Running with the Na'Viene
Ajax the Bear-barian left with Priyal'nem Viene to join with the Na'Viene to ride with the shadows. He met with Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene and the remainder of the Sworn, almost 20 in total, atop The Academy Ruins . In the face of the flames in the shadow Ajax the Bear-barian grappled with darkness and swore himself to the cause of vengeance. The shadow entered you, empowered you, rode with you on the long hunts - these Aelfinn were your brothers and sisters, as too were the shadows that were in and amongst you, combined and connected by something deep, and ancient, something that dreamed.
For weeks you and your shadow self hunted with them, in Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene 's wake flaming forms rose and fought with them, ancestral forms of wavering firelight. They slew the Taurus, bathed in their blood, mother and child - they turned to the Orc, they ravaged their crops, burned their villages, and sang the song of victory in the blood drenched moonlight. Other elves joined, not just the Viene, but other castes, shamanas, shepherds - they encountered villages of Aelfinn, found new recruits, each who fell was replaced by 10 more, and as their numbers grew so did the shadows that rode with them. They were darker than night, in their path they saw only prey.
Eventually it was not enough, they turned to other races, any who had slighted the Aelfinn - serpents, shadar, humans. One night your owl was no longer with you, his parting gift a moment of clarity to reflect on the madness of the past months.
Your knees weak you touched earth for what felt like the first time in months, flexing muscles that ached with disuse. You rose, staggering, and knew what you had to do. The 'camp' for the Na'Viene was not what you dimly recalled in your shadowed memory, most members sat alone, or in pairs, draped in the darkness of the overhanging branches or stretched out on a large rock, some dimly moving their lips speaking into the dark. The typical suppleis your would expect from a raiding part of this size are nowhere to be seen. What did you eat? Where were the tools, maps, and other supplies? Your vision doubles, the figures twinned in shadow, then it recedes, the whispers of the red flames in the night pushing in on you. You find Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene in the deepest recesses, standing still and unmoving draped in an a depth of shadow beyond what should be cast. 'You are leaving' 'they all left us' (a rasping voice grates at you, mirrored in twin flames) Wavering behind him several shadows, reaching up into the trees above, echoing his motions. SPOT - the shadows seem to battle, horned creatures striking down the lithe elven shadows 'You will hide, you will run' 'they feared us, they locked us away' Suddenly you are freezing, ice-cold, on a familiar island of ice in a frozen waste. Your ship no where, your brother, at the edge, one leg dipped into the arctic water, body slipping ever closer. At the far end Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene stands. He takes out his two axes, throws them into the water one at a time. 'We are Na'Viene, we make our own fate' 'we freed you' WHAT DO? You turn away from Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene and make your way over the ice to your brother, the hollow laughter of the man you once followed spins around you, echoing off unseen walls. As you inch closer you see your brother slipping away, 'brother' his blue lips tremble. You reach out, knowing this is a lie, knowing your brother lies dead, but you catch his hand, and pull, warmth flooding your body, the winds surge one last time before you stand once again in the forest, only the cold of your brothers hand, drenched in the icy waters of the far north, a reminder of where you once were. Before you your brother, Teucer the Lesser , crumples, breathing harshly. Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene is nowhere to be seen, nor the others, but your brother is here before you, alive, by some miracle. You take your brother back to The Settlement, a second chance for both of you.
BORING, you train with the militia an do some recruiting. The settlers and soldiers love hearing your stories of exploration, but some sense the darkness in the hidden stories you don't tell and grow unnerved in your presence. It is the explorers and adventurers, moreso than the soldiers who really take to your presence, eager to snap at the hint of treasure and excitement. In time you come to know some of the strange figures who have made a name for themselves in this associaton of strange bedfellows. The adventurer Dendara Cammise is famous for finding a sunken ship (that you guys missed) in the Penitent Bay, and she is planning on dredging something underwater yet again so rumors say. They say she is a no nonsense treasure hunter with connections back home and quite possibly a warlock of some sort. Apparently she makes her base in one of the smaller settlements across the Bay, near the base of the Grey Hills. The fence Castor Garan is supposedly the big name in Hampsterdam for selling and buying artifacts and relics, along with more mundane illegalities. Few people you speak with have actually met the man, fewer still can tell you anything relevant aside from how to contact him - his men linger in certain spots during the day awaiting potential business.
You find yourself wandering the Gardens nurtured by Tayala Benzare and the many mystics she has accumulated, they remind you of the better times with the Aelfinn before things took a .... darker turn. Most of the researchers and rangers are intimidated by your reputation but they quickly warm to your tales of the world and your enthusiasm for the natives. In time you befriend Tennebelt and Tayala Benzare , but the peace of the Gardens grows increainslgy interrupted by the acrimonious religious unrest at its doors, the interactions of the Blessed Leaf, Speakers, and Fathers becoming ever worse.
Teucer the Lesser has the same adventurous spirit he had before he kaputnik in the icy doom of your expedition. Seeing him raises your spirit and you feel rejuvenated in a way you haven't felt since the dark times running with the Na'Viene. He is much as you remember him and intrigued at all the stories you have to tell - he happily takes to slumming with the sailors as a spy, thinking it just another adventure.
You smash your way through the underbelly of Hampsterdam trying to meet with Dendara Cammise and in your oafish way you succeed, planting enough enticing tales of old world ruins and exotic artifacts to lure out the mysterious figure. You also had to hand out a few knuckle sandwiches, but such is life. Dendara Cammise operates out of a unnamed fishing village on the southern end of the Penitent Bay, it appears she discovered some sort of abandoned towering stone structure that was buried beneath the beach sediment somewhat inland. The locals refer to her kindly and say that she has helped the struggling families procure the supplies they need to survive, and indeed flourish - this village looks a little better off than the others nearby, which is to say thriving. She appears to employ a fair amount of laborers and more than a couple of armed mercenaries. You note that at the makeshift docks there is an abundance of ancient ship wreckage, obviously hauled up from the deep. There also appears to be a small ship set up with some kind of rigging and nets draped over the edge, you are unsure what the point is. She meets with you cautiously, asking that you remove your weapons - after you take a precautiouary swim through the Penitent Bay again you decide that ok this time you'll go along with it. She's a tall woman, willowy, but her form is concealed in heavy clothing so there's an almost billowing effect about her at all times even in the absence of wind. She is reserved, but you sense something beneath, and eventually crack a smile out of her with your over the top tales of adventure. In no time at all you're chatting away, enthusiastic to compare what you have learned. Updated Dendara Cammise .
Your speech to the leadership council lands dully, they look exhausted hearing yet another task they have no ability to satisfy. " Ajax the Bear-barian , everyone here respects you and what you have done. It isn't that we lack the will to make the army what it needs to be, we lack the means. We do not have income, and the ease with which settlers are able to find a homestead in these lands reduces the incentive for others to work for us in exchange for protection or food. Hopefully next year we'll have gold from back home paid for with the taxes we collect to be able to raise some forces." Julia Herelia Marion Valis Valois talks to you afterward. "I don't have a firm grasp on finances here but something doesn't make sense. I think Julia is keeping the army weak to strengthen the town guard that she has in her pocket. I can't seem to do anything here but maybe you can."
Julia Herelia Marion gives you the runaround as you ask about funding the militia, it seems you are getting nowhere with your approaches.
You return to Dendara Cammise who seems genuinely pleased to see you. She offers you a selection of teas recently arrived from the Old World, foreign scents you haven't savored in years, to be taken with delicacies come in from the swamps to the south, crystal fruits and fiddlehead mushrooms. You talk of your pasts, of the future, and the many strange occurrences about the seldom.
You return to Dendara Cammise , her underwater operations seem to be going well though she apparently hired additional guards around her compound. She offers you a snack, something the locals are making from the native crops, and some refreshments before getting down to the business at hand. She listens with great interest to what you have to say, attempting but failing to hide her enthusiasm at certain parts of your story, especially that of the missing object taken from the temple. She rushes back to her cabinet full of stuff you missed from the first campaign, looks at a few ancient pieces of paper but thinks better of it, replacing them before coming back with perhaps the oldest "map" you have ever seen, a dated but still legible atlas of the area, though most of the markings have been worn off.
You stop by the gardens and apothecary in the town center, pushing your way delicately past the many flowers and herbs that rim the winding pathways. The sounds of work mar the tranquility, but within just a few feet it dims, deafened by the thick growth of the garden, and you relax, feeling the peace that often greets you when you return here. You walk swiftly to the apothecary laboratory near the center, where Tayala Benzare is sure to be found. Sure enough she is speaking with several of her cohorts, who look to be devotees of the blessed leaf, they greet you warmly. Tennebelt comes out once he hears your voice, wiping off his juice-stained hands to give you a firm handshake. They listen with concern to your questions, Tayala Benzare taking a moment to shfit away from her focus on the natural works. "The dreams, yes..." Tennebelt cuts her off to talk about possible remedies, possible tinctures that may lessen or even negate dreaming, recipes he knows about, similarities.. etc.. but you get them back to the matter at hand. "I've heard reports for.. almost a year now, I think - but only in the last 6 monthes has it truly become an epidemic." One of the alchemists tells you that the Grovekeepers have spoken of the dreams at length, thinking them possibly visions from the Lord of the Woods, but eventually discounting it. They said that during their research into it the first people to report the dreams were some of the sailors down at the docks, before it eventually spread to the rest of Hampsterdam and beyond. Tennebelt brings out a man excitedly, pushing him to make him lumber over to you. The man looks like a sailor of sorts based on his tattoos, but his eyes are unfocused, and his movements sluggish, like Dane . "Yes yes, I've been gathering up anyone who has shown these signs, I've found a few. Very interesting, I think maybe it could be a reaction to some food, herb, mushroom... could be... " he rambles on You learn little else concrete.
You speak with Leandra Kelles , who seems to be rapidly losing the support of the Seekers in favor of Lars Skellrich , a fact that has her distraught but she puts on a happy face to speak with you. Once you begin discussing ancient religious lore she loses her melancholy and eagerly wishes to help, but unfortunately she has little to offer. "There's absolutely no mention of the Garden as anything other then a place from which we are born from, and in some testamenets, a place we are meant to return to once worthy." As you start listing off other notions she perks up. "Bells oh.. well, there was a story my ma would tell me" she smiles wistfully "She would say that when bells chime you know your father is watching, he died when I was young.. oh but, that's not what you mean, I mention it because that story always made me remember one of the tales from the Child's Tale... you've read it? No? I wish we had some form... well, there is no real 'final form' o the Tale, it's mostly stories, maybe all just stories, invented by people, or at best inspired by someone who once read it, before the Sigil banned it, hundreds of years ago?' She sighs 'Sorry, so, the story I heard was, well, to be blunt, somewhat scary, I don't know how old I was but I remember the tale something like this... that the Child would hear things, and the other Children too, a sound, and the story teller never said what it was, just that it was a sound they had never heard, a sound piercing but alluring, and the children were told never to listen, but the sound would sing in their dreams, always at the edges.... then the detils are always differnet, but at some point a child dies, usually 'devoured by the knowing light' and the Child is told that they must not hear the sound. That goes on for a time, there's usually a rhyme involved but I cannot for the live of me remember it." "Then, anyway, how it ends is years later, the Child is in the new world, older, and the great bells, still the same, are installed on the Apex of the Academy, and she hears them, and she just freezes, usually the story teller embellishes something here, and she realizes all along that the sound was bells." "Unlike the testaments of the Privii, most of the Child's tales lack moral structure, which is why common folk love them so much - they're meant to entertain, horrify, or tittilate, not to edify." She says there is absolutely nothing about twinned suns, and brothers is pretty vague.
Your knees weak you touched earth for what felt like the first time in months, flexing muscles that ached with disuse. You rose, staggering, and knew what you had to do. The 'camp' for the Na'Viene was not what you dimly recalled in your shadowed memory, most members sat alone, or in pairs, draped in the darkness of the overhanging branches or stretched out on a large rock, some dimly moving their lips speaking into the dark. The typical suppleis your would expect from a raiding part of this size are nowhere to be seen. What did you eat? Where were the tools, maps, and other supplies? Your vision doubles, the figures twinned in shadow, then it recedes, the whispers of the red flames in the night pushing in on you. You find Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene in the deepest recesses, standing still and unmoving draped in an a depth of shadow beyond what should be cast. 'You are leaving' 'they all left us' (a rasping voice grates at you, mirrored in twin flames) Wavering behind him several shadows, reaching up into the trees above, echoing his motions. SPOT - the shadows seem to battle, horned creatures striking down the lithe elven shadows 'You will hide, you will run' 'they feared us, they locked us away' Suddenly you are freezing, ice-cold, on a familiar island of ice in a frozen waste. Your ship no where, your brother, at the edge, one leg dipped into the arctic water, body slipping ever closer. At the far end Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene stands. He takes out his two axes, throws them into the water one at a time. 'We are Na'Viene, we make our own fate' 'we freed you' WHAT DO? You turn away from Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene and make your way over the ice to your brother, the hollow laughter of the man you once followed spins around you, echoing off unseen walls. As you inch closer you see your brother slipping away, 'brother' his blue lips tremble. You reach out, knowing this is a lie, knowing your brother lies dead, but you catch his hand, and pull, warmth flooding your body, the winds surge one last time before you stand once again in the forest, only the cold of your brothers hand, drenched in the icy waters of the far north, a reminder of where you once were. Before you your brother, Teucer the Lesser , crumples, breathing harshly. Waul'Van Ictis Ra'viene is nowhere to be seen, nor the others, but your brother is here before you, alive, by some miracle. You take your brother back to The Settlement, a second chance for both of you.
BORING, you train with the militia an do some recruiting. The settlers and soldiers love hearing your stories of exploration, but some sense the darkness in the hidden stories you don't tell and grow unnerved in your presence. It is the explorers and adventurers, moreso than the soldiers who really take to your presence, eager to snap at the hint of treasure and excitement. In time you come to know some of the strange figures who have made a name for themselves in this associaton of strange bedfellows. The adventurer Dendara Cammise is famous for finding a sunken ship (that you guys missed) in the Penitent Bay, and she is planning on dredging something underwater yet again so rumors say. They say she is a no nonsense treasure hunter with connections back home and quite possibly a warlock of some sort. Apparently she makes her base in one of the smaller settlements across the Bay, near the base of the Grey Hills. The fence Castor Garan is supposedly the big name in Hampsterdam for selling and buying artifacts and relics, along with more mundane illegalities. Few people you speak with have actually met the man, fewer still can tell you anything relevant aside from how to contact him - his men linger in certain spots during the day awaiting potential business.
You find yourself wandering the Gardens nurtured by Tayala Benzare and the many mystics she has accumulated, they remind you of the better times with the Aelfinn before things took a .... darker turn. Most of the researchers and rangers are intimidated by your reputation but they quickly warm to your tales of the world and your enthusiasm for the natives. In time you befriend Tennebelt and Tayala Benzare , but the peace of the Gardens grows increainslgy interrupted by the acrimonious religious unrest at its doors, the interactions of the Blessed Leaf, Speakers, and Fathers becoming ever worse.
Teucer the Lesser has the same adventurous spirit he had before he kaputnik in the icy doom of your expedition. Seeing him raises your spirit and you feel rejuvenated in a way you haven't felt since the dark times running with the Na'Viene. He is much as you remember him and intrigued at all the stories you have to tell - he happily takes to slumming with the sailors as a spy, thinking it just another adventure.
You smash your way through the underbelly of Hampsterdam trying to meet with Dendara Cammise and in your oafish way you succeed, planting enough enticing tales of old world ruins and exotic artifacts to lure out the mysterious figure. You also had to hand out a few knuckle sandwiches, but such is life. Dendara Cammise operates out of a unnamed fishing village on the southern end of the Penitent Bay, it appears she discovered some sort of abandoned towering stone structure that was buried beneath the beach sediment somewhat inland. The locals refer to her kindly and say that she has helped the struggling families procure the supplies they need to survive, and indeed flourish - this village looks a little better off than the others nearby, which is to say thriving. She appears to employ a fair amount of laborers and more than a couple of armed mercenaries. You note that at the makeshift docks there is an abundance of ancient ship wreckage, obviously hauled up from the deep. There also appears to be a small ship set up with some kind of rigging and nets draped over the edge, you are unsure what the point is. She meets with you cautiously, asking that you remove your weapons - after you take a precautiouary swim through the Penitent Bay again you decide that ok this time you'll go along with it. She's a tall woman, willowy, but her form is concealed in heavy clothing so there's an almost billowing effect about her at all times even in the absence of wind. She is reserved, but you sense something beneath, and eventually crack a smile out of her with your over the top tales of adventure. In no time at all you're chatting away, enthusiastic to compare what you have learned. Updated Dendara Cammise .
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours"She takes out one of the distinct VHS tape crystals - you briefly notice there's at least one more in the plush locked chest behind her. She places it with one gloved hand in her own VHS Player Frame so you can watch. Updated Ghostly Flanged Spheres (VHS) . WHAT WILL YOU SHOW HER, IF ANYTHING?
Your speech to the leadership council lands dully, they look exhausted hearing yet another task they have no ability to satisfy. " Ajax the Bear-barian , everyone here respects you and what you have done. It isn't that we lack the will to make the army what it needs to be, we lack the means. We do not have income, and the ease with which settlers are able to find a homestead in these lands reduces the incentive for others to work for us in exchange for protection or food. Hopefully next year we'll have gold from back home paid for with the taxes we collect to be able to raise some forces." Julia Herelia Marion Valis Valois talks to you afterward. "I don't have a firm grasp on finances here but something doesn't make sense. I think Julia is keeping the army weak to strengthen the town guard that she has in her pocket. I can't seem to do anything here but maybe you can."
Julia Herelia Marion gives you the runaround as you ask about funding the militia, it seems you are getting nowhere with your approaches.
You return to Dendara Cammise who seems genuinely pleased to see you. She offers you a selection of teas recently arrived from the Old World, foreign scents you haven't savored in years, to be taken with delicacies come in from the swamps to the south, crystal fruits and fiddlehead mushrooms. You talk of your pasts, of the future, and the many strange occurrences about the seldom.
"No one knows what to rightly fear in this world, and thus our imaginations are given reign"Your conversations always touch upon relics, and more commonly artifacts. Dendara seems hesitant to ever broach the subject, but passionately engages when you speak on it. She wonders about the Strange Dreams that the settlers are experiencing and muses that an artifact may be the cause. "What they are, what they can do, knows no humanly limit." She seems interested in what suppositions you might have on the subject, but is quickly disappointed by what little you know. You show her another sphere, and she in turn reveals a sphere unlike any you have seen before, carved with the twinned flames you have seen on various ruins in your travels, and the Silver Ring of the Gardener that you possess. Ghostly Flanged Spheres (VHS) updated. It grows late and she invites you to stay. The night is broken by screams, a horrific wailing emanating from Dendara's room - you rush out, grasping at her door but pull your hand away, it burns. One of her assistants rushes into the chambers and pushes you aside, throwing a towel over the knob and turning. The room is perfectly normal, aside from Dendara, crouched on the bed, screaming. The assistant rushes to her, holding her, and quickly offers her a flask. SPOT - you notice that the skin of her left arm which is normally fully gloved is hideously burned In the morning you inquire about what happened, and while initially reluctant she confesses that she was present at the Conflagration of Van Nord, when the agents of Veritas unleashed a torrent of infernal flame on the docks, killing tens of thousands.
"I saw it, felt it... heard it...."You leave her and return to Hampsterdam, troubled by your experience
You return to Dendara Cammise , her underwater operations seem to be going well though she apparently hired additional guards around her compound. She offers you a snack, something the locals are making from the native crops, and some refreshments before getting down to the business at hand. She listens with great interest to what you have to say, attempting but failing to hide her enthusiasm at certain parts of your story, especially that of the missing object taken from the temple. She rushes back to her cabinet full of stuff you missed from the first campaign, looks at a few ancient pieces of paper but thinks better of it, replacing them before coming back with perhaps the oldest "map" you have ever seen, a dated but still legible atlas of the area, though most of the markings have been worn off.
"I'm glad you trusted me with this but... be careful who you talk to about this, please"She unfurls the paper and places it on the table. It appears someone at some point has marked a location you note as The Academy Ruins , but it shows a meandering path going southeast, to a spot in the Marsh to the south, perhaps northwest several days from The Ancient Naval Base . Someone has written "Valur" alongside it. She tells you that the name you heard mentioned, Xor, has been referenced to this top place, The Academy Ruins . "I planned to investigate myself, but some local tough has taken up residence near it and keeps it securely guarded, so I'm told." She reacts with quick anger when you mention Castor Garan being interested in them, "I would never let that man have anything of real worth" displaying a fury you see at odds with her tempered countenance. She calms herself, apologizes, and says she would be honored to go together to investigate the ruins.
(Location added to map)
You stop by the gardens and apothecary in the town center, pushing your way delicately past the many flowers and herbs that rim the winding pathways. The sounds of work mar the tranquility, but within just a few feet it dims, deafened by the thick growth of the garden, and you relax, feeling the peace that often greets you when you return here. You walk swiftly to the apothecary laboratory near the center, where Tayala Benzare is sure to be found. Sure enough she is speaking with several of her cohorts, who look to be devotees of the blessed leaf, they greet you warmly. Tennebelt comes out once he hears your voice, wiping off his juice-stained hands to give you a firm handshake. They listen with concern to your questions, Tayala Benzare taking a moment to shfit away from her focus on the natural works. "The dreams, yes..." Tennebelt cuts her off to talk about possible remedies, possible tinctures that may lessen or even negate dreaming, recipes he knows about, similarities.. etc.. but you get them back to the matter at hand. "I've heard reports for.. almost a year now, I think - but only in the last 6 monthes has it truly become an epidemic." One of the alchemists tells you that the Grovekeepers have spoken of the dreams at length, thinking them possibly visions from the Lord of the Woods, but eventually discounting it. They said that during their research into it the first people to report the dreams were some of the sailors down at the docks, before it eventually spread to the rest of Hampsterdam and beyond. Tennebelt brings out a man excitedly, pushing him to make him lumber over to you. The man looks like a sailor of sorts based on his tattoos, but his eyes are unfocused, and his movements sluggish, like Dane . "Yes yes, I've been gathering up anyone who has shown these signs, I've found a few. Very interesting, I think maybe it could be a reaction to some food, herb, mushroom... could be... " he rambles on You learn little else concrete.
You speak with Leandra Kelles , who seems to be rapidly losing the support of the Seekers in favor of Lars Skellrich , a fact that has her distraught but she puts on a happy face to speak with you. Once you begin discussing ancient religious lore she loses her melancholy and eagerly wishes to help, but unfortunately she has little to offer. "There's absolutely no mention of the Garden as anything other then a place from which we are born from, and in some testamenets, a place we are meant to return to once worthy." As you start listing off other notions she perks up. "Bells oh.. well, there was a story my ma would tell me" she smiles wistfully "She would say that when bells chime you know your father is watching, he died when I was young.. oh but, that's not what you mean, I mention it because that story always made me remember one of the tales from the Child's Tale... you've read it? No? I wish we had some form... well, there is no real 'final form' o the Tale, it's mostly stories, maybe all just stories, invented by people, or at best inspired by someone who once read it, before the Sigil banned it, hundreds of years ago?' She sighs 'Sorry, so, the story I heard was, well, to be blunt, somewhat scary, I don't know how old I was but I remember the tale something like this... that the Child would hear things, and the other Children too, a sound, and the story teller never said what it was, just that it was a sound they had never heard, a sound piercing but alluring, and the children were told never to listen, but the sound would sing in their dreams, always at the edges.... then the detils are always differnet, but at some point a child dies, usually 'devoured by the knowing light' and the Child is told that they must not hear the sound. That goes on for a time, there's usually a rhyme involved but I cannot for the live of me remember it." "Then, anyway, how it ends is years later, the Child is in the new world, older, and the great bells, still the same, are installed on the Apex of the Academy, and she hears them, and she just freezes, usually the story teller embellishes something here, and she realizes all along that the sound was bells." "Unlike the testaments of the Privii, most of the Child's tales lack moral structure, which is why common folk love them so much - they're meant to entertain, horrify, or tittilate, not to edify." She says there is absolutely nothing about twinned suns, and brothers is pretty vague.
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