Sigrid's Journal 15 - With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

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Fourthmonth 8

I had the strangest dream of my life last night, as clear as anything I've experienced in real life. Perhaps even clearer.

***

I found myself standing in a courtyard at the Pental chapterhouse. It was obviously springtime; there were flowers everywhere. There were more flowers than I remembered, actually, and they seemed much more colourful than they should. They possessed an oversaturated hue that seemed unnatural. It was both beautiful and very strange. Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me.

“Sigrid?”

I turned around to face the speaker and found Lord Morek. I sighed, “You need to get out of my dreams. It's starting to creep me out.”

Lord Morek laughed. “Last time I was in one of your dreams, you were in an existential quandary and required my help.”

I looked at him and narrowed my eyes, “You're not actually Lord Morek.”

“And what makes you think that?”

“Lord Morek doesn't say stuff like 'existential quandary.'”

He looked at me and smiled. “Well, I knew the guise wouldn't work forever,” he said. The next thing I knew, I wasn't looking at Lord Morek anymore, but instead a much younger and taller man. “I do apologize for the trickery, Sigrid.”

“Who are you, and why have you been disguising yourself as Lord Morek?” I reached to my hip for my blade, but found nothing.

“If a weapon would make you feel more comfortable, then by all means...” the man waved his hand towards me and the Aur Xica appeared in my hand. “I have no intention of hurting you however. I only tricked you into thinking I was Lord Morek so I wouldn't have to spend time building up a rapport with you, seeing as I know almost everything about you, I didn't feel that would be an entirely necessary use of my time.”

I gripped the hilt of the Aur Xica. “You know me? Prove it.”

“You were born in De-Shamod on the 1^st of Firstmonth 1734. Your mother's name is Elysa Korriban. You have no idea where your surname comes from. Your mother had no other children and was killed by a guard in 1748. You then lived with a blacksmith named Loghan Gorrison for three years, before joining the Order of the Axe and training on White Shoal Island. You were told numerous times that you were one of the best Squires in your year, but you refused to believe it. In your third year of Squiring, your horse frightened your friend Rolan's horse while you were out riding together. Rolan was thrown from the saddle and killed. You blamed yourself, even though it was a tragic accident and not your fault. It was at that moment that you decided that you valued life greatly and chose to Champion it,” he paused.

“Go on.”

“For your last two years of Squiring, you traveled with Dame Leram, a Litorian Champion of Justice. You admired her honour and tireless devotion to Justice, so you decided to become a Champion of Justice as well. Your Knighting happened to be on your 24^th birthday, which was the 1^st of Firstmonth 1758. After you were Knighted, you were sent to Pental. For about a year, you were mainly on field duty, running errands and doing simple missions for Lord Morek. Over the past few months, however, your life has gotten very complicated,” he looked at me, “Is that good enough proof that I know you, Kesaarane?”

I shivered as he spoke my Truename. “We're inside my dream. How do I know you didn't just, I don't know, pry into my mind and find all that?”

“You don't.” the man said, looking a little forlorn. “You see, this is why I disguised myself. You're so distrusting of strangers.”

“With good reason,” I looked up and him and he grinned at me. “You didn't really answer my questions, you know.”

“Which questions?”

“Who are you and why were you pretending to be Lord Morek?” I was growing more annoyed with this man by the moment.

“You're too concerned with names and titles, sweetheart.”

“Don't call me that.”

“Sorry. If you must have a name by which to label me, then you may call me Alastor,” the man said while reaching out to touch a rosebud. The rosebud bloomed as he cupped it in his hand, and he leaned in to smell it, “I chose Lord Morek's form because it seemed appropriate to your vision quest. He is a man you greatly respect.”

“Why are your here? Are you even real?”

“I believe I'm real. I can't prove to you that I'm real though, so whether you believe I'm real is your call.”

“So, you could just be a manifestation of some odd psychosis?”

“I suppose I could be. What is it you're really trying to ask me, Sigrid? You're avoiding the question that's really on your mind.”

I frowned. “I'm not avoiding anything. I just want to know whether you're real or not before I worry too much about your significance.”

“I already told you, I cannot prove my existence to you. You'll just have to trust yourself and your own judgment. I must ask, is it really my significance that concerns you, or is it your own?” Alastor looked me straight in the eye. “Just ask me what you really want to.”

“Why are you here? What do you want from me?”

“I'm here to give you a gift. That is all.”

“A gift? You're going to give me something?” I asked, wondering what sort of gift a crazy man in my head might give me. “Let me guess, you're going to tell me I'm the Chosen One or something and that I have to save the world or some clichéd thing like that,” I said, rather sarcastically.

“Would you like me to tell you that you're the Chosen One and are going to save the world?”

“Not really.”

“Good, because that would be a lie, and I don't really want to lie to you, little guardian.”

“What did you just call me?”

“Guardian. It's one of your purposes in life.”

I sighed and sat down on a stone bench. “You've got the wrong person. I'm terrible at guarding anything. I failed my mother, I failed Rolan, and now I've failed Gannen not just once, but twice. Twice. Damnit.” I hit my fist on the bench. “If I didn't care so damn much, I wouldn't be hurting this badly.”

“It's good that you're passionate and you care. Your passion gives you strength, Sigrid.”

“Strength to what? Strength to fail? Strength to hurt so much because of that failure that I go crazy and become a horrible person?” I blinked away the tears that were welling up in my eyes. I wasn't going to cry. I didn't want to cry.

Alastor sat down next to me. “I helped you avoid that path. You can find constructive ways to use your passion, and besides, you haven't failed Gannen.”

I looked up at him. “He's gone. He's been taken by someone I should have known was a threat. If I had been more vigilant, this would have never happened. Now he's gone.”

“Gone. You make it sound so permanent. You can find him again. You will find him again. Monala has plans for him. She hasn't killed him. He's alive.”

I couldn't help myself. I started crying. “I'm so sorry, Gannen. I'm so sorry.” Alastor plucked a rose off of the bush and sat down me, rolling the stem between his fingers.

“Channel that passion into something positive. Use your passion to find him, my Runechild.”

I blinked and looked over at him, still crying “Runechild?”

Alastor reached his empty hand towards my face. I thought to move away from him, but his voice filled my mind. “Be still, Kesaarane, I will not hurt you.” I sat there a little dazed as he ran his finger across my left cheek in some sort of pattern. “A guardian rune. It is certainly not the most conventional, but it will suit you and your path. Take care of yourself, Sigrid Halstead. I don't know when I will see you again.”

And with that, Alastor kissed me on the forehead and tucked the rose he was holding behind my ear.

***

I woke up then. I immediately brought my hand to my face but couldn't feel anything unusual. My left cheek felt hot though, though not painfully. I ran my hand back behind my ear and found a rose. Was the dream real? I tucked the rose into my pack and looked around below deck for a mirror. I didn't find one, so I climbed up above deck and went into Commodore Blank's cabin. He followed me in from the deck and seemed none-too-pleased about my intrusion of his personal space. I turned to speak with him and he stopped talking. All he said was, “Woah. What happened to you?” I asked him for a mirror and he pulled one of out his desk. I looked at my face and indeed found a rune. I suppose I'm a Runechild now. Soern seemed pretty impressed with the whole situation. I do hope this helps me help others, espeically Gannen.

We're going back into Ao-Manasa for a while today. We have a few orders of business we must attend to before we venture off to find Gannen. I would rather just go find Gannen now and worry about the city later, but I suppose (and hope) that a few more hours won't hurt anything.

~~~~~

Sigrid's Journal 14 - Failure Felt

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Fourthmonth 7

I feel completely devastated tonight, but I will write anyway.

When I woke up this morning, I looked over at Gannen's hammock and noticed he was gone. This was not entirely unusual; there are some days when he is awake before me. I was about to close my eyes and go back to sleep for a little while when I noticed his gear was also missing. This concerned me, as he doesn't generally walk around the ship in his armour.

I got up and went above deck. Commodore Blank was at the helm. When I asked him if he had seen Gannen, he told me that he hadn't. We both searched the ship but could find no sign of him. Illiam was still safely tucked away in the bow storeroom and the rest of the crew was accounted for, but we could find no sign of Gannen. We went back above ship and signaled to Captain Soern that there was a problem. He steered the Fearful Lightning up close to the Ocean's Blade and both ships dropped anchor. When we told Soern about Gannen's disappearance, he seemed concerned and went to check on our Magister prisoner. When he returned, he informed us that she too had vanished.

This was just great. It appeared that she had escaped, somehow kidnapped Gannen off of the other boat, and vanished. I hate mages. I did a quick check of both ship's storerooms and noted that we were missing some silver dust (as well as some rum, but that was normal) I told Soern about the missing silver dust and he went off to his cabin. I suppose he wanted to research its magical properties or something.

Captain Blank and I decided to interrogate Illiam. We talked to Illiam for a little while, but he seemed to know little else than the magister's name and a theory of how she escaped (which involved Dar-Shada freeing her). By this point, I was extremely stressed, panicky, and angry. I took out my frustration on Illiam and punched him in the face. Captain Blank then said, “That was most satisfying to witness, however, I think perhaps you should back off a little.” Which I did. I went out to the deck to cool off a bit and then reboarded the Fearful Lightning to talk to Dar-Shada. He admitted to freeing Monala, but claimed he was not sure of what he was doing at the time. I suspect she magicked him, but I do not fully trust him. I wanted to hit him too, but I know better than to directly attack a Diamond Throne guard without a good reason.

I stormed off and ran into Soern as he was exiting his cabin. He informed me that silver dust was used in Faen magics and that it was used to make enchantments harder to resist. Enchantment magic is used to charm and compel. I suppose it would be easier to kidnap a Champion of Death if he was under a charm spell. I hate magic.

I reboarded the Ocean's Blade and spent the rest of the journey standing at the bow of the ship, watching the front of the boat cut through the water.

We arrived in Ao-Manasa before noon. Blank, Soern, Dar-Shada and I walked up to the castle. I started off dragging Illiam, being rougher with him than I really needed to be. Eventually Dar-Shada just picked him up and carried him over his shoulder. When we arrived, we visited with Ea-Shamar. We turned Illiam over to her. Blank made up a story about also finding Gannen at the pirate cave and then told her about Monala and Gannen's escape and Dar-Shada's magicked involvement in it. I didn't say much. She informed us that there was a bounty on Illiam, as he was wanted for breaking Gannen out of jail. She also expressed regret that Gannen had “escaped” and asked us to help apprehend him and bring him back for trial. Yeah, like that's going to happen.

We went back to the ship and talked to Rellik. He expressed interest in returning to the Nightingale's Mane, so we went down there in the early evening. When we walked in, I noticed this amazing amulet. It was a Torque of Heroic Sacrifice. I had seen one once before. A former Knight Mistress of mine owned one. They were one of the ultimate protection items. I had to have it. I traded in my Periapt of Natural Armour and purchased the Torque. Soern, Blank and I then returned to the ship. Rellik said he had some business to attend to tonight and he would meet us back at the ship sometime later.

When Rellik returned to the ship, it was nearly midnight. He had that smug, 'I just killed someone' look on his face, so I didn't ask any questions. I really didn't want to know. I'd had a hard enough day as it was without my crewmates murdering people.

My biggest fear is that Monala has taken Gannen against his will and is going to do something terrible to him, but I'm also a little scared that he may have left of his own free will. I mean, we knew him for a while before his arrest, and now he's been with us for more than a week. I just thought there might have been something there. Well, between him and the crew. A rapport. Cohesion. With the crew. He wouldn't just leave... us. Would he?

I failed Gannen. I didn't mean to, but I did. I'm taking this failure a lot more than is prudent to. I wish I could claim that it's just a matter of honour and destiny, but I know it's not. It's personal too. I care about him more than I really should. Damn it. I don't think I'm going to get much sleep tonight.

~~~~~

Session 15 Quotes

“Let’s just put the kids in charge. If something bad happens we’ll probably wake up, because it’ll involve fire.” – Rellik
“Or a kraken.” – Sigrid

“I threw James and the two people into the brig.” – Soern
“Why?” – GM
“Because they might be illusions.” – Soern

“Don’t we need someone who’s not completely on the wrong side of the law?” – Sigrid
“No!” – Blank

“Hey, Ea-Shamar! Look what I caught! A pirate! Ha ha ha ha ha!” – Blank

“Hey, look what I caught you! A male prostitute! Ha ha ha ha ha!” – Blank

“I would very much like to collect any bounty available, instead of killing him and turning his flesh into gold.” – Blank

“Gannen! I knew him. He was that weird guy my daughter was hitting on until she killed me.” – Blank, doing a Kedlar Mevarin impression

Session 15: Gannen Does a Magic Trick

Fourthmonth 6th -- Fourthmonth 8th

Commodore Blank's fleet set sail that night. They'd decided to get help from Ea-Shamar in interrogating their prisoners, and wanted to get back to the city as soon as possible. The senior crew went to sleep, having had a long day, filled with much pirating, and they left Blank's henchman to run the ships.

When they awoke, both the magister and Gannen were gone. They searched the ship, up and down, and found neither of them. They did discover, however, that 30 gp worth of silver dust was missing from the hold. Soern immediately began to study the spells and methods he knew of, to try to discover if there was any magical significance to that fact.

Meanwhile, Sigrid and Blank tried to interrogate Illiam. They tried to play good cop/bad cop, which didn't work too well. (Blank ended up playing both good cop and bad cop, exiting and coming back in again to switch roles.) Finally, Blank remembered that he could use magic, and compelled Illiam to tell him how Monala (the magister, whose name Illiam had revealed) would have escaped. He told them that she would, "get Dar-Shada to untie her, then teleport away."

So they moved over to the Fearful Lightning to talk to Dar-Shada. Soern reported that the silver dust was a component in Faen spells -- it allows the caster to make an enchantment harder to resist. Dar-Shada said that he had, indeed, let Monala go, but didn't know quite why. They decided to keep an eye on him.

They docked the boats, and Sigrid, Blank, and Soern took Illiam up to Ea-Shamar. She thanked them for apprehending the criminal--who she said the guard suspected had been involved in Gannen's escape--and gave them a reward. She also asked them if they would consider offering assistance in apprehending Gannen.

Rellik decided that he ought to also kill Kindli, just to make sure he had gotten the right person. They all went back down to the Nightingale's Mane, to check the place out, and Sigrid sold the periapt of natural armor she had bought on her last trip there and purchased a torque of heroic sacrifice in its stead.

That night, Rellik followed her back to her house. (She locked up the store with some kind of magical ward.) Then he dropped a dire moose head on her, and went back to the ship.

They decided they should go to the Island of the Jeweled trees, because they needed something from there, and Monala probably did too, so it was the place she was most likely to be.