"Careful... you're literally planning to attack a god. I'm pretty sure that divine non-interference rules are not so extensive that they must stand around and do nothing when they are physically attacked by scaly red idiots. Also... Azash literally tried to murder us himself before other gods were forced to enforce the laws of divine non-intervention, so you really shouldn't go around accusing others of cheating unless you want to take a very uncomfortable look at your side."
Akkron proceeds to cast lightning bolt from his staff of power at the Red Dragon. DC 24 Dex save or it takes 38 lightning damage (half-damage on success)
Under the vicious attack, the Red's eyes open wide in surprise as the death lace pierces and the dragon slowly slumps to the ground, muttering "No, they said we would be Gods once more, this can't be..."
You hear chuckling from Khwaj, and a slit in reality opens, and the Troll Gods step through. He motions for the others to drag the carcasses of the dead dragons. "Food for children," then he looks at the group. "You fight well for humans, I see why those two scared of you. Bhklow say we are to set in our ways, hold on to the past too much. You proved us wrong. You showed us we were being lied to, those two were going to use us and our children to fight you, and what we saw, we would have lost our children, and we would die."
He hangs his head as he thinks as Gnomb and Ghworg drag the bodies of the dead dragons through the opening in time and space. Khwaj then does a quick nod then looks at you all.
"We will honor the pact, and stay on our lands, not serve those two dark beings." Then he smiles, "Now that we have seen how some of your fight, perhaps we fight on your side? Will they have great beasts for us to fight? You have said you have already beaten them before, a good leader follows those who win. We can fight for you if you want, I will tell my children who they can fight, who is meat to hunt, when the time comes. What do you say?"
Khessa comes near Khway, smiles and patting him on the shoulder (she casts Fly, if she has to, to accomplish this): "You are welcome to join our side! It seems that you will have plenty of dragons to hunt, if many other scalo fools listened to the false promises of the Nefarious Duo..."
"But I, on the contrary, do not want to lie, so be warned: it will not be a walk in the park" the blue eyes of the blonde arcane warrior meet them of the troll god. "There will be danger. There will be pain. There will be death. The Nefarious Duo will not go down without a hard fight".
"However, " the tall adventuress concludes "your offer to fight at our side honors us. And if do this, then you'll show the other nations that you can be a reliable and precious ally. And some things you now don't like will probably change for the better after this".
Khessa comes near Khway, smiles and patting him on the shoulder (she casts Fly, if she has to, to accomplish this): "You are welcome to join our side! It seems that you will have plenty of dragons to hunt, if many other scalo fools listened to the false promises of the Nefarious Duo..."
"But I, on the contrary, do not want to lie, so be warned: it will not be a walk in the park" the blue eyes of the blonde arcane warrior meet them of the troll god. "There will be danger. There will be pain. There will be death. The Nefarious Duo will not go down without a hard fight".
"However, " the tall adventuress concludes "your offer to fight at our side honors us. And if do this, then you'll show the other nations that you can be a reliable and precious ally. And some things you now don't like will probably change for the better after this".
Khwaj gives a deep laugh. "That's what Trolls like, an enemy that is tough. We want to hunt in the land of danger, we Trolls know pain, and death; and how to face it. If you say there be more dragons, more of these enemies for our children to hunt and eat, then we will fight for you. They lied to us, and that broke their word and pact. We will honor ours, and when you call, we will fight." He nods to Flute, and the Troll Gods enter the rift. Khwaj stops and speaks with Bhklow who nods in return, before the Chief God enters the rift, and it closes behind.
Bhklow turns to the group. "It is done. Trolls will fight if called upon with us. Until then, they will stay in their land, and hunt anyone who supports the dark two."
Flute let's out a squeal of happiness and prances around. "I knew you would do it, I just knew it! They had no idea who they were messing with, and we really tweaked their noses this time! Oh, to see the expressions on their faces!! So what now grand champions?"
Khessa removes the invisible barrier she had protected Flute with as a precaution and lifts her in her arms between one prance and the other, no less joyful than the child: "Yes! This was really a hard blow to the Nefarious Duo!"
The blonde arcane warrior turns to her companions: "When we were meditating on the next moves, if I remember correctly, we had hypothesized to go against the dragons, since perhaps against them, against single enemies very strong but not very numerous, we could more easily make the difference. Is this still our plan?"
Vrox thought that the party was still following Lord Sparhawk's suggestion to visit various factions in order to shore up support for our side. He says, "We saw Queen Ehlana in Elania and dealt with the threat in the Veldos. We spoke with the Elves in Eldamar and have now successfully negotiated with the troll gods and won their support. We still have not met with the Council of Wizards nor with the Dwarves in Gurn Borim."
But Vrox didn't come up with that plan. He gives an unconcerned shrug and says, "But if you grow impatient to fight more dragons, we could go dragon hunting first."
"Oh, yes, Vrox, silly me" Khessa laughs, patting the fey on the shoulder. "Still factions to check! You're right. Better to get the whole picture, before deciding".
"So? Wich one we prefer?" the blonde arcane warrior asks all "Wizards or Dwarves?".
Clarac votes to visit the dwarves. "The Council of Wizards is situated in my homeland. I cannot speak of what the Council may do or decide, but with my knightly order and other military powers defending Arcium, the forces of Evil will find no foothold there. I cannot guarantee the same about the dwarves." Clarac hopes what she is saying is true. It has only been a few days since she left Arcium to pursue this quest. How much could have changed in that time?
"Thanks for sharing, Clarac!" Khessa smiles "That seems like a good reason to prefer Dwarves as a first destination".
The blonde arcane warrior looks at the child-goddess with her blue eyes, still shining with joy for the recent important success: "Shall we bend the rules a little again, Flute, my dear?" she winks "Or this time we will travel with our own means?"
Flute gives her typical impish smile and nods, motioning for you all to mount up. Once everyone is on their mounts, she once more pulls out her pipes, and begins to play, and you drift into a what you feel like, is your dozing. When you become aware, you are in a valley before a range of great mountains. You have received the effects of a long rest, so any wounds are healed.
Before you are the great and majestic peaks of Gurn Borim, home of the Dwarves.
"Welcome to the home of the Ironkin Dwarves, the Voltans. Specifically, this tribe of the Dwarves call themselves the Deeprock Kindred, and their King is Ûthar the Destined. He is the one we will need to have an audience with and have a little chat."
You arrive at the gate to the fortress city (lower left on the map) where a squad of the guards stand watch. Typical for dwarves, they are short at about 4 feet tall, but yet appear to be physically stout wearing plate armor and armed with a dark bladed battle axe. Flute leads you up to the entrance where she speaks to the guard who looks at the group, nods, then sends a runner.
"Seems we have arrived at a celebration, and he is sending a running to get permission for us to enter."
"A celebration?! How lucky!" Khessa is glad that, for a change, the party finds a happy event, rather than trouble. "At least, that should mean things are good".
Your wait isn't long, and the guard motions you to follow. He leads you through the great outer doors and into a holding area where he brings you to where your horses can be stabled. Then he leads through another series of thick gates into the interior of the Dwarven hold. The chambers and corridors are well illuminated by glowing rock and crystals, torches or large lanterns. You pass various members of the Ironkin, craftsman whose hammers you can here, troops of warriors marching by, and regular citizens who look you over in curiorisity.
You can hear the celebration before you arrive at a great hall, loud laughter, singing and music being played. As you enter the great hall, you are amazed by the fine craftsmanship of how they carved it from the rock. Numerous long tables stretch along the length of the hall, filled with the Ironkin with their tankards and piles of food. At the head of the hall, you see what the leaders of the Dwarves must be. In the center, an older Dwarf, well grizzled from campaign but with knowledge behind his eyes.
Flute points them out, "The one in the center is Ûthar the Destined, the tough old warrior. To his right is Yôht Grendok , a strong up and comer so to say. On the left is Ynnôk Orkhunter, Kêynshot and Thûndryk are senior officers of the army. Shall we go and introduce ourselves?"
Flute leads you all right through the center of the hall and up to the front dais and before the king. He looks down over the lip of his tankard at Flute who is smiling up at him with her impish way and dimples, and he snorts, flaring out his great mustache.
"I must say it has been some time you have paid us a social call Miss Flute, though you may have forgotten about us?" Uthar said, then burped but smiled all the same. "Who are your friends and why are you here? Did you come to celebrate that our long-lost cousins are back, and old acquaintances are being rekindled? Who says diplomacy is dead, eh?
Flute shook her head, "No, we came to speak to you about a grave concern. What long-lost cousins?" Uthar points off to the side at a table where you notice a small group of Dwarves, but their skin is of a darker hue, almost black. Sitting with them, based on what you had heard from the Elves, are a few Drukhari dark Elves. She turns back to Uthar.
"Those are your long-lost cousins, Golgari Dwarves? Uthar shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, yes. We haven't heard from there for almost a thousand years, we don't know what happened but here they are, they came to us, seeking friendship. They made friends with those darker colored Elves who want to trade with us, even mention about opening an embassy here. That was suggested by that fellow right there."
Flute turned to see who Uthar was pointing to, and for the first time, you see Flute's face actually turn hard. Her smile leaves her, and her eyes get flinty. Sitting at the table with the dark dwarves and elves is a nearly perfect looking figure, Elven for the most part, but with all-knowing eyes and a smirk on his face. Flute actually gives a low growl.
"This can't be, he can't be released! He was imprisoned for his crimes; how can he be here?" She slowly turns to you all. "That is Khaine, a Chaos God of War we imprisoned after the last war for the crimes he committed against humanity and nearly destroying the world. He has escaped somehow! This is very bad!"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
[[OOC: Would the party recognize the name Khaine? It's not clear to me whether ancient gods who were imprisoned 1000 years ago are part of a mythic history of Eosia that everyone knows. I'll roll an INT check to see whether Vrox knows anything about Khaine. I assume that it would be History or maybe Religion, and Vrox has a +0 in both of those skills. If Khaine is considered a fiend, then Vrox has advantage on the skill check since fiends are one of his Favored Enemies.]]
"A god of War..." Khessa ponders "But it seems that in this case he is using not violence, but mind control or deception - to the detriment of Uthar and his people. If we simply attack him, the Voltans might defend him. We must first break his hold on them. The protection of the sacred statuette I bear, perhaps, might help. If I approach Uthar, he will come within range of the Protection From Evil And Good it emanates - and should be temporarily freed from the magical mental influences of fiends, such as Khaine I imagine is".
The blonde arcane warrior approaches the noble dwarf and cheerfully extends her hand: "Pleased to meet a friend of Flute! My name is Khessa, Khessa Cabbagefield! You must have been quite impressed, Uthar, by the 'fellow right there'... apparently, you don't even naturally call him by name - if you know his name at all - and yet you are readily and unsuspectingly considering his ideas... What has he done that is so incredible to impress you like this? Has he accomplished a heroic deed that has saved your people? Did you know that some ill-informed people say it takes a long time to gain the trust of a dwarf?"
[[ OOC: In the meantime, having approached, the tall adventuress should have included Uthar in the aura of the statuette's protection, as she had in mind to do... ]]
[[OOC: Would the party recognize the name Khaine? It's not clear to me whether ancient gods who were imprisoned 1000 years ago are part of a mythic history of Eosia that everyone knows. I'll roll an INT check to see whether Vrox knows anything about Khaine. I assume that it would be History or maybe Religion, and Vrox has a +0 in both of those skills. If Khaine is considered a fiend, then Vrox has advantage on the skill check since fiends are one of his Favored Enemies.]]
From what you recall, fro0m the ancient war between gods and men that nearly destroyed it. Along with Azash and Slaanesh, were other dark gods of chaos. One of those was a younger god, like Flute is considered one of the younger gods, and this would be Khaine. Khaine as he is worshipped by the Dark Elves is described as a god of murder. This suits the harsh society of Dark Elves, who view any sign of weakness as a fatal flaw. Holidays dedicated to Khaine, such as the Harvest of Souls and Death Night, invariably involve killing. Fueled by the social Darwinism of Dark Elf culture, devotees of Khaine elevate killing to an art form and will gladly kill anyone -- friend or foe -- who displays vulnerability.
He is primarily worshipped during times of war, as he is seen to be a bloodthirsty deity and worship of him during peacetime is not considered appropriate. Khaine had a strong influence during the formative period of the High Elven kingdom, as the first Phoenix King, Aenarion, drew Khaine's sword to save the High Elves during their first war. By drawing the sword, Aenarion became a living avatar of the god of war and brought down a great curse upon himself and his family.
"A god of War..." Khessa ponders "But it seems that in this case he is using not violence, but mind control or deception - to the detriment of Uthar and his people. If we simply attack him, the Voltans might defend him. We must first break his hold on them. The protection of the sacred statuette I bear, perhaps, might help. If I approach Uthar, he will come within range of the Protection From Evil And Good it emanates - and should be temporarily freed from the magical mental influences of fiends, such as Khaine I imagine is".
The blonde arcane warrior approaches the noble dwarf and cheerfully extends her hand: "Pleased to meet a friend of Flute! My name is Khessa, Khessa Cabbagefield! You must have been quite impressed, Uthar, by the 'fellow right there'... apparently, you don't even naturally call him by name - if you know his name at all - and yet you are readily and unsuspectingly considering his ideas... What has he done that is so incredible to impress you like this? Has he accomplished a heroic deed that has saved your people? Did you know that some ill-informed people say it takes a long time to gain the trust of a dwarf?"
[[ OOC: In the meantime, having approached, the tall adventuress should have included Uthar in the aura of the statuette's protection, as she had in mind to do... ]]
You notice he appears to be rather tipsy from drink, yet you do catch a purple aura flowing around him. As the power of the statuette envelops him, he seems to come around, like he just realizes he is sitting at the table and he stares down at his mug, then to either side of himself, then up at you."
"I must beg your pardon, it must be the ale, but who are you again? What were we discussing?"
Yôht Grendok also begins to shake his head, "Might have to lay off this special ale for a little, it has a rather powerful punch to it. What were we talking about? My head hurts for some reason?
The other officers at the head table, now within the shroud, seem to be rubbing their heads and moaning.
"Oh, everyone knows that the dwarf hale is the strongest in the world!" Khessa laughs, patting Uthar on the shoulder "No problem Uthar, I'll summarize everything right now: we are friends of Flute, who as you see is with us! My name is Khessa, Khessa Cabbagefield! We came to speak to you about a grave concern - you must know that the gods of chaos are trying to bring about the end of the world, the Immrama, no more and no less than they did that time long ago! So we must all be very careful of their influences..."
"For example," the blonde arcane warrior continues "Azash and Slaanesh have been working hard lately to amass followers and demons for the war and to sow chaos so as to meet less resistance. But maybe... Oh! Look!"
The tall adventuress's blue eyes fix on the 'fellow right there', pretending to see him only now and to be surprised, while her index finger raises to point at him: "There is Khaine here! The young Chaos God of War who was imprisoned after the last war precisely for the crimes he committed against humanity and nearly destroying the world! Well, he too, it would probably be worth watching out for, Uthar..."
Uthar follows to whom you point, "Oh yes, I do recall his name as Khaine. But nothing as grandiose as a god. He is the leader of the trade conglomerate with those Elves and our old cousins. He is the one hosting this party, brought all of this fine ale for us to drink."
"It all makes sense." Yoht says as he rubs his temples, "I didn't trust him, I warned you not to trust him. Something about him and his party was off. It didn't sit right with me, you are so wrapped up in this ancient lore of bringing our old houses together, you didn't see it right in front of your own eyes!"
"Watch your tonged boy! I am still your king." However, he does give a look over at the group of dark elves and dwarves.
"Is there something amiss?"
As you turn, Khaine is standing there like nothing is going on, a smirk on his face. Sparhawk is literally holding Flute by the shoulder as she is growling.
"Why hello cousin, so good to see you. It has been a long time hasn't it?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
[OOC: Tyekanik and Vrox would also attack the red dragon, but after Khessa's attacks, I'm not sure whether it's even worth rolling. 🙂
@aaggie - let me know if you need the specific attack and damage rolls, and I can post them later when I'm back to my laptop.]]
Red save: 9
Under the vicious attack, the Red's eyes open wide in surprise as the death lace pierces and the dragon slowly slumps to the ground, muttering "No, they said we would be Gods once more, this can't be..."
You hear chuckling from Khwaj, and a slit in reality opens, and the Troll Gods step through. He motions for the others to drag the carcasses of the dead dragons. "Food for children," then he looks at the group. "You fight well for humans, I see why those two scared of you. Bhklow say we are to set in our ways, hold on to the past too much. You proved us wrong. You showed us we were being lied to, those two were going to use us and our children to fight you, and what we saw, we would have lost our children, and we would die."
He hangs his head as he thinks as Gnomb and Ghworg drag the bodies of the dead dragons through the opening in time and space. Khwaj then does a quick nod then looks at you all.
"We will honor the pact, and stay on our lands, not serve those two dark beings." Then he smiles, "Now that we have seen how some of your fight, perhaps we fight on your side? Will they have great beasts for us to fight? You have said you have already beaten them before, a good leader follows those who win. We can fight for you if you want, I will tell my children who they can fight, who is meat to hunt, when the time comes. What do you say?"
He looks between Bhklow, Flute, and the Group
Khessa comes near Khway, smiles and patting him on the shoulder (she casts Fly, if she has to, to accomplish this): "You are welcome to join our side! It seems that you will have plenty of dragons to hunt, if many other scalo fools listened to the false promises of the Nefarious Duo..."
"But I, on the contrary, do not want to lie, so be warned: it will not be a walk in the park" the blue eyes of the blonde arcane warrior meet them of the troll god. "There will be danger. There will be pain. There will be death. The Nefarious Duo will not go down without a hard fight".
"However, " the tall adventuress concludes "your offer to fight at our side honors us. And if do this, then you'll show the other nations that you can be a reliable and precious ally. And some things you now don't like will probably change for the better after this".
Khwaj gives a deep laugh. "That's what Trolls like, an enemy that is tough. We want to hunt in the land of danger, we Trolls know pain, and death; and how to face it. If you say there be more dragons, more of these enemies for our children to hunt and eat, then we will fight for you. They lied to us, and that broke their word and pact. We will honor ours, and when you call, we will fight." He nods to Flute, and the Troll Gods enter the rift. Khwaj stops and speaks with Bhklow who nods in return, before the Chief God enters the rift, and it closes behind.
Bhklow turns to the group. "It is done. Trolls will fight if called upon with us. Until then, they will stay in their land, and hunt anyone who supports the dark two."
Flute let's out a squeal of happiness and prances around. "I knew you would do it, I just knew it! They had no idea who they were messing with, and we really tweaked their noses this time! Oh, to see the expressions on their faces!! So what now grand champions?"
Khessa removes the invisible barrier she had protected Flute with as a precaution and lifts her in her arms between one prance and the other, no less joyful than the child: "Yes! This was really a hard blow to the Nefarious Duo!"
The blonde arcane warrior turns to her companions: "When we were meditating on the next moves, if I remember correctly, we had hypothesized to go against the dragons, since perhaps against them, against single enemies very strong but not very numerous, we could more easily make the difference. Is this still our plan?"
Vrox thought that the party was still following Lord Sparhawk's suggestion to visit various factions in order to shore up support for our side. He says, "We saw Queen Ehlana in Elania and dealt with the threat in the Veldos. We spoke with the Elves in Eldamar and have now successfully negotiated with the troll gods and won their support. We still have not met with the Council of Wizards nor with the Dwarves in Gurn Borim."
But Vrox didn't come up with that plan. He gives an unconcerned shrug and says, "But if you grow impatient to fight more dragons, we could go dragon hunting first."
"Oh, yes, Vrox, silly me" Khessa laughs, patting the fey on the shoulder. "Still factions to check! You're right. Better to get the whole picture, before deciding".
"So? Wich one we prefer?" the blonde arcane warrior asks all "Wizards or Dwarves?".
Clarac votes to visit the dwarves. "The Council of Wizards is situated in my homeland. I cannot speak of what the Council may do or decide, but with my knightly order and other military powers defending Arcium, the forces of Evil will find no foothold there. I cannot guarantee the same about the dwarves." Clarac hopes what she is saying is true. It has only been a few days since she left Arcium to pursue this quest. How much could have changed in that time?
"Thanks for sharing, Clarac!" Khessa smiles "That seems like a good reason to prefer Dwarves as a first destination".
The blonde arcane warrior looks at the child-goddess with her blue eyes, still shining with joy for the recent important success: "Shall we bend the rules a little again, Flute, my dear?" she winks "Or this time we will travel with our own means?"
Flute gives her typical impish smile and nods, motioning for you all to mount up. Once everyone is on their mounts, she once more pulls out her pipes, and begins to play, and you drift into a what you feel like, is your dozing. When you become aware, you are in a valley before a range of great mountains. You have received the effects of a long rest, so any wounds are healed.
Before you are the great and majestic peaks of Gurn Borim, home of the Dwarves.
"Welcome to the home of the Ironkin Dwarves, the Voltans. Specifically, this tribe of the Dwarves call themselves the Deeprock Kindred, and their King is Ûthar the Destined. He is the one we will need to have an audience with and have a little chat."
You arrive at the gate to the fortress city (lower left on the map) where a squad of the guards stand watch. Typical for dwarves, they are short at about 4 feet tall, but yet appear to be physically stout wearing plate armor and armed with a dark bladed battle axe. Flute leads you up to the entrance where she speaks to the guard who looks at the group, nods, then sends a runner.
"Seems we have arrived at a celebration, and he is sending a running to get permission for us to enter."
"A celebration?! How lucky!" Khessa is glad that, for a change, the party finds a happy event, rather than trouble. "At least, that should mean things are good".
Your wait isn't long, and the guard motions you to follow. He leads you through the great outer doors and into a holding area where he brings you to where your horses can be stabled. Then he leads through another series of thick gates into the interior of the Dwarven hold. The chambers and corridors are well illuminated by glowing rock and crystals, torches or large lanterns. You pass various members of the Ironkin, craftsman whose hammers you can here, troops of warriors marching by, and regular citizens who look you over in curiorisity.
You can hear the celebration before you arrive at a great hall, loud laughter, singing and music being played. As you enter the great hall, you are amazed by the fine craftsmanship of how they carved it from the rock. Numerous long tables stretch along the length of the hall, filled with the Ironkin with their tankards and piles of food. At the head of the hall, you see what the leaders of the Dwarves must be. In the center, an older Dwarf, well grizzled from campaign but with knowledge behind his eyes.
Flute points them out, "The one in the center is Ûthar the Destined, the tough old warrior. To his right is Yôht Grendok , a strong up and comer so to say. On the left is Ynnôk Orkhunter, Kêynshot and Thûndryk are senior officers of the army. Shall we go and introduce ourselves?"
Flute leads you all right through the center of the hall and up to the front dais and before the king. He looks down over the lip of his tankard at Flute who is smiling up at him with her impish way and dimples, and he snorts, flaring out his great mustache.
"I must say it has been some time you have paid us a social call Miss Flute, though you may have forgotten about us?" Uthar said, then burped but smiled all the same. "Who are your friends and why are you here? Did you come to celebrate that our long-lost cousins are back, and old acquaintances are being rekindled? Who says diplomacy is dead, eh?
Flute shook her head, "No, we came to speak to you about a grave concern. What long-lost cousins?" Uthar points off to the side at a table where you notice a small group of Dwarves, but their skin is of a darker hue, almost black. Sitting with them, based on what you had heard from the Elves, are a few Drukhari dark Elves. She turns back to Uthar.
"Those are your long-lost cousins, Golgari Dwarves? Uthar shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, yes. We haven't heard from there for almost a thousand years, we don't know what happened but here they are, they came to us, seeking friendship. They made friends with those darker colored Elves who want to trade with us, even mention about opening an embassy here. That was suggested by that fellow right there."
Flute turned to see who Uthar was pointing to, and for the first time, you see Flute's face actually turn hard. Her smile leaves her, and her eyes get flinty. Sitting at the table with the dark dwarves and elves is a nearly perfect looking figure, Elven for the most part, but with all-knowing eyes and a smirk on his face. Flute actually gives a low growl.
"This can't be, he can't be released! He was imprisoned for his crimes; how can he be here?" She slowly turns to you all. "That is Khaine, a Chaos God of War we imprisoned after the last war for the crimes he committed against humanity and nearly destroying the world. He has escaped somehow! This is very bad!"
[[OOC: Would the party recognize the name Khaine? It's not clear to me whether ancient gods who were imprisoned 1000 years ago are part of a mythic history of Eosia that everyone knows. I'll roll an INT check to see whether Vrox knows anything about Khaine. I assume that it would be History or maybe Religion, and Vrox has a +0 in both of those skills. If Khaine is considered a fiend, then Vrox has advantage on the skill check since fiends are one of his Favored Enemies.]]
Vrox - History/Religion: 13 (or, if he has advantage, 13)
"A god of War..." Khessa ponders "But it seems that in this case he is using not violence, but mind control or deception - to the detriment of Uthar and his people. If we simply attack him, the Voltans might defend him. We must first break his hold on them. The protection of the sacred statuette I bear, perhaps, might help. If I approach Uthar, he will come within range of the Protection From Evil And Good it emanates - and should be temporarily freed from the magical mental influences of fiends, such as Khaine I imagine is".
The blonde arcane warrior approaches the noble dwarf and cheerfully extends her hand: "Pleased to meet a friend of Flute! My name is Khessa, Khessa Cabbagefield! You must have been quite impressed, Uthar, by the 'fellow right there'... apparently, you don't even naturally call him by name - if you know his name at all - and yet you are readily and unsuspectingly considering his ideas... What has he done that is so incredible to impress you like this? Has he accomplished a heroic deed that has saved your people? Did you know that some ill-informed people say it takes a long time to gain the trust of a dwarf?"
[[ OOC: In the meantime, having approached, the tall adventuress should have included Uthar in the aura of the statuette's protection, as she had in mind to do... ]]
From what you recall, fro0m the ancient war between gods and men that nearly destroyed it. Along with Azash and Slaanesh, were other dark gods of chaos. One of those was a younger god, like Flute is considered one of the younger gods, and this would be Khaine. Khaine as he is worshipped by the Dark Elves is described as a god of murder. This suits the harsh society of Dark Elves, who view any sign of weakness as a fatal flaw. Holidays dedicated to Khaine, such as the Harvest of Souls and Death Night, invariably involve killing. Fueled by the social Darwinism of Dark Elf culture, devotees of Khaine elevate killing to an art form and will gladly kill anyone -- friend or foe -- who displays vulnerability.
He is primarily worshipped during times of war, as he is seen to be a bloodthirsty deity and worship of him during peacetime is not considered appropriate. Khaine had a strong influence during the formative period of the High Elven kingdom, as the first Phoenix King, Aenarion, drew Khaine's sword to save the High Elves during their first war. By drawing the sword, Aenarion became a living avatar of the god of war and brought down a great curse upon himself and his family.
You notice he appears to be rather tipsy from drink, yet you do catch a purple aura flowing around him. As the power of the statuette envelops him, he seems to come around, like he just realizes he is sitting at the table and he stares down at his mug, then to either side of himself, then up at you."
"I must beg your pardon, it must be the ale, but who are you again? What were we discussing?"
Yôht Grendok also begins to shake his head, "Might have to lay off this special ale for a little, it has a rather powerful punch to it. What were we talking about? My head hurts for some reason?
The other officers at the head table, now within the shroud, seem to be rubbing their heads and moaning.
"Oh, everyone knows that the dwarf hale is the strongest in the world!" Khessa laughs, patting Uthar on the shoulder "No problem Uthar, I'll summarize everything right now: we are friends of Flute, who as you see is with us! My name is Khessa, Khessa Cabbagefield! We came to speak to you about a grave concern - you must know that the gods of chaos are trying to bring about the end of the world, the Immrama, no more and no less than they did that time long ago! So we must all be very careful of their influences..."
"For example," the blonde arcane warrior continues "Azash and Slaanesh have been working hard lately to amass followers and demons for the war and to sow chaos so as to meet less resistance. But maybe... Oh! Look!"
The tall adventuress's blue eyes fix on the 'fellow right there', pretending to see him only now and to be surprised, while her index finger raises to point at him: "There is Khaine here! The young Chaos God of War who was imprisoned after the last war precisely for the crimes he committed against humanity and nearly destroying the world! Well, he too, it would probably be worth watching out for, Uthar..."
Uthar follows to whom you point, "Oh yes, I do recall his name as Khaine. But nothing as grandiose as a god. He is the leader of the trade conglomerate with those Elves and our old cousins. He is the one hosting this party, brought all of this fine ale for us to drink."
"It all makes sense." Yoht says as he rubs his temples, "I didn't trust him, I warned you not to trust him. Something about him and his party was off. It didn't sit right with me, you are so wrapped up in this ancient lore of bringing our old houses together, you didn't see it right in front of your own eyes!"
"Watch your tonged boy! I am still your king." However, he does give a look over at the group of dark elves and dwarves.
"Is there something amiss?"
As you turn, Khaine is standing there like nothing is going on, a smirk on his face. Sparhawk is literally holding Flute by the shoulder as she is growling.
"Why hello cousin, so good to see you. It has been a long time hasn't it?"