064: A fire in the darkness

[Sierra]

<El-Cideon> So camp is set on and around the wrecked shell of Istradi's former prison. She seems pragmatic enough about making proper use of the only shelter around, less traumatized by her imprisonment than focused by it. Alice of course politely refuses all forms of nourishment.
<Julia> "Well if you are eating eat up quick," Julia recommends, "The shelf life of food that isn't being protected by magic can't be very long here."
<El-Cideon> Istradi is quite prepared to comply with that advice: "After not tasting food for I don't know how many years, I'm not much inclined to take a leisurely meal," she says after quickly wolfing down Julia's prepared dinner.
<Franceska> "How would magical food work?" Franceska wonders out loud. "Would it need to be enchanted, the way weapons and armor are?"
<Julia> "I honestly don't know," Julia admits. "Any spell to ward off rot would be fine. There's even a spell to reverse it in a pinch, isn't there?"
<El-Cideon> "I can do that!" Rosemund confirms. "But it still would not stay fresh for long."
<Julia> "At least the ingredients are fine inside extradimensional space, even without Franceska's spell. But it's certainly hard to cook at my best under these conditions."
<Franceska> "I could use my innate hatred of this horrible plane to keep it away?" Franceska offers.
<Julia> "We can try that with our next meal," Julia agrees sedately.
<El-Cideon> "That is perhaps not without precedent," Istradi says, sounding as though she speaks from experience, as someone floating in the void without any magical protection whatsoever.
<El-Cideon> "So," she continues, adopting a professional air as she asks, "what is it that we should expect to face on arriving at our destination?"
<Franceska> "We know she likes to buy infirm and rebellious slaves," Franceska muses. "And that she values her privacy enough to send out minions to-- attack those who look into her."
<Julia> "Death knights, skeletons, undead giants we know for sure, and Auranelle is likely a ghost of some sort, past that we can only conjecture," Julia says.
<El-Cideon> Istradi raises an eyebrow. "A curious hobby," she says to Franceska. "Most collectors would avoid either category of chattel." Again she sounds to speak from some experience here.
<Franceska> "If she makes nasty ghosts out of them, it wouldn't matter if they're missing an arm or two, would it?" Franceska asks Julia.
<Julia> "Not at all. She might even graft undead limbs onto them if she wishes them to be corporeal," Julia answers.
<El-Cideon> "How does that work?" Rosemund is forced to wonder out of morbid curiosity. "I do not see how a person could attach a physical thing to a spiritual thing...not that I am really sure I wish to know," she adds.
<Julia> "Not that, though it would be an interesting puzzle. Rather if she wants a death knight out of a cripple she might fashion some bones into a replacement limb so her servant can be fully effective."
<El-Cideon> "Oh!" Rosemund says. "Would it be possible to...use this idea for a less horrible thing, such as helping people who are still alive?" she wonders.
<Franceska> "Wouldn't it be just as hard as regenerating lost limbs, magic-wise?"
<Julia> "Yes, it would be difficult as undead and living tissue rarely interface safely," Julia says. "Though a transplant from an only recently dead donor... well, perhaps not even recent if a gentle repose spell were used. Hmmm. That's something worth investigating..."
<Franceska> "Or you could use convicted thieves," Franceska says, avoiding looking in Stephanie's direction.
<El-Cideon> "I think the difficulty might be in finding willing living donors," Marina adds delicately.
<El-Cideon> "It strikes me as a fine use for common criminals," Istradi observes with approval.
<Julia> "I was rather thinking of the unavoidable deaths and maiming that a battle might bring. Or a hospital... though transplanting a diseased limb to an otherwise healthy recipient would be a definite concern," Julia responds, not being overly keen on that kind of punishment. But if it's going to happen anyway... well, something to consider.
<El-Cideon> Stephanie, prematurely napping, for once has no snide response for Franceska.
<El-Cideon> Rosemund frowns. "I do not know...Well, say if you had surgeons prepared to take limbs from dead soldiers after a battle, I am not sure how the families of those soldiers would like it."
<Julia> "How would the families of the living soldiers saved from life as a cripple take it?" Julia counters.
<Franceska> "Besides, it can all be handled with a contract," Franceska says, growing more animated at the far more interesting topic. "If every soldier signs one upon being conscripted, it would be perfectly legal!"
<El-Cideon> "Waste not, want not," Istradi sums up flatly. "A corpse is of relatively little use," she agrees. "It makes some sense to salvage what one can for the sake of the yet living and useful."
<Julia> "Yes, that way they'd all know what they're in for - and would just as likely be to their benefit if they were injured. Still, I'd have to find a battle first... I'd need to experiment a bit before being confident in approaching them anyway. Food for thought."
<El-Cideon> "Just please make sure that you have permission first," Rosemund advises.
<Franceska> "I believe that in a pinch, a verbal agreement before you kill your enemies in battle would do."
<El-Cideon> "Well, we do not always time to hold conversations with them before that happens," Rosemund says from some experience.
<Franceska> "So long as you ask them, if they don't object it's practically the same as consent, too."
<Julia> "If we're going to kill them and loot their corpses anyway, I hardly think what we do with the body is any further concern," Julia says, considering she's just as likely to animate them as minions.
<El-Cideon> "You are obviously well-traveled," Istradi concludes from all of this. "You could only after considerable experience brave the plane of death, after all. Where else have your journeys taken you?"
<Franceska> "Out of the horrible planes we've been to, the Abyss is probably the most serious contender with this one for the worst one in existence?"
<Julia> "Well, we took a portal from Fire to get here," Julia starts. "Past that I think... Arborea, Arcadia, Earth, Air, and yes, the Abyss. Lots of A- names there, actually."
<El-Cideon> "I've been and I would contest that assertion," she says to Franceska. "Life of a sort, even the worst, is much preferable to a world full of nothing." She gestures around her. "In any event, most fiends are nothing if not predictable."
<Franceska> "This plane only tries to kill you," Franceska counters. "The Abyss does worse!"
<El-Cideon> "Fire now," she adds, contemplating, "a woman could find some proper business there. City of Brass, yes?"
* Franceska shudders. "It's filled with demon whores and molesters, and everyone is a slave of some sort, or a slaver, or sometimes both. And-- actually, the City of Brass was a bit like that, too, at least the parts of it we've seen."
<Julia> Julia starts to frown slightly. "Yes, we've been there..." she says cautiously, wondering if their new friend will start going on about the wonders of slavery.
<El-Cideon> "Wherever there's coin, there's work for a soldier," she clarifies. "One can depend upon that."
<Franceska> "Come to think of it, what are your plans for after all this glorious nothingness and death?"
<El-Cideon> "I suppose that I must start again from scratch," she says with some distaste. "An indignity to step down from leading a company to serving in one, but without my own armaments and fortune I see little immediate alternative. In time I suppose that I may go home again, and this time exact retribution where warranted."
<Julia> "Well as far as armaments go there should be ample potential for treasure at Whitsunhold," Julia offers.
<Franceska> "And afterward, I might have a position in mind," Franceska muses. "There's hardly a need to start entirely from scratch."
<El-Cideon> "Then I shall be pleased to take my share of their weaponry," she says, adding with a glance around the group: "Most of you do not look the warrior sort, I should think I have little competition for such claims." She then looks to Franceska in curiosity.
<Franceska> "Can you tell me more about the area you are originally from? Not just the situation that lead to this exile, but its location and the forces at play?"
<El-Cideon> "Oh, Stephanie does most of the real fighting," Marina confirms. "The rest of us encourage her from a safe distance, usually."
<Julia> "She'll surely enjoy having someone else to distract an enemy while she stabs his kidneys, though," Julia says.
<El-Cideon> "Death of Innocence is a small town," Istradi says to Franceska. "Some few thousand souls. Of no consequence compared to any great city of the planes, but you'll find few other settlements on Hades simply on account of the persistent corrupting influence of the plane itself. I know not what exempts the town." She shrugs. "It's on the second layer, Niflheim. Outside the town one finds it perpetually shrouded in fog. Stray away from obvious landmarks and you may find yourself as lost as if dropped without warning into the void around us now."
<Franceska> "Is it a sentient fog? Or just normal fog?" Franceska asks curiously.
<El-Cideon> "The latter so far as I know," she says, adding wryly, "but if one wished to view it as some manifestation of the world's malevolence, I should see no way to refute that theory."
<Franceska> "It wouldn't be the first time," Franceska easily agrees.
<Julia> "We saw something like that in the Abyss," Julia nods.
<El-Cideon> "One could make a list of any imaginable horrible thing--and add a few unimaginable aside--and still find herself excelled by the reality of the Abyss," Istradi says. "What was it doing there?"
<Franceska> "Hating and tormenting demons. Not that I can really blame it, but...."
<Julia> "Well the marilith who asked us to try and find out how to get rid of it was quite nice by demon standards," Julia puts in.
<El-Cideon> "A worthy pursuit," she says to Franceska. "I wish it well."
* Franceska nods, before asking, "Did your travels ever take you to Pandemonium or Baator?"
<El-Cideon> "My training took place principally on Gehenna, and my earliest experience in the field on Acheron. I have been on contracts throughout the inner planes and any contested zone where one might find devils killing demons or vice versa. I have spent but little time on either of those, however. There's little of note anyone should want to assault on Pandemonium."
<Franceska> "Yes, it is quite a desolate, nasty place, isn't it?"
<Julia> "Very loud, so I understand."
<El-Cideon> "It is," she agrees, "though desolation is not without certain potential for personal growth. Why do you ask?"
<Franceska> "Just tying up some loose ends. Polaris went to Pandemonium once upon a time, and one of her minions is stuck there now. I was wondering if there was more to it than meets the eye, before actually bothering to go there." It's an elf, anyway.
<El-Cideon> "Unless you don't value your hearing, best take precautions to protect that," she advises. "Although perhaps more fearsome is the wind itself. Should it sweep you away, you might with some ill fortune be tossed into a tributary of the Styx."
<El-Cideon> "Your bandaged friend is very quiet," she observes abruptly, looking around the group. "What exactly is she?" she adds, quite without a care that Alice herself is in hearing.
<Franceska> "Alice can drain your life to tell you your future."
<El-Cideon> "Should I expect this a fair trade?" She sounds skeptical. "Any woman of importance makes her own future," she adds.
<El-Cideon> Alice herself has nothing immediately to add to this, obviously. She shuffles her cards quietly and watches the conversation proceed around her.
<Julia> "There's nothing wrong with a little fore-warning now and then. Though I understand you need to interpret her cards yourself," Julia says.
* Franceska shrugs. "It's interesting."
<El-Cideon> "As with most fortunetelling, yes?" she says to Julia. "The art lies in suggesting just enough to let the mark do your work for you."
<El-Cideon> Alice unwraps one hand, stands up, floats over to Istradi and offers it. Istradi looks around to the rest of you with an inquisitively raised eyebrow.
<Julia> "She feels nice to me," Julia answers truthfully.
<Franceska> "Julia is weird like that. But it doesn't hurt too badly."
<El-Cideon> Istradi shrugs, then reaches out to clasp Alice's hand.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d6
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d6 and gets 5."12 [1d6=5]
<El-Cideon> Istradi's expression barely registers mild surprise. She looks quite unmoved by the pain itself as negative energy courses through her. "Should that have made any sense to me?" she asks somewhat irritably as Alice flips through her cards.
<Franceska> "Only some of it," Franceska says, glancing at the cards.
<El-Cideon> The first card laid out displays a simple golden ring. Then, a humanoid figure so wrapped in chains as to be unidentifiable. After some thought, Alice flips this card upside down, and then adds in turn: the familiar (to Franceska) image of a traveler arriving again at their obvious home; a sword being drawn from a scabbard; a crown (also turned upside down); and finally a roaring inferno.
<El-Cideon> Istradi looks at the chained figure for a very long time. "I should say we're already past that stage," she says stiffly.
<Franceska> "How do the upside down crown and the fire fit in?"
<Julia> "I think upside down means the opposite, so you're free and not chained," Julia offers helpfully.
<El-Cideon> "Yes, I am," she says to Julia in an odd tone. She adds to Franceska: "That represents the future, does it not? How could I say?" Alice quietly shuffles the cards back together and then, without any dramatic flair and more with the air of a polite suggestion, hands one card over for Istradi's perusal: it is the mirror with an uncertain figure in the reflection.
<Franceska> "Really?"
<El-Cideon> "I wonder, can she not speak or does she choose not to?" Istradi muses as she hands the card back without response.
<Franceska> "It might be hard with her body, but magic does help with that," Franceska muses, before tapping the card as Alice takes it back. "This is something I've been dreaming of. Someone I meet over in Baator in the future, before we break out together. If she's trying to say it's actually you, we could do worse than work together."
<El-Cideon> Alice feels obliged to shake her head at this theory.
* Franceska frowns. "It would be much easier if you did actually talk."
<El-Cideon> Alice shrugs helplessly.
<El-Cideon> Istradi just adds: "For my own part, I cannot claim to have had any such dreams."
<Franceska> "Yes, I'm just special that way," Franceska mutters. "You don't want that sort of dreams, anyway."
<Julia> "Everyone has dreams," Julia says. "Though the four of us do seem to have oddly portentous dreams that occur on the same nights," she admits, gesturing between herself and Franceska, Stephanie, and Rosemund.
<El-Cideon> "And why should I not?" Istradi wonders, not familiar with the subject matter in question.
<Franceska> "They're nasty."
<Julia> "Mine aren't so bad." Well, except for the one about evil stars.
* Franceska gestures at Alice. "I'm trying to see if Alice can help me figure out who is sending them, or who is in them."
<El-Cideon> "Mine did not turn out so bad," Rosemund adds for her part. "There were bad things happening, but then I stopped them and anyway there was an angel around. You know, I had this sense of confirming that I am doing something right."
<Franceska> "You know, Rosemund, you need to stop dreaming about angels and just doing something about that."
<El-Cideon> Istradi looks briefly at Rosemund as though finding the young priestess's story wholly insipid. "Why would anyone be sending them?" she wonders to Franceska.
<El-Cideon> "But I do not see what is wrong with it, Franceska," Rosemund protests.
<Franceska> "If it were just myself," she tells Istradi, "I would consider an enemy, given that I'm tortured to death. But I'm exploring the possibility that the ally that appears in them is the one responsible, given how I can never focus on her appearance or voice. There is also the possibility they are genuinely prophetic dreams, so I would prefer to avoid being set on that course in the first place."
<Franceska> She then shrugs at Rosemund. "They are nothing special and the sooner you see it, the better. So you might as well just ask the next one out."
<El-Cideon> "Then that is what I will do!" Rosemund promises.
<Franceska> "Just don't drink anything they offer you."
<Julia> "That was an elf, not an angel," Julia points out in the interest of fairness.
<Franceska> "You can never be too careful."
<El-Cideon> ~