Tag Archives: Crimson Calling

Which Dark Power Is Trying to Rise?

Posted on by
6

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.

Vorgoth, Raiden, Bandesingh, and Shasherak

Posted on by
3

The Crimson Calling has arrived at their camp site east of Nodden-Torr, and the rangers are finalizing the details before camp is truly struck. Alexis has wrapped his winter blanket around him. He waits until the four others are near enough that he doesn’t have to raise his voice.

“Good job” Nodding at Gustav, Ca’armine, and Rask. “Before we settle in. A thought gnawing at me since the fire lake. At the time when I spoke with Vorgoth, I was just giving you all my best translations, but I was also distracted by listening to him. He said a few things that require reflection.”

A silver piece starts over his knuckles.

“I’d given him the name Bandesingh, and that he means to bring back Ath and put the world in darkness. He’d never heard of the man in his life.”

“He said: ‘Bandesingh. Another one who mistakes certainty for wisdom.'”

The coin walks.

“Then: ‘So. Shasherak has found another road. The dragon believed he would.'”

He lets that stand a moment.

“A few ways I can take ‘another road’.”

“One. Bandesingh is the road. Plain reading. I asked all of you a while back whether Bandesingh learned his trade from Shasherak or whether two men arrived at the same answer on their own. If Vorgoth’s right, that’s answered.” Alexis shugs as-if a mystery could be checked off his list.

“Two. Another road to a Tear, not to this Tear.” Alexis points to his belt pouch “Bandesingh has two. If what Shasherak wanted was one of these and not our particular one, he got it centuries ago, and we never really thwarted Shasherak.”

“Three. Another road to what he actually wanted, which was to be a god. The Tear in the time-vault was one way. He found a different one.”

“Four.” The coin stops. “‘The dragon believed he would.’ He planned for a man to go around him. Whatever he built in there, he built it knowing it would be walked past, and then he left it to five strangers seven hundred years (or longer) later.” A slight shrug, and a nod off to the side. “There’s a possibility that we were the arrangement the Dragon made for losing.”

He pockets the coin.

“But back to Vorgoth.”

“I handed him the name of Bandesingh, which he had never heard and two lines about a man alive right now. He didn’t ask me a single question. He set him beside Shasherak on the spot.”

“Earlier in that conversation I’d said Raiden. He said, ‘You say Raiden, the last true king. I saw him once in the flames.'”

“Vorgoth has stood in that room since at least some time in the 2nd age. Raiden doesn’t rise until a minimum of one hundred and sixty years after that. He cannot have seen him. Not face-to-face.”

“So. He sees forward in that fire. Or standing outside of time he’s able to see time flow outside the time-vault, which would make that fire room a stranger place than we initially gathered.”

Alexis’ tone shifts to light-hearted, almost joking “Or he has simply met enough men like Bandesingh to know one by the smell.”

The coin starts walking his fingers again and Alexis looks at his companions for any possible insights they might have.

Hadonis. Here/now?

Posted on by
8

Late in the two weeks, most of the studying is done. Alexis turns a silver coin over in his fingers.

“Hadonis.”

“I keep thinking about him and wondering if we should be worried.” He shrugs.

The coin goes over and back.

“Say he’s alive here. Say he’s the same man. He’d still have to know we exist, and I can’t work out how he’d come by that.” A beat. “Unless his god tells him.” Alexis shrugs again.

“We could look. We’ve still got the ball, although it’s still tainted. Is it worth it to shield us from the taint to see what’s become of Hadonis here/now? De we want to know?”

He pockets the coin and looks around at the group.

Taking A Deeper Step?

Posted on by
20

As the group is walking back from getting the third key of Nodden-Torr, Alexis brings up a question.

“I’ve been thinking about the ring.” He keeps looking straight ahead. “If I go deeper with it, it could help us understand what’s between us and Bandesingh, and what’s waiting for us when we get there. Same way Gus was the only one who could use Dauntless, I’m the only one who can use this. Red could get there someday, but he’d have to make some choices he hasn’t made. That’s not where he is.”

He’s quiet for a few steps.

“If it didn’t cost anything I wouldn’t be bringing it up. There would be moments where I’m looking at too many possibilities at once and I’d need someone to help narrow it down to a decision. Someone with a clear head and strong convictions who can cut straight to what matters.” He glances at Ca’armine. “That kind of thinking would be useful.”

He keeps walking, lets that settle.

“There’s no danger of the ring taking me over. Same as there was never any danger of Dauntless possessing Gus. This ring was forged for one purpose: knowledge in the service of keeping humanity alive. Red wants knowledge, full stop. The rest of you want to protect humanity, to varying degrees. I’m the only one who combines both enough that the ring and I are truly aligned.” He says it plainly, but something in his face tightens. “I wish that wasn’t true.”

He keeps his eyes on the tunnel ahead.

“This is one of the great artifacts humanity has ever made. We’re going after the Tear because it improves our chances against Bandesingh. Should we let me lean further into the ring for the same reason?”

He glances sideways at the group, still walking, clearly waiting.

When the Plans Make Contact With the Enemy

Posted on by
3

After the group has left the room where four of the group had to deal with their doubles. Ca’armine addresses Alexis. Alexis is clearly emotionally wrapped up with both watching himself die and losing the possibility of having two Alexis’ to plumb the secrets of the universe.

“Boss, in that room, remember that we had a plan.” Alexis nods, and Ca’armine continues. “And I would be such a disloyal team member if I didn’t keep reminding you that you had a plan and we needed to follow the plan and I’m going to keep doing that. Changing the plan in the middle is not—”

“We changed the plan in the middle, in the bead room, because there was an opportunity there. And Red followed through on that opportunity.” Red agrees with Alexis as he says this.

“There is no universe in which both of those Alexis’ could have survived.”

Alexis and Ethelred enthusiastically agree, with Ethelred adding, “but they might have been able to fold them back into one.”

“They did by walking through the door.”

Alexis and Red both disagree, and Alexis adds, with just enough self-awareness to take the edge off, “But five minutes could have gained so much for the world.”

“From studying that trap?!” Rask stares at him.

“Yes,” Alexis and Ethelred exclaim together, with Ethelred adding, “It was a working much like the other workings we’ve discovered.”

“Sleep on this, but think about how dangerous that could end up being.”

Alexis looks at Red, then back at Rask. “We’ve thought about it.”

After a second Alexis turns back to Ca’armine “A plan is where you start, Carm. But when something changes on the ground, that’s a conversation you bring to me. Not a reason to hold the line by yourself.”

When We Delve Back Into The Dungeon

Posted on by
5

The group’s been walking for an hour since the Monastery of the Eagles fell behind them. Two keys secured, two weeks of open sky ahead. Alexis adjusts his hat against the late sun, boots finding steady ground. His Collegium ring catches the light as he gestures ahead.

“Watching Gus die and Raiden’s power couldn’t even bring him back. And before that, nearly losing all of us.” He turns to face the others, but still keeping his stride. “We need to do this differently when we go back.”

The sound of ring clinking on ring is heard as Alexis brings one hand down into the other.

“Every passage so far has had two threats. Both can be beaten with enough raw power, but the first one’s been a puzzle. Perception, thought. The second’s a fight. And each fight has had a touch of insanity.” Alexis thinks on this a moment and then continues. “There appear to be patterns.”

He shrugs. “But these are short runs. We don’t need endurance. Just the right approach.”

“Red and I have been holding back in case things get worse. I think we stop doing that. New plan: we use everything we’ve got to crack the puzzles: The trapped door and the mural room. And when we’re ready to test our theory, we fortify ourselves first. Assume we’re wrong and plan for the consequences.”

He looks around at them. Ethelred, Ca’armine, Rask, Gustav, and Sally perched on Gustav’s shoulder.

“Thoughts?”

A River Of Lost Souls Ahead

Posted on by
3

Zrithrak has been driven from Rask. Alexis has exclaimed that Hood had come to claim the spirit while holding a fly in his hands. Since those moments the group has gathered their things and barely started toward Ghanil again. Packs shifted, gear checked, the wagon creaking along. Alexis addresses the group.

“I keep circling back to that soothsayer—Ness Brightleaf.” He waves absently, not toward anywhere in particular, just back into memory.

“Something like: ‘Ahead of me, a river of lost souls. Some spirits refuse to sleep. The voices of the dead yearn for rest. Their whispers bring dark tidings.’” He shrugs, not claiming perfect recall. “Or close enough.”

The copper coin keeps running over his knuckles as his gaze sweeps the line of travelers, pausing a fraction longer on Ca’armine. “Zrithrak fits—soul that wouldn’t sleep. But did he ever want rest? Or was he holding on?”

He gives the priest space, then presses on.

“I still think of that dwarven spirit in Dura-Intun. The one who spoke of Kobos. He was restless. Wanted Hood’s gate, wanted peace. And that city of the dead? That’s different. They’re bound by the Endless Hunger. Won’t let them rest. Zrithrak wasn’t bound like that.”

The coin flashes once, drops into his palm. “So what kept him?”

A Little Here, A Little There

Posted on by
3

Eight days out from Ghanil, four since driving Zrithrak from Rask, the group settled in around the fire. Alexis sat half-lit at the edge, the brim of his hat dropping shadow across his eyes. A copper coin rolled steady over his knuckles, flashing, disappearing, flashing again. The red jasper at his chest shifted when he breathed, catching firelight for a blink before sliding back into dark.

He speaks without raising his voice. Mostly to Ethelred, but clearly others need to hear this as well.
“I’ve been thinking—we need to start setting caches. Supply stashes, marked so we can track them later. Something queer in each one, something that doesn’t belong—a child’s top, maybe. Close enough, we’ll find it again.”

The coin paused, balanced between thumb and finger.
“Gus will know where we left them. But if he’s not there, we’re not left blind.”

He leaned forward, letting the fire catch half his face, the rest still in shadow.
“After Ghanil, who knows? Greyfax land. Grasslands again. North of Sutheron. Every road takes something from us. Better to have reserves waiting.”

He turned the coin once more, then let it vanish into his palm.
“What do you think, friend?”

The fire cracked. The shadows shifted with it.

Who Knows About Trolls

Posted on by
2

The campfire cracked and hissed, throwing its smoke into the night air. The Crimson Calling alone around it.

Alexis sat near the flames, hat brim low, a copper coin working its way over his knuckles. Across from him, Ca’armine’s red cloak caught the firelight, while Rask sat rigid, a soldier even when still.

Ethelred’s words about troll-powder still hung in the air, fragments of theory and half-formed warnings. Alexis let them fade, then leaned forward just enough to set his shadow across the fire. His voice carried evenly, with the kind of weight that didn’t need raising.

“You’ve heard what we’ve seen,” he said. “Trolls. Powder. What it does. That’s the measure of it so far.” The coin paused between his fingers, then rolled again, catching a lick of firelight before vanishing back into shadow.

He studied the two newest men in the group, letting the silence stretch a breath longer than comfort. “What about you? Raiden’s people don’t waste time. Do they know more about this enemy?”

The fire popped. The coin clicked once against his ring before disappearing back into motion. Alexis didn’t move otherwise, just watched them across the flames, steady and expectant.

Coming Home, Again

Posted on by
1

The night before the Crimson Calling enters Sutheron.

“Tonight I stand before you not just as Alexis Laelius, renowned treasure hunter and lore seeker, but as a son returning to his beloved home city, a place where the echoes of my family’s leather working craft still resonate through the cobblestone streets.”

“As I prepare to walk those familiar avenues, I can’t help but feel a rush of memories. Memories of my father, tirelessly crafting fine leather goods with hands weathered by time and toil, trying to instill in me the value of hard work and dedication. Memories of my mother, whose gentle spirit and unwavering support guided me through the darkest of tombs and the most treacherous of pits. And let us not forget my dear younger brother, who shares in our family legacy, ensuring that our craft endures through the ages.”

“But there is another figure, a mentor whose wisdom illuminated my path like a torch in the darkness. Publius Helvius Laeca, sage of our city, whose passion for humanity’s past glories and the pursuit of lost artifacts ignited a flame within my soul that has burned ever brighter with each discovery, each adventure.”

“I am reminded of the rich tapestry of history that weaves through the very fabric of our city. A city where old meets new, where the craftsmanship of antiquity mingles with the innovations of tomorrow. Yet, amidst this juxtaposition, there lies a challenge, a challenge to uphold the standards of excellence set by our forefathers, to preserve the legacy of our ancestors, and to safeguard the treasures of our past for generations yet to come.”

“For too long have we allowed the shadows of mediocrity to cloud our vision, to tarnish the splendor of our… heritage. But fear not, for I return not only as a prodigal son but as a champion of our city’s greatness, a defender of its legacy.”

“Together, we shall embark on a new quest, a quest to free humanity from the shackles of those who would enslave us and send us into the dark. The path ahead will be full of peril, and though the challenges may seem insurmountable, I know that the Crimson Calling is up to the task!”

“So let us raise our voices in triumph, let us march forward with heads held high, for we are the heirs of a legacy forged in the fires of history, and together, we shall write the next chapter of our not just our city’s tale, but the tale of humanity once-sundered, being stitched back together. And remember, as we journey forth into the unknown, we do so not as mere mortals, but as guardians of humanity’s past, present, and future.”

“To glory, to adventure, to the enduring spirit of humanity!”