Category Archives: Conversation

Why Is This Hadonis Our Hadonis?

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Shortly after the group has scrying on Hadonis for the first time in the new timeline, and they are traveling afterwards.

Alexis asks the question to the group, not expecting an answer.

“Something doesn’t add up about Hadonis.”

“The one we left behind didn’t have time to build all of that… machinery. And he was still being hunted. The Hadonis in this timeline is dead.” He shakes his head. “But we’re not even the first group to pull the Tear out of Nodden-Torr. So what, does every group that takes the Tear get this particular Hadonis on their heels? Is it the same man every time? Are there multiple mad inventor Hadonises out there?”

He shakes his head again.

“That can’t be right.”

He keeps walking.

Dream Web From The Heights

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The group is camped on the platform three hundred feet up. The inscription “they never came” is close-by. Rask has filled Alexis in on the watch. When he’s done, Alexis is quiet for a moment.

“I had a dream.”

He keeps his voice low.

“A thorough darkness. Then a red web in front of me. One thread vibrating, glowing slightly. Then I’m moving down it; following it. At the end of it, mist which I passed through. Couldn’t see anything, but I could feel stone all around. And weight above. A lot of it.”

“The mist thinned but never lifted. Utiog was there first. Beautiful, but badly wounded, and crowned in iron. She was moving slowly, haltingly, like every movement is painful.” He pauses. “Then another woman set against her. Middle-aged. A majestic queen, cloaked in smoke, so I never got her face. She was bound to her throne, and whatever was binding her was coming off Utiog. And she was fighting it. Fighting it hard.”

Alexis looks down and notices he has his holy symbol of Raiden in his hands.

“And above both of them, the Crone. Empty eye sockets with constellations in them. She towered over the whole scene. She was speaking to someone, but as a spectator I don’t know what she said.”

“When I woke up the ring and the tear are pulsing, seemingly in the same rhythm.” He glances up. “And the crone was there. Closer than in the dream. Then she faded. But she didn’t get any further away.”

He looks back at Rask.

“I’ll tell Carm when he’s up.”

He starts getting ready for his watch.

Aspect Questions; Why Is This Tear So Important?

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Further down the road to the north after the statue and pillar created by the Dragon. Alexis has already talked about his musings on the gods. He starts talking at Ethelred.

“The plaque said ‘the Mother’s Sorrow’. Two of the Tear’s powers are the Mother’s (and no other aspect named). And Alekeemo was clearly speaking for the Maiden when he mentioned the Mother to the Dark Hand.” He shakes his head. “That’s three times the Mother shows up somewhere she’s unexpected.”

They keep walking.

“Why does Shasharak need this Tear specifically? What’s special about the Mother? Or did this Tear somehow choose him, and we’re seeing the echo of that?” He grimaces slightly. “I don’t like that idea. But why did the Dragon hide this one so carefully? Why not hide multiple Tears together in the vault?”

He turns the Spider Ring over absently.

“I keep coming back to the aspects. Three aspects. What if there are three Tears per aspect? Nine total. The math doesn’t work for three tears total. But it works for 3 tears per aspect. And temples to Avv apparently had Tears all across the empire, which is hard to square with only three.” He pauses. “Though it’s possible some aspects have hidden themselves. Disappeared.”

He’s quiet for a moment.

“I’m also coming to understand the aspects better.” He shrugs slightly and continues “The Maiden is about knowing, seeing, reaching. The Mother is about ruling, shielding, empire. The Crone is about prophecy, continuity, compassion from a distance.” He glances down. “I don’t entirely know how I’m knowing these things. And I’m not certain they’re completely right. But does any of this help understand why Shasharak needs this tear specifically?” Alexis shakes his head.

They keep walking.

God Musings

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Since the thoughts about Ilceros and Eellos, Alexis has clearly been thinking about this same topic. He speaks to Ethelred as they continue north.

Patting his belt pouch “This Tear can make a god. Or complete the ritual to make one. Ilceros and the Dragon had it the whole time.” He glances down at his hands and the rings on them. “And in this timeline Ilceros won. Beat back a power so strong his shadow is still warping reality around us.” He looks back up at the road ahead. “Did Anashar not elevate him for that? Or did he, and humanity of this timeline just forgot, because it scattered after the Great Betrayal and took its memory with it?”

A comfortable silence.

“You Aegierians keep saying Raiden was ascended. Lifted up by Anashar.” He glances sideways at Ethelred. “Was what he did so much greater than what Ilceros did? Than what the Dragon did?” The last question lands with more weight than the others.

“Or did Ilceros get elevated, and then forgotten, and then Raiden came along and channeled whatever was left of that into something new? Is Raiden Ilceros reborn? Same warren? Different warren?”

He shakes his head slowly.

“The second league had artifacts and workings this age has never come close to matching. The hourglass. The Tears. How many of those were made specifically for achieving godhood? How many names do we not know because they succeeded and then faded with the empire? How many ended up like Shasharak, or were simply obliterated when they failed?”

He turns the Spider Ring once, almost without noticing.

“In this timeline I find it hard to imagine Anashar not uplifting Ilceros. The Dragon too, maybe. And if that happened here and not in our timeline.” He looks up briefly at the daytime sky. “Maybe that’s why the stars are different.”

He keeps walking, and his thoughts shift to a slightly different topic.

“What does it mean for a god to be tied to a place? As a Sutheroni, that concept sits uneasily with me. A god spans the world, or at least all humanity. The power is constant, from time immemorial. Anashar. Avv. Hood.” A shrug. “Although some in the Collegium have their doubts about Hood.”

He glances briefly at Gustav and Rask, then back at the road.

“But Raiden is tied to the land. And I think this same land might have been Eellos. And Ilceros was connected to Eellos. And was clearly a great power. Possibly much greater than Raiden.” He pauses. “How many other gods have come and gone? Come and failed?”

He doesn’t say anything else for a while.

God. Time. Repeat.

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The group has left the time-vault of Nodden-Torr. A few days have passed. Alexis waits until the camp has settled, then moves closer to Ethelred.

“Something’s been sitting with me since we came through.”

He keeps his voice low, not quite private.

“Raiden Ascended. Fixed point, 687 SL.” he flips through his notebook aimlessly. “Stand before that point and Ca’armine can’t reach him at all. Makes sense. The warren existed, but Raiden wasn’t in it yet. Some in the Collegium would stop right there: you attune to a region, not a person. No region, no attunement.”

He nods a couple times.

“But we came home through a sky full of possibilities. Every point of light another timeline.” He looks at the page, not really seeing it. “Which means somewhere out there there could be a timeline where Shasharak succeeded. That shadow-fiend that came for us in the hourglass room could be Shasharak or a minion of his from that alternate timeline trying to ‘correct’ all the timelines.”

He closes the book.

“If a god begins at a fixed point, does it exist in every timeline after that moment? Seems unlikely. But Raiden said we were looking at it too much like a road, when it’s a tree.” Alexis shrugs “Or it’s an agreement.” Alexis shrugs again. “Is a single Hood collecting souls from every timeline or is there a Hood for every timeline? And if so, do they know about each other? Do they compete?”

He looks at Ethelred.

“Is Shasharak already a god somewhere? And if he is, can the ‘him’ here get help from the god there?”

Spellcraft – Starting from Nothing

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After a few days of working on Gus’s leather armor and before Ca’armine’s ritual, Rask changes the subject from armor design on Ethelred:

“Red, I was wondering… I noticed you pay close attention when other people cast spells and it seems like you can tell what kind of spell they are casting without using magic of your own? Can you teach me how to do that? It seems like our enemies use spells often, it seems like it would be helpful for me to learn some of their tells.”

Charging It To Gus’s Account

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The night the group makes camp on the platform at the top of the eroded hill, while Gustav has the first watch. Alexis pulls his hat off, sets it beside him, and sits down.

“Those blessings you’ve been losing every morning, Gus. It turns out that was me. Or a new skill out of the Inner Watch, which probably amounts to the same thing.” Alexis turns the Collegium ring once around his finger.

“The trouble with the Inner Watch is that most of it has been lost a very long while, and as far as I can find, nobody left a guide.” He gives a small shrug. “So I learn what a working does by doing it.”

“Before you ‘prayed’ at the grove that morning, I’d already invoked the old working and pointed it at keeping us protected for the day. I held the protective side of… your… our god in my head, and the road ahead of us. In hindsight, the warren of Raiden took my intention and your power, put the two together, and stretched our passing from a quarter of a day to half of one. I’m still not certain how it settled on you to pay for it.”

“That first working ran four days. Your grove may have had a hand in that.”

“Before I tap into that part of the weave I wanted to let you know. It was new to me then. It’s turned out well worth having, but maybe you disagree.” He looks over at Gustav. “I’m sorry for being a part of your crisis of faith.”

Alexis waits to see if Gustav has anything to say.