Slaverin: 06 - Offers We Can't Refuse
General Summary
Orcus offers us a deal. He wants us to destroy the protective barrier that is keeping him and the other demons on the island. If we do this, he offers us treasure and says he'll take all the demons with him back to their realm after he takes care of one little thing that he won't disclose. Sounds like a deal, right? We're a bit wary of making quick deals with demons so we ask for some time to think and he gives us an hour.
Walking back to the protective room for safety, we see a large figure wearing plate black armor on the other side of the bridge as we approach. He identifies himself as Master of Cruelties, the second in command of this demon band. He offers a deal of his own. He tells us that the Vile contains Orcus' true name, which if spoken to him will destroy him. The book is located uner the pool, in a shipwreck that's guarded by merfolk. Only an evil being can hold the book, but anyone who posesses the book can leave the island. This sounds like a better deal as we think we can outsmart or outfight this guy once Orcus is dead.
We agree and continue on to the red room where another new voice greets us as we enter the red cloud. A woman's voice calls out "travelers, you must help me". Realizing this is the mage Ariel we listen as she asks us to be released. She wants us to remove the book from the island which would instantly kill anything left on the island and return the demons to their own plane. As a gesture of goodwill, she returns Borin, Igan, and Harding immediately to the room.
We all drink our water-breathing potions of water-breathing and dive into the pool of brackish water. Opening up a hatch at the bottom, we come out to behold a large shipwreck that looks like it's been there for ages. While it's partially hidden by a cave, beyond it it looks like the water opens up to the lake above. To the north we see a small tunnel that presumably leads back to somewhere in the demon's lair.
We cautiously approach the shipwreck but are set upon by four merpeople. As we battle and kill them off, we search for the book but only find some vials of purple liquid and a chain mail shirt. After killing them off, we explore more of the cavern and find more crates in the corner. One of them contains the book along with 600G and a violet garnet worth 500G. As Arcon Domine is the only evil one of our group, we let him take and read the book which gives him all sorts of cool properties. He discovers that Orcus' real name is Nevik. We swim back up to the red room to heal back to full health, knowing we're in for a fight to get out of here.
Deciding to stick to the plan of first killing Orcus and then trying to escape so that we can send the demons home, we head back to Orcus' lair. We run into Master C at the bridge and tell him it's under control, letting him know that he'll get the book once we kill Orcus. Wink-wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean? know what I mean?
He escorts us back to Orcus where Harding and Borin enter his chamber in an attempt to convince Orcus to kill Master C. Orcus sees through our plan and before he can kill us, Borin yells "Suck it Nevik" and he disintegrates. Leaving his chamber, Igan attempts an illusion to make Master C think that the book fell out of Arcon's bag and a vrock carried it off. The deception buys them a few seconds, but not long. Master C quickly realizes that we're trying to play him and turns on us in wrath.