Runelords 50.0 - The Illusionists' Corridor

As Eamon and Luna waited in the main hallway, some movement caught Luna's eye: a pair of figures was approaching from the hall of Transmutation. She readied herself, but as they crossed the alarm and triggered its sound, she hesitated. She couldn't identify the second figure, and if it was someone from the Runeforge, they were more than likely a powerful wizard. The odds of her and Eamon alone besting Lucretia and an ally such as that were not favourable. So it was that Lucretia was allowed to enter unimpeded, accompanied by a strange-looking human who seemed to be made entirely of a silvery metal, their features smooth and indistinct. There was a confrontation between the four but it ended as all of their interactions with Lucretia had: she talked down to them dismissively, ignoring their raised weapons. It became clear that Luna and Eamon had no coordinated plan and Lucretia attempted to brush past them. Luna barred her way but when push came to shove, Luna backed down first, unwilling to fight the silver man whose power and strengths were unknown. Though he spoke little, Eamon still recognized the silver man's voice as the frustratingly forgetful person Lucretia had been speaking to earlier; he threatened to 'remember them', but Eamon had serious doubts regarding that claim. As the pair moved towards the central portal to leave the forge, Luna blurted out a request for directions to Lucretia's master's location, seeing as how she had been ever so judicious with her whereabouts earlier. She smirked and directed them to a mountain range before disappearing through the portal, leaving Eamon and Luna to their awkward silence yet again.
With their enemy gone, Eamon took the opportunity to revisit the hall of Abjuration, to collect up some of the ithilium that Virgil had requested. After requesting a jar from Luna, he returned and found Nisa and Avazeen positioned about the strange device that seemed to funnel the precious liquid, with Nisa stockpiling jar after jar after jar, obviously emptying the lot. With a hint of meekness, Eamon inquired as to his tea biscuit which Nisa pointed out on the floor nearby, muttering that she had wondered what that had been about. Some of the black liquid clung to the edge of the baked good like mercury, and he carefully scraped all he could into the vial he had, confirming with the two wizards that the crumbs wouldn't impact the potency. Before leaving, Eamon cautiously questioned Nisa as to Zara: was there a way to remove it from Luna's possession, and would she take it back? Nisa brushed him off, explaining that events were in motion and that eventually, the book would make it back to her possession, like all things did. As for Luna, she made a rather blunt metaphor that 'freeing her from the gluttonous tome would be akin to freeing a hen from a fox's stomach'. With his hopes shattered by the ancient wizard, Eamon returned to the main hall to wait awkwardly with Luna once more.
It wasn't long before Avazeen joined them both, 'grinning' broadly with his skeletal face and politely inviting Eamon to join him for tea in the Necromantic wing. Eamon swiftly tried to politely decline, deflecting by means of Khyrralien, his friend who certainly wouldn't want to miss tea, but Avazeen was insistent. Luna assisted with his excuse and the two scuttled off into the Enchantment wing as Avazeen 'pouted', warning them that the tea would become cold.
Time had been passing strangely for Khyr in the Enchantment hall: it felt like no time had passed at all, but at the same time, hadn't he spent days, months even, training under the Mistress and her daughters? Learning lesson after indirect lesson about social manipulation, subterfuge and spying arts, Khyrralien was taught how to blend into situations and how to twist them seamlessly to his will. Eventually, he was stood before the Mistress, who declared him a member of the Devine family, ready to return to the Material realm to perform the works of the Magelord. He bowed, humbled, as she reached for him and touched his forehead, leaving a glowing mark. As he glanced around, he could see the mark clearly on the foreheads of the sisters as well as the Mistress; she explained that this was the mark of the Devine family, visible only to other members. Should he meet anyone with the mark, he would know he was in the presence of an ally. As she finished the ceremony, Khyr politely and deferentially posed a question: could he be gifted with a small boon? He stated his need for the arcane source material of enchantment, so that he could destroy Zara, an artifact of necromancy: hatred and violence dripped from his voice as he spoke. The Mistress regarded him before smirking and drawing forth from a pocket a necklace decorated with five small ampules filled with a thick, white liquid. She warned him not to get any on him. Thanking her, and the sisters, for everything, Khyrralien took his leave. As he walked down the steps of the party room, there was a red carpet laid out for him, and all of the patrons clapped at his achievement.
Just as Khyr was crossing the decorative footbridge to return to the central hall, he ran into Luna and Eamon, walking up to meet him. Khyr was told about Avazeen and his 'tea party', and it was made rather clear that Avazeen intended to murder them all, and that Luna was rather set on murdering someone, anyone, else. Khyr, with his characteristic threatening cheer, got on board with this plan immediately, admonishing Luna and instructing her on proper murder etiquette. 
The three returned to the main hall to see Avazeen still there; he tried to forcefully invite them into his wing but Khyrralien began to darkly shout about being promised a proper cannibalism party when Avazeen wouldn't admit to any darker motives, seeming to put even the lich off-guard. It was then that Khyr wondered where Virgil had gone, and when he was told that he had gone off to investigate the Illusion department, Khyr declared that they must find him first. Taking Luna's and Eamon's hands, he took off at a run towards the sealed hallway before using Dimension Door to take them inside. However, Avazeen reached out to grab them, asking them to stop, while Luna, off-balance, reached out to grab Avazeen; she tripped and slipped out of Khyr's hand as he cast the spell, leaving both undead behind. As Khyr and Eamon stood alone on the other side of the barrier, Khyr frowned and sniffed at Luna before they both headed off deeper in to find Virgil.
Luna picked herself up off of the floor and stood awkwardly in the hall with Avazeen. She quickly began to ask him a few questions about his master: who was the Magelord of Necromancy? Were they still around? Surely they were undead, so it made little sense for them to be sealed away like the Magelord of Transmutation was. Further, did he know anything of Zara? What was she, and where might her final part be hidden? Avazeen 'smiled', his voice holding the knowing grin of someone guarding a surprise. The Magelord Zahira was around, certainly, and her return to power was a long-standing plan that was slowly coming to fruition. He had played a large part in its design and its impending culmination was thrilling. As for Zara, the gluttonous tome ever called to itself; for the third piece to not be present alongside the reunited chapters, something of great power must be actively holding the missing section. It was surely the work of one of the other Magelords: only they held the power to bind something as powerful as Zara. Luna made an off-handed comment that it would be a funny coincidence if it was Karzoug who held it, and Avazeen 'smiled': the storied vaults of the lord of greed would be the perfect place to seal a treasure such as the gluttonous tome. When Luna asked what would happen if all three parts were reunited, Avazeen shook his head cheerily: he wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.
Pressing forwards, Khyr and Eamon found themselves at a junction: the path turned sharply to the right and left, and both halls were covered with floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Picking the left hallway, they began down it. After only a moment, they caught sight of someone ahead of them. It was Virgil, and when they called to him, he turned and began to walk slowly towards them. Something was strange with his reactions, however, and they shouted questions at him that he didn't answer as he might normally. When he got close, he suddenly drew his weapon and attacked. Knowing that this must be a product of the mirrors somehow, they turned and fled down the other side. The mirrors were disorienting, and it was only through luck and Khyr's foresight to drag a tube of lipstick along the mirror surface that they noticed another junction. Taking the turn, they fled down the hall and entered a new, large room dominated by a huge, ornate statue of a peacock. They saw a few people all wearing the same outfit of robes; when they approached, it became clear that not only were their outfits identical, but so were the people themselves: six identical blonde men. They had little to say, mostly repeating the same sentiment that the master was in his study and was not to be disturbed. However, there was a seventh figure on the far side of the room who attracted their attentions much more. When they called him this time, Virgil proved to be the genuine article.
The three men took some time to discuss current events, catching each other up on the numerous developments that had occurred since they entered the forge. Khyr and Eamon learned of the necromantic veil, the wrath wizards, the drake, the conjuration hallway, and that Virgil had been met with nearly identical problems entering this section: his own murderous reflection and the six copycat porters here who seemed to not be true people but rather programmed images designed to meet people and send them away. Eamon informed them of the Transmutation and Abjuration wings, that Lucretia, the other Transmuter and Koume had all left already, and Luna's progressively deteriorating behaviour. Khyrralien was sparse with details regarding what he had gotten up to in the Enchantment hall, but he proudly presented the vials of arcane material he had acquired. Virgil thanked him and gifted him with the rat-controlling pan pipes he had found earlier, much to Khyr's amusement. 
The three men stopped for a moment to discuss what their plan was to be: that Virgil was overdrawn was apparent, and the other two did what they could to bolster him as they discussed. The problem was that Luna, while under the command of Zara, would not leave this place without Undying Bones, and that meant that someone would have to die. None of them were willing to sacrifice themselves for so little, and their alternatives were not great: either they let Luna sacrifice someone from the forge, abandon her to do it alone, or they would be forced to somehow capture and detain her against her will, which wouldn't be taken well or done easily. If they did anything to further threaten or alienate her, she would certainly leave their company as soon as possible, and in her current mindset with that book whispering gluttonous thoughts, who knew what sort of activities she might take up. If they couldn't destroy Zara here and now, which seemed unlikely without Quint devising some sort of means, it was all they could do to placate her, provided they still wanted her assistance against Karzoug and that they didn't want to divide their attentions between opposing both her and him. They hoped that she could be managed until they could free her, but neither Eamon nor Khyr seemed particularly optimistic about that outcome. Sighing and agreeing that if nothing else, they had to find illusory source material first, they continued to search the room.
The peacock statue proved to be an illusion, and other than the two entries from the looping mirrored hallways, there were no other obvious exits. However, Virgil managed to find a hidden door panel; when he moved it aside, the illusions all reacted angrily and moved towards him. The three adventurers managed to dash in and close the door before the illusions caught up with them, and they didn't follow.
Now, they were standing inside a dusty study, packed with books and things. Slumped over the desk, apparently dead, was another man identical to the six illusions just outside. When they went to investigate, however, they found that the slumped man was just an illusion as well. A careful investigation of the room revealed little of interest beyond another door out, and an invisible, unresponsive figure sitting slumped in a different chair. As they laid the body out on the floor to try and examine it, they noticed that the illusion of the slumped man moved with it, copying the motion and position of the invisible body. Checking it as thoroughly as could be done without sight, they determined that this man, likely the blonde man seen in the illusion, was quite dead of some means they couldn't identify: there was no sign of struggle, no evidence of wounding or injury, and the illusion that mimicked the body seemed to have no overt illness or damage; that it wasn't rotted at all likely had something to do with the strange properties of the forge itself. Suspecting foul play from Koume, they made to move into the next room. 
They discovered what must have once been a great library but some sort of terrible fate had befallen it long ago: fire and destruction had ruined everything from the floors to the ceiling, and burned-out shelves filled with piles of ash were all that remained of the contents. There were only two other rooms: one was a huge room containing nothing but several hundred dead bodies, all identical to that blonde man, laid up neatly. The second was a somewhat plain, ramshackle bedroom with little furniture. However, it was occupied: when Khyr saw the three Devine sisters standing around, he perked up, wondering what they were doing there. They didn't respond to him with any sort of familiarity and Virgil quickly cut Khyr off, whispering what he knew these must be: illusory sex dolls, made to mimic the beautiful demonic women of the Enchantment hall. Khyr's ears folded back in feline offence at this. It was clear that the dolls wouldn't allow them to enter the master's bedroom, so they attempted to use Khyr's disguise hat to make the aelurian look like the blonde man whose image they were so familiar with. His chipper, flirtatious demeanor was rejected, however: they saw through his disguise. Passing the hat to Virgil, he was urged to take a turn. Adopting a harried, rushed demeanor, pretending to look for something lost and ignoring the dolls entirely, Virgil was permitted to search the room, finding that there was nothing of particular interest in the vanity or armoire other than clothes and toiletries. He noticed a lump in the bed and when he pulled the covers aside, he saw another beautiful demonic woman with goat-like legs, obviously instructed to lie still on the bed. Inhaling sharply, he tossed the blankets back over her and left to report to the others. Khyr was even less pleased about the mention of the fourth doll, but did not explain why.
Returning to the study, they decided to strip down the invisible figure: an invisibility spell shouldn't last after death, so it must be an item of some sort. Indeed, removing his cloak seemed to reunite the image to the body once more. Virgil packed away the cloak, assuming it would be useful later. They found in the possession of the man a book, filled with arcane study notes and the like. However, tuck in the book were a few notes, not unlike journal entries. They learned that this man had been making clones of himself and transferring his consciousness to them in an attempt to outrun his own death at the hands of some sort of chronic dementia. Unfortunately, it seemed to be manifesting earlier and earlier each time he moved bodies, and now, as he prepared his 205th iteration, he worried it might not be ready before his mind began to fade. He also spoke of the internal conflict in the forge: the central pool had stirred, marking the machinations of one of the Magelords as coming to a head. He had hoped it was his lady Uzeni, but it had proven to be Karzoug. Regardless, the Abjurers had taken this as an opportunity to try and assert dominance over the central pool, and it had taken the allied efforts of himself and the heads of the other wings to lay waste to them. Unfortunately, their desire to ally had not held strong when it came to the discussion of stopping Karzoug from awakening before the other lords. His notes contained much useful information, including the name of the mountain peak upon which the stronghold of the Magelord Karzoug rested, and that certain weapons would be needed to break the barrier that he kept upon it to ward out intruders. By combining the pure essences of a school in the waters of the central hall fountain, runeforged weapons could be made to sunder the works of the Magelord. Unfortunately, while his own handmirrors would work as the illusory component, he had been unsuccessful at getting the material he needed from Mistress Devine of Enchantment. He cursed her apathy and fixation on her own matters and vowed to focus on this once his new clone was finished. Based on what they had seen, the adventurers guessed that he hadn't completed that task in time. After a quick detour to grab the three handmirrors from the bedroom, the men nearly had what they had come for: the means to defeat Karzoug.
Category:Rise of the Runelords