Chapter 14-393: Quests and Agreements

Hank Blakhamar stepped up on a Disk, rising slowly up ten feet off the ground to look around. I’d given him a very, very accurate rendition of the landscape through my Commune with Nature, and he was looking at it mentally while surveying the area visually, along with a lot of other older dwarves, orcs, and their descendants.

The Deadzone for the nearest Shroud was literally a quarter-mile away. This section of the coal mines was old and worked-out... and the tunnels connected with others far older down below, going down far, far deeper than the mine overseers had intended. They’d wisely blocked such tunnels up, but something clawed and untiring had worked them open from below, and there were hungry dead things wandering the old mines down there, looking and craving dead flesh to fill bellies that would never be satisfied...

Everyone there was getting the feel of the loose undead down below. The undead were still bound to the Shroud, but were kept outside its Zone as scouts of some kind instead of being pulled back within. It was only possible if they stayed below ground. Touch the sunlight, and they’d go right back into the Shroud like any other Shroudbound undead.

Nature didn’t extend into the Shroudzone, its awareness cut off by black interference and negative energy as smoothly as a knife... and unlike most Shroudzones, that interference extended down deep, into a cavern and cave system miles below, which itself led off into other places in the Felldeep.

Hank Blakhamar grunted, a sound reflected and imitated by one means or another by all the men and women here. He looked down at me, and nodded shortly. “There’s work to do here. We got this, Lady Traveler.”

And I knew that they did, nodding back as I ‘ported away, while logistics in the background continued to do their thing. They’d be inviting in Russians from all over who wanted to fight soon enough...

Commands were going out, and like a well-oiled machine, the army of orcs and dwarves and humans and their Children began to set up their base camp to start on the work of extinguishing a Shroudzone above and below.

---------

“<Master Gilcruks, a pleasure it is to speak with you again>,” I said in flawless Necrus over Sleipner’s Vaccine link.

“<Lady Traveler>,” the Ghoul Sage returned politely, with an edge that showed he knew very, very well the differences in our stations. “<Your voice is as lovely as ever. How may I be of assistance to the Chosen of Sylune?>”

It wasn’t a title I spread, and it probably wasn’t true, given I was an Ur-Priest, but trying to say no to it was literally impossible with Moonlit Hair, so, eh. It didn’t ring like a Title, thankfully, so it was obviously dubbed by mortals.

“<Master Gilcruks, I find myself in need of the breadth of your knowledge. There has been some information unearthed in some of the older archives, and confirmed through our contacts with the Void Brothers. I simply wish an informed opinion to validate this, as it turns out none of the experts I know who are still living can do so.>”

“<My knowledge is at the Lady’s disposal,>” he acknowledged drily.

“<What is your fair price, and do not dicker over this. I am aware of the value of knowledge.>”

There was silent for a long minute or two, as the Leng ghoul thought about this unexpected acknowledgement. I could just extort the information I wanted from him, but I had chosen to keep the relationship pragmatic and professional. Either method was perfectly valid, but this one soothed his undead ego.

“”

“” I warned him.

“<A Ring to interfere with magical attempts to control the undead should not be against your moral standards, Lady Traveler?>” he queried.

He knows I can make a Ring. I half-smiled despite myself. “<It is a grey area, but as the people who control the undead tend to be of a specific mindset, I find myself amused instead of annoyed.>” I let that hang for a moment. “<Are the Illuminati pressuring you?>”

“<They have been facing unprecedented pressure on several fronts, and have something of a pessimistic view of the future,>” the ghoul acknowledged.

“<They want to move to Leng,.” I translated, “and take command of the ghoul kingdoms.>

“<Sage Gilcruks, you know that Heavenbound Hall has no interest in the Ghoul Kingdoms of Leng, merely their interference in the world of the living. If the Illuminati make the translation to Leng, not only might they establish a powerful Kingdom of their own there, they might be able to break their own inability to gain further power that afflicts them in the mortal realm. After all, the Ghoul Sages know many things, and some will be willing to part with that knowledge, for one reason or another.>”

“<What are you proposing, Lady Traveler?>” he asked after a careful moment.

“”

“<Hmm. To do so would require the appropriate pawns and minions...>”

“<If you would like to set out the terms of an agreement, with the underlying spirit being NOT to betray one another or cost the other side undue lives or power, I think I can arrange for some pawns who would be rather ecstatic about that task.>”

“<Hmm.>” I could hear his clawed finger tapping, but I knew he was chaffing at the bit to get this process started. “”

“<I’m listening, Honored Sage.>”

“<The mortal realm has a great attraction to my people, and there is great resentment that we will doubtless be forced underground or back to the labyrinths once you have brought down the Shroud. We have made great efforts to accommodate mortal desires during this period, and I daresay that we have proven that we can control our own and do our tasks with discretion.>”

“<You are seeking legitimacy after the Shroud is burned away?>” I defined for him.

“<Perhaps we could term it... ambassadorial positions, of sorts?>” he wheedled sibilantly.

“”

“” he agreed without a hint of shame.

“<This would require you to work fairly closely with the Church of Harse, Master Gilcruks. Will you be able to stomach such a relationship?>”

“<We are somewhat infamous among the living for what we can stomach, Lady Traveler,>” he noted drily. Bowing and scraping obeisantly and then getting away with whatever they could would all be a part of the deal.

“”

“<An interesting idea, Lady Traveler. I shall pass it by several of my peers and see what they think of it.>”

“”

“<Oh, my.>” I could tell the thought absolutely delighted him. “<We shall definitely have to discuss this matter more in-depth, Lady Traveler!>”

“<Indeed! I shall agree to make the initial Ring for you, but Infusing it beyond that I shall leave to you. I believe you are capable of doing so?>” And he’d be out the goldweight, not us.

“<Most assuredly, Moon-daughter.>” It was a back-handed title, as it was usually applied to werewolves, who didn’t get along with ghouls at all. “<Please, ask of me what you will!>”

“”

There was a slight hiss. “<That is not a true dark secret, Lady Traveler. I will confirm that it is true, and that we have not dared contact those we know within that place, lest the Shroud reach out and take us.>”

“<We will have to completely wipe them out to bring down the Shroud, Master Gilcruks.>”

“” he replied pitilessly.

“<Then what I truly am asking for is any and all information about the kingdom, its inhabitants, treasures, defenses, and the like that you can provide us. I also assume there are things there, in both lore and items, that are not fit for the mortal world, but are not so horrid that they should not just be destroyed, and may be sent off to Leng... or they might find an appropriate caretaker here.>”

If he was alive he’d probably be choking on his tongue at the opportunity that had just fallen into his lap. Even if he had to share it later to extract more information from his colleagues now, it was the meatiest of meat pies to the lore-obsessed ghouls of Leng, who filled their endless years with all the knowledge that they could.

“” he finally managed to say, having shut off his microphone for a time, and still letting a quiver of dark excitement show through.

“<Harse is, above all, fair, Master Gilcruks, as foul an idea as that may seem at times. What you provide us will be Assessed, and you will be compensated for its proper value.>”

He could not help a slow and sinister laugh escaping him at this. “<Lady Traveler, you are enjoying tempting me, are you not?>”

“<Master Gilcruks, horrid as they may be, the fact is that those of the Silver will live up to the spirit AND the letter of their agreements, and that makes them both ungodly predictable and impossibly valuable to someone of your kind. As someone with a far more flexible mindset, if you can learn to accommodate them, the rewards you can gain will naturally be far, far greater than those dealing with less stiff-necked and morally upright sorts, who will naturally seek all ways and means to exploit you and seek their own advantages... or simply break such agreements on a whim, if the situation calls for it.>

“<Even if you do not seek to undercut an agreement with them and go around it, the benefits you will gain from legitimacy and recognition from the living, and the unseen shield they will draw about you, are most likely rewards far, far beyond what you can gain otherwise, save for some instance of supreme treachery against the unsuspecting, foolish, and very powerful, traits you are unlikely to find together.>

“

“<So, in all that loathsome concept of fairness, who is it actually better to reach an agreement with: us, or one of your similarly-minded compatriots, assuming the matter is equally palatable?>”

“<It is all those unpalatable matters which are the problem, Lady Traveler,>” he pointed out, still snickering softly.

“<So you avoid them for a time. What is time, to you?>”

That did make him withhold a snippy reply. “<Indeed. This merely calls for some extra patience, for some very sweet rewards, indeed!>”

Protracted negotiations were a given, but my Law was at twelve Ranks, Diplomacy and Intimidate the same, and if I couldn’t lie to fool a child, my Insight was cranked so high that he couldn’t successfully lie to me, either. It was merely a test of patience, ironing the details out, getting advice from the appropriate parties who would sign off on it to approve, and negotiating world-wide contracts with Ghoul Sages without the approval of secular governments...