After the recent events and the on growing loss of morale within the foundry it was a good time for Factotum Kala to return. The filed a complete report on how to deal with the invaders a part of it was sent ONLY to all the other factions.
wrote: The invaders seems to be fairly resistant to most elemental energies, cold seemed to work against a few of them though. Divine energy was fully effective so I'd strongly advise using weapons imbued with pure raw divine energy as I'm not certain blessed weapons might actually be effective.
But most importantly, the invaders are weak against an old evocation spell known to most spell-casters, including Paladins and Rangers called the Invocation of the Cerulean Sign, that works effectively against any kind of aberrations. While the sign can't kill them, it allows to partially daze and push them back and also helps in the detection of potential possessed people. We haven't found a way to push them away from a possessed person without killing him or her.
For now, I strongly recommend the use of the sign and with a conjunction of weapons enchanted to be effective against aberrations.
Once she filed her report and sent it. She called people around in the Foundry and began a speech, her voice calm and certain.
- My fellow Belivers of the Source, I know times are hard and we may be facing a threat we never had expected. But I should remind you that there is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve yourselves. The path to the source and godhood is filled with challenges, If we abandon and refuse to fight we have no reason to exist anymore. This is why we're going to craft weapons able to kill those bastards and send them back to the nonsense they call home, we're going to show everyone that we aren't just a bunch of daydreamers but that we also posses the true fire within ourselves are the ability to overcome the problem. Like a poet once said : Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
After the speech she expected to put back everyone to work, telling them to craft weapons enchanted against aberrations (if possible) then she went in her laboratory and started to experiment with the Cerulean signs, doing her best to try to try to make it permanent. She first tried to enchant a large object before she tried with an amulet.
The report is filed. Kala's words are not meant with cheers or applause. The men and women of the Foundry are not warriors or heroes, at least not in the conventional sense. It is met with the ringing of hammers and the hissing if forges. Those around her return to work, they are efficient and skilled. A grim determination fill the Foundry. This is how they will fight their war. It is just another ordeal to overcome, more flames in which they must purge themselves before they ascend.
Kala's own work however is more difficult. Whilst casting the spell is simple getting the glyph it creates to remain in any truely useful sense is much harder as it tends to burn out and expend its magical energy quickly.
((Can I have a spellcraft roll please. I don't need to see it I trust you to be honest but I do need the result, also does your character have the craft wonderous item feat?
During her experiments Kala was able to sucessfully craft a wand with the spell on it, she nevertheless tried to do better asking for help from another enchanter if she has to.
((Spellcraft : roll 13 + mod 35 = 48. Kala dosen't have this feat, only craft wand)).
Creating a Cerulean sign wand is trivially easy. As with all wands it does little more than cast the spell stored in it and of course not as well as Kala can do herself. Of course if more of these are made they can be given to those without the ability to cast the spell themselves and greatly increase the chance of detecting the possessed.
In a place like The Great Foundry and amongst an organization like The Believers of The Source it is not difficult for Kala tot rack down someone who can imbue an enchantment onto an amulet. She quickly recruits a fellow Factotum a skinny fire gensai called Leesh, who as well as being renowned for his arrogance, condescending nature and poor people skills is also one of the more gifted enchanters The Foundry has produced. After a few hours work and a lot of restrain On Kala's part they have three such amulets each one baring the Cerulean sign upon them the glyph glows dimly. Of course as to how effective it is, is hard to tell until it is tested.
Kala wanted to slap the fiery arrogant, but she remained calm, carefully observing her colleague as she tried to learn. After the amulet was completed, she took one for herself and went on crafting a few more wands. She then asked for every godsmen to be "put on trial" by one of one of the other amulets carrying the seal and then went on plans to build a greater ward at the entrance of the foundry in the near future.
It is Leesh who thinks of a method of testing first.
"We should speak to Namer Xanrith."
He explains speaking slowly as if talking to a slow child.
"You see Xanrith is a Gauth, and Gauth's are aberrations. And far realm creatures are also aberrations. Which means if the amulets effect him they will effect them too."
His tone is patronizing as he explains what Kala has no doubt realized already. He spots the beholder hovering over an enchanting table. Without warning the gensai takes the amulet and launches it at the unsuspecting creature. It lands in front of it and the beholders many eye stalks focus on it and it blinks as if someone has shone a bright light into its face. As it screeches in distress Leesh skips over and picks up the amulet turning back to Kala.
"Seems it works."
As per her instruction they begin testing the other Godsmen in a more civilized fashion. About an hour into her research an imp drops Kala a note.
wrote: Factotum
Only two of the people reacted badly to the amulet. Namer Zirr'zeuss who is a mindflayer so I do not believe in this case it is indicative of possession, and namer Darro a gnome, I believe in this case it maybe. I have had Namer Darro detained.
The two other amulets where given to Ra'zeth of the Fated and Hogarth of the Harmonium. Kala also presented a new command of weapons along with amulets from the hardheads. The people at the forge would have quite a lot of work to do in the incoming days. Kala did her part, enchanting weapons and crafting a few wands.
((I have the craft magic arms and armor feat : The weapons are enchanted against aberrations and the amulets with the sign.))
As Kala continued to work on enchantments, a spark of old long forgotten memories came back to the surface, what did Leesh seemed familiar after all. After a couple of attempts she manged to cast on an amulet a working mundane enchantment, but this wasn't enough. Soon she decided she could do a little more and tried the Cerulean sign. If he results where successful, she continued the experiments on something larger, like a large metallic plate that could easily be placed at the foundry's entrance as a ward.
((Kala does have all the required feats now, base spell-craft 39 + 13 roll = 52))
It takes several days of work and concentration. The glyph needs to be scribed onto the metal and then each part of the rune needs to be imbued with the spell. The tricky part is doing it quickly enough for the last part to be finished before the magic on the first bit has faded and it can all be made permanent. After a lot of frustration and a few moments of utter despair Kala finds herself with four such plates to be fitted to the walls of The Foundry's entrance hall.
As she just finished her work and asked for the wards to be placed in key positions of the foundry Kala has another idea... She did her best to investigate if the power of the sign, trying to figure how the old invocation worked. As a druid she had in mind that its source was coming from nature's balance which had proven harmful to invaders if Dace's experiments where true. However she always had speculated that nature was rather absent from Sigil, thus making it a difficult place to draw any power to focus it on the sign. However, if she could go to a place like Kharastra or Brux, she might be perhaps able to focus more energy into the symbol. As soon as she got the idea, she did her best to experiment it. Gathering a few assistants, she went into Kharastra and tried to focus the sign, to see if the magic was stronger there.
