No matter where you go, there you are.
There is an excitement in this place unlike any other. I haven’t been so alive since, well the last time I was here. The food, ale, and women all can be found at any hour of day or night. I personally prefer the night.
The night brings out the real city, the city that most travelers never see. But to my situation, I have to travel with the party in the day and then work in the night. The days haven’t been a complete loss, three of us have taken to getting sloshed at the bars and insulting each other until there is a fight. As much as I hate to say it, that dwarf is getting good at the insults game. Almost like she has a good sense of humor. Yet, she is a dwarf, never would have thought one who dedicated their life to digging in the ground could be so much fun.
Today we all met at the library to... I don’t know. They (Fafnir and Drusilia) keep babbling about stuff to each other and sending us off to stay out of their way. As if the three of us are a bother to them. If it were not for the ale, we would be insulted.
Anyway they find a book that says we have to talk to someone or something, over at the Wizards’ Guild. I guess we didn’t have enough ale yet today so Ghelt and I decided to go with them. Oh, the look on their faces, it was worth missing a few drinks.
Well we find the place and are shown in to meet an old man. When to our surprise the lich starts talking through him. When I say our surprise, I mean the party, not me. I keep telling them we are being used by evil, now I am starting to wonder if the lich and “angel” are in on this together.
Being a man of opportunity I packed a couple items from the wizard’s office away for safe keeping while the lich controlled his body. All the good it did me, the party kept saying to search me for I might have taken something. And as much as I offered to let them search me, they wouldn’t. Not that it mattered, later when I looked, the items were not there. Fraggin wizards, I went to the trouble of stashing two promising-looking wands on a party member, just for the wizard to have recalled them.
Well at least I have proof that these fools have no respect for my trade unless it is their stinking idea. The fools never think of the fact that we need money to buy better equipment to continue on this quest, no, they got some mixed up morals. None of them would make it in the Thieves’ Guild I tell you.
Dearest Grun,
Great Moradin, how our circumstances can change in a day!
We began the morning with “Pockets” deciding he was bored with whatever entertainments he’d enojyed so far. He was trying to talk me into a trip to one of the fighting arenas in town as we walked to the Library to see Fafnir and Drusilia. We never made it to the arena - the others had found an ancient text about the Void. After reading it, we knew we were in trouble. The Void will continue to grow if unchecked, and where it’s been, nothing remains. The whole world could be destroyed if someone or something doesn’t stop it! Fafnir said his magic-users’ guild might be able to help, so we made our way across the city.
Fafnir and Drusilia were planning to go alone, which I found a little rude, and Aramil had already disappeared to study more spells, so “Pockets” and I tagged along, just to bug them. Guess I’m bored with big city life, Grun! Everything fun costs money - even fighting!
At the guild, Fafnir asked to speak to an expert on the Astral Planes. Eventually we were left in a room with a blind old man, who listened to Drusilia’s story and promptly began to channel the damned lich. It actually yelled at us for screwing things up! After some arguing, it finally told us some more of its history, which might have made a difference before, but it’s a little too late now. The angel Aramis is insane - mad and full of hate. The gods decided to imprison him, and since angels live forever the lich implied it had to become what it is to continue to watch over him. Obviously, this story, too, is full of lies, but... the angel is connected to the Heart in order to keep it trapped. We “need” to capture Aramis, get him to the Void, send him into it so he reconnects with the Heart and becomes powerless again, and then destroy the Void. Simple, eh? And all this, presuming the angel is evil! (“Pockets” can’t say I-told-you-so enough, by the way. He always mistrusted Aramis. This didn’t stop him from asking the lich for wildly improbable weapons to “help” with the quest at random moments).
The lich claimed the Void is destroyable with weapons and magic, and, for that matter, only our party is capable of such a thing, since we killed the three Guardians. I hope some of what it said is true; it was pretty coy about why it was planning to attack the dwarves, and as for what it did to poor Korin? Erggh. Finally, it left and the poor old man fell down in exhaustion! Drusilia did her magic and he woke up very confused, indeed! We had to start the story all over again - with added details! Luckily, the old man was pretty resilient, and thought of an artifact that could help us with the angel; an iron flask, coverd with runes, that could command Aramis long enough to trap him. It would cost a fortune, but when Fafnir explained the Void’s powers and showed him the old letter, he passed out from fear, then told us to wait while he consulted his colleagues in Divination magic for help.
Several hours later, we were fetched from the waiting room and returned to the old man and a young lady named Alicia the Seeress. They’ve “found” one of the flasks we need, under the ruins of Redcastle in the Bone March. Not a very nice place, apparently, but at least a start! I paid them for their efforts, while “Pockets” hit on the Seeress. I think he’s lucky her specialty is Divination!
At this point we’re working on learning more about the Bone March, so Fafnir can teleport us there. After we gain the iron flask, we’ll come back to town to find out where Aramis is. Then, we’ll have to come back to find out where the Void is! Drusilia’s off to commune with her god about the truth of the lich’s story, and “Pockets” wants to cut Aramil open to make sure the angel didn’t make him evil when he ressurrected him in the tower. Me, I want a drink. “Pockets” still wants me to fight in the arena - I think he’s still mad about the “brothers” joke with Aramil, myself. I don’t need to prove my fighting skills in such a way.
Drusilia’s back and frustrated. Her god’s not being very helpful. I don’t know if Moradin would be more so!
Wish us luck, Grun - we’re heading for an epic adventure, here, of our own making!
Love,
Ghelt
Well, I doesn’t look like I will have a chance to work on that spell. When I returned to the library the following day, The scribe had found a book referencing the void. It was an old, charred volume that told of another world that was destroyed by the Void. When I showed this book to my companions, their reactions were “mixed”.
Drusilia was horrified (as was I). Pockets was noncommital about the whole thing, while Ghelt and Aramil found it uproariously funny! I must say, I wasn’t prepared for this reaction, and I am having some serious doubts about how wise it is to continue travelling with them. But decisions like that will need to wait...
Thinking that the Wizards’ Guild would be the best place to seek assistance, we proceeded there and requested an audience. We were soon led in to meet “Master Vistal”. Well, it didn’t take us long to realize that Master Vistal was not himself. In fact, he was someone we recognized quite easily — Arkon!
Arkon proceeded to tell us that we had screwed up royally... as if we didn’t already know that! He also told us how we should “fix things”, should we choose to believe him. If his tale is true, it is actually Aramis who is the great threat to the world, not Arkon. Arkon told us that he was appointed by the Celestial Council to imprison Aramis, in order to prevent him from destroying the world. He claims that Aramis is “misguided” and thinks that the only way to cleanse the world of evil is to destroy it completely! In order to set things right, we must recapture Aramis, and cast him into the void. (The presence of both Aramis and the Heart of Nerul in the void will cause the magic-antimagic field that was described in the journal we found..). With this bit of information, Arkon left Vistal’s body, which collapsed into a heap on the floor.
After reviving Vistal, we now consulted the one whom we had come to see. Our question was “How can we capture a celestial”, and his answer was that we must find an “Iron Flask”. Not having the money to purchase such an item, we asked if he knew where we could find one cheap. This led us to another member of the guild... a seeress who told us that there was a flask buried beneath the ruins of RedCastle, far to the east. With that bit of information we left the guildhall to make further plans.
Before we head off on another wild goose chase at the advice of a Lich, I beseeched Drusilia to commune with Pelor to find out if we were on the right path. Normally I don’t go for that kind of stuff, but having been burnt a couple times already on this “adventure”, I want to play it safe this time.
While she is at her temple, I am trying to find out whatever I can about RedCastle... I think we will need to teleport there, and It would be best if I knew as much as possible about our “target”.
~=Fafnir Flamebrewer=~