The gate in the Church of Eternal Sunshine
What is the status of the gate growing in the Church of Eternal Sunshine? The last time anyone checked on it, back in February 7762, the razzik were using it to infiltrate the town.
Where is the Eilodon – the snow leopard? The Eilodon waits for the return of Akin Kaliberda, the current holder of the Chaos Spark. Where it wanders off to when not sitting on its carved rock in the scree field watching caravans come and go, or sitting on Mar’Khabazza’s couch, is anyone’s guess.
The Eilodon mentioned that it slaughtered the original inhabitants of this church and the monastery up on the couloir in the Mulpara mountains because the founder of that church claimed to be a “messenger of the God of Pandemonium. There is only one God Spark of which I am a part.”
The Source of “Magic”
We know that Az was summoned accidently by Plague, Winter and Death against the advice of Knowledge when they thought they’d discovered a new source of primordial energy:
Essence, Mentalism and Channeling are lesser streams, originating from the primordial source of the Arcane. It was thought that Arcane was the Prime Source for all creation, but the foursome discovered an incomplete model with a source of magic other than the arcane:
But calculations show this model is unstable and incomplete, with an invisible force present yet undiscovered that balances and offsets the void’s influence over Arcane.
Az and the Razzik Incursion
Az was the first Razzik summoned into the Great Prison by Fyserysh the Thing-Haver for the Death Spark, Mortas Norwood the Thing-Haver for the Winter Spark, and Diomis the Thing-Haver for the Plague Spark, during their research into the fundamental model of Magic. Az promptly slew the three during the destruction of the Tower of Erebo (in what is now Calithil) as Faylinn fled.
Over the next while, Az begins summoning more of the razzik, the voidwalkers who begin summoning voidwalkers of their own. Only much later did Faylin discover that Az had the Death Spark in his possession and that every summoned razzik displaced one living soul, preventing it from being reincarnated. This has a direct impact on the Great Prison as it is powered and maintained by the life force generated by souls.
The Great Prison is the area inside and described by the Great Serpent, the world snake continually eating its own tail. There is fissure in the wall, created or descovered by summoning of Az, that is allowing Razzik and demons to enter. Az is imprisoned within the Great Prison but Az’ prison is not the Great Prison and it was not created for Az.
Eventually, the Thing-Havers band together and entrap Az, who is trapped somewhere in reality within the world-snake, having been hidden by Gisara the Dancer and Thing-Haver for the Chaos Spark.
Thousands of years later finds Faylin imprisoned by the Archanguls of Az in the Citadel of Calithil, and therefore massive gaps in the legacy of the Sparks. The Sisters intervene, sending out a call via the language of knowledge, unknowingly driving essence users insane from the incessant clamor in their minds.
Eventually Ravenna becomes Thing-Haver for the Knowledge spark and meets the Three Sisters and Four Brothers. The Sisters tell Ravenna that the Great Prison is weakening and that the amount of living souls is reaching a dangerous minimum, below which the Prison itself is at risk of attack and collapse. They ask her to find the Chaos Spark and its Thing-Haver so the prison of Az can be located and the Death Spark recovered. Apparently getting the Death Spark to its Thing-Haver will allow the cycle of reincarnation to begin again, allowing babies to be born in greater numbers and recharging the Great Prison.
The Three Sisters say that Volegas Darwa was the original keeper of the Chaos Spark who gave it to Gisara the Dancer who used it to create Az’ prison. It then went to Akin Kaliberda who presumably lost it while he himself was lost passing though the void.
The Sisters say that performing a mundane task with the utmost concentration in a moment of pure chaos will force the World Tapestry to weave around it in a pure display of free will, rather than the World Tapestry weaving it’s plan on mortals. This act might possibly create a gate to Fractus, the primordial force of chaos and entropy, where the spark might have returned.
Ravenna thinks that the interior of the Upheaval might be a reliable source of chaos to perform that mundane task which could summon the gate.
The Civil War within the Khizdushaz Empire
The Emperor Utuhesh II is the one hundred fifty-fourth Emperor to sit the Throne of the Silver Hall in the White Castle in Khazdu City. He and his brother, the rebel Rûn, have been locked in a civil war for decades. The original goal of the rebellion is thought to be a battle for the throne, but the rumor that the brothers are actually fighting over a Golden Princess persists. This conflict has become more bloody since the invention of the cannon. The Wine Witch (Ilyana Valric) and the Eleven General at the fissure at the Edge of Creation fear that this conflict is causing the amount of humans left alive to drop rapidly. Since the Great Prison is powered by human energy (souls) the prison is weakening, although no one knows what the consequences of that actually are.
The Business of Trade
Logan Danbury – A merchant representing “a consortium of merchants from Edmonds Crossing” arrived in town looking for Mar’Khabazza. He is interested in an alliance that will commit to purchasing a fixed amount of cargo from the Salt House and in return the Salt House will provide that cargo at a reduced rate. Danbury gets a steady supply of ore and steel and the Salt House gets a committed buyer. He also proposed a manpower project, hiring folks from Edmonds Crossing and lands to the south, to restock the workforce in Beryl.
Legatus Augusti pro praetore Kazimira Kupala has arrived in Opal to see that “the nonsense” go away and order restored to the Jewell Cities. She has installed Mar’Khabazza as the Regent of the Jewell Cities to govern as he sees fit while maximizing output for the war effort. Justiciar Mariel Trueheart pointed out that none of this required the Legate to travel three thousand miles to Opal just to talk to a would-be lord of the Salt House.
The Duergar and the Two Tribes
The three groups of Duergar:
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“the surface dwellers”
Earthcaller Franzahl – granite stone wolf head (charismatic leader to outsiders)
Earthmender Wilda – laen smith (quartz lion helmet)
Warchief Splithoof (leads battles) – quartzite wolf
Earthmender Torlok – Ram helmet (mining foreman)
Earthwarden Grife – internal warden and keeper of lore
Earthmender Sophurus – cold forging duergar with rodent helmet
Earthmender Wilda – laen smith (quartz lion helmet)
Earthbinder Rayga – Master of fused stone (plain, fused helmet)
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“Those from below”
Warchief Thokkarn
Earthforger Krambek
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“the bad guys”
Earthmender Gorboto – shaman who fled – demon with many many teeth
Earthcaller Halmgar – bad guy – red stone demon head (dead)
Earthbinder Tavgren – bad guy – in cahoots with the shaman under the mines. (slain)
The 150 Duergar from the Duergar city of Thulmur are integrating with the two dozen Duergar of Opal but there is some friction. Ravenna wants to alleviate the friction by offering Beryl as a home to those who wish to leave Opal and not return to Thulmur.
Unanswered questions:
What are the cavities in the Duergar city and beneath the observation tower in Baryl?
Why do they drain power points from casters at different rates?
What are the green motes of light that wink in and out of the space?
What is the mechanism that blew up the supernode in which the Duergar city was occupied?
Who initiated the detonation? To destroy the Duergar or for some other motive?
Translating the Sudaar journals recovered from the sudaar shaman in the river valley Magnus’ translation viewable here.
Translating Earthmender Gorboto’s “Religious Cookbook”, the creation of the Shapeless Ones, and his other writings about a dark one Ravenna translated this from Duergar: The two stacks of parchment bound in slate, the “Religious Cookbook”, detail Earthmender Gorboto’s various experiments in the creation of the Shapeless Ones. These books contain elaborate notes on necromancy, jewelcraft and enchanting.
Translating the Gorboto’s stack of parchment in a strange language recovered from the Duergar mine complex Things Ravenna has learned: Duergar have a merit-based leadership in which the most experienced person for the role assumes leadership. This leads to a very dynamic social order that can be confusing to outsiders. Also, the Duergar came to the Opal glacial valley 40 years ago, arriving ten years after the founding of Opal. Researching the partially-excavated ropey structures of Laen in the Duergar mine complex. the Opal Duergar came to the Upheaval looking for their ancestral home and descovered that the human mines had exposed ropes of laen. Unable to bypass or remove the unbreakable laen, the Duergar convinced the humans to abandon those mines and expand their mines in a different direction. They are searching for their lost city that was rumored to be where the Upheaval now stands. MK & Co have found the Duergar city under the Upheaval and located the 150 or so remaining Duergar out of the original population of 10,000+. Those Duergar have been escorted to the surface to the Duergar enclave in Opal and Ravenna is now working toward bringing some of them to Beryl to help bring the mines there online.
Why is the library at Opal so extensive? Books placed into the libraries scattered across Cignoria are automatically absorbed into the pool of knowledge available to the Godspark. Ravenna instantly knows any book that she brings into any of these libraries.
How to repeal the law prohibiting House Terilaen’s and House Tesper’s access to the merchant’s guild before the spring trading season begins. This has been resolved with Mar’Khabazza getting elected Senator and proposing a (now passed) law to repeal the Rin’ji edict. Terilaen, Tesper, Indi and the Salt House are now a trading bloc that did incredibly well in the summer of 7762 due to their insider trading of information that was intended for Rin’ji.
What to do about house Rin’ji’s control of the town council and it’s control over Opal’s legislative process
How to raise money to create a fleet of merchant caravans for House Terilaen and House Tesper before the spring trading season begins
What did the old salt trade look like? The Salt Merchant imported salt from the Chati of Mod Bay and the Sea of Konora via Shalah.
How to destroy house Bates. House Bates is in flux. This house was linked to Rin’ji and with the downfall of Rin’ji house Bates was also laid low. However Ravenna gave money to Bates to allow them to recover from their bad trades to try to win them over. Outcome of that effort TBD.
Who or what is the thing stalking Mar’Khabazza?
Where did Kyle disappear off to? Kyle is now working for Catriona von Indi as a household guard.
Is the Slenderman still a threat?
Is Elder Sarophas and his hoods still a threat? Elder Sarophas was slain by Ravenna though his understudy, Arne Gunhilde, has taken over the hoods. The Hoods are now much less organized and diminished in strength.
What is the weird phenomenon affecting Mar’Khabazza’s luck?
What happened to the town council in Edmond’s Crossing? What happened to the “box of cold” and why did the town council of Edmond’s Crossing want it? The winter elves are using the cold ore to harvest laen. It is suspected that the town council of Edmonds Crossing has somehow been co-opted by the winter elves.
Who is the Rogue Knight in Edmond’s Crossing?
What is the significance of Magnus’ iron rod and iron kris?