There is much to be done in victory. Troops to see to, injured to heal and fortifications to be restored. Speeches are to be given, celebrations begun. It is a triumph this day on Fire.
Laid out on a vast mesa are thousands of tables, laden with the delicacies and foods of Fire, brought forth by combined divine will. Here the soldiers celebrate and feast. At the highest table is Zaaman Rul, along with Alicia, Syala, Antenora and...
You can choose to invite any other of your NPCs for this chat if you want, y'all. Characters with divine rank get an auto invite as a matter of protocol.
Seira still can't entirely shake the adrenaline rush, acting half her age. She brought with her those alongside whom she fought, of course, and now she's flitting between the tables where the soldiers celebrate, seeing that they are well taken care of. Her avatar is at the table with Zaaman Rul and Amaryl, however, since the cleanup at the Cauldron has long since ended.
No one else from Sylica since we need people to guard the base. I'd want Alyssa and company here though since they took part and we have eyes on them.
"So, it looks like I'm involved in this war at last. I thought I could drag it out longer but part of me's amazed it lasted this long," Alicia says to Seira's avatar as they settle in. "It didn't quite sit right, being on the sidelines while all this was happening."
Yes, waiting on them since that's entirely reasonable. Emily as well is a known factor to Zaaman Rul thanks to backstory.
"Perhaps it's for the best," Seira responds to Alicia. "I heard reports that Eblis is wavering, and that's likely on you. Because you were here at this time. That alone would've made your participation worthwhile, and yet it's only the tip of the iceberg, isn't it?"
Alyssa and crew arrives here as suddenly as they did on the front lines and with as little pomp, raising her hand in greeting.
"Lady Seira! Greetings and congratulations on your victory!"
"Everyone," Zaaman Rul raises a goblet of burning , bubbling liquid up in a toast. "Emily, come join us. Alyssa, is it? Come join us as well, all of you. I see one of the Red Knight's strategists with you and others yet."
Syala is enjoying a drink and smiles, "Strategic neutrality has a place, but I'm glad to be in this war."
"Thank you," Jarem inclines his head deeply and takes a seat, as he sends to the others, 'Just be polite if in doubt.'
Alyssa inclines her head and takes a seat.
"Thank you for the welcome, my Lord."
To the others, 'Hopefully they won't spot light us too much, I think anonymity is one of our strengths right now.'
Seira nods at Alyssa in welcome, smiling at Emily briefly before saying, "Thank you for coming to the aid of our good friend. After today, Fire is one step closer to reform."
Alyssa takes a sip of drink, surveying the people around subtly.
"It's good to see you here Alyssa, and your friends," Alicia says to Io's chosen over the table after taking part in the toast. "You fought for a worthy cause today. I hope your experience on the battlefield brought you both wisdom and treasure for your efforts."
"It brought a possible treasure or two. One for sure... A prisoner. An assassin."
"It's often harder to capture someone alive than just to kill them," Alicia says. "What will you do with your prisoner?"
Alyssa shrugs. "I'm not greatly experienced in these matters. I turned over one of Shar's assassins to Seira here. Likely the same. Why? Are you interested in him?"
Alicia chuckles a little and shakes her head. "I don't even know his name, so no. Our host might since they were invading his home," she gestures to Zaaman Rul. "A prisoner is a potentially useful source of knowledge on enemy plans, but if they're particularly skilled or held in high regard it could be useful to hold onto as a ransom should one of your own friends end up captured. Presuming you can hold him securely without him escaping or causing trouble in your own camp."
Alyssa nods. "Well, if they don't have any magical ability themselves, Geas is always a good choice. Your advice is good; I'll off him to Zaaman Rul. As for actual treasure, we retrieved some shards that fell, but the assassin was the only fight of note. We mainly reinforced a flank."
"Yes, those shards flew all over, didn't they? Good times."
Alyssa nods and lifts one out of her pack with her TK.
"Yes, I haven't had a chance to study them in depth yet. What are they?"
"Imix had this relic of Kossuth, an artifact shield of protection and all the good stuff," Seira is all too happy to elaborate. "We all learned a valuable lesson today when we discovered it explodes when overwhelmed by more offensive fire magic than it can handle."
"Hmm... Interesting. I think I'll collect the shards for study. It might help me on another project I have."
Emily returns that smile as she sits, doing the same with Amaryl.
As everyone settles in, "Now friends," Zaaman Rul raises his glass again, "Today was well fought." His voice booms, "First, a cheer to all those who stood true with us!"
The cheer is loud, countless elementals, servants and other creatures shouting out. A towering din of noise, Zaaman Rul smiling. "Next, a cheer to all those who came and lended us aid in our hour of need!"
Another cheer, like a wave of noise overwhelming all of you.
"Third," Zaaman Rul continues, "A cheer to seeing Imix run like the coward he is!" This time the cheer is overwhelming and joined with some laughter, this the longest cheer of them all. Once done Zaaman Rul sits and calls, "Now return to your celebrations."
Once done Zaaman Rul speaks normally. "I have what is believed to be a full analysis of the shield shards," he says, scrolls of parchment appearing before everyone at the table.
Shards of the Broken Shield
These metal shards are part of a broken artifact and are thought to number in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. They spread far in wide when the shield was broken, propelled forth by the tremendous force that undid the artifact.
By itself, a shard radiates overwhelming abjuration but has no other effect. However, if swallowed, a shard provides the creature that swallowed it a permanent resistance to fire 1. This stacks with any other resistance to fire a creature has. This resistance can be increased by swallowing a number of shards equal to the number of shards for the last increase + 1, you can increase this resistance to fire by 1 point.
1 shard = resistance to fire 1.
3 shards (1+2) = resistance to fire 2.
6 shards (1+2+3) = resistance to fire 3.
10 shards (1+2+3+4) = resistance to fire 4.
15 shards (1+2+3+4+5) = resistance to fire 5.
So on and so forth.
Swallowing a shard is harmless. A swallowed shard remains within the creature's body.
It may be possible to restore the broken shield if every shard was gathered. As part of an artifact, one may be able to use these shards in other ways as well, but it would requires research.
> roll 1d10+2 Alicia
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 3 > [d10=1]
> roll 1d10+2 Alyssa
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 10 > [d10=8]
> roll 5d10+10 Seira since she was at ground zero and at the best place to get shards by a lot
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 37 > [d10=7,1,3,8,8]
Alicia has 3 shards.
Alyssa has 10 shards.
Seira has 37 shards.
This will be crossposted to loot.
"From the spread you probably have most here in your realm but a lot would have gone all over Fire," Alicia says to Zaaman Rul after reading that. "I think Syala picked up a couple that landed near us but they're not of great use to us and it's probably more productive to try assembling them together to rebuild the artifact if one were interested."
"That would be hard given that Imix absorbed a few after the explosion," Seira notes. "And he's a coward, so he'll run away if you try to go and get those."
"I gathered a handful as well. We could analyze the magic between the shards we have and construct a locator spell, likely. We might be able to use a shard to act as a compass to the next closest..."
"I have no doubt I will recover more as they are gathered within my realm, and Imix's soldiers took some with them," Zaaman Rul concurs. "To reassemble that shield would be a monumental task."
Antenora idly inspects one of the shards in the meantime, "As long as the shards could be retrieved from within, I hardly see using them as a detriment to repairing the shield."
At this it's Bastian who speaks up, "It sounds like a task with a lot of dusty roads and travels ahead, Lord Zaaman Rul." Smiling a bit at it, "All across Fire and beyond over time."
Alyssa considers and starts to mumble to herself... "Could we link a locator spell to a plane shift or greater teleport? Have it act as a summoning beacon for other shards in range... Maybe... If..."
She jots a few ideas down in her journal.
"I expect when people learn of them a lot will be retrieved from within at the end of a blade," Alicia muses at Antenora's thought. "If anyone wants ours I'm happy to surrender them now, we only have a couple and their effect alone isn't meaningful."
"I'm going to see what Sanzha could do with the ones I grabbed," Seira muses, "though if anyone comes close to reforging the shield they can have them then."
"I'll keep the one I got for now," Syala speaks up, "It's an interesting thing to study, I've never seen a broken artifact before. I intend to make more broken artifacts fighting evil."
Emily smiles a bit, "I think Alyssa or Mom would like yours, I bet, Aunt Alicia."
Zaaman Rul chuckles at this, "I may seek to rebuild it, I may not. It may be best a grand project we all cooperate on over the centuries."
Alyssa blinks at her name. "Hmm? Oh. Yes, the more the better. If I can construct the correct spell, it may make things easier."
"I think Alyssa should have some at the least," Antenora speaks up here.
That gets Antenora a glance from Jarem, but he adds, "That's the sort of thing one rarely gets a chance to see. I'd like our group to have some as well."
"Let's see if one of Lagann's favorite spells could be modified for that," Seira muses, adjusting Detect Metal to narrow its focus for the composition of the shield fragments and seeing if it notices those held by the others near her.
"We only had three, but you can have these two and Syala gets to keep her souvenir," Alicia passes two of the tiny little metallic flakes across to Alyssa.
Adjusting the spell to the type of metal in the shields - some sort of steel/adamantine hybrid with a few traces of more exotic metals - isn't hard, the fragments detected.
Crosspost that in loot, Alicia.
"There we go," Seira says in satisfaction. "Just amp up the spell range, then toss in some scrying and it should be fine. If incredibly time-consuming."
Alyssa leans forward to Seira, "If you can do that... Can you cause it to trace the magical resonance and link it to a Greater Teleport and cause them to be attracted to yours like a lodestone?"
"The magical resonance actually seems very basic since they're just broken shards," Seira responds. "As for what you're asking, I'm afraid not. Haven't you noticed the utter lack of magic that forcibly summons the things of others to you? It's not an oversight, I believe, but a deliberate decision and limits the use of magic to transport anything but things you have personally marked to you."
"Oh yes, the Weave is managed," Emily speaks up, "It's really interesting, since I'd love to see what Mystra could do with no limitations. Oh Alicia, have you ever seen that?"
"I've seen Mystra work the weave, but the limitations are a part of her as well," Alicia tells Emily. "In a fundamental sense she is the Weave, it's an extension of her self. Perhaps she has a few hidden tricks she doesn't share, but any fundamental limitations are just that."
"Yes, who doesn't hold back an ace or two?" Seira readily agrees, grumbling, "Usually they're not artifacts you stole from another god...."
"It's a shame Imix was able to endure your trump card," Alicia commiserates with Seira. "It was the same for me when I fought the Grand Sultan below, I managed to surprise him enough to land a single blow but it wasn't nearly enough to be decisive and next time he'll be better prepared for the tricks he saw me demonstrate. I'll need to come up with new measures to defeat the defences I saw, but of course he'll have new defences next time... always an escalation," she sighs a little and drinks of her flaming hot beverage.
"Hmm... Too bad there's not an animate object spell able to be cast at extreme range. If you could scry the objects and then animate them to move on their own, you could have them move through a gate or gather in one area for faster collection."
"Too bad," Zaaman Rul agrees, "But still, a victory is a victory. Seira!" Zaaman Rul toasts her, "My steadfast friend, I am once again in your debt."
"Let's see him escalate past an honor guard of prismatics next time," Seira says darkly.
"Why not come at it from another angle?" Alicia suggests to Alyssa. "Do you or anyone at your school have experience in golem-crafting? An automated retriever construct that can continuously detect the shards at range and hunt them down for you to later collect from could work to smooth the process."
Seira shakes her head, then, trying to rid herself of that mood. "That," she adds at Alicia's words, "or just call someone into service and gift them with a pair of glasses enchanted to direct them to the nearest shard."
She smiles at Zaaman Rul, then, toasting him back with her glass. "Anytime!"
"Alicia!" Zaaman Rul toasts her next, "You came forth at a request. I would be honored to call you a friend now and forever," he declares, "I am in your debt."
Alyssa clears her through a bit. "I've... since ended my contact with the Order and moved to a new location. The escalation of things leads to a point that I wouldn't have been able to reasonably defend my Prime. Since I was the only reason that the attention was being drawn, I've removed myself. It's likely some retaliation against them will happen, but I wouldn't be able to do anything against a serious effort either way. I've at least reduced the motivation for it, somewhat."
"I will collect on that sometime," Alicia says, raising her goblet in turn. "I'm not sure Sylica could endure so well if it were attacked by a similar force."
"Speaking of realm assaults, you know the strangest thing? A daemon army attacked the Cauldron at the same time, using a myriad of tiny portals clustered together. I wish I had more than vague suspicions as to the ones behind it."
Lowering her glass she refocuses on Alyssa. "I see. It's true mobility and a low profile can help when you're battling across the planes, though it seemed a well run place from when I visited and having its resources to back you would carry its own weight. I trust you considered the trade-offs and chose what was best for their sake, then," she nods, accepting that Alyssa seems to have made a sacrifice to keep her home safe. "Though I'll warn you, even if you're not present your enemies may strike at it so as to goad you, so it'd be best to still stay in touch."
"Then Alyssa!" Zaaman Rul nods back to Alicia and goes on, "You came forth on a request, to aid someone you don't even know. I would be honored to call you a friend as well."
Alyssa nods to Alicia. "I fully agree. The main issue I ran into was the fact that the Order was a gathering of refugees, mainly. Our people had ties to every country. Personal ones. We had resources, but we were small. I organized defenses as best as I could and left projects to be completed, but... Other countries were beginning to eye us as a threat solely because of my presence. Perhaps we could have endured an outside assault, but not if we were already in conflict internally to the plane. The Mageocracy is certainly willing to ally with whoever or whatever they needed to in order to win. It would have been a fight on too many sides for us."
Turn to Zaaman Rul, she smiles, "I thank you for the offer, my Lord. Friends are always welcome, but much of the credit for our being here lies with Emily and Seira. It was Emily who brought the chance to us."
"If there is anything I can do for any of you, request it," Zaaman Rul continues, leaving it open.
"You're already working to change Fire for the better," Seira tells Zaaman Rul. "What else could I ask for?"
Alyssa nods. "I shall keep it in mind. We're building our own retinue, so resources are a bit... tight. Speaking of, since all of you are here, I have some things that might of interest to some of you... As bait."
Alyssa takes a drink, then continues, "I recently stole a fiendish bank run by an Inevitable. They were able to extract some of the loot, but I gained a fair portion of it... And the names of who it belonged to. Is anyone interested in poking the eye of an Efreet prince, for example?"
"Yes, for now focus your strength and efforts on this war," Alicia backs Seira up. "Winning here comes first."
"Given that we're at war with the bastards, that's always in the cards," Seira responds. "What's on your mind?"
"Which bank?" Syala speaks up at that, attention turning to Alyssa. "I think we all could stand to give an emir a violent time of it."
"Emily brought the opportunity to me. Farrols, run by an Inevitable Marut. I'm not entirely sure who all was backing it, but we assault it and... liberated... the entire building. They were, unfortunately, able to make off with the slaves. But the list of names we retrieved were quite interesting."
She begins ticking off finger, "Abdul Nasr al-Hariq. Inbar Hamawi. Aziz Nasari. For non-Efreet, Rosier. Gumalakin. Wylsafir, though I believe he's recently dead."
"Hamawi? I killed Imed Hamawi recently. He was a nasty zealot that refused a generous offer to surrender," Seira reminisces. "Not a prince, though."
"No, but of note. Still, if he's dead, then I suppose I can't use the armor he had there as bait. A shame. I'll need to find something to do with it. It's quite valuable, albeit evil."
"What sort of armor is it? Perhaps you could just find a use for it yourself."
"Rosier is a Duchess of Hell," Antenora speaks up here, "She oversees witchcraft and similar things. Horrid little creature who serves Belial."
"Wylsafir..." Emily hums, "That sounds familiar, but I can't place it."
"Most often if something's evil like that it's not much use for everyone else. I've gathered a lot of things like that over the year, it's effectively worthless junk," Alicia says. "Though I've also got a few more useful items I've been holding onto that we could trade for, I'd even take something like that off your hands just to remove it from circulation and not deprive you of a fair reward for it Alyssa."
"I like reforging evil junk into useful equipment while learning a valuable lesson in the process," Seira says with a grin. "That's always an option, too."
"Wylsafir is recently deceased, but was in service to either Lixer or Dispater, but that's all I know. I didn't get much from his vault, but the fact that he had a vault there might be of note. The armor is a set of Armor of the Abyssa Horde. But Abdul Nasr al-Hariq had the full set of the Nine Stars. They're cursed to only be moved by someone of Royal Efreet Blood."
Seira snorts. "Hey, Alicia, you said that you stabbed the Grand Sultan? I bet there's plenty of his blood for a parlor trick."
"Can check where we fought, none clung to my blade anyway," Alicia says, since the divinely empowered acid on it ensured nothing marred the metal beneath. Efreet blood should be good enough to not evaporate in the heat anyway.
"Glorious! Alyssa, I'll happily lend you a hand with that to poke in the efreet royalty's eyes~"
"There's another thing that could be of concern. I found a vault with the name Shadin Fescion on it. I believe he's a diplomat in Chauntea's court? I found a truly hideous weapon in it. He could have been hiding it there to keep it out of other's hands, but... If that's why he wanted it hidden, why not just destroy it? Unless there's an uglier option that's... Touchy to broach. Is it possible he's tricking everyone?"
"It's possible," Seira agrees. "Why not approach her?"
"Well... I'm a mortal. I was thinking maybe a divine to divine conversation might go over better than a random mortal showing up. I doubt Chauntea's small minded in the matter, but I'm a relative unknown as of yet, and there's advantages to keeping it that way. For a little while, at least."
"You're feasting with the Gods already, don't be shy about going high up with these things," Alicia agrees with Seira's sentiments. "Chauntea herself could put the matter to rest one way or another if you gave her the facts."
"Alright, then. Let me ask her."
Greetings, Chauntea, Seira contacts the other goddess. My apologies for the abruptness of my call. Would you be able to spare a few moments?
"I'll write you a letter of introduction if you want," Syala offers, "Should you pursue it yourself."
Alyssa nods. "I'll have to figure out how to contact her then. D'ylaran had a vault, too. It only contained some journals, but I know he's quite the despised figure."
Seira Aryn. Why, speak what it is you wish, nature is always listening.
Thank you. I will get right to the point, then. My daughter Emily and her friends recently hit a bank serving questionable clientele, a Farrols run by a renegade marut. I have just learned that one of the vaults belonged to Shadin Fescion, who I believe is in your court. The vault contains a vile weapon, from my understanding of the facts. My first thought is that perhaps you should ascertain Shadin's loyalty and decent nature in light of this. Should evidence be desired, Emily or her friend, Alyssa Songsteel, would be happy to provide it.
Prudent. I will investigate this and see if there was a good reason for such a thing, or even if that was his vault in truth.
Alyssa Songsteel. I'll remember that name. Little Emily's finally gone out to make friends?
Meanwhile Ianvasah is quietly watching it all, everyone waiting on Seira here.
"Chauntea says thanks, and will contact you if she needs to take a look at your evidence. Given our powers of investigation, however, I'd be surprised if she contacted you for anything but a reward," Seira tells Alyssa, before smiling a bit. "Don't hesitate to do it. A quick prayer on any of your parts would have been enough for this, even before bothering with letters of introduction."
Both she and Xera are finally making their own moves out there, across the planes. I'm actually pretty happy over that!
Good.
Has she found a cute boyfriend yet?
No. Amaryl and I are hands off there, since we don't really want to pressure our girls. Besides, they have as much time to find love as they need to. I'll make sure of that!
Today is always a good day to grow and start a family. I hope she remembers that.
I'll let her know! Seira promises, before speaking up, "Oh, and Chauntea also wants you to remember that it's alright to date before reaching twenty, Emily."
Emily suddenly stops, a bit of burning red apple halfway to her mouth. She turns and suddenly blushes, "Mother!" she blurts out, reddening like the apple here.
Seira laughs, changing the topic to avoid embarrassing Emily too much. "So, Alyssa, that's one problem solved, and I'll stop by to visit tomorrow with some of the Sultan's blood to help with the other one. If you're interested in my patronage to redeem any of the vile contents of that bank, I'll also lend a hand with that."
Alyssa nods, "Thank you. Some of it is valuable, and since I just moved places I'm short on resources and funds."
I'm basically done here if everyone else is.
About my take, fun chat and what needed to happened has happened. Does anyone else have anything else to add here, first of all?
I'm good.
I'm good. The Node stuff can happen privately.
Agreed.
Everyone, go ahead and give me a list of todos now. This includes node things and should be number 1 on your list.
1. Node stuff
2. Visit Primus
3. Visit Io
1. Syala's node perhaps fulfilled?
Syala: Good, Loyal, Eager, Romantic Love. ("Efreet? Devils? Dao? I can't wait.")
2. Talk to Celestia/The Cauldron about integrating our participation in the war with theirs.
Realm breakdown will need to be updated for this as well.
1) New Node Things.
2) Words of Creation lesson. If that's not working out right now, then either Fleshknowers or start looking for the hidden room.
Sounds great. I'll start new topics with those for Tuesday, I'm winding us down here pending a bit of Yuth and Neph time later. Good run.