>>5306449So, you mutter in an attempt to clear the awkwardness out of the air, what was that about the center of the facility?
“At the center of thees lab sits a device of immeasurable power:” Izzie explains, “The <span class="mu-g">ZAKHMET FREQUENCY RELAY.</span> Named after the late <span class="mu-g">HIGH SCHOLAR ZAKHMET,</span> of course, not that you’d know him. Stupid.”
“That uh,” Art interjects in a cautious tone, “wouldn’t happen to be a <span class="mu-g">TOTEM</span> of some sort, would it?”
“Why yes, it <span class="mu-i">would</span>.” Replies the witch in an impressed tone. “If, that ees, you were a <span class="mu-i">drooling</span> preemitive. But please feel free to call the product of countless millennia of arcane research, blood, sweat and tears whatever you like. Hells, call it an ‘<span class="mu-i">ook</span>’ eef eet pleases you–that’s an easy word, eesn’t eet? Only one syllable!”
“Yea, I’m good.” Art growls, clearly ready to grind something into a fine powder. “So why does someone as smart as you need <span class="mu-i">us</span> to fix your problems, anyways?”
“Oh I don’t <span class="mu-i">need</span> any of you…” The witch scoffs as if Art had just insulted her mother, “But upon watching you all approach with the grace of a <span class="mu-r">KHOOR BEAST</span> on a t’ukka high, I realized that we have much to gain from one another!”
Yea, you ask with growing impatience, and what might <span class="mu-i">that</span> be, huh?
“Eesn’t eet obvious?” Izzie replies. “You want to <span class="mu-r">kill</span> me, don’t you? To absorb my power in your quest to defeat <span class="mu-r">MASTER TIBIUS?</span>”
You shrug. You tend to let the players handle the agency, really.
“Well as it so happens, <span class="mu-i">I</span> desire to banish <span class="mu-r">THE COLLECTOR OF SECRETS</span> back to his plane… and reclaim control over the facility in the process, of course.” The golem explains. “My proposition is this: fight your way to the <span class="mu-g">CENTER,</span> reset the <span class="mu-g">ZAK-</span>ugh, <span class="mu-g">TOTEM,</span> and thwart the <span class="mu-r">DEMONIC INCURSION</span> onto this plane. Do this and I’ll <span class="mu-i">happily</span> grant you an audience. After that,” the golem shrugs, “Who can say?”
“And what’s stoppin’ us from tracking you down and kicking your bony ass ourselves, huh?!” Talbot asks as he cracks his knuckles menacingly!
“Quite a few things, actually:” The voice groans. “First: you don’t know where I <span class="mu-i">am</span>, and even if you did, you’d be trying to infiltrate a place not even a <span class="mu-r">GREATER DEMON</span> can break into. Second, I have all the time in the world. You, on the other hand, have <span class="mu-i">mortal</span> concerns to attend to, like <span class="mu-i">food</span>. Not that you seem to have missed many meals lately.”
Hey!
“Third, even if by some <span class="mu-i">flagrant</span> stroke of luck you managed to track me down <span class="mu-i">AND</span> defeat me, you’ll still have a <span class="mu-r">DEMONIC INVASION</span> to deal with–one you can’t even <span class="mu-i">dream</span> of thwarting without my <span class="mu-b">PERSONAL CIPHERS</span> for the facility.”
Shoot, you forgot about the <span class="mu-i">CIPHERS!</span>
>CONTD. 