Sajan smiles at Laszlo's well intentioned attempts at healing while trying not to let the pain show, "Thank you, friend."
A moment later the healing spirits summoned by Dawn reinvigorate Sajan and his wounds close neatly. Much better!
"Before we leave, do we know what caused this?" Sajan looks at Laszlo hoping he discovered a clue while disabling the stone.
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Dragbog is thrilled to hand off Voidflame to Seelah. "of course! is Gift!"
Seelah doesn't know anything about a Carol the Conqueror, but most of you are able to decipher Dragbog's declaration as more likely about Choral the Conqueror, the semi-mythical dragonriding founder of modern Brevoy. He was supposedly from Iobaria, but this is probably not his real sword. 'Cause those gems are definitely stuck on with some sort of cow residue. And fake. And Dragbog has it.
Laszlo believes that while the stone is dormant, it could likely be reawakened by fire or compatible magical energies. It's about sixty pounds, but you could probably lug it back if you want. Or you could try to crack it open - that seems probably safe.
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Laszlo, revitalized by Dawn's aura, enlists Seelah and some of the others in collecting pieces to put together a basic sledge for transporting the monolith back to town. Experienced with assembling bones and other remains in unique ways, he dives into the task with surprising energy.
"A bone sled?" Kalla asked once the project starts to take form "It certainly makes a statement... oh don't use that one, I think it is from a horse. You know... just in case." she offers to help, but Laszlo has to spend more time explaining than it would have taken him to just do it himself.
You hoist the menhir onto the bone sledge and set off. Heading back through the village by the more traditional paths, you can see by the strangely clustered bone heaps that elementals have quit their temporary homes where they had spread throughout the rest of the Dragonskull village. At least you didn't have to fight all of them...
Cenenviel greets you wearily but gratefully when you return to the ridge, but quickly makes his excuses to travel alone, slipping through the forest much more quickly than you can with your macabre mode of transportation. "After blazes such as this, there is much work to be done for me and my brethren. Such energy fills these woods... New life will bloom again."
***
Travel is much simpler now that the woods are no longer springing into new flames, and before too long you find yourself returning to Mishkar where fires are no longer being fought, but the centaurs, goblins, and people of Mishkar seem all too willing to replace that recent struggle.
No longer enervated by the constant struggles against the smoke and cinders, Kaana Korag and her centaurs are making their final demand: "The arsonists turn over now to justice, or if a god may bleed we shall see."
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Laszlo gives Kaana Korag a toothy grin and greets her in elvish, patting the large stone with them. "Peace be upon you, chieftain. We have your culprit right here. Though I think the challenge will be getting blood from a stone rather than a god. Perhaps, you and some of your companions might join us in Mishkar, where all may hear of what happened and any harms be resolved as a community."
He briefly turns to Kalla and says in Taldane "I really do like the elvish language. Everything I say just feels so much smoother. Like a miniature poem."
"It is pretty, it is. Like a clear stream across mirrored pebbles." she had no idea what Laszlo said of course, could be Yes kill those lousy goblins, but she doubted it.
"The stone raised the flaming undead you mentioned. Dragbog..." she pats the goblin with them on the back "... helped us defeat the creatures so Laszlo could deactivate it."
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With the goodwill you've already earned and the scorched cyclopean monument as proof, Kaana Korag is willing to relent before your testimony. She extends one of her front legs to kneel down closer to Dragbog in an attempt to speak to him as an equal. "My apologies you have. Fortunate are your people whose leader such worthies can easily befriend," she adds a bit wryly as she looks at Dolok Darkfur, Nelket and you all.
Nelket smiles as though the edge in Kaana's praise didn't exist. "You speak only truth, Chieftain. In fact," she looks to Dolok who speaks as though the two share a mind. "DRAGONSKULLS, DRAGBOG, WE SHALL NOT LINGER HERE LONG, BUT IF IT IS YOUR WILL, WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN OUR CLANS. LET THE FARHEAVENS AND DRAGONSKULLS LEARN FROM ONE ANOTHER AND SHELTER UNDER EACH OTHER'S PROTECTION AS WE BUILD A NEW HOME FOR US ALL."
Dragbog's eyes go wide as dinner plates. "you got it Bear man god! we go with you for sure! hey, what kind of Bones we build houses of? there not graveyards of most thing that not Dragons. i hear cows mourn and watch sunsets, do they have graveyards in sorkoros? and what about..."
***
The Farheavens and Dragonskulls compromise on a small festival before departure - a combined name seems as though it will take more thought and compromise than that.
Nelket promises that she will see the monolith kept safe and delivered to Venture-Captain Jorsal when their journey brings them at last to Sarkoris; you'll travel much faster without them, and particularly without having to pull a sledge.
After all, you have a lot to report to Jorsal of Lauterbury, and then from there, Absalom awaits!
The trail back to Venture Captain Jorsal and the Starrise Lodge is long, but familiarity seems to make the weeks pass more quickly. Nelket saw you off with a weighty sack of amber from the Mishkar elders who appreciated your timely peacemaking, and even after chartering a ship from the shores of Brevoy to the heart of Nerosyan, you have plenty left.
Even from outside the city, the lodge is easy to spot - the tallest tower of the wall with a great orb of holy light hovering above it, a symbol of hope that remained even in the darkest days of the demonic assaults on this land.
Yet even so, the tower is thinly held. The lone guard on the gate, Sir Elsbet, beams when she recognizes Seelah, "Welcome back sister, you've been missed." she says, noting their shared allegiance to Iomedae, but her greeting is scarcely less warm for Sajan. "Captain Jorsal is back in his study, he'll want to hear about how your prospects did."
***
"...kid, I love you, but the war is over; the Decemvirate isn't gonna pony up for a lodge this swanky without the expeditions and chronicles to show for it." "Chancellor Irahai is asking a lot of questions about the lodge's continued use, but I'm certain I can- Come in!"
As before, Jorsal of Lauterbury is working in his study, fully armored, sword within reach. The learned among you can recognize the shapes of Iobaria's forests on his maps, even upside down. Unlike before, he's not alone. Perched haphazardly on a nearby chair is a shabby older human man. His grey hair and beard are molded into perpetual flight from his face as he runs his hands through them in thought over and over.
Jorsal smiles, the slightest measure of relief lightening his features. "Drandle, I would like to introduce Rising Dawn, a liturgist and academic from the Five Kings Mountains who wishes to join our ranks; Laszlo Czoka, an autodidact like yourself who hails recently from Lepidstadt. He was freed from service by Flink's team, and they sent him along to me here when he made it clear that he too wished to join our Society; Kalla of Kenabres, known to some as the Boiling Rose. It was she who convinced me that Iobaria was worth sending a team to. You may have already met Seelah, Champion of Iomedae, and Sajan Gadadvara, a padaprajna of Sumadhadra before he came to work more of his choosing. In any case they are both excellent agents. As to this young woman, I am afraid that I too am at a loss." He smiles to you all. "May I introduce Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng of Absalom, keeper of the Prospectus of Artifacts, erstwhile Master of Scrolls, and my friend and mentor."
Drandle recontorts himself on his chair to make a quill and paper more accessible. Eyes that might have been piercing before the cataracts arrest Seelah and Sajan in particular before he asks, "So, how'd the fresh meat do? Proper Pathfinding material? And what all'd you find out there anyways?"
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Kalla leaned in to whisper to. Dawn and Laz "Are we the meat?"
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Laszlo shrugs at Kalla "Maybe"
Turning back to the two men, he clears his throat. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Venture-Captain. I hate to correct Captain Jorsal, but I am actually a homonculus, sometimes called a fleshwarp." Looking at the stitches on one hand he mutters "the master wasn't terribly picky though, I might have some autodidact in me. To the events of our journey though, we visited the village of Mishkar where we did in fact find the remnants of the Farheaven diaspora. Unfortunately, with two exceptions, much of the cultural memory of the group had been lost in a plague. The first exception was Nelket, who had been corresponding with Captan Jorsal. For the second exception, please allow me to introduce Amelia Cyrixiar, with whose aid we were able to invoke and help heal the Farheaven god Dolok Darkfur. I will leave it to her to provide you the details.
Unrelated to our intended task, but also of significant interest, as we were about to leave, the area was afflicted with a massive wildfire. With the aid of the locals, we determined that it was caused by a cyclopean monolith in a dragon graveyard that was occupied by a goblin village. This bizarre confluence of factors led to the creation of a breed of fire elementals that possessed the skeletons of young dragons. It is most fascinating." Laszlo begins to get visibly excited and his voice becomes muffled as he starts digging through his bag looking for certain papers. "The monolith was too big for us to bring back, but the goblins and Farheavens agreed to bring it to the new site in Sarkoris. I made some preliminary notes and drawings of the runes... I swear I have them in here somewhere..."
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Seeing Venture-Captain Dreng, Seelah stiffens her spine and stands at attention. She takes a deep breath and then opens her mouth in order to answer the captain's question when she is immediately cut-off by Laszlo's deluge. Understanding his penchant for monologue, Seelah closes her mouth and settles in.
Sensing an opening when the alchemist goes for his bag, she steps forward and addresses Dreng. "As you can see Venture-Captain, our new recruits have taken to the society admirably and enthusiastically. We succeeded at all mission objectives, suffered no casualties and were able to further the cause and reputation of the Pathfinders in the region. I fully support inducting all provisional members of the party as well as our mission recruit" Seelah gestures towards Amelia. "as full members of the Pathfinders, I believe they will do us proud sir"
Quill and pen scratch as the two captains take careful notes - Dreng's either in a cunning cypher or possibly just illegible chicken scratch.
"We'll take those notes, thank you Mr. Czoka." Jorsal replies. Dreng leans over to his former protégé and confides, "Seelah's right. Usually with Field Commissions there's some deadweight you've gotta split off, but I've got a good feeling about all of 'em..."
He stares at you all with that once piercing gaze. "You've made a lot of connections pretty fast it sounds like. Dragonskulls, Farheavens, Redpines, Mishkar... If Jorsal gets his expedition," his mouth quirks into an uneven grin, "and I think he will. I want to make sure you're ready to help spearhead it. Normally we'd put fresh field commissions through something simple for a while first, make sure they've got all their bases covered before sending them on an expedition like this, but I want you back out as soon as we've got everything up and ready." His grin stretches into a full on beam. "I've got a trainee back in Absalom - a real up and comer who's about to take his final exams and get his Wayfinder. Good way to accelerate you all back to the front - if you're up for it that is!"
Kalla swelled a bit at Seelah's followed by Jorsal's praise. "I'll admit, sirs and lady, that I never gave a thought much of becoming one of you. I needed Something for my people and you all were their only hope. And you came through. I know owing ain't a good post to build on, so I'll also admit helping like we did felt Good. More than a touch, much more, so..."
She straightened up her stance and her speech "I would be honored to become a pathfinder." she bowed then.
Following Seelah's response Sajan nods and smiles at Dreng again, "It is good to see you again, Dreng. I concur with Seelah's evaluation. I trust each and every one of them with my life, in fact they certainly saved me once already!"
Dreng claps his hands together in a flutter of delight. "Well that's what I like to hear! Now, I know a lot of Agents who really did get into Society business for the walking everywhere, but I really shouldn't spend all my time just schlepping from place to place, right? So we're gonna take a little shortcut.
"Who likes hedge mazes?" Dreng grins toothily again, "Sajan, Seelah, you ready to come along and mother hen them all till they get their own Wayfinders?"
"Actually," Jorsal cuts in with an expression of faint annoyance at Dreng's hasty exuberance. "I can't spare them both. This lodge still needs Agents, and despite some contrary comments, there's still a lot of troubles to tend to, even with the worst of the demons departed."
He looks levelly at Seelah, "Will you stay, Seelah? Inheritor guide me in my choices, but I can't think of someone more suited to unleashing divine wrath where appropriate."
Sajan's eyes widen slightly at the suggestion for Seelah to stay behind. I need to take extra care if I am to protect this group without Seelah's aide. Whatever his thoughts, Sajan chooses not to speak up.
"Venture-Captain, I will go where my sword is most needed. If you will it, I will wash the remaining demonic presence of this land in Iomadae's white hot light"
Seelah steps forward to Jorsal's side and turns to her companions. "It has been an honor to serve the people of Iobaria with you all, I have full faith that this group will accomplish great things. May you go with valor in your hearts" She says, adopting a rigid inflection in an attempt to hide the wash of sentimentality that has come over her at the thought of leaving her new found friends behind
Kalla's mouth opens at the sudden loss of a central stone of their group. "I..." she stops, bites her lip to as words fail her, then simply steps forward and hugs the steel champion "Thank you for protecting us." she says softly, then quickly steps away, running a hand over her eyes, then smiles "Allergies, you know." a minor and obvious lie.
Kalla leaned in to whisper to. Dawn and Laz "Are we the meat?"
Dawn chuckles. "Meat and muscle, aye!" she quips, flexing.
***
When Seelah announces she will stay behind, Dawn bows solemnly. "May the spirits guide your steps, Seelah. Farewell."
Laszlo pulled his heels together and pounded his chest in what, despite his genuine affection, was something of a mockery of a salute. "It has been an honor to learn under you, Paladin Seelah"
Relaxing back into his natural posture, he gives her a toothy grin. "I'm sure we will see each other again, gods willing! And by then we should be official Pathfinders, so there will be twice the cause for celebration!"
Jorsal gives a nod that's more than half salute, clearly impressed by the bonds that Seelah has forged so quickly. Drandle smiles as well. "One thing you'll all certainly get used to is farewells, even if only for a time. Even deskbound duffers like us have to heed the call of the Open Road now and again, but..." He raises a hand to forestall Jorsal's complaint about being lumped in as a duffer. "We do know a shortcut or two."
Drandle leads you down into a fortified cellar, silvered with abjurations and more prosaic protections. "First time through, try to just keep your eyes on the feet of the fellow in front of you. Sajan? I'll want you on rearguard, just so no one gets lost." With a key and a pair of talismans, Drandle unseals the door and leads you all into a small chamber with a fiercely verdant portal.
"Welcome, to the Maze of the Open Road."
***
It's still daytime in the Maze, but even beyond the greenery of the hedge maze that surrounds you, the smells of the world are immediately different. The sour twist to Nerosyan's air has vanished, replaced with a sharp piney smell with a salty rime that no sea has left behind.
The portal that had been the brilliant green of the hedges towering over you is from this side a barely passable crevasse into a slab of sandstone, glowing a dull, angry red.
"Eyes on your friends' feet! Don't want to bring back a new exhibit of statues in case the guardian's returned. There'll be time for a tour later when I know you better. If you do get yourself lost, then for Desna's sake stop walking and start shouting. If something not me comes and finds you first, I'd say dive through the nearest portal, but I'm the adventurous type - pick your own poison."
"Now when you're not looking at someone's feet - so, later - we'll want to find a likely spot to add a new portal. If we're setting up a whole expedition about it, then we'll want to find a way to make Iobaria a quicker trip. We'll want something resonant, so keep an eye out for any patches of blight, monocular whorls, that sort of thing."
***
"Hey are all of you really still here? Kudos to Sajan as the sweeper, but you all might have a bit of a knack for the Maze. It's been a bit unstable of late, and I can't always play gardener myself for the small stuff. Anyway, eyes up, Glyph of the Open Road there? We'll tap that with a Wayfinder to open the Absalom portal... There we are!"
As you step through the swirling multicolored portal, the dust of ages and a hundred lands hits your nostrils. After emerging from an out of the way vault, Drandle leads you off to temporary lodging in something between a barracks and a dormitory, first cracking his back and loosening his limbs after the long walk. "Ahhhh. Not many ways faster to travel that far. Now, I've been informed by Janira, you'll meet Janira, that it's 'inappropriate' and 'weird' to burst into your rooms in the middle of the night and ask riddles by wayfinder light, so I'll just have to get to know you through what other people think counts as training."
"I'll have Nixoret get you in the morning."
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"Curiosity is even more intoxicating when you are told NOT to do something" Kalla sighs "So telling us about this amazement of these hedges but making me stare at Dawn's boots is torture, just so you know Drandle, which by by the fact I can almost Feel you smiling, you already do." but she manages to keep her eyes down.
She finds a bunk in the dorm, farthest from the wall, at maybe away from a bursting riddling maker.
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Dawn is amazed by the portal and strange maze they travel through. The spiritual energy in the place feels different than that of the real world, and like Kalla, she finds herself eager to explore, though she follows Drandle's instructions.
Once in the dorms, the dwarf smiles and claims a bunk. "Can you believe it? We're actually going to be bona fide Pathfinders! So exciting!"
"And people say no good deed goes unpunished." Kalla smiles back, knowing the dwarf as well as her did what they did out of wanting to help, not for this field commission they got dangled in front of their faces early on. "Well, unless this training they mention is like punishment, more of Hey This is REALLY KEEN, but don't look, don't touch, don't even think about it... Sigh, that was hard." she flounces on her bunk, realizes doing so with a bastard sword on her back was a bad idea so spends a couple moments swearing, disarming and armoring and slips off her glasses, then re-flounces. "Better." she sighes.
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As the party stirs, they see a small hunched over shape standing by the door. Upon hearing the first sounds of rustling behind him, Nixoret stands straight and whirls about to allow the group to take in all one meter of his imposing figure.
The party sees a kobold whose navy scales seem to greedily suck in the rooms light, pitch black horns on either side of his head seem to crackle with the slightest hint of electricity. Underneath his tattered coat, you can see a belt littered with an overwhelming assortment of crudely carved talismans, pickled varmint parts, and other items that seem to belong more in a rubbish bin than as an accessory.
Nix scowls in turn at each member of group, although keen observers may note his affect seems forced as though his intimidation is papering over a well of self consciousness.
"Finally, Drandle didn't tell me that you initiates would need so much beauty sleep" He barks at no member in particular
"I've read the report of your... adventures in Iobaria, I'm not sure how the venture captain expects me to keep you alive, but we'll see what I can do. Seriously, almost killed by Flaming Skulls and nobody thought to use positive energy? For f@&*s sake, you had a paladin of Iomadae with you." Nix seems to be lost in thought for a second, pondering the sheer absurdity. "But I digress, take what ever time you need to prepare for the day and we'll see if we can make real pathfinders out of you"
Rolling out of bed, Laszlo salutes the kobold briefly before turning to his bag. "Good morning... um, sir? You must be Nixoret, Venture-Captain Drandle said you would be coming. Oh, that mixup was an unfortunate misunderstanding on my part!" While repacking his bag, he seems to undo his efforts just as quickly, pulling out sheafs of notes and diagrams. "I mistook the fire elementals for Flaming Skulls. Mostly on account of their flaming skulls. I believe Rising Dawn did attempt to use vital energies and that backfired, heh backFIRE, Dragbog would have appreciated that. I should have some notes about that somewhere here... unless I handed them over with my notes about the monolith..." Eventually, between the blather and the chaos, Laszlo manages to get himself put together and ready to go. "Well, then, where are we off to? I'm excited to start on a new adventure!"
Kalla was battling a yawn that could crack open her skull when she sees the splendidly scaled one. She starts to smile wide but then he starts to talk "Wait, we did fine remaining alive ourselves, especially given what we knew about the situation!" the young woman snaps a bit, since it is morning and she does not handle being berated well no matter dark gleam of the kobold's scales.
Sajan ignores the jab and smiles at Nixoret, "It's good to meet you, Nixoret. I'm confident these recruits will excel at training."
Nixoret leads you to a briefing room in Skyreach, the primary fortress of the Pathfinder Society's Grand Lodge. Banners adorn the walls of this impressive meeting room. Symbols of dozens of groups emblazon the banners, but overshadowing them all is an enormous tapestry at the hall's front depicting the Pathfinder Society emblem: the Glyph of the Open Road.
Drandle Dreng, saunters into the room from a door at the opposite end of a large table. He doesn’t bother taking a seat at the table, instead pacing around while he speaks. "Slept well? Good. I’ll keep this brief; this isn't a field assignment, but Nixoret here is due to go through the last trials before his Confirmation as a full field agent, and even if you're getting field commissions you could all learn a thing or two from what the three deans have to teach! If you'd gotten to go through training, then you'd know this, but we put our trainees through three schools: Scrolls, which handle the stuffy academic things, study of languages, history, and a lot of the ways you can mess with magic without having a lick of it yourself; Spells, which teaches eldritch skills and how to disrupt hostile magic; and Swords, which focuses on tactics and physical skills like disarming traps and overcoming obstacles. You should go too Sajan, no need to let those skills get too dulled!" Dreng ends with a brief self-laugh.
"You’ll want to go see each of the deans at your convenience. I place you in Nixoret's capable hands, and the deans' after that. May fortune be with you all." With his delivery complete, Valsin makes way for the exit. "Oh... yes, try to put on a good show, yeah? I'll be checking up on you."
Kreighton Shaine's office is the closest, so thither you go!
Within the Master of Scroll's office, Kreighton Shaine awaits you, standing and bowing in a formal greeting before ushering you in and then through his office and down a flight of stairs to a nearby stable with carriages waiting.
Kreighton finally explains himself as the carriages get underway. "We're off to a facility in Absalom that the Society rents out and uses for training purposes. The location was formerly the domicile of a conjurer with some rather unpleasant plans. That got all sorted out, of course, but it's still conducive to summoning magic!"
As Shaine continues his explanation by going into detailed history of the building's previous owners and their relatives, the carriages come to a halt outside an abandoned locksmith's shop in the Coins district of Absalom. Shaine exits the carriage and quickly unlocks the front door, gesturing to a dusty glass‑fronted cabinet in the main room, which opens to reveal a descending staircase.
The Master of Scrolls steps briskly down the stairwell into a worked stone dungeon. Ambient light comes from two glowing patterns on the floor, but Shaine doesn’t pause for these curiosities. After a short trip northeast and down another flight of stairs, he halts in a long chamber containing more of the glowing circles. Two circles rest at either end, with others in nooks along the northern wall. The circles come in five colors; red, blue, green, yellow, and violet, with each of the five nooks featuring a different color.
"This whole dungeon is really an interesting place, and it's worth exploring in full sometime, but that's not what this trial is about. No, I’m not interested in seeing you untangle traps and unlock doors. This isn’t about what you can do or your physical skills. I'm grading you on what you know. Each of the northern circles is a two‑way teleportation device. Four of them, all but the green one in the center, are currently active. Stepping inside an active circle brings you to a matching circle elsewhere in this dungeon, and waiting in the vicinity of each of these is a summoned creature. Four creatures, of four different types. Each of them has an amulet you have to retrieve for me. But this isn’t just a brute force test of forcing them to hand it over! No, no. This is the Trial of Scrolls, and we do things with more... finesse."
Shaine smiles and twiddles with the petals of one of his flowers before recalling that he should perhaps explain himself. "I'll ask you for a the amulet of a specific creature. You find it and retrieve the amulet without just battering or killing it. Once you bring me an amulet I'll give you the next clue. Ready?" He looks about expectantly, clearly excited to begin.
"Our first subject is a protean, a creature of the Maelstrom that thrives on raw entropy. Proteans are interested in acts of both creation and destruction... So go get me their amulet!"
Dawn had welcomed different spirits into her orbit earlier this morning, apparitions with ties to the fey courts and the earth and flames. As she listens to Shaine's explanation of their task, her eyes light up at the thought of meeting strange beings from other planes of existence.
"We shall complete these tasks for you, Master Shaine," she says with a smile.
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"No need to be so formal, young one. Just call me Master Shaine."
Sajan pauses for a moment to consider the portals and the nooks. "Well, unless any of you know something I don't, I suggest we try the blue portal."
With a slight schlorping sound you quickly find yourself elsewhere! A matching blue circle glows on the ground, and by the look of the walls and taste of the air, you suspect you're in the same building.
"Did it work?!"
Also, apparently Shaine is still in shouting distance.
In the room, which with so many of you crammed into it feels a bit like a closet, a statue of a human woman decorates the northwest corner of this chamber, beside a glowing blue pedestal.
Waiting there with a leering grin is a tiny winged being. He's thin, wiry, and green, with ram horns curling back from his twisted head.
"Well hello," he oozes with insincere pleasantness, "So kind of you to finally make your way here. I'm Kenewara, don't need your names. Did you have to see everyone else first? Let's get this over with. No you can't have my amulet." He peers at you all, eagerly awaiting your response.
"We don't want your stupid amulet, you rancid demon. If we weren't just ordered to try other methods, I would smash your limbs into paste before sending you back to the abyss." pure rage lace Kalla's words. Life near the worldwound has branded layers of hate inside her for these creatures.
"Ahhh C'mon! Hit me! Or- or trick me or something!" the demon pouts. "I mean, if, you'll never get the amulet from me!! I'm gonna fight you so hard!!"
Laszlo puts a hand on Kalla's shoulder, "It's not worth it, it's just admitted it is dumb enough we can easily trick it once we're asked for whatever we need from it. Let's try another portal, how about violet? That feels very Protean to me. Well as much as any color really."
With a pair of schlorps you return to Master Shaine, and thence travel through the portal into a nearly empty chamber with a single stone plinth covered in a purple drape. Atop that plinth perches a tiny bright red creature with batlike wings and a whipping scorpion's tail lashing behind her in boredom. As you appear she looks up from where she had been toying with an amulet, a gleam of interest showing in her eyes.
"Well well well, don't you all look eager. Tell me, now that you've come to my neck of the woods, what can I do for you? Let's start with names, you are?"
"This one's a devil, yes?" Kalla says to her companions not the devil "I've never seen an imp but there are plenty of tales about them due to having so many Hellknights around for so long."
In response to the query Sajan simply says, "Not interested." Turning to his companions, "An imp, to be specific. On to green?"
The imp scoffs, "No need to be rude about it. I do have feelings." She smiles. "And you'll be coming back my way soon enough besides..."
***
***
Several other glowing circles dot this hall’s length, and magical script lines the floor, which Laszlo recognizes as the anchor for rudimentary preservation magic to keep the area clean.
A tiny iridescent serpent flits excitedly back and forth examining the walls, the air shimmering around it as if from heat. Excited by your arrival it floats up to you with a broad smile. "Helllllloooooooo?"
Sajan lets out a chuckle at the team's bad luck, "Well at least we know where to find the protean." After a pause he continues, "Remind me to ask if the portal destinations are fixed."
"This being is what we were sent to find," Dawn says. She bows respectfully to the strange chaos-worm. "Hail, spirit. We have been tasked with recovering an amulet you possess. What must be do to receive it?"
"I've heard whispers of creatures like this spoken through the line of protectors of the dark under Absalom." Nixoret mutters under his breath just loud enough for his party members to hear him. His brow furrows as he wracks the nooks and crannies of his mind for snippets of information about denizens of the maelstrom
"Everything here stays so staid and static! I want to see something become more interesting! Make something more things - lots more things!" the voidworm wriggles in delight at the idea. "More entropy!"
Kalla reaches into her jacket pocket to pull out a sausage roll from breakfast she had decided might be a good snack later. When someone gives her a look, she shrugs "You never know." but then looks down to the snake-thing.
"We could leave this here, a simple thing but it will grow, things will get into it, lay eyes, writhe out, making it a thing that becomes much more interesting and lots as time passes." she looks to the smarter folk that knows things about snake things to see if this makes sense.
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Sajan pauses for a moment to a consider the request. Without having much at hand, Sajan reaches into his pack and pulls out a piece of chalk. Focusing his Ki for a moment, Sajan dashes around the room in a blur dragging the chalk along the wall in a random pattern.
When Sajan stops his blurring form slowly comes into focus just in time to reveal him hurling a crackling bottle at his artwork.
Laszlo's eyes light up at the casual chaos Sajan has created. Immediately, he paws at his potions and pulls out a vial, preparing to change it to an acid and join in on the fun. He stops though before completing the change, eyeing the mixture speculatively.
Looking to the Protean, he instead holds the vial out, following Kalla's lead. "I don't know if this will be of use to you, but this vial is not just one thing. To me, it is the beginning of many things. With an effort of will, it can be a bomb, or a healing potion, or a mutagen that makes me a being of fire or ice or electricity or base acid. I would gladly offer it to you in exchange for your amulet, but I would not cheat you either. Outside of my presence these vials tend to lose efficacy, but perhaps in the presence of an being of change like yourself, you can instead make it more."
The voidworm tilts their head as they attempt to follow Kalla's idea, eventually getting to an angle extreme enough to force their head to slowly slide down to a new home on their body, but Sajan's sudden rush of destruction captures their attention and they stream through the air, weaving themselves into patterns that clearly should have gotten them stuck at some point.
"Yess!! Like that!!! The bottle is so many parts now!!" The amulet slides off their tale and falls to the ground with a clank.
"Now I'll get back to watching the walls change! Good luck!"
***
Kreighton Shaine gratefully accepts the amulet and then gives you your next clue. "The lowliest of all demons has an amulet. Particularly wicked spellcasters actually break off a piece of their soul and form it into a minion."
***
"Praise Lamashtu, you're back!" gurgles Kenewara impatiently. "Well?!"
Before heading through the portal, Laszlo catches Kalla's attention. "That imp seemed particularly contrary, but also somewhat lonely. What if we were to convince him that we were not there to take the amulet, but to ensure it was safely ensconced before we shut down the portal network? I suspect he would be most incensed and practically force it on us. But I'm not a particularly good trickster, some part of me always gives me away. Do you think you could sell that line to him?"