The Return of a King

We made our way to an inner chamber following Daltin the elder Ratkin. On our path we talked of how to approach the necromancer diplomatically. He had married into the Taltharian line and wanted the political power for himself. There was talk of approaching him as an ally due to the demonic happenings. That he could settle his score or grab for power or what have you later. By the time we made it roughly to the door, the group wondered about how to get him to believe us and the things happening. I remembered that I had some Zone of Truth items and went digging into my pack. RRRoshin made a comment of "finally properly sized doors", ya for you maybe. We then opened the doors to the throne room and the necromancer.
Standing in the middle of the room was a robed figure, it looked skeletal at first, but not entirely... He was standing in a ring of about six different magical circles. He moving around touching various runes and seemed generally busy with what he was at at the moment. Maki took about three steps into the room before nopeing back around the corner. I decided to take a more concentrated look at the runes from the doorway. They seemed to be a combination of circles with the most prominent ones be necromantic spells. The last combination was the one that impressively worried me though. It was some kind of circle of command that boosted the power of the others to such a degree that it brought their power far beyond that of a normal arcane arts. It allowed him to control 10,000 or more undead simultaneously. Maki probably noped because of the blinding glare of the magical power, I noped because of what could happen if the winds go sour this Hunter's Moon. Turns out that a demonic invasion made it a bit awkward for Skrel as he stood mostly in the doorway too. We whispered back and forth on the extreme magics involved, and my diplomatic ability. My expertise lies in sales....
RRRoshin, Lily, Kniana, and Eval all entered the room and sat respectively to talk to the once elven necromancer as he paused his task. Eval started by calling him commander to which he replied, "the only ones I command do not speak, you may call me Malrin Rost" They had some back and forth of the state of the world, of recent events, and of the condition of Taltharian. Skrel and I contused to whisper back and forth. He was trying to get me to enter the room and I really didn't want to. He figured that if it was to discharge, he'd rather just get killed than suffer through living. I did not share the sentiment. I did spot the strange small owlbear on the far of the room though.
The others kept talking of current events. Malrin said that the current kings have corrupt minds and that he has achieved perfection in his current state. He is somewhere between living and dead. He talks of his defense of the lands, but from what I'd seen of the lands the only thing he's defending is the land itself. There's hardly anything for people. Just shattered communities trying to survive the harsh desert. The main inhabitants seem to be these mindless and his undead. Skrel made mention of he is the land and the land is him in a way. He continues with how this is running that it's a game of pick your puppet master. I suggested that we split back for Naan, but he didn't seem sold on the idea. I pondered the idea of getting back to Lfaen to hunker with the Coppertails. Skrel just dismissed the idea saying that a litch friend said that this had happened before and that this event would consume absolutely EVERYTHING. Not really sure when he made friends with a litch... Well the necromancer was still talking about his perfection and how pleased with how Lily's race had come out or something. I guess Eval's logic came to the idea of showing Malrin the events that had happened to prove the fidelity of Taltharian, or at least show that his mind hadn't gone. The best way he could think of is to show his memories. The necromancer used a scroll and, I found out later, lived through the entirety of Eval's life. That seemed to convince him that his king is still true.
RRRoshin at this point had curled to the point where his head was against the ground. This prompted Kniana to touch him saying that his armor was hot to the touch. The large bearfolk looked to the ceiling crying, happy that Calistria had deemed him worthy once again. Kniana hugged him and he returned the favor. I admit I was a little jealous seeing him bathed in her light as his full plate and runes on his sword glow with a holy infusion.
At this point Malrin informed us that we had two hours until the Hunter's Moon. He noticed my nervousness at the amount of magical power being used in the room. He points out the brickwork and said that everyone was etched with runes. The Glyphkin had figured out how to make runic saferooms of sorts. This wizard had used his extended time as a litch to gather each brick in the grand room. This area was more or less exempt from the influence of the moons. I had to start getting some of the runes copied down. The unfortunate thing is if I wanted to actually transcribe the runic magic I'd need probably about 30 pages to get the intricacies. I'm not very versed in runic magic, but I've never seen stuff like this. The room itself is in another dimension, it's aligned, AND it's intelligent! Skrel helped me get some notation on it, but most of this is beyond me. We were able to figure out it's neutrally aligned in a custom pocket dimension. The binding was a statue by the door, but we couldn't really make out the planar attunement. It was probably Abyssal, Celestial, or another realm entirely. The runes even extended into the hallways around the room. That explains the good condition after all this time and the abjuration aura that Skrel felt.
 
With the major event out of the way, we had a few hours until the eclipse. Skrel went to work transcribing a different book from Eval that was to also disappear after two days. I read the one he handed to me and jotted any important notes down. It was a book of linage and history of the Great Old Wyrm. Not terribly surprising to me was the fact that I am a direct relative of hers. Unknown to me, Lfaen was founded by her and her husband and they were the first to set the warren. Lfaen flourished because of their discovery of a stone like material that drives fish wild, well pretty much all aquatic life had some sort of uncontrol able interaction. The expansive network of caves under Lfaen are remnants of the old excavated stone mines. The material was so effective that the GOW struck a deal with the Sapphire clan to let them have claim of discovery in exchange for massive payments. With that deal came the silence of her involvements. With the new wealth and time she went about breeding the worker beetles in the caves from the original mine. This explains why the Coppertails have an in with the Sapphire clan and their trading routes. All this influx of money was what afforded her the ability to pioneer the artificer arts. What truly surprised me was the book had the exclusive knowledge of the GOW's actual name, Aheala Silvercrest (ay-yella). I had always thought her name lost to time. Not in the 50 years of my life had anyone ever made mention of her name, no one in the warren even knows it I'm sure of that. To us she was always the GOW. The last name was a shock to me, Silvercrest the namesake of the Silver dragon Iomedae. I hadn't thought the warren was of two bloods, I guess this also partially explains why his relic and avatar had chosen me...
I had just finished as the Hunter's moon rose. I looked out the window from the inner room to see the world light red. all the bramble wolves in the area stared to howl. A blue light flashed from the north around were I would guess was the Hill of Tears. A red line cut into the sky around that area as did one to the west from Granlacon forest. The wolves all come into the throne room as the whole area rocks with a loud boom that caused dust to fall. A guy with a white mask walked in, took it off, and said, "It's good to be home".
The elven looking man bent down and hugged Daltin as I tried to ask Skrel who this guy was. He talked to the others a bit before he turned to Maki and me and said that our skills were needed and that there would be compensation better than ever before. The Rost clan needs aid and had resources we could use. They would be forever indebted for our help as out talents build nations. Now is one of those times to build peace with the other clans.
The next to enter the room was the supposedly assassinated prince, Felix Garric. Well, the assassination was a cover operation by RRRoshin, but still. He talked of ridding the corruption of the current leaders and shift the public's mind to the truth. To unite all the kingdoms, and Clans for the coming battle. The masked man tanked us for closing the portal at the titan's heel and our encounter of the barbed devil. Either way we don't have much time as they seek to open another portal. He asked us to help him stop this as there is only about two more months until this side of the continent comes to war. He said that we must act, must find our front and who we fight for. He continued with Garett and Isolomon are a threat to Carillia as they led the people astray. He needs our help to tell the truth, to help fight a political war with potently no limits to awards from victory.
Skrel simply asked if he had to be a plant. The masked man chuckled a bit and said no. He said that the plans were one of the few resources he had. He did have enough time to potentially figure out how to revive souls from crystals. He also made mention about how the winds are souls not bound to crystals. Makes me think a bit on the nature of magical manipulation... and the torture testing of magics I've done to find limitations... He asked of we would help stop the barbed lord and portal from opening, to unite the fronts from the coming enemy. That is our message.
Skrel asked for my thoughts. I still wasn't really sure what was happening and who this masked man was. Skrel simply said that I stood to make lots of money. Ok, so yeah that makes me more willing to hear the guy out, but I still was clueless. Turns out this masked man was THE Taltharian that the others met out in the shadow king's realm. The one RRRoshin had been serving. Well took me by surprise. He offered to equip and arm us for the coming battles and asked of Maki and my help. He even went so far as to call the Coppertail craftsmen beyond that of recorded histories. Quite an honor as he himself seems to be about as old considering his court. I said that I could help after retrieving Bessy. The others of my group agreed to each their own companions and belongings. Thaltharian said that his seer could take care of the matters as who else but Tel walked from behind him.
The conversation shifted and I guess that Kniana's brother, er one from her other life, Taltharian's son. found one of the gateways. They were calling themselves the "Masters" or the Forces of Eden. Were using Taltharian's message of unity and peace as copycats. Or rather they were preaching the unity while violently purging those who wouldn't accept the message.
Taltharian went to go sit on his throne, weary after so long not in this world. He seems to dispel some sort of transformative magic to reveal what I guess is his true self. It looked kind of like a beakless tengu. (think mothman) RRRoshin mirrors his statement saying, "It's good to be home". He then walked out the room and down the hall to be followed by 30 or so bramble guards.