”Maybe…”. Taxidea shrugs. “It was all kind of chaos…”
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"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
(Prim is resting until she's able to recover 4 spell levels and memorize Animate Dead. She expects a team from the FDF will come to clean up while they're waiting and she'll ask if they want the Wyvern Wranglers to retrieve the Orb. Then she'll animate 6 skeletons to pick up the rest of the remains, and march them off somewhere to beat into shards)
Taxidea will make sure Thor is OK and rest (long rest if possible to regain spell slots)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Okay. A couple peaceful days go by during which you can rest, recuperate, and study. On the third day, you receive a summons from Sargeant Sloan to meet him at the FDF HQ to discuss a very important mission.
(assuming that the Wyvern Wranglers or the FDF beat the skeletons to shards, and she could make more the next day, she should have plenty of shards of animated skeleton bones for spell research)
Prim will try learning Primrose Shards of Bone and Find Familiar during the downtime, and take care of Beauty as needed. -110 GP.
When you all gather at the HQ, Sloan tells you, "We have a very important mission for you three. Since you are already familiar with the Goblin Orbs, we want you to attempt to either retrieve or destroy the Master Goblin Orb. Although the other orbs can act as arcane foci for teleportation and scrying spells, none of the ones we have recovered so far seem capable of crossing dimensional barriers. It is rumored that the Dark Lord has access to an orb which can penetrate dimensional barriers, specifically the barrier between the Material Plane and the Outer Plane of Acheron, where the demon lord Maglubiyet, god of the goblinoids, has his fortress. Apparently, this is where the Goblinoid Army came from. If you can retrieve the Master Orb, we can send our own army through the dimensional rift and put an end to Maglubiyet's forces once and for all. At the very least, we can find a way to destroy the Master Orb and prevent any more goblinoids from invading Niersala. Are you three up to the task?"
"With support, yes. The air support from Kren and the communication from those wristbands made the difference between a successful mission and at best a pyrric victory where I use my last Fireball to destroy the Orb and ourselves.
If the Dark Lord isn't a spellcaster, I'm guessing he employs better casters than the Gobs, That spices things up a few notches. Any advice on how to pull this off and get back alive?"
Orion is skeptical. "Do you know where the Dark Lord is currently, and where he might "have access" to the Master Orb? Can we use the orbs that we have to transport ourselves to the Master Orb?" Orion is full of questions.
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"Well," Sloan begins, leaning back in his chair, "Gregory Darek, otherwise known as the Dark Lord, is a former geneticist turned rogue. He has some arcane abilities himself, but his strength lies in the monsters he has created. He controls squadrons of black akreni (aarokocra), tribes of intelligent grilleni (large gorillas), and legions of scaley isseni (lizardfolk) not to mention the pigeni (orcs) and now gobleni (goblinoids). Lately, he has taken to summoning demons and devils as well, as evidenced by the appearances of Yeenoghu and Maglubiyet here in Niersala. The brown akreni have offered to assist the FDF in our war against the gobleni and may be able to provide you with air transport to the Dark Realm, current residence of the Dark Lord. It is possible for the FDF to teleport you into the Dark Lord's fortress in the heart of an extinct volcano using a goblin orb we know is there, but that is very risky. We are not sure exactly where the orb is, and you may end up in the Dark Lord's audience chamber, laboratory, or somewhere else entirely. It is said he keeps the Master Orb close to him and readily available at all times, which means it is portable and may be on his person, although we suspect he keeps it in a chest of some sort like his hobgoblin captains do. Once you retrieve it, you should return here with it, or if necessary, destroy it. Worst case scenario, you could be dragged into Acheron and have to face Maglubiyet himself without back-up. The FDF will provide whatever we can to aid you in this mission, including the use of wrist-comms. Any other questions?"
"Well, one question is can we speak to the weird prisoner who said the Queen of Air & Darkness was going to take the gobs back from Maggie? ("Wait, I think he was in Darjinak", she mumbles)"
(Going with what I thought would be rumored below)
"Do we have anything to damage demons & devils? I'm not sure fire would work. Doesn't it also take magic weapons to hit them? And...genetics? Like cross breeding?
"Well, that's what his briefing is for," Sloan says with a smile. "Ask away, Orion."
"AS to your queries, Miss Prim," Sloan replies, "I'm not sure what prisoner you are referring to; so, that must have been in Daruinjak. And we currently do not have anything that we know for certain will damage a demon or devil, especially those as powerful as Yeenoghu and Maglubiyet, although I think we do have some experimental magical weapons you could borrow."
"He is said to have midnight black hair down tohis shoulders, pale white skin, and piercing blue eyes with no noticeable pupil," Sloan describes the Dark Lord. "We do not have any current images of him, but he has been around since before the landing of the Suffolk, which was at least a hundred years ago."
”Maybe…”. Taxidea shrugs. “It was all kind of chaos…”
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Orion had only a brief glimpse the portal. He assumed it was connected to Fort Kill.
Okay. So what are you all doing now?
(Prim is resting until she's able to recover 4 spell levels and memorize Animate Dead. She expects a team from the FDF will come to clean up while they're waiting and she'll ask if they want the Wyvern Wranglers to retrieve the Orb. Then she'll animate 6 skeletons to pick up the rest of the remains, and march them off somewhere to beat into shards)
Orion is preparing for another outing to steal an orb from the goblins.
Taxidea will make sure Thor is OK and rest (long rest if possible to regain spell slots)
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Okay. A couple peaceful days go by during which you can rest, recuperate, and study. On the third day, you receive a summons from Sargeant Sloan to meet him at the FDF HQ to discuss a very important mission.
(assuming that the Wyvern Wranglers or the FDF beat the skeletons to shards, and she could make more the next day, she should have plenty of shards of animated skeleton bones for spell research)
Prim will try learning Primrose Shards of Bone and Find Familiar during the downtime, and take care of Beauty as needed. -110 GP.
(An Owl appears on her shoulder if successful.
"You're so FLUFFY! I'll call you....Hooty!"
"Hoot!", says the owl.
Orion heads to FDF HQ with the others to talk to Sloan.
When you all gather at the HQ, Sloan tells you, "We have a very important mission for you three. Since you are already familiar with the Goblin Orbs, we want you to attempt to either retrieve or destroy the Master Goblin Orb. Although the other orbs can act as arcane foci for teleportation and scrying spells, none of the ones we have recovered so far seem capable of crossing dimensional barriers. It is rumored that the Dark Lord has access to an orb which can penetrate dimensional barriers, specifically the barrier between the Material Plane and the Outer Plane of Acheron, where the demon lord Maglubiyet, god of the goblinoids, has his fortress. Apparently, this is where the Goblinoid Army came from. If you can retrieve the Master Orb, we can send our own army through the dimensional rift and put an end to Maglubiyet's forces once and for all. At the very least, we can find a way to destroy the Master Orb and prevent any more goblinoids from invading Niersala. Are you three up to the task?"
"With support, yes. The air support from Kren and the communication from those wristbands made the difference between a successful mission and at best a pyrric victory where I use my last Fireball to destroy the Orb and ourselves.
If the Dark Lord isn't a spellcaster, I'm guessing he employs better casters than the Gobs, That spices things up a few notches. Any advice on how to pull this off and get back alive?"
Orion is skeptical. "Do you know where the Dark Lord is currently, and where he might "have access" to the Master Orb? Can we use the orbs that we have to transport ourselves to the Master Orb?" Orion is full of questions.
"I'm in. I'll fry goblins on this plane or any other plane where they poke up their ugly heads."
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"Well," Sloan begins, leaning back in his chair, "Gregory Darek, otherwise known as the Dark Lord, is a former geneticist turned rogue. He has some arcane abilities himself, but his strength lies in the monsters he has created. He controls squadrons of black akreni (aarokocra), tribes of intelligent grilleni (large gorillas), and legions of scaley isseni (lizardfolk) not to mention the pigeni (orcs) and now gobleni (goblinoids). Lately, he has taken to summoning demons and devils as well, as evidenced by the appearances of Yeenoghu and Maglubiyet here in Niersala. The brown akreni have offered to assist the FDF in our war against the gobleni and may be able to provide you with air transport to the Dark Realm, current residence of the Dark Lord. It is possible for the FDF to teleport you into the Dark Lord's fortress in the heart of an extinct volcano using a goblin orb we know is there, but that is very risky. We are not sure exactly where the orb is, and you may end up in the Dark Lord's audience chamber, laboratory, or somewhere else entirely. It is said he keeps the Master Orb close to him and readily available at all times, which means it is portable and may be on his person, although we suspect he keeps it in a chest of some sort like his hobgoblin captains do. Once you retrieve it, you should return here with it, or if necessary, destroy it. Worst case scenario, you could be dragged into Acheron and have to face Maglubiyet himself without back-up. The FDF will provide whatever we can to aid you in this mission, including the use of wrist-comms. Any other questions?"
"Well, one question is can we speak to the weird prisoner who said the Queen of Air & Darkness was going to take the gobs back from Maggie? ("Wait, I think he was in Darjinak", she mumbles)"
(Going with what I thought would be rumored below)
"Do we have anything to damage demons & devils? I'm not sure fire would work. Doesn't it also take magic weapons to hit them? And...genetics? Like cross breeding?
Orion's head is spinning. He says, "As Prim has said - so many questions. "
"Well, that's what his briefing is for," Sloan says with a smile. "Ask away, Orion."
"AS to your queries, Miss Prim," Sloan replies, "I'm not sure what prisoner you are referring to; so, that must have been in Daruinjak. And we currently do not have anything that we know for certain will damage a demon or devil, especially those as powerful as Yeenoghu and Maglubiyet, although I think we do have some experimental magical weapons you could borrow."
What does the former Gregory the geneticist look like? Can we get an image of him so that we can locate him?
"He is said to have midnight black hair down tohis shoulders, pale white skin, and piercing blue eyes with no noticeable pupil," Sloan describes the Dark Lord. "We do not have any current images of him, but he has been around since before the landing of the Suffolk, which was at least a hundred years ago."
(OOC: Happy Thanksgiving!)