Zalamandra's eyes keep flitting between Zeech and to the silverware arrayed around his plate as Smenk makes his tirade and the tyrant tries to smooth things over.
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Zalamandra eats the jelly, though she also delays until the other guests have started eating. "I wonder, which brave souls killed this particular worm? They are not the most docile of prey." She smiles at the offered drink but does not partake.
Zalamandra tries to pick up on social clues, but is quite unaware despite Eben's attempt to help her.
She makes a show of enjoying Zeech's food.
Zalamandra tenses up at Eben's choice of subject matter, but swiftly relaxes when she realizes he can't possibly be referring to her easygoing leadership style. She claps once he's finished.
Zalamandra falters slightly, but tries to cover when Hemriss again shuts her down. "Oh, I'm sure it was no one important. When one comes to a new city, one tries to catch up on the local gossip, but there's always a risk that the lower-class embellishes on the truth." She smiles her best smile, perturbed that the silence around her draws out so long.
Zalamandra eats of the main course, but only sips her wine - she's not looking to get drunk. She continues speaking with Shag, reminiscing about old times and the strange circumstances that brought them both here. It's not that she's giving Hemriss the cold shoulder, but she's not making any more efforts to appease her temper.
Zalamandra smiles at Hemriss as she sits down. "A pleasure to be able to continue our conversation. I'm afraid I'm not up to date on the royalty of Redhand - what do you occupy your days with, if I may ask?" She carefully considers her worm before eating, taking cues from Hemriss and Shag alternately.
She also makes sure to help in the buttering-up department, smiling big as she finishes the first course. "Please deliver my appreciation to your cook, Prince Zeech. A divine application of spices. How historically-minded of you to respect this tradition!" She also turns to Shag at one point during the meal. "I must remember to compliment you on your choice of attire for tonight. Did you design the outfit yourself?"
The party notices Zalamandra approaching Hemriss, the Prince's supposed daughter. She inclines her head in a brief bow before speaking. "Greetings, Lady Hemriss. I don't think we've had the pleasure of a proper introduction. My name is Zalamandra. This is quite an extravagant party, by my standards. What do you think of it?"
Zalamandra takes her shots, but misses all three. It seems she did give it an honest try, but simply isn't martially trained.
Zalamandra has been pointedly occupied chatting with a servant since the party arrived, but her eyes flit over to appraise the scene when Mahuudril makes her appearance. A cat's smile curls over her lips as she claps her hand, shooing the servant away after handing her a slip of paper. "Ah, Balabar my dear! What a surprise to see you again!" She strides to intercept the oncoming entourage with the morbid certainty of a seasoned farmhand moving to block a runaway horse from the wheat field. She glances at Tanith and gives a wink. "Balabar Smenk, in the flesh! You know, when I heard you'd 'passed,' I assumed it was a sort of figurative way of saying, like perhaps the old bastard has passed some truly noxious flatulence. But here you are! I hope you don't hold any hard feelings about what happened last time we saw each other. If nothing else, we should remember that old saying: What happens in Diamond Lake, stays in Diamond Lake and slowly leaches out into the Mistmarsh, slowly polluting it with acids and metals until it is no longer safe for humanoid life!" She laughs, a glass-like sound. "And Mr. Filge! So long since we saw each other. How are the studies going? Are you getting the materials you need?" After going in to shake Filge's hand and give Smenk a one-shouldered hug, she gives Mahuudril a bow. "Zalamandra of Diamond Lake. Pleasure to be acquainted, m'lady."
Zalamandra picks up the sash that Carina identified. "This belt could be quite useful to me, if its thoughts weren't so monotonously prejudiced. Protection from magic seems to be at a premium whenever Spiny's Six stumbles into a battle. I can carry it until we have time to sell these finds." She tightens it around her waist, letting the beard grow out for a few seconds before quickly undoing the knot. "Oh, goodness. Eben, you'll prefer not to know what it thinks of you. Neither do the rest of you, really. Carina, it thinks you could be a handsome gnome if you weren't so tall." She smiles ruefully.
Zalamandra takes a little more time to exit the Deluxury, having first enjoyed a luxurious shave and then a warm bath. ("If there are any Triad left, it's best for them not to know we've found their magic item storehouse based on the evidence that we've taken the racism belt of facial hair. Like, at least let it be a cool item.") "Hello there, Sir Sapphire, is it? I don't recall that we've had the pleasure of acquainting." She seems to read his body language and goes in for a light hug, kiss, and a handshake. "I am Zalamandra, a priso- guest of Prince Zeech's for some days this last week. What are we discussing? The Great Project? Have you noticed also its similarities to the Spire of Long Shadows?"
"I am inclined to agree," Zalamandra says. "When were our hairdressing appointments, again?" She rubs her eyes and pushes some strands out of her face. "Anyone who hasn't already done so should get a bath nowish."
Zalamandra reports her disappointing acquittal to the rest of the party over breakfast that morning. "It seemed much easier when I was recognizing individual symbols . . . But I don't know nearly enough about this language to actually translate it." "Going there nude would certainly cause a commotion. I think Eben's suggestion is going to get us the best reception when we actually get there, though. And we don't know if we can use Prince Zeech's baths, either."
Zalamandra calls, "Anyone who wants to stay a bit longer can go back with me. Now that the monster is dead and the Angels don't seem to have divined our presence, I was hoping to decipher the avolakia inscriptions." She sets about doing that.
Zalamandra gasps, then shouts down, "You two need to get the hell out of there! Grin, where'd you get off to?" She flies down a little ways and inscribed a rune in the air, saying, "Förhasta!" Cuetzpalli, Tanith, and Carina all feel the effects of time-altering magic settling over them.
Zalamandra doesn't hear the whispered conversation, but she does let out a little scoff when Astraden disappears. "I hope our invisible friends realize that I'm not going to be able to just grab them and teleport if things go south, here," she says to Carina and Tanith (at a conversational volume, so as to reduce the chance the Overgod Overhears). She clenches and unclenches her fist, unconsciously bunching up the edge of her cloak.
Message response: "They do seem pliable. If you want to test our luck, you could foretell another hundred years of sleep. I detest the Angels more than the rest of you, but I don't think this whole 'wretched city' deserves whatever collateral fate the Overgod would visit upon it."
Zalamandra whispers something to Farrukh, crouching to keep at least part of her body covered by the lip of the shaft. Farrukh or DC 25 Perception: "Astraden wants you to try to open the wall behind the Overgod. Apparently there is a seam. She also - wait a moment - she wants you to tell us if you want her help. She says you probably want her help. Also this was all apparently Cuetzpalli's idea."
Zalamandra is still massaging her forehead. "He keeps pulling cards, even when he's already winning . . . this is just like the Moonmeadow-three dragon ante fiasco. But losing a potential customer is not the greatest risk in this situation." She climbs up into the vertical shaft, taking cover.
"Good luck," Zalamandra says, belated. "That doesn't particularly lighten my trepidation, Tanith. If avolakia have been here, they could have secreted away all kinds of horrors."
Zalamandra gives a helpless shrug. Her expression is one of exasperation and nervous energy. She looks at Tanith and Carina. "I sincerely hope you are right. But this Aspect is much worse than that we faced in the caves below Diamond Lake. Combined with those runes . . . I'm not so sure it was the best idea to break in here in the first place. It's terribly old."
Farrukh or DC 25 Perception: Zalamandra continues pointing at Farrukh and mumbling. She keeps flinching whenever particularly large rocks fall from the ceiling, jumping a few inches in midair. "Try to be encouraging. At the worst it'll feel the need to impress upon us just how threatened it feels. At best you'll improve your rapport."
"Might you also examine it more closely? If it is a construct, that would be useful information."
Zalamandra curls a frown in disappointment and pinches the skin of her forehead. "So much unnecessary elaboration. You'd think Farrukh was dead at the time, too, and hasn't even come back yet . . ." she replies to Carina. After a moment, she bites her lip and sends a message down. Farrukh or DC 25 Perception: "If it responds positively, perhaps you might suggest that Eben is our leader. That allows you to remove yourself from the conversation gracefully. But, somehow I doubt we will get to that stage."
Zalamandra twists a piece of copper wire in her hands, muttering something under her breath and pointing towards Farrukh. Farrukh or DC 25 Perception:
"I suggest we remain discreet in this instance. Let it explain itself to us, without offering any information to contradict its impression of you. You might ask, 'Why would we not return? Are we not loyal?', though do some sort of obeisance as you say the latter. Checking . . ." She bends her neck towards Carina and Astraden, whispering, "What is the proper display of fealty to an Ebon Aspect?"
"Notably, it's odd that they don't seem to have even tried to take the statue apart. One would assume such an insult to Zeech's ideals would be destroyed within a day. Maybe they are afraid of it?" Zalamandra replies to Tanith.
Zalamandra regards the statue with a frown, not quite sharing Astraden's conviction. "Well, I suppose someone goes to investigate it, then? Should we summon a monster or should we simply saddle Farrukh with the task?" She hangs back with Grin, casting a few protections of her own.
Zalamandra shrugs. "You scared a cat and some children were looking your way. I haven't seen the Angels, though I didn't want to get close enough to watch your act in the beginning. I'm much too familiar a face." She makes a face as if listening to someone shouting far away, responding not to Eben but to another. "If you're ready, I am as well." Zalamandra takes Eben's hand, twists it around into non-space, and pulls the two of them out into the dark space around the pit in Sinner's Sanctum. She is careful to place them so they have at least a little cover from the hangman golem chamber.
Zalamandra surveys the neighborhood. Are people moving about, beyond the terror-stricken blind man? Is there even any reaction to him?
Zalamandra lags behind the group, intoning a brief incantation. Mysterious spellcasting DC 19: She then returns to fall in beside Carina. "You've been quiet, darling. Something troubling you?"
"Also, we are going back to the Deluxury before we pull off this wild plan, right? No insult to Eben or Astraden, but I am not going back to the clinker without having at least an hour of relaxation first."
Zalamandra matches Miomay's melody, if not her particular rhythm, with an ease that belies years of what passes for refined parties in the upper crust of Diamond Lake. "That would be most appreciated, Miomay. We should like to engage his services most promptly. We will be certain to avoid disturbing the weave of his majyyks." She offers her hand, giving a delicate shake. "Incidentally, I do believe Astraden skipped over a proper introduction. Zalamandra."
"I didn't have an opportunity to see any other prisoners, but I did get some useful information." Zalamandra describes her encounters with Mara on the walk back to the Deluxury. "'I am sure that all this will prove a worthy investment indeed,' she said. Perhaps she just means it was worth keeping me locked up while you were embroiling yourselves in trouble out here, but I have to wonder if she doesn't mean something about Zeech in particular. Is it possible that the Angels want us to fight? That they're just after his soul? It's quite the classic infernal contract, in that case." "And one could be concerned about what happens to us after we've done their dirty work. If it was his orders holding them back from reprisal . . ."
". . . What?" Zalamandra seems to focus on Eben, staring very intently at his forehead like a cat at a mouse hole, for a full two seconds at least. Then she breaks into a cackle. "Good for her."
"Babysitting? How did that go?" Zalamandra asks as she heads towards the doors, blatantly not saying goodbye to Mara. "Was it good practice? For when you and Lowri, shall we say, adopt?" Zalamandra raises an eyebrow.
Zalamandra makes a dramatic bow, then stands expectantly, creasing her eyebrows at Spiny's Six. "Yes, hello, let's not all rush to welcome me back to the number of the unimprisoned." She opens her arms and gestures for a hug, grinning. Sense Motive DC 22:
Whatever happened to Zalamandra while she was in the Aerie, she doesn't want to talk about it here. She's affecting this demeanor, not wanting to give Mara the pleasure of seeing how ruffled she is. She then addresses Mara. "It feels quite just that Prince Zeech allowed my release on almost exactly the same day I would've been freed before, prior to the reschedule of the Banquet date. A clever deal, in that he seems to have gotten a free service from Spiny's Six in the bargain." She turns back to her companions. "Who did you kill, now? An undead dragon and some slime oozes?"
"She means figuratively. Figuratively creating anarchy," Zalamandra tells Mara.
"Our group goes free, save for myself, who will be imprisoned in an antimagic cell in the Aerie as security. The six of you better not get me executed, or I will totally reincarnate as a full rakshasa and make you miserable." Zalamandra gestures back-handedly to the Angels. "No more attacking the Alhaster government, is the main thing. And yes, this cellar is apparently restricted ground, and we will not be able to return and continue our investigation here." "I don't know what happened upstairs, either . . ."
Zalamandra steadies Carina with a hand on her shoulder. "We accept those terms," she says, her words echoing into the message. "I'd love to go along with you ladies back to the Aerie, if for no other reason than that I'd rather not pay for bail." She grins, and her form slowly fades back into visibility.
"I agree - those terms are unacceptable. If my only aim was self-preservation, I would already have seen to it. A counter-proposal: You immediately accept bail of 5,000 gold orbs per person, take 1 of our number into custody as security, and immediately teleport outside of the building. If you accept these terms, we will immediately cease hostilities and vacate this area after giving bail," Zalamandra says, heard by both those downstairs and Cuetzpalli upstairs (through the message). She also whispers to Cuetzpalli, Eben, and Tanith, "It will be a lot harder to get Lashonna's information if we can't cleanly resolve this, one way or another. I'm not saying to attack them halfway - but we either have to be lucky enough to take them out quickly, or surrender soon."
Zalamandra lets out a curse as the blade cuts deep to her ribs. "I can't take another one of those," she says, invisibly doubling over in pain. She looks to the devil who attacked her. "What guarantees do we have if we surrender?"
The invisible Zalamandra sneaks underneath the flying baatezu, coming up behind Carina. She's overconfident in her safety, unaware that the devils can see past illusions, and whispers over the message: "Carina, I can take us out of here. Do you want to leave?"
Zalamandra runs after the rest of the group. "I'm here."
She summons two orbs of glowing light, which float in slow circles away from the stairs.
Cellar: "They're in something called Avolakia, Cuetzpalli," Zalamandra says as she turns back to regard the hole in the ceiling. "I'm . . . not sure what they're doing up there. But it seems they are not being discreet any more. It would be prudent to investigate."
Basement: Zalamandra examines the pictographs.
But her work is interrupted. A rectangular pillar of concrete about 1-1/2 feet by 1 foot by 15 feet suddenly falls out of the ceiling in the other room, collapsing into several discrete blocks when it lands on the ground.
Cellar hellar: "Only if we think we know enough about this Mother Maggot and the conspirators. But seeing as we've only found a pile of animated rope and some worms so far, further searching seems necessary."
The Pit of Despair: "Remind me, who can walk on air, sprout wings, or levitate, and who needs a spell from me?" Zalamandra asks.
Cellar: ". . . We're going to do this to every object in this dungeon."
Belowground: "Well, that went well. I was about to say, don't use magic on this, but you four already had that well under control." Zalamandra eyes the hangman golem's body. "Not sure why it was filled with paint. But I don't know of any reason the stuff on your sword would be dangerous, Cuetzpalli."
She points a foot towards the now-open entry. "Should we continue?"
Cellar Dwellers:
Zalamandra yaps through a string of syllables, and as she reappears to visibility glowing red runes have gathered around her front right paw. She raises this, doing a classic pointer stance, and barks at the monster. Two rays of concentrated fire streak towards the rope monster.
Cellar: Zalamandra jumps in shock when the ropes first twitch, then quickly recomposes herself. "How in the world did you figure that out, Eben?"
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