Nurtured to Hatred

[*Technical_Intervention]

The drowess, Vierkiira, mulled over to herself. Reminiscing over the past weeks she had stayed around.

Sigil was almost everything she had expected it to be. Mostly uncivilized, noisy all the time, it reeked like ogres sweat, and worse yet it was half a day filled with illumination that irritated eyes. Just as they had taught at home. People argued regularly about causes they'd lay down their lives for, with little regard for their own lives. So, not only were their senses inadequate, they also lacked the intellect for survival. It's no wonder her species had decided almost all of these were best utilized as labor for better effect. It was almost a form of kindness for them.

Kindness. That's another thing these creatures were obsessed about. It's not something she had been briefed of. What all of their strange rituals of marr-ege, and compulsive desires for mutually agreed upon "friendships". Yet from what she could see, this "friendship" was at best tenuous relations. They claim a great bond, but in reality they were much more like herself than they dared to admit. Only difference is that she did not feign to care of others. And did not make empty investments that wouldn't come with notable returns. Casting empty judgements at herself for standing out, claiming she wasn't friendly enough. If only they understood the kindness she already showed, not presenting all their downfalls to their faces. No, she was kind enough to spare them of that.

Despite all the downfalls of the Sigil, it had also opportunities. At least these savages had no direct lethal intents, and not all of them were as foolish as it was to be expected. There were fiends, unseelie fey whom shared at least some of her views. As well as some odd few entities here and there that were less awful than others.


At least her investments were starting to pay off. Ever since her House back at the Oerths Great Caves had been destroyed, the reason was simple: they had been weak. Regardless she had been equivalent of an exile since then. Dead if she went back home, dead is she went to the surface, insane and likely dead if she stayed in the Great Caves. Only option left had been the planes, a suboptimal choice but survival was more important than other inconveniences so the choice had been clear. Under Maraphiels wing she had managed to stabilize her resources and capabilities within the Sigils confinements.

It was but a beginning. After all, the drow were a species of great ambition.

[*Technical_Intervention]

Now that the matter of Factor Aidans disappearance had been solved, Vierkiira finally had the time for her other employments. A task from the Winter Court. Well, an agent of the Winter Court in anycase. "Pavius Iverune" she mulled over out loud in the privacy of the library Maraphiel had given her an access to. She let the name of the Oerthian wizard loom in the air as she considered its ramifications. Someone that had made a pact with a rivaling fey, and of course much like at her own home, it was a game for power and influence. So her employer desired to have this wizard make a pact with them rather than their rival. What she knew so far was sketchy. Young human male wizard, born to rich family, in possession of variety of artefacts the rival is truly after. The feeble human lives were such fleeting concept to the immortals.

Oerth was no small plane to explore for a single wizard. And it was a plane largely known for its wizards no less. Among the planes almost all wizards knew of them, the most powerful were likely to use at least one of their spells. To her luck however, this Pavius Iverune did not, to her knowledge, have any hallmarks of being one of them. This none the less made finding him more difficult. Spells such as scrying and discern location had their limitations, she had no level of connection to this man. It meant she had to get more creative. "I'll have to summon Xer'ozog again" she mused, Xer'ozog was an imp she had employed in the past. Including to gather information of the strange entity that had lingered in the plain that Aidan and their vessel had disappeared to. The imp was of limited help, but also safer option than greater fiends that put up a greater resistance.

She set down the tomes that in many planes and societies would be deemed forbidden, and left the library to exit Sigil. After all, it would be ill-advised to summon the ire of Her in their domain by manipulating gateways. As such she made her way to the Hades, The Gray Wastes was a satisfactory staging ground for summoning. It had of course its dangers, but it also had relative privacy. Nobody wanted to be there if they could help it. Finding a peaceful spot she did what any practitioner worth their gold did, a summoning circle. Had she her own laboratory she would've one imprinted on the ground constantly, for now she had to settle with portable and less potent versions. Salt was a good and cheap choice, in a pinch diamond dust worked well. It had to be material that conducted energies well, metals and minerals were most common.

The summoning circle was both a useful for separating yourself from them. A stern reminder to understand that immortals and mortals didn't mix well most of the time. But also to act as an almost physical barrier against any cheap shots. The salt circle she used wasn't a strong one, but with the energy she poured into it and decades of practice, it would do the job for something as meager as the imp. Once preparations were done, she finally casted a Greater Planar Binding, nothing like a little posturing to ensure the imps allegiance. "Xer'ozog" she called forth the imp. It wasn't the true name, sadly her master had kept that from her, but it was still identification to call the imp.

When the imp finally came, like for everything else she looked down to it with a posture of arrogance maintaining the summoning circle to prohibit its movements. Wasting no time for pleasantries. It was a fiend, who cared if it was offended. "I require your services, Xer'ozog. There is a wizard by the name of Pavius Iverune within the plane of Oerth." she started by briefing the imp of all she knew, so as to make the matter faster for the imp to gather information for. "They are young, surfacer, have greater than average wealth. And have a pact with the Winter Court." She let that sink in a while so the creature would understand potential dangers before getting to the point.

"I need you to find his location. And to leave this" she offered a small black gem, flawless black sapphire "near his residence. Hidden. And do not attempt to enter the residence. How long do you need to handle this mission?" She questioned in demanding tone.

[*Bloodlines]

Upon completion of the spell, the circle shimmered and lines of silver streaked across the air like the patterns of broken glass. Fire and heat filled the space, stopping short at the edge of the salt circle, and the shape of an imp emerged.

Xer'ozog took form, its tiny wings flapping in a fever. It slapped its body against the arcane wall that separated it from the drow and cursed something in its infernal tongue.

It listened to Vierkiira, having little choice in the matter, black lips curling back to make a toothy grin. "Three days," it said. "And you will know. Now release me."

[*Technical_Intervention]

No blink, no stutter, nor a twitch came from the drow as the barrier of the summoning circle was tested. It was the eternal game of the immortals after all. She passed over the gem past the barrier. "Three days"  the drow acknowledged with narrowed eyes, promising retribution if the terms were not obliged to without a word. And without pleasantries forced the spell to throw them back whence they came from.

[*Technical_Intervention]

After three days had passed, Vierkiira returned to the Hades. Of course she had to re-create the summoning circle. But salt was cheap enough to come by for such a simple task. She once more poured energy into the barrier. Producing Xer'ozog once more with Greater Planar Binding. As the imp would be compelled by the spell to appear, even though true name it wasn't, she'd once more without real courtesies get right down to business with the imp. "Three days has gone. Report."

[*Bloodlines]

The imp was less than enthusiastic about seeing Vierkiira again, but an agreement was made.  "This wizard lives isolated on the Axe Coast. I have left your trinket. Now release me."  It showed its needle-like teeth, awaiting for whatever the drow would do next.

[*Technical_Intervention]

Those who did as told deserved reward. And Vierkiira was not an ungrateful mistress. "You have done well." She tossed a soul prism at the imp, followed with a command to undo the planar binding to send it back whence it came. Polite still she wasn't however, as she scrapped all notions of unnecessary chatter or listen what more they might have to say. She had more work to be done.

And had to plan a strategy. Wizard living in isolation. That meant they had a wide girth of defenses prepared likely, if they had years to form layered protections, it would not be easy task to get there unnoticed. Any mage worth their title would've considered almost all manner of intruder elimination methods. And while even a crafty practitioner might be capable of undoing the wards, they weren't meant to be the end all solution... only a delay system for the owner to analyze what they were facing and to prepare a counter and/or exit strategy.

She was anticipating the entire range of methods she'd assign into desolate locations: Illusions to hide its presence. Divinations as early warning system. Defensive wards to soak up destructive force. And offensive wards to make sure intrusions came with a cost. Now there were methods around all of that. Illusions relied upon the active nature of true seeing spells, few would wander into wilds and out of whim cast such a spell - that was no issue to her, she knew what she was looking for. Divinations had their own limitations, if she traveled there in ethereal form and as subject of mindblank, she'd be able to bypass a wide range of them that required physical or mental presence... However wards made against incorporeal presence would still be troublesome, force energy is a suspected next barrier. Yet, if they weren't inclusively sophisticated wards, she could simply undo the ethereal form before stepping into next range of wards. These were the troublesome wards as they could come in too great variety... however she could speculate that even someone so isolated would expect the possibility of visitors, thus simple walking in and knocking the door would yield least messy results.

Pavius unlikely would be happy to meet a drow however... and Vierkiira wasn't extraordinarily happy to meet a prime human either, certainly not on their terms, when based on all legends of her people, all surfacers were deceptive and violent, she expected no less from this one. There was something he had past relations though. The Winter Court. And that's something she could work around... but it would take time to prepare, and it had its own problems.

"Ice simulacrum" she said to herself outloud. A humanoid form with the likeness of its creator, the simulacrum spells let her create a temporary proxy which was thematic for the employers ties, and would have a lesser chance to backfire. It had a problem however. Simulacrums shared no sensory link with its creator, but this could be overcome. She had already considered this strategy prior, and created a glass eye and shell-like horn, to utilize as clairvoyance and clairaudience foci. Besides this, simulacrum had no mental capability and no telepathic capability to receive orders. That was a problem. Issues for later.

She'd also have to pour a significant amount of energy into the creation of the simulacrum for an entire duration of a day. Even if it was not required for this, she was sure it would become useful later... so that was her first starting point before initiating a scouting trip.

*to be continued tomorrow*

[*Technical_Intervention]

For now, much of the preparations were done, and it came to be more about the business... first things first, plane shift wasn't all safe, and it was wiser to know how the location appears. To such means she utilized Scrying to view the location and immediate vicinity of the gem she had tasked to be left nearby. This would grant her a more secure location to Gate to. Of course, just the act of scrying might alert Pavius, but nothing in this would be entirely risk free, she just had to take such a risk... however it was highly unlikely they were actively looking for such things. She prepared for the entire duration of hour for the scrying, and assuming the view she saw through the mirror gave her to position that was not - at least on plain view - under threat, she'd use such a space to cast Gate to, to enter her homeworld once more, under the guise of invisibility, to see what she was up against.

[*Bloodlines]

Vierkiira's scrying was successful. The mirror she performed the spell on rippled into life an image of a lone tower sitting on the cliff overlooking a small empty harbor. It was a spiraling tower, a smooth surface of stone, as if the wizard had shaped and molded the structure from a singular massive boulder. It stood over seventy feet tall with a twisted roof that branched off into three separate peaks, resembling a jester's hat.

At the base of the tower was a garden, a red-brick path surrounded by flower beds and meticulously cared for hedges, each one cut into a variety of spherical and cubic shapes. At the front of the tower was a tall double door that stood twice the size of most men, made of a sturdy wood with the carvings of what she guessed were arcane runes, though they looked purely for decoration.

When it seemed as though the tower was unimposing, Vierkiira would spot two blade golems patrolling the garden and the light shimmering of a force wall surrounded the iron fence line of the garden. A quick look showed the force wall was only about ten feet high, enough to deter most critters that might wander into the wizard's place. Without an entrance or an opening of this force wall at ground level, it was obvious this was a wizard that didn't care for visitors.

[*Technical_Intervention]

She studied the defenses with care. So far nothing impenetrable. Forcewall could be gotten over, or even through with ease... the forcewall wasn't a problem per say, it was the being seen. Someone who went their way to be isolated and defended was certain to understand the air as a highly likely pathway in. Which likely held additional surprises as well. What she however suspected a surfacer to anticipate less - was someone coming from under. Underground was her territory certainly. Even at home, methods to defend from something coming through the floor were limited, it is difficult to create wards to floor after foundations are laid, and few go their way to make heavy investments at that point to defenses. Benefit of ethereal spell was that she would become insubstantial, thus be able to travel through surfaces. It would perhaps give her the option to go under the forcewall, bypass sheer majority of detection spells.

Tower might've been built to handle it... but perhaps not, there aren't many things that could burrow into a tower unnoticed. Of course, the problem was an exit plan. This was already going to be an exhausting trip... she had to prepare a number of spells just for this: Simulacrum, Hallucinatory Terrain, Disintegrate, two Gates, Persistent Clairvoyance, Persistent Clairaudience, Etherealness. This made almost all of her most potent spells being spent for safety, but then it would pay itself off. It was perhaps wisest to forego the necessity of persistent haste this day. She had also come up with a solution for the simulacrums communication... a book to pass information through, one on her, another on the duplicate with all that is written being made on both copies. It wasn't the most elegant solution, but it'd do it for now.

((Following paragraphs have been written to save time, under assumption no new developments would come to pass, intervene at any moment you want))

She walked over to the simulacrum she had created, inserting the horn and the glass eye into its head before finalizing the spell to bring it with her. As she Gated near to her gem. Ideally out of immediate sight of the tower. Immediatelly she was working on the next spell, at around 330 feet away from the wall - abusing limitations of true seeing, the Hallucinatory Terrain, next to a shrubbery to expand it minutely, subtly, to cover her real self from distant observation... Next she passed a book to the simulacrum. "Say, or do as is written in it. Unless written upon by Pavius." She was smart enough to exclude the wizard, never know. Followed by both clairvoyance on the glass eye, clairaudience on the horn and etherealness for the simulacrum. Giving her next command "Move underground, below the , ascend into the tower if able and dismiss the etherealness. Defend yourself if necessary.", dismissing the etherealness on herself to maintain long distant vision on material plane, temporarily disconnected from the simulacrum by sight and sound.

As the simulacrum was left to its own devices to solve the problem, she herself was already working on the next part. Creating a heptagram arcane circle, this time from diamond dust. Seven corners resembling the elements, the positive, the negative and the mind also known as the Elven Star. It helped her to focus on the many complicated tasks simultaneously. What she was doing would be difficult for anyone to focus into, this might at least decrease the headache in the evening. Arcane circles weren't necessary for any seasoned practitioners to really perform, however for complicated spells almost all multiversally returned to basics to avoid potentially dangerous backlash from complex matters. But for now she waited to be able to see and hear what her simulacrum saw and heard, through the medium of clairvoyance/audience, it however required them to be in material plane as well.