Sigil: The City of Doors

Akh didn't tarry. She left the room, gripping the cylinder, thinking what unfathomable horrors might be hiding within it.

/scene

[b]"GOOD."[/b]

And he's gone. The pressure from the room too. You're left standing alone, thinking about what you are about to embark on.

The plan was itching and unsettling Akh, but she nodded.

"I'll see it through."

They're warding symbols, but the way they keep reconfiguring themselves, and the way that they always have one "opening" in the configuration... Whatever is contained here, or whatever effect it is supposed to unleash, it is probably very powerful, and is designed to only effect whoever unleashes it.

Akh would try to glean the consequences of the opening.

[url=https://orokos.com/roll/990562]MA7. Arcana[/url]: [u]2d20k1+12[/u] [b]18[/b]

[b]"WHATEVER IT TAKES FOR HIM TO OPEN IT. THINGS SHOULD...."[/b]

A chuckle would go here, in this pause in his speech.

[b]"...TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES, FROM THERE."[/b]

The Identify spell comes up blank. Studying the runes, they appear to flit between Abyssal, Infernal, and Celestial. They are superlatives, proclaiming power and rarity. Trying to make the artifact appear important, mostly. The geometric shapes themselves are... Apparently something else. You may roll Arcana for those.

Akh considered the implications. At this point it was hard to imagine for her that she could defy Skall. She deployed her linguistic powers to read the runes, helping herself magically if need be to Identify the item.

"How should I advertise this artifact to the nalfeshnee?"

Skall is quiet for a long while. Considering. Finally he breaks the silence.

[b]"I KNOW THE TRUE RULER OF THAT FORTRESS. HE IS... A POOR CUSTODIAN OF A PLANE OF EXISTENCE. THIS... FALSE REGENT AND DECORATOR... HMM."[/b]

A curiously mortal pause in his speech. Wheels in motion behind that death mask.

[b]"I SHAN'T LIE. I COULD NOT CARE LESS OF THIS DRAGONLING OR THESE CORPSES. OF COURSE THEIR LACK OF REST IS A REGRETTABLE FACTOR, BUT OF NO CONCERN WITHIN THE GREATER PLANS WE HAVE WROUGHT. BUT AN EMPTY PLANE OF THE ABYSS, DECIMATED AND RULED OVER BY A FOOL... OPPORTUNITIES ARISE."[/b]

He waves a hand, and a small metal cylinder pops into existence between you. It is archaic in nature and has a twistable cap on one end. It glows a faint purple, and strange runes and geometric shapes flit about on it's surface.

[b]"GIVE HIM THIS. FOOL HIM INTO THINKING IT IS OF GREAT VALUE TO HIM. GET HIM TO OPEN IT. THEN WHEN ALL IS DONE, YOU MAY TAKE THE BONES OF YOUR DRAGONLING AND GIVE THEM THEIR REST."[/b]

"Because the next will come in their place to perpetuate it all. The torment of souls locked there pushes them away from True Death. I know it, I tasted that torment. I'd rather aid them on the way than just sit and watch."

Akh didn't sigh either.

"The dragonling's remains are my first priority though. For burial or revival, depending on the condition of their soul at the moment. I had a glimpse into the manner of their death, and there was no peace in it. I sense a kindred soul in because of how our lives were terminated. There is a possibility that it may join the Dead just like I did." She didn't mention Marian's premonition even as it weighed on her mind. She didn't know how much credit Skall could give to divinations of this kind.