Kai Tsintah’s Letter to Fredrick the Librarian
By Pippa Bushell
For Frederick,
I leave this report with you so the information can be saved within the Silver Order’s library archive. It may be that what we decide and the actions we take from this point have no impact or importance in the history of Hauther, but on the other hand…
I will not go over our story so far in any detail—it is far too long and over all of no great importance. I feel it is what we decide from here onward that could have lasting repercussions. Suffice it to say that my party of Silver Knights were sent on a mission by the Order’s high command to retrieve crystals of power from the fabled Isle of Marr. The intent was for these crystals to be used by a mysterious being named Ulene to perform a magical ritual to send us back through the ages to attempt to find a means of stopping the Revanarum and the blood plague that ravages our land.
Having fulfilled our mission and obtained a large crystal of power, we had taken some respite in a far-off plane called Hyperion, and by means of a magical portal, we arrived dazed and disorientated, after many months’ absence, in the outlands of Hauther. As Adoril cast spells to determine our location, we slowly became aware of the blood-plague once again influencing our thoughts and moods. We realised that we had not felt it whilst in Hyperion, and its return was not a welcome one.
Deciding to rest overnight to readjust, Nothur activated his tower and we settled in. Our sleep was once again fitful with the return of the disturbing dreams that trouble all Silver Knights, and further worsened by the weight of the task ahead and the unnerving feeling we were being watched.
As Vallen prepared our morning repast, we discussed our plans. Being somewhat south of Dussleholm, west of Hoffstead, and north of Southmont, we decided to head west to the river, intending to find a vessel of some kind that we could use to traverse more quickly southwards to Thule.
As the fog began to fade and the day to warm, it appeared as if there were more trees than we previously recalled and that shadows in the mist were moving from all directions towards us. We soon realised that what we had thought were trees were in fact plague-zombies that were slowly shambling towards us. Choosing to ignore the plagued, we started our journey, but as we travelled, they followed, with more and more swelling their ranks along the way. I suggested that it may not be wise to allow them to continue to trail behind us as leading them into a populated area would be dangerous to the inhabitants. As soon as the words had left my lips, Adoril spun and decapitated the nearest plagued to show his agreement. Decision made, and thankfully without the usual hours of debate, we swiftly sent the rest of them to whatever rest they were due and continued on our way.
It took us until dusk to reach the river and we met not a single living creature along the way. It was eerily quiet, with not even animals crossing our path. We did however encounter altogether too many of the plagued for comfort, along with swiftly abandoned camps, littered with bodies of both the plagued and unplagued. As we set up our tower again for our evening rest, we discussed our growing feelings of disquiet. Vallen noted that some of the plagued we despatched along the way were unnervingly fresh, seemingly having succumbed to the plague within a mere day of infection. As this is usually a much longer process, it was a very worrying development.
The following morning, after having dealt with the plagued that had gathered during the night, we continued our journey downriver, becoming increasingly uneasy at the eerie stillness. For two days this continued unabated until we reached a hastily abandoned village with broken down defences. Although this did nothing to ease our disquiet, there was a raft left behind which enabled us to take to the water and so at least increase our rate of travel.
Marcus navigated soundly down the river until we encountered a swift current around a fork, which overturned the smallest of our water vessels, spilling its passengers into the water. All of our party made it safely to the shore where we were met by a strange sound. Upon investigating the noise, we discovered a terrified, bedraggled young boy, treed by a group of blood-thirsty zombies.
Although we made short work of the plagued, the shock was all too much for the boy who fell from the tree and in his panic began to flee. Hoping for some information on what had been going on, I managed to catch the child and carry him back to my companions waiting on the riverbank. Our attempts to calm the boy enough to get some sense from him were futile, and it was only after having somewhat restored him with magical sleep and food that we were able to persuade him to tell his story. The child (Ollie) revealed that his entire village was either dead or forcibly taken by the Silver Guard. I do not know which is the more worrisome, that the plagued are proliferating so successfully or that the Guard appear to have become kidnappers. No wonder that the boy was so panicked by our appearance. We did our best to settle him with more food and rest, but it was clear by the following day that he was beyond reasoning.
Unwilling to leave a defenceless child alone in this wilderness, our only option was to render him unconscious and keep him restrained in the boat until we could find an inhabited place in which to leave him. It would appear that we had become kidnappers along with our Silver Guard brethren.
Fortunately, it was not long until we began to approach Southmont, but our sense of relief was fleeting as we realised that it was just as deserted as everywhere we had been. A quick search revealed that although intact, and with no signs of a struggle, the stores at the fort were emptied and everyone was gone. With our concern growing at every turn, we decided that we needed to try and gain an idea of the situation at Thule before continuing any further. It was determined that as Yugaao was not known by the Silver Order command to be travelling with our party, that she could safely make contact using our communication orb without betraying that the rest of us were still alive.
After activating the orb, Yugaao attempted to speak with Thule high command but was greeted only by a clueless assistant. Although appearing to be greatly dim of thought, he had sense enough to bring to the orb the person of highest rank that he could find; a lady calling herself Eveline who stated that she was acting commander in Thule and ordered Yugaao to return with all haste. Refusing to answer most of the questions posed to her, she would say only that the situation was dire and that everyone had been ordered to the front. No further information could be gleaned, other than Yugaao’s observation that she had never seen Eveline before in Thule and that she sounded Casperian. Feeling disheartened, and no more enlightened than we previously had been, it was clear that the only path remaining to us was to rest for the evening and then make all haste to Thule the following day.
Our arrival in Thule was even more disturbing than all we had encountered to that point. The port gatehouse was latched but not locked, seemingly all security abandoned and nobody to be seen when we entered. When we last were here this place bustled with activity, but we saw not a single person as we approached the main gate, which was at least barred. After much shouting and banging on the gate, a guard finally appeared on the ramparts and was persuaded, not too gently, to allow us access to the city. Seeing that there appeared to be some refugee settlements about, we first awoke Ollie and freed him to run off and search for any of his people that may have made their way here, before setting off toward the Marshall’s office.
This is the point at which we met with you again Frederick, seated so comfortably there in the Command quarters. I can say wholeheartedly that it was such a joy to finally encounter a familiar face. I think that even with your attention taken as much as ever with your library, even you must be somewhat aware of the situation that greeted us in Thule; the heavily decreased numbers, the dire situation with the plagued, the death of two High Marshalls and the latest replacement (Humphry I believe) fighting on the front lines with his men. What you may not be so aware of, and perhaps the most important information within this report, is the situation regarding the Lady Eveline.
After we left you, we made our way to the High Marshall’s office to find a somehow familiar looking women sat at his desk and with two similarly familiar rapiers resting at her side. Stating that she had been left in command of Thule in High Marshall Humphrey’s absence, she Introduced herself as Lady Eveline de la Rose. It is possible that we all gasped at this, a name well known to us indeed, and should she be a relative of our lost companion Giovanni, then that at least would explain why her features were so recognizable to us, if not how she had happened upon his rapiers.
Any surprise that she may have had that we were still alive was barely discernible and swiftly recovered as we introduced ourselves and then proceeded to carefully dance around giving a full account of our adventures as we tried to ascertain the true circumstances surrounding her being here. Reporting only that we had been successful in our mission to locate a power crystal, whilst avoiding revealing its location, it became clear that the Lady had knowledge of our mission beyond which she could reasonably be expected to have, and our suspicions become more vocal. Finally, she revealed that she was indeed Ulene, inhabiting a “clone” body of Giovanni and using the Gender Bender cloak, retrieved from our chest, to appear in her current form.
Ulene began to explain to us that we would no longer need to venture to the lighthouse in Casperia to conduct the “time travel” ritual and that it could in fact be completed here in the Ziggurat of Thule. She further explained the nature of the spell and how it would work. I admit that I do not fully understand such arcane matters, but the basic idea is that only our consciousness would actually journey into the past, to inhabit the body of our nearest ancestor, whilst our physical bodies would remain here in the present. She further stated that to stop the Revanarum, she would need blood sample collecting from as many of the cabalists that invoked them, along with a recording of the invocation ritual on a modified communication orb. The problem with this of course being that as we would not be travelling within our physical bodies, we would need to find a special, secure place in which these items could be stored and retrieved in the present.
I must now state that my previous theories and beliefs regarding Ulene have been severely shaken. I still do not entirely trust that she is who and what she declares herself to be, and always keep in the back of my mind the warnings about her given to me by Isoree, but I can no longer determine what her motivation could be. I had thought that she was connected to the Revanarum and in some way working toward their return and ultimate conquest. However, considering the current situation, it would seem that to bring this about she would only need to sit back and do nothing. We are losing. We are going to lose. So why would she involve herself, why further sabotage what is already doomed to failure?
I cannot state here the actions we will take on this matter; we have a lot of soul searching to do and some hard decisions to make, not least of which being the consideration of what consequence is likely from the ancestry of our compatriot Marcus. He has not revealed to Ulene that he is descended from Cainon, and I do not think that any of our party would betray that knowledge without his consent. I cannot help but wonder however, what if the ancestor’s body that he inhabits is that of Cainon himself?
Journal Entry of Marcus Muddywater
By James Scotland
Journal Entry 153
Thule is deserted. It is garrisoned by only a handful of soldiers; the soldiers are relatively new and not very well trained. In other great news, Ulene, now known as Eveline, now has a senior position in the command structure of the Silver Order. Things are desperate; even Ulene is acting nervously. Apparently, Casperia and the Church of Daeus have turned against the order and are marching towards Thule. Unfortunately, our party’s visit to Casperia ignited the highly flammable powder keg that is the Church of Daeus. That reminds me of a quip Marie once made about how the Revenarum and the Church of Daeus are similar. As I write this journal, I wish that I could remember her remark. I hope that Marie is ok.
We have a plan to destroy the Revenarum. A being who none of us trust and who inhabits the bodies of others is going to send us back in time to inhabit the bodies of our ancestors in order to make a permanent magic visual of the ritual and to collect blood from each of the cabalists. And, we have no idea about how obtaining these things will stop the Revenarum, and we have no understanding about what comes next. Probably, the Revenarum will end up in the service of Ulene. Adoril and Tavin are desperate and cautiously agree. Strangely, Kai thinks that this is a great idea. I have my doubts as to whether this Errow is fully sane.
The group is seated in a large dining room discussing our current plight when we hear a ruckus. Someone called Captain Toly is arguing with Ulene. Captain Toly looks as though he can fight. Sensibly, Captain Toly does not trust Ulene. His words towards her are laced with profanity. Ulene is indifferent to the unrelenting torrent of verbal abuse. The others head into Ulene’s makeshift office; I stay in the dining room. The journey overland to Thule has been long and arduous. I am tired. I just want to sit in a comfortable chair. As I sit, my aching muscles start to slowly unwind. Through the doorway, I hear the conversations in the library.
Captain Toly is surprised to see the group. He wants us to immediately head to the front line. I wonder how bad things actually are. Tavin gives the captain a brief explanation, leaving out most of the wonderous places that we have visited as well as the allies that we have enlisted. Within a couple of minutes, Yugao and Tavin are showing everyone the crystal that we obtained from the Ise of Marr. As the classroom show-and-tell ensues, Ulene is delighted. She wants to start to prepare the ritual immediately. Sensibly, Toly has apprehensions. I wonder if we could use the powerstone for something else.
The best place to carry out the ritual is the ziggurat as Ulene explains it focuses the power of the powerstone. We learn that the upper layers of the ziggurat recently filled up with blood. That should have been a red flag, a red flag dripping with plague infected blood. We carry on regardless. Fredrick helps us to find the secret password that we need in order to enter the ziggurat. Fredrick reads a lot. I think that he might know of another way to end the blood plague.
Whilst I am sitting, a door to the dining room opens. A man who looks like a butler steps out. He brings me some food, and I ask him his story. He has been conscripted to work in the kitchen. His family have also been conscripted; they are in the refugee camps. The Silver Order have made some very practical but morally questionable decisions recently. When does the means justify the ends? The balance between freedom and safety is being faded. I eat a bowl of blue-fire shrimp and wait for the others to figure out how to enter the ziggurat. Sometime later, everybody meets back in the High Marshal’s office, which Ulene’s has claimed for her own. Predictably, someone has found out how to access the ziggurat. One of the wizards tells us that the ziggurat is affecting everyone in Thule. Another blood-plague soaked red flag that we dismiss.
We go to the ziggurat. Standing about 10 yards tall likely of ancient origins, the ziggurat is much older than the rest of Thule. There are two guards standing outside. The guards are odd. They are almost unhuman. We don’t question their unnatural condition; our prolonged experience of the unnatural has conditioned us not to question. Captain Toly reads out a script. He has assumed command of Thule. And, he resets the password. Toly pulls a leaver. The gate opens. We walk into the ziggurat and soon find ourselves in a storeroom. We search the place and find nothing of value, just crates of gold and silver bars and various supply goods. Tavin finds a secret door, three crates that swing open to reveal a hidden passageway. That dwarf is more valuable than an all-inclusive two-week package vacation at a Mermaid’s Tail of one’s choice. All that he has to do now is to figure out how to fight. The ever-resourceful Yugao goes ethereal, travels through the barred secret door, and then opens it from the other side. We enter and head down a long corridor to a steep spiral stairway heading down.
The ziggurat is filled with narrow twisting corridors. Some of the corridors are blocked by gates, seemingly not of the original construction. Behind the gates, there are zombies. Of course, the ancient originating blood plague has infiltrated the ziggurat of ancient origin, but remarks from Ulene suggest that though Ancient in style, the ziggurat doesn’t seem to have been built by them. Reliably, Adoril cleaves the zombie in two. One thing that we can all agree on is that we kill zombies, well most zombies anyway. Hauther is a land of compromise. These zombies are wearing a Silver Guard uniform. This is odd. Silver Guards should not be able to turn into zombies. Ulene says that she knows nothing about it.
We systematically explore the corridors of the ziggurat. As there are protective wards on the floors of some of the corridors, we are unable to use the wizard eye. We find several small complexes of seven cells. In some of the cells, we find blood plague horrors that are in stasis. It’s an odd collection. Why would the Silver Order want to collect one of each type of horror? Captain Toly cannot explain it; he is very confused. As we don’t know how to open the cells, we decide to continue.
Eventually as we approach one of the gates, we find a person, rather than a zombie, behind one of the gates. The person’s name is Aleyn. After some negotiation, Aleyn opens the gate for us. Aleyn has three other companions, Pen, Rolland, and Oudwin. Pen seems to be a little twitchy. Rolland and Aleyn are well armed and look as though they can handle themselves in the backstreets of Casperia. They are all that is left of the Seekers, the original quest-takers who helped to find magical items for the Silver Order. These men must be over a century old. They are probably insane and should be sequestered. Although Barnabus was a seeker, and Barnabus was a decent man. Perhaps we have found new allies; probably not, but hope springs eternal.
Our new companions lead us to a large room. In the room, there are makeshift quarters, a makeshift training nook, an alchemist lab, and the crated equipment of a blood ritual chamber that used to be on the floor above. A shaft of light originates from the ceiling in the center room. There is a perforated cauldron in the center of the room, hanging by chains six feet off the floor. Dirt fills the cauldron and blood is leaking out of the perforations at the bottom; The blood drips into a collecting pool, which seems to then drain through holes at the bottom, only to be replenished by streams of blood coming in from outlets in the pool walls. Apparently, the blood must flow. In retrospect, another red flag. Ulene wants to know how the blood remains liquid and how the cauldron doesn’t run dry. The seekers are evasive, and that may be for the best because in my judgement, this could be the soil bearing the ever-flowing blood of Calistos Sol! In the meantime, Vallen is preoccupied with some runes on the wall.
The seekers allow us to stay and prepare the ritual that Ulene has planned. We spend much of the evening clearing out all of the alchemy equipment to make room for the ritual area. Oudwin directs us on how to lift and set tables without breaking the delicate alchemical equipment while Pen just frantically grunts and points at everything we do. Then, Ulene and her hench-wizards begin scribing their magical runes and diagrams on the floor. To pass the time, Adoril, Tavin, and Nothur have fun beating on the “indestructible” practice dummy the Order installed for the Seekers. Each time any one of them annihilates the thing with their powerful blows, it bursts into a thousand bits, and the three of them giggle like school children. Then, the dummy reconstitutes itself in a matter of seconds. It’s entertaining if your fighting style relies on clumsy power strikes so favored in Hauther, not the precise and agile style of contemporary swordsmanship. Besides, the dummy doesn’t have eyes.
Rolland is more than happy to give me a tour of their home. Apparently, the Order has done whatever they can to make the Seekers’ existence down here, such as it is, comfortable, but he is still evasive about what they are actually doing down here. They have a kitchenette with a stewpot and kettle similar in magical ability to Nothur’s, so the Seekers can create and eat whatever food they wish without producing smoke. Rolland then shows me their living quarters, which seems as comfortable as military barracks. I suggest that they install hammocks instead for additional comfort, but Rolland just looks at me strangely upon the suggestion. He is most excited about a recent addition: an automatic magical washtub that produces both hot and cold water. I see the tub and recognize it as Sir Jurdi’s Indispensable Washtub, one of the items we lost in the chest Ulene had given us. He explains that the tub has improved their standard of living nearly as much as the “magical crapper” the Order first created for them decades earlier. I am glad to see the tub is getting some good use after all.
The Seekers also have a small shrine to Daeus with some statue of Saint Vidia, the patron saint of succor. They pray to her just before receiving the blood of Calistos Sol, which they drink at least three times a day. As the seekers perform one of these rituals, I see Kai and Yugao eyeing an unexplored corridor. I stand with them and start to stare down the corridor. I stare at the corridor; the corridor stares back at me; I feel a connection. My mind goes white; I am hurtling down the corridor with Kai and Yugao in tow. What will we find? I’m excited. I look behind me and somehow the ladies have been caught in a trap. The pair are suspended in the air. I figure that the others will free them soon enough. I keep going.The path is blocked by a couple of waterfalls of blood. They must be connected to the cauldron and pool above. I turn a couple of values and the blood stops flowing. With the obstacle removed, my connection with the corridor is renewed. I am eager to seek where it leads. Eventually, I get to a door. Behind the door there is a Tall man sitting in a chair and reading a book. Away from my friends I should turn and flee, but I instead questions run through my mind. Who is he? Why is he here? And most importantly of all, what is he reading? Is it a page-turner? He hears my presence and stops reading, his head raising and turning back to me slightly. Then, he stands up and approaches me. He seems pleased to see me, but has that smile Ulene had when we were first dealing with her in Casperia. He tells me that he is Phouthujar, The First. Wait, Phouthujar? The Revenarum bound to Argus Cainon? Here? At that moment, I remember Marie’s words: “The Church and the Revenarum both corrupt the soul.”