Secret of mana IC thread

[Alhallor]

The free'd beastman nods at Ken and thinks a bit about his question before he answers. "I don't think that he really worked with anybody here. I mean he got some supplies as far as I know, but I'm sure I would have known it, if he worked with another beastman."

With the Archon bound and secured and Thaum's careful application of some minor healing to wake him up he opens his eyes slowly and carefully looks around. He notices the beastman who has transformed back. He shirks away from the archons gaze and he comments with a little Tsk

I see a surprisingly few number of you laying on the ground and begging for mercy, and me towering over you and putting you in some fresh containers. Why did you let me live? What does you random group of adventurers make in my laboratory.

He doesn't even seem to try to free himself from whatever bindings you have put on him.

[Ridai]

"We have come across your work at the Temple of Water and your rather poor reputation elsewhere in this forest. We would like to know if you work for or with anyone, as well as what you hope to gain from your various Shade mana experiments." The archon did ask, Thaum responds matter-of-factly.

Diplomacy (1d20+18)[34]
Sense Motive (1d20+23)[40]

[Alhallor]

You have? The Archon seems a tad surprised about your knowledge of the water temple, he is then silent for a moment but then tells you something.

I wouldn't really say that I work for or with anybody, but I know what you mean, therefore I'll tell you that I have been, I guess you could say, inspired by the Claw-Birthed-Lady.

The beastmen you have rescued from his Gibbering Mouther prison chimes in. "Don't be ridiculous! No mother or child survive a claw-birth! It's in the name!" The archon looks at him, which seems to intimidate him enough to not interrupt his speech anymore.

She directed me towards the abandoned temple of water where the shade-aligned-mass has been accumulating. It worked really well on other individuals, with every power they would drain, directing a small portion back to the mass. By adjusting the effect slightly I could have made a small army in a short amount of time, to study and look at the aftereffects to eventually being able to replicate it, but affecting me instead of the shade-mass.

I made a lot of progress in interesting directions after she had contacted me. but I didn't work for her I merely handled through some of her suggestions. She mentioned a pack of monster hunters trying to rid the world of rabites also being similiarly inspired by her. She knew a lot about the handling of shade-aligned magic and seemed to be a pure master, the way she talked about it.

I don't know where she resides, she contacted me through magic and I didn't question her suggestions, if you are really searching for her, the best bet would to be asking the sprite Shade himself, someone who is that adapt at it's magic couldn't escape his notice.

[Ridai]

Thaum rubs one of his temples with his long fingers. "It appears we are encountering mythical forces of evil and their minions on a regular basis. I shall never understand how brilliant minds end up doing nothing with their talents than pursue goals that stroke their egos. All this research, all to drive oneself half-mad and frothing at the mouth, twisting people into senseless amalgams. For a title." Thaum sounds so very disappointed.

He looks to the archon. "The temple is recovering, the monster hunters have been defeated, except for their leader, who fled the fray. This is how lasting what this Claw-Birthed Lady influenced is. I sincerely hope your mind is not addled to the point where you are unable to recognize what a fool's errand following this individual is. The woman at the center of the Shade mass, as you put it, was turned into a ravenous creature living only to feed. This would have been you, had you continued. Should you be in need of a new direction unlikely to violently detonate in your face, I would suggest directing us towards Shade, and making amends to the people of Mintos, who you brought no shortage of grief to. All that scientific knowledge and research, your amassed alchemical talent, they surely can aid your fellow beastmen and help reconnect the isolated towns to the capital of Ferolia. The good a new generation of properly trained alchemists in service of society could do for your country and its people." It feels almost ridiculous to Thaum to even have to bring this up, feeling he is pointing out the absolutely blatantly obvious. However, he has to remember that even his home of Altena apparently is not free of senseless gambits to achieve more power. What a sad state the world is in.

[WindStruck]

"Huh? Was she ravenous?" Larimar asks. "Well she was certainly dangerous.. and intelligent, I guess."

"Is this claw-birth lady and the one in the mass the same thing? Hm. Maybe not. But uh... you do know there was a woman in that mass of shade with eyeballs, right?"

[Ridai]

"She was rather irate over the fact that we were not there to feed her, followed by her declaration of wanting to eat us, yes. In addition to perpetually gorging herself on mana."

[WindStruck]

"Huh, really? I thought she was pretty mad that I got rid of that nasty black goo. But hells, what am I saying? I think only a lunatic would have wanted to be covered in that."

Turning to speak to the Archon more directly, he adds, "By the way, so I'm not sure if that's the kind of thing you were going for... but I think I should say that for whatever reason, she just completely turned to dust when we beat her. Doesn't particularly sound healthy, in my opinion."

[Toliudar]

Coney

Coney has been timidly staying back from the conversation with the archon, but when the conversation seems to be verging away from questions, she bounces forward a bit.

"Pardon me, but if I may interject. We know about your work at the water temple, and the illness you were helping to spread. We know about these experiments here. Are there any other activities or experiments that you've been engaged in, or any other activities that this Claw Born Lady may have mentioned?"

[Alhallor]

Spoiler: OOC

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Sorry for haven two NPC's talk so much, but it gives me the opportunity to spoil some info on you. That should not be a regular occurence but you basically hit the information-jackpot by transforming that guy back, before talking to the Archon. Also I hope the two "Voices" of the different beastmen are clear enough.

Seems like you weren't just a bunch of random adventurers who stumbled about my laboratory after all. The Archon seems at least a little pleased about that. It's not. About. The damn title, you... The beastman who you have rescued seemed to have gathered some courage and confronts the archon. "Why have you done all this! And what have you done with me, dammit? Did you wanted monsters who fight for you? Why don't go out and catch and train them?"

The Archon grins. I needed to test something out. It seemed that two additional parts where the minimum to be comparible with one body. At the moment. When adding one more part the result was a nonfunctioning Gibbering Mouther, barely an improvement. I'm sure I would have been able to breach that limitation over time. "You damn… Why Megralras? Seriously, why did you wanted to be king that badly?"

Didn't you see him, you imbecile? He's old and weak! He's barely able to defend us or the villages against the monsters when Luna is on the rise. Even when it's over how will others look at us? We need a strong and powerful king or we will all suffer.

He scoffs at Thaums suggestions. You think that would be useful? Teaching some minor alchemical tricks? That's not what makes us strong and we need to be. If only one or a few can get stronger, then so be it, it was that way for a long time and that's what is going to work.

He seems to be very set in his ways… Though the defeat you have given him did shook him up.

When the talk goes to the woman inside the shade-mass the Archon nods.

If she had enough power to give her a protective shell like this I would have been happy in using it. Though that seemingly you got rid of it that easily sounds more worrying to me than her turning into ash.

The Archon takes a look at the small rabite that is Coney and blinks several times before answering her question. Seemingly kinda out of it that something so small was able to actually defeat him. That's all that I have done. Though when we talked she did mention some other things. She wanted to bring down a king with a terrible curse she developed. Get something out of the Nevarl ruins and try to find out how to use it. I'm sure she has already acquired it. She wanted to get to the sprite Gnome, the spirit of earth, but I don't know the reason for that.

The archon sighs then says. When you really want to find Shade, he is rumored to reside in the sea of stars, somewhere in the Nevarl desert. Though you may have no luck finding it. And if you have encountered my work in the water temple I'm sure you wanted something of this.

He begins a hand motion but stops himself. Can I or do you want to execute me, before giving you the shade-fruit of my labour that has become so very useless for me now? But I guess you can use it for something. Making slaves perhaps. Or freeing the ones I gifted with new power.

[Toliudar]

Coney

Rabites, by their very nature, are prone to leaps - leaps of faith and leaps in logic as well as the more prosaic bouncing. Coney's ear lifted up the medallion around her neck for the Archon to see.

"Months ago, I dreamed of a dark, clawed figure, and I have been wearing this medallion emblazoned with a black claw. I have to ask - do you know if this is associated with the Claw-Born Lady you speak of?"

[Alhallor]

The Archon Looks at the amulet Coney Shows him and he nods solemnly. It's the eternal devourer. She wearing a similiar one, I'm sure of it. After some hesitation the archon grabs at one of his arms, shoves away some form to reveal some kind of tatoo and reveals a Syringe, filled with a black tar-like substance. He slowly sets it on the ground. Small yellow bubbles seem to appear sporadically and disappear again.

It's the stuff I used to gift these humans the powers of Shade. It's refined and won't turn into any ladies, I guess.

[Ridai]

Thaum picks up the syringe. This will need to be examined at a later date.

"It appears the Claw-Birthed Lady and the Eternal Devourer are not separate issues after all. At this point, I would not be surprised if the Black Rabite is also a permutation of this growing threat. Do you happen to know a tomato man called Jerry?"

[Alhallor]

Jerry? The Archon seems to think about that a moment before answering.

I think she mentioned that name... Angrily. Seems he threw a wrench in her plan. Something in Laurent if memory serves right. But I don't know if it has something to do with the dwarves or the amazons that soar high in the sky.

I don't know anything about any Black Rabite. He takes a sideway glance at Coney. Why don't you ask your own? And what do you want to do with me now? Deliver me swift justice? Strip me of everything I have and throw me deep in the forest? Sacrifice me to your gods? I grew tired of all these babbling questions.

[Toliudar]

Coney

Coney nods her gratitude for the archon's sharing of information.

"Indeed, I have shared what I know of the Black Rabite -"

Realizing that she hasn't shared those details with EVERYONE present, she kinks an apologetic ear toward Ken and Jahn.

"- but I'm grateful for the additional details. As for what we should do with you, I'm curious as to know what you think that we should do? Should we bring you back to your king? Burn this lab down with you inside? What is your recommendation, sir?"

[WindStruck]

Larimar interjects with that conversation and says, "Look, it's not like we came here hell-bent on killing you. We came to get some answers, and to stop whatever other mad experiments you were running. What we do with you is up to you, your Archon.. ness. If you want to continue kidnapping people and forcing changes on them, we aren't going to allow that."

Then looking over at Coney he adds, "I am interested in what the Beast King would think about all this. Not really familiar with all the laws of Ferolia and all that."

[Toliudar]

Coney

Coney turns to listen carefully to Larimar's concerns.

"Well, with my 'horses', a couple of us could get back to the city quickly, to quiz his Majesty on just that."

[kinem]

Ken says "I'm pretty sure we should turn him over to the king, to whom he was a traitor."

[Alhallor]

Spoiler: OOC

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Consens seems pretty much to be bringing him to the king. I'll just fast-forward a bit here.

The archon doesn't bring up any resistance for you to bringing him out of his little bunker, you are also able to bring the subjugated monsters back to the surface. With some conjured up horses it's not long towards Ferolia where you see a massive Beastmen dragging himself to the capital.

He seems to have golden fur, interjected with grey, he's also heavily wounded, some gashes across both arms, puncturing wounds at his back and front, his legs only suffering some minor cuts, nonetheless he moves with purpose only slowed down by some nets still hanging at him, seemingly more resilient then the ones you encountered before. His gaze finds you and the Archon.

Megralras? Nice to see you, can you spare some of that healing honey by any chance?

These... People wanted to bring me to you your Highness.

You explain the situation to the current beastking, he doesn't interpose anything you said, just after you're done he takes a long look at the archon, who falters under the steady gaze and gives an approving nod.

It seems I have no reason to doubt you. I should have been more on the lookout it seems, but Luna's whims have kept me quite occupied. It's no small matter to decide what will happen to Megralras, I'll call the other archons from the villages and towns when we all get together we will decide upon the fate of an Archon I once trusted.

Megralras doesn't comment on that.

We'll keep him safe till they arrive, you have done quite the deed and discovered a wrong that may have gone unnoticed in these times. Is there a boon that you are in need for? I can't provide you that much at the moment, as I'm still doing my best to keep everything as save as possible but I'm sure something can be arranged.

He pulls at the strand of webbing that keeps him slower. You see that he's using a sizable amount of strength, but he's still not able to get it off of him.

[Ridai]

Thaum uses what little high-concentration mana he has left for the day to free the king of the webs, followed by swiftly closing his wounds.

"Worries haunt the settlements further from the capital, your majesty, as few appear able to make the journey through the forest anymore and little in the way of news or messages are able to travel. Whether or not your society believes only the strong should reach the capital, I believe it behooves you to at the very least send able subjects in order to stay in touch with said settlements. Your capital is nearly deaf and blind at the moment, the Archon's name held in high esteem here, when it was dreaded elsewhere in your realm." It is a matter worth underlining, at least in Thaum's mind. Honestly, he still has trouble grasping how this society works. Given its adoration of strength, he was half expecting nothing to be done about the Archon when he was brought here.

"A lot is in motion at the moment, and the sprites appear connected to it. Can you tell us about Luna's rise, and if anything perhaps could be done about it rather than just waiting it out? There appears no shortage of acute danger in the forest because of it, above what is considered standard for it anyways."

Spoiler: Actions

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Thaum casts freedom of movement on the king with his last higher level slot, followed by a few healing spells to top him up (and probably briefly overheal him).

[Toliudar]

Coney

Coney says nothing, her thoughts about the efficacy of this king who prioritizes his personal hunting expeditions over the safety of his borders, his citizens and indeed his own person more than ably summed up by Thaum.

[WindStruck]

Larimar says, "I think the Archon here.. Megralras, said something about becoming stronger, and needing to be strong when Luna was on the rise. And I can imagine it's true, with the number of dangers in these woods. Only it was the wrong way to go about this."

He peers at their captive, refraining from mentioning the fact that he said the king was old and weak. May or may not be true in any case, from a relative point of view.

"Hm. Perhaps you could enlighten us on the culture here, and your way of thinking. It's confusing to me. On one hand, there's a great respect for the strong.. and perhaps, only respect for the strong and little care for others. But then here you are.. making the forest a bit safer?"

[Alhallor]

Spoiler: Thaum

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When you cast the Freedom of Movement effect, it actually seems like it's not instantenous as you are used to, but takes a tad longer. Almost like this particular net, was not rendered useless by a Freedom of Movement spell but gives you a saving throw when Freedom of Movement is in effect. I assume that you take him to half HP first and then pump like 100 HP into the beastking and he's still not topped off (I don't know how many spells you actually wanted to use.)

Thanks to Thaum's spell the Beastking is able to pull the net away from him.

That did the trick, thanks a lot, you should take it.

Some of the wounds on the Beastking seem less severe but are still visible on him. An unusual sight if Thaum get's on to heal somebody.

I feared that would happen, it's not unusual but I have already dispatched some people that should be on they're way to the more out there Settlements. It always get's a little more rough before it gets better. He sighs heavily a heavy burden visible on him.

No time to rest it seems.

When the talk comes to the sprites the beastking smiles a bit and nods in a somber way.

We have gained from Luna what could be bargained from her already. Because when Luna is on the rise, beasts from ancient times wake and bring havoc upon these woods. Some say she cursed the once who bear the title of Beastking, but I see it more as a blessing, because every truly dangerours being seeks out the one bearing the title first and all others second. That's why I have to be up and abound at these tiring times. I'm sure the other settlements will be fine for now, shaken up yes. A bit damaged, certainly. But surely not lost. My folk is a hardy one.

When the talk comes to Megralras again he shakes an angry fist at him.

If it was only about that I have enough fight in me you fool!

Though after that little outburst he turns to Larimar. Content to still talk a bit, thanks to the healing provided.

You are correct Chobin, I protect my folk from dangers that they can't hope to win against. It's not making you stronger, fighting against an overwhelming enemy. It mostly makes you dead. That's not what we want.

He goes towards the archon and grasp him. Megralras seems to almost visibly shrink from the touch of his regent.

If we have nothing further to discuss I will bring him in. I need to find some people to accompany me on my next hunt, seems like a Mispolm seed is going to hatch soon.

Spoiler: Net

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Most of his magic seems to be depleted, but it still acts as a Net+2 of Binding (MIC 29)

[WindStruck]

Larimar says to Thaum, "Hm. Megralras here seemed quite knowledgeable. Do you think, perhaps, the other archons combined would be quite a knowledgeable sort to ask about things we previous inquired about? The dark lady, shade, gnome, Jerry, and the like?"

[Ridai]

Thaum decides to fully mend the king. He is in dire need of a rest anyway, so he may as well indulge in a spot of professional pride.

The healer nods to Larimar, then turns to the king again.

"It sounds like you would rather not draw upon outside help for this Luna matter. If the archons are coming together, we would like to make a few inquiries in regards to the Eternal Devourer, the Claw-Birthed Lady, and a tomato man called Jerry, among a few other subjects. If you'll allow, your majesty."

Once it appears Archon Megralras is properly secured (which in this society most likely means just having enough guards to watch him), Thaum invests what healing magic he has left in the Archon (though naturally, the healer does not inform him about the status of his reserves). They have fought, the matter has been dealt with. Thaum believes the Archon intelligent enough to not immediately begin another fight.

Spoiler: OOC

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Taking the average of all of Thaum's available level 0 and 1 spells, Thaum can heal the king for 312 HP, so between that and his few higher level spells and his Healing Hands pool, I think he has enough healing. The rest is given to Megralras once he is actually secured.

[Alhallor]

I don't see a problem with that, will probably take some time to rally all of them though. I guess a week or something. Others will arrive faster of course.

When the king is fully healed he gives Thaum some hearty slaps on the back. I'll feel great! Thanks a bunch!

You get access towards the beastkings castle which isÂ… Basically a big stone block. The Archon get's in a cell (it seems all other cells are empty and loosely shackled, though the shackles are inscribed with various runes and glow as soon as Megralras get's on them. After being healed by Thaum.

You have no idea what you're up against.

You even get some rooms, which are filled with soft leaves, moss and pelts as sleeping accomodation.

[Ridai]

"The gathering of Archons could be accelerated via liberal application of ethereal mounts," Thaum offers to the room when the time frame of the meeting is mentioned. "After a good rest."

In response to Megralras' ominous words, he says "Would you like to exposit, or do you prefer the vague cryptic of the common villain?"

[Ridai]

Thaum, receiving a message from the Archon, informs the others: "The Archon believes the sprites are being naughty because the Claw-Birthed Lady also draws upon them. Which, personally, sounds equivalent to branding water as evil because nefarious individuals can drink it as well. Do with this information what you may."

The healer does ask one final question of the king, holding up the hair-ring they took off the Archon. "Do you happen to know whether making rings out of hair is common in these lands, and whether it is known that this ring holds personal significance to the Archon? If so, I would like to have it returned to the Archon, or at least kept safe for the time being."

[Alhallor]

When Thaum shows the Beastking the hair-ring he looks at it, seeming distraught.

He kept it? Don’t really know what to think about that.

He takes it gently from Thaum and looks at it while responding.

It’s pretty common to make magic items out of materials from creatures or enhancing existing properties. It’s one of my hair.“ He quickly ads. „No not everything from my body is magical the hair also isn’t. The archon just enchanted it himself or let someone enchant it.

He hesitates a moment but then gives Thaum the ring back. Keep it safe for me alright? I’ll let you know when he earned it back. It’s normally a present for people I trust. He let’s that comment stay without adding to it further.

The plan that you help collecting the archons for they’re verdict is greatly appreciated and thanks to your mounts and you’re general competence it works a bit faster than you expected. You’re travel more of the eternal night forest that is the beast kingdom.

You see several weird creatures, people that seem to be part tree, part human. Living plants that crawl about, trying to choke the live out of insects. Chobin sized insect people, you collect an archon from that craft the magical healing honey that seems to be a highly sought after substance.

You arrive at a village with a destroyed wodden barricade that get’s repaired by spell usage, fetching the archon after short help.

You get in one or two problems along the way, but nothing you can’t handle. The moon is a permanent companion along the way, never-changing it’s fullness, thanks to Luna’s blessing. You do hear about the tower where Luna is told to reside and about the trial of the Beastking, that every new appointed king needs to travel towards the tower and climb to it’s top to receive her blessing.

Though you also hear that it’s not exclusively the beastking she welcomes. That other strong beastmen (or even strangers of the land) have travelled towards her tower and talked with her, some of them receiving blessings from her or have forged a pact with that ancient (but whimsical) sprite.

The little cockatrice seems to enjoy the speed in which the ethereal mounts travel a lot.

Before you have gathered all the archons a little birdie lands before Coney, it has a little bag on his feet, which it stretches towards her. If the bag is taken from the bird, five scrolls a mask and a letter fall out of the little bag. Definitley larger than the little bag itself.

On the letter is a message:
You’re crazy for sending me that monocle by your own money, but still thanks a lot. It has saved me a lot of money already and helped me a great deal with my research. If I’m correct the Dryad is currently at the center of the Four-Season-Forest, though it’s still hard to say if she’s really responsible for the forests properties. Interestingly enough after the fight one of the nemesis owls had made… Kinda peaceful contact with me and we are… Somehow working together to cure the madness that has befallen they’re race. The progress is slow but I was able to make a mask that helps at least a bit. Try out that prototype for me will you? It’s a thanks for your help and for the monocle. Coldhand, Frostspike, Shatterscream, Icefear too is sending his greetings.

Rem thankfully was able to enchant a bird to you. Hopefully it helps you. You can also keep the bag if you want.

Sincerely,

Rince

additional from Rem: We have made peaceful contact with the other rabite tribes and carefully try to establish a trade relationship. The blue singers have immediately looked favourably at the endeavor the yellow stingers though are a bit aggressive and prone to outbursts but it seems we are making steady progress.
Lovingly,

Rem

When you have finally gathered all the archons, which only costs you three days instead of seven the king is away again, but having left a pretty clear account on what the archon did do, your role in it and everything. The first thing on they’re agenda is not the archon’s fate but to help you.

Spoiler: OOC

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Should you have checked, the archon didn’t break out of his prison.
The scrolls are 5 scrolls of Identify.
The mask is a Mask of mental Armor (MIC 115)
The Bag is like a Bag of Holding but can only carry 5 pounds, though it’s as big as a small coin purse (small enough to get bind at the feets of a sparrow)

After every question there is a but of murmuring and back in forth in the weird grunting/growling speach of the beastmen, sometimes it sounds like they’re going to rip each other apart, but thanfully it never happens.

The Eternal Devourer:
The Eternal Devourer is revered to as a deity by some, like a amalgamation of Shade and The Dryad, constantly eating away at the world, that it doesn’t suffocate on itself and it’s growth. It’s mostly revered by monsters with destructive urges and some gluttonous people. It’s holy symbol are bones arranged in certain shapes (Coney’s amulett that gives her a stronger bite and smell-concealing properties is a holy symbol of the eternal devourer.)

They are some beastmen who rever the Eternal Devourer and therefore you can get a bit more information.
The religion is not really unified, mostly believers go about they’re own way of accomploshing the goal to eat at the world, which can be done in different ways of killing plants, animals and people or just eating a lot of stuff.

Though most believers have one or two apprentices to instill they’re versions of the correct way to rever the Eternal Devourer, perhaps if you return to the place where you encountered the holder of the amulet for the first time you could find either his apprentices or his master?

The Claw-Birthed-Lady:
All can agree that it’s very weird that whoever the Claw-Birthed-Lady is, that the title she gave herself is very weird by Beastmen standards.
As you already know, a Claw-Birth is a brutal kind of birth, were both mother and child die (they don’t happen often by the beastmen, but it seems to be an occurence. There are still regions where this can happen in human lands, even if it’s rare, the beastmen just have invented a word for it.)

They don’t know about anyone who may have given herself that title, but think that it’s most likely a beastmen who gave himself that title for whatever reason.
Though they will send out the word if anyone knows about her. It’s not impossible that she has gone into the forest and hid there, they do doubt it because of the roaming monsters.

Jerry:
One of the other (more adventurous archons, that has left the woods once) has met a tomatomen like Jerry 50 years ago. He acted pretty much like your meeting with him, though he has traveled with this younger archon for longer, before the sudden but inevitable betrayal.

This Jerry however was more talkative, feeling frustrated about the general state of things, lamenting his lack of power and his missing ability to really change the world. It seemed like he wanted to find a way to get more powerful but had no real idea how to accomplish that, though he also didn’t mention why he did what he did other than to make more people hate him.

Supposedly he prowls around Laurent these days, trying to find the sprite Gnome to forge a pact with him to gain more power.

Laurent:

The dwarfs and amazons there seemingly live together in harmony and trade here. Gnome who always seemed to have good relationship with the dwarfs, seems to currently reside with them as Sylph the sprite of wind discovers the Laurent mountain range. Both are known to come into conflict from time to time again, but it seems more a quarrel between good-natured neighbors than a serious battle.

Gnome:

The sprite of earth Gnome is revered as a spirit of protection and defense (which also includes the occasional earth-based attack against gruesome fiends.) He seems to be especially fond of gifts towards him that are precious and wealthy.

Sylph:

A capricous sprite, seldom at one place but supposedly always ready to lend a helping hand to a daring mountain explorer with a helpful wind or a thunderous warning, Sylph is the patron deity of the amazons of Laurent, supposedly they have a great debt regarding her.

Shade:

The sprite of darkness, some fear him because he represents the unknown, others respect him for the mighty spells that fall under his category and the power to negate advantages. He has an old temple somewhere, supposedly in the Nevarl desert, protected by an uncrossable sea.

Pacts:

The minutiae don’t seem to be perfectly clear here, but someone needs to approach the sprite in person and have some kind of connection to the sprite in question. After some getting to know each other and doing a favor for the sprite of some kind both participants can forge a pact together, which doesn’t seem to weaken the sprite but does strengthen the repicient somehow. (It’s widely accepted that the Beastking has a pact with Luna for the dubious honor for all devastatingly dangerous monsters coming to him first, before attacking his citizens.)

The Black Rabite:

This causes more uncertainty and glances towards Coney than the questions before. The following can be picked up by the collective knowledge of the beastmen.
The great Beastmen Kevin (who allegedly was one of the heroes who ended the mana unbalance some 100 years ago) actually fought the Black Rabite with the other heroes and won.

However there have been several reports of the Black Rabite appearing in history before that, bringing devastation and ruin to certain parts of the world, sometimes just disappearing, other times being defeated by heroes. All think that he must have strong ties to Shade and the only ones who should know more are the three heroes though they are all considered dead. The Black Rabite seems to only sleep and resurface from time to time again more a force of destruction that anything else. Though they know of one person who may actually still be alive to tell you more about it, aside from the elves if you really want to search him out.

The revered Sage Joch who has helped the three heroes before, still being told to be alive and residing on a certain island on a tower of his own making.
The location of the tower is told to you (you have enough information to charter a ship and try to find it.) It seems to be somewhere near the Valsenan coastline.

[Toliudar]

Coney

The days of work in the city of the beastmen had proven surprisingly enjoyable for Coney, she got to know the ins and outs of the city, and she helped prepare for its reintroduction into a wider world by actually creating directional signage for visitors.

While ferrying the Archons about on her smoke-horses, Coney was delighted to learn their spiritual and magical secrets. Along the way, she began to experiment with new spell combinations herself, and researching new ways to combine her mana-derived powers with magics inspired by Shade.

Learning that she had been wearing a necklace consecrated to the Eternal Devourer initially gave Coney pangs of guilt, but she spent a sleepless night staring at it, and decided that one of the best way to prepare for a possibly-inevitable showdown with servants of the Devourer would be to understand the tools better herself.

The messages from Rem and Rince were incredibly welcome, and she resolved to return to reconnect with her children again.

Spoiler: OOC

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Unless someone else wants them, Coney will hold onto the five scrolls of identify, as a kind of party treasure.

[Ridai]

Thaum nods as he accepts the ring back, putting it safely away for the time being.

The healer spends what time he has by doign what he does best, as well as studying the Archon's research, to perhaps gain some insights into the Claw-Birthed Lady and what she hopes to achieve. As well as academic interest. Naturally, the time spent riding through the forest is not reading time, one because he needs to see where he is going, and two because the whipping winds caused by their now even faster travel speed make for a poor reading experience. The battered settlement enjoys a few reconstructing spells as well.

Rince's message brings a smile to Thaum's face, and it is nice to hear about research coming along as well as diplomatic progress with the rabite tribes. Rince's frost-tipped assistant still has not reached point Cold Shatterhand either, so with a relieved sigh, Thaum notes that not all is lost yet.

The meeting of the Archons gives the party much to work with, and plenty of insights.

"We have clear leads towards Jerry and thus the Eternal Devourer, as well as the Claw-Birthed Lady. The latter is the ultimate cause of recent events, however the former is ancient, a threat, and no stranger to the said Lady. And he is looking to make a pact. Beyond those two, there is still the matter of the Elven Forests and danger being afoot there. And the elves could also illuminate us in regards to the Black Rabite." He looks to the group. "Laurent, Nevarl, or the Elven Forests?"