Chapter Nineteen: Forest

We are standing outside the temple in Kled (the temple wasn't there before) Dwarves are gaping at us and the temple.

Barunas, the leader of the dwarves asks, "Did you do this?"

              Kriv: "No."

There are plants growing all over the village that weren't there a few days ago.  Barunas gives us space and time to rest.  The plants started growing when we arrived.  There's now a new forest outside the village.  She is concerned about the attention that will be drawn to the village.  She is unwilling to cut down the trees.

The dwarves believe that the city was built on the ruins of Kamelok. They worship the sun.  One day the sun will reward us and restore the world, starting with Kled.  Barunas wasn't expecting it to happen this soon.  No one knows what happened to Kamelok.  Kamelok has nothing to do with the Gray, because it is a city built around the sun.  The temple is from Kamelok.  The temple, when it was in the Gray, wasn't in a city, it was by itself.

Vex asks for some privacy for us to recover

We commune with Vex's shadow(s):

              1. Who exactly am I talking to? What is/are your name(s)? How many of you can hear me? Where did you come from? What do you want?

              "We are the Pyreen. We devoted our lives to stopping the Champions of Rajaat." There's hesitation after the second question. "Our names...we have not used our names in many years. We have had no use for them. All of us can hear you, though we must probe into your mind to hear things you wish us not to. We have not done so, except when you were dead, to see if you were worthy. We came from this very plane, long ago. We want..." The voice took on a harsher tone. "We want to destroy the things you call sorcerer-kings."

              2. Why did you choose to save my life? What do I need to do in order for you to keep me alive?

              "We sought a way out. We cannot accomplish what we need to in the Grey. It was unpleasant to feel two of you die. Those voices have been quieter. When we looked inside you, we sensed that our goals might align. We would not like to take back a life we have given, but if you were to refuse to help us, we would have to leave you."

              3. What do you mean by, "you are a Shadow Bride of Gallard" and "Gallard is a Champion of Rajaat, something evil, not a shadow"?

              The Templars of Nibenay are known as Shadow Brides.

              Nibenay is known as shadowy in the secrecy way.

              Gallard is their name for Nibenay.

              "Gallard was a Champion of Rajaat."

              "Rajaat was a Pyreen but he wanted to be something else in order to rule over everyone. So he collected his champions to wipe out many of the races on Athas. He goal was to become a Dragon-God."

              "Rajaat had followers who were successful in killing the old races."

              "There were fifteen champions:

                             - 1st Sacha of Arla “Curse of the Kobolds”

       - 2nd Kalak “Ogre Doom”

       - 3rd Dregoth “Ravager of Giants”

       - 4th Myron of Yorum “Troll Scorcher”

       - 5th Uyness of Waverly “Orc Plague” (Abalach-Re)

       - 6th Gallard “Bane of Gnomes” (Nibenay)

       - 7th Sielba “Destroyer of Pterrans”

       - 8th Albeorn “Slayer of Elves” (Andropinis)

       - 9th Tectuktitlay “Wemic Annihilator”

       - 10th Keltis “Lizard Man Executioner”

       - 11th Inenek “Aarakocra Scourge” (Lalali-Puy “The Oba”)

       - 12th Wyan of Bodach “Pixie Blight”

                             - 13th Egendo “Butcher of Dwarves” (Borys of Ebe)

                             - 14th Daskinor “Goblin Death”

                             - 15th Kalid-Ma “Tari Killer”

              - "Rajaat is dead. His followers rose up and destroyed him once they realized his true plans. They became the sorcerer-kings."

              - "Borys is locked away by the tithe. The sacrifice of lives is what is needed to keep him locked away. All of the sorcerer-kings pay the tithe every year."

              - Vex gives the shadows permission to scour her brain to get updated information about the present world. And then they provide us with updated information:

              4. What can you tell me about the connections between Kled, the Gray, Thakok-An, Mistsong, the Caller in the Darkness, the Book of Kemalok, the human from Nibenay that emerged from the Caller, the dray with a tail that was fighting him for the book, the orb and the mirror, Ramas, Nibenay, Kalid-Ma, Borys, and the the Dragon's Levy. I know that all of these things are somehow related, but I'm having trouble forming a single coherent picture.

              "The world was blue before it was green, covered with oceans. There was a dwarven king named Rika who wanted more power than she had, so she created the five orbs that would turn her into something else. After the world turned to green, Rajaat rose up and decided to take them from her, so he gathered his followers and killed her and took the orbs. With them he found the book in which she had written about how to use the orbs, and how to bring about different ages, and how to transform into other things. Rajaat wanted to bring back the halflings and wipe out everything, but his followers upon learning of this banded together to kill him. Thakok-An is just a templar of Kalid-Ma. We don't know what Mistsong is, Thakok-An had it created. The Caller was one of Rajaat's followers, Dregoth, on his way to becoming a true dragon, but prevented by the other sorcerer-kings. They destroyed his city and the souls of all his people fused together. Nibenay knew about this and learned of a way to try to take control of the Caller. Dregoth and Nibenay have been fighting for control of the Caller for many years. The human and the dray from the Caller were followers of Dregoth and Nibenay respectively fighting over the book. We don't know who Ramas is. We don't know who created the mirror, but it is used to look into other worlds. The orbs reach into other worlds and take their magic because our world can't produce the magic needed for the rituals that the champions want to complete. The temple was part of the seal that we put in place to keep the book from the champions. The seal is open now, and the book is a component in a ritual to reset the world back to the green age."

              The orb that we have: While attuned to this Orb, you can attune to any number of the Orbs of Kalid-Ma, regardless of attunement slots available. You can activate this ability a number of times a day equal to your caster level. When activated, for one hour, a living creature touching the orb for a continuous ten minutes loses all ability to use magic or psionics. Magic taken this way is stored in the orb. (Keep track of their caster level.)

              5. The book has the knowledge of how to destroy the orbs. The book is dwarvish script in a language that neither Tenneth or Vex doesn't know.

We could try asking the dwarves of Kled if they can read the book?

Kriv: "The shadows contradict the way I understand the world. The dread lord was gifted by the gloom mother to make the world pure. The 14 dragon princes served him and his efforts to purify the world of the imperfect creatures. They betrayed him and destroyed his city, and he brought himself back from death, and led a remnant of his people beneath the earth, and started the work of creation over. First, he made a new species of dray in his own image, like that of a great dragon, but he was not satisfied with them. They were brutal, and ungracious, so he abandoned them in the depths, and started again. And made new dray, who were pure, and graceful, and intelligent, perfect beings to populate his new world. And now, it wasn't him at all. It was this, Rajaat, and he was just one of many servants. Was I made by him? Is that also a lie? I hated other dray. I don't know what any of this means, I don't know what I am, where I came from anymore."

Xa'oc: "For me, you came out of the desert, and saved me. You are my clutch, you are my friend, and that should matter."

Vex: "I didn't know this knowledge would affect you. I'm sorry for focusing on the future instead of how you feel now."

Kriv: "What I thought has no bearing on what we have to do. I've just made a lot of decisions based on a lie. None of the other dray know. To my people, the dread lord is a god who made us and then abandoned us, and we hate him or seek to appease him. Now I don't know if that's even true, or if we're just another one of the imperfect races that escaped. It doesn't change what we have to do."

Vex: "Now I understand how you feel about pretending to be gods, or why the beliefs of the people of Kled were so distasteful to you. Let's not masquerade as gods."

We all agree that we need to decipher the book in order to destroy one or more orbs and prevent them from being used.

              We're going to ask Barunas if she can help us translate the book.

We ask for a place to take a long rest and offer to talk afterward.

While we rest, Xa'oc takes some time to talk to everyone in Mistsong.

              Amara: "It feels crowded in here."

              Xa'oc: "Can you now make me or the sword stronger? Now that I absorbed souls from the Caller?"

              Navarro: "What you absorbed isn't like me and Amara. They don't have names. They're just spirits, they don't speak, they are just here. They are pure energy, like we used before."

              Xa'oc: "I need to be strong enough to protect the clutch, to kill Ramas, to kill sorcerer-kings."

              Navarro: "I don't know how to use the power in here. I want to help you. We need to figure it out together."

              Amara: "My master's in here too: the goblin that taught me how to make swords. He hasn't said anything, I think he's confused and doesn't know what is happening. He was in there for a really long time. But I could teach you how to make swords!"

              Xa'oc "smiles" and it's horrifying. He asks for a sword-making lesson.

We all talk with Barunas. She asks to see the book and Vex asks her to read it to us.

              She treats the book with great reverence. She carefully flips through a few pages. "It's dwarven script, but it's very old. We have our priest here who might be able to make sense of it."  She agrees to trust us to take the book with us so that we can use it to destroy the dragon orbs.

              The priest, Nirin, "I think I can make sense of some of this, with time. At least a week."  The book can only be read by a dwarf.  Finding other dwarves that can translate the book would be difficult. Nirin proposes leaving with us with the book, and we notice that Barunas disapproves of this plan.

Barunas asks us to stay and help them defend the city. They would supply us with weapons.

              Kriv thinks Dregoth's forces would be about 10 days away. "Dread Lord has not set foot on the surface in centuries. I don't know what the dray would do, if anything. Most of his dray live in the dead city. They might use magic instead of walk."

              Kriv: "I don't like it here, and I don't like the people here, but I'll stay if we have to."

We plan to spend 9 days arming and training the dwarves, and then we leave for the Isle of Bones and resume translating the book in hiding.

Vex gets some studded leather from Barunas.