Day 210
Remember:
Blaise Haneul
Nanuq Demeter
Merlyn Emil
Father Petre Moss
Candis Hadas
Today was a joyous day. I received word from yet another Palorian requesting my presence so that I may aid them by returning a lost soul back into its lifeless body. Better still, this particular Palorian... Kira from Sasserine gave her word that should would contact any Palorian she previously had dealings with, informing them of my generosity and powers so that I could lend them aid as well should they require it. What was that saying... ah yes... "The more the merrier".
With regards to the actual service that was required of me, the Palorian did somewhat lie when she requested my presence. When I magicked myself into her temple, there was no body to be given a soul too. In fact there was a merry man standing by the Palorian and though at first I believed it to be a trap, upon further inspecting Kira and the merry man it appeared that a mere sneeze would have killed them were they stood. When I spoke to them and received the answer to my question, I was nearly shocked at what they were planning. I was indeed to bring the soul & body back of a deceased individual, however if was of a man who was going to commit suicide. Had I have known this, I would gladly have offered my free services to provide this man's death as well. When the deed was done, I was taken aback slightly by the man laying before me. I remembered a tale that my master Verodemorium Moraztardia had told me once, where he and his companions had traveled to another plane where there tests were passed, and his companion received control of the realm and lost his eye only to have it replaced with one that smoked. The man before me was about half the man that this XenoGear was, however he too had smoke rising out of an eye. Questioning the man I now know as Glaive Gansworth, he could not give me any answers as his memory of the past few months were wiped from his mind. I highly doubt that this weakling could possibly have done it himself, which leads me to believe that either he asked someone to perform such a feat / spell... or someone forced a mind wipe upon him, reason for it is yet unknown. Knowing that my master would want to hear news of the smoking eye, I departed and made haste to report the news.
As expected Verodemorium was once again to lazy to do something on his own, and has instead asked that I spy upon the new recipient of the smoking eye. Verodemorium almost seemed worried that this man was now in possession of the eye, either because his plan to remove Cauldron from this realm and place it on Occipitus may now not be such a wise thing, or that perhaps this weakling somehow bested the Mighty XenoGear. Though I have more important matters to attend to and further relations to build with the Palorians, I believe that following this man may lead to something useful in my endeavors.
Learning of there whereabouts upon a far off Island, I invisibly teleported into the midst of a heated argument between the group of individuals I was to spy upon. Glaive's return to the group of explorers was met with questions and hostility. Threats between Glaive and his Admiral brother, who both seem to despise one another... Gustave's belief that Glaive's magic abilities were greatly needed in order for them to continue... a diva who seemed almost worried that Glaive returned for reasons unknown to me... the leader of the expedition who tried to keep the group focused. What have I gotten myself into.
Day 211
I took little time to sleep as I was more interested in seeing what Glaive was going to do this eve. This man apparently did know some form of battle magic, as I noticed him studying and memorizing a few spells for the day ahead. While Glaive prepped for battle, a druidess amongst them attempted to bring the souls of a few fallen crew members back. I've yet to determined if it is because she is female, or because she is a Druid... but do they not know that their powers of reincarnation is an utter waste. Her stupidity may cost these newly brought back souls another death from my hands, just for the reason that a druid should not delve into magics of life and death.
Soon enough they gathered together and began discussing the matters at hand, and how to remain alive whilst the odds were against them. Apparently during their travels they seemed to have peeved off both a Beholder and a Death Knight who followed them across the sea with ships and her crew of pirates. How such a group of treasure hunters manager to escape them in the first place is a mystery to me, however if I have the chance to meet this death knight perhaps I can communicate with it and find out whether or not its goals meet alongside my own. Though this bunch seemed slightly worried, they were adamant in pressing forwards to travel to a hidden undersea city. As I continued to eaves drop I was rather impressed by the research they had done as the city apparently held an ancient artifact that created a vast air bubble thus sustaining the life of dragon men who took residence there. Their goal seems to enter the city as quietly as possible, locate some sort of black pearls and prevent their further creations. The fools have even made an attempt to contact me through a sending to see whether or not I had any knowledge in destroying these black pearls. Ignoring them for the moment I care for one thing... to properly introduce myself to the Palorian here on the Island that had just attempted the sending.
The problem with this assignment is that I haven't been properly briefed. Gustave apparently had made contact and allied himself with a few demonic apes here on the Island. Those Apes can teleport and did so with those whom I was to spy upon. Luckily for myself my magics brought me to them within the underground city. There I took notice of necromantic ooze lining the walls of many caverns. What purpose it held I have yet to uncover. Unfortunately for myself I was to quick in re-locating Glaive's group of misfits, as they uncovered what they believed to have been the artifact that produced the air bubble, when in fact a new born child could have noticed it for what it truly was... A TRAP! We were all blasted with some form of evaporation spell unlike any I have heard, seen or read about. At least with the six of them within close proximity of one another... they seem to have developed a mind and decided to ignore any other objects resembling the ancient artifact.
Continuing at a slight distance from the adventurers, I have come to the conclusion that Glaive did not defeat XenoGear. He isn't even strong enough to grant his entire party a flight spell and instead they all needed to rely on a puny wand. They required flight in order to access a new section to the caverns that brought them before a 3-way junction. Deciding the fly up the second path, it brought them all to a large area filled with huts and clothed beings. Not caring for what they saw they flew back down and decided to take the third path. They didn't go far as before them was a large crater filled with the necromantic substance and creatures within it. Beyond the pool of ooze the tunnel did continue however they opted to venture towards the first path. This branched off again and one path led them to a similar cavern and crater however this one ended with a dead-end and some form of fungus dripping with ooze carrying within it numerous creatures. Taking a different path it branched once more and brought them to a large fungus filled carven. The other path however seemed more interesting and answered a question of my own. I noticed that the creatures within the caverns seemed under the influence of domination, and indeed they were for within a massive chamber I took notice of fifteen Koprus.
Eventually in order to progress further within the caverns these adventurers would have to combat them, however for the time being they continued down a small declining path that would eventually bring them back to the original 3rd path. In between the connection however they stumbled upon some magical portal and found a creature that managed to resist the domination. I noticed for the first time that the diva known as Crimson is proficient in telepathy as she managed to communicate with the creature without anyone else listening in. Whatever she requested in mindspeech, she was rejected. The Druidess took the opportunity to activate the portal and in doing so summoned forth a Hook Horror. As the Druidess retreated the Hook Horror brought along another dozen of its comrades and went forth to punish and slay a few inhabitants of the hut village. In the meantime Glaive, his crew and myself entered the portal appearing elsewhere within the vast underground caverns. Continuing on we stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient city that must have been for the sea creatures before the event that triggered the ancient artifact. They continued on and found the source of all the necromantic ooze. Below them was an enormous pit filled with the substance and within it a corrupted Aboleth. Watching Crimson once more she knelt down and began nodding her head in the direction of the Aboleth...
To be continued...
