Mementos : An Excerpt From Io's Journal

š Forty-Fifth Day of the Fire Moon of Rosalan Year 749 A.E. ›

(45.FMR.749)

I woke around 8 in the morning, and left the inn to seek an audience with the great Queen Azura. However, when I arrived at the citadel, the doors were locked tight and there were guards at the door. They informed me that the Queen was not taking visitors at this time, and the citadel was closed until further notice. I informed the guards of the urgent nature of my business with the Queen; however they were only foot soldiers and knew not what to do with the information. I resigned myself to write a detailed letter to the Queen, and hope that she would receive it and take action.

On my way back to the library to write my letter, I ran into none other than the captain of the guard, Orion. I explained the situation to him, but Orion said that there were many problems going on in the outskirts at the moment and his forces were already spread thin. There are people going missing from the towns, and there seems to be some trouble with the orcs as well. He thought it was a good idea to write Azura a letter, and to do more research and keep him updated. He would help however he could.

I arrived at the library to find Sonlan deep in study, I shared with him what I had learned, and he revealed some rather curious information:

v  There is some strange concentration of fey magic in the mountain, which may be a sign of a rift in the fey.

v  This is likely linked to the war of fiends years ago, and could provide a reason for the strange behaviour of the dwarves in the mountain.

Ï STORY : SONLAN IN THE RIFT

I asked Sonlan about the fey rift and he said that one of these rifts was the explanation for his appearance and supposed misconceptions about time.

Sonlan had been using the scrying orb, which showed him a cave filled with goblinds and a rift in the fey. His curiosity was piqued by this rift and set out to find it with a team of adventurers. They set off to the southwest where the cave was located. However, upon reaching it, Sonlan warned the company that goblinds were far more dangerous than they seemed, and it was folly to take them head-on. They scoffed at his warning, and rushed into the cave. They were all brutally killed by the creatures, but Sonlan managed to sneak past them all in the chaos.

Sonlan delved into the caverns and found what he was looking for. However it was not a full-fledged portal, merely a rift in the fey, which makes it much harder to locate. Sonlan was successful, and passed through the rift into the fey.

Sonlan wandered through the fey realm for days, letting the scrying orb lead him where it would. Eventually, he came upon a ruin, inside of which was what appeared to be some sort of alchemy lab. On the table was a vile of strange black liquid, which swirled and flowed, almost with a mind of its own.

Just as Sonlan was about to pick up the vial to examine it more closely he had a realization: This looked an awful lot like a phylactery. A phylactery is an object used by a lich to contain its soul, protecting it from death. He was lucky to have realized this, for touching the phylactery would have released the lich from its vessel, and I’m sure that wouldn’t have been much fun.

Sonlan thought for a minute of how to transport the phylactery back to the mortal realm, for he knew a friend that could turn such an object into a potion for immortal life.

Then Sonlan had an idea. He took from his satchel a tiny ochre jelly which he had slain earlier, and ever so carefully slipped it over the vial.

Sonlan wandered through the fey for weeks, scrying constantly to try to find a portal back to the mortal realm. During his scrying he saw visions similar to what I had seen in the orb. He started looking for familiar faces, and saw those of Gen, Tilly and Saffron, who he had shared in an adventure with. As a result he saw all the members of our company, which caused him to seek me out when he returned to the mortal world.

The scrying orb saved Sonlan many a time, warning him of approaching foes, and advising him of places to hide. After wandering on the brink of starvation for nearly two months, Sonlan finally found his way back to the rift. He snuck past the goblinds and made his way back to Avalon.

In Avalon he found it to have been merely a week since he set out on his quest. Time, as you see, passes differently in the realm of fey than it does here.

Sonlan met up with his alchemist friend and showed him the curious object he had obtained in the fey wild. They worked tirelessly for days, the fruits of which was a potion that was not quite immortal life, but close to it.

However, they decided together that instead of one of them gaining the full benefit of the potion, they would split it and drink together. After downing the potion they each found that they had grown about 40 years younger.

With his new found strength and energy, Sonlan sought me out.

It was then that I was struck by inspiration, remembering the symbol we saw in the mountain caves, the dwarven insignia that I did not recognize before. We started to search for a history of the dwarven tribes in Pandon, eventually finding a scroll detailing the lineages of the dwarven tribes surrounding Avalon. This scroll was dated to be about 400 years old. From it we learned the following:

v  There were four dwarven tribes who lived in and around the mountain in question (The Eternal Mountain)

w  The Sons of Crag Valley

w  The Granite-Fists

w  The Iron Tides

w  The Stone Foot Tribe (the tribe Bromung’s people used to trade with.)

v  The dwarves that are now below the mountain were likely a part of the Granite-Fist Tribe, which was a very prominent tribe indeed. They were actually responsible for the stone that built the citadel in the center of Avalon.

v  I was able to place the tribe as the Granite-Fists based on their insignia, which we saw while in the caves. The symbol we saw is greatly similar to the Granite-Fist symbol, but has been changed ever so slightly.

w  The Granite-Fist symbol is a helm of some sort

w  The symbol I saw was that same helm, but with an eye carved into the forehead.

We then managed to find a more recent document regarding the area, from which we gathered the following:

v  The Granite-Fist tribe disappeared without a trace 300 years ago, around the same time as the fiend war.

v  These events are almost certainly related.

It was nearly 4AM when we decided to call it quits for the night. I wrote my letter to Azura with all the information I had gathered and gave it to Saffron to make sure it was delivered. I had so many thoughts running though my head that night that I could not sleep. I asked Phrenk to make me something strong, laughing, he obliged.

I somewhat reluctantly drank the fiery brew he made, and after the initial shock, I began feeling very warm and cozy. I slunk off to bed and slept very, very soundly.