You excuse Dean Mapleseat from performing the ritual - for the time being. No point allowing the elf the sit around twiddling her thumbs for however long it takes to gather the components. Instead you order the Dean and her scholars to do something constructive for the settlement. She considers your demands, and agrees to inspect and reconfigure the magical plumbing systems beneath the town of Chainbleach, so that they can provide water to and remove waste from whatever the Tieflings build within the walls.
---
Grom'Chul's request is reasonable, so you grant him permission to draft 500 new slave drivers. You question the logic of pulling high elves for the job, but the half-orc assures you that it will be fine. "The new guys are mostly going to serve as enforcers for my Orcs, who will be the real brains behind the operation." the half orc explains, "All the rookies need to do is follow orders, wield a whip or billy club, and look at least mildly intimidating. Even a high elf could do it."
The head slave driver informs you that nonetheless he intends to mostly pull from the cult. The high elves are airheads, as you suggest, and he doesn't want too many of them learning how to command their own slaves. As for the Typhoon Coast Enclave, Grom'Chul dosn't want to interfere with their eugenics programs nor waste the talents of their thoroughbred specialists by hitting them hard with the draft. Still, he will take at least some population from each faction so as to appear fair.
---
Chromatic Dragons do not spend much time in mortal dwellings, so the fact that High Fang, former home of Black Prince DiXander, is the most impressive building you have ever stood in likely speaks more to your lack of experience than it does to the merits of the manor. The walls are made of marble trimmed with large amounts of High Onyx, a synthetic rock manufactured by the high elves that sparkles with a supernatural luster. Many of the hallways and stairwells are just large enough to allow your true form to pass, but after some debate you choose to assume your humanoid form while inside to allow yourself room to maneuver.
You find Princess Ni'gwent in a sparsely decorated drawing room, entertaining Cori Moonblood of the Typhoon Coast Enclave. The high elf is quick to dismiss her guest so that she might retire with you to her chambers, and by the time you are able to explain that you intend to wait until marriage and will formally propose once you find a suitable engagement bauble, the Tiefling has already left.
"Oh. What a shame. The Tiefling was just tutoring me on the science of Miscegenation. Did you know that the first elemental elves were created by careful mixing of dragon and elfish blood, with a dash of transmutation magic thrown in for good measure?" The Princess muses, "I have nothing against elemental elves, save for the fact that most of them want me dead, but I'm positive that we can do better than that with our offspring; Mine is almost surely to be the highest elfish bloodline to ever mix with dragonkind!"
A few minutes pass as you allow Princess Ni'gwent to indulge her fantasy of ushering in a new elfish paradigm through the children you will give her. Eventually you get down to the purpose of your visit, and ask your future wife to show you The Black Prince's map.
The trophy room is the highest point in the manor, and actually sits higher than the natural summit of Mount Ogre-Ear. It is large chamber with walls made almost entirely of High Onyx and capped by a glass dome. Prince DiXander clearly cleaned up before he left, as the room is vacant save for the map on the floor and a collection of large glass lenses, mirrors, and mechanical parts that partially covers the border between rock wall and glass ceiling. Several of Princess Ni'gwent's underlings are studying this massive device, which they believe to be a Retinal Cooker, a particularly cruel magitech device that can turn a slave or prisoner into a homing device programmed to lead others to a given location.
The map itself only covers about a quarter of the floor, and seems to depict only a portion of Doomrus. Perhaps Prince DiXander intended to expand upon it as he explored the continent. Sites are marked in three distinct areas; The haunted woods beyond the colony, a desert region up the coast and far to the north, and some arid highlands that sit inland and far to the northeast. The map does not include a key, so it is up to Princess Ni'gwent and her scholars to fill in the gaps for you as best you can.
Several dozen of the sites are depicted as huts or towers on the map. Of these, many are marked with a pair of crossed spears, which Ni'gwent suggests means that a hostile settlement exists or existed at that location on the map. The remaining settlements are either marked with an open hand, or nothing at all. The Princess and one of the mooks examining the Retinal Cooker disagree on what these symbols mean. The mook thinks that the open hand settlements have actively aided or traded with the Black Prince, and that the unmarked ones are merely neutral, while Ni'gwent argues that the open hand indicates any non-hostile settlement, and that the unmarked ones, which are few and far between, indicate populations that DiXander observed but did not approach. You notice and point out that all the settlements in the highlands are marked as hostile, while none in the desert are. The scatterbrained elves murmur in shock at your revelation. The map indicates that there are hostile, 'neutral', and 'friendly' settlements in the woods nearby, but based on your quick surveying flight they might be difficult to spot from the air.
Five sites on the map are marked with a black shield bearing the severed head of a red dragon: an image that Princess Ni'gwent explains is the Black Prince's personal emblem. She guesses that that DiXander may have defied the ban against exiles wielding powerful construction magics, and built some sites in secret. Of these five sites, the purpose of only one can be deduced by looking at the map; "Freesails" is situated in a small natural harbor a ways up the coast, and judging by that name and location everybody present agrees that it must be some sort of secret port. You further deduce, going off a large blank area between the sites DiXander has explored in the woods and in the desert, that the Black Prince may have launched his desert voyages by sea. Another site, called "The Cradle" seems to sit on that mountain you saw in the distance from your Ariel survey. The remaining three sites are scattered across the haunted woods and called "Blackleaves," "Hell-Roots," and "The Trembling Drake" in order of nearest to the colony to furthest.
The map also shows many cave entrances and ruined pillars. Some of these sites are in locations that may be visible from the air.
Having considered the map, you tell Princess Ni'gwent that you are considering traveling with Tol-Gurra and his servants. Your probable future wife considers this for a moment before answering: "Well, I doubt you need any protection, but it would be proper protocol for a princess of my station to offer the one she is courting a champion to aid in his quest." Then then quickly ushers you around the mansion to meet three such possible champions.
Alcuin the Annihilator is an ancient looking elf with a long white beard. You know the title of 'Annihilator' is not given out lightly - only the greatest practitioners of High Elfish Destructive Magics earn that accolade. Alcuin likely wields terrifying power, and that is before taking into account the fact that you can boost magic users, but you also know that as a general rule the more prestigious a high elf is in the magical arts, the more scatter brained and useless they are in other walks of life. You would likely be stuck babysitting Alcuin until such a time he becomes useful.
Alcuin's opposite is Daniel Marcross, an EEA (Engineering, Enchantment, and Artifice) mage of great talent yet low birth. Daniel's collection of enchanted crossbow bolts and boomerangs likely dose not stack up to the Annihilator's magic, but he has some experience in outdoorselfship, and he might prove useful in identifying valuable materials.
Lucy St. Crux, Paladin of the High Elf Pantheon, is something of a middle-ground pick. Her combination of divine magic and skill with a maul likely puts her between the two male elves in terms of combat ability, and although generally only the least scatterbrained among the high born high elves are tapped to become paladins, Lucy is clearly young and inexperienced to the point where she might not be the most dependable traveling companion.
You suppose you could take more than one champion, or refuse to take any at all, but you are unsure how Princess Ni'Gwent would take such a decision.
---
You attempt to pass along what you have learned to the apostle Tol-Gurra, but the Tiefling brushes you aside.
"My path has already been illuminated to me by the Prophet Diabold," He declares "you are welcome to come, but I can tell you little about our mission other than it will be worth your while and will probably take about a month. Be sure to drag other heretics along if you desire company. I will personally butcher any of my followers caught having non-vital conversation with you or anybody else who lacks demon blood."
These words infuriate you, but also inflame your curiosity. You wish there was a way to both kill this arrogant fool on the spot and have him lead you to wherever he is going.
How do you proceed?
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Topic: (SG) Flight of the Dragon Lord (Read 8207 times)