The High Priest sighs. It seems that he's run out of ideas... reluctantly... extremely reluctantly... he explains.

"The one Sister Eila speaks of is a being whom she encountered briefly while trapped in a pocket dimension known as 'The Crucible,'" he says at last. "But... I wouldn't call him a 'living' anything. I can barely bring myself to call him a person. He is called Lord Akkron... and... he's one of the undead."

(OOC: Yes, Painted, THAT Lord Akkron. I couldn't help myself lol)

(OOC: Lol! Well you did! But let's see if Duwamilly knows anything about him...)

Duwamilly's History check about Lord Akkron: 8

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

(OOC: Lol! Well you did! But let's see if Duwamilly knows anything about him...)

Duwamilly's History check about Lord Akkron: 5

 Duwamilly knows that he's... um... someone. She guesses that since he's called 'Lord' he must be ruler of something? Maybe?

"Oh, an undead..." Duwamilly muses aloud "Normally, undeads are fixated on the pursuit of power or hatred towards the living, but if Sister Eila has met this Lord and not only is she still able to talk about it, but it also occurred to her to recommend it to us, it must have made a different impression on her than usual. Probably, it can't be worse than Frinion... however unundead Frinion is! The point is" she shrugs "that life loves a lot joking... This is probably just yet another paradox, yet another joke - and, as in every joke, we will laugh at the end! I say consult him! Garl Glittergold will be with us (both to help and to enjoy the absurd situation)".

Having clarified her point of view with the faithfuls of Ilmater, the ex-Preceptor returns to Yasmina's side and replies: "I didn't think that Mr. Amir was so obsessed with etiquette... I didn't mean to offend him! I risked putting you in bad light in his eyes? I'm sorry, I had no idea... I mean, I had just freed him from that invisible prison that kept him confined, I called him 'Mr.', I held out my hand... What did I do wrong? Is he a noble? Does addressing him require particular formulas? Should I call him 'master' like you always do? If you explain me better, next time maybe I'll make a better impression on him... He seemed like a nice guy to me, all in all - even though you call him 'master', he doesn't really behave as a master would behave with a slave... I mean, it wasn't you who defended him, but the opposite, he tried to defend you! And maybe at the end of the fight he was in a bad mood precisely because he would have preferred to have been able to defend you better - but that Frinion was really a nasty guy... If only that nosy priestess hadn't gotten in the way at the beginning... Nasty as he was, from the Far Real, Frinion couldn't have bothered anyone at all! Maybe even forever, since he would have had a very good chance of losing his mental sanity. Getting to know you will however not mean 'settling' at all!" she points out "It will be a great pleasure! You are friendly and nice, honey! And I'm sure you're full of good qualities, judging by how much this 'master' of yours seems to care about you!"

Finally, the cleric remembers that races other than gnomes are not used to speaking while listening, and that therefore, if she wants to give others a chance to contribute to the conversation, she must temporarily suspend the verbal torrent... therefore, waiting to any replies from Ilmater's or Djinni's faction, she forces herself into a momentary silence.

"Yes... this lich is... different," the Sister Eila says hesitantly. "I only met him in person briefly, but the impression I had from him was that he was remorseful for becoming what he is now. And... for some time before I met him, I worked closely with a warlock who serves him faithfully..."

"Sister, I know that you are grateful for the help you received from both the warlock and her master," High Priest Alaion interrupts. "But please don't forget what they are. Lord Akkron, no matter how much he may regret it, became what he is by his own choice. And Bridgette swore to serve this undead master for all of eternity..."

he sighs heavily. The look on his face is pained as he reluctantly continues.

"...even so, the lich is probably one of the few creatures who would likely have the knowledge you seek. And after Sister Eila returned with her report, I did extensive research on his history, and every scholar who has mentioned him agrees that he is reasonable and keeps his end of any bargain he makes. But... even if you can reason with the lich himself, the rest of his domain will not welcome you. He is located on the Shaded Isle, a ruined wasteland overrun with angry spirits of those who were unjustly killed in a brutal war several thousand years ago. And even if you manage to reach his lair safely, I doubt that he will give you his knowledge for free. He will almost certainly ask you to accomplish some dangerous task to prove yourselves worthy of his aid..."

"...However, our current only alternative is instead to deal with Mr. Frinion..." emphasizes Duwamilly "who seems neither particularly reasonable nor eager to keep his end of any bargain! Not to mention the fact that I don't believe he has a great sense of humor... so probably, if one day he were to meet me again, instead of laughing at the little joke I played on him, he would instead try (with excellent chances of success) to incinerate me. As far as I'm concerned, easy choice: Lord Akkron, without a doubt! Besides, who knows? If he truly regrets his situation, perhaps we ourselves can help him in some way, once we are free from our curses. Our artifacts are quite powerful, from what I saw".

"Yasmina? Cal? Jarro? Delvindra?" the ex-Preceptor looks at her companions in misfortune one by one "What do you think, kids? Are you with me? It'll be fun!"

As the gnome bombards her with words again, the red-haired half-elf loses focus somewhere half-way through and as the gnome finally stops talking she has no idea what to say, if there even was a question somewhere in there for her, so she simply smiles weakly and shrugs. Maybe going to school wasn't for her after all.

Yasmina shudders visibly at the mention of an undead, the anathema of life, shaking her head over the idea of dealing with that Lord Akkron, would her master even agree to that. "Wait, what you say doesn't make sense, just beacause that dark wizard is an even worse option it can't mean we must necessarily deal with this lich." She says with a frown, looking between the gnome and the bearded elf. "I came to the temple of Ilmater for help and what you offer is that I should risk my life so that I can then serve an undead?" She says with an incredulous look, not quite seeing the fun in anything of what was suggested.

It's quite clear that the elf really doesn't feel a lot better about the suggestion than Yasmina does...

"I... I'm sorry that I don't have any simple solution for your problems," he says defeatedly. "I tried as hard as I could to think of anyone else who might have the knowledge you seek."

He sighs.

"There may well be other beings of similar power who could help you... perhaps an archfey, or even an ancient dragon who has studied the arcane arts. But all would likely be similarly difficult to find and persuade. If you wish to search our library for records of any being who could possibly have the arcane knowledge that you seek, you have my blessing to do so, and I sincerely hope that you find one."

He pauses. He seems completely out of energy at this point.

"...but, if Firion has taken notice of you, and has decided to take what you have, I don't know how much time you have to find such patron. I cannot tell you what is the correct course of action."

Turning his attention away from the unpleasant subject of who you could turn to for aid, the High Priest looks at all of you with a sad smile.

"Whatever you decide to do, the Temple will offer you lodging for the night," he says. "I foresee that your journey will be a perilous one, no matter which path you take. So, I want to offer a gift to each of you to help you endure in your trials."

(OOC: Since I just realized they weren't handed out earlier... you now receive your one Rare or two Uncommon magic items as gifts from the Temple and you may equip them on your character sheet).

"So as far as you know, there are absolutely no powers of good that could help us then?" Yasmina says in disbelief, looking around in the impressive temple erected to the god Ilmater. "I came here with the belief that the gods of good, like your Ilmater, would have the power to lift a curse, even a powerful one, and if I have to earn this I would much rather serve your god than a lich." She adds, slumping back in resignation against the pillar behind her, sitting down with her head between her knees. This would not sit well with her master.

"What a magnificent gift, Mr. Alaion!" exclaims Duwamilly, delighted, upon receiving a wand not too dissimilar from the many she used as Preceptor - if not for the mysterious glyphs inlaid in the wood which seem to change, as if animated with a life of their own (or the desire to joke) depending on the inclination from which you look at them "All those uses that it can have and that you explained to me... It's simply fantastic! I would kiss you (on the cheek, obviously) if it weren't for the fact that you are too tall for me... Whatever challenge awaits us, either to find Lord Akkron, or to find another Patron, or to try to escape Frinion - in case he manages to find us in time - with this we will have one more chance to escape or even come on top! Or should I rather say many more different chances! Thank you very much, Mr. Alaion! May Garl Glittergold's good mood always help you during your days of endurance".

"Oh, before we retire to rest, taking advantage of your generous hospitality," the gnome finally asks "one last question, for the benefit of those, like me, inclined to try their luck with Lord Akkron: how could we reach the Shaded Isle? Are there any ships heading there? Or will we have to use our own means to get there?"

"There are not many captains who would dare venture to the Shaded Isle," the High Priest replies. "But there is a small settlement on the coast, mostly made up of outcasts and fugitives who had nowhere to go. So perhaps you could convince one of the captains who is contracted to delivers supplies to let you board."

'Or we could use my cube...' Duwamilly thinks then 'One charge to go to another plane, then one charge to go to the Prime Material Plane... choosing the Shaded Isle as the destination. We would consume two charges, but we would arrive without having to negotiate passages or face the possible dangers of a crossing'.

The gnome, however, keeps these thoughts to herself for the moment... waiting to find out how many will trust to come with her to meet the lich... who, undead as he may be, apparently behaved well enough to favorably impress an Ilmater Pirestess... and how many will instead prefer different solutions (assuming different solutions exist).

"To serve Ilmater is to suffer hardship, trusting that to do so serves the greater good."

Delvindra's words to Yasmina are spoken with confidence, though they barely crack a whisper.

"We made our choices. When Firion offered us the easy path we chose, one and all, to resist. We have proven our willingness to endure and been rewarded with a difficult path. This is a gift from Ilmater and I, for one, will accept it."

"Spoken like a true believer." The red-haired half-elf says, looking up at the tiefling with a weak smile. "I'm sure you are used to hardships as a servant of this Ilmater so being sent off to serve a lich will probably just be another day in his service, but I wonder, is there anything you wouldn't do in sevice of him?" She says, glancing up at a depiction of the Broken God at an infernal rack. "You would hope he would want us all to think for ourselves too, and maybe at least hesitate over serving a lich. How do you even know this is Ilmater's will? Your high priest certainly seems to be in doubt of that." She says, glancing over at the bearded elf. "Also, while I didn't get the sense that Firion was particularly trustworthy, I believe the choice to fight him instead of finding out more about what he had to offer was not really made by me at least."

"Oh, Yasmina, honey..." Duwamilly can't help but interject "If you really long for it that much, you're free to wait for Mr. Frinion to get back to you - and I don't doubt that sooner or later he would, but his 'offer' seemed clear enough to me... We were to give him our cursed items, the curse would fall on one of his followers and we would be left with no curse... and no items. Assuming he was honest with us... because, who tells us that he wouldn't have kept the objects, but left the curses to us?"

"And in any case, his was not a real 'offer', but an imposition" continues the gnome, gesturing with her new wand every now and then to emphasize the concepts "since in the course of subsequent events he declared that he would have our objects independently of our will, stealing them from our dead bodies if necessary".

"Now... I also, certainly, wouldn't have wanted to attack him!" concedes the ex-Preceptor "I have already explained that resorting to violence is a defeat for everyone... But I wouldn't have trusted him either. And now I trust him even less".

"We still hardly know anything about this Lord Akkron, on the contrary..." Duwamilly evaluates "We know that he is a lich - and liches don't usually behave much better than Frinion. But we also know that Sister Eila, who, unlike us, met him in person, was not killed, neither robbed neither threatened, but rather helped. To the point that Sister Eila, who doesn't seem exactly corrupted by evil to me, felt obliged to mention him to us as a possible help. Would she have done this, if this undead was the classic tomb reject thirsty for power and domination? If I consider all this, I, personally, am inclined at least to go and meet this lich so out of the ordinary in person. I am convinced that it will be interesting! And that he really is our best bet, at the moment".

"Anyway, there's no rush... we can spend the night here! You have time to think too!" the gnome cleric points out "My job as Preceptor has never been to dictate to the kids what they should think, but rather to train them to think with their own heads - so that they could then decide on their own. I have explained my considerations to you, honey..." she directs her with a look full of affection "...the reasons that lead me to believe that it is in the interests of us all to attempt this path. I certainly will! You... I would like your company... but the decision on your path, of course, will be yours!"

If there's nothing else that needs to be done, you all settle in for the night. The priests and priestesses give you a nice, hot meal and lay out bedding for you. The nearest port city is about a day's journey from here, and you will need to travel over land to reach it if you wish to take a boat. You could also opt to use the "Cubic Gate Express," but it would be risky as 1) Duwamilly would need to visualize where she wants to go in detail, which could be difficult as she's never been to the Shaded Isle and 2) there's a very real chance that a powerful lich might have warded his domain against unwanted extraplanar intrusions.

If anyone would like to search the archives for more information, whether about Lord Akkron, the Shaded Isle, or possible alternative patrons, roll an Investigation check.

Delvindra takes very small portions at the meal, but will also gobble up whatever food she does take like a hungry stray. Afterwards, she'll insist on helping the temple's acolytes with the cleaning and the dishes. She won't explore the archives but, if she can find the opportunity, she'll ask Sister Eila more about Lord Akkron and her past dealings with him.

The priestess is in her chamber saying prayers when Delvindra knocks on the door.

"Please, come in," Sister Eila says.

As expected of a priestess, her room is sparsely furnished, with a simple cot, a desk, a wooden chair, and shelf with a few books, most likely prayer books and other scriptures. She smiles warmly at Delvindra.

"Hello, Sister," she says. "Please, tell me what is on your mind. How can I be of service to you?"

"I wanted to thank you for helping us, when so many others could not, and to ask what you know of Lord Akkron. I don't question your judgement but I'm concerned that any kindness he may have shown you was because of your goodness rather than his. Do you mind telling me more about how you came to know him?"