Siofra Dreamdaughter's page

Why would the sword of the Runelord of Pride be hidden a vault belonging to the Runelord of Wrath?

The answer lies in the distant past but I will only learn it in the future. What a confused mess time is. For example, we found the door to Alaznist’s Vault (marked with the Sinhedron symbol of ancient Thassilon). And we found the code to open it. Yet we somehow managed to do that in the wrong order, meaning a long trudge back to Roderic’s Cove. And Roderic had even told us the key was in his map (which I now realize is not THE KEY).

Regardless, before that we had to deal with the third Roadkeeper leader, a volatile dwarf named Dolland. He disappeared—not in the Sczarni ‘dropped of the end of a dock chained to a rock’ kind of disappeared, he literally vanished after we had hit him several times. Which would not have been necessary if he had just paused a moment to talk. We had the same goal, getting behind the Vault door, as his notes revealed. They also revealed yet another restless ghost—his former apprentice, now turned gearghost, Sharlise.

The whole area is awash with spirits who don’t want to move on.
After chasing off Dolland (who would go on to rescue Mother Nightthrush later, we assumed; or ‘disappear’ her in the aforementioned dock-dropping fashion), we continued to explore Alaznist’s compound. We found a goblin in a strange room, accessible only by a space-hopping portal. The room translated, though Marko (as one might expect) is fluent in Goblin. Oh! I need to remember to ask him if it is true that there are 27 words for ‘fire’ in Goblin. Not for any reason, I’ve just read that a few places and it sounds suspicious.

The goblin was named Murkle. Other goblins (the same band who captured the dwarves the town constable had asked us to find—the roads are converging!) had shoved her into a portal and she’d been trapped on the other side of a cage of force. We decided to go back to town and get her some food. I’m not sure why, but it seemed important to Marko. Marko… Murkle… Marko… Murkle… idle speculation.

We also returned the guards’ bodies to the graveyard for sanctified burial, to prevent them from returning as trailgaunts. I feel as though Audrahni and the town’s priest of Pharasma ought to be more diligent, given the seemingly excessive number of regional restless dead. I did not offer the criticism though—a bit like closing the sarcophagus after the mummy has escaped.

I updated Audrahni on our progress. After a restless night’s sleep, filled with dreams of Thassilon, I joined the men at the library. We quickly copied the instructions to open the Vault and then blotted the map with ink. Dolland was probably not the only interested party—after all, the Resplendent Order’s leader had somehow gotten her hands on Baraket.
Beyond the Vault door lay an opaque screen of dark fog. I watched myself step through it, and then I stepped through.

Smooth white marble lined the walls of the chamber beyond, carved with softly glowing runes and spiraling lines. Everything was covered in a fine layer of ash. The only two objects in the tiny chamber were an empty sword display and an iron chest. Within the chest I found a pair of gauntlets—noqual and leather, bearing more softly glowing Thassilonian runes. I watched myself put them on and then I put them on.

At once I knew these were Runewarded Gauntlets—an artifact of Thassilon almost as old as the swords of the Runelords themselves. I could feel the deading of magic in my fingers. I also knew now that there are magical items with sentience of their own; sentience and powerful will. And these gauntlets would enable me to handle such things without falling under their control.

Roderic’s words echoed in my mind.

Baraket will control them. It will control you. I should’ve taken the gauntlets but I fled. I was a coward. You must be brave. You must endure where I did not. The Vault. It lies still in the Vault.

Did Corstela use Baraket to slay her enemies or did Baraket use Corstela?
What I would give to see that moment clearly…

I stepped out of the Vault. Marko gave it a once over, but it was clear that there was nothing else.

How did Corstela get Baraket out but not get the gauntlets? Perhaps she did that in the wrong order and Baraket, not wanting to lose control of her, hied her out of the Vault before she could grab the gauntlets.

I idly speculated on that while we pressed on through Alaznist’s building. We defeated Sharlise and found her body, to take back to town for yet more santification. Pharasma should give us all manner of credit, though I doubt she will. So uncaring…

Munkle told us about Chief Cheektooth who runs her tribe and confirmed they had the dwarves. Also, there is some goblin named Ssesseleck who Munkle says is scary and who casts magic. I’m intrigued. What kind of magic could a goblin cast? There is perhaps something to learn.

Prior to pressing on, however, we opened the boarded-up room. Marko seemed intent on getting in there, which I did not understand, until we were attacked by an invisible beast of some sort (Simon, who could see it, cried out ‘phantom fungus!’ but the name means little to me). Despite its natural invisibility, we were able to dispatch it. In addition to an unseen abomination, there was also an invisible coffer, which had all manner of magic in it, rendering Simon nearly giddy with delight.

Perhaps I should be more open to entering what seem like uninteresting spaces. Clearly I do not know what waits beyond a boarded up door…

If the Roadkeepers keep the road, who keeps the Roadkeepers? Do they keep to the road or do they go into the forest on paths we don’t know about? And does the Road keep them? Like the Key & the Gate…

These thoughts were buzzing around my head like swamp gnats as old woman Rosker’s ferry reached the far shore. Lullaby Vancaskerkin and two Roadkeepers waited for us. As we got off, Vancaskerkin asked for 10 gold coins from each of us as part of the road toll. I gather from Marko’s stern, toothy reaction, that this was an overcharge. The somewhat rattled Roadkeepers agreed and reduced it to a single gold coin apiece, which we parted with. Lullaby also gave us directions to the Stone House.

For someone who lives in the forest and keeps the roads, she wasn’t very good at directions. Instead of the Stone House, we found yet another restless dead person, encircled by the path. A trailgaunt sprang from a dead tree in ambush. He had already slain three guards—the three guards we were looking for, who had gone in search of the dwarves. All roads lead to one place, I guess.

Having returned the trailgaunt to his appropriate corpse state, we considered the clearing. It seemed the guards had not become trailgaunts themselves, because someone (perhaps the Roadkeepers) had extended and maintained the road within sight of their bodies. If we didn’t want them marching back from the other side of time, we would have to hurry them to sacred ground before nightfall. We deferred that task till our exploration of the Churlwood was done.

The others were of the opinion that Lullaby had misled us. I suppose that’s more likely than her being wrong about directions. What a scamp.
We tracked through the forest, led by Kels’ memory of Roderic’s map. In due time, we stumbled upon some more Roadkeepers and the Stone House. Simon stepped forward and pretended (somewhat awkwardly, I must say, as even I noticed) that Lullaby had sent us. The Roadkeepers stood up and drew their weapons. The predictable happened.

That’s when things took a turn for the odd. While I dispatched the remaining unconscious murderers, the lads opened the Stone House door. A burst of rainbow color arced forth from a pair of withered, spotted old hands. Simon and Kels fell over. Marko, less impressed by the display, swung his falchion at an old woman.

That, I presumed from the fearful cries of the dying Roadkeepers, was their leader Mother Nightthrush. It being customary to hug one’s mother, I proceeded to seize the old woman. As I wrapped her in my embrace, she reached out into the infinite void between the stars. A deep chill rattled my bones, like the endless chill I feel whenever I contemplate the eldritch creatures drifting malevolently through those spaces, waiting and waiting for living warmth.

While Marko slashed at her, I choked the air from her lungs. I left her alive, calling on the Key and the Gate to stabilize her on the threshold between. I want to know how she did that trick with the void. There’s something there…

After a couple minutes, Kels and Simon reconstituted themselves. We manacled the unconcious Mother Nightthrush and searched the Stone House. The second story was destroyed, but a secret door led to stairs, descended beneath the Churlwood, far as we could see.

Thassilon…

A frisson rippled across my skin as we stepped cautiously down the stairs.
We must have gone hundreds of feet below the earth, based on how long it took (if we’d had one of those kidnapped dwarves with us, I bet they could’ve given us an exact number. Dwarves do have their uses.)
Out of the daylight sun, we strayed into ancient Thassilon. We found ourselves in a series of chambers. The first had a lantern and a small saucer with crumbs and milk in front of a boarded up doorway. Simon made a compelling case that one does not usually board up a cat using spikes driven through wood into stone and therefore perhaps we ought investigate the rest of the location before prying those boards off. Which we proceeded to do.

Sadly, four more Roadkeepers decided to wave weapons at us instead of sharing knowledge. Once again, the predictable happened.
After using Mother Nightthrush’s wand to heal up our crew (she had a curative wand! Interesting clue…) we realized we had found a remarkable room. Ruling over the small chamber snarled a statue of a rage-filled woman with a glaive.

“Alaznist, Runelord of Wrath,” Marko said.

“The statue radiates very faint divination magic,” Simon informed us. “Once it was used as a remote observation device, though its magic is long dormant or spent.”

I cannot decide if I am disappointed or relieved. Is there a word that means both?