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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jeffwik" data-source="post: 4603222" data-attributes="member: 9739">Day Four, shortly after midnight. Soon we will begin the trek overland back to Valley from the shadow of this monolith. This is as good a time as any -- while my writing-hand is invigorated from whatever energies here suffuse us -- to relate for posterity the tales of Vladimir and Cadre.THE TALE OF VLADIMIRThe human Vladimir was born in a human-dominated settlement weeks of travel east of the Hive, called "the University" or "New Hope." This settlement sounds like a veritable paradise, as its ruler, the wizard Zhakarov, foresaw the destruction of Toril-that-Was and discovered or invented the magical Gates which permitted us all to flee that doomed world with its dead gods for Planet. Zhakarov's evacuation plan was not the hurried ramshackle mess of our parents and Zharroun's group, however; he transported thousands of people, hundreds of tons of supplies, livestock, staple foods, and hundreds or even thousands of books. The portal technology he used is, however, not functional on Planet for unknown reasons.Once ensconced on Planet, Zhakarov built himself a little empire, dedicated presumably to learning (hence its "University" name). According to Vladimir -- hardly the least biased of sources -- New Hope's population is somewhere above ten thousand. (But Vladimir also claims that the Hive's population is at least ten thousand, while what we saw suggests that is closer to the maximum possible figure, and thinks the truer number is closer to thirty thousand, which is obviously bunk.) Despite its large population, New Hope supposedly lacks the security forces and defensibility of Mountain; it is large enough that not everyone knows one another personally, and would be far easier to infiltrate than Valley or Mountain.Vladimir himself was born on and grew up in New Hope; he is our contemporary, though he seems decades older due to the ravages of Yang's drugs. When he was healthier and living in New Hope, two years ago, he courted Zhakarov's daughter, Irina. Zhakarov, who now styles himself the "premiere" of New Hope and provost of the University, disapproved of this union, and assigned Vladimir to what he had thought would be a temporary assignment as ritual liaison to the Hive. Vladimir accepted the posting, thinking it would be an opportunity to ingratiate himself with Zhakarov, but as the weeks stretched to months, then years, Vladimir realized that he had been disposed of, and began casting for a means of escape.He was easily able to brew a counteragent for the initiative-dulling drugs Yang's people slipped into his food, though the side effects ravaged his already-weak body, turning him into the sickly specimen we're now escorting back to Valley. Indeed, the faculty of the University appear to be the supreme magical and alchemical researchers on Planet: they have allegedly concocted a magical/alchemical aerosol fungicide, they have developed techniques for crafting magic items out of Planetpearls (though the shadar-kai Planet cultists apparently independently developed the same techniques), and so on.When we arrived at the Hive, he saw his chance, and made his escape. Now his primary goal is to be reunited with Irma, Zhakarov's daughter, whom he loves and who he claims loves him as well (despite two years of absence). I worry for his sanity, should he return to New Hope and find her happily wed to another man; his vision of her seems to have been the main thing keeping him from depression or suicide in the bowels of Yang's Hive, however detached from reality that vision became.Though Vlad is a noncombatant, he possesses much useful ritual knowledge, including the ritual to make trees grow faster and the rituals for crafting magical items from Planetpearls.THE TALE OF CADRECadre's tale is simpler, for he is a native of the Hive. Cadre is a tiefling, I should specify -- though we saw only dragonborn and sibeccai within the Hive, apparently there is a small tiefling population as well, deep under Mountain. The simple version of the story is that he can Vladimir became friends, and when Vladimir began taking his self-brewed antidotes to Yang's drugs, he started feeding them to Cadre as well, and soon enough Cadre was a fully-conscious participant in the hell that is Yang's utopia. He remained in this position for something like eighteen months before we came to the Hive and they escaped (Cadre's magical teleportation proved invaluable in the escape; apparently Yang's policies are such that they do not account for his slave-citizen drones teleporting away), and I think the experience filled him with a kind of madness, for while he never speaks of (for instance) rescuing his family from the Hive, he eagerly discusses at length his collectivist theories and how Yang has polluted the "revolution" which is the Hive. I worry he may be politically unreliable.However for now he seems at least as trustworthy as Vlad, and as he is of tougher stock Cadre is unweakened by the antidotes he's taken; his astrological magic has proven itself in battle against Yang's drone-soldiers already.But now Grog is hefting Vladimir upon his back; it is time for us to leave the monolith and trek back to Valley. I confess I worry somewhat that in our absence the mindworms -- which, after all, attacked Valley just four days ago -- will have mounted another assault and overrun the colony.Day Four, night. I am tired in my bones, and a heaviness lies in my chest. Though this is not an end to our struggle for survival, I cannot but think this is the end of a beginning: Zharroun, commander of Valley, has passed from this thrice-cursed Planet. But I am ahead of my story. Returning to Valley from the monolith, we met and fought a terrible mindworm, a beast which stole into our hearts and tried to hurl Throg upon us like an arrow loosed from the bow, but it mattered not. We slew the things, if living they could ever have been called, for they were not meat and bone but mushroom and mold, and our hearts grew heavy as we strode closer to Valley. We buried the stone ---- I have not mentioned the stone before. Alas, I am a poor chronicler. I cannot even blame the melancholy in my gut, for I should have described it this morning, before we learned the sad facts of what has happened in Valley in our absence. It was pressed into our hands as we left the Hive. The stone is a smoky glass sphere; I do not know if it a relic of Toril-that-Was but I do not think so. Yang possesses its twin, and I believe he and Zhakarov share another similar pair, Vladimir intimated. The purpose of the stone is long-distance communication; they are magic items. For fear that Yang could spy on us through the item without our knowledge or permission, we did not take it with us back to Valley, but cached it in a particular spot -- we buried it in the hills near the monolith, at the lowest spot we could see one hour's walk from the monolith towards Valley. In this way we should be able to find it again, eventually...We buried the stone, then continued on, then saw a black column of smoke, long and tall like a signal fire, coming out of Valley. Fearing the worst, we rushed on, and were met by my crechemates Bernard and Frances, whom Santiaggro had assigned to watch the border. They greeted us, but were in a state of considerable excitation, which the sight of Vlad and Cadre only exacerbated. It was difficult at first for them to communicate what it was that had happened, so there was confusion -- I think we may have been placed under arrest at some point. Soon enough, however, it was sorted out, and we proceeded to the center of the village.There, Santiaggro was just finishing her eulogy of Zharroun; we returned too late to save him, if indeed Xijin's foul potions would have eased his condition. As the body was committed to the pyre, all assembled wept, myself included; it was a solemn moment.Later, we met with Santiaggro, who seems to have become the de facto ruler of Valley, to the surprise of none of us. We filled her in on our experiences, and Vlad too told his story. She was moved, I think it is safe to say, by the thrilling and valiant tale of Vlad's and Cadre's escape, and welcomed them to Valley. She was also moved, I have no doubt, but in a somewhat different way, by our description of the horrors of the Hive -- the glassy-eyed laborers, the drugged soldiers, Yang's explicit assertion he does not recognize our right of self-rule. The news that a hostile army of alchemically drugged supersoldiers occupies a powerful mountain fastness, just two days' march to the north cannot be called good news, under any circumstan</blockquote>

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