Day 149: Oathday the 14th, Calistril, 4708
I woke up from my longer duration of sleep to find that somehow, my phone had started playing the song Slow Chemical for my alarm. Even in my dreary state, I thought that this was important and went over it in my mind. The only thing I could think of was that the enemies would likely be protected against fire. Once I came upon this thought, I immediately told this to Faunra and Dame Rebekah. They both had been the ones who were awake, along with Ayruzi (who did not need sleep). Faunra noted that they had discussed it between themselves and that they had figured that Special K would be prepared for the damage that I do the most, as my firearms do a LOT of fire damage for some reason, and fire is a common damage type anyway.
I asked them if there was anything I could do to change the fire damage. Faunra thought about it and recommended that I focus on some other energy, and she would study different spells to maximize a variety of energy types. I went away to my little corner and pondered about it. Fire and Cold were two types of energy attacks that had been exceptionally common, both from us and against us. If Special K had known about our attacks, he might have plans against the fire energy and also Cold, since it is easily reversed. Thinking on it further, I added that electricity would also be something that would be protected against, if Jonathan's Sith Lightning was any gauge.
That left acid and sonic based energy attacks. Both of which were odd concepts, and sonic was not something that I had a way to focus up on them. The song was hinting at acid anyway, so that meant that the options were a little limited. I focused in meditation on the conflagrant aura that was generated around my ammunition, and on the vitriolic nature of acid and felt a bit of the aura round my guns change to match the new focus. I wasn't exactly sure how I had done it, but I know that I had changed the focus around me. It felt like it was dripping from my guns, but there was nothing there, at the moment anyway. I snapped my attention back and knew that there was something else that I was missing, so I decided to focus on getting my mind cleared for the task ahead.
There were somethings that were new that I could do, but I didn't want to use them yet. I didn't know if they would be useful later, so I just waited to inform Faunra. I focused up on all of my mental energy on the task coming up. I spared a moment just at the beginning of my time to focus to send a message to Savah via the enchanted radio. I sent her that we would be going into the big fight soon and that I loved her. I know, sappy, but it needed to be said if I wasn't coming back.
When I was done focusing, I looked over my gear, when I found that I now had an exceptionally large poncho, that fit over my armor. I asked Faunra about this, but she told me that she didn't know anything about it, only to say that it was not cursed or in any way negative. I certainly felt luckier wearing it. I prepped everything I could for an arduous fight. No sense in wasting time with the weaker types of ammunition, adamantine all the way baby. I have twelve magazines worth of this stuff for my bolter, so I prepared the four that I had and had the rest of the loose ammunition placed in an easily accessible pocket for reload. None of the other firearms were set up for adamantine ammunition, but I loaded them all up with the best ammunition that I could.
I looked over my grenade launcher after dealing with all of the firearms. I knew that the "fire grenades" would be useless, and the shocking ones would be similarly useless, especially if they had seen enough of Jonathan's attacks to plan for that. That left the acid, cold, and frag grenades. Cold was right out, as I reasoned earlier, and I didn't want to start destroying everyone's hearing, well at least Ayruzi and Jonathan's hearing, but we needed the big guns. The big guns were concussive grenades, not fire ones. I put the acid ones on deck first, following up with concussive ones, and got out some earplugs for both Ayruzi and Jonathan.
I cautioned Faunra and Dame Rebekah that this would be a loud encounter, and that we need not bother with quieting our weapons. Faunra agreed and said that she could use the slot for something in the way of crowd control. Dame Rebekah asked if I could modify up a crossbow that we had to work as another grenade launcher. I set myself to do that in the two hours that I had. It wasn't difficult in any major way. It was a fairly simple modification after all.
During the last hour of Jonathan's short nap, Ayruzi and Dame Rebekah both prayed for their deities' miracles. After Jonathan woke up from his nap, we all decided that we had five minutes to psyche ourselves up or cast whatever we needed individually. While everyone else seemed focused and calm, performing their preparations, I spent the entire time in a worrying frenzy of starting up every possible effect that I could, including several of the spells. When I was done, I was hyped beyond belief, confident in the knowledge that I had never went into a battle as prepared as I was now. Never. I had spent the time thinking as much as I could about what a legendary wizard from ancient Thassilon might be capable of, including whatever information he might have gotten access to from entities from the outside world, back then and even giving it a thought to now. I actually almost felt prepared at the end of it.
We all got together after those five minutes, all of us absolutely brimming with our own sources of power. Jonathan's ambient aura of floating items, water mist, and static shocks were absolutely horrendous. Dame Rebekah looked even holier than normal, with her three times burning blade (and holy to boot). All of our weapons were temporarily holy now as well, thanks to her efforts. Faunra told us about the procedure for the transport. We got our last two spells as a group together. My contribution was the haste effect that we always used, and then turning myself invisible. The kind of invisibility that lasted even if you attacked something.
Dame Rebekah had made herself Large again, knowing that we would be dealing with some kinds of giants, and summoned five hound archons. They all seemed to have a more Polynesian aspect, wearing the short lavalava, having the intricate bands and tiki tattoos, and wielding very ornate Ironwood two handed swords. Their canid heads looked almost like dingoes. I had not really noticed it before, but this contrasted Ayruzi, who was dressed in a much more Greco-Roman style, with a toga like robe, sandals, and the like. I had never really noticed this before, but it was something to look into later, I guess.
These Hound Archons were quickly brought up to speed on the situation, and they took up their positions around us. Faunra started blinking again and also got her own mirrored images up. I handed Dame Rebekah the grenade launcher that she had asked for, and she in turn handed it to one of the archons, but only after placing the ball like object that we had gotten from the clergy in the holster. The other one was placed on the center of her armor. Jonathan downed a potion or two. Ayruzi prayed for all of us and bestowed us all an immunity to Magic Missile, Lightning bolt, Blindness, and, upon Faunra's suggestion, the effect known as Black Tentacles (she had swapped out her quieting weapon spell for it, and we could use that to better effect if we were immune to it).
Before we were to leave, the Hounds wanted to perform a pre-fight tradition, a pre-fight dance, just a few seconds of performance. I readily agreed and set my cellphone up to record the tradition and the fight to come, and the rest of the group agreed as well. The hounds called out to each other and started to contort their face and slapping their thighs. Faunra, sensing that the time was right, instructed Dame Rebekah to activate the item that had been stuck to her armor. Music came out from it, and I instantly recognized it before the true lyrics started. Stomp – Stomp – Clap, Stomp – Stomp – Clap. We Will Rock you. I told everyone we needed to get into the room before the eighth repetition started.
As soon as the seventh series started, Faunra then shot off an arrow at the Anima Focus and a massive portal ripped opened in the aether, showing a fuzzy image of an area full of gold and fire. We ran through the portal, except for the hound archon who had the grenade launcher, who was pushed through by one of his allies. That was when it went pear shaped. The demiplane was over one hundred and fifty feet long and over one hundred and ten feet wide. There were five golden, man-sized golems on the platform that we arrived on, arrayed around us.
There were immense golden pylons that were red hot rising out of what looked like a sea of lava, one hundred feet below us. There were balconies to the left and right of the room, each with a storm giant armed with longbows and dressed in the same regal armor as the others. Between us and the end of the room was a Rune Giant, looking towards us. Beyond it was a massive Runewell, with an articulated adamantine frame with a sickly green lens in it. It looked to be thrumming with power. Some of the energy seemed to be sifting into the figure beyond it, on the highest platform.
On that throne, on that highest platform, sat Special K imperiously. There were books on shelves and worktables behind the throne, something that I didn't want to have destroyed, as the information was too vital. Special K himself was bedecked in such finery that would put to shame the yearly fiscal profit of the town of Magnimar, let alone Sandpoint. He held a burning glaive in one hand, and a finely polished platinum rod in the other. His fingers had lengthy talons on his glaive hand, and he actually had gemstones imbedded into his skin. He was visibly angry and dismissive in demeanor as he looked our way.
In the instant that we got through the gate, the Hound Archon with the grenade launcher snapshot at Special K and the actually hit him with the speaker ball. It stuck hard to him, not damaging him, just sticking. Before Special K could even speak, the music started up at volume on his end as well. It was the final Stomp-Stomp-Clap before the lyrics, which was echoed by the one attached to Dame Rebekah's armor. Magical Bluetooth speakers. I love it.
"Buddy you're a boy, make a big noise, playing in the street gonna be a big man someday." That was what the magical speakers played as the chaos began. I struck first among everyone, after the Hound Archon that is, spurred on by the music and the massive number of spells and effects currently affecting me. I knew I had to do this right and let slip all of the weapons I had with me. My Chainsword revved up loud and rushed towards one of the gilt guardians. My rifle, which had been enchanted specially against giants and dragons, and my LMG, both took aim at the Rune Giant, who collapsed in a rain of acidic rounds. He needed to be out of commission so that there would be a clear path to deal with the main attraction.
I hoped that the death of the Rune Giant would remove the Storm Giants from his command. I couldn't focus on it then. I set my grenade launcher to target the man of the hour, Special K, after it got a good sixty feet away from us. With my Bolter, I maintained a hold on it, just because I didn't want to have to deal with not having it when it needed to be reloaded and I needed to change ammunition. The acid from both the grenade and my rounds burned into Special K, and I guessed that it would have dropped Ghlorofaex with that barrage alone. Yet he just smirked and seemed to brush it off.
His face went into an even wider evil grin as he rose from his throne to target us. He started to call us fools and wastrels for bothering him with such insignificant nonsense. I noticed Faunra's arrows sought out the dragon that had been on the platform alongside Special K and dropped it into unconsciousness. Her own enchanted heavy weapons and gladius went to attack the golems around us, I'm guessing that it was mainly in an effort to keep them off of her. That was when Jonathan struck.
Jonathan flew forward in a charge and landed right in front of Special K, looking to end this quickly. He sprang forth with a barrage of his cesti enhanced punches, while his flurry of four enchanted cesti made short work of four of the golden golems surrounding the party. Thankfully, they were not THAT close to us, as each one that was destroyed melted into a twenty-foot diameter puddle of molten gold before disappearing. That was when things really went bad.
Special K summoned up four meteorites and launched them all at me. AT ME DAMNIT! I dodged the first one, but the next three hit me. For what I learned was an almost minimal amount of damage. Then the fire from them washed over me. Or attempted to. Between the treatments given to my armor and the red dragon's heart that I had eaten so long ago, I took literally NO damage from the fire. Others were not so lucky. All of the Baldwins, I mean Hound Archons, were dead. The Glaive that Special K had been holding lifted up and launched a fireball against us, to no effect against me, and a lesser effect against the rest of us on the platform. Then I noticed the rod that Special K was holding start to twinkle. Then the world changed.
The dragon and Special k were healed up to full, there was a nearly transparent force cage around Jonathan. Special k was now about one hundred feet above the platform that we were on, with another nearly transparent wall between himself and I specifically. Dame Rebekah yelled out for us to scatter and charged directly towards at the blue dragon that Faunra had almost slain and landed several enhanced blows against it, while her enchanted spare longswords and her longbow all flew around the field to different venues of attack and took swings or shots at the flying wizard, most of them failing to strike anything vital.
It was then that the Storm Giants that had been on the two balconies that were overlooking us got to act. For whatever it was worth. They launched a series of golden arrows at Special K. Apparently, they had indeed been released when I had killed that Rune Giant. Unfortunately, none of their attacks managed to hit, what they did do was inform Special K that they were no longer on his side. His list of allies was growing especially thin. Ayruzi left the platform to fly around the wall that had interposed itself between Special K and us, and cast Holy Smite upon the evil Transmuter. There was not much effect. Right in time for me to take my next move, the next lyric came out.
"You got mud on your face, you big disgrace. Kicking your can all over the place." I had to reload my bolter, no time to bother with keeping track of magazines right now. Drop it and slam home the next one. Some of the other weapons were reloading on their own as well, except the LMG. It just had to move and fire.
My Chainsword had flown up to attack Special K along with ALL of the other enchanted melee weapons from the group, revving as it went. My grenade launcher was in position enough to get another acid grenade loaded and launched at him. Which did nothing. Not the impact or the acid. Maybe one of the spells that he did when he moved made him resistant to acid damage now? My Rifle, Bolter, and LMG just did normal damage, no extra damage, as expected.
Faunra flew around the wall and targeted Special K with a Greater Dispel Magic from the Anathema Archive. She was happy that some things had apparently been dispelled. Her Egoist's Militia weapons went to target Special K, the same as everyone else. At this point, he had Dame Rebekah's three longswords and longbow, Jonathan's four cesti, Faunra's gladius, greatsword, scythe, and earthbreaker, and my Chainsword and spare firearms, all targeting him in addition to the giants shooting arrows at him, and the rest of us targeting him. And Jonathan hit him with one of his marbles. Apparently, he wasn't completely stuck in the cage after all.
Special K grimaced and yelled something about us all being peasants and worms. Then that Thassilonian Asshole struck us with a spell that caused us to suffer from rapid onset severe dehydration. My mouth got dry and I felt sluggish and drained but I knew that I had to continue. His Glaive tried another fireball, much to the same effect as the last one. However, by this time, Faunra was getting fairly wounded from all of this and Dame Rebekah was looking even worse. Then Special K activated his platinum rod and the area around us changed again.
A rainbow wall sprung up between where Jonathan was and Karzoug's new position, one hundred and twenty feet away from where he had been. There was a sickly green cloud that was targeted on Dame Rebekah that would be rolling down to me soon. Black tentacles erupted from the platform that I was on. It didn't have any effect on me thanks to Ayruzi's previous spell, thank you Faunra for thinking about using that spell, even if we couldn't. And, of course, both him and the dragon were healed up from any damage that had been done before.
Dame Rebekah took the opportunity to fully decapitate the blue dragon to end this whack a mole lunacy. Her Longswords and Longbow all went to charge or target Special K, resulting in only two hits. The Wardens of Thunder struck at Special K again, missing but keeping up the pressure. Ayruzi decided to dispel the Cloudkill fog that had been placed around Dame Rebekah and that would soon go to hit me. Moving however, was Special K's big mistake.
Now I wasn't being blocked by the force wall and I didn't need to move to shoot him. That wasn't going to be enough to put him down, so I refocused and let my various firearms shoot at him, while my chainsword ran him down from the side. This gave me the opportunity to get in close, and spurred on by the lyrics, "We Will, We Will, Rock You, We Will, We Will Rock You.", I rushed forward and grabbed him in my left hand's exoglove. Then I clamped down. We needed him to not move away anymore, and I figured that he wouldn't be able to leave if I caught ahold of him.
The bullets had ripped into him, doing lots of damage that looked like it actually hurt. He took a passive swipe with his coke nails that glanced off of my reinforced armor. Thank you Faunra for helping with that hardening spell. He looked even more surprised as my gauntlet crushed around his throat as he went limp. He went unconscious in my fist as my flaming gauntlet worked to crush his trachea. He was staring into the cold visor of my helmet as he blacked out. His glaive, flying around, tried to stab me to get me off of him and I grabbed it in my right hand as I let go of bolter, to allow it to float into my holster. I could tell that it was trying to assert control over me, telepathically raging at how I was an inferior. I laughed it off, knowing that this was just a piece of tin, and subdued it with my own willpower.
I brought the unconscious body to the throne area and threw it to the ground. I spat at it and told him, Karzoug, what I had been prepared to say since I first learned of his plans. I told the unconscious body that where I was from, there was a saying. I told him that a person dies twice, once when they actually die, and the second time when their name is spoken aloud for the last time. I finished with telling him that I would handle the first bit today, but that unfortunately, his name would live a long time after his demise. I then used Special K's glaive to behead him. That invited another desperate conflict from the glaive. I laughed it off, verbally telling the glaive that "it had no power over chicken". Same thing I'd tell my cats when they tried to get something out of me.
There was a blinding flash of light that erupted from the soul lens. Well, it didn't blind any of us, except for the newly resurrected Rune Giant and the Blue Dragon. Karzoug was still dead, beheaded by his own glaive. Faunra and I looked at each other and unloaded our commanding weapons into it to destroy the soul lens. When that was destroyed, I stopped the recording. The Rune Giant, the blue dragon, and the Storm Giants all approached us to surrender. No, they approached me. I was holding the Glaive and I had used it to slay the previous Runelord. As this all happened, the demiplane dissolved around us and we were back in the room that we had just left from.
I looked to the others, and they looked to me to see what I would do. Faunra told me, in the elvish tongue, that they must be thinking that I am the new Runelord of Greed. I thought about dropping the glaive but realized that it would just fly off. I asked Dame Rebekah what we should do. She told me that she had no inclination about being a Runelord, as she wasn't an arcane caster. I yelled that I was not one either. Faunra cleared her throat, indicating that I was indeed one. I swore at her that I would never be a Runelord, of anything.
Jonathan shook his head, and said that he'd hold the glaive, and I handed it to him eagerly. I told the Storm Giants to rise, as they had no reason to bow before us, as they attempted to slay Special K in their own way, even if it wasn't that efficient. They rose up, a bit sheepishly and walked to be next to us. I looked at the blind Rune Giant and Blue Dragon. They were both doing this of their own volition and were "evil" to boot. I looked to Dame Rebekah and Faunra and nodded. Both entities were executed, with little fanfare. Not that I'd complain. Rune Giants were the worst kinds of slavers, and blue dragons were supposedly just as bad. Also, I knew that they would just likely cause problems in the region if they were released.
There were several issues that we needed to deal with. The fate of Xin Shalast, the status of the position of the Runelord of Greed, the Glaive of said former Runelord, the issues with the time machine that had been worked on by the Denizens of Leng, and any of the other Runelords that might not have been permanently disposed of. We sent the Storm Giants (and Ayruzi) to go scout to see if they can locate any Rune Giants down in the city proper. They also removed the bodies of the Rune Giant and the Blue Dragon for us. That left just the four of us.
I told them that I would like to place a call back home and the rest group realized that they could do the same, so we took five minutes to separate and place our calls. A lot of these revelations might have information that could be really have extended impacts on our loved ones' lives. I called Savah and she was ecstatic to hear from me. I told her as much as I could and told her that I'd be heading back home to Sandpoint to continue on with our plans. Savah asked if I didn't have any thoughts of taking that title. I expressed that I sincerely had no desire to take on that kind of role. I added that I'd be much happier with her in our little town of Sandpoint. I swear that I could hear the happiness in her text based response.
When our five minutes were up, Jonathan handed me back the glaive, as he noted it was getting a little annoying. It wasn't that he was in danger of falling under its sway, it was just that it constantly yelling that he was unworthy as a non-spellcaster, and other nonsense. I took the glaive back and asked Faunra if she could find some way to put this thing in a temporal stasis or something similar. Faunra's eyes brightened as she noted that she could indeed do so, but that it would last for at least a year and a half by her estimates. I thanked her and noted that it at least added options to our issues. Maybe we can even get the glaive to Abadar's Vault.
Dame Rebekah said that we could just get it to a good deity. I told her that this was a good plan, and one that we can shop around to figure out who the best one would be, especially since we have time. Faunra added that we can pull it out of stasis at any time we wanted. Dame Rebekah seemed mollified by that. The glaive was strangely silent in my hand. I didn't want to poke the bee's nest so to speak, so I just let the sleeping dog lie for now.
Faunra activated her stasis field and I put the glaive into it. There was a little struggle, but not nearly enough to challenge my resolve. I removed my hand, and the glaive was stationary in midair. With that issue temporarily dealt with, I brought up to the group that we had a large quantity of issues that we needed to deal with. Faunra pulled out a sheet of paper and we started listing them off.
To start off, not a one of us wanted to be the new Runelord of Greed, not as Greed or Wealth, or Prosperity, or any other permutation of property-based value. Jonathan stated that he was too "independent minded" to take up a roll that was that based on law and rules. He added that he had his business would be taking up way too much of his time to preside over some arcane school. He finally added that he wasn't even an arcane caster so that pretty much invalidated him from the beginning. I couldn't help but agree with his logic and said as much.
We looked to Dame Rebekah, and she stated that she also wasn't an arcane caster, and more importantly, she was planning on going to the Worldwound with Chelger and Ayruzi to find her parents. She continued with saying that she didn't think that the glaive would respond nearly as well to her as Jonathan, what with her deity be one of good and the glaive being pure evil. The conflict could take a toll on her, and she had too much work to do. I told her that I could very much agree with those rationales, and the others agreed with her.
Faunra spoke up, without prompting, and said that she and Shalelu were to go help with the Crying Leaf Elves and wouldn't be available to monitor the city. She added that while she was an arcane caster, her bow and the glaive would be in constant conflict with each other, as the bow was intelligent in its own right, and a person having two intelligent items was never a recipe for a positive outcome. Especially as since her bow wasn't an artifact, it would be much more likely that the glaive would just take the initiative to destroy the bow. Finally, she added that she wouldn't be well inclined with taking up the mantle that had done so much damage to her people and herself. I told her that this was a very valid reason for not wanting this position. Everyone else in the group said that they could understand this was well, and then they all looked to me.
I stammered a bit before telling them that I had enough on my plate with the university, the gun-works, the armor contracts, advancing the general technology level of the planet, raising scientific thought and mindsets in the people of this realm, and everything else that Savah and I had going on. The group smiled and each made their own point. Jonathan pointed out that I had the wherewithal to withstand the mental barrage, as was evidenced by the fact that it didn't even bother to conflict with me after I had told it something about chicken. I sighed as Dame Rebekah took the opportunity to note that there was a great deal of lore that might have come from Old Thassilon, and that she knew that I had a desire to keep knowledge from disappearing. I grumbled a bit but acknowledged her statement. Faunra offered up that I was indeed an arcane caster, even if it wouldn't be a strictly traditional one, and not only that, but I had also killed the previous Runelord, and usually such status transferred with the defeat or death of the previous position holder.
I told them all that I could understand their points, but I added that it really didn't change the fact that I had no desire for the position, no matter the form that it took. I told them that I had met enough assholes in power to know that the adage of power corrupting being a fairly close thing to an axiom. I didn't want to join the age-old trope of the guy who only wanted to do good, only to slowly be bogged down by the evil artifact to become the thing I hate. I added that I had already talked it over with Savah and that she didn't want me to take the position. Also, being a ruler would severely cut into my adventuring time. They all laughed at that.
That tabled the discussion on the subject of the status of the Runelord of Greed/Prosperity. No one would take up the mantle. Everyone was okay with that. With that dealt with, I brought up the next issue, the Fate of Xin Shalast. This was a continuation of the Runelords status, honestly, but the main administration of the city as a whole. We discussed this, with each bringing up their own points. One of the obvious things was that we would be assisting in the removal Rune Giants, and that the Skulks would have to have a seat at whatever kind of provisional government that is established.
The four of us were basically creating a whole new governmental regime in the early morning, even before breakfast. I vocalized that and Jonathan snapped to. He apparently had all of the stuff in one of his bags of holding, so he got to work on coffee and breakfast. I set to work summoning up unseen craftsmen to work on getting us a proper table and chairs, as well as accounting and annotating all of the treasure that we had skipped out on or bypassed, a monumental task in itself.
Dame Rebekah went about communing with her deity to find out the options from their perspective, while Faunra did her best to review the temporal significance of the entire mountain. That left me pulling up some .pdfs on governmental structures to get some good pros and cons. No point in doing more work than is needed when someone else did the work for you. After a few minutes, everyone came back. There was an ornate table with ornate chairs, a decent breakfast, and some answers from Faunra and Dame Rebekah.
As we sat in the room around the table, it flashed into my mind that the closest analog to this was a set of warlords huddled around a table of a land they just conquered, plotting out their next movements. Or maybe the CIA operatives planning who would be the next puppet regime. We finished our meal, devoid of any interference from any other person or entity, the Glaive still suspended in frozen animation above the throne, which had transferred back into this realm as well. By now, we noticed that the occluding field was gone, so that was a bit of a relief.
We finished our meal, the unseen craftsmen cleared off the table, and then we got to the discussion. First off, dictatorship was right out. We all agreed on that. Dame Rebekah tried to push for a theocracy for a minute before Jonathan reminded her that the most present religious figures of this place were undoubtedly those of Echidna. Dame Rebekah remembered that and withdrew her suggestion. Faunra said that a tribal elder suggestion might work while Jonathan had no desires about any form of government, as was simply happy to poke holes in anyone's suggestions.
I thought about the elder suggestion, and to me it had a little merit, but was possibly not a good solution, in that elders can be corrupted or controlled, and thus we could end up in a similarly bad situation. Jonathan noted a lot about what my apprehensions were, without me even as much speaking or hinting towards them. Faunra agreed with the problems and noted that with her tribe, there had been legends of such a thing. I offered up that it was likely that her people could get past it because they had so long to study the negatives to try to identify the root causes and prevent them from occurring. Then Jonathan asked me what my ideas were.
I sighed and told him that all governments were capable of being controlled by those with evil intent. I told him that where I was from had a Constitutional Republic with Democratically elected representation, and had had a decent run, but all too often, people would bribe, extort, blackmail, outright lie, or even kill to get into positions of power, and others would support them by handling the bad deeds. I joked that there was even talk that one politician that craved power had a "suicide list" where almost fifty of their opponents and those who might have had dirt on them showed up dead from suicide, like where they were shot three times in the back of the head, or that they had stuffed themselves in a duffle bag, locked it, and then drown themselves by filling up a bathtub. I added that the fact that there was no obvious blood on the politician's hands meant that they were never convicted of such a thing. I added that with the cult of personality that rises up around some people, others might take up such actions on their own, without so much as a nod or wink from the politician.
The group listened to my tired rant and Faunra asked me what I thought would work best. I thought about it a bit more, and offered up something similar to Sandpoint's government, where different factions would be able to elect their own representative. How they chose to elect that representative would be their own responsibility. Each representative would be the equal of all others, and votes would be required to get actions performed. I offered up that it should always be an odd number, as even though a single representative could abstain from the vote, it would need at least the necessity of a vote that wasn't balanced for forward action. I added that framework should be built in where additional group representatives should be able to be added at a later date as the city expands and representation is needed, but only with a super majority of the existing group, and only to be added in pairs.
Jonathan noted that this seemed very arcane and busy, and not likely to get anything done. I smiled and agreed, noting that the common people usually did best when those above them didn't interpose themselves into the people's business. Jonathan smiled at that, and I think I caught a slight grin from Faunra as well, if only for a moment. Dame Rebekah asked how the representatives should be decided in the first place, what the representatives actually represent. I pondered this and noted that we really had two to three factions remaining in the city or would by the end of our time here.
Jonathan proffered up, the Skulks, the Storm Giants, and the Cloud Giants that were moral in nature? I told him that I wouldn't care too much about who all they had in the area, that it would be best if the town stayed away from those of malicious intent and added that he could add the stone giants and the taiga giants, if they wanted to stay. Faunra offered up that once we got rid of the Rune Giants, that we could see which of the rest were actually willing to remain. I agreed that some might have reservations about staying in a place where they were mentally subjugated, and others might actually have families and the like back home that they would like to get back to. Dame Rebekah hefted her sword, asking what we were waiting for then.
I told her that we needed intelligence, which we could get from the Skulks. Faunra thought about it and realized that the Storm Giants were to flush our any obvious targets and get them to reveal their plans. I nodded and noted that we needed Morgiv and his people's assistance, and we needed to get his people a way to be on a level playing field with the giants that remain, if they even decide to remain. Faunra offered up that she could enchant an area to show evil entities.
I shook my head and noted that it would be better if we made it so that the people couldn't lie, as self-interested people could be trusted to be self-interested, but when they try to deceive, things go bad. Dame Rebekah offered up that the measure could be defeated. I agreed but noted that it could give them a leg up on their new administration. Faunra said that she could enchant that with Dame Rebekah's help. I nodded and noted that it could be something as simple as enchanting whatever they were all sitting around to show who was around the was lying.
We noted all of that down and put a pin in it. This discussion was going slow, but a little constructive. Faunra brought up the issue of the time machine. I offered up that I would be glad to work with her on it, but that I wanted to be able to spend time with Savah as well. Faunra nodded and noted that she could get assistance from someone else, if needed.
Jonathan said that we should be careful about who we allow to know about the Time Machine, as meddling with time is never a good thing. I agreed and there were lots of stories back where I was from about people reducing themselves to nothingness be making it so that their parents never met each other. Everyone stopped and looked at me and asked how we had Time Travel without magic. I told them that it was mostly just theorizing, but looking back over the machine, it looked a LOT like something from a work of fiction called Stargate back where I was from that was guiding my thoughts with the machine. With a proper orrery, and maybe a way to figure out how far back we need to go, I can slowly work on getting power back to it and get the project going.
Faunra asked if I thought that any other person would be familiar with this technology. I told her that the only two people who could, would be the two Terrans back at Sandpoint, and they didn't seem the geeky kind. Faunra sighed sadly. I stopped her with noting that we just needed to get Savah up to speed on what I needed to do, and that I could do a lot of the work without too much effort, especially if we teleported in and out each day. Faunra smiled a bit on that. I told her that we could get a good time measurement from the Clockwork Librarian back in Jorgenfist, and even do some research in there further to nail down the date, head to someplace known for their precision to get the best orrery that we could, and then start to get everything back into the proper set up. I told her that I didn't want to mess with another thing that came out of the portal, so we were going to be cautious about it.
I told Faunra that after I got her people brought forward to the future, I would have to destroy the machine. I noted that I would make sure that all of her people were brought back, but that would be the extent of it, and that they couldn't take anything with them, only what they had on them. Faunra said that she would do her best to inform them of such. I told her that if she were indisposed of when the time came, I would be as polite as I could, but I would be firm.
I also told her that I would definitely need a leather jacket and a different style of sunglasses if I was to head back in time to get them all. She was confused by that, and I told her that it would only make sense to me and the two Terrans. She slowly nodded and chocked it up to just my own brand of oddity. I told her that I was sincere in my desire to rescue her people, and that I would try to get them to where they needed to be as soon as possible. She told me that her tribe was small, only about two hundred or so, so we should be able to get them off of the mountain quickly enough.
With that matter mostly tabled for now, we got to the subject of the creatures that were working on it. The Denizens of Leng. Jonathan seethed at the mere mention of them. I told him that I didn't like them much either and that H.P. Lovecraft had a lot to answer for in his descriptions of them. Jonathan looked at me oddly, I just brushed it aside. I told him that we could try to build a new ship that could sail the stars to go after the ship that they had his clones in, but that we needed technology that would take a long time to develop. Jonathan sighed, and I told him that he could try to get ahold of a teleportation effect of some kind, but that it might be better to seek out some information from deities. Jonathan noted that he'd talk to Ayamara when we got back to Magnimar. I noted that this is a matter of revenge and freedom, so their patron might have some good hints.
Dame Rebekah brought up the next part, the possibility of other Runelords still existing. I proffered up a quip that maybe the Pathfinders might know, because they obviously knew about Karzoug's little Bungalow up here. Dame Rebekah stared daggers at me, and I apologized for my obstinance. She asked me why I thought so little of the Pathfinders, since I had lobbied so hard for us to join them. I told her that it wasn't that I didn't like them, much to the contrary, it was just that they were an intelligence organization that was noticeably short on the kind of actionable intelligence that we had need of.
I sighed and told her that everything the Pathfinders knew about what we were dealing with was information that we had brought to them. I'd trust them to keep an ear out and trust but verify the information that they brought me, but I wasn't going to put all of my eggs in that basket. Dame Rebekah said that she could understand that, but that we should still talk to them about the issue. Jonathan and Faunra agreed, and I said that I'd reach out when we got back to Magnimar. We set about getting all of this down and recorded.
We decided that we should try to get some rest after all of that, so we each went to our own separate areas to just rest and relax for a few hours. I managed to get in a message to Savah about how this might take a bit longer to get dealt with than just today. I briefly told her that we had to deal with at least thirty more giants to deal with. Savah replied back to me that she could understand that I wouldn't stay away if it weren't needed. I agreed with her and told her that I'd be back as soon as I could, or failing that, I'd find a way to get her here. After four hours, the whole complex had been scoured of all valuables and everything had been catalogued by the unseen craftsmen.
We started on our way to the Room with the portal device. I remembered something that had been stored away in my mind from long ago. The Hounds of Tindalos were the entities that came in from corners, like that thing had done, and could only be blocked by having the room have no corners. I mentioned this to the group and noted that we needed to greatly modify the room, to prevent entities from teleporting into the room by making it look vastly different from before.
We set about with conjured stone walls, and whatever we could think of. All of the corners were rounded to the best of our ability. When we were done with the room, I took a series of videos and pictures of the room. We would need to be able to teleport back into the room, as we needed to block off this room as best as we could. That was when the Walls of Stone went into the place, blocking the door and melding into the walls around it. We made it as thick as we could. The air inside would be dead, and we'd need to have some kind of vent in there after the fact, but it needed to be completely inhospitable to others, so that was why we had left a fire in the room. Not to damage anything, but to burn up all of the air in the sealed room.
When we were on our way down, we caught back up with the two Storm Giants and Ayruzi. Ayruzi mentioned that we needed to have the glaive to prove that Karzoug had been slain. I went back up to the room where the throne was and grabbed the glaive out of the temporal stasis. It was a bit groggy mentally but tried to take control when it was caught up. I shut it down quick, and it grumbled into obeisance.
I walked back to the group and presented the glaive. We continued to the landing and the plane. The Storm Giants looked at the plane and indicated that they would not be able to get in there anytime soon. Faunra offered up that we could reduce them in size and then fly down quickly to the city level. They looked a bit confused but agreed. She whipped out the staff from Khalib and used it to reduce the two Storm Giants. I go the plane going and we whipped down to the city in a rapid descent.
When we landed, just after seven and a half minutes of rapid descent, the Storm Giants rushed out of the plane and shortly resumed to normal size. I shut down the plane and we all left from our conveyance. The Storm Giants and Ayruzi gathered up with our group and we talked to them about what we had talked about and where we think that their society should go. The Storm Giants seemed to balk a little, but we mentioned that we had no desire to destroy their way of life, and if they desired to leave, they were more than welcome to, it was just that this city will be crawling with people from other cities and town, and if they want to have some say over the city, it would be best if they had a unified front.
That seemed to get the Storm Giants on board. I told them that it would be entirely up to them, but that the one thing that I would request is that we keep some kind of perfunctory guard presence in the pinnacle of poverty, so that nothing takes up residence. The Storm Giants both agreed and noted that they'd bring it up in the first meetings. We asked if they knew any locations of the Rune Giants, and they mentioned that they would likely be in Jotunburg, if they were not on some assignment. I asked them to lead us there, and they did so. Most of the magical and other preparations that we had made were expended now, but we had the advantage of being feared. We also had all of our weapons fully loaded and ready to bear. Jonathan was fully amped up and Faunra was ready to go.
After a few minutes of travel, we were ambushed by a group of ten of the Rune Giants, each with group of two of the enspelled Cloud Giants and an enchanted Storm Giant as well. Well, it was an attempted Ambush. Jonathan knew it was coming and got himself prepared and informed all of us. When they first jumped us from all sides, the Cloud Giants rushing in while the Storm Giants let slip their arrows at us, Jonathan spotted the Rune Giants setting up their own attacks and he launched a series of marbles at them and the closest cloud giants rushing us.
Two of the Rune Giants and one of the Cloud Giants fell to his initial assault. He plinked off another one almost as an aside. Almost as an after thought, he sprayed yet another blast, this time repeating his attacks against the Rune Giants who were left, and a new batch of cloud giants. The rest of the Rune Giants dropped, and another cloud giant dropped as well. This led to the cessation of the conflict, as killing the ones controlling them and idly taking out two of the front liners was enough of a balk for them to notice the fact that I held the effective staff of state of the Runelord.
So, the Cloud Giants seemed to be in turmoil the most, while the Storm Giants came to us and met with their brethren. The rest of our group all looked at Jonathan, who had diminished the roiling chaos around him a little by the blasts that he had let off, and silently all asked him what the fuck? Jonathan said that he had just gotten the ability to easier utilize his gifts and had been waiting to use that trick for a suitable encounter. He went through and telekinetically lifted up the bodies of the Rune Giants and the fallen Cloud Giants and took them to the side. I exclaimed that this was going to be a LOT easier than I had expected. Jonathan chuckled but noted that this wasn't a thing he could do without the setup very frequently.
Ayruzi finally picked their jaw up off of the ground and said that this might be easier than they had thought. I shook my head and told them that this was just the stupidest of the Rune Giants. They were the ones who thought that numbers would give them what they needed to defeat the group that defeated Runelord Karzoug. The others will likely try to amass more of a power structure and go as much underground as they can. Faunra agreed with my assessment and said that this would be the most likely thing if they were in any way wise. Dame Rebekah told Ayruzi that we'd probably have to end up building an intelligence network and ferret out the rest.
Ayruzi asked what would be best to be done while we were waiting for all of this. I noted that we could utilize as much help as we could get, with as many holy servants of their deity to provide as many entities as possible that can locate objects through spells or abilities, this can make it much quicker. Ayruzi asked how that would work, and Faunra told them that we'd inform them of that when we were a bit more secure. Ayruzi nodded slowly, understanding that spies might have ears. I asked Jonathan to find us one of the Spared to get us into contact with Morgiv. He looked around for a bit and said that he'd be right back.
Ayruzi asked why we were sending away our best fighter. Dame Rebekah told them that we were not going to likely be attacked any time soon, since the display that was just done, and we would be more than enough to deal with whatever minor attack might occur in the short period of time that Jonathan was gone. Faunra backed that up with noting that Jonathan would not be gone all that long, and we had at least enough strength between the three of us and Ayruzi to handle any likely dangers that could happen before he got back. I wryly added that since I was apparently the heir apparent to the Runelord status vs everyone else, and most of these have never seen the Runelord Karzoug, striking at us, unless directed, would likely be unwise.
The next few minutes went by with the group of Storm Giants discussing everything between themselves. About half of the Cloud Giants either ran off immediately or slinked off quietly and disappeared into the city proper. When the discussion was done, and the Cloud Giants integrated into the group, one of the two Storm Giants that we had freed in the final battle came forward and told us that they had discussed things with the others, and they were all grateful to the one who ran off for freeing them from their dominion. Dame Rebekah told him that Jonathan should be back shortly if he was needed to be present for anything.
The Storm Giant, whom I learned was named Voratei, shook his head and said that what they were willing to discuss with us didn't need him to be here. Voratei said that his people here had all agreed with what we were suggesting. I asked him about the Cloud Giants and Voratei told us that the ones that would not be willing to work with the Storm Giants had left of their own accord. I nodded and Voratei said that his group would be willing to work to help root out the remaining Runelords.
Dame Rebekah started to thank him, but I told him that we were grateful for this, but that we needed to be extremely careful about this and that we could utilize him and his people best by getting the city's government and leadership back into order. Voratei started to bristle, and I told him flatly that we needed him and his people to get this city back to functionality, as we were going to be heading home after the Rune Giants were disposed of, and not too long after that, others would get here. His people needed to determine what would be right and what would not be. I added that it would be best if all of the opulence were taken into the city's treasury, before scavengers come in to try to take it for themselves.
Voratei seemed to think this over for a minute and finally said that this makes a lot of sense. He said that they'd review what we were proposing for the new government for Xin-Shalast. I stopped him at that and told him that the first thing that the new government, which WOULD include the Spared, would be to find a new name for the city. I added that they needed to break ties with the old history to create a new path forward. The Storm Giant said that he could agree with that and that they'd work to figure out their city's future.
The Storm Giant walked back to his people and the cloud giants who had been milling around. They decided to start conversing about the possibilities of the future city. While we were waiting, I got a telepathic urging from the Glaive that I should take my rightful place above this rabble. I sighed and thought back to the voice that I had no time to be a ruler and that I would have to give up too much power to do so anyway. The voice scoffed and asked what power I had that could surpass a legendary wizard? I told it that I knew of such things that even wizards could not replicate. It scoffed and I replayed the scene of a nuclear bomb going off while explaining the scale.
The voice in my head scoffed and said that might be a large explosion, but technology was not an unknown thing in Ancient Thassilon. That got my attention. I asked the voice in my head where I might be able to find evidence of this ancient technology. It told me that it could lead me to more information if I only took up the mantle of Runelord. I told it that I really wasn't interested, as I needed to get the technology out to the world and increase the prosperity of the world as a whole, and not just me. I added that when poverty declines, the need for government declines, hence the need for an emperor or Runelord. The glaive stopped sending thoughts to me at that, probably to think up a new attack venue.
While I was in my little mental argument, Jonathan had come back, noting that Morgiv would be here shortly, as he was coincidentally not that far away. I asked everyone what we should do next, and Faunra asked if I was done talking to myself. I sheepishly apologized and complained that I was dealing with the Glaive. Jonathan asked if I needed him to hold it again. I told him that he could if he wanted, but that it was just trying to tempt me with a loss of power for its own benefit. Jonathan nodded and asked the others if we'd appreciate him doing a patrol in the area while we waited.
I didn't mind, and neither did Faunra or Dame Rebekah, Ayruzi lazily flapped her wings over to me and asked if I would appreciate a refrain from the mental barrage. I told her that it really wasn't all that bad right now, just that it was trying to convince me to be the rightful ruler over this city, and I was explaining to it that I had way too much to do to take up a mantle like Runelord or Emperor of something similar and rule over a city. Ayruzi asked me politely why I thought that, and I told them that being a ruler was difficult and really time consuming, and I didn't need that stress when I had a kid on the way.
Ayruzi nodded and drifted back to the others while I sat on a chair and meditated upon the fact that there was more technology elsewhere in this world. Granted, the nuclear reactor in Kaer Maga was a big hint to that, which indicated that there was much more elsewhere. I knew that we'd have to get some larger plans and such if I was going to start harvesting more of the shattered remnants of technology that this world had to offer. I decided to start with the design process of a CH 54A, or at least what I could get away with here with my own resources.
After a while, it was brought to my attention that Morgiv was here with a delegation of Skulks. I put away my designing and got up to talk with everyone. Morgiv greeted us and noted that he had heard that we had destroyed the Runelord, and while he never met the Runelord, He had met us and believed it after what we had done for him. I thanked him and noted that we were sadly going to need him and his people even more. Morgiv told us that whatever was needed of him, he would do, such was his gratitude for the saving of his people.
Dame Rebekah, with a sigh, said that we needed actionable information about the location of all of the remaining Rune Giants in the city, so that we could commence with dealing with them. Morgiv nodded and noted that this wouldn't be a problem at all. He continued that he could get us a listing of where all of the known Rune Giants were by morning. I sighed to myself that this was going to require another day in town at least. Faunra told Morgiv that he should come back after getting his people on the task, as we had another job for him, that was much more dangerous and could only be entrusted to him. Morgiv straightened up and nodded before running back into the shadows with his surrounding skulk guards.
Voratei walked over and asked if those Skulks would be members of the city. I told him that they would be until they desired to leave. The Storm Giant nodded and said that he would make sure that his people knew that the skulks were not to be abused. I thanked him for the decency there, and Voratei noted that his people were not used to dealing with such as them, but that they felt them no ill will. I noted that until they determined the proper spokesperson for the council, that Morgiv would be the representative for them. The Storm Giant laughed and noted that politics was a dangerous job.
He mentioned afterwards that the other Storm Giant, a female by the name of Gyrra had been selected to be the representative for the Storm Giants and a man by the name of Rannir had been chosen by the Cloud Giants to represent them. Faunra took all of this down and noted that it would be good to get representatives from the Stone Giants and the Taiga Giants if they both wanted to stay. Gyrra spoke up and said that she'd go talk to the Taiga Giants and Rannir offered up that he'd go check with the Stone Giants. Dame Rebekah cautioned them that they should be careful about getting caught up by a Rune Giant. Gyrra said that she'd take a few of her Storm Giants with her, and Rannir offered up that he'd do the same with his own group of Cloud Giants.
The different groups both went off while the four of us were still remaining. I asked everyone what we should do next. Faunra said that she could spend a fair amount of time working on getting our equipment updated while our spy network got to work. Dame Rebekah said that she'd like to get some more sparing time in with Ayruzi, while she could. Jonathan shrugged, but offered up that he'd prefer to just run around scouting the area for any of the Rune Giants or any other issues.
Just then I remembered the Oni. I asked everyone what we should do about Gyukak. Faunra offered up that he had probably taken the assault on the dragon as the cue to skedaddle. I asked Faunra how she could be so flippant about it. She told me that she knew enough about the entity to try and scry them when we had the time, and failing that, she was certain that we could track them sufficiently to find where they were going. I nodded while listening to her explanation.
I followed up with asking her if we could have the Sihedron rune on the Sihedron Rings removed, so as to make it so that the detection magic makes it less likely to snag one of us. Faunra said that she would definitely do so, and that she could as soon as she spent a few days working on it. I asked if it would be wise to do that to all of the rings that we had captured, so that we knew how many were left and that we could get them sold off or fixed. Faunra nodded and said that she might just transfer the enchantment to other rings, so that we could easily melt down the old ones and then sell or gift the ones we had captured. Dame Rebekah offered up that we would definitely save one each for our loved ones. I nodded, thanking her.
We headed back to the plane, and I started setting up a decent stone hangar for the plane, and another temporary base for us. Between the various metamagic rods, we had a decent set up, and Dame Rebekah had set up an area of for practice fights. Jonathan had tasked a group of Skulks with getting him some mushrooms and other foodstuffs to start up making food for everyone. I spent the rest of the day getting the plane repaired and ready for travel back to Magnimar and Sandpoint. After the time that that took, I decided to do a deep dive into the books that Karzoug had been studying, and the ones that Khalib had on his shelf.
Before I went to bed, Faunra got with me to grab my gear off of my pilot's chamber stand. She did so without any warning, with a bit of a smile, and ran back to her own area. I shrugged and went back to my books. Before I went to bed, I sent a message to Savah about what all we had dealt with, and we had our good night wishes. Not too long before I expect to be heading back to Sandpoint. It will be good to go back to get the school ready and maybe arrange a vacation.