A lot has happened in my life since the last time I wrote a journal entry. I realized that I was spending most of my time in Blackstone, and I thought it would be dishonest to remain a noble of Therendry while spending the majority of my time in another Duchy. Thus, I resigned my noble title and I now walk again as Seronia Merritt, commoner.
Many people have asked me how it feels to resign your title. In other words, does it feel different to be a commoner again after having been a noble? Surprisingly, it really doesn’t. Whether one is a noble or a commoner, the respect others afford them tends to depend upon the respect they earn. If someone is disliked and they become a noble, they will still be disliked. If someone is well-liked and they become a noble, they will still be well-liked. It is our actions more than our status, I believe, that determines how others view us.
But anyhow, that’s enough life philosophy for the moment. The gathering I attended was the September gathering in Blackstone, and this time we were traveling to the town of Arran to defeat the last remaining Morgis incarnation, Protomorgis.
As a brief background on the Morgises, a time elemental named Temporal Morgis went insane from spending too much time on Tyrra, and became corrupted. He went on to acquire enough power to become a being of fire in addition to a being of time, and at that time he became known as Pyromorgis. Somehow or another, the Fire Prince of Death, Ember, gained control of Pyromorgis and used Pyromorgis to destroy an ice pillar that was sacred to Ember’s brother, Kold. In doing so, Pyromorgis became free of Ember’s control. He also gained a great deal of power and immunity to ice, and became known as Protomorgis. Over time, we eventually destroyed Temporal Morgis and Pyromorgis, and so only Protomorgis was left. Protomorgis had established a stronghold in Arran, and had created hundreds of holes in the fabric of time around the area. Our mission was to go into Arran, fix the holes in time, and defeat Protomorgis.
Getting back to the story of the gathering, I was staying, as per usual, with my friends Keno and Adrafae in the guild hall. Well, guild hall is probably not an appropriate name, as it was little more than two circles, but it served our needs for the gathering. Thankfully, the Duke had arranged to have all the people invested in the Firelight Cove circles invested in the Arran circles as well, so that made life and bookkeeping easy.
I arrived at the gathering a little bit late, and was pleased to see many friends both old and new when I got there. One pair of people I was surprised to see was Conner and Morganna. Conner is an old friend who I used to adventure with up in Greyhorn and a variety of other places. He is an extremely competent healer and having him at the gathering made life a lot easier on us. Morganna I do not know as well as Conner, but we had adventured together several times before, and she had always shown herself to be a very competent rogue and alchemist. In fact, if I remember correctly, Morganna was one of the people I fought alongside during the final battle at the Great Dark Swamp, on the team that Keno forever immortalized as “Team Peanut Butter Jelly.”
Some new people I met were three new adventurers, Kainan, Jonathan Foxx, and Twila. Kainan and Jonathan Foxx were adventuring together, and both of them proved to be very competent young adventurers over the course of the gathering. Kainan is a little more loud and enthusiastic, while Jonathan Foxx is a little more quiet and observant, but they seem to work together very nicely. I was especially impressed that both of them seemed to learn quickly, and I suspect that both will become very skilled adventurers before too long.
The other young adventurer, Twila, was traveling with Dame Kaiya. Twila was an Amani elf and a healer, so of course naturally this was someone I wanted to meet. Actually, between Armani and Meloria in Fengate and now Twila in Blackstone, it appears that Logenn and I are no longer the only Amani elves around, which is excellent news as far as I am concerned. When I spoke to her, Twila impressed me as a good listener, and very intelligent. I certainly hope to see her around Blackstone more often.
The first adventure that occurred on Friday night involved going into a time portal to find the shard of time that had been displaced by Protomorgis, and then placing it back into the portal to seal the rip shut. Viscount Mithrilmist was not yet in town at this point, and so Dame Kaiya led the assault.
When we crossed through the portal, the sights we saw on the other side shocked us. We were in the future, and the people we were fighting appeared to be human, but they were equipped with weapons the like of which I have never seen. The weapons had triggers like a crossbow might, but they spit fire instead of bolts when the trigger was pulled. The humans wielding these weapons called them “guns,” which was one of many strange new terms we learned during this gathering. Being hit by one of these guns would cause damage equivalent to about a flame bolt, and additionally, the force would nearly push you off your feet. They passed right through shields as well. There was really no good way to defend against them, although an elemental shield seemed to help.
To make matters worse, they also had the strangest devices I have ever seen. These devices appeared to be a little bit like small clockwork beasts with two giant light spells on the front. It appeared that they were mechanical with no mind of their own, and so they had to be controlled by one of the humans standing behind them, which was accomplished using some sort of strange mechanical device that the human would hold in his hand. The mechanical beast was equipped with its own gun that could shoot out force great enough to kill you in a single hit unless you had an elemental shield up. Not even a gift shield would save you from its wrath.
The humans we were fighting wore jackets with different shades of green and brown, so that they seemed to blend in with the foliage. To make matters even worse, the night was very dark, which made it even harder to see them. All you would see is a few flashes of light and then you would be being pelted by the “bullets” from their guns.
They identified themselves as working for the “Blackstone Corporation,” which was apparently headed by a “CEO.” I found out later than a corporation is like a cross between a mercantile company and a kingdom. It has nobles like a kingdom, although they go by different names. For example, the noble in charge is the “CEO,” or sometimes “President.” Below that is the “Senior Vice President,” and then the “Vice President.” The purpose of the Corporation is to make money, apparently, so that’s why they are kind of like a mercantile company.
At any rate, the battle was very chaotic. Dame Kaiya did a good job of trying to maintain order, but it was virtually impossible when the enemy would suddenly appear out of nowhere to blast you and then disappear again. Many of the adventurers started to get very nervous and scared, and I have to admit that I was also a bit unnerved by the sheer strangeness of what we were fighting. Finally, Dame Kaiya and Viscount Telaris managed to get a truce declared and talk to their leaders, and it turned out that their leaders had the shard of time we were looking for. They gave it to us, and we withdrew in a surprisingly orderly manner. We used the shard to close the gate, and that was that.
The rest of the night included random attacks by Protomorgis’s minions, but nothing too special. I believe that at one point some adventurers went through another portal to the past and were able to use spells that no longer function such as doom and scry. This had a lot of appeal to some people, but I’m not all that big into nostalgia, so I wasn’t all that upset to miss that particular mission.
We did, at one point, get attacked by some soldiers claiming to be from the Year 14 in the First Celestial Cycle. They came from a land whose name I unfortunately do not remember, and they had powerful magical abilities. We managed to defeat them pretty easily, though, so no harm done.
With little else going on, most of the adventurers decided to retire to bed, and so I will move my story forward to the next morning. When I arrived in the tavern, only Hooch and Duncan were thus far awake. Duncan was doing his usual Duncan thing, so he was in and out, but I had a good conversation with Hooch about various topics. Eventually, Glenn showed up, and then Jonathan Foxx and Kainan showed up, and so we all set down to breakfast together.
Hooch was cooking breakfast, but I wasn’t especially hungry, so I think I only ate a couple cookies. Not a great breakfast, I know, but when at gatherings I try to avoid eating except when I am hungry.
As we were eating, a man came into the tavern wearing the strange green and brown clothes and carrying a gun. I was ready for a fight, but he didn’t seem to have any violent intent. He was just there for a meal.
We started a conversation with him and learned that he was Vice-President Huntington of the Blackstone Corporation. He explained to us all kinds of things about the future. For example, he was the one who told us about what a corporation was and all that kind of stuff. He also told us that his armor had needles in it that would inject him with spells if bad things happened to him – kind of like contingency cantrips. He explained to us that his armor had something called “Artificial intelligence,” which meant it didn’t have intelligence of its own, but it could obey simple commanders. Very strange, really.
He told us that he had come from around the year 2400 ER, 1800 years in the future, and he was the leader of an advance scouting team that went through the portal to investigate it. I thought it strange that someone from the future would speak our language, but he told me that all people in the future were required to learn ancient languages. He also told us that his modern language was based on Dark Elven. He told us that Dark Elves manufactured many of the weapons of his time, such as his gun.
Also, the gun had on it what was called a “self-destruct” mechanism. In other words, if someone other than the intended user tried to use the weapon, it would explode. Vice-President Huntington also told us that in his time, corporations were organized within various “countries.” A country, apparently, is kind of like a kingdom. Glenn thought this sounded like the “republic” he had become aware of in the Midian Valley, and therefore that the future must be based on an ideal of equality amongst people, but Vice-President Huntington told us that the future was nothing like that.
The strangest thing that Vice-President Huntington told us had to do with our own Squire Duncan Abercrombie. When we mentioned Duncan’s name, the Vice-President immediately recognized it, and told us that Duncan would have a great impact on the future. We pressed him for details, but he told us that he couldn’t say any more for fear of creating a time paradox.
For my part, I thought it was interesting that the Vice-President had the last name of Huntington, one of the five great families of Evendarr, and that his people still used the ER time system, because both of those things say to me that Evendarr will continue to have a great impact far into the future.
Eventually everyone finished their food and Vice-President Huntington went his own way, and so Glenn, Jonathan, Kainan, and I decided to pursue adventure in the woods. We found a man with skulls hanging from his belt, and he told us he was trying to close a time portal. He told us that to do so, he required three components: a perfect diamond, horse hoof pairings, and spider silk. He said to bring them back to him before sundown, and he would be able to close the portal. We took note of the required components, and told him that we would bring them back as soon as we could.
When we got back to the tavern, Keno and Adrafae had arrived, and so we checked to see if Adrafae had any of the required components. She told us that she did not have them on her, but would check for them.
Most of the morning was consumed playing “Monopolize Evendarr,” a game where one had to use soldiers to garrison territories until they could acquire Duchies, and then defeat other players in large battles to capture their troops in order to win the game. Algorian and I played on a team. Adrafae and Keno had massively bad luck with die-rolling, and wound up in the Megaforge (kind of like prison) many, many times. Khel gave all her stuff to Hooch at the last moment so they could split the magic item that was the prize for winning the game. It was an entertaining game for one play, although I would imagine its entertainment value would drop steeply in future play due to the sheer amount of luck involved in the game.
We had some attacks from Protomorgis’s infernals during the Monopolize Evendarr game, but nothing we couldn’t easily handle. A little later, though, a much stranger and more challenging foe came out of the time rifts.
These beings appeared human, and wore elaborate wizarding outfits. They threw arcane spells like crazy, including arcane enslavement, and had lots of ability to take damage. More than once, I found myself chasing one down with Viscount Telaris, with both of us pounding him, and he would just continue to throw spells at us. It took a fair bit of effort, but we eliminated the first two waves of them. Then a third wave came out, and signaled that they did not have violent intentions. They entered the tavern, and I went up to speak to them.
I was trying to get an understanding of their culture and where they came from, but I was meeting with some frustrations, much to Kajah’s amusement. Despite their amazing power, their culture was fairly simplistic, and Kajah felt that I was being way too complex in trying to understand them. From what I learned, they were a people that came from a place they referred to as The Kingdom. The Kingdom had only one noble, The King. They learned all their magical skills by studying at The Library. There was only one city in their Kingdom, and it was called The City. People who lived in The Kingdom were Citizens, and others were outsiders, who the visitors seemed to feel were worth less as people than Citizens.
As the afternoon progressed, several humans showed up wielding guns, but they were different than the ones we had faced the previous evening. They seemed much more ragged and less professional, and they spoke very strangely. They told us that they were going to, “bust a cap in” our “ass.” This puzzled us, as we had no idea what “bust a cap” meant. It sounded hostile to me, but Caliphar said that it was intended as a compliment.
Thankfully, in the daylight guns were much less frightening. In fact, we learned how to wait until they ran out of the ability to fire and then coordinate our attacks. Unfortunately, I got overenthusiastic and slid hard on the rocky ground while going after one of the gun-wielders. I came down hard on my elbow and tore it up beyond what healing could fix. I got some first aid assistance from Kivuli, and he patched it up as best he could, but there was no way I was swinging a sword for the time being.
Miraculously, a few minutes later, fate apparently smiled upon me, as I felt my abilities return to what they were before I ever became a templar. Actually, they were probably a little beyond what I had been. I could still cast twenty investitures a day, and I still had the same ability to resist charm and sleep, and I could still use a shield, but my column had increased from being able to cast four life spells from memory to being able to cast thirteen. As it turned out later, that extra healing would be valuable.
As we continued to chase the gun-wielders, we eventually found a set of three portals. We divided into groups of six for assaulting each portal. The team I was with included Viscount Mithrilmist, Squire Katherine, Andris, Fenrir, and Meloria. When we entered, we were told that two of us had to be healers. I volunteered because of my busted up elbow, and Andris volunteered as well. Then, we discovered that we lost all our skills and items and they were replaced with new ones. Andris and I had a thousand points worth of healing pool and could rid drain as an inherent ability fifteen times a day and could dispel magic as an inherent ability ten times a day. Delwyn, Katherine, Fenrir, and Meloria all gained the knowledge of how to use guns and received guns to use.
When we made our way fully through the portal, we came upon a desolate landscape. We knew our mission was to find the time shard and get out, but it wasn’t going to be easy. Shambling zombies were everywhere, and if they hit you, it affected you for thirty dagger blows and caused a drain effect. Thankfully, they were very slow, and we used this to our advantage.
One of the zombies that we shot in the first wave of zombies exploded and bolts for our weapons came out all over the place. Andris went to grab them up, but in the confusion the group got separated. Fenrir and I got stuck on one side, with everyone else on the other side. Fenrir and I tried to stick together and move quickly until we could rejoin with the other group. We could see them across the field, but the horde of zombies was in the middle.
Thankfully, both groups managed to circle around to the same place, and we met up again behind an abandoned building and tried to make a stand. We killed quite a few zombies, but there were just too many. We were running out of bolts, and Andris and I just couldn’t pump healing in fast enough, especially with all the drain going around.
Eventually, Andris, Katherine, and Meloria got dropped, and Delwyn, Fenrir, and I scattered. We knew that we had to make it through to help our friends, but we kept getting backed up the horde of zombies. Finally, Delwyn and I happened to run into each other right near where our companions’ bodies lay. The zombies were swarming around them, and I couldn’t get close enough to heal them. That’s when Delwyn had one of the more impressive displays of warrior spirit I have seen in my adventuring career.
Zombie after zombie came after us, and he stood there, solid as a rock, and gunned each zombie down. He fired shot after shot after shot, and cleared a path right through the middle to where our companions lay. I took the opening, and ran right through the middle of the zombie horde. I didn’t have much time, but Delwyn kept blasting the zombies to keep them off my back. With some quick healing and rid drains, we managed to get everyone back up and ready to go.
Thankfully, by this time we had thinned the horde out quite a bit, and so I thought that it was extremely possible that we might be able to find the shard in the field before more showed up. No such luck.
A large horde of zombies came up out of the ground in front of us, and these were bigger than before. Each one could take two shots before going down, whereas the old ones could only take one. In addition, there was a particularly large zombie towards the back, which experience told me might be the leader.
We got scattered again when we ran out of bolts, and we were running in every which direction. I managed to get behind the safety of Fenrir’s gun while he took down the big zombie. I noticed that the big zombie did not dissipate like the others, and so I made a mental note to see if there was anything left on him when I got a chance.
Unfortunately, one particularly persistent zombie dressed in green kept following me so that I couldn’t get a chance to search the big zombie. Finally I circled around a bench, and he got stuck moving around the bench, and that gave me enough time to kill the large zombie and search it. On it was a piece of pure time that I figured had to be the shard.
I started yelling that I had the shard, but we couldn’t leave because Katherine was down. While the rest of us distracted the zombies, Andris sprinted in behind the zombies and got Katherine up, after which time we made a hasty retreat.
With all three portals closed, we headed back to town. I sat down with Dame Kaiya and Viscount Telaris as we tried to figure out how to defeat Protomorgis. We were convinced that closing the time rips was a good start, but we simply weren’t making enough progress. With the help of Adrafae and Lord Zerr, Jonathan and Kainan had managed to find the perfect diamond, silk, and parings needed to close one portal. We had closed a couple portals on the first night of the gathering, and the three where we used the guns. Six portals, however, was not nearly enough to do any significant damage. We needed a faster way.
We put our heads together (along with Kaelis), and we came up with the idea of fusing pure elemental time into a portal to fuse it shut instead of using a shard. Telaris asked me to check out whether it would work, and so I took a time component to a portal (with Caliphar and Sathen backing me up), and placed the component in. The portal fused shut, but it hit me with a significant amount of time damage as it did so. Thankfully, my elemental shield absorbed it. We now knew that the portals could be closed by the use of components, and so Adrafae and Lord Zerr gathered together a pile of time components to use against the portals. They handed them to me, and Viscount Telaris told me to close as many portals as possible.
I brought Keno, Kaelis, Jonathan, and Kainan with me. Kainan did most of the heavy lifting. We asked him to sacrifice his body and takes loads of pain to close portal after portal, and he accepted with no complaints. As a whole, we managed to close six portals.
However, one portal refused to close, and it spewed out time elementals to attack us. I tried to get everyone to retreat back to the tavern, but they overtook us. Kainan went down, and I went down, and the next thing I knew a long range healing spell from Glenn had me back on my feet. We fought back as hard as we could, and eventually we overcame them. Telaris explained that they had attacked us because they were assigned to guard the time stream in a particular area and we had messed with it by trying to close the portals. Keno and I weren’t so sure, though. We suspected that Protomorgis was behind the attacks, because the time elementals had told us that they were under orders to kill us.
After all that was dealt with, I spent some time watching Dame Kaiya teach Twila a little bit about swordplay, and I offered helpful advice here and there where I could. Viscount Telaris made the observation that I seemed more relaxed than usual, and I definitely think he was correct. I spent a little time reminiscing about old times with Lilaiethyn, and telling Twila about Amani elf culture, and after that I had a meeting with a representative of the plane of light, which Telaris and Adrafae also attended. We learned some new information that could potentially prove helpful, so as a whole I would call it a productive meeting.
Adrafae invited me back to the guildhall for dinner, and so I happily accepted. When I had not been there for too long, though, Lilaiethyn showed up and told us that the Duke of Blackstone had just arrived. I apologized to Keno and Adrafae and hurried back to the tavern to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. I got there just in time to see His Grace leave town, and so I helped escort him out of town.
When I came back into town with Dame Kaiya, I sat down to trade information with her. Before I could get too deep into that, though, the tavern was attacked by infernals, Protomorgis’s minion of choice. I burned a ton of healing pool into keeping people up, but eventually we won the war of attrition. Khel played the yo-yo in the fight, going up and down with great frequency, but she gave just as good as she got and did a lot of damage.
We took down two waves, and then we heard cries for help coming from the guildhall. Dame Kaiya and Twila and I set out in that direction, and when we got there we were told that Lili had been dropped somewhere along the path. We searched and searched, but could not find her. Just when all hope was about to be lost, she was thankfully found.
Unfortunately, the infernals found us, too. I started backpacking Dame Kaiya, and we put up a pretty respectable showing. I thought it was a little humorous to be backpacking Baron Zug’s knight when I used to be the main backpack for Baron Zug, and it was also amusing just how many differences there are between the two of them. Zug wouldn’t move around much, but he could deal a ton of damage and take a ton of hits. Kaiya can’t deal a ton of damage or take a ton of hits, but she moves around a lot more than Baron Zug ever did, and so they were both challenging to backpack in their own way.
Truth be told, though, I liked backpacking Kaiya because her battlefield senses work very similarly to mine. She moves around with purpose, never getting caught in a bad position, and never rushing headlong into a situation without first figuring out the best approach. She’s also a defensive fighter, which means that she doesn’t waste healing needlessly.
After we cleared out the infernals, Adrafae went back into the guildhall to look for something, while Kaiya went with Twila to her cabin. I hung around with Keno for about a minute until we heard Adrafae yell, “Seronia!”
Keno and I both immediately rushed towards the guildhall, thinking Adrafae was in danger. Fortunately, it turned out that that was not the case. Unfortunately, as soon as Keno and I stepped into the earth circle, we immediately realized that Duncan was resurrecting. We sat out the tense fifteen minutes, and at the moment of truth, the body re-formed in the Circle, for which we were very grateful. We took Duncan out into the woods to go find his stuff where it had been left.
It turned out that Duncan’s resurrection was caused by pure bad luck. He dropped while fighting alongside a group of people and nobody noticed. Khel felt terrible, because apparently she had been in the area of the fight, and she apologized to Duncan profusely, claiming it was all her fault. I think they ended up talking about it, although I don’t know what the outcome was.
With all of that over with, it was time to avenge Duncan’s resurrection and bring the fight directly to Protomorgis. Viscount Mithrilmist, Dame Kaiya, Squire, Caliphar, Fenrir, Keno, and I all sat down to put a plan together.
The idea was that the town would be divided into two flanks. By doing this, we didn’t have to worry about communication difficulties that sometimes arise when one person is in command of the entire battle. Keno would command the left flank, and Fenrir would command the right flank. Both were excellent choices, as both of them have great tactical abilities and command sense. Backing up Keno as primary healer for the left side would be Conner, and backing up Fenrir as primary healer for the right side would be Katherine. Viscount Mithrilmist would be overall field commander.
Dame Kaiya and I were assigned as the roving team, as our task was to take out Protomorgis himself. We were both a little nervous, but nonetheless I was quietly confident that we would be able to accomplish our mission.
The first part of the battle went fairly easily. Dame Kaiya and Viscount Mithrilmist and I held the back of the line while Keno and crew held the left side and Fenrir and crew held the right side. We were hit hard a few times, but we never got into any serious problems, largely because we did an excellent job of making sure armor was refit and the healing was flowing.
As the battle progressed, we sighted a building in the distance with Protomorgis standing out on a porch on the front of the building. The porch had only two possible approaches – a set of stairs at the front, or a ramp on the side. Viscount Mithrilmist ordered Keno’s crew to roll up the steps and Fenrir’s crew to take the ramp. Dame Kaiya and I fought on the side with Fenrir’s crew. Unfortunately, at this point the battle became a bit of a disorderly mess.
Essentially, the problem was that the ramp made our warriors into sitting ducks. The people who charged up the ramp first fell victim to Protomorgis, and the ones in back fell victim to the minions. Caught in the pincer, many people fell. Katherine and I did our best to try to heal them, but soon even Katherine herself went down.
Squire Caliphar and Dame Kaiya tried to make a stand, and I pumped a lot of healing into them, but there were just too many minions, and they both went down, forcing me to fall back behind Fenrir. I grabbed Fenrir, pushed him forward, and told him, “Just go, I won’t let you fall down.”
Fenrir fought valiantly, and between his sword and my spells, we managed to clean out the minions and I got back to Dame Kaiya, Squire Caliphar, and Squire Katherine, and got them back up. We then got the people who had fallen on the ramp back up, and started to push back up the ramp.
Just then, Keno yelled that he had Protomorgis imprisoned. Dame Kaiya and I hurried up to the top of the ramp, and Keno dropped the imprison. Conner, Keno, and I kept Protomorgis immobile while Dame Kaiya and Viscount Telaris delivered the incant to destroy Protomorgis. As soon as it was finished, Protomorgis exploded. Thankfully, my elemental shield ate the blast, and we managed to get anyone who had fallen back up very quickly. From that point on, it was just a matter of fighting out way back out.
I have to say, I was fairly amazed at how successful we had been. We managed to destroy a great enemy of Blackstone, and begin the healing process for Arran. As everyone shuffled off to bed, I thought about what both Viscount Mithrilmist and Dame Kaiya had said: “Huzzah Blackstone!”