It has been said, by my scribe teacher, Fildan, that the thoughts of a troubled man written down, are clarity a moment later. Indeed I am troubled, and searching for a kind of clarity that my most fervent prayers beseech the heavens for.
It was maybe 6 months ago, I was accepted into the order of Paladine. I looked forward to a life of routing out injustice on the streets of Omach, and upholding the rule of the royal Omachian family. So I swore, and still today I find my innermost motivations being those old vows.
Then tragedy after tragedy, befell my people. There was evil among our most trusted circles, and a grievous crater where Omach's greatest heroes made their home. I set out with some spoiled nobles of these heroes, lacking any kind of internal moral compass that guided me to service and honor. Yet through the struggles of having to protect them, I found that my great god also had a special honor for me, a charge to protect these spoiled brats at all costs.
Though their behavior was trying, if not outrageous at some times, through my frantic fleeing of an invisible danger known as the Consortium, I saw a spark of hope that inspired me. It inspired me, because at some point I had lost hope. I lost hope that we would live much longer, ever get back at the Consortium, or even see our homeland again.
It was their hope and a serendipitous meeting that fully restored the vigor of my faith. A continent away, in a land bizarre and foreign, where even the common tongue was not spoken, and foul evil races ruled the land, there was a spark of hope. Oriana, the daughter of Maive, whose sacrifice saved us all, just a minor hedge wizard, met her half sister. She a twister lamia slave, whose heart was more tender and loving than Oriana could fathom.
Much like the rest of our group of straggling refugees, the situation of who we are, became less important than our mission. When we began realizing that, we all started to change. I'll never know if Oriana accepted her bastard sister in her heart, or if any of the group was ultimately changed by the shape changers kind manner but for the smallest moment she saw someone with a similar origin to hers, but completely free of a loving parent, yet still be more lighthearted than the Queen herself and twice as kind. It was at that moment she and everyone else in the group could no longer resent the burden their parents or the one the community put on them.
I know that meeting made my mission clearer than ever. This wasn't some begrudging task. My god, begged my favor, and asked me to protect them. If it was important enough for a God to ask a man of weak faith such as myself, to do something, it was out of desperation. When that came into my thinking, I realized we were the last chance. Back then I had no clue what we were doing other than desperately running.
It was not my place to make decisions, if it was then I would have been told what to do. This last twist has brought my recently mentioned resolve to its most trying point. The last month took us away from the battle in the ruined castle where we met Oriana's sibling, and through a surprisingly sacrificial move from the woods witch, Trayundahl, we were teleported to a house we were told held the only living person on “our side,” who could remedy the Rannick disaster.
What we found was an old cabin, decorated in the inside with blood and guts, presumably of the man we were looking for. On the walls, written with a mad man's repetition was the Elvish characters for, “you're too late.”
That was when I saw Kayra get more upset, well than I've ever seen her, even at the news of Rannick, or so I'm told. She screamed, “There is no way they can know all our moves!” She fell to her knees and stubbornly wept in frustration. She was right of course. No matter what we did to run or hide, the Consortium, or as it is called in this land, the Law and Order was dogging our heels.
Cassius then made the kind of wise observation that made the room chill. He said, “Oh no Kayra, they told us something more than you can know. Before now they were trying to kill us, now they are hiding things from us. They are afraid of something, deadly afraid, afraid enough to kill an innocent man, and violate their own precious rules. Now is when we redouble our efforts.”
It was like a frenzy the weeks after that. The cruel Consortium Elves who had locked Nelix in the body of an ever-changing beast, forgot that it could be beneficial. The day we gathered enough clues from the house to guess a rough path to something called, “The Equilibrium,” Nelix was found as a wolf, using his keen senses to find a trail he let Oriana know (though more of her hedge wizardry) was both fresh and had the taste of fear in it. The party traveled with a burning purpose, like they might actually be turning the tides, like they were the hunters finally.
After some substantial travel, we came to a clearing. I can not pretend to understand the arcane arts wielded by Oriana, or “being a locksmith” the way Kayra puts it, but they pretty much got through a series of traps and magic portals that would have taken them a lifetime only 3 months ago.
The last task to get to this legendary device, that could manipulate the eternals, was naturally, as these dungeons seem to have it, a physical one. A large cylindrical room, with a statue roughly 15 feet tall and made of sandstone presided over the room. No one touched it, until Kayra informed us the last door was locked via the statue. Nelix head butted it as a goat.
The statue came to life, and attacked us. It fought with a fortitude and ferocity unmatched, except for stout Gruva'not. Oriana, Kayra, goat-Nelix, myself, were near instantly paralyzed by a poionous cloud of gas. Cassius tried to revivify the party, realizing that the poison was two-fold. Both a paralysis agent and a lung damaging element that would kill if not prevented. Our noble medic was more than busy with a group of four slowly dying.
Gruva'not however fought the golem nearly solo, only towards the end were I and Kayra released to try and help. The half-orc raged in a way that reminds me of the stories I've heard about her fighting morlocks. She took massive hits, one time even teasing “I've been hit harder by children,” spitting out a small gush of teeth and blood.
After all that we entered the final door, into spherical room, with one long walk way going towards the center. At the center a ball of magical light flickered brighter as we approached. Cassius, Kayra, and Oriana argued about how exactly to use the device, they being the only ones claiming to have these “eternals.” I helped Gruva'not reset her jaw, and complimented her on what would likely be a new scar.
Oriana finally strode forward and walked through the light. Then fell backwards. She told us of what happened. For a brief instant all her questions were answered. So instantaneously, Kayra had to ask her for information. The group had a plan, but the plan, is beyond thought.
“The Consortium is too strong, but their weakness is what made them strong. The eternals used on places like Rannick, and countless other places to “erase existence,” don't erase as much as remove from our reality. However doing so makes an alternate reality. One without everything they have used eternals to erase. Our only chance, is to go to the other reality using one eternal, and use the other to pick the earliest place in time we can get after the god woke. If we go we will have a chance to stop them, because the eternals are not supposed to be awake at all, but something woke them. If we can turn off the device that woke them, they will go back to sleep. Effectively shunting everything that was not supposed to be erased back onto reality, and would both stop the Consortium, and even bring Rannick back. That is as much of a plan of action as I could get from beseeching the force that spoke to me.” Oriana recited as though speaking for the entity.
Apparently through further conversation, she ceded a few other important points. If we fail, the reality we go to, becomes the main reality, effectively denying the world of the Omach we know and all its heroes. Presumably the Consortium will also have risen to power with less resistance, and may be further along. So failure is not an option, even though Oriana said failure was a possibility.
Secondly, going through to the other reality will be a terrifying change. We will inhabit bodies of other people, ones who exist in another time and space. While ours stay here in some limbo, awaiting the result of our adventures. There is no guarantee that we will remember who we are exactly, or have any of our old skills or convictions, but somehow the idea of turning the device off will be paramount.
We still had some injuries so we decided to rest before we made any final preparations. I will admit, my resolve to protect these friends of mine is more shaky now than it should be, but if any of us doesn't give it our all, we lose more than our loved ones, we lose the world we loved them on. So I have written, and so my mind is at peace. May the gods favor my final prayers.
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