Cosmic Hunters (IC)

[remetagross]

The experience is extremely unsettling for Ux Utanar, who is as knowledgeable as a wyrmling when it comes to magical matters of such magnitude (besides being of only moderate Intelligence in the first place). He frowns, stares at the orb with a look of wonder, then amazement, then defiance, all within the span of a few seconds. Ereshki, feeling her master is somehow in a process akin to a fight of some sort squeeks with encouragement.

The dragonborn slowly walks up to her mount, and retrieves the orb from her grasp. He holds it to his eye and tries to peer through its surface. After a moment, he turns to his friends.
"I think Pilot here has said the truth of it. I have reflexively reached out to the orb...and I can clearly feel someone is inside it. And I am not sure this someone is a particularly commendable person. I also feel that if I break that orb, the person inside will be temporarily forced to do as I say...whatever I say. I am not used to holding such power over another creature."

With still a very puzzled look on his face, Ux Utanar asks some more questions to the servant of the ship.
"...you don't seem to hold Master Teru in high esteem, do you. Maybe you yourself have been trapped in such an orb by him in order to enter his service? Tell me more about the previous uses of this spell by Master Teru. What about the rest of the crew?"

He also answers Delja and Myriad.
"Well Delja, here's your answer on the how of it. But Myriad...tell you what. At first, I was dismissing the command you formulated to take hold of the ship as a banter of yours. On second thought...I'm not so sure I'm liking the idea of releasing Master Teru here and there without further ado. What's your take on that?"

[Metastachydium]

Delja snorts and grimaces from the sideline. Commendable person? Assorted moral qualms? Give me a break, Ux. Some of us haven't been in the righteous warrior business since forever. she says with a sigh and another pained grimace, even as her attention shifts back over to Pilot – and Myriad. She has this uncanny presentiment that the three (well, four with the big bat) of them may soon end up with a brand new disaster to manage.

[chaincomplex]

Ux Utanar. Pilot responds hotly, "The present master bought me as a slave from the efreet lords, as well as this flying annex, and bound me to it. Never in an orb, but my soul is no less trapped here. The others are—no, I don't think they're slaves, just mercenaries." Its voice turns calm. "But over many years, I've seen Navigator Teru puppet the souls of countless outsiders... tanar'ri, baatezu, devas, planetars... he would bind them, and press them into service, and sometimes if they disobeyed, he could seize their souls... as his is seized now... and force their compliance. His magic is ancient and dark." The faceless figure stops abruptly.

[remetagross]

Ux Utanar frowns.

"There we are. I think Master Teru cannot be freed and left to his own devices just like that. Binding evil outsiders is one thing, doing the same thing to a planetar is another...as is owning slaves. First, on the matter of trapped genies, we could start by freeing Pilot himself, no? Is that even possible in an easy way?" the dragonborn adds, turning to the hologram.
"Apart from that, Delja..." he smiles at her disdainous reaction.
"What do you suggest? Are you with Myriad on the matter of the ship?"

[Metastachydium]

The nixie shrugs. Most magic's pretty dark to me, insofar as I don't really get it. she inspects her blade for a moment before looking up at Pilot. You know, I'm not against Druce – that'd be stupid – and Pilot has been nothing if not helpful so far. she pauses to make a mildly annoyed face again. BUt the Sensates are going to want their mage back and (if I may remind you) we are here to talk with him. Delja scratches a little scale on her left hand almost idly as her eyes settle on Pilot again. Speaking of, can he hear us, in there? From the orb?

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Looking absolutely torn, Myriad simply bites her lip. Lost in thought, she hesitantly asks, "Can...can this 'annex' be piloted without you, Pilot? I really wanna use it for adventures...but I do not condone slavery, and Delja is right - you are good people, so we should definitely help you out." Looking sad, she mumbles dejectedly, "Even it that means I don't get a pocket dimension plane ship..."

[chaincomplex]

Ux Utanar. Pilot considers, then responds, "Unless you are capable of magic beyond the Ninth Circle... Master Teru of course could release my binding in an instant, but he would never of his own volition. The only other one who can is Sunsdóttir, but she is deceased in Controls and Operations. There is a mage in Sigil called Lothar, who would also be capable of freeing me, but he is a very dangerous man."

Delja Utorak. Pilot responds, "I have never come across a case of a trapped soul being able to hear... but Master Teru knows many necromantic secrets, and I think we cannot rule out the possibility."

Myriad. Pilot responds, "Sunsdóttir regularly pilots the Five Pebbles when she does not approve of my flying. Master Teru taught her the skill... This implies you should be able to as well, in theory. Powerful mages able to understand the arcane machinery within this vessel could teach it to you, if you are not yourself capable of reverse engineering the magic."

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Looking hopeful and considering Pilots' words, Myriad slowly nods. "Well, as long as it is possible, I'll just have to figure it out." Waving a hand as if cyphering out how an extradimensional interplanar magic demiplane vessel functions and operating it as such without tearing a hole in the fabric of the multiverse or something equally catastrophic is somehow no big deal, she seems to dismiss that issue out of hand.

Pointing to pilot, she tells her companions, "We should totally free Pilot. But we need this Taru bastard for...something - I forget what, exactly, but meh - so...can we just demand he takes Pilot's place as some weird-but-forcefully-helpful assistan but with like...zero authority. Like an undead archive of knowledge but no actual control? That way he has to stick around and do...whatever it is we need him for...and also free Pilot in...um...whatever way Pilot suggests? Since he probably knows better what the guys is or isn't capable of, so we should probably just go with what he thinks would work for him best." Looking thoughtful, she asks Pilot, "Could we do that? And if we can get him to swap, is there an easy means of taking him out if-and-when we need to? Shouldn't keep bad dudes around longer than absolutely necessary. They have schemes and whatnot. Its like...in the rules for them, or something."

Glancing at her person and rifling through her belongings she mutters as if to herself, "Maybe we could stick him in a different object since we gotta break the orb to make him free Pilot? Like uummm..." Seeming to realize how light she travels and quickly dismissing her own mithril arm, a cheap-looking wand, and the few pieces of magical gear she is actually wearing, she looks up sheepishly and shrugs, "If so, there has to be something on board we could use....right?" Looking hopefully at Pilot, she fiddles with her mithril arm, looking a little nervous.

[Metastachydium]

Well. Looks like they are doing this, whatever this really entails. Either way, since we are apparently keeping the ship, Delja speaks up again, with another grimace I'd again stress the little fact that this thing she gestures towards the tome is still very much on the ship we are apparently she rolled a shoulder noncommittally keeping. Now, the Sensates would probably know what to do with it, and she flashes a quick glance at Myriad and the knight whatever it is that happened to you two; but, again, they want Teru. Or his body. Perhaps we could restore… him and then trap his soul somehow to swindle the goat with an empty pile of dead meat they can't raise? Ux Utanar was never going to agree to that. This is going to be another headache.

[chaincomplex]

Myriad. Pilot pauses to process the possibilities. Then, slowly, they respond: "An exact swap is not possible. The elemental binding that connects me to the Five Pebbles is not something that would bind Master Teru; his essence is, after all, not elemental. You could command him to, at a later date, cast some spell upon himself such as trap the soul, binding, or imprisonment, but this is a waste of your one command." Pilot pauses again, then their features swirl as they say, "The greatest of the spellcasters of Sigil is Lothar the Old, though Factol Skall, Factol Darkwood, and Ramander the Wise are also quite capable. Darkwood and Ramander I believe would happily assist you in trapping him again; they have opposed Teru in the past, and this time their chances are good, as Teru was repeatedly energy drained within his orb-prison. But Lothar and Skall... they have plans I cannot see, and I would trust neither a necromancer nor a being whose essence is rooted in death."

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Switching her big currently-dwarven eyes to Ux, Myriad nods enthusiastically, "The obviously very-evil wizardy slaver experimenting on eldritch evil entities to do gods-knows what in a demiplane he obviously set up to avoid their notice gets prison time and forced labor instead of an easy death! That's totally more justicey anyway, right Ux...?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

#JusticeForPilot
A reminder that her Diplomacy is a flat auto-49 right now, for reference of how convincing her argument normally is. I know that doesn't work on players (what with IG familiarity and meta-balance purposes), mechanically, but I figured I would mention it for the purposes of thin justification as an 'out', if desired. lol

[remetagross]

Ux Utanar chuckles at seeing how the girls are trying to work around his morals, each in her own way.
"Well, to be honest, I'm quite in agreement with you, Myriad, on that matter. It's too bad actually swapping Pilot and Master Teru is out of the picture, at least not within a single command given to Master Teru. Tell you this: we first go to either this Darkwood or this Ramander; these two seem to be the most commendable of the bunch. We free Master Teru, ask him to free Pilot, then get them to trap Master Teru at once again. Then we give the trapped Teru to the Sensates. Mission accomplished, we've freed an innocent soul in the process, we've delivered the mage, and we've given him a taste of what it feels like in that tiny orb. How does that sound?"

But the question of the tome remains. Ux Utanar glances at the item, and he can instinctively feel how repulsive the artifact is for a soul like him.
"But about that thing, Delja...no clue. First, we try to understand what it is, and then, I guess we try to destroy it somehow? We could get to a temple of Bahamut somewhere to ask for guidance."

All the while, Ux Utanar pets Ereshki, which has shrunk back to normal size .

[Metastachydium]

Skeptical wrinkles run up high on Delja's forehead. Sure. she says. Let's trick and trap the shady fellow with all the magic ancient and dark, and once he's sufficiently pissed, let's just hand him over to folks who are bound to set him loose before we'd reach the door. she goes on, her words interspersed with a couple of quick, stiff nods. Sounds like my kind of dying an ugly, messy death.

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Eyeing the object of Ux's disgust, Myriad shrugs. "I can grab it and see if I can figure out what it's for before we wave it in front of any potentially power-hungry mages of questionable character. But...that should probably wait til we search the place and I get you guys out of here. It would totally SUCK for you guys if I picked it up and explodified without first making sure you can leave on your own now that the Five Peebles or whatever isn't on Pilot's super- lockdown." She snorts a cackling chuckle, as if the thought of blowing herself up would be comedic because of how inconvenient that would be to her companions. Wiping a tear of mirth from her eye with a finger not completely covered in gore, she shrugs nonchalantly. "But ya know... the first rule is to always loot the bodies. Can't go against tradition! Even if one of the bodies is technically Pilot's and its a plane ship thingie that isn't dead..." That last bit is spoken quickly under her breath and quickly dismissed with a clearing of her throat. With that, she slips her dagger away into its sheathe and stretches languidly, looking around as if deciding what direction to go start the finding-and-looting process.

[chaincomplex]

The Five Pebbles. With a bow Pilot vanishes, followed by a quick hiss and loud thump as two airtight thresholds unseal at R32 and Z37. It is quiet, but now the party is aware of a humming that pervades the Five Pebbles. It is as if a weight has been lifted from their minds, and they are no longer cut off from the rest of the multiverse.

Looking up the hallway from where they entered, the party sees there is now a shimmering field where they first teleported in. In the field there is a distorted image of Teru's suite in the Sensates' headquarters.

The party begin to search the rest of the vessel.

• Aft Bay. Site of the last fight. There are dead obyriths strewn about. The air is thick with a rotting and acrid stench. Two deceased, eviscerated planestouched, one male and one female, lie against the southern wall. The female's gear includes: a fullblade engraved with runes^M, a full plate engraved with runes^M, a set of traveler's clothes, a golden holy symbol of a stylized sun, two rings etched with runes^M, and a Celestial pocket dictionary. The male's gear includes: a rapier of high quality^M, a chain shirt of high quality^M, four dark and viscous potions^M, two light and pleasantly scented potions^M, an engraved ring^M, a set of courtier's clothes, and a waterproof pouch holding 5 pp and 20 gp.
• Theater. Empty and thoroughly silent, as if the walls themselves absorbed noise. It is dark in this chamber.
• Conference. Empty. A large table sits in the center of the room. Complex control panels line a wall.
• Archive. A large library and storage space. Countless rare tomes on arcana, religion, nature, the planes, and geography line the shelves (+4 circumstance bonus to the respective Knowledge checks). Myriad's summoned mule seems to have found some peace here, yet all is not well. A trail of obyrith viscera and mortal blood leads from between the shelves to the northern door. Following the blood trail, the party finds a deceased elf woman against a shelf. She fought hard, as evidenced by chunks of what the party recognizes to be flesh of the spider-thing. The elf's gear includes: a set of robes with runes finely stitched across it^M, a silver holy symbol depicting two eyes in a starry sky, a diamond ring^M, and a prayerbook.
• Controls and Operations. This massive chamber is lined by massive, floor-to-ceiling opaque crystal screens, and numerous control panels of brass and copper knobs, dials, and gauges. Two huge, identical magical objects stand at K7 and AF7. They seem to consist of a central granite column veined with arcane runes inscribed in some deep blue mineral, surrounded by billowing sheets of prismatic magical energy. Slumped against a control panel is a dead dwarf. She fought hard, and the floor around her is splattered with the foul secretions of the chained obyrith. The dwarf's gear includes: a sturdy adamantine and darkwood rod^M, and a set of traveler's clothes.
• Bunks and Washrooms. The sleeping chambers are reasonably spacious with plenty of cabinet and table space; this is no ordinary vessel, that much is for sure. Scattered throughout the bunks there are several dozen sets of various outfits, ranging from plain to extravagant, as well as 152 gp. The washrooms have spotless faucets, basins, showers, and toilets, but none are operable. In two of the bunks there are deceased humans, torn apart by—judging from the pale viscera on the floor—the foul and numerous gray obyriths. The bodies' gear includes: two sets of traveler's clothes, a rune-engraved sword^M, a plain darkwood band^M, and twelve trinket tokens in various shapes^M.
• Captain's Quarters. This is a large sleeping chamber with a beautiful four-poster bed and drawing desk. A shelf is stocked with practical mundane traveling and office gear. 100 gp and a smooth ring with inlaid gems^M can be found in the desk. There is a wax-sealed letter on the desk next to a quill and pot of ink.
• Storage. A room with fully stocked shelves. The party finds: thirty-four days of rations (dried fruit, aged sausages, hard cheese, honey cakes, and roasted nuts), four violins, two violas, two cellos, three harps (one of which detects as magic^M), twenty-six writing sets (inks, pens, papers, candles, wax, and stamps), two sets of masterwork alchemy tools, eight spell scrolls^M, twelve potions of various consistencies (one dark black and viscous, four light green and viscous, two oily and beige, three blue like the sea, and two pure black and sparkling like the night sky)^M, and six black velvet pouches containing strongly scented incenses.
• Workshop. A room with shelves stocked with tools and countless working tables with brass, glass, and copper contraptions for all sorts of arcane purposes. All Craft and Spellcraft skill checks made here are made with a +4 circumstance bonus.

Everything Myriad detects as magical is marked as ^M. In addition, each of our heroes gain 5,200 XP. In the aft bay, the arcane pedestal with the large book sits invitingly.

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Going room by room, Myriad mutters something about sanitation and uncharacteristically sets aside the loot into a pile while carefully carrying the bodies (and body parts) to the main room with the majority of the larger corpse they themselves were responsible for and setting them off to the side along with any soiled bedding, carpets, or other mostly worthless objects that can be gotten rid of easier than it could be properly cleaned. She, of course, stripped them of everything even remotely valuable-looking and everything with a hint of magic to dump in the 'loot pile' at the main entrance by the portal. Coming across what looks like the Captain's Quarters, Myriad's gleeful cackle resounds throughout the corridors as she calls out in a sing-song voice, "Calling dibs on this roooom!" Glancing at the sealed letter and considering the nice desk and how she should brush up on her forgery at some point, she leaves it for now in the face of clean-up procedures. Now going about her business with a spring in her step, she continues her ghoulish self-imposed task. Leaving the things in the storage room where they were stored, she saw no reason to drag the mundane contents out, so left anything non-magical where it lay. All the magical things needed identified (and labeled, hopefully), but mundane things that are obviously useful like writing and alchemy kits as well as food and instruments were worth storing over selling anyway in her mind.

Ducking in a room to find her companions, she calls out, "Hey Ux, can you help me shift the big ones, please? I need your dragony muscles for those!" Popping back in to wait for Ux, she sorts the mundane loot from the magical loot into separate piles. The arcane pedestal and soul orb doohicky, of course, she leaves untouched where they lay.

[Metastachydium]

The nixie, for her part, is somewhat less enthusiastic. Not that Myriad isn't a much better looter than herself anyhow. She ambles, almost idly, if still a bit tense along for a while to get a good measure of the place, but soon enough, she trails off on her own and back into the theater to slouch herself, face down, on a sofa, letting her sword arm hang inert above the carpet.

After a while, she emits a low growl of pure, pathetic pain. Pilot, you here? she says into the upholstery. Now that lockdown's over she continues is there a chance that Evil Book of Evil will try to throw another party?

[chaincomplex]

Delja Utorak. There is a pause, then Pilot's disembodied voice comes clearly from some corner of the room (rather curiously, from one of the electrum runes which decorate the paneled walls): "In truth, I do not know why or how the Book of Vile Darkness summoned the intruders it did. As much as I... do not like Master Teru, there is no question that he possesses an inordinately sharp magical mind. If even he could not predict the current predicament of the Five Pebbles and himself, then there is no guarantee that I could give with any certainty."

[remetagross]

Ux considers the motley mountain of items currently gathered by Myriad and chuckles. He suggest half-jokingly and half-seriously:
"Selling this stuff would likely net enough cash to pay a True Resurrection for the whole crew."

That said, he doses himself with his wand of Enlarge Person once more, also known as the wand of Improved Moving Out. And he helps Myriad navigating the million boxes around them.

But he pauses after hearing what Pilot says.
"A Book of Vile Darkness ? That cannot be good. How and why did Master Teru get a hand on it ? Pilot, tell me he was trying to destroy it."

[chaincomplex]

Ux Utanar. Pilot responds strangely stiffly after a pause, again as a disembodied voice, "Master Teru was not trying to destroy the Book of Vile Darkness currently in the aft chamber. I am not privy to the details of how it was acquired, other than it was brought here... after being used to destroy the trade plane of Dymos."

[Metastachydium]

Figures. Delja mumbles as Pilot explains how even he doesn't have explanation for the breech event. The rest isn't exactly news to her. Didn't we already know most of that? I mean, with Dymos and the book. the nixie tells the upholstery of her couch. One of those logs with the dead folks said they've been dealing with these things. The stupid Evil books. With a miserable look on her face, she gets up. Sepaking of which, I'll go keep an eye on ours. From a distance. A very safe distance.

[remetagross]

Ux Utanar remembers Pilot telling them about some logs pertaining to Dymos. After having asked him to tell them the relevant log again:

"Ah, so there was a set of standard procedures to know in order to handle the Book of Vile Darkness properly. Pilot, do you happen to know them? And in addition to that, maybe Master Teru has stored somewhere the results of his investigations about how exactly that plane got blown up? And..."

Ux Utanar is wondering if they have been too careless. He looks at his comrades with a concerned look.

"Delja, Myriad, that book was able to pull off two Wishes to soul trap Master Teru and get these obyriths on board. Who's to say it does not have another pair of Wishes in store to simply repeat just that?" I think I'm having an idea. I'm going to stuff that thing into my haversack. That should prevent it from summoning whatever creatures it can into our current demiplane. Or, it'll hoepfully cost it yet another Wish."

The dragonborn proceeds to setting his backpack on the ground and checking the amount of space remaining inside it. He also takes out a length of rope.
"I'm going to tie that around the book to move it without touching in directly."

[Metastachydium]

Ux. For the love of your god. Delja hisses in mild exasperation, slipping a slender arm under the knight's in a symbolic effort to impede his work. Stop doing that. Do you really need to try and muck about with every crrepy magic thing we find?

Spoiler: OOC

Show

First the portal sphere (that zapped him!), then the controls in the theatre and now the Book of Vile Darkness. Poor lil' Delja.

[chaincomplex]

Ux Utanar. "Assessing..." says Pilot. After a pause, they continue, "The crew never let me take part in their ventures save as a helpless observer. However, I remember three prior encounters with the Books of Vile Darkness. Typically, the crew secure the Books in the aft bay after... obtaining them, quarantining the artifacts with prismatic barriers when doing so, then upon returning to port, Master Teru boards and takes custody of said Books.

"He does not store research logs. He rarely boards this ship except to talk to the crew, to maintain its magic, or to debrief after a voyage. I have... never seen Master Teru have trouble with the Books previously."

────────────────────────────────

Up until now, the large book upon the pedestal had been resting like any ordinary object—immobile, unchanging, a tome whose features are as unremarkable as any other, save for its size. Yet as the dragonborn moves a rope into proximity with the tome, the tome itself begins to shift. Words dance across its pages, flitting from side to side like little ants. The binding and covers shift hues, and Ux could swear—though it always seems to happen as he blinks—that the tome changes size and shape. Whispers assail Ux's ears, nonsensical, garbled voices. They are not inviting him, nor are they compelling him to leave. They simply speak, and in doing so, Ux feels a weariness begin crawling into his heart.

Ux should try a Use Rope check. This may be a difficult one; as the rope touches the book, there is a very loud, very physical hiss, and the rope comes away with scorch marks as though it had been burned. At the same time, there is an inherent difficulty in finessing a rope around something as awkward as a big book.

[Geeksthenewsexy]

"Um...maybe we should save that til last.?" Myriad eyes the book and Ux's burned rope hesitently. "I mean...I'll try to stow it safely if we really need to. But uh...only if we need to. And I would rather recover from that fight beforehand, if possible..."

[Metastachydium]

Thank you! Delja nods at Myriad pointedly, ignoring just how disturbing the changeling acting like the voice of reason feels as she gives Ux Utanar's arm another, equally pointed, if practically pointless tug.

[remetagross]

Ux Utanar recoils from the attempt.
"Alright, alright. There's nothing to be done here."
He stores his burnt rope back and keeps moving away from the tome till the otherwordly whispers cease.

"Promise you, Delja, that was the last time I'm messing around with an unknown item like that.". The humour of the situation is not entirely lost to him either.

The dragonborn proceeds to pace around, pondering.
"So, have we settled on a course of action in the end? Maybe find the locker room full of Books of Vile Darkness in Master Teru's abode in Sigil?"

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Considering even as she goes back to sorting loot, Myriad calls out, "Hey Pilot, is the um...entry point to the Pebbles calmed down now that lockdown is lifted? I don't wanna leave it lying around in the dead guy's office and planned to take it with us as we run errands for security and safety reasons. Can it be stored in a nondimensional space without issue?" She gestures at her Handy Haversack as the obvious nondimensional space in question. "And are there keys or a password or anything so my friends can come and go without me yanking them through the tricksy way?"

[Metastachydium]

Good and agreed. Delja nods, unhanding the dragonborn, before shifting her focus over to the other ongoing conversation. If we can't just smuggle the thing out of the Sensational Messhall, I'd really rather see it stay in a state only Druce here can properly use it. she joins Myriad. The Sensates sound like a nosy lot.

[chaincomplex]

Myriad. Pilot responds, "I am not clear on how you entered to begin with, as the password was not spoken. I am not permitted to share the password and there are no keys either within the Five Pebbles or near its anchoring point in the Civic Festhall. I understand Sunsdóttir was granted Master Teru's key, but I cannot sense its location. My former masters among the efreet lords would also have a portal key. As quarantine has been lifted, there should no longer be any barrier or inconvenience to regular travel through the portal. I can close it from this side to prevent others from entering, but then you would need the password to reactivate it. The keys are more powerful magic items which will create an instantaneous gate to this vessel from wherever you may be... with a few exceptions.

"The main hall portal itself cannot be transported, and presently I cannot move it as I am still carrying out Master Teru's final instructions."