Define "evil"

We the lunatic fringe contained, Sorscha was able to initiate a conversation.

Of course she demanded the return of her artifact, which Obegard eventually did, and then she invited us back to the keep to talk.

Ili refused to go, of course, and Erson and Dearthen stayed with her (hopefully to stop her doing something stupid). Malakar, Ili, and Obegard were beating themselves up for having not gone further from the tower. Yeah, for reasonably intelligent people they are pretty dumb. Me? I knew she’d find us there and I didn’t care—she knew lots of stuff we wanted to know, and I wanted Malakar and Ili taken down a peg.

When we got back to the keep the remaining lizardmen eyed us nervously, or at least that was my take on it, given that I don’t know lizardmen from clouds.

Sorscha had laid out a nice meal for us, and I dug in eagerly once the first few tastes had given no indication of poisoning. Obegard also partook, but I noticed that Malakar didn’t touch any of it—maybe we should have asked if she had any kibble?

During the conversation Malakar was constantly interrupted with irrelevant questions meant to annoy Sorscha and, I assume, expose her as the embodiment of evil. But let’s face it—Malakar has repeatedly shown that he’s not the sharpest stake in the pit and Sorscha harmlessly deflected his questions, and I think found some amusement in his unsubtle and ineffectual efforts.

She was a class act—she even restored some of our trust in the leaders of the Accordlands saying that probably nobody now in power had been aware of the warning from the Medusan Lords, though she was dismayed that those who had received it had apparently completely ignored it.


She told us a bunch of other things as well, about how she had been gathering an army of monsters, but it was to help the Free Kingdoms, and in fact by dismantling her army we’d dealt the Free Kingdoms a double blow—her army was gone, and one of the armies that will come against the Free Kingdoms is also composed of monsters which would have been drawn over to her side, so now that army will be able to attack at full strength.

The fact that the dwarves seem to be in the middle of this appears to be a matter of poor timing. According to Sorscha most Upworlders had relegated us to imaginary creatures, but with our recent appearance we’ve shown that to be untrue. The Medusan Lords are collecting artifacts and with our return they now have a whole section of lore they’d previously dismissed to now exploit.

Yet again I wonder whether despite the cost of our struggle against the Infernals whether we would not have been better staying below. How long will it be before the Medusan Lords try to find their way below and come on the dwarves unaware? We’ve given the miners of New Golden Axe a new mithral mine, but will that cover the costs of making the Upworlders aware of our existence again?