Zoom session 18th March – Meeting Bez Drock

Summary: “Oh Bugger!” said Pooh.
==Wild Centaur fight aftermath:==
* Party used CLW's to cure Wun (up to 15), Bazin (up to 9), Francis and Garaf.
* Quercuis sent Khurak to scout around – F. and C. went North (see below).
* Party found two Wild symbols on the dead centaurs (no special properties), but other than noting that they were more muscular than 'normal' centaurs, nothing else of interest was found.
* Brokev was aware that there was something that he should remember, but couldn't, and it was giving him a headache. The Wild symbols did the same to him.
* Remaining WILD Centaur was bound once the entangle went down, and allowed to revive: It understood Elvish but was 'uncooperative' to questioning – and when it started to shriek loudly we quickly put it down with an appalling display of poor marksmanship, but enough to kill it (followed by decapitation.) 
* We decided to move out immediately following F. and C. to the North, taking a head and the symbols with us.
==Khurak's scouting:==
Two other groups of Centaurs were spotted – one 8 miles away to the south (heading east/southeast) and another group over 5 miles away (direction not noted!). One of the Wild Centaurs parties appeared to react to our captive's brief shriek – but didn't start heading in our direction immediately.
About 8 miles to the north there was a load of dead bodies and a fire – the bodies looked like a combination of centaurs/horses and humanoids. There was a human rider on a Greathorse approaching this from the north. He wore plate mail that appeared damaged or incompletely applied/buckled up. Francis went on horseback and Caradoc by hairy foot to try to meet him.
When he reached the bodies, he dismounted and literally threw the centaurs to one side and proceeded to rifle through the dead humanoid bodies – discarding items of apparent value and presumably looking for something specific. He then turned his attention to the fire, putting it out and raking through the ashes.
==Francis meets Bez Drock.==
As F. approached the figure, he saw that he was 'foaming at the mouth', his armour damaged and that he had obviously recently been in a fight. F. therefore kept his distance and displayed a peaceful demeanor. This appeared to work and the figure came out of his rage and calmed down and when Francis introduced himself, the figure identified himself as Bez Drock. Drock quizzed F. on where he had been and come from etc. Francis answered and gave Drock the 'passphrase' from Ronshadow Warskull. However, when Caradoc appeared at Francis' side, it obviously caused Drock some severe consternation.
The humanoid bodies were Vinmira, 2 humans and 3 doppelgängers.
The party joined them.
==Info from Bez Drock:==
Drock and Onwen had been expecting us in White Beach (there was come channel of communication between them and Ronshadow Warskull/Saratak.) This group of humanoids (the 3 doppelgängers appeared as Quercuis, Umar and Bazin) fooled Onwen/Drock into dropping their guard (despite not giving the passphrase) and Onwen was killed about 2 hours ago by them.
The GSOV was bound to Onwen's Avatar, Holy Symbol and life-force. The symbol appears to have been brought to this place and thoroughly destroyed by the fire which means that the GSOV is now completely broken, with the following likely consequences:
* The immediate appearance of the Dark Hoof Centaurs tribe (the Wild Centaurs) scouting parties in the immediate area. (He was surprised that they were not fully armoured and prepared for battle as would be expected.)
* The return of all the Wild – not just the advance cannon-fodder scouting parties seen thus far. Drock thought they would all appear around the area of Onwen's destroyed holy symbol, but now expects them to rally where the Dragon Riders appear – they will define the muster point.
* The Elves are no longer restrained and can bring their Empress through.
* The 'forgetfulness' of the GSOV is broken – so Clearsight will effectively start radiating out from this point. (Brokef suddenly remembers about the Dark Hoof tribe!)
At this point Drock appeared to suffer from a major fit – which Bazin identified as 'something religious' (ie not a disease that Brokef could cure.) The fits stopped after a minute – and Drock was completely renewed, his armour fixed, and a sword had appeared at his belt. He had become the First Sword of Shanah again. (His horse also started looking a lot beefier, and he stated that Beldame is now dead.)
We asked Drock why Saratak hadn't foreseen Onwen's death: Drock said that Saratak had multiple visions, and had to base his view of what would actually happen on the balance of probabilities. Drock asked if the shrine at Far Haven was being reconsecrated, and when we said it was, he explained that the shrine housed The White Tree – ie that was what was sealed off beneath the stones. He sincerely hoped that once the shrine was fully reconsecrated (the White Tree 'properly planted' was his phrase) then 'we' might stand a chance against the Wild. (Note: there always remained a way into the White Tree for those completing the pilgrimage. And this was the reason that it was not made into a pilgrimage site, as it already was the ultimate pilgrimage site.)
===Attack on the Wyldwood shrine 26 years ago:===
Onwen and his fellow druids started off with good intentions. The druid researchers assembled a large cache of scrolls and with the power of the White Tree tried to pierce the Void to contact the Elves, whom they considered the epitome of Wyldwood ideals. Onwen realised that they were actually cuttings the threads of the spells, and though he tried to blow the whistle, he was rebuffed by his superiors. However, Saratak found out through a vision and with the agreement of the Wyldwood authorities, had Drock attack the shrine.
As noted, the result was that the GSOV was bound to Onwen. Onwen had to go into hiding to protect the spell (ie himself), Drock was stripped of his First Sword position and became Onwen's bodyguard. They went first to Tobar for family/financial reasons, then to Dalzon and finally to White Beach – where they set up as 'herbalists' of the recreational kind. As Onwen was the center of the GSOV spell, it was intensified around him, and hence help hide them.
Onwen only had a few months left to live – but probably would have agreed to go back to the Far Haven shrine to try to reinstate the GSOV in the reconsecrated shrine if he hadn't just been killed!
===GSOV:===
There were three known castings of the GSOV:
* Soratan cast a 'practice' spell on the Goblins.
* He then cast the main spell for the escape of the Wild near Trollheim/Ghoulagabba. He 'burned' his Mithril Dragon to get the energy for the spell.
* The Elves cast their spell – trashing one flying city (Cracks of Doom), and draining the mana from 3 others to power the spell. They added the Spell of Forgetting on top.
* There could have been other castings as well in the past – in which case who knows what else is going to start coming back.
Drock doesn't know much about the GSOV – Onwen was the expert. He thinks that they produced corridors to various places, each based on the 'wishes' of those destined to go through. He couldn't say anything about the subjective time that may be experienced by those going through. He does not know what happened to Soratan. He doesn't know why the Elves chose to leave.
===The current situation:===
* Starport is now flying (though rather slowly!)
* The Clans have got Starstorm up again – this was fight to the East where the clans captured the flying city from the Temple of the Dead.
* The Dark Temple (the flying city near Dalzon) will be up soon – once the Solarans and Lizardmen resolve their dispute over it.
* Alvera is about to start a campaign to retake Torgan.
* The Wyldwood council – which is based in Stormhaven and Tobar – will now be mobilising for war.
===Sallahan:===
The situation there is something to do with the Temple of the Dead. Drock doesn't know the exact nature of the threat – though the Wild may deal with it incidentally.
===Blue Witch:===
She is a Dragon Rider spirit. Two Dragon Riders had fought and caused havoc. One died, and the other attempted to heal the damage they had done (the Blue Witch). Dragon Riders – who had been able to tame and ride a True Dragon – would be considered demi-gods by normal folk.
==Drock departs:==
Drock gave us the 'key' (a pentagon) to his and Onwen's house and permission to search for anything useful and take whatever we wished. We have two weeks before it will be reclaimed by the landlord.
Bazin and Umar received a blessing from him (+4/+4 to hit/damage for the next two weeks.)
Drock himself is off now to Stormhaven – he will receive further instructions from the Shanah high priest.
His final comments were on the question 'who are the enemy?'. He said there were three main contenders:
* The Elves (he is surprised and slightly skeptical about the treaty with them.)
* The Wild
* The Orcs (by which he means the Temple of the Dead.)
The party is left wondering whether to take Vinmira's body with them – and at what point he was replaced by a doppelgänger, or if he always was a turncoat – and who they were working for. And it would be a great shame to leave all the loot from the 6 bodies just lying around...