Aphonion Tales (New posts 6/13, 6/15, 6/19)

[Cerebral Paladin]

Abigail announced Lord Silverleaves, and the Council gave him their full attention.

“I received a message that you wished to ask me some questions.” A very large parchment sheet with careful drawings on it filled his arms. With a smile, he said, “And while I’m here, I thought I would show you the architectural plans I have prepared for a performance amphitheater for the new magic academy.”

The Council politely looked over the diagram. “Very impressive, your lordship,” commented Dame Brionna. “That will be the largest performance space in the Archduchy.”

Lord Silverleaves nodded. “At first, I thought about a smaller space, suitable more for internal events. But then I realized that all of your performance spaces are small, and the school simply needs to have a venue for major performances. So by expanding its size, I could fill both the general need of the City and the specific needs of the school at once.”

Alistair thought about the cost involved, but quickly decided that maintaining the Eldar’s support was worth even an enormous expenditure. “Please let us know when you have finished the design-- we’ll want to begin construction quickly.”

Lord Silverleaves appeared slightly confused for a moment. “Ah, of course. I must always remember how quickly you work on your projects. Now then, what were you interested in asking me?”

“At the end of Lord Davion’s duel with the Master Unbidden, he stated that it ended the feud between Quinliart and Canberry. Would the Noldar consider that statement accurate?”

“Oh, yes. As the victor, Lord Davion is entitled to set the conditions. That is clear. If Quinliart breached the conditions, it would be grounds for expulsion from his house, making him a renegade.”

“We have strong evidence that he has sent drow troops to continue to attack the Archduchy, perhaps as part of service to the Abomination of Shur,” said Dame Brionna.

“How appalling… it would seem impossible that Quinliart could worship a mere created being, but he seems to court renegade status. It should be reported to his house. They will not tolerate a flouting of the Law.”

“Do you have any recommendations as to how we should inform them?”

“Has the Princess left?”

“Not yet,” answered Kit, who had made it her business to track the activities of the various diplomats. “She’s been shopping.”

Lord Silverleaves nodded. “I should have expected that. If you inform her, she will inform Moriquendarim when she returns to Khamista. If they are satisfied of the truth of the accusations, he will be declared renegade.”

“Would the cadet drow continue to obey his commands?”

“His followers will be given a choice. Most of that house that were here have been slain by the neighboring controller’s troops, but some survived, and apparently have been redeployed. Some would likely choose to continue in his service, but most will leave him to remain in their house.”

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

“Excellent,” said Alistair. “That could greatly improve our strategic situation. Your lordship, if we may, there are some other topics we would like to discuss with you. We spoke with the Archbaroness of Mandrath who told us that the Temple of Sytry has been involved in atrocities. We were skeptical because of the hostility between their faiths but agreed to ask you whether you could confirm these reports.”

“It depends; how do you define atrocities?”

“Refusing to provide food, water, and healing to refugees in desperate times unless the refugees would agree to convert, leading to starvation and death. Slaughtering large numbers of innocents because they have been infiltrated by a few with Shadow corruption. And similar acts of intolerance and severity.”

“Their knights have committed such things from time to time,” said Lord Silverleaves sadly, nodding his head. “Their nuns have never participated, and these incidents were not on this continent. They try to serve the light, but they lack discernment. They also strike at the fey, the lesser fey-- they cannot tell the difference between Seelie and Unseelie, so they seek to kill all. In some ways, they are harder than the Inquisition of Paranswarm. We have at one time, not that many turnings ago, intervened on behalf of a group of refugees who were in danger of being wiped out because the Knights of Truth could sense taint, but could not determine who among the refugees were tainted.”

“I’m surprised that you would tolerate their deeds,” said Kit.

“They are powerful in the fight against evil, so we did not want to fight them directly. Matters are too delicate for us to oppose them strongly. Do you know of the reasons for their harshness?”

“I am afraid that we do not, your lordship.”

“The Sytry god came from elsewhere, beyond the wheel of Time and Space.”

“As the Horned Rat did?”

“Indeed, from the same place as the Horned Rat, but he was a God of Law, not of Chaos. The Sytryite god is rough, but he came here to retire. Once a human, he was a sorcerer who so attained the perfection of law that he became a god. First a champion of law, and then he became a god through his perfection of law. He fought long and long in war with Chaos, but finally he rested, and brought his followers here. But the war was here as well, so he set up his temples and forbade certain things, such as resurrection of the dead, because of fear of the taint, although resurrection has never resulted in taint here. Three orders pursue his goals, the Horned Sisters through peace, the Knights of Truth through war, and the Priests of Eternal Light through knowledge. His temple would not view the actions of the Knights of Truth as atrocities if there was taint among any of the refugees they slew or left to die. It might even be only one tainted among thousands, but they would view that as acceptable."

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

“What do they define as tainted?” asked Dame Brionna.

“Much as the Hastur define it: those who have been touched by the demon places. But the Sytryites do not cleanse, they destroy. They are the most fanatical of the paladins. We have sought to moderate them without success. A great star priestess offered the services of one of our greatest coercers to uncover the taint, but was rebuffed.” A slight tone of anger and pride crept into the Eldar’s voice as he described that. “They are serious in their war against evil and taint, but they think they follow the only way.”

“Can the taint be removed from a single person who has it?” asked Kit.

“I have been given the grace of Eiru to see a family of humans, where the entire family had received the taint, so I found the demons one at a time, and ripped their spirits into small bits, and the children grew old, and had children, and grandchildren, and died of old age--you have to do something about this, the way you age and die so quickly--if I can do this, so can they. Your priests can do it. The Hasturs can do it. But they will not listen. They insist that any who have the taint must be purged and that if they know that some in a group are tainted, it is better to purge them all than to let the tainted remain as a threat.”

Alistair leaned forward. “That sounds more like the doctrines of devils to me than anything I would associate with the light. Is it possible that devils are manipulating them, twisting the actions of the Sytryites to serve their own goals?”

“I had not considered that possibility, although you are right that their conduct, whil orderly, is also in a sense evil.” Lord Silverleaves thought about it. “As for the Knights of Truth? No. They are too walled off from anything but their faith and their holy books. The harm they cause is of their own making, not the work of devils. Other Sytryites, religious but not the Knights of Truth, possibly. They may have been deceived.” He thought for a while longer, and then continued in a whisper, “It really is their nature. Their purity is at the expense of all things gray. There is no middle for them. If they were more numerous, I would be more worried about them.”

“Thank you for this information, your lordship,” said Alistair. “We will reach out to them through our temple and encourage them to be more circumspect in the future, and we will begin quietly investigating whether there is any possibility that they are being manipulated."

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

"We have one more matter we would like to discuss with you," continued Alistair. "We have seen signs of new activity by the Old Ones or their followers, and seek to learn more.”

“Yes, the cracks are open again.”

“The cracks, Lord Silverleaves?” asked Dame Brionna.

“You know of course that there are other universes?”

“Do you mean other planes, or other entire systems of planes?” clarified Alistair. “We know of both, but it would be best to understand which you discuss.”

“I speak of other whole systems of planes, like where Sytry came from, but vastly different. Imagine, if you will, a number line. The further you get from this reality, the more different from this reality you get. If we are at zero, Sytry and the Horned Rat came from here, at about fifty.” The Eldar held his hands apart by about a foot to demonstrate the distance. “On that scale, the Old Ones came from over there.” A bright light appeared at the far side of the room through his psionics. “They were not created in the backwash of the creation of reality by Eiru, or whoever; rather, there were cracks in reality and they came through from beyond.”

“How can there be cracks in reality?”

“Ah. To understand that, we must begin by discussing…” Lord Silverleaves talked rapidly, using unfamiliar words and definding many new concepts as he proceeded. Four hours of explanation later, Dame Brionna had a vague idea of what the concept meant, while Kit and Alistair ignored him completely and conducted a private conversation through Kit’s mindlink.

“In any event, these beings had existed for as long as any creation had lasted.”

“They’re everlasting but not eternal,” said Dame Brionna, drawing on her theological training.

“Correct. They creep anywhere there’s a crack. Anywhere that they can get into, they do. They have overlapping but different goals.”

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Kit, having realized that the conversation was comprehensible again, asked “Is the one that was eaten, eaten everywhere? Or only in our universe?”

“They are always the same, everywhere. The most dangerous wishes to unmake every universe, everywhere. The One Other has a somewhat more comprehensible desire set; no one understands the One Beside. The One Other has a desire to bring back the One Eaten.”

“There seem to be a lot of plots to bring back dead gods these days,” said Kit. “I wonder if the Seachen also want to bring back the One Eaten, in addition to the Abomination of Shur.”

“Perhaps. I cannot say for sure. The Seachen have turned aside every effort we have made to send an embassy, including when we sent star priestesses.” Lord Silverleaves made it clear that he thought that turning aside an embassy of star priestesses was nigh incomprehensible, and a terrible affront.

“Do you know where their old strongholds were?” asked Alistair.

“I am not expert in the followers of the Old Ones. I will communicate your question to the Repository on Khamista. They will be able to answer definitively. As I think about it, there was another attempt to bring back the One Eaten, in the Second Age. I will inquire about that as well.” Lord Silverleaves closed his eyes and projected the message to one of the Eldar seers.

The Council thanked him for his information and then, after he departed, returned to the issue of how best to use the orcish dependants as hostages. Whether by taking them hostage directly, or by trying to cause the horde to rush off to defend the dependants from a perceived threat. Dame Brionna suggested sending false information about an attack to draw the horde off without needing to actually threaten incidents as well as the possibility of arranging a natural threat. But while the Council discussed it at length, they could not reach any clear consensus. They did dispatch sendings to Storr, Cinderhaven, and the Furrows army, warning each of them of the coming threat. The sending ordered an evacuation of Storr, likely to Cinderhaven, and a retreat of the army. But the forces of Cinderhaven were warned to ready themselves for the siege to come, while the most mobile civilians evacuated further.

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

Still reading ... still enjoying every word ... still looking forward to more ...

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Thanks, HOHB! Since you asked for more...

----
That evening, they received Princess Curini’rim for another visit. “My congratulations, your grace, on a smooth coronation. It was rather calmer than I am used to.”

“You think of multiple assassination attempts as calm?” spluttered Dame Brionna, before belatedly tacking on “your highness.”

“None of the later ones came particularly close to succeeding, they did not disrupt the coronation itself, and relatively few of his grace’s subjects, particularly his grace’s subjects of high rank, were killed. Added to the fact that there was neither a major civil war nor any other military attack on the capital, and I would say that it was quite calm, indeed. Perhaps your people have gained more experience in smooth transitions, since your successions take place so frequently.”

“Thank you,” replied Alistair. “We hope that you have enjoyed your time in our demesne.”

“Oh, yes. I have been assembling an art collection. You have a remarkably fine market in primitive,” she caught herself a moment too late, “of human art. I believe I will soon have the finest collection in all of Krashmere--certainly the finest collection of Drucien human art. I will need to consider how to display it best. Part of the joy is that it will offend and anger some of my rivals, so I will need to make sure that they cannot avoid seeing it. I think I may put the tile floorings in my gardens, so that they will see them when they are on my lands or when they overfly them. But it will be a shame to give up the flowers for it.”

“What about the roof of your manor?” suggested Alistair. “You could install the tile work there, which would make it even more prominent from the air, without giving up scarce garden space.”

“A capital idea, your grace. And the topiary that I intend to complement it with could be grown on the roof as well.”

The discussion of art and pleasantries continued for some time before Princess Curini’rim took pity on Dame Brionna and Kit, neither of whom had either sufficient interest in and knowledge of art to participate or a polished enough sense of diplomacy to tolerate the pace of a diplomatic meeting with a Noldar. “Now then, you did not ask me here to discuss my tastes in art.”

“No, your highness, we did not. As you know, Lord Davion Aufaugauthala’rim fought a duel as my champion against the Master Unbidden as champion of Quinliart Moriquenda’rim. Upon his victory, Lord Davion declared an end to the feud with Quinliart, now and for all time. We have of course respected this declaration and taken no hostile actions against him since the duel. However, we have reasons to believe that Quinliart has sent some of his minions to lead uruk and orc hordes in attacks upon our vassals.”

Her calm expression suddenly turned sharp at the last statement. “Do you have evidence of this?”

“We have not observed Quinliart’s vassals directly, but we know that orcish hordes have destroyed the town of Grokken and marched southeast. Reliable sources that we trust inform us that the hordes were led by Morgothian drow in a cadet house beholden to Quinliart.”

“If I may summon a revelator, I will be able to confirm this directly.” After Alistair nodded, she twisted one of her rings and a small daemon appeared.

It smiled at her and said unctuously, “Do you have a command for me, mistress? This will be the last service that I owe you.”

“I command you to show the town of Grokken and then to move the image as I command. When I have seen all that I wish to see, your service will be at an end.”

The revelator projected an image of devastated Grokken. The town had been utterly destroyed and broken, with little hope that anything still lived within what had once been its walls. The Princess commanded it to move the image to the southeast, and as it went through the town, it passed over the bodies of many dead, including Dame Hilda and a knight of Hanal who appeared to have died after a great fight in which they vanquished many attackers back-to-back. Dame Brionna raised her sun disc as the image panned across the burned and desecrated church.

The projected image continued to move, past the broken walls of the town and through a ravaged countryside. The revelator adjusted the image, moving the viewpoint to higher above the land so that a wider area was covered. An enormous army came into view, and they spotted a palanquin carried by trolls at the rear of the horde, with drowan banners flying.

“There,” said Princess Curini’rim angrily, gesturing for the revelator to magnify the banners so that their heraldry would be unmistakably clear. “This must be reported to the Council. It is an abomination. He has defied the Law. I regret that I do not have the volers to rescue your civilians. And if I attack his forces before I present the case, it will become a house war and the case will mean nothing. But while I cannot help directly, I will depart immediately to begin the case. We will not tolerate this.”

[End Session 24]

 

[TDRandall]

Dang! I didn't realize this was the condensed version. I bet the four hour explanation of Alphonion polymorphic-alternate-realitives-and-perferated-discontinuous-nexuses was completely riveting. Shame we can't get the unabridged version.

Alas, I am sure it would be over my head anyways, since I really don't see the differences in meaning between "everlasting" and "eternal".

Since it worked for HoHb... I'm looking forward to more too!

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

"Everlasting" and "eternal" are terms from theology or philosophy of religion. "Everlasting" means within time, but without an end (and often without a beginning). "Eternal" means outside of time. Most monotheistic religions, including mainstream versions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, believe that God is "eternal"-- outside of time, unchanging, and interacting with the world without being within the world's time. Most deities within D&D (as well as, for example, the ancient Greek gods) are everlasting-- they do not age and they can live forever, but time passes for them, and their future self can have different knowledge and motivation than their present or past self, as opposed to being all one entity for whom past, present, and future self are not meaningful.

And, since you asked for more storyhour, ....

-----
[Session 25]

The Council devoted its attention the next morning to dealing with some routine security matters. They finally had enough time to deal with several concerns that they had identified but had not yet been able to prioritize. Kit began by mentally scanning over her fan in more detail. She knew that a large network of agents existed to provide intelligence to the Archduchy, but she had no contact with many of them. She did not even know who many of them were. She spent some time contacting the minds linked to each of the twenty crystals and taking their measure. None of them had urgent messages to report, but she identified three vacancies. She had no way to tell whether they were among the people who had chosen to follow the Archduchess into death or whether the links had been deliberately left unused to provide room for other agents. Either way, she resolved to identify key members of her network to promote to contacts on the fan.

After she finished that, Kit joined the rest of the Council with a recommendation that they procure items that would permit mindlinks within the Council as well. The flexibility, speed of communication, and secrecy was simply too valuable to ignore, and while Kit could establish mindlinks manually, it would be easier to not have to rely on her presence. Alistair and Dame Brionna rapidly agreed that mindlink devices were essential.

“Perhaps we should make them more than mindlinks, Your Grace,” added Dame Brionna. “It might also be convenient if they allowed teleportation to each others’ locations. In particular, it would allow us to respond to attacks on your person, and it would allow Your Grace to escape.”

“An interesting thought. But I think we need to consider the palace’s wards. Do we know what happens if someone attempts to teleport in through the wards?”

“The Eldar explained once,” said Kit. “It sets up a ‘dimensional shunt.’ Anyone who tries to teleport in arrives in holding cells in the palace dungeons rather than where they intended to arrive. But I think that’s only for psionic teleportation.”

“Let me see if I can figure out what the magical wards do.” Alistair concentrated on the palace wards and focused his awareness on their magical energy. He found the component that warded against teleportation. It was complicated, he thought, but not so complicated as to be beyond his understanding. “Ah. That would be unpleasant. The wards rather messily splatter anyone attempting to teleport in magically. The various parts of the intruder would end up on random moons.”

“Ugh. I’m surprised your grandmother would allow such a thing.”

“The wards far predate her. I suspect she thought it was not ideal, but that there was nothing to be done about it,” Alistair rationalized. What he did not understand was that, unlike him, his grandmother had understood the wards’ actual effects.

“Your Grace, do we know if anyone has triggered the psionic wards? They might be worth interrogating. We haven’t received any reports of prisoners, but…”

“Brightspan!” called out Alistair. When the page entered, Alistair said, “Please go to the palace dungeons, to the psionic ward holding cells. I want you to look over the warden, to determine whether he has been corrupted. You should then ask him whether there are any prisoners in those holding cells. If there are any, look them over as well, but do not have him release them. Then report back to us.”

Lord Brightspan saluted and departed. The better part of an hour later, he returned. “The warden seems to be a loyal man, rather strict, but not cruel or evil. He said that those cells contain one prisoner. The prisoner teleported in about four years ago-- he reported the arrival at the time to the Privy Secretary and then assumed that a decision had been made to keep the prisoner isolated.”

Kit cursed the Privy Secretary’s treachery. “Who is the prisoner?”

“A very irate fey, Dame Katherine.’

“Evil?”

“No, Dame Brionna, I don’t think so. Highly chaotic, though. From his aura and his appearance, I should guess that he is one of the Sidhe, and Seelie.”

Alistair shook his head. “I hope this hasn’t created a problem with the fey.” He quickly scrawled out a message on parchment and sealed it. “Take this to the warden. Have him bring the prisoner up, without chains, to one of the audience chambers. We’ll meet him there.”

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

The Council met the fey in one of the audience chambers, with Alistair appearing as a projected image. The fey was not very large and carried a long, tassled scroll. He bowed in the complex fey matter.

“On behalf of King Michael O’Brien of the Silent Wood, I bring greetings and message to the Archduchess and Empress of Canberry.” The messenger was young and wore the livery of the King of the Silent Wood. He appeared irate, but unaware that anything was wrong. The four-year wait wasn’t long enough, more like an extra day for a human. “There is a rising in the East and the West. Those in the North who seek godhood have raised up their fortifications and prepare to make the blood sacrifice. Now is the time for all who serve the gods of good and light.”

“We thank you for this message,” replied Alistair. “The Archduchess Amelia has passed, but we assure you, as her heir and as the new Archduke and Emperor, that we will act. We have learned of these activities through our own means, and we have set our plans to deal with them in motion. May we ask who it is that comes before us?”

The fey bowed again. “I am Sir Thistledown, of King Michael’s guard.”

“Welcome, Sir Thistledown, and be assured that the old alliances remain firm. We will send you with what intelligence we have that it may aid your liege. How did you come to know of the threat?”

“King Michael was alerted by kidnappings of children. A foul business, and our investigations revealed that it was worse even than we had believed. Also, there were encounters with followers of the old gods, who had not been seen in the south since before my birth.”

“Indeed.” The Council briefly described their similar findings, thanked Sir Thistledown, and had him shown out.

Dame Brionna scowled after he left. “If Deborah Brightspan weren’t already dead, I could kill her for this.”

“At least it was a fey ambassador,” said Alistair. “If we had unknowingly incarcerated a human ambassador for four years, it could have caused a war. But we also need to do some more work on the Privy Secretary front. We’re still turning up surprises.”

“Did we ever search her personal quarters?” asked Kit.

“I remember ordering them sealed, but I can’t remember ordering them searched,” said Dame Brionna.

“Well, let’s get on that.”

Kit nodded. “I’ll send a team of my people to handle it.”

“Make sure you send some people with both magical and psionic capabilities. There may be traps, or concealed secrets,” said Dame Brionna.

“Please. You think my people are amateurs? We’ll take care of it.”

“We never searched Caldra and Caligshire, either, did we? Either their estates or their townhouses.”

“I’ll get people on those as well, m’lord.”

“And what about Deborah Brightspan’s mother?” asked Dame Brionna.

“We had the Duke of Brightspan investigating her. I don’t want to offend him by acting too heavily in his duchy. Still, I’ll have Father Waters use a sending to the Duke of Brightspan’s chaplain asking for an update.”