Warming back up (Afina)

[Ebiris]

Not really, hence my summarising a general plan which can be delegate downwards! Lets go appraise our earnings and see if Crystal's clawed her way out of debt?

[Anastasia]

Loot post. We can sort that out on the side as we go on.

The rest of the day is lost to sorting and recovery. The next day has Crystal and Afina meet with Elena, who provides a summary of what's going on. She's dressed as a librarian today, down to ghostly glasses.

"Ahem!" Elena clears her throat, "The first part is a summary of the former slaves. They're from all sorts of places. Some are travelers in Fire and others were seized in raids here and there. Interestingly, few were taken on the Prime Material. Faheem's operations focus more on the Inner Planes and the Astral. The majority are skilled warriors but not greatly skilled. Nothing like Aurora's forces, which suggests he either avoids powerful mortals or keeps them elsewhere. There's also passingly few spell casters. Warriors are preferred, which may be his overall goal or may simply be the purpose of that ranch."

Elena clears her throat again. "Secondly, there's an appraisal of taken goods from ranch." She passes around a paper to both of them.

[Ebiris]

"Probably a lot end up as fodder for the Blood War," Afina surmises at the preponderance warriors rather than other more servile trades. "Still, if most are from the inner planes that probably means we can get them all at least close to their homes with only a few gates rather than having to filter between a few dozen different prime materials. And they can spread word of our Crusade and perhaps drum up more support for us across those planes?"

As the paper is provided Afina gives it a look, seeming unsurprised. "Once the attack was underway I started to realise we weren't likely to see much monetary profit out of this one. How's your debt looking now, Crystal?"

Spoiler: ShowHide

Afina 208/208, greater mage armour (CL 23), moment of prescience (CL 23), heroes feast (CL 20).
AC 60 (touch 46, flat footed 60), blindsense 30 , spell resistance 38, immunity to fire, disease, and water
Spell charges remaining: 6/9/9/8/9/8/8/8/6/7

[Anastasia]

"Dented but intact." Crystal goes over the papers as well, "A blow has been struck against it, yet truly the greater victory was one of the soul. For all the zeal and righteousness of our previous battle, it is evident that the greatest value is in saved souls, rather than gold and lucre." She puts down the paper and taps a finger, "I greatly appreciate that and know it is more valuable than any amount of mere treasure, but doubtlessly it leaves us stuck in the same corundum as we began in."

Elena clears her throat here, "Ahem! So that means you need to vanquish more evil?"

[Ebiris]

"It's that or go gambling in Brightwater," Afina nods her agreement with Elena. "Unless you've come up with any other ideas?" she asks Crystal. "The only one that occurred to me was selling pixie dust for spell components, but since that can be used to scry on us..." she shrugs, "It's fairly demeaning too."

[Anastasia]

Crystal sighs long, "Gambling in Brightwater could be an adventure, but I admit I am loathe to put my trust in Lady Luck, for her whimsy and whim are as unfathomable as the slaad. I do think that perhaps a trip to Dweomerheart is not without merit, and that if done properly, it could be extremely rewarding in more senses beyond mere monetary gains."

"Hm," Elena hums at that, "Tepen has another idea. You just want to go take shiny things from evil doers, don't you?

This gets Crystal to perk up, "That would be a splendid option to have."

[Ebiris]

"Done properly, right," Afina repeats. "How do you even go about it? Stand on street corners and waggle your wings suggestively at passing wizards?" She giggles a little at the image conjured before perking up at Elena's interjection. "Preferably evil doers involved with Hell, but yes."

[Anastasia]

"AFINA!" Crystal reddens like a tomato, "You make it sound as if we would be common streetwalkers!"

Elena giggles as well, "That aside, I put Tannin and Tepen on finding a new quest for you. Galariel was sure you'd need it and he was right. You've heard of Mineral and all the treasures there? If you  haven't, the plane is fiercely guarded by the elemental inhabitants. It's the classic get rich quick scheme. You sneak in, succeed on getting a king's ransom and get out. The problem is that it's really hard to do since the elementals are relentless.

It turns out Hell can't resist. There's a little hideaway they have near the border to the Positive Energy Plane. One that serves Mammon and tries to steal anything they can. It would be a shame if something happened to it, don't you think?"

[Ebiris]

"That is what I was going for, yes," Afina chuckles before listening in to Elena's spiel. "I don't think extracting wealth from Earth or its linked planes is a good idea for us - Sunnis and Entemoch have been supportive towards us and they both made their disapproval of that practice very clear when we last met. Though speaking of I should visit the Cauldron soon to see about taking Earth into me..." she trails off at that digression and shakes her head. "Perhaps we could attack it and return the wealth to its proper place, but just like the last raid 'the greater victory will be of the soul,'" she quotes Crystal's own words from earlier.

[Anastasia]

"Hm." Crystal glowers a bit at Afina before going on. "Then perhaps we are going about this wrong. Rather than relying on our own efforts, perhaps we should talk around Aurora. Surely others will have ideas?"

[Ebiris]

Afina is singularly unimpressed by that glower, only showing a fractional smile in response. "Lets start with Kascha, then?" she suggests. And not just because she adores the eladrin. "She follows not just a dragon goddess, but one who in turn followed the merchant goddess and built herself up to her current station from nothing. I'm sure she'll be full of tales and ideas to inspire us on the road to riches."

[Anastasia]

Amid laughter, Elena says, "Yes, that's not a bad idea. She's in the courtyard with Ebony."

Meanwhile, Crystal just continues to give Afina a dirty look. "Yes, there may be wisdom in that. You mean Seira and Waukeen?"

[Ebiris]

"Don't pout Crystal, there's no shame in showing off a nice pair of wings like you have," Afina continues to tease if only because Crystal keeps biting. "I'm sure you'd have wizards lining up for you." Rising up from her seat and fluttering her own wings to take flight she allows herself to get back on topic. "But yes, that's who I mean. Lets stop by the library first though, since I did promise Vul'lath something nice from our raid. I hope he won't mind that the naked lady statue doesn't have wings, though."

[Anastasia]

Oh, Crystal's red as can be, but now she's gone from giving Afina a dirty look to pointedly not looking at her.  "Yes, let us get going."

Do you want to cover giving Vul'lath the statue IC?

[Ebiris]

Unless it turns out that Vul'lath does mind the lack of wings on his naughty statue, I suppose it can be skipped.