Vorsaykorai
The Ancient Battlefield
As we talked about the visions we had seen before arriving on the boggy plain, a loud voice suddenly picked up on something we had said... "the key?!" it echoed. We looked down to see a small fairy looking up at us. Tak tried to greet it as a friend, as he always did, but she said that he didn't smell right, smelling of the sea. Apparently I smelled too, but Silanna seemed nice. Her name was Bryony, and she lived with her kind in the mud. She asked if it was the Key of Kagrash that we sought. This seemed to interest Tak; he had heard of the legendary keys of Kagrash, which were able to guide people to places they were attuned to, even when the path was well hidden. If it was a key to Vorsaykorai, then perhaps there was a chance it would still work? We asked what we might trade for such a thing, and she seemed as keen on gems as the other little pixie we had asked for directions. Tak was a bit dubious about following another wild goose chase, but what choice did we really have? I still had a few gems, so I handed one over and she pointed in a direction we judged to be southwest. She spoke of a massive battlefield with a dead dwarf that was fairly obvious, according to her. More interestingly, she spoke of my own people living to the west (both kinds, more worryingly), and Tak's to the east (no surprise there).
We began to journey to the southwest, and it took a couple of days before we saw anything of interest due to the boggy terrain. Eventually the going became easier, with the ground more like a tundra than a bog, and it was there we came across the first carcass. It was a little preserved by the peat, but had clearly been a dwarven warrior. We continued into the battlefield, finding more and more bodies as we did so, friend and foe alike. Still, by the time dusk came we had not found what we were looking for and were forced to sleep amongst the dead. Tak kept watch as usual, seemingly never needing to sleep, and we had a decent rest before we were disturbed.
Tak noticed a few lizard creatures approaching, which was something Bryony had warned us about, and he woke Silanna before they got too close. They were moving surprisingly quickly, though, and he was forced to greet them. He tried to placate them, saying that we would leave their territory, but they weren't interested in peace. Silanna had moved back, giving her the chance to engage with arrows before they could attack, killing one with two well-placed shots. The other two were able to close to melee, though, and Silanna was hit. I woke with the commotion, fighting for a moment with a cloak that Tak had laid over me to hide me from the foe.
Once I saw what was happening I moved to help, but I wasn't needed. Silanna cut her opponent down, but Tak was hit with a couple of glancing blows before he was able to fell his opponent. He tried to explain that he had given them the chance to give us safe passage, but had been left with no option but to kill them. He didn't have to explain himself - I was just happy we were safe! Tak and I used our minds to heal some wounds; I helped Silanna as Tak tended to himself. There was mist rising from the ground as the dawn broke, which made it hard to see more than a hundred yards or so. We continued in what we thought was the right direction, but it wasn't long before we saw more lizard folk up ahead. There were three, all facing away from us, and we could just make out some shorter figures beyond them. The sound of steel ringing suggested that they were fighting!
Tak urged us forward to help, running far faster than we could hope to match, all whilst shouting loudly for them to stop fighting and talk. As we hurried towards the combat we could see that they were fighting against pale-skinned dwarves dressed in black with orange on their shoulder guards, which wasn't reassuring. The terrain was hard going as well, which slowed us down. Tak kept shouting to try and stop the fight, which of course didn't have any impact. Had he ever seen the real world before he met us? Silanna coped best with the terrain, closing quickly, but stopped short to draw her swords, unwilling to loose arrows into the melee.
As we struggled to catch Silanna, I voiced concerns that we might end up helping the wrong side as we had fought both these foes before. Tak was sure that the lizards were against us here, though, and did not want to judge the dwarves prematurely. He managed to get past a bit of difficult terrain and quickened his pace, engaging a lizard from behind just as the dwarves managed to cut one down. Tak called out in the Dwarven tongue, getting some acknowledgement but no actual response, and then struck a lizard from behind. I joined him just in time to see one of the dwarves being hit by a serrated sword that seemed to be the favoured weapon of the lizards. I was behind the one wielding it, so I managed to thrust at a spot not completely covered by scales and it fell dead.
I moved around to try and help the dwarves with their wounds, which did not seem to be leaking any red blood I noticed, but they ignored me. Tak tried to tell them that I was trying to help and not a threat, but it didn't seem to help. The last lizard was surrounded now, and quickly cut down - Tak delivering the fatal blow. As soon as it fell, Tak sheathed his weapons and took a step back, holding up his hands to show that we meant no harm and speaking "friends" in their tongue. He asked if they spoke the Common tongue, but they just looked at each other and walked straight past him, clearly intending to continue their journey without a word. Rude! I said "you're welcome!" loudly at their backs, but got no reaction.
Just before they disappeared, I noticed that they glanced down between the two of them and then veered off to the right. I mentioned it to the others, as it was weird, and Tak went over to where I roughly judged it had happened to see if there was anything there. He and Silanna searched the spot, but found nothing. We tried to catch the dwarves again, but when Tak hailed them they just sped up, so we left them to it. Tak seemed a bit down, possibly frustrated by our lack of clear direction. On a whim, I decided to try something to cheer him up; I found a small piece of metal from one of the bodies and crudely scored some waves into it, then used I trick I knew to make it sound like surf gently rolling across a stony beach. I presented it to Tak as a gift, saying that he would see the sea again one day, as I knew that he wanted that. He was overjoyed, reacting far better than I had expected, even going so far as to hug me vigorously!
He set off west with renewed spirit, now confident that we would find our destiny. I struggled to keep up, but was glad to see his new sense of purpose, and it seemed to energise us all. The mist began to rise as we walked, which helped as well, and as it did so we saw the mountains up ahead, adjusting our route to head for the highest peak. By afternoon the ground was rising quite steeply, but at least we were out of the bogs and battlefield. Just before it got dark, I spotted some stairs up ahead which the others couldn't make out. There was a straight section, which is what had caught my eye, and I helped to direct the others towards it. We weren't going to reach it in the light, though, so we decided to make camp. The place we had reached had ground that had started to slope differently, as if we were approaching a ridge, so we went off to one side as Tak kept watch.
It was almost dawn when Tak saw a horned, goat-like humanoid leaping from rock to rock down the slope from above us. He was carrying a glaive of some kind and was quite noisy, not seeming to care if he was heard. Tak tried to hide, but the creature stopped and coughed politely to let him know that he was aware Tak was there. Tak greeted him as a friend, as usual, but the reply was: "we shall see". He seemed quite amenable, though, certainly more so than anyone else we had met! His name was "Geron". He knew of the Duergar (pale dwarves) we had encountered, but didn't like them much. Tak explained that the rest of us were sleeping, and he said that he was more concerned with whether we were warm enough out here on the slopes of the mountain. He apparently did not see humans much, and certainly not elves.
Geron then started talking about various "half folks" (noting that I was one, too). He explained that some of the half folk would fear Tak and try to kill him, but his own half folk were here before the blasts of Ragnarak and so were more used to his kind. Tak was particularly interested to hear that Hintzu's tomb, which had been within Vorsaykorai, was intact (Hintzu had once been some kind of uber-monk). Geron noticed the ring Tak was wearing, and Tak asked if it was important; Geron replied that it was a "ring of power" - of course it was important! Tak showed him the surf token I had created, but Geron wasn't as impressed with that as Tak seemed to be!
Thankfully Geron had decided that Tak was "nice" and so we got invited to supper! Tak woke us at this point, and we were naturally quite wary of a strange creature offering to "take us for supper", but eventually agreed to take his lead. Geron turned and waved his glaive, at which point the rocks leading up towards where I had seen the stairs earlier were outlined in a glittering light. We quickly gathered our things, including donning my armour, and followed him up to the base of the steps. Rather than ascending, though, he walked straight into the side of the mountain! We tried to do the same, and only at the last moment did we find that what looked like solid rock was an optical illusion that hid a narrow entrance. We squeezed through, which was easier for me than the others, to find Geron had turned back. He apologised - he had just remembered that we didn't know the way. He banged his glaive on the floor and torches flared into life to show the way ahead with a greenish flame.
The rock was shot through with different metals, so that we were surrounded by different colours and we moved forward. We descended a broad staircase and started to hear talking and laughter up ahead. We entered a massive hall, not as well crafted but easily as big as a Gnomish hall, and surprisingly a cheer rose from the throng as we entered, along with shouts of "you found them". We asked Geron how he had known to seek us, and he said that the "Ankorek" had spoken of us. These were birds, apparently, but not the nasty ones that had tried to pick us up, but were much better to look at and friendly. They were "Bathomet's folk", which was not something I had heard before, but Silanna remembered the name as one that was worshiped by some folk. Details were quickly lost, though, as we were welcomed to the table and given food and drink aplenty. It seemed that Tak's mythical friendly folk did exist after all!
Once we had the chance to speak again, we learned that they were mainly trapped by the gnolls that roamed the mountains, who worshiped a dark and powerful thing. They suspected that we had encountered one of its servants on the mountain when we first met the gnolls. More interestingly, they spoke of Gnomes that were in the "peak of Lords", which apparently was the second highest in the mountains... and they had brightbane there, too! I wanted to seek them out, of course, but needed to rest first. Thankfully they were happy to oblige, and Tak offered our services so that we would not be a burden on them. For my part, I was happy to spend time at the forges they had. They were proficient at working dweomer into their creations, so I was able to learn some things and experiment to develop my own skills. Tak sought out the last survivor of Vorsaykorai, someone they described as a "mad monk" driven insane by what had happened to him. Tak seemed to make a connection with him, though, and was able to learn from him. Silanna was interested in their dweomer, and we both learned some of their fighting techniques. It was almost a shame that we had to leave at all, but I had to think of my people.
The Peak of Lords
We would be following Gnomish paths, so we had to look for clues and alternative paths. Metals were clearly important, and perhaps colours related to each of the metals? The world now had many half-folk, some new and some old, and not all bad. Vertical order mattered, for example in the vision I had seen there was natural light from above, artificial light in the centre, and other-worldly light below. We pondered on these things, and others, as we were led by our new friends to a place that should lead to the Peak of Lords. They warned of a pentagram where one of their number disappeared, and said that they hadn't dared visit since then.
We went through a rough door into a short corridor that led to an extremely ornate, well-made door of stone. A vertical iron bar shaped like a snake was set into it with a single rod at its centre. The ornate pattern showed three Yggdrasil shapes with knotted branches and knots between them, and further imagery beyond and separate. Their roots intertwined and then reached up to form knots between each trunk, but the canopy stayed high to form a circle. The roots in the centre were green to the top left and right, but yellow/orange/gray below. Within the centre of the intertwined roots, at the centre of the whole image, it was silvery in colour, and that seemed to be Brightbane.
Was Brightbane brought to the world by an external power? Tak reasoned that it was the essence of divinity, a residue left by the old Gods, that was key to Yggdrasil's power. It was clearly linked to the hells, but a Brightbane rune in the separate imagery suggested that it might also be found in Limbo - perhaps a space outside of the world that would provide a sanctuary outside of Ragnarok. I reasoned that the rune at the edge marked the present in terms of the Ragnarok cycle, as it suggested we were post-Ragnarok but close. We also noticed that there were six "twirls" above and six below in the area we figured to represent Midgard, twelve in total - that matched what we had seen on the last image of Yggdrasil. For now, though, we sought a pathway, so the truck of Yggdrasil was what we wanted.
I reached out carefully and turned the snake anticlockwise to set it towards the trunk of the tree nearest where we thought we were, finding that it slid smoothly before clunking into place. I checked the others were ready, then pushed just slightly and the door swung easily open. The room beyond was lit by flames coming from pipes set into the walls, illuminating the room in an orange light. The ceiling was about fifteen feet high, making a pyramid shape above us, and the material was shot through with lots of thin silver veins that came much closer together as the ceiling rose to a point. There was a many-pointed star with a circle and a five-pointed star within it. There were ten points in total, and six of these had symbols that Tak recognised as depicting old Egyptian Gods. The material was marble bound by iron, although the symbols of the Gods were marked with Brightbane. There were runes on the far wall, which read:
In Age gone by when not in heaven,
A Mage brought peace and funeral pyre.
Crowns worn their points total seven,
His was the new breed’s gem of fire.
To Andurin’s home you have come,
In flight from dark into sky and cloud.
What is written of old cannot be undone,
The names of those left behind, cry aloud!
For this way is barred to all but three:
Elf, man, dwarf, perhaps thee?
There was a stairway leading down on the far right as we entered, but we were sure that such an obvious path could not be the way we needed to take. I noticed that there was a carving of a door in relief in the left-hand wall, though, which was of gnomish height and size. That was more like it - and the answers hinted at in the verse the runes spelled out might open it. When I mentioned this, I realised that the others couldn't see the door that I was referring to, just me. Even more reason to use it! The last wall, behind us as we entered was plain, so it seemed to be all about decoding the clues in the runes. We spent a long time mulling over it, and Tak worked hard to remember some of the histories he had learned in his monastery. Eventually he narrowed it down to the three most likely names: Nenya (elf), Bavarik (human) and Kalasar (dwarf).
I spoke the names in the order that the poem demanded, and as soon as I did so the door I had seen carved in relief opened and flames sprang to life to light a small passage and a steep set of stairs leading up. It was about eight feet wide, but only five feet high - perfect for gnomes! Everything here was beautifully carved, and the passage was full of streaks of different metals glinting in the orange fire light... were we within Yggdrasil? We climbed the stairs until I noticed a door to the right up ahead, glinting in the light. Just as I was looking up I heard a click as I put my weight on a step, and a trap almost got me - I was only saved by my cloak whipping up above my head and intercepting a metal sheet that dropped towards me. The cloak's dweomer was so powerful that it left a dent in the metal sheet!
I marked the step with some chalk that Silanna passed to me, and stepped carefully over to continue climbing. It was clear when I reached the door why it had been glinting in the light - it was a mirror from floor to ceiling, with another serpent handle like the last one. There was the head of a dragon in gold above it on the wall, and we noticed that we could only see our own reflections and the good streaks behind us - none of our companions or the other metals were visible. I turned the handle one click clockwise, and saw both aspects of myself in a strange apparition; Silanna saw herself much younger, and I hurriedly said that I saw something similar. I could still see the gold reflected, but also what might be iron as well.
Try turning clockwise, and get faded slightly from the outside in and greyer and metals fade except brightbane. 180 degrees goes silver as expected, but we cannot see ourselves. Clockwise back in time and anticlockwise forward. Metals clockwise: Gold (all there), Gold and Iron, Iron and Copper, Silver (not there), Brightbane and Gold, Brightbane. Turn to down and push... assuming it's the opposite!
Reveals a room, with three figures facing away. Female spins around and two males look at each other and disappear! They looked surprised. Step in and hail - casts some kind of protection. Glowing silvery orbs at centre of each wall. White marble with blue floor. Basalt silver ceiling. Wall behind her shimmering silver. Exit to left. Runes on wall to right. Tak and I fall asleep instantly, but Silanna unaffected.
Figure leaps forwards towards Silanna, but shimmers as if only there some of the time. Hit with a nasty wound, but struck back several times and killed her. Then Silanna woke us up.