A Time to Gather - 16/08/2022 - A Kavel Perspective

Somewhere in Daring Heights…

“Why is everyone late?” I heard from a familiar, perturbed sounding voice.

It was comrade Sterling, my; sharp-tongued, always-exasperated, halfling, artificer friend. I saw he had his homunculus dog-cannon with him. I remembered when I last saw him, months ago now, he demonstrated its explosive power by blasting the side of a cave wall, as part of a sales pitch. I wasn’t sure why he thought people were late. I had just returned from Silvia’s house, and as far as I could tell I was no more late getting here than he was.


Silvia You Say?

The letter I received was no lie! I rushed over to Silvia’s house half expecting to be greeted by Sorrel, because the reality is I saw Silvia disintegrated before me. Reality is, however, a funny thing when magic is involved.

I gave Silvia the biggest bear hug I could - she was both pleased and a little aggrieved by the force. There was false concern that if I didn’t let up, I’d be responsible for her death a second time. I made a mental note to adjust my squeeze pressure for next time.

It was amazing to see Silvia talking, moving and simply breathing. It was wonderful to see my sister, Sorrel happy too. I was pleased for them both. I wanted to do something for Silvia as she was taking time to get back on her feet. Death, to be fair, is probably the greatest of wounds to recover from. I mentioned I was a fully proficient carpenter now. Silvia mentioned she could do with some shelves in her kitchen. So, I went out to get some supplies, and that’s when I ran into my always irritated halfling friend…


The Adventurer’s Siren

It was bound to happen. Now that comrade Sterling and I were standing together, the unseen beacon that brought adventurers together had been lit and would attract other adventurers towards us like moths to a flame. I held off on any poses - I was keen to see what a team of non-thicc-bois would consist of. Sterling and I talked about helping Prime Navara on the Galavir Council solve their mysterious appearing rock problem. I had experience with suddenly appearing rocks, and you need magic-users. So, I put a hold on the poses, and let the gathering beacon bring me magic-users…


The Inevitable Gathering of Adventurers

Comrades Dwirhian, Amble, and new comrade Will answered the call. To be fair, I should have expected comrade Dwirhian, my tall, silver elf friend. When I bumped into her the other day, she did mention something about her hometown on the other side of the Sunset Spine, Galavir. Galavir was also where the Turning Fields villagers went.

Sterling was in a rush to get going, he felt we were late enough by his reckoning.

“Dwirhian! I didn’t get the chance to ask you the other day; how have you been? I haven’t seen you since Trecorvum. Have you been back since?” Sterling was in a rush; I, however, was not. I then asked comrade Amble, my gnome wizard friend, if he still had his mask from the Damphenite Tangle - turns out I misremembered; it was Cyclone who had a mask. To be fair, I was not engaged with festivities in the same way as my comrades that day - I was taking part in a more private festivity. Enough said.

I asked comrade Sterling how he has been. I had not seen him for many months. I last saw my artificer comrade in Port Ffirst when we infiltrated The Breakers. Turns out I was very lucky not to receive one of the Umberlee coins from The Breakers’ leader, since they were cursed.

Lastly, there was my new comrade, Will, a human man with shoulder length black hair, and a water spirit lady on his shoulder. Will gave me vibes of comrade Sparks minus the feathers, but also a hint of comrade Dwirhian. I suppose also, maybe I had a hint of him, what with the small lady on his shoulder? Although, I don’t think Nathalie would sit on my shoulder so ornamentally, if she was my girlfriend. Would she come to the prime material?

Anyway, the gathering of non-thicc adventurers was a success. The beacon of two always works.


Quick Travel Outpoles Walking to Galavir

We discussed how to travel to Galavir, a two day walk. Galavir did not have a dedicated teleportation circle, so teleportation accuracy was questionable. Sterling was not happy with the possibility of an increased likelihood of teleporting far from our objective. Sterling was outvoted though, and to all our delight, on the operator's second attempt at reaching Galavir, we arrived right outside the Galavir Council building.


Galavir

To our left was the vast Pearly Lake. Marigolds of various colours decorated the shore. There were many dilapidated buildings in a state of repair, and most of the people here were elves like Dwirhian - with the exception of the Turning Field villagers, who I was pleased to see had arrived here well.

We met Prime Navara, a 600 year old elf lady, who was one of six people running the council. She seemed very busy. She made the time for us to explain the situation with people having strange visions near the Pearly Lake, and the towers of rocks appearing all over the mountain paths. These cairns of rocks, when looking on a map, were situated ten minutes walk away from each other, in the pattern of a circle around the village and lake. Prime Navara offered us 150gp each if we could discover what was causing the formation of the cairns and what they meant. I noted that Dwirhian’s people pay well!

I saw Safi playing with the Turning Field children, and said hello. Dwirhian was familiar with the magical, talking fox too. Safi waved a paw at both of us.

We walked around the town before heading up to the mountain paths. Lots of dragon decorations on buildings. Murals and such. Some sort of stained glass lights decorated places like the dancing stage on the shore.


Dwirhian’s History Recap

Comrade Dwirhian filled us in on what has been happening in Galavir recently. She mentioned she asked one of our more academic comrades to do some research for her - this is how I do research too! - apparently the lake visions may not be random. Dwirhian mentioned that Safi’s orb was now in the Pearly Lake, so maybe that has something to do with the visions? - it did make Safi able to talk in Common, after all. Dwirhian also mentioned that the windows and lights we were seeing around town that looked amazing were made from fairy dragon wings that were washing up on shore.

Comrade Will is either a more experienced adventurer than his age betrays, or just extremely knowledgeable. Will asked - or was it his water spirit partner? - if the marid (genie type) had been dealt with. I had no idea what this was. But, Dwirhian explained that the elves here have lived in Galavir for generations. Adventurers turned up a few years before my time and discovered that the village was created by a marid for his own entertainment. Elf souls, it seems, go to some special place, but the galaviran elfs’ souls were going to the lake, where the marid was diverting them, so he could watch their memories for entertainment. The adventurers fought the marid, and freed the souls.

“Was your soul captured in the lake, comrade? Have you been dead?” I asked.

Dwirhian explained that she is aware that much older elves do remember their past lives, but at the moment she doesn’t recall anything, but presumes she must have been trapped in the lake at one point.

“Ask me when I’m 500,” Dwirhian said with a wry smile.

“Ha, ha!” My comrade made me laugh, “Okay then. If I reach 500 years old, I will ask you!” I responded in kind.

“Deal!”


The Mountain Paths

Up some narrow paths, it was a half day walk to the nearest of the unexplained, stone structures we could find.

There in front of us was a pretty good, five feet high cairn of rocks. Will sensed a bit of magic in the air - I presumed this meant he could cast Detect Magic like comrade Derthaad. But, no magic was picked up from the rocks themselves. Sterling carefully touched the well-stacked pile of rocks and casted the Identify spell - nothing. I took a good look with my eyes and noted that the rocks were quite smooth, adding to the impressiveness of the stack. These rocks looked polished by water and minerals. These were not reddish Sunset stones, they were from the streams, and maybe even the lake? There was a second structure nearby as well.

Sterling gave my insight some consideration, and then took his giant wrench from off his back and swung it into the centre of the first cairn. The rock pile tumbled over and spread out on the road.

Will double checked, he said there was definitely abjuration magic in the air. Abjuration magic, if I remember correctly, is protection magic? I think the magic-users have told me that the Shield spell is from the abjuration school.
Amble casted the Alarm spell on the now rubble of rocks. We agreed to go find another cairn nearby, and Amble’s Alarm spell would warn us if anyone approached the rubble while we were gone. We wanted to see if we could catch someone re-stacking the rocks in our absence. Dwirhian was keen to solve the matter, and in particular take it off of Prime Navara’s plate, since she was quite busy and stressed.

Will suggested we take some of the rubble with us too. I unfolded my hammock and started piling some of the rubble onto my hammock. Sterling opened a small sack and threw it over the top of the second cairn, and I watched as the sack fell to the ground absorbing all of the second cairn into it. Sterling picked up the sack like it weighed nothing. Hmmm. A magic sack, it’s actually quite impressive. In response, I shrugged and tipped the rubble I had on my hammock off, and re-tied my hammock, and packed it away.

Amble sent his owl familiar up to scout for a new cairn. This was a task that would be easy for the owl. It’s not like these rock structures were hiding, and according to the map we had; there were many of them. Owl came back and shrugged its wings… I may have to rethink whether it's important to always have at least one Familiar in a party. We walked up along the path to go find a cairn ourselves.


Owls Are Rock Blind

We walked over some uneven terrain for only a few minutes before we found another unexplained cairn. As we got to what appeared to be somehow invisible to owl eyes, Amble turned around on Stiffy and told us his Alarm spell had just gone off!

Dwirhian, just like I remembered, had some deceptively powerful legs. My native elf friend took the lead sprinting over difficult terrain back down the path towards the two rock structures we left behind us. I was following close by.

We all stood around the rubble of the first cairn. The second cairn spot, which was empty because Sterling had all those rocks in his magical sack; was still empty. The rubble in front of us, the spot of the first cairn, was now arranged in the form of a rabbit…

There was no one around. I helped Will look for tracks. There were vague humanoid footprints. I asked Amble if his owl could see a fleeing or hidden humanoid from above. Amble sent his owl up. Amble’s owl came back down and shrugged its wings for the second time. Owls are now people blind, it seems. It was time to take matters into my own hands.


Goliath Goes Rock Climbing

Somebody needed to get to a vantage point to look around. The owner of the tracks must be around here somewhere. I pulled out my chalk block, rubbed it against my palms. I went up to the cliff face, dug my fingers into the wall, creating my own hand holds, and began scaling the mountain.

A few minutes later, and a few goliath-made handholds later, I was a hundred feet up. I turned around to have a look. I couldn’t see very well. I might have to concede that Amble’s owl wasn’t useless. “It’s too misty up here! Can you hear me, comrades?!”
I started to climb down. Near the bottom, I reached for one of my Kavel-made handholds and was a little confused with how out of place it was. I reached for it anyway, but my fingers couldn’t find the hole, and I had already shifted my weight - that was a bad idea. I completely lost my grip and fell down the mountain the rest of the way. It was a little painful, but not very. More embarrassing than anything.

I complained that something weird happened as I climbed down. My comrades seemed to think I was making up a story to cover my carelessness. I guess to humour me, Will casted Detect Magic again, but he found Illusion magic over the Kavel-made handheld I missed. Ha! I was right!

Amble sent his owl up to listen this time for any movement. The owl heard something round the corner - well done owl!

Amble casted Invisibility on Dwirhian, Sterling and I. We moved invisibly to intercept the hidden rock bunny artist.


A Brass Art Feature Suddenly Appears

We turned the corner to find a brass statue of a humanoid male clothed in rags that appeared to be designed for a more female form. The brass statue also wore a wry smile as it posed in a pensive position. Very interesting.

Still invisible, I went up to the statue and tapped its shoulder. The statue’s head turned to face me, and it said, “hi!”

We dropped our invisibilities as it was clear the brass man could see us, and the others joined us.

The brass man owned up to the cairns being his work. He smiled with interest asking us what happened to the cairn we knocked over - he of course knew what happened, he made a bunny out of them.

“The science experiment worked, we found him!” Sterling began, “a brass man? Right pin him down, so I can open his brain and find out how it works!”

“Buy me dinner first,” the brass man joked.

“What do you eat?” I asked.

“I don’t know… what do you have?” The brass man responded with a grin that never seemed to leave his face.


Metaphorical Stuff and Who Do Ideas/Stories Belong To?

Ethelex, the brass man hurt my brain a little, as if he was hitting me with psychic pain, but in truth he was merely responding to our questions in vagaries and concepts, and I was admittedly not good at following. Sterling is very smart, but we needed a Glint right then. But, we did have a Dwirhian, one of the most level headed, and calm comrades I know.

From what I gathered, Ethelex wanted to erect these cairns around Galavir and its lake (it was not clear if the village or the Pearly Lake was the centre of the stone structures) to protect it from hungry, powerful creatures. The stone structures would offer protection by hiding Galavir, so the hungry ones would pass over it. The hungry ones would eat the ‘stuff’ otherwise and grow more powerful. The ‘stuff’, which belonged to Ethelex, were people’s stories, except he meant ownership in a way I didn’t understand. But, it didn’t seem to me to suggest he was stealing the stories, and the memories. Again, this was all fluffy philosophical stuff that Glint would understand better. But, I think I got the basic concept.

Dwirhian, took the lead in trying to draw understanding from Ethelex. Will was able to communicate a little better with Ethelex in a draconic tongue, to help our comprehension of what Ethelex wanted to convey. Ehtelex felt he could not express his concepts very well in Common. Will also casted Zone of Truth, and Ethelex intentionally allowed himself to be influenced by the magic. Between Dwirhian and Will, it seemed we made some progress. Sterling’s contribution to the diplomacy was to hold up a magical weapon to Ethelex’s face and threaten Ethelex that the only option he had was to come down to the village and explain himself to Prime Navara.

Dwirhian’s level headedness was being tested at this moment. She insisted that we do our best to solve this situation ourselves and bring a solution back to Prime Navara; not another problem. Comrade Will’s own reserves around this time appeared tapped. I believe he had exhausted all his magical ideas, and he then resorted to making sarcastic comments at further confusing explanations made by Ethelex. Dwirhian began to be impatient and frustrated with the lack of seriousness and appreciation for the villagers' perspective that Ethelex failed to show. Ethelex’s confusing explanation of ‘stuff’ did echo back to Dwirhian’s story about the Galaviran souls being trapped in the lake for a marid’s amusement. To be fair to Dwirhian, Ethelex appeared to be carelessly ignorant of the parallel. Dwirhian tried her best to convey all this as diplomatically as she could, but the frustration was evident, and Ethelex’s perma-grin was beginning to appear less permanent, as Dwirhian carried on.

To make matters more confusing, Ethelex pointed out to us the pile of rocks in the shape of a young dragon that was now standing behind us...


Ethelex: Good or Bad for Galavir?

It also turned out that Ethelex brought the magical orb from the Turning Fields to Galavir and placed it in the lake - I was certain this then made Ethelex a force for good, and we could verify with Safi as a character witness. Why? Ethelex mentioned he talks with Safi, but refuses to make himself known to the villagers, as then it would be less fun - later when the smile dropped a little, he would make the point that people aren’t so welcoming in his experience.

Dwirhian tried one last time to clarify what Ethelex was doing here. Ethelex did manage to convey that he’s definitely not taking people’s souls like in Dwirhian’s marid story.

Ethelex mentioned the young dragon behind us was not imprisoned in stone, the dragon had casted a transmutation spell on itself in defence of us - it was scared of us for some reason. Will casted dispel magic on the young dragon. We now saw a sapphire wyrmling, its front paw was bizarrely much larger than the rest of its adolescent body, but also withered. The dragon hissed at Will. Ethelex comforted the dragon, whose name was Keltigern. I asked about the paw, Ethelex said the hungry ones did that.

By this point, I believed I was the only one satisfied that Ethelex, though confusing (and responsible for me missing my handhold on the cliff!), was a good person and we should help him finish the cairns. Afterwards we could all get something to eat. I told Sterling he could lower the weapon now. Thankfully he obliged, but no one else was convinced that we had enough evidence to truly believe everything Ethelex had told us. Ethelex by this point had had enough of Dwirhian’s insistence that he offer reassurance to the villagers before embarking on this protection circle that is worrying the townsfolk, when he had no intention of making himself known to them. Ethelex vanished.

It could have ended worse, I supposed.

“Can anyone heal this frightened young dragon?” I asked, hoping to help the dragon, and get a win here at the end. Will volunteered to cast Healing Word. I have seen other comrades use that spell. Calming magical sounds travel from the casters mouth to the intended target and cause magical healing..

Will’s jaw distended horribly as an awful, magical scream emitted from his mouth towards Keltigern. The dragon bolted afterwards, and sadly its paw was not affected by the healing spell.

“Comrade! Your Healing Word is terrible!” I said admonishing Will. With Keltigern gone, we would not be able to confirm whether the accumulation of dragon fairy wings in town were due to the hungry ones attacking them.


Back to see Prime Navara

Prime Navara was fortunately pleased to hear we had discovered something, even if we could not establish much of anything we found with certainty. She paid us our 150gp each. The council said they would try to corroborate with Safi about Ethelex. Dwirhian wanted to stay for this, so did I. But, I wanted to get back and do some work for Silvia, and put some time in at the gym towards my heavy squat training. Also, I think it was about time to see if my sister would like to come to the Damphenite Tangle with me to go meet Nathalie. After one ‘session’ it is fine to introduce your sister to someone, right?