For all the information Tannin digs up. Each person or group gets a post.
The Order of the Whirling Fist
Status: Disbanded, most members presumed dead.
So the story is that the Order of the Whirling Fist was an order of warriors who revered Tempus, the God of War. I did some digging and it looks like most of them managed to get real up close and personal with Tempus as a result of over-exposure to devil claws. At least the lucky ones, hope some of those souls didn't get stuck on Lifasa after what Abigor did! But that's not all. Heard some people flapping about how one of them got away. Heard he goes by Master of the Fists of War now, traveling the planes to fight. Don't know who he was before, but he doesn't hide his affiliation. Calls himself the last of the Order of the Whirling Fist. Watch out - heard he came out on top of a fight with a berserk cornugon, and you don't wanna fight a berserk cornugon!
Fey Survivors of Lifasa
Status: Held as hostages and fuel for an obscene ritual. Several dozen pixies were recovered in a raid.
After Lifasa fell apart, the survivors spread to the four winds. Turns out that you all aren't the only ones. But the digging I did went bad, turns out some 'loths are gathering them up for some dark purpose or another. I don't know entirely why, but I got one out and all of you did the rest. Got more questions than answers here, from the whys to the whos to the hows. Hate dealing with 'loths, but damned if it doesn't make me curious.
Elrisa's friends
Status: Most slain, the remainder imprisoned.
So the story is that the Knights of the Graceful Blow were on the wrong side of the war. In particular, in Elrisa's world, the dwarves and humans banded together against the elves. I poked my nose into it and found most died in battle. The few survivors are held deep underground in Filmoa, a dwarven-human stronghold deep beneath the dwarven capital city of Glitterrock. Look, I've broken into and out of my fair share of prisons in my time, and this one's damned good. You want 'em out, you better be ready for a fight. These dwarves don't fuck around, and the humans are all battle hardened veterans.
Jaela's Mother
Status: Alive and in service to Queen Morwel.
You ever been to the Court of the Stars? I managed to sneak a peek into there when tracking down Hanna. Found a portal and got in. Wandered my way into the palace and found Hanna. Found her helping favored petitioners adapt to their new lives. Got just one look at her before, next thing I know, I'm back in Arborea. That's how those sort of things roll - it's a mystery to solve, and I'm not the one to solve it, I'd bet a thousand marks on it. It's all drama writ large there, and I'm not a star in that particular production.
Evil Green Dragons
Status: Found two potential targets.
One thing you have to understand is that the planes and regular dragons don't mix that much. Sure, you can find some, but most stick to the Primes. Just as well as far as I'm concerned, there's enough fights out here without more dragons. Anyway, the thing is that I did some more digging. There's two green dragons that might be up to your bill.
Telastryiryn - Hides out in Water or the Para-Elemental Plane of Ooze. Word is he has some sort of possible connection to Bwimb, the Archomental of Ooze and Princess(apparently) of Ooze. Word of advice? You don't want to go to Ooze. If you're going to go after this dragon, do it in Water. Trust me.
Comolinahalas - Ever heard of the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance? It's a great place to get a tan, but the catch is that most people don't come back from it. I'm hard up for information on it, but I've found one nugget. Some crazy green dragon has been raiding over into the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Mineral to make a fortune so obscene that it gets Waukeen all hot and bothered. To do that and hold it and survive in Radiance, he's got to be one of the best of the best. Even if he's the flipping archomental, I'd still rather take him on than go mucking into Ooze.
I can go dig up more information on either of them next time I'm around, if you want.
27's 'Prophecy'
Status: Are you kidding?
I looked, sure enough. I found zero, zilch, zippo, zap, zed, zonk. I'm going to note that my talents are better served than chasing after some deluded slaad's maybe prophecies. I'm worried for Creation if slaad prophets are accurate, since they have an extremely tenuous view of what constitutes reality.
Apples of Idun
Status: Nothing solid but a few possibilities. No real leads.
So you want an Apple of Idun? They're hard as hell to get. No one's really sure exactly where they are, and it is said that they're guarded fiercely. To give you an idea of this, the last guardian was Syala, who is now a Goddess. Yeah, I'd think a few times before trying outright theft. Occasionally Sharess grants them to favored mortal worshipers, and sometimes they aren't used but end up on the market instead. No such luck right now, no easy in. I did find one possible connection. An old legend says that Tempus is the one who gave Sharess the Tree of Idun in the first place. She showed Tempus love or something, I don't know. Maybe that's how old legends say that she seduced the hell out of him, I'm not going to ask. The upshot is that perhaps Tempus has some or knows where another tree is.
The Melding of the Three
Status: Disbanded, most members presumed dead.
Same thing as the Order of the Whirling Fist. A nice order, this one of paladins, who served the Triune Goddess. Long story short and devil claws later, they're all chumming around with the Triune Goddess up close and personal or bound in torment for all time. Got one friend who said he heard of someone like that. Didn't get a name, but she retreated to an obscure monastery deep within Elysium. The Silent Order of Eternal Tranquility is the name. Yes, I asked, and the name means its a group with a vow of silence. Some other things, but I didn't have time to dig too deep. I can look into this later if you want.
Find Merchants!
Status: Found, with complications.
Merchant hunting is harder than you'd think. You have to talk around, find someone who's successful but not so successful that they're not going to switch up, and then sweet talk them into it. Of course the one I find wants one little manuscript from one little world, and the next thing you know you're dodging undead and plagues! Once I finally got that done, he had to cancel his lease, deal with a debtor who wanted to stall and oh yes, then the authorities got involved! The long story short is that Vel has come to Aurora and is opening up a lore shop.
Glitterrock Expedition!
Status: Success, information retrieved.
So there I am, listening to requests for information. Glitterrock, eh? Well, if you've seen one Prime you've really seen them all. Sure, the details always change, but it's usually the same dance to a different tune. Still, you have to know the tune if you want to dance along. They're prosperous, victorious and not evil. No problems here, Rihel the III is in control and times are good. Really, they're pretty well adjusted folk. The only problem is that the guard's stubborn and persistent, in case you ask the wrong question to the wrong girl you swear was drunk.
The Radiant Green Dragon!
Looking up this Comolinahalas dragon, sounds easy, right? I go talk around in the local non-native hangout, the City of the Blind. Turns out this dragon has a huge - I mean huge like a bag full of pissed off titans huge - green gemstone that drifts around Radiance. His gemstone half dragon maybe children patrol the place with impunity. He's strong enough to mount raids into Mineral and get away with it, which isn't a small feat. I'd watch out for him if I were you - kick him fast and hard instead.
Oh, and I heard one more bit of news. He has a second breath weapon, like the metallic dragons usually have. It's a blast of pure burning light. It literally sears your eyes out and explodes your brain with overwhelming radiance. May want to watch out for that.
Placeholder for next task as I'm still hashing out posts:
-Search for someone willing to give good rate on baatorian greensteel coins that isn't a devil. Ithea's okay dealing with shady and potentially evil types, just as long as they're not devils. She'd still prefer someone neutral (or good, but that's unlikely) if possible, though.
-Alternatively, can any interesting non-evil items be created after melting the coins, using the material?
- Find old allies of Medi that Elena mentioned.
The Sherrod Estate and 100 fair recipes!
Status: Success, information retrieved.
So near as I can tell, the Sherrod Estate met a bad end. The last of the lineage wanted to recapture former glories, but met eternal unlife instead. Bad break for them, and afterwards the local authorities liquidated the estate. Near as I can tell, no one had any idea the book was evil. No signs in the books I read or any hints of anything off. This puts Vel in the clear - wonder if the book can play dead or hide itself? Something's up with it, sure enough.
Finding out about the problems in the Infinite Stair.
Status: Success.
So I do some poking, ask some questions and there it is. A happy lillend, willing to help me. I won't belabor this report since you have all the info, all nice and lined up from that meeting.
Nose around Avernus and spy on Tiamat!
Status: Success.
You ever crunched the numbers on the Blood War? Don't, but I'll give you a summary - it's huge. So there I was, spying on Blood War skirmishes and I notice something. There's a whole lot of Tiamat's abishai pitching in. Now that's just queer if you ask me. Sure, Tiamat chips into the Blood War, but the numbers seem high. So I sneak into this pit fiend's war tent and borrow some papers. Turns out that there's been a whole lot of rotations out the last few years and Tiamat's been filling the holes lately, big time. So I do some more digging and pushing, and you know what I find? Well, it wasn't a shallow grave, but some books I shouldn't have been reading. Those blooming things had traps traps traps on them! Had to get creative, but I got past them. Turns out that Bel and his henchy Abigor's been keeping Lifasa garrisoned with Blood War forces and has been drawing more lately. The big part?
Tiamat's gone outta her way to up her contribution and free up more soldiers. It also mentions an increase of true dragons mustered to her realm. Tiamat's pulling resources to keep Lifasa on the ropes. So I'm pissed and about to come back when it hits me. If she's doin' that, then there's going to be more. So I start digging again, give a few devils a bad time, all that. Eventually I get another set of documents. It's about the routine contributions each Lord of the Nine makes in the Blood War. Now the thing is that over the past few months, Belial and Beezlebub have been delaying and stalling reinforcements, as well as recalling other units back. There's also a small uptick of contributions from Dispater and Mephistopheles - it all roughly balances out.
So what all does this mean? So I do some research into diabolical politics. One of the themes of disagreement among those dread figures is the Fallen versus the 'true' devils. Simply put, the devils don't like the Fallen. Bel's a true devil, worked his way up from ignominy, biggest diabolical success story there is. So it's obvious as the night is long to me - the devils are making politics of it. Bel's getting stretched thin by Abigor's venture into Lifasa, so my read is that the Fallen try to put Bel in a bad place. Now I figure Mephisto will counter whatever Beezlebub does, since the two hate each other more than demons hate devils. Mix in typical sentiments and you know what we have? An opportunity.
I figure, we make the situation worse, politics go downhill. Maybe with the right moves we can spur some civil disagreements between devil-kind, end up making things worse for them? Everyone's out of position right now. You want my opinion, I say we find some way to put more pressure on them. Be it at our own hands or some other troublemakers, but stirring the pot could only help us. The more you weaken them, the more you weaken Tiamat who has to marshal resources to fill into the Blood War and the more you destabilize things there. Exactly how's above my say-so. Figure all you smart mages can get together and figure something out on it.
Current assignment: Ithea's magic mage and hostage investiation!
This one was made to be fluff on the R&S board and is cross posted here for y'all reference.
The Glasae Queen
What is it: The Empress of the Fey Marches, a powerful fey said to have been born of her own desire to exist.
Status: Information obtained. Barely.
So there I was, hiding behind a giant mushroom and hoping the swans wouldn't catch me. You see, the Glasae Queen is a powerful Empress of the fey and one of the highest nobility under Titania. You ask around, you'll hear she's summer's life and the peak of Summer fey. That's all well and good, but the rub is that apparently Queen Titania's never liked her. Story is that she ordered the Glasae Queen sequestered away into a palace of animated water and reeds, a maze that protects us from her and her from us.
Anyway, so I investigate and find some leads. I go nosing around the sylvan realms, asking the right questions to the right sort. You know how the fey are, play your cards right and you can get a promise out of them. That's the ticket to getting information, since they take their word seriously as an archon takes Chronias. So I worm out a few promises, get some directions and all that. Turns out the Fey Marches are a border with...I'm not sure what, actually. I never found out since everyone got vague about it. Probably one of those things fey won't talk about with others.
In any case, the Glasae Queen lives in the Swan's Keep. There's a single road to it and it winds through a forest. Big old place, with giant plants and forest things along with the trees. There's giant mushrooms next to oaks, blades of grass as tall as pine trees and all of that. It's a might crazy if you ask me, but everything grows extra large there. Anyway, the upshot is that the forest has guardians - those damn swans. You ask me, they're smarter than most and damned persistent. They chase you, peck you and do their best to get you to turn around and run off.
I gave them the slip eventually and moved on - only to find myself given a good lurch. Next thing I know, I'm in the bleeding positive energy plane! Now good thing I have my boots, so I use them to make a retreat back to Air rather than get popped like a pimple. Near as I can tell, everything about the Glasae Queen being sequestered away is true. That's some serious mojo to keep people from reaching her keep. Worst part is that I hear that the keep is by far the most formidable part. Those swans are stronger there and everywhere, plus mazes that never end and that twist around forever.
I suspect that I need a fey with me to get closer. I've heard that's important, but I figured I could feel it out before worrying about that. I've also heard she has an interesting personality, whatever that means. Really, the fey either don't know much about her or don't like talking about her.