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(game date: 8/4/2021)
The gnomish leader of the band directed everyone around the side of a rocky outcropping, wherea rough-hewn entrance into the mountainside lay , hidden behind some cleverly placed foliage . Some of the taller group members had to stoop to get in, but once inside the hallway proved large enough to accommodate everyone. .
The floor of the entryway gives way to a drop-off further in, with steps carved that lead down into an oddly-shaped cavern. One side was slanted at an angle, smoothly hewn, while the stairs descended to a less-skillfully carved floor. Peeking through these rough carvings were large, arched patterns that seemed to extend from the slanted, smooth wall. A large set of double doors lay at the end of that hallway, but they oriented with the wall as though it was a floor. The effect continued beyond that door, as the gnome led them deeper into the mountain.
"Huh," said Katrya. "Is all sideways."
In the hallway, Desi (the newest and smallest member of the band) took the opportunity to re-cast her translation spell, hoping to encompass everyone and to make the effect work both ways. She managed to accomplish this, but in doing so expended all her remaining Power, leaving none to set the spell to sustain itself without actively concentrating on it. Oh well, she thought. If it all goes south, we'll be past parlay anyways.
The leader stopped at a checkpoint before a stone door, with two guards outside. She explained to the guards that she found these intruders by the lake, having landed in in a magical floating ship, and she is bringing them to the Eldest. They nodded, and opened the stone door, allowing through into something akin to a throne room. Steps, roughly carved but worn smooth from time and use, led up to a simple stone chair, upon which rested an impossibly old gnome, attended by a handful of other gnomes. As the Æstans watched, a dwarf was dismissed from the room, and ambled away toward another passageway.
The party's escort stopped near the base of the steps and called up, respectfully, "Eldest, I bring you these strangers from above, who flew in a small metal ship to land by the lake. They mentioned seeking a crystal stronghold."
Taking this as an introduction, Aru Nepeta (ever the one for proper social ettiquette) made a polite bow. A few others followed suit.
The gnome continued. "One of them seems to understand dwarf speak, which is how we know this, though I don't know how accurate the translation was."
One of the attendants whispered into the elder gnome's ear, and she took a moment to process the information before sitting up straighter in her chair and looking down at the group with an intense interest. "Thank you, Commander Tymwi," she finally said, and then she peered intensely at the explorers for several seconds before finally speaking directly to them, in Dwarven.
Varfana, the group's only dwarf, struggled to understand. The archaic form of the language, overlaid by the effects of the pixie's spell, was rather like hearing two people speak at once. "Where do you strangers come from?" alongside "From what lands dost this odd and varied group hail?"
It took her a few seconds to process it and form a reply. When she finally spoke, it was obvious that she'd been paying attention to the forms being used locally. Preceding her words with a bow, she said, "We travel from the city known as Æstas, which until quite recently was underground."
This time, the ancient gnome heard the double-speak effect, and she obviously didn't like it. Her eyes narrowed. "You are using magic to translate?" / "Thou art utilizing the arts of the supernatural to discern meaning and make thyself understood?"
The pixie waved a hand. " 'at's may, sorry. She's tha real deal."
Oi! Ay found out Ay c'n record video on may ban-link! Brilliant, eh?
Mates, ya shoulda seen this ol' gnomie jumpin' up loike a spring 'eeled lassie. She steps up closer an' peers at may, squintin' loike, an' fer a couple secs she canna foind words.
"You... speak the old common tongue. You are..." she sez, like, duh. 'er eyes gets all big, and then they gets all squinty again, an' mean. An' then she starts t'talk Trade Common, loik th' rest of us, only still all fancy. "I see," she sez. "You are Elenya's chosen." An' she huffs off back to 'er throne, sayin' "Take them from my sight. I have no desire to speak with those saved from the hardships we've faced."
Yeh. She sure don't wanna lay 'er peepers on us no more.
Katrya spoke quickly, before any guards could obey. "...Ama is searching for her.. crystal palace? Is that what lies within your lake?"
Desi flew close enough to whisper into her ear. "Ay fink she's cheesed, foxie."
Katrya nodded. "I noticed, yes," she murmured. "But if we leave she will not have us back for ...tea."
The gnome halted. "Wait..." she countered her previous order. "How do you know of Ama? Ama still... exists?"
"Ha-HA! There, you see?" gloated the foxkin, probably not quite as softly as she thought. "Words! Are they not wonderous tools?? Sometimes almost as good as fists." Then, to the Eldest, she said, "Yes, yes, she does! She is the entire glorious pain in the bottom of why we are here! Alive even, I am meaning." She took a breath. "Ama is beautiful floating child, who enlisted my friends and I here to kill the sunbabies and finally free Aestas. Once we did so... she is so very happy... but she still has no -home-. And so we look!"
A gleam of hope shone from the Eldest's eyes. "What about... the Samaritans? Do they still exist?
This question seemed to stump the foxkin. She paused a moment, then glanced about at her companions with a gesture.
"Only in stories, far as I'm aware," interjected Aru. "We try to keep the spirit of them in mind."
"While there are a few older souls still wandering here and there, for the most part we seem to be a... 'new generation', I think it was," she added.
The gnome seemed to slump, looking even more aged. "At least they were remembered. But if Ama does not know where the Crystal Palace is..." She paused, working out a translation. "Sunbabies? You mean the Children? They were in your Aestas city?"
A flurry of chatter rose in response; too many voices. Katrya lost her grin; a darker frown took over her features. "Yes... Three of them at ending, and trying always to bring more. Gipson, and three sunbabies, using the city as an endless... power supply. The -people-."
Crivens! Jus' look at 'er face! Didja ever SEE summat loike that? Woah Nellie!
The Eldest went white with rage, suddenly shouting, "Gipson!" Glowing blue cracks formed across the surface of her skin, flaring with her temper as she stormed down the steps. "I will rend him apart with my own hands, for what he has done to the world and my family!"
"He's dead," said Vamir, but such was her rage that she didn't hear him. All her focus was on the tall foxkin.
"Ah...." Katrya looked almost sheepish. "I am afraid you cannot.."
"... Dead?" The blue faded, cracks receding slowly but still pulsing. She was still angry. "Good. I regret not seeing it happen. I hope it was painful."
"I may have misplaced his head."
"Too bad we's outta range," Desi piped up. "We c'd play it fer ya."
Well, wouldn't cha know, ALLA these bigjobs had tha whole thing saved on there banlinks, onna counta them all bein' a part of it? An' they's got the posh kit, too, so they plays it in threedee, an' she loikes it so much, they plays it again, from all diff'rent angles, an' she's eatin' it up. She 'speshly loike's tha part where buddy-boy Gipson gets 'is clock cleaned.
But then she wants ta know, how come Elenya woulda saved 'im inna first place, an' three o'them sun-babbies too, and that's a roight stumper, it is. Foxie sez nobody knows yet, coz the tree canna talk, see?
"I saw so many taken in a glow of green, but so many more died - crushed in the Fall, or from injuries or spell-sickness later on..." The Eldest sighed deeply, again appearing age-worn. "I have spent a thousand years thinking they had been saved, chosen by Elenya to be rescued from the Fall... But if it was not a choice... Then I have no right to be angry with you. I just... I would like to have seen them again."
She lost herself in thought for a moment, then straightened, "But, if you are doing Ama's work... I'm afraid I cannot tell you where the palace is. I can only say it isn't here. The lake... Those doors were once the entrance to the mountain, before the Fall. We survived as best we could, trapped inside, digging and mining and cutting through the stone to make another way out. Now we live simply, hunting and growing what we can here in the once-great mountains of Orrostar."
"Well... Golborn dung," said Katrya, using the mildest of her oaths. "Then we must keep looking."
But the old gnome paid no mind, again lost in a memory. "The great flying ships that had been built ended up useless against the Fall - still within the dock cavern, with no warning they were unable to be used to escape..."
"Flying ships?"
"Yes... The bodies crafted by the dwarves, while the gnomes worked to refine the crystal magic that would make them fly. The Worldsaver..." She chuckled. "Well, it was gifted to the Samaritans, and there was Miss Blackrose's ship, also gone, but the Council had built a huge warship that could have held at least most of the Mountain's peoples. Now it's crumbling timber and shattered crystal."
"Ms Blackrose's ship still flies," Aru said.
"You are welcome to look around, explore the caverns. I can even show you some of th-" The Eldest suddenly stopped talking, as the foxkin's words registered in her brain.
"HA!" blasted one foxkin, while the other smiled happily, his eyes twinkling.
"And Ms Blackrose flies along with it," Aru said.
"Could you even imagine anyone trying to get past her onto that thing?" Katrya asked, her toothy grin threatening to split her face.
The Eldest shook her head. "No. Now I know you must be lying. She was... She could not possibly still be alive?"
"Our mission has changed!" announced Katrya. "We'll head back and meet up with the Crystal Pilot before going to the next point. Seems like we have messages to deliver, yes?"
"Let us treat you to dinner, Eldest, may we?" begged Aru.
Arrayt, so now me own baby blues air buggin'. They's just gonner trot off an' pay a year's rent ta sup on fancy bugs an' wotnot, loike, 'oo tha 'ell am Oi 'angin' oot wif, ennyhow? But tha gnomie, wot was gonner toss us all on our keesters, well, now she's all gaga, "come insoide, 'ave a noice cuppa tea, and y'all just hafta take me back wif ya, arrayt?" 'er guards, they don' loike the idear none too much, but she en't 'avin' none of it.
So, yeh, she led us all over. Ay mean, ay gots video o' that too, but it takes forever ta watch. They gots a big port where they useta have bigger ships than tha CP, but they's all wrecked up now. Useta have some noice 'omes there, too, only they's all slanted-loike, so only those wot's been levelled out by 'and is really livable, y'ken? She showed us an old duellin' ground -- duellin', ya believe it? -- a big circle arena, but it's all broke up from the Fall. An' all kinda stuff loike that, alla their 'istry. In this broken-up mountain.
Yeh, they tells us stories about th' Fall, but loike, y'see this big 'ol mountain, an' loike, this thing useta be all uppin the sky? An' one day it just, loike, crashed inna ground! An', this woman, she was there! An' lived! Can ye credit it?
So, Ay brings it up. An she canna hiMAGine 'owcome nobody knows 'ow ta stick seeds inna ground. She sez, "How does a people saved by a dryad end up not knowing how to grow plants?"
(Ay'll 'aveta aks wots a dry-add sometoime)
But yeh, mebbe she was finkin' we was 'avin' 'er on or summat.
The Eldest asked and answered questions all the way back to the city.
When Frank reached the outskirts, the Crystal Pilot was nowhere in sight.
As they came within BANlink range, everyone's tek crackled to life - comms, vidscreens, anything in the city capable of receiving a signal.
Hilda appeared, looking into the camera, shouting. "-not safe! Again, do not go to the Cities." She glanced back to Cecie, standing at the helm. "I don't think this will work, Cecie, we're too far away!"
The view shook, and a loud boom sounded! Cecie, busy with piloting, called back, "Hold onto something! I'm going to try and lose them in the storm!"
(to be continued)
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