the Roc and the Oliphant - The City of Greyhawk -
Mordenkainen does not react to the news in any easily discernible way, "These are grim tidings indeed.
Silvertail is correct, this information must not pass beyond the mouths of any present. If the world at large to hear of such a catastrophe, it could upset the balance of power greatly.
The strange events of the last six months apparently have something to do with the Eye and the Hand of Vecna and an astrological alignment. How the artifacts figure in or what the alignment is, I cannot guess.
I have been in my own library, looking for books that might reveal more on the subject. The Chronicle of Secret Times has given some hints and might yield more but the tome is difficult even for one such as I to interpret easily.
I do not know where the Circle of Eight met their deaths. The only thing I can surmise is that they were searching for the Eye and the Hand when they traveled to this secret location. Further research may turn up more information about these artifacts. It seems that I may wish to brush up on these items as it has been some time since I bothered to consider their existence.
Perhaps even more grimly, the divination blackout-the failure of those spells-is beginning to spread to other parts of Oerth. I have had reports of similar problem from the Kingdom of Furyondy and the Duchy of Urnst.
The only bright spot is that, so far, this strange blight on divination affected only those spells of the greater and greatest mysteries.
I postulate that there are three possibilities for what is disrupting the divinations of Greyhawk. Each has its own disturbing implications.
First, some powerful group is at work, trying to isolate Greyhawk, perhaps in preparation for a coup. The conspirators know how to cause the blackout using certain items that have perhaps been recovered from some ancient treasure horde.
Second, the priests and citizens of Greyhawk have managed to offend divinatory deities and are now being punished. This seems even more doubtful than the first suggestion but the Gods are known to be fickle.
Finally, the realms of the greater powers are themselves in turmoil, making predictions on the fate of Oerth impossible. However, what could this have to do with the Hand and Eye of Vecna?
Of course, the two events could be totally unrelated...
Regardless, with the Circle dead or magically recovering, assuming your Masters and my Allies were powerful and visionary enough to plan ahead, someone will need to fill their roles as best as possible.
As you all appear to have retained your faculties, I would ask that you honor the memories of your Masters and seek out the fate of the Circle.
Meanwhile, I will be spending my time investigating the divination failure with my spells and library resources. Keep the ring for now that you may contact me if you find anything significant".
His image begins to fade...
Zizi ponders what has been shared and carefully watches the others in the room as she then takes charge, as is her nature, "It seems we have our work cut out for us. We need to find out what we can about these artifacts and see what our master's notes may tell us, if any have been left in their rooms. Also, while the memories are clear we need to focus on trying to discern what we can of the location our masters were at. Indeed, I had assumed she was still in the building as she didn't mention going anywhere, but it seems otherwise at this point."
Fidget nods to Zizi. "We can check each of our respective wizard's rooms easy enough. I know where Tensor keeps most of his current notes. Might be a clue what they were up to or where they went. We may also want to check the library for any other information on these artifacts of Vecna's."
He grabs a crust of bread that has fallen underneath an adjourning table and pops it in his mouth. "I shtill fink i's a good." He finishes chewing. "I still think it's a good idea to travel in pairs. We don't want to get caught alone."
Silvertail, as usual, acts as if she's in charge and the others are just advising her. "Good thoughts, both of you. We'll definitely want to gather all we can that our late masters left behind and sift through them to see what we can learn. Anything that might hint at what they were doing and where they were when... everything happened will be useful... as will anything we can use ourselves. We don't know what we'll be getting ourselves into, after all."