The Making of the Fire Room Plan

After the group has retreated from the eruption of the fire bats from the fire lake, Alexis sits with the Crimson Calling on the steps between the two levels. He adjusts his whip.

“Good. Now we know what’s in the fire.” He looks at Rask, Gustav, and Ca’armine. “First, the bats. Then we try talking to the giant again.” A slight pause. “He must be desperate for conversation by now. Desperate might work in our favor.”

He glances up toward where the giant would be.

“How long does he think he’s been here?”

He lets that sit for a moment, then continues.

“If talking doesn’t work, we have options. That unnatural forest below, we can harvest from it. We could build a ballista again.” He waves a hand slightly. “Long shot.” Alexis looks at Ethelred “But maybe you can find something in that idea worth working with.” He looks at Ca’armine. “Raiden can reach him too. The determined wall of the north, your bolts. That right?”

“If it comes to it, we hit him from range, keep him from throwing those boulders, rest, come back the next day. Repeat. Not my preference, but it works.” A beat. “We might need more food if we’re doing this over days. Gus, you have options. Rask, Carm, you two as well?”

He looks at Gustav, Ethelred, then Rask.

“Any of you have anything that reaches at this range?”

Alexis takes a moment and looks at all his comrades. “But that’s just where I’m starting. Any other ideas? Rushing to the stairs? Blinding the giant somehow if we need to? Something else?”

Cut Off From the Raw Power of Aegir

“There’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.”

While Ethelred crafts his magical compass, Rask keeps watch, cleans his gear, tends to camp, and does his exercises much as he always does when the group camps. He prays to Raiden before and after his exercises and before he settles in for the night. He often joins Ca’armine in ritual prayers to Raiden. Those that might notice such things may see the look of concern and disappointment that occasionally flashes across his face when he uncharacteristically falters during his exercises, or even more rarely stumbles during chores. It is similar to they way he carried himself in the Grasslands on the way to the First Gate, but missing the bitter fury he carried then.

After a few days, and shortly after a round of prayers to Raiden, before settling in for the evening, Rask speaks to Ca’armine and Gustav.

“Ca’arm, do you understand what is going on here?” The question seem somewhat Rhetorical, and the warrior continues before Ca’armine can start to answer.

“I’m cut off from Raiden, or Aegir I guess?

Rask looks to Gustav briefly.

“Mage-Eye did say that my tattoos channeled the Raw Power of Aegir… Like I was in the Grasslands, I’m not as fast or as tough here. It feels like part of me is missing. I’m getting more used to it, but that… worries me that much more.”

Rask pauses and looks at the ranger and then the priest, more sad that worried, really.

“You two can stall call on The Power though, and when you do, I feel that connection again…”

Rask smiles wanly, recalling the comfort Raiden’s protections bring.

“I think Hadonis may not have been completely lying Brothers. This place… something is different here…”

He pauses, clearly asking for Ca’armine and Gustav’s thoughts this time,

“What do you think is going on here?” Rask guestures broadly

About to get Shafted

The group has been awake for a little while, moving through the quiet routines of breaking a camp that was never quite a camp. Eight plush chairs in a room that has no business existing where it does. Everyone present.

Alexis sits forward, elbows on knees, and tilts his hat brim up toward the shaft in the ceiling.

“Before we move, I want to talk about that hole.” He looks up at it for a moment. “There’s light up there. And this room is clean. No debris, no dust, nothing that should have fallen down from wherever that shaft goes.” A pause. “That’s worth understanding before we decide what to do with it.”

He looks around the group.

“Carm, I want to ask you something that might be a long shot. Your connection with Raiden,” he chooses his words carefully, “is there any chance he could tell us when we are? Not where. When.”

He looks back at the shaft.

“And does anyone have a way to learn more about what’s up there before we commit to anything? I’d rather know more than less before we start climbing.”

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.

When the Plans Make Contact With the Enemy

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.”

Cleasing the Taint

While resting before tackling the round room with seven pillars, Rask approaches Alexis.

“Alexis, if I may, I hoping we can talk more as a team about the… magic here… the treasure we have and the treasure we seek?

Rask waits for Alexis to accept his request.

“You said that the crystal ball is corrupted and the magic here is corrupted, right? It seems like this is all connected… The Tear must be corrupted too, right? If it is corrupted, can we really use it against… our Adversary uncleaned? Can we cleanse the taint of the Tear? Can we learn how by trying to cleanse the taint of the the crystal ball? Do you think we have to cleanse the taint of the Maiden to do so?”

Rask Joins Raiden’s Rangers

The Crimson Calling decamps to recuperate and solidify what they have learned from their recent adventure after their initial forays into the ensorceled dungeons of Nodden Torr.

Rask asks Gustav and Ca’armine to teach him more about survival and ranging, he wants to help the group more and better connect with the horses and other animals. Whenever they will let him, Rask prays, studies, hunts and gathers with the two Holy Rangers of Raiden. He learns from them what berries, mushrooms and plants can be eaten, the basics of tracking, and how to connect better with animals. He focuses much of his time hunting with them on being stealthy. His ability to hide and move quietly both improve over the two weeks the group spends in the forest.

Rask continues his practice with his sword, fists and other weapons. As has become his practice, he does so in his loin cloth, and he prays to Raiden before and after, and many of his forms focus on less than lethal applications of his weapon. He meditates afterwards, and makes a point to sit near Alexis when when he does so, his back, chest and thighs exposed, the arcane Iron Tree runic tattoo visible.

He spends the every moment of his remaining waking hours tending to and working with the horses. He feeds and grooms them daily, and works with them to better understanding their training and commands. He talks with Gustav and Ca’armine both about animal training methods and how to connect with both tame and wild animals. He is kind to Gustav’s crow, but always deferential to the grumpy ranger, and pays close attention to how Gustav treats and trains the magnificent corvid.

By the end of the two weeks, Rask is noticeably quicker with his attacks, somewhat able to to track and gather food from the forest, and much more connect to the horses and other animals. He is more centered and at peace than he has been, other than the evening in the Grove of TyLin.

World: Rocked

Before venturing up the stairs above the Monasterynof the Eagles, Rask approaches Ca’armine:

”Ca’armine, those giants… if it weren’t for you sending me Raiden Blessing in that moment, I’m sure I would be dead. They are… it’s almost like they’re made of stone. Strong like stone too. Getting hit by the boulder they threw wasn’t as bad as the blows they dealt up close.”

Rask is a little nervous. It has been a long time since he last took a beating like the on the stone giants delivered.

”Anyhow, thank you.”

The Honorable Hyena-Beast Fight, Observed

The Crimson Calling is in the under-level of Nodden-Torr. The summoned hyena-beast has been used as a magical testing creature on the magicked door and the group is debating what to do with it. Ca’armine is advising Rask kill it honorably.

Alexis catches Gustav’s eye and draws one finger quick across his throat—clean, like you’d do for a lame horse. Then he shrugs.

After Rask takes a few scratches putting the thing down, Alexis glances back at Gustav and shakes his head, palms up. What did we expect?