Pizazz's Beyond Annihilation

Zendrak levels an icy gaze at Mal, and then a slight smirk appears on his lips, "I believe the saying, 'over my dead body' is an apt one for this situation. I do not require your trust. And you will not touch my bones." 

Kurik sighed...  "I know ghosts are usually bound to a thing or place and don't go far from it.  Like the guy with weather device was stuck to either his house... or his work but he was stuck there.  The Kobold ghost was stuck around there.  I bet this guys is connected to the bones, which would mean they would have to be near by so I'd guess in Badger's bag..."

You might not need our trust, but do you need us to be your enemies? Because without some level of trust you can bet your sweet big boy britches that we will fight to get Badger back sooner rather than later. Kari grins in a confident and menacing way and moves her glaive to more of a ready stance. And we can fight... VERY... hard!

(If needed, Intimidation: 19 )

Zendrak frowns at Kurik's comment, but then glances towards Kari, the muscles in his jaw clenching. "How troublesome. You're liable to raise the guard, get us all kicked out of here, and then what? Very well. I shall...deal with you."  There's a moment silence when his statement seems to have two possible meanings....and then he adds, "What is your quest? When you have completed your quest, I will surrender this body, if I do not before. Now will you calm yourselves and focus on the task at hand? Or shall we have it out here? Good luck fighting me without hurting your friend by the way." 

Mal rests her hand on her crossbow, "Threatening harm on my "friend" is not as much of a threat as you might think. Also you would not be just battling us, but the entire prison, and I am confident they have the means of dealing easily with one that uses magic. You work with us and we will work with you, that is all that I am asking, however one of us three must be the ones that are holding onto your bones for safe keeping. As currently there is no reason we should trust you at all."

(OOC: After saying that I am thinking of having Mal do one other thing before it progresses farther but taking it to OOC chat before posting as I wan the groups opinion.)

Zendrak's face looks icy and calm as he responds, "If you believe holding onto my bones is the only option forward to avoid conflict, then best we proceed with combat. It will be a shame to murder all of these innocent guards for the price of your trust."   He takes a subtle step back with one foot, bending his knees and turning sideways in an obviously comfortable fighting position of a seasoned warrior.  He holds both his hands out to one side as if gripping a two handed blade....and indeed, a moment later, a shimmering massive two handed blade appears in his hands.  The weapon is huge, but also the blade seems somehow impossibly thin. As he rotates it slightly while adjusting his stance, the bright, shiny blade seems to hum with energy. In the grip of this...half-gnome person, it looks humorously large, but he seems to have no issues holding it.

The sound of a horn seems to issue through the background. Your first thought is that the sudden show of arms must have somehow set off some alarms, but as the sound issues once more, you realize its on the seaward side, and outside the prison. It must be warning of the arrival of a ship. 

Mordekai looks on, confused, wondering at this escalation. The group seem to have prior business with Zendrak, or at least his bones, but they had seemed to be coming to an agreement. 

"Look, we have a task to fulfil, Zendrak has a task to fulfil. I can't quite work out whether they're the same or different tasks, but if Zendrak will return the mind of the owner to full control of the body once those tasks are accomplished, does it not benefit us to have a more powerful being in control of the body in the meantime? And if we're going to have a fight to get the right mind back in the body, it's still going to be the same fight whether that's now or later. Why not give the benefit of the doubt for now and fight later if we need to?"

"Besides, it looks like our quest is coming back to us. Do we not need to find out if that's the same ship that recently left here? Perhaps that would be a more time-sensitive matter."

Mal having just about pushed herself up to go talk to the guards, sits back down and then stares at Zendrak/Badger for several moments, thinking. "Mordekai has a point, I guess we have a deal."

Then she will get up and move past Zendrak/Badger, looking for a guard, "I thought there were no ships incoming for several days, what is going on?"

Mal heads down the hallway and finds a guard sitting at the table.  He glances up at her with impassive, uncaring eyes, and shrugs. It's obvious he couldn't care less about ship schedules. Another man, in a white smock, scraping some left overs off of plates glances over at the question. "Yeah...think you're right about that, the next ship comin in wasn't due for a couple days. Hunh...how bout that, wonder who it is. Maybe some new surprise prisoners for us." 

With the abrupt departure of Mal, Zendrak's eyes slide across the rest of the party members and then he seems to relax. He stands up straight, releasing the blade which vanishes with a shimmer. He then makes to follow Mal. He has his bag on his back and watches everyone alertly. 

It's only a few minutes of waiting before you can hear the banging of doors and the clomp of hard shoes coming down hallways.  A guard opens a door, and another enters the mess hall, followed by a woman. She seems to be in her late 40's, perhaps 50's, with snow white hair. She has an imperious look on her face, is wearing fine winter clothing which she is still peeling away from her hands and neck. A dimly glowing orb floats behind her at shoulder height. She stops abruptly and glances up at the group. Two guards push in from behind her.  "Just other folk staying the night. You'll have to take a different room this time miss."  

Her eyes glances at the group members and clearly seems less than pleased with the guards dismissive description of the group, "Right. Who are all you then?" 

Just what everyone needed, another bossy self important figure confronting the group.

Mal pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs as she looks down to the ground thinking, I should just find the giants and hand over the ring and be done with this. Sighing, No that would not be the right thing to do dang it. I guess I will have to deal with another overbearing person.....

"We are a group of adventurers that are out here in this cold hell looking for Netherese cities to eradicate now I guess, what is it to you, and more importantly, who are you?" Mal says with annoyance.

The woman raises an eyebrow, "Eradicate Netherese cities? Why would you possibly want to do that? They are full of untold knowledge. How is it that you've come to this prison....to find Netherese cities? Is there one around here you know about?  My name is Vellynne Harpell, of the Arcane Brotherhood." 

The guards look instantly bored of the exchange, but seemingly are required to escort the lot of you, so head over to the door to get some food while they wait, leaving you and the woman relatively alone for your conversation.  But, before you can continue, the sphere over her shoulder issues forth a voice, "The eradication of Netherese cities? What a preposterous concept. I can tell you without a doubt that such a plot is doomed to failure, but also, to what purpose? Are you then the force of entropy for the universe? Do you wish everything to be dust?" 

The woman looks back at the orb, "Shut up professor."

Kurik's eyes flick over to the orb...  More spirits, he thought as he looked at the item.  

"My friend is over exaggerating.  The goal is to find an end to the Neverending winter.  The Netherese may have had the power to such.  Of we find one of their cities we may find a way to utilize such to return some normalcy to the region," Kurik says.

Vellynne's face relaxes, "Oh. I understand. Well, the never ending winter is caused by a goddess, not by an ancient Netheril city. The ship that just arrived knows exactly where the goddess' home is. If you seek to end the winter, best go book passage now. I suppose it's possible you might find some ancient magic in the Netheril city to counter her magic as well. Who are you, and what are your skills. If I am satisfied I may be willing to take you to a place where you can learn of such a cities location."

Mordekai watches the interaction, hiding his mild confusion.  He's sure this woman meets the description the group told the guards they were looking for the moment they got here, but since they seem to be hiding their own recognition of her, and Mordekai doesn't actually know why they were looking for her, he follows the group's lead and lets others do the talking.

 Kari speaks up. Oh, you know, just your general mix of adventurers. We can hold our own in a fight, I would say ask the ice trolls we encountered a while back but they can't do any vouching for anyone anymore. If you know what I mean. She chuckles a bit, trying to relieve the tension. Say, is that a spirit on your shoulder? I used to have a friend that would ride around on me like that. We were good buddies. She looks a bit sad then, as she remembers the little chwinga.

Vellynne looks back at the floating orb in a dismissive manner, "More of annoying flying talking book. Very well. You kill trolls. You'll do. If you want to find an ancient Netherese city, I'll take you to one tomorrow. I hope you have mounts. For the moment I'm rather tired though. Good night, I'll see you all tomorrow."  Looking genuinely weary, she heads towards a room down the hallway, shown to an empty one by a random prison guard.

Mal looks around confused, "What just happened? Wasn't the sorcerer we were looking for have an owl familiar, not some ball of light? Or am I getting my magic users confused, things are getting rather confusing around here, especially when ghosts start invading bodies and taking them over."

She shakes her head to clear it, "Well I guess I will retire for the night and things will be more clear, or as clear as they can be in the morning."

(Things have been moving rather slow with this one, and I think some people may have lost the thread so I'm going to fast forward a bit here and do some summarizing, so we're all on the same page.) 

The trip from the Revel's End had taken three days of tough winter travel that has left everyone, even those of you used to cold weather, feeling exhausted. The journey led directly towards what at first was a thin strip across the entire horizon from as far as you could see to the left and right. But as you traversed the frozen wastes that strip grew and grew until its mind numbing size was indisputable. Lifting up for almost 800 feet, a wall of sheer ice stretches across the horizon. The wind that has been assaulting you has felt like an enemy trying to keep you at bay for the entire time. The icy blasting wind seems to flow off the top of the glacier and sweep westward. It left everyone caked with ice and snow on the front sides of their bodies, while their back halves were relatively clear.  The giant chickens....the Axebeaks...clearly hated you all. They trudged on through the wasteland continually wanting to turn away and travel anywhere but directly at that icy air, but onward you pressed, knowing your quest. Or...perhaps having a good idea at your quest. Well...lets be clear, you're sure exactly this is the right thing to be doing at all, but come hell or ....a wall of icy high water...you're going.  Known to everyone but Mordekai, the elementary and evil ring on Mal's finger clearly must be destroyed...and the hint at the black cabin had been found by Badger, pre-possession and transformation. An ancient Netheril tome spoke of a powerful artifact within the ruins of some ancient magical city that could divide magical power from any item. An anvil and hammer of some sort, it was the reason you pressed on. The way to the city was barred to you, but somehow this woman, this mage from the Arcane Brotherhood seemed to know the way. Or actually, her glowing floating blathering ball seemed to know the way. Riding on top of a semi-transparent ghostly undead horse, the wizard was leading all of you. You occasionally spotted signs of her snowy owl, but this cold wind was too much for most normal animals and she kept her familiar away. Somewhere she had gathered this magical sphere that seemed to know the way as it led the inexorably onwards and towards the Reghed Glacier. 

The woman, Vellynne, was...cold. Perhaps you were conflating her with the weather, but she seemed to have little interest in discussion, explanation, or in fact interactions at all. It seemed clear you considered you all the "hired help", an escort for the trip. Keep her safe, and she'd lead you to the ancient Netheril city of Ythryn, and you could find payment there in the untold riches. Let her, or the sphere suffer, and they'd never find the city. The sphere knew the way, but she held some special knowledge that she said would "unlock the path". All other questions were deflected or ignored, even by the glacier cold Zendrak.

Zendrak had completed his "transformation", from short gnome wizard to human sized, tall, lithe dark haired warrior. He assured you that underneath everything, Badger was safe and sound, and to hear him speak, he had as much desire to keep him so as any of you. Regardless, subtle attempts to find the gold covered bones within his pack proved fruitless. The spirit seemed to never sleep, but more, even when away from his gear, seemed to not be keeping them there. Looking at his body, you began to wonder if he'd somehow absorbed them into his body. It might have helped make up for some of the missing mass. Regardless, Zendrak seemed to offer no ill feeling towards anyone here, including the wizard. He seemed mostly....indifferent. Intensely so. He was waiting for his moment to slay a Netheril wizard it seemed.

The latest edition to the group meanwhile, Mordekai, seemed almost entirely relaxed, casual, polite and good natured. He seemed to take any slight or rebuff from Vellynne or Zendrak with ease and turn it into a smile. His own reasons for being here were cloudy, but he seemed happy to just be coming along looking for this ancient city. 

Three icy cold days of constant windward motion, three frigid nights trying to recover some level of warmth in this cold frozen hell. Near the end middle of the four day though something was going to have to change, as the sphere had led you all the way up to the face of the ice wall. Towering nearly 800 feet into the sky, it is not a uniform flat wall, but rather a jumbled jagged collection of broken ice heaped in a massive pile against the huge wall. The whole mess creaks and cracks with deeply ominous sounds that feel like the earth itself is growling....and the sounds echo through the earth. Even attempting to climb amongst the shards, which are as large as buildings, to reach the ice wall itself seems a daunting task.  Luckily however the sphere has led you up a path along a cliff that reaches through the hundreds of yards of jagged ice and directly up against a section of the ice wall. Though...what is meant to happen here is anyone's guess. 

Vellynne asks all of you to dismount. "Set your animals free. They will find their own way. From here, we travel by magic."  The feathered animals seem glad to be free of their riders and gear and all the weight. It takes little encouragement for the animals to run away as a pack, of into the tundra.  Then Vellynne weaves powerful magic, pulling at the very strings of magic, tying them down and tightening them into a weave of her own making. Then she releases the magic and you feel yourselves pulled from reality and into a shadowy other world. The ethereal border world, from which you can see only 30 feet of shadowy existence from reality before everything fades to a uniform grey. Vellynne leads on, walking directly into the ice wall and traversing through the very ice itself. 

The journey through the ice is....terrifying. If you were shift back into reality, you would be encased in an endless sea of solid ice. As it is, you wonder how long this spell will keep you here, for you walk through solid ice for what must be two hours. You're wondering, if four hours comes, if you'll have passed a moment of no-return. But, it does not take that long. You walk out of the ice wall and into open air, somewhere deep beneath the vast glacier. She leads you down along the wall until you find a ledge you can all stand on. And from there, she shifts you back into reality. 

And a ghostly vast cavern with a tilted ancient ruin greets your eyes. 

The professor orb speaks up, "The ancient and great lost city of Ythryn welcomes us." 

Mal looks around the ancient city then sighs, "If I have to attempt to kill another god damn lich in this place I am just going to scream, why do I agree to accompany friends and adventures to ancient cities, it NEVER ends well." then she sighs again and looks at the body that used to be Badger, "at least I was able to have some fun pushing you through a teleportation pillar." she then turns to the annoying lady they have been, escorting. "Excuse us a moment, I must talk to my companions," and then pulls Kari, Mordakai and Kurik a distance away. If Zendrak tries to join in, she will tell him no and to sit where he is, he is not invited to this conversation.

Once a distance away she will look at each again, "I guess it is time to explain what is going on in case you have not figured it out by now." Then she pulls off her iced covered glove to reveal a gold ice encrusted ring on her finger. "Meet the worst decision I have ever made, but a necessary one." As she plays with the ring among her fingers, "This little bit of evil started to take over one of my old companions by the name of Sickle, and unfortunately he started to attack us as we went up against that Lich in his dungeon, you all know that story, I assume. Well during that last battle I attempted to destroy this wretched thing by dumping it into lava, but all that did was turn the lava into cold stone, where that one," pointing to Badger/Zendrak, "decided to take a nose dive to gather it up and place it on his finger. Badger having that ring, in my opinion, was worse than Sickle having it. So I stole it from him and it has been wracking my dreams ever since. Months ago there was whisper of a way to destroy the ring but it was only up here in this cursed place that I could find a way to finally get rid of this thing and so here we are. Thankfully the ring is undetectable by any means, I think, otherwise we would be facing some kind of enemy at every turn. Seems most of the evil in this world would LOVE to be the owner. Thankfully I have been able to resists its temptations so far, I think, but there will come a time I will lose this battle. I am hoping to destroy it before that happens and before anything else gets their grubby little hands on it. Any questions before we venture into that hellish landscape of a city over there?"

Zendrak tries to join, but is sent away. The transformed tall male with dark hair and grey eyes stares at Mal placidly and then walks away. 

Mal has her chance to explain everything to the group.  The city before you is lit by a combination of green and blue ghostly magical lights that are set atop tall stands all throughout the city. The icy enclosure that has captured the city is spiked at its top. The whole city is sitting at an angle, but you haven't moved onto the lip of the city yet. You're standing on a part of ice that juts out from the edge of the cave and merges with the edge of the city.