Plane War I, Raise your Own Kingdom and Protect the Gods (3.5)

[flappeercraft]

"Well, so is there anything else anyone wants to ask me?"

[anonomas321]

Dursurayss nods when Quilvadish offered to take him to the Lord of Wyrm’s Vault. Even if there was not able to find the information that they were looking for, he doubted that such a trip would be without its uses. After all, dragons were rather famous for their hordes, and as the Lord of Wyrm’s seemed to be one of the most powerful in the entire multiverse, then chances were, that he had one of the largest hordes that existed... heck, he doubted that the Vault that Quilvadish has access to was the only Vault that the Lord of Wyrm had. Regardless, he was rather hoping that if they couldn’t find any leads or information, they could acquire powerful magical artefacts that could be useful for the fight ahead.

The others were just ignored. Completely and utterly ignored as he offered a claw to Quil. Sure, he couldn’t actually take it at the moment as he was still stuck, but Dursurayss felt that the gesture itself was important. “No further questions. I am Dursurayss, and I look forward to working with you against this threat.”

[flappeercraft]

Two clawed yet still human arms burst out of Quilvadish's torso and they meet Dursurayss' claw as he shakes it. "As do I." Quilvadish vanishes from the stone restraints and appears five feet away from them. He looks around as he stretches his four arms and his neck. "One tip for next time, Dimension Door is only a Verbal composed spell and Silent Whispercast allows casting it as a purely mental action at that. You should be careful the next time you use improvised restraints the next time it might not be a possible ally there."

[fallensavior]

"Even a fancy spell like that is hard to cast when you're distracted by the dagger that is suddenly poking out the back of your neck....But sure, next time you fall out of the sky, I'll make sure to Antimagic you.

Anyway, let's see this vault."

[Acanous]

and that’s why we have an invisible caster watching but sure
“Coinage we have, magic stuff we can make. Information is the most precious thing we could find.”

[flappeercraft]

"Well I do need to prepare spells, so we will have to leave tomorrow, I am currently out of enough magic so as to cast a Gate spell and I didn't prepare plane shift."

[fallensavior]

"I have Plane Shift if you have the appropriate key."

[flappeercraft]

"I have Plane Shift if you have the appropriate key."

Quilvadish uses his claw from the new arms and sinks it into the tip of his left index finger making a small cut while his normal right hand takes out a surgical gripper from his pocket. He uses the gripper and sinks it into the now open cut and takes out the tiniest metal rod you have ever seen with it. "Xzalvat're was paranoid, as such we decided that to not have anyone enter the vault, we would hide them in this fashion through our bodies. This also meant we don't have to draw the focus whenever we went there, we could just cast the spell. Quite brilliant from his part to suggest it if you ask me." He points the surgical gripper to Meraxen waiting for Meraxen to receive it.

[Acanous]

...and that’s when the invisible Marilith plucked it from him.
“Expedition party! Hiltze, Dur, Meraxen and Nina good? If things go south there, use the telepathic bond and I’ll bring the cavalry.”
And then Malady casts a Plane shift, targeting those named, assuming they joined hands and are willing

[fallensavior]

Meraxen frowns at the bloody metal rod offered to him for a few seconds,...and then looks relieved when Malady swipes it and joins hands for the spell.

[Esprit15]

After about ten seconds, Malady feels Hiltze’s hand grab hers.

[flappeercraft]

Quilvadish joins the Planeshift link holding on.

You vanish from the demiplane to appear in the middle of what seems to be a 1,000t radius demiplane, completely microscopic compared to that of the DDC yet still rather big. From what it seems, it looks like a small metal box, a single room, all seemingly on display. You can see a library with a sign hanging on top of it "The All Spells Library" which contains miniature bookshelves filled with miniature books, all of it organized from A-Z. To the right you see a chest from which you detect overwhelming amounts of magic emanating from even for those without special senses, likely a chest filled with magic items and probably even some artifacts. On another direction you see a speculation thought process in paper, all of it seemingly being on the 8 aspects of reality, all of it being rather similar to that of Quilvadish. In another section you see as a small Kobold stands with his back towards all of you, he turns around slowly yet unalarmed as if unaware of your presence. He spots your group and expands into a rather familiar Force Dragon you just recently fought.

Quilvadish looks puzzled. "Xzal?"

The dragon responds surprised. "Quilvadish?"

"I thought you had been annihilated."

"I was."

"I heard of the cyst."

"Yeah it wasn't fun, working for those we are trying to stop. Who are your friends over here?"

[fallensavior]

Meraxen scratches the top of his head.

"Hmm....Not what I was expecting."

[Esprit15]

”I’m suffering from Carter effect right now, so just keep going,” Hiltze says, rubbing the area where he was hit first when the dragon crushed him. ”Oh, uh, Hiltze, second best assassin among the group. Pleasure.”

[flappeercraft]

”I’m suffering from Carter effect right now, so just keep going,” Hiltze says, rubbing the area where he was hit first when the dragon crushed him. ”Oh, uh, Hiltze, second best assassin among the group. Pleasure.”

"Second? Knowing Quilvadish he only allies with those who show to be quite powerful since otherwise they would hamper him. I'd be willing to bet you're a DDC or Garrote member then for Quilvadish to have joined you. Am I in wrong?"

[Esprit15]

"Phantom is... a bit better than me. But by their admission, I'm surprisingly tough to kill, and dangerous enough for that to be a problem for enemies. But no, I worked alone until joining with these people."

[flappeercraft]

"Phantom is... a bit better than me. But by their admission, I'm surprisingly tough to kill, and dangerous enough for that to be a problem for enemies. But no, I worked alone until joining with these people."

"Their? I thought there was only one of him. Well that explains a lot, if you're even a tenth as skilled as Phantom you would be a great Assassin but if you are half as good as you say then I see why Quilvadish decided you were fit for an alliance."

[Esprit15]

”Their in this case refers to the third person plural of the DDC as a whole, not the Phantom pair prior to their re-forming. Not sure where you’re gathering that I claim to be any specific percentage of their skill, but sure, I’ll take it. The Ice Assassin of you they summoned for gift extraction had to pull a miracle to kill me, and I’ve since adjusted my skill set such that the same thing won’t work twice... Not that I am eager to test the abilities of the original.”

[flappeercraft]

”Their in this case refers to the third person plural of the DDC as a whole, not the Phantom pair prior to their re-forming. Not sure where you’re gathering that I claim to be any specific percentage of their skill, but sure, I’ll take it. The Ice Assassin of you they summoned for gift extraction had to pull a miracle to kill me, and I’ve since adjusted my skill set such that the same thing won’t work twice... Not that I am eager to test the abilities of the original.”

"Phantom pair? Ice Assassin of me? I see that quite a lot has been going on since I was annihilated and I was reborn. As far as the percentage, it was just me saying that even understating the comparison it makes you a formidable assassin. Now if I may know are you a combat assassin or a more traditional assassin?"

[Esprit15]

The gnome shrugs. ”Traditional. Though again, I can hold my own in a fight. If I had to, I could whittle down the Tarrasque, though I would prefer to just place one good stab at the vitals and let someone Wish it back to sleep. After all, why mess up my pretty face if the job doesn’t require it?” Normally, he would be cautious, revealing too much. But with the people he was around, there seemed little point in secrecy. The DDC already knew, the wyrmling and him would be an unstoppable force versus an immoveable object, and the others... well, sometimes knowing is half the battle, but the other half is knowing to just walk away.

“Idle curiosity, or wanting to know what my fighting style is in case I have to be put down?”

[flappeercraft]

The gnome shrugs. ”Traditional. Though again, I can hold my own in a fight. If I had to, I could whittle down the Tarrasque, though I would prefer to just place one good stab at the vitals and let someone Wish it back to sleep. After all, why mess up my pretty face if the job doesn’t require it?” Normally, he would be cautious, revealing too much. But with the people he was around, there seemed little point in secrecy. The DDC already knew, the wyrmling and him would be an unstoppable force versus an immoveable object, and the others... well, sometimes knowing is half the battle, but the other half is knowing to just walk away.

“Idle curiosity, or wanting to know what my fighting style is in case I have to be put down?”

"Curiosity mostly. Even without intel for combat I can know from the beginning that Quilvadish would side with me and his strength in combat is gathering intel. Plus I have the home field advantage, you don't know what kind of traps are here if any or what I have prepared in case of intruders be it a guardian or something else."

[fallensavior]

Meraxen raises his eye ridges at Hiltze giving away valuable intel, then clears his throat.

"*cough*...Right, so how can you show us what side you guys are on, aside from taking your word for it?"

[flappeercraft]

"I'm guessing Quilvadish shared the information on our current goal didn't he? If you're DDC you must have seen something that would back the information he gave haven't you? I have seen the DDC and their methods of strategizing, combat and gathering intel when we fought a hundred years ago, I suspect they have only become more refined in all of those departments, they must have found out haven't they? While something that has been hidden all to well from all the multiverse, I believe the DDC have the ability to have uncovered it like we did even if they have less information regarding this. If what I presume is correct, is that proof enough?"

He takes a brief pause

"If that's not enough, when I was controlled with the necrotic tumor it was due to fighting against two of them, I went with Claws of Hell if he works as a second reference point."

[anonomas321]

A smile would quick Dursurayss’ lips when two arms burst through the stone restraints around Quilvadish. The human(ish) quite quick to point out that whilst stone restraints is all well and good. There are many, many different ways for someone to get around them using magic... and whilst there are ways around Anti-Magic fields, its best to have one in place if you can. It all tends to add up after all, and who knows, you might just get lucky and stop someone from casting any spells.

Or at least, most spells...

Still. The smile didn’t last for long, as the steel dragon soon masked his expression again, not wanting the rest of the ‘team’ to think he was growing to like Quilvadish much at all. Even as he nodded in respect for the Lord of Wyrm’s idea, of hiding the Planar ‘Key’ within their own bodies in order to make it nearly impossible to actually get to the plane unless they themselves were travelling there. He made a mental note to ask Quilvadish if he knew how this set-up was accomplished, and whenever or not it could be applied to a Plane already in place... having that level of security would be quite useful.

Then, they got to Xzalvat’re’s demi-plane... and, quite frankly. It was significantly more modest than Dursurayss had been expecting... almost disappointingly so. Still, from the look over the plane, he suspected that Xzalvat’re had likely gone for a smaller plane in order to avoid notice, and my miniaturizing everything he owned, it would be easy to overlook the most powerful objects. Especially if you couldn’t even see what said objects were. Plus, reversing this miniaturization process likely took quite a bit of time and effort, which would reduce the ability of any thieves or intruders to actually make much use of the fact they even managed to break into his vault in the first place...

Admittedly, this was somewhat distracted by the fact that the vault was occupied... by a kobold... that transformed into a force dragon... okay, that’s two immensely dragons that went around as kobolds. First Quid, and now Xzalvat’re... was it the hands? It had to be the hands, right? Why else would a powerful dragon go around in the shape of a lowly kobold? Especially when they could likely just take a smaller form of themselves if they really wanted to...

With a slight shake of his head, Dursurayss put that thought aside. Shooting Hiltze a quick glare for being so casual in his information sharing, before turning his attention to the Lord of Wyrms. “I see no reason to disbelieve you, especially as both yourself and Quilvadish have been incredibly open and forthcoming so far.” Sure they could actually be part of the group that they had to fight against, and were reconnaissancing potential threats in order to take them out before they moved to harvest their ‘universal fruit’... but that was a bit of a convoluted strategy, and could easily backfire due to giving over critical information. Hence why Dursurayss went ahead and said. “If you do not mind me asking Lord Xzalvat’re... how was it that you came to be controlled by our mutual foe? And what is this ‘Garrote’ organization that you spoke of?”

[flappeercraft]

A smile would quick Dursurayss’ lips when two arms burst through the stone restraints around Quilvadish. The human(ish) quite quick to point out that whilst stone restraints is all well and good. There are many, many different ways for someone to get around them using magic... and whilst there are ways around Anti-Magic fields, its best to have one in place if you can. It all tends to add up after all, and who knows, you might just get lucky and stop someone from casting any spells.

Or at least, most spells...

Still. The smile didn’t last for long, as the steel dragon soon masked his expression again, not wanting the rest of the ‘team’ to think he was growing to like Quilvadish much at all. Even as he nodded in respect for the Lord of Wyrm’s idea, of hiding the Planar ‘Key’ within their own bodies in order to make it nearly impossible to actually get to the plane unless they themselves were travelling there. He made a mental note to ask Quilvadish if he knew how this set-up was accomplished, and whenever or not it could be applied to a Plane already in place... having that level of security would be quite useful.

Then, they got to Xzalvat’re’s demi-plane... and, quite frankly. It was significantly more modest than Dursurayss had been expecting... almost disappointingly so. Still, from the look over the plane, he suspected that Xzalvat’re had likely gone for a smaller plane in order to avoid notice, and my miniaturizing everything he owned, it would be easy to overlook the most powerful objects. Especially if you couldn’t even see what said objects were. Plus, reversing this miniaturization process likely took quite a bit of time and effort, which would reduce the ability of any thieves or intruders to actually make much use of the fact they even managed to break into his vault in the first place...

Admittedly, this was somewhat distracted by the fact that the vault was occupied... by a kobold... that transformed into a force dragon... okay, that’s two immensely dragons that went around as kobolds. First Quid, and now Xzalvat’re... was it the hands? It had to be the hands, right? Why else would a powerful dragon go around in the shape of a lowly kobold? Especially when they could likely just take a smaller form of themselves if they really wanted to...

With a slight shake of his head, Dursurayss put that thought aside. Shooting Hiltze a quick glare for being so casual in his information sharing, before turning his attention to the Lord of Wyrms. “I see no reason to disbelief you, especially as both yourself and Quilvadish have been incredibly open and forthcoming so far.” Sure they could actually be part of the group that they had to fight against, and were reconnaissancing potential threats in order to take them out before they moved to harvest their ‘universal fruit’... but that was a bit of a convoluted strategy, and could easily backfire due to giving over critical information. Hence why Dursurayss went ahead and said. “If you do not mind me asking Lord Xzalvat’re... how was it that you came to be controlled by our mutual foe? And what is this ‘Garrote’ organization that you spoke of?”

"I got in a bit of a fight with two of them. The Time and Probability aspect and the Soul Aspect. It was while Quilvadish was in his research that I allied myself with Claws of Hell, a delvehrkian Clawlock, and ten assassins hired from the Garrote which is a multiplanar assassin organization. So we went to fight them since if we captured one of them it would be the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately the window of time was small and Quilvadish would not have been able to arrive. Their goal was apparently to capture a Marut for experimentation so we created bait. As they came we ambushed them between the twelve of us, the garrote assassins got quickly dispatched of as their souls were ripped by the soul aspect while the probability and time aspect slowed us all down and apparenty manipulated probability with enough finesse to make every single attack from our side fail. We decided to escape which Claws of Hell managed but I got a Necrotic Cyst and Tumor cast against me before I was able to go away."

[fallensavior]

Meraxen nods at Dur and LoW's exchange.

"Ah, you've seen some of the aspects...what do they look like?

[flappeercraft]

"The Time and Probability Aspect is a Halfling but apparently was enlarged to the size of a human making the difference nearly unnoticeable. It's a female and has short and plain white hair, as is her skin making her basically an albino. Her eyes though are a bright red color. She is rather busty and has the proportions of an average human.

However my memory on the Soul Aspect is rather blurry, I remember he is a kobold with extra draconic features, likely a Dragonwrought Kobold. That's all I remember though."

[fallensavior]

Meraxen pauses to see if anyone else wants to chime in, then changes the subject when no one does.

"So...got any intel on big V?"

[flappeercraft]

Meraxen pauses to see if anyone else wants to chime in, then changes the subject when no one does.

"So...got any intel on big V?"

If you mean the apparent ninth person involved, then we have nothing on him, her or it except that its power is far beyond that of even the Aspects and the power of the Aspects is far beyond even ours. Basically if big V as you call it succeeds even if we do somehow survive its all over.

[Esprit15]

”So, um... How do we want to go about tackling this, then?”