Elke's Legacy
In the aftermath of the fight, the Foundation took a moment to collect themselves in Elke’s lab. Bal picked up Elke’s control rod and initially pocketed it. He then opened a psychic link with Rasp and the two had a brief, but enlightening conversation as Rasp told Bal that he had a dragonshard-infused heart inside him and he was “super dead”. Bal promised to keep that between the two of them and then gave Rasp Elke’s control rod. Tap brushed herself off and let Rasp know that she was alright.
Rosa and Trilla joined them in the lab, confirming the zombies were no longer “alive”. The Foundation asked what had happened between the two of them and Rosa said that they had got to talking before the zombies arrived and that she had realized that Roan’s death wasn’t Trilla’s fault and that Roan had known what he was getting into. If anyone was to blame, it was the Shadow.
The party then searched through Elke’s things as a whole and they found that Elke was obsessed with solving one arcane equation of some sort, though they couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Also of note was that there was very little in the lab concerning the Shadow.
The Foundation decided they needed to get some rest before taking the long trek back to Patrahk’n. Rosa then let the foundation know that she had a one-way teleportation circle back to the House Tharashk headquarters if they wanted to use that. They still decided to rest before heading back through. Before they slept, the foundation discussed how they were going to handle the fact that Elke was dead and Warlord Xaco wanted her alive. To their surprise, Rasp cast animate dead and turned Elke’s body into a zombie that followed his commands. Some confusion ensued as to what exactly the plan was with Elke’s body, but with the revelation that they could animate Elke, the foundation decided to rest.
Before getting down to sleep, Mila wrote a letter to her brother, and Bal approached Trilla. He asked her what she was going to do after this. Trilla told him that if they were fighting the Shadow, she wanted to help. Bal offered for Trilla to come back to Sharn with the Foundation, which Trilla was happy to hear, but also said she would be willing to act as a member in the field if that made people more comfortable. Bal also talked to her about her kalashtar abilities and showed her that he had been working to achieve these same abilities since he started having nightmares about his quori spirit. This was surprising to Trilla and she told Bal to be careful as the spirit he was attached to might not be “the good kind”.
Vax took the first watch, sitting outside the lab. With no one around he started to call out to Azazel, but before he could finish the name, Zaz appeared sitting in front of him. Vax asked Zaz why he didn’t have any power yet and Zaz covered what he needed to get out of the deal. Zaz explained that he is indeed stuck in the Shadow Marches because that’s the only place that currently has a gate to his “office” mini-plane. If Vax would agree to help him place more gates in locations where he could have access to many souls, that Vax’s power would grow. With Vax agreeing, Zaz shook his hand engulfed in flames and disappeared.
A Warlord's Fury
The party woke feeling strong and revitalized in the morning. When all were ready, Rosa took a piece of chalk and a small dragonshard from a pouch, crushed the shard in one hand (charging it with arcane energy), and drew a teleportation circle on the ground. The circle roared to life and Rosa began ushering people through. Bal and Trilla went through first, followed by Tap and Rasp, who was holding on to Elke after commanding her to follow.
Tap passed through the circle, but Rasp found himself being pulled back by Elke. He quickly stepped out of the Teleportation Circle and the rest halted. On the other side, Bal noticed the other stopped coming through and quickly brough Trill and Tap back through. In Elke’s lab the circle closed and Rasp realized that he could not bring the zombie Elke through as an unwilling undead. To solve this, Vax pulled out one of his daggers and stabbed zombie Elke in the head, killing it. Rosa, though, said she only had one shard to get them there. Bal responded by providing her with a 20cr chunk of Eberron dragonshard. Mila then picked up Elke’s body and threw it over her shoulder. With that, Rosa drew another circle and the Foundation went through it.
They found themselves in the basement of the House Tharashk headquarters in Patrahk’n. After a small altercation with a pair of guards, the Foundation returned to Rosa’s desk. Bal sent Trilla to the Dawnbreaker with a note telling Argo to wait for them and also gave Trilla some info so that Argo knew she was with the Foundation. At Rosa’s desk, she bid them all good-bye, but said if they ever needed her help with the Shadow, all they had to do was ask. Bal gave her a scrap of paper with their information in Sharn.
The foundation then took Elke’s body and went up to the Warlord’s Hall. At the door, they spoke to a tall, thin, blue-skinned orc with long tusks who allowed them to come inside to Xaco’s office. There, he explained that he was Xaco’s assistant and that Xaco was indisposed at the moment but he could handle anything they needed. Vax explained to the assistant that Elke fought them and they were forced to kill her in order to stop the zombie army she had created from overrunning the Shadow Marches.
The assistant maintained that their original deal was to bring Elke back alive for trial and execution and that Xaco would not be happy that she was dead, regardless of the situation. The assistant took the body as the Foundation left empty-handed.
They then went to the docks and boarded the Dawnbreaker to find a pacing Argo regarding Trilla with a bit of disdain. After Bal confirmed that she was indeed with them, Argo asked that she at least be given a change of clothes so she didn’t look like Operative V, who had previously tried to kill him.
Biggin’ then fired up the ship, the air elemental coming to life, and they shoved off from the dock. However, the ship came to a lurching stop some 20 feet in the air and the booming voice of Warlord Xaco called out to them saying, “I’d like a word with you before you leave.”
Looking over the edge of the ship, the Foundation saw Xaco holding one of the mooring lines, physically stopping the ship from moving. Argo suggested they cut the line and run, which Vax was on board with. The rest of the Foundation thought they shouldn’t try to run and should instead talk with him. Biggin’ powered the ship back, hovering in place. Xaco handed the mooring line to two large orcs beside him and leapt up to the deck of the ship. As he landed, Elke’s body followed, landing on the deck beside them. Xaco then settled in at the back of the ship as the Foundation gathered.
He asked the Foundation to recount what had happened out in the Marches and Bal obliged, only leaving out any info on the Shadow other than the secret vault being there. Xaco questioned Bal about how they entered the Kundarak Vault. Vax lied, saying that he broke into it, which Xaco wasn’t satisfied by. They then said that Xaco could talk to Rosa and she would vouch for them. Xaco told them that he could not fully take the recommendation of his own daughter. Before this could be questioned further, Rasp asked Xaco if he wanted to talk to Elke and question her directly. Xaco stood and approached Rasp saying that Orc culture revered necromancy as worshipping their ancestors, saying that they “speak to them daily”. He then reached a hand out and cast detect magic, sensing necromantic magic at Rasp’s heart. Sensing this, he stood back and said, “You were a victim of hers, weren’t you?” Rasp only answered saying, “We were friends?”.
Xaco then allowed Rasp to cast speak with dead on Elke, bringing a semblance of her spirit back into her body. Xaco then questioned Elke by having Rasp mimic his questions at Elke. Xaco first asked, “What were you doing in the Shadow Marches?”
Elke was confused, seemingly recognizing Rasp but not remembering what had happened recently. She answered by explaining her belief that she was a scapegoat for Karrnath, her exile to the Marches where she continued her research.
Xaco then had Rasp ask, “Who am I to you?”
Elke answered saying that Rasp was her greatest success, a success that had gotten away from her and she was trying to recreate.
Xaco then had Rasp ask, “Is there anyone else who knows the secrets of your work?” To which Elke said that no one but her had come close and even she had been unable to replicate it since Rasp.
Xaco then had Rasp ask, “How do you destroy the control rod?”. Elke started to sound confused as to why Rasp was asking her those questions, but answered that either an arcane forgemaster could destroy it, or just extreme physical stress. Xaco asked Rasp for the control rod and Rasp handed it over. Xaco then crushed the rod in his hand and dropped it over the side of the Dawnbreaker.
Lastly, Xaco had Rasp ask Elke, “Were you trying to start another war?” Elke answered saying that all she was trying to do was discover true immortality, something she claims she had only achieved once.
After Elke’s spirit retreated, Xaco took a moment before saying that he couldn’t give them the favor of the Council of Warlords, but that he was willing to help them if they needed it. He would need to do some work to convince the council that this was the only way to deal with Elke and that the Marches might not be a good place for them to be for a little while. Rasp then gave Xaco the Khyber dragonshard “heart” that had been intended for Tap if it’ll help with the arguments. Xaco accepted and Mila asked that he send it back to them when he was done with it, which Xaco agreed to do.
Back to the Skies
With that, Xaco left the ship and the orcs let go of the mooring line. Relieved, the Foundation took to the skies on their way back to Sharn. On the way a number of things happened:
- Vax took Trilla aside and asked her why he should allow her to stay on the ship. She told Vax that she wanted to help take the Shadow down and was willing to do whatever they were comfortable with her doing in order to do that. Vax then told her he was going to cast a spell on her to make her be more friendly and she agreed. Vax then cast charm person and Trilla allowed the spell to charm her. He then asked what she thought of him and she confirmed that she was friends with them if they would have her. He then asked if she had been lying about anything they had talked about and she confirmed that she hadn’t. Lastly, he asked her if there was anything that would cause her to side with the Shadow again. Trilla said the only thing that could turn her back is the Shadow bringing her sister back, but that was impossible. With that, Vax allowed the spell to fade, satisfied with the answers that Trilla had given.
- Yves messaged Turk to let him know they were headed back to Sharn and asked if the headquarters had been attacked. Turk responded that they were fine and he was happy to hear they were headed back home.
- Rasp spent time talking to Tap about his adventures with the Foundation. Bal sat with them to help translate anything that they had issues conveying.
- Bal then approached Trilla and asked her if she would spar with him. Trilla was surprised that Bal was wanting to spar, given what he knew about her abilities, but Bal then showed Trilla that he too could turn his spirit into a living weapon. Before Trilla could warn him, Bal fell unconscious. He had a brief nightmare of the same space he had seen before. At the top of the stairs, Bal saw Melk who reached out for him. When Bal grasped his hand, Melk said one word: “One.” Bal woke to Trilla helping him up. The two sparred with Bal getting the upper hand on the recovering Trilla. As it ended, someone commented on Bal’s hair. To Bal’s surprise, as he checked it in the mirror of Argo’s quarters, his hair had gone completely silver. Bal also discovered Vax in Argo’s quarters testing his new-found fiendish powers. The two agreed to ignore each other.
- Mila first approached Vax and the two had a conversation. Mila called out Vax for his rash actions that nearly got Tap killed, saying that he needed to let the group know what he was thinking before he did it and that he wasn’t infallible. Vax countered that the only weapon he had was the element of surprise and that if he could be stronger, he wouldn’t make those types of mistakes. Mila then said that she would follow him without question if he could find a way to apologize to Rasp and Tap. After the conversation, Vax offered an apology to Raps and Tap, which they accepted. Later, Mila took Trilla aside and asked her pointedly about the Mourning. Trilla told her that the Mourning wasn’t still corrupting people, but when it hit had turned a lot of animals and people into abominations. She believes that it had something to do with willpower. She also said that the Mourning was stronger in some places and weaker in others. All in all, Trilla believes that there are survivors in the Mournlands.
As the sun set on their first day of travel back, Bal spotted a piece of dragonshard falling from the Ring of Siberys. Bal woke a snoozing Biggin’ and got Vax’s attention who cast flying and jumped from the ship to pursue the shard. Vax managed to catch the dragonshard, which charged him with arcane energy that burst out of him in the form of a blight spell into the sky. However, he managed to take the shard back to the ship, netting them 2000cr worth of Siberys dragonshard.
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