Journal #45: 3 Years well spent.

It’s pleasant to be back in Ironfalls after I time dealing with the Unbroken March. It's grown a lot from what we’ve seen. Our personal houses in the mountain behind our keep had been finished. About a couple of days after returning and getting informed of this in Celu and I had moved into ours. It was surprisingly pleasant to have a place where people would not walk into bright in early looking for food. While I built another shelf for Celu’s ever-growing collection of books. I could have sworn I saw one of her rare smiles as she looked at her books. She’s currently in bed reading through a book she recently stole from the Emperor. Volume one of The History of the Aletheian Empire. Now, I’m writing down this journal entry of the past four days I am sitting in our windowsill overlooking the nightlife of Ironfalls. The dark outline of buildings and the twinkling lights from the town below from our mountain home. Despite knowing Kazric was probably walking around invisible, causing all kinds of interesting events to happen, it still seemed peaceful.
 
 
Once again, our lives, as usual, have become far more complicated. I will not even attempt to explain or hid some of the events that took place. It's too dangerous for common knowledge that must be kept to a few people as possible. That knowledge must be kept to The Lost One and them alone. However, I am not just going to skip to that part of the tale. We first must meet talk about the purple theatre and the show that was put on.
 
 
We briefly went over what we'd do with the book once we had it. We planned to take the Unbroken March to the boneyard and ask Pharasma if they were ways to destroy them. If not, then ask for her to hold on to the Shard until we could find a way to destroy it. All in all, we had thought it was the correct course of action. Before we left, I reminded our companions that we would need to get Jinne’s Silver Orb back. UNsure as to why, but I hardly think The Commander would be willing to speak to a dark elf if it was not significant. As we escaped the timeless room, our crew was found our selves spread throughout a purple theatre. Large currents of purples and tan walls with a handful of balconies. I found myself near Celu and Cid. Accompanied by several floating books, oh what do you call them. I have never seen a theatre production. Floating Theatre Program, that what they were called. Construct ushers attempt to usher us into the darken leather chairs. We denied them and replied with blades and bullets.
 
With our companies and us taking out their ushers and book, a voice boomed over the room. Telling us that the first act, 'The Dancer.' We turned, expecting to see the curtain rise to reveal the next entertainment to keep us busy. Instead, four long spider legs slide from under the violet cloth as four sets of glowing eyes one set being blue another purple, green and white. A large unknowable shadow of a spider held those bright eyes. The color combination of our lost friend that had been ripped from the timeless room. Our onslaught began as The Lost One started to target the legs, bullets, blade, and magic found their place in those legs. Each was had special resistances similar to the four people that were kidnapped.
 
One of the legs, I cannot remember which color had swiped Celu, with her Icy Scythe in hand she tore through the leg that held her. She couldn't escape. Celu had called out for me and in fearing she could be pulled under alone with that spider. I leaped from the top of a chair, closing the distance in the air with a dimensional slide. Cutting through the air, I appeared in the air in front of Celu. It was a risk in doing this because I had almost missed.Wrapping my arms around her, she gripped me, and I cased the other teleport like a spell. Dimensional Door, the two of disappeared from the grip of the spider now hiding behind some of the farther back chairs.
 
Needless to say, I was somewhat scared I couldn't pull that off. I had never used dimensional slide in a vertical manner which teleporting into that spider's range was risky, but it paid off. At least now I know that I can teleport mid-air, which could be useful to know. Celu took the needed time to heal, as I flung spell over the cover the theatre chairs provide. Meanwhile, Cid was laughing like a mad man as a rain of fire and metal bombarded of creepy legs. In the background, I could hear our companions, but I had yet to see them. This room was rather large and in saying that, It was still impossible not to notice the utter destruction Artemis was creating. I swear the beaver is the most dangerous part of The Lost Ones.
 
With each of the legs' destroyed' the glowing eyes faded and they were slowly pulled back into the main body of this beast. Yet the shadow twisted and compacted into itself till all that was left was a large sphere. As the curtain finally rose, we caught a glimpse of the fleshly greyish purple sphere with another darker purple curtain behind that sphere. Ten eyestalks unwrapped themselves from its spherical body. A fanged smile appeared as it's a single silver orb of an eye opened, cutting off our magic.
 
Cutting off our magic was one thing, but those eye attached to that creature had spells. Dangerous ones, I was glad that thing had his anti-magic eye. Cid was not as lucky, the war god's champion had been caught in the monster's onslaught. A sickly green ray and hit the mad gunner. Crumbling him to dust.
 
I cannot recall what happened. Next, I teleported need the ashen pill that had been my comrade and threw up a wall of invisible force rushing over Cid Celu close behind. It wouldn't stop the Anti-magic eyes, but the creature couldn't stop them fire his own magic rays into them. The wall would stop the ray, We called out saying that Cid had been turned to ash.
 
Seconds later the Elven Cleric of Desna Canthe teleport next to us, with Zalni Pin's master the one who supplied the teleport. Cid was brought back within a second, still. Cid had dead, if Canthe hadn't been there, we might have to need a vase to clean the ashes. I am not sure Licia would be able to bring back some from a Distenagrate spell.
 
With another round of ray volleys, the five of us protected, Canthe Cid Celu Zalini and I were safe from that creature destructive ray abilities. That wall was useful but The others had far more luck, Pin was successful in casing the chains of light spell. Then our friends unleashed on the creature. They had been doing alright before however chains of light as never failed us yet. This time was no exception, however, one day it will, and I dread to think of the creature that we face where that spell doesn't kill. Ashlyn or Artemis one of those two had gotten the final blow. I hope this creature was fictitious since this whole theatre had created by the Shard. It wouldn't be hard to figure this might be some creature from a fantasy book on unknowable horrors or pulled from some bestiary of some kind.
The violet curtain closes on the first and leading into intermission. Intermission was combat filled. Strange ice cream women and a large bucket of popcorn that were extremely flammable Zalni and I had a swarm of popcorn around us, A icy scythe had flung itself across the right side of the theatre to destroy a large chunk of the popcorn. Celu had skillful throw her scythe, it was something she made look both beautiful and terrifying. The Gnome and I had blown up several different large popped kernels of corn and buckets will with the oiled snack. All around it was a good time.
 
The second act started soon after intermission, that second act required 'volunteers.' Canthe and Aster were voluntold to participate, they were teleported to the balcony unconscious. The purple curtain raised to show us the four kidnaped people. The Commander, Jinne, Saeryn, and Eirian all with the same voidling like eyes as those who were affected by The Spirit Blade. Honestly, I wasn't sure if that was a creation from the Shard or actually the people. Whatever the case was, we couldn't harm them. Ashlyn went to face Jinne with less than stellar results. I believe was the first time She had every fallen in battle, not dead mind you, but still, our Paladin can take a hit. Jinne I thought had been a caster, but I was wrong. At least I thought. The Commander teleported into the balcony above, summoning an angel.
 
While Zalni and Celu took care of the summoned creature. I decided to deal with the voluntold, finding my way to the balcony with Artemis, Kraia, and Licia. We removed Aster form the button while on the other side, Whisperbreath took her sweet ass time trying to remove canthe. Using the ghost touched dagger, I lifted the sleeping curse from Aster who woke up in a groggy state. Kraia took the unbridled wraith of physic caster falling unconscious to the mental attack. With Licia close in hand, I chose to return to the Angel which Zalni had wrapped in chains of light. As I teleported next to the angel, I plunged Silver through the chest of the winged creature.
Whisperbreath and all of her infinite wisdom thought now would be the best to remove Canthe. And they accuse me of overthinking situations. Lifting the final curtain-raising showing the Silver Orb.
 
As Celu and I ducked behind the chair before the silver orb was revealed, unsure as to what the last raising curtain would bring. The two of us were only a handful of the row before the stage. Our attention was quickly broken as our ears twitch reacting to a sound behind us, we turned quick our eyes now trained on the Elf in the balcony. The Elf hissed the incantations I fully expected to be hit by that spell. The Commanders reputation of the Elf who lead an army to purge the drow from the Galasthin Underdark. I had every reason to believe I would have been stuck with her spell. As the Arcane words finish leaving her lips. The Commander flung several crystals she had pulled from a bag. I branched myself but nothing.
 
Turning to Celuriel, her honey gold eye’s flared with the yellow of flame before becoming completely dull. Quickly racking my brain to try and think of what she had hit by. Feeblemind, she couldn’t speak when I asked her what was wrong. I turned to look at the fully raised curtain, showing the Silver Orb. Wrapped in a force cage, guarded by blades and concealed in global of darkness.
 
I bit my lip trying figure out what to do, I tossed a force sphere to protect her. Deciding dealing with the orb was the quickest way to keep her safe. As the force sphere went up, I hugged celu and teleported onto the stage. I made sure to keep her in my sights while I was on stage, if anything went wrong, I would have been there in seconds. I was lucky enough that The Commander did not attempt to follow up with any other spell.
 
The silver orb was under a well-constructed trap, but each of us took down one of the barriers. In the process, The Commander had targeted Whisperbreath teleporting near her then disintegrated Whisperbreath while taking down those barriers. She was brought back rather quickly but still, I hope this puts a bit fear in her. We had thought that once we grab the orb and it would be over. Yet it took a bit more, we had to use the sphere as a focus to deliver spells to the Shard's possessed. I flung spells at The Commander and the flirtatious idiot Eirian. Providing a more than satisfying fireball to his face. The Commander, after waking from the possession, took the orb and dealt with Eirian and Kraia woke up Saeryn.
 
Using the orb had a problem. The orb, when casting a spell, had made my veins flow silver, I can not imagine prolong use of this sphere being good.
 
Once that was done, the Shard was revealed to us. I had picked it up just a book now, and the real one according to Jinne. The Galasthin Elves with Saeryn and Zalni plane shift away tell us to meet with them once our job was done. As we agreed to that, they disappeared, and we teleported to the boneyard.
 
A mistake.
 
Now I have to say do to oaths and secrets that are best left unspoken. This journal will not hold them, nor will I will leave it out for the public. Perhaps once this is over, I will write all of this down in a book, my whole life story.
 
Nevertheless, I will continue to tell you the story of how gods fell because of our actions. Upon arriving at the boneyard, the Shard fell out of my hands and began to use its fate-altering magic to warp reality. Before it had completely disappeared into the floor in front of Pharsama's Spire, we were whisked away by the Herald of Pharasma to a plane adjacent demiplane.
 
The Steward of The Skein a woman as armored as Ashlyn with skulls decorating her shoulder and breastplate. Not real ones mind you, though I am not sure if that is entirely out of her wheelhouse. Her ivory white wings had some protection metal shielding across the top of her wings, her almost white armor was disturbing when you looked at her helmet. Her helmet shielded her face from view, it was as if her face was hidden in shadows, save for her angry glowing red eye. Glowing red eyes that burned with anger.
 
Demanding an explanation for what we had done and why would bring that Thing to Pharasma realm. The Shard lay on the ground in the blank room, motionless across the floor. It's terrible work stopped by the Herald. The Steward had blamed us, which in a way was our fault. Yet how were we meant to know that in bringing The Unbroken March to the boneyard it would change fate? We had little knowledge on this, The Shard had a radius but never did we think it could affect the gods. We had thought Pharasma would at least have some level of control to stop this Shard in case something terrible had happened. Not accepting our questions or our answers as to why we did this.

The Herald of Pharasma had told us Iomedae has fallen and we would be going to Heaven to see what we had done.
 
Though I would have loved to have detailed our treck through the upper planes of heaven, it was not the first thing on my mind. That and heaven is a bright place, annoyingly bright at that. I was squinting a good majority of the time through the first ring of heaven. Are they called rings? I’m am being told by Celuriel that they are Levels of Heaven, well that’s an odd name for that. Setting the bizarre naming conventions of the upper plane aside, we passed through the Threshold of Heaven, another odd name for the first level of this place. Everything in this first level was quite silent, eerily so in fact. However, where we wanted to reach was the Proelera were heaven armies and the realm of Iomedae.
 
Iomedae’s castle was destroyed, her Herald and angels were silently weeping for the lost. Then as we looked to the side alone, grieving was a woman with short black hair, clad in silver and gold armor.
 
Iomedae sat alone, looking at the crumbled remains of her home.
 
The Lost Ones approached the lonely women part of the group hadn’t come to the realization that this was the fallen inheritor. A loud silence fell over the party as we attempt to find words, but few left our mouths. In those few words, we tried to explain our actions, but she was indifferent, what happened happened. Yet two things came from that conversation. Pharasma most likely knew this would happen. That and Iomedae was not the only god who had fallen due to the shards fate-altering abilities. The ascended gods from the test of the Starstone. Cayden Cailean and Norgorber had fallen as well.
 
Cayden had chosen a couple of moments later after speaking to Iomedae to show his face. Decanter in hand, As much as I personally find the god interesting I have heard too many drunken stories in the bars I have worked at in the past. Cayden being the ever helpful god explained a bit more than I am willing to share in this book. The Assassin god being the quiet creepy god he is, just stood behind me the whole time. It was unnerving to know he just appeared behind me.
 
Now I need to stress this they have NOT completely fallen back to being mortals. No, they have been gods far too long to have their power completely removed. As we spoke of the ramifications of our actions and what to do about them. We left feeling a bit better than the Herald of Pharasma made us felt. I swear that Herald has a flair for the dramatic, she is not wrong to have scared us, but just the context of a god had fallen look at the mess you made. She could have given us more context, not scare us back to Pharasma’s Realm. Now I am not saying we had not got off scot-free, just it was a lot better then we had thought. Not good but better than the darker thoughts we might have had.
 
Before leaving the upper planes, I toss Cayden one of the three bottles of Elven Ale I still had. Hey, he might not be my god, but I can admit enjoying the stupid smile off my patrons when they tell Cayden’s stories. It’s gotten me through some rather annoying long shifts. Cayden had a standing offer to go and get a drink with him, which sounds nice but well we will see about that. We have a bit to do before I can personally think about drinking with the God of Alcohol.
 
One good thing came out of giving him that drink, I found a new bottle in my bag, Cayden’s gift for giving him that Ale. As much as I am curious about what kind of drink this is, I feel like it might be better if I save it for a special occasion.
 
That and make sure Whisperbreath doesn’t try and steal it from me.
 
We returned to the mortal plane, in the Kingdom of Galasthin Elf.The experience of leaving the plane of heaven left me blind and being flung through the air with several others. Our messaging books decided this was the moment to update us, with three years of messaging. However, not before our Oracles and Shaman had visions. Licia had healed my blindness, and in doing so, Celu soon after broke away from the vision she had.
 
She had seen her sister, though in the vision she was her sister. Her sister sat in the large throne but was not alone. A nobleman was seated across from her, they both sat within a luxurious room, but they apparently were not the most finely dressed. Another had entered the room dressed in scarlet and silver and brunette hair and according to the Celu was clearly the better dressed. Her vision ended there.
 
Each had visions of a different kind, most had little meaning save for Ashlyn who was the death of the Emperor, Well the former Emperor, since Cyne had both been crowned the new Emperor and took the place of Ashlyn in the ritual. We would probably need to return soon. We need to get caught up with three years of Aletheian problems and speak to Cyne.
 
My messages were from what I can only assume Nivinle, essential updates about two or three, he did inform me that our half-siblings were no longer in a comfortable position. Which did bring me some sense of happiness? I honestly just don’t care about those two anymore. The odd message I received was a drawing of an eye, a stylized version of one but still, it was drawn across the page. Why must things be cryptic can we just have somebody explain their intentions for once.
 
Short tangents aside, we quickly reclaimed our companion for a wizard tower, said our goodbyes to the Galasthin elves and Jinne reminded me to do my homework regarding the Mother of souls.
 
Now, for the next bit, I would like to remind readers that early in my adventure before my friends learned of who I was. Licia had chosen to cast a spell on me. A spell that I personal in this group have almost never had any luck with, save for one instant. Licia had thought it would be amusing to cast Unnatural Lust on me. It worked, and I never truly forgotten it.
 
Since now you have been reminded, Licia’s vision had been of her mother pulling a note and Wayfinder from a hidden box she had never seen before. Her mother is in the very same city we were in, Licia went to see her mother, and we joined her. Now, as family goes, she had the most NORMAL. Alenia Galewen was incredibly sweet to the point where Celu tried to decide if she wanted a normal life if she used Alenia as an Example, so we agreed on a middle ground of the strange and some level of normality. Licia introduced us and explained why she was there. Her mother asked if she was dating since her previous partner wasn’t with this group.
 
I took this time to tell her mother no she was not, though she had cast a rather interesting spell on me. Licia became rather shy at the mention of this one previous incident between us. Her mother grilled her till Licia finally caved and said the spells name quietly and very quickly, I had trouble keep my smile in check. Her mother disapproving of the use of the spell drew a frowning face on her daughter's forehead. After this, Ms. Galewen got past the introductions, she handed over the Wayfinder and a letter from her father. We departed soon after, with Licia supplies the teleport back to our home Ironfall.
 
Ashlyn soon departs becoming a blur of pink and gold as she raced to her family. The tree and the Elf soon disappeared to find what I amuse is a bed. Kraia left to find her family, Zalni and Whisperbreath truly started their training. I went with Celu to my bar.
 
Being that I was wearing nothing more the burnt rags due to my clumsiness in The Endless Archives. I wanted to shower, or just change into something that wasn’t half destroyed. As the two of us entered the bar, a drow bartender stood behind where I would generally be, it was Alvir. Apparently, he had started working as my replacement while we were gone. His double take was well earned, as I entered. Before stopping and giving a better explanation for our return. I rushed upstairs to my room, grabbed some regular clothes because I’ll be damned if I run the bar tonight. Coming down with comfortable clothes before speaking with Alvir and Pennyswaggle, who just appeared in the bar as he does, I thought for some reason that would be best to check the stock in the basement.
 
The basement was as I thought, similar but some of the things had been rearranged. Understandable given that 3 years had passed, Celuriel had wandered down into the basement with me. It seemed like in my absence, somebody had replenished my stocks. I would not put pass Alvir to have sent orders to neighboring cities for restocking, as I noted for some of the barrels and bottles were from other portions of Aletheia as I walked down a couple of rows this basement held.
 
What happened as I approached a suspiciously upside down and empty barrel was a rune, which I had not seen, had been placed just within arms reach of the barrel. So if I wanted to check, I would have had to step on it. When the rune went off, I was once again caught in the thrall of That stupid vexing enchantment. Now embarrassingly enough I was not upset at what happened, far from that. Having to quickly put down Celu once the rune faded, I could not help feel a bit of heat in my cheeks. My face must have been a shade of lilac, even in the dark. The Elf quickly disappeared up two flights of stairs to our room. In retrospect, even under the enchantment of Unnatural Lust, it was a bit much to have picked her up.
 
Better her than Licia, Lirian or Eirian.
 
I get hit by that spell more than I would like…
 
After a moment trying to organize my thoughts, since my mind had a hard time trying to not think of what just happened. I walked back up to get caught up with Pennyswaggle and Alvir. I was met with the scene of my bartender horrified and the rest of my patrons two steps from knocking boots with the closest person to them. Some of the people did not seem to mind once the spell was over, others shot glares at each other their eyes tell the others to never speak of this again. Alvir had made a quick note to who had done this. I know the perfect person to talk to for revenge. Pennyswaggle had mention something to me, and though we passed the information up rather quickly, I didn’t forget it. I had brought it to the attention of Cyne the next day when we meet him. Altogether it was a rather pleasant night. Where for once, I felt like a typical patron in a bar.
 
Once I had enough food and used up all of the Pennyswaggle tolerance I had built up, I retired for the night, where Celuriel was curled around a pillow. It was rather cute to have found her nuzzled into pillows. Since I had spent an hour or so talking in the bar below, so I assumed she was asleep. The two of us slept back to back.
 
I thought things would be a bit more awkward in the morning, but when she woke me up demanding for delicious breakfast as compensation for yesterday. I couldn’t help but smile a bit.