Leaving Runeforge... eventually

[Bluedevyl]

So I just wanted to start a new thread where we can condense our thoughts on the general goals that we all have in front of us while we are here.

So far as we know, there's nothing pressing that would create any sort of visceral immediacy for us to leave, but we certainly NEED to leave once we have found what we came here for.

The problem is, I'm not entirely sure that we are clear on what that is, exactly.

I've perused the other threads and gone back and read the chat logs, but that's a cumbersome enterprise.

If I were to hazard a guess, we know, or at least we have theorized, that there are 7 different halls here, and its likely as not that each of them is aligned to each different school of magic that each Runelord favored.

It seems that if there were a place dedicated to transport out of Runeforge, it would either be in Krune's hall somewhere, or it will be here in Karzoug's hall. It seems to me that there's probably not a caster of the level of the fellow we are currently in combat with, because wizard duels tend to be destructive if they carry on forever, and it does seem like he's been here a while. I'd be willing to wager the dents that we saw in the hallways may have been caused by someone kicking the walls or simply pacing for eons with metal feet.

So either he has made one himself, and either can't or doesn't want to use it, or theres one in the hall dedicated to conjuration magic, where teleportation spells reside. So we can check there if we dont find one here.

But past that, isnt there something else that we needed to do? There was talk yesterday of finding a weapon or tool to help defeat the Runelords, but I can't seem to find where we learned that in the past.

I thought maybe we could condense our information here so we can all know what our goals are moving forward, post-combat.

Cheers!

[Phoebe]

Good idea, my goals are to get out of here. This is one of those situations, though... when you're presented with a map, it's hard not to assume that, as a player, you're "supposed" to be on this map. But as Dwyn, and also as her player, my attitude is that we aren't super well prepared to fight creatures that can take you down 90 pts at once, especially if there are minimum seven or more of them floating around these parts. I could easily see that there is one per Runelord, if you want to look at it that way - maybe they have to remain in their respective domains, but each domain could have a bad thing in it. And it's not like this really bad dude was the only bad thing in here - we may be lucky so far.

Anyway, Dwyn feels like we are here to cure Illian, and yeah, there's a lot more to this thing that is going to need dealing with, but maybe we need to follow up on some clues we KNOW are in our grasp that never got resolved, like the Sandpoint Lighthouse and the Irespan and whatever's out there into the ocean, or in Riddleport... or what's happening out at Fort Rannick and with Black Magga, or... just things she feels more capable of handling right now, as we prepare for dealing with whatever we're in the midst of right now. Just because it's here and has a map doesn't mean it's the right thing to tackle at this moment... maybe we spend some time in this book room to learn whatever more we need to be learning, and then get out until we have a chance to piece more things together. Also in the back of my mind is, what if we NEED to use that damn lighthouse to fight Karzoug? We know we were thisclose to figuring out something about it before, when we biffed our 20 questions game.

Bottom line, I'm worried that those of you without 106 HP will go down, or that I'll go down, and we have good business we could do elsewhere too. I just don't know how to get out of here!

[Mike]

Goal 1) Ethillion. Achievement unlocked!

Goal 2) Find clues/materials to defeating Karzoug. That includes clearing HIS section of the Runeforge and hopefully questioning this little mithril bastard. Plus we need to explore the areas that he is weak to, looking for tools.

Goal 3) same as 2, but for Alaznist. She is not as high a priority, but she WAS Karzoug's primary opposition and ruled the area that now includes Sandpoint.

Goal 4) Same for the other Runelords IF we run across stuff, but they are currently all less important.

Also, as long as we're here, this was supposed to be a place where wizard's of all stripes could work together. We haven't seen much sign of cooperative effort. I'm wondering if one of these branches holds their Togetherness Hall.

[Bluedevyl]

[Tahlvin]

[Tahlvin]

My/Eldthor's goals are pretty much the same as Mike's/Dothan's. However, I think we go ahead and explore all of the halls while we're here. We have to find a way out, anyways, and we're not 100% sure we're going to be able to get back here once we leave. We have a trove of magic and information available to us here, we know at least one Runelord is trying to return, and possibly others, and what we face/find in here could very well let us know what we'll be facing with the Runelords.

[bralbovsky]

Hal is slowly coming to the conclusion that every remaining legacy of the runelords needs to be either destroyed or reclaimed. That doesn't necessarily mean we have to do it personally, but all the stuff that remains abandoned seems to ferment in the wrong direction. It becomes a nexus and tool for evil.
Hence the re-purposing. A library is just a tool, as long as it plays by our rules (not into censoring "bad" books, but there should be a stigma about necromancy). All of the cool objects and places they left can stay cool, unless we find we can't turn them to virtues. Hal had no trouble not going all out genocide on the giants, as long as they stay in their lane.

So, this place" the jury is still out, but his early inclination is to empty it and close it. Maybe we make an agreement with the mephits that folks can access it through their plane. There seems to have been some kind of civil war here that obliterated one section and we've no idea what happened to the casualties, since normal decomposition doesn't seem to adhere. (I think we can guess if there's a necro section here, what happened to the casualties.) Maybe the folks here can't leave because normal time catches up with them when they do.
Having said all that, Hal's present inclination is to tramp through the entire thing. Maybe we can talk to folks, but we have to be careful about rules of engagement because we let this guy get first strike and almost lost Dwyn. Will he talk? Can he talk? No idea. Will speak with dead work if he's at least part golem? Sorry, digressing.

The lawful thing to do, and the responsible thing to do if we're replacing Thassilon and cleaning up its messes is to fine tooth comb the place, and take the keys with us. Maybe put them in a vault in the library to loan out to special research.... That's if we make it out of here at all, which is by no means guaranteed.