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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aeolius" data-source="post: 5546974" data-attributes="member: 2072">My game has been between session for a few weeks, which leads my mind to wander...    Secure in the knowledge that her companions were safe, Xaetra took a moment to herself, before the hours of slumber marked the time of dreams. Unrolling her burlap apothecary, the medicine bag that had stayed with her even beyond death itself, she inspected the hundreds of small pockets sewn into its surface. Shards of stone, dried herbs, and stoppered vials all seemed in order.    Turning the unrolled bundle, the ambergris eidolon exposed the crudely-stitched door upon the opposite side. Knocking gently in a deliberate pattern, she steadied herself against the flow of warm waters as the apothecary stiffened and and the door slowly opened.    Swimming swiftly beyond the doorway, Xaetra emerged into a water-filled stairwell. Along the stone walls of the passage grew a variety of corals and seaweed. Several small wooden traps held crabs which seem to be unmoving. The mortar between the stones illuminated the stairwell with a pale blue phosphorescence.    Slowly drifting past traps of wood and wire which held their captives in unwaking sleep, the hag encountered the barrier of shimmering mucus which divided the stairwell. Xaetra steadied herself, as she entered the portion of her root cellar filled with breathable air. Shielding her eyes from the golden light cast by the stones set in the ceiling above, she inspected the growth of her garden. An abundance of tubers; potatoes, carrots, turnips, and radishes grew within decorative urns, while flowering vines clung to the walls themselves.    Walking further upward, Xaetra felt the vines beneath her toes as pumpkins, melons, and gourds enveloped the stairs below. Clinging to trellises secured to the stonework walls, herbs and spices filled the air with a cacophony of pungent aromas. An earthen layer upon the stairwell served to nourish a variety of vegetables, while fruit trees grew within soil prepared with care within receptacles seemingly shaped in the likeness of massive conch shells, skulls, and geodes.    Pausing by an an unassuming section of stone, Xaetra traced her fingertip in a peculiar pattern atop the mortar. In response, a hidden chamber was revealed. In the passage beyond, resting upon a bed of ferns and wildflowers, Anasta slept. The alu-demon, restored by a single drop of blood protected by her sacred amulet, silently awaited the time of awakening.    Glaucus held the key. The scarab beetle, seemingly fashioned of glass and roughly the size of a man’s fist, had once served as Anasta’s own amulet, the sanctuary for her soul. Having attained sentience after the demon’s death, Glaucus now served as caretaker for Xaetra’s magical cellar.    “Greetings, my granddaughter.” she whispered in quiet reverence “Our last story explored the origins of the Devils’ Purse; the shard of the sea between Turucambi Reef, the Sinking Isle, and the Jungle of Lost Ships. Marked by ancient altars, each capable of unleashing maelstroms of unfathomable strength, the angles of the Devils’ Purse should be well remembered, as they define the birthplace of the Leviathan - guardian of the Solnor.    But one Leviathan may dwell within the waters of the Solnor, though many have assumed the mantle of power granted by the Devils’ Purse. In bygone ages, the Leviathan was borne from the stock of a nautilus and zaratan. Aye, the Chamber of Reflection within Turucambi Reef marks the remains of the nautilus. The hollow shell of the zaratan is ensnared in the waters to the north. The last Leviathan was fashioned from the form of a kraken.    Do not say it aloud. I know what you must be thinking. In life, the spectral kraken known as Mikros served as the Leviathan.     Within the currents of current days, the hydrimera retains the right to the title of Leviathan. Once banished from the Solnor into the Dramidj Ocean in western waters, the beast was fated to return to the Devils’ Purse.    I am loathe to speak of this to the others, but I bear responsibility for the beast’s return. My beloved Zander, in what surely must have been an epic battle, captured the hydrimera and imprisoned it within a magical pearl. The beast had vexed me in days long passed, so he wished to assure that such tidings would never again come to fruition.    It was this pearl that brought life to the iron hag, the construct I once called Grandmother Clock. It was this pearl, which Jaenan inadvertently carried through the Underflow, when the construct was destroyed. It was this pearl, which Jaenan unintentionally awakened, to avoid capture by Tempest and Salkt.    The rebirth of the hydrimera marked the deaths of the blood hag Tempest and salt hag Salkt, though heralding the birth of the blackwater hag Diadema. Their fates are intertwined in a manner I cannot fully fathom.    Of one thing am I certain. The Leviathan of future days will arise from the form of the amphisbaena.”    Silently, Glaucus crept from the concealed chamber, up the stairwell, and out of the magical root cellar. Without remorse, he shared the secret knowledge of Xaetra’s confession with all who would listen.</blockquote>

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