In which things come to a head Book Two, Chapter 4.1
(session 77, 26 th February 2019) Part 1 The Party: Naergon Harna, elven wizard (Diviner) Mads Rangle, human
fighter/warlock (Fiend: Archdevil Zariel) Jamna Gleamsilver, gnome rogue (Arcane
Trickster) Tomaz Stormwind, human ranger
(Hunter) Druscilla Oakenrock, dwarven
cleric (Trickery: Mask) Talis Wintercrest, half-elven
cleric (War: Bane) Having prepared themselves
for council the heroes make their way through the outer halls when there is a
sudden shift in the wind and a strange gut-wrenching sense of unease, similar
to the sudden air-pressure drop heralding a huge storm. There is a very slight
tremor through the palace, ornaments and lights wobble and jingle as if an
earthquake or landslide had occurred some distance away. It only lasts a moment
but there’s a deep, sonic undercurrent that leaves everyone looking around at
each other. Servants and guards alike look tense, nervous and apprehensive as
an unnatural silence descends, no dogs bark, no birds sing as the pressure
drops. Within moments things return to normal but, although the servants and
guards quickly resume their duties it is apparent that they are nervous and
tense. Many of the guards look like they haven’t slept. As they walk down the hall
Mads says “I would just like to take the
opportunity to express my gratitude to Druscilla for getting us all off that
iceberg. If it had not been for your actions I think we’d all be permanent
frozen features in that damned place, so thank you.” “Hear, hear” and “absolutely”, “yes, first class job
Druscilla” echo around the hall as the rest of the party concur with Mads
and express their gratitude, slapping the dwarf on her back and grinning at
her. Tomaz then pulls Mads to one
side “Mads, you have an affinity with
devils and spells and such like. What do you know about recent events?” “Eh,
what?” replies Mads, taken aback “ what
are you asking?” “I’m asking if this” Tomaz waves his arms around
expansively “is your doing?” “Err, no” answers
Mads rather confusedly. “Ah, but do you know
who has done it?” continues Tomaz, scribbling notes in his book. “Hmmm,
err, yes I think” mutters Mads, glancing around nervously. “ Ah ha! And are you willing to come forward
to the Council to explain this?” cries Tomaz in triumph, snapping his book
closed. “ Err, perhaps, well, err let’s
say yes shall we?” says Mads, stepping back. “Good, in that case when we meet at Council I will introduce you,
saying you have answers to present to the Council regarding recent events” declaims
Tomaz. “But, but that’s going to sound like you’ve conducted an
investigation and this is information you’ve uncovered and are presenting to
your masters!” stutters Mads. “ Yes, so?” says Tomaz rather haughtily. “But you haven’t, I just gifted you three
answers to three questions, that’s not an investigation.” Cries Mads in
outrage. “Yes it was, how do you think
investigations work? It’s all a matter of question and answer, the very core of
a successful investigation is succinct and to the point questioning, as I think
you’ll note we just demonstrated ” says Tomaz, straightening his back and
preening somewhat. “Whatever, it’s over
and no I don’t think you should mention it to the Council” growls Mads. “I shall present my evidence and call on
your testimony, if you fail to tell the truth then let that be on your head” cries
Tomaz, waving his book in front of him. On entering the Council
Chambers, the usual array of dignitaries are present: Lady Laeral Silverhand;
Lord Dagult Neverember; Ambassador Conneard Brawnanvil; King Melandrach;
Marshall Ulder Ravengard; Taern Hornblade; Sir Istavel; Remallia Haventree;
Onthar Frume; Delaan Winterhound; Rian Nightshade and Maccath the Crimson with
her divination equipment. The overall impression is one of concern and
agitation. Laeral confirms the loss of the green mask and explains there has
already been both a physical and divinatory investigation. Maccath then sets up her
brazier for all to view the after effects. The image in her censor wavers and
then resolves into a view of arched granite underground chambers with vaulted
ceilings. The huge steel doors of the vault can clearly be seen to be melted,
warped and wrenched from their hinges, likewise the bars and grates beyond have
been melted, leaving strange semi-humanoid voids through them. There are six
large molten mounds of iron steel, pooled around colossal pairs of steel boots
– all that remains of the guardian iron golems it seems. “ This is The Waterdeep Vault” she explains “as you can see it has been
penetrated by devils using a mix of guile and brute force. Extensive
illusionary magic was deployed in an attempt to make it appear that the assault
was a cult operation, however the wards and anti-magic shells guarding the
vaults negated enough of this to reveal that this was devils not the cult. The
level of destruction is extensive, dozens of guards are dead (and all have had
their lower jaw and heart removed), the walls and vault doors melted and
warped. The guardian iron golems have been slagged and many layers of ward and
protection have been stripped and will need some time to replace”. The censor zooms in, under
the archway and past the molten golems, through the final set of doors and into
one of the inner chambers. Here the very walls and floor of the chambers are
warped and twisted as if partially melted, with ripples of stone running along
ceiling and walls. Against the walls of the inner chambers are countless steel
and lead security boxes, most are intact (although melted and fused together
for the most part) only one has been pulled out, the empty space staring out
and across the destruction like a hollow eye socket. “ And that was the box containing the green mask” concludes Maccath “ the only box to be taken, hardly a coincidence.
And given the nature of some of the other items and artefacts secured here, the
fact they have been left alone. Dismissively so, says more about the arrogance
and power of the thieves than anything else in my opinion. Laeral steps forward again, “ thank you Maccath, very comprehensive. As
you can see the clear conclusion is that devils have assaulted in force: how
and why is speculation but the level of force and power displayed to smash
through our defences, magical and physical is truly astounding. None of us
really believed that such a violation was possible, short of one of the gods
reaching in and taking what it wants. Anyway this is the situation we now
face.” She looks around at the Council and party “ does anyone have any comments? Suggestions? Where do we go from here?” Tomaz turns and stares meaningfully
at Mads, fidgets with his book and sighs audibly and then says “ Mads, I have noticed that on a number of
occasions you have conjured and contracted with devils. Would you care to give
an opinion on what you think may be behind this atrocity?” Several of the
Council members look up and frown, some of the guards start and clutch their
spears. One or two step forward looking to Lady Laeral questioningly. Mads steps forward in front
of Tomaz “my lady, can I ask how many
guards died?” there’s a moments silence before Laeral replies “ forty-two, dead, permanently so! They left
no injured or wounded and ensured those they killed could not be reached or
returned.” “Well, first of all I want you to know that I would be honoured to
speak to their families and express my personal condolences” explains Mads.
“That’s very good of you but I’m not sure
why you would feel the necessity specifically?” asks Laeral. “ I’m also willing to make a donation”
continues Mads “ to each family by way of
pension. I feel they should know that their loved ones died with honour,
fulfilling their oaths and there is no higher calling than that. As for the
mask I can assure you it is safe, it is the possession of Zariel” There are audible gasps and
mutterings from around the Council as Mads continues “ the mask was clearly not safe here. Your security, impressive though it
was, didn’t do what it was supposed to do did it?” The guards again take
steps forward and clutch spear shafts. Lord Istavel and Lord Dagult step
forward aggressively, as Naergon slides to the rear of the party and casually
makes his way towards Leosin at the far end of the hall. Lady Laeral puts her
hands out to stop Istavel and Dagult “ what
do you mean? How do you know this?” “Because Zariel has told me she has the mask safe in her
keeping ” says Mads, sounding slightly
puzzled. “She felt that the mask wasn’t
safe here, that your security wasn’t sufficient and she felt the mask was safer
with her rather than risk the cult breaking in and taking it. The real question
is would you rather have the mask yourself or would you rather the mask be safe
and out of the reach of the cult? Because you cannot have both of those things
at the same time ” he concludes. Laeral takes a deep breath,
signalling for the guards to stand down “ I’m
not sure I agree with you. Who is this Zariel to dictate what is safe and why
are you involved? Why did you not warn us? What, exactly, do you know about
this and how long have you known? You were supposed to be working for us, not
against us” she asks, voice rising in consternation. Puzzled, Mads looks around at
the hostile glares and sweating, nervous guards “Zariel is Lord of Avernus, the First Layer of Hell and warden of the jail that
binds Tiamat” he says “ surely you
know this? Anyway, she is responsible for keeping Tiamat bound and is as
invested in preventing the cult from completing its ritual as we are. Although
her reasons differ from ours somewhat she wants exactly what we want. She also
believes these masks are better held on Avernus than here where they will
always represent a risk. It’s better if the keys stay with the jailer I think?” “So, what you’re admitting is that whilst pretending to
work for us. You have in fact been in league with an archdevil from the Nine
Hells all this time? Demands Laeral. “ Just as much as I’m in league with you”
replies Mads “ I’m doing your bidding,
trying to stop this cult. Why is that more acceptable? The goal is to prevent
the Rise of Tiamat, what does it matter how?” This announcement is met by a
stunned silence and lots of glances around the hall, some accusatory, some
confused, many worried. Mads, shuffles his feet a bit
under the scrutiny “ Anyway, we have
another mask for you. Although you’ll probably want toil ok after this one a
bit better and not hide it behind a few golems.” He glances around at his
friends, noticing that Naergon has removed himself “ psst Druscilla, the mask. You do still have it right?” he whispers.
Druscilla calmly looks him in the eye, shrugs and crosses her arms “ I don’t think so, we should keep this one”
she hisses through clenched teeth. Behind her Talis starts to edge away from
the group towards the northern balcony, glancing to her left towards Lord
Dagult, and nodding slightly. Tomaz turns in disbelief “ if as I suspect our next port of call is
going to be the Well of Dragons I don’t think it’s very sensible to take a mask
with us” he says in a stage whisper. “ Well
in that case, if that’s where we’re going then yes anywhere would be better but
for now I’m holding onto it. This lot have just lost one, why give them
another?” Druscilla growls. Mads mutters “I think the problem was that someone else wanted it more than they
did, if someone else wants this one as well it could leave us in a tricky
situation.” “ Exactly, so why would we give them this one” says Druscilla. “We could sell it to the highest bidder”
says Jamna “ how much would this Zariel
offer us Mads?” The Council members look at
one another with raised eyebrows as the party devolve into a whispering huddle
in the middle of the Council Chamber. Laeral, folds her arms, lips pursued as
she impatiently waits for some kind of response. Eventually she gives up
waiting “ So you have the white mask we
asked you to go and retrieve do you? That at least is good news I suppose,
unless you’ve given it some random demon on the way back! So do you have it?
With you? Here, here and now?” Mads, turns around again “ yes, yes we do” behind him Jamna rolls
her eyes “ they’ll never pay up now, she
whispers” Druscilla kicks her “ shh!”
“ And would you be prepared to show us?”
asks Laeral, very slowly, with careful and over-patient enunciation. “ Why? Don’t you believe me” asks Mads.
Laeral glares at him, Sir Istavel and Onthar Frume step toward shim
aggressively. “ Until now I didn’t know
you were in league with an archdevil ” says Laeral with cold fury “ so frankly it seems there’s a lot we don’t
know about you, so yes. No! I don’t believe you. Do you or do you not have the
white dragon mask? You seem to be at least partially responsible for the loss
of the green mask. It probably explains why we’ve lost so many other masks,
leaving you in charge. Do you or do you not have the mask?” “As a party, yes we do” replies Mads “ as an individual,
no” Ambassador Brawnanvil pushes his way past to stand in front of Mads “ I think it’s time to ante up lad. Produce
the goods or things are going to get very awkward. I’ve not had much chance to
hit anything since I got here and I’m getting real itchy. So if you’ve got the
mask, let’s be seeing it, eh?” Mads turns “ Druscilla, perhaps you should show it to
them. I’m not concerned that they’ll use force to take it, I doubt that’ll
happen. Doubt they’re capable but I’d like to avoid a confrontation if
possible” Druscilla looks at him “ I
think we might have missed that goal” and pulls out the mask and holds it
up for all to see. “You see, we do have
the mask but for now I’m keeping hold of it. It needs to be safe and I’m not
certain where that is for now, so call me selfish but I’d rather know it was in
my fist for now.” There are relieved gasps
around the chamber and a palpable easing of tension. Laeral says “ so if not in our keeping, where would you
suggest the mask be kept?” Druscilla replies “I don’t know, you no longer have a secure vault and I don’t know
anywhere else that secure, so for now I’m going to keep hold of it. From where
I stand if it’s in my fist it’s secure. However it’s not necessarily my
decision. I think as a group” she looks around noting that both Naergon and
Talis have detached themselves from the central huddle “we need to have a discussion. In private. So I’m going to suggest you
call a recess. It might give everyone a chance to calm down a bit, yes?” “I think you forget who you work for ” sputters Laeral. Druscilla holds her ground “ I don’t care, I have the mask and you lost
yours, I say that puts me in charge”. Laeral steps back in shock “ and how many have you lost ?” she cries. “None ” growls Druscilla “ they may have lost some ” she waves a
hand vaguely behind her “ and she may have
given one away ” pointing at Jamna “ but
I ain’t lost none!” Tomaz steps away from
Druscilla with a gasp “ have you all lost
your minds?” Mads stares at him as he steps up next to Druscilla “that was harsh but true ” he whispers.
Druscilla looks up and turns back to Laeral “ I just want to have a conversation in private before we hand it over to
you or not or do something else.” “I’m happy to have the conversation right
here in public” says Mads. Tomaz holds his hands out in
a placatory gesture “ I think if devils
came, took the green mask, killed numerous guards and golems then I don’t think
they’ll have any trouble taking it from you Druscilla.” “Tomaz, Tomaz, Tomaz”
interrupts mads “the devils aren’t coming
back for the white mask.” Tomaz turns “can
you say that with any real authority?” Mads repeats “ I can tell you they are not coming back for the white mask.” Tomaz
frowns “ and can you assure the Council of
that, how can you be certain ?” Druscilla adds “ he’s assured me Tomaz.” “There you go, see?” says Mads “you said a thing, and I’m telling you it
isn’t so” Tomaz looks from one to the other “ I don’t think it’s me you need to convince.” “Well I think our opinion
differs on that” says Mads, turning to the chamber at large he says “ if the devils were coming for this mask would
the Council want to hold on to it? Would you want the Council to hold on to
it?” “We are not the only ones who want that mask ” says Laeral “ whatever
this Zariel’s ploy for the green mask is, whatever that means . . . “
Druscilla interrupts “ so how do you
intend on keeping this one safe?” Laeral looks uncertain “ err, well I guess we were planning on
locking it up in a darker, deeper place than we locked the last one. What would
you suggest?” “I’m just asking the question ” mutters Druscilla. “ I mean” continues Laeral, taking a deep
breath and visibly making a marked effort to remain calm “ do you seriously think that you walking around with it stuffed in your
backpack is safer than one of the most secure vaults in existence? You’ve seen
the level of power that was required to penetrate the vault and we will do
better with the next vault. Do you really think you carrying it around is
safer?” Druscilla sniffs “I got it
here didn’t I?” “Yes, well we have yet to hear the tale of how you managed
that!” says Laeral. Druscilla turns and calls out
to Naergon “ you’ve been remarkably quiet,
what do you think?” “I, err, I well I don’t care. I mean, well worryingly I
concur with Tomaz.” Says Naergon “it
has to be safer here than wondering the wilds with us, especially if as I
suspect our next port of call is the Well of dragons. I mean taking the mask
directly to the Ritual seems a bit dumb, don’t you think? So I’m not in favour
of that plan but any of the other plans seem ok to me.” “Can it be destroyed? ” asks mads, interrupting.
“ Err, I don’t know. It’d be difficult
it’s an artefact manifested or constructed by Tiamat’s will. I’m not sure if
let alone how we go about destroying such a thing. I suspect that if we
incinerated it, then it would sort of rematerialize somewhere else. And that’s
probably not good for us” muses Naergon. “Can we create a pocket dimension and secrete it away
then?” asks Mads. Taern Hornblade speaks
up “ yes we could do that but it’s hardly
secure. Think about it we’re dealing with inter-planar beings, what makes you
think a pocket dimension would be an obstacle to them? Not to mention it risks
some random githyanki or illithid or worse picking it up. No everyone thinks
these things are secure they’re not.” “Yeah but they’d have to know it was there
to go look for it?” continues Mads. Taern sighs “ did it not occur to you that that they had to know it was in our vault,
in that specific box? There are ways of divining these things. It can be made
more difficult but in the end a strong metal box in a deep hole is more secure
than any pocket dimension, no matter what other idiot mages might want you to
believe.” Druscilla turns “ Mads, do you think the mask will be safe
here?” “What? With the Council?” he asks “err, it’s probably safer here than it is with us and it’s one less
headache for us to worry about.” “Like the logic” says Druscilla. Laeral
sighs deeply “ I think you’ll find that
that is all we’ve being saying this entire time. It’s not about absolute
security. This Zariel has demonstrated the futility of that, it’s about the
best security we can provide. And that I firmly believe is here in our deepest
vault, even now.” Naergon again steps up “ I agree with Laeral, we should leave it with
the Council. There is nowhere better. What we need to do is concentrate on
making it valueless by eradicating the cult.” “In that case” says
Druscilla, turning on her heel “ I present
you Lady Laeral with the white dragon mask, the cult has all the rest, so try
not to lose this one.” Laeral takes the mask and chuckles “ we’ll try to do better than you!” “Huh!”
spits Druscilla. Laeral climbs back up onto
her dais and looks around at the assembly. There is still a lot of tension in
the air and too many angry scowls and nervous sideways glances for her liking.
As the silence stretches on Lord Dagult steps forward and says “ really, I guess at this point in time the
who, the what and the why is kind irrelevant. If we can’t guarantee. If none of
us can guarantee keeping such things safe, then we cannot delay any further and
we have to deal with the problem at its source.” He turns towards Remi and
Delaan and continues “ as in fact we have
been advising for some time now!” Laeral nods. Remi looks up and says “ well I had assumed this was the work of
Asmodeus trying to reclaim the masks to keep Tiamat bound. I don’t know who
this Zariel is but perhaps this ‘theft’ is not as bad as it seems and we should
not panic about it. Although these revelations are deeply concerning to me”
behind her Delaan nods agreement. Onthar, tucks his helmet
under his gauntleted hand and says “ really
I don’t suppose it matters which of the archdevils did this or whether they are
doing it to favour Tiamat or oppose Tiamat. It’ll be some sort of devilish,
twisted political plot to serve their own interests not ours. We need to take
back control, we can’t be reacting to others. We need to be acting in our own
interests. All we’re doing here is dividing ourselves and doing the enemy’s
work for them.” Taern nods in agreement. Istavel steps forward, looks
back at Unther “ if I may?” Unther
nods “whatever the cause this loss is bad
news but at least we have the white mask and that prevents them completing
their ritual. But how long can we hold that for, no matter how secure the
vault? We cannot win by hiding in our basements, we’ll never be safe whilst
these masks have purpose. We have to act and we have to act soon” Ambassador Brawnanvil grunts
“ absolutely, let’s go kick some cult
teeth in, times a wasting with all this yapping!” King Melandroch looks up from
his place leaning against the back wall “ fools,
what more proof do you need that all is lost”.
Laeral takes a breath and
says “I think we all need to take a step
back. I think a short recess is in order so that we can recompose ourselves. So
let’s take half an hour and meet back here with calmer spirits.” She stands
in front of the throne, white mask in hand, frowning. “ Please keep open minds, we need to decide what we do next and much
depends on us”. She turns and heads for the door to the private rooms
behind, Lord Dagult follows, everyone else starts to make their way out the
main doors, breaking into small groups. Except for king Melandroch who stalks
out on his own talking to nobody.