What the Starlight Reveals - 14/09/2023 - Archie’s Extracts
Sept 16, 2023 23:24:02 GMT
Orianna Èirigh likes this
Post by Andy D on Sept 16, 2023 23:24:02 GMT
On Family Heritage
My friend and academy colleague, Orianna had asked for my assistance with a matter she described, summarised below:
- A month ago, she found her missing father, Rimmon, in a part of the desert between Harnash and the Dawnlands known as the Scorching Badlands.
- The party, at the time, came face to face with an ancient and powerful frost elemental, Aberrax, who has kidnapped Orianna’s other father, her dad.
- Orianna spoke to an ancient archwyrm, Stellarum, who is connected to her family, and is also part of how Orianna has her specific, celestial druidic abilities.
- Orianna’s dad was to be Stellarum’s herald. The herald status is to pass to Orianna.
- Aberrax’s followers are trying to destabilise the balance across the realms and let chaos rule.
- Orianna has had a vision of a staff in the desert. The staff of the herald of Stellarum.
- Orianna wishes to retrieve the staff.
Hearing of the danger to our realm and others, was reason enough to help Orianna obtain the staff. I took little time responding to Orianna’s letter that I would of course assist her to my best abilities.
There were other facts to account for relating to the wider context of the situation my friend found herself within:
- My new adventuring acquaintance, Mr. ‘Matches’ a human like myself, but with draconic scales on parts of his body, (one suspects a sorcerous origin to those scales) is a herald to another archwyrm, Vulcanax. Orianna and Matches appear to have bonded over their similar situations and now consider each other cousins.
- Rimmon, Orianna’s father is alive and well, staying with Orianna. As a small aside, he cooks a delightful omelette. One of Orianna’s guests should, however, learn not to feel challenged by all questions directed at them - said person’s omelette was too spicy for them, and this was evident to all, despite said person’s denial.
On the subject of family heritage, I myself come from a fairly wealthy family. My eldest sister runs our family estate. As one of the younger siblings, I was free from the heaviest of familial responsibilities and was able to indulge my scholarly interests from a young age. My sister is happy with her responsibilities and life, but was never really free to choose her path. As I have enjoyed my life choices, even when they bring me challenges, the absence of choice for my sister saddens me a little.
If one were to find in their ancestry not just responsibility for the family, but a predestined responsibility to the world, then this path and its lack of choice, could be even more despiriting, if one had other desires in life.
I would not wish the status of herald on Orianna and Matches myself. As they have little choice, it seems, I do hope that it is a responsibility they desire and/or feel a vocation towards.
On the Versatility of a Good Adventuring Party
A journey to a location in the desert could take days, and even when we arrived at broadly the right location, pinpointing where exactly in a mile radius the staff was located could be like finding a needle in a haystack. A varied collection of talents were required to; make the journey safely, ideally quickly, and most importantly to obtain the staff. Orianna chose her party well.
After using Portal Plaza’s teleportation circle to arrive at Trecorvum, my new acquaintance, Florian - a halfling druid - summoned several giant eagles for us to manage the journey across the desert in record time. In addition, the eagles saved us the challenge of coping with the energy-draining desert sun, for the majority of our time exposed.
Pablo, the giant eagle I mounted, provided an extremely steady and comfortable ride. The seating and stability was not suitable for reading though, which was a shame given the long hour we spent in flight, and the distance between each eagle made it different to converse. The flight was, as well, a non-smoking one, to Matches dismay. A small discomfort for the pair of us, but nothing about which I would raise an objection with Pablo. In fact, I would gladly recommend Air-Pablo to other adventurers blessed to find Florian in their party.
I could in fact write greatly on the versatility of druidic magic, which, if I’m not mistaken, I already have done before! Florian provided not only safe transport, but also a direction to head in, thanks to a ritual spell that gave us guidance as to which direction was best.
When the limits of the summoning spell were reached, and we had to settle on the sandy ground, Beets provided us with aerial scouting, which brought us towards a stone pillar in the desert. With no more eagle flight to alleviate our bodies from the blistering heat with the wind rushing by us as we flew, had Beets not located the pillar, we could have wandered around in the heat for far too long. Fortunately, our total walking time in the heat of the desert was reduced considerably, by eagles and good scouting.
The pillar stood some fifteen to twenty feet tall. It seemed to me that the pillar would be a marker of sorts for an entrance underneath the sand. I set my investigative mind to the task of discovering if I was right, blessed with magical guidance courtesy of Florian, and several gods that Florian, I believe, had runic symbols for all over himself. (A choice selection of gods, I might add. Nevertheless, I was grateful for the guidance).
I was able to discover steps down towards an entranceway. Florian’s magical expertise came in handy again along with Orianna’s own druid magic and Beets’ impressive physical strength. It was not long before we had cleared our entranceway of sand, and Orianna’s use of the Locate Object spell confirmed that we were in the right location for the staff, despite some magical interference, I believe, surrounding the staff for its own protection.
Orianna’s summoning of an earth elemental to assist in clearing the sand, and Florian’s summongings, reminded me that I ought to give more consideration towards learning more summoning spells myself. After all, the Summon Undead spell, with its available selection of undead variants has served me well in the past. I do, though, tend to favour spells with multiple applications. I am, case in point, rather fond of the versatility of the Bigby’s Hand spell, which - speaking of versatility - Bigby’s Hand made for an excellent, magical shovel when clearing the sand.
More druidic magic was needed during the excavation, though this was to alleviate Matches from a terrible exhaustive state, brought about by drinking the entire, cold contents of a magical replenishing cocktail in the terrible heat. I did not envy Matches' state, he was none too fond of flying, and then in an attempt to seek comfort post flying - and respite from the heat - he caused further problems for himself. No envy at all - except maybe the ownership of one of these magical, replenishing cocktails I have heard so much about.
The Shrine to the Staff
Despite my extensive reading, I was unfamiliar with what I was trying to read of the runes inside the shrine. Everything concerned an unknown civilisation it seemed. I enquired with Orianna, but she was quite distracted with the weight she felt from the decision whether to accept the duty of Stellarum’s herald. This weight had been apparent since we arrived in Trecorvum.
There was a central pillar, this time indoors, to investigate. Florian blessed both Orriana and I with enhanced intellectual capacity with the Fox’s Cunning Enhance Ability spell. Additionally, I magically empowered Orianna’s already considerable knowledge of nature. Together we tackled the task of understanding what lay before us.
Orianna determined that there was a secret passage that we would not have access to, until starlight covered the runes of the pillar. We waited until evening, and starlight provided us with the key to our invisible door, so to speak, another underground entrance.
We had to descend a now apparent hole in the ground to gain entrance to a hidden corridor to another chamber. The task and a later moment provided an interesting contrast in druidic abilities between my two druid companions. Oriana is able to command a considerable amount of starlight in various forms much as if starlight is plant matter or earth. Whereas Florian’s fondness for summoning creatures, and his very impressive spiritual fire-bear gives me the impression of being a shepherd to nature.
A Small Word on the Spells Enhance Ability and Skill Empowerment
These are tremendous spells. I often make use of both spells throughout the day, whether I am adventuring or not. Of course, enhancing one's intellect if performing an intellectual task, carries obvious benefits.
But, it should not go unnoticed that developing one's own intellect without magical enhancement, would then make skill boosting magic able to empower you more greatly than if your intellect was initially not up to task. Afterall, the two spells can only work with the base intellect that they’re enhancing. Or, in the case of ‘Bull’s Strength’ or Athletic Empowerment; those spells can do very well on me, a human. But think how better those spells would enhance one, if one was a competitive athlete? The difference would be far greater. I feel young wizards, (and old ones too, to be fair) often forget this.
Additionally - though the two spells can be terribly beneficial, if you are not careful, you can find yourself using all your magical reserves on said spells, leaving nothing left for the day.
Witnessing the Vows of the Herald
A humanoid statue guarded the next door in the second underground chamber. When asked who could gain access to the door being guarded, we were informed; the Wyrm Queen or her herald. Abin Sur, the stone guardian, let us pass when Orianna said she was the herald. Although, in order for Abin Sur to physically allow us passage, Abin Sur had to move himself, and unfortunately many years remaining stationary had resulted in nature taking its course and resulted in many vines growing around his lower half, locking him in position. Matches used his fire sorcery to burn away the vines entangling Abin Sur. Freed, Abin Sur opened the new door for us that was unlockable only by his hands..
Inside the guarded room, the room appeared bigger than it seemed possible. The dome-like ceiling depicted the many constellations of the sky, and surrounding a wide circular platform where the staff of Stellarum was positioned in the centre, was an enormous marble depiction of Sterllarum, the archwyrm herself.
The diamond staff was a short walk away. It had not been clear to Orianna what being the herald of Stellarum actually entails, nor why her dad declined the herald position. These questions, understandably, weighed heavily on Orianna, and it was a much more pressing matter for her now with the staff in front of her eyes. Before, the staff’s whereabouts were imprecisely known, and Orianna’s questions must have felt less pressing. Now, with the staff before us, decisions would have to be made.
The rest of us did not feel it was suitable for us to join Orianna as she walked across the bridge towards the circular platform. Such an act felt instinctively improper. Florian, however, summoned forth their totem fire bear to accompany Orianna, so that Orianna had some support. The bear spirit invigorated us all.
Before beginning her walk towards the staff, Orianna took the time to thank us all for joining her.
The staff would not move when Orianna wrapped her hands around it. But her touching of the staff caused the marble representation of Sterllarum to emit a shining light. Stars in the ceiling above blinked into existence as well, as an avatar of the archwyrm flew out of the marble, and then transformed into a humanoid avatar, and joined Orianna. Sterllarum was able to move the staff, as she picked it up, and then greeted Orianna, and they talked about the responsibility of being herald, and the oath that must be taken.
Orianna was ready, and she took the oath. Orianna took the oath; to guard her home, to protect those lost in the night, to guide those that drift in the starlight, and to be the herald of the Wyrm Queen, and bring starlight and authority wherever she went.
Stellarum gave the staff to Orianna, and she could now hold the staff comfortably. Orianna herself underwent some physical changes; her horns appeared to reflect starlight greater than before, and the scale pattern on parts of Orianna’s skin also appeared to glisten with the stars shining above us. A new, small, diamond-like pattern appeared on Orianna’s forehead that was similar to the starburst sapphire we saw on Abin Sur’s chest and the entrance to the chamber.
Stellarum rewarded the rest of us with diamonds each for helping her herald, or her daughter, as she also put it.
There was one more boon for Orianna, which she asked for, and for which I was previously unaware of the issue that gave need for the boon - Stellarum removed the magic that was preventing Orianna from talking about where she comes from, where she calls home.
It was a privilege to watch my friend and academy colleague take her vows. I am aware of the importance of her status as herald, and am glad to see a responsible person as Orianna take up the position. I wish her the best and hope to see her excel as herald.