Ishmael Mk III

[planswalker]

"The Shadow Spider is not directly manipulated, no. But where he moves himself can be accommodated for. Currently, the position favors Eddy."

"Oh, him? He's Eddy's insurance to make sure you actually slay the Devourer instead of giving in to its temptation."

[Monodominant]

"About that... I dont suppose you have any idea how I can go about slay him right? Cause it knows all I know... being bonded with me, and knows I am not working entirely for it so... I am really trying to figure it out but have no clue...

Plus I was thinking... wouldnt destroying the Devourer cause our clan to have a severe loss of power? I am all for my other patrons but I am quite... pleased to have the Skulks here also become stronger!"

[planswalker]

"Well, considering that if you go mad with power you're as likely to turn its power on us as with us, I think we'd rather not have the loose cannon running around. Besides, we draw our power from the Nameless One's other servant. Its death hampers the cause but protects us."

[Monodominant]

"I doubt I would turn it to the clan proper to be honest... there are particular factions that I would focus on, if indeed I go power mad, but the Skulks would be among the last of them... along with the fact that they would be hard to catch with all our... abilities!" he says and smiles.

"In any case, how did you take the death of your brother? He was a tormented creature but it was mostly the vampire part that was what had caused the fall out with the clan. The skulk part was still there somewhere when the Vampire was destroyed..."

[planswalker]

"You mean the freak that convinced dear Daddy that his experiments could succeed? I hope you killed the bastard slowly."

[Monodominant]

He shrugs.

"Its done now anyway..." he pauses considering his next words.

"So, here we come to the actual reason of my visit..." he says and draws the dead blue goblin from his bag.

"I do not know... alot about magic but I know about sympathetic links... so when I managed to take this gentleman out I was wondering if you could use his body to figure out where the rest of his group is and such information... even if your Uncle manages to secure the support of the Kobolds for an attack on the Fortress, a group of 8 or more psionists could really mess up with my plans... so taking care of them before hand is the only solution I see possible..."

[planswalker]

She takes the body and performs some basic divinations.

"You... his body is empty. What did you want to do with it?"

[Monodominant]

Ishmael smiles. The girl knew he was... the Devourer... hence her surprise in what that actually meant was pleasing to him.

"He was very close to his comrades. They shared more than a mental link. I wish to see if there is any way to track the others using him. Alternatively I would care to talk with his body even if the soul is no more... I had to act quickly as he resisted all my interogation attempts and futher more ascended to the astral to summon help..."

[planswalker]

"You devoured his soul outside of his body? That is impressive. Well, yes, this is about a hundred thousand more sample than I'd need to track this thing's associates. I also could facilitate implanting this body with a new soul if you wish. It should still be connected to those bonds which were forged upon this body."

[Monodominant]

He raises an eyebrow in disbelief.

"You can put a soul in him? And what... what would that accomplish? I mean what soul would you put in him?"

[planswalker]

"No, I can help you to accomplish this. If you tear another soul out of its body like you did this one, I can then take that soul and implant it in this body. As for why we would, a newborn soul is very pliable. We could shape it into our own spy."

[Monodominant]

"Well I dont just go around soul scavenging. The people I have... well... devoured so far would not be willing to help us no matter what the alternative and I am not about to just go and kill someone to do this. Divination on those linked to him will have to do... plus he could be a spy in the body of who he was but he would not have the powers anyway so he would be discovered very quickly" Ishmael reasons.

[planswalker]

"Fair enough. Uncle seems to think your conscience is an asset to us. I won't contradict him. I'll do the necessary rituals at midnight."

[Monodominant]

Ishmael smiles.

He will spend some time helping the clan as needed before returning to the woman at midnight as this is now a priority goal for him.

[planswalker]

You spend the day scouting out the battle lines in the Docks with the Blue Hand clan.

When you arrive back with her at midnight, she says, "The five are currently together in the same room. They are discussing the fate of their fallen comrade and are preparing a ritual to scry the body and discover what happened to him. They do not know yet that he's effectively dead, as his body is alive and his soul is not resting with the dead. However, neither have they heard from him and they apparently can communicate through dreams and thus have concluded that he is held unconscious somewhere on a demi-plane nearby."

[Monodominant]

"All five in one room? This would be amazing but I fear unless I had significant help I doubt I could take care of it..." he says and ponders this for a second.

"Would putting the body in an extradimensional space hide it from them?" he asks and then pauses.

"Wait a second... since the body is alove we could use it as a lure... if I manage to... pretend to be a more regular type crook that has abducted him perhaps they would try to rescue him... hopefully not all would come in that case or even if they did we would be trapping them. Problem is that would take some time to set up and still might prove too dangerous..." he says and shakes his head.

"Is there any way to block psionic ability like one can do for magic? I have heard for example of antimagic fields but not sure if the Psionists would suffer any ill effects from such an ability!"

[planswalker]

"Well, if one were to say, place the body of an unconscious person in a bag of holding then the person would be cut off from the dream planes of the Material and be in their own small temporary psychoplane. Some forms of dream communication would be blocked; other forms would not be. You could definitely try to set something up. I'm sure my uncle wouldn't mind helping you set something up. Anything that would block magic will also block psionics."

[Monodominant]

Ishmael bows his head and thanks the woman.

"I shall keep in mind the idea of using spirits to occupy his body... interestingly I have been trying to see if I can consumer elementals and demonic/devilish creatures... perhaps making him a demon-host could work?"

"Perhaps a demonic entity would possess the body for all the benefits that would provide rather than because I detached it from a body!"

[planswalker]

"Spirits are not direct analogs to souls; using one to animate an empty but alive body will only work for the short-term. The body would eventually reject the host and die, killing both if the spirit doesn't leave before then. Still, if you're going to eat the demon anyways, it's not a waste."

[Monodominant]

"Interesting... unfortunately at this time I cant actually... control and consume a devilish entity... would you know if it can be done with other means?"

[planswalker]

"Well, if you call a demon physically into this world, I could bind it for a day."

[Monodominant]

Ishmael is uncertain.

"Choices, choices... if we do... activate the body then it will be hard to deceive the rest of them that he is not awake when they try to contact him via dream powers correct? I doubt he will be able to fool them in anything but actual physical form..." he says.

"So perhaps moving along with the trap to eliminate the cadre and THEN using the devil, as I'd rather have something evil but at least following the rules, to send him in as a spy might be better..."

[planswalker]

"I'll do this any way you like." she offered helpfully.

[Monodominant]

"Well... let me first visit your Uncle and see if he is on board with my idea and then we can decide how to cross this bridge when we come to it..." he says and returns to the main hall.

[planswalker]

The Shadow Spider will see you now.

[Monodominant]

Ishmael walks inside once again.

"I have come up with an idea, with the help of your niece, to continue weaking the Blue Hands in light of the future attack. I have captured and... incapacitated on of the blue goblin psionisists that the Khan uses for this communication and protection. The others are looking for him and for various reasons think he is alive still... I was thinkin that perhaps we can lay a trap for them by letting them see his location and hopefully coming for him. I doubt I can take all of them together though given their abilities so I would need your support both in how to lay this trap and in the actual implementation..."

[planswalker]

"That's a dangerous gambit. How many of our problem-solvers will you want for this fight?"

[Monodominant]

"I have no idea how powerful their combined group is and how effective. My idea would be to employ one of our casters or clerics to use an antimagic field to rob them from their abilities, combines with some form of dimensional anchor to stop them from escaping..." he explains.

"This means our items also are not working but our abilities as hunters and sneaky killers would give us an edge even if they brought in help. I think its important enough to try as they not only protect the Khan but use their abilities to send messages from one to the other... thats why removing them could cripple him and his organisation.

I was thinking that we could make it look as if some... less able group had taken him and kept him alive so they would not suspect us and then spring the trap. Perhaps what you said earlier about kobolds is worth investigating? Perhaps making good with them for now and offering them the blue goblin as leverage could work?"

[planswalker]

"To get the antimagic effect we need, we'll need to sacrifice another life. Mind supplying us with the victim? It is your idea after all. As for a trap, they probably already suspect us of being behind it. I'll take the credit so they don't suspect you."

[Monodominant]

Ishmael considers this. Killing a random person did not seem worth it... it would be going beyond his usual belief system.

He considers it for a moment.

"I have an idea actually. There is a house... near the docks that houses an unimportant warehouse. When I first came to this city I took a job from a strange man there..." at this point Ishmael will describe the man that had him kill Jezleens Aasimar friend "... have you ever heard of him or know and what he is? He was inquirring about the Sad Flint and was all around weird..."

Spoiler

In case you dont remember this was like my first mission... it was the guy that had promised me 30k gold and gave me 30k silver instead. I killed that Aasimar from the Flint for him and then he asked me for more info... I gave him more info but very vague and never returned to him...