5.2 The Way Ahead

General Summary

Day 38

We return to the fortress to find Gederick, much more hungover than you’d expect, given how little beer there was to go around last night. As we get down to business discussing the inventory supply list, he asks to go into Ipth and use his negotiating skills in our favour. Perhaps in time that will be useful, but for now I think a smaller, more discreet party is best, and I trust Sahlon to do our business for us. Not to mention that Linai’s warnings of Gederick’s gambling is fresh in my mind. I’d like to give him some time to earn my trust, or at least for me to see what sort of person he is before entrusting him with exposure to the wider world.   To my surprise, he almost immediately demonstrates his good character, as he offers me several neatly organized lists: One for military supplies, one for everyday essentials, and one of miscellaneous things that would simply make people happy.   He specifies that I shouldn’t tell people how I knew about the items on the third list. He gathered this information in the revelry of last night, when people were eager to talk about what they were dreaming of. It is his job to make me look like I miraculously know people’s desires and have the ability to fulfil them. I sort of regret disallowing him to go to Ipth, but there will be plenty of time for that as our community grows. One can be a golden person and still untrustworthy in some ways.   I give the lists to Asalien, along with a note to Sahlon,   And she and Rosalia set off with four horses. I will expect their return in two weeks’ time, and will make arrangements to be present.   With the rest of the day, Hella and Bran return to the keep to explore while Alder gathers the troops for an assessment. For the first time, I am truly left to my own devices. I take a moment to examine the sword from the revenant’s island and find it to be dormant. Even in its quiet state, it will bolster any frost magic (+2) and act like a wand for channelling elemental cold magic (+1 INT when casting cold spells). It is certainly not my sort of magic, but perhaps Hella will grow into it with her magical sword fighting. It feels as though there are several spells in the sword that could be awakened with enough energy. And there is fae writing on it, which I can’t read. Maybe someone in our party will meet an ancient fae and bond with them so that we can read their writing as well…   I next find myself watching one of the armorers at work with some of the drudgery of repairing armour. I offer to help him with some magic and he is delighted to have me clean up some of the more delicate pieces. Eventually my attention is drawn by Alder’s military assessment,   He and Linai take up arms and Linai is quickly overwhelmed but holds strong for 10 minutes, which turns out to be much longer than anyone else is able. Eventually Bran and Hella find their way over to us and join the exercise. Hella and Linai are surprisingly well-matched!   Finally Bran and Alder face off, with a protective ward surrounding the ring and some conjured shadows. Their battle is intense and it seems like they are both reaching new heights. Watching Alder skillfully dance between shadows and Bran actually swinging at a shadow before he even steps out of it...it’s clear that Bran is just as formidable a foe. Dripping in sweat, the battle concludes and everyone’s spirits seem to be up.   Bran and Hella then show me what they found in the keep: A room in the central tower with a rickety desk. Hung on the wall is a very large map made of an entire animal skin. It’s so dirty that it is almost illegible, with irreparable holes in some parts. I manage to clean most of it with magic and am immediately overwhelmed by the amount of information it holds.  

• The map is of the Dawn Garden Prefecture, a part of the Empire during this ancient war. Nearly all the labels are in both Osyr and Elvish.
• Temple of Seasons, which sort of tells us where Ipth is
• Lone Mountain Keep
• Roads to several places marked as Dwarven mines (½ for copper 1 for gemstones, 1 for a sort of metal and crystal with magic in it). These are about 2 days’ journey.
• Quarry
• The Mountain’s Home, a dwarven city deep in the mountains
• Several small villages, cities and their exports
• A large lake with an island, different from the revenant’s island. It is labelled as Starfall Lake and the Stargazer's Academy. It is 4 days’ journey.
• The Great Foundry, with signs for uncontrollable magic.
• Circles midway through the mountain range with boundaries that indicate “Do not trespass”
• Circles with question marks and “Kindred?
• The Crystal Spires, a capital city
• “The Oldest Earth…” something
• Four marks only in the Osyr language
• A promise about what you are
• One for air, one for water

  We bring Kadia out to look at it

• The Osyr-only marks are for powerful places that were powerful and old even before Kadia was born.
• The Empress tried to cast her shadow over them, but there were battles preventing her.
• The mark for Air: The Zephyr, who rule the sky. The last left before the war. Perhaps across the sea or across the stars themselves.
• The mark near the mines: A deep well of magic near the barriers. It was never well-understood.
• Dreamworld: A place where reality is thin and the barrier between waking and dreaming is thinner. You can get lost in the dream world here. It is 5 days’ journey West.
• 3 other marks: Dangerous, powerful, and not well-understood.
• The Crystal Spires: A beautiful city, one of the Osyr’s greatest creations. At dawn, a thousand rainbows and shadows. At sunset, the spires glow rose and gold. At night, they reflect the stars. It may very well still be protected by strong magic. This was Kadia’s home, and she would love to see it again one day. It is 10 days’ journey in the direction of the Valley of Storms.

  She also tells us of the Kindred, the descendants of dragons. They are protected by the 9 Lords of the Sky. In the time of the ancient war they were neutral. They are strange and secretive.   This brings new meaning to Alwen’s letter that we were intending to negotiate passage with the Kindred. I wonder if they guard the only passage through the barrier, or if he meant something else.