[Session 141, cont'd]
"May I ask you a question that is not connected to this, but is connected to Lord Silverleaves's unfortunate injuries? Are there paragon-level Farsensors that might be willing to assist in efforts against the enemy, because we had been planning on asking Lord Silverleaves if he could try to trace where there might be a creche of clones of various of the enemy that will surely have stronger defenses than what we just encountered. That means that it would need to be not merely a grandmaster, and of course far beyond any human, or even illithid or the like, psion."
"There would need to be someone of paramount ability. Aufaulgautharim has such a person, but the House mourns now, of course, because of the High Clans Lady."
"Of course."
"Guldurim have such a thing, but I don't recommend speaking to them. You could ask the Princess if there is one within Curinirim. They keep their potency tight to their chest. I am sure that Lord Silverleaves is the most powerful within Singing Leaves."
"Farsensing is, as I understand it, a more typical school among the Eldar, where the Noldor have more Coercers for example."
"Yes, there almost certainly is a paragon within the Steading of the Elven Lords or the Elder Wood, but reaching them would be challenging. I could not assist you with that in any way. I would be incinerated by the defenses, of course."
"We've already had had challenges having effective communication with them, even with Lord Silverleaves as an intermediary."
"They're simply not terribly in touch with this reality anymore. To be fair, neither are some of my people. Traveling around, making friends, being a royal champion helps to keep me young and engaged. Indeed, I suppose some of the Eldron might well be paragon Farsensors. I suppose you could approach the uncommitted. It's easy to forget that the few that remain keep their power undivided. Likewise, the House of Hastur is essentially all uncommitted, and they, of course, would have paragons. The difficulty with them, of course, is you deal with some level of insanity with any of the older members. You can't fight pure chaos that long, and not lose something. So you depend on luck. I mean, you can't exactly say please give me your most sane paragon level Farsensor--that just doesn't sound good. But you know, perhaps you could say, could you lend us 2 or 3 paragon level Farsensors?"
"And then we pick the most sane of the ones they send."
"Or more, then we assemble a meta-concert and have the most sane perform the actual communications and investigations, while the others simply provide a ridiculous amount of power and capability. Another thing you could do, of course, is to wait for Lord Silverleaves to recover, and then back him with as many psions as you can find."
"Again, if we assume that they would have substantially more significant defenses there than were on that voller..."
"I think the most difficult thing will be locating it. I think your best method of locating it may be to send people to investigate who have a reason to be there, keep close track of their movements, and when they vanish, investigate the area where they have vanished because that will be where the creche is."
"It is very reasonable, albeit it's a tad more ruthless than I ever like to be."
"But you are dealing with a very unique situation, my lord. You are attempting to save the world for your children and grandchildren their extremely great-grandchildren, utterly great-grandchildren. You need to do whatever it takes. You must send people into the homeland to investigate. Your enemies will not be simply those of the Eldritch. Your enemy will include members of most of the great Houses if they realize that you're there."
"So you think the creche is in your homeland?"
"I have reviewed what we know. Every evidence I could find suggests that they must be buried in one of the three great necropoli, because who would look there. Are you aware of the size of those things? Remarkable. Layer upon layer of chambers and roofs, and perfectly cut out things with either nothing in them, or a crypt on rare occasions in them, or more commonly a collection of items that no one decided to keep in a more particular place. Hiding a cloning creche there would be simplicity. We already found out that there's at least one traitor there still. Yes, yes. Why would the enemy not put it in the safest location? Even better, from their perspective, their enemy will protect it. Can you imagine the House of Guldurim discovering intruders for whatever reason tolerating the intrusion? As long as the traitor is someone that the people in the necropolis know, they will never think to question him. Stoneworkers from a human nation would be best. They import them all the time. I can instruct them on what to look for if you wish."
"Yes, we were already arranging for a group of those to be recruited."
"I can also contact them regularly. My Farsensing is nothing to write home about, but if I know them before they leave, I can touch their minds once a day to pick up any information, and frankly, I may be a renegade by the standards of House Aufaulgautharim, but I am a member of House Aufaulgautharim-- no one will question why I'm touching the mind of a few bricklayers and masons."
"We can arrange that. I think we will also reach out to Princess Curinirim to find out if they have a paragon Farsensor, who would be willing to to scan for it. It may not work, but best to try both approaches."
"Absolutely, and her House, much as it rankles Lord Guldurim, ranks all the other Houses, except for Aufaulgautharim. The strict rule among my people is to never disturb anyone higher than you in the hierarchy. As I said, this is my advice, and I heartily concur that you need to speak to the Princess." Lord Davion pauses. "I feel like I have offered far more advice today than I should."
"We thank you. This is all far more in your bailiwick than in ours."
"And once it has been found deep in one of the necropoli, I suspect it will be us who determine how to eliminate it."
"Presumably then we could get the great Houses to take action."
"I think so, although some of the Houses are irrational when it comes to the necropoli-- you should be aware of this. That is a part of why the Eldritch may have chosen to hide their efforts there."
"We may also still poke around elsewhere, just to be on the safe side."
"It cannot hurt, it cannot hurt. But there are several things you may find in the mausoleum of the Noldor that may be helpful to fight the Eldritch."
"We may be able to find the bodies of some of the traitors."
"Indeed, and also I suspect that there are powers and dreadful corruptions that could be done with any of the bones that remain in the necropoli."
"I know that that's not typical for the Noldor."
"There might be exceptional cases. There have been on occasion, particularly during the blood war, the kinslaying. Some of those bones are still kept, and so then those might also be targeted for other reasons."
"To raise great undead or to channel power."
"Yes. Oh, yes, some of those in the kinslaying were beings of high honor, and if they fell on the Field of Blood, they were transferred as they should be to the next realm. But some of the other creatures that fell the Creator and his Brother both cast aside and their bones remained. Interestingly, though they are kept in the necropolis, they're already considered cursed."
"They've never been sanctified?" asks Dame Brionna.
"I had not considered that till the very moment you spoke of it, my lady. You are a paladin, a holy warrior of the Light. Are there limits to your ability to deal with the undead?"
"Oh, yes, there are both the innate limits of how much divine energy I can channel, which is limited by the extent of my training and my limitations in my physical form and so forth. And also, sometimes it is easier to channel the power of Glordiadel than others, for reasons that remain mysterious to me, as are the main ways of gods."
"Of course. Do you sense them? Can you tell where they are?"
"Yes, I can indeed sense them, but I have to concentrate on it, and I might be a little distracted."
"But also I'm sure we have some other effects that can enable others to to do so, as well," adds Alistair.
"I just mention it now that I am considering these possibilities, and the uncomfortable feeling of the possibility of a fifth column underneath our feet."
"How difficult would it be if they did manage to gain some of those skeletons?"
"We've already said that for the traitor, it is much easier to move dead than living because there's no psychic signature to seek for."
"An unpleasant and disquieting thought."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. It is rare that at this age I have unpleasant and disquieting thoughts."
"We have them all the time. I'm glad to know that if we live for a few more centuries, we'll have fewer of them."
Dame Brionna says, "I think the treasury of the archdiocese of Glordiadel might have what we're looking for--a banner that would drive the undead away from it. It's a little ostentatious but is there, any way, perhaps, to process that over the various sewer tunnels?"
"I'm sure we could. That would really be something of a parade--we could arrange for a parade and a procession of the banner as part of the next holy day celebration. Perhaps like various holy mystery plays where there are stations all across the city, and then the banner processes among them."
"And we could have the children of the city gathered in for those events, especially in the poorer parts of the city. The banner can create a heroes' feast effect as well, which would benefit the children greatly."
"Hmm. There is an order of nuns, the Society of the Helpers of the Poor, who are very interested in taking care of kids. Also the Order of Saint Dillygaff of the Fields--also an order of nuns. I guess we'll have to have a procession with nuns, one way or the other."
"That's fine," comments Kit. "Nuns will probably be less threatening to some kids."
"And we can have a bunch of paladins in the procession in shiny armor--that's just a thing you do in religious parades," adds Alistair.
"Frankly, I thought I'd ride my flying horse above the procession to keep an eye from the air."
[End session 141]
"May I ask you a question that is not connected to this, but is connected to Lord Silverleaves's unfortunate injuries? Are there paragon-level Farsensors that might be willing to assist in efforts against the enemy, because we had been planning on asking Lord Silverleaves if he could try to trace where there might be a creche of clones of various of the enemy that will surely have stronger defenses than what we just encountered. That means that it would need to be not merely a grandmaster, and of course far beyond any human, or even illithid or the like, psion."
"There would need to be someone of paramount ability. Aufaulgautharim has such a person, but the House mourns now, of course, because of the High Clans Lady."
"Of course."
"Guldurim have such a thing, but I don't recommend speaking to them. You could ask the Princess if there is one within Curinirim. They keep their potency tight to their chest. I am sure that Lord Silverleaves is the most powerful within Singing Leaves."
"Farsensing is, as I understand it, a more typical school among the Eldar, where the Noldor have more Coercers for example."
"Yes, there almost certainly is a paragon within the Steading of the Elven Lords or the Elder Wood, but reaching them would be challenging. I could not assist you with that in any way. I would be incinerated by the defenses, of course."
"We've already had had challenges having effective communication with them, even with Lord Silverleaves as an intermediary."
"They're simply not terribly in touch with this reality anymore. To be fair, neither are some of my people. Traveling around, making friends, being a royal champion helps to keep me young and engaged. Indeed, I suppose some of the Eldron might well be paragon Farsensors. I suppose you could approach the uncommitted. It's easy to forget that the few that remain keep their power undivided. Likewise, the House of Hastur is essentially all uncommitted, and they, of course, would have paragons. The difficulty with them, of course, is you deal with some level of insanity with any of the older members. You can't fight pure chaos that long, and not lose something. So you depend on luck. I mean, you can't exactly say please give me your most sane paragon level Farsensor--that just doesn't sound good. But you know, perhaps you could say, could you lend us 2 or 3 paragon level Farsensors?"
"And then we pick the most sane of the ones they send."
"Or more, then we assemble a meta-concert and have the most sane perform the actual communications and investigations, while the others simply provide a ridiculous amount of power and capability. Another thing you could do, of course, is to wait for Lord Silverleaves to recover, and then back him with as many psions as you can find."
"Again, if we assume that they would have substantially more significant defenses there than were on that voller..."
"I think the most difficult thing will be locating it. I think your best method of locating it may be to send people to investigate who have a reason to be there, keep close track of their movements, and when they vanish, investigate the area where they have vanished because that will be where the creche is."
"It is very reasonable, albeit it's a tad more ruthless than I ever like to be."
"But you are dealing with a very unique situation, my lord. You are attempting to save the world for your children and grandchildren their extremely great-grandchildren, utterly great-grandchildren. You need to do whatever it takes. You must send people into the homeland to investigate. Your enemies will not be simply those of the Eldritch. Your enemy will include members of most of the great Houses if they realize that you're there."
"So you think the creche is in your homeland?"
"I have reviewed what we know. Every evidence I could find suggests that they must be buried in one of the three great necropoli, because who would look there. Are you aware of the size of those things? Remarkable. Layer upon layer of chambers and roofs, and perfectly cut out things with either nothing in them, or a crypt on rare occasions in them, or more commonly a collection of items that no one decided to keep in a more particular place. Hiding a cloning creche there would be simplicity. We already found out that there's at least one traitor there still. Yes, yes. Why would the enemy not put it in the safest location? Even better, from their perspective, their enemy will protect it. Can you imagine the House of Guldurim discovering intruders for whatever reason tolerating the intrusion? As long as the traitor is someone that the people in the necropolis know, they will never think to question him. Stoneworkers from a human nation would be best. They import them all the time. I can instruct them on what to look for if you wish."
"Yes, we were already arranging for a group of those to be recruited."
"I can also contact them regularly. My Farsensing is nothing to write home about, but if I know them before they leave, I can touch their minds once a day to pick up any information, and frankly, I may be a renegade by the standards of House Aufaulgautharim, but I am a member of House Aufaulgautharim-- no one will question why I'm touching the mind of a few bricklayers and masons."
"We can arrange that. I think we will also reach out to Princess Curinirim to find out if they have a paragon Farsensor, who would be willing to to scan for it. It may not work, but best to try both approaches."
"Absolutely, and her House, much as it rankles Lord Guldurim, ranks all the other Houses, except for Aufaulgautharim. The strict rule among my people is to never disturb anyone higher than you in the hierarchy. As I said, this is my advice, and I heartily concur that you need to speak to the Princess." Lord Davion pauses. "I feel like I have offered far more advice today than I should."
"We thank you. This is all far more in your bailiwick than in ours."
"And once it has been found deep in one of the necropoli, I suspect it will be us who determine how to eliminate it."
"Presumably then we could get the great Houses to take action."
"I think so, although some of the Houses are irrational when it comes to the necropoli-- you should be aware of this. That is a part of why the Eldritch may have chosen to hide their efforts there."
"We may also still poke around elsewhere, just to be on the safe side."
"It cannot hurt, it cannot hurt. But there are several things you may find in the mausoleum of the Noldor that may be helpful to fight the Eldritch."
"We may be able to find the bodies of some of the traitors."
"Indeed, and also I suspect that there are powers and dreadful corruptions that could be done with any of the bones that remain in the necropoli."
"I know that that's not typical for the Noldor."
"There might be exceptional cases. There have been on occasion, particularly during the blood war, the kinslaying. Some of those bones are still kept, and so then those might also be targeted for other reasons."
"To raise great undead or to channel power."
"Yes. Oh, yes, some of those in the kinslaying were beings of high honor, and if they fell on the Field of Blood, they were transferred as they should be to the next realm. But some of the other creatures that fell the Creator and his Brother both cast aside and their bones remained. Interestingly, though they are kept in the necropolis, they're already considered cursed."
"They've never been sanctified?" asks Dame Brionna.
"I had not considered that till the very moment you spoke of it, my lady. You are a paladin, a holy warrior of the Light. Are there limits to your ability to deal with the undead?"
"Oh, yes, there are both the innate limits of how much divine energy I can channel, which is limited by the extent of my training and my limitations in my physical form and so forth. And also, sometimes it is easier to channel the power of Glordiadel than others, for reasons that remain mysterious to me, as are the main ways of gods."
"Of course. Do you sense them? Can you tell where they are?"
"Yes, I can indeed sense them, but I have to concentrate on it, and I might be a little distracted."
"But also I'm sure we have some other effects that can enable others to to do so, as well," adds Alistair.
"I just mention it now that I am considering these possibilities, and the uncomfortable feeling of the possibility of a fifth column underneath our feet."
"How difficult would it be if they did manage to gain some of those skeletons?"
"We've already said that for the traitor, it is much easier to move dead than living because there's no psychic signature to seek for."
"An unpleasant and disquieting thought."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. It is rare that at this age I have unpleasant and disquieting thoughts."
"We have them all the time. I'm glad to know that if we live for a few more centuries, we'll have fewer of them."
Dame Brionna says, "I think the treasury of the archdiocese of Glordiadel might have what we're looking for--a banner that would drive the undead away from it. It's a little ostentatious but is there, any way, perhaps, to process that over the various sewer tunnels?"
"I'm sure we could. That would really be something of a parade--we could arrange for a parade and a procession of the banner as part of the next holy day celebration. Perhaps like various holy mystery plays where there are stations all across the city, and then the banner processes among them."
"And we could have the children of the city gathered in for those events, especially in the poorer parts of the city. The banner can create a heroes' feast effect as well, which would benefit the children greatly."
"Hmm. There is an order of nuns, the Society of the Helpers of the Poor, who are very interested in taking care of kids. Also the Order of Saint Dillygaff of the Fields--also an order of nuns. I guess we'll have to have a procession with nuns, one way or the other."
"That's fine," comments Kit. "Nuns will probably be less threatening to some kids."
"And we can have a bunch of paladins in the procession in shiny armor--that's just a thing you do in religious parades," adds Alistair.
"Frankly, I thought I'd ride my flying horse above the procession to keep an eye from the air."
[End session 141]