The Dawnforges-After Spral-Vutha-Gazaer-Six Months In The Past

The Dawnforges, a bastion of divine power, welcomes another group to its dusty halls. After getting through the traps and finding their destination, the group finds the forge of their choice. Aquarius. From here the group moves onward. Alexa, Syn, Gabriel, and Paulo. Wanderers and Anomalies in nature.
Six months the party would remain under a veil of time. Within these strange walls of the Aquarius forge they scan the billons of books that touch on all things of the universe. History long forgotten sits bound between worn age-old leather on dusty shelves, hoping for the chance to breathe out from its page’s knowledge to the curious reader. Mechanical creatures of all shape and size tick away with copper gears and strange glistening gems organizing books across the many floors of the library, aiding the party in their research.
In the farthest corner of the Aquarius forge while the others pour over books for research, Syn reaches into her backpack and pulls out a single sheet of parchment. A little mechanical owl flutters down at the small desk, leaves a quill and flies away. She watches it flutter off into the distance of the forge before her dark red eyes peer down at the single sheet. They narrow, grabbing the quill and hesitating for a moment before place the nib to the parchment. When she finishes her scribbling across the parchment, she places the quill down on the dark wood desk. Staring blankly down at her writing as it fades into the paper and disappears. Tick, tick, tick. The soft comforting echo of clocks mark a time of somewhere, some place, neither here nor there or in between, until dark red writing scratches through the surface of the parchment. Chaotic and unorganized writing beams up at the curious Tiefling. She reads through the messages, turning the paper sideways and even upside down to read it clearly. The response is both unexpected and expected given the recipient of her message. Frustrated, she crumbles the parchment and hurls it outwards across the desk through the air. Before it even touches the ground, the paper crumbles into ash, drifting upwards into pieces before disappearing entirely. “Not helpful.” She mumbles under her breath. The little mechanical owl flutters down and hovers next to her shoulder watching with curious eyes. She turns and brushes her hands up into the air, angrily shooing the mechanical creature away. “FUCK OFF!” Her words echo through the Aquarius forge and she sits at the chair, arms crossed and glancing across the way to her party which remain seated flipping through pages of books.
Through the rapid movements of a rat cutting and trimming his curly, white hair, the gnome of the party looks over at his chaotic tiefling friend and the little mechanical owl that flies away. A chuckle vibrates in his throat like the echo in a cave and his subsequent steps towards the tiefling show a similar earthly quality. Like a small statue, animated only to move.
The small gnome pulls up a chair with his new left arm of seemingly ceramic glass and sits himself down. "You look like you could use an interesting distraction," he quips as he pulls out the book he had been reading previously," Guess what I just found out?"
The young man talks as if his rat companion isn't still trimming his hair while talking though it is quite obvious she is due to the moving pair of scissors in his hair.
Syn watches as the little gnome strides over, pulling over a chair and taking a seat. As he speaks, she leans forward, placing her forehead down on the table with a thud, letting out a sigh. “What did you find out Gabriel?” She says speaking straight into the wood of the desk in an irritated and lackluster way.
“Apparently, the Worshippers of Gigareth know something about the Gate and,” he pauses for dramatic effect,” There’s more than one!” The amused false shock and comical grandeur behind his statement makes it seem like he’s telling an inside joke.
Her head rolls to the side, turning to look at him. "Worshippers of Gigareth..." She pauses thinking over his words before lifting her head up. "In the fire elemental plane Alexa had spoken to the dead bodies we found there. They said the Gate sends us to places both on Aber-Toril and beyond it and that there has to be a 'part' of Arhor'ha and the flesh of Gigareth on that place that wishes to return back. Tsk, whatever the hell that means." Her eyes scan over the little white haired gnome once more, reaching up casually to tap her index finger against the middle of his forehead. "The gears are turning in there? What are you thinking?"
He laughs as he playfully pushes her finger away from his forehead,” I’m thinking being tapped on the forehead isn’t the best way to get someone to think clearly.”
He looks over the tome a bit before answering,” If I had to give a theory or two, I’d say that this Flesh of Gigareth is probably the same thing that made you a Breaker. I’ve only seen it as black dirt, but if that’s true then the places the Gate has sent has probably have been built above that dirt and this stuff is really something Syn. If you get dipped in it, they say it’ll let you commune with Gigareth and afterwards you get reborn as a Builder or a Breaker.”
He pauses to let her digest the information while flipping through the pages again,” They barely mention the Gate but it turns out they’ve got bases in Crystallis and Nexus. I’m willing to bet there’s another Gate in Crystallis. On top of that, I think the Cathedral we were in was the main base for the worshippers. It’s close to the Gate, has a lot of rooms, and the broken pews and generally poor state make me think there was a struggle.”
He takes out a small ledger from his book pile and flips through a few pages, “The Nexus sect got wiped out in a raid. If I’m right, the Cathedral is the aftermath.” He looks at the ledger and sighs before continuing,” Hey Syn, what’s your last name?”
"Dipped in black dirt? I can assure you I've never experienced that." She thinks, drawing her hand back as he pushes her finger away. She watches him flip through the pages of the ledger. His question catching her by surprise. "...Thatcher." She says sharply with a tone that makes the name leave her almost sick or in pain. "Why?"
“The ceremony might have been performed on you when you were baby,” he responds quickly as he closes the ledger,” I might be able to find who performed it on you with your name. Thought you might want to know.”
He looks around before turning his chair closer to her,” What got you so frustrated?”
"I wouldn't put it past my mother to do so." She sneers at the thought before rolling the quill with the palm of her hand across the desk. "If you feel inclined to find out by all means. I don't know anything about the Thatcher's. As for the frustration? You've spoken to Gig. That should say enough no? Im losing my damn mind in this fucking library with these annoying gear turning creatures. If one more offers me a biscuit im going to ram it down their mechanical throat." her eyes shift back to Gabriel. "Why are you looking into this stuff anyway?"
“Kinda went down a rabbit hole when I started looking for answers about the Gate, my grandma, and Gig,” he states as smoothly as sandpaper,” I’m planning on going after the Worshippers once I’ve checked a few things off my list. Keeping tabs on them could be useful, especially if they’re still spitting out Builders and Breakers. Too many of either can lead to trouble.”
“And speaking of trouble,” he slaps her wrist in a teasing way,” Why don’t we take a walk around? I’m better at talking about Gig when I’m moving. Something about the motion just helps me think.”
He organizes the books in a pile and carries them, one foot touching the floor and the other still dangling over the chair,” Besides, I think you need to get those feet of yours moving before they wind up in someone’s ass.”
“…everything in this world seems to take us down a rabbit hole.” She stares off into the distance of the library till he slaps her wrist. Recoiling and glancing down at him as he climbs down from the chair. “I do not feel like loosing a boot today.” She smirks, pushing the chair back and standing. “I suppose a walk would be nice.” She follows him, standing next to him and motioning him to lead the way. “Do you think…they are trying to create Gigareth again?”
“I doubt it. Lack of numbers. They’re in all the major city states, but apparently Nexus was the strongest. Ty wiped them out though. If anything, I’d say they’re most likely trying to build up their numbers again,” he says while taking the lead, guiding Syn up the many staircases and levels of the Forge,” Besides, if they WERE trying to rebuild him it would take a source of energy comparable to or exceeding Paulo. Not an easy feat, ya know?” He pauses to think on the subject further.
He places a book back as he turns to face Syn. “There would be a sign. Some continent spanning signal or event would HAVE to appear if they were trying. Something that would shake Arhor’ha done to bone. Like sections of the continent being replaced with pieces of Avernus, maybe the continent rises out of the sea, hell maybe the Blood War would physically spill onto Arhor’ha,” he turns and shrugs his shoulders,” But all I can do is guess. If anyone would have a better estimate it’d probably be Paulo or Gig, and we both know how Gig is when it comes to straight answers.”
“That’s true I suppose…I have to be honest with you, this is all rather new information to me.” She steps close behind him up the staircase, running her hand along the iron handrail that twists and turns in a beautiful work of metal art. “I didn’t have the graces of learning about the world because I was behind stone walls for most of my life.” She watches him neatly place the book back onto the bookshelf. “Gigareth, the blood war, even Freeport. I had no idea.” Her eyes shift and look across the shelf of books, leather bound with intricate leafing on some while others are bare and appear to be centuries old. “I still don’t understand this gate, but the fact that Gig has been there in them, makes me wonder. If its what you say, hrm.. I wonder what the purpose is? I mean, that orb in the church… its charging every time we go in and come back. So when its full, then what? What if all this time we’ve been assisting the cult without knowing? Wouldn’t that bother you?”
Yorkie finishes trimming his hair and, like a shadow, slips into Gabriel’s inner pocket on the right side of his clothes.
“Hm...,” he pokes out his lips as he tucks another book into its proper place,” Not... really. If we’ve been assisting the cult then...” The boy’s face lights up with a theory, but a quick glance at Syn brings him back to reality. It seems so much easier for his head to be in the clouds while in the library.
“If we’ve been helping the cult then someone or something out there is going to keep them in check if they become too powerful. There’s an ebb and flow to everything Syn so sometimes helping the “bad guys”,” he puts up air quotes as he says “bad guys”,” is a good thing.”
“It’s kinda like the Blood War. Both devils and demons are destructive to the prime material plane. Devils want to enslave everyone and claim their souls, Demons want to corrupt everyone and meld this plane with the Abyss. If either side gets an advantage, the other planes are screwed so sometimes you need to make a deal with a devil to save the world. Or maybe let a demon out of its cage and let it destroy something. This balance is why I don’t judge people. I don’t fully understand how deep everything goes, but I’ve been piecing together my own view on life and this true neutral view kind of suits me.”
He stares at her for a long moment in silence, his lips quivering to say more but he holds his tongue in order to give her time to process his words.
She remains silent for a moment, processing his words. “That is…a rather interesting perspective.” She stretches out her arms high into the sky then they fall back down. “I mean, I don’t care either way. Its why I don’t really care what Gig’s plans are. I only care when my friend is found in a crystal within this weird gate, keeps showing up, and disappearing. If devils and demons duke it out across Arhor’ha, fine by me. Maybe those who run the slave trade will get caught between it.” She grins at the thought before it fades, and her eyes fall onto the little gnome. “What? You have more to say, say it boy.”
“A few things more to say, girl,” he responds somewhat annoyed at being called boy but he props himself up against the railing before asking,” First, what do you think of me? What do you see our relationship as? Honestly.”
She sneers as he mocks her statement. "Think of you?" She turns and leans over the railing to look down at the many floors of the library. "I don't see it as anything. I see it as a... 'you've been hanging around that Roya girl too much' and why does everyone here need gratification for knowing what people think of them?" Her words are sharp. "Yeah I felt bad your arm got chopped off, you are smart like Alexa, and I appreciate the arcana skills in battle. How's that?"
"I preferred the bit about Elara," he states while staring straight at her and respond simply," I wasn't asking because I wanted some gratification from being your friend or something like that. I wanted to know where we stand because I just wanted to know. Things get messy when you don't know how other people perceive you. I expected you to actually laugh at my arm getting cut off at first and then feel bad about it. Where as Roya tries to be everyone's mom, no offense to her it's sometimes a necessity, I'm just the consultant. WE can be friends or we can just be helpers. You want to destroy kill Jacob Whyte, that's cool, he's a dick, I'll help, but we can't just stop there ya know?"
He looks her over and just sighs before getting back to the bookshelf," Look... I know you don't regret the deal and not sure if I mentioned it, but I think you should go after it. Just watch yourself. I'm sure you know Gig is pulling some strings, and I'm pretty sure that's not gonna stop you. But you should want more, Syn. It's fine if you don't, but just as an observer, it doesn't seem right for you to only want Freeport destroyed and once that's done you'll just be Gig's helper if you pursue the deal. If I where you, I'd look around the world more. Try to see things I haven't before, maybe get a hobby or something. Besides killing and raging. If you kill me and have a good reason, I won't blame you, but you're not a demon. You can be more than just a Breaker. You're more than just bound to Gig. You're more than being Alexa's friend." He finishes his mini-speech with a look at his arm and the animated broomstick that has been following close behind.
"Oh yeah, I named it Walt," he says referring to the broomstick.