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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 2987840" data-attributes="member: 198">RevelationsAs the floodgates of memory open and all of his earlier life comes rushing back, Nameless realizes that Kitan was telling the truth. He is ... or rather was, Edgar Thorn. He recalls growing up in Arjon Ford in Cyre, he remembers his parents and family and friends, he remembers a life and a personality that is completely alien to what he has known for the last couple of years. The sensation of recovering these memories is a strange one, in many ways like recollecting the details of a favorite and well-read book, rather than containing the visceral and emotional resonance that one’s past normally has.The one portion of his memories that do evince some emotion from Nameless is the section to do with the experience that changed him. Nameless recalls now that he did join the Cyran military, and as one possessing a little proficiency in magic, was eventually assigned to a special forces unit. He remembers that in 994 YK, members of his unit were to locate a group in Metrol that had stolen something that the military desperately wanted returned. Nameless’s team found the group, which turned out to be a small but particularly powerful cult of the Dragon Below, as well as the stolen item, which he now realizes was a dragonshard that looked exactly like the Key. Nameless recollects the detection of his team by the cultists before reinforcements arrived, and falling unconscious in the subsequent battle. Nameless’s next memory is of waking up (with other members of his team) tied to what he now knows was a dimensional seal. In view of the knowledge he gained later and his recent experiences, everything that happened then takes on new meaning. The prisoners were intended to work as fuel for the stolen Key, which the leader of the cultists attempted to use to open the seal. The energy released killed all of his companions, but before the seal could actually open, an incredible backlash of energy killed everyone in the room and blew the Key apart. Somehow, Nameless survived.His previous flashbacks of the event had involved a voice speaking to him moments before the explosion, and continuing to do so, in a changed form, afterwards. Nameless now recalls the words and understands them perfectly. The voice was that of a powerful daelkyr lord, the Nameless One, whose lair in Khyber is beneath Cyre. Feeling the weakening of a dimensional seal above his realm, he attempted to break through mentally from the opposite side. The Nameless One latched onto the minds of Nameless and his comrades through the temporarily weakened seal and was in the process of turning them into mindless minions when the explosion killed the others. The seal snapped shut at that point, severing the connection. Even with the information he has now, Nameless doesn’t understand exactly how, but the momentary contact with the Nameless One left something behind in his psyche. It’s almost as if the daelkyr lord left a mental footprint in his mind, permanently warping and changing the terrain around it. The voices in Nameless’s head, his detection as an aberration, his ‘instinctive’ ability to activate the Key, his interest in (and affinity towards) Xoriat, in all likelihood his spellcasting ability (which, before the incident, was adequate, but nowhere close to exceptional), are probably all the result of this mental wound. What would be lost (or what gained – or regained) by healing it, is left only to conjecture and Nameless’s imagination. Just as disquieting are the questions of what could heal such a wound, and the possibility that that powerful magics Nameless and his companions experience on a daily basis could do so inadvertently.While Nameless is running through these revelations in his head, so too is Naxaliyen, as he reads and rereads Nameless’s memories. Finally, the mind flayer stops and retracts his tentacles, leaving Nameless with a splitting headache. Naxaliyen gazes at him for a long moment and then gurgles, “I have never met a creature quite like you before, Edgar – or Nameless, if you prefer. You are a gift to me, and I shall use you quickly, before your imbecile companions or others can interfere. But now I must think upon this.” The mind flayer turns away to the slab holding Nameless’s equipment and quickly extracts the box holding the Key. Holding it carefully, he signals to the dolgaunt, who walks over and picks up the rest of Nameless’s things. The pair then head toward the sphincter, which slides open to reveal a dark corridor. Naxaliyen looks over his shoulder and says, “Sleep. I will require you soon.” As they exit, the crystals in the ceiling pulse thrice quickly and everything goes black for Nameless. **********DM comment: I'd actually been expecting and planning for Nameless's past to take a lot longer to emerge, but once he got nabbed by the mind flayer's, I figured this would be the perfect method and moment for it to emerge. I'm curious to see what Rackhir does (or doesn't) with the info.I also added the following to the earlier post about the other PCs' preparations in Sharn:</blockquote>

Verification