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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gina" data-source="post: 1632688" data-attributes="member: 10990">Many Days in Three Oaks...Several Days in Three OaksJuly 21—July 31We had received our bounty for the Owlbear hides and heads and were ready to have all of our questions answered by the wise and learned priests of the Temple of Korak. It did not work out that way. The priest of Korok, the big “expert” on Alder’s Look and the area was Brother Mamont, the one who had supposedly called upon the power of his god to remove the orcs from the Garresh so many years before. I had a long list of questions to ask him. Sadly, he had no real answers, being too caught up in dogma even to think for himself. I am glad that Thaile is not like that, though I fear that she may soon travel in that direction unless we get her away from this city and the Great Church.The orc tribe he dispersed at the Garresh was the Black Hand (at least he knew that much). As to Alder’s Look, it was built (in his opinion), for the worship of demons and other such abasements. He knew nothing of the area before the fortress was built nor of any history of the fortress. It was defaced by pious men due to its evil purpose. The Tests of the Gods are an abasement and evil. The children of the old ones would obviously be the Div. Though, they, not being evil would not be associated with Alder's Look.We didn’t even bother showing him the rubbing of the copper disc. I mentioned that I had been “told” that when we die, we do not go to Maal, but instead move toward a great voice....bad idea to even mention this, he seized upon it like a dog with a bone. He demanded to know who had told me such heresy, I made up a name for my “teacher”. I am a poor liar, but he is a fool, so I think he believed me, at least to the extent that I was not arrested for heresy. At least we know that the folk of the temples are not the ones to seek information from. We asked Brother Mamont about the Temple of Zheenkeef. We had heard that it had been abandoned recently and wondered what had caused such a thing. He told us that the temple had burned to the ground in one of their drunken revelries and no great loss to the city. We went and set up an appointment with Moira. She may have some answers. Then, we went to work on our task of buying and selling things. Each day we were in town, it took much of our time to go from place to place searching for a good price on various items, trying to get the best price for what we had to sell. I found it tremendously dull, but went along anyway. The time for our meeting with Moira came and we were shown into her tower by Logan, her servant or apprentice or whatever he is. I am not certain what his function is, or even if he is a wizard, but he was very polite. Moira made her usual grand entrance, while Thaile looked somewhat disapproving. She is incredibly mistrustful of Moira, but then, she trusts the folk of the temples and I do not. I find it interesting that Tieran and even Kytum-up and Mor’Elandi seemed captivated by her very presence, but then, she is very beautiful. Still, they are singularly unimpressed by Thaile or myself, or in fact, any other female we have ever come into contact with. We spoke to Moira for quite some time. She seemed reluctant to speak openly with us, telling us more of “what the Great Church or the temples say” is true. She was able to tell us the Alder’s Look was built thousands of years ago, perhaps by a race related to the orcs. The current orcs are probably a corrupted version of the children of the old ones we have spoken of. We showed her the rubbing of the copper disc and she was quite interested in it. Ancient, she said, a summoning and binding spell woven into it. She had no more idea than we did what had once been in the center, before it was ritually defaced. If we recover the disc, she would be very interested in examining it. I showed her the drawing I did of the rune in the “fear causing” room in Alder’s Look and she said that it was a rune to cause fear and that she had never been able to find any other purpose for that room either, though it was strange. Still, she was amused by the story of Tieran being pulled by Riva from that room to the “orcish baths” like a wizard pull-toy. I spoke to her a little about my experiences after dying and she was very guarded in speaking of these things. She did not seem surprised to hear that I was the same Rowan, but then, she also said that she was with Kaleal when he scribed the scroll, so I guess it would not come as a great surprise. Still, she seemed not to be overly disturbed by my rebirth. She also seemed to know what Kytum-up was, as if she could see through the illusion the circlet bestows upon him. I wonder how she does that. We have been calling him “Ralph Needipin”. He prefers Ralph to Needipin. Really, she seemed very uncomfortable speaking of any of this with Thaile present. I determined that I needed to return later without Thaile. Mor’Elandi was in agreement and said that he would say nothing and return with me.The next few days were spent mostly in buying and selling. Tieran was scribing scrolls, totally disinterested in what we buy or sell beyond scrolls for him. In fact when we asked him, his reply was this:“I am disinterested in matters of what we sell. In general we should sell all acquired items which can not be put to daily use by one of us. We should have magical weapons and better spells. Now, if you will excuse me, I will return to my scribing. By the way, Thaile, while you are out shopping will you pick up some nice looking shoes for me to give to the mage's assistant? I does not think I am very good at questions of fashion. Thank you. “scribe...scribe...scribe...scribe...scratch_nose...scribe...There was also the incident with the innkeeper. He was kind enough to bring Tieran’s lunch to him, since he had not come down to eat (busy scribing you know). Well, we’re not sure what Tieran cast on him, but he was quite groggy for several days and still won’t go anywhere near him for any reason. His dog, however, seems to adore Tieran and mounts his leg at any opportunity. Maybe its the gravy on his trousers, but in any case, the dog is near anytime Tieran is in the common room. I went to the animal trainer and he knew little of Owlbears, but then, I know little of them myself. He did, however, say that he might be able to find a buyer for the egg. I decided to think on it for a few days and get back to him. I would like to keep the egg, but I fear that I do not have the time to raise it properly. I could leave it with Graystone, but I am not certain what he would say about that. We did get a warming blanket made, magically to keep the egg warm though, so I do not have to decide immediately. Thaile and the others wonder why I am so interested in keeping it. I wonder why they do not see how wonderful it could be to see such a creature grow up!Three days after our first visit with Moira, Thaile went to the Great Church to deal with the rag-amulet. Mor’Elandi and I saw this as a good time to visit Moira again. She was reluctant to speak at first, commenting that as it was dangerous to speak to temple folk, so it might be unwise to speak openly to close associates of such persons. I spoke more of my experiences while dead. She expressed concern that I may have been misled by evil gods or demons. I told her that I am certain that what I saw was true, but she did worry me a bit, made me wonder what would happen if my visions were false. She loosened up a little after that and we spoke of the tests. She said that there were several testing grounds, she had seen others, but never one that was active. She was very interested in Slithia and what had happened in the active tests. We asked her what she knew of the tests and of the building of Alder’s Look and others. She replied that in the early days of the empire, many of the records of such things were destroyed by the Great Church as it grew in influence. Most records of this time and times before have been destroyed. Those few which still exist are exceedingly difficult to locate. The other test she saw was in the North. From her description, it sounds very like the one in Alder’s Look. We spoke to her of Kerchick and the Mystery of Purity. She is certain that the orcs will not be able to summon Kerchick, which is very good. She was not able to tell us what the water from the font of purity might do, but she was able to tell us that with the font broken, its properties would be weakened. She listened to our tales of the Mysteries of Purpose and Patience and warned us that the next, the Mystery of Infinity (endlessness) would likely prove a challenge since it could drive us mad. It has something to do with contemplation of numbers, magic numbers. We should look to Tieran for this test, he will be the one best suited for it. The next two should be the Mysteries of Focus and Duality, or the Two. The last set of two are, as far as her research tells her, the Mysteries of Grace and Power. The final one is the Mystery of One. So, we know more than we did before, at least. So, as far as we know the mysteries are as follows, four sets of principles and then the final test:Purpose—PurityEndlessness—PatienceFocus—DualityGrace—PowerOneWe asked her about the Temple of Zheenkeef and her story differed slightly but significantly from that of Brother Mamont. She said that there was an altercation between the Zheenkeefans and the Great Church. Soon after this altercation, the temple burned to the ground.The members of their order are known to drink heavily, so it may very well be that their revelries got out of hand. We left Moira and went back to the Inn. Thaile and Kytum-up had returned from the Great Church, where they had taken the rag-amulet (from the trolls) to be dealt with. At the temple were Brother Mamont, Magus Zaamatt, and Father Gareth Eisenhauf Court Priest of the Great Church. They detected magic upon the item, lit some incense, and said that the item was evil and needed to be destroyed. Then, they took it away. Thaile asked a few questions but not surprisingly, received few answers only prattle about church orthodoxy. The next morning, I mentioned that Mor’Elandi and I had gone back to see Moira and that we had spoken to her about the tests. Perhaps I should never have mentioned it.</blockquote>

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