27. April 17, 2016

Therin's Party

Therin returns with two humans, Boris and Welgar, and a grumpy, elderly dwarf named Kaerg who removes the collars. The three humans move like a team that has worked with each other for a long time.

Therin believes the new Duke Conrad of Kirenweld (our eldest half-brother) is after us for crimes we didn't commit. He knows we are the old duke's bastard daughters, and he knows there are lots of half sisters born to all of the dukes.

Sirtegard, the Ancient Dwarven Nation

Therin says he's a double agent who works for both Evangier AND for Sirtegard, the historic dwarven nation, which was written out of existence during the unification. Kaerg is the last surviving prince of the Sartegard line. He can only be crowned King with the ancestral crown in the presence of other members of his clan. There will be members of that clan in the area where we're going. Kaerg is familiar with the dam, and can sabotage it. But he wants US to help regain his crown, which we believe (based on childhood experiences) is in the possession of a minor Baron in Kirenweld, who will be in the procession. Kaerg wants us along to help regain his crown. He plans to reassert his claim on the capital territories of Sirtegard after he is crowned king, which includes territories under the mountain range extending about 30 miles down into Evangier, and runs nearly 200 miles up into Kirenweld, and would become Sovereign Dwarven Territory. Kaerg is a member of the White Granite Clan, which are spirit talkers (Kaerg hasn't been very forthcoming to Therin on this), but the members supposedly go through a ritual to pledge themselves to the king, and when the King calls, the spirits of deceased White Granite dwarves will reinhabit their armor and come to serve the King. So if Kaerg is crowned king, he will have 80,000 dwarven warriors who can't be (re)killed. But they only animate in their sovereign territory, underground, so Kaerg could HOLD the territories the dwarves formerly owned. And the riches and knowledge of the dwarven kingdom would be accessible to him, including that of Older civilizations.

A Dwarven Prince in Exile Guards the Sisters

Kaerg is also guardian to one of our half-sisters from the Evangier duke, the sister who supposedly died in a mine collapse! Her ability is manipulating stone. Therin says that Kaerg said he intends to declare her and her siblings as protectorates of the crown. Kaerg implied to Therin that he has more than one Sister under his guardianship, but Therin says that the dwarven plurals confuse him and maybe his misunderstood.

Elven and Dwarven Relationship

Pre- and Post-Unification, there has been a strong relationship between the dwarven and elven nations. The elven Duke supports Kaerg's claim, and has pledge military support to Kaerg. In turn, Kaerg has pledged support to the elven Duke after he is crowned, to help put down the civil war coupe. The elven half-sister (Vethandra's sister) who might have died in the woods at age 6, is not dead. She is in the elven city Eveloin. Her death was faked. She is a projector, who can send her mind (think Professor X, astral projection) out from her body and gather information from looking elsewhere. Her father the elven duke will occasionally use her to help gather information for him. So the dwarves and elves will immediately form a mutual defense pact, and if Kirenweld or Evangier want to be aggressive on sovereign dwarven lands or try to take those lands back, it could get ugly.

It would mean two ancient civilizations that pre-date humans are on the upswing again.

Is some ancient cycle in play?

The Baronet and the Ugly Crown

Bel dimly recalls that the Baronet whose family found the dwarven Crown in an archeological dig several hundred years ago. Baronet Holstgaren takes pride in family tradition; is honorable; works within the law of Kirenweld; and doesn't care that people made fun of that “ugly old crown” when they'd come to transact official business with the old Duke. The Baronet liked dwarven things, and that's why he likes the crown so much. People make fun of how the Baronet seeks out dwarven stuff. Bel recalls that the minor Baronet has a very small holding on the West coast of Kirenweld. Jessa speculates that maybe the Baronet could be convinced to give up the crown to Kaerg, maybe in exchange for being the diplomatic liaison between Kirenweld and Sirtegard to foster a good relationship between the two.

Therin says he was a dwarven sympathizer since he was young. Evangier has never treated outsiders very well, including dwarves, who really are the first citizens in the country if you think of where their holdings are. Therin thinks the dwarves are a proud and noble people who had everything stolen from them at swordpoint, and it's important to him to help them regain their status. (He also likes that Kirenweld will lose 200 miles of land to the dwarves.)

Kaerg's Plans

Bel commits a faux pas when she asks Kaerg, in Imperial tongue, how we can assist him in his goals. He swings around and snaps, in Common, that she may address him in the common tongue and to never again speak to him in the Imperial language, which is the language of murders and thieves. Bel stammers an apology, says she assumed it was an old language and hoped that it would pre-date humans. Kaerg says it was the first human language—Bel asks, from the northern barbarians who came from the ice? Kaerg says yes. (Oh, the incidental things one learns.) Kaerg says that Bel can assist him by playing a role in helping him regain his crown so he can be Crowned. Kaerg says that afterward, Bel can assist by playing a role as one of 24 sisters. But he refuses to focus or speak further of the far-flung future, he wants to focus on getting crowned.

Balance of Dwarven, Elven, and Human Races against the Master and Monstrous Races that May be Returning to Prominence

We hope the land races will ally in the face of any trouble with aquatic monstrous races and the Master, who presumably would still like to track us down and take back our mother's dagger.

Traveling North; We Stable Our Horses

We stable all our horses in a small settlement a few days north, and head for an entrance to the underground to travel north using the dwarven railways. We let Genard know we will be traveling, where, and why.

Kaerg leads us into the mountain by a secret entrance. We travel north via underground dwarven rail carts, under the Evangier mountains north just over the border into Kirenweld.