LongestRoad Run10

21 Horse Moon, 1372

Quick summary

• Party (minus Querca, in the closet-orchard) meets up, reveals to Vincent they have gold orb; Vincent is like "Whoa, when I said -almost impossible-, well this is the almost"
• Returns to inn (Sil loans Fronch Beret of Disguise to Vincent), Ezel casts Identify on orb to reveal more of its pow-ahs
• Sil decides to spend time meditating with Le Orbe to strengthen her connection with it
• Jer & Oraine go wandering and have delicious beerz
• Ezel & Vincent stay in inn, Vincent trying to contact Seth
• Michael, with Querca and Ellowyn, goes to the locations from the dwarves' map where he thinks there might be a dragon-sized cave
• Two are empty, but one is a "mining enterprise, no don't go down there, something collapsed and we're in repairs... yeah our clerics ran out of Stone Shape for the day, that's it"
  • Michael takes notes on their story
  • Goes to dwarves to verify, who are flattered that Michael so loves caverns
  • Dwarves say well that COULD be... if there was a shifting underground, which there was not
  • Dwarves bet that there's some really great metals and gems in there... hmm, maybe time to shift our mine direction... but that'll take three days, there's an iron vein blocking
• Party debates on ways to sneak in
  • Ezel sends in spy-eyes, Ellowyn sneaks them there with Invis
  • Oops, wall of force blocking! Slips through keyhole
  • Can't reach bottom in time, but pretty sure this is it- scrapes and claw marks on walls, etc
• Party returns home, decides to go out to eat at nice place
  • Querca's hedgehogs eat sammitches until their tummies drag on the ground
• On the way home, Sil decides to stalk Zeroth
  • Michael un-sneakily follows Sil
  • End up in Philosopher's Thunderdome
  • Sil talks to Zeroth some, but he has had long day
  • Michael is hit on by waitress, so embarrassing
• Return to inn, Ellowyn gives Michael a tiny violin
• Restful sleep interrupted by Ezel swearing as he miscopies a spell
• First thing AM- Querca has date with Mayors (22 Horse Moon)
  • Whole party heads over, Zeroth meets with them to discuss
  • After some pussyfooting it is revealed that Zeroth is commanded not to speak of this
  • He takes them to the mayors' quarters
  • Confrontation!
  • Michael explains that this artifact attracts trouble and mean stealy people
  • Apologetic sadditude, party promises to help get the Temple of Virton at Spire to actually pay attention to their needs
  • Seth is freed, he and Vincent have a manly hug reunion and head home to the wives, trusting party to clean up a few things and then come over for par-tay
• Arrangements are made for the Virton-ites to take over defense, search for Seal Portal knowledge redoubled
• Michael, Ellowyn, and Querca stay on Freehaven to wrap up a few more things
• Sil, Jeralyn, Ezel, Oraine, and Evathyth head to Mirenuth & Seth's (arrive 23 Horse Moon)
  • Arrive at Hatching time!
  • Sil explodes with the cute
  • Ezel is sad
  • Jeralyn gets pounced by a cute maid
  • Much feasting & happy times
• Michael, Ellowyn, and Querca head back to Spire to take care of the Soul Gem thing (25 Horse Moon)
  • Nerd ritualist explains that a body must be created for the soul, as they are not strong enough to raise him without it here
  • Volunteer may die in providing the strength
  • Michael says yes about .1 seconds after he asks
• Ritual-o-rific!
  • Cleansing in salt water, prayer, Michael dons white robe
  • Ellowyn helps Nerd (To Be Named) prepare chamber
  • Michael lays on one slab, body forms on the other
  • 7-hour ritual, Michael nearly wastes to nothing and dies
  • Angel is restored, holy awesomeness
  • Priests restore Michael's 20 drained CON...
  • Michael asks angel to help his mom; Nerd asks for something in private
• Virton gives Michael a thumbs up and some paladin levels, including a (DUN DUN DUN!) mount
• Temple offers party rooms to recover in
• Le Ende!

Storytime with Ellowyn

After busting Vincent out of his prison tower, we took him around to the bottom of Freehaven. We were able to meet up with the rest of the party. Sil loaned Vincent her hat of disguise, and we headed back to the Inn to discuss a few things. Among them, the party revelaed to Vincent that we already posessed the gold dragon orb, and he saw this as a sign that we may be up to the task of acquiring the silver as well. He was able to give a partial description of the powers the gold orb has, though it was still not a complete understanding. Sil recounted to him all the events that had occurred in the desicrated underground temple, and her concerns about Bahamut. He was noticeably, and understandably, disturbed and shaken by her description. At Vincent's suggestion, and with a little glaring from Sil, Ezel cast an identify spell on the gold orb. Finally aware of more intricacies of its power, Sil was able to strengthen her bond with the orb through meditation.

The party again decided we would split up. Ezel stayed back at the Inn with Vincent, who was still attempting to contact Seth. Michael, Querca and I went to check out the locations Michael had discussed with the dwarves, to see if we could pinpoint a cave large enough to hold Seth. Two of the locations were a bust, but one of them turned out to be quite interesting. There was a large work crew blocking off the entrance to a sizeable cavern. They did not allow us to enter, due to a cave-in. It was definately a fishy story...Michael took some notes on the details, and we headed back over to see the dwarves. They were both amused and flattered to see that Michael was enjoying the Freehaven caverns so very much.

More importantly, they looked over his notes and agreed that this "work crew" was definately hiding something. Obviously, these mines must contain a highly precious vein or deposit of some kind. It would take them three days to dig through, however, which was a little too long to suit our specific purposes. Everyone was becoming more jumpy and suspicious of this situation by the hour.

We reported back to the Inn, to tell Vincent and Ezel what we had found. Michael, Ezel and I staged a brief recon mission -- we flew near the caves, where I rendered us invisible. We zipped in, Ezel planted his arcane eye, and as we cleared back out to a safe distance, he swiftly discovered that the cavern was blocked by a wall of force. He sent his eye to investigate the tent, and found a solid metal gate, locked securly, as the only way through the wall of force. Luckily for us, the door had a gaping keyhole, through which Ezel's eye was able to pass. He didn't have enough time to reach the bottom of the cavern, but there was additional evidence that this was the place. The floor had scrape marks, a few stray silver scales, and several claw-shaped gouges were cut into the walls, and the cavern was most assuredly large enough to accomodate a dragon of Seth's age.

Armed with this additional information, we returned again to the Inn to share with the rest of the party. We decided the appropriate course of action now would be to speak with the mayors at Querca's appointment in the morning. Their plan was clear, and the evidence had all fallen into place. The only information we still lacked was the true form of their motivation. We held a brief discussion of our negotiation tactics, how far to push a civil conversation, and in what stages to reveal our information.

After all that investigating, spying and planning, we decided to take a few hours off, and go out for a nice dinner. Some of the culinary institutes on Freehaven serve to demonstrate that not only food, but the design and execution of an entire meal can be an art.

After the meal, most of us headed back to the Inn. Sil chose to vanish off on her own little side trip, and Michael plodded along after her. It seems from their later explanations that Sil was following Zeroth, the silver half-dragon who is deputy to the mayors. Ezel and I had met him at the Philosophers' Thunderdome on a previous night, and after staying late at work, that was where he went on this day as well. Sil arrived shortly after him, had a drink, and went over to chat a bit. He'd had a rough day, and she let him be. Apparently, Michael had one of the serving girls flirting quite outrageously with him. Sil managed to describe that part without too much snickering.

While they were playing over at the Thunderdome, I dropped by a music shop. The craftsman ship of the instruments was, of course, incredible. It was fun just to browse through the shop, but I had gone there with a specific mission. Mere moments later, I left again successful, with one very carefully wrapped little package.

Back at the Inn, we all spent a short while relaxing and unwinding before Sil and Michael arrived. After we'd caught up on what happened with them, I present the little gift wrapped box to Michael. Confused, he tore it open. Inside was a tiny, tiny violin. Everyone else laughed. I managed to keep it to a polite smile as I explained that while it may not be the world's smallest violin, it was the smallest in all of Freehaven.

Everyone except Ezel laid down for a restful night's sleep, before our meeting in the morning. Ezel, of course, stayed up late with his books. I have a foggy memory of waking up to hear a few swear words, and then mocking him in the middle of the night. I think his spellbook left him for another lich.

In the morning, we prepared ourselves and headed up to the town hall politely early for our appointment. They were expecting one or two people, and were a bit surprised that so many arrived, but they accommodated us without a fuss. The Mayors were occupied, so we met with Zeroth. He remembered Sil, but didn't really recognize Ezel or me. Querca started out with all her wood-trade stuff, and then tiptoed over to the "security and safety issue". That was about when everyone looked over at me. Do they realize how hilarious that is when I can't see them?

Well, Zeroth started in on the vague details -- I know, it's an oxymoron -- of their plan to protect the city. I launched into a series of probing questions. He tried to tell us they'd bargained for the help of a young silver dragon, which of course had come at a hefty price, and that he would defend the city for them. Every question we asked was met with a suitably vague answer. After a few rounds of this back and forth, I casually dropped Seth's name. That certainly caught his attention. After bringing up Seth's wife and egg, and pushing the issue a little harder, it became apparent that he was unable to say more. Ezel picked up on it first, and tipped the rest of the team off. We all had a brief moment of wondering where this would go next, when Zeroth took care of the situation.

He stood up, with an intense look in his eye, and moved to the door. He looked back again, obviously inviting us to follow. We obliged, and he led us to where the Mayors were having breakfast. They were a bit confused that he'd brought us up there, and asked us to explain.

Here, Querca launched into her whole woods speech again. It wasn't really needed, and they were a touch confused at it and possibly irritated by the end. There really wasn't a good way to interrupt, though. When she was done I tried to move us quickly past our little cover about being worried by the attacks and push the point of how they were planning to protect Freehaven. We offered to help, we offered to find help, they just kept being tight-lipped and defensive, and lying to us about it all. Finally, Michael brought out his violin (only figuratively, though.)

"You know, that thing is only going to bring you trouble."

The boy has a way with words, doesn't he? There was a nice pause, where the two of them looked at each other, and back at us. The story sort of tumbled out that we'd figured out what they are doing, what item they have, and that they were using Seth. It had really never occurred to them that there could be such ramifications to using the orb, or even possessing it. People search the world for artifacts. Obviously, as we already are searching it for these orbs themselves. We felt compelled to point out to the Mayors that there were far worse things than what their city currently endured, and that these things would come looking for them.

They were shaken, but held up well. They requested some time to confer among themselves, but before doing so they were kind enough to release Zeroth from any commands. He showed us to another meeting room, looking much relieved. He had not been content with this plan all along, and his unease had grown lately. We assured him that we weren't here to rip away any hopes, but rather bringing aid towards finding a better solution for protecting Freehaven.

When the Mayors arrived, they informed us that they had decided to stop using the orb, and they released Seth. When we again brought up the temple of Virton, they said the temple had so far been quite unresponsive. Michael promised to pull some strings for them, and that he would stay to protect the city until they sent aid. I seconded his offer.

Seth and Vincent were of course thrilled to be united, but eager to return to their wives. And of course, Seth was in a great hurry to arrive before his child hatched. They left almost immediately, and we remained behind to arrange any additional cleanup. In a smooth little conversation with the Mayors, Michael convinced them that we were the correct group to take the orb off their hands. They didn't want to saddle us with that responsibility, once they understood it better themselves, but he expressed the oath he had taken before Seth during our last visit to the plane of air.

Michael and I, having made our promise to stay until the temple of Virton could take over, remained on Freehaven, while Sil, Jeralyn, Ezel, Oraine, and Evathyth departed for Seth and Miruneth's castle. Querca decided to stay in Freehaven with me and Michael. Sil's group arrived at the castle just in time to see the hatchling pop out of its egg. Because she had the golden orb, and Michael had the silver, we were able to communicate both via speech and vision, so we were able to watch the hatching as well. It was an unbelievable sight, and heartwarming to know we were able to get Seth back home in time to see it. Ezel of course saw things a little differently, and I hear Jeralyn was last seen sneaking up a hallway with one of the maids. A rather attractive one.

Once the Virtonites arrived at Freehaven, they informed Michael that some progress had been made on determining the origins of the gem we found in the Abyss. It was indeed a soul gem, containing the captive soul of a celestial. Michael, Querca and I traveled directly to the temple to get the full story.

When we arrived, a very intellectual little priest explained that they were not powerful enough to free the soul unless it had an appropriate body to go to. The body would have to be created, but a body cannot be pulled from thin air. There was a seven-hour ritual he could perform that would create a body. It would require a volunteer, but was dangerous. I think Michael was just about ready to get out the violin again when the priest asked if he would volunteer, because the soul was celestial and Michael's half-celestial parentage would help greatly. He cautioned about the danger involved, that Michael's life would be drained in the process and that if he were not strong enough, he might not survive.

I offered to hold the violin for him until the ritual was done, but I don't think he heard me.

He spent quite a lot of time going through various purification rituals, dressing in a white robe, and preparing himself for the ordeal. There are a great many religious things that I do not always understand, but I can respect them and have learned to sit in peace. I was allowed to stay in the room and witness the ritual, so I seated myself quietly blocking the door. There was little I could do to lend Michael any of my strength, but I can hope the presence of a friend helped him to endure it more easily. I know for all we pick on him, he does have an apparently inexhaustible supply of determination.

Each hour of the ritual produced another layer of the slowly forming celestial body, and drained a little more health and vigor out of Michael. He seemed to be losing himself, but rallied somewhere around hour 4. Without that boost, I'm not sure he would've made it. As it was, he couldn't really stand when the ritual was complete. But, it was a complete success! The celestial stood up slowly, to an imposing height of about three meters, and observed the exhausted priest draped on the floor next to Michael's sickly form. I stood, and opened the door to allow the other priests to enter. They were able to restore Michael's vitality and lend some aid to the exhausted priest as well.

Glad to be freed from his prison, the celestial offered to grant Michael and the priest each any desire they had that was within his power. Michael asked the glorious being to help his mother. The priest made his request quietly. Out of respect, I believe no one even tried to overhear.

It seems that was not all of Michael's reward, however. Apparently, Virton looked most kindly on his selfless deed, and has granted him some reinstatement with the ranks of His paladins. Maybe some day he won't need the violin any more. I'm sure by then he will be gracious enough to pass the gift along to another who is in need.