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23rd of Wealsun

One Man's Salt

by Tycho Ralesh

There was little time to rest after felling Nafik. The Staff and Gem elluded us, and Moira was certain the mummy would rise again, like some foul phenix. Ours was a tenuous respite. We concluded there must be a phylactery, or some such anchor, and we prayed that it rest within the temple. We readied ourselves for an arduous search, yet by luck or fate, we immediately stumbled upon an unceremonious curiosity. A jar of glass, sitting unravaged amid the tumble and ruin of ages? Curious indeed; clearly we had gained an objective.
 
Though murky, the jar contained what was clearly a heart, still beating. I suggested we might keep it for a time; not to leverage its power, but to hedge against the potential consequences of a hasty act. My companions disagreed, and their course proved the straighter. Moira emptied jar into one hand, poising the other above the leathery, quivering heart that now rest in her palm. Slowly, in a display I found macabre, the tips of her fingers became deformed and grew into hideous, unnatural claws. They seemed almost to ooze downward from her poised hand, until they pierced Nafik’s final remains. Suddenly reality evaporated. What replaced it was a profound silence and contentment. One could feel that the very air, the very stone beneath our feet had become unburdened. I had thought my eyes were open, only to open them and return to reality. It had been Nafik’s curse that boiled away.
 
In time, we discovered the Gem Mo-Pelar, embedded in some funerary ship, floating high above the temple. When Ilias retrieved it, born on the wings of his cloak, he gained a vision of the once fecund plains of Athis, teaming with culture and life...or was it a tiding of a things yet to be? Not far beyond we came upon the burial chamber of Amun Sa, and there we took the Staff of Ruling in hand. Returning to the font of the Athis, once defiled, but now gleaming in the absence of the mummy's curse. There, the River’s spirit searched my very soul, seeking out who I was, and what I sought. My answers were simple and true: “I am Tobias Tycho Ralesh, child of rivers; I seek waters in the desert, I seek paradise reborn.” And it was so.
 
We delved yet further, passing the flame gate, where I recovered my lost blade. There we meandered a network of tunnels filled with a befuddling mist. We battled water and fire made manifest, and strange doppelgangers, masquerading as elves in need.
 
Their words were dubious, but we could not fall on innocents based on suspicion alone. We traveled onward with them, warily, vigilantly, and when these skinchangers betrayed their form, we each cut down our foe with ease. I have not the words to convey that grotesquery: watching my enemy broil and churn into a mirror likeness of my form; gazing into my own frantic eyes whilst I drove home the killing blow...watching myself sputter blood and die. Such horrors, none should endure.
 
Yet, to end this tale on woe is less than half the coin. We had given an ancient, willful River new life, and She would give life to the wasteland in turn, and in time. No deed I had done or was likely ever to do would rival this act. For this one deed alone, my life had proven worth it’s salt.

Continue reading...

  1. Background
    1st of Readying
  2. The Fouled Stream
    20th of Readying
  3. Words with Lord Summerford
    21st of Readying
  4. I Believe You Mean Warlock
    23rd of Readying
  5. Miner Difficulties
    27th of Readying
  6. A Victory Celebration
    28th of Readying
  7. In response to Ilias
    1st of Coldeven
  8. The Winged God.
    14th of Coldeven
  9. A Patron's Favor
    15th of Coldeven
  10. A Traitor to the Folk
    16th of Coldeven
  11. The Scions of Elemental Evil
    11th of Planting
  12. A Gift to Palor
    24th of Planting
  13. First Conversations with Morley
    25th of Planting
  14. Roots of the Humble Ogre
    26th of Planting
  15. At the Temple's Steps
    24th of Flocktime
  16. Trapped in the Labyrinth
    25th of Flocktime
  17. Warmth of the Light
    27th of Flocktime
  18. The Horizons of Mind
    1st of Wealsun
  19. A Whoelsome Diversion
    3rd of Wealsun
  20. Pursuing Derider
    4th of Wealsun
  21. Rising Filth
    4th of Wealsun
  22. A Winged Shadow Flees
    5th of Wealsun
  23. The Slumbering Ogre
    7th of Wealsun
  24. Paradise Defiled
    22nd of Wealsun
  25. One Man's Salt
    23rd of Wealsun
  26. A Song of Whispers
    28th of Wealsun
  27. Lost No Longer
    3rd of Richfest
  28. Revelry and Memory
    4th of Richfest
  29. Many are the Guards who Wait
    28th of Reaping
  30. Lament
    2nd of Goodmonth
  31. The Maelstrom Blade
    16th of Goodmonth

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 01:13, May 25 2025