Thomas (Benjamin)

What happened this week in no particular order: About halfway through we got to the glacier which had holes in it about the size of a hula-hoop. We also had many encounters of getting over gaps in the ice, one had a caravan of which the people were morganti killed. Crystalline mana ice gave cascade fireball and iceball We saw an Afinilimin style watchtower and a Growing God shrine and statue. The statue had similar likeness to the first king of Belmin, who is known to share the look and part of his name with the Growing God, but the name has been lost to time. In the watchtower there were weapons on a floor we couldn't get to. On the wall was a mural. First panel: a bunch of people spitting in a jar, a man coming out of the jar. Second panel: the man going around the world, seeming to be giving advice. Third panel: two dwarfs killing him and putting his blood into three vats. Forth panel: the dwarfs killing many people and then giving the blood drink to a giant. Fifth panel: the giant hiding the drink in a cave with a woman who seemed much younger than the giant. Sixth panel: one of the people from the first panel throwing a wheatstone above a field with nine slaves with scythes. Seventh panel: the nine slaves dead, the person talking to a giant at a house next to the field. Eighth panel: the first giant holding a hand out to the person and the other giant. Ninth panel: the person and the second giant drilling a hole in a mountain. Tenth panel: the second giant still outside the hole, a snake going in. Eleventh panel: the person in the cave from the fifth panel looking very young and handsome. He seemed to be stroking his jawline. Twelfth panel: this panel is more worn away then the others, you get a vague impression of a couch. Thirteenth panel: the person drinking the drink Fourteenth panel: an eagle flying out of the cave Fifteenth panel: the eagle being chased by another eagle, some of the drink seems to be dripping from his chin. Sixteenth panel: the eagle dropping the drink into jars on the yard of what looks like a city of palaces. Seventeenth panel: the person giving the drink to someone studying a scroll. This was discovered to be the Norse myth of the Mead of Poetry (the mewing was my own invention, I played the mural). They fought a demon and imps and lost. More elementalings and mutated animals throughout They fought amorphous rock gremlins We had to go over a river of lava with spouts all over the place! We saw some haunts that were both Tree of Life worshipers and Dark Council worshipers. We then saw a cave that felt wrong, anti-divine, and strangely warping. Everything in the cave was shattered, furniture overturned. There were racks on the wall for bows. The warping was from a hole in the wall surrounded by a seven-pointed star. If you stick your hand in you feel sick and wrong and you get +1 weight next pull. Me and one other person with spirit guide did an oracle on it to the prime. We saw a marble, shining dark. In the marble, we saw a reflection, but it was not ours, it was of a blind man with no irises; an Illion Elf wearing a Tree of Life insignia of the pacifist sect; with shoulder-length wavy hair, a staff, and a mage's robes. This is a man named Nyiss Asfeld - once an important mage in the Syenon mage school, but later- and better-known as the Dark Council member "Spider". He was known to be a pacifist and proficient both in dreamweaving and witchcraft, and served as a divine conduit under the Dark Council. Rumors are that he was an unwilling participant puppeted and controlled by them; and that having escaped, he now wanders under the name "Albus". We were the marble, in the hole surrounded by the star. The hole was pulling us in. Then an explosion happened, more spiritual than physical, a wave of energy, and a force pulled us out. The force seemed familiar, but very dangerous. There was a battle going on, but it was blurry, made of shadows. The other person in the oracle, with spirit guide, said that she could make out the battle better, with one description I recognized, a Tree of Life priestess by the name of Arden Lenn. She is a former member of the Falnorian High Council in charge of Magic & Divinity - usurped from the council during a takeover by Serpent of the Dark Council, who replaced her under the guise of Elena Kai. She returned to adventuring after being usurped, and continued to work against the Dark Council while coordinating with the then-tattered remnants of the Tree of Life following. They were fighting the Dark Council. Outside the oracle, a battle had broken out, and we got fireballed here, but it felt like there was more. By getting wounded in this encounter we each got +1 weight on our next pull. As for the viewpoint; words of essence that come to mind are "elf" "hunter" "man" "witch" "messenger" "zamuh". This is almost certainly the Dark Council member Lynx; a younger member of the Council who was apprenticed to Fox and took her position when she was captured and soulbound. It is unknown what role he played precisely, but guesses are that he functioned as the Council's assassin and spy much the way that Fox had. When the Dark Council was usurped from the Falor Plateau, Lynx was killed but his spirit escaped capture. Where he went after that is unknown. A friend of mine PD’ed at 8 stones. According to her, she felt like she was walking downward through mud, getting heavier as she went, both physically and spiritually, but she wasn't scared, this felt right. As she was walking down she saw a face in the darkness. A woman’s face, half black, half white. The woman grabbed her and turned her around, sending her back to this life. She feels like she is in a duel. Many people gained a memory, and so we will instead get a collective memory next week. I don’t know why this happened, maybe Death was busy? One person, however, had gotten a DI that gave her a dream guide. This found her a memory of the people who made the shrine to the Growing God, an ogre and a dwarf. They talked about how the statue will protect travelers. It wasn’t talking per se, it was through their minds. Also I did some bardic senses about Belmorn. First, the word that came to mind was “Adversary,” so I think that diplomacy may not be an option, unless diplomacy turns into a more “battle of words” kind of thing. Also Belmorn felt like an onion pushing up to and almost through the surface. Feels like many gears all turning the same mechanism. The leyline and scape stuff is not a gear, but maybe the Old Syenon stuff is? Just a theory. It does feel like the challenge here is not Belmorn itself, but our reaction to it, we are getting the trials of Rulership and Culture+History not External Threats after all. Also here is some stuff from the archives about the Trials: When Eldar - then Eldmin, before it united with Pendar - first underwent the Trial of the Four Dangers, this was the first it had been heard of in history. It was thought at the time to be connected to the Harbingers; there's no evidence to support that, but it does have a certain resonance that has made many priests question whether or not it might have common origins in some way. The Trials each pointed to dangers that Eldmin faced at the time. The Trial of the Bull was internal threats - starvation, cold, and the very land itself. The Trial of the Wolf was external threats - at the time, a war with Belast; but also many bandits and raiders that plagued the region. The Trial of the Deer was culture and history threats - for Eldmin had renounced its connection to history in favor of stories, and much of its history was becoming distorted by fanciful tales. The Trial of the Bear was the trial of rulership, and was both formulating a coherent government in Eldmin as well as an eventual confrontation with Belast. Belast at the time sought to conquer Eldmin in retribution for the capital's abandonment of southern Oldmin just prior to the Fall, and in doing so claim the legacy of Belmin and the Growing God - and thus powerful tools toward rulership and leadership - for itself. In this confrontation, the respective leaders of Belast (King Last) and Eldmin (Juniper Kingsberry) journeyed together into a forest to undergo trials themselves; Eldmin emerged victorious, and in doing so resolved the war for the time being. The Four Dangers were not seen again until this moment. Some info I have about the Shapers and Breakers, since the timejump doc isn't out yet and it’s easier for me to do this than Kim. New Olden Gods - There are eight new deities, all part of the Olden Gods (native to this world) pantheon. The new deities seem to come in pairs - well, pairs now, trio with the dead Olden Gods. The Olden Gods were called the Makers; these new olden gods appear to comprise the Shapers and the Breakers. It's unclear as-of-yet what the relationship is between the Makers and the new deities: some believe they are siblings of the Makers, others believe they are the next reincarnation of the Makers, others still believe that they are part of a tripartite form of a single deity each. In all cases, it's not known why these new deities only appeared now. It is now clear they are different deities, so siblings seem most likely, but add your own theories in your chronicles, I read them all. Shifting Goddess -- Waning Goddess || (Dreaming Goddess, Maker of Hobbits) Represented by a wave and a waning crescent moon respectively. Domains of the Shifting Goddess seem to include the Sea and Weather; domains of the Waning Goddess seem to include Nightmares and Pestilence. Weaving God -- Withered God || (Growing God, Maker of Humans) Represented by a wheel and a sickle respectively. Domains of the Weaving Good seem to include Kinship and Travel; domains of the Withered God seem to include Harvest and Famine. Seeking Goddess -- Forsaken Goddess || (Walking Goddess, Maker of Elves) Represented by an eye and a spiral or labyrinth respectively. Domains of the Seeking Goddess seem to include Hunt and Truth; domains of the Forsaken Goddess seem to include Endings and Death. Shattered God -- Sundered God || (Cunning God, Maker of Dwarves) Represented by a fork of lightning and a thunderbolt respectively. Domains of the Shattered God seem to include Judgement and Wealth; domains of the Sundered God seem to include Betrayal and War. In each Breaker one of the domains is the same as the Harbinger of that species, just an interesting thought. Also each of the Shapers has a specific way of change. I still need the different ways of making and breaking so when I get that I will put it in one of these. The Shifting Goddess is small changes over type (might be a typo, might not), gradually adapting as the world changes around you; the Shattered God is big changes that force you to pick up the pieces and make something new; the Growing (also might be a typo, would think Weaving) God is changes made from without in the form of bringing, tying together, and severing external forces; and the Seeking Goddess is changes made from within as you learn from what you have done before and choose what you will do onwards.