Forlorn Moon (Part 1)

Log Info

• Title: Forlorn Moon (Part 1)

• GM: Aftershock

• Characters: Ravenstongue, Simony, Telamon

• Place: Ravenstongue and Telamon's house / Temple District, Alexandria

"My name, is Yanohono." Says the celestial being. Looking at them, you wouldn't know that they were a celestial. One might guess sith-makar first, but there's something about the golden eyes in this black-scaled celestial that suggests something not quite... mortal. From arching horns of obsidian to twitching wings restlessly shifting, and a tail that is curled around one leg... there's power to be had in Yanohono, and it is nothing to be sneered at.

"I come from one of the cities beyond the Gray Halls, where mortals find their rest. It is there, in what mortals call the Eternal City, that many powerful artifacts of the gods rest. Some are parts of the gods, others merely anchors for their power. They are strictly guarded and protected, but this day one was taken."

Yanohono holds out a claw and offers an image of what looks like a small hand-held mirror without the part that one might usually hold onto. "This item was stolen by a div - a creature once Djinn who sunk so far into evil as to become fiendish in nature. His name is Iei. Once a prisoner of ours, he escaped, killed many, and took this with him. We have three days to locate it before it becomes possible for him to use it and... The cost to reality is something that we can not measure. We do not know if he has any allies, nor what his exact plans are; only that he escaped here to Alexandria and has taken a human form.

Here the celestial's golden eyes take on a stern light. "Three days, and then havoc will be set free. If you have any questions of me; now is the time to ask them."

GAME: Telamon rolls detectBS+2: aliased to sense motive+2: (13)+29+2: 44
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+29: (16)+29: 45

There was a time when Telamon would've been utterly tongue tied and stricken dumb at this kind of audience. How often can a man encounter the servants of the gods of light, after all? But nowadays... well, he's not jaded, but he has enough experience to not lose his silver tongue, wit, or polish. A deep bow, before he speaks.

"I have no desire to discover what kind of mayhem might be inflicted, my lord. But may I know the name of this esteemed device, if it has one? I am also willing to hear any speculation you might have as to what this unpleasant fellow plans to do with said device."

The Goblin is silent, though her face is expressive as Yanohono speaks. She, too, offers a bow, taking a moment to smooth out her kimono afterwards. Simony nods as Telamon asks his question and asks for speculation on the Div's motives.

"I am curious as to what the device does, as that may lend us a few ideas as to what he may wish do with it. Is there a way to disable the device? If we can lay hands on it somehow, we could temporarily turn it off, perhaps?" She strokes her chin thoughtfully. "Is it intelligent in any way, can it resist or reject him, or is it a matter of point and utter a command word?"

Like her husband, Cor'lana Lupecyll-Atlon's not a bitter person, but there's some sense of comfort in speaking with the celestial. She's dressed in her adventurer's attire, the space in her robes marked with the curuchuil that has prominent scales of Vardama in the center of the 'feather' that everything flows from. Maybe that gets her brownie points with the celestial. Maybe it doesn't. There's a look of curiosity on her face as she asks, "Have there been other attempts to locate Iei through magical means? Does he have some means of thwarting scrying magic now that he is here in Alexandria? We have some personal experience with people who had artifacts that prevent scrying."

"It is known as Eluna's Hope. It is associated with her worship." The celestial explains to Telamon. "We can not know with certainty, but we suspect nothing good will come of the theft. The worst case scenario is that he attempts to use it when the sky holds the Dark Moon. It would unleash untold power and sway the balance of good and evil for the next century."

The sith-seeming celestial turns their attention on Simony. "It holds the power of Eluna's moon within it. The power to grant great power to its holder. However it is limited in the times that it can be used. It is neither a thing of good, nor of evil, but rather of raw power. It is said to hold some intelligence, but that it has no choice of acting upon what it is commanded to do.

At last Yanohono turns their golden eyes upon Cor'lana. "Iei has powerful magic even without the mirror. Scrying is not powerful enough to grant visions of him, and there is growing concern that he will not long remain in Alexandria. While he holds the mirror it can not be scried either; unfortunately."

Telamon exhales. "I see. Very well then. I think we have little time to waste." He furrows his brow. "Alexandria is a large city. If Iei possesses significant power he could be hiding anywhere -- among the nobility, the merchants, the peasantry, even amongst the Guilds. I don't think 'flushing' him out is an option -- he's not going to jump out of his hiding place just because of a few rumors."

Tel rubs his chin, looking at Lana. "I think I should try to see where he's been. I might not be able to find where he is now but the trance dream might narrow down the search."

Simony nods at the answers given. "What was he imprisoned for? And do you know what vices he has? He may lay low for a bit and resort to baser instincts." Her eyes widen. "Is there a particularly potent spot one could use that device, in Alexandria?"

"This is our concern." The celestial says with a nod and then a return of attention to Simony. "He was imprisoned for crimes against the Gods and Time. As for his vices..." The celestial tilts their head for a moment as though listening to voices. "His vice is his fury. He has a temper. You may find him this way in that he can not allow an insult to be unpaid - usually in violence."

GAME: Telamon rolls knowledge/the planes: (12)+18: 30
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Knowledge/The Planes+2: (13)+20+2: 35
GAME: Simony rolls knowledge/the planes: (9)+7: 16

"You mentioned he was imprisoned for crimes against the Gods and Time," Cor'lana says thoughtfully. "Does he have a particular grudge against any particular deity? It might be useful to know this information for our investigating purposes. Although the fact he's stolen an artifact of Ni'essa's indicates a particular indication against her."

"Many Div have somewhat personal grudges against various deities. Though there was no previous proof, we believe that this particular one has something against Eluna. But that is pure speculation based on the theft as you suggested." The celestial blinks at Cor'lana. "It is the reason however that I was sent; as I have more experience in Her service than others."

GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Perception: (11)+24: 35
GAME: Simony rolls perception: (14)+24: 38
GAME: Simony rolls disguise: (17)+1: 18
GAME: Simony used a Scroll of Disguise Self.

The day is spent wandering and standing as inconspicuously as one can in the Temple District looking for anyone out of place or who might be a fiend in disguise. It's not something that Simony and Cor'lana have much luck with. In fact, Simony mostly feels sick all day. Like she's caught the wrong side of a nasty flu.

The only thing of note in fact that seems to be noticeable about the Temple District is the sheer number of clerics who abandon their meals half-eaten or whom fall asleep on benches in the noon sun.

Telamon spends his time preparing for his Trance Dream which leads him to sleep. He dreams of the theft. The blue-black and surprisingly 'small' fiend slips into a room holding the mirror, picks it up, and vanishes. There are in fact other items in the room besides the mirror, but he goes right to that one. Afterwards Telamon observes him landing just outside of Alexandria, but the vision ends before he transforms into whatever human shape he has taken. Shame.

---

"Iei's not much to look at -- little blue-black colored fellow, not particularly imposing." Telamon is giving Simony and Lana his findings over coffee and pancakes at the house. "What bothers me is this: in the dream, he went right to the mirror. There were several other objects there, but he made a direct line to that one -- like he knew what he wanted." Telamon scowls. "So then he slips out, lands outside of Alexandria, but the dream ended before I saw what he turned into."

"Whatever he's up to, he's not just coming up with this from the hip. He has a plan. And I definitely don't like that."

The Goblin looks withdrawn, with darker circles around her eyes. She refuses food and drink. "He... is in the Temple quarter, surely. I felt unwell all day yesterday, sick to my stomach. Worse still.. it wasn't just me. I overheard a number of Eluna's own complain of feeling it. I doubt it's a coincidence, whether natural or not, this sort of thing affecting priests, when we know the div is loose in Alexandria."

Telamon's revelation of what he saw has Simony thinking. "He knew what he wanted... probably knew that there are a great many holy artifacts which are ill-disposed to all but the most saintly of beings. Even you two would need to take care. But what..." She goes silent for long moments, her eyes widening.

"For clergy... it's a day of ill omen. Dark Flame said it had the balance to tip the balance between good and evil. That it magnified power... And... isn't that day of the dark moon supposedly magnify the power of spells cast that day by an order of magnitude. What if he's trying to cut off... as many priests as possible from their divine patrons." A number of tears roll down her face and she sniffles.

Pothy looks meaningfully at Cor'lana as they all discuss over food. "And... You said that the clerics in the District were abandoning their meals or were sleeping?"

"Yes," Cor'lana replies as she politely cuts apart a pancake for Pothy to eat. "But you know... I wonder. At the risk of sacrilege, perhaps Telamon and I can appear and I recite a poem decrying Iei while proclaiming that Telamon and I are the rightful holders of Eluna's Hope, as sorcerers who venerate Ni'essa? I know a bit about the Dark Moon, myself--sorcerers on that day can amplify a spell tenfold."

Om-nom-nom goes the Pothy on the pancake as Cor'lana holds it up to his creamy-white beak. "It might piss him off so hard that he does something foolish. Such as reveal himself in a dramatic fashion," Cor'lana remarks.

---

As the noon sun rises in the sky, the three who are on the look-out for Iei hover over the Temple District. Already a few people are observing, trying to figure out why people are just... floating in the air. A certain subsection of citizens are present however, sitting on the ground waiting. Rumor has it that one of the many lovers of the Temptress of Alexandria has been abducted by a fiend named Iei and that she'll be calling him out. The benches are filled, but quite a number of those in attendance seem to be... asleep? Not exactly the most... enthusiastic crowd ever seen.

"FREE THE ARCHMAGE YOU WENCH!" Someone in the crowd yells loudly, and there's some clapping. Okay, maybe they're more lively than it seems at first glance.

GAME: Telamon rolls perception: (16)+33: 49
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Perception: (18)+24: 42
GAME: Simony rolls perception: (14)+24: 38
GAME: Telamon rolls Heal: (2)+24: 26
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Heal: (6)+2: 8

The Goblin is silent thoughout the wait, her eyes scanning the crowd. While Tel may have been able to describe the fiend's actual likeness, the lack of knowledge on Iei's human form makes it difficult to pick the fiend out from a crowd that's doubtlessly mostly human.

"Maybe his clothing with be themed to his actual looks.", Simony posits to herself. She has her hammer held in her right hand, something that does not require her faith to work.

GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Perform/Oratory: (12)+39: 51

Cor'lana's dressed in her adventurer's robes, and while she frowns at first at the insult regarding her husband the archmage (she is one too, so really, that's Archmage-Wench to you, friend), she looks positively radiant and frightening. She has a floral wreath in her hair that announces war and bloodshed (if one is learned in fae flower language), and her magic wings flap behind her.

She takes a breath. And she begins her onslaught. "Iei! I'm here to tell you exactly who deserves that mirror, because it most certainly isn't you!" It's time to wake these people up.

What follows next is a verbal massacre:

"An embarrassment of a fiend,

Barely the size of a child:

Iei's so small that a pixie wouldn't fly to him

Because he's a mediocre kind of guy

Who barely comes up to a thigh,

And yet he's got a conviction

That he's the one who should be holding

Eluna's Hope, yet he'll be the one who's folding

Because Telamon and I, we're the pair to beat

And everyone knows our name on the streets.

Iei? Who's he? Some div with no name to fame

What a shame, what a shame, what a shame,

You ought to go home with your height-affliction

Because no one's going to take you seriously

When you're thinking all deliriously

But we've got the solution for your fiction

Just give us a quill and we'll cross you out."

Sometimes the best magic is misdirection. Distraction. Getting the person to watch the left hand, while the right hand is doing something else. And while Lana positively murders Iei (at least in prose), Telamon is deftly murmuring a spell. Deftly dabbing a bit of ointment on his eyelids, before turning around to sweep the crowd with a gaze full of stars.

No more disguises for you, Iei. Mocked by Tel's lady love, and now the stars are hunting for the div, looking for the one who is out of place, the one who should not be here...

GAME: Telamon casts True Seeing. Caster Level: 20 DC: 26
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+30: (1)+30: 31 (EPIC FAIL)

At this a small man, barely four and a half feet tall with black spiky hair and black robes climbs the fountain. "How dare you! Have you no honor woman? Come down here and face me!" He growls at Lana, but Telamon can see that the man is not actually a man at all. No, he's the very fiend that he is looking for. Conveniently drawn forth by the insults. "I will have you know that I shrank myself to escape! And what is this about me stealing your lover? I have no interest in some mortal! Disgusting!"

GAME: Telamon rolls Will: (7)+23: 30
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Will: (19)+21: 40
GAME: Simony rolls will: (14)+19: 33
GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d6: (9): 9
GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d4: (8): 8

Many of those around the fiend simply fall over from the wave of pure evil that rolls off of the fiend then and his fingers curl into claw-like patterns. "COME DOWN HERE WOMAN. OR I WILL RISE TO YOU; AND THAT YOU WILL NOT LIKE."

GAME: Ravenstongue casts Freedom. Caster Level: 20 DC: 30
GAME: Ravenstongue casts Hold Monster/Quicken. Caster Level: 20 DC: 30
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+21: (18)+21: 39

"I have a name! Maybe you should come and get me! You'd finally prove your worth, small-pint!" Cor'lana calls out to Iei, before intoning a spell, culminating in a powerful shout. "Freedom to you, Simony!"

With her ally unfixed by her magic, Cor'lana then turns her attention to Iei, eyes narrowing. "Let's see..." Another murmured incantation, and there's the pull of magic around the div... But nothing sticks. "I hope you have something you can use against fiends prepared, Simony!"

GAME: Simony rolls weapon15+: (11)+0+: 11
GAME: Simony rolls weapon15: (18)+0: 18
GAME: Simony rolls weapon14: (1)+15: 16 (EPIC FAIL)

"That has to be him!", Simony calls out. Nothing escapes her! But being paralyzed is so unexpected she doesn't even get a courtesy gasp of surprise. For a few moments, she aimlessly floats onward, carried aloft by her silver and gold chainmail.

Then she's free. It takes her a moment to process what might have just happened, and she nods. "It's HAMMER TIME!" The diminutive woman dives down to swing at Iei, but in her excitement, she misses Iei. But not the flagstone that chips under Spidermasher's impact.

"Oops.", Simony says with a frown.

GAME: Telamon casts Suffocation. Caster Level: 20 DC: 26
GAME: Telamon casts Haste/Quicken. Caster Level: 20 DC: 28
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+18: (12)+18: 30
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+18: (14)+18: 32

"Even fiends have their weaknesses," Telamon snarls, staggering from the wave of evil that emanates off the div. "I SEE YOU, IEI." His voice takes on that ominous reverb, as the elegant half-elf slips his hand into his haversack, drawing out a carved ivory rod. Deliberately, he incants the killing spell, the magic lashing out to try and strangle Iei. While it doesn't stick, it leaves him gasping for a moment.

A moment that Telamon spends to quicken his allies' movements. "Lukas sa-i'iz!" he chants, a flash of silver light jumping from himself to Lana to Simony.

GAME: Simony uses an AoO! 0 remaining.
GAME: Simony rolls weapon14: (2)+15: 17

Without a second glance at Simony (who swings and misses at him), Iei launches himself at Cor'lana. Rushing the space between him and her without any obvious sign of flight ability. "You called?" He grins at her.

GAME: Ravenstongue casts Hold Monster/Persistent. Caster Level: 20 DC: 28
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+21: (4)+21: 25
GAME: Ravenstongue casts Feeblemind/Quicken. Caster Level: 20 DC: 30
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+21: (8)+21: 29

Cor'lana smiles. "I did," she says. It's not a nice smile, nor is the look in her eyes very nice, either. In fact, it's only a bit removed from Grandfather's stare when he looks like he's about to skewer something.

"Hold."

Iei's suddenly suspended mid-air, which... He might not be able to fly very much longer if he's held. Cor'lana follows it up with another spell: "Be without sense."

That one doesn't work on him. But for the moment, Cor'lana is satisfied with her first spell working its magic.

GAME: Simony rolls weapon14: (3)+15: 18
GAME: Simony rolls weapon14: (4)+15: 19

Simony is still frowning at the chipped flagstone, and only manages a halfhearted swipe as he flies up to meet Cor'lana.

Growling, the albino launches herself into the air once more. With a grunt, she puts some serious effort into her next swing.. only to miss for the third time.

"I honestly saw this going differently."

GAME: Telamon rolls sense motive: (1)+29: 30 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Telamon rolls sense motive: (14)+29: 43
GAME: Telamon casts Disintegrate. Caster Level: 20 DC: 27
GAME: Telamon rolls ranged+1: (19)+15+1: 35
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+18: (7)+18: 25
GAME: Telamon rolls 40d6: (141): 141
GAME: Telamon casts Suffocation/Quicken. Caster Level: 20 DC: 30
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+18: (15)+18: 33

Meanwhile, Telamon has clearly decided he's done playing with this evil nuisance. As the div lunges towards Cor'lana, Tel's fingers trace a complex pattern, as a nimbus of blue-white energy forms around his right hand. With a grunt, he thrusts his palm towards the div, chanting as he does so, and a beam of blue-white light slams into the fiend, erasing chunks of it from existence.

As it has failed to expire, another spell lashes the fiend, trying to choke it but failing again. Still, it limits its options, and the creature is wounded. "There is no escape," he intones.

GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Fortitude: (18)+16: 34

The fiend points a finger at Lana, withdrawing something from inside of his robes as he does so. The spell roils on his finger - something nasty - and then goes wide when the fiend turns his eyes to the thing in his hand which is... A deflated ball. A green and black kick-ball to be exact. "WHAT IS THIS?!?"

GAME: Ravenstongue casts Disintegrate/Persistent. Caster Level: 20 DC: 29
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls ranged: (19)+15: 34
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls ranged: (7)+15: 22
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+18: (18)+18: 36
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+18: (6)+18: 24
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls 80d6: (273): 273

Cor'lana's eyes are wide as she beholds the deflated ball, but she uses the surprise of the moment to her advantage. She runs her finger on the needle hidden in her sleeve and bleeds herself. "Grandfather, watch me take flight!" she intones as she feeds the blood to the mark on her chest.

The chorus sings in her head. Mother, her mother's father--all the inheritors of Apotheosis that have come before her, they sing. She feels Grandfather with her. But this time, she is fighting for something good: everyone in this district. Everyone, who need to be saved and protected from this fiend's plans.

"Become as nothing," Cor'lana calls out, and a sickly green beam fires out from her hands. It makes contact with Iei... And he is whole one moment.

He is dust the next, his clothes and the strange kickball coming down with the direction of gravity.

"FINALLY TASTE COLD IRON YOU J..." Whatever the rest of her rant is lost in a coughing fit as she inhales some of the dust.

As she gets her lungs clear, she suffers a kickball to the head. Blinking, she turns to stare at Cor'lana. "It's almost an AHAS violation working with you two!" (Adventurer Health and Safety)

All that remains of the fiend is a completely deflated kickball, robes, a pair of nice boots, and tons of people half panicked. Thankfully Telamon is on that last part. Soothing fear into action to get the injured and sick into the care of the temples.