"Too much to hope for peace, then."
- Turpis, to nobody in particular.
Mayari, Nezzik, Daggar and Hale strode through the searing lands and trying their best to ignore the heat, still stifling even through their divine protection. The sapphire rings on their fingers kept the worst of the heat at bay, though Istamoshur was hardly a walk through the park regardless.
"You are certain these things will work?" demanded Mayari coldly. The dark elven ranger kept a hand on her chitin blade, a relic of her family, though a practical understanding of warfare had let her switch the old carapace armour for newer Nezumi-forged copper scales.
"The herald forged them," Hale muttered. "They will work." The Firestarter-turned-cleric of Turpis glared up at the raging inferno that was Istamoshur's sky.
"We're getting paid for this, right?" squeaked Nezzik, scratching his dull black fur idly.
"What we do is vital to the survival of the very cosmos!" Hale snapped, then felt himself being lifted up by the robe.
"But we are getting paid for this," said Daggar. The monolithic Ger, muscles buldging beneath heavy copper plated armour, did not mean it as a question. For reasons of status Hale chose to take it as one.
"Of course," Hale said, shaking himself out of Daggar's grasp. "You were paid a third in advance, held in escrow for you at the Hub. The remainder will be paid out on completion of our mission."
"What's so special about this crystal, then?" Mayari asked. "I would have thought that if your lord was so powerful He could take care of this Himself." Hale snorted.
"How little you understand of the divine," he sneered, then caught himself. The alliance of the New Empire was fragile enough without offending the daughter of the Elven faction's leader. "My lord cannot enter the body of the Machine God without His sensing my lord's presence. As mortals we can pass unnoticed by the Gearlord so long as we do not say His name. Once into the belly of the beast, we must not invoke Him in any way or we are certainly doomed. Then it is simply a matter of evading the Skaturii until we reach the prize."
"And what is the prize?" Nezzik asked.
"Look," said Hale, pointing upward to the sky. The flames drew away, revealing a dark and terrible hole in the firmament. In the shadows beyond, the mortals could make out strange and unnatural shapes; teeth of metal and elaborate chains, slicked with oil and smoke. "It's time. Break the charm, Nezzik."
The blackfur threw down a small glass orb, which shattered on the ground. A soft, silvery cloud enveloped the party, concealing them from sight and lifting them up toward Garish's maw...
Free Action: Send party of adventurers into Garish's realm via Istamoshur. Provide them with mortal-level divine magic in the form of charms and other items.
Free(?) Action: Conceal a small party of mortals from Garish and other deities unless the mortals directly invoke them. Reliant on a link to the party (cleric). Concealment does not work against mortals.
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Topic: Third Lords of Creation (Read 28383 times)