"I'm back!"
Donald's voice is cheery as he strolls on in. He's in full armor and gear, though cleaned up. He's sans is sword and shield, but otherwise prepared. Your study is a quiet place of work, contrasting with Donald's call.
"Got a report on what's going on everywhere, just like you wanted." He taps the side of his head, "All up here." He goes and takes a seat, kicking back a bit. "Where did you want to begin?"
"Let's start with my old pal," Seira muses, moving from behind her desk to a comfortable armchair opposite Donald's while a minute exertion of her will summons a drink for the two of them. "Any movements from Zquuj or his patron to reposition themselves in the aftermath?"
"No sign of it," Donald puts his feet up on the table, taking his drink and having a long gulp. "Ah." He pauses to take off his helmet, putting it aside before going on. "Who knows with Pale Night involved, but I heard he's been focusing on internal issues, keeping the demons in his thrall in line. No sign of them pouncing on Avernus again. Didn't visit myself, but I got solid information on it. Got a demon selling good information on the side there."
"Sensible, if unfortunate." She grins at him, asking, "What sort of lies was the demon peddling?"
"The usual," Donald shrugs ab it in his armor, the faint clink of metal moving heard. "Evil will win, you smell bad, your wife loves someone else. You know. Demon shit." Donald smiles over his drink, "I tuned it out, it's never important. Speaking of the Abyss, I heard Orcus is awake and causing trouble right now. He's throwing in more effort than usual to his skirmishes with Demogorgon."
"Any reason?"
"Dunno," Donald finishes his drink in a gulp and puts the empty glass aside. "Last time I walked up to a demon lord and asked them why they're doing something, it didn't work out well. Say, Amaryl's busy? I thought she'd be here for this."
"Arranging a visit to Seldarine," Seira responds. "I was hoping to get Hanali's help with something even before the recent gossip reached us. But if it's important enough to have her over, you know Amaryl's always just a thought away."
"Nah, no need to interrupt her poetry time," Donald smiles, "Hell's going crazy now. I dropped in, it's what you'd expect, something out a necromancer's wet dreams. No more fireballs in the sky, though. Lixer has things under control, I heard anyone who isn't in favor of the new regime vanishes or relocates. Acheron's getting a lot more devil outcasts, too. Refill?" He grabs his glass and presents it to you.
Seira gives him a look, the look that says 'surely all the magic I have taught you allows you to show off yourself and handle this part' and volumes besides, but still refills the glass. Drinking from her own, she muses, "Glasya must be pissed. Hey, any chance we could look into Zariel before Lixer solidifies his control?"
"Yeah, we could," Donald says, "You're calling the shots there, not me." He drinks deeply, "Managed to find Renbuu on Limbo, heard he was sticking around a hunk of Limbo doing art. The best part is what he's making colorful - a greater shadow. Bet you it's one of Shar's and he caught it trying to get up to no good. Last I saw it, it was a lovely puce and green color."
If Donald notices your look, he shows no signs of it.
"That's nasty," Seira says with a grimace, needing a bigger drink afterwards. "Still, Limbo! Any chance you found a good maid candidate? That's one position we've been trying to fill for decades!"
"Yep."
Donald waits a beat for you to react and after, "You'll need to look into yourself. Look for Vayley, an unusual white slaad. Got pretty good info that he's good for that and interested." Finishing his second drink off, "Dropped by Mechanus afterwards, the gears are still going. Two things. First, I saw Jessica there, standing in a long line. Wanted no part of that, didn't say hi. Second, I heard something about Chronias being brighter. So I headed to Celestia after that and yeah, it's brighter. Shining like the sun high up, all the natives are stirred up about it. No one seems to have a clue why."
Seira files the crucial information away, before shrugging. "Mechanus is always weird like that. Let's ask through Helm's people. Celestia, though? Weird. Any noticeable changes on the lower reaches of the mountain?"
"Yeah, I could see the light of Chronias from when I was at Lunia," Donald says, "All the archons and angels there are in a state of religious ecstasy." Tapping a gauntlet clad finger against his lips thoughtfully, "You'd think they'd tell everyone with all that organization they have, but I guess the message isn't trickling down."
"They usually don't share. It's all about the journey, not the destination, you know how it is. So that's the key outer planes all responding to Avernus in some way?"
"Yeah," Donald says, "Watching and waiting. Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrp! Pardon," Donald thumps his chest after a loud burp. "Got a lot more on the elemental planes, anyway."
"Go on. Is there finally a chance for us to push things our way on Fire?"
"Well, there's a lot going on in Fire," Donald begins, "First of all, the Sultan's court is all atizzy. You remember Akil bin Faheem, right?" Donald asks. "Slavery, devil servant and altogether waste of space?"
"I keep an eye on the slavers polluting Fire," Seira agrees, gesturing for Donald to keep going.
"Yeah, that's him. So he got into an incident in court. Prince Mustafa Dalir, think he's one of their roaming princes without portfolio by the way, accused bin Faheem of treason and conspiring with enemies of the Grand Sultan."
Donald takes off his gauntlet with a bit of magic, running his hand through his hair, closing his eyes as he grins. "Turns out he made one miscalculation, though. Turns out bin Faheem was was with the Grand Sultan on private business on a few of the dates alleged. See, Dalir had great evidence I hear, looked authentic...and it was directly contradicted by the Grand Sultan, who was not amused."
Another pause to scratch his long, pointy left ear, "So yeah, the upshot is that Prince Dalir's in the dungeon for lying to the Sultan and bin Faheem got lucky. It was a pretty good play, way I hear it, most of the nobles hate bin Faheem. Think he's a devil lapdog, so they were ready to support Prince Dalir's play."
"Don't immediately see a way to use this to our advantage, but nice to know, I suppose," Seira muses. "What else?"
"Yeah, but it gets better," Donald grins. "Ever heard of Razalim?"
"Remind me the relevant bits?"
Pausing to scratch at his chin and burp again, "Yeah, it's a powerful scimitar made by...oh, what's his name." A snap of his fingers follow, "Kassim of the Honored Flame. Anyway, story goes that it's cursed somehow, and that everyone who obtains it suffers a horrible fate until the fated hand wields it. Turns out that bin Faheem has it, has had it for a little while, took it off a rival he defeated."
With a gesture of magic Donald's other gauntlet comes off, used to slowly rub the back of his neck. "So the point is that a whole lot is saying he's vulnerable right now and the other nobles all hate him."
"So it might be a good chance to move against him?" Seira clarifies. "Compile a list of his holdings so we can go over it and see which would free the most people."
"Yeah, sure. It'll take a little while to do it right, gonna have to call in some favors in Fire. His roots run deep," Sitting back and making a face, "That sounds like something Amaryl would say. Are you sure she isn't contagious? Anyway, City of Brass is fairly quiet otherwise. Lots of plots and plans, but nothing at the front of the fire right now. The devil diplomats there are a bit twitchy over the Aurora situation and now Bel, but they're not directly tied to any of it. Tried to get a word with one, sword and all, but they had too many bodyguards to do it sneaky. Too bad. Doing it publically would be an incident, and Elle still bothers me about the last incident."
"It's okay to have the occasional incident," Seira tells him with a grin. "Keeps them honest-- well, on their toes, at least?"
"Yeah," Donald agrees, "So anyway, also did some digging on Kassim. He has some hidden forge somewhere, didn't get a location. Get the impression non natives aren't supposed to find it," Rolling his neck slowly before going on, "More likely, they were just intimidated by me. I am pretty scary. That's about it for Fire. Magma has a nasty little war going on - two groups of elementals there are beating the fire and earth out of each other, not really sure why. Elementals aren't the best conversationalists."
"Anything relevant to Sanzha's research? That much of a clash between fire and earth might result in a few accidents, like what originally happened at the Cauldron with fire and water."
"Nothing I saw, but I didn't stay long," Donald admits, "May want to send a few observers there."
"Figure out with Elle who would work well for that?" Seira suggests. "For now, let's move on to the rest of the inner planes."
"Earth's boring," Donald said, "The dao are tighter than Amaryl's asshole right now, they're doing something internally and keeping everyone out. I didn't find a good lead on it when I was there, they're taking this one seriously. My normal sources weren't there or wouldn't talk." Smiling just a bit, "I did beat up a dao slaver and got a little bit of information from him before sending him off to oblivion, though. It's something to do with the Xorn, which makes the next information better. Ever heard of The Great Xorn?"
Seira leans across the distance and slams her fist into Donald's nose. "Don't get crude about my wife," she tells him matter of factly as she sits back down, smiling pleasantly at him. "The one rule I have. Family is off limits."
Her point is made, though whether it takes for long enough is another thing entirely. "The Great Xorn? They all look the same to me, sorry."
"OW!" Donald rubs his nose, "Well, it has to be tight because you don't have a - oh, nevermind," He stops himself as he massages his nose. "He's some legendary Xorn wanderer. He's seen as a legend amid them. I heard he's taking an active interest in what they're doing and rallying them."
"For what purpose?"
"Not sure," Donald admits, holding the still cool drinking glass to his nose. "But I did hear he's talking about slave Xorn the dao have."
"Let's see if we can reach out to him, get the full story," Seira muses.
"I'll put it on," Donald says, "Next is Water. The marid aren't getting into any particular trouble, beyond having contributed a little bit to Aurora. The current Padisha is firmly anti devil, so that didn't make any waves. Oh, an officer from Aurora is a minor noble there now, her name is Bubbles."
"I suspect there'd be a lot of that in the near future," Seira voices "Happily, we're in the same boat with Kascha, so we'll have an in if we need one."
"Yeah, by the way, later on in Water, Ben-Hadar send me a message to come on by. He asked me if I'd seen anything unusual in Ice or the border regions with Ice," Donald admits, "But I hadn't. Dropped into Ice awhile afterwards, didn't see a lot of immediate interest. Still cold, still miserable."
Seira nods. "Kascha would know more. I know she was involved there recently along with Surraruthru. I'll have her sum it up for him later."
"Oh yeah, I need to see if I can learn those dragon princess spells of his, they're useful," Donald snaps his fingers. "Air's busy. Story is that the lord of the storm elementals ans Yan-C-Bin got into a fight. It's the big story since apparently there were a lot of witnesses. It was inconclusive from what I hear most commonly. I visited court and Lady Chan was fairly coy about what was going on, but she hinted that she wouldn't mind a visit from you or Alicia, or maybe both."
Donald pauses to put the glass down and sniffles a bit, "She did it by telling me, "Here's a hint: Tell Seira I want to talk to her soon.""
"I was flattered. Not to mention, I love sets," Seira agrees. "And Chan just jumped to the top of the list. Barring a swift and favorable response from Arvandor, I'll be taking a short trip to Air later today."
"Few other elemental tidbits," Donald says, "Let's see...Smoke's having a massive influx of magma para elementals who are using magic and portals to channel in watefalls of magma, which they put into cooler places so that it become rock as it falls, forming great rock slides. No idea why, I didn't visit. Heard that rumor a few times from sources."
"Weird."
This gets a laugh from Donald, "Yeah, even for elementals. Heard there's been more trouble in Mineral - elementals making noise, maybe? Not a lot of news gets out of Mineral, so it's usually distorted unless you risk going yourself. Heard various culprits - dao, earth elementals, fire elementals, daemons, inevitables and ten different flavors of mortal adventurers."
"Always stayed out of there," Seira mutters. "Don't want the dragon senses to wake up at the wrong moment and spark an incident. Though speaking of the weird planes, how's Salt doing?"
"Heroes go in but they don't come out," Donald replies, "Tor Salinus is still a menace."
"Hate that guy," Seira mutters.
"That's about it," Donald says, getting up and grabbing his helmet. "Come on, Elle wants you over for lunch while things are quiet."
Anything to add here?