In which our heroes ...
Orhan 2 Day 59 TE 6064
We talk to Sheridan. Apparently, Elena has never been really intrested in the world, but now she's studying it constantly. Yup, we broke her. She's especailly interested in world cultures and psychology in a way she is not interested in physical sciences or non-people lores.
Kyrik teaches her about Kieronalia. ...and the glory of vast magical power. Oh dear. Haeraan sweeps in with a more moral lecture.
Sadly, she's highly elf-o-centric and doesn't really believe in the value of mere human lives.
Haeraan tries the whole strong should protect the weak tact and starts getting through to her slowly.
Orhan 2 Day 61 TE 6064
We question Master Gitan about the black orchid. He says that it's not secret per se, but their headquarters in the swamp is a bit mysterious, and they can in fact "shoot you for trespassing." Imre doesn't want to actually set them off, so he doesn't want to poke them.
We investigate the bad guy, Kaliyo. Well, we find out his name.
Oathar heads down to the temple sitrict. Blinky shows up invisibly near him. He looks around and suddenly Elena shows up and walks towards Oathar. Blinky suddenly leaves Oathar and settles over Elena's shoulder. Elena and Blinky commune. They seem locked in mental rapport. Oathar tries to break it up. Elena ignores Oathar and Blinky turns to him and says, "I am bound to you for a whort while longer, but when I am done, I will leave you." Then Blinky fades away and Elena blinks. She heard a voice speaking to her, with a chorus of babbling and faint screams in the distant, and then a voice came to her and said, "I am for you."
Oathar goes home and rails against the gods and fate while informing the party of this development. Alynna (the seer) decides that the dark fate/cloak that always tarnishes our destinies has shifted over to Elena. We will be free of this burden soon. Elena's taking up the dark torch as it were. Elena didn't really shift her destiny much, but she effectively bought a large flaw and got some talent points and compensation for it.
Imre declare that there will be no more talk of empowering the chosen one. Nope, we're not going to do it. Alynna thinks it might be possible to reclaim the dark mantle if we make it attractive enough for Blinky to stay. Sigh.
We spent the whole night in drunken self-indulgent wallowing. Haeraan says, "Does every minute we spend her actually make things worse?" We drink, and drink and drink. We clean out Master Gitan's pantry and wine cellar. Kyrik teachs us how to perform holy rite of Kieron like Mead Pong.
Orhan 2 Day 62 TE 6064
The next morning, Kyrik and Master Gitan answer the door. It's a letter for Oathar.
It's a letter from the temple of Shaal. "Shaal has heard your prayers. Come to the temple if you wish to discuss matters."
Oathar goes down and is accompanied by Imre. They are met by the entire contingent of the temple. The high priest there greets them. The great god Shaal has heard our prayers and is willing to help me out in my time of need. He understands our situation and says he can insure that the entiry infesting us either stays with us or leaves without troubling any others as we desire, and will endeavor to have the church act as spiritual advisors to the acquaintance of our to prevent any future similar incidents from occuring. In exchange, Shaal would like to integrate Oathar into his reporting structure, so that he can properly keep Oathar abreast of developments.
Oathar sighs and checks with his minion sense, and finds that there are multiple signals coming down the line. They take Oathar out to sea in the deep and immerse him in the deep waters. They give him a new Holy Symbol of Shaal.. Now Oathar is concesrated in both the churches of Shaal and Neela, and should tithe to both.
He gets a brand new gold embossed copy of the Holy Book of Shaal, and several vials of Holy Water, and architectural plans. The book resonates with him more now than the last time he read it.
As a final benediction, the Shaal Holy Symbol gives Oathar a +10 Magical Ritual for Storm and Water Based magic.
Oathar goes back to Master Gitans house and announces that we can go back to empowering the chosen one. then he heads to his room and lets Imre explain to the others what happened.
Orhan 2 Day 62 TE 6064
Master Gitan has been in discussions with Ivanova. The White Orchid has pledged that if Elena comes to power they will do everything they can to make sure she'll supply us with troop for Armageddon.
While we're discussing strategy, Blinky shows up. He's a little loopy looking, like he's hung over or something. He's pretty confused looking. He says, "Ooooh. Sorry guys, I didn't want to hurt your feelings. Here, have a fate point!" Then, he poofs and dissapears. Oathar says, "Praise Shaal!"
Well, that's wacky. OK, time for thinking about the plot again.
Haeraan decides to dream about the weaknesses of the three-in-one black orchid guy. A dream for each of the three guys, "What are they afraid of?" The fourth dream is the first moves in the final combat between the chosen one and the champion of the black orchid.
The face: He's afraid of growing old and feeble.
The spiritt: phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space.
The power: Getting catapulted into the distance.
The combat: Mr. Burns is reaching towards teh buttons beneath his desk. One of the buttons says rlease the hounds, one says pit trap, one says summon smithers. The pit trap opens and the chosen one is standing over the pit not falling in the black inky opening beneath her, and Burns thinks that's awkward.
Orhan 2 Day 63 TE 6064
We suddenly recall the map to a cache of ultra-powerful magic items that we've been forgetting. It turns out we have a map from the thieves guild that we can follow into the mountains. So we follow the map.
We get some mountain ponies and start hiking into the mountains.
Orhan 2 Day 70 TE 6064
We arrive at a blue rock and some blue dirt inthe mountains that Kyrik found by making the best observation roll in the party. Haeraan notices some boot prints around. Then we discover a cavern entrance behind the stone. Hareann looks behind. A man comes out and emerges from the hole. He's got the black pearl in his hand. Yup, it's that dragon guy we killed. A horde of things boils up from teh cavern, but get sealed in.
After much pushing, we manage to get the rock slid aside, and we decend into the cursed depths. It appears to be quasi natural, but maintained. There's an arch opening with a glow coming from the room beyond. The portal seems to want to have sorcerers only pass through. Haeraan casts misfeel and sends his eye through.
Haeraan detects enemies. Oathar detects vast lootz. Imre detects illusions. Spoil sport.
We head in and start combat with the illusionary invisible undead creatures from beyond. Haeraan steps off the path into the coins illusion and starts fighting with the monster we can't see. The rest of us saty on the path.
Oathar casts Illusion sight and sees that there is acutally some loot amonst the many many illusions. There's about a half dozen actual items. Oh, and a giant skeletal snake. We fight! Haeraan beats up the snake.
The next room had three little pyramids. One (left) had a hollow indentation where the evil black pearl should be. On the center one has a black onxy spider about the size of a fist. On the right is a black bound book.
Oathar determines they were both created by the outcast mage. They book is the Black Book of Lore. It makes available the appropriate Evil Realm Lists for his realm. It also grants Dark Temptation flaw, and is empathic and self-defensive. It also turns into a familiar to pretoct itself.
The spider can turn into a giant spider. It can also become incredibly small and turn into an assassin spider to get your chosen target. It can also be used as a helm. +25 DB and negates 50% crits, x3 PPM for all. Influences the weilder to evil.
At this point we hear the giant armies of darkness rising up from the depths. So we grab the dark book in a sack, grab some loot and flee! A horde of skeletal things starts pouring out of the back wall.
Oathar grabs 200 gold, Kyrik gets some magic weapons.
We run!