"Anything that will cause that thing anguish is worth a try." Kalla agrees.
"KeneDara, happily we have been told this exercise is old, and we can shut it all down. The primordial one and the devil are plenty enough for new finders. We're just here to see if the amulet is still with you so we can seal it in this dank nothing you will now spend the rest of eternity in, Alone, with nothing interesting coming by ever again." there is a delicious joy in her voice that is not faked at all.
"No!! I have the amulet right here! Why would you- was I not making it hard enough to get the amulet off me?" You've got to give me another chance," she stammers.
" You want another chance? Shaine seemed pretty adamant that you weren't adding anything of value to this trial and that he is done putting up with a "whiney sniveling imp"..." Nixoret taps his right foot absentmindedly against the floor and does his best to seem to be lost in thought pondering how he could help this poor imp out.
I am friends with the Dean of Spells though, I bet I can convince her to use you in one of her trials if you'd prefer not to rot away in a solitary void. We'll still need to seal away the amulet, but we can just throw it in a pocket dimension for you and we'll come back and let you know if Sorrina will take you on Nix helpfully offers the imp, and confidently reaches his hand out to the imp for him to place the amulet
"Great! Great! Sure!" The quasit* hands over the amulet in a panic. "Just uhh... let me know soon, okay?"
***
"That was much faster!" Master Shaine says with a smile. "Well, next clue: A devil is in this dungeon, a weak but cunning scion of Hell. Those of her kind love make deals and frequently serve as assistants to unwise spellcasters. Well? Off you go."
***
The imp gives you a languorous smile. "Back for little old me? Shall we make a deal then? I'll give you the amulet, and you get a little extra luck for the next hour. So long as you're careful, there's no cost to you. I just get the right of first refusal for that hour in case of anything untimely."
"Well that sounds excellent, much more straightforward than the others have been. We will most likely take you up on your offer..." Laszlo's grin becomes slightly predatory. "We should probably nail down some terms first, though. After all, more luck doesn't make it clear if I would get good luck or bad luck. And of course, untimely is far too vague. If I won a coin flip that I wouldn't have, well that is technically an untimely coin flip, but I'm not sure if that would justify anything covered by 'right of first refusal'. Hold on, I'm sure I have some parchment here, we can get this ironed out to everyone's satisfaction." As usual, he begins a frenetic expedition into his bag for the proper tools.
"Sure we can't just mug him?" Kalla isn't trying to be intimidating, just disliking having to talk to devils and demons (especially demons). So the question is really posed to the others.
"Oh yes, yes that all sounds perfectly fine to me," the imp says sweetly, happily agreeing to Laszlo's changes. Laszlo feels a slight shiver as the contract settles onto his soul. The imp sighs, hands over the amulet, and disappears.
***
"Oh my!" Kreighton exults, "That was even faster and- Err... You didn't take the imp's contract, did you?"
Laszlo hands him a sheet of parchment.
"Well actually, yes sir, in a manner. Here are a copy of the terms that I agreed to. If it's not a problem, I would prefer to wait out the remainder of the hour here in your presence. I have full faith in the rest of the party to accomplish any further tasks you might have for us. Oh and if you are concerned about any long term effects on my soul for having dealt with devils... I have served a very evil many for a very long time, I am sure I'm indelibly stained. If I can shield my companions from such a fate, even in something a simple as a trial like this, then it is of no consequence to me."
After a beat, Laszlo's cheery demeanor returns.
"Perhaps we can discuss ways to provide that poor quasit with better social outlets. He seems in dire need of companionship."
Master Shaine rolls his eyes. "I always summon the quasits last and it never helps. She'd been in there for less than an hour before you arrived; the demon can cope." He pauses. "Err, you did already know she was the demon, yes?"
More seriously he continues. "As to the imp. If you were concerned, then you should know that that will be scored as a success, but I do think that you were foolish in a greater sense. Shortcuts sometimes present themselves out in the field, and it's up to each agent to determine which costs are worth paying for gold, knowledge, or acclaim." He shakes his head sorrowfully. "I would not hope that any of my pupils would wager their very souls on any but the direst of tasks for our Society. As slight as this risk is, is any chance of your soul's damnation worth a point on an exam?"
Kreighton lets his words rest for a moment. "Now I have half a mind to end the exercise right now, but... which one's left again?" He quickly goes through a small scroll, lips moving as he finds his place. "Oh, the inevitable is the only one left? Fine, you can finish. But then you aren't taking another step towards another exercise until that pact is up! I'll find a senior agent to watch you for the hour too, just in case."
"But... oh yes, the last clue: A being of law and order has one of my amulets, It's one of the least of the inevitables, aeons bound tightly by rules and constraints."
***
You plunge through the final active portal into a room that was clearly once a confluence of the various portals that pepper this dungeon, as all five colors of glyph are symmetrically arranged here. Only the red circle in the southeastern corner is currently activated. In the precise center of the room, slowly revolving, waits a winged sphere of bronze and copper set with a single eye.
"Greetings. I should inform you that I have been instructed not to hand over the amulet."
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Nixoret turns to his companions and whispers loud enough for them to hear "Looks like this inevitable is an arbiter, as you might guess, there rules are specific and [pauses] rather arbitrary"
Nix step forwards and addresses the aeon "Arbiter, you have been instructed not to "Hand over the amulet", my monk friend here is quite dexterous, I see nothing in your instructions that would forbid you from allowing him to obtain the amulet from you with ... his feet" Nix turns back to his companions and waggles his scaly eyebrows, clearly very pleased with himself that his has found this loophole and excited to see the monk have to deal with his preposterous plan
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With an eyebrow raised Sajan looks at Nixoret, "Why my feet? It seems likely I can simply take it from him... with my hands."
Nix lets out an exasperated sigh "He can't _hand_ over the amulet, therefore no hands"
Sajan's eyes narrow before he lets out a sigh. "Fine. I'll see what I can do."
Sajan leans forward, placing his hands on the ground and kicking into a handstand. Then, with great care, he hand-walks toward the inevitable and carefully arches his back, pushing his feet forward to grab the amulet.
The monocular monadist makes no mention of the monk's miraculous mobility. It just blinks and foots over the amulet. "Our business is complete."
***
"Excellent, excellent!" Master Shaine cheers at your successes. "Full marks all around, your indiscretion in judgment notwithstanding. After all, it would be churlish to deny you the points you purchased so dearly!"
He gestures to a hulking nagaji at his side, who apparently joined him while you tarried with the aeon.
"This is Narayan Singh. He is between assignments, and has consented to guard your life for the remainder of the hour, Mister Csoka, and to do his level best to seize fast your soul and strike down any psychopomps or devils who attempt to make off with it should some unforeseen disaster strike."
"Hello friends," Narayan gives Sajan, something resembling a respectful nod, then beams at the whole of the party. The snake-man's fangy grin is... unsettling, but seems entirely heartfelt. His jaw juts out over a very short neck, which with his broad shoulders gives him a somewhat squat appearance even though he stands comfortably over 6' tall. "Do not worry. Even againsst the forsses of the Whisspering Tyrant, it was far more than an hour before any of my companions were sstolen by death. Thiss time should passs much more ssafely. Do you know any games?"
***
***
After an hour that passes in safety, Narayan bids you all farewell with hearty embraces, and directs you on to the office of Sorrina Westyr, the Master of Spells.
Sorrina leads you thence from her neatly kept office to a training hall within Skyreach. An odd array of magical fixtures fill this spacious chamber: a wooden platform floats in the air halfway down the hall, a fountain spewing violet water sits in one corner, a wooden scaffolding holding fake walls in place creates a miniature room within the larger chamber, and several doors leading out the sides of the hall have glowing runes upon their surfaces.
"What I have here for you is essentially an obstacle course," says Sorrina, a note of pride in the oread's voice. "Each part of the course represents a different sort of challenge you'd possibly encounter in an actual mission. I’ll only award your final scoring for this trial when everyone has overcome the challenges. So, think of this as a group assignment."
Sorrina gestures to a long table holding a closed satchel. "You aren’t expected to take on all the tasks we have available here. I’ll be assigning you three of them. Your satchel contains a set of tools, including some magical items you would otherwise be unable to access from our storerooms. There should be an item or two that can help overcome all of the possible challenges. Your task is to decide which of these tools suits your group in besting the challenges you’ve been given. Some tools might be more appropriate in certain challenges than others, and some might seem useless for your particular tasks, but there’s no ‘correct’ answer here. I’m observing and grading your creativity and success, not seeing if you’d do something the same way that I might in the same circumstances.
[b]"For the first challenge: sooner or later, you’ll need to ascend somewhere you can’t climb, or battle a flying opponent. Test your skills on a tall platform. For the second: You'll soon discover that not all doors are open to you, and some are much harder to get past than others. Test yourselves against the unyielding door. For your third challenge, remember that you don’t always have to fight your enemies. Sometimes it’s much, much wiser to sneak past them. Just be quiet as you cross the chamber of the slumbering dragon."
She smiles in anticipation. "You may open your satchel now. Any questions?"
"Do we get to use all the items, or should we attempt to do as you mentioned and try and get one or two items to fit each of the challenges?" Kalla leans in and eyes the lovely cloak. "Hmmm, and we all need to pass the challenges, yes?" she worries about keeping quiet as a group and does not look at Laszlo when she thinks that.
Sorrina nods gravely. "Yes. Success or failure will be judged as a group. You may use as many of the items as you wish, though I must request that they be returned once you are through."
Sorrina leads you all to a section of the room where a wooden platform sits overhead, suspended by four pillars of wood. She explains with an anticaptory air that "The challenge is for you all to make it on top of the platform, using your own skills and tools." Her smile is a challenge. "Without climbing the pillars."
The platform is 15 feet off the ground, 10 feet below the room’s ceiling, and no walls of the room are closer than 15 feet to any of its edges. It is surrounded by a railing on all sides.
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"Oh, easy" Nixoret pilfers through the satchel, pulls out the length of rope and walks just to the side of platform. Nix transfers the rope to his offhand and pulls out a tarnished mirror from his belt. The kobold deftly angles the mirror such that he can see platform, squints intently and is suddenly looking at his own reflection from atop the platform. Nix winks at himself and begins tying the rope to the railing on the platform. While helpful atop the platform, the instance of Nix on the ground seems to just be fiddling with a rope around nothing at all.
Upon completion of the knot, Nix throws the rope down over the edge of the platform which results in one rope dangling from the railing and one rope in a pile on the ground at Nixoret's feet. Delighted with his handy work, Nix reaches out and tugs on the hanging rope and/or thin air.
"Well, that's not going anywhere" he says puffing up his chest(s) as the version of Nix on the ground collapses in to a fine dust
"Are you coming?" He calls out to the party with a tongue throughly in his cheek
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Kalla looks up, then down, and then snorts out a laughing "What?!?"
"Haha! It looks like we gave up one Seelah in exchange for two Nixorets! That is most impressive, what else can you do with that fancy mirror?" So saying, he walks over and grabs a hold of the hanging rope. "Well, no time like the present. At least it has been over an hour so, if I fall and break my neck, I won't owe my soul to that nice imp Master Shaine had us work with."
"I... ummm... this is awkward, but I've not really had to climb anything like this before."
It takes a few tries and a few new blisters for some of the less physically gifted among you, but everyone is able to reach the platform in relatively short order.
"Excellent work as expected, Nixoret." Sorrina affirms with a smile. "Well, no sense in resting on your laurels. Shall we?"
Sorrina brings you next to a side of the hall where an elaborately staged darkwood door stands against a wall. Sorrina explains "Your task here is simply to open the door - a task that won’t be easy, given preparations that have been made to keep the door sealed."
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"Pretty door" Kalla says with a half-purring honesty. Slipping her rose glasses to her nose, she studies it up close. "Back before getting the opportunity to be an upstanding, me and mine might pinch past a door or two, but never one as chocolatey as this. It practically screams, look but don't touch."
Which is what she is truly checking for a the moment, whether they can touch and how much.
"I'm sure there are innumerable ways to secure a door, but we've been given thieves' tools, a scroll of dispel magic, and if all else fails an adamantine dagger. I think we'll make quick work of this." Sajan steps forward as if to reach for the door handle but stops himself and steps back for Kalla's inspection. "Right, examining first is wise."
Kalla's examination proves quite fruitful! Though the darkwood door is all but impervious to most force that a person can bring to bear, she notices that the lock itself seems to have been made out of lead - a much softer material. Furthermore, as she examines every inch of the door and its surroundings, she finds a tiny nail at the very top of the door with something metal, toothed, and invisible hanging from it.