Journal Entry 23.01 Graykar's Mirror Journey

Graykar foresees the fall of Chrailis through the eyes of his lost friend, Jess

Graykar’s Mirror Trip
Graykar touches his mirror and loses himself in the fog. Memories, hundreds of memories, then thousands, flicker in and out of his awareness. He begins to see his life as a larger canvas. Graykar melts away to be replaced by a composite of his entire life, both future and past. And then he no longer exists. His entire awareness is in the background of another's, a former acquaintance by the name of Jess.
She sees a familiar scene, a busy tavern, a place she has spent more than a few coin. Earned some coin too, not that everyone knowingly parted with said coins.
DeIts is a tavern like many others, not fancy, not where the rich hang out, but also not at the bottom of the dredges like the rowdy places commonly found along the harbors. A respectable place, supported mostly by the locals.
She is playing slowly, finishing up a set and then begins retuning her instrument. She looks around, she notices that most of the patrons look strangely familiar.
She thinks of Graykar. Odd, it’s been fifteen years since she last thought of Graykar. But – doesn’t that sailor over there look a little like Graykar, at least in how he described himself in one of his fanciful former lives? Now that she looks at him, he looks drenched, when did he get wet? And he has sores all over him, not the healthiest of sailors.
That other blond one, he looks like the one who was the young courtesan. To the Duchess of Len or something. Odd, she doesn’t remember him describing a bright yellow scarf around his neck, yet now as she recalls she thought he end up beheaded in that life.
Her imagination must be running wild. That dark fellow in the back, with all the strange trinkets. Yep, those are kobold trinkets. How odd, didn’t Graykar once say in one of his former lives he became an honorary kobold chieftain.
All these patrons put her in a deep reverie about Graykar. Her fingers almost on their own start playing a song about remembering past friends. She starts humming, then singing it softly. Apparently, everyone in the room knows the song because they start singing along, especially in the upbeat parts of the song.
As she finishes, Barkeep Graykar claps and says, “We must hurry. Time is short. “ To which Kobold Graykar agrees. Courtesan Graykar stands up, dusts his trousers off and says, “Yes, now we go.”
Overall, fifteen people start to leave. One of them, Sailor Graykar, his body all scarred as if something had taken hundreds of bites out of his skin, turns and says, “Jess, you following? We need a bard to tell of this story.”
Jess asks, “What are you all doing here?”
Butcher Graykar responds, “This city is fair and golden, no doubt, but don’t you want to go home to Chrailis?”
“Chrailis is gone. Its memory erased by the orcish horde and left to rot. All that is there now are the gnolls living in its streets like it was some garbage dump,” Jess responds.
Ruffian Graykar speaks up. She doesn’t recognize this one, he must have never told her about this incarnation. “I was there in the end. I still don’t know how the gnolls managed to kill Si’Nassa. That they could defeat the halflings was weird enough, but to actually kill a dragon?”
Kobold Chieftain Graykar says, “Doesn’t matter. We can save the city. We know how. We got to see a witch. We just have to find the location of the witch.”
She asks, “Count me in. So then where are we off to?”
“The Nymph of the Fountain can answer. We just have to get past her guardian.”,” one of the Graykar’s responds.
Graykar’s thoughts surface briefly. He knows this girl, she is Jess – a friend of his from way back when he first woke up in Chrailis. A bard with whom he had several indiscrete adventures. Mostly minor pilferages, nothing major. Graykar was still a novice in those days, nothing like now. Then, scamming a rich patron out of his coin purse was considered death-defying. In fact, wasn’t it one such scam gone horribly wrong where he last saw her? Yes, definitely. She was killed by the merchant’s guards.
After a trek of several days, she and all of the Graykars arrive at the temple of the Nymph Seer. Legend has it that the Nymph Seer could answer any single question put to her. The question to be asked was already determined along the way “Where do we find the Witch?”
When they arrive, they find that she’s guarded by a zealous fire giant. He had asked her when he dies and she told him he dies when he fails to protect her. So now, he devotes his life to protecting her in an attempt to never die. Jess wryly comments that he was dead when he started to protect her then if he doesn’t live any other life.
Rather than fight the giant, they try and use guile and some spell work to get past the giant and it works. With their numbers, they convince the giant that they are asking their question and if the asking their question results in his death, so be it. He concedes and lets them past. The question is immediately answered – get to the last ship out of Black Tide.
Sailor Graykar speaks up, “I know of the village, I thought it had already fallen to the advancing orc tide, it lies near the base of the Zygarosse just a few miles from First Dawn Village.”
Mustering their courage, the group of Jess and the Graykars set out to Black Tide. It will be dangerous. With the gnolls having killed Si’Nassa, the surrounding territories of Chrailis are no longer protected. Most of those lands already belong to the Gore Reavers. Those that haven’t succumbed are the last bastions of defense for the rapidly declining orc clan of the Crimson Blades.