Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Crap, I was thinking the Vulnadaemon was the assassin. Reading comprehension failure on my part.
Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder open voting
[X] Claim them for now, at least until Esha and Inge can examine them for hidden dangers. If they do not pass inspection, offer them to Ziku for destruction.
Of course daemon's weapon worth it! There is profit to make, and I don't think someone will hold claiming spoils of war against us
Of course daemon's weapon worth it! There is profit to make, and I don't think someone will hold claiming spoils of war against us
Ok, close, but Antonio's greed lost out this time.
Arc 13 Post 9: From a Cracked Vessel
From a Cracked Vessel
Tenth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)
"Moon and Tide dance as one, silver are the waves now crowned...." You do not recognize the spell, but the dark almost feverish look in Inge's eye tells you all you need to know, Ikomi had been called to counsel and to aid, but hers is not the only power here at work.
When Esha speaks her words flow like honey and like mead from honey brewed, soft chastising, almost secretive, not the command you would have given: "Be still she says, there are subtle powers here that might yet be boon or bane. Call them not to rage for I fear what they might do. Is that not so master Zaia?"
It is only at that question that you realize what she is doing. Most of the men of Lirman and Korman both would know Zaia only as a healer, and while Esha herself might not have the most savory of reputations who would have cause to argue with the healer, summon fear and banish it all at once... like a daemon called from the dark. Your stomach twists uncomfortably at the comparison, but you cannot deny it, not when Esha continues: "Ware for though we are guarded here from many foes all is not well in these halls and there is much evil yet to be unbound..." Why would she say...
"What should we do my lady?" the voice from before asks still dubious.
"Guard the door so that we are not interrupted," Esha replies, without pausing for breath.
"You lie well," the voice in the stone hissed as something starts to crawl out of the wall. Though it seems of the same pale stone as the substance around it no one could mistake the mass of wriggling life for any natural thing. No gentle guarding fey this.
For her part Esha does not seem troubled: "And you are loud enough to near doom us all. Speak quickly and the bargain may yet be made."
"You are not my master vile-blood, I have no master...."
"Yes," Aina says at last. "I will admit to whatever kinship you wish so long as it is true, whatever crimes long past that my kin may have done are as nothing to the evil that how now found roots under our roof. Tell me what are they doing here and how might they be driven from the land."
"The dark ones seek the mountain's shake, they seek the Turning of the World, what which once was shall be again, the Old Ones stir and the fire wakes, scuttling things move in the depths, seeking to profit from it as leeches supping on the blood of the dying, but we... we who knew the World that Was...." the voice twists and and breaks as it speaks, a many toothed maw in the midst of its worm-like mass.
With barely a though your hand tightens on Durendal's hilt.
"What was your name, before Unke drained you, what was the name you mother whispered over your cradle?" Aina cuts in to the ranting and to your surprise the thing does stop and finally it whispers: "Sutrala..."
"Two things they have need for, the tinder and the spark," the tainted spirit continues. "Two things the Neverborn seek, one is the stones, the power in the earth that was tamed long ago to the good of mortal man and the other is the blood that has not known the touch of power, the flesh of the Outsider that will break the last of their shackles, one they have already, ever since your father died... the second you brought to them."
At that the spirit gives wet cackle, you hope still low enough not to be heard beyond the heavy door, though it is not the thought of the guards hearing that sends a chill down your spine. Fateless Luaza had said the daemons seek to remake fate and the words of the giant Ninku come back to you: "The wheel turns, the wheel grinds, the wheel will be broken"
It is not until the eyes of the others turn to you that you realize you had spoken aloud, but you pay them no mind. the giants had said that those who had come before you, those who had spoken in the tongue of Rome had defeated that daemons.... but you had not thought of why they might have done that, a small company on the winds of fate and fortune, why not just flee.
The answer as it turns out was staring you in the face, because you and all those who came with you are fit vessels for the evil that now flows over the land and so you are made heroes or cowards by what hunts you.
"Why did they come, why Adi?" Aina asks, her voice sounds distant in your ears.
"For the stones... and the blood of the stranger on the land of Korman."
What do you do next?
[] Try to question the spirit more
-[] Write in questions (the more you ask the more likely it is to go mad)
[] Hunt for the assassin, there have to be some clues as to where he came from before attacking Antonio
[] Try the ambush Esha had proposed , you still do not know where Unke fits into all this
[] Write in
OOC: And a few more pieces of the puzzle... slightly chewed on so you guys will have to think of where they fit.
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- Location
- Germany
Must be something bigger than vessels, after all we've seen plently of possessed people who were from this world.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
We've only seen minor daemons or powers. I doubt that is simple chance. We're…oh DP you canny bugger. We're Outsiders. Literally that, but deeper, too. We are not of this world, and so we lack native access to its protections but also its limits.
What could be called to the flesh and by the soul of Aina is one thing, but it would be limited by the nature of her soul, by the bindings laid down and made real by Powers and time. What could be called into one of our men, or worse yet the greatest of the Company? Flesh and soul that lack many of the metaphysical limitations of mortality in this reality simply due to never being exposed to them? I imagine something far greater. And truly terrible.
Yet that sword cuts both ways. If we can become a herald of destruction, surely we could find a way to its opposite. The Romans scorned magic. We don't.
What could be called to the flesh and by the soul of Aina is one thing, but it would be limited by the nature of her soul, by the bindings laid down and made real by Powers and time. What could be called into one of our men, or worse yet the greatest of the Company? Flesh and soul that lack many of the metaphysical limitations of mortality in this reality simply due to never being exposed to them? I imagine something far greater. And truly terrible.
Yet that sword cuts both ways. If we can become a herald of destruction, surely we could find a way to its opposite. The Romans scorned magic. We don't.
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- Location
- Germany
Part might be that, but I suspect we are still subject to the limitations of the world and the magic in it, else Zaia could be the only epic wizard in an E6 world, and that's just not good game-design.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
No, it's not those sort of limits, Artemis. It's nothing to do with levels or xp. It's about what our existence represents to powers beyond the planar veil. I will lay odds that there are limits on how extraplanar beings can act or the scale of action they're allowed to make without retaliation. I've suspected that the fleshmelds are being used as a way around those limits for a while.
But we're not of the world. We're not covered by those agreements or treaties, and it makes us a terrible danger to it - but also one to those who hunt us because they can't predict us. We're outside the web of fate, but our actions still change it, and that must drive them insane.
It's also probably the only way divination can track us - DP wouldn't chain a dinner bell around our necks without at least some protection.
- Location
- Germany
We don't even know if there are any serious extraplanar forces, nevermind how they interact.
In this world daemons aren't even really outsiders, just a different kind of spirit, but still from this world.#
All other spirits and fey and such were also from this world.
The closest to "proven" extraplanar powers are the local gods and we have no clue what exactly they are or if they have any power at all beyond some visions and spell-granting for priests.
A small note here, there are definitely other planes, what is broadly called 'beyond the Pale', though Roland does not know quite what that means beside the general sense that it includes some sort of afterlife in the depths with Ikomi and maybe rebirth.
- Location
- Germany
Do those definitly exist, as WOG, or is that just what people believe?
*looks at Esha's skills*
Yes they exist and spirits can be conjured from them, also whatever place the Marcella passed on its way to here also definitely exists and it has some... odd inhabitants by all appearances.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
I seem to have forgotten... what is the spirit talking about?
Well beside that Roland thinks is the blood of people like him there are these big stones or other monuments at ley line intersections that mages can get power out of, that was the first place Ohun sent you to remember? Someone was messing with one of those and you found some pissed off fey and strangers from the south meddling with them.
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Could it be the reason why priests of Nikure refused to make any divinations?
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Well, shit...
There has to be more to it than just possessing Earthlings, otherwise we would have already seen people from among the crew snatched up for this purpose somewhere along the way. I'm going to speculate that some sort of confluence of events, location, and specific people must all come together to make meaningful possession of Earthlings any more effective than doing so with the natives.
Or could it be Marcella that is the true "stranger"? She definitely has some unique properties.
I'm not sure if we should bother trying for any further questions from the spirit. It doesn't seem likely to have more useful information.and its already seeming kinda ragged, sanity-wise. If we push it too far and it snaps, that's another threat we might need to put down when our time and resources are better spent elsewhere. I'm also not sure how effectively we can hunt the assassin, not when it can change its appearance at will and become Invisible. Our best bet for dealing with it is to do so when it makes a move against us.
@DragonParadox, Esha's voting option is missing some words. I assume it's basically this one?
[X] Try the ambush Esha had proposed, you still do not know where Unke fits into all this
There has to be more to it than just possessing Earthlings, otherwise we would have already seen people from among the crew snatched up for this purpose somewhere along the way. I'm going to speculate that some sort of confluence of events, location, and specific people must all come together to make meaningful possession of Earthlings any more effective than doing so with the natives.
Or could it be Marcella that is the true "stranger"? She definitely has some unique properties.
I'm not sure if we should bother trying for any further questions from the spirit. It doesn't seem likely to have more useful information.and its already seeming kinda ragged, sanity-wise. If we push it too far and it snaps, that's another threat we might need to put down when our time and resources are better spent elsewhere. I'm also not sure how effectively we can hunt the assassin, not when it can change its appearance at will and become Invisible. Our best bet for dealing with it is to do so when it makes a move against us.
@DragonParadox, Esha's voting option is missing some words. I assume it's basically this one?
[X] Try the ambush Esha had proposed, you still do not know where Unke fits into all this
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Oops, fixed, sorry about that
Welp it's midnight and there is no way I am managing another update, not to mention that there simply aren't enough votes so Good night all, see you tomorrow as we try to find that assassin... or they find you.
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Try the ambush Esha had proposed, you still do not know where Unke fits into all this
- Location
- Germany
[X] Try the ambush Esha had proposed, you still do not know where Unke fits into all this
I'm going to need a few more votes guys . In the meantime I'm going to do an interlude for some of the more distant stuff.