CH. 14: Beyond the Veil

[xelphyn]

"I guess I might as well give a shot too." Dahn says, as he checks for traps himself.

[Breila]

"I'd like to do it this time" Ouragana answers Thaddeus and looks for a way to activate it. If she doesn't succeed, she hands it over to Thaddeus with a sigh. "I hate to always be reminded how much I still have to learn" she mumbles to herself.

[BishGada]

"Hmm... thanks. It's not like shielding everyone... well, in fact maybe it is, but I've got to do it." He says with determination.
As they enter the room and Baeros hears Jocelyn comment he looks at her and raises one eye brow, "What personal stuff did you had in mind he would record in his bedroom?" his eye stays on her eyes barely long enough for him to finish his sentence and then slowly lower to admire her body curves. After few moments longer than appropriate he awkwardly turns his head to the recording device, tries to clear his mind from all the wild fantasies and catch up with the current conversation.

[JadedDM]

Granite takes his turn searching for traps on the armoire. Like Drav and Gallath, however, he doesn't find any.

Ouragana looks over the device carefully, but cannot think of any way to unlock it. She hands it over to Thaddeus who works on it for a bit, before he manages to playback the most recent entry. He translates for the sake of the others, since it is all in Eonian. It is dated a week earlier than the entry they heard in the study.

The Wyvern says, "I'm quite excited to report I have obtained two new specimens for my research. This was largely in thanks to Kaakos and his extensive knowledge of the Great Wheel. He thoroughly disapproves, citing that many who try to bind denizens of the lower planes often lose control of them. But I managed to do alright with him, didn't I? In any case, I feel I don't have much to lose. I am too close to give up now.

"Zera has returned to her ship already, although she only just arrived yesterday. She used to stay and warm my bed for over a week, but perhaps we are both too busy these days for that any longer. She left behind some of the goods she looted for me to study, and promised me another shipment in about a week or so. Some of the items should prove useful or at least fetch a nice price.

"The shawl is enchanted to offer basic protection, not unlike certain cloaks or rings I've encountered before. Nothing special there. I'm sure she'll be disappointed to hear that, she was certain it was more valuable than that. The bracelet is alchemical silver and enchanted to guard against all three kinds of fiends--Tanar’ri, Baatezu, and Yugoloth. I will definitely be keeping that one nearby. The third is a dagger that seems to conduct electricity particularly well. In fact, it can even hold a charge for awhile. I may hold on to that one, as well. The last was the sword. It's enchanted to be very effective against giants, but is equally useful against ogres. As the Oni are kin to them, I gave it to the helmed horror that looks after them, just in case it needs it.

"The rest I put away in the vault for now. I've made some upgrades to it as a security measure, as well as set up some traps and a dimensional anchor. Someone tried to sneak in here awhile ago, and I won't be having any of that..."

The recording ends at this point.

==========

Granite searches for traps on the armoire [TN 40%] (1d100): 26, pass. He finds no traps.
Ouragana makes a spellcraft check [TN 14] (1d20): 15, fail.

[BishGada]

"So... we finally have it! The Oni are kin to ogres! If you had ANY DOUBT!!" Baeros loses his temper and starts moving impatiently in the room. "We can't set them loose on the world. They are both cruel, strong and now also use magic!!" He looks at the others, "I know we had agreement with them, but gods above! it will be completely irresponsible." Then he immediately stops. "Do you think they can use magic to hear us? They sure are nasty enough to spy on us!"

[xelphyn]

Dahn's eyes light up at the mention of the dagger.
"Hold a charge?" He mutters to himself," But, that would require an isolated conduit and some sort of repeater for the arcane energies, but that would be pointless because- unless... If it were to utilize some firm of alternating current... But in order to accomplish something like that, you'd first have to figure out a way to-"
Dahn jumps as Bearos' sudden shouting gives him a start.
"Baeros!" Dahn snaps out of irritation from being yanked out of his internal reflection, but immediately takes a breath to calm down.
"Think about this: imagine you had a cousin who committed a series of heinous crimes, would you expect to be persecuted for his actions? No."
Dahn winces from to pain of his injuries before continuing.
"Should we be weary of them? Absolutely. Should we treat them with outright hostility? I don't think so."
"Oh, by the way" Dahn says after a moment "if we find that dagger, I have so many dibs on it. So many dibs."

[spyguy1503]

"No way. That dagger is all mine."

[xelphyn]

"Can you even generate electricity? Because I can." Dahn retorts.

[Nuke]

Val looks back and forth quickly during the exchange, completely lost about everything but the ogre part.

"What just happened?" she asks for the quick version.

[HorizonsDream]

Jocelyn sits down on the end of the very nice bed, and looks up to Baeros. "Well, I didn't really mean anything specific when I said personal, but it looks like I was right," she says thoughtfully. "And didn't we all ready kind of know that they were related to ogres?" she asks after Baeros' outburst. "But I'm not going to betray them. All the stuff that he mentioned might be in that armoire. I'm more concerned about the dimensional anchor thing that he mentioned. What is a dimensional anchor?"

[xelphyn]

"Well," Dahn says, "sounds like a device of some sort that would anchor something to a particular dimension, preventing iner-planar travel"

[BishGada]

Baeros looks at Jocelyn, his face all red as if he is going to burst, then he moves quickly to Dahn, his face so close that Dahn can feel his breath. "They ARE evil. Not their cousins. THEY are evil!" he said quietly but very ominously. "You don't know the magnitude of corruption they bring on the lands, the torture they inflict on the animals, the poison they bestow on the water. They must be stopped! And that sword the Wyvern mentioned could be just the perfect tool to stop them." Baeros sentence ends in mumbles. It is obvious to everyone that he is in real agony. He then looks again at Jocelyn, "Betray them? They deceive you. They disguised themselves to have a spy in our ranks. They welcomed us in threats and explosions. They said they will take our place at the ship. They are going to betray us, sending us here to die. They C A N - N O T - B E - T R U S T E D ! ! !" Baeros breathes heavily, "And certainly not unleashed on the lands beyond this island. If they are out-planar or whatever, and you want a fair deal with them, they can return to their own plane as far as they cannot return here."

[xelphyn]

Gnomes are creatures of light and joy, who can always find happiness in the situation they're in. Even as Dahn was dying, there seemed to be a glimmer in his eye, a glow, an air of contentment. However, for a moment all of that light seems to fade away, leaving him with the most unnerving of expressions; something that clawed its way straight out of the uncanny valley. With eyes as dead as cold, desecrated soil, Dahn says "I'm the only survivor from the villiage I was raised in. Do not presume to tell me what I don't know..."
For a moment Dahn seems as if he is going to speak again, but the instead broods in silence, staring at Baeros; staring with those cold, dead eyes.
After a short while, however Dahn blinks, and his lighthearted expression returns to him.
He moves about the room finding something to tinker with, something to keep himself occupied.
"Hey, remember the Aarokraka?" He asks the ladies.

[Breila]

"Yes, what about them?" Ouragana is quick to pick up the new subject Dahn offers, she felt so humiliated by her inability to work the recording device.

[xelphyn]

"This situation reminded me of the first job any of us did together, the birdmen and their circumstances."