Powers That Be

Kym Nark Mar the 3rd. 11pm – addendum
Dear Father Phillip,

As I stare at the stars and ponder the days events I wonder what might have been, but I am glad I can still say the party made it back from the strange, dare I say trap that almost took Xerx’ses. The Archbishop would be surprised how happy I am to see a Minotaur alive and whole, he would probably berate me on the evil of Heathen monsters but not only has Xerx’ses acquitted himself well from what I have seen, he is also one that keeps his word and tries to do good in thought word and deed. If only we had more like him back home we wouldn’t be having the trouble we have been having with the Orcs and Ogres, but I digress.
Even though we have lost fellow party members we still have CrIsis intact, the Leg of Osiris, the Finger of Osiris, and a Holy Quest, that makes the day a success, a sad day full of loss and pain and blood and death, but we were the Victors this time.

As I lay my head down to sleep
And whisper my words of pain
May Isis have my prayers to keep
and give her blessings to the slain.

Kym Nark Mar 4
Dear Father Phillip,

The terrible events of yesterday have left everyone somewhat drained. We said a small prayer for the lost and went about our business. The Dwarf, with a little help, showed us what Dwarves are famous for and managed to Repair the Dwarven Land Ship, and with a little help from magic we actually got it moving, and it was a surprisingly good way to travel, a bit of hard work yes, but once everybody figured out what they were doing it was, well, smooth sailing across the land. Whilst we were traveling we met another of those strange people and creatures that inhabit this place. It was a guy with a strange accent called Bruce, he was riding a fly, and when I say riding I mean flying and the fly was the size of a small horse. I thought we had a Fly problem back at home but these things are ridiculous, and funny looking. He seemed to want the land ship but didn’t have anything we were interested in so we continued on
.
The Party continues on, I think Xerx’ses is feeling the loss of his mentor and friend, but I know not what words that would comfort a Minotaur.

Kym Nark Mar the Fifth
Dear Father Phillip,

Our travels continue but we get ever closer to our destination. This itself seems to be perking everyone up, I prayed for our continuing success and as it stands it seems that very little will stand in the way of this Dwarven monstrosity. During the evening however we were approached by what looked to be a cult of Quorians who kept talking about going home, yet they seemed to be there. If we hadn’t been on the Dwarven Land Ship I think things might have gotten violent and they might have been badly hurt, but most of them seemed content with chanting in their strange tongue.

Kym Nark Mar 6th

Today is the day we make Troker, Bruce has rejoined us and it looks as if he is going to guide us in Troker (I think he just wants to be near the owners of the Land Ship). I must say the excitement and apprehension both are making my stomach swirl, and as we stop the Dwarven Land Ship, hopefully for the last time I can only think of what’s going to happen in Troker. The others seem similarly excited but it looks like we are going to split the party so the first group can stay and look after the Dwarven Land Ship and the others see how thing are inside. I ended up being part of the group to stay and then the most wonderful thing happened!
While I was standing on the Deck waving goodbye to the others I felt a calming peace come about me, and I heard a beautiful voice whisper in my ear. “Restore my honor in this dark place.”

Then the Grace left me.

I immediately called to the others that I was coming, and that I had divine Inspiration guiding me, and to my surprise they accepted my statement and accepted me into the group that was going. We traveled but a few miles towards Troker when we noticed an old Ragged Beggar woman wandering the wastes, and as she approached she gestured for only Cava to come near her, which isn’t surprising considering the land that we were in. Cava and the Old Lady conferred for a time and then when Cava returned the Old Lady walked into the wilderness and disappeared. Cava said the old lady was Lady Rurga, the Goddess of the Church of Rurga! I had read in the Books of Crisis how Rurga had been involved but to have her come down and talk to one of the party members was more of a surprise, and even more she had a warning about Troker. Apparently worship and priests was illegal there and that it could get us into trouble if we went to the Church district. Being a Goddess of Light I took her at her word, especially as you had taught us to be respectful of the other Good aligned churches, and not an hour ago Isis herself had whispered to me a warning of the Godlessness of these people. Something was definitely very wrong in this city.

We made it to Troker soon after and the place is a fortress, in a Fortress, guarded by fortresses. The city is on an island that has only one Harbour. The city itself is a fortress and in the heart of this fortress the Kings Palace rose high enough for all to see. If the place wasn’t so dirty it would have been an awesome sight, but being as run down as it was it only seemed sad and brooding. This place was evil, and evil was being done in the shadows and darkness even as we looked upon it’s magnificence. The only way across was by a barge, and apparently it was free to enter and just like Kaash, that city of evil in the Eastern Territories, it could cost you your soul to leave.

When we got inside, and Bruce gave us a few warnings, not that we needed them. The place has the rotting miasma of the soul feel about it that so infects Kaash as well. People are punished her for being helpful and good, and only the strong survive, so we must be strong. I muttered a prayer under my breath for the poor people of this town. Sure enough, we had been in town for almost 15 minutes when we see what looked to be the elite guard of the King chase down somebody and kill them in the street, they were eerily quiet when they murdered the man, he had as much chance as a boar at a slaughter house. So we minded our own business much to my distress, but we were on a mission, and getting killed by the guards in the street wouldn’t get it done so we, like everyone else around us moved on quickly. Glancing back just before we got out of sight of the body I noticed that the guards were gone, and the local lowlife scum were scurrying over and frantically searching the dead man for valuables, they even took his boots. I said another quick prayer under my breath for the poor unfortunates soul and we continued on.

Bruce was taking us to a safe house he knew, but somehow, on the way there we were ambushed by followers of Anubis, and to their sorrow they found out why the Gods had chosen us for this task, but the fight was interrupted by the Elite Guard of the King, apparently he only allows disturbances that he creates.

We fled and eventually made it to Mother’s, the Inn that Bruce was taking us to. There we arranged for the sale of the Land Ship and the Purchase of another ship, one that properly sailed on the sea, for if I was going to go to the church district and do something very noticeable I wanted an escape plan or two and the rest of the party seems intent on getting a boat anyway. Then yet another strange thing happened, while we were bargaining for the boat I sensed more than saw a ghostly figure appear. He was dressed sharply in black and maroon and had a deck of cards in his hands. He split the deck and dealt a card to Mother and Overkill. He then scooped some imaginary gold out of them both and then dealt another card to each of them. Overkill had the Jack and Ace of Diamonds, Mother had a 7 and 9 of hearts. The figure then nodded to himself, scooped all the imaginary money over to Overkill, collected his cards and disappeared.

This might have been caused by the smoke in the room, the Inn was full of smokers and it definitely wasn’t tobacco smoke and my head was getting lighter and I was starting to feel funny, but then the Deal was set. We had to show them the Land Ship and we would get our own fully stocked boat.

We headed back to the Landship to get the others and yet again we are accosted in the Desert (this place is pretty lively, a sharp contrast to all the other dead terrain we crossed) and it was one of the Anubis worshipers with some elite guards, come claiming that we were CrIsis. Thankfully the people who came with us from Mothers outwitted the guy (not hard, it was like outwitting a chunk of masonry) and the Elite Guard moved on, irritated with the Anubis worshiper. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

We got back into Troker and found out that the real buyer was King Kai and that we had to go see him. We got taken up to the palace fort and taken into the throne room. I would bet those who made this place would be turning in their graves now if they could see what this once magnificent place has fallen to. It’s like comparing a magnificent stag in the forest to a rotting goblin corpse in a sewer.

This is where we met King Kai, this was a lot more dangerous than I expected as the King was certainly canny if not smart. He had somehow heard rumours of CrIsis being in town and had taken umbrage to it, and He questioned us very closely. Thankfully I managed to answer his question with a question and the others put him off until Overkill decided he had had enough and said it in true Overkill style, and this diverted King Kai and once he had the accepted the validity of our claims about the Landship, agreed on the bargain. 800,000 in Southern plus a boat for us, fully stocked.

We walked out of the palace, lucky to be alive. we had a purpose now. All we had to do now was to go to the ship and get it ready to sail and I would then go to the Church district and hopefully prove Isis’s power there for all to see.

Then I felt Grace descend on me a second time, however this time there was a slightly discordant hum.

“You have not been to the Temple yet.”

Knowing that the Gods help those that help themselves I replied in my mind that I was just trying to make sure that we have a way out if something spectacular happened, but Grace had left me, and I felt empty.

But the mission was not over yet, we only has to get the ship ready, and as a backup plan Azariel came up with the idea of flying. As flight would only get us so far Ii was certainly hoping that the primary plan of the boat would come through but boats in this place could only leave at high tide.
We arranged all our jobs to do and just as we were about to head off and do them I felt grace descend upon me, however this time it wasn’t peaceful and it made my skin burn like I had been in the sun all day without protection.

“You still haven’t approached the Temple!”

Yet again I tried to explain what I was doing, but Isis swept my feeble excuses aside.

“You take the word of a mortal King over mine?!?”

I replied no my lady, even Lady Rurga herself came down and warned us.

“Rurga has interfered in my plans many times, you must do this now!”

And the burning sensation intensified and then stopped when I said, your will is mine MY Lady.

Note to Father Phillip: It looks like My Lady Isis and Lady Rurga aren’t seeing eye to eye! Father Phillip, can you please keep an eye out for followers of Rurga doing odd things or acting strangely. I thought they were on the same side but now I’m not so sure.

I turned to the others and said, “I’m very sorry about this but there has been a change of plans, Isis has ordered me to the church now and I must go. Please if anyone has flight magic could you please lend it to me, as this next part is likely to be very dangerous.” To my surprise Cava was insistent on going, knowing that there was a fair chance of it being a suicide mission, and at that moment I felt gladness bubble up into my heart, for I wasn’t going to do this alone. We then split the remaining tasks to those not going and I used magic to armour myself and Cava did the same. We walked into the square where the church was, and to my horror I could hear the screams of a woman coming from the Church of Light and Dark! The people inside were defiling the church and raping a poor innocent. I felt righteous rage burn up through my legs and form a burning sun of anger in my chest. I screamed out a prayer to Isis to destroy these heretics and she answered my call in the most amazing way. I felt energy burn through me and around me, I knelt at the stairs, continuing to pray, and the energy burning through roared even more when my hand touched the stairs. Suddenly time seemed to stop, and even through the filth I could see a glow in the depths of the stones themselves, and then the Miracle occurred! I could hear a holy chorus in my head as the entire church remade itself into the former glory of what was. The sight of my Goddess cleansing the place however was too much for my senses and I fell into a stupor. Cava and Azariel (He had followed along invisible, sure that we would get into trouble, and I’m glad he came, so he too could see the magnificence of Isis, he and others of CrIsis seem to be suffering from a darkening of their emotions, but considering what we have been through in the short time I have been with them it isn’t surprising), rescued me and returned me to the boat. And we left the city, and the only thing that I am sad at leaving behind is the temple, and the others missing the chance to see this miracle.

As this was a true miracle the party members of Crisis have gotten together and we have raised some money for a pilgrimage there, and hopefully the pilgrims will stay and help, as this town is evil, and this will be one place that will be a beacon of light to hopefully start the long process of breaking the grip of evil on the heart of the city. Xerx’ses will also get some minotaurs to hopefully do the same so the pilgrims from Timiro will have some very tough defenders of the Faith. So please make sure any that go can get along with nonhumans.

A few days out of Troker we met up with a boat that come from there, so fearing the worst we got ready for a fight even though they came under a banner of parley, but better men than them have broken parlay before so we were expecting the worst, and so were pleasantly surprised when we found out that it was an Alchemist named Semolina looking for a rune weapon that CrIsis had collected in their travels but didn’t currently have. We sent him on his way, saying we would think about it because apparently he wanted to destroy the weapon, but as he is an Alchemist from Troker I’m not sure how trustworthy he would be. Cava thought the worst and worked on a plan to sink the enemy ship, but was thankfully not needed.

I am also hoping to stop by and maybe get the rest of the CrIsis members a day or 2 of rest, as they seem to be suffering from recent losses, some close calls and other pains and getting them a day or 3 of rest and relaxation might be what’s needed for them. I have only been with them a short time and feeling the weight of their burdens has even altered my outlook in this short time.

As always
Yours in Trust
Indaris Excellar

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