Close to the end of leveling up.
In the evening as everyone is gathered eating Red speaks.
“I am going to need a shield to complete my next task for the Collegium. I do not believe we have such an item on hand?
If we do not have such an item I will need to enlist the help of Alexis to try and detect the closest shield to us.”
After a few days of leveling up.
Red approaches Alexis with the detecting bowl in his hand.
“Alexis, this device I made is now not as useful as it once was. I have been pondering what to do with it.
Detecting something else is an option, of course. You have been asking about detecting scrying.
Now that we have the orb I would suggest you let me use it. It shouldn’t be too hard to align this bowl to be able to detect if we are being scryed on… time and material permitting of course.
But if you have some other ideas for what to detect with this bowl, let me know”
A week into leveling up
Ethelred has been keeping on a eye on Alexis since we left the dwarven cave with the Tear of Ave.
Red approaches Ca’ramine.
“Car’mine… I want to ask you about Alexis and his keen focus on the Tear of Ave. Let me explain.
When I first met Alexis he was following the god of luck. He always had a coin and took the whims of the world as a challenge.
Then he switched to Ave. I never fully understood this choice, but saw the benefits and the meaning it brought Alexis.
When you and Rask joined the balance of the party changed in many ways. The obvious was the push for conflict resolution through strength. But the more important shift was towards Aigeir and towards Raiden. Once again Alexis switched to newer god. And I get the reason and I see the many benefits.
But now we find ourselves at yet another crossroads. I see two paths. One where Alexis stays with Raiden, and the larger party. One path where Alexis get pulled back towards Ave.
That gem is powerful. More powerful than I think we fully yet understand.
I ask you to keep an eye on Alexis. Especially if we want to keep him on the path of Radien.”
After his attempt to alter his for to ice, Ethelrednlats down and stairs into the middle distance. Deep in thought he stays for a good while.
Then he stirs and addresses Alexis
“We have a difficult task ahead. Then plan to deal with the bats first seems smart. Hopefully there are not too many of them.
When it comes time for the giant I think we have some options to buy us some time.
Smoke could help create some cover for sure. make it at least at a bit harder for the giant to see us.
A wall of ice in front, or around. him could buy us even a bit more time.
If we can get enough vegetation we might be able to build some crude decoys. In addition if we disguised ourself in vegetation we might create even more confusion.
This is in a hope that we can get either past the giant, or close enough to disable him somehow.
If we had a way to get his sword away from him I would feel better about our chances of attacking him. With the sword I do not want to get close enough to get hit. One swipe from that weapon and even my armor would be of little help.
We have a few tools we can leverage, we just have to be wise about how we deploy them.”
While we wait to climb the stairs again and face the wrath of the fire…
Red sits and spreads a few of his items in front of him.
He sets the wooden bowl in his lap.
He sprinkles a bit of silver dust into the bowl.
He lets out a few drops of water into the bowls.
He places the blue stone he has on top of the silver dust.
He take out the lens of his bulls eye lantern and sets into the bowl on top the blue stone.
He holds a clear crystal at arm length above the bowl.
Long he spends just sitting in that position. Holding open in his mind and how he is able summon a flame.
Long he concentrates on the effects of water.
Long he concentrates on how he is able to flow between heat and cold.
Long he concentrates on the effects of fire.
Long he breathes.
Long his takes his mind back in time to the crystal with the man frozen. The moment when he touched the crystal and was transported into cold.
Long he takes mind mind back to the cold from the wolf that shielded them from the danger of the Orcs.
Long he dwells on the true distance between flame and ice.
Slowly he evokes and slowly he attempts to bring forth a cold ‘flame’ from within.
After we descend from the fire room fleeing from the bats.
“Alexis, we have talked about what ‘anchor’ we might use to return to our own time. We have also talked about how Hedonis is diligently still pursuing us.
We have, up to this point, assumed he was trying to follow in our tracks and head us off on our path to the tear.
But there are more than one way to catch us.
What if he is building a new working. A summoning not of demons, but of us.
Hedonis wants us to return to him, in this time…. with the Tear in hand.
What if we plan on that. We use Hedonis as our anchor. We create a plan to beat him at his own game?
It might be a long shot, but it also might be the one real shot we have to return home with the Tear and to actually keep it.”
After the group has retreated from the eruption of the fire bats from the fire lake, Alexis sits with the Crimson Calling on the steps between the two levels. He adjusts his whip.
“Good. Now we know what’s in the fire.” He looks at Rask, Gustav, and Ca’armine. “First, the bats. Then we try talking to the giant again.” A slight pause. “He must be desperate for conversation by now. Desperate might work in our favor.”
He glances up toward where the giant would be.
“How long does he think he’s been here?”
He lets that sit for a moment, then continues.
“If talking doesn’t work, we have options. That unnatural forest below, we can harvest from it. We could build a ballista again.” He waves a hand slightly. “Long shot.” Alexis looks at Ethelred “But maybe you can find something in that idea worth working with.” He looks at Ca’armine. “Raiden can reach him too. The determined wall of the north, your bolts. That right?”
“If it comes to it, we hit him from range, keep him from throwing those boulders, rest, come back the next day. Repeat. Not my preference, but it works.” A beat. “We might need more food if we’re doing this over days. Gus, you have options. Rask, Carm, you two as well?”
He looks at Gustav, Ethelred, then Rask.
“Any of you have anything that reaches at this range?”
Alexis takes a moment and looks at all his comrades. “But that’s just where I’m starting. Any other ideas? Rushing to the stairs? Blinding the giant somehow if we need to? Something else?”
While the group has a little downtime on the lush forest level in the tower-out-of-time of Nodden-Torr, Alexis muses out loud.
“Something’s been sitting with me.” He waits a moment. “The orcs that tore through Nodden-Torr had black veins running through them. Unnatural. Shadow infused in them, or some-such. Clearly altered by Shasherak. And that shadow creature we fought under Nodden-Torr, same thing: Black veins.”
He glances at the group.
“And Bandesingh uses orcs too. Different mark, same foot soldier.” He glances back. “Why orcs for both of them? Not stink lizards, not hobgoblins, not gnolls. Orcs.” A beat. “Did Bandesingh learn that from Shasherak? Is there a connection between them, or did two men arrive at the same answer separately?”
Another beat.
“There’s a spellbook tied to Shasherak that nobody’s seen in an age. I’d very much like to know where it is. I wonder if it’s being held by the Dark Hand.”
After the conversation about the ‘anchor’ dies down. Red’s mind turn to materials.
“Alexis, I want to take apart one of these chairs. Materials might be tight soon. These chairs seem sturdy, worth gathering what I can.
In the past you have been.. reluctant for me to take things apart.
A chair for future makings?”
The group has been awake for a little while, moving through the quiet routines of breaking a camp that was never quite a camp. Eight plush chairs in a room that has no business existing where it does. Everyone present.
Alexis sits forward, elbows on knees, and tilts his hat brim up toward the shaft in the ceiling.
“Before we move, I want to talk about that hole.” He looks up at it for a moment. “There’s light up there. And this room is clean. No debris, no dust, nothing that should have fallen down from wherever that shaft goes.” A pause. “That’s worth understanding before we decide what to do with it.”
He looks around the group.
“Carm, I want to ask you something that might be a long shot. Your connection with Raiden,” he chooses his words carefully, “is there any chance he could tell us when we are? Not where. When.”
He looks back at the shaft.
“And does anyone have a way to learn more about what’s up there before we commit to anything? I’d rather know more than less before we start climbing.”