An adventuring party recruited from Osirion teleports into Azir on the 8th of Desnus. Rahadoum's recruiting contact in Osirion wrote ahead to note they were expected. Couple of guys he's known a long time - a wizard, a ranger - and a new guy, sorcerer, probably to replace the cleric they usually travel with. They spend two days in Azir getting oriented and head out to the front. The ranger wears an unusually high quality amulet of Nondetection; the sorcerer wears a headband for intelligence, which is a bit unusual as sorcerers usually don't need it to cast, but some variants do; they are otherwise unremarkable. Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, no reading, which could mean neutral or 'hiding it'. They work quickly and effectively, manage resources reasonably well, get recommended to higher-ups for a closer look on that account.
Aroden lets out his breath, slowly. So it's too late to quarantine the secret from Velgarth. That pushes even harder toward moving fast, he thinks.
"Leareth. I imagine some of your subordinates also know."
"They know some of it, yes. A small number, all of them under a voluntary geas-like spell of loyalty to my mission. Not dissimilar to yours, actually."
"How unsurprising." Aroden is quiet for a moment. "All right. Leareth, I will consider your subordinates already geased for this purpose. Ideally I would like to meet Vanyel and Fazil and request it of them as well, but that seems logistically difficult, and I hardly think I can impose it on Vanyel's superiors in Valdemar. What is the current state of communication between Velgarth and Osirion?"
"Abadar is in communication with the local gods. It is possible to scry in Velgarth with a crystal ball and the pharaoh may be doing so. I believe Fazil was the only human approved to Plane Shift there." Leareth glances at the others for confirmation.
"It wouldn't surprise me if the pharaoh has another attuned focus for his own people but Fazil is the only one I know of."
Aroden nods. Thinks, briefly.
"Well. A number of elements of this situation are not ideal, but it also includes unexpected resources and help, so on the whole I suppose I cannot complain. I will place the geases now, and then we can go elsewhere and discuss further."
He does so, starting with Leareth. Each geas takes ten minutes to cast, so it's going to take a while.
It's one of the few spells there's no defense against, and he'd really like to watch, but without Detect Magic up he won't actually learn anything, so he reads instead.
Leareth is also a little irritated that he can't watch with his Othersenses, but Aroden is being sufficiently reasonable here that he can't be annoyed with him about it, so the annoyance isn't directed anywhere in particular and is just sort of floating there.
Aroden finishes.
"As soon as we leave this place," he says calmly, "I am Malduoni again. I am going to Plane Shift you to a small demiplane that is linked to my office in Azir by a permanent portal. Your possessions are already there. I would like to speak further, of course, but I am sure you would all like breakfast and a chance to regroup, and - I will not stop you from preparing spells and teleporting back to Sothis immediately if you wish. If you decide to stay and discuss more, I will be available all day and you can return to my office when you are ready."
How many permanent demiplanes can a person have.
(The geas on which name to think of him by is very intrusive; the rest isn't.)
He takes Hagan and Leareth's hands for the Plane Shift.
Aroden takes Leareth's hand -
- and Malduoni arrives in the other demiplane, the three of them in tow. This one is a lot more boring; it resembles an ordinary hallway, with an ordinary door at the end. There's a nice carpet, a couple of tasteful paintings of nature scenes on the walls, and no other decor.
Malduoni releases Leareth's hand, gestures at the door. "Go on."
Leareth glances over his shoulder. Notices that there's also a door at the other end of the hallway. He wonders vaguely where it goes. It seems very rude to run and try to check while they're here with Malduoni, so he doesn't.
It goes to a sort of lobby area with a few armchairs arranged in it, and two doors. Their things from the camp are neatly packed up and waiting on said chairs.
Malduoni strolls past them and opens one of them. "This is the way out. Not the way back in when you rejoin me - you will want to go in the front door and ask the guard.
Once they've gone through, he'll re-lock the door with magic - it's not completely proof against wizards getting in, of course, but it's at least very inconvenient - and then take the other door himself.
Leareth, for his part, checks that his Gifts and Othersenses are back in working order, as well as the artifacts he's wearing and his intelligence headband. It is disappointingly not as good as the one he left behind in Malduoni's demiplane-library. (The geas is quite obtrusive here for him too, but hopefully he'll get used to it.)
"I think so, yes." He finds himself smiling, involuntarily. He's feeling sort of exhilarated, almost giddy with it.
"I want to prepare spells before we go meet him, but I don't think it makes any sense to run back to Sothis at this point."
Leareth nods.
:Well, I am pleased that I was right on all of my inferences: he sends in Mindspeech. The geas seems fine with that level of indirectly-thinking-about-it.
:You sure were. Also Vanyel really hit it on the head when he said he figured you'd do the same thing in his shoes.:
Leareth nods. "I do not think I have any particular preparations to make, so - I am ready to go back when both of you are."
"I can just prepare half a dozen now, if we're likely to spend the day in meetings anyway." He has already started doing this; it feels good to have magic in his hands again.
"I would not mind at all if you wished to take longer to prepare and neither would he. Up to you, I suppose."
"I mean, leaving some slots open is also added flexibility later. - you should ask if you can watch him prepare spells sometime, I bet it'd be fascinating. I've never seen anyone stabilize a ninth circle spell."
Leareth's face lights up, albeit in a very muted way. "I am definitely going to ask him. Flexibility makes sense." He waits for Mahdi's half-dozen spells to be prepared, while absentmindedly digging out and consuming some breakfast from his pack. Leareth isn't especially fussy about what he eats.