Eren used to claim he hated the company of fairies.  Till he lost all contact with them.  Changed his perspective.  He nods to Pansy, accepting the invitation.

Kitau nods to Elric and follows along.  She turns a skeptical look to Joe describing himself as a heavily armed hobo.  Even the murder hobo team she used to run with didn't make any comparisons to the homeless since they could easily afford lodgings wherever.  Does a paladin with royal blood count as a hobo simply because while on her quest to save a town from enraged animals she camps in a malevolent sentient forest?  Probably only in Joe's mind.  Or maybe it's that she only has access to few hundred gold to spend instead of millions.  Kitau wonders at what point Joe will consider himself not a hobo.

Khuridoth grunts with a nod to Elric. "To the inn, then."

The group is able to get to the inn without issue. When the group sleeps, Pansy takes Eren to meet the local fairies. They are playful, but understanding that Eren's sleep cycle is more in sync with the diurnal titans. They explain to Eren that they have a secret delivery network, so if he needs to get word somewhere, he can contact them by checking the ceiling inside any postal building for a delivery fairy. He is warned not to tell any titans unless he is positive the titan is trustworthy since the network is secret for good reason.

When morning comes, breakfast is had and people give the group glances. Most give a smile with that glance. Some raise a glass in their direction. Some look indifferent, and a few give annoyed looks to the group. Khuridoth is sure to raise his glass to those who raised a glass at him. A manly nod to others. And paying no mind at all to the indifferent or annoyed ones.

Elric's identification will inform him the skull is capable of calling a certain kind of weather 1/month. It cannot be extreme like a hurricane or tornado, but from all accounts, it can summon rain, snow, clear skies, cloudy skies, winds, no matter where you are. So it would surely be a treasure worth a LOT in a land of drought. But it seems to have two other magical properties, both of which require the blood of a sacrificed victim:

1) The weather summoned can be amplified to any magnitude desired. OR
2) Attune a giant of choice to a vodoo doll so you can do whatever you desire to the attuned giant.

Upon ritually identifying the magical skull, Elric informs the group of what the ritual has revealed about the magical skull and gives his opinion on the item, “I can understand why it was hidden, the main effect can only be used once a month, and given who we got the skull from I wouldn't be surprised if they were perfectly willing to sacrifice a slave to boost the effect. Although I think the second boosted option to where it ties a specific giant to a voodoo doll to manipulate that giant is possibly even more disturbing. If it wasn't for how useful the basic version could be in a drought I'd say that this item needs to be destroyed, but it could save crops and lives if used properly... however, we would definitely have to make sure this thing isn't abused. This thing could cause a flood or it could cause a drought as easily as it could prevent such disasters. Let's not even mention what it could do with a sacrifice and cause tornados or other disasters. I really think we need to follow up on this skull if only to make sure that more of them aren't being abused... after all whoever made this skull could have made more, or worse things...”

  "Part of why I agreed it should be destroyed is how I would not be surprised if that 'safe' feature' is basically made wrong on purpose to encourage blood sacrifice. Once a month isn't nearly enough to deal with a drought or desert conditions.  So anyone desperate enough to call us selfish for destroying this thing, would have to be desperate enough to resort to blood sacrifice to get even mundane farming use out of it."

  Or, it could just be how so many who create magical items have no real sense of scale and err on the side of 'let the wizard throw a dragon into another dimension, but make sure a magical pocket watch that can only tell 'morning, evening, night' stops working outside of the material plane' insanity regardless.

Eren is terrible at hiding how grateful he is to be among his own kind again.  Then again, claiming that he hates being targeted by harmless pranks may encourage the fairies all the more.  He considers telling Kitau, but then again...


Soooo....  Yeah.  He's not telling.

The following morning, Kitau notes that half the team completely ignore the NPCs altogether, not just the rude ones.  She follows Khuridoth's example, raising her glass to those who offer the gesture, and gives a manly nod to others, and pretend to ignore the rest.  But she's watching out of the corner of her eye, ready with a hand axe to split the skull of any who should draw a weapon or wand.

Eren arrives at breakfast with the most outlandish face painting, such as twirly mustache, monocle, giant eyelashes, etc., but is apparently unaware.

"We destroy it, then," Kitau agrees, double-taking at Eren's face before returning to serious talk, asking Elric, "But will smashing it with a hammer make it explode?"

Khuridoth says, "Destroy... perhaps. But not without knowing its origins. Given where we found it, the object has likely been forgotten by those who might abuse its power."

Elric nods to Joe before turning to explain to Kitau, “Simply trying to smash it with a hammer won't work. This item was created via ritualistic means and will require such to safely dispose of it.. An alternative would be to find a means to drain the magic from it and then destroy it before the magic is restored but that approach is likely even more difficult to achieve unless you know of a spell caster on par with an Archmage that knows the relevant spells. And even if you do know such a person, getting them to cast their most powerful spells to dispose of the skull wouldn't be affordable. We are better off seeking more knowledge about the skull from Khuridoth's contacts before we try to destroy it. We may alternatively find a way to modify it to no longer be abusable or harmful while still being beneficial. ”

Elric then turns to Khuridoth and adds, “But it is possible for it to be discovered by those who would abuse it even if those who originally wanted to abuse it are no longer around... unfortunately trying to hide it away could in fact make someone curious enough to try to figure out what is being hidden away and why. Also trying to use it while just concealing how it could be abused would likely draw attention to it since weather altering items inherently can be misused. The fact that the base item is an ogre skull would definitely tip off some people that it might have a nefarious use. People don't enchant such skulls to be harmless trinkets. Well not unless they were doing it as an elaborate and expensive prank... but how many would have the means and resources for such a prank.”

OOC: While Elric may seem like he's ignoring some people, typically NPCs, from time to time, he is simply more focused on responding to those who are talking with him or speaking about things he needs to respond to.

  Joe is hardly surprised that evil items once more are overly complicated and expensive to so much as scratch, while people always go on about 'if you get a tear in it then it stops working!' for magic bags that just let you carry slightly more things in a bag.

  "Well, I guess there is also the fact our need to have it examined without being turned away in a pouty huff sadly relies on not making it too inconvenient to access or use for anyone who steals it."  They would probably make him carry it if they dunked it into a pot of molten lead or baked it into a clay brick anyways.

Kitau is impressed with Elric's knowledge on such things.  She nods to the group.

Drawing her polished dagger, she turns the flat of the blade to face Eren so he can see his reflection.

Eren's face turns red.  He begins trying to clean his face off.

Khuridoth strokes his beard in thought. "...I hate to admit it, but a relic like this designed to harm giants would be entirely too tempting for my people to keep instead of destroy. We will have to rely on contacts outside of my home. I have some folk I trust back home, aye, but they would be bothered to high heaven if word got out they knew anything about a magical weapon against giants."

He looks at Joe, Kitau, and also Eren. "If any of you have contacts you trust, I'd rather turn to them first before turning to my home."

(New pose order: Khuridoth, Joe, Kitau, Elric. Since Elric's home is also Khuridoth's home, he would likely have little to say until the other two spoke.)

  "I don't have a long term relationship with anyone conveniently learned in the arcane arts.  Anyone who probably could be bothered to remember me would want to avoid dealing with asking around about spooky skull knowledge anyways anyways."

Among the things Eren and Kitau have in common is the fact that monsters killed everyone they grew up with.  Since then, the only "contacts" they've made, if you can call it that, was a team of murder hobos.  They're dead now.

They both shake their heads in response to Khuridoth.

"Eren doesn't get what would be so bad about using it against giants."

Neither does Kitau, honestly.  She shrugs.

Elric nods to Khuridoth as the Warforged understands how dwarves weaponizing an 'anti-giant' magical item could backfire and cause a new major war with the various types of Giants teaming up to destroy the item and anyone who might have heard of it... or in other words everyone who isn't a giant.

Elric turns to Kitau and Eren and speaks up in response to Eren's comment, “Okay first off, Dwarves and Giants despise each other and at times groups of them go to war with each other at the drop of a hat. However, this skull could change the status quo... it could be enough of a threat to the normally fragmented and semi-solitary giants to get them to work together despite their normal differences with each other... and an army of giants of different types working together well the last race which faced such an army was the Dragons. And I don't think the dragons have replenished their population yet and it was thousands of years ago. Now I'd rather not be known as someone who inadvertently caused a war between giants and dwarves that dragged everyone else into the conflict as collateral damage and left the majority of people dead or crippled for life. Unfortunately, Khuridoth has better contacts than I do since I tend to just experiment and figure things out on my own, but this skull is a bit beyond my abilities given that it likely needs to be modified or failing that destroyed.”

Khuridoth manages to keep from sighing that he is literally the only person in the team with contacts. And he knows it isn't a non-dwarf thing because humans at least are highly social creatures. However, his eyes light up as if he got an idea. "Alright. I'm going home then. But none of us are to say anything about the skull on our way there or once we arrive. Our new mission is to find more contacts. Some of my friends had claimed to be friends with non-dwarves. At the time, I didn't think much of it other than interesting stories from my friends' ventures. But now it is critical I trace the steps of my merchant buddies. In the meantime, we must hide the item. It is radiating enough magic that if we keep it on our person, that will attract attention and have us followed. I say we hide it somewhere along the trail at a place we'll recognize."

  "Because the desperate and corrupt are lazy, and because dark sacrifice rules are often incredibly vague that means somebody would probably decide it is easier to round up fairies to sacrifice than it is to kill gnomes or dwarves." why appeal to logic when you can remind people about how low the bar to tragedy often is?

  Joe's contacts are not dead, but he doubts mere mortal problem sorts like 'drunken locksmith' or 'Pawn shop owner that refuses to buy magic items' are what Khuridoth is looking for.

  He also knows save throws against sighing when he sees it, "Look, if it bothers you that much I didn't suggest someone, then maybe we can see if a cobbler who is always wanting to cheap out on paying for animal hides has the answers you need.  But in the meantime, I'm perfectly willing to donate a beartrap as a rude surprise to anyone digging for magic skulls"

Eren folds his arms and pouts.  "Eren hates war.  And sacrifice rules."

Kitau nods.  She lets her consistent silence be the evidence that Khuridoth need not worry about her blabbing about dangerous magic items while the group travels.  She considers disguising the thing, but gives up on the idea because detect magic means you'd have to disguise it as a 1 meter block of stone for it to matter, and that's way to cumbersome for non-Minecraft people.

Elric listens to what the others are saying and looks to Joe and asks, “Do you have a local contact that can get us some sheets of lead or a box of lead since we could put the skull inside a box made of lead just larger than the skull to conceal the magic it radiates. Then we can either keep the box with us or bury it someplace as Khuridoth suggested. And if we do bury it I think some sort of booby trap would be ideal to help protect it in case someone does manage to dig it up.”

Elric then turns to Eren and Kitau and adds, “I think it is safe to say we all dislike war, and the only thing that should probably be sacrificed is the time it takes to make quality equipment and food, but that isn't the sort of sacrifice Eren dislikes. Unless for some reason you are having to sacrifice living beings to make food... wait is killing an animal to harvest the meat considered sacrificing the animal to end someone's hunger? So maybe that is a bad example...”
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:46, Sun 03 Jan 2021.

Khuridoth looks to Joe. "Eh? Given the ringing endorsement you just gave the man, is he yet still someone you trust? I did specify that the contact be someone you trust for a reason."

  Joe is never quite jaded enough to cease being surprise when he becomes the most reasonable option by default.

  "I mean, Billamy Jimjohn is more of a 'trust them to pay back the ten gold they owe you' sort. Asking him to stash an evil skull dipped in lead for a while... But he could probably get us a bunch of lead in the first place."

Eren hates semantics.  But doesn't know the word.  So he folds his arms and pouts, thinking that of course a metal titan would be the kind to compare cooking to sacrifice....  Wait.  Can the metal titan even eat?!  Wow.  Eren would hate being unable to eat.

Kitau nods to the group, satisfied that the plan is coming together.

Seeing as Kitau and Eren have nothing to say in response to Elric's previous statement nodding from Kitau being the non-verbal response, Elric turns to Joe and states, “Well if you can get me the lead, I can coat the skull with it given a place to heat up the lead. Not sure I'd trust this contact of yours to hold onto the skull but getting the lead seems like a prudent thing to do."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 17:27, Tue 02 Feb 2021.

Khuridoth nods. "Seems a good first stop. Let's do that. Thank you, Joe."

(Fast forwarding)

The team has no issue getting to Joe's contact, getting the lead, and Elric coating the skull in said lead. It now looks like a lead skull and is pretty much undetectable.

However, even as the skull is finished, Khuridoth is sweating a lot and seems easily winded. It is soon discovered he is ill with a fever. (Also, to save the players the hassle, the skull has NOTHING to do with Khuridoth being ill)

  Billamy Jimjohn is pleased with the extra five gold from winning that bet with Joe over lead doorstops eventually being a sales hit.

  And then Dwarf was a sick man, but in the literal sense not the metaphorical insulting sense.

  Well it can't be lead poisoning because dwarves resist poison, unless Khuridoth was A CHANGELING THE WHOLE TIME!... Wait, nobody else is sick. False alarm.

  "Is this an old problem and the reason you are hiring help instead of cracking heads alone, Khuridoth?"

Kitau is worried for Khuridoth and if his forehead is within reach she'll dab it with a wet washcloth.  Didn't see any poisonous snakes bite him, so she does immediately assume its the skull's doing.

"We need to get that skull as far away from him as possible."

"Eren hates fevers," Eren comments, wondering since even the cleric wound up ill, if this is something that's impossible to treat, "I'll ask Pansy if he knows someone who can help."

If nobody objects, he flies off to the secret fairy postal nexus to ask around.

While Elric is concerned about Khuridoth falling ill, he doesn't bother repeating Joe's question since the answer should already be forthcoming. Instead, the warforged feels the need to clarify a misconception, “The skull is not the source of Khuridoth's illness, if it had the capacity to cause such harm I'd have learned about it from the Identify ritual. I agree with Eren's approach to finding someone who can cure the illness or at least treat it effectively.”