"It's what works for those who only go through the Umbra once or twice in their lifetime," Amber says with a grimace. "The repellant will prevent the shadow mites for a time, but it won't be a permanent fix. Staying on the path is also a good idea because the plant blights rarely go there. Both still won't save you from the roaming lizardlions if you are not safely in a carriage. Even then, sometimes the path just suddenly disappears."
Amber goes quiet for a moment, before exhaling a deep sigh. "Perhaps she is right and I must trust where our dreams will take me. I can guide you to Saikhan. It will not save you time. We will leave at noon and arrive there just as the sun sets. I can ensure you get there safely without much interruption from the local wildlife, but I worry about the horseman that Mother dreamt of. It's not something I have experience with. I will not be able to offer much help if or when we face it on the way."
Drexon gives Amber a reassuring smile, "There is not guarantee that we will even come across this horseman, and if we do we will make sure you are safe. Especially having had a chance to rest and gather our strength back".
"Speaking of which, it is late and you must be tired yourself. Perhaps we should all follow your mother's lead and get some sleep?".
"Very well. If you need anything else, just call." After making sure everything in the house has been locked and put in the proper place, Amber retires to her own bedroom for the night.
Your own rest is not calm. You have stopped an attempt on a noble's life in the morning and trekked through a dangerous swampland through the night. If it was not for the help of an elderly woman with strange dreams, you would be having a very difficult time trying to rest in the wilderness.
Cob, as you sleep, you dream. You see a landscape of rolling verdant hills and forests before you. A figure, half wrapped in tree barks, vines, and leaves, strolls calmly. There is a sense of familiarity about the figure. Everything is nice and beautiful and calm. Then, the scene suddenly shifts accompanied by the sound of a loud cracking of a tree that has been struck by lightning. The figure now kneels amid a barren wasteland. Bloodied and injured, the figure lets out a guttural scream and cries until their tears fill the wasteland, turning it into a swampland. The scene shifts once again. This time, a horse wreathed in fire paves a path for a shadowy figure wielding a long shaft of fire. Another shift and you find yourself high in the air overlooking a house, the house you are in. A massive shadow creeps around the house. A circle of fire is lit a few miles in diameter surrounding the house, a warning. Then the dream fades away as you hear a guttural roar that nearly wakes you up, "Promise me you will guard her life, inheritor. Promise me."
You wake in the morning refreshed.
{{You can take a long rest. What do you want to do now as you wait until noon?}}
"Hmm.. I should have expected this," Edna says as she prepares breakfast. "You are Fey, yes. Far removed from the main society in Pancarona, but still Fey. The wings should be indication enough. Do you know the concept of Archfey and their demesne?"
Cob nods, and flutters his wings when she asks him about being fey.
"I know next to nothing, but I definitely know about the archfey," Cob says, then shakes his head. "Well one of them specifically. You might say we have a bit of a lopsided relationship."
He thinks for a few seconds. "Can't say I've ever heard the word demesne before, but if it means somebody they tie a ton of strings too, I get the idea."
"An Archfey is a powerful Fey in Fey society," Edna starts. "You should know at least two of them at the top of your mind. One is The Dusk Weaver and the other is The Treant Protector. They are the most powerful out of all Archfeys and they are considered Gods nowadays. Third in line is the current Empress of the Fey, Mor-Rioghain, and maybe her spouse, May-Sryeh. Then you have the weaker Archfeys. More powerful than normal Fey, but not as powerful as the Empress or the Gods.
"Every one of these Archfey is attached to a demesne, a region of the world that they have dominion over. The Dusk Weaver took over the demesne of the dead and The Treant Protector over the demesne of the wilderness, but that is a different story entirely. The larger the demesne, the more powerful the Archfey is. Most Archfeys only have dominion over a small land fitting a large manor or an estate, but the more powerful one, like the Empress, has dominion over the entire island of Pancarona. This means she controls the very land of Pancarona.
"But, the one thing you should remember when you meet an Archfey is the rules they have to abide by to maintain control over their demesne. Each Archfey has to abide by a set of three rules made by them through a long claiming ritual that usually kills the weaker Archfey-wannabes. Everyone, including the Archfey, has to abide by these three rules. If the Archfey sets that no one can fly in their demesne, then no one will be able to fly or even glide. The very land of their demesne will enforce the rule."
She pauses for a moment before she pulls out a broken arrowhead from a pouch in her pocket. There is a certain mystical glow about the arrowhead. "The Umbra was once the demesne of an Archfey. His name was lost, but he was killed during the War of the Best. In his death rattle, he enforced a rule over the Umbra, that none shall cause harm to his inheritors -- his descendants -- as long as his descendants exist. From then on, all manners of creatures reside in the Umbra with the sole purpose of causing as much harm and danger to those who pass through it to prevent someone from hunting his descendants who lived in the Umbra. My daughter and I are the last of his inheritors. As the dream also calls you an inheritor, you must also have an Archfey somewhere in your family line, most probably the Archfey you talked about."
Drexon listens to Cob and Edna intently, although does not interrupt. He obviously knows Cob is a Fey, but he doesn't really know what that means beyond the little Cob has said.
He waits patiently for their conversation to conclude,
"I hope the Umbra's just picking up on the connection I have with the Prince of Fools," Cob says. The he adds in a whisper, in case Hyrsam is listening somewhere. "Not sure I'm crazy about sharing a bloodline with him."
He turns back from looking out at the swampland.
"So, Edna, you're pretty safe here then." Cob says then circles back to a question he had earlier. "How long have you really been here?"
There is a flicker of recognition when Cob mentions the Prince of Fools. She hides it well, but it is clear she wants to say something more about it but stops herself.
"Most of my life," Edna says. "But, perhaps it will be time to leave soon. When an Archfey die, their demesne is at its most powerful yet also most vulnerable state. The rules imposed in the demesne will be enforced several times harsher, such as the case of the Umbra. But, it won't last forever. When a budding Archfey comes, they can subsume the demesne to themselves. This is one of the easier way to become an Archfey, by taking the demesne of a dead Archfey. My fear is that the horsemen I've been dreaming, and the one you also dreamt about, is a Fey. It is only a matter of time before the dominion of the demesne defaulted to them if they stay nearby long enough. A rulerless demesne is like catnip to a budding Archfey."
Drexon is a little lost amongst all the talk of Archfey, but when Edna mentions that the horseman in their vision might be another Fey looking to take ownership of the Umber he interjects.
"So it may be you are not as safe here as you thought? Perhaps you should both come with us to Saikhan?", he suggests to Edna. "We don't have time to stay and help right now, but perhaps we can all return once we are done there and show this Fey that taking over the Umbra will not be such an easy task?".
"That is where you are wrong, young man," Edna says with a grim smile. "One of us must stay here. The rule that the original owner of the Umbra laid only takes effect when at least one of his descendants is in the Umbra. If both of us leave, the ownership of the Umbra automatically falls to the closest most powerful Fey, which I fear will be this horseman. My daughter will guide you. She will do what she must.
"Strange how everything aligns, huh? I dreamt of you coming. My daughter dreamt of leaving and having a family of her own. Both of us thought it would not happen for quite some time yet, but here you are, a sign that everything is happening now rather than later. The Fey is a surprise, but it is time something like this happens. I am surprised that no one has subsumed the Umbra for centuries after the Archfey ruling it died."
"All this Fey lore is a little beyond my experience", Drexon admits to Edna.
He looks around to those present, "There is some time until noon, I am not certain what we should do until then. Is there any way we can repay you for your kindness?".
Eremoz thinks over the groups options. “I think we would all be willing to help save your home, but we must ensure the safety of the children. We do have some loose plans after we do that to head south. We could stop back on our way south and assist you.”
Edna grasps Cob's hands and pats it. "Don't be too quick to judge," she says. "Fey never do anything without a reason. Archfey even more so. A trade may have happened, but the reason for the trade is something you must find out. It could be that your parents want to save you from the turmoil currently happening in Pancarona. I might be a hermit, but I know that the situation there is not exactly safe for the past few years."
She shakes her head as she looks at every one of you. "No debt. My daughter will guide you, but keep her safe. I can manage another week or so before the situation becomes more dangerous when the Fey realizes this place is ripe for the taking. Well, unless you defeated this encroaching Fey during your trip, but you have your problem to attend to that is more urgent."
"Oh, enough with the gloomy talk," Amber says, joining the others with a tray of warm food with her. "Here, have something to eat. We will have a long journey ahead of us."
Smiling at Amber, Drexon happily partakes in the food.
"Well, if there is nothing else to be done before we leave, we could play a few rounds of cards", he suggests, pulling out his deck and starting to shuffle them one handed.
(OOC: Not sure what else we can do before noon, happy to skip forward unless anyone has any ideas?)
Cob settles down at the table and pulls out a couple of items from his pack: the crystal left behind when Karm dissipated and the sapling from the sabitah tree he’d plucked before everything went so wrong.
”You wouldn’t be able to get a read on these, would you? I know they have power just not what for.”
Edna picks up the items and hovers her hands over them. Seen only by Cob, there is a shadowy figure standing behind Edna, grasping her shoulder. It is tall and humanoid, but not imposing. Instead, it gives off the feeling of a warm embrace. You cannot sense anything malicious, only overprotectiveness. An imprint of the Archfey attached to his descendants, perhaps.
"Powerful objects, both of them," Edna says. "I do not yet know everything about the crystal. Its nature is partially obscured from me, but I can tell that it pertains to the element of fire. It will amplify the power of such spells. It will also point you to its other fragments. Three if I were to guess. I can tell you that one is to the far west, away from this continent. One is to the south, somewhere in Nylmas and beyond. The last one is quite close by to the east, at a very high place -- near or at the Weaving Mountain if I were to guess. Gather all the pieces and I can tell you more about its nature."
"The other one is more magnificent," Edna continues, looking at the small sapling in awe. "Keep this safe. Never, and I repeat, never lets anyone knows you have this. I have only seen something like this twice. Once in a book and once when I visited Timaril to see the Seed of Curiosity. This is a Seed of Sabitah. There is no mistaking it. Most probably the missing seed of the set of four.
"From the story, before the recent War of the Best, there was a war against dark creatures that came from the void abyss. Curiosity, the creator of this world, perished then. However, before these creatures came, Curiosity planted four seeds across the world to bring miracle to the people and symbolizes the struggle and dreams of the people. The Seed of Curiosity symbolizes the abundance of knowledge still yet discovered and the allure of voyage into the unknown. It grants whoever stands under it a boost on their mental acuity and wisdom. I am not sure what the other two do or whether they survive to this day, but the last one planted was the first one to be destroyed during the war. The Seed of Conflux was planted by Curiosity to symbolize the uniting of the Ancients, the Humans, the Elves, the Dwarves, the Halflings, and the Aasimars, the original six races of this world. It is the affirmation of fate and destiny in the face of the confluence of many cultures and lives. When the war against the dark creatures came, the seed was destroyed and with it a piece of the main continent drifted off to form what is now known as the continent of Montecarexpat.
"This is a sapling of the Seed of Conflux," Edna cradles the sapling gently. The verdant crystal leaves glimmer, reacting to Edna's magic. She puts if back in Cob's hand. "It was said to have the power to enforce peace and unite people. Guard it with your life. Who knows, mayhap you can use this to bring the budding conflict in Pancarona to a close before it gets worse."
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"It's what works for those who only go through the Umbra once or twice in their lifetime," Amber says with a grimace. "The repellant will prevent the shadow mites for a time, but it won't be a permanent fix. Staying on the path is also a good idea because the plant blights rarely go there. Both still won't save you from the roaming lizardlions if you are not safely in a carriage. Even then, sometimes the path just suddenly disappears."
Amber goes quiet for a moment, before exhaling a deep sigh. "Perhaps she is right and I must trust where our dreams will take me. I can guide you to Saikhan. It will not save you time. We will leave at noon and arrive there just as the sun sets. I can ensure you get there safely without much interruption from the local wildlife, but I worry about the horseman that Mother dreamt of. It's not something I have experience with. I will not be able to offer much help if or when we face it on the way."
Drexon gives Amber a reassuring smile, "There is not guarantee that we will even come across this horseman, and if we do we will make sure you are safe. Especially having had a chance to rest and gather our strength back".
"Speaking of which, it is late and you must be tired yourself. Perhaps we should all follow your mother's lead and get some sleep?".
"Very well. If you need anything else, just call." After making sure everything in the house has been locked and put in the proper place, Amber retires to her own bedroom for the night.
Your own rest is not calm. You have stopped an attempt on a noble's life in the morning and trekked through a dangerous swampland through the night. If it was not for the help of an elderly woman with strange dreams, you would be having a very difficult time trying to rest in the wilderness.
Cob, as you sleep, you dream. You see a landscape of rolling verdant hills and forests before you. A figure, half wrapped in tree barks, vines, and leaves, strolls calmly. There is a sense of familiarity about the figure. Everything is nice and beautiful and calm. Then, the scene suddenly shifts accompanied by the sound of a loud cracking of a tree that has been struck by lightning. The figure now kneels amid a barren wasteland. Bloodied and injured, the figure lets out a guttural scream and cries until their tears fill the wasteland, turning it into a swampland. The scene shifts once again. This time, a horse wreathed in fire paves a path for a shadowy figure wielding a long shaft of fire. Another shift and you find yourself high in the air overlooking a house, the house you are in. A massive shadow creeps around the house. A circle of fire is lit a few miles in diameter surrounding the house, a warning. Then the dream fades away as you hear a guttural roar that nearly wakes you up, "Promise me you will guard her life, inheritor. Promise me."
You wake in the morning refreshed.
{{You can take a long rest. What do you want to do now as you wait until noon?}}
When Cob wakes, the dream lingers in his mind for a long time.
"A bit serious for Hyrsam," Cob muses aloud. Though he suspects it was something else entirely.
When he find the others, including Amber and her mother, he tells them of the dream he had.
"It seemed more than a dream," Cob says once he's done. He looks at the duo who live here and asks them "Does the 'inheritor' mean anything to you?"
He looks outside, half expecting to see a ring of fire come to consume them.
"How long have you lived here?" he eventually asks.
"Hmm.. I should have expected this," Edna says as she prepares breakfast. "You are Fey, yes. Far removed from the main society in Pancarona, but still Fey. The wings should be indication enough. Do you know the concept of Archfey and their demesne?"
Cob nods, and flutters his wings when she asks him about being fey.
"I know next to nothing, but I definitely know about the archfey," Cob says, then shakes his head. "Well one of them specifically. You might say we have a bit of a lopsided relationship."
He thinks for a few seconds. "Can't say I've ever heard the word demesne before, but if it means somebody they tie a ton of strings too, I get the idea."
"An Archfey is a powerful Fey in Fey society," Edna starts. "You should know at least two of them at the top of your mind. One is The Dusk Weaver and the other is The Treant Protector. They are the most powerful out of all Archfeys and they are considered Gods nowadays. Third in line is the current Empress of the Fey, Mor-Rioghain, and maybe her spouse, May-Sryeh. Then you have the weaker Archfeys. More powerful than normal Fey, but not as powerful as the Empress or the Gods.
"Every one of these Archfey is attached to a demesne, a region of the world that they have dominion over. The Dusk Weaver took over the demesne of the dead and The Treant Protector over the demesne of the wilderness, but that is a different story entirely. The larger the demesne, the more powerful the Archfey is. Most Archfeys only have dominion over a small land fitting a large manor or an estate, but the more powerful one, like the Empress, has dominion over the entire island of Pancarona. This means she controls the very land of Pancarona.
"But, the one thing you should remember when you meet an Archfey is the rules they have to abide by to maintain control over their demesne. Each Archfey has to abide by a set of three rules made by them through a long claiming ritual that usually kills the weaker Archfey-wannabes. Everyone, including the Archfey, has to abide by these three rules. If the Archfey sets that no one can fly in their demesne, then no one will be able to fly or even glide. The very land of their demesne will enforce the rule."
She pauses for a moment before she pulls out a broken arrowhead from a pouch in her pocket. There is a certain mystical glow about the arrowhead. "The Umbra was once the demesne of an Archfey. His name was lost, but he was killed during the War of the Best. In his death rattle, he enforced a rule over the Umbra, that none shall cause harm to his inheritors -- his descendants -- as long as his descendants exist. From then on, all manners of creatures reside in the Umbra with the sole purpose of causing as much harm and danger to those who pass through it to prevent someone from hunting his descendants who lived in the Umbra. My daughter and I are the last of his inheritors. As the dream also calls you an inheritor, you must also have an Archfey somewhere in your family line, most probably the Archfey you talked about."
Drexon listens to Cob and Edna intently, although does not interrupt. He obviously knows Cob is a Fey, but he doesn't really know what that means beyond the little Cob has said.
He waits patiently for their conversation to conclude,
Cob smiles.
"I hope the Umbra's just picking up on the connection I have with the Prince of Fools," Cob says. The he adds in a whisper, in case Hyrsam is listening somewhere. "Not sure I'm crazy about sharing a bloodline with him."
He turns back from looking out at the swampland.
"So, Edna, you're pretty safe here then." Cob says then circles back to a question he had earlier. "How long have you really been here?"
There is a flicker of recognition when Cob mentions the Prince of Fools. She hides it well, but it is clear she wants to say something more about it but stops herself.
"Most of my life," Edna says. "But, perhaps it will be time to leave soon. When an Archfey die, their demesne is at its most powerful yet also most vulnerable state. The rules imposed in the demesne will be enforced several times harsher, such as the case of the Umbra. But, it won't last forever. When a budding Archfey comes, they can subsume the demesne to themselves. This is one of the easier way to become an Archfey, by taking the demesne of a dead Archfey. My fear is that the horsemen I've been dreaming, and the one you also dreamt about, is a Fey. It is only a matter of time before the dominion of the demesne defaulted to them if they stay nearby long enough. A rulerless demesne is like catnip to a budding Archfey."
Drexon is a little lost amongst all the talk of Archfey, but when Edna mentions that the horseman in their vision might be another Fey looking to take ownership of the Umber he interjects.
"So it may be you are not as safe here as you thought? Perhaps you should both come with us to Saikhan?", he suggests to Edna. "We don't have time to stay and help right now, but perhaps we can all return once we are done there and show this Fey that taking over the Umbra will not be such an easy task?".
"That is where you are wrong, young man," Edna says with a grim smile. "One of us must stay here. The rule that the original owner of the Umbra laid only takes effect when at least one of his descendants is in the Umbra. If both of us leave, the ownership of the Umbra automatically falls to the closest most powerful Fey, which I fear will be this horseman. My daughter will guide you. She will do what she must.
"Strange how everything aligns, huh? I dreamt of you coming. My daughter dreamt of leaving and having a family of her own. Both of us thought it would not happen for quite some time yet, but here you are, a sign that everything is happening now rather than later. The Fey is a surprise, but it is time something like this happens. I am surprised that no one has subsumed the Umbra for centuries after the Archfey ruling it died."
"All this Fey lore is a little beyond my experience", Drexon admits to Edna.
He looks around to those present, "There is some time until noon, I am not certain what we should do until then. Is there any way we can repay you for your kindness?".
Eremoz thinks over the groups options. “I think we would all be willing to help save your home, but we must ensure the safety of the children. We do have some loose plans after we do that to head south. We could stop back on our way south and assist you.”
Cob stays quiet after Edna finishes talking. It's a little embarrassing for him to understand so little of his heritage.
"Guess that's what happens when you get sold off," Cob says to himself.
He nods agreement at the suggestion they return to help when they're done with the kids.
"Though that horseman might be wrapped up with the lost kids already."
Edna grasps Cob's hands and pats it. "Don't be too quick to judge," she says. "Fey never do anything without a reason. Archfey even more so. A trade may have happened, but the reason for the trade is something you must find out. It could be that your parents want to save you from the turmoil currently happening in Pancarona. I might be a hermit, but I know that the situation there is not exactly safe for the past few years."
She shakes her head as she looks at every one of you. "No debt. My daughter will guide you, but keep her safe. I can manage another week or so before the situation becomes more dangerous when the Fey realizes this place is ripe for the taking. Well, unless you defeated this encroaching Fey during your trip, but you have your problem to attend to that is more urgent."
"Oh, enough with the gloomy talk," Amber says, joining the others with a tray of warm food with her. "Here, have something to eat. We will have a long journey ahead of us."
Smiling at Amber, Drexon happily partakes in the food.
"Well, if there is nothing else to be done before we leave, we could play a few rounds of cards", he suggests, pulling out his deck and starting to shuffle them one handed.
(OOC: Not sure what else we can do before noon, happy to skip forward unless anyone has any ideas?)
”Thank you.” Eremoz takes a plate of food. He sits down with the Syllabary, reading as he eats his meal and waits for their departure.
Cob settles down at the table and pulls out a couple of items from his pack: the crystal left behind when Karm dissipated and the sapling from the sabitah tree he’d plucked before everything went so wrong.
”You wouldn’t be able to get a read on these, would you? I know they have power just not what for.”
Edna picks up the items and hovers her hands over them. Seen only by Cob, there is a shadowy figure standing behind Edna, grasping her shoulder. It is tall and humanoid, but not imposing. Instead, it gives off the feeling of a warm embrace. You cannot sense anything malicious, only overprotectiveness. An imprint of the Archfey attached to his descendants, perhaps.
"Powerful objects, both of them," Edna says. "I do not yet know everything about the crystal. Its nature is partially obscured from me, but I can tell that it pertains to the element of fire. It will amplify the power of such spells. It will also point you to its other fragments. Three if I were to guess. I can tell you that one is to the far west, away from this continent. One is to the south, somewhere in Nylmas and beyond. The last one is quite close by to the east, at a very high place -- near or at the Weaving Mountain if I were to guess. Gather all the pieces and I can tell you more about its nature."
"The other one is more magnificent," Edna continues, looking at the small sapling in awe. "Keep this safe. Never, and I repeat, never lets anyone knows you have this. I have only seen something like this twice. Once in a book and once when I visited Timaril to see the Seed of Curiosity. This is a Seed of Sabitah. There is no mistaking it. Most probably the missing seed of the set of four.
"From the story, before the recent War of the Best, there was a war against dark creatures that came from the void abyss. Curiosity, the creator of this world, perished then. However, before these creatures came, Curiosity planted four seeds across the world to bring miracle to the people and symbolizes the struggle and dreams of the people. The Seed of Curiosity symbolizes the abundance of knowledge still yet discovered and the allure of voyage into the unknown. It grants whoever stands under it a boost on their mental acuity and wisdom. I am not sure what the other two do or whether they survive to this day, but the last one planted was the first one to be destroyed during the war. The Seed of Conflux was planted by Curiosity to symbolize the uniting of the Ancients, the Humans, the Elves, the Dwarves, the Halflings, and the Aasimars, the original six races of this world. It is the affirmation of fate and destiny in the face of the confluence of many cultures and lives. When the war against the dark creatures came, the seed was destroyed and with it a piece of the main continent drifted off to form what is now known as the continent of Montecarexpat.
"This is a sapling of the Seed of Conflux," Edna cradles the sapling gently. The verdant crystal leaves glimmer, reacting to Edna's magic. She puts if back in Cob's hand. "It was said to have the power to enforce peace and unite people. Guard it with your life. Who knows, mayhap you can use this to bring the budding conflict in Pancarona to a close before it gets worse."