Inas sighs.  "It usually is."

"Curiouser and curiouser."  Nemble intoned.  Nodding as if impressed.  For Nemble, the whole of life was a grand adventure, and if he saw ill omen in the tremors he did not show it.

"Marissa had the right of it, I reckon ... trouble follows you like a cloud."

Rath got to his feet as soon as the rumbling stopped. He drew Saliq's attention to the compass. "It shifted. South now. Something's on the move." He headed for the door. "I'm going to gear up. You know, in the unlikely event of trouble."


Rath made his way quickly, at a near-run, to his quarters to grab armor and weapons, vowing to never, never have a meal at a tavern without full armor ever again.

Despite the moment of tension, all grows quiet and the night passes along in relative peace.  As the night grows deeper, several groups of men and women, those who work in the various houses of healing, come to the inn for their dinners and drinks, making it seem more of a normal inn.

ooc: My next post will move to the next morning, if you wish to converse more, please do, otherwise, onward we go.

'Trouble is exactly the right word,' Saliq noted, smiling ruefully. He looked at Doc and Nemble and offered his own hand to shake.

'If you gentlemen wish to accompany us then we could always use those with skills and courage. I should warn you though there will be plenty of chance of danger... and even more chance of weirdness. We rarely seem to face simple threats.'

OOC: Quite happen to move on to the morning if we are all ready.

Doc spends a few getting ready before he joins back up with the others.  He carries with him a satchel of traveling gear to aid him in his "medicine" while on the road.  Otherwise, he looks much like he did when the group was getting to know each other over drinks.

Inas doesn't react to Rath's consternation over his state of readiness.  He simply finishes his last drink and goes outside.


OOC: Advancing the action is fine with me.

Way too early the next morning, after a half decent nights rest, Mallach arrives to bring the five men together for a very short breakfast, biscuits, coffee, honey, and milk.  Fully ready to travel you leave the Inn and travel to one of the Houses of Healing.   Peryn's Crag is awake, even at this hour, healing is a round the clock job, so the town does get quieter at night but does not shut down.

Led inside one of the larger houses, through a few hallways, you arrive at Ingelbern's room.

He looks slightly ashen, but is awake, and his eyes are clear.


"It is good to see old friends....and new ones.  Marissa spent several hours filling me in on what's been going on with you and at home, I am glad you are here, I've written a letter for you to take and read, sometime before you return to Stormhaven, there is no rush, it is not your current worry.  I can't answer all the strange things that have come to you, but I will give you my advice, which Marissa says you came to find."

He takes a few moments gathering his breathe.  "Ogre's aren't dumb brutes as we suppose, and their Magi, can be strangely powerful.  You've made a dire enemy of one, and by odd fate, it's gained pages of a dark magic book to swell its power.  It's attack by the Vrock's on all of Stormhaven show its a danger to all we both care about.  It may rankle to help a Mindflayer, but stopping that Magi, well, that is my advice, that first, the rest can wait".

Saliq exchanged glances with his companions before turning back to Ingelbern. The illusionist had made scant secret of his unhappiness with working with the Mindflayers but they were clearly committed now.

'So this ogre magi is behind the golem?'

Rath arrived for breakfast fully ready for travel, armed, armored, his gear clean and carefully packed. His armor was well-kept and polished to a shine, more a reflection of its enchantments than Rath's care. The warrior was dark-eyed and somber, but the coffee and biscuits had brought a light to his eyes. He carried an extra mug from the Inn, but it was empty before they reached the House of Healing, and he found an inconspicuous place to set down the empty vessel.

Now, in Inglebern's room, Rath secured the letter in a safe place deep within his pack. He consulted the compass.

"Maybe, maybe not, but he's powered up with the flayer scroll and coming for us. Guessing that quake last night ain't unrelated. This thing points to the scrolls, and it shifted position. Now, I'm usually one to face things head on. But I'm not the smartest, so if you have a better plan than heading out to meet it -- and I hope to the gods that you do, 'cause that's a horrible plan -- then I'm all ears."

Nemble followed along with the group, remaining silent as Inglebern informed the group about the ogre magi.

"Flayer Scroll?"  He intoned.  "Seems ominous."

"I'm lost.  I gather that stopping this ogre magi is a good thing for Stormhaven ... but how does it help a mindflayer?"

Rath shrugged. "The ogre has an ax to grind. With us. And it seems to think we have a fondness for Stormhaven, so ... yeah, the city's in danger. As for the scroll." Rath looked for any sign from Saliq that he should shut up now. "As for the scrolls, they're pages from some unholy tome the mind flayers are fond of, grant great powers, and we've been promised immunity from flayer influence in exchange for getting the damned things back."

Ingelbern looks to Saliq,

"I am no fortune teller, but from what Marissa told me, Durien and spent a good deal of time discussing this last night and I'd bet the Ogre Magi is the creator of that golem.  He clearly used one page from the book to summon that horde of Vrock Demons that assailed the city, the mindflayer recovered that page buried in the center of that pentagram.  And you found evidence the Magi was camped near the pentagram.  So that makes sense.   He still has five pages, and if I'm right, they are now as much an influence on him as he is on them.  Evil objects like that tend to have a will of their own.  I doubt even Master Azuth knows how or has the power to create a Vengeance Golem, seems likely that knowledge and power comes from scrolls or missing pages."

He looks a little worried when he answers Rath,  "Well, yes, I was going to suggest you track down and remove the page from that Golem, if legends are true, once the page is removed, the thing will lead you straight back to its creator before it crumbles.  It shouldn't be hard to track, you know where it attacked you, and even without a master Ranger, it probably leaves an easy trail to follow". 

"That's an awesome plan," Rath growled. "I'm in."

Saliq smiled ruefully at Rath's answer. 'I thought you might be my friend.'

The illusionist let out a long sigh. 'I won't lie, I hate the thought of working with or for the mind flayers but it seems we have no option. Ingelbern raises another problem though; should we find the book how do we protect it influencing us too?'

"I think there's another fundamental problem.  From what we've been told . . . how does one get the page from the golem?  It sounds impossible a word I don't use lightly."

"From what I gather, golems of any sort are nigh-impossible to kill."  Nemble said.  "I don't think that this is a problem for blades or might.  A keen wit and magic will be the key that unlocks this particular puzzle."

He raised a black-gloved finger as he counted off — what the gnome obviously thought were — salient points.

"What,"  He asked rhetorically.  "Does a golem do?"

"The answer my friends ... is whatever it's told.  You just have to be the one that controls the thing.  Perhaps there is a way to wrest control away from the creator?"

"Secondly, what is it that a vengeance golem does?" He paused here for dramatic effect.

"In a word, it hates.  Purely.  Viciously, and without depth or measure."  He said, leaning in and resting both hands on the table now.  "There is only one force powerful enough to counter hate ... and that is forgiveness."

Nemble continued, outlining his plan as if it were the simplest thing in the world.  "We must get the vengeance golem to forgive us, wrest control from its master, and then ask it to open its mouth ... when it does, we simply reach in and the paper is ours."

As the idea hung on the air, it was no longer hard to imagine how the adventurous gnome has lost a limb and found his way to Peryn's Crag.

"Of course,"  He admitted.  "The real trick will be staying alive long enough to pull something like this off.  I imagine something like this needs to be done up close and personal-like."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:54, Thu 30 Apr 2020.

"Or maybe we can get it to turn its vengeance inward, use that hate to our advantage.  Could a golem — sufficiently motivated — defeat itself, I wonder?  Tear itself apart if it wanted to?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:55, Thu 30 Apr 2020.

Inas looks at Nemble, but the ranger is silent and his inscrutable eyes provide no insight into what he thinks of the gnome's words.

Ingelbern chuckles at the talk of plans,  but adds simply,

"If anyone can find a way, I'm sure it is you all."

"The Ogre Mage part seems fairly straight forward, even with the complication of the flayers, that fits it as well.  The part I still can't fathom is the staged assassination of the Lord Mayor.  That is still a mystery, but one I plan to investigate when I return home.  For now, your enemy is out there, plotting who knows what next, the sooner you end that particular threat, the safer we all will be. And so, once again, as the true Seneschal to Lord Mayor Thyrandas III, I must enlist your help for the sake of fair city.  If you will do this, go now and may providence guide your actions".

Unlike Inas, Rath's reaction to Nemble was completely scrutable. He nearly smirked and choked down a laugh. "Forgiveness? I'd settle for disinterest. In my book, that a mite more powerful and a hell of lot more likley. But if it takes a keen wit and magic, well, Musfara has that covered. I'm just not sure that magic worked so well on this golem."

Rath took a deep breath. "Anyway, we got five of us and two hands each, for the moment. That gives us ten tries to reach into the mouth to grab the scroll, whether that thing forgives us or not." He had his compass in hand. "Shall we hit the road, or do you all want to confer on tactics first?"

'We were told we should be on our way before sunrise,' Saliq reminded the others. 'I think we should be on our way and confer tactics en route. Remember our enemy can move too.'

The illusionist had winced at Rath's reminder that magic had accomplished little the last time but said nothing about that.

There seems little left to learn or do, Peryn's Crag has done what it does, healed the un-healable, and in exchange, learned more about its craft.

With the usual misgivings and excitement of setting off on a mission, the party gathers their belongings, and makes their way slowly down and out of the city on a Crag.

Near the exit, Marissa is waiting for them.  She hugs everyone, even the new gnome and dwarf, warmly.  She gives each member of the party a vial,

"Peryn made these for you, they are for healing.  Good luck and if you return to Stormhaven ahead of me, send my love to my Mother..." winking to Saliq, she adds, "not too much love.  And if you run into Astral, please let her know where I am".
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:55, Sun 03 May 2020.

"We'll see you soon enough, when we get our asses handed and we come crawling back here so you can reattach 'em." He returned Marissa's hug and said more quietly, "Take care, my friend."

To the others: "Compass points that way. Let's walk and talk, folks." And he left Peryn's Crag without looking back.

Nemble returned the hugs from Marissa, eager to be off on an adventure.  He briefly had looked into atonement ... but, as it was a divine spell and not arcane ... it was beyond his meager understanding.