03 - 11/15/23 : Emergence

"Magic is all around us, like air and water and snow. How is that not something natural?"  

Melfina Eres

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  The party fought Ravisin in a quick struggle to the death. Ravisin transformed herself into an elk to try and gore her enemies, but it was not enough to fight back their onslaught, and she was eventually slain.   After Ravisin's defeat, the party checked around the remains of her encampment at the Elven Tomb. They learned that she had utilized the moondial outside to activate the mirror for the white moose she had awakened; when activated, the mirror was capable of scrying, which the Thing in the Woods used to hunt down loggers from Hartwick. However, since the party had broken it earlier, it was no longer usable, even after being mended.   Among Ravisin's possessions were two potions; an elixir of vitality as well as a potion of radiant resistance.   With their quest completed, the party gathered the thing's remains, determining it still safe to use for food despite its monstrous appearance. They spoke about Dahlia's pursuit of a killer wielding ice as a knife to slay those who dodged the sentient sacrifice lotteries, as she believed that Ravisin alone was not the culprit. Ragna revealed that he had been born in Midwinter and was made to be a sacrifice by being thrown into the Arctic Run river, though obviously the sacrifice did not take. Ragna belived this might mark them as one who avoided a sacrifice to La Saia as well. Upon their return to Hartwick, the party stopped to report to Speaker Buzzbubble, who paid them for their work.   The party discussed the situation with Bombini, who affirmed that she was primarily concerned with the welfare of her fellow villagers beyond anything. With the Thing and the druid who incensed it both dead, she was confident that the immediate troubles were over, though she would be sure to call upon the party if they needed help again.   In addition to their monetary payment, the party was also awarded the deed to the ramshackle inn on the southern edge of town. Next they stopped in at the Happy Scrimshander to meet proprietor Iriskree Harrowhill and sell off the carcass of the Thing, forgoing a larger payout in favor of having the head stuffed and mounted to be placed in their new abode. After this the party made their way to the abandoned inn to investigate their new acquisition.   While checking out the property, Dahlia insisted on lighting a torch. Ragna was confused, as she was able to see fine; revealing that she somehow had a measure of darkvision despite being fully human. Ragna and Melfina realized from Dahlia's body language and alert eyes that Dahlia had nyctophobia - a fear of the dark.   The party decided to spend a day getting the place in working order. Ragna, Melfina, and Alith coordinated in removing much of the stored lumber from within, cleaning up the premises, and removing old refuse. Soon enough, the old inn was a livable space, allowing the party a safe place of rest for the night.   As the party settled in, Alith took a shot at deiciphering further entries in The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon, a gith religious text that she kept on her person. First, she reviewed the first Circle to remind herself of its teachings.  

THE FIRST CIRCLE OF ZERTHIMON

  Know that we are the First People.   Once all was chaos. The First People were thought drawn from chaos. When the First People came to know themselves, they were chaos no longer, and became flesh.   With their thoughts and knowing of matter, the People shaped the First World and dwelled there with their knowing to sustain them.   Yet the flesh was new to the People and with it, the People came not to know themselves. The flesh gave rise to new thoughts. Greed and hates, pains and joys, jealousies and doubts. All of these fed on each other and the minds of the People were divided. In their division, the People were punished.   The emotions of the flesh were strong. The greed and hates, the pains and joys, the jealousies and doubts, all of these served as a guiding stone to enemies. In becoming flesh, the First People became enslaved to those who knew flesh only as tools for their will. Know these beasts were the illithids.   The illithids were a race that had come not to know themselves. They had learned how to make other races not know themselves.   They were the tentacled ones. They lived in flesh and saw flesh as tools for their will. Their blood was as water and they shaped minds with their thoughts. When the illithids came upon the People, the People were a people no more. The People became slaves.   The illithids took the People from the First World and brought them to the False Worlds. As the People labored upon the False Worlds, the illithids taught them the Way of the Flesh. Through them, the People came to know loss. They came to know suffering. They came to know death, both of the body and mind. They came to know what it is to be the herd of another and have their flesh consumed. They came to know the horror of being made to feel joy in such things.   The Unbroken Circle is the knowing of how the People lost themselves. And how they came to know themselves again.  

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  Through mental focus, Alith was able to unlock and read the second of the eight circles, and learned to apply the lesson taught within to combat in the form of a new cantrip, Scripture of Steel.     Know that flesh cannot mark steel. Know that steel may mark flesh. In knowing this, Zerthimon became free.   Know that the tentacled ones were of flesh. They relied on the flesh and used it as tools for their will. One of the places where flesh served their will was the Fields of Husks on the False Worlds of the illithids.   The Fields were where the bodies of the People were cast after the illithids had consumed their brains. When the brain had been devoured, the husks came to be fertilizer to grow the poison-stemmed grasses of the illithids. Zerthimon worked the Fields with no knowing of himself or what he had become. He was a tool of flesh, and the flesh was content.   It was upon these Fields that Zerthimon came to know the scripture of steel. During one of the turnings, as Zerthimon tilled the Fields with his hands, he came across a husk whose brain remained within it. It had not been used as food. Yet it was dead.   The thought that one of the husks had died a death without serving as food for the illithids was a thought Zerthimon had difficulty understanding. From that thought, came a desire to know what had happened to the husk.   Embedded in the skull of the husk was a steel blade. It had pierced the bone. Zerthimon realized that was what had killed the husk. The steel had marked the flesh, but the flesh had not marked the steel.   Zerthimon took the blade and studied its surface. In it, he saw his reflection. It was in the reflection of the steel that Zerthimon first knew himself. Its edge was sharp, its will the wearer's. It was the blade that would come to be raised against Gith when Zerthimon made the Pronouncement of Two Skies.   Zerthimon kept the blade for many turnings, and many were the thoughts he had about it. He used it in the fields to aid his work. In using it, he thought about how it was not used.   The illithids were powerful. Zerthimon had believed that there was nothing that they did not know. Yet the illithids never carried tools of steel. They only used flesh as tools. Everything was done through flesh, for the tentacled ones were made of flesh and they knew flesh. Yet steel was superior to flesh. When the blade had killed the husk, it was the flesh that had been weaker than the steel.   It was then that Zerthimon came to know that flesh yielded to steel. In knowing that, he came to know that steel was stronger than the illithids.   Steel became the scripture of the People. Know that steel is the scripture by which the People came to know freedom.  

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  In the morning, Dahlia delivered a hare for Melfina to cook. While eating, Ragna showed Melfiina a peculiar possession of theirs; a dark crystal on a necklace, which Melfina identified as a piece of chardalyn. This material was a dark, crystalline substance known for its malleability, strength, and capacity as a weapon material. It was also known to be freezing to the touch, tended to lose its potency when exposed to climates outside of the Frostgale Taiga, and was also a perfect medium for carrying enchantments. Melifna found Ragna's in particular to be carrying a powerful spell that she could not quite identify, even through the use of the identify spell; however, she was certain that whatever was contained within was potent indeed.   Visibly unnerved by the chardalyn amulet, Dahlia brought up her discomfort regarding arcane magic, decreeing it to be unnatural and antithetical to the natural world. Melfina rebuked this stance, calmly explaining how she viewed magic as an omnipresent force; something all around them, and something just as natural as the air or the snow.   Alith also took this time to finish up her work on Blammo, a small automaton she made out of cobbled-together parts that she had on her.   Once prepared, the party began their trek north to Whiteridge to pursue Captain Cinderswift's lead about kobolds infesting a gem mine. Their paths took them through the mountain passes in the shadow of Famrial Mountain, which would be the quickest and most well-known route. However, as they proceeded through a switchback section in the passes, they began to hear raucous songs being sung in the giant language. Ragna quickly realized that these songs were the traditional victory hymns of the Broken Blade clan, indicating that they were near.   Alith, Dahlia, and Melfina prepared for a confrontation. However, the normally battle-hungry Ragna quite unusually insisted that the party turn around and avoid the barbarians, even if it meant doubling back and lengthening their route. The party was confused at this insistence, having only known Ragna to never run from a fight before. However, Ragna's firm declaration that the barbarians' ferocity was more than a match for them was enough to convince the group to turn back.   On the longer passage around the switchback, the party accidentally disturbed something large resting beneath the snow. Before they could get away from the unknown creature, it burst from the snow, revealing itself to be a massive white dragon with an armored figure frozen to a saddle atop its back.   The dragon, naming herself Arveiaturace, spoke to the motionless figure atop its back as if it were a living companion still speaking to her. Calling the figure Meltharond, Arveiaturace spoke to her rider about possibly eating the travelers that stumbled upon her. Thinking quickly, Melfina imitated a false voice and spoke as Meltharond, convincing the cataract-ridden dragon that better prey would be found elsewhere. Arveiaturace agreed and took off, the beating of her wings knocking the party down into the snow as she flew away. Melfina's ever-obscuring hood was blown off in the process, but she was able to get it back on before any of the others saw anything beneath it.   The final part of the journey, having taken two days, concluded as the party laid eyes upon Whiteridge. As a resident of the town, Dahlia gave the party a rundown of the local establishments; of the few, the party decided to stop in at the Blue Clam, Whiteridge's tavern, to grab something to eat before going to speak with the town speaker, Oarus Masthew.   The tavernkeep of the Blue Clam, an older half-orc named Vernon Braig, warmly welcomed Dahlia and her companions and fed them for a discount rate for being friends with Dahlia. He served them a peculiar dish; reindeer meat between two loaves of bread with sparse greens and spices, all fine fare for the resource-strapped Taiga. Vernon mentioned Dahlia's father, who was apparently missing, but Dahlia dodged the subject and said that she was already looking into it.   After finishing their meal, the party left the Blue Clam to go meet with the Town Speaker.