Hej, Blinky here, filling in because Erky seems too busy to keep you all updated on his exploits. Not that he even mentions his exploits, just those of others that he attributes to himself. Just like that Theseus guy that I know. Very similar in many ways. Wouldn’t really call what either of them got up to exploits either. Degenerate is a word that springs to mind.
Anyway, not sure why he isn’t communicating because his friends do seem to be doing something quite impressive really, in killing Aerisi Kallinoth, who they will at some point found out is the prophet of Yan Cee Bin, the evil prince of elemental air. Alleria takes her spear, which seems to be very powerful, but also quite evil we suspect. I can certainly see a dangerous aura around it. Actually she will take it soon, when Feyabelle has killed Aerisi with a volley of arrows, but this is the first chance she has to really examine it. As I said Feyabelle killed Aerisi with a volley of arrows, before poor old Thorg even has time to reach her across the room and attack her with his sword, although he does reach and destroy the magical horn, which releases the djinn from his bondage to her. Then Aerisi runs to the horn to try and blow it to summon her enslaved djinn. After this Arielle teleports into the shadow behind her throne and seizes her spear off her, succeeding in wrestling it from her grasp. That is the point at which Feyabelle hits Aerisi with another volley of arrows. Erky casts a spell to try and entrap her in a grasping earthen hand he has summoned from the floor, but she escapes its grasp. Thorg now starts his run across the room, while Feyabelle shoots her first volley of arrows, surprising Aerisi. To cap the fight, Arielle teleports into the shadows at the sides of the chamber, behind the pillars (discovering a pile of drugged cultists in the process) and casts a silence spell centred on the throne that Aerisi sits on it order to stop her casting any spells. In order that we can all sneak into the throne room, Arielle uses her mental powers to hide our presence. And then we sneak back into the pyramid in order to try and take out Aerisi.
Talking to Windharrow, we start to question our resolve to kill Aerisi here and now, as he stresses how unpredictable she is and how angy if she sees us in her presence again. Leaving the djinn we return past the ziggurat to the court where Windoharrow prepares his minstrels. The djinn is disappointed that we have not killed Aerisi and released him, and questions our resolve, and wonders why we are going to deal with another faction instead, especially since we will disocover that Aerisi does not expect us to survive the attack. We leave the ziggurat and cross to the blue plaza where we will meet the djinn.
Waiting on the stairs of the ziggurat, I can hear what Aerisi and Windharrow are saying. She is castigating him for not having recognised us as her enemies, but thinks this is typical of Windharrow and shows her superiority to him. She is also pleased that she has managed to spot us and given us the mission to attack the earth cult, as she thinks they will easily wipe us out. As they are leaving, Erky summons me and asks me to listen on the stairs to see what Aerisi says to Windharrow.
The audience with Aerisi is obviously over so they leave. They agree to Aerisi’s demand that they attack the Earth cult. Aerisi says that in order to atone for their behaviour in attacking Feathergale Spire, the party need to attack the evil earth cultists, whose lair can be found at the bottom of the stairs leading down from the Sacred Stone monastery. They attempt to bluster their way out, but this is seemingly making her more angry, so Erky admits their role in this. However she then accuses them of being themselves, i.e. a band of ruffians out of Red Larch who attacked Feathergale Spire. As they end their playing Aerisi congratulates them on the quality of their playing, which obviously makes Windharrow very relieved. Somehow they manage to use repeated castings of minor illusion to keep up the pretense of excellent playing for long enough to exhaust Aerisi’s patience. They start playing, using minor illusion cast by both Erky and Alleria to simulate decent flute playing, with the rest of the minstrels as a backing track (and a bad one at that).