Checking In . . . Again

Greetings unto thee, Captain Jershon and Bishop Tutu,

Father Philip may be informing your holiness of the presence of a second statue made of gold very soon. I have been chosen to be the second member of CrIsis to be elevated unto the Pantheon of Ra. Which begs a funny question of can a Demigod continue to serve as a priest, or would that simply be self glorification? The reports of our travels and trying to follow them is akin to watching a ball roll around on a continuingly warped marble floor. You never know which way you will actually go sometimes. There’s a parallel to life in that somewhere but alas it is not the time for such humorous introspection. I am giving you both a status report of our whereabouts and a further request, Captain, from your chosen god.

Since the request is by far the quicker of the two items and may reach you just after you send us an update to the Shield of Light and its crew. Please just do your best, Captain, to adjust and accommodate this request. Please make haste to the Empire of the West and dock with our beloved hosts at the Biboca Docks. Before you dock, about a day out please inform Master Alchemist Gabriel and Father Donal of your arrival and have them secure the docking arrangements. Next please ask the good and grand alchemist to please let you know what color hat to wear to avoid getting pick-pocketed around the docks. Please ask Father Donal for maps to get to Springgate. Nipshanks, wrote about a Pyramid “Appearing Overnight” and the Oathkeeper feels that looking at the pyramid map this one is designed to hold a piece of Osiris.

Now on to the status report.

Having decided to try and understand the changes in the Xerx’ses the Oathkeeper better has led me to a rather oddly humorous conclusion. Had he gained his intelligence much earlier before being elevated people would write about what a “jackass” he was! You see being dumber made him doubt himself and come off much more humbly than a confident Arch-wizard now trained as a Paladin and armed with mystic and martial might. I will attempt to re-educate him to being tactful because even his best intentions are coming off as though his interests are above the concerns of others. However, one element not actually helping the most recent incident is our friend Brother Grignak. As a priest of Bast, matchmaking is a tenant of their faith to set the spark and help love grow. Since Xerx’ses cannot seek out anymore wives until after his wife has given birth and recovered. Grignak thought he was helping setting up Nimaya our Elven guide and fellow CrIsis member, Silent Dream. I believe he is quite the fan of cross racial mating because it can’t result in children, so if conventional wisdom holds true one might be able to slake their passion and lust without repercussion. Again providing all parties in the torrid affair were consenting.

Now, despite the fact he has mentioned this part out loud I don’t believe anyone else in CrIsis either heard it or believed it. The minute the heart becomes involved people forget that Xerx’ses as the God of Oaths watches what he says and tries his best to make every word the truth. That curse, blessing, whatever your view is also part of the reason he is coming across to the rest of CrIsis as a jackass. He no longer tries to coat his words in honey to make unpleasant things sound nicer. He is so driven to finish this quest he appears (this may not be what he is thinking merely a perceived perception) to forget there are five other people with him that are more than happy to help if he’d slow down enough to let us.

I remember mentioning in the last check-in that we had arrived in the Eoten village of Kanáta’ of the Shadow Colony known as Outer Cadeth. Nimaya was assigned to lead us towards two locations:

1. Stonelogger.
2. The entrance to the Sovereignty of Terosh.

It was thought that she had an interest in Silent Dream to which we can see Grignak’s involvement, however, as people would talk about Xerx’ses her eye would wander. To his credit Xerx’ses seemed to be trying to stay his distance citing a previous incident where nothing good came of it in the long run. Now we left Kanáta’ en-route to see Stonelogger and were teasing Xerx’ses about Snipe (which is a made up creature) but Xerx’ses does trust us because he bought it hook, line, and sinker. He reminded me of a child at play when he fought the demon we called a Snipe Demon. If Silent Dream had not lost control of his fire power and lit Nimaya on fire I doubt she would be looking so hard at Xerx’ses now. It did not help that the Little Foxer did not realize she didn’t know it was him, and later just before reaching Stonelogger it was brought up and she shockingly remarked, “That was YOU!” To Silent Dream’s credit he did apologize again on the spot but these bad circumstances followed one after the next creating a romantic chain of unfortunate events.

She made a rather blatant attempt to seduce Xerx’ses the following night before reaching Stonelogger. This was his reply:

No one else heard I believe, and clearly Nimaya, whom is also a follower of Bast was very stunned not getting her way.

The following day we reached Stonelogger and found out he is a Jotan Giant. Xerx’ses says that this giant is not unlike him now and things he said suggest he lived through the Elf-Dwarf Wars! He now crushes boulders for Humans to come haul away for building structures – stone logging, of course! He also possesses the companion stone sword to Trigom’s wooden blade. When they touch it gives a window into the location of Lictalon the Great! We only watched for a few seconds but it was enough for us to know that it was him and he had not noticed us looking in. Stonelogger gave Ursus a ring that would bestow a boon of time upon us as we were hiding in his cavern from Bizantium soldiers that wanted the price on our heads up here. We also received “word” about where to meet our allies that had a plan to help us get into the Sovereignty of Terosh.

Not long out from Stonelogger’s cavern we used the ring which granted us a fortnight of time as though nothing had passed by. Each night Xerx’ses seemed distant and angry to everyone. Nimaya approached a few times and twice I overheard lectures about the value of being friends first and then about how using one person to get closer to another was something he just had not seen before. Nimaya left those brief talks stunned she couldn’t sway the elf-loving lothario to her bosom. Then we met Professor Malkin, Tyrone and his river ship the “Nicole” whom had been waiting for us. Thus, we began the river journey which nearly ended very quick with a Sea Serpent that had managed to make it very far up the river. Many among CrIsis thought it was showing off, and I just found it in considerate to poor Captain Tyrone, when he lifted off the deck of the ship under magic because this is not the Shield of Light. The ship rocked under his 600 pounds of weight seemingly disappearing and Tyrone had to work to keep it on course. Everyone watched him fly back to within fifty feet of the creature and yell at it to go to sleep.

It did!

I am sure it was magic and yet another sign of how far he has come and confident he is of his magic that a single Sea Serpent is considered a waste of time to fight. The good river boat captain was prepared for when he landed and its clear he is getting far better control over his flight. I will help finish off the last item of note was on the 16th of Corg. Just after highsun we noticed some large groups of barbarians on both sides of the shores. This may be nothing or the first obstacle in getting to our destination alive.

Blessings of Isis upon thee,

Indaris Excellar, Seeker of Isis

Sent upon the morning of the 16th of Corg and a back up with the Pontiff as well.

Art by AZ-Rune Art, commission him at: artist@agodrebuilt.org
Map made by Dyer Rose / @BasiliskOnline.