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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8331845" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>[Session 54 cont'd]</p><p>"Since you have given me so much insight," Lord Curinirim says, "let me give you some insight into my people. We follow Lord Morgroth, most of us, because we made a decision to follow him many years ago. He is a god, a great god, one of the greatest gods, but that is only a matter of degree. With the lesser races, we know that they have more need to follow religion. And the lesser races tend to be more united in attitude. We figured out years ago that they had to worship, and had to fear. For if they did not, we would be constantly having problems. The whip—if you want the orc, the ogre, the troll, to do what they want, you must use the whip. Only the drow were considered to have enough honor to make their own decisions, and many of them made it wrong.</p><p></p><p>"Why don’t they leave?</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Inertia. I am sane. That is less true than for many of my relatives, on both sides. It has only been ten or fifteen thousand years. Why change a choice once made?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Family loyalty. Consider the Princess. She cares about her people more than herself. Given the love she bears for every injured cat, starving child, she might be well served if not by the returning, then by serving a human god, such as your god—he is a decent god, not very powerful, earthly, but decent, caring. I spoke with her about it, and she said, “would you come with me, uncle?” I am an old man—I have served the library since before the last moon rose. In the Kinslaying, we took blood. Some remember only the atrocities done to us, but I remember the atrocities we did, which were worse, and which burned our souls.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is no path for the Returning, and many could not imagine serving a being who, were they to live for 100,000 or 200,000 years, they might be as great as."</li> </ul><p>* * *</p><p></p><p>There is an elf of some sort, perhaps grey, in some form of a military uniform.</p><p></p><p>Enthalien of the House of Stone Eaves (a grey elf house, almost as rarely seen as the Eldar). There are significantly less than 50,000 grey elves, at most. They are the only elven group that deliberately live in stone that are not in the Kingdom of Morgroth. They are known as military officers, although that has declined in the last thousand years.</p><p></p><p>"I bring word from the Voice and the hope for peace."</p><p></p><p>"We hope for peace as well, but I am afraid that I do not follow your meaning."</p><p></p><p>"The Voice speaks, for the first time in a thousand years, in his Crystal City to the north, offering an exchange of services." He holds out a scroll.</p><p></p><p>The scroll speaks. “Your grace, I am sorry to disturb you. However, there are few in the continent for whom we can ask for an exchange of services in tual. We have taken prisoners in the number of 3,000 men. We have detected 75,000 troops approaching. I have been aroused from a short period of meditation for the defense of my city. I unleashed the Falling Leaf against the last group, who numbered 25,000. I am willing to make payments into your treasury in osmium tual. I cannot retain them in my city—we do not have the capacity to house them. I remain.”</p><p></p><p>Osmium is an ancient crystal, used in the most ancient hoard coins, typically in eight-sided coins called tuals.</p><p></p><p>We can take the prisoners of war and house them humanely and properly. But while we would accept payment in tuals, we would prefer to ask for a boon--your assistance in warding out the Goddess of the Pale Bone.</p><p></p><p>You must do two things. You must recover the Heart. And you must find two more of the Eldron. We created the Heart out of an overabundance of caution. For none of us believed they would ever come here again, but they have. When last I knew, of the six of us who did not follow either the Path of the Light or the Path of Darkness, 1 ascended, 1 was destroyed by those who did not understand his path, and four remain. You have found me. I am no longer mobile. You must find two of the remaining three and bring them to me—were I to move, I would die, like a mortal.</p><p></p><p>That is the Shadow on her mind. There is a tremendous bloodletting among her people. And just before the attack a party passed to the south, bearing one of the royal bloodline—the least sane of them, but most pliable.</p><p></p><p>There will be terrible casualties when I reflect the attack upon them. They are too many for my armies without the use of my direct capabilities—we have only 300 of my guard and 2000 others. The ship alone will not be sufficient, and it is the only great voller I have.</p><p></p><p>I will tell you where the Heart was left. I will leave Lord Enthalien to assist you—he will only be able to speak for me on occasion.</p><p></p><p>The Heart has unfortunately gathered a collection of every sort of people around it. There was a compound underneath the river—we left a small group of grey elves and a small group of drow to guard it, there were a small number of both grey elves and drow that remained</p><p></p><p>It is a box, three cubits by two cubits by two cubits, as measured by the arm of an elf. It is made entirely of eog (the highest of the high glasses, above viridian, high glass, and laen). There are traceries and decorations in white gold and mithril, with diamond and ruby a few emeralds and some sapphires. They are spelled out in elven across the surface of the box—do not try to read them, they might imprison you forever. The gems are all psionically active crystals. The plane they are presently in has been consumed. There is nothing left there but themselves and their creatures. Their creatures are odd, and I have never been capable of discerning whether they are actually separate entities. Once the Heart is activated by three Eldron—and they must be true Eldron, who have chosen a path of neutrality and left both of the great gods—once the Heart is activated, it will physically vanish forever, but it will create a permanent barrier against the Goddess of the Pale Bone and all her servants. Not the One Other or the One Besides, but they are weaker, less organized, with fewer servants, and could be defeated by some of your gods.</p><p></p><p>Once we have it, how can we move it? It can be plane shifted, but must be moved physically within one plane.</p><p></p><p>If we brought it to the Crystal City, could you keep it safe? Yes. I have layered defenses—they will not guess how powerful the defenses are, even after this debacle.</p><p></p><p>We brainstorm about how to find additional Eldron. Groups of gray elves and drow in proximity or working together? Some Eldron seem to be patrons of humans (the Voice) or hobbits/gnomes; perhaps there are patrons of other races? A dwarven Eldron? Some other type?</p><p></p><p>Large aquatic elf population southeast of Khamista. We talk to the Sacred Librarian.</p><p></p><p>There have been several anomalous things noted. The gnomes and hobbits of the Larnelam hills. Three other things. Just off your northeast coast, a small tribe of aquatic elves living with a larger tribe of merman. On Khamista, north of the Kingdom of Bianca, north of the White Witch, in the permafrost, there is a dwarven dig. Not a normal dwarven dig—they have been digging and shaping a mountain for a very, very long time into a huge statue, perfect in every detail except that it has no face. I consider that odd—but we didn’t get any of the dwarves on our side, so I could be barking up the wrong horse. Lastly, apparently the aquatic elves off the Pirate Coast have built a domed city. Given that they don’t usually build cities at all—living in grottoes—this group built a domed city, within 25 miles of the Black Witch. And though they are not numerous, she has not destroyed them.</p><p>[End session 54]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8331845, member: 7030144"] [Session 54 cont'd] "Since you have given me so much insight," Lord Curinirim says, "let me give you some insight into my people. We follow Lord Morgroth, most of us, because we made a decision to follow him many years ago. He is a god, a great god, one of the greatest gods, but that is only a matter of degree. With the lesser races, we know that they have more need to follow religion. And the lesser races tend to be more united in attitude. We figured out years ago that they had to worship, and had to fear. For if they did not, we would be constantly having problems. The whip—if you want the orc, the ogre, the troll, to do what they want, you must use the whip. Only the drow were considered to have enough honor to make their own decisions, and many of them made it wrong. "Why don’t they leave? [LIST] [*]Inertia. I am sane. That is less true than for many of my relatives, on both sides. It has only been ten or fifteen thousand years. Why change a choice once made? [*]Family loyalty. Consider the Princess. She cares about her people more than herself. Given the love she bears for every injured cat, starving child, she might be well served if not by the returning, then by serving a human god, such as your god—he is a decent god, not very powerful, earthly, but decent, caring. I spoke with her about it, and she said, “would you come with me, uncle?” I am an old man—I have served the library since before the last moon rose. In the Kinslaying, we took blood. Some remember only the atrocities done to us, but I remember the atrocities we did, which were worse, and which burned our souls. [*]There is no path for the Returning, and many could not imagine serving a being who, were they to live for 100,000 or 200,000 years, they might be as great as." [/LIST] * * * There is an elf of some sort, perhaps grey, in some form of a military uniform. Enthalien of the House of Stone Eaves (a grey elf house, almost as rarely seen as the Eldar). There are significantly less than 50,000 grey elves, at most. They are the only elven group that deliberately live in stone that are not in the Kingdom of Morgroth. They are known as military officers, although that has declined in the last thousand years. "I bring word from the Voice and the hope for peace." "We hope for peace as well, but I am afraid that I do not follow your meaning." "The Voice speaks, for the first time in a thousand years, in his Crystal City to the north, offering an exchange of services." He holds out a scroll. The scroll speaks. “Your grace, I am sorry to disturb you. However, there are few in the continent for whom we can ask for an exchange of services in tual. We have taken prisoners in the number of 3,000 men. We have detected 75,000 troops approaching. I have been aroused from a short period of meditation for the defense of my city. I unleashed the Falling Leaf against the last group, who numbered 25,000. I am willing to make payments into your treasury in osmium tual. I cannot retain them in my city—we do not have the capacity to house them. I remain.” Osmium is an ancient crystal, used in the most ancient hoard coins, typically in eight-sided coins called tuals. We can take the prisoners of war and house them humanely and properly. But while we would accept payment in tuals, we would prefer to ask for a boon--your assistance in warding out the Goddess of the Pale Bone. You must do two things. You must recover the Heart. And you must find two more of the Eldron. We created the Heart out of an overabundance of caution. For none of us believed they would ever come here again, but they have. When last I knew, of the six of us who did not follow either the Path of the Light or the Path of Darkness, 1 ascended, 1 was destroyed by those who did not understand his path, and four remain. You have found me. I am no longer mobile. You must find two of the remaining three and bring them to me—were I to move, I would die, like a mortal. That is the Shadow on her mind. There is a tremendous bloodletting among her people. And just before the attack a party passed to the south, bearing one of the royal bloodline—the least sane of them, but most pliable. There will be terrible casualties when I reflect the attack upon them. They are too many for my armies without the use of my direct capabilities—we have only 300 of my guard and 2000 others. The ship alone will not be sufficient, and it is the only great voller I have. I will tell you where the Heart was left. I will leave Lord Enthalien to assist you—he will only be able to speak for me on occasion. The Heart has unfortunately gathered a collection of every sort of people around it. There was a compound underneath the river—we left a small group of grey elves and a small group of drow to guard it, there were a small number of both grey elves and drow that remained It is a box, three cubits by two cubits by two cubits, as measured by the arm of an elf. It is made entirely of eog (the highest of the high glasses, above viridian, high glass, and laen). There are traceries and decorations in white gold and mithril, with diamond and ruby a few emeralds and some sapphires. They are spelled out in elven across the surface of the box—do not try to read them, they might imprison you forever. The gems are all psionically active crystals. The plane they are presently in has been consumed. There is nothing left there but themselves and their creatures. Their creatures are odd, and I have never been capable of discerning whether they are actually separate entities. Once the Heart is activated by three Eldron—and they must be true Eldron, who have chosen a path of neutrality and left both of the great gods—once the Heart is activated, it will physically vanish forever, but it will create a permanent barrier against the Goddess of the Pale Bone and all her servants. Not the One Other or the One Besides, but they are weaker, less organized, with fewer servants, and could be defeated by some of your gods. Once we have it, how can we move it? It can be plane shifted, but must be moved physically within one plane. If we brought it to the Crystal City, could you keep it safe? Yes. I have layered defenses—they will not guess how powerful the defenses are, even after this debacle. We brainstorm about how to find additional Eldron. Groups of gray elves and drow in proximity or working together? Some Eldron seem to be patrons of humans (the Voice) or hobbits/gnomes; perhaps there are patrons of other races? A dwarven Eldron? Some other type? Large aquatic elf population southeast of Khamista. We talk to the Sacred Librarian. There have been several anomalous things noted. The gnomes and hobbits of the Larnelam hills. Three other things. Just off your northeast coast, a small tribe of aquatic elves living with a larger tribe of merman. On Khamista, north of the Kingdom of Bianca, north of the White Witch, in the permafrost, there is a dwarven dig. Not a normal dwarven dig—they have been digging and shaping a mountain for a very, very long time into a huge statue, perfect in every detail except that it has no face. I consider that odd—but we didn’t get any of the dwarves on our side, so I could be barking up the wrong horse. Lastly, apparently the aquatic elves off the Pirate Coast have built a domed city. Given that they don’t usually build cities at all—living in grottoes—this group built a domed city, within 25 miles of the Black Witch. And though they are not numerous, she has not destroyed them. [End session 54] [/QUOTE]
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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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