NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Horacio" data-source="post: 418338" data-attributes="member: 82">Let post another update <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Book VI, Part 20Dana materialized within the House of the Moon in the farming community of Greenfields, located just a few days’ travel from the sprawling metropolis of Waterdeep.  Her sudden appearance in the center of the temple’s nave startled a nearby priest.  He was an elf, old enough to show his years—and that meant he was truly old—clad in a robe of soft blue cloth that flowed around his lean, still muscular body.  As the glow of Dana’s teleport spell faded, he recognized her, and his face broke into a wide smile. “Dana!  It brings joy to my heart to see you return.”“Seral,” Dana said, with a short bow of respect.  “I am sorry to have startled you.”“It was worth it, to see you once again,” the elf said, walking to her and sharing a warm embrace.  When the two broke apart, he fixed her with his amber eyes, eyes that shone with deep knowledge and understanding.“The last months have not treated you well, sister, I can see it in your face.”  He did not comment on the fresh bloodstains and tears in her clothes, but it was clear that he saw those, and every other subtle detail, as well.  Dana laughed, a nervous laugh of released tension.  “You are the only man I know, Seral, who would say such a thing to a woman’s face.  Well, perhaps one other,” she added, and her face grew pained momentarily.  “You must come, and tell me all about it.”“I see you were in the midst of your devotional... I don’t wish to interrupt.”“Never mind.  We can talk, and enjoy hot tea, and then conduct the devotional together.”“I would like that.”The two of them left the nave into the main body of the temple.  The House of the Moon was a large structure, one of the largest in the community, but it was simple in design.  The main area of worship was a single large room, its stone walls stretching some twenty feet in height, but supporting no roof—the House of the Moon was open to the sky.  First-time visitors usually commented on that, suggesting that perhaps the choice of an open-air temple wasn’t the best for the storm-wracked Sword Coast, but those who knew the place knew that no rain ever fell within the House of the Moon, regardless of how drenched the land around it became.  Seral led her to a small side room adjoining the temple, a simple wooden chamber laid out in a manner that seemed spartan quarters for one of the more powerful clerics of the northern Sword Coast.  To Dana, though, the simplicity of the quarters, and the warmth of the many little touches that she recognized, were reflections of the character of the man who poured her a cup of hot tea into a small ceramic mug, adding a small dollop of honey before handing it to her.“You remembered.”“A woman who likes sweets?  Yes, truly an odd predilection, my dear.”  It sounded like something he would say, but Sarel’s smile was warm and open, his tone only slightly wry, not mocking.  “Have you had a chance to get back down to Irieabor, lately?” she asked him.“No, I haven’t been to the monastery in years, now,” the elf said.  “Too long, I know, but of late I’ve been feeling my years.”“You still look exactly the same as when you were my teacher at the monastery.  Of course, what are ten years to an elf?”“Depends on which ten years you are talking about,” he replied, with a hint of a smile.  They sipped their tea in silence for a long moment.  “I cannot stay long,” she finally told him.  “I’d like to use your scrying pool, if I may, once I’ve had a chance to pray to the Mother.”“You know it is yours to use, Dana.  Though I’d hoped that perhaps it was more than that which brought you here.”“Yes, of course,” she said.  “I could use your friendship, and counsel.  A... a lot has changed, and while I know what I’m going to do now, I could still use a patient ear.”The old elf smiled.  “Tell me, then,” he said, leaning back in his chair.  And she did. * * * * * The busy scritch, scritch of a stylus as it made its marks upon a thin clay tablet filled the confined space of the small office.  Lok paused and glanced over his work.  The upper half of the tablet was filled with compact dwarven runes in neat rows.  The genasi was no scribe, but the runes were clear.  Lok actually preferred to write in the Thorass script, in Chondanthan or another of the human languages that used it, but this record was for his people, not for himself, and most of the urdunnir had never been exposed to the languages and cultures of the world above.  A small pile of completed tablets lay to one side of the desk already.  His current project was an inventory of all of the resources available to the urdunnir community; an important tool, both for current planning and for future development.  In a way, these records were for the leaders that would come after him, a message from the present to the future.  A dwarf entered, standing quietly without interrupting him.  Without betraying any impatience or annoyance, Lok put down the stylus, and greeted the newcomer. “I have the figures that you wanted collected,” the dwarf said.  He was old, his beard white and growing sparse, but there was a fire to him, a strength deep within.  Few of the dwarves of his age that had survived the duergar captivity lacked it, for their brutality had culled those who were weak from their numbers.  Many of the strong, too, Lok mused, thinking to the role of names that he’d had compiled earlier, a record of those lost for future generations to remember.  Some day, when the basics of continuing survival had been attended to, they would construct a memorial to those fallen, a reminder of the darker days.  “Thank you,” Lok said, indicating that the older dwarf should leave them on the edge of the desk.  The dwarf did so, but as he started to turn to leave he hesitated.  “So, when are you thinking of leaving?”Lok looked up again.  “Excuse me?”“Several of us old-timers have been talking about it.  You’re a difficult man to get to know, Lok, but even so we’ve been able to see it.  You’re not happy here, haven’t made this community your home.  Please don’t mistake me; every dwarf in this clan is eternally in your debt for what you and your friends did for us.  To be honest, we had fallen so far that few of us even could grasp what hope was, and you literally carried us back up into life again.  You have been touched by the Keeper of Secrets, you’re... different from us all in a way that none of us fully understands.”“You are my people,” Lok said.  “My responsibilities are here.”“Indeed, and you’ve fulfilled them.  And if you chose to stay, you will always have a home among us.  In any case, I’d better get back—I am sorry to have interrupted your work.”The dwarf left, leaving Lok alone with a thoughtful look on his face.Then the stylus returned to work, continuing its inexorable march across the tablet</blockquote>

Verification