So we basically did all we could do in making an alliance with Parnth. Which was a good step, but alone or together, we still had little hope of stopping the Veris-Melfir war machine, particularly with Anzja's backing. We needed a way to crack her power source. Still clueless on how she was able to harness Kaz's power or stop her from absorbing the blood of Angelyn's descendants, we were at an impasse. Our last hope lay in somehow finding the daughter of this Angelyn being, that maybe she'd be able to provide some help in stopping Anzja from taking her mother's powers.
After some study by the others (I only really researched the lower planes in my studies, I'm clueless about the upper ones), they determined we would most likely find her in Celestia. They found a place that had a gate there, so I warped us to Kaz, and he warped us to the gate.
I felt uncomfortable as soon as we got to Celestia, and couldn't wait to find this chick and leave. We were directed to the Library of Souls- that was the most likely place that would give us info on finding Vandriel. Once we got there, the dude there said it would take a couple of days to track her down. Great. So we killed time by trying to find where good little Farnians go when they die. We figured some of those sacrificed by Anzja were innocents who'd end up here. Sure enough, we found a few. They were pretty cute, I was sad that I didn't get a chance to rescue them and get properly “thanked”. Anyways, they spoke of their ordeal, how they were basically out of it most of the time, only really snapping out of it just before their death.
That sucks for them, but I suppose they're in a better place now. I'm not sure how to feel about seeing beyond the veil. So is this where good little boys and girls go when they die? Man, talk about boring! I thought heaven was supposed to be paradise? Where's the fancy feasts and orgies? I guess I don't really have to worry since this isn't where I'm heading when I die. But I bet this is where Liri would go. I guess its all for the best that we're not together? If we're lucky, we'd have what? Half a century? Then we'd end up going our separate ways? So what's the point then?
I spent the next few days feeling miserable, and finally the guy tells us what happened to Vandriel. Apparently, some dude named Thrass Zal had summoned her a century ago, and she's been stuck in his service ever since. He was apparently something called a “wizard”, and hailed from a place called “Toril”. The celestial pointed us to some crazy old coot named Artoh. He agreed to send us Toril for a fancy dish concocted by Grey. Hey, if that's all the pay he wants, that's fine by me.
We ended up in an alley of some city called Highmoon. Being a different world, we couldn't communicate with the natives. Well, Cassie could with her magic. She spoke with the townspeople and they pointed her towards the Rising Moon Inn. Apparently the proprietor knew “a thing or two”, and if we wanted to find this “Thrass Zal”, he'd be a good place to start.
The innkeeper was named Drellin Orcbane. Cassie seemed taken with the man, even though he was like old and stuff. Okay, not that old, but way older than us. One thing we had noticed about this world was that no one glowed like we do under the scrutiny of our mage sight, but the world was full of items and things that did. Case in point, the large battle axe behind the bar, plus several items worn by Drellin. Hmm, while we're here we might want to get a hold of some of these magical items, I'm sure they would be quite useful back in our world, and worth a pretty penny.
Cassie talked to the man, and from what I gathered, the guy hailed from a land weeks away by horse. We didn't have that kinda time, so he told Cassie he had a friend, Sasell Hillanden, who might be able to help us. The guy usually came by in the evenings, we could talk to them then.
Also, apparently the inn possessed a circle one could stand on that served as a sort of universal translator. He asked if we had interesting tales to tell, stuff about our adventures and our world. Sure, why not? I figured even if I couldn't communicate with the cuties here, I could wow them with tales of our adventures, and that would give me some headway into “getting to know them better”. Cassie went first, talking about our most recent adventure, where she tangled with that dragon. When it was my turn, I opted to tell a few tales of the various rescue missions we did, saving Liri, saving Folcina, saving those kidnapped girls. I figured that should get more than a few of the girls here all enamored with my heroic countenance. And it did, in particular this cute silver haired half elven girl named Calihye. Man, it really sucked that I couldn't talk to her outside the circle. All I could really do was give her a few flirty looks and smiles.
Eventually, this Sasell guy showed up, and he could tell we were different by the way his eyes seemed to pop out of his head when he first noticed us. Cassie told him our predicament, and he agreed to help us- if he could study us for a few days and get some tass from Trent.
So we killed a few days at his place. He offered to cast a spell on us that would allow us to communicate with the townspeople. I was grateful for that, since that would allow me opportunity to talk to this Cali girl and get into her pants. Cass seemed to be really into the innkeeper guy. I mean, she was in such a good mood, she helped me with some of the language so I could talk to Cali better. I mean, a spell is one thing, but actually being able to actually speak Cali's language would go quite a ways with impressing her.
Once we were able to understand each other, it wasn't too long before I was able to talk my way into her pants. Cool, not only could I say I've banged a half elf now, but a “Torillian” as well.
While we were killing time, I made sure I could get back to Farne. I had been weaving threads to the various places we've been, because I would like to return here at some point. It took some trying, but I was eventually able to get to Farne and back. Even though I had gotten it so I was intimately familiar with a place here for ease of teleportation, crossing planar boundaries caused some issues with the teleporting.
In any case, after a few days, Sasell teleported us to just outside of Thay. He and Drellin informed us of the country beforehand so we knew what we were getting into. Apparently it was a slave state, and these “wizards” were the ones who had the power. They apparently dressed in robes of red and shaved their head. No way I was gonna shave my head, so Trent and I pretended to be Grey and Cass' slaves, since Grey was already bald and Cass could use her magics to make herself look any ways she wanted. These Red Wizards also sported tattoos which signified something in their culture, so Cass and Grey mimicked tattoos they saw and hoped for the best.
We eventually made our way into a magic shop, where Cass bought some fancy magical bag, and Grey and I got bracelets that would allow us to communicate despite language barriers. They were quite expensive, but I was definitely worth the money. I hoped they still worked back in Farne, as being able to speak to people who spoke a different language would be quite useful. I could go back to Masayume and finally get into some kimonos there.
Since Cass and Grey were the “masters”, they did most of the talking, and we made our way up the mountain to Thrass Zal's abode. He was apparently a lieutenant in the school of “conjuration”, which I think meant he was quite adept at summoning planar creatures. Once we got to his place, we learned he really was quite adept. I mean, he would have to be if he had Vandriel in his service for a century, as she was a relatively powerful celestial. But he apparently had a pit fiend as a butler, going so far as to demean him with a girl's name, Janet. Now, in my studies of infernalism and demonology, I knew Pit Fiends were pretty powerful. So for him to have Vandriel and a pit fiend under his control meant he was quite powerful.
In any case, the man refused to speak to us until we revealed we were from another plane. I fully manifested into my shadow devil form to convince him of our identities. Grey asked if we could speak to Vandriel and ask her some questions we had. We would pay him in magical items from our world (specifically, that enchanted chain mail bikini), but he wanted to sit in on the Q & A. Which was fine, since Cass had a telepathic link going on with Vandriel. Speaking of, girl was smoking. The guy basically had her prancing around in skimpy lingerie, and I had a suspicion of what sorts of things he had her doing for him. I was a little distracted as my imagination ran wild.
In any case, Vandriel told us she would help us if we could free her. Which meant killing this dude, because even if we managed to escape with her, he could just summon her back. So, we came up with a plan, Grey would distract him just long enough for Cassie to enfeeble him, and we would jump him. We had to kill him quick, because even if he was helpless, he still could control the various beings wandering around, and they could kick our ass for him.
So Cassie touched him, and he went down. Grey held off Janet while Cass and I wailed on him. He must've had some protective magic on him, because even with him lying there, our blows didn't stab into him as well as they should have. We continued to hack at him, and Janet let forth a powerful meteor swarm. It only grazed the others, but I took one full force. I fought through the burning pain in my chest (I think I had a few cracked ribs in addition to some nasty burns) and just kept on hacking into him. Eventually I got through and chopped his head off.
With that, Janet had no reason to fight us, and teleported out of there. We could sense more creatures teleporting out of there as the entire building began to fall apart. Cass scooped his entire body into he magic bag- it must have some pocket realm in it or something. I myself can create such a thing, but not permanently, as this bag seems to be. Anyways, now that Vandriel was out of his control, she plane shifted us somewhere safe. Alas, she changed into something more conservative. All I can do is imagine, since there's no way I'd be able to bed an angel like her.