And then a Meteor fell out of the sky.

[Talic]

Hara gives a slight frown at the dissertation between Cindy and Chora, but allows Cindy to finish before speaking

That's about what I thought. About the pets, I mean.

Though if you expect civility, courtesy, and politeness from Chora, it may be wise to return the favor. I think her patience is wearing thin, and I can hardly blame her. I've eaten magically prepared meals such as this before, and if I'm not mistaken, it takes some time for finish. If the spell would take but a moment of time to perform, and wouldn't impact the effectiveness of the meal in any way, perhaps it would be prudent to perform it sooner, rather than later. As good as any defense you have levied this far is, the very spell Chora wants to cast is the one you suggested. Perhaps you're a bit overly harsh, considering that you yourself have espoused the wisdom of the course she's suggesting.

[Emperor Tippy]

"If this feast is interrupted, which casting a spell would qualify as, then the magic would be negated. And if she wants to go so far as to interrupt the spell instead of waiting another 30 to 45 minutes for it to be finished then she can provide a better reason than that someone has been using divinations on the group. We are currently in an extra dimensional space that can only be entered from Raymans room, which is inside the professors quarters of Sigil Prep, and in the city of Sigil. Unless someone wants to play 20 questions with the gods, which Mind Blank won't prevent in the first place, then very few divination spells will be able to detect us. And those that could, such as the spell Scrying, create a magical sensor at our location. Malakh can see such sensors and will warn us if someone uses such as spell against us.

As for Chora, I attempted to be polite and courteous to her yesterday. Then I invited her to come here, inside my home, and join us in partaking of a feast that will provide her with more protections. She is a guest in my house and so far she has spurned the food I have offered. She gets affronted when I ask her to not spy on me in the future, a perfectly valid request in my opinion. If he has a really pressing and specific concern about divinations being used against us then she can share it. Or she can use Mind Blank on herself and leave the rest of you without its protection for the day. I have made my position clear, if she is willing to wait until after I finish eating then I will gladly alter her casting of Mind Blank so that it effects the whole group, if she can give me a specific, pressing reason to believe that casting it now will provide significant benefits vs. casting it in about 30 minutes then I will forgo the benefits of this feast. If she chooses to cast Mind Blank now, out of some petty form of rebellion, she is free to do so but she is the person responsible for that choice, not me.

Now I believe that that topic has been beaten to death, so lets move on to somethign else.

Cindy looks lost in thought for a second before continuing with Perhaps... Where do you suggest that we start this quest."

[Solo]

Not quite sure of what he can do to stop the growing inner party conflict, Rayman resolves to keep the two women separate from each other - and keep an eye on Chora.

Well, if I'm not mistaken, we have two places we could travel to.

1. Go to the abyss and start hunting the Balor down, or
2. Diviniate and figure out where the Balor before he came up here, then go to that plane and diviniate further.

One of these options is more dangerous and fun, the other is safer and probably a more direct way of finding out what is going on.

[Talic]

I suggest... That we start this quest after eating, and gaining the protections of a mind blank. That's where I suggest we start. As for our specific plans? Perhaps it would be best to wait until we are protected fully before speaking in full confidence.

[Emperor Tippy]

Cindy shrugs at Hara and says "Very well.". She eats in silence until the food is finished (about 30 minutes).

Spoiler

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Unless anyone has a reason to linger over the feast I suggest we advance time so its over.

[Solo]

(Let's move on. You certainly talked enough to fill an hour :p)

Half and hour later.....


Well, that was an excellent meal. Shall we now get to planning our little trip?

[Emperor Tippy]

Cindy waves a hand and the feast and furniture conjured with it disappear. "The sitting room is this way. Chora, if you want to cast Mind Blank now I will be happy to alter it."

Spoiler

Show

Cindy leads the way to the sitting room and then moves adjacent to Chora before reading an action to use Cooperative Meta to apply Chain Spell to Mind Blank, she takes 10 and succeeds on the spellcraft check

[AmberVael]

Chora casts Mind Blank, allowing Cindy to enhance it with her cooperative magic. She does not say anything to her, but simply uses her magic and allows it to be spread to the others via use of Chain Spell. After this is done, she sits and waits for the others to speak.

[Solo]

So, do we raid the gates of the Abyss (again) or go and try to trace the previous locations of the sword?

[AmberVael]

Do you want to know more about the sword, or the demon who used it and his plans?
Chora raises an eyebrow at Rayman, leaning back in her seat.

[Solo]

Well, seeing as he hid something, if we find out what he hid, we would find out more about the plans.

Plus, we'd likely want to find the thing anyways.

[AmberVael]

Chora taps her fingers together.
My divinations gave me many answers, some of which I'm not sure I can trust, but it seems that this involves, many, many outsiders. Considering my suspicions, well...
If my divinations are to entirely be believe, we will be interacting with the plots and goals of those in Mechanus, Celestial realms, the Abyss, and the Hells.
She looks over them all, then gives a little smile.
I don't think I reliably found out where the item we're looking for is, but my divinations implied that our demonic acquaintance had been dealing with an unbreakable contract. It could be that they were just misguided and were lying to me, but I am not so certain... what is the probability that two different entities would lie the same way twice?

[Talic]

Hara

Depends on if they knew each other, I suppose, and whether your name has become a household item among the different entities you talk to. Regardless, odds are likely slim.

Still, from what little I've seen of the planes, they're rather large places. Perhaps it would be wise to narrow down the search areas within each of the planes you suggested. Do we have any way to do that?

[AmberVael]

Chora raises a finger to pause him.
It may not be on any of the involved outsiders. My divinations said two things, which are both vague and may not be correct.
One said the item we're searching for is buried, and the other said it was currently located on the Astral Plane.

[Solo]

Hidden on the Asteral Plane? You mean, like he used that spell, what was it.... Secret Chest?

[AmberVael]

Possibly...
Chora sounds skeptical.
He said it was too large for him to carry, and it would take a great deal of arcane power to hide anything of substantial size with that spell. If he's carrying a sword around, he's probably more mundanely skilled, or relies on innate magical power- which I doubt would be able to duplicate that specific spell.
Still it is a possibility.

[Talic]

I know little of the Astral plane, but would it be possible to bury something on it? If not, would there be some sort of magical item that could duplicate the effects required to hide something on the astral plane?

[Emperor Tippy]

"Sure, you could bury something on the Astral Plane. Lot's of dirt is just randomly floating around there. And if you really had too, you could always transport your own dirt to there.

But we really need more information, the Astral Plane is infinite. So unless we can narrow down the area to search, well we would be glad that the Astral is also timeless."

[Solo]

Maybe some sort of 'divining rod'? Otherwise, the only other way to get information would be to confront a demonic prince in his home turf... unless I am forgetting something?

[Solo]

Well, in any case, we only have two options as far as I can see. As I don't favor digging around the Astral plane, I propose we visit the Abyss and ask nicely for information.

By which I mean shoot up a bunch of demons and interrogate them.

[Emperor Tippy]

Cindy shrugs and says "Sure, fine with me."

[Talic]

It sounds like it's at least somewhere to start.

[AmberVael]

I did divine for the names of a few people who might know more about the situation. Interestingly...
Chora's eyes flick to Cindy.
Cindy's father was one of them.

[Emperor Tippy]

Cindy shrugs and says "I'm sure he most likely does. But unless you know where he is at the moment then its irrelevant. And even if you did know where he was and we went and visited him there is no guarantee that he would tell us anything useful. He would consider it good training and experience for us to go and find out from some other source. And for all I know he staged this whole thing just because he was bored, he has done similar things before."

[Solo]

Your father sounds like a bastard. You may quote me on that.

Rayman rolls his eyes.

So, all for raiding the infinite layers of the Abyss until something useful comes up?

[Emperor Tippy]

"Sure, it could be interesting. Let's go play with demons."

[Talic]

Hara pauses at Rayman's last comment.

Just a thought... But would it not be a bit wiser to pull the enemy to us, in manageable numbers, rather than visit it, and try to defeat limitless numbers of powerful enemies? After all, this one that appeared in the courtyard released an effect capable of killing several in our group, just as a by product of its death. Perhaps we may be better served by calling outsiders that knew more to us, and getting the information here, where we can monitor their numbers a bit more carefully.

[Solo]

Hara, the infinite hoards of the abyss are not all in one place you know.

We could try Planar Binding demons, but we have no guarantee that we'd get he right ones. Some things have to be done the old fashioned way.

By which I mean we must beat something up and smack it around.

[Talic]

So... How exactly is randomly running in there to smack them around any different than randomly bringing them here to smack around? It seems we'll likely get the wrong ones before the right ones in either case. Not that I particularly mind, it just seems that over the past several months, every trip between planes has left me in places that remind me less and less of home.

[Solo]

Home tis a state of mind, tis what you make of it... but to answer your question, we go down there, find out where our prince in shining armor lives, and nab one of his trusty servants. Much better than randomly planar bindings.