So, what just happened back there?
- Gorakheel:
- "I can't help commenting that I don't recall the discussion that preluded this agreement."
- Silvana:
- "`Party' only means Stealth, Pepper, and me. The rest of you don't have to go."
- Frankel:
- "I'm perfectly willing to go...on condition that I get to participate in a retaliatory mission against RMD and friends after G is safe. I'm pissed."
- Silvana:
- "Basically, I agreed to go if the negotiations are favorable. And I haven't consented to the Consortium yet, I just indicated to G that I will help him. So basically what we're doing is this: We're preparing to assault their base and also to negotiate. We're going to go back to the Westerners and make preparations to find the demiplane, and we're also going to let the devils send a negotiator. Also, we didn't necessarily agree not to attack the negotiator, so if things go badly, we can try to capture him. The main reason I picked Samodesu is that we know his common name, which makes it easier to fashion items of entrapment."
- Hellcat:
- "Oh how very clever, Champion. Mortals and their little plans..."
- Silvana:
- "I bet we outlive you."
And why is it happening?
- Silvana:
- "The devils fear G because of the Chaotic energy that is inside him."
- Frankel:
- "Was he born with this energy?"
- Silvana:
- "Somewhat, yes."
- Beeel:
- "Is it true, that you can make him explode?"
- Silvana:
- "They have put G on an altar that is probably Lawful. The Idyllic Forest could stop his life force. If he dies on their altar, detonation could occur; it isn't a certain thing. I believe that the Lawfuls want to put G somewhere they are certain he can't do them any harm; it could be the Void or a far-off demiplane. Now the dustplane they are talking about is owned by Rakni. The spiders broke away from the Alliance for Law and are also an enemy of ours. So basically the devils are saying, `We're going to send G off to detonate somewhere...you can choose whether he detonates against our common enemy or uselessly in the Void.'"
- Erich: [asked to comment in meta-game mode]
- "G is primed to blow up against Rakni, but the blast is likely to be bad for any Lawfuls in the area, so they'd rather have him go boom someplace far far away. But they don't like Rakni either, so they're happy enough for him to blow up in her face, as long as they're well clear. The catch being that if G dies before the faceoff with Rakni, he might blow wherever he is...and they don't want to chance him getting killed fighting their operatives before his date with Rakni. (And preventing Ganeth and Silvana from following through on their plans to annoy Kharnzeel during the war is a nice fringe benefit.)"
The party headed back toward the Western forces and met with no encounters. As night fell, the hellcat began to lose its material form and melt away into the darkness; Beeel noticed that its ninth shadow had regenerated. The night passed uneventfully, and the hellcat reappeared in the morning.
The following day was also encounter-free, and the party reached the Western encampment after nightfall. Rogash met them and was happy to hear about the fall of the lead wight, the killing of Drakos, and the demise of the last beetles, but was less than pleased about G's capture. But he held a feast anyway, since it's good for morale (and he really likes feasting); Gorakheel, as a Paladin of the Cuthbert, had to attend, and Silvana, as Champion of Good, had to appear long enough to give a short inspirational speech, but by and large the party wasn't in a festive mood.
The party camped outside the encampment, since they didn't want to risk bringing the hellcat (wherever it was) inside. The night passed uneventfully.
The next morning, Omimajish arrived and called a Council meeting (which meant himself, Silvana, and Rogash) to discuss the situation. Rogash volunteered to make a rescue attempt, but Omimajish felt that both he and the party were more valuable elsewhere. Silvana, however, was strongly opposed to giving the devils time to tamper with Ganeth on their altar. Omimajish suggested using Alpha's team and promised to contact him immediately. Silvana then mentioned that the devils were planning to send Ganeth to the dustplane, which Omimajish found shocking. And then she said that since Whitemoon had asked her to take on the mission of destroying that dustplane a few years earlier, she might go too, and that really shocked the High Priest (though he was happy to hear that she had previously only discussed this mission with G, not the entire party). Omimajish believed that the kidnapping and subsequent events might simply be a ploy to take the party away from current events on the Prime (and that probably is one angle of their plan -- after all, the party has already cleansed Lifeblood of bloodsuckers, nasty undead, beetles, and Drakos, and the war has barely started).
- Omimajish:
- "I do not want you leaving this plane without the Council's permission."
- Silvana:
- "I can't make that promise. If Whitemoon approves, then I will go."
- Omimajish:
- "Whitemoon doesn't realize the importance of this war. They can't understand the Cuthbert because it is an artifact."
- Silvana:
- "Some members of Whitemoon understand the Cuthbert. Your Gods do and vote accordingly."
- Omimajish:
- "I cannot directly order you, since you are Whitemoon's servant. However, I can strongly remind you of your responsibilities and obligations. When you make your choices, think hard about those who depend upon and believe in you."
In other news, Omimajish noted that for a return visit to Kreel's mercs, a more forceful approach would likely be required, and he asked Silvana if she thought Gorakheel was mentally ready to negotiate with Kreel's mercs in the wake of the kidnapping; Silvana replied that she didn't know. As a contingency plan, the halflings (who apparently have recovered morale after helping with Drakos) have asked about mounting a skirmisher raid on Kreel's encampment (with whoever wants to come along). This thread was swamped by the Acheron bombshell and went unresolved.
That evening, Whitemoon sent Lunis (the evil-cat-hunting moon dog ranger) down to meet with the party.
- Lunis:
- "So you guys are off to the Dustworld plane? You guys are amazingly brave."
- Silvana:
- "Or we're assaulting the cat's demi-plane."
- Lunis:
- "Actually, I'm here to help you guys find G so you don't have to be amazingly brave. And I'm here because I hate stupid hellcats."
- Hellcat:
- "I don't need a +4 to chew on a mutt."
The hellcat, though bored, was willing to lead Lunis back to the demiplane, but since the next full moon was eight days away, Lunis wouldn't be able to project anyone there. As the discussion went on, a humanoid figure bearing a striking resemblance to G materialized nearby.
- UnGaneth:
- "Greetings."
- Silvana:
- "Hello. And who are we addressing?"
- UnGaneth:
- "You may call me Ganeth."
- Lunis:
- "And I'm Silvana."
- Beeel:
- "We could call you Ganeth, but we won't."
The UnGaneth was the Consortium's negotiator; Silvana summoned a Lawful translator (one of Whitemoon's experts in devil negotiations) to talk to it. The Consortium started out asking for two missions: the Dustplane for Ganeth and Rakni's gate in the Deadlands for his items, and much haggling followed (particuarly as Silvana counted the party's absence from the war as a boon for the devils).
- UnGaneth: [via the translator]
- "The Consortium wishes to promote Peace and Harmony. While they don't care about the Westerners, they do believe in the urgency of the primary Dustworld mission. They will drop the requirement of a second mission if you agree to going on the first one immediately."
But there ain't no way the party's going without special (organic and nonmagical) equipment, getting Frankel trained, and so forth. Eventually, it was decided that the party (the ones who are going on this suicide mission, that is) would leave for the Dustplane in five weeks' time, though they would withdraw from the Western War much sooner than that. After taking care of business with Kreel's mercenaries, they would travel to the caves of the Moradin dwarves in the mountains, where they'd drop off their magic items, Frankel would train, and various useful proficiencies would be acquired. After that, they'd venture into the Veins of Abbathor and be transported to Dustworld.
The Consortium provided a mission outline and further offered to sell the party information about the Dustworld at 100gp per factoid (and with ten entries, they'll throw in a guide) and high-quality non-magical items, and to arrange a dream conference with Ganeth for 200gp + 5 gp/participant (in addition to G).