As the blades slice through Zareth he disappears in a puff of smoke, only to reappear next to Kel. "I'm sorry, but I don't do business with people who try to kill me. Nothing personal."
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"No need to argue. It'll be over soon enough." Zareth gestures, and Tenja is surrounded by a bright cloud of scintillating colors, drawing them in.
"Fire? You must be the brains of the operation."
"Know anything about that?" asks Flamen. "Seems like a dangerous thing to me." "I prefer to stay away from dangerous artifacts, myself. I'd recommend you do the same."
"Well, might as well take a look. Gold's not going anywhere, after all." Zareth enters the library and begins looking through the papers, the faint form of an imp visible on his shoulder.
"Not well. There's no system at all." Hortense sounds hugely annoyed by that. "Anything in particular you're looking for? I might have better luck finding it." "Is this simple sibling rivalry? You seem uncommonly vindictive, even by our fine standards." The lean man from the library twirls a wand not unlike Zareth's own. "Let's just say that if you steal from family, that family is entirely justified in stealing from you and leave it at that. It's a bit of a sore subject."
"The difficulty is, Agera's brother, whether what you want and what we want overlap. Might cause a little conflict. How about you tell us what you're looking for?" "I wouldn't turn down some of her lore, but I'll be honest here. I need money more than I need knowledge. And you? It's so impolite to ask a question you wouldn't answer yourself."
"You're as surprised as I am. I just came to get was rightfully mine, I wasn't expecting competition." Zareth runs his hand along the marble fountain. "Of course, I doubt our motives are so dissimilar. Let's make a deal. We split the profits, we all walk out of here with what we want and no one has to hide any corpses."
His guards ready, Zareth pushes open the door and quietly steps inside. "Agera, dear, are you home? It's me, your brother." He waits for a moment, listening to the silence before turning to his companions with a rakish grin. "I guess she won't mind if we rob her blind while she's out, hmm?"
"Do you suppose they'd attack if Agera's brother walked in and asked for a cut of the profits in exchange for not calling the guards? I like to think that I'm a good enough actor to play the part."
"Agera's old house is closest and we know where it is unlike the other two options." "Kel's right, as painful as that is to say. Investigate where he's most likely to go first."
"Well, can't blame him for running off. Shouldn't be that hard to find him, at least." "We might want to check out Waldo's gambling 'buddies' as well." "Kel, perhaps it would be more tactful to talk about that when Waldo isn't right there."
Zareth sips his drink, absentmindedly floating his orb next to him. "Good to see Sir Waldo is so courteous to his guests. Truly a fine example of nobility."
Zareth breathes deeply of the dock air. "Ah, civilization. For certain definitions of the term, in any case. Come on, let's go rent a few rooms at the inn, we might be here a while.
"Relax, Kith." Zareth sits back and smiles, looking as happy as could be. "If we blamed ourselves for every crime we could have prevented, we'd be at fault for every theft from here to Hammerfast at the very least. Wake me when we get somewhere interesting, would you?"
"Just be quiet and try not to get shot."
"Andrus!" Zareth glowers, and the air is filled with a cacophony of vile whispers. "No one's getting out of here alive, you hear me?"
Zareth walks up to Andrus. "Hey. Get back up, we're not done yet." Meanwhile a coruscating cascade of colors appears in the fog near Tenja, drawing his foes away.
Spoiler:
Out in the swamps, a small mote of light drifts down. Then, a flash of light, and one archer is set aflame.
"No, you're all mistaken. We're going to stay in your heads as long as we damn well please." The shadows around Cap rise up, lashing out at any who come near. "Am I perfectly clear?"
"Great. We're going to have to row the rest of the way ourselves aren't we?" Zareth looks phenomenally annoyed as he readies his orb.
"You know, if you wanted to tag along you could have at least told us first." Zareth stands to the side, looking conspicuously disinterested in the countryside.
"Yeah, let's just leave. It won't do us any good to get our employer killed."
The envelope is addressed to Florence in a heavy, but elegant, hand. "Well, what do we have here?" Zareth looks over Andrus' shoulder, grabs the envelope from his hands and presents it to the servant. "I believe this is yours."
She smiles warmly at Zareth. "Of course. I'll just have to find some other way to get your attention." "Blatant flattery always works, my dear." Zareth turns back to Andrus. "Come now, you'd extort money from your best friend? Of course you would. Here." Zareth hands over the money.
"Except he never does sleep in. Up with the lark, always." "Well, I see no reason to not visit the Lordship one last time. We can't just leave without saying goodbye, can we?"
"Oh, it's fine." Zareth finally descends the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Nothing a little prestidigitation can't fix, in any case." "So, we're riding out, then? Lovely."
"My brother's a carpenter, if you need any work doing up at the Tor. I don't suppose the Stormcrows left it in good shape." "We could use a stonemason more than a carpenter, but I'm sure we could find something for him to do."
"Don't worry. Our actions will have to speak for themselves." Zareth finally breaks his silence in the corner. "Also, I believe my friend was asking less about an official recommendation and more about a deed. Write up a quick contract, we'll sign on the dotted line and we'll go on our way.
"Ah, civilization. It's been far too long. The lord has waited this long, he can wait a bit longer." Zareth heads into the inn.
Zareth wipes the blood from his face. "I wasn't expecting that to be so painful..."
"Should be able to warp the aether to redirect the blast away from us. Kel, ready when you are."
Zareth grabs the bundle of robes before looking at the locket. "Looks like the lord was closer to Agera than we thought. Close enough that she'd keep a picture of his kid in her locket, at the very least. Guess I'll have to ask him a few questions when we get back."
Took Phantom Echoes as my feat, so enemies grant me CA until EOMNT when I hit them with an illusion power. Took Disguise Self and Wizard's Escape as the two new utilities in my spellbook.
"No need to grab it just yet, Andrus." With a flick of his wrist, the stone hovers in the air and drifts over to Zareth. The imp reappears on his shoulder in a flash of light. "Xod, you're familiar with sin, correct? What do you know about this thing?"
Zareth winces as Xod goes down in flames. "Yes, it does.", he says as the axe swings down towards her head-
-Only to dissipate long before it reached it's destination, leaving the devil rattled but unharmed.
Zareth backs away as the shadows rise up around the devils, flailing at all within reach.
Zareth attempts to circle around Agera, keeping his eyes locked on hers. "Is that fear I detect in your voice? Have you finally realized that you might not survive this? It took you long enough." Meanwhile, Xod stabs at a suit of armor.
"Andrus, get up!" Zareth backs away from the diabolic band in front of him. "Sorry, but I still have to decline. You see, you have nothing to teach me. It takes no skill to just force your will onto something. Doing it subtly, make it so they don't even notice they're being manipulated, that is the true mark of a master." Unfortunately, his subtle attempt at enchantment he was attempting during this conversation only lured one of her minions away, proving nothing.
A Short Rant On Early 4e Solo(Elite?) Design: Who at WotC thought that this was good monster design? An at-will immediate reaction to knock any defenders away and keep them from getting back to her that round? The ability to dominate(save ends) most of the party every 2-3 turns? The fact that all her attacks can kill any squishy wizards/clerics by making the tough melee characters that mostly have low Will run over and use their great basic attacks to tear them to shreds? There's the good kind of annoying in a fight, and then there's the kind of annoying that leads to most of the party being under DM control most of the time. Guess which one this is.
"Are you so uncertain that you have to bring your minions into this?" Zareth thrusts his arms to the sky and flames explode from beneath the armors.
"No one controls me. No one." Zareth glares at Agera with obvious malice as he instinctively sets her alight and sends Xod after her.
"Nice technique. Shame you're trying to kill us all, I could have learned a few things. Xod, distract her!" At this point, an imp swoops down and strikes at the tiefling with it's barbed tail before disappearing once more.
"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think that was a one-way portal. Let's hope there's another exit."
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