2 Erathisway 4520: Confluence - Temples and a Foe Returns

Arkomir writes...
In the morning we breakfast and then take the horses out for short walk in Rapid Spray Park. We access it from the Plaza, collecting Jenni on our way through. We walk the horses across to the park and let them wander about. Jenni is very excited to be with us and shows us the Silvio that Dharra gifted her. From the park we can see the western wall of the Crown and an ornate gate. We drop the horses back at The Lively Grotto and tell them they are very good boys. Out the front of The Lively Grotto we encounter Datevar, from the Stoneway and then head upstairs to look at the stuff we gathered from Aldrich. A number of thing sof interewst come out of that. There are a bunch of notes and diary entries relating to dreams and Aldrich's power rising. He mentions the K sigil a number of times and about his awakening (power, potential, embrace). We try to decipher as much information as we can from his scrawlings and decide the following. His ultimate goal was Confluence and Power, it started in Steinwark for him and he wanted to avoid Batervold, we need to speak to Ivy to try and clarify some timeline issues and we need to go to Batervold and Steinwark.

The Crown and Temple Square

After all of that ecitement, we head to the Temple of Ioun. As we cross the bridge past the park we were at this morning, the buildings start to thin out as we get closer to The Crown. The buildings are larger, nicer and better appointed. We arrive at the inner wall part way up a rise, which represents The Crown region of Confluence. In the large square in the centre of the crown there are a number of temples as well as statues Bruno and the Vanguard. The six statues (in order) are: Zula, Jack, Bruno, El'Utrim, Garv and Dusk. They are all shown with a bronze highlight on their respective statue. The seven temples in tne square are: Moradin (anvil), Kord (lightning bolt), Ioun (crook with an eye), Erathis (clockwork gear), Avandra (three wavy lines), Bane (claws) and Corellon (eight pointed star).
We decide to visit our respective temples before heading to Ioun with our questions. Inside, I say a prayer and ask for guidance from Corellon in relation to my dreams. I recommit myself to my Oath in their name and pray for help to banish the darkness from the world. I reach out with divine sense I get a feeling of calm and feel the warmth of the light on me. My mind is at rest and I feel present. As I open my eyes one of the clergy is standing nearby. I talk to them about the dreams and the voices I have heard. She says that Corellon would never bargain for my faith so the dreams do not sound like Corellon. I head back out to Temple Square to find Dharra and we head over to Ioun.
We head in and look for a friendly clergy person to help us out. The floor is covered in names as well as numbers and musical notes. A gnome, Tobias, wanders up to us, dressed in a suit and carrying a satchel. Dharra shows him the statue of Melody and asks about The Cleansing Wave. He has heard the name but it doesn't come up much here. Dharra shows him what we have in terms of stories and timeline. The gnome (and his helpers) are quite excited by the information we have. They busily copy it down and ask again about where these statues and tombs are. They say that they will need to send expeditions to these artifacts, describing it as lost lore. The Cleansing Wave were operating at the same time as Bruno and the Vanguard. He tells us the story of how the Vanguard fell. Khurabil comes from the giants language and means those that were unchained. Bruno and the Vanguard drove the giants back. There was a particular Storm Giant that they dealt with in Port Zaram. They took it far away, The Vanguard fell and only Bruno returned. They say that when Bruno came back he reluctantly took power. He took a token from each of the fallen Vanguard to tie the land back to this event, as a reminder of sacrifice. Bruno then filled in the history from his remembrance.
We ask about the fey symbols we have encountered. They say they are not sylvan. Interestingly, a tall man with long dark hair came in the other day asking about the K and T sigils. The symbols do not have a particular meaning per se. They posit that maybe they have been adopted by an entity and they might be initials. During all of this study, they say that in writings from the academy, the green moon affects the borders between the worlds: they are thinner.
Dharra asks about KazDevna. It is southwest of here on the Earthspine and is a reasonable sized settlement. There are some outposts nearby that guard important mines etc. There is also an area to the south that is still volcanically active.
Dharra asks about mortals with dragon blood. It can depend on how strong it is and from which dragon. If that person begins to show a particular capability it can provide a source of additional power and sometimes a level of magical ability. They can inherit certain attributes and the more the person embraces it the more it can come alive in them.
We ask about maps of the region. We will need to provide a donation to the temple and we are happy to do this. We get a number of maps: one for Confluence, one for Dunkelgrund, one for Khurabil.
We quickly ask about Sehanine’s children and whether they influence a certain entity. They do not think so but just a thinning of the barriers between worlds. They also mention that Zula from the Vanguard was not originally from here and may have been from a different realm. She may have been central in taking the Storm Giant and some of his forces to another realm. The exact date of this is a little hard to determine but the Vanguard may have been able to force the barrier weakening. The light of Sehanine would temper any weakening of the barriers.
We thank them for all of their help and also let them know where we are staying. We leave a number of letters of introduction with them for Essa in Oxenhalt, Esward & Alden in Belhaim and Holly at the Chandlerveil. We sign off these letters as The LightBringers. We leave another donation and head out to Sehanine’s temple.
We head inside and there are a number of clergy about dressed in white with blue and yellow traces on alternate sleeves. We ask about the Green Moon and the thinking of the barriers. She explains the link between the gods that we know and the destructor gods. She talks about Tharazdum's role in all of that as well. She also talks us through the creation story of the world again and the gods place in that. Tharasdum is the guard between this world and the world where the gods now reside. He is the god of duty but some believe he has gone mad with his task. Whilst Tharasdum stands the pact holds.
We ask about the Cleansing Wave and the history related to that. Her knowledge is that they helped the Vanguard. She thinks that they arrived in Port Zaram and then helped the Vanguard. We ask about the three dragons The Cleansing Wave killed. Mervygoris was killed in the northern part of ForestHome. Nullatrix lived in the swamps northeast of Batervold (on the coast) and was defeated there. Bikoreth (white dragon) lived high in the EarthSpine and came to lower lands to hunt and was drawn out and slain in the EarthSpine. We get more of the story of the Vanguard and their fight with the Storm Giant. They all disappeared (including Bruno) but only Bruno returned. The storm giant and the rest of the Vanguard stayed behind in another realm as result. We thank Gwen for her help and information.
We head over to the Haymarket and at the message office we send notes to Esward & Alden in Belhaim, Essa in Oxenhalt, Holly at the Chandlerveil and Kezahr (a somewhat more personal note directly from Arkomir). Again we sign these notes from The LightBringers. We head back to the Lively Grotto without incident. We head upstairs to investigate the book from the Lacquered Chest. Opening the book and reading it is difficult to understand. There is some common but also some other languages and I struggle to make sense of it. This appears to be a spell book. Dharra has a look at the book and concludes there are a range of spells in this book from basic to quite complex. After looking at all of that we head downstairs.
Amdrom and Jenny are sitting in a corner having a drink. We head over and welcome Amdrom to Confluence. Dharra catches up with Amdrom and I organise a room for him. We arrange with him to help us with our gem trading tomorrow. I head outside to practice some swordplay. As I do, I get the sense I am being watched. Corelle and Katlin are watching me practice. They are here to see a friend who is here to see a client (they are lending moral support). I escort them inside whilst Dharra heads over to chat with Gilliam and he is happy for her to play again. In the midst of things we notice that Fastolm gets called outside quickly. We head outside to see what is up and meet Fastolm on his way back in. He asks what I have done, Fenor is outside in a pool of blood and said my name. We head outside to try and heal him up. He has been marked with a T sigil. He recoils when he sees me. We heal him up and he tells us that there is a guy 'looking like me' who did this to him. He is waiting in Rapid Spray Park. We gear up and head there.

A Fight in Rapid Spray Park

We quickly chat to Fastolm and he will follow along shortly. He heads inside and lets Amdrom know where we are going. As we run there we have a quick discussion. Dharra casts protection from evil and good on me before we get to the park. We arrive at the bridge to the park and get hit with a bolt of magical energy. Even though we cant see this guy yet, the fight appears to be on. There are a number fey creatures in the park as well. A creature appears from this side of the bridge and heads toward Dharra. After a protracted fight with the undead hobgoblin we prevail, with huge thanks to Fastolm. We speak to the park keeper and arrange to burn what remains of this hobgoblin in the park. We set the remains, some pieces of wood etc and Dharra sets the fire going. As we stand near the fire, we have a brief chat to Fastolm to try and set his mind at ease. He is happy to let us keep staying at The Lively Grotto. We make our way back to the tavern with him and settle in to tend our wounds and have a drink. Amdrom and Jenny are sitting at a table, but there is no sign of Fenor or the barmaid. Fastolm eventually comes over to our table and sits. We relate the whole story to Fastolm and drinks are had. Fastolm relates some of his story to Dharra as well. He came from up on the peninsula and was a bakers apprentice. He went for a walk and ended up as far as Steinwark. He ventured south and found a village where folk where rising from the dead. He eventually made it to Confluence and decided to settle in and help folks here for a while. He took over from the previous owners of the tavern (buying it from them). He is a devotee of Erathis mostly. Some food is brought over for the table and we definitely partake in that. After some more chat and drinks and food, we head upstairs for a long rest.

As I head off to sleep, I start to dream. Again, a voice is speaking to me: Potential, Embrace, Power. I speak back that I will never Embrace whatever this is. It says

A shame - The Others will have to do.

I say that I will do them what I did to your envoy today

VERY WELL NEMESIS.

I double down on this saying that as long as I stand here, as long as I hold the light. I pull out the brand, and lightning strikes it. I wake, thinking that for a moment there my heart stopped. Dharra wakes and we discuss my dream. We think we should maybe keeping hunting whatever this is. Dharra casts a light in the shape of Corellon’s symbol. I reach out and touch her hand saying as long as you’ve got me, I’ve got you! We both go back to sleep.