True Desire: Death's Blood-Red Ruby
-
True Desire: Death's Blood-Red Ruby
"A blessing and a curse lie hand in hand, united as the ocean and the sand – Here man shows his true face, and his true desire he embrace."
We stood before a sarcophagus bathed in pillars of rather gaudy pure white light, in a mausoleum deep in some caves to the far north of Peltarch. We had come this far, so it would only be to our benefit to recover the mummified remains of the great Naharan king and to leave as quickly as feasible thereafter.
I prayed to the High One for safety and efficient recovery of the body in the name of the Art. Apparently Azuth had other matters to tend to.
Zyphlin murmured some sort of quiet invection to Kelemvor as he slid open the lid of the coffin. Within were the withered remains of the king and, embedded into his skull, the blood-red ruby that had been enchanted to murder him many years ago.
As Zyphlin hoisted the body over his shoulder, the shining ruby dislodged and fell back into the sarcophagus. As any undisciplined bard would do, he used an incantation of mage hand to levitate the ruby in a bag he had readied for that purpose. A most thoughtless choice…
Almost instantaneously Talgrath began to ramble on about threats not present -- "DEMONS! FALL!" and the like -- only to support his delusions with his ever-ready sword, attacking his own comrades. Naturally, I afflicted him with arcane paralysis to halt his advances. Unfortunatelely, Lady Sierra and Zyphlin, who still held the ruby, promptly experienced similar delusions and began to act in similar fashion.
It became evident to myself that the ruby was the source of this unpleasantness, and the sir gnome conveniently polymorphed himself into a troll to distract the aggressors while I recovered the gem from Zyphlin. I did as much and brought the ruby to the sarcophagus... I very nearly returned it to its rightful place, but...
Desire. Ruby. Ruby. Desire! DESIRE!!! My ruby! Mine!
Talgrath. No. Gnome. No. MY ruby! Not yours! Away! Imbeciles. Senator. Keeper. Orders!
Back. Back! Ruby. Mine. Ruby. BACK!!! Missiles. Staff. Back!
Gnome! Idiot! Lightning! Run! Nooo… Rubyyy..........
.......
.......
.......…but I awakened some time later on the ground behind Talgrath, both of us severely charred and in substantial pain. The sir gnome clasped the ruby tightly, referring to it somewhat alarmingly as his "precious." Talgrath, Zyphlin, and Lady Sierra all advanced threateningly upon him in an effort to gain the gem for themselves, but without avail, as the gnome rapidly rendered himself invisible. Something was very wrong.
Lady Sierra, in an effort to reveal the sir gnome, commenced hurling explosive devices around the room without regard for personal health or the health of others -- I myself was struck by several fragments. This absurd technique went unrewarded.
Talgrath took a more direct tack, claiming that none would stand in the way of him and "his" ruby. He rendered Lady Sierra unconscious and prepared to attack myself. Of course, I could not brook such a threat, and subdued Talgrath with five magic missiles from my Spellweaver staff of office.
Zyphlin, meanwhile, had been incapacitated somehow, and the sir gnome had reappeared, still grasping the gem and droning some idiocy about badgers. He vanished again before I was capable of recovering the ruby, so I elected instead to begin a complicated campaign of deception to do so.
I rendered myself invisible and moved in the general direction of a nearby chest, considering how to proceed. Badgers, embarrassingly enough, had played a heavy role in the quest to this point, so I concluded that such would serve a fine purpose here as well. I cast a cantrip of prestidigitation to create a small badger-shaped figurine on top of the chest, then called to the gnome from the cover of invisibility. He was lured by the prospect, but seemed to sense my presence before I was able to seize the ruby and fled.
It was obvious to me at this point that the ruby was imbued with a curse that consumed those around it with unquenchable greed and rampant paranoia, and that it was to be returned to the sarcophagus posthaste. I then considered the fact that the sir gnome was generally content while the gem was in his possession. Thus, I concluded, if the gnome could be drawn into the coffin of his own accord, all would be well.
I approached the sir gnome unthreateningly and claimed not to desire the ruby for myself, having two on my wizard's ring and stave as it was. He was convinced to aid me in claiming the spoils from a variety of chests around the room for the benefit of the Keep's inventory, but could not be persuaded to enter the sarcophagus, despite a very convincing lie on my part about a personal interest in sarcophagal mechanics and mortal physiology.
Around this time, the others began to revive and rather quickly resumed their bloodthirsty hunt for the ruby. To defend himself, the gnome transformed once again into a troll, and Zyphlin swiftly leapt upon its back in a fashion that might be considered comical were the situation not so dire. In the ensuing chaos (most unpleasant), Zyphlin seized the ruby and was immediately set upon by the others. The trollish gnome clubbed the weakened Magistrate into a stupor, whereupon he dropped the ruby.
As I am no fool, I grabbed the fallen gem, rushed to the sarcophagus, and dropped it within. The return of the ruby to its rightful place brought about the restoration of the others' senses at last, to my great relief and their confusion. Zyphlin wearily recovered the king's mummified body, which had been dropped in the scuffle, only to find that it provided complete healing of his grievous wounds. The rest of us wisely touched said corpse and were similarly healed by its restorative enchantments.
Having had quite enough of this place, we departed with all speed for home. Finally.
((A thousand thanks to Yith for this great event.
For those with interest in the background and previous plot of this adventure, let me know. Maybe I'll write up something about the earlier and later portions.))
