[X] Abstain
Sure, feel free to get into a whole unrelated potline filled with risk and wasted time.

This whole thing was a dud, so what?
I'd be fine leaving with no loot, really.
 
[X] Abstain
Sure, feel free to get into a whole unrelated potline filled with risk and wasted time.

This whole thing was a dud, so what?
I'd be fine leaving with no loot, really.

This guy is something big though. Probably all this shit was his to begin with. All the awesome knowledge, we can simply ask him
 
[X] Abstain
Sure, feel free to get into a whole unrelated potline filled with risk and wasted time.
Like we agreed avoiding doing.

This whole thing was a dud, so what?
I'd be fine leaving with no loot, really.

OK just to avoid excess salt I have to make two things clear:
  1. He recognizes that you did buy his familiar and he has to provide you with equivalent functionality for the price given
  2. It might be posibile to get the tome even without getting in the middle of this plot, it will depend on social rolls and further developments
 
[X] Offer your aid to Heronious in exchange for access to the final tome

I'd like to help the dude, he seems pretty alright, for a devil anyway.

Besides considering he rose he may be willing to help us with our "unfuck the cosmos" project some time in the future, if we can find the right lever to push in order to get him in our employment.

And even if we can't pull a pokemon, to use Azel's terminology, we can still get a contact and get access to the tome we were literally willing to drop a small hill of money to acquire.
 
OK just to avoid excess salt I have to make two things clear:
  1. He recognizes that you did buy his familiar and he has to provide you with equivalent functionality for the price given
  2. It might be posibile to get the tome even without getting in the middle of this plot, it will depend on social rolls and further developments
@DragonParadox, can we poke him for other lore? Stuff that wasn't up for auction?
 
[X] Offer your aid to Heronious in exchange for access to the final tome

can we try and recruit the agent of mammon he has not left right?
 
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I wonder what the Big Lightbulb desires though. Probably has to do with information denial in true 1984 fashion
 
"I could not know if any of you were involved, the enemy knew too much of my movements and habits," the xerfilstyx shrugs, though there might be something like a frown of apology flashing across his scaled features. He turns to the envoy of Mammon. "You I did not invite though sadly I expected you, leave."

The gilded devil does not take the dismissal well, though he answers mentally beyond your power to overhear. Heronious does not seem impressed, he shifts his monocled gaze gaze instead to you, runes running across the edge of the glass as she tries to figure something out about you, perhaps to divine you.
We will meet you again. Probably to turtle you.
 
The Second Watcher

Twenty Fifth Day of the First Month 294 AC

The answer is easy enough once you get a moment to think. No matter if she speaks truth or falsehood, no matter how deep the plots of the Lord of the Ninth run, if she speaks truth someone will soon arrive from the garrison to take both her and the book into custody, perhaps the merchant also, if it is unlucky.

While you had been considering the implication, the crimson robed shugenja acted, clawed hands snapping with the sound of edged steel scraping against edged steel. The Devil vomits blood and bile from very pore as the death magic takes root in her flesh. If you needed any further proof that this was not a Shugenja such as one might find in the court of the Azure Emperor, that need is now gone.

Before anyone else can continue killing the supposed envoy of Asmodeous, your own spell binds her tight like a fly in amber... unfortunately leaving Echyr himself trapped in an amber cage of frozen tentacles he cannot break least he release the fiend.

"Do you perchance know anything about our rather dramatic guest?" You ask, an edge of smooth irony to your words. There isn't much point trying to be forgettable now. Not reacting to this turn of events would be more notable than reacting.

"More than I would wish," the mimic gurgles angrily, forgetting the polish to his words in his rage. "It was one such as she, perhaps even this one, who 'discovered' Heronious' demise. It was theft... theft gone wrong... I ask you good and learned folk, do you think the Lord of the Ninth would lower himself to common thievery?"

To tell the truth, yes you do. You have done it, after all, and you would hardly presume Asmodeous is less pragmatic than you are, but you keep your peace on the matter.

"That is no agent of the Lord of Neresus," a wholly new voice interjects, calm and crisp and somehow too smooth upon the air, as though the word had been polished to a mirror sheen.

You turn sharply to the left to see a hell-born oracle with a golden robe draped over his slug-like body and a silver monocle on one eye, just as he continues. "If it were, I would already be dead rather than pretending I was," the devil continues, confirming your suspicion as to his identity, if the looks of veiled shock your fellow auction goers give were not enough.

"Were I to guess, I would call her an agent of Lord Ezhekidich, so called-just lord of this rotting shell around us," the still very much alive Heronious of Dis continues. Part of you wonders if he is going to ask for his familiar back, but the others have more urgent questions.

"So you used us to trap your enemy?" Elariel says sadly, the voice of trust betrayed.

"I could not know if any of you were involved. The enemy knew too much of my movements and habits," the xerfilstyx shrugs, though there might be something like a frown of apology flashing across his scaled features. He turns to the envoy of Mammon. "You I did not invite, though sadly I expected you. Leave."

The gilded devil does not take the dismissal well, though he answers mentally beyond your power to overhear. Heronious does not seem impressed, he shifts his monocled gaze instead to you, runes running across the edge of the glass as he tries to figure something out about you, perhaps to divine you.

"You I do not know, but I am going to assume by your actions that you acted in good faith and so I offer now counsel to leave this place before the Blessed Guard arrives, lest you become embroiled in battles that are not yours. I shall settle with you for what you have acquired. You may keep my familiar as collateral against the promise, if my word is not enough."

A charming fellow to be sure, and as far as you can see as sincere as he is sane, unlike most of his kindred, but you truly desire that book. Perhaps you can cultivate him in his hour of need. You did not intend for Hassan to become tangled in the politics of Heaven's Shore, but you have improvised more difficult tunes than this before.

What do you reply?

[] Offer your aid to Heronious in exchange for access to the final tome

[] Leave as he suggests, meet him later for negotiations

[] Write in


OOC: If the mimic had actually gotten captured, the xerfilstyx would now be chasing after it and you would have a chance to join the rescue. Not yet edited.
Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

Sorry for the delay, was running errands.
 
We will meet you again. Probably to turtle you.
We can cast Bloodwish/Miracle here and now and try to gather skin- err, scale cells leftover from him and his bodyguards.
Then it's the usual run of the mill.
CRUSHING DEVIlS, ONE AT A TIME

Our hosts won't like that though, I reckon.
 
[X] Abstain
Sure, feel free to get into a whole unrelated potline filled with risk and wasted time.

This whole thing was a dud, so what?
I'd be fine leaving with no loot, really.
This isn't a plotline that should embroil us beyond what time we devote to it in our cover identities. It still gives us the chance to get the tome, or at least the information contained therein, and it is as good an opportunity to cultivate a high level Devil contact as we're likely to get.

[X] TalonofAnathrax
 
We can cast Bloodwish/Miracle here and now and try to gather skin- err, scale cells leftover from him and his bodyguards.
Then it's the usual run of the mill.
CRUSHING DEVIlS, ONE AT A TIME

Our hosts won't like that though, I reckon.
Considering he let the guy leave in good faith he'd probably be a bit peeved we took advantage. Makes him look bad, if only tangentially.

Also @DragonParadox a question, has Heronious actually risen from his species permanent lawful evil state or is he only a decent dude who happened to dress in Hellven chic?
 
Also @DragonParadox a question, has Heronious actually risen from his species permanent lawful evil state or is he only a decent dude who happened to dress in Hellven chic?
Morality is relative, but in this case, he's probably just a decent enough dude for people from many traditions and upbringings to actually feel like approaching and working with him/befriending him.

So none of the cartoonishly evil stuff you'd see in the CoB or Dis.
 
Considering he let the guy leave in good faith he'd probably be a bit peeved we took advantage. Makes him look bad, if only tangentially.

Also @DragonParadox a question, has Heronious actually risen from his species permanent lawful evil state or is he only a decent dude who happened to dress in Hellven chic?
I'm a bit confused about why people think he's not Lawful Evil. The defining feature about him is that he isn't driven insane by all his visions, not that he's particularly benevolent.
This you soon discover is the erstwhile familiar of the the late Heronious of Dis, an ancient oracle devil whose passion was apparently creating and improving upon thinking golems. He even hoped one day to be able to replace at least in part the shattered forges of Axis, his creations helping to keep order between the Spheres. Supposedly the familiar now floating before you was not only the seat of his lore regarding the creation of sentient constructs, but also uniquely capable to calm even the most turbulent minds it bonds to. Unlike almost any other of his kindred Heronious had seemingly mastered the maddening nature of his visions utterly, being a pleasant host and counted friend and ally by many a mage who would normally eschew the company of the baatezu.
 
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