Runelords 51.0 - Runeforged Weapons

Still standing in the Illusionist's study, Eamon, Khyr and Virgil had a lengthy discussion about what they were going to do. Virgil had come to a conclusion: Zara had to be stopped now, before they left the Runeforge. If they allowed Luna to leave with Zara, they couldn't count on her staying in their company; she might just leave to follow her own pursuits, led about by Zara's manipulation. Until they defeated Karzoug, Zara would have to be a secondary concern and who knows where she might go and what she might do in the interim. Further, they would have to allow Luna to murder someone here if they were to have any hope of her continuing to ally with them, and Virgil was loathe to do that. He was adamant that they would never have better tools or opportunity to sever Zara than they would have right here; Khyr, anxious to destroy the book, agreed. Eamon shook his head, concerned about what would happen if things went wrong; his earlier conversation with Nisa hadn't given him any hope of being able to successfully disentangle Luna from the tome. Regardless, he agreed. They resolved to return to the central pool and use the materials they had collected to first make a series of six weapons, the number the Illusionist's notes suggested that the well could make at most. First, three to disrupt Karzoug's works, followed by three to disrupt Zara. Rather than make a bunch of physical weapons aligned against Necromancy, Virgil postulated that they should make one blade, a set of gloves to grab Zara with, and finally save the portion of the pool to submerge the book itself into, hopefully weakening its power or destroying it outright. Virgil would handle the creation of the weapons, while Eamon was to be in charge of distracting Avazeen, hopefully by luring him with the promise of the 200 bodies they had found. Eamon would also have to alert Quint that they would be leaving presently; to that end, Khyr handed Eamon the pan pipes that would clear out the rats that blocked the way. Khyr would lend support where needed. With all in agreement, they used Dimension Door to return to the center pool.
Luna, bag filled with gold, returned to the central area to find Avazeen still waiting. Moments after, the three other men returned as well. Without a word, Virgil went to the pool and began his work, while Eamon dashed off down the Conjuration hall to talk to Quint, after quickly tossing one of his swords to Virgil. Khyr, passing his Oathbow to Virgil, tried to catch Avazeen's attention with the mention of the bodies, but unfortunately, the lich seemed perfectly willing to wait on those while his attentions were fixated on his living guests.
Working quickly, Virgil concocted the essences of enchantment and illusion together, tainting the well a shimmering, bright colour. Without hesitating, he submerged Eamon's greatsword. The glowing liquid crept up the blade, burning itself in runic shapes all along the metal. As it did so, the great statue of Karzoug came to life. It stood up, speaking in a booming voice and saying that it saw the small ones trying yet again to stand in his way. The statue moved to attack and everyone scattered. Avazeen made to run down the hall to Necromancy and though Luna followed, she hissed at him that if the statue killed the men, they'd be of no use. Avazeen's version of helping, however, amounted to little more than him telling everyone else to run too. Khyr cast Greater Invisibility on Virgil, allowing him to keep working while Khyr distracted the golem; Virgil tossed Khyr the greatsword and shoved the Oathbow into the pool, granting it power as well. The golem cast Slow on everyone, dramatically hindering their ability to flee, and though Khyr kept its attention admirably the golem was outmatching the group. Luna fled, shooting some bombs at it as she did, and Virgil managed to enchant the sword that he had had forged by Larz, draining the last of the prepared concoction from the pool, leaving it appearing like water once more. Virgil and Khyr made to flee, but it was a high cost they paid: the statue knocked Khyr out, and managed to brutally wound Virgil despite his invisibility. Using his last spell and unaware of Khyr's state, Virgil used Dimension Door to teleport to the far end of the Abjuration hall: basically the only hall left where he hadn't yet alienated himself and made deadly enemies. 
Hearing a sudden stop of combat, Luna ceased retreating and dashed back to the main room: she found the statue of Karzoug frozen once more, standing ominously over the bleeding Khyr with its glaive posed for the killing strike. She ran over to him and administered a Cure potion, though it seemed like he might have already succumbed to death. Miraculously, he lived, sputtering back to life and sitting up.
Virgil, now standing in the Abjuration hallway, suddenly found himself visible again; he vehemently hoped it was because Khyr had cast another spell. Nisa was standing there, finishing packing up the haul of ithilium she had harvested, and she questioned what was going on. Virgil, in his off-handed and patently nonsensical manner, explained that a statue of Karzoug had become animate and attacked them when they were making the weapons they needed to break into Xin Shalast so that they could kill Karzoug. Further, he added, Nisa was more than welcome to come to Xin Shalast with them to claim whatever was left in the ruins of the capital stronghold when they were done with the Magelord, if she wanted. She shook her head: they couldn't even handle a statue of Karzoug, so the thought of them doing anything to the Magelord himself was humourous. Virgil shrugged and dashed off, leaving the offer open.
As this had gone on, Eamon ran down the Conjuration hall. He wasn't familiar with pan pipes, and so had a difficult time getting the mob of rats to settle; he sustained a bite or two as he slogged through the rodents. Finding Quint comfortably reading on a couch with Doberman, Eamon relayed the message from the team accurately, albeit not very sensibly: Quint was informed that they were leaving, and if he wished to join them, he should be prepared to go. Quint shrugged, telling Eamon that he was fine here and he'd leave when he was done. He also coerced him into taking some notes for him before Eamon politely yet firmly excused himself to see to his friends.
Virgil reunited with Khyr and Luna, and it was only moments before Eamon and Avazeen returned as well. A sidelong glance at the statue of Alaznist suggested that there was yet another problem on the horizon: it was rebuilding. When it finished, the path to the hall of Evocation would be clear, and the wrathful evokers would be free to wreck vengeance upon the one who had stolen their game, humiliated them and defaced the visage of their leader, as well as his comrades. Virgil shook his head; he couldn't start making the anti-necromancy weapons with Luna and Avazeen watching, but he was running out of time. 
Avazeen brightly, yet very forcibly, told everyone to come to the Necromancy hall now. Khyr's ears suddenly pricked up: what about rats? He offered the swarm of rats, lured by the flute, as a sacrifice to the necromancers' hunger. Avazeen was quietly dismissive, as rats were a terribly insufficient resource, but Luna played along, urging acceptance of the offer. Avazeen sighed, saying that vermin were not good material, citing the question 'Have you ever seen an undead insect?', to which he got a resounding 'yes', followed by a barrage of questions regarding the jar of undead spiders that Luna pulled out of her bag. He was relatively interested by them, and explained what he knew of the creatures. However, the distraction was short lived, and he demanded satisfaction. With the pan pipes, Khyr called out the huge mass of rats from Conjuration and led them down into necromancy, along with Luna and Avazeen; the lich was not best pleased about the two men lingering behind, but he left anyhow. Virgil and Eamon stood in the main hall, muttering about what to do now that it was obvious there was no easy way to separate Avazeen from Luna, and that they couldn't risk making the anti-necromancy concoction too soon, lest it degrade rapidly.
Khyr marched the rodents down the hall and into the room with the veil; he waited by the door as he directed the rats inside. Avazeen helped shoo them along, grabbing a few handfuls and jamming them into some of the cubby holes made to hold corpses as he went. Luna, rather interested in the process, began to toss rats through the veil. As they passed, the life drained from them in an instant, leaving only a tiny skeleton that crashed to the floor on the other side. Avazeen assured her that yes, these bones could be used to process the material she wanted, but even all of the bones from all of the rats wouldn't make much, and it wouldn't be high quality. Certainly not the quality of a cat. With that, he began to shove Khyr back towards the veil. Khyr hissed and resisted, but Avazeen was assured of his own victory; both called to Luna to help, but she ignored them both. Offended and angry, Khyr cast Dimension Door, teleporting away. Avazeen cursed, but Luna told him to focus on what he had that moment. Grumbling, he began to help her toss rats wholesale into the veil, making an ever-growing pile of bones as hundreds and hundreds of rats were sacrificed.
Khyr appeared back into the main hallway, spitting mad at Luna and the vile book he wanted destroyed. As they stood there, they were joined by Nisa. She was more than passingly interested in what they were doing: to make weapons that were allied against Karzoug, they would have needed the arcanic essence of Enchantment, and that was a very rare resource indeed. When they admitted they had some, Nisa offered a proposition: for some of the arcanic, she would share everything she knew about the tome they sought to destroy. Khyr was hesitant, but agreed to the terms; though he didn't know if it was in the best interests of the Divine family to be handing out the arcanic, he was spending it towards his stated desired goal. With a nod to Virgil, the man offered out one of the ampules to Nisa, breaking it into a small vial of her own before she sealed it and stashed it away. 
Nisa told them that the book Zara was in actuality Magelord Zahira's fail safe: her means of surviving the great war of the past. Zahira eschewed her own body to place her mind and soul into a book which could manipulate a new body for her to take over. The book would slowly integrate itself into the trust of a host, after which it would subtly begin to twist their intentions and ambitions until it was doing the bidding and ruling of the Magelord as well as Zahira could act herself. Certainly the book could supplant the host's original mind and memories to make a true body for Zahira, but it seemed that the book was happy enough to let the host pretend it was its former self. Sundered into the three pieces, Zahira was less powerful, but now that two were together, the third wouldn't be far behind and the Magelord of Necromancy would 'live' again. Nisa did not care if the three men tried to rip Zahira from their friend, provided that they didn't damage her (not that she believed that they could), but she warned them Zahira knew of their plots already and would fight to keep her host, not to mention that she would also know the second that they turned the forge against Necromancy. However, their plan was solid: perhaps using the power of the forge would disrupt the book long enough for them to get Luna away, if they could get the book into it, and perhaps then the girl could recover, though the book clung to her very soul and there would be permanent damage no matter what they did. 
Nisa held out her hand as she mentioned that she had one more critical piece of information, if they wanted any chance of being successful. Khyr frowned but agreed to pay. Pouring her a second ampule of enchantment, Nisa smiled and informed them that those who wore the mark of the Magelord were the eyes and ears of Zahira. Did anyone they know bear the sigil? If so, the book could work through them, control them, and worm her way back into Luna using her pawns. The men looked at each other: they knew of the amulet that Luna wore, which they had to resolve to tear from her chest. Further, they all knew of the copy that Luna had made for Aldern, his location unknown. As a final note, Nisa added that no matter what they did, there would always be a Magelord of Necromancy, and that this whole scheme was ultimately futile. Virgil shook his head: he knew full well that there would always inevitably be a greatest necromancer. He only wanted to save his innocent friend. 
They thanked Nisa for her information, and once more invited her to the city of Xin Shalast to pick up the remains of whatever they found. The hidden fortification was undoubtedly packed with artifacts that Virgil at least was uncomfortable with leaving lying about for anyone to take, and he took little issue with the ancient collector staking her claim. Further, should they indeed find the third and final piece of Zahira there, he would rather that Nisa take it, along with the other two pieces that she was certainly going to claim when they pried them from Luna. Nisa considered the offer and said that though she still had no faith that they were going to do anything other than die, she might still drop by Xin Shalast a bit later, just to see. 
With that, Nisa walked off to engage in her own pursuits once more. The men looked at each other and the swiftly rebuilding statue of Alaznist and decided that rest was in order. Retreating into Conjuration, they hoped the two remaining local wizards there wouldn't begrudge them a nap.
As Luna and Avazeen continued to toss rats through, Avazeen paused to wave his hands over the growing pile of bones. A portion of them sprang up into life, forming themselves into a sword-wielding rat-like monstrosity of bone. He 'grinned' as he mentioned that this rat would be useful at catching the cat.
Category:Rise of the Runelords