Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

[DragonParadox]

Of Words Unspoken and Witnesses Unseen​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

For a heartbeat you freeze, breath caught in your throat, then a warm and distinctly feline personage starts twining themselves between your feet. When you look down he gives you a meaningful look and you remember the hags and how that Pepper knows many strange things, and not always the same ones, for dreams run deep and range far. "I know much about the duergar and none of it makes for a pleasant telling, though a worse hearing I'd imagine from those who don't know their ilk." Launching into a only slightly exaggerated tale of the deep dwarfs you are unsurprised when Sirim starts correcting some of the finer details. As it happens, they do not enslave apprentices who fail their trials, they just drag them in chains to Hagegraf where their throats are slit before an altar of Droskar, the 'Final Mercy' they call it. Though even that is a cruel jest for those souls are doomed to serve the dark smith in his forges until the flames consume them past recall and memory.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Pepper Knowledge History (DC 12/17/22): 1d20+8 = 14 (Success)
Akorian Bluff: 1d20+21 = 30 vs ???* (???)
*Eutropia's Sense Motive Hidden

The governor listens stone-faced, and the princess with a gleam in her eye as unreadable as silver lost in deep waters. You have the uncomfortable feeling of being judged by someone more used to lies and half-truths than even you are used to, but having committed to the task you give it your all as Sirim reaches out to the princess with the truth, or at least as much of it as you have been able to piece together. The assassination still doesn't make as much sense as one might hope.

As you speak Eutropia's expression shutter, her left hand twitching in the direction of the true silver sword at her belt. Alike it is to the the swords a knight might wear, but the elvish metal makes it lighter by far. Hopefully that's not an omen for how much she's likely to believe the elves over strangers just met.

The more you speak the more entranced she seems at your words, and the more enraged against the duergar who had presumed to infringe upon the territory of the Empire and the likes of its citizens.

"How dare they! The wretched scheming curs, slaves of some cosmic failing!"

For all the world she is a girl incensed at injustice. To be quite honest you'd believe her too, if Sirim did not confirm in your mind that she had heard him out and would like to see proof. Thankfully proof you have even without Captain Scorpio, as the scrying focus in the governor's study is still there as is the account of Sir Pisca, a noble in good standing from a great house.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Sirim Diplomacy (DC 20/25): 1d20+13 = 25 (Full Success)

Basri Sense motive: 1d20+15 = 25
vs
Eutropia Bluff: 1d20+25 = 35​

So you are feeling quite at ease when the princess sends away the man in yellow, his name still a mystery to you, if a petty one. One wonders if he's as worried as he should be when she sends two of her guards to escort him back to his his cartridge since 'one can't be too safe with assassins and other foulness lurking about'.

"You have my thanks, brave souls..." she starts to say once the man is well out of earshot.

"Oi, I helped too!" Cob grouses.

The tall Ulfen guard's face darkens like a thunderstorm about to break as he looks at the goblin, but the princess, seeing perhaps that he had addressed her in perfectly understandable Taldan, if absent any of her titles, shakes her head.

"I didn't mean to exclude you. master Cob," she lies smoothly. She is not one for making enemies when she doesn't have to.

Princess Eutropia then sends for Pisca and, after the governor admits to his existence, for how else would you know of the Aspis' dealings in Zirnakaynin, Saenar.

The guards go out... and they return empty-handed. Both the knight and the alchemist are missing, though none of the palace staff had seen them leave the chamber in which they had been holed up.

What do you do?

[] Offer your services to find them
-[] Write in how

[] Maybe it's time to step away from all these intrigues, surely the princess has the magical skills to find them, or if not the political weight to make House Basri admit to their wrong doing

[] Write in

OOC: Edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

Open to the Storm ​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Alas, your first thought of using a scroll to speak to the alchemist fails, and as the words fade to embers on the parchment you cannot be sure if it's because he is unconscious or no longer among the living.

"We will find them, Your Highness," Mina says, any shyness in the face of royalty gone in an instant.

"And what payment would you ask for such a thing?" The princess asks, taken aback.

"We gut the one's that took 'em and take their stuff," Cob hisses as vicious as any goblin who had ever lived as Gorok glares not so much at her as at the delay. Sirim is already flying towards the door. You aren't about to let Pisca vanish without a search. Greedy and brash he might be, but he had been a friend when you had none in the city.

"My apologies, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. You are mercenaries, yes? Adventurers after the manner of the Pathfinders of which you spoke?"

"Does the farmer care only for his crops or the smith only for the anvil?" Mina asks with the air of one borrowing wisdom.

"A touch, a marked touch," she motions as a duelist holding off the point of a skilled opponent. "I wasn't really expecting Caydenite verse, but that makes me no less glad to hear it. Come, then let us find the brave knight and our source on the dealings of the Consortium. To think I had expected this to be a quiet visit..."

The guard, Bjorn, is too well-trained to scoff or even snort aloud, but his nostrils flare as though he'd very much like to.

Once more the palace is alive with shouts and the sound of feet set running like an anthill turned over. The governor looks pained to see it in such a state and frustrated that it's the Ulfen guard who are keeping the staff and guards ordered, though to be fair to them it's probably Eutropia's presence that's half the trouble, with the other half being the giant assassin. No one wants to report to the Emperor that his daughter had come to harm on their watch, no matter what differences there may be in the family.

So it is that it takes almost a quarter of one of the Taldan 'bells', measured by water-clock, before you reach the chamber from which Pisca and Saenar had vanished, a small library meant to house the tomes most favored by the family in residence rather than the collection of almanacs, ledgers, history texts, maps, and tax-books that make up the bulk of the official palace library. The first thing that hits you when you enter is the flash of lightning from the window above the desk. Thankfully the rain doesn't seem to have gotten in, or so at least you thought.

It's Gorok who notices the blank notebook on the marble desk is soaked, the pages sticking together as though it had been doused in water even though the desk beside it is dry, and Cob who realizes something heavy must have slammed against the stone shelves to the left, enough to scratch the floor before it had been pulled back in place. There had been a some kind of fight here, along with an attempt to hide it, though it can't have been too loud ago or lasted too long. The servants would surely have heard something.

Spoiler: Mecahnics

Perception Akorian, Cob, Gorok: 13, 26, 17 (???)

How do you investigate?

[] Use Divination
-[] Write in

[] Have Pepper get a sniff of this
-[] Write in buffs (optional)

[] Write in

OOC: I tried generating the room with AI as an experiment... it's not worth it, the thing put so many laptops and swivel chairs in the picture.

 

[DragonParadox]

Scent and Silver ​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Pepper wanders around the room like 'a caged lion', or at least that's how the governor describes him, in an attempt you suspect to lighten a moon turned grim, but the cat stops here and there, jumps on furnishings, stretches and claws at the embroidery, such that you would think it ordinary feline mischief, if that is he didn't keep looking back to Mina and Sirim by turn. Finally he proclaims: "Pisca and Saenar's scent vanishes, the other never was."

"What do you...?" the guard starts to ask, but the princess cuts him off.

"The ward against scent of bird and beast and eye of man, 'tis green magic, the kind all too common at the court of elven-folk. You said the one who tried to intimidate the pathfinder had a lion? There you have it, a touch of nature magic and knight and alchemist are both gone. Can you tell us when the smells vanish? How old the most recent sniff is?"

"Alas, your Highness, I an but a humble feline, not Cayden Cailean's Thunder," the scoff didn't sound all that humble. "All I can say is that some parts of this chamber are touched by their scent, as you would expect, and others are clean as if the staff had passed through with buckets and suds, only I can't smell that either "

"Mayhap a verse will tell what mortal senses cannot," the princess looks up at her head bodyguard, who tips his head towards the window and the storm, perhaps to ask her if she is sure she wants to get into this. "A citizen of the realm is missing presumed taken by stealth into the hands of a foreign power. I will get them back one way or the other." The words are grim, lacking in the bravado they could all too easily have held.

"Ah... the mirror is here." The governor sounds odd as the pair of servants arrive, sweating a little under the weight of the silver bound mirror covered in a thin patina of dust. An unwelcome reminder perhaps.

Mina too notices, but she has work to do. With her right hand she wipes away the dust and in her left she holds the scroll, slowly chanting the names of stars brightest in the sky, the wanderers who see all from their perch, the knowledge seeping into you mind unbidden. You do not have long to ponder...

Spoiler: Mecahnics

Pepper Perception: 1d20+8+6 (Bestow Insight) = 22 (???)
Mina Scry vs Nondetection: 1d20+6 = 26 (Critical Success)

Shadows swim over the glass like ink stains to show a cramped underground chamber, the packed earth barely held back by a collection of rotten boards and crumbling brickwork. Crude markings eat into the wall, marks of suffering and violence, though some seemed to have been defaced as though by the claw of some great beast. Pica lies in the dirt, stripped of his armor, slumbering but otherwise unharmed as a pair of elves perch gracefully on some of the larger stones. One has hair as white as snow, held back by a silver circlet above his brow, while the other is garbed as a knight in plate which flows like water over her.

Quite apart from their seeming ease in such a place, the elves argue in their own tongue, which Mina translates.

"The white haired one is saying they should just slit his throat and throw his body at the... beasts, monsters, it doesn't really translate well. The humans are making this too complicated again. The warrior seems more philosophical, says the Swallowtail is making trouble for the humans. Then the mage asks her sarcastically why she's even here and she says..."

The princess picks up the translation tartly. "Someone has to keep the Emperor from learning of the Court of Blood or he'll sell slaves by the thousands for weapons against the easterners and the rabble. I think she means Qadira and either Andoran or Galt. Not great respecters of human nobility, these elves, though we might have guesses from kidnapping an imperial knight."

"But why?" Gorok asks, leaning closer to the mirror as though trying to force its narrow field of view to shift by sheer force of will.

"The elves, or I should say Kyonin, think we are foolish children who broke the world," the princess explains. "The fact that House Thrune seem hell-bent on doing so again hasn't really helped the case for mankind to be sure."

"Your highness..." the governor starts, almost chiding.

"I can either laugh or weep at the fact that we are looking at a major diplomatic incident precipitated by the diplomats of House Basri, Governor Bozbeyli," the retorts tartly.

The warrior elf frees a large sword from her back and starts to clean it as she asks something.

"She is asking what they should do with Pisca's sword, concerned it might be intelligent, the other, the mage, assures her it's not," Mina continues to translate. "I think they're planning to stage his death."

"Underground... the Locker," you conclude, the glyphs on the wall now coming into focus, lamashan markings. They plan to frame the hive with Pisca's death, and one assumes Saenar's as well, though they might have killed him already. It's not like the lantern bearers would want the Taldan authorities to get their hands in drow, alive or dead.

"Well Bjron, it looks like we have somewhere to be," the princess says with a growing smile.

"We?" the guard asks with enough emphasis to make a lesser soul wilt.

"I can hardly ask the governor to send guards into the middle of this mess, qho knows how deep they are. Are there even any in Cassomir who can track that deep? More to the point, it will do my reputation a great deal more good than harm to get my hands dirty."

What, if anything, do you say?

[] Offer the Ghosts to go into the Locker and retrieve Pisca as well as Saenar if he's still alive

[] Suggest that the princess squeeze House Basri for more information

[] Write in

OOC: Enjoy.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Princess and the Prophet ​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

You open your mouth to argue for going, but before you can speak Gorok had taken out the scroll in question, one of the most valuable of the lot and acquired from a particularly haughty 'magister' and proclaims: "This was meant to bring my tribe to safety from Cheliax. Will you replace it?"

Eutropia of Taldor seems startled for a moment at being addressed so bluntly, but the answer doesn't stick in her throat long: "It would be an honor to do so, Valiant Gorok," the words seem to bear some meaning beyond the obvious as the Taldan aristocracy count things to judge from the twitch of the lord governor's mustache, but he says nothing.

"Before we go into battle as the bear-kin do, we should speak of our skills," the Ulfen Guard all-but-cuts off his lady.

"I wasn't planning to strip naked and wrap myself in a bear cloak, but if that's what it takes to make it more homey for you, Bjorn," she counters as the giant flushes painfully clear against his fair cheeks. "I bear a sword that some in Andoran might claim is better off in their hands, though I have never found it to slip my grip and armor celestine, which I have borne with honor. No knight in heavy plate am I, such as you bear..." she motions to Gorok's new armor. "Though if I must I can hold the line. Do not fear that I should fall to trickery or enchantment. The Heirs to the Lion Throne are trained from a young age to throw off such unsubtle manipulations... and also there is a counter-spell woven into the coronet."

Noticing Cob's confusion she explains. "That is what you call a smaller crown, master goblin, on account of the kind of people who wear crowns would take umbrage at them being called small even when tis the plain truth."

"Chiefs have big head, they want a big hat," your friend nods in understanding as the entire chamber falls into uneasy silence.

That is until the princess chortles: "Yes, that precisely. I'll have to remember it for the pamphlets..."

"You read pamphlets, Your Highness?" Mina asks, clearly startled.

"I write them. You can't accuse the author of petty treason when they are a member of the royal household, now can you?"

Spoiler: Princess Eutropia Stavian of Taldor

Name: Princess Eutropia Stavia of Taldor
Alignment: Lawful Good
Age: 28
Race: Human
Level: 13
Class: 9 Rogue (Consigliere) / 4 Paladin (Virtous Bravo)
Feats: Noble Scion (Stavian)B, PersuasiveB, Weapon Focus (Heavy Blades), Slashing Grace (Longsword), Alertness, Voice of the Sybil, Outflank, Improved Outflank, Hands of Valor
Traits: Child of Oppara, Savant (Oratory)
Class Features: Bravo's Finesse, Bravo's Smite, Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Divine Grace, Lay on Hands (7/day, 2d6), Aura of Courage, Divine Health, Nimble, Panache and Deeds, Channel Positive Energy, Sneak Attack (5d6), Convincing Attitude, Rogue Talents (CharmerB, Coax Information, Assault Leader, Hard to Fool, Surprise Attack), Combat Advisor, Panache and Deeds (5 Points)

HP: 104
AC: 10 +1 (Nimble) +6 (Dex) +9 (Armor) +4 (Shield) +3 (Natural Armor) = 33 (+2 Deflection vs Evil)
Initiative: +4 (Dex) +2 (Deed) = +6
Movement: 30ft (foot)
Senses: Low-Light Vision
Immunities: Fear, Disease
//Arrow-Deflection while wearing her Buckler

Attack:
Talmandor Blade: +10 (BAB) +6 (Dex) +2 (Enh) +1 (WF) = +19/+14 (1d8 +8) 19-20x2 (17-20x2 while using the Scabbard of Keen Edges)
//+4 Precision damage on every attack while she has Panache left (Precise Strike Deed)
//+5d6 Sneak Attack damage
// Increased boni for flanking enemies
// +2d6 vs Evil

10 (0) Strength)
18 +4 (Item) = 22 (+6) Dexterity
12 +4 (Item) = 16 (+3) Constitution
14 +4 (Item) = 18 (+4) Intelligence
12 +4 (Item) = 16 (+3) Wisdom
14 +2 (Race) +4 (Item) = 20 (+5) Charisma

SAVES:
FORTITUDE: 7 +3 (Con) +5 (Divine Grace) +4 (Resistance) = 19
REFLEX: 7 +6 (Dex) +5 (Divine Grace) +4 (Resistance) = 22 (Treat as having Evasion)
WILL: 7 +3 (Wis) +5 (Divine Grace) +4 (Resistance) = 19

//Noble Scion: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves against poison and on Will saves against enchantment spells of the charm and compulsion subschools
// + 4 Sacred bonus vs Petrification and Paralysis

SKILLS:
Appraise: 12 +4 (Int) +1 (Trait) = 17
Bluff: 16 +5(Cha) +3 (Voice of the Sybil) = 24
Diplomacy: 16 +5 (Cha) +4 (Persuasive) +3 (Voice of the Sybil) = 28 //Roll twice 1/day
Handle Animal 12 +5 (Cha) = 17
Knowledge (History): 16 +4 (Int) = 20
Knowledge (Local): 12 +4 (Int) = 16
Knowledge (Nobility): 16 +4 (Int) +2 (Noble Scion) +1 (Trait) = 23
Knowledge (Religion): 16 +4 (Int) = 20
Perception: 16 +3 (Wis) +4 (Alertness) +4 (Talmandor Blade) = 27
Perform (Oratory): 16 +5 (Cha) +2 (Trait) +3 (Voice of the Sybil) = 26
Ride: 12 +6 (Dex) = 22
Sense Motive: 16 +3 (Wis) +4 (Alertness) = 23 //Roll twice 1/day

//Can use Diplo or Bluff for Intimidate to force someone to act friendly towards her

Special Abilities:

Combat Advisor (Ex)

At 4th level, whenever a consigliere misses with a melee attack against an opponent, he can designate an ally within 30 feet of the target to receive a +1 insight bonus on her next attack roll against that opponent before the consigliere's next turn.

At 8th level, the insight bonus increases to +2.

Bravo's Smite (Su)

When using smite evil, a virtuous bravo doesn't gain a deflection bonus to AC.

Deeds

Swashbucklers spend panache points to accomplish deeds. Most deeds grant the swashbuckler a momentary bonus or effect, but some provide longer-lasting effects. Some deeds remain in effect while the swashbuckler has at least 1 panache point, but do not require expending panache to be maintained. A swashbuckler can only perform deeds of her level or lower. Unless otherwise noted, a deed can be performed multiple successive times, as long as the swashbuckler has or spends the required number of panache points to perform the deed.

Dodging Panache (Ex): At 1st level, when an opponent attempts a melee attack against the swashbuckler, the swashbuckler can as an immediate action spend 1 panache point to move 5 feet; doing so grants the swashbuckler a dodge bonus to AC equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 0) against the triggering attack. This movement doesn't negate the attack, which is still resolved as if the swashbuckler had not moved from the original square. This movement is not a 5-foot step; it provokes attacks of opportunity from creatures other than the one who triggered this deed. The swashbuckler can only perform this deed while wearing light or no armor, and while carrying no heavier than a light load.
Opportune Parry and Riposte (Ex): At 1st level, when an opponent makes a melee attack against the swashbuckler, she can spend 1 panache point and expend a use of an attack of opportunity to attempt to parry that attack. The swashbuckler makes an attack roll as if she were making an attack of opportunity; for each size category the attacking creature is larger than the swashbuckler, the swashbuckler takes a –2 penalty on this roll. If her result is greater than the attacking creature's result, the creature's attack automatically misses. The swashbuckler must declare the use of this ability after the creature's attack is announced, but before its attack roll is made. Upon performing a successful parry and if she has at least 1 panache point, the swashbuckler can as an immediate action make an attack against the creature whose attack she parried, provided that creature is within her reach. This deed's cost cannot be reduced by any ability or effect that reduces the number of panache points a deed costs.
Menacing Swordplay (Ex): At 3rd level, while she has at least 1 panache point, when a swashbuckler hits an opponent with a light or one-handed piercing melee weapon, she can choose to use Intimidate to demoralize that opponent as a swift action instead of a standard action.
Precise Strike (Ex): At 3rd level, while she has at least 1 panache point, a swashbuckler gains the ability to strike precisely with a light or one-handed piercing melee weapon (though not natural weapon attacks), adding her swashbuckler level to the damage dealt. To use this deed, a swashbuckler cannot attack with a weapon in her other hand or use a shield other than a buckler. She can even use this ability with thrown light or one-handed piercing melee weapons, so long as the target is within 30 feet of her. Any creature that is immune to sneak attacks is immune to the additional damage granted by precise strike, and any item or ability that protects a creature from critical hits also protects a creature from the additional damage of a precise strike. This additional damage is precision damage, and isn't multiplied on a critical hit. As a swift action, a swashbuckler can spend 1 panache point to double her precise strike's damage bonus on the next attack. This benefit must be used before the end of her turn, or it is lost. This deed's cost cannot be reduced by any ability or effect that reduces the amount of panache points a deed costs (such as the Signature Deed feat).
Swashbuckler Initiative (Ex): At 3rd level, while the swashbuckler has at least 1 panache point, she gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks. In addition, if she has the Quick Draw feat, her hands are free and unrestrained, and she has any single light or one-handed piercing melee weapon that isn't hidden, she can draw that weapon as part of the initiative check.

Equipment: Lesser Crown of Taldor, Cloak of Resistance +4, Talmandor Blade, Quick-Block Buckler, Celestial Armor, Belt of Flow, Amulet of Natural Armor +3, Boots of Speed, Ring of Spell-Turning, Ring of Translocation, Scabbard of Keen Edges, Emergency Pack, Potion of Cure Serious Wounds x3, Potion of Delay Poison x3

Lesser Crown of Taldor:
A gem-studded mithral crown of excellent workmanship and enormous mundane value, this is one of three lesser crowns worn by the closest members of the Emperor's royal family.
It works as a Headband of Mental Perfection, adding +4 to Intelligence, Charisma and Wisdom, while also protecting the wearer as a Ring of Mind-Shielding would. Lastly, it bestows a permanent Protection from Evil effect.

Belt of Flow:
This Belt adds +4 Enhancement bonus to Dexterity and Constitution, while also granting the wearer the Evasion ability.

Ring of Translocation:
3/day teleport up to your movement speed to a point you can see, as a Swift action.

Emergency Pack:
[Redacted]

The longer she speaks the more sympathy you feel for the guard at her side. As your eyes slip to him the Ulfen warrior simply says: "The world is ice. I see through it, ever since I was a boy. I do not wish to be going, but there is no stopping her when she is like this, when she sees an enemy to fight, not just talk and more talk. Maybe they will respect her more at court, maybe they will say like elves that the dark ones are naught but fevered imaginings." He puts on a bone helm at odds with the adamantine breastplate, ancient it seems and yet not chipped nor cracked by time and battle, of a piece with the rage that flows around him. "If you get her killed my ghost will haunt you, shadow-seer."

There's no need to ask why it would be his ghost that would chase you down. You simply nod solemnly.

Spoiler: Bjorn the Seer

Name: Bjorn the Seer
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Age: Late 30s
Race: Human
Level: 14
Class: 2 Barbarian / Oracle 4 / Rage Prophet 8
Feats: Furious FocusB, Divine Fighting Technique (Gorum's Swordmanship), Cleave, Outflank, Vital Strike, Improved Outflank, Devastating Strike, Improved Vital Strike
Traits: Veteran of Battle, Reactionary
Class Features: Mystery (Battle), Revelations (Battlefield Clarity, War Sight), Curse (Legalistic), Fast Movement, Rage (25 Rounds/Day), Uncanny Dodge, Rage Powers (Moment of Clarity), Savage Seer, Spirit Guide, Rage Prophet Mystery, Raging Healer, Indomitable Caster, Ragecaster, Spirit Guardian, Enduring Rage, Raging Spellstrength

HP: 114
AC: 10 +1 (Dex) +9 (Armor) +5 (Ironskin) +3 (Shield of Faith) = 28
Initiative: +1 (Dex) +3 (Traits) +4 (Item) = +8
//Roll thrice, take the best. And act even when surprised, though last. Also in a surprise round, draw a weapon as a free action.
Movement: 40ft (foot) (30ft with Armor if Effortless Armor is not active)
Immunity: Sleep, Paralysis
Damage Resistance: 2/-

Attack:
Greatsword: +11 (BAB) +6 (Str) +2 (Enh) = +19/+14/+9 (2d6 +11) 17-20x2
In Rage: +11 (BAB) +8 (Str) +4 (Enh) = +23/+18/+13 (2d6 +14) 17-20 x2
Improved Vital Strike (with Power Attack, no penalty thanks to Furious Focus):
+19 (6d6+18) 17-20x2
Improved Vital Strike (With Rage, Divine Favor, Mighty Strength, Enlarge Person and Hands of Valor buffs, using Power Attack):
+34 (9d6 +36) 17-20x2
Adding to that Moment of Greatness to double the Morale Strength bonus from Rage would, for a single hit make it:
+36 (9d6 +39)

And the statline with Rage, Haste, Divine Favor, Mighty Strength, Enlarge Person and Hands of Valor buffs, not using Vital Strike, but using Power Attack (Furious Focus negates only the first penalty):
+11 (BAB) +11 (Str) +4 (Enh) +1 (Haste) +3 (Luck) +5 (Sacred) = +34/+31/+26/+21 (3d6 +32) 17-20 x2

16 +2 (Race) +4 (Item) = 22 (+6) Strength
12 +x (Item) = 12 (+1) Dexterity
14 +4 (Item) = 18 (+4) Constitution
10 Intelligence
10 +4 (Item) = 14 (+2) Wisdom
14 +4 (Item) = 18 (+4) Charisma

SAVES:
FORTITUDE: 8 +4 (Con) +4 (Resistance) = 16
REFLEX: 4 +1 (Dex) +4 (Resistance) = 9
WILL: 8 +2 (Wis) +4 (Resistance) = 14

SKILLS:
Climb: 16 +6 (Str) = 22
Intimidate: 16 +4 (Cha) = 20
Perception: 16 +2 (Wis) +10 (Item) = 28
Swim: 16 +6 (Str) = 22

Spells (CL 9 Oracle (CL 11 while Raging)
Spell DC: 10 +4 (Charisma) +Spell Level (+ 4 (Con Bonus) While Raging)
0th: Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Light, Purify Food and Drink, Enhanced Diplomacy, Spark, Stabilize, Resistance
1st: Enlarge PersonB, Barbed Chains, Cure Light Wounds, Divine Favor, Moment of Greatness, Shield of Faith
2nd: Fog CloudB, spiritual weaponB, see invisibilityB, Augury, Burst of Radiance, Effortless Armor, Ironskin
3rd: Stunning Barrier, Greater, Blindness/Deafness, Cure Serious Wounds
4th: divinationB, arcane eyeB, Mighty Strength, Battle Trance

Special Abilities:

Legalistic

Effect
Whenever you break your word (either purposefully or unintentionally), you become sickened for 24 hours or until you meet your obligation, whichever comes first. However, once per day, you can make a vow to yourself that grants a +4 morale bonus on any one roll you make while trying to fulfill a promise made to another individual.

At 5th level, you gain a +3 competence bonus on Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks while talking to an individual one-on-one.
At 10th level, you can make a new saving throw each minute to resist mind-affecting effects as your subconscious searches for loopholes.

Battlefield Clarity (Ex): Once per day, as an immediate action, whenever you fail a saving throw that causes you to become blinded, deafened, frightened, panicked, paralyzed, shaken, or stunned, you may attempt that saving throw again, with a +4 insight bonus on the roll. You must take the second result, even if it is worse. At 7th and 15th level, you can use this ability one additional time per day.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex)

At 2nd level, a barbarian gains the ability to react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to armor class if immobilized. A barbarian with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to armor class if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against her.

Rage (Ex)

A barbarian can call upon inner reserves of strength and ferocity, granting her additional combat prowess. Starting at 1st level, a barbarian can rage for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + her Constitution modifier. At each level after 1st, she can rage for 2 additional rounds. Temporary increases to Constitution, such as those gained from rage and spells like bear's endurance, do not increase the total number of rounds that a barbarian can rage per day. A barbarian can enter rage as a free action. The total number of rounds of rage per day is renewed after resting for 8 hours, although these hours do not need to be consecutive.

While in rage, a barbarian gains a +4 morale bonus to her Strength and Constitution, as well as a +2 morale bonus on Will saves. In addition, she takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase to Constitution grants the barbarian 2 hit points per Hit Dice, but these disappear when the rage ends and are not lost first like temporary hit points. While in rage, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration.

A barbarian can end her rage as a free action and is fatigued after rage for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in the rage. A barbarian cannot enter a new rage while fatigued or exhausted but can otherwise enter rage multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If a barbarian falls unconscious, her rage immediately ends, placing her in peril of death.

Equipment: Cloak of Resistance +4, Belt of Titan's Might (+4 Str and Con), Linnorn Helmet, +3 Mind Butressing Adamant Breatplate, Jarl's Blade, Watchman's Ring (+10 Competence on Perception), Boots of Speed, Scabbard of Keen Edges

Linnorn Helmet:
This helmet is allegedly carved from the tooth of a long-dead Taiga Linnorn before it was enchanted. Regardless of the truth of that matter, it certainly bestows some draconic properties on the wearer, adding a +4 Enhancement bonus to Charisma and Wisdom and granting immunity from sleep and paralysis.
As a swift action, the wearer can activate True Seeing for a single round, once per day.

Jarl's Blade:
The longsword of a great Jarl among Frostgiants (a greatsword for medium-sized creatures) who attempted to rule over the tribes of the north with the aid of a tribe of Slag Giants forging arms and armor for his people. As many such stories told among Kellid and Ulfen tribes go, the Jarl was eventually slain by some champion of the people he thought to rule and his weapon is now among the scattered treasures of the region.
A +2 Furious Greatsword that almost leaps into the owners hand at the first hint of an upcoming battle, granting a +4 bonus to Initiative.

Do you have any suggestions for how the princess and her guard should join in on the plan?

[] Write in

OOC: I hope this works. It would have felt really odd to run these people wholly apart from any plan you guys could have made, but at the same time they would not have told you what they can do IC before you committed.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Canvas of Flesh ​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

"May the the fires of the Everbloom kindle your courage and guide your heart," the princess proclaims, setting a hearty hand on Cob's small shoulder even as you call the shadows around her that she might draw the blade from hiding. The first one to earn that blade to the vitals won't be getting up, you judge.

"The Everbloom?" You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times you heard Sirim sound that surprised, though memory of old does not recall the name. Had you heard of her among the Bellflower? No, just two days ago Sir Pisca had made mention of her sarcastically, of how rumors make slavers into her chosen folk.

"What, master shadow? you don't think one of royal blood is worthy of her regard?" She gives a laugh unseen, more at her own expense than not you'd judge. "Mayhap you are right, small yet is the flame of my devotion before the demands of state, yet today I walk with Her unburdened by duties of the crown."

As soon be unburdened by your head, Sirim whispers to himself, almost, though he shares it at least with you. Absent is his contempt for such gods as Haggakal or his hatred of the Midnight Lord and his servants, for one who is to his mind deluded about herself and the One which she has chosen to serve.

Potions are handed out and wards against poison woven, for those about to walk into the company of drow and their light elvish kin no better disposed.

Mina had spent all this while trying to unravel the words upon the scroll. Fine and crisp they are, as though the had been burned upon the parchment by the rays of some alien star fracturing and recombining and breaking again as they describe relations arcane.

"Given infinite time, any morsel of matter can make its way to any point in the physical sphere, but time itself is inconstant, not a single stream but a vast delta flowing at times swifter and at times slower. "

After some thought you decide to suggest to the others to make use of glamor-craft to take on a more expected shape, not so much for the 'audience' waiting for you down in the Locker as any distant eyes who might pay attention to the battle, elvish or otherwise. So you do, all but Sirim hidden behind false faces again, in Cob's case a particularly floppy eared halfling.

All the while Bjron chants the names of runes in his strange northern tongue, the syllables wholly apart from the Taldan trade tongue and from the languages of the High Realm you heard in dreams. There's a touch of dwarvish there you think, but only around the edges. Whence it came you cannot say, but neither can you deny the power. As you all join hands Mina continues to read, words half understood laid down with painstaking care by a mage.

"...Between any two points there are an infinite number of paths that can be accessed, each in their own moment, but moments are a function of time, the serpent devouring its tail, and so for the experienced magician any two points at any time can be made one."

It's as though the stone underfoot, the air you breathe and all within them are woven of silk like a great tent and the hand of a giant reaches out to yank it sideways, twisting and turning, colors bleeding into each other, shapes turning inside out... Until the soles of your feet hit hard stone and the smell of fire, charred meat and unclean bodies hit your nostrils.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Mina Caster Check (DC 14): 1d20+6 = 18 (Success)

The good news is that Pisca is still alive, bound and unconscious on the hard stone floor and that both of the elves, warrior and wizard, are gone. The bad news is that they had managed to find and attract the Lamashans. Seated on a monstrous throne that grows like a tumor from the back of a spider larger than Warty is the three eyed drow. To her left and right are two hunched over figures the size of ogres that might once have been of xulgath stock, though worse and more vicious than even the nightmares of the People can tell. Seated between the fins are lithe figures, grey skinned save where it had been worn raw armed with hooks and blades and thing-catchers, but the things they hold are worse by far.

Once they might have been men, and indeed here and there in the masses of suffering flesh you can see remnants of humanity as they scream and howl and gibber. Chests crack open into new ravenous maws, spines wiggle like serpents out petals of sinew and veins, tentacles topped with eyes that look on in horror all too sapient

Spoiler: Hive of Lamashtu

Elywa screams something that's more ecstatic prayer than warcry... and that is when you notice that there are more drow around the edges of the chamber, eight in all, each bearing some deformity of face or form, and more importantly for the moment heavy black-steel crossbows.

"The Spider, bring it down! Bring'er down!" The Ulfen seer roars so loud it seems to shake the stone.

How do you fight?

[] Write in

OOC: The clue that you were about to fight the hive was that the place Pisca was in had demon carvings all over the walls. The elves had already dragged him in, they had only to ring the proverbial dinner bell and make themselves scarce. This is not, to be clear, the encounter you would have faced if you met her in the sewers a few updates back, this is the whole hive. On the plus side, get through this and you are guaranteed to level up.

 

[DragonParadox]

In Ash Veiled, In Blood Walking ​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Ash rises from the cavern floor as though stirred by the wings of some unseen dragon and a dragon indeed there seems to be among the company of demon worshipers this bell, for it has rung and death has come.

Among the hisses of the beasts and the cries of sudden dread the mad ones laugh and send their snares whistling through the air, for they know no fear of heaven or hell. But where their minds cannot be snared their limbs are caught instead, shadows grasping and clinging at their limbs. Elywa does not turn when the shadows boil behind her, a dagger emerging from the dark to strike thrice almost faster than the eye can see, but there must be something harder than elf-flesh under those robes because the second of the blows rings as if striking stone. Still, bluish black blood flows over the back of the spider and the screams of the cult redouble.

Gorok and the princess fall upon one of the lizard things, hewing limb and splintering bone, by sword of adamantine and ancient steel, but still the thing clings to life with claws of rage... Until the rage of the Ulfen guards meets it, one warrior driving his sword through a injured leg while another spearing it through the roof of its mouth, pulling its dero rider down before she can get her wits about her. Alas for the man-thing and much to your fortune, she's pulped by Bjorn whose roar of rage seems to catch the air and twist it, a storm wind that wraps around him like a shield.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Elywa takes 45 Damage -> Now at 85/120
Ghonhatine One takes 60 Damage -> Now at 102/162
Ghonhatine One takes 91 Damage -> Now at 11/162
Ghonhatine One takes 18 Damage -> Dead
Dero Acolyte takes 97 Damage -> Dead

The sound of crossbow pins coming unlimbered fills the air, but before any of them can fly the second derro casts the barbed rope she's holding, a thing-catcher you recall they are called, and pulls Sir Pisca to her and calls out in terrifyingly precise Taldan: "Lay down your knives or he gets the knife!"

Across the room, through the mist that is as clear to your eyes as empty air, you catch Cob's eye and the question in them. Should he stab the leader again and hopefully keep her from invoking more of the 'Mother's' power, or try to rescue Pisca who's likely in no state to survive the second beast falling upon him?

How do you fight?

[] Cob tries to save Pisca

[] Keep focusing on the leader

[] Write in

OOC: Order of initiative is Cob, surviving Ghonhatine, archers, Princess, Elywa, Bjorn, , Akorian, Gorok, Sirim, Mina, and the remaining Ulfen guards. Not posting rolls this time around since there were just too damn many of them, but you managed to hit everyone but the derro and Elywa with the aura and of course the ash is doing its job.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Heart Enduring ​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Cob keeps on stabbing even as you desperately call on the words to summon chains out of shadow to keep the mad one off Sir Pisca. Blood gushes, the thing catcher pulls tight, and the chain pulls down as the reptilian beast charges the Taldan Champion, the reek overpowering like Lamashtu's own cauldron of filth. The mad one loses her balance and tumbles to the floor, unshaken, but briefly stunned into something closer to strategic thought by the embrace of cold stone.

"The Mother will punish you, runt!" she screams in a voice not wholly her own and for a moment Cob hesitates, his blade still slick with drow- blood, but then he screeches back:

"Heroes kill and heroes chop! Cut the foe-man into slop!"

Your head swims with the reek as Gorok parried first one swing of the fetid claws than another, metal sparking of spurs of bone. Lamashtu had killed gods, she had killed Curchanus. Shrieks of pain like you had never heard before in your life fill your ears, griffons you know without knowing how, and you know they are dying or worse, and yet you do not die. Blood oozes under your armor where the blast of bruise-purple magic had struck you, but you still live to watch the priestess' eyes, all three of them, widen in surprise and horror as the earth begins to shake.

"No! You'll bury us alive!" Bjorn looks up at Sirim with eyes that seems to bulge out of his face.

He pays no mind to the bolt now poking out of his shoulder, the only one to land. But his warning is already much too late, even as he and Gorok hew through the beast with viper swiftness and impossible strength, tearing it limb from limb as the earth fractures under the feet of the servants of the demon queen as though the Pit itself was welcoming them home.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Elywa takes 32 Damage -> Now at 52/130
Derro Acolyte is knocked Prone, but not Shaken
Akorian is Nauseated
Elywa Casts Reached Slay Living (DC 20) -> Akorian Fortitude: 1d20+8 = 20 (Success)
Akorian takes 22 Damage -> Now at 43/65
Every single bolt fails to hit... barring one that does not get through the DR
Bjorn Attack... 56 (Crit)... 42 (Confirm)... 142 Damage
Gorok also hits three times... 98 Damage Total
Ghonhatine Two Dead

Sirim is no half-trained wizard fumbling his chants nor shaman of the deep wilds drawing too deep of the fickle powers, but a master of magic even in defeat, even in the hands of fiends. Its little wonder what he can be in the hour of his triumph. Two of the drow collapse outright against the stone, lines of blood dribbling alongside profane pictographs... as the spider takes advantage of the crack in the earth to flee seemingly against the will of its mistress.

"After them!" you shout... or try to at least, the reek of the dead monster still in your lungs.

Mina instead rushes over to Sir Pisca to heal him, but the princess isn't going to let the enemy escape unchastized. The sword in her hand glows like a brand of fire pulled from the stars even as the blood of the last derro sizzles off it, and starlight-bright the crown upon her brow.

Spoiler: Mechanics

2 Drow Crossbowman unconscious
Elywa and the Giant Spider fleeing through the hole made by the Earth Tremor
Derro Acolyte killed

What do you do?

[] Chase the spider, Pisca will be fine a few moments until you can kill the cultist atop it

[] Split up
-[] Write in how

[] Write in

OOC: So yeah, poor Kori almost went to see the Azlanti gods a moment there, but he made his save so now he is the only one wounded as Bjorn continues to blend all in his path.

 

[DragonParadox]

Against the Tide of Madness ​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

"Duck!" A small and quite absurd part of your mind wonders why the Taldan word for getting out of the way of a flying stun grenade is the same as the name of flying livestock, but mostly you are just glad Eutropia has the presence of mind to listen. As the vial goes tumbling after spider and priestess two things happen one after another, she slides of her saddle... and the beast go mad.

"She was controlling them!" Sirim calls out, and it is only by the nature of his mind-speech that anyone can hear him among through the noise; like splintering bones and infants wailing as one of the beasts swallows her whole.

"So they fucking ate her first chance they got?" the princess demands of empty air, too aghast by what she's seeing to bother with either royal elegance or soldier's bravado.

"Not ate, they take her in to birth again as she birthed them," the guard's voice is strangely muted yet you can hear him just the same, or maybe you can read it on his lips in the wild arcs of light that spill out from from the depths.

Hardly needing to look you know this is the temple proper, a pool of water sitting in a jagged opening in the surrounding stone, once serene, now torn open like a womb shifting, whirling with the colors of blood and bile as though the earth itself had grown infected, fecund with new hideous life.

From speaking to Saenar you had the sense that the flesh-warping of the drow was a careful process for all its evils, like cutting back prickle-pods to harvest. Not... this.

Through the eye-piercing days, the dreams that came like black needles driven into your temples, you wondered what could possibly have been so dreadful that your kin had first chosen to enter the lair of duergar, drow, worms, sloppers, and shambling things. As you look upon the wound beneath Cassomir, blooms of festering flesh growing across it, you have an answer, though you'd rather not have any.

The spider starts to invert, the mass at its center turning into a kind of bowl like the carapace of a beetle, its legs punching upwards like cartilaginous towers meant to hold up some new edifice. But as quickly as they rise Cob and the princess' man cut them back, one with precision, the other seeming lost sacred rage.

Behind you a pair of crossbowmen screamed and fire crackled clean... as clean as it could be melting flesh from bone at least. "How do we close it?" you ask, unsure of who to ask.

It's Mina who answers: "It's not... open, only a reflection, like holding a mirror to a poisoned sun. They wanted to change the city, they failed, so now it's them who are changing, the light out of focus."

Even as she says the words the remaining guards, slower on their feet than their leader, cut down crossbowmen in the midst of their own change, but even as you set your mind on cursing and withering the growing horror something speaks and it does not sound like any drow, like any mortal thing of which you have heard.

"Relics of a fallen god, now accursed, and whispers of dead rumormongers. Is that what you bring against me children of a broken age? Blood of thieves and cowards? Worry not, Mother takes all, uses all."

Swords are raised and axes help high, daggers bright in hands that hold them, Cob as ever near the foe. But before blood could be spilled one voice rises above all others, not in wrath, but in a melody that lulls the mind and closes weary eyes...

Lullay lullow, lullay lully,
Beway bewy, lullay lullow,
Lullay lully,
Baw me bairne, sleep softly now.

Even eyes that are pained, even a mind birthed to bring forth agony and sow ruin. The light pluses viciously, a goad to the horror to do its maker's will, but whatever horror was seeking entry into this world by the folly of the priestess now enmeshed in the flesh of her creation has not the mastery over its... mind. Does thing have a mind?

I saw a sweet and seemly sight,
A blissful burd, a blossom bright,
That morning made and mirth among.

At the very least it seems to have will enough to rest and lay its head down upon the stone, this creature that should never have been. It chose this, knowing perhaps by the memories of those lost to its making what comes next. Or maybe it just wanted peace.

Lullay lullow, lullay lully,
Beway bewy, lullay lullow,
Lullay lully,
Baw me bairne, sleep softly now.

A maiden mother, meek and mild,
In cradle keep, a knavë child,
That softly sleep; she sat and sang.

Its death at least comes without pain by celestial steel and a goblin's bone-carved knife. The light dies along with it and the will of the Mother of Monsters flees to blight some other benighted corner of Golarion.

Baw me bairne, sleep softly now.

You sigh and feel yourself slump against the stone as the pain in your chest redoubles now that you aren't fighting anymore. "'T would be nice, just for a change of pace, to draw the attention of some other sort of god."

"Ah shadowseer, but don't you see, the gods know you don't need the help, so they husband their strength to aid those who do," the princes says in half in jest, though you would judge not meanspirited.

Spoiler: Mechanics: Abridged

Elywa Will Save DC 20: 1d20+ 9 = 14 -> Stunned
Flesh Beasts escape her control (that is why they were smart enough to run with her)
Flesh Beasts Attack to Swallow Whole: 1d20+15 = 23 (Success)
*rolls hidden*
??? Will Save vs Slumber DC 21: 1d20+14 = 19 (Failure)

What do you do next?

[] Try to track down Saenar, alive or dead

[] Get back to the surface, get Pisca healed and deal with House Basri

[] Write in

OOC: I hope that worked. 'Giant mutant monster gets defeated by Sleep Hex and then Coup de Graced' isn't very heroic, but that is what the dice said and it had nothing to give it general sleep immunity.

 

[DragonParadox]

Judgements in Absentia​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Sir Pisca, you soon discover, had been asleep. Not from spell, but from the same sort of sleeping potion one would be able to buy at any apothecary in Cassomir and likely sourced from there, the better to lose its trail. The knight himself remembers hearing an odd sound outside, opening a window onto the storm-wracked palace garden, and then blackness, rendered unconscious with a spell before being drugged and dragged into the depths. Not only had his kidnappers made off with the alchemist, but also with the concoctions he was preparing to imbibe, his armor, talismans, and even his ancient family sword, leaving him more disorientated and distraught in his anger than you had ever seen the men. "Highness, we must find them. My aunt, the Duchess... she'll never, she can't forgive me for this, losing a legacy of House Fahlspar..."

"And here I thought the legacy of House Fahlspar was honorable service." The knight recoils as if struck at the words, but she continues unabated. "A sword is mere steel, be that steel even forged under the Golden Gates before they were drowned by the sea. Legacy is in the deeds of those who bear it. Battle you have brought against enemies of the empire, those who would rob our trade lanes and who would twist the devotion of our citizens to service of the madman Razmir. If you have need for a sword, take this one." In one smooth motion she pulls the celestial blade from her hip and presents him the hilt. "I shall count its service in your hands no less than in my own."

"I...I can't..."

"Go on," she smiles, a bit of her old bravado slipping back into her expression despite the reek and desolation. "'T would make the Andorans less likely to eye-stab me every time I showed my face with it. I'm sure there's a knife somewhere in this mess I could use instead."

"You have five," her guard proclaims in the kind of perfect deadpan that indicates either the princess collects an improbable numbers of knives about her person, or she has a habit of trying to loot unholy shrines for them. Come to think of it, it might be both.

"Ah, but those are my emergency knives, they aren't for use unless I run out of other weapons. Seems to me like there are plenty of other weapons around here."

"Festering, poisoned, and accursed," he nods by turn to monster corpses, the drow bodies, and the light of the bale-fire still smoldering in the center of the chamber. "Don't disarm Her Highness," he adds to Pisca. A moment passes before he adds grudgingly: "Please."

"I wouldn't dream of it, good fellow," the knight, if anything, seems to recover more from being given the chance to do the right thing by his princess, but most of your attention is fixed on another task.

It is far from difficult to tell where the Lamashans had come from, they trail filth, half-rotted bone, and gristle the way a tunnel slug trails slime, but the elves in the vision, the ones who had brought Pisca here, there was really no way for them to make it through the cavern complex around the temple unless they were unseen and unheard, able to run full tilt through the horde or... They got out the same way you got in, by magic. At least that's Gorok's judgement and you see no reason to doubt him. Though that still raises the question...

"Would they have killed Saenar and disposed of the body, or try to take him back to Kyonin for questioning?" You pause to think. "Or something in between, killed him and taken his skull maybe?"

Some of the guards give you dirty looks, but you're much too used to that to return them. At least the princess seems to be paying attention. "Well, if they are out of reach there's one party in the city that can answer that question, and by Abadar's Perfect Scales they will answer to me!"

Spoiler: Mechanics

Princess Diplomacy (DC 30/35): 1d20+28 = 29 31 (Success)
Gorok Survival (DC 22/27): 1d20+14+4 (Deadeye Lore) = 25 (Success)

"If they did kill the drow his soul would be, by far, more straightforward to restore, assuming Highness that you are willing to pay the price your priests demand," Sirim notes, seemingly only mildly interested. "I can easily produce his likeness."

She starts, looks up at him, and without preamble asks. "What's your stake in this, shade?"

Spoiler: Mechanics

Sirim Bluff: 1d20+13+8 (Heroism+Bestow Insight) = 32
vs
Princess Sense Motive: 1d20+23 = 34

"Should I explain...?" He's asking all of you, and not just about the engine you had handed into Saenar's care. A deeper question lurks. If the Princess should introduce him to a priest able to resurrect the drow only from his likeness, than that priest would possess the lore Sirim needs to craft a puppet body for himself without appealing to necromancy.

That he would even ask the question shows trust that's hard to imagine coming from your daytime visitor aboard the White Eagle all those months past.

What does Kori think?

[] Tell her about the anima-engine and the hopes of cleaning out necromantic taint

[] Sirim should explain his condition

[] Deflect, it's too much of a risk she will take honesty badly in this

[] Write in

OOC: Enjoy.

 

[DragonParadox]

To Break a Trap Unmatched​

19th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

After a moment's hesitation you add your voice to Mina and Cobs's, that Sirim should speak his part now while he had the chance, against Gorok's more cautious counsel. After a moment's thought and such cheerful musing as, 'She might not be able to kill us all, but one of her divine inclination would need more than rank suspicion to draw a blade' he addresses the princess, though not at first in mind voice.

Instead he conjures a seeming cast in harsh lines, a slender young man pale enough to mistake for one who has never seen the sun, his hair black enough it almost breaks the light to a deep blue and eyes of the same hue, shadows of pain or exhaustion below them. "So was I on the eve of my ascension in the Umbral Court Nisroch, flesh and blood and hopes and lies, dreams of treason laid to rest for how can any man, even a sorcerer, betray a god's brand upon their soul? I hated the Black Triune too, of course, as anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear among my peers might, hated the incestuous orgy of lies and schemes that kept all knives pointed downwards while the Kuthite Inquisition whipped any back that seemed particularly unmarked. I broke under the torturer, of course, everyone does..."

With mounting horror you listen to his words, though one eye is on Pisca, the princess, and her guard. The knight seems flummoxed at the news, like finding a snake under one's pillow, while Eutropia's eyes narrow with a suspicion.

"Most people are in only one piece when they do so. Souls are malleable, ductile, divisible. In the days and weeks before that last look in the mirror I slaved over half understood texts seeking to break my consciousness in two. Keeping one aspect in a deep sleep..."

"Lichdom, you are describing the ultimate violation of the soul, blasphemy before all decent gods," the princess says, not trying to hide her disgust.

"The texts were related, yes indeed, and that is why they handed them to me," the smoke figure's eyes grow brighter even as the eyes of the figment-Sirim grow hollow. "But mere earthly resilience in feeble imitation of the Whispering Tyrant is not what I sought."

"For Desna's sake, do you need to sound like you're the spawn of Urgathoa just so you can reveal how clever you were?" Mina says in exasperation.

Sirim flicks his tail at her, the puff of smoke vanishing long before it can reach her face. "Need, no. Enjoy, yes."

The brief moment of levity seems to startle the princess, though what might be going on behind those dark searching eyes you do not know.

"We did not part ways. Rather one forgot the whole process and became the guiding intelligence to go through the torments of ascension into the Umbral Court, the loss of will, while the other slipped into dreamless sleep, still bound to the body by a silver thread. Once the loyal aspect of self had gone through the harrowing and the oath-swearing it was no great effort for this aspect, hatred for the Midnight Lord undimmed by terror or oaths, to consume the Kuthite husk the other had become."

You take in a sharp breath, unnaturally loud in the sudden quiet, causing him to turn to you and add with something like regret, but also with pride: "I-that-was-We agreed to the plan beforehand. I do not even know if the one devoured was the original or the replica, not that it matters now. It is gone, having fulfilled the purpose intended. Here I was, a traitor to the Umbral Court, the only one I know of, though given the habits of the Kuthite Inquisition and the relative ease with which I escaped the vow I would not be shocked if there were others through the long years. Others which were hunted as I was." He goes on to explain that when the devil working on behalf of the Black Triune's servants caught up to him in southern Cheliax he used that same understanding of soul magic to hurl his consciousness into his familiar, though the cost was steep in memories and power. "Still, fortune smiled on me. I gained more than I have lost."

"Good soul choppin'," Cob agrees enthusiastically. "You're good for us too!"

"It was a lucky day for all of us," Mina agrees without hesitation. After all, like all the rest of you, she'd known the what if not the how.

"The wise hunter knows when to cut off their tail to escape the trap, so it it is said among the Blackscales. Even better when you can grow the tail back." It's hard to tell if Gorok had made a joke, but there is no doubting his sincerity.

"Who am I to argue with someone else's magical methods?" You shrug, uneasy at drawing attention, but needing to say your piece just the same. "I can vouch that Sirim had been a good and true companion all this time, and a worthy friend."

"And now you want the drow to help make you a body?" Bjorn asks after a moment's stillness as the princess was still deciding what to make of all of this.

"I certainly wouldn't object to the help, but the creation of a whole living unsouled body is rather beyond the arts of fleshwarping. I was hoping that a priest skilled enough to restore him from likeness and... flexible enough to do so might be inclined to help, in exchange for payment of course."

"You want to explain all that to..." she stops before starting again more hesitantly than you had heard her so far: "You really hate Zon-Kuthon, don't you? For that he did to you? For what he did to your people?"

"For chaining a people and shackling us with his lies and his pain."

"Sometimes I wonder at Milani's sense of humor... I will see about finding you that priest, master shadow, if you are willing to share intelligence about Nidal with... the Imperial Household."

Spoiler: Mechanics

Sirim Bluff: 1d20+13+4 (Heroism) +2 Aid Another = 24 39
vs
Princess Sense Motive: 1d20+23 = 33

And the rest of the Imperial Household will be hearing whatever she wants them to, you add mentally, relieved that you are over the hurdle. It's been a long way from that cave mouth in Cheliax, and not just in miles.

Gained 2600 XP​

[] Write in Level up Plans

OOC: I know this is a bit abrupt, but this felt like a good cut off point since you will be going to the surface and the move against House Basri (should you choose to take part) won't be for a few more days.