Greeting the Dawn - 25/06/2024 - Mendal Recounts

Greeting the Dawn - 25/06/2024 - Mendal Recounts

Nine Is the Magic Number

“No mithril?” The goliath asked as he sat down on the floor next to his fellow housemates who were sitting on chairs. Kavel wanted to finish his workout with some stretches, and also get closer to the conversation..

“Nope. Soon though. Soon,” Mendal said disappointed but with a hint of optimism.

“And what of Elarris? What of Orianna and the rest of the heralds?” the elderly human wizard asked of his dwarf friend.

“Well you can add Elarris into Orianna’s band of big dragon heralds,” Mendal responded to Archie.

Archie’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh intriguing! I believe that makes a set of nine now, if I recall correctly.” He recited the names, “Orianna, Frigus, the daughter of the tabaxi gentleman, Florian, Matches, Henry, Digs, and now Elarris, and… of course, Calla.” The last name was said with a little sadness.

“They have a plan for that one!” Mendal hastened to mention..

“Good,” Archie said, feeling delighted to hear there was hope for Calla. “So there may well be a full set.”

“And your adventure, Mendal?” Kavel asked, as he finished his last stretch, and brought a chair for himself to properly join the others.



That Time Mendal was Expecting a Mithril Delivery

“Well you know how it started, I was picked over you old boy! Wahey! Hahaha!” Mendal said roaringly at his comment that was directed at Archie. The elderly wizard, Archie had found himself in many an archwyrm adventuring party, but this time it was Mendal who was requested, a fact Mendal enjoyed and yet was equally displeased about. “Bloody Elarris though!”

“You thought he had found some mithril?” Kavel stated, but really he was clarifying, he had after all heard Mendal shout at him to come help with bringing in the mithril, but alas; there wasn’t any.

“I did, yes!” Mendal clarified. “Instead Elarris was bringing me more of this archwyrm versus primordial incarnate business, well tangentially anyway. The adventure was more to do with a great big curse on his longsword from a nasty bad dragon. So yeah, I thought I was getting my hands on mithril, and in the end Elarris got something he wanted, Orianna got a tuning fork set for Bytopia, and I got nothing. What a kick in the balls!”

Kavel and Archie shared a smile between them.

“You helped a friend,” Archie offered as an achievement to Mendal’s adventure, “one of your Dawnland Sleigher teammates, too.”

“True,” Mendal said, agreeing with Archie. “But I’ve only made one magical piece of armour so far. I need mithril to make some more amazing gear.”



Mendal Joined The Archwyrm Heralds on a Trip to Bytopia to find a Temple to the Archwrym Eroshira

Mendal went on to explain to his friends how they; Orianna, Frigus, Digs, Elarris and himself planeshifted to the Plane of Bytopia, where Elarris was instructed to go and find the temple to the archwyrm Eroshira, and place a piece of sunstone at the pedestal to her stature in the temple to call on her aid on the matter of his curse.

“We found the temple, and found the statue. I blessed Elarris with divine aid from Moradin, and then everyone pumped him up with fortifying magic protecting spells of their own. Except Digs - he had vanished, and I couldn’t for the life of me tell you when he did that, or where he went; he’s too fast, too stealthy. He’s also still no big fan of bloody great big dragons, despite being a herald himself. Anyway, Elarris, despite the immense amount of shielding magic, divine or otherwise, still had some trepidation about placing a bit of rock on a pedestal. What more did he need? A full set of mithril plate armour? Can’t have that though can he; didn’t bring me any mithril!”

Kavel and Archie both knew it would not be the last time the absent gift of mithril would be mentioned in Mendal’s recounting of his adventure.

“But he got there in the end,” Mendal continued, “Eroshira appeared.”



Mendal Joined The Archwyrm Heralds on a Trip to The Elemental Plane of Radiance to Heal Elarris

Mendal described the brilliant, fully radiant and shimmering expansive gold form of Eroshira as she appeared before the adventurers. Eroshira’s wingspan was longer than two Fort Ettins side by side. Mendal also described Eroshira’s humanoid form that she adopted to better converse with us.

“She was dead fit, boys! And if I was offered the chance to be her Herald there would have been no dilly-dallying from me!”

Mendal went on to describe Eroshira’s assessment that Elarris would have to travel to the Elemental Plane of Radiance for the best chance of reducing the power of his sword’s curse, and wrestle some control over the blade.

The sword was made by Eroshira, Mendal had been impressed by the craftsmanship ever since he first saw it, but Eroshira explained that it has been in the semi-dragolich Malfenian’s hoard for so long, that some of Malfenian’s essence had imbued itself into the sword, and caused it to be cursed. The sword hungers for violence, and Elarris is powerless to follow the sword's urges to strike out at those who try to separate him from the sword, and those too close to him, when striking even an enemy.

Eroshira planeshifted the adventurers to the Plane of Radiance, and offered them her protection from the immense heat and brightness of the Plane itself. Those amongst the party who had been to the Plane of Fire, could see its domain in the distance, as well as other elemental planes.

“Bloody hotter than the Plane of Fire it was!” Mendal complained, “I bet Carric and Nevarra have a special forge on the Plane of Radiance, I bet’cha!” It had been sometime since Mendal had visited either of the two forges that his sentient elven hammers had worked in, on the Plane of Fire. The memories of the oppressive heat of the plane were still fresh in his mind though.

Mendal described the radiant, glass like, blue shimmer to the temple at the centre of the Plane of Radiance, where the adventurers met, Adai, The First Star, one of the Primordial Incarnates allied with the great archwyrms.

Adai and Eroshira instructed Elarris on what would occur when he entered The Healing Pool at the top of the tower, and the pain and struggle that would entail as his body would heal from the wound he gained when he first found the sword, and as the spirit of the dragon inside it wrestled control of his body.

Elarris went through a very painful healing process indeed. Black, evil tendrils lashed out at Elarris, ripping at his skin, tearing into his muscle as the healing power of the pool and Elarris’s force of will together combatted the partial essence of Malfenian, and subdued the spirit. Neither the Healing Pool, nor Elarris’s will could fully rid the curse, but Elarris had now gained dominance.

“Boy did good,” Mendal began explaining. “I was worried for a second he’d be a pansy and barely last thirty seconds in that pool. Earlier, Frigus pumped Elarris up with the Heroism spell just so he could speak properly to his strikingly beautiful archwyrm mummy. But, when Elarris got into the pool, he bit down hard, and wrestled with the bit of Malfenian in his sword, and wrestled some control over the arch-dragolich. The boy did well! He was utterly shagged at the end of it all though. He’d burned out his wick. So, I gave him some medicinal brandy. He’d earned it.”



Mendal Avoided Helping with Preparing a Meal by Showing a Pair of Kobolds his Craft

“Well that’s good. Doesn’t sound completely finished, but Elarris is on the road to progress,” Archie said, sharing his thoughts.

“Yeah,” Mendal said agreeingly, whilst pouring himself a brandy reward for finishing his story. “Obviously Frigus and Digs were here for a bit, little barefoot kobold footprints over the floor. I had to show them the tribute statue I made to Valdira. I’d shown Orianna and Elarris it earlier, obviously. Bringing the kobolds over also meant I didn’t have to help in the kitchen. Haha!”

“How kind of you,” Archie commented sarcastically.

“I brought a bottle of wine from the house back to Orianna, what?” Was Mendal’s defence.

“From my collection?” Archie enquired.

Ignoring the question, Mendal brought up something else that came to his mind. “Oh! Did either of you see Digs’s studded leather armour? I made that!” Mendal was delighted he remembered this. “Obviously it’s not magical, but I made the brigandine with a little of Moradin’s artisanal blessing and a whole lot of my brilliant craftsmanship; so it’s awesome nevertheless. Another fine MVCC (Mendal Vultan Clan Crafter) work is now out there in the world!”

But then the triumph and optimism in Mendal’s voice suddenly lowered, “although, you know, I’m not sure Digs is going to be much good for advertising my work? He’s two and a bit feet tall and always skulking about. So he’s hard to notice normally, and he makes it doubly hard on purpose! Bloody hell! Where are my promised mithril ingots! Bloody Elarris! He’s got a powerful sword and a hot dragon mum, and he says he’s cursed - not likely! I’m the most talented craftsman in the Dawnlands and I can’t build my reputation!”