It started in Baldur's gate. I had invited my friends to a concert with my brother. It was supposed to be a nice time, a peaceful get-to-know-each-other evening. And it was, a little. Drogo was late, but would things have gone normally, we could have had this peacefully and normally... But I guess this past year must have dulled my guard... I studied Imrith, but it was inevitable the study time would be over at some point. She is real and the threat she is, the threat those chromatic dragons are... is real. It's not just in the books. We've been face to face with her, with them... It was bound to come back at us somehow.
Someone in Baldur's gate sent us a messenger at the concert. He had gotten information about the dragon masks... One of them being sold in the city and he hadn't been able to snap it away. He seems to have his hands on artifact trade down here, and wanted to ask us to look into it... We also heard of a green dragon attack, and so we followed those cues. The peaceful get-to-know-each-other concert turned into the beginning of a new adventure...
We travelled, we went through the area and found ourselves face to face with the daughter of the green dragon we had been hearing about. First at her lair, where she flew away, then in the forest, where she died. She attacked and I feared for our lives, we all did, but thankfully we're all here. The Amarath group had given us a cue to the tomb of an old warrior - well, no, cleric of Bahamut - who belonged to the order. We found the place and explored. The riddles and dangers hid something monstruous - a dracolich! We'll definitely need to find its phylactery some day, but for now we need to let it be hidden. This is scary. Very scary. I'm concerned someone else might find her and free her... This is scary. Scary. ***heavy breathing***
I'm unsure if we can do this, but there doesn't seem to be anybody else, so we have to. We have to.
I can only trust. Trust this place to be warded enough. Trust this place to be hidden enough.
Roshanna got a powerful connection to this place, well... to Bahamut! Drogo too now... They are our heroes, they are chosen. They lead us now. I'll follow her, I'll follow them two. Roshanna's arms are so beautiful, those tattoes... I adore her too. She is so confident, so brave to have gone through those trials without knowing the issue... She went for it and got blessed by Bahamut.
We went through this place, Roshanna opened the doors and got imbued with celestial powers. We ended up on the astral plane, around the tomb of a cleric of Bahamut who was a member of the order of Amarath. Long ago. His whole life was around him. Literally! Thousands of scrolls, one per day of his life. I started to read, and it was like actually living his days. I could have spent a whole life reading his. Even I don't remember my own days as accurately as the description written there. Every detail, every impression, every feeling and event. It was really wonderful... My friends thankfully pulled me towards reality, and we went forward, but I could have drowned in there. Zariman's life gave us some clues - what the masks do (they free Tiamat from the nine hells and let her be on the material plane, we really can't let that happen!), how they solved it (by assembling and activating the sigil, which separates the masks for 200 years) and how to find the sigil (go through the tombs of the old order's members). I think I even had a peak of a possible future. I had a lot of scrolls around me, and I was giving one to someone in Waterdeep. I told myself that the Sigil was really necessary. Now I also understand why.
When we finally got out of the scrolls' room, we met... a god. Bahamut. In person! Well, we mostly saw his head, he was so much bigger than us all. It was... So much. I was so humbled, so small, so insignificant. I didn't know what to say. I still don't know. I was kind of mute then. It's just... I had forgotten how little I was. How insignificant.
He talked to us, all of us, but also each of us. We learned that three masks had already found their dragons! The green, to the crawling death, the blue, to Imrith and the white to the mounted crazy old dragon in the north. This is bad! This is so bad! Why did I not work on this all year! I've been so useless, so care-free! I focused on Imrith when so much was happening!!!
The sigil pieces seem to be the only way we can stop this now. We got directly transported to the first one (the Goliath's tomb) and learned about other possible places. It seemed like my friends had clues about where several pieces might be. I need to keep them alive. I just need to keep them alive. Protect me from dying, please, Weave, Ogma and Bahamut, and I promise I'll help them ward death as much as I can. They are the heroes, they need to live and accomplish the deed.
Bahamut told me something, but I'm still unsure... I've been doing things wrong. I could have drowned, I could have never come out of those scrolls. She told me to try to find a balance, to not always feel like I need more info and to act. I will try. I will do my best to follow, to be there for them. For Roshanna, for Drogo, for Jay and Sir Azaki. Regardless of how I feel I'm prepared. They are, I just need to be supporting them, to be a piece of the machinery. To help. I trust them. I need to trust them. I would be useless on my own, I'm so thankful they are here.
In Nogna's grave we got sweeped in the waterflow, everything felt like it passed by so quickly. I'm unsure I understand what happened, but it probably doesn't matter, I need to focus on the sigil gathering. I'm unsure my messages to mom were useful, I wanted to reassure her, but I think i just did the reverse. She's safe at least, in Waterdeep, with the mithral. I shouldn't worry about her. Not right now.
Being in a flow, in a speedy current is so frightful. Things are happening. I feel lost. But I need to follow, to be there and go with it. I need to help. Of course. I'm here...