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The Truth Revealed
Prelude
In some distant plane of existence:
Cordova's body floats in the air surrounded by some stange black and grey mist, his screams of pain are muffled by this same mist. The stange man in black armor and the black sword just watches in amusement. Daesious sits on his throne looking up at Cordova.
"Do you mind telling me what you were thinking?! Did I tell you to make such a move? To take such an action? No, I did not." the anger in Daesious's voice booms through out the room. "What did your actions prove? What was the result?! You are lucky that I intervened" Daesious stops and chuckles to himself "Well is that not irony? A priest of the God of luck turns his back on his God and it is still luck that saves him. I should have let you die by the hands of Morduke and Toglard."
"Sounds more like dumb luck to me." the man in black laughs to himself.
"And you?!" Daesious points a finger down at the man in black "You being there was totally un-acceptable. Your presence was not yet to be known here." Daesious's face grows dark as the anger builds up in him, his voice begins to boom as he speaks "You just better be glad I do not kill you." A green light leaps from Daesious's finger and shoots towards the man in black. When the light hits him, the man in black does not make a move or appear to be in any pain. He just laughs a bit looking Daesious straight in the eyes, a evil smile crosses his face as his armor shimmers with a strange light and the beam is disspelled. Daesious looks shocked at this display of power. The man in black slowly walks up the stairs to where Daesious sits, shaking his head slowly.
"I was there because you can't keep a leash on your dog! I told you he was a risk. His job was simple, kill Morduke and take the sword. But he couldn't, he got the sword and then he wavered. I was there to make sure your servant did as he was told. Not only did he not kill Morduke, he told Morduke of Gramlock's failing power, forcing us to play a card you know damn well He did not want us to play. Now Morduke and his friends known part of the truth, which means they will go looking for the rest of the truth. Your insistance on using this one to do your work was foolish, but we won't let that happen again." The man in black turns and lifts his left hand at Cordova, a red beam shoots from his palm hitting Cordova square in the chest. Cordova screams like no man as ever screamed before. The black and grey mist disappears and Cordova is sent crashing to the floor. The man in black moves almost in a blink of an eye and he's next to Cordova who is raising to his knees. "The Master does not like failure, and I'm going to give you a little reminder not to fail him again." In one swift move, Cordova is left screaming again as blood pumps from where his left hand has been severed at the wrist by the man in black. His black sword seems to moan with pleasure as the blood seeps into the green glowing runes. In a flash he's back at the top step by Daesious's throne, sword pointed at Daesious's heart. The sword seems to moan louder that the thought of piercing a God's heart. "And don't you ever presume that you could ever kill me...on any realm or in any time."
"Enough, enough. Step down Val-jean." A older looking man walks into the room. Val-jean seems to respond to this man without question.
"Fine..for now," Val-jean steps back and seaths his sword. He looks over at the figure that just walked in. "Besides, it's not him that I want." he walks over to the figure "I saw it. I saw the shield, and now I know who has it, and now I'm going to have his heart for supper, and his blood for drink."
The figure looks a little suprised by the news of the shield. "Really now? Excellent." the figure and Val-jean continue to talk as if no one else was in the room. "And what of the tower? Any news on that or the rings?"
"No word on the tower. I don't have the same ties with the elementals here as I do back in our realm, very few will communicate with me, but those that have are doing my bidding. From what I've been able to gather, Morduke and his men have the Earth and Fire shard, they have yet to get the air shard. The Amazons where able to fnd the Water shard when they took Nystol, but..."
Neciros looks at Val-jean puzzled., "But what?"
"They no longer have it. It seems that when the brainiacs over here did what they did, they opened a window for the others to do something. The water shard has been taken from the Amazons."
"Taken? How?! The shard was in a spot where no magic could even affect it. Who could have taken it?"
"Him." Val-jean holds out a Blood Stone in his palm. "He left this behind. As for the other rings, we have yet to find them."
"Neciros?!" Daesious finally says nervously. "What are you doing here?"
"For the same reasons as Val-jean stated. You seem to have a problem controling your pets. But I see a leash has been attached now. Oh and to deliever a message" Neciros smiles a bit a Val-jean. The rooms seems to grow dark and grey as Neciros seems to grow and change into a decaying creature. "Daesious, it seems you have been thinking for yourself and you just can not seem to remember who is in charge."
The room goes dark as it fills with screams of pain of Daesious and the laughter of Neciros and Val-jean.
In Corison:
"Lord Junik, Lord Junik!" a boy around the age of 18 comes running into Junik's chambers.
"What is it Gotara?" Junik rises from his alter, trying to calm the almost hysteric boy. "Calm down son, breathe easy and tell me what you have to tell me." Junik can tell it is something serious by the look of worry and fear in the boys eyes.
"It's Minister Cordova, Sir. He....he...he..." the boy just can't seem to spit out the words.
"Easy Gotara, relax. What is the news with Cordova?"
"He's betrayed us Sir" Gotara just seems to spit it out as fast as he could just to say it. Junik's face grows long and full of shock. "He meet with High Elder Morduke this morning in Echer on the coast of Mesasis. Cordova then attacked Morduke and took the Great Sword of Gramlock from him. Cordova did all this in the name of Daesious. Some rumors state that Daesious himself was there."
"The lost temple!" Junik whispers to himself. "Gotara, do you know if Cordova had asked Morduke anything about the lost temple?!"
"No..no Sir, no one knows, Morduke left refusing to speak with anyone, and no one there dared speak with him out of protocal and fear."
"Damn it!" Junik moves to grab tomes and books.
"Sir, what shall we do?" Gotara asks still feeling a bit worried.
"Why are you asking me, Gotara? I don't know."
"But Sir...with Cor..Cordova gone...that..uh..makes you the High Minister of Gramlock..you are in charge now." Junik stops at the realization that the boy was right. Backed by the fact that Ministers, High Deacons, Deacons, and High Elders start to enter his chambers...the Council of Gramlock.
"Fine then." The look on Junik's face is that of determination and anger "Order all Temples to take the offensive against any temple of Daesious. I dont care if it's a little wood shack in the middle of no where, you are to find it and you are to destroy it. Send word to all temples of the Lords of Light, specially Si. Tell them what has happened and what our course of action is against Daesious. If they want in, they need to get in now..because I'm sure that Daesious has plenty of friends himself. I want all researchers and historians finding what ever they can on the Lost Temple of Gramlock. Find a damn way to get through that forest without losing our minds. I want to know what else is in there."
"Sir, if we attack temples in cities and towns, what about the people?" one of the High Elders asks. Junik just looks at him a bit annoyed.
"Any town where there is a temple of Daesious means there are followers of Daesious. Be it willing or not, give them a chance to see the light and get the hell out of our way. If they don't, kill them." he looks at the shock in their faces, never really seeing this side of Junik before. 'Listen people, we may follow a God of Light, but he's also a God of War. If Daesious wants a war, we're going to give him a war. NOW MOVE!" The people leave quickly as Junik heads down the hall to another room, Gotara running behind him. Junik enters the room and moves towards the wall where he takes something down. Gotara gasps when he sees this.
"Cordova's sword?! You're going to use it?!"
"No, I'm not going to use it." Junik throws the strap over his shoulder and moves past Gotara "Find Morduke for me."
On the Ship of Earth and Sea:
Banor sits on the deck and watches the party file on to the ship. The look of anger and defeat in their faces. He turns to one of the crew members, "Set a generalized course for southwestern Paruv. We will be leaving now." the crew began to excute his orders without question. Olowniuk looks at him a bit suprised and miffed that this man would be giving his crew orders. Banor just looks at him calmly "No need to worry, my elven friend. We were going there anyways. Please stow your things and meet me in the galley in twenty minutes." And one by one Banor let's the entire party know to meet him in the galley in twenty minutes.
As the party files into the galley they can see Banor sitting on the table in the front, legs crossed, eyes closed, hands on his knees, palms upward. It is clear that he is in some form of meditation. "Sit my friends and listen to the wisdom I am about to bestow upon you." Banor opens his eyes and stands up looking at the group. He shakes his head slightly.
"Today my friends you have suffered a hopeless defeat. It was hopeless because no matter what action you took you were unable to do anything. But yet, it was not completely hopeless for you found yourselves making actions that did do something...even though you may not see it. Today, you scared a Lord of the Higher Worlds. You made him feel worry and doubt in his actions against you, and that my friends is a powerful weapon to have against someone.
You are asking yourselves right now, why am I here? What am I doing? The answer is simple, you are here to find the Truth. In order to seek the Truth one must learn to question, even when the question seems trivial for it is the things that appear trivial that have the greatest importance. Today you have seen part of the Truth, and it was ugly for you." Banor laughs a bit, "But there again, the Truth is never really that beautiful, it just is. People, in general however, do not want to see the Truth they only want to see beauty. They accept Deceit into their lives, mostly unknowly, so they can see this beauty. They do not want to see the ugliness of the truth so they let others paint them a picture of beauty, something they can look at and feel hope and joy.
The reason that you all are here, now, is because you each had the ability to see the truth and in time, the ability to accept it. Now, I will share with you more of the Truth, I will wash away some of the Deceit that is covering you, blinding you.
Thousands of years ago man was nothing more then a collective of barbarian tribes. Uncivilized, man wandered the lands of the southern continent fighting with orcs, goblins and orges. To the north of them where the Dwarves and the Elves, civilized and advanced. But controling it all..where the Ithaka, your Amazons. They were a matriarchal society, and they were powerful Wizards and Priests. Their wizards had more magical power then almost all of the elven wizards, and their priest worshipped the Lady of Pain, a powerful and sadistic Goddess. The Ithaka ruled the world with an iron fist. For thousands of years the Ithaka ruled the world as they knew it and what they did not rule, the Majestic Kingdoms did (who often came and took man, dwarf and elf for slaves), that was until one day when man saw the Truth. A man named Kryll saw the Truth and brought man together to become civilized and enlightned. When man was able to handle more of the Truth, the Lords of the Higher World became known to man, and religon and divine power was born. For hundreds of years man grew, became more civilized. Religion and the Lords of the Higher World had much power over man, controling them. Man looked at the Lords for their Truth, and shared it with them, more with some and less with others. But some of the Lords used Deceit and gave it to man as Truth, some did it for their own reasons, some did it to preserve Order and Good, others did it just to cause pure Chaos. Soon battles where waged, wars started and the mighty kingdom of Kryll began to split. New kingdoms where forming, humans started dealing with the Dwarves and Elves. The Ithaka watched and studied the humans, as did the Majestic Kingdoms mainly amused by them. For man only lived at the most one hundred years, just like the rest of the creatures (ogres, orcs, etc) of Aredel. The Ithaka lived for thousands of years, the longest living race in Aredel. While we do not know much about the Majestic Kingdoms their life spans are rumors to be that of 500 years, while the Drawves and Elves lived almost 1500 years in their life. The Ithaka found no threat in man, they never lived long enough to master their skills, increase their powers.
So man lived on and as each generation passed man started to see more and more of the Truth And soon, once again, man learned of an amazing Truth...they learned of Magik. Man learned the Truth behind shaping the energy of this plane of existence. While the Lords of the Higher World did not like this and had their Priest start a war with the Wizards, the Ithaka still did not worry for their Wizards where greater then a 100 human Wizards. The Priest-Wizard war did not last long, however it lasted long enough for people to fear Wizards, not to trust them for their power was uncontroled while a Priest's power was. The greater Wizards of Aredel formed a College and a Council that would both teach magik but control the use of it and the progression of Wizards. It was about this time the Ithaka started to actaully worry about man. Man had started to become powerful, their Wizards were progressing in ways they had never expected and their powers where growing with each passing year. Soon Wizards learned how to prolong their lives for hundreds of years, and even travel the world in a snap. The Ithaka told the Elven royal family (who at this time were friends with human royalty) to convince the human kingdoms to join their empire. They could not, man refused to join the Ithaka empire. Then something happened that no one thought would. The elves, who were inspired by mans will for freedom, announced their succession from the Ithaka Empire. The Ithaka took this very hard and began to wage war on the Elves of Mityral. When the Elves turned to the human kingdoms for help in the war, the human kingdoms refused. The Dwarves refused to help the Elves for fear of the Ithaka attacking them, however, they also did not fight against the elves along side Ithaka. It was not long before Ithaka moved on the humans, and the Ogres and Orcs took these hard times and began to wage their own war against the humans. And thus, the Great War of Aredel was born.
During this war great battles where fought, hereos were born, and awesome powers where used. This war was just not fought on the lands of Aredel but in the planes around it. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Etheral, Astral, and even in the Higher Worlds. Allies where made and lost, great items of power and magiks were used, found, created as where spells unlike man or any other had ever seen. In the end, man had prevailed, they had between the Ithaka. The once proud and noble race thad had ruled the world for as long as history could tell was broken, and defeated by a race they found beneath them. To punish them for their crimes against man and all the world, the Ithaka were sent to the Forgotten Ilses, a group of islands far away. Even the Lords of the Higher Worlds will not dare step foot on them. For on the Forgotten Isles, no magik works. No God has power, and the energy of the Universe is dead.
After the Ithaka where gone, Aredel was is a dark time. The once proud Elven race of Mityral was destroyed, and their great forest kingdom split in two by a great wasteland. The power and magiks used during the Great War had leveled mountains, moved rivers, destory forests, and even created land. Votu is a result of the Great War, the result of a great battle between Strassha King of the Water Plane and Gynorthal, the Dark Lord of Evil. When Strassha killed Gynorthal, the power from the dead God caused the land to rise from the sea floor, and Votu was created. Many wars were still fought during the Dark Times of Aredel. The northern continent had been discovered by man during the Great War, and the elven race of Lylival held a grudge on man for bringing the Great War to them. Many kingdoms were born and destoryed during the Dark Times. There was no real leadership, the world was unstable, constantly changing. For 1200 years the world of Aredel seemed to be in a constant state of Chaos and confusion. Much was lost, items, books, pieces of history, and even power. It was during the Dark Times that the Lords of the Higher Worlds basically left Aredel. While they granted powers to their Priests and followers, they rarely communed with them, they never walked with us on the earth since, and they have really not made their presence known That is until recently." Banor just smiles at bit at that, then continues "A little under a century ago they world started to see stability again. Order and laws were restored, kingdoms began to grow. No one really knows who was able to start this chain of events, but it was a move for the good of all in Aredel. Aredel has relatively known peace since then, recorded history was restored, and the kingdoms of Aredel were restored.
Now the Ithaka are back, The Lords of the Higher Worlds are becoming more active in Aredel, wars are starting, and order is crumbling. The Truth has been lost gentlemen, man as a whole is once again as ignorant as they were when they were running around in loin clothes. The Truth needs to be found, the mask of Deceit must be lifted. You must....." Banor stops for a minute as if he is catching himself before saying something he should. He composes himself a bit and continues. "You must understand that the forces of Evil have been using the ignorance of man against them, they have knowledge that man does not which has allowed them to make moves that man could not have thought of. But they also did not count on any of you, or your ability to see the Truth." Banor gets up and pours himself a drink. "You may be asking yourselves, how does he know this? Who's side is he really on? Why is he telling us this? Rest assured, I am on your side....at the moment.
You see I have, along with others, sworn to protect the Balance of the Universe. Be it Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, or even Truth and Deceit, we have sworn to aid the Universe in keeping the Balance. We move from Realm to Realm aiding those who fight for the Balance, wether they know it or not, but the price we pay for our duty is that we can not have a direct impact. Yes, we can fight and yes, we can use our powers against the enemy but in the end we can not make the final actions." Banor stops for a second, almost staring off into space. "My tale is almost done, I will leave you with one last piece of information.
Something is about to happen, but we are not sure just what that is yet. We know that a being from another realm is trying to come here into the Realm of Aredel, but not only will that being come to Aredel, it will come as a God. We believe that the being coming is already a Lord of the Higher Worlds in its realm. The worst part of it all is that the realm from which he is coming is stronger then Aredel's, which means he will have more power then the Lords of the Higher Worlds here, as will his followers that he brought with him to aid his mission. However, due to the laws of the Universe, he can not stay here permanently nor will he have access to his full power because of it. But once he is here he can find a way to stay for good, and once he finds that he will have full access to his power. From what we have learned so far one of the ways he can stay for good is to kill one of the exisiting Lords here in Aredel. It appears that he has taken the aid of Daesious, Neciros, Bymasiv, Bnevavis, and even the Lady of Pain..that would explain the Ithaka involvement. It also appears that Gramlock is the target for the death of a God plan. We believe that Daesious and his allies have captured Gramlock and are holding him on one of the Outer Planes. They are draining his life energy from him, and soon he will die.
If you decide to go after Gramlock you must understand that this will test you, but steel will not be the answer to this test." He looks over at Morduke. "Your faith has been questioned and it has been doubted. The only question you must ask youself now is, will your faith have the answers for you when the time comes?" Banor moves to leave, but stops at the doorway "Shane Lee, you and I must talk later. As for everyone else, you have until we see Paruv on the horizon to ask me questions that weigh on your mind or heart. Once Paruv is on the horizon, I can not answer you..I'm sorry but that is the way." and Banor leaves.
Adventure Summary
With the true colors of Cordova shown and some knowledge of Daesious's plans the party spent most of the day echanging and buy magic in town. Just before the ship set sail Morduke was visited by Junik, the Temples new high priest. After a private discussion Junik left and Morduke appeard on deck with a new great sword and carrying the holy symbol of Mirqual that party found in the Lost Temple.
Once underway, many of the party hit Banor with a load of questions, which he answered the best he could. Any efforts to make sure he told the truth or to discern a lie showed they he was telling the truth. Ulrich asked about his fathers sword, and Banor told him that it wasn't the sword he believed it was. When Ulrich questioned Banor's answer, Banor only replied with "Did you go home and get the sword?". Once he realized where he had to go, Urlich along with Shane Lee and Faroll left the ship via Shane Lee's folding powers. Once back at his true home in Kryll, Ulrich headed down to a area of the keep that he was never allowed in before. With the aid of Shane Lee he was able to find the path to the sword of his ancestors. Fighting through two spectral guards, Ulrich made his way to the room. Opening the door triggered a trapped and if it wasn't for Shane Lee's reflexs Urlich would have taken a couple darts between the eyes. Entering the room they found it to be empty, upon stepping into the room Ulrich felt uncomfortable but at ease at the same time. Searching the room, Ulrich, again with the aid of Shane Lee, found a secret panel in the wall. Removing it revealed a strange black, and mirky wall that Ulrich was able to step into. Stepping into the wall Ulrich found himself in some vast void and in front of him, hanging in the air was a sword. As he took a step forward he felt the presence of another being, and heard "So you have come for me, have you?" Realizing the sword was intellegent, Ulrich grabbed it by the hilt and a battle of wills ensued. But luckly, Shane Lee was able to aid Ulrich one more time, since Shane Lee cast a spell on Ulrich to raise the power of his will. With the sword in hand, Ulrich, Shane and Farrol returned to the ship.
For the rest of the trip, Shane Lee and Banor were no where to be found. When Shane Lee surfaced from below decks, he seems stronger and faster. Soon the island was in sight and the ship landed on the coast. Disembarking from the ship, they party began to explore the island. As they walked through the thick jungle, Toglard announced that the island was his, and claimed it to be Toglardia. To prove his resolve, Toglard Wished that every world map on Aredel now showed this island as Toglardia. It wasn't long after staking his claim when the party found the inhabitiants of Toglardia when giant rocks and spears came flying at them. They party found themselves face six forest giants, but it wasn't long before spells, arrows and steel began to fly. As all but two giants fell the party was attacked by two more giants on their flanks. Killing all but one of the giants, the party questioned their captive. Learning where his tribe was located they quickly moved through the jungle.
Olowniuk soon moved ahead of the party and began his recon. He soon found himself looking down into valley being oocupied by a village of forest giants. Across the center of the village he could see a cave in a cliff side that appeared to be some sort of religous haven. Moving quickly, Olown moved into the cave. Scanning the cave Olown found an alter filled with diamonds, figuring the shard was inside this sea of diamonds Olown scooped them all into a sack. As Olown was scooping, he felt something hit him and send him acrossed the cave into the far wall. He could soon see the outlines of rather large air elementals. Olown quickly began to make his way through the village and back to his friends but not before getting hit by these elementals almost three times again. As Olown ran through the village, Shane open a portal in front of him to shorten his trip. Once Olwon was back with the party, they quickly boared the ship and set sail. Sensing that the elementals were on their tail, the party quickly found the final shard of the ring and gave all pieces to Morduke.
Morduke quickly assembled the four pieces just as the two greater elementals appeared on the ship ready to attack Olown, but as soon as the ring was fused and placed on Morduke's finger the elementals were in awe of his power and bent a knee to him. Moeduke felt s surge of power as a portal of Earth, Air, Water and Fire opened in front of them and the ship sailed through. Coming out of the other end of the portal the party could see a tall and ancient looking tower on the horizon and began to sail there.
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