Pact Magic was a special type of art, famous among the Warlocks of Faerun. It was a type of magic that basically made an agreement between a warlock and the chosen patron.
Patrons were not deities as they lacked portfolios to manage over Faerun. They were extremely powerful beings whose relative strength surpassed the norm of that world and let the warlock to draw knowledge and powers from this entity.
But what truly made them strong was their relative strength when compared to the one who made the pact.
Satoru understood the fact that if he wanted to maintain this pact, he needed to either get the complete loyalty of Diderius, or have a power gap big enough to maintain his position as the patron.
Satoru was already an unofficial warlock of Titania, but it was the Fairy Queen who bestowed him the pact, not him.
Here, the current case was opposite.
It was Diderius who wished to be his warlock. And the greatest thing was, he had never done this before. If he asked on how to make a pact, then there was this possibility that he could be exploited by this Mummy Lord.
On the other hand, if he rejected the pact, then this Mummy would not value his presence anymore.
What a dilemma he had found himself in.
As of then, he was secretly peeking at every known Outer Plane or Inner Plane, where he could hide himself. He felt reluctant to leave this artifact here. But he had no choice. Taking the artifact might result the bitter relations between him and the Tomb wizard.
Today, the Mummy Lord had an appointment with some adventurers. They requested for his help due to reasons they didn't share. While he himself never cared much about others' issues, he was curious about these adventurers. The lifestyle they lived, the adventures they had and the places they had travelled.
To maintain the secrecy of his existence, he equipped his Mask of Envy, and covered his ribs and hands.
Satoru, at first, was surprised to hear that Diderius had some reputation amongst humanoid races as they usually hunted undeads. But, he turned out to be wrong here. Not only Diderius was famous among the adventurers, the town not far from his base had great respect for him.
The Tomb Wizard also returned their favor by providing his insights over some internal matters as well as giving warnings about any attacks from the bandits and monsters, through his scrying magic. It was a mutual relationship that was maintained between them for decades.
The room he found himself was a luxurious one, made for receiving guests only. Satoru took a seat besides Diderius, who wore a rather expensive looking robe. Though it was still no match to his own. It did not take too long for him to wait for the guests he was curious of.
An adventuring party consisted of four humanoids and one demihuman.
The first human was a male in his mid twenties. He wore a chain shirt over his usual clothes with a hat on his head. He seemed to be the bard as he carried an enchanted lute.
The second humanoid was a most likely a man, draped in dark Assassin clothes with his face wholly covered. Only his emotionless eyes could be seen.
The third was a tanned guy with strange white patterns all over his body. His upper body was bare and from what he knew, this guy reminded him of Totem Shamans.
The last human of this group was an old man who wore a... Buddhist monk attire? Now, that guy seemed interesting to him.
And the only demihuman of this adventurer team was a red-furred ape beastman with an armor made of white and two giant battle axes on either side of his waist.
The whole team seemed a bunch of oddball. But Satoru would never new what motivated them to choose their profession. He also noticed a single silver feather in each of their dresses. It must be a very important part of their team if each of them had it.
The bard came forward and introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you, Lord Diderius. I thank you for hearing us out. I, Freivalds, the leader of my adventuring team, Silver Thread Bird, introduce you to my team."
Freivalds bowed a little and then, introduced his team members.
The dark-clad assassin was Keila no Södersten, the ape beastman was called Fan Long, the buddhist monk was Unkei and the totem shaman was called Powapon.
This only left him to be the one unintroduced. Satoru did not care much to be known yet, but the scrutinizing gazes of the adventurers were pressing him to tell about himself. Diderius, who followed their line of sight, understood the matter of fact and introduced on his behalf.
"This great person besides me is Lord Satoru, an archmage and a closest ally of mine. Please give him the same respect as you gave to me."
There was a shift of emotions on the faces of adventurers, but they quickly composed themselves. They must have considered him to be another servant of Diderius, due to him being sitting at a seat lower than him. However, they were not looking down at him at the first place. His robes gave away the idea of not messing with him.
Oh well, next time he would make sure to put a better seat, or a throne, to sit at.
The adventurers were given their seats as well on the opposite side of Diderius, who asked about the cause of their appointment. The man named Freivalds took the turn to answer him.
"First and foremost, we do not want to cause you any trouble. We also do not want to take sides here. We need your help to find someone."
Diderius took his time to see any sort of deception. He allowed the man to speak further.
Divination was a delicate art in the magic, as it might be possible that someone could be framed for spying until proven wrong. What Freivalds was trying to tell here, was that they were not going to pull the Mummy Lord into some shady business. They just needed his assistance for stuffs to get their work done.
"The thing is, we require your assistance in order to find the whereabouts of the Dragon Cult. For helping us, you will also get paid. Though we can't give you our half of fortune. I hope you understand where we are getting at."
Satoru could understand that. If the reward was divided between them unfairly, then it might cause bad relations in the future. It would be correct to resolve this problem before it even began.
Diderius nodded, "I can understand that. Let's divide the reward into one-third for me and the remaining to you. How is it?"
Freivalds was shocked to hear that. It sounded too generous for him. He quickly accepted the terms.
Satoru might be disappointed on him getting satisfied at just this price. As a former salary man, he would have bargained to further lower the price. But then again, he was bargaining against an ancient netherese Mummy Lord, who would not have given a second thought on their request and silently told them to leave. So it might be a fair deal.
Speaking of the Dragon Cult, his infiltrator had advised him to be ready as the cultists were prepared for what they called "the revival of Tiamat", despite it being an aspect of her true self.
He wanted to become strong, but it would be troublesome if the Deities started to take interest in him had some humans died under his watch. They would clearly label him evil, instead of neutral. Even though it would be their fault to follow him at the first place.
Satoru racked his non-existent brain to stop them from going after her. It would be a huge waste of a potential XP farming. He'd heard of Avernus being full of devils and the Blood War between the fiends of Baator and Abyss. They might have some strong warriors for him to farm as he really needed more XP for level ups.
Suddenly, an idea had popped up in his empty skull.
"So you are after them too, huh?"
His words caught their attention, as they stared at him warily.
"Excuse me? But what exactly do you mean by that?" Freivald inquired.
"I mean what I said. Those dragon cultists were also under my radar. Thanks to my spies, I am aware of their plans and divisions."
"Divisions? Are you saying that..."
Satoru nodded, "Yes, you are thinking right. The Dragon Cult has been divided into two factions. The old faction which you are already aware of, and the new faction who are causing disturbances across the Faerun."
The Overlord was aware that the adventurers could not be silenced by money or death, as resurrection magic was commonly used in this realm. He needed to avert their focus over something else. He added half-truths and lies to fabricate his upcoming battle against the Dragon Queen.
"The new faction has been plundering wealth and kidnapping people to make the chromatic dragons join them. They are following the prophecy that the dragons will rule upon the Faerun, including their followers as the apostles of the new world that their masters would create. Not only that, the patron deity of chromatic dragons have bestowed them her guidance to manage them. If they managed to accomplish that, then..."
Satoru was about to finish his words, but then he decided to stop there. If his words created enough tension, then they might consider his words true and divert their attention on the remaining members of the new faction. That would remove the useless canon fodder who could most likely become a nuisance if left on their own devices. He would be doing a favor on these adventurers, as he gave them the information about the hideouts of these cultists.
It was finally his time to descend into the Avernus. Though he was perplexed how they managed to cover their expenses so fast, he would find out eventually.