(Cydra) Great Conflicts

[the Jester]

From the Ashes

5/15/370 O.L.G., 4 p.m., Horbin’s room in the Halls of Healing, Var, Dorhaus

“Two years,” Horbin the MFKG Holy says in wonder.

He aches. He is naked, save for a thin, moth-eaten robe that he has retrieved from his closet. His thoughts are a blur.

He has died.

Shaking his head to clear it, he asks, “Why did you wait so long? Didn’t the others tell you that I...” He trails off.

“None of the others came back either,” Ten Buck Tom moans.

Despair and fear fills Horbin. Dead, he remembers. Not just me. All of us- we all died in Bile Mountain. His fists clench. I can’t believe it. We all died! And now... can I bring them all back? Do I have the money to purchase the diamonds?

“I was tricked, too,” the bard adds. “One of the Marii tried to trick me into attacking the real Marius. If he hadn’t warned me, I probably would have destroyed myself against him.” He hesitates. “A lot has changed,” he adds grimly.

Over the next hour, Horbin gains a smattering of knowledge about the last couple of years. The war has ground on, Malford is apparently somehow communing with the fey and is developing closer relationships with Ketzia, Marius is leading troops on northern Valonia... Chaos has a strong hold on a few strongholds, including Dorhaus, northern Valonia (the Great Redwood Forest), Forinthia itself and the Delphinate. Elsewhere Law has tightened its fist.

When Horbin dresses in new priestly vestments and steps outside he is amazed.

“It’s so green,” he says, awed.

Indeed, Var is no longer merely speckled with life. Now trees thrive everywhere, as large as if they had been growing for decades or even, in some cases, centuries. Ten Buck Tom explains that Malford’s negotiations with the fey and the druids have born some degree of figurative fruit.

The cleric’s thoughts turn to the problem of diamonds- 25,000 gold pieces in diamonds for each of his friends. How do I come up with such a huge amount of money? He mulls the problem over- at least the supply has probably renewed itself since the party bought all the available diamonds in the area.

“I would recommend the Delphinate,” Tom suggests. “Many of your old allies are there now, including Estelias.”

Horbin nods. “All right, that sounds like my best bet. Thanks, Tom!” He claps a hand on his cohort’s shoulder. “You’ve really come through for me.”

***

5/16/370 O.L.G., 11 a.m.

“Horbin!” Till grins and embraces his old friend. “I’m so glad you’re alive!”

“Till,” Horbin murmurs happily. “I’m glad you’re still alive, too!”

The two friends catch up on old times. Till is a layman, but he is taking on more of the administrative functions of the church. His talents lie not in the channeling of the holy energies of Dexter, but rather in the manipulation of numbers and the ordering of supplies.

We all do what we are made to do, Horbin tells himself, and burgeons with pride as Till relates all that he has accomplished for the Halls of Healing over the last several years.

But the important thing to Horbin is that Till is alive, free, and happy to see him. Any burn of anger or resentment that he felt after his long imprisonment by Marius has faded.

Marius, thinks Horbin with a silent curse. One of these days we’re going to have to finish our business with each other.

***

5/18/370 O.L.G., 6 p.m.

Horbin fingers his new symbol of Dexter. The clerics and clerks of the Halls of Healing are very glad to see that he has returned; several had left over the last months. In fact, there are few Galadorians of any description left in Var. They are not unwelcome, but many of the locals think of them as troublemakers and potential traitors. The open society of Var has begun becoming insular and isolationist. Horbin sighs unhappily. Well, he’s certain Malford didn’t mean for this to happen; but he can’t control the way his people think, and even if he could he wouldn’t. After all, that way lies the path of Law and oppression.

Dragging himself from his reverie, the cleric thinks, It’s time to start trying to get things done. I’ve taken a few days to settle in and find out what’s going on. Now it’s time to act. He casts a sending to Estelias.

Greetings, Estelias, it is I, Horbin the MFKG Holy. May we meet? If so, when?

A few pulse beats later comes the reply: Horbin, I will meet you tomorrow at dusk. Leave yourself open to scrying.

Horbin takes a deep breath. Another day he has to wait- but that’s fine. What’s a day, after all, compared to almost two years?

Estelias in the Delphinate? Bizarre. Things have changed indeed.

I only hope she can help me get the diamonds I need, Horbin the Holy thinks.


Next Time: How will Horbin pay for the diamonds he needs?

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Woo! Go Tom! Go Horbin! We can rebuild them! We have the technology!

 

[Knightfall]

Woo! Go Tom! Go Horbin! We can rebuild them! We have the technology!

Funny! Nice one, Tallarn.

Glad to see Horbin back. I wonder, will he pay to get Angelfire and her blackguard cohort back? Hmm...

 

[Droid101]

Give them life! I must see revenge...

 

[the Jester]

The Price

5/18/370 O.L.G., 6 p.m., the Halls of Healing, Var

Horbin sits alone in his room in the Halls of Healing. Dusk is falling outside even now. He reads through his Galadron, two large candles lit, as the light recedes.

Horbin the MFKG Holy looks up. He feels as though someone is watching him- in fact, someone probably is. “Estelias,” he says aloud, and smiles. “Please feel free to come to me or to bring me to you or whatever you want to do. I would appreciate a chance to meet and talk. My friends have perished, and I seek aid in obtaining the diamonds I need in order to restore them in their full glory.” He falters. I hope it isn’t one of our enemies, he thinks then. The Bile Lords...

But no. In an instant, a figure appears beside him, materializing from the air itself. Estelias is certainly the most beautiful woman that Horbin has ever met. She is tall and elfin, with long silver hair in a single thick braid that falls all the way to the floor. Her skin is a perfect pale shade of marble white. Her large eyes are a deep amber that Horbin feels he could almost fall into. Silver, white and sky blue adorn her. Her jewels tend to silver (or platinum), some set with sapphires. She stands with a sort of unearthly poise that is almost startling. She bears herself with an air at once intelligent, alert, observant and relentless. She is, in every way, breathtaking.

“Horbin,” she greets him with a warm smile. “I am Estelias.”

The cleric nods at her, impressed despite himself. “And I am Horbin the MFKG Holy. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Awkwardly, he shakes her hand.

“So,” she breathes, “your friends are dead?”

Horbin nods affirmation.

“Mmm. And you are powerful enough to restore them, but don’t have the diamonds?” Again a nod. “Understandable, in these times.” The grey elf smiles. “Perhaps I can help. I’d be willing to make inquiries for you in the Delphinate, if you’d like- you could even stay in my home there in the meantime.”

“Really?” Horbin is shocked. As far as he knows, it’s very difficult to enter the Delphinate- the society of wizards- especially if one is unwilling to give up all other affiliations.* As it turns out- Estelias explains- the war has changed things. Now the Delphinate, a fairly low-population state with an increasingly-unruly underclass- is almost desperate for more powerful wizards to replace those that have been lost in battle or assassinated by Forinthian agents.

“A lot of us Tirchondians didn’t even foreswear our homeland,” she smiles.

They talk for a while- Horbin is desperate to know what else he doesn’t know that has changed in a major way- and, in the end, Horbin takes her up on her offer. Hell, how can he refuse?

***

5/27/370 O.L.G., 2 p.m., Estelias’ house in Spell, the Delphinate

Horbin sips his juice as he sits on Estelias’ porch, looking over the amazing capitol city of the Delphinate. Called Spell- for obvious reasons- the city is lit by magic, has many maintenance dweomers in place, has doors that lock magically, is full of magical services- including messengers, street spell-vendors, potion shops and much more- and its streets even have constructs and strange magical creatures walking down them, accompanying powerful wizards and- lately- sorcerers.

And even stranger creatures, Horbin reflects; someone is out walking with elementals. He smiles to himself. This place! Very strange. And Estelias is a gracious host, but a strange one; she seems to spend as much time elsewhere as she does at her home. And she doesn’t even really know Horbin very well! She’s showing a lot of trust in him by letting him run loose there.

Or maybe the whole place is warded with deadly anti-thief spells. That would be just like her.

Suddenly she’s there, teleporting onto the circle in her foyer. She smiles at Horbin and steps out to him.

“Good afternoon. I have an offer for you.”

“At last!” Horbin sighs. “Well, let’s have it. What terrible quest or task do you have for me?”

She smiles even wider. “Oh, Horbin, nothing so contrived or convoluted. No- all that we ask is that for each of your friends that you return to life, you true resurrect two of our people.”

Horbin stares at her. For a long moment he’s silent. Finally, he asks, “You mean you’ll provide the diamonds for all that?”

Estelias nods. “All of it for your friends, and for ours.”

“Why...”

“We have lost many capable wizards, Horbin. People we can ill afford to lose. We don’t have many clerics, and even fewer who are in a position to raise the dead at all- much less if we have no body, which is often the case in these things. Law,” she says wryly, “nearly has a lock on true resurrection.”

“That’s all you want? What about equipment?”

“We’ll even throw in some low-level magic gear for you all, if you’ll agree to find something for us and overthrow it.”

Horbin thinks, The catch at last, and aloud he asks, “What is it you want me to overthrow?”

A queer look comes over the elf’s face. “Well, it’s called the Bastion of Law, but that’s all we know, really.”

“You don’t know where it is?” the cleric demands incredulously. “How am I supposed to find it?”

“Horbin, all of our divinations indicate that you, of all people know how to find it. We think you’ve been there before.”

The cleric strokes his smooth-shaven chin. Something from years ago pricks at his memory, but it refuses to surface for the moment. “Hmph,” he says. “What if I can’t find it?”

“It doesn’t have to be immediate. Sooner is better, but whenever you can.” Estelias shrugs. “We understand that it might take a while. And we’ll only be able to provide you with the most basic gear to start with, but it’s better than nothing. And we’d love to help you more, but it’ll take some time. Still, we’ll do what we can.”

Horbin nods his head slowly. “I can’t believe it’s going to be this easy.”

I was just thinking the same thing, Estelias thinks.

***

5/27/370 O.L.G., 9 a.m., within the Palace of Scrolls, Spell

Sybele’s eyes snap open and she screams. “Look out! Don’t bunch up- we have to- aaagh!! What’s happened?!” She look around in a panic, then settles down as she sees Horbin. “I died, didn’t I?” she groans in a quavering voice.

”We all did,” Horbin replies.

Then he turns to the task of bringing back two of the most powerful wizards of all time.

Watching intently as they return from beyond the grave, Estelias muses, This is brilliant. By the time all is said and done, the Delphinate will be stronger than it has ever been, for Horbin is restoring the greatest wizards of the past millennia to life. These two were Delphins themselves.** And now they will live again.

These two, and many more. Many more.

Next Time: Who doesn’t come back?


*Horbin has likely heard some of Malford’s or Lester’s stories from back in the day when they were trying to get in to the Delphinate while first reclaiming Dorhaus and while preparing for their great airship journey.

 

[drdevoid]

Raise all of your allies while strengthening the forces of chaos? Brilliant!

Nice work, Jester, I love the way this weaves together.

 

[the Jester]

Raise all of your allies while strengthening the forces of chaos? Brilliant!

Nice work, Jester, I love the way this weaves together.

Thanks!

A new update is coming sometime tonight, but I just realized I left out a footnote about the Delphin above. Not to worry- the update will explain in greater detail what the missing footnote would have glossed over: what is a Delphin, how does one become one, and what happens when you bring back old dead ones?

 

[the Jester]

7/4/370 O.L.G., 9 a.m., within the Palace of Scrolls, Spell

Watch them, as the last returns from beyond the veil. See them assembled, a mighty force to be reckoned with, a band of adventurers strong and stalwart, a group of heroes who have not flinched in the face of the Far Realms themselves.

And who stands among them? Who has Horbin returned from beyond the veil? Has he failed to bring any of companions back? The number is right, yet... who is this? This tall, elfin-looking angelic figure? With wings a-spread, we have seen him before- but not for a long, long time.

Alcar, former Angel of Food, has returned from beyond the pale.

Yet- if the number of figures is correct, yet one of the staunch personages standing before us is Alcar, there must be someone from the party that entered Bile Mountain missing. Who is it? And why? Let us listen in, and perhaps a clue will come to our ears.

“I’m sorry,” Horbin is saying, as we bend close to catch his words, “but I couldn’t bring her back. I don’t know why- I-I don’t think she chose to stay dead. I’m just not sure. I’m sorry, Londo.”

“I have to get her back,” the blackguard of Coila says without hesitation. “She is everything to me. I have to find out... What could keep her?”

“Soul binding, something that snuffed out her soul, a new incarnation, animating her corpse as undead...” Horbin struggles briefly for an answer, then shrugs. “I don’t know for certain what it was.”

“I have to find her,” Londo repeats. “We have to go back to Bile Mountain.”

“I don’t know,” Sybele replies hesitantly. “We got our butts kicked. I don’t think we should just march back in there, especially without any equipment.”

“I agree,” Thrush puts in. His face is drawn with fear- a rare event. “The Bile Lords and their King totally overpowered us. I don’t think we should attack them again until we’re good and ready.”

I’ll have to change that opinion, pal, Horbin thinks. We need to destroy those evil bastards as soon as we can.

“With or without you, I must go after here,” Londo says firmly.

***

They have nothing- no equipment, except for those who had spare stuff stashed away somewhere. Sybele mulls over the armor she had commissioned from Fandral, the dwarven mage-smith, and realizes that it is probably ready when she can go to obtain it. Well, she thinks, that’s something.

The Delphinate happily provides the most basic magical equipment to our heroes, and the wizards indicate that they are likely to try to send more aid the newly revivified adventurers’ way. They are strikingly unspecific as to what kind of aid and when it will arrive, but they are clearly interested in aiding our heroes- part of their program to persuade the party to join the battle against Law.

In the highest circles of government, things are changing rapidly.

The Delphinate’s ruler is called the Delphin. The Delphin must be a wizard who is able to teleport, but once a Delphin is chosen his old name is forgotten. He (or she, but the current one is a man) dons a mask, which forevermore conceals his features. When the Delphin dies, becomes undead or transcends his material form, a new Delphin is chosen. Horbin has unknowingly brought back to life six prior Delphins. Now all of them work together, trying to protect the state they all had a hand in creating.

Is the current Delphin fully in charge?

Yes. There can be no doubt.

All tests of spellcasting strength aside, he wears the Mask of the Delphin. He wields the Staff of the Delphin. The Bracers of the Delphin are on his wrists. There can be no denying it; he is the rightful and present Delphin. The former rulers of the land of wizards have put aside whatever differences they might have for the moment, in order to better work for their country. This is a form of patriotism unknown elsewhere in Cydra, save perhaps Dorla: the willingness to give up personal ambition for an idea for a state. The Delphinate came about in order to protect wizards from a period of persecution, and where else can one go where his experiments are not, in some way or another, infringed upon? Only here can an aspiring conjurer work with lower planar particles. Only here can an aspiring necromancer study anatomy as the subject demands- through cutting up cadavers. These freedoms are so treasured, universally among those restored to life, that they all agree without an hour’s delay to work together against the Delphinate’s enemy- Law.

Several of the raised former Delphins find the whole concept a little too abstract; several find it distasteful. “Organization has served us well,” protests one, but he contributes eagerly to the research that the group is doing. For nothing suits a powerful mage like a problem demanding arcane research.

Slowly the warforged are tuned, prepared, programmed and made ready. One in particular is being tested to aid our heroes. It will fail, as will its successor; but two generations beyond will come success. And it isn’t so far off, oh no it isn’t.

***

7/4/370 O.L.G., 7 p.m., within the Palace of Scrolls, Spell

Our heroes thank their hosts most graciously. Without the Delphinate’s help- well. Without their help, excepting Horbin, our heroes would still be dead.

They agree to consider seeking the Bastion of Law. In return, they will receive more aid from the Delphinate.

And our heroes teleport, with the Delphinate’s aid, to Drelvin’s realm. He figures it’s time to collect some taxes.

Next Time: Tax collecting for Drelvin!

 

[Knightfall]

I knew if I stayed up late enough that I'd get to read the next update. Good stuff.

 

[the Jester]

Tax Collecting

7/1/370 O.L.G., 11 p.m., in the ruins of Ostraghan, Dorhaus

Mull Skybreaker is not by nature a patient giant. He is shifting from foot to foot eagerly, but nothing he can do can make the appointed hour closer. Still, the time is approaching. He has seen the alignment of stars coming together; it won’t be more than another few minutes. Breathlessly, he watches as the four stars important to the Great Calling slowly creep into a line.

Finally, it happens, and he hurries below into the chamber and gives a shout. The chanting finally starts as the force of powerful clerics that Fnogghi Chaos-Hand has gathered begin the Great Calling.

Xurkrischis, they chant, over and over again. Xurkrischis! Xurkrischis! Xurkrischis!

Fnogghi is making complex gestures, as if he is beckoning something very, very far away.

***

7/4/370 O.L.G., 8 p.m., elsewhere in the ruins

Ostraghan was a thriving city two centuries ago, before the coming of Fuligin and his armies. It sits on the northernmost point of a kidney-shaped lake, and it is right in the midst of the barony granted Drelvin by King Malford long ago, after the destruction of that same Fuligin. Ostraghan seems a good place to start clearing out the remnant evil.

Our heroes run across their first group of giants early in the evening. They engage and defeat them fairly easily. There are four of them- two fire giants and two fomorians, weird deformed creatures of limited intellect but daunting power. They are laired in a ruined tower.

Of course, their daunting power is not so daunting of heroes as powerful as these. Sybele shoots volleys of arrows that just keep sinking into giant chests, Thrush slams the fomorians brutally with his blade, Drelvin pin cushions the enemy with aplomb. Kagera springs in and out, landing crippling blows on her foe. And Horbin channels the light of Dexter, flinging both sunrays and flame strikes.

A quick examination of the tower finds that, although the upper levels are collapsed, there are rooms beneath that seem to store thousands of bones stacked on shelves. “Ossuaries,” Horbin comments, glancing at a dusty stone plaque like a headstone on a shelf. “It’s a good way to store bones if you don’t have much space in your graveyard.” Our heroes look around uneasily, but find nothing especially noteworthy. As they are leaving, Horbin starts to say, “I’m surprised there weren’t any undead there,” but his last word is cut off by a rumbling coming from the ground.

“Damn it, Horbin, why’d you have to say anything?” Drelvin groans, then laughs. He catches his balance easily as the ground bucks, but several of the others aren’t so lucky. Something is rising from the ground, something huge. It’s like the ground and the bones have fused into some sort of humungous living graveyard. A great arm-like extrusion slams down on Drelvin for a tremendous amount of damage and he gives a cry of surprise and pain.

“Oh crap!” cries Sybele.

As the thing pulls itself from the ground, leaving a huge gaping hole in the ground behind it, our heroes scramble for firm footing. Thrush is the first to manage to get an attack in, stumbling over the rocking ground and slashing at it multiple times. The blows knock earth and bones free, but the thing is resistant to the blows. He grits his teeth, anticipating a reply flurry of blows, but Horbin prevents it- by blowing the monster to smoking black smithereens with a sunburst.

“Undead,” the cleric tsks.

The group retires for the night, moving away about half a mile in the ruins to rest. The rest of their night is undisturbed, though the group does occasionally hear strange noises and the chirps of odd bugs. The next day they ascertain that the ossuaries are now collapsed and destroyed, but a thorough search turns up a pair of bottles of wine. Perhaps they were buried with one of the bodies in the ossuary?*

The rest of the day passes uneventfully, as the party searches the ruins mostly fruitlessly. Jezebel does turn up a few items of jewelry off a long-dead skeleton, and one of the rings is magical. (It is later identified as a ring of protection from pickpocketing.)

***

7/6/370 O.L.G., 11:45 a.m.

The search continues; so far, our heroes haven’t turned up anything interesting this time. Perhaps if they knew where to look? Several of them are already considering asking around.

But Horbin stiffens suddenly as he receives a sending.

Horbin the Holy- this is Prayzose. We should be on the same side. We should be allies. Join me, don’t stand in my way.

Horbin sighs.

I am on the side of the greater good and of the people of Dorhaus, he replies.

Damn it, he thinks.

***

3 p.m.

The party has a short and amusing chat with a leprechaun who steps out from the shadows. With a grin, he introduces himself as McHenry. The group shares a round of beer with him. McHenry puffs on a corn-cob pipe and seems to wink a lot. He tells them that the fey are watching, and approve of what they’re doing in the ruins.

“When the old man asks for wine,” he adds, “don’t give him yours.” He belches. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must relieve myself.” He staggers into the shadows and vanishes.

***

5 p.m.

That evening, Horbin communes. There’s a lot on his mind, including memories from years ago of an ongoing battle in a field before a fortress**...

Is the Bastion of Law a place? Yes.
Is it on its own demiplane? No.
Can we get to it easily with our present abilities? Yes.
Is it on the Plane of Law? No.
Is it on the Outer Planes at all? No.
Is the old man that McHenry referred to Old Man Rheumy? No.
Is he Prayzose? No.
Was he referring to anyone in particular? Yes.
Someone we’re likely to meet? Yes.
Is Prayzose safe? Yes and no.
Do Prayzose and our party share common enemies? Yes.
Is the existence of the Bastion of Law contingent upon one creature? No.
Is it ruled by one creature? No.
Can the battle stop? Yes.
Is it within our power to bring this about? (There is no response.)
Are there clues of how to bring this about in the Bastion of Law? Yes.
Does Prayzose wish to recruit me to the side of Law? Yes.
Will he kill me (or try to) if I refuse to join him? (There is no response.)
Is the side of Law benefited by the constant battle at the Bastion of Law? No.
Does the battle reflect the state of things in the greater struggle? Yes.
If we influence the battle we the battle influence the material world? Yes.
Is Drelvin gonna lose any more legs? Eventually.

With a sigh, Horbin retires for the night.

Next Time: Our Heroes check in at Drelvin’s little community on the lake and we meet some relatives!


*Truth to tell, they were buried in the rubble in the tower above by the giants, but turned up after the search after the living graveyard’s eruption remodeled the area.

**This happened long ago, in my Old Story Hour.