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Message: <blockquote data-quote="neveryours" data-source="post: 1503949" data-attributes="member: 13424">VisionsThe party is ushered into the office of Lady Camillia Weoledge, the commander of the Citadel Guards. A veteran, who has seen much action, and survived an attack by the green Dragon Overlord Beryl. The Knight of the Sword was unsmiling and gazed upon the party sternly. “What has gotten into the head of Lord Gunthar to send you on such suicidal mission.”Stark took out the music box. “Because of this.” Camillia asked unsmilingly, “What do you know of this artefact?”“It is rumoured to address the balance between good and evil.”Camilllia narrowed her eyes. “Really now? I see. And how is it supposed to do that?”Durgan intervened. “We do not know yet. That is what we are trying to ascertain as well, milady.”Camillia looked intently at all of them. “I do not know if Lord Gunthar has briefed you fully on what to expect, or if he even knows what to expect. Pashin has a garrison of Dark Knights that own the city. The elves have not been heard from since they were scattered from their homes. The elven enclave that you speak of might even have been rooted out and killed by the Darks and their erstwhile bovine allies. You may only be going to your own hopefully short deaths.”The party was slightly taken aback by her outburst, but they did not seem fazed.Lady Camillia let a satisfied smile show through before dismissing them. “You will find accommodation at the barracks. The Citadel is open to you. Wander as you wish. I will arrange safe travel for you to Pashin and a meeting with the Mistress of Light tomorrow. Until then…”The party was shown the door.-Karavas could not sleep. He walked out and wandered about. Unthinkingly, he found himself coming to the Hedge Maze, a magical grove bestowed by the elves and created by their Woodshapers. He went in.As he wandered about the maze, the symbols of the Gods of Good seemed to materialise and when he blinked again, they were gone. Each symbol brought with it an aspect of the Gods. Karavas felt the strength of Kiri Jolith, positive energy flooding forth from Mishakal, the power of the mind of Majere, Branchala’s divine music and the felling of being at one with nature, courtesy of Habbakuk. He had experienced something profound, and his previously atheistic philosophy was now being questioned.The bushes continued to lead him on, parting for him when he came to a dead end and closing up behind him. They seemed to be opening up a path to the Silver Stairs, which Karavas had caught a glimpse of earlier.Then it was dark. Karavas spun wildly, seeking the reason for it. An enormous dragon was circling overhead, blotting out the moonlight. The pathway ahead opened, showing an unlikely group. 2 Ogres, 2 humans and 2 elves were staring up in fear. The dragon dove down upon them and unleashed a fiery breath that left them all, but an ogre, lying in a field of charred grass. Karavas could only watch in horror as he stayed rooted to the ground with dragonfear. The large red then began to steadily beat its wings, and climbed for the stars. After what seemed like eternity, the dragon disappeared to a dot and then from sight.What followed next was almost comedic. The unfortunate six were in various stages of injury. The frightened and surprised ogre immediately pounced on Karavas as the summoner of the dragons. Karavas had to convince him not to attack, while he went about healing the most injured. He had to endure the blows of the ogres while claiming innocence, saving the elves, humans and lone ogres. Then he had to intervene to stop the elves and ogres from coming to blows. He had to himself a few times, but he finally got the matter sorted out. The humans and elves gratefully thanked him and the ogres grumbled as they ambled away. Shaking his head at the strange events, Karavas continued for the centre of the Maze.After a while, Karavas arrives at the foot of the Silver Stairs. The moonlight from Solinari seemed to be spotlight on the Stairs. The railings and steps made up of twinkling starlight that cause sections of it to wink out of sight and back again. The sparkling column rose up into the night sky, the end lost to even Karavas’ keen vision.Karavas walked up to the Stairs in reverence. He had heard so much about the Citadel and all its wonders. He could barely contain his excitement as he started ascending.The climb was long and hard. Karavas had stop and catch his breath his breath a few times. He was young and strong, yet the stairs seemed to go on forever. Finally, reaching the top, where the stairs ended in a small platform surrounded by railings made out of some luminous crystal, Karavas peered down. The entire Citadel was laid out before him. He could spot the barracks where his companions would be sleeping. The Hedge Maze was arranged in patterns where he could again make out the symbols of the Gods of Good. Suddenly, his knees when weak and his vision swam. Karavas grabbed the railings tightly and closed his eyes. After a while, he felt better and opened his eyes to horror all about. There were uncountable skeletons lying all around the stairs. Where the Citadel and the Maze once stood was a barren land of orange clay. Uncountable skeletal remains of humanoids, giants, strange beasts and even dragons lay scattered densely on the ground. Every direction he looked showed only more death. The ranks of remains seem to carry on beyond his vision. The sense of grief and loss was overwhelming. Karavas cursed his elvensight, for it only showed him more clearly this horrific scene. As he wept, Karavas staggered back.He fell to his haunches and looked up to the heavens. There, another sight astounded him. There were uncountable legions of blessed creatures. There were winged humanoids with perfect faces, strange beings with the faces of beasts on humanoid bodies, beings that seemed wrapped in cocoon of blinding light that prevented Karavas from piercing their veils and seeing their true shapes. Metallic dragons of every type circled and swooped amongst the blessed celestial host. The host seemed to fill the sky with their numbers and there was no doubting their goodness. Their aura of goodness was so overwhelming that Karavas could not help but gape in awe at them. The purity of each and every Virtue came unfiltered and every sin that Karavas could remember was instantly regretted and repented. Karavas was still struggling to take in the Vision that he was seeing when a sudden drowsiness overcame him. He struggled manfully to overcome the sleep that he felt was coming over. The Vision was changing again, he wanted to see what else might be shown. Alas, his heavy eyelids would not respond to the weak commands of his brain, and as his eyes closed, so did his mind. Karavas fell into peaceful slumber.(The visions I had prepared were of the past, the present and the future. The past showed the many dead that had served the gods of good. The present showed the servants that remained, i.e. the dragons; and the new servants created by the gods to replace their lost children’ i.e. the archons, and planetars. As these are not native to Dragonlance, I decided that this was an appropriate manner in which to insert them. Metallic dragons used to be the servants of the good Gods. The loss of many good dragons in the War of the Lance, The Chaos War and The War of Souls had finally taken its toll on their numbers. The Gods needed to create new servants to supplement their lost strength. I imposed a DC 23 check against extraordinary sleep. Yes, I know how elves are immune, but I considered this an advanced spell. The vision of the future shall now never be known. Grins)</blockquote>

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