates to Terex that it probably could, with a bit of help, contain the thing in demiplane attached to the current location, basically hide it here - but <Shimmer> could not put it in a moveable demiplane like the library... any effort to take it along would involve being subject to its influence.
Gift's proxy starts to communicate.
::"Greetings "Duke" of the Icarian Shelf. I am an ambassador for those outside your confinement. They have researched you and know you to be a being of power and longevity. They have tasked me to communicate with you and ascertain who you are and what manner of being you are. Your motivations and objectives. And how you feel about your current situation. Would you be willing to communicate such?"::
Hmmm... seems like even <Shimmer> might not be able to move it safely, Terexaltherin reports to the others. They can hide it, but it'll be stuck here. So let's hope Gift can get somewhere with talking with the Duke.
Leander responds to Terex, "Perhaps hiding it here would be sufficient? We could retrieve it on the way back, take it to one of the reputable magic houses where experts could disarm it. Perhaps the Cucurai could give us a containment vessel? How well could it be hidden?"
So as Gift's avatar continues the contact with the thing, she too feels a wild and seductive energy coming from the box and the voices "Hey, I still don't know but that's OK. You've spent the time to figure out some of who I am, which is cool. I could tell you fascinating stories of my childhood in the Taahor ice wastes, the lost love of the one and only Bashima, pranks on the fire demons and similar things. But you want something more current I think. What am I like? Mostly I'm a fun guy, I like excitement, novelty, and power. I don't over-intellectualize thing but I've been around so I know a bit. I almost always know a way to spice up a party. Exploration and adventure suit me, kind of how I got into this fix. But ah well, I couldn't stay at home the whole millennium... Say, one idea would be if you had something you wanted me to do, you could make it exciting and interesting, bound to gain me power and then I'd probably do it - unless something promised more, well, that's my fickle heart, still you might try... Turn a funeral into an orgy... etc" And continuing to speak somewhat elliptically... And Gift-avatar can feel the things' somewhat insidious influence testing her mind, not strongly enough to be threat but gradually building.
Terexaltherin shakes his head slightly. I'm not sure I would trust leaving it behind. <Shimmer> could hide it pretty well, but I suspect it would actively work to get out of it, and it'd be long enough before we got back that it might be able to do something. I'd rather take the risk of taking it with us than leaving it hidden, but that's me.
Gift [simulacrum] stopped projecting into the box and my means of Gift [Real] construct passed on the information it had got. Which she then passed onto the hive mind. She winked her simulacrum mind out of being.
Gift [real] to the hivemind.
::"Other than I think is this future version of Strandel"::
She sent jockey.
::"This thing is 100% sociopathic, it sounds selfish, completely hedonistic, self-absorbed, and for want of a better word, 'evil' by the standards of most minds with a hint of empathy. It seems to seek nothing more than self-pleasure and self-aggrandizement. for all of its talk of intelligence on of our, Ships Mind-AIS is more sophisticated. Sad really I was hoping for something more... Advanced"::
Then she sent.
::"It would seek to pollute Glimmer and would start from the moment you placed it in Glimmer. What worries me is, The thing getting hold of our Glimmer friend and the damage it could do with it. So I say bag it and bin it here."::
::"Other than I think is this future version of Strandel"::
She sent jockey.::"This thing is 100% sociopathic, it sounds selfish, completely hedonistic, self-absorbed, and for want of a better word, 'evil' by the standards of most minds with a hint of empathy. It seems to seek nothing more than self-pleasure and self-aggrandizement. for all of its talk of intelligence on of our, Ships Mind-AIS is more sophisticated. Sad really I was hoping for something more... Advanced"::
Toric silently gives the android a 'death glare' while flipping her the bird.
Rollo snorts! The dhampir then clears his throat, unsuccessfully attempting to hide his mirth from both Gift and Strandel.
The Sage then nods in agreement to Terex.
It sounds like a God of mischief to me, although perhaps with darker tendency. Bag it, bury it and dump a mountain on top of it.
That feels like it'd just corrupt the mountain, Terexaltherin counters. The problem with sealing things like this away is that someone always comes along and unseals it. I think we should take it with us so we can take it back to the Organization for proper disposal instead of trying to do it ourselves with no preparation and just the resources we have with us in the field. We can pass it around every day so no one of us is carrying it for a long stretch of time... though it's probably true I should keep it away from <Shimmer>.
::"Then let's do that, pass the thing around. I would like to see this god meet the lady of pain. I think it will find that event VERY exciting if very shot"::
Azzim flinched at the mention of the Lady of Pain, he'd seen more than enough first hand of what her shadow was capable of, but then he nodded slowly, and whispered "Squelch!"
Over the link he agreed, "::This duke sounds like capital T trouble, I agree we can't leave the box lying around, but taking it with us worries me too, I believe it will try to exert it's influence over us... Still if we can avoid touching it directly and passing it around then maybe that could work. Some of us are probably more resistant than others to its charms...::"
Eruander considers "I could physically bury the thing quite deeply and surround it by a layer of hardened clay. I suppose that would have the same potential problems. I should perhaps be one of the ones to carry the thing as the temptations of animals affect me less, though naturally I wouldn't be immune..."
::"No, and no... this is what we do, it is the essence of what we do. You carry on living your life, we, we save realities and this is one of those times. If my father Arlo was here he would say the same. So thank you but we will take care of it Eruander"::
Eruander is part of the Organization too, remember, Terexaltherin points out, restricting his thoughts to his companions. It's Leander that I think shouldn't have a turn, he's been helpful but I can't help but feel that he's got an agenda he hasn't revealed yet.
Rollo will take his turn, wearing the corrupt horcrux....
Eruander replies to Terex and Gift in his usual polite and soft spoken manner: "It's not necessary for me to carry this thing, certainly. I would mention that I go far outside the usual circles of my kind in joining you and my joining is an expression of some part of the plant world being concerned with the dimensional destroyers since they are all of our enemies. I hope that we are all together as a team working for The Organization..."
In any case, the decision is reached. The party crafts an appropriate carrier to lessen the box's effect and goes forward alternating the persons carrying the thing.
And entity sends only one further communication, "Listen, I'm guessing no response here means some distrust and I get it. I'll be on my best behavior for now and just ping you later to see where we stand... at which point it does no more.
And, with high vigilance, the party proceeds but feels no mental or magical intrusions from the thing for three days, at which point you reach the "network of caves" - the path dives down into the earth and supposedly continues for ten miles of twisting caverns with entrances and but Leander's instructions provides the proper turns for the entire way ( planar qualities, a list of turns, symbols in the rock and other things serve as guides). Still, here the group must choose precautions and approaches since some awkward climbing is sometimes needed for those not flying.
::"Thing is up to something but we can carry it for now"::
She brings up a personal mind barrier and takes the 1st carry.
When they got to the caves she just flouts down flying all the way.
Rollo smiles knowingly at Eruander. The Sage easily floats about, having cast Overland Flight this morning.