Quest #107: “Freeball: The Quest for the Blade of Mountain Fire” ?xp
08/19/07
Enindarian, Knight of the Ag Serpent – “Sir Kratos”
Enindarian, Paladin of Archael – “Raziel Silverhand”
Enindarian, Fighter/Mage – “Derrick Freeman”
Enindarian, Bard – “Marvis Mayhem”
Enindarian, Priestess of Ipiter – “Tevye Rose Bucater Silverhand”
Enindarian, Druidess – “Tzegana”
Elithiaphiathein, Fighter/Thief – “Theles Laera Thiendel Blackrock”
Mottle, Thief – “Shila”
Spiritwalker, Priestess of Omigok – “Dark Moons”
(Michael)
(Moose)
(Craig)
(Mike)
(Megan)
(Angelle)
(Mia)
(Jessie)
(Lauree)
On a clear, warm summer day in Tirimith, the entire kingdom had turned out for a
wedding. Not just any wedding, but the royal wedding of Princess Celeste to Sir Kratos the
Ardent, Silver Serpent and Hero of Tirimith. Thousands stood silently as Tevye Silverhand,
Priestess of Ipiter, blessed the couple and walked them through the vows that would guide them
through the rest of their mortal lives. King Thon stood behind, looking proudly on his family and
on his kingdom, knowing that even in these dangerous times love was still in blossom. Indeed, all
of us were reminded clearly that this is why we do what we do. We are the protectors of love, of
purity, of innocence, of all the good things in this world the Five are working so hard to ruin. It
was almost palpable, that sense that this day was but the eye in the middle of a great storm. For
any day now we would head into Agonyjut and whilst inside who knew what would happen on the
outside.
Over the next couple of weeks we would remain in Tirimith. Sir Kratos and Celeste
enjoying their first nights together as man and wife, the rest of us getting caught up on things at
home. The day after the wedding Sir Kratos got to be a celebrity fighter in the Summer Games.
Ptoloan warriors had sparred for the better half of the season competing to see who would be the
grand champion; the one who would get to face the legendary knight in melee. The winner put up
a good fight but no one in the kingdom (save Raziel of course) is much of a match against Kratos.
The crowd roared as the two sparred, but, as expected, Sir Kratos ultimately won.
A little over two weeks following the wedding, Mender, our part-human, part-Ikixisie
acquaintance, finally broke out of his coma in the infirmary of the church of Seleness. He didn’t
remember most of us but told us that Archael had sent him a dream after releasing him from Yn.
Archael had told him he was to help us in any way he could.
Taking advantage of this good fortune, we asked him if he knew the whereabouts of the
Blade of Mountain Fire. We believed he might know because when we scried for it before we got
a rune that looked Ikixisie-ish in origin. He knew the Ikixisies knew it’s location, because he
heard it on the webs, but he himself did not know. “How do you know that they know without you
knowing? Do you know?” Derrick asked confusingly. Only a select few knew, he said. With
Ikixisies it’s not like every single one of them knows every single thing the others do. They can
partition their minds so that all their thoughts are not known to the whole hive. But if he could get
in and touch the webs he could try and communicate a deal with them to get the sword. This, as
it ended up, was the real reward for gaining the Black Pyramid – a way to communicate with the
Ikixisies.
So we spent a week mending Mender to get him ready for our very dangerous task, the
unlikely pair of the Priestesses of Omigok and Ipiter at his side. During this week Theles received
a package from her home of Elithiador. Inside were passes for all of us to enter the city. This in
itself was a huge honor as humans are almost never allowed to enter Elithiador. But on top of
that, to help us in our world-saving efforts, they sent us 42 days worth of Asyasilfa weed.
Wrapped up in the prettiest and softest of Elven satins, we found a huge block of Elven weed.
When smoked, it removes small amounts of magical residue. The Asyasilfa alone would have
been worth at least 20,000 gp but the addition of the island passes made the package priceless.
Once Mender was well we teleported to a spot a couple miles west of the closest known
Ikixisie tunnel (See “Xo 17 Mounds of Trouble”. Wow, just noticed that was 100 quests ago
exactly!). We started planning our entrance when the thieves noticed a figure moving through the
woods a few hundred yards away. Upon closer investigation we were surprised to find the very
same druid that had come to call on us not a (Earth) month earlier. Tzegana was there being a
dutiful druid planting trees that marauding orcs had hewn in their trek west to Tirimith. She was
also stationed there, she said, to keep an eye on the Ikixisies.
Using Tzegana’s druidic skills we softened the earth and quietly dug a hole down about
20 feet next to the Ikixisies’ tunnel. We climbed down and, continual light rocks in hand, dug a
small entrance into the tunnel itself. We planned to barter stopping the Great Fire for the sword,
offering to place a contingency on it so that it may never be used against the Spiderkind. They
fear fire above all other things which is likely why, once they found it, they kept it hidden away.
We entered the tunnel one at a time and Mender touched the webs. “Whatever happens,
don’t let them take me,” he pleaded. We gave our word. He communicated our offer over and
over again, feeling more and more minds linking on to the chat. Soon the tunnel on both sides of
us was filled with Ikixisies of every breed, Scavers, Warriors, even two mystics (tombsticks, haha)
(you had to be there), one on each side.
The mystics scanned us and communicated our power to the rest of the race. The fact
that we were powerful was already well known – we had only stolen the Black Pyramid a few
weeks prior. But now they also knew that we had each completed nearly a dozen Deep
Dungeons. Comprehension dawned as we realized the loophole in Ira’s gag order. We couldn’t
tell anyone about what we had done in the Deep Dungeons, nor anything about the Great Fire
nor impending end of the world. But the Ikixisies didn’t have to tell each other anything. Their
collective consciousness was something Ira had never planned for.
Mender’s mind was filled with a thousand thoughts directed at him and by him. “Why do
they want it? How can it help stop the fire?” Questions were fired for half an hour as he
continued to relay our message to the entire race. He told them that we came to request the
Blade of Mountain Fire so that we could prevent the Great Fire. He told them that we represented
all the above ground races and that we would use the blade to destroy the liches’ phylacteries.
He told them that we knew the location of all of Volthresh’s Xo-bound phylacteries.
Had they not known how powerful we were, the Spiderkind would have attacked us
instantly. As it stood, they obviously felt they had good enough reason to listen to what we had to
say. The Ikixisies were of course reluctant to give us a sword that could hurt them so we offered
to put a wish-level contingency on it that would prevent us from using it against them. They
listened but insisted we would be able to break the spell so we offered to let their casters do it.
It only took a moment and Mender told us they had accepted our offer. They would take
us to the sword where one of their mystics would cast the Wish spell upon it. It would then be our
job to deal with the monster Nefari that was drawn by the ninth level casting (d100 Nefari + 82!).
If we survived the nefari, the sword was ours.
The two mystics teleported the group to a large cavern in the underdark. In the center of
this intensely hot room floated the Blade of Mountain Fire. It rested just over a pedestal of rock
jutting up from a pool of lava. Above it, a blue circle of runes, glowed on the ceiling. Three floes
of fire and brimstone divided the cavern and cast an eerie red glow on the already frightening hall.
When we appeared, dozens of Ikixisies sat waiting for us. As the caster began the Wish
spell, most of them filed out the door. We waited for something to happen when a huge red hand
burst out of the rock. A head came to follow but before the rest of the body could emerge Dark
Moons shouted out, “OMIGOK!” And the nefari disappeared in a wisp of scarlet smoke.
The room became eerily quiet again save for the ominous white noise of churning
magma. We felt the mantle of the wish settle down upon our shoulders. We did not know how it
was worded but we knew for certain that if we ever broke the contingency placed on the sword
we would all be geased into eternity.
The lone Ikixisie in the room disabled the runes surrounding the sword and Sir Kratos
climbed up and grabbed it – the greatest sword on Xo, said to hold the power of the very planet
itself. We exited the cavern and with thousands of eyes on us we teleported home.
For more information, see the Xo document “The Blade of Mountain Fire” soon to be
released on sahuagin.com. And so ended our hundred and seventh quest.