Insights

It didn’t take long for Lord Brighton and his entourage to arrive, which to John meant he had already been close when the call to Ramirez had been made. John wasn’t sure if that meant he expected to be allowed in due to the circumstances at hand or just by reputation.

‘Could be both,’ he reasoned, as he leaned against a wall, waiting for the Lord Protector to reach them. Word still traveled faster than the man himself.

The door to the room opened and Lord Brighton led a small party in. A small party that included Harker and Martius. John’s worry spiked at seeing them, especially with the grim looks on their faces.

“I think,” Brighton said as he approached, “that the time for small talk and pleasantries has passed us by. The circumstances are far too dire for that.”

“I was afraid of that,” Vel grunted. “This is connected to the threat that brought all of us to the table, isn’t it?”

“It seems that way, yes,” Brighton answered plainly before inclining his head towards Martius and Harker, ceding the floor to them.

“We’ll skip the introductions and cut to the chase,” Martius took the lead. “Before we became acquainted with Mr. Newman’s group, we were already in pursuit of someone in possession of a cursed weapon. That someone is high up in the guild that was slaughtering other guilds.”

“And you’re saying this group has become connected to who attacked us?” Gin asked.

Harker looked at Gin with a withering glare as Martius continued. “Not connected in a direct sense, but please, let us continue. As you know from earlier talks with Pruzonia and the Order, this guild, Phantom Reach, is trying to unlock a path to a sealed Kingdom to access the power there. Our theory is that a similar power is behind the attack today.”

John felt a cold weight settle across his shoulders, his eyes darting to Senka and Kiera. Then he looked over to Harker and asked, “Did you start getting headaches?”

“A mild one, yes,” the dour man answered. “Around the same time as the attack.”

“And at that same time, our instruments went wild,” Martius came back in. “Instuments designed and attuned to the unique magic tied to the power of the cursed blade and its connection to the seal.”

“A seal employed to isolate a god-killer,” Vel remarked in a tired voice.

“If I may interject,” a soft voice spoke up. John had hardly noticed Lorelei, the Order’s seer, among Lord Brighton’s entourage. “I may have some insights that could lead to answers.”

“Nothing concrete?” Gin asked and John had to wonder if she always was skeptical of the more esoteric parts of the Abyss.

“Sadly, my visions are not always something that can be taken at face value and need interpreting,” Lorelei replied serenely, her head slightly bowed.

“I have full confidence in Lorelei’s abilities,” Lord Brighton said. “Her line has served the Order faithfully for generations.

“I just want some answers,” Vel said. “If those require some sleuthing, I’ll take them.”

Lorelei nodded. “Around the time of the attack, the Lady blessed me with a vision. I saw a dusty path, seven sets of footprints heading for a desolate plain. The scars of battle littered this plain, bones sticking out of the dead soil. There, the seven split, six leaving down their own paths while the seventh remained. But the six left with greater burden upon them, their feet digging deeper into the dirt. I found myself following one back to a lush forest, one that quickly began to wither, spreading out from the footprints with the wind.”

John found himself looking to Verida. The goddess had a neutral expression, but John could see a spark of hope in her eyes for answers.

“For a brief moment, the wind picked up, as if to spread the rot, but then a cage of crimson briars grew around the forests, and the wind stopped,” the seer continued and John saw Verida’s expression dim. “I then found myself outside it, a set of smoldering footprints leading away. Those steps led me to a land of scalding stones, the footprints becoming burning embers. I heard the faint sound of hammers ringing out in the distance before my sight was robbed by a cloud of ash. The last thing I saw was a smaller set of steps leading away.”

Lorelei took a breath as she finished, as if recounting her vision had taken effort to relive. In the lull after her revelation, John’s mind raced. He recalled Harker’s story about the blood sword and the seal made using the power the elven prince had acquired. The detail that the man who had the blade made had adventured with the prince before he fell stuck out to John.

‘Was that the first part of the vision, the journey before? Did the elf get the power he used to take control of Amarlis and wound Yerda there? Did the one who had the sword made possess a power to match? Was the power held by the people that had attacked them?’

John glanced over to Harker. The sanguimancer looked pensive, likely working through the details he knew and reaching the same conclusion.

Lord Brighton cleared his throat. “I’m sure you all have questions, and we’re likely missing key details to help make this vision more clear.”

“I’ll say,” Vel remarked. “Prophecy and visions have never been something the clan has relied on. Too up to interpretation to those that have them. The power giving them may be ineffable, but they are not. No offence, miss.”

“None taken,” Lorelei said softly, seemingly unfazed by his disbelief in her words. “The sights the Lady has blessed me with can be too much for some to take to heart. Yet, I think there are some here whose knowledge will clear away some of the vagueness.”

“I can shed some light on part of it,” Harker spoke up. “Clearly, the decaying forest is the Kingdom of Amarlis, the thorns the seal. The history passed down to me regarding the sword used to establish the seal did not go into how it was made. It seems this vision is implying it was done in part with a comparable power to the one the elf prince used to take over the kingdom.”

“When I used my scrying magic on the ash golems, it said they were made from a sacrificial fire made to something called ‘The Forge’,” John said. “And the woman that tried to parley with us had the title ‘Cleric of Ash’, but the only other bit of useful information was her name, Rita Pyrkros.”

“A thematic link, but nothing concrete,” Lord Brighton remarked.

“I did get rewarded two things that might shed some more light on things,” John added, holding up a jagged metal shard and a vial of ash, both warm enough to be slightly uncomfortable to hold. He looked to Brighton and Vel. “I’ll add you two to my party so you can see what my powers say they are.”

Once they accepted his invite, John hit both items with Observe.

Ireaon Shard
Uncommon
A jagged piece of dull grey metal that radiates unnatural heat. A fragment of a larger work, it was cast away as waste, left waiting to be used in later forging. But the desire for war still burns within it.
Attributes: Aggression Boost, Flame Touched

Vial of Forge Ash
Common
While The Forge does not need mundane fuel, the burning of such things releases additional power and resonate energy that can be infused into the weapons and armor being made. The resulting ash is collected and used for various rituals.
Attributes: Flame Touched, Past Embers
Evocation: Flare Recreation

Aggression Boost: Emotions such as anger, frustration and rage are inflamed when in contact with this item.

Flame Touched: Past flames linger in this item, giving it perpetual heat and increasing the power of fire based magic by 5%.

Past Embers: The history of this item lingers within its warmth and can be reignited with the right methods.

Evocation: Flare Recreation: The lingering memories in this ash blaze to life, forming a replica of the most prominent being. Cost: Multiples of 50 Mana. Duration: 3 Minutes per 50 Mana spent. This item will be fully consumed.

“I would suggest we put that shard away,” Lord Brighton said calmly. “Best to not let it influence us.”

John agreed and slipped it back into his inventory.

‘I’m surprised he didn’t try to take possession of it,’ Senka admitted.

‘Probably not worth looking like he’s trying to take it for the Order,’ John remarked. ‘With things getting more complicated, it seems he wants to preserve the alliance.’

“Those certainly are interesting clues,” Vel said after a long pause. “By the time our ancestors fled to Earth, the Vel’tsh had become a very well armed power. It is possible they were already aligned with this ‘Forge’. That is if it lines up with your story, Mr. Harker.”

“If it was around a millennia ago, then yes,” Harker replied. “My family came to be the stewards of the sword around then and we have no records about how long it existed before that or how long it had been between the sealing and it being bequeathed to us.”

“Many mysteries still remain cloaked in shadows,” Lorelei said before turning her head towards John. “It could be possible for me to glean something from the memories in the ash. If I may?”

She extended a hand once John nodded and he rolled the vial into the seer’s palm. She gasped lightly as the warm glass and John’s fingertips brushed her skin and she closed her fingers around the vial.

“I feel old trees, ones that were once tall and imposing,” she droned in a distant tone. “I see a figure, dwarven in stature, skin the color of rich soil, eyes silver-white. She is withered with age and saddened by the felling of such magnificent trees. I feel the divine spark within her.”

John, Senka, Tok and Rowan immediately knew who that was and exchanged glances. Lorelei continued, “She is pouring her magic into the trees, to try and ward them from the blades to come, but she knows it’s only a matter of time.”

“Gep’Kes Ani,” Tok said, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “She spoke to us.”

The looks given to them ranged from curious to disbelief.

“That’s quite the claim, Son,” Vel said slowly.

“It is the truth,” Rowan said. “On my honor as a squire of the Order, we all experienced a vision brought about by one of John’s abilities.”

John nodded, stepping in with the obvious segue. “The ability I used invokes a unique effect depending on the location, its history, those sorts of things. Using it in the temple dragged us into a sort of mind space where an imprint of Gep’kes Ani met each of us.”

He called up Arcane Wellspring’s info so Vel and Brighton could read it, thinking it would at least give credence to their claims.

“It’s a bit much to expect our fake temple would draw the attention of one of the old gods,” Gin voiced her skepticism.

“I sense no lies to their words,” Lorelei supplied as she rolled the vial in her hand. “And there is a hint of the same aura upon them as what I saw from the ash. I had assumed it was a lingering remnant from the barrier, but unless Mr. Newman was rewarded with this item in the barrier, I don’t think it would bear the same energy.”

“Got them after we landed back here,” John said. “Deposited right into my inventory.”

“Then I see no reason why it couldn’t be possible for such a meeting to occur,” the seer remarked. “The Gamer is twice blessed by the divine, and through the Lady, all things can be made possible.”

That caused an idea to sprout in John’s mind. The vial was given to him by Gaia. The same supreme being that seemed to have placed things in his path to pick up, things relating to people and places he either already had a connection to or had a chance to run into down the line. Breadcrumbs for him and the people he let in on his powers follow if they wanted to.

“I may have a way to prove it,” John said. “My powers let me manifest a unique effect from some items. The ash has one that will let me conjure a facsimile of what it once was. Probably in a way not too different from the golems we fought today. There’s a chance that if it is ash from trees Gep’kes Ani put her magic into, the summoned being will be her, in some way.”

Unprompted, Lorelei handed the vial back to John. He let the warm glass roll in his palm for a second.

“So, do we gamble that some answers are in here?”