Avonshar, Book 2 [1st Update]
Rannos closed his journal and leaned back into the chair. He glanced down at the leather-bound volume's spine, and carefully read the words he had recently inscribed there.
"The Expedition of the Eye"
It was, perhaps, too grand a description; but "Terror-fraught journey into the Heart of Madness and the subsequent fleeing of same" didn't have quite the same ring.
He didn't know who first coined the term "Eye of Fharlangann" for the viewing chamber, but he knew it wasn't Rali or Alden. They'd been spending months now excavating the tunnel system surrounding it, and they'd never uttered it to his knowledge. Perhaps some of the dwarves the temple had sent to the site, that Rali had been directing. Alden was ostensibly in charge of the excavation, but on the one visit he'd paid there, it was clear that the dwarves literally flocked to her. She had a charisma that had not been there before. Her experience with the 'eye' had changed her, somehow, and made her more driven. Alden had remained as fascinated with the 'eye' as before, little caring what the dwarves did, as long as the work was done.
Their discovery, that the 'cave' was actually a ship of some sort, was a revalation. Alden had deduced the truth, and the church's careful experiments bore it out. Rannos had ridden on a spelljammer twice in the last two months, so the idea was not beyond his understanding...but it unnerved him. He had just finished reviewing the pictures that Alden had produced months ago...and they featured what must be ships for the Blue and Green Ral'Shar. Could this be the ship of the blues? Rannos remembered the image of HER. The Green Ral'Shar had become her victims. Few things angered Rannos as much as beings who harmed travellers, even if the Greens were hardly innocents.
A gentle knock came at the door.
"Come in, Eustace", Rannos mumbled.
The door opened into Rannos' new apartment here at the Library of Bashad. They had moved him there while he was gone, and Eustace was assigned to watch over it. He was a dutiful accolyte, if too ready to please. The boy entered, bearing a tray with some tea and sandwiches. He was tall and gangly, though Rannos realized he was nearly full grown. Rannos liked him, though the boy needed instruction in his thinking...he trusted authority, even the church's authority, too much.
"Strider Rannos, you missed dinner again. I brought you a meal from the kitchen."
"Eustace, you don't need to dote on me like an adled uncle. I know where the kitchens are. I just lost track of time. Adjusting back to Avonshar time is more difficult than I thought."
"I'm not suprised, Strider. You've been gone for months. Is it true you went to Sigil?"
"I did," he said, as he began sipping the tea. "Fascinating and disturbing place. I lectured there for two weeks. I had to change lodgings three times. My rooms kept getting deconstructed and re-assembled somewhere else. I actually had lunch served to me by a modron...can you imagine?"
"Really?" he asked. "Strider, Is that where you got....?" He gestured towards the wall, where the strange skull was hanging. He recognized it, and was clearly awed. Rannos' gaze flickered on it, for the merest of seconds.
"What? No, no. He was when we were coming about on the Glittergold's Charm near the Spider Moon. We were fully underway to a the inter-planar conference, and they were intent on stopping us. Before we knew what was happening, she pulled up alongside us. I'd never seen an Illithid up close, before that."
"Strider! What did you?" the acolyte gasped. "Did you burn him with the Traveller's anger?"
"Ha! No, I didn't. I spent more time protecting the other delegates. I helped defeat many of the other pirates. But I only empowered the one who caused his demise. See that hole there?"
"The one between the eyes?"
"Aye, that one. That's what happens when you try to mentally dominate a psychic warrior who's in no mood for such."
"Strider, You don't mean that...."
"That my friend Delwyn drove one end of his chain straight through the Illithid's skull? Yes, I do. "Mind Flayers", indeed. Someone's mind was flayed, at least. And Eustace? Stop calling me Strider at every opportunity. I'm as proud of my advancement as the next walker, but you don't have to remind me constantly of it."
"Yes, Strider."
The boy seemed quite sincere, so he let it drop. It wasn't really his fault, truthfully. Like it or not, he'd attained a certain level of status within the church, and a certain degree of recognition outside it. Some very unwanted recognition in some cases, which made it easier to travel as much as he had been.
He had requested Delwyn from the Library Guard personally, as an escort. It had been a serendipitous choice, as it turned out. He didn't consider it an abuse of his newfound status. Even so, something was different about the warrior...where Rali had seemed more concerned with others, Delwyn had turned inwards, somehow. It was hard to explain. No point in mentioning the dopplegangers to the boy...he'd never get his chores done.
"Eustace, please forward these comminiques as quickly as possible. Cuhlain has asked me to gather my friends together, and I intend to see it done."
"Yes, Strider."
"Take this to the temple, but do not enter. Merely drop the paper. Bring this one to the LIbrary Guard's post. These send with a runner to the 'Eye'."
"What of Casparo, Strider?"
Rannos snorted a laugh. What Of Casparo, indeed. Why did the man vex him so? He couldn't put his finger on it, but for some reason, they were often at odds. His lack of reverence, perhaps.
"Expect him shortly, lad. He'll know soon enough, I expect. Some of the rangers know where to leave word for him."
Eustace nodded and left the room. If had noticed Rannos' annoyed look, he had pretended to ignore it. The boy would make a fine clerk and administrator, if nothing else. In a church as resistant to organization as this one, that was a good thing.
The cleric rose from his chair and pulled a new, blank tome from an obliging shelf.
"What will you be called?" he wondered to himself.
He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
