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[5E] The Age of Worms - Solid Snake's Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="SolidSnake_01" data-source="post: 7488562" data-attributes="member: 63254"><p><strong>Egan's Journal: Return to the Cairn</strong></p><p></p><p>When the heroes left Diamond Lake almost a month ago, Egan had a clear path. He wanted to search the cairns to find out the source of their magic. And, in doing so, either learn their meaning and make peace with it, or find a greater purpose that could lead him forward. He was affected by his sisters death, but was a fatalist at heart. For him, there was a reason she died in the Whispering Cairn, and he felt like it was to lead him there. The path of deal-making with a devil was not something that made him proud, but, driven by helplessness and guilt, he knew there was a reason for that as well. After renouncing the devil’s power, and ultimately running off the pursuers, he returned to the only other path he knew, hard work and study.</p><p></p><p>Albeit, far from hard, he had some gold from his recent adventures, and a place to stay in Diamond Lake, he still had no leads and little help with his arcane investigation. He had to turn to Allustan once again and make amends. </p><p></p><p>The reunion was not unfriendly, and Allustan had relied on Egan before to investigate the Cairn with some success. The sorcerer quickly regained a working relationship with Allustan and put his mind to work on some of the ancient writings. After a few days of repetitive head-banging and dead-end texts, Egan and Allustan headed into the Cairn itself to look. </p><p></p><p>Much as before, the Cairn whispered ancient words of the Wind Dukes, making a endless monologue of seemingly meaningless sound to the untrained ear. Allustan bestowed a spell of comprehension to Egan, and the two went to work observing the various runes and writings. Egan led the elder wizard to the hidden burial chamber, and even the the rooms where he found his sister in eternal sleep. The two uncovered some information that had been overlooked before, but the mechanical blockages of the tunnels were more than they could handle.</p><p></p><p>A day later, and with a small pot of gold dispensed with the dwarven mining team from the lakeside mining town, the teacher and pupil had returned to move some debris. After extensive clearing of some of the collapsed tunnels, Egan uncovered a message referring to a book, a codex more specifically, of the ancient Wind Dukes. Later that day, an altar was uncovered from another collapsed area. Neither human dared interact with it. In fact, Allustan placed a wizard’s ward on it to alert him if it was used, and he sealed the chamber with another ward. </p><p></p><p>The dwarf team camped inside the entryway to the Cairn, and Egan worked late into the night, studying the runes of the architect’s quarters. Within another day, most of the debris had been cleared. The broken elevators were beyond the dwarven team’s skills, but Egan secretly vowed to get them working again. The flooded section remained submerged, and the team had yet to be able to fully examine it.</p><p></p><p>As the sun set on the third day in the Cairn, Egan found himself dozing off in the architect’s quarters. He had arranged the sparse furniture to make a cot-like bed, and had even tried to keep the room warm enough to rest in. Allustan had said the orange substance that seemed to seep from the central feeding trough was safe to eat, but Egan wasn’t sure. He was weary though, and laziness overcame him. He dipped a finger into the orange goo, then tasted it. It was sour, something like yeast but more like citrus too. A couple of handfuls later, he felt quite full. After burping loudly and appreciating the echo, he lay down on the stone cot and drifted off to sleep.</p><p></p><p>As he rested, he dreamed. An armored figure came to him and granted him a boon. The armor was ancient and covered in runes, much the guardians of the resting places of the Dukes of Aqua’a. He stood from his cot and followed the armored specter to a mural. A wall of stone depicting a duke handing a book to a diminutive air elemental. He followed the specter as the mural changed and shifted. The small elemental carried the book to another wall with a stone basin and deposited it above the basin. From there, the basin flowed with a strange luminous water. The specter motioned to the basin and spoke a word: Drink.</p><p></p><p>Egan nodded and complied, extending his hands first then submerging his face in the cold luminous flow. As he did, he woke, coughing and sputtering as his face was soaking wet. Realizing suddenly that he was no longer in his sleeping chamber, he jumped back from the water before him. Luckily the dwarves had placed ever-burning torches at each room, and the dim, bluish glow flickered across the now-rippling pool before him.</p><p></p><p>The room was part of the Cairn that had not been fully repaired yet. Flooded by some unknown source, Egan and Allustan, had left this part for a later date. Egan knew he was here for a reason though. Something was hidden in that water that he needed to find. A book and a basin, perhaps more. </p><p></p><p>Steeling himself against the cold chill of the water, he waded in, taking the magical torch with him. A few brief dives revealed some more runic language, which he was beginning to recognize but still could not read without Allustan’s magical ward. He followed some similar runes to ones he had seen above in the burial room. After a point though, he could no longer hold his breath, and he had to emerge, empty-handed but with a purpose.</p><p></p><p>The next day, he brought his team to the flooded space. Allustan suspected an underground spring with a failed pipe, but the dwarves disagreed. A couple spells later and Egan was breathing water and reading the runes easily. He followed them to a niche in the wall, much like the dream, it was a small basin, likely once used for drinking.</p><p></p><p>He inspected it quickly, though found nothing. He mimicked the motion of submerging his head in the font. As he did, some hidden force grasped his head and held him there, forcing him into a flow of water that rose from the basin, almost as if it were trying to drown him while already underwater. The grasp initially startled him, but he knew he could not drown with Allustan’s magic. </p><p></p><p>Instinctively, he tried to push himself free, but was unable to break the grasp. His hands began searching the edges of the basin, feeling the cracks, the edges, the divets. His eyes were stuck looking into the basin, and so his other senses took over. After a few minutes, he began to feel a bit trapped. Surely Allustan would come into the water after him, but what if he didn’t? What if the dwarves led the old wizard down another tunnel to check for pipes?</p><p></p><p>Instead of panicking, which he was prone to do, he thought of his sister. She always told Egan to not believe everything that he saw. Mustering all his nerve, he calmly let go. He stopped fighting the pull, and his body floated, weightless, like a leaf on the wind. As he drifted, he felt the flow of the water on his face, passing upwards, as if a fountain, then catching the edges of the font and swirling away. Without thinking, he let his hands stroke the stone, following the flow.</p><p></p><p>Something clicked above him, a small drawer, or slot, opened. He still could not see it, but he raised his hands and gingerly felt the edges of a rectangular slot in the wall. Sliding his fingers ever so gently into the space, he felt air in the pocket, as if the water was being expelled. Reaching further, his hands clasped onto a small rectangular shape, a book! Unsure if it was trapped or magically warded, he feared to move it. Moments passed as he contemplated his predicament.</p><p></p><p>Finally, without any other real resolve, his fatalist took over. He felt it was a sign, and if he found this book, then he was to use is. He grasped the edges and pulled it free from the nook. As he did, he felt his body suddenly surrounded by a bubble of air. The hidden watery grasp, vanished and he breathed in a warm, fresh breath.</p><p></p><p>Raising his torch, he looked at the font, realizing now that there was a pattern to the decorations that his hands had followed, and a small cubby for a book. In his hand lay a silvered tome, small enough to fit into a large pocket and not very thick. It was decorated with scrollwork that looked like wisps of air, storm clouds and a series of interlocking circles on the front. Indeed, this was the codex from his dream.</p><p></p><p>Elated, he swam back to the encampment to discuss his find with Allustan. Upon returning, the older wizard was busy with assessing an aqueduct that was seemingly not draining. Just as Egan had feared, they might not have come back for him if the spell had worn out while he was underwater A quick private discussion led the two men aside to explore the tome.</p><p></p><p>Allustan determined that the tome was a relic of the Wind Dukes and that it likely had belonged to the architect of the Cairns. Within were many writings in the elemental language of the Aurans. The tome, though small, expanded magically when opened, and the pages extended well beyond the original size. A quick glance showed that there were theories of magic as well as the lore of the many planes. Truthfully, the knowledge was an explanation of many phenomena based on the elemental properties of air and gases.</p><p></p><p>Deeper into the tome, they discovered some minor spells that had been recorded and a series of rituals. Being untrained in such magic Egan relied on Allustan to explain it. Within an hour or two, the dwarven team was ready to move back to their campsite to rest for the day while the two pored over the codex. Late into the night Allustan studied, and when Egan woke from a drifting sleep, he found the old man likewise snoring over the book.</p><p></p><p>Egan took the codex and hid it in his belt and slept once more. As he slept, he dreamed of a great circle of 5 rings with lines interlocking. He dreamt that he traced them out, and stood above them reading from the book. He did not understand the words, but, placing his hand on the nape his neck, he raised the codex in a final gesture and felt enveloped by light and the rush of wind. A silence followed, and he dreamed of his sister alive, watching from the gaping door of the Cairn, looking unusually calm and not alone. She was surrounded by figures, clad in flowing robes with indistinct features, each singing softly in whispering voice of the wind.</p><p></p><p>He woke with Allustan shaking him. Around the camp, there were lines on the dusty floor, circles within circles. Allustan waved a hand and cast a spell, then coughed aloud. The faint blue glow of a magical aura began to emanate from Egan once again. The small man looked at the room, quite the same as he remembered from his dream, and felt a sense of calm, of home. He turned to survey the floor and, as he did, Allustan mumbled under his breath. The older wizard touched Egan’s nape of his neck and a crackle of electricity could be heard in the cave. Both men jumped.</p><p></p><p>With a look of astonishment in his eye, Allustan conjured a small mirror for Egan to look. On the nape of his neck, five rings, interlocked, were darkly tattooed on his skin. Indeed, as he wondered, he opened the Codex, suddenly the words were clear. He could read them and understand them. He flipped to the end where the the rituals were inscribed. Indeed, the same finding with the previously alien writing. He felt that somehow he had been accepted, bonded to the codex, and to the Dukes. </p><p></p><p>A quick discussion, and Allustan agreed. It seems that Egan had unknowingly sleep-walked, perhaps even through astral projection, and performed a ritual in his sleep that bound him to the Wind Dukes. In return, he had gained their sight and their awareness. Allustan likened the binding to the oath he took with the Asmadi, but it was not clear what the Legacy of the Dukes required in return.</p><p></p><p>Egan set his mind to reading and learning. He had come to serve his sister’s memory and prevent her fate from happening to another, but he had found much more. What would the pact entail? What knowledge and power lay within the codex? And what would he do with his newfound abilities?</p><p></p><p>The days seemed to speed by at this point. He spent most waking hours reading the codex, learning the magic and knowledge within. It was hardly a surprise that Allustan had to tear him from its pages a few days later to show him a new discovery. The dwarves managed to excavate a section that had previously been collapsed in the main entrance hall to the Cairn.</p><p></p><p>Behind the cave-in, there was a stone and metal opening, about 6 inches in depth and about 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It was ovoid and clearly inscribed with Wind Duke magic. After some testing and more scouring of the codex, the opening seemed to fit the description of a portal of sorts that might connect this cairn with others. Egan wryly nicknamed it the “Wind Tunnel.” He and Allustan worked tirelessly on the runes, and, after only half a day, determined how to activate the portal. When it sprung to life, the center became a hollow nexus of air, like the eye of a hurricane. </p><p></p><p>Neither of them had the gall to utilize it, but secretly Egan yearned to step into the stone hyper loop and see the other side. Sadly, Allustan’s caution was enough to hold Egan back. The old man had a point. There was no guarantee that the other end was not broken or obstructed or a hole in the astral plane. </p><p></p><p>Egan felt certain that the runes indicated that the portal could be taken to multiple sites and that they were other Cairns, but clearly the portal had not been used in centuries. As the day set, both men took a stroll outside in the evening mist that surrounded the lake. The discussion was jovial, reminiscing about Egan’s sad attempts at magic in the past.</p><p></p><p>As they took the hill above the Cairn’s main entrance, a glow of fire, and then a loud explosion, unlike the usual sounds of Diamond Lake erupted from across the water. Something was happening in town, something large and destructive. The explosion lit the lake in a eerie phosphorescent glow for many moments as some chemical-like fire burned hotter and brighter than normal flames. </p><p></p><p>Allustan fell into a trance, his eyes glazing over as he began to scry. He mumbled and cursed as he did. Just as he finished, Egan spotted a dark shape, larger than a bird hovering over the white-hot burning object. He knew immediately that it was a dragon. Fear began to grip him again. They were just beginning to find the secrets of the Cairn, and now this beast was invading Diamond Lake.</p><p></p><p>His mentor looked gravely at his pupil and sighed. “We part ways here, Egan. I must go face this beast. It is seeking out a wizard, and I am the only one by that description.”</p><p></p><p>The calm of the Cairn’s whispers seemed dull as Allustan quickly gathered his things. He gave a few words to the dwarves, who took note of the destruction, and promptly gave Egan notice of their termination of their agreement. The wizened old man vanished with a small pop as he teleported away. The dwarves took a bit longer with their tools, but they offered to allow Egan to come with them into the hills to hide out. Egan declined. He knew his place, and the Cairn would lead him where he needed to go next.</p><p></p><p>Once again, he was alone except for the quiet company of the Cairn. Little did he know that trouble would soon be coming his way, and even less why he would be the target. His mind reeled at the thought of losing his hometown, but his heart felt at home in the Cairn, and Diamond Lake could never replace that. For a moment, he wondered if his sister had felt the same thing when he had left her on that fateful night. Why hadn’t she left? Why did she stay? How did she make it to the architect’s chambers, alone, unguided?</p><p></p><p>Perhaps, she was not awake when she went…and then…perhaps she was guided by the same force as he.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SolidSnake_01, post: 7488562, member: 63254"] [b]Egan's Journal: Return to the Cairn[/b] When the heroes left Diamond Lake almost a month ago, Egan had a clear path. He wanted to search the cairns to find out the source of their magic. And, in doing so, either learn their meaning and make peace with it, or find a greater purpose that could lead him forward. He was affected by his sisters death, but was a fatalist at heart. For him, there was a reason she died in the Whispering Cairn, and he felt like it was to lead him there. The path of deal-making with a devil was not something that made him proud, but, driven by helplessness and guilt, he knew there was a reason for that as well. After renouncing the devil’s power, and ultimately running off the pursuers, he returned to the only other path he knew, hard work and study. Albeit, far from hard, he had some gold from his recent adventures, and a place to stay in Diamond Lake, he still had no leads and little help with his arcane investigation. He had to turn to Allustan once again and make amends. The reunion was not unfriendly, and Allustan had relied on Egan before to investigate the Cairn with some success. The sorcerer quickly regained a working relationship with Allustan and put his mind to work on some of the ancient writings. After a few days of repetitive head-banging and dead-end texts, Egan and Allustan headed into the Cairn itself to look. Much as before, the Cairn whispered ancient words of the Wind Dukes, making a endless monologue of seemingly meaningless sound to the untrained ear. Allustan bestowed a spell of comprehension to Egan, and the two went to work observing the various runes and writings. Egan led the elder wizard to the hidden burial chamber, and even the the rooms where he found his sister in eternal sleep. The two uncovered some information that had been overlooked before, but the mechanical blockages of the tunnels were more than they could handle. A day later, and with a small pot of gold dispensed with the dwarven mining team from the lakeside mining town, the teacher and pupil had returned to move some debris. After extensive clearing of some of the collapsed tunnels, Egan uncovered a message referring to a book, a codex more specifically, of the ancient Wind Dukes. Later that day, an altar was uncovered from another collapsed area. Neither human dared interact with it. In fact, Allustan placed a wizard’s ward on it to alert him if it was used, and he sealed the chamber with another ward. The dwarf team camped inside the entryway to the Cairn, and Egan worked late into the night, studying the runes of the architect’s quarters. Within another day, most of the debris had been cleared. The broken elevators were beyond the dwarven team’s skills, but Egan secretly vowed to get them working again. The flooded section remained submerged, and the team had yet to be able to fully examine it. As the sun set on the third day in the Cairn, Egan found himself dozing off in the architect’s quarters. He had arranged the sparse furniture to make a cot-like bed, and had even tried to keep the room warm enough to rest in. Allustan had said the orange substance that seemed to seep from the central feeding trough was safe to eat, but Egan wasn’t sure. He was weary though, and laziness overcame him. He dipped a finger into the orange goo, then tasted it. It was sour, something like yeast but more like citrus too. A couple of handfuls later, he felt quite full. After burping loudly and appreciating the echo, he lay down on the stone cot and drifted off to sleep. As he rested, he dreamed. An armored figure came to him and granted him a boon. The armor was ancient and covered in runes, much the guardians of the resting places of the Dukes of Aqua’a. He stood from his cot and followed the armored specter to a mural. A wall of stone depicting a duke handing a book to a diminutive air elemental. He followed the specter as the mural changed and shifted. The small elemental carried the book to another wall with a stone basin and deposited it above the basin. From there, the basin flowed with a strange luminous water. The specter motioned to the basin and spoke a word: Drink. Egan nodded and complied, extending his hands first then submerging his face in the cold luminous flow. As he did, he woke, coughing and sputtering as his face was soaking wet. Realizing suddenly that he was no longer in his sleeping chamber, he jumped back from the water before him. Luckily the dwarves had placed ever-burning torches at each room, and the dim, bluish glow flickered across the now-rippling pool before him. The room was part of the Cairn that had not been fully repaired yet. Flooded by some unknown source, Egan and Allustan, had left this part for a later date. Egan knew he was here for a reason though. Something was hidden in that water that he needed to find. A book and a basin, perhaps more. Steeling himself against the cold chill of the water, he waded in, taking the magical torch with him. A few brief dives revealed some more runic language, which he was beginning to recognize but still could not read without Allustan’s magical ward. He followed some similar runes to ones he had seen above in the burial room. After a point though, he could no longer hold his breath, and he had to emerge, empty-handed but with a purpose. The next day, he brought his team to the flooded space. Allustan suspected an underground spring with a failed pipe, but the dwarves disagreed. A couple spells later and Egan was breathing water and reading the runes easily. He followed them to a niche in the wall, much like the dream, it was a small basin, likely once used for drinking. He inspected it quickly, though found nothing. He mimicked the motion of submerging his head in the font. As he did, some hidden force grasped his head and held him there, forcing him into a flow of water that rose from the basin, almost as if it were trying to drown him while already underwater. The grasp initially startled him, but he knew he could not drown with Allustan’s magic. Instinctively, he tried to push himself free, but was unable to break the grasp. His hands began searching the edges of the basin, feeling the cracks, the edges, the divets. His eyes were stuck looking into the basin, and so his other senses took over. After a few minutes, he began to feel a bit trapped. Surely Allustan would come into the water after him, but what if he didn’t? What if the dwarves led the old wizard down another tunnel to check for pipes? Instead of panicking, which he was prone to do, he thought of his sister. She always told Egan to not believe everything that he saw. Mustering all his nerve, he calmly let go. He stopped fighting the pull, and his body floated, weightless, like a leaf on the wind. As he drifted, he felt the flow of the water on his face, passing upwards, as if a fountain, then catching the edges of the font and swirling away. Without thinking, he let his hands stroke the stone, following the flow. Something clicked above him, a small drawer, or slot, opened. He still could not see it, but he raised his hands and gingerly felt the edges of a rectangular slot in the wall. Sliding his fingers ever so gently into the space, he felt air in the pocket, as if the water was being expelled. Reaching further, his hands clasped onto a small rectangular shape, a book! Unsure if it was trapped or magically warded, he feared to move it. Moments passed as he contemplated his predicament. Finally, without any other real resolve, his fatalist took over. He felt it was a sign, and if he found this book, then he was to use is. He grasped the edges and pulled it free from the nook. As he did, he felt his body suddenly surrounded by a bubble of air. The hidden watery grasp, vanished and he breathed in a warm, fresh breath. Raising his torch, he looked at the font, realizing now that there was a pattern to the decorations that his hands had followed, and a small cubby for a book. In his hand lay a silvered tome, small enough to fit into a large pocket and not very thick. It was decorated with scrollwork that looked like wisps of air, storm clouds and a series of interlocking circles on the front. Indeed, this was the codex from his dream. Elated, he swam back to the encampment to discuss his find with Allustan. Upon returning, the older wizard was busy with assessing an aqueduct that was seemingly not draining. Just as Egan had feared, they might not have come back for him if the spell had worn out while he was underwater A quick private discussion led the two men aside to explore the tome. Allustan determined that the tome was a relic of the Wind Dukes and that it likely had belonged to the architect of the Cairns. Within were many writings in the elemental language of the Aurans. The tome, though small, expanded magically when opened, and the pages extended well beyond the original size. A quick glance showed that there were theories of magic as well as the lore of the many planes. Truthfully, the knowledge was an explanation of many phenomena based on the elemental properties of air and gases. Deeper into the tome, they discovered some minor spells that had been recorded and a series of rituals. Being untrained in such magic Egan relied on Allustan to explain it. Within an hour or two, the dwarven team was ready to move back to their campsite to rest for the day while the two pored over the codex. Late into the night Allustan studied, and when Egan woke from a drifting sleep, he found the old man likewise snoring over the book. Egan took the codex and hid it in his belt and slept once more. As he slept, he dreamed of a great circle of 5 rings with lines interlocking. He dreamt that he traced them out, and stood above them reading from the book. He did not understand the words, but, placing his hand on the nape his neck, he raised the codex in a final gesture and felt enveloped by light and the rush of wind. A silence followed, and he dreamed of his sister alive, watching from the gaping door of the Cairn, looking unusually calm and not alone. She was surrounded by figures, clad in flowing robes with indistinct features, each singing softly in whispering voice of the wind. He woke with Allustan shaking him. Around the camp, there were lines on the dusty floor, circles within circles. Allustan waved a hand and cast a spell, then coughed aloud. The faint blue glow of a magical aura began to emanate from Egan once again. The small man looked at the room, quite the same as he remembered from his dream, and felt a sense of calm, of home. He turned to survey the floor and, as he did, Allustan mumbled under his breath. The older wizard touched Egan’s nape of his neck and a crackle of electricity could be heard in the cave. Both men jumped. With a look of astonishment in his eye, Allustan conjured a small mirror for Egan to look. On the nape of his neck, five rings, interlocked, were darkly tattooed on his skin. Indeed, as he wondered, he opened the Codex, suddenly the words were clear. He could read them and understand them. He flipped to the end where the the rituals were inscribed. Indeed, the same finding with the previously alien writing. He felt that somehow he had been accepted, bonded to the codex, and to the Dukes. A quick discussion, and Allustan agreed. It seems that Egan had unknowingly sleep-walked, perhaps even through astral projection, and performed a ritual in his sleep that bound him to the Wind Dukes. In return, he had gained their sight and their awareness. Allustan likened the binding to the oath he took with the Asmadi, but it was not clear what the Legacy of the Dukes required in return. Egan set his mind to reading and learning. He had come to serve his sister’s memory and prevent her fate from happening to another, but he had found much more. What would the pact entail? What knowledge and power lay within the codex? And what would he do with his newfound abilities? The days seemed to speed by at this point. He spent most waking hours reading the codex, learning the magic and knowledge within. It was hardly a surprise that Allustan had to tear him from its pages a few days later to show him a new discovery. The dwarves managed to excavate a section that had previously been collapsed in the main entrance hall to the Cairn. Behind the cave-in, there was a stone and metal opening, about 6 inches in depth and about 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It was ovoid and clearly inscribed with Wind Duke magic. After some testing and more scouring of the codex, the opening seemed to fit the description of a portal of sorts that might connect this cairn with others. Egan wryly nicknamed it the “Wind Tunnel.” He and Allustan worked tirelessly on the runes, and, after only half a day, determined how to activate the portal. When it sprung to life, the center became a hollow nexus of air, like the eye of a hurricane. Neither of them had the gall to utilize it, but secretly Egan yearned to step into the stone hyper loop and see the other side. Sadly, Allustan’s caution was enough to hold Egan back. The old man had a point. There was no guarantee that the other end was not broken or obstructed or a hole in the astral plane. Egan felt certain that the runes indicated that the portal could be taken to multiple sites and that they were other Cairns, but clearly the portal had not been used in centuries. As the day set, both men took a stroll outside in the evening mist that surrounded the lake. The discussion was jovial, reminiscing about Egan’s sad attempts at magic in the past. As they took the hill above the Cairn’s main entrance, a glow of fire, and then a loud explosion, unlike the usual sounds of Diamond Lake erupted from across the water. Something was happening in town, something large and destructive. The explosion lit the lake in a eerie phosphorescent glow for many moments as some chemical-like fire burned hotter and brighter than normal flames. Allustan fell into a trance, his eyes glazing over as he began to scry. He mumbled and cursed as he did. Just as he finished, Egan spotted a dark shape, larger than a bird hovering over the white-hot burning object. He knew immediately that it was a dragon. Fear began to grip him again. They were just beginning to find the secrets of the Cairn, and now this beast was invading Diamond Lake. His mentor looked gravely at his pupil and sighed. “We part ways here, Egan. I must go face this beast. It is seeking out a wizard, and I am the only one by that description.” The calm of the Cairn’s whispers seemed dull as Allustan quickly gathered his things. He gave a few words to the dwarves, who took note of the destruction, and promptly gave Egan notice of their termination of their agreement. The wizened old man vanished with a small pop as he teleported away. The dwarves took a bit longer with their tools, but they offered to allow Egan to come with them into the hills to hide out. Egan declined. He knew his place, and the Cairn would lead him where he needed to go next. Once again, he was alone except for the quiet company of the Cairn. Little did he know that trouble would soon be coming his way, and even less why he would be the target. His mind reeled at the thought of losing his hometown, but his heart felt at home in the Cairn, and Diamond Lake could never replace that. For a moment, he wondered if his sister had felt the same thing when he had left her on that fateful night. Why hadn’t she left? Why did she stay? How did she make it to the architect’s chambers, alone, unguided? Perhaps, she was not awake when she went…and then…perhaps she was guided by the same force as he. [/QUOTE]
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