Category Archives: Conversation

Protect and Serve

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Rask holds Ca’armine’s shoulder when the priest of Raiden wakes him for his watch on the platform.

Rask looks into Ca’armine’s eyes and speaks queitly, “A moment please.”

After a few minutes Rask nods, his thoughts Gathered.

“Ca’armine, what we have… won’t they come to us?”

Rask shivers a bit, and focuses and quietly prays to Raiden to shield his mind

“If Sassy can sense it he will come for it however he can, right? That probably means Bandy…”

“We are don’t need to target them, they have targeted us right? Didn’t Alexis say he could tell Varisimuss was scrying on him, probably from the Pool near Greyfax? Or at least, in that direction. ” Rask nods East.

“There are others who will seek it also, or will when they learn of it.”

“We need to be ready for them to come to us.”

Rask looks North, towards the mountains in the darkness to the North.

“Instead of attacking Bandy on his home turf, perhaps we should set a location that is to our advantage?”




We Begin With Ourselves: The Stag Pool

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On the small platform at the end of Rask’s watch, he wakes Alexis, who has the next watch. Rask shares his watch observations with Alexis and then pauses, looks at Alexis with a bit of penitence and speaks quietly so as not to wake the others:

“Alexis, you bade me to focus on protecting Ca’armine and Ethelred and I agreed. After the camp the White Stag led us to, I was focused on protecting you, when you freed us from the call of that accursed inn, it was clear to me that I had been led astray…”

Rask hangs his head a bit, pauses, and then continues.

“The White Stag pool, then the Inn, then Zrithak in my dreams the other night… I am worried that my mind is weak, I have been working to strengthen my will, but I am worried it may not be enough…”

Rask’s concern hangs in the air, an unspoken request for aid lingers between the two men.

Taking on Raiden’s Mission

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Shortly after the group gets to the island, while Rask is on watch. Alexis comes and sits near Rask, looking out over the water.

“Red had Gus’s shield other when he dove into that water, like we had planned. Good for some things, but probably wouldn’t have saved him from being swallowed.”

“In hindsight, one of us should have been closer. I feel awful that I was helpless while gaseous.”

Alexis nods at the mantle across Rask’s shoulders.

“Raiden calls us to protect those in our care. The mantle is a symbol of that.”

“Carm probably needs to be protected first. Red second.”

“Can I count on you for that?”

Alexis waits for an answer from his companion.

Inquiries into the Inner Watch

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Rask approaches Alexis in the evening, near the end of the two weeks of focusing, training, and regrouping.

“Alexis, if I may, the Inner Watch? You’ve spoken a few times about it, and every time it… stands out?”

Rask is a bit unsure of himself.

“I don’t… I don’t listen for it, but it catches my attention almost is as if I were. It seems that you have learned more about it since you first brought it up, would you be willing to share what you have learned?”

Rask seems almost called to learn more about the Inner Watch from Alexis.

Thater That Was

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A few days after Alexis mentions the refugees in Thater and Barrick of Gahnil, Rask speaks up over the evening meal.

“Thater was my childhood. It is gone. The Worn Stone Tavern is burned down, there is no place for the songs of Kark Bergthison to ring out and capture the heart and mind.  No tap of the barrel for Heward Jordand to pull from to give to his thirsty customers. The Cobalt Forge is cold and empty.”

“Even if somehow things have changed, because of our journey and the Tear, and Thater is not destroyed, that is not my path. If it is safe to look in on the refugees in the crystal ball, that would be nice, but I am too far gone from Thater, too many battles,”

He pauses.

“Too many strange travels. Thater is not my home. The path forward is clear. I too am no Barrick of Gahnil, it is not my task to gather the refugees of Thater and comfort them. Nor is rebuilding Thater my path. My work is far more grim. I am resolute. Raiden will guide us. You are my brothers. Whatever comes, I will not waver. “

Rask is determined, focused, perhaps a bit more hopeful than he has been since meeting the Crimson Calling. He is sharing where he stands. Not convincing himself, nor trying to convince anyone else. Stating facts.

“Praise Raiden. We will stop these enemies of humanity together. Sasherak, Bandesing, whoever it may be.”

Rask takes a bite the remainder of his food, and looks to his companions to see if they have any questions or comments.

Jet-Black Identification, Part 2

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The camp is barely up. Gustav, Rask, and Ca’armine are out after food. Alexis works the jet-black ring off his finger and sits down across from Ethelred with it in his palm.

“Red. I want to test this one properly.” Alexis clearly wants to do more than they’ve done before.

“You remember the story on it? The crone at the trading post in the Westlands.”

Alexis waits for the answer before he goes on.

“Here’s what I’ve been sitting on. We’ve been calling it the jet-black ring. That’s a color. Nobody has ever put a name to what it’s actually made of.”

“So we start there. If it comes back jet, great. If it comes back something else, that’s the first thing of consequence we’ll have gotten.”

Alexis gives a slight shrug combined with a nod to the side with his head.

“Then light. I try to put Raiden’s light onto it. Then possibly into it.”

“Then the next parts.”

“Whether it hides anything besides itself. We set it next to something we already understand and see if that thing gets harder to read with it sitting there. If it does, a ring that does nothing has just done something.”

“Whether it changes me. It comes off for a full day, and you watch me and not the ring.”

“Whether it does anything for a body in a bad spot, which means putting me in one. Water to stand on. A short drop onto something soft with a rope on me. A wall to try. A candle before anything hotter. Small first, and you pick how small.”

“I realized I never checked it for certain kinds of secrets. I’ll try those next. Mostly of the invisible kind, but also checking to see if it has alignment to the greater powers that isn’t more-easily determined.”

“And I want to see if you can wear it, and what might happen if you do.”

Alexis turns the ring over in his palm.

“Anything I’ve forgotten? Anything else to add? Other effects I might not be thinking about?”

Not All Loss Is Equal

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Shortly after the group gets to the new camp site after leaving the time-vault in Nodden-Torr. Alexis finds a quiet moment with Ethelred.

“The vault of the Dragon was hard on you, my friend. Your armor, your silks, your spyglass. I know what a loss each of those things was, and I want to do what I can to help you recover what you can. Or work around it.”

“I’m glad I’ve still got you here with us.” Alexis pats Ethelred on the shoulder and walks away.

Sights set on familiar distances

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(During the leveling up 2 weeks)

The recent loss everyone has felt has effected Ethelred quite profoundly. The loss of the spyglass the object itself is noticeable. The spot he kept it in his pack, now empty. The replacement lens must find a new purpose.

But the sense that the true loss is that of gaining knowledge. The joy of going aloft into the treetops and peering deeply beyond ones eyesight. Forever that exact feeling is nothing but a memory.

But there are many paths to the same result. The path of the spyglass is closed. The path to have such knowledge is not.

Part of each day is spent in a tree, peering with his own eyes into the beyond. Up here there is little but endless shades of green, the occasional rocky outcropping, of course the mountain and birds. Many birds.

During the second week Red takes to feeding the local birds, meat, seeds, bugs. Whatever he can find. It is amusing to see them flutter around, weary but eager for the meal.

Ethelred takes a new interest in Gustav and Sally Crow. Watching the kinship. The sense Red gets is that Gustav and Sally can work together in a way non of us can.

“Gustav, what can you tell me about your relationship with Crow? I have taken less interest in her than others. But I see now, maybe for the first time really, that you and her have a… sense of each other?”

“What does that feel like?”

“What can you sense?”

Which Dark Power Is Trying to Rise?

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A few nights into the camp east of Nodden-Torr, as the group sits down to eat togehther.

“The Made feed on a wound. That is what makes the dead god weep. And the wound gets poisoned. Every day, with blood.”

“Drayek is the god of poison.”

Alexis’ hand grazes against the shield of Raiden that hangs at his neck..

“Drayek’s whose cult put its name to a pact with Shasherak, on that wall out in the Westlands. The terms can’t be read, but it’s clear someone was owed something.”

Alexis pauses, sitting with this. He’s been thinking about these things, but is still thinking.

“As I see it: three ways to read what Bandesingh is doing.”

“One. He raises Ath, and brings darkness on the world by bringing back the god of betrayal.”

“Two. He raises Shasherak and Ath was supposed to be the cost paid. When I gave Vorgoth the name Bandesingh, he answered that Shasherak has found another road. Perhaps this is a coincidence. But we know that Dauntless contained a piece of Ath, and Dauntless was created to battle blood magic. This is leading me to wonder if Ath is actually the god of treachery. Ath being the father of Drayek, feels like it plays into what’s going on, but I’m not sure how.”

“Three. Something else, but my gut says no.”

“Raiden and Avv want us to stop whatever darkness Bandesingh is trying to unleash on us all. We’ll be better prepared if we know what exactly Bandesingh is attempting.”

Alexis looks around the group to see if anyone else has anything to add.

Where is Our Barrick (of Ty-Linn?)

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A few nights into the camp east of Nodden-Torr. Alexis waits until the group is gathered between their individual tasks.

“I’m feeling more confident that the Barrick who went into that mountain is Barrick of Ghanil.”

“Same name, and not a common one. And there are a lot of big events surrounding this Barrick. The ones we know about: the Ty-Lin garden, the Ty-Lin warding of King Ilceros’ tomb, the orcish runes covering his body, retrieving a Tear of Avv. And the big event we’re not sure about: him giving comfort and solace to a village of refugees.”

A silver piece starts over his knuckles.

“And Rotheldod said that Barrick was the least ‘betrayer’ of the group, which fits someone who would tend to a village of refugees… when looked at through a Rotheldod lens.”

“When we were arguing over the Thater refugees I told Telosh I was no Barrick of Ghanil, not realizing I might actually someday follow in his footsteps.”

The coin stops. Alexis twirls it in his palm.

“Barrick and his group got their Tear, which they can’t have gotten in this when. But I assume the refugees in Gahnil were still tended by Barrick. So where is he in our when?”