Leaving the excavation under the expert supervision of Frau Hilda, you head over to the Inn of the Drunken Dwarf for your strategy session. It will take you several days, you realise, to get the mess cleared up.
You gather with Kadlian's party (minus Hlarn and Logan) in the private dining room. Luthus serves up one of the breakfast feasts that Gilstrock loves so much: steak, eggs, sausage, ham, kidneys, black pudding, bacon, mushrooms, pancakes, breads and rolls with lots of tea and coffee. You dig in.
Vardui, however, only nibbles at his food.
Finally, he looks up, looks around, and says, "Let's get started. I missed most of yesterday's discussions, but it sounds like we still have some personality conflicts in the party."
He glances at Al, Equinox, Jesse and Gar.
"Perhaps, then, it's just as well that we are confronted with two missions to work on. We need to go back to Hell to rescue Occa, this Zanax fellow and get this Sceptre thing. Also, Thor has apparently told Equinox and Al to go north, which I gather is where the next artifact is."
He sips some tea.
"I am going north with Equinox and Al. I've also heard that Dor and Drinor are going that way as well. While I like Occa and feel some residual loyalty to what has become his party, I share Equinox's and Al's distrust of Gar. And, while I think Jesse is great and would make an excellent servant of my patron Tuoni, I do not trust her judgement in this matter. Since she seems to be calling the shots in Occa's absence and I want to live to see a ripe old age, I think I will go north."
He looks around the many faces in the room, particularily at the younger and less experienced ones.
"The lower planes are nasty," he says. "Unless you are powerful, experienced and have lots of magical toys, you will not last long. If you don't meet those criteria then maybe you should consider coming north with us."
He looks at Op Code.
"Where are you going, friend?" he asks. "A ranger lord would be awful helpful in the wilderness."
Next, he says to Al and Equinox, "What clues have you got to search for this next artifact? The North is a pretty big place. I've travelled through it a few times, but I'm no expert. I do know of an expert, though. Unless you have a better idea, maybe we should seek him out first and get his advice."
Finally, he says to one and all, "If we split up like this then perhaps we can achieve our goals a little faster. The hellbound people should be done their mission before the northbound people are. We have a long walk ahead of us. Join us when you are finished. And, when we get together again, maybe we'll be able to see eye to eye a little better. Or, maybe the people who don't see eye to eye right now will all be killed and eaten by devils or polar bears."
Vardui shuts up, grins, and digs into his breakfast with gusto.
"I have no interest in rescuing Zanax. I'll be going north with Vardui, Al and Equinox if they'll allow me to join them," says Aron.
"Cool. You do not need my permission. The more the merrier. Welcome aboard."
"The more, the merrier!" Al says as he is glad that quite a few people are willing to come north with him and Equinox.
"While I hate hell, I like Occa, so I'll be going after him," Robert announces.
Dor prepares to go north and Emm prepares to go metaphorically south.
Kadlian looks surprised. "So, you are leaving as well, Dor?"
"Why do you look surprised?" Dor asks. "I said from the beginning that I am not ready to go to Hell."
"I understand. I was not expecting you to go to Hell, but neither was I expecting you to go north without us."
"Me dinks me goes whereas me kin does da most 'Karumba' wid me klobberin' skills," pipes in a soot-faced Gonzo.
Regarding Vardui's comment about finding an expert, Al says -
"That might be a good idea, unless, Brother Equinox," he says turning to the druid, "has our Lord enlightened you more than he has me?"
"No, Thor has not told me anything more yet."
Kadlian frowns. "My party was going to go north, but I had thought that this trip to Hell was going to be a matter of hours, not days. Has something changed that I am unaware of?"
Vardui chuckles.
"A journey to the lower planes is not like a jaunt into the Tyaa's temple, Kadlian."
"Of course it is not, Vardui. But, the plan was to teleport close to the sanctum, fight the good fight and rescue Occa, Zanax and the Sceptre and get back out."
"Do you know what you are confronting, yet?"
"Fire giants, assorted demons and an arch-demon. And probably some additional creatures thrown in for good measure."
"No, not an arch-demon. Vrith is an arcanodaemon. Very powerful, but not as powerful as an arch-demon."
"Oh. Then I was over-estimating the task?" Kadlian asks innocently.
Al smiles and then digs in as well taking a second and then a third helping.
"You never know when the next time we will have another good meal like this!" he says as he eats heartily.
"If the lot of you do not accompany us to Hell, you make it more likely that we will not last long. I have encouraged some of my party who are not so skilled to stay behind, but the young are eager..."
"And stupid, sometimes."
Concerning Vardui's invitation to Op Code -
Kadlian looks over at Sian and chuckles. "I guess we must be chopped liver, eh?"
"I guess so. Best tracker that's come out of Strabath and a thief thinks of only himself and his party members," says Sian with a chuckle.
"I was under the impression from what I had heard over the past few days that you were going to hell, come hell or...never mind."
Kadlian chuckles. "Yes, there is that."
Kadlian nods. "I see. So, we would be joining you. That may not work. I shall have to discuss that amongst the rest of my group.
"Jesse, this seems to be your show. What now?"
Jesse speaks to the assembled group. "Kadlian, thank you and your group for joining us today."
"Well, we kind of were in town and a friend is missing," says Sian with a grin.
Kadlian nods. "You are welcome. This is important to us as it is to you. We both have lost friends."
"It seems we have several more days at least to clean out the remains of Occa's mansion and complete our recovery of what is salvageable. Clearly we will probably have lost a great deal of paper consumables, especially spell books and scrolls. I think we need to get those who can create scrolls to work on making a bunch as quickly as we can."
"You might speak with Ming at Ray Jay's. You may be able to purchase any scrolls you need."
"If we have the ability to make them ourselves, we should use it. How hard is it to make scrolls?" Jesse asks Darien. "And would it be better to buy them, if possible?"
"It takes time, dear. For example, for me to pen a fireball scroll would take three days. And I can't create a scroll for a spell I can't cast. I'm only able to cast up to 5th order spells."
"So, buying them from Ming, if he has what we need in stock, or from the mage's guild, might be better. But, they're going to be expensive...
"Second, we need to determine what funds we have to contribute to this process, as well as the process of rebuilding the mansion."
"Our group was looking into purchasing a place or at least land to build a place. Perhaps we could pool our resources and build something for both groups that could hold everyone?"
"That is a long term plan that we could consider, but with all the personalities, it might be difficult."
Kadlian shrugs. "I understand."
"Next is clearly the decision as to where everyone is going," the bard says, "It seems that there are at least three distinct options. One is finding Ryshara. We have some of the equipment she had, but she has killed two priests and stolen from a temple. I am not sure how best to find her, short of a wish spell, but we can ask Kadlian's group to borrow their crystal ball and check for her again."
"Of course. It is at your disposal. We need her to get Zanax's body back, correct?"
"That is my understanding," Jesse replies.
Kadlian sighs. "Then, catching her is something we should do quickly."
"Second is the recovery of Occa's and Zanax's souls. From what we have learned from Gar, the critter in possession of them is Vrith. He also has the scepter and may be in the process of selling it to Hecate."
"Do you know why Hecate would want it, yet? I mean, we recovered it from her vampire priestess. It seems very odd to me that she did not take it when she could have had it without much pain."
"Gathering this information has been a time consuming task, and there is very little to be had at this point. Short of asking her herself, we must speculate," the bard says, "I suspect it has to do with the idea of the Rhior power, and the ancient kingdoms."
Kadlian shakes his head. "Something is still missing."
"Third is the recovery of the northern artifact, as Thor has commanded Al and Equinox to proceed to. Interestingly, the message that Kadlian's group has related about this is that there are three artifacts, and only possession of all three will allow them to be used.
"Thus we come to a crossroads. As we have all heard, going to the abyss is no walk in the park. We need to have all our material and equipment if we are to survive there. And as much as I personally would like to go there now, we cannot rationally make that decision until we know what equipment we have to use. That has to wait until we finish the salvage operation," Jesse says.
"Do you need help from my group?"
"That is a fair question. If we were to hit hell now, having your group along would increase our firepower and make it potentially easier to get the situation dealt with. However, what it boils down to is that we have to determine what equipment we have lost and if we even have sufficient magic to consider tackling this problem now, or if it is better to get the other two artifacts first," Jesse says, "And unfortunately, I cannot answer that at this point, not knowing the status of our equipment and material. The more I consider the possibilities, the more I am inclined to say we need to get the other artifacts first."
"If you think it is wise. I thought we were up against a timetable of sorts that would not allow us to wait months until we tried."
Gar speaks up. "Vrith is likely to have the scepter for less than another week. We should make haste if we wish to recover it now."
"I have been doing some research, and from my reading, I would suspect that recovery of the other two artifacts is of vital importance. I would speculate that with the war going on, as well as the problems with magic in general, that we need to get them both quickly," the bard says, "And it may be that we need to retrieve them before we retrieve our lost friends."
"Why do you believe that?"
"Based on my limited research, and based on some unconfirmed information," the bard says. "I am not trying to be cryptic, but I do not wish to speak about things in detail until I know they are true, and I will be getting confirmation in the next day or so."
"Okay." Kadlian looks at Rage. "Did you or any of our group learn anything while in Strabath?"
"I didn't find anything in the books that I was looking at but I really don't know exactly what we are trying to find," says Sian.
"Any clue to the places mentioned in that riddle or mention of the artifacts themselves?"
"What was the riddle?" Equinox asks Kadlian.
Kadlian nods and recites the riddle.
'THE SCEPTRE, THE SWORD, AND THE ROBETHE SOUTH, THE NORTH, AND THE EAST
THE SCEPTRE, THE SWORD, AND THE ROBE
THE GRAVE, THE BRIDGE, AND THE CITY
THE SCEPTRE, THE SWORD, AND THE ROBE
WHO SHALL HAVE THEM
SHALL HAVE AN EMPIRE
ARISE AGAIN.'
"I don't know that I agree with you there. We have to get all three and if a demon already is selling the one like you suspect we need to get it first. Getting our friends back is just a bonus," states Sian.
"Right now, Sian, I am not sure our group has the magical equipment we need to fight in hell. Getting our friends back is very important, but only if we have the material we need. I don't think we want to go there if we have little chance of succeeding," Jesse says. "However, if one artifact is not usable without the other two, if we possess one or both of the other ones, we can prevent all three from being used."
"That sounds fair but I don't think that we have proof that this is true. We are just going on what we were told about them. They might be used by themselves," states Sian.
"Well, we have heard that story from different sources, so I think it is a safe assumption."
Jesse frowns. "Actually, the other day, in a commune with Thor, we asked about that, and learned that the scepter cannot be used by itself. I would also speculate that there is another player in the game, a major player on this plane, and I hope to have confirmed this speculation later today," the bard says cryptically.
"If you can find that out we definitely need to address that," says Sian .
"As soon as it is confirmed, I'll let you all know," the bard says.
"That is good," says Sian.
"I would not say that, if true, it spells lots of problems for all concerned," the bard says.
"If I can propose a plan, I would say that since Kadlian's group was planning to head North anyway, that they begin their journey. Getting towards that goal is becoming important. There remains the other artifact as well."
"I think that we might want to start splitting the groups like Vardui has started to do. There is some big conflicts in our group that we don't really have time to deal with and from the sounds of it you have some as well. If we make this a volunteer deal than we won't have to worry bout that," states Sian.
"I'm not splitting anything," says Vardui. "Things were already splitting before I opened my mouth."
Jesse laughs. "This is bigger than any petty conflicts that anyone may have." the bard says, "Vardui exaggerates the conflict, at least from my perspective."
Vardui rolls his eyes.
"You do that well Vardui, very well indeed. Were you a woman in a prior life?" the bard asks with a smile.
"I just follow your lead."
"That may be true but we are all just people with feelings that don't go away. Our group has a very big problem that can't just go away," states Sian.
"Indeed?" the bard says, "It is important as when I was praying with Grolsh-Lowenbrau last night, he told me to forgive and forget and move forward."
"Rage was doing research on that. I do not know if it has been finished. However, you said that Al and Equinox had been commanded by Thor to go North."
"As you are aware, Equinox has been at the center of conflict in my group. My group still needs to decide if we want to accept him back in the ranks. If the vote goes against him, how do you suggest we proceed? Have two groups go?"
"Or would it be better if my group went East after the third artifact? The one that your group was originally going to go after?"
"Look," says Equinox, "Even if the vote goes against me, I am still going North because Thor commanded me to do so. I do not think that the vote should go against me because I am trying my best to get along with everyone and I do not anticipate any further problems between me and anyone."
"I've heard that before," Rage says to Equinox. "It would be best, I think that we go east, else there will be some conflict."
Gar says, "Liar! You aren't trying to get along with me." He shrugs and looks over everyone. "Obviously he can't be trusted."
Gar gives a slight smile.
"Do you want to be black and blue when you go back to Hell?" Al asks. "Just keep your mouth shut unless you are spoken to."
Gar smiles. "Be very careful, Alvin."
"It's Alhamet, you two bit demonic reject," Al replies.
"He doesn't get along with anyone, and then he attacks you when he doesn't like you," Rage says. "And I won't bring up his attempt to rape me, because that would get me angry. And you would not like to see me angry."
"Excuse me? Attempted RAPE? What the hell are you talking about, Rage?" asks Sian with a glint coming to his eyes.
"I'm going East."
"East or to hell. Whichever is good for me," says Sian.
"If we are not heading to hell at this point, then your group should go east, and this group will go north. That would eliminate the potential conflict you have mentioned. However, I would head off as soon as you are able. We also need to determine how best to keep in contact with each other, so if there is a major change of events, we can get our resources together quickly to meet the challenge."
Kadlian looks at Rage, Sian, Kailar and the others of his group.
"Then, we go east."
"That is good for me. I just have that little appointment that I need to keep in Strabath. Along with getting my followers taken care of. If we go east we may want to take some along for additional support," says Sian, glancing over at Kad for his opinion.
"Well, if Rage can get us back later today, I think I will go with you."
"As far as your followers go, when we go east, I plan on taking them all, including all of mine. I just did not want to take them to Hell, since I was worried they would not survive."
"Speaking of which, I still need to get my Treants, hippogriff and blink dogs to Strabath. Rage, I hate to ask, but after this meeting, could you pop me back here so that I accompany them? The Treants refuse to teleport to the city."
At the mention of a place to stay Sian looks over at Kadlian. "I need to talk to you about that when we get a chance. I am working on that for us."
Kadlian raises his eyebrows. "Oh? Is that what the meeting tomorrow is about?"
Vardui comments, "Actually we already have a good base for operations, if that is what you are looking for, though it is not close by. Stiff, Orlon and Al purchased a castle in Demon's Neck this past fall. It is large, well defended and in good repair. The only problem is that it is very far away, though with teleport spells that problem is mitigated."
Eventually the meeting breaks up. Occa's party returns to the house to continue excavating, though Jesse heads off alone on her own errand. Kadlian's party retires to make their own preparations.
Returning to what is left of the house, you get back to work. All except Gar, that is, who slinks off to the stables alone.
A few minutes after going into the stables, Gar returns outside. With him is Salaam, as naked as the day he was born.
It is cold and it is snowing.
Jesse returns to the house later in the day. To her surprise she finds Salaam there, alive and kicking.