[Pine]
Exhausted and weary after the relentless battles with the cult, Pine would settle down a little ways from the others; still within visual distance in the cave, just a little bit away in order to concentrate better without the idle chatter while they made camp. He would focus inward, trying to find the power that he himself had been forged with, and reach out to the Three through that power, augmenting it with a spell of sending if his prayer wasn't enough to garner their attention, as that had worked well before.
[DM]
You reach out to the Three. With your current distance from the Mere you hope that it would be easy to do so but since you've been there it is like the heavy miasma you felt has somehow clung upon you, trailing your every move.
[Give me a religion roll, this has advantage as you have attempted to contact the three in similar situations before]
[Pine]
[ With advantage, 22 ]
[DM]
You recall everything you know about clerics, gods, realms. All things you did not have to think or care about when you trekked the peaks of your homeland.
Looking at what you are now, the powers you now wield are far more potent than of a normal cleric. Your continuous brushes with death have seemingly empowered you beyond the reasonable. A small part of you even wonders if you could ever be slain.
With that insight you realise that if the Three struggle to manifest due to the presence of those other shards there may be a solution. You could instead manifest in their realm.
It would take an expenditure of magical power and might be dangerous as the outer realms are no place for mortal minds but you think it is possible.
[If you want to attempt this you must expend a level 5 slot and give me an int saving throw]
[Pine]
Pine sits and considers this, weighing the pros and cons of their situation, especially after his recent argument with Idris fresh in his mind. His actions didn't just affect him, after all, but without the knowledge that he sought, they could be tackling an even more worrying situation rife with betrayal.
If something went awry, and he lost his life in the process, or was cut off from the group permanently, it would hinder the goal of resurrecting the Three, because he had seen the look in Siax's eyes at times when they were mentioned, and the less said about Idris's state the better. The other two, well, he couldn't judge them well, but they had their own goals and aims, and were just as likely to go their own way than by Ularan's.
But he remembered too how he had almost fallen in battle, so close to losing everything and the shard he bodily protected might have fallen into the hands of their enemies. Part of that situation could be put at Ularan's feet. If they were to support him and his goals, then Pine really needed to know that he was trustworthy to be followed, and he had too many questions about that. What was to say that, when it came down to it, even should they succeed, that he wouldn't use the power Pine himself harboured, for his own ends?
No, he would have to do it. They would be muddling on blindly without adequate information, trusting in someone whose trustworthiness had been found somewhat lacking.
Getting up, he would move over to where Siax was.
"I need to contact the Three," he would say, his voice solemn. "There is too much we do not know, about all this. The block from the Mere," 'from Ularan' he didn't say, but it should be clear enough, "is getting stronger and if left longer I may not be able to. I may know a way to now though. Without information, trust is too uncertain."
So it would be that he would settle down beside where Siax was, and trust the ranger to watch over him should his body not follow his mind.
Unknown
[DM]
As your efforts takes hold, the world around you fades to black, replaced by a flat plane of ground, any details of it being swallowed by heavy shadows.
Wisps of darkness drift and coil, moving like something alive, they feel like the miasma you had felt in the Mere.
The only light comes from faint glimmers along the crystalline walls that encase the space around you, jagged and sharp, casting strange reflections in dim, fractured angles. It feels as though you’re deep within a vast, dark crystal, each surface distorting shapes that seem almost familiar yet hauntingly distant.
In the depths of the shadows, figures linger—silent, undefined, but undeniably present—heavy with an ancient power that presses against the edges of this place.
"YOUR POWER PIERCE THE VEIL TO US. WE HAVE CHOSEN WELL!" the largest of the Three figures yells.
Another shade, one you recognise as the representation of Bane speaks "Your mind will not be able to persist long here O Cleric of ours. You will have a single minute to ask what you will."
Myrkhyl speaks last, as is his custom. "We know little of Ularan. It was our hope he fought for us but when you met with him the presence of the other shards blinded us. We know he fights against the Lord of the End and that is a fight that we support."
All three now speak in a monotone voice. "Ask your questions Avatar"
[On the outside little can be seen to indicate what is happing beyond Pine speaking. What he says in the realm will be said by him in the beach as well - something he does not currently know]
[Pine]
"I am uncertain about Ularan. It is his power that blocks you from the Mere where he forges his plans, one that is getting stronger. He was more than willing to make ANY god of death, using himself or another as the source. I have done what I can to return those plans to your favour, but I remain uncertain if his path is as you once hoped. He sent us out to deal with this ship, but failed to give pertinent information that almost had the mission fail. Was it just an error do you think?"
[DM]
All three speak in answer.
"A KNIFE DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW ITS PURPOSE, IT SIMPLY NEEDS TO STAB INTO SINEW AND FLESH."
"To waste you does not seem wise and the recovery of the ship seemed important to him"
"So in summary, a likely error. But perhaps he does not see you as an equal, rather... a tool he can use."
[Pine]
Pine would nod, and Myrkul's last comment wasn't anything he hadn't thought himself. Pine didn't see himself as Ularan's equal either, with good reason. Bhaal's words were often more obscure for him to understand, but he would think on them later, as the time he had to ask his questions was brief.
"What is the ritual of sacrifice? He mentioned it was needed to put Merdelain to rest."
[DM]
"Thy other way around. Putting Merdelain to rest would be the sacrifice, whatever ritual he plans to enact it's death being what you mention."
"THERE IS POWER IN DEATH. THE MORE DEATH. THE MORE POWER. A WHOLE KINGDOM MAY BE ENOUGH TO EVEN FORGE GOD'S ANEW."
"What the ritual is, we do not know."
[Pine]
"He plans to make a god of death again," he said, acknowledging his error with a nod. He was wise, but not book smart, and not prideful enough to struggle against that understanding.
There was much he didn't know, and he was furiously wracking his brain for what would be the most useful information to get, when he might not gain another chance to speak with them with the block from the Mere getting greater each day it seemed.
"Is there a way to stop Talos from resurrecting his chosen whenever she dies? Ularan mentioned it was making the degradation of the situation worse, and we have already fought her once. Every Talos cultist we come across, their souls are gone as soon as they die."
[DM]
"There is always a way to enforce your will upon the world. Find how they bring her back - disrupt it. How? That is on you to find."
"Souls do not disappear, they are being taken. Used."
"SHE IS ONLY A THREAT WHILE TALOS'S FAVOURS HER. IF SHE DOES NOT DIE THEN HUMILIATE HER, MAKE HER SUFFER. SHOW HIM THAT SHE IS WORTHLESS"
Your vision starts swimming making it harder to see amidst the shadows. Your time here is drawing short.
[Pine]
It seemed as though, to his mind, that at least some of the other questions could be answered by Ularan, now he had at least some reassurance that he could be trusted with things. Minor questions flitted through his mind, but they seemed inconsequential, perhaps even insulting to spend the time asking the Three when their time and attention was limited.
"Is there anything I can do to strengthen you, outside of the tasks we are helping Ularan with? My duty on the mountains is far from what I am seeing here, and there are few dead to lay to help."
This last comment would be a point on which he felt strongly. He had always cared for the dead, rather than the living. He had not been strong enough to deal with Thundertree, and while there was dead in the Mere, the Mere was Ularan's domain. The sense of listlessness, of purposelessness lingered without the ability to help the dead. He'd sided with the Three, because they seemed like the best chance of helping the most, but ever since leaving the mountains, his tasks had been bereft of much of what had driven him throughout his life.
[DM]
"WE NEED MORE OF OURSELVES. MORE OF WHAT MAKES US ALIVE. ULARAN HAS MANY, WE HAVE BUT ONE"
"Perhaps there are more that have not been yet found. We do not sense any but they could be hidden in places we cannot yet reach."
"Or they could be taken."
[Pine]
He could feel his vision start to swim, the blackness of the place around him becoming even less defined. His time was running out, and he knew it. There was a desperation there, in Pine, for guidance he had hoped to find. He didn't know the questions to ask, but especially when faced by someone of Ularan's strength, his understanding of the dead and the world at large, he felt lacking. It wasn't for himself, not selfishness, that drove him, but the need to help the dead, and it was that need that drove him to beg, desperate in those final moments.
"Please, tell me how to become better?!"
[DM]
Die
Die
DIE
The darkness fades and you see the beach before you. You are back. The knowledge of how to contact the three this way however has remained.
[You gain knowledge of the spell Contact Other Plane. It is considered always prepared and does not count against your spell limit. It can only be used to speak to the three. I will be creating a feat that you can add to your character sheet that will add it.]