Planescape: Center of All - IC

[Archmage1]

Eilyra sighs. "I think that perhaps we ought to take a break." She flashes Avakuss a quick smile, before she looks back to Ash. "Despite Avakuss's best efforts, we do seem to be arguing more than discussing. Why don't we head out, get the keys we need for planeshift, specifically including Bavia, The Astral, preferably somewhere near Quilo, the Prime Material gate location, and the Grey Waste. We should also look to collect a broad range of other keys, to locations such as the elemental planes, the Brass City, the various hells, and so on, to conceal what we're actually interested in. Once we've gotten them, or we've failed to get them, it should be about time for our meeting with Rule, so there's no reason to go and bother him early. Especially since we've already angered him once by doing so. A few hours won't matter, either way. And then, depending on what we find out, we plan from there."

[Toliudar]

Ash

Ash immediately nods, relieved.

*Yes. Let's.

[Cavir]

Avakuss nods. "Searching the library again, mapping out any portals from there, getting a variety of keys, divinations... all sound good. You need to do the divinations outside Sigil? What about at the library?"

[Toliudar]

Ash

Ash nods.

*The Library should work. It also would bring us back to the main tunnel you were in last time, Avarkuss. If the undead guardians at the mouth of the cave were accompanying the lich, there's a good chance that he arrived FROM somewhere other than Sigil. While there are several ways in which they might have arrived in that library, one of the possibilities is that there's another portal in the area. It would be interesting to check that out.*

[Archmage1]

With the agreement to locate the planar keys in place, Eilyra gives everyone a chance to finish their snacks, before she stands, and heads towards the door. "There's a Kolyurat that I know, might have the forks. Outside of that, well, we'll just have to look around."

[Toliudar]

Ash

*Let's see if there's anything nearby, or if we need to move further afield.*

Attempting to accelerate the shopping process, Ash murmurs a simple incantation.

Spoiler: OOC

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Casting Locate Object, range of about 1,200 feet, seeking "a tuning fork attuned to the plane where the country of Bavia is."

[kinem]

Ash’s Spell doesn’t reveal such an object.

[Toliudar]

Ash

Ash shrugs.

*We won't find the right key in this neighbourhood. We might as well start further afield, and work our way back.*

[Archmage1]

Eilyra nods. "In that case, it is time we were about it." She smoothly stands up, and walks towards the door out of the conference room, and leads the way out of the mansion, and out of the Black Sail, heading towards the market ward, and keeping an eye out for likely merchants.

[Cavir]

"With less than 2 hours to meet Rule I'd suggest we meet with him first. He may have some keys for us. If not, he's the one to know where to get them."

[Archmage1]

Eilyra pauses momentarily at Avakuss's words, twisting to look back at him for a moment. "But then we wouldn't have the chance to wander around Sigil first."

[Cavir]

"I'm sure we'll have plenty to do after the meeting. We could go through more of the books now. Were there any in Common? If so I'll help with that."

[Archmage1]

Eilyra frowns at Avakuss's question, even as she walks along. "I was using comprehend languages, so I wouldn't necessarily know, but the books were quite archaic. It would be much, much faster to read them with scholar's touch, and, well... how much do you know about planar interactions? Confluences? Weak point theory? Convergences?"

[Toliudar]

Ash

Ash's wings droop. Rather than get into another argument, especially one in which she doesn't care much about either way, she goes for Overkill By Magic. Stepping out of the mansion space, Ash chants a long-ish spell, turning slowly in a circle.

Spoiler: OOC

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Oh, the heck with it. Ash casts Find the Path, trying to get the most direct route to "The nearest place in Sigil where we could buy a planar tuning fork attuned to the world where the country of Bavia is."

[Cavir]

"I have learned more than a typical Clueless, but I am sure not to your level about the planes. If there is a way for me to be of help, organizing, note taking.... let me know. I'm quite adept at memorizing what I study."

"Our specialties have forced us all to learn patience. I suggest we relax a little bit longer for Rule to get here. We should be pretty busy from there onward for a while."

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm fine with skipping to Rule showing up.

[Archmage1]

Elyria frowns. "If you wish to stay, you may, but if we are to seek battle this day, I'll need my magic. Which means that expending a significant portion on rapidly reading will be problematical. Two hours of reading will make little difference, considering the size of the stack, unless we get lucky." She pauses, and looks over the group, even the silent Taric, before continuing. "I don't intend to lose time if I can avoid it. If you'd rather remain reliant on Rule, that is your choice. I'll be back in time for the meeting."
With that, she departs, heading for the Friendly Fiend, to acquire a scroll, as well as a set of forks.

[Toliudar]

Ash

As Eilyra takes off, Ash turns to her three remaining colleagues with a shrug.

*She's worth it. I'm going to do some reading in the interim.*

Heading back down into her apartment, she picks up a book off a stack and settles at her desk. She lays out her notebook beside her and digs in. Eventually, she gets distracted by the new ring on her finger. She casts a spell, in case there are any surprises to be had from the ring.

Spoiler: OOC

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Knowledge (the planes) to start to understand the work selected, and try to connect it to the task at hand. (1d20+18)[25]

She'll dismiss the nondetection spell she had cast on the Lich's ring, and then cast Object Reading on it to learn the race, gender, age and alignment of the lich, and also of the owner prior to the lich. She then casts Nondetection on the ring again.

[kinem]

Spoiler: Ash

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The book is a collection of four short horror stories, each one dealing with a different element - Air, Water, Earth, Fire. In each story, evil wins out.

Object Reading: Lich (human), male, 157 years, Neutral Evil.
Previous Owner: Human, male, 62 years, Lawful Neutral.

Spoiler: at the Friendly Fiend

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The Friendly Fiend is a large brick shop with a sign that says WELCOME mounted over the doorway.

You are soon greeted by the proprietor, A'kin the arcanaloth, a jackal-headed creature with a tall, broad-shouldered figure and clawed hands. His fur pattern has a white swoop down his snout and a black 'bandit's mask' around his golden eyes. From what you've seen, A'kin really is rather more friendly than others of his kind.

All sorts of items are displayed in the shop.

A'kin says "Good morning! What'll it be today?"

[Toliudar]

Ash

Snapping the book closed, she drops it onto the stack that has already been read. Once Cavir, Avarkuss an Centre are ready, she heads down to meet with Rule.

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: At the friendly fiend

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Walking quickly to the Friendly Fiend, Eilyra doesn't hesitate to cut through alleyways, and other such paths to reach it faster, perfectly happy to vent some of her anger on muggers, but, sadly, none are encountered.

Arriving at the large brick shop, she doesn't hesitate to enter, and as she does, she takes in the many items around the shop. An interesting collection. Pearls of power, bags of various sorts, wands, scattered pieces of magical armor and equipment... quite the eclectic collection. But will what I am seeking be present?

Making sure to put a slight smile on her face, Eilyra responds to the cheerful greeting. "Good morning to yourself as well. I'm looking for a few things, although I suspect I will require additional coin before I could acquire them all. But, that is no reason not to inquire. Would you happen to have any tuning forks available, suitable for plane shift? What spell scrolls do you have, currently? Or, for that matter, do you have any complete spell books that I might browse? And perhaps a little something to improve my resistance against suffering unfortunate accidents... something to focus my mind to throw off effects targeting the body?" She pauses, and looks around the shop once more. "You do have quite the collection."

[kinem]

Spoiler: Friendly Fiend

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"Tea?" A'kin offers you.

"Of spell scrolls I have many, too many to remember them all. If you can narrow down what you seek, I could look through the inventory. Spell books with spells I don't keep in stock, as they are hard to get and in high demand.

Tuning forks for plane shifting? I don't get many requests for those. However, as luck has it I can tell you where in town to get them. In the Great Bazaar in the Market Ward, you can often find a merchant named Imao. He's of the Mercane race. We're starting to see more of those here in Sigil lately, you know. Anyway, he's paid this shop a few visits of his own, and he said he has a variety of oddities, including a large collection of tuning forks.

For improving your resistance, I take it that you already have an item that helps in the standard way? Unfortunately, most items do have to be worn in a particular way. Certain amulets might help."

OOC:

Basically, you can get almost any magic item worth about 30k or less from the SRD or MIC here. Not that he necessarily has every item in stock, but of the ones actually worth getting, he mostly has them.

Custom items or items that combine powers normally found separately are much less likely to be found here, but you can ask.

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: The Friendly Fiend

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Eilyra shakes her head at A'kin's offer, trying to give a gentle smile to diffuse the resulting tension. "I appreciate the offer, but I don't have time today to enjoy a good cup of tea."
She listens intently to his answer, and offers him a somewhat more genuine smile. "Thank you for the information about Imao, and I'll be sure to mention that you mentioned him. As for Scrolls, would you happen to have Ruin Delver's Fortune, and Sending? Those two are, perhaps unsurprisingly, of interest." She smiles again, before looking over the items on display. "Unfortunately, I do have the common approach to enhancing resistances, which proved to be... insufficient in a recent engagement. No permanent harm, but, it could have been. The two items that I was thinking of there were a headband of conscious effort, and a ring of the diamond mind, one that holds the mind over body maneuver. Unfortunately, both are somewhat hard to find, and, of course, both would likely require the services of an enchanter to transfer and combine the magics with my existing items."

[kinem]

Spoiler: Friendly Fiend

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A'kin looks around, pulling out scrolls and record sheets.

"Let's see. The scroll I have, and the headband. Such a ring, is not in my inventory."

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: The Friendly Fiend

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Eilyra nods, understandingly. "As I said, an unusual item. Would fourteen hundred be an acceptable price for the pair of scrolls? I'll need to do some fundraising before the headband is affordable, and then more for the enchantment work."

[kinem]

Spoiler: Friendly Fiend

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A'kin replies

"Seven hundred jink for the Ruin Delver's Fortune.

For the Sending, you want an arcane version, right? That would be eleven hundred and twenty five. There's a divine version at seven hundred.

My prices, unfortunately, are not negotiable. Though I like happy customers, I can't afford to start giving discounts, or everyone will want them."

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: Friendly Fiend

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Eilyra frowns, but nods. "I can understand that. Seven hundred for the Ruin Delver's Fortune then, as the divine version is fairly useless."
After verifying the veracity of the scroll(Spellcraft 38, vs DC 24), she forks over seven hundred jink in return for the scroll, before she speaks again. "I appreciate your honesty, and when I have the coin for additional items, well, I'll be back." She pauses momentarily after looking towards the exit, and looks back to A'kin. "Would you happen to have three vials of ink as well? Twenty four jink?"
After making her purchases, and saying her goodbyes, and judging that the time was insufficient for making it to the Great Bazaar, she tucks the scroll away, and makes her way back to the Black

[kinem]

Spoiler: Eilyra

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Ink is available to buy there.

Eilyra returns from her shopping trip, and the group gathers in the main dining room to await Rule. Joel is there as well, and he digs into a pasta dish. Center, in his human form, is curious about the stuff and orders the same.

Rule seems to be running a bit late, perhaps petty revenge for the early delivery of the items to sell.

The chatter suddenly dies down as a dabus enters the room. As usual, the horned, white-haired, yellow skinned, robed humanoid floats inches off the ground.

As always, the dabus does not speak. Above its head, symbols appear, representing cryptic phrases.

Some people ask questions of the dabus, but it ignores these, and floats out.

The room erupts with debates and opinions about what it meant, but the basics seem to be: 15 factions, no fighting, allowed.

Finally, Rule of Three makes his way into the agitated room and heads over to your table.

"Quite a shake-up, transition, cause for wigwagging" he says.

[Archmage1]

Returning, Eilyra takes a few moments to discuss her findings. "I did find a potential source for spell scrolls, although if we are going to take the time for sending, finding someone I can copy it from will be significantly cheaper. Additionally, there is a merchant, called, Iamo, a mercane, who may have tuning forks available. We can find him in the Great Bazaar."

After the Dabus
Observing the Dabus, Eilyra thinks quickly. Fifteen factions? Hm. I suppose that perhaps the Lady desires the more factionalized approach, rather than something approaching a government. A threat to her, somehow? She does act to protect Sigil as a whole; Perhaps she is linked, in some way? The power of Sigil, made manifest? But a declaration that fifteen factions may exist, but that warfare is not allowed? It's going to be chaos. Would be factions forming, old factions coming back... the perfect time for thieves and cultists to make moves. This is going to complicate things.
However, after her gaze leaves the Dabus, all she says is "Interesting."

[Toliudar]

Ash

Ash tilts her head, considering.

*Good work, Eilyra. In addition, we could talk about what we'd want to say in a sending, and I could send it. Before that, though, we should probably share what you've learned from the library.*

[Archmage1]

Before the Dabus

Eilyra gives Ash a look as she orders Eilyra around, and mentions that she has critical information that she hadn't disclosed. Her voice is chilly as she replies. "An interesting way to ask. What were yourself, Avakuss, and Taric able to find in the books? As for messaging, we're going to want to suggest a neutral meeting point, to discuss our differences. Sending, for all the power it holds, does not allow for long messages."

After the Dabus
As it became clear that everyone was dumbstruck by the news, Eilyra looks to Rule, and nods. "Yes, it will certainly do that. Less than ideal timing from our perspective, of course, since it will distract many of those who might have noticed things of interest. Regardless, do we want to talk in a more private location, or shall we order something?"