So I'm thinking of doing the drow staff interlude today since I'm still reading stuff for Yi Ti. What do you guys think?
Sounds good.
Though I'm looking forward to City of Brass too a bit.
Getting the Drow Staff info will be nice. I'm really looking forward to the next City of Brass interlude arc, too. The further adventures of Maelor Golden-Horn and Bronn Bigcastle cry out to be told.
 
[X] Crake

Not very sure the two are a smart as they think. She claims they aren't love struck but how true is that while saying she's in love? Don't even know how the guy really thinks. Not even considering other factors in their families.
 
"Lord Blackwood sent a letter, I only know a little of what is in it," she replies tight-lipped. "He called me a whore." And that was the part her own father had chosen to read out to her. Poor girl.
Well this fellow is just classy.

This idiocy aside is there any reason not to just sit them both down, turn into a dragon, and point out, quite succinctly, that they rule their lands because A. We've decided to let them, B. That can change if they don't cut the bullshit, and C. We've all got far more important enemies who would quite happily eat them all from the inside out if they're lucky and the sadistic prick is feeling generous and they don't care who's tits named which hill either.
 
Well this fellow is just classy.

This idiocy aside is there any reason not to just sit them both down, turn into a dragon, and point out, quite succinctly, that they rule their lands because A. We've decided to let them, B. That can change if they don't cut the bullshit, and C. We've all got far more important enemies who would quite happily eat them all from the inside out if they're lucky and the sadistic prick is feeling generous and they don't care who's tits named which hill either.
I would rather attaint one than threaten both.
 
Well this fellow is just classy.

This idiocy aside is there any reason not to just sit them both down, turn into a dragon, and point out, quite succinctly, that they rule their lands because A. We've decided to let them, B. That can change if they don't cut the bullshit, and C. We've all got far more important enemies who would quite happily eat them all from the inside out if they're lucky and the sadistic prick is feeling generous and they don't care who's tits named which hill either.
I'd like to steal the hills so they no longer have hills to fight over. :)
 
I would rather attaint one than threaten both.
That's not a threat that's merely pointing out facts of their situation.

That situation being "We're all on borrowed time, have enemies at every gate you can possibly imagine and more you can't, and since i'm one of the few desperate maniacs keeping all of you alive I don't have the time or the energy to deal with stupidity that by rights has only earned either party nothing but more corpses to bury. Corpses that will, incidentally, be raised by the fucking Others to murder you all because they love doing that shit every other Thursday at this point."

I'd like to steal the hills so they no longer have hills to fight over. :)
You know what? Let's fucking do that then.

[X] Duesal

"Hills what hills?"

"The hills you stole! The hills every peasant from across the lands saw you take!"

"Prove it."
 
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"They're on your island?!"

"The Stepstones are rather hilly and mountainous."

"THEY LOOK IDENTICAL!"

"...coincidence?"
 
Interlude DCLIV: Traitors' Pact
Traitors' Pact

Twenty Third Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

Mereen, Slaver's Bay


Tuin raised his eyes from his notes warily, such that he imagined that were there another living soul to see him so facing off against an 'empty' chamber they might think him mad. Or were they of a sufficiently cautious disposition, start seeking out ghosts, spirits, and other unseen things. Yet the thing upon which the mage's gaze fell was none of these, but a plain black staff. To look upon it, the instrument might seem polished stone, to heft it one might think it wood. In truth it was both and neither, carved from a single great piece of jet, wood slowly becoming stone, forever caught between the worlds, just as its maker had been.

When the drow spell-weaver heard from the dragon lord that he had discovered a priestess of Lolth laid out in a ruined temple beneath the sky, the only reason he had not been shocked by that was that there were so many... many other things to be shocked by. So he had settled instead upon abiding surprise, like an itch at the back of his mind. No priestess he knew or had ever heard of would trust her bones to the World Above or indeed would leave her bones assembled for any necromancer to raise into service. True, they were guarded by Lolth's favored children, but none who knew the Queen of Spiders as well as her priestesses must would trust her not to find the mage's violation of the dead more entertaining then blasphemous.

So then, he wondered, what was this priestess doing laid out beneath a broken dome, blind eyes turned to the heavens above, by whose measure had the entire edifice had been raised? The answer had come from the most unlikely of sources, the Law Keeper Malarys Vanor, who had by the sacrifice of his dragon and a final work of sorcery carried upon the very tides of Doom, sealed himself from the world until he could be found and awoken. Might not another have tried to cheat death for a far longer span until the stars were right, the bones prepared for a rising, the spirit held in a stronger vessel? Tuin feared the priestesses of Lolth as he feared foxglove and deathcap, but he was an assassin as well as a mage. He had used both.

Without showing the merest hesitation, the last spell-weaver of Venthar crossed the room in five graceful steps and gripped the staff. In a firm clear voice, he spoke a blasphemous near-prayer:

May Darkness be my keeper
My fangs envenomed steel
I do not fear the Weaver
And to Her never shall I kneel

Long, long ago, or by Tuin's reckoning a few moonturns past, this had been the mocking chant of rebellion, first whispered in hidden cabals, then finally trumpeted from the walls of the Autarch's palace. No priestess of Lolth, be she ever so patient in the weaving of her webs, would allow such a thing to be spoken without giving a sign.

A sign there was indeed, but not what he had expected to feel. Rather than a battle of wills, a fanatic's fury pitted against apostasy, he felt curiosity... almost fascination. Another might have let down his guard in surprise, but an assassin's wariness is not so easily lulled into complacency, not before the works of his own folk, whom he knew so well.

Knives of ice and darkness stabbed into his brain, whips to flay his will and leave his innermost self unveiled. Knives cannot cut mist, nor whips flay it. Tuin was a thousand thoughts divided, and yet he was whole. Thus he beheld his foe, not a priestess, not a soul entire, but something that may have once been that. He saw hate and jealousy of Lolth, who had abandoned her people, and he stoked it. He saw the desire to be for one's own desire and he gathered it up.

How much we could be together... It had been a long time, even by the measure of his memories, since he had tried seduction, but for all his caution the mage knew one truth that bound together the merchant lords of Venthar even more than their rebellion from the Spider Queen. He who does not wager cannot win.

As swift as it had come the attack waned to nothing. A pledge was made, among the strongest that could be forged among the drow, for each held something the other could not take without losing a portion of the worth. Tuin had not lied. Together they would be great.

Staff of the Fatespinner

Appearance: This seems but a a plain black staff. To look upon it, the instrument might seem polished stone, yet to heft it one might think it wood. In truth it was both and neither, carved from a single great piece of jet, wood slowly becoming stone, forever caught between the worlds, just as its maker had been.

Base Enchantment: +1 Weapon

Senses: 120 ft. Darkvision, Blindsense, and Hearing

Communication: Speech, Telepathy

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

STATS:
15 (+2) Charisma
10 (+0) Intelligence
17 (+3) Wisdom

SAVES:
FORTITUDE: 11
REFLEX: 11
WILL: 11 + 3 = 14

Powers:

This staff allows use of the following spells:
Augury (1 charge)
Divine Insight (1 charge)
Find Weakness (2 charges)

Charges: 10/10

Recharge Conditions:
Each day at midnight, when the bearer prepares spells or regains spell slots, he can also imbue this staff with a portion of his power so long as one or more of the spells cast by the staff is on his spell list and he is capable of casting at least one of the spells. Imbuing a staff with this power restores one charge to the staff, but the caster must forgo one prepared spell or spell slot of a level equal to the highest-level spell cast by the staff.

Ego: 2 (Base Enchantment) +5 (Powers) +2 (Communication) +4 (Stat bonuses) = 13

Conflict Triggers:
  1. Wielder is not drow
  2. Wielder has not bested the staff in a contest of wills
  3. Wielder serves Lolth in any quality
Caster Level: 12

OOC: I could of course have just had Lya identify this, in which case it would have just ended up on the sacrifice list most likely, so I gave Tuin some rolls to figure it out in his own spare time. He did and then he had a philosophical discussion with the tattered remains of the spirit of a priestess of Lolth. The result of said conversation was a resounding 'fuck Lolth'.
 
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That's not a threat that's merely pointing out facts of their situation.

That situation being "We're all on borrowed time, have enemies at every gate you can possibly imagine and more you can't, and since i'm one of the few desperate maniacs keeping all of you alive I don't have the time or the energy to deal with stupidity that by rights has only earned either party nothing but more corpses to bury. Corpses that will, incidentally, be raised by the fucking Others to murder you all because they love doing that shit every other Thursday at this point."


You know what? Let's fucking do that then.

[X] Duesal

"Hills what hills?"

"The hills you stole! The hills every peasant from across the lands saw you take!"

"Prove it."
Now I've got this whole thing in my head where if we're punting the Blackwood boy and Bracken girl across the Narrow Sea to different lands entirely we can just use the hills to build their new keep on. :rofl: Forever a reminder that there is nothing we can't do, and that they rule at our whim.
 
'Ten little lordlings went on a journey fine.
One found a dragonette then it were only nine.'
'Nine little lordlings fought over the spoils,
an inquisitor came the way then it were only eight.'
'Eight little lordlings ...'
 
OOC: I could of course have just had Lya identify this, in which case it would have just ended up on the sacrifice list most likely, so I gave Tuin some rolls to figure it out in his own spare time. He did and then he had a philosophical discussion with the tattered remains of the spirit of a priestess of Lolth. The result of said conversation was a resounding 'fuck Lolth'.
Ha, she'll be a good partner. Vengeance is the best motivation. :p
 
OOC: I could of course have just had Lya identify this, in which case it would have just ended up on the sacrifice list most likely, so I gave Tuin some rolls to figure it out in his own spare time. He did and then he had a philosophical discussion with the tattered remains of the spirit of a priestess of Lolth. The result of said conversation was a resounding 'fuck Lolth'.
Based on how we've handed such situations in the past, I can only assume a year from now we will have found some means of restoring this spirit to full sapience, reincarnated her into a new body, and funded the founding of "The First Imperial Interfaith Congregation of Fuck Lolth."
 
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