Episode 55: Paths Found
General Summary
| Quest | fin | What's up with that? | fin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attend dinner in Ignix on Greenbloom the 25th | Veritas Immortalis | ||
| Gather the Divine Raiments | 5 of 9 | The voice that answered Pharos' prayer | |
| Empower the Raiments | 2 of 9 |
Clocks
| Event | Segments |
|---|---|
| Days until the Banquet | 6 |
| Vlask's network uncovers a lead on a spelljamming helm (days) | 1 of 35 |
| Pharos' Goblin lessons (days) | 17 of 63 |
| Pharos' Armor (days) | 11 of 14 |
| Valan's smithing proficiency (days) | 66 of 70 |
Recap
Greenbloom 19 to Greenbloom 24, 3033: Year of Darkness
Waking up on the Sunstrider the morning after recalling from the blooming ziggurat, the group was confronted by a nervous Vlask. He said in the night a stranger had appeared on the deck, claiming to be a friend, but Vlask didn't know him and Vlask knows all the Flamebringers friends (Vanderlith, Marx, Nolgoth, and Dyavole, of course. That's everyone).
But the Pathfinder was the one speaking to Vanderlith, and he had to speak with the Flamebringers. He also brought them an envelope signed "Bad Dog" that contained File #0000 - Null, and seemed to allow transportation between two points. It was delivered to him by the Silverbird, who told him to that he received it with directions to tell him to give it to the Flamebringers.
Dreams and Prophecies
"I have something to tell you," he began. "A confession of sorts. Something I should have told you in that bar in Arcanus: I was accessory to the Emperor's murder. But to tell you why, I must first explain Project Lazarus to you.
"Project Lazarus. Named for the first Planeswalker of Andali. He and Praxis were close, they worked together to devise this plan. Lazarus had a dream:
"He hovered at the center of two hemispheres. To one side, a bright, radiant light swelled with nebulas of purple and blue, thin lines of chromatic shift passing through clouds of radiant gold light light between them. To the other side, a blinding abyss that swallowed the light cast into it, monochromatic shafts of light spiraling into its depths.
"Then, in the radiance, a tone rang out. A Call. And a light appeared, flashign with brilliance to stand out from teh light surrounding it. THen another, joinging the chorus. ANd another, and another, until there were eight lights beating in time with the Call, and it pushed back the Darkness.
"It shined out, radiating into a network, a Nexus of purple and gold energy, exploding outward infinitely from him. Then, as quickly as it fanned out, the nebulous radiance drew into him, and he heard a Voice say: 'Free the shepherds from their vessels. Prepare the flock to push back the Endless Night.'
"And the light coalesced in him until he was the only source shining out into the Darkness. Then he was falling. Plummeting through the void. Until he hit something, pushing through, tearing a curtain of darkness, falling through the light of the Aurora, until he made landfall in his own home.
"The meteor that named him Planeswalker destroyed his house. At the same time, Praxis turned the tide at the Battle of Radiant Dawn. Somewhere in what would one day be Fulminaria, a young Elaria Valoric found a sword. And so on, and so on, I think you get the idea.
"Lazarus founded the Pathfinders. He set our mission. He believed in what we were going to do. But he died soon after the projects initiation. It was Praxis who largely carried the torch from there, as the title of Planeswalker changed hands over the centuries. It wasn't until Praxis brought he Dream before the Aurelian emperor that any real progress was made once more.
"The new initiative, still codenamed Project Lazarus, was headed by Emperor Aurelius, General Praxis, General Nicodemus, Archmage Reharis, Planeswalker Lucia, and myself; Lucia's second. We worked outside of the empires against the Omniscient Dawn in what would come to be known as the Silent War.
At the time, Reharis was just a mole inside the Omniscient Dawn, tracking their movements for us. By this point, they had strayed far from what Elaria intended them to be with their discovery of the Six Sequential Prophecies. They thought the Prophecies lead to destruction. But Reharis brought a new meaning to us; the Prophecies speak of the Next World. Not the end of the world, no doomsday or apocalypse, but the Next World. A world changed so drastically it could grow into something better.
"So Reharis came to us. We were the Six; though it might be more familiar to call us the Scribes of the Six. We thought we would be the Nine. We were mistaken.
"When Reharis warned us that the Order had caught wind of what we were doing and were working on a counter maneuver, we were unprepared for what was coming. The creature you call Dusk hit us like a meteor. Lucia died in one of the first attacks, and in her dying breath passed her title to me.
"However, my brother felt me undeserving of the title, and attempted to rest control of it from me. He tore off one of the gauntlets, leaving me exposed, out of control, trapped in this armor, and tumbling through the Pathways."
The Pathfinder paused to unwrap the bandages around his left had, showing a forearm ravaged by interplanar travel. Nebulous swirls of glowing purple scars ran the length of his arm, pulsing gently
"Peter managed to send the Dark to the Sentinel with the powers he did have from the single gauntlet, but not much more. The Fey Courts and the Wanderer took it from there.
"Aurelius, Nicodemus, and Leonidas, in light of the Omniscient Dawn's actions, called a temporary ceasefire, and the soldiers who had been slaughtering each other days before marched in formation together to assault the Sentinel. While their coalition, the Concord Dawn, foght the Order, Peter encouraged Praxis to take on the Monarch, activating the standing stones in Kyrrix to summon Them while the bulk of Fulminarian forces were away.
"To this day, I don't know what the pair did, but it shattered the project. Somehow, rather than transporting themselves to Serenity, they brought the ire of the Monarch to the Mortal Realm where They manifested Their aspect of Retribution and... well, you know what happens from there. Why it's called the Battle of Blacksands.
"Peter and Praxis escaped into the Pathways. Praxis was never seen again, but Peter was. I think he lost himself in the Pathways, mind rendered to shreds by jealousy and the madness that lurks there. I have half a mind believing he killed Praxis himself.
"In the years following, Reharis officially formed the Scribes of the Six; his faction of defectors from the Omniscient Dawn, which he of course led. Peter worked closely with him to rein in loose threads the Order left behind. Nicodemus became emperor when his predecessor stepped down in disgrace. Aurelius went back to ruling his empire, caught up in the new Western War.
"But I didn’t lose sight of the Dream. I dedicated my life from there to finding alternative means of confronting the gods. I mapped the Astral Cortex, what you call the Atlas of Kings, with notes on how to get to each Harmonic Sphere sailing the Astral Sea, not just through the Standing Stones, so that whoever came next wouldn’t make our same mistakes.
"A year before the Accords where we first met, I brought my findings to the Emperor once more. He was tired, not the same Aurelius I remembered. The years weighed heavy on his shoulders, and the crown moreso. But he listened. And he agreed to my plan that would allow us to meet the Prophecies on our terms. We decided to manufacture an inciting incident to bring forth the Nine.
"That is how the Emperor, the Sovereign, the Vagabond, the Scribe, and the Pathfinder found themselves conspirators in the Emperors assassination. Each with their own part to play.
"Emperor Aurelius knew that, in many ways, his life was all that stood between the Seven Nations and another war. He had done things in his centuries on Andali and even before he felt he needed to atone for, and the New World was going to be his way to do that. Leonidas had approached Nicodemus, but he wouldn’t be drawn in to our plan; he said he preferred things as they are.
"So, we paid the Vagabond handsomely to get Nicodemus drunk and steal Stormdancer. He would be the one to assassinate the Emperor, not Nicodemus, but by using the symbolic weapon of the Fulminarian emperor, connect Nicodemus to the crime nonetheless. We used Protectorate platinum to set whoever we decided to send after the Vagabond on Reharis’ trail.
"And the hearing we brought you to offered the perfect opportunity to select our potential candidates. We knew it wouldn’t be perfect, we couldn’t magic the Nine into existence, but we could give them a push. There were too many variables in the hearing, however. To many other agents and agendas.
"We used one of Reharis’ remnants to we removed Nicodemus from the board. He wasn’t supposed to die, Leonidas would make sure of that, but we wanted him out of the way. We had to scare everyone else into letting us handle the problem. As Sovereign, Leonidas could rule in Aurelius’ stead for a time, with the authority to assign whomever he may please to chase down the Vagabond, and maintaining control of Dawnfire until the Nine Heroes arose to the task. He would gift them Stormdancer when they returned, and send them to Reharis for proper training.
"But this is where our plans went off the rails. Agents of the Web stole the Astral Cortex, effectively hamstringing the later parts of the plan. Sonilyth recalled Dahlia back to Arcanus. Reharis snapped; he was never meant to stand up to you. He had curated his own Nine that he believed more worthy, and when you arrived, instead of taking you in, he captured you.
"We didn’t know how deeply the Scribes had entangled themselves with the Dark. I imagine the Rot ran deep in the Tower. But Reharis had become obsessed with creating an arc that would survive the end of the world. Fortunately for us, the Winter Queen and her Honored Slayers had different machinations at play, and wrested you from Reharis’ grip.
"From there, the plan went to the wind. I knew nothing about Jules or what Reharis had been doing with the Nightbringers. To what extent the Apostates had influence over what has happened since the Tower fell, we don’t know.
"What I do know is that you found the Astral Cortex and even without using it to its full potential, you have succeeded twice now where we failed. We may have set you on the path, but everything you've accomplished since Reharis' betrayal... that was all you.
"There is still a lot I don't know. The end goal of the Nightbringers, what this Voice is that delivered the Dream, or why the gods are trapped in Their divine flesh. All I know is something out there doesn't want the gods killed, and it's not the gods."
A Squirrel Out of Time
The Pathfinder, after also telling the Flamebringers they can use the Astral Cortex to chart a path through the Astral Sea if they get a spelljamming helm, spoke to Steven.
The sugar glider had some illuminating things to say; he extolled the virtues of the great Dark One, Il'Daan, and his lieutenants. He mentioned several of the villains who stood up to them as they worked together to create a more perfect world, and both lists mentioned some names that seemed to pique Jules' interest. He talked about the stars that used to dot the night sky, and Tyra told the Pathfinder that if he's interested in stars, he should get in touch with Andromeda Carthelian, a deep gnome they met in the Winter Court.
Caught in the Lightning
Charles took a moment to investigate the envelope signed "Bad Dog" the Pathfinder brought them. Turning into his lightning form the Relic of Law allows him, he traveled through the folder and came out on the its partnered envelope. He found himself in the study of a tower that overlooked a forest, though which one he couldn't identify. On the table next to the envelope, he found files on the Circle of Silver and the Mercurial Mind, but he didn't have long to look, as he was interrupted by Sildurflame, Valan's brother, and had to flee, but not without grabbing the files.
Sildurflame didn't seem to notice, but who is to say how long it is until the Nightbringers put it together.
Downtime
The session ended with five (5) days of downtime as the Sunstrider and Moonbreaker continued on the flightpath to Ignix and a meeting with the Scarred Emperor.
The Silent Soliloquy Downtime
Vinum 3, 3032I hate it here. The Gloamwood. The place of my greatest shame. The Darkness inside me holds my heart, feeding me its memories. I only remember fragments of that day, like trying to hold water in my hands. Screams. Faces in shadow. But it remembers it all and it relished every moment of it. It made a mockery of Mortal audacity.
My friends laugh, they carry on as if we are not walking through the graveyard of my people that I buried. I don't deserve to breath the same air they did. I can hear the remnants in the night, calling me to join them, and I have half a mind to oblige. I wonder what my new companions would think of me if they knew. If they'd share their fire with me if they knew I was the cause of so much hurt in this world, even before the Night of Silver Tears. They would cast me into the Night and I'd deserve it.
I cannot wait to be rid of this place.
Notes
Valan Sildurflame
Charles Aurus Valoric
Tyra Dawnbreaker
Olette Etienne
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