44. May 27, 2018

To the Mountain!

The party includes us four, Druij, Aoife and Aishling, Odette. We need to cover about 220 miles, that will take about 2-3 weeks, to travel and convince people to evacuate. Druij will go ahead and (in about 2-3 days) will hide the magic devices that will detonate and cause chasms between them, that will help Ærden reclaim their ancient territory and the Mountain within it.

Druij takes off. The rest of us travel, and we come to the first hamlet at dusk, and decide to not reveal our presence but instead to let Aishling attempt to walk their dreams and give them premonitions. Aishling is able to touch everyone in the village. She gives them feelings of dread. Members of the party sleep restlessly and dream of falling. Mid-watch, Ghard hears people in the hamlet wake screaming. Ghard wakes Jessa for the next watch, but instead Jessa creeps into the hamlet and eavesdrops about what's happening. She learns that everyone has woken from the same nightmare, which they correctly interpret as a premonition about something bad that will happen. They are afraid of Thelduin, and think that Thelduin (which they think look like giant elves) will be coming. So Illial and Jessa decide to creep into the village and make frost and ice, so people will notice it on waking; but a small child spots them and starts screaming; his parents grab him and run to the hamlet screaming that the Thelduin and their Thelduin babies are coming after them. There's more alarmed shouts from the hamlet, and eventually a lot of smoke—they are running away in panic and are burning their huts as they depart; and one person is throwing something into the burning huts that turns the smoke green.

In the distance, we see smoke in the distance, and it turns greenish yellow. Then even further away, we see another plume of smoke start, and it turns greenish yellow. Obviously a means of communication between the hamlets.

Liberating the Crown

The next hamlet we come across is abandoned and is cold ash by the time we arrive. Druij rejoins us the next day, and says that he saw about 5 villages that people were evacuating and burning, and a 6th (farthest away) that seemed abandoned but not on fire. Druij doesn't know what the green smoke means, either. But the line of fire is clear. So we move east toward the mountain, and he sets off the magic detonations. Druij's last charge glows, then

a glowing line appears. There's a suction noise, and then the earth starts swelling, and then a chasm starts appearing along the glowing line. All proceeds as planned! There's a half hour of echoing rumbles as the chasm opens and trees fall into the pit.

Climb Every Mountain

Druij has to report back to his Duke, but we decide to climb to the crown, start climbing the Auindwin mountain. We are able to ride to and find a cave, and spend the night there. We ride the horses as far as we can, then leave them near a sheltered area with a decent stream and all of their fodder. We start climbing. After 3 days, we spot druids (giant birds) circling, keeping an eye on us. We estimate it's 6 days to climb to the false summit (there's

a false summit and then the actual peak far above it), but it takes us 10 because we have to rest 4 days. The druids have to peel off about halfway up, the crosswinds are too much. We persist, using all of our combined magic to make it.

The Shrine (and Body) at the Peak

The wind is terrible at the top of the mountain, it's blowing all around and snow and wind is whipping us in the face. We are surprised to find a stone shrine up here. It is seamless, it is as if someone whittled it out of/shaped it out of the mountain. Inside, there is NO wind. But there's a corpse.

In a depression in the middle of the shrine, is an elderly man in an enormous feathered headress. Arms crossed over his chest. Aishling goes wide-eyed and backs out of the shrine. (IcyPop recalls that Aishling had spoken of a crazy birdman in her dreams. Is it he?) Aishling says she had seen this man approaching her in her dreams.

Speak with Dead doesn't work on him. (Either he's an opposing alignment from Bel, or is not dead.) We look around further.

The shrine has “randomly-placed” star-shaped (four-sided star) holes in its sides. But each star-shaped hole is sloped and peaked; there are tiny niches and grooves in each star's point, to catch the wind in specific patterns. The wind is NOT touching the shrine, there's a barrier keeping it at bay, but we think that if the wind hit the star-holes that it would make different noises. The ceiling looks as if it formerly had star-shaped holes, but they have been patched so they are filled in.

We sleep, hoping to communicate with the divine eagle, or at least with the feathered man. Aishling wakes. She reveals she cannot contact the feathered bird man, but he is still skulking around in her dreams. (When she was ill and unconscious for several weeks, the feathered man was trying to contact her.) She tries again, and felt something feathered reach out and try to restrain her; she saw an effect like an arora borealis over the peak of

the mountain, rippling across the sky and casting patterns through holes in the roof and walls of the shrine and coalescing into a bird shape inside the building. The light show (arora borealis) is not something that people see anymore.

Uncovering the starry ceiling

It takes time, but Aoife can use her melting magic to carefully make the patched rock be molten, and a second person can chip it out. The notches and peaks in the stars are unharmed. It takes the day, but we do it. The wind starts pouring in as more are uncovered; it starts to make singing and weird noises. The wind starts making a pattern as it comes in, swirls around, the feathered man (who remains still and unmoving), and starts tossing out light on top of the mountain. Mainly blue and green lights, sometimes a hint of red.

The God Returns!

The entire area detects as magical. The feathered man, the depression he's lying in, the shrine, the northern lights. It's all magic, and is so strong it's almost blinding. The light is spreading, and the lines of red and orange start making a pattern. As they come together, it is obvious the pattern is that of a two-headed bird. And as it finishes forming, it starts to move, and begins circling down toward the peak of the Auindwin (crown) mountain. The red bird shaped light descends and collapses down over the crown of the mountain. As the light hits it fills the depression/bowl, and the feathered man (the God's Avatar) wakes and stands. It speaks, but not in a language we initially understand. Then it tries again, and speaks in everyone's native tongue at the same time. It asks how long it has been (1300 years since Kirenweld claimed the mountain); it asks how its people fare (we say the Aerden are okay). The Thelduin were encased in ice before the divine two-headed eagle slept.

The Darkness!

Suddenly, there is a huge clap of thunder. We look up; there are giant peals of red lightning arcing through the pretty blue and green lights. In the south, there is a giant black void form, that is pushing through, consuming, pushing aside the aurora. The Avatar sees this; it flaps it cloak—and we are all immediately at the base of the mountain. He plucks a feather from its cloak; it hovers for a moment, and disappears. The feather becomes a reddish-brown light shaped like a bird (about robin-sized). It alights (sorry for the pun) on Jessa's outstretched hand. She confesses that our mission is to confront the dark force, and asks for guidance if there's anything we can do to help. The light-bird chirps a yes.

A City Arises in the Heart of the Lake! And There's an Inky Black Void with Bad Creatures Emerging from It!

To the south, Ghard says “the trees are jumping. The mountains are jumping.” The land to the south is rolling, like a horizontal wave that is coming northwards. Tops of mountains are crumbling as it passes. Illial sends IcyPop up to look. It thinks that the glacier has collapsed, and would have killed many of the people camped beneath it. The Light-Red-Bird projects an image from the central lake, the Heart Lake, and shows that a giant mass has risen from the middle of the lake. It looks like an enormous city has risen from the water, and in the middle of the city is an enormous, inky-black void! The projection shows that from the swirling, inky black void are all sorts of horrible creatures spewing forth; manticores, and hydra, and beholders, and more.

The Light-Red-Bird comments “It's begun. And so quickly!”

The Dagger Reveals itself

Jessa's backpack becomes warm. She dumps its contents; the candelabra that conceals the powerful dagger is melting, and The Dagger tumbles free. Jessa explains about the Dagger to the others. She steels her nerves, then grasps the dagger in her hand. There is more red lightning, and a smoky eye is there.