An anchor we hadn’t considered

After we descend from the fire room fleeing from the bats.

“Alexis, we have talked about what ‘anchor’ we might use to return to our own time. We have also talked about how Hedonis is diligently still pursuing us.

We have, up to this point, assumed he was trying to follow in our tracks and head us off on our path to the tear.

But there are more than one way to catch us.

What if he is building a new working. A summoning not of demons, but of us.

Hedonis wants us to return to him, in this time…. with the Tear in hand.

What if we plan on that. We use Hedonis as our anchor. We create a plan to beat him at his own game?

It might be a long shot, but it also might be the one real shot we have to return home with the Tear and to actually keep it.”

History Lesson?

Four or five days into Elthered’s Compass project, Rask approaches Alexis while Alexis is between tasks and the group is resting after Ethelred has been working on his Magic ‘Compass,’ the in the misty first ‘room,’ or level of this strange place, he waits for Alexis to acknowledge him and then respectfully speaks:

“Alexis, do you think it would be useful to us all to better understand what you know or have heard about Sasherak, this King Illceros, and that ‘Kobos’ place the dwarves,”

Rask pauses and glances down, a little ashamed of having slaughtered the dwarves so brutally,

“mentioned?”

Rask pauses breifly, before resuming his inquiry.

“The Dragon and Spider,” the warrior glances at Alexis’ ring briefly, “they are connected to King Illceros, right?”

“Was… Handonis telling the truth about the Time Magic? Do we really need giant hearts as anchors?”

Rask is confused and perhaps even a bit frightened.

The Anchor we don’t have

After the conversations have died down in the room with many fine chairs Ethelred waits for everyone to settle down to sleep. Red nudges Alexis to make sure he is awake. In a low tone he speaks.

“So a lot of words were said about Hedonis and his possible plans. And while we know little there is one part of his story the rings true. For what ever other reasons he wanted us to fight the Giants, the one reason he did state I believe. The part about needing an anchor.

It is just such a specific claim. He could of said anything as justify to killing the giants, why that one very clear goal?

I have gone over all my inventory in my mind trying to piece together what ‘anchors’ we might have. When we passed through that strange metal door things changed. This room feels out of place, different than where we were just before.

When we find the Tear how will we escape? Hedonis said little but made it clear that there was something different about where the Tear is. That an ‘anchor’ was needed to get ‘back home’.

We should have some solutions to this riddle before we are faced with a rushed decision.”

So Much Rushing

As the group is resting in the room with the comfortable chairs, Alexis looks at Ca’armine. “You sensed evil behind that door back there and wanted to go in.”

He pauses a moment.

“We also ran straight past the key we needed.” He glances at Ethelred. “You and I need to be the ones asking what we’re running past. That’s our job. We need to remember it.”

Hadonis’ Inevitable Betrayal

Rask settles into the comfortable chair, having scraped his battle-weary battered body off the floor. He slows his breathing and closes his eyes and seems to be on very of sleep when he mutters, “Hadonis… giants…”

His eyes open and he sits up.

“Hadonis was in league with the giants from the beginning! It was a win-win for him,: if we survived great, we are more powerful allies, if we died, potential rivals were neutralized and he would gain our treasures.”

He pauses, clearly tired to his very bones.

“His hearts-anchor thing must have been ruse…” Rask trails off, tired and deeply body weary.

He looks around for a moment to see if anyone registers that he has shared what he, in his exhaustion clearly believes is an important revelation, and collapses back into the chair. The warrior begins to snore softly.

Summoning Happy, Fluffy Things

As the blood-sweet-rot dimension collapses in on itself, Alexis turns to Ca’armine and Ethelred, pulling his hat back into place.

“Everything summoned we’ve seen so far has been evil. Can we summon something good? Angels exist in the stories.” He adjusts his belt and his shirt. “What about something that makes you forget nightmares like that?”

“And how do we prepare for the next time we meet something like that? What lessons can we take away from this time? That… thing fought Raiden’s magic hard. For a second, I thought it was going to shake it off.”

A Magic-Focus Centerpiece

As the group files out of the sarcophagus room, first key in hand, Alexis falls in beside Ethelred.

“Had a thought. You still haven’t made me that new focus… I’m working with whatever I can scrape together.” He pulls the coin from his pocket, the one they used on Hadonis’ demon. The one that cracked its prison. “When you carve me something for Raiden, work this into it. Seems fitting.”

Hadonis and the Giants

Before setting out on the second day, Rask approaches Alexis and the rest of the group.

“What do you think of that business with Hadonis and the giants? We’re they in league with each other? Do you think they really wanted to eat him? He clearly can not be trusted and has some… disturbing interests… This whole place feels like a trap…”

Rask pauses.

“I have no doubt he sought a powerful treasure here, perhaps even a Tear of Avv, if such a thing truly exists, and I do not doubt our path here… but I am uneasy… something is off…”