Game 18

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\*We arrive at the Watch Blades. Gates are closed. Guards deny entry until Brohain says that we are all together. Inside we see symbol with all 12 crests. (including the one whose name we have not heard yet.)

Inside we are greeted by a man who appears to be Valdis. He claims that no Terrywine has been there, contrary to what a guard said outside. After stonewalling, Otto ends up asking if things would be facilitated by Brohain speaking with him alone. He says yes. Otto asks if Brohain trusts him. After he nodes, Brohain follows him and the real Valdis is revealed, but he seems unswayed by Brohain’s arguments. We leave with apparently not much accomplished.

**The (S)Trumpet**

In the interim, David spots markings of thieves cant on the way into the (S)Trumpet. He heads inside, while the rest of us carry on. Inside he meets a gnome bartender. They sign back and forth in thieves' cant. He puts a book up on the counter. David flips through it and finds a reference to the Horse’s head. Bartender says its famous statue in Silverymoon.

“Something about someone who killed whose-s-what-sit.”

\*Torbin Battlehammer is making a move on the trade rights of the Shieldbiters, who work the docks. Adlewulf Gleamshied is the head of the merchant guild, as well as all the craftsman guilds. As David goes to leave, Slivin (barkeep) gives him a bag with a purple crystal. Says, if you find yourself in a bind, crush this in your hand.

**The Patron of Candle Keep**

\*Head next to meet up with Borius Borragul.

\*At the meeting place with Boris, he greets us and invites us in. Damian casts comprehend languages. A book called the Twilight Court stands out to him. It’s normally written in a language he does not speak. He offers to take us to his benefactor. Asks us not to be alarmed by his appearance. He leads us to a secret door behind a tapestry.

\* We enter a room with an assortment of crystals. They are thicker than soul crystals we have seen before. Damian goes over to observe one. He sees a face looking back at him, a moment later, so do the rest of us, accompanied by a metallic hum.

\*Eventually it coalesces into a singular, crystalline form, emitting a flash of bright life. Damian knows it to be a Shard Mind. It is the creature Narashi. In a book he’d read, it is said to have broken off as a piece of raw creation. Resonate and inhabit this type of crystal. Not a god, but as close to immortal as you can get. After seeing the rubbings, he asks Borius to pay us.

\*Damian says he wishes to be payed in wisdom, instead of coin. He asks about Cyric and the Sea of Fallen Stars.

\***Tablets of Helden**.

*”The Sea of Fallen stars is an ocean far in the east from here. Across the Nethrill Empire. It was referred to in the tablet, in discussing the tear fall. An epoch ago, known as the Days of Thunder. Memory is fragmented. I’m seeking Tablets of Helden. It shows an image of Damian holding up the rubbings. It shows a pair of hands holding up a book that is a creation of that tablet. Torn page, etching completes it. There is a drawing of a lantern. We call it the tablet of the Helden. As a keepers of knowledge, we’ve sent multiple expeditions trying to find these tablets. We believe they’re from over 50,000 years ago. The first sightings of men.*

*Helden, is the name of the first city of men. The first kingdom. These tablets allude to that. The first tablet was at the highest forest. At the Star Mount, we helped finance an expedition with coop from Nethrelese government to look into the origins."* Page turns.

\*Image of a different tablet. In primordial and abyssal. Damian can understand w/ comp. lang. Tablet of the key. On the bottom, there are five circles. Within them.

*"In twilight of dawn era, after Asgorath the world shaper lost control and threw the moon into Torrel, and thus created the Sea of Fallen Stars. At this sight of the world scar, Chauntea wept creating the first river. She lamented and sang the song of creation for the first time. And at this site, the first city of man grew along the sacred river and founded paradise of the gods on earth in the desert."*

*”...what of Cyric?”*

”Cyric had no part in this. Cyric is the god of deceit. Do you wish to know more?” \*Damian: I found this in another realm. Adjacent to our own. Pulls out etchings from the caves.

Cyric: These are the tablet of the crown. These are extraordinary. We thought them lost. On the second page, you see sign of bottom five. Sticks out to Rowen. Black crown. Moon and Star. The sun. A lantern and a key. Five interlocked symbols on a hand. On the crown symbol, unlike the other two, there are two adjacent spots, and the inlet has been scooped out. With an additional three symbols.

\*Cyric, you said. I know of Cyric. Do you wish to know of Midnight and Kelevmoor as well.

\*Have you heard of the overgod? The tablets of fate? The time of troubles? In 1358, according to the Dale reckoning calendar, the gods Bane and Miracle stole the tablets of fate from Ao, the overgod. Suspecting the gods power was derived from this tablet. This, of course, seems foolish to us now. The tablets of fate mark the gods and their pantheons. Ao, in his wisdom and righteous anger, demanded that the guilty party hand them over. And when no one stood forward to admit the stealing of the tablets, Ao set a series of balances of law into nature. No two gods in the pantheon could have the same portfolio, when the gods clash, only one of three results may occur. One god will fail from the realm, both gods merge, one god after altering portfolio will transform and remain.

\*Ao made the pantheon of gods achievable and mortal without stripping them of raw power. Many ports. lost and combined. Still trying to piece together the results of this today. Lost much history during the spell plague. What can be said of Cyric, is that he was mortal before this event. A gifted human, set out with his companions Midnight and Kelevmoor. Cyric betrayed the other two and attempted to keep a tablet of fate for himself. Once it was in his possession, he killed the former of the gods, and took his pantheon attaining his power for himself. And killed the goddess Mystra, or so it is said in the sacred texts.

\*What of the new goddess that took her place?

\*Feeling guilt, his companion Midnight took her place, upholding the laws of magic. Though what is said to have happened after in the book of the world is supposedly written by Kelevmoor. The gods remaining fought in a fierce battle, and doric was said to have been banished to pandemonium, the fractured realm space. At the dawn of creation, when Ao first came to existence. The Titans were said to no be able to live on the same plane without bringing on destruction. So Ao brought about the multiverse. A fraction of this space, Dendar, the World Serpent attempted to claim a piece for his own.

\*These accounts are told of Kelevmoor; It is said that his mind was broken at the

betrayal of a friend and the ascension of a lover.

\*Your face, Otto, is an echo. The face in the glass is Martine Odenthel. Rowen, your face is an echo as well. You resemble a man who was a young ward of Martine.

\*man on the other side of the gate. He has the sickness. During the times of troubles, one of the gods tried to breach the distance between both. In order for a pantheon to pass, or for a god power to pass it needs a medium or a vessel, in which the two individuals become one. This god had no such anchor and was shattered across the planes. Borius is holding a tray with a cloth over it. He pulls the cloth off, a black ooze shoots out against the glass. It is the blight. It is said that these members, some consume it in a ritual in order to gain some of the gods powers.

\*Cyric and friend were not the only ones trying to find the tablets of fate. Not to establish a pantheon, but to keep it and preserve it. Martine was a member of this order.

Telenar Boratan; “I am only familiar with the green song in a scholarly sense”

- Otto plays the fragment of it. As he does, Rowan notices an additional line. With that we play the three fragments that we have, but it’s still incomplete. There is still the tablet of the sun, and the Tablet of the Moon and Star.

\*500 gold pieces for fulfillment of the contract.

\*There are some things you should know to be better equipped for your travels.

**Mythaler and the Bataratchi**

\*Damian shows bass relief from Halls of Eramount.

\*Where did you come by this?

\*I stumbled on some family secrets that were kept from me for a long time.

\*It appears to be a Mythaler. A powerful magic device. So powerful and concentrated, it can contain massive amounts of energy. Used in different ways.

Rowan has seen it. Damian has seen it in a raw form. the Batarachi stone, that he started to take and gave back to them. The Mytahler is the engine that allowed the Nethralise cities to fly.

\*I’m not sure what this person is, or who he is, though he appears demonic. These people here appear to be Bollywogs.

\*No, they are the batarachi, or the previous incarnation, the Slaad. They were made to become the batarachi. The slaad and their brethren were forced into bondage. This is where I found the fallen kings and the tablet.

\*Have you been to the fallen kings

\*For a time. It was not hospitable.

\*It passes the weave though Damian. Steps back, dimmer. “My God. If you’re here. How did you get here? Did you tear a hole open? There was a gateway between there and this world.”

\*DId you close the gateway?

\*Yes

\*Are you sure?

\*I can’t be 100%, but it probably did not survive the collapse of the ruin.

\*This is dire. Do you know where you were?

\*I have a guess. Abyss or Shadowfell.

\*No. It was Pandemonium.

\*There was a witch woman who was sealed away.

\*You must keep this a secret. Prey that it closed. The Pandemonium is a fractured realm. Merius; “Do you know what happened to the Empress of the Netheril?”

“She was banished. Her father, the king, died. He fell at the Battle of Lundaleth. When they clashed with the King of Cormyr; Alzun the IV. The young empress took over, and her might was terrible. it was speculated she would be a much more terrible ruler than her father. But it was said that there was a coup. Some said that she was Dendar reborn”

Dendar the Night Serpent; *It said that she feeds on the nightmares of those that walk the earth of kings and deities alike. Because in the realm of raw creation, nightmares walk the earth. It said that she’ll be the end of the world, and all gods*.

\*There are talks of places in the Underdark that you should not go to, the passing of the Night Serpent. People call them the serpent’s chasms.

\*Whoever she was, she was banished. Cyric himself is kept there in Pandemonium.

\*Lords Alliance should be notified.

\*This is the elite guard of the Netheril. (Symbol on the Knight of Black Flames).

\*There are books locked away in Candlekeep. However, your order is secretive, so I’m sure there are many more secrets locked away elsewhere.

\*There are handwritten notes on the side of the tablets, scrawled on the side is “The Well of Souls. The Well of Dragons. The Well of Silence. The Well of the Mind. The Well of Darkness. and The Well of Etheria. Each is linked with a symbol. There appears to be some correlation between the other symbols. (crown, sun, etc.)

* \*Well of Darkness is lantern.
* \*Well of Etheria is moon and stars.
* \*Well of Souls pointing to the key.
* \*Well of the Mind pointing to the crown.
* \*Well of Dragons connected to symbol of the sun.
* \*Well of Silence connected to ?

\*What can you tell me of Thultanthar.

\*Master, I was reading, and it’s a great city of the Nethralise. It was unaccounted for when the cities fell. It’s speculated that it survived elsewhere. What is more likely is that the city was over water, and sunk somewhere off the coast of the sword coast.

\*Elminster. You wish to know of the sage of Shadowdale. He lives in the Dalens, supposedly. It’s said that he’s very old. Multiple records of him appearing throughout history. Many people think that it's a tradition of a Red Wizard to take a ward and the ward takes on the name. However, it has been said that the mage Elminster was killed during the time of troubles. A small force met him in his tower and he was executed. During the time of troubles, he was a casualty of the spell place. Stripped of his power he was a man. It is said that the tower still stands outside Shadowdale, But he was from Suzail. One town south of Arabel in Cormyr.

\*There are lesser wells that can be used as gateways. (We used one in Durlag’s Tower.)

\*Emperor Karsus fell at the battle of Rasilith.

\*It is said that Talos became stronger in the Times of Troubles and took on the power of Mistress of Waves.

\*Tablet of the Moon and Star in Silvery Moon?

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