Post by Spus on Aug 26, 2006 0:10:38 GMT -5
Transcript 55
Transcript 56
Oh Victar, where are you? After all our years apart, I barely had the chance to get to know you before you were taken away. I miss you so. Without your guidance, it has become progressively more difficult to hold the hereditary Derag madness in check...
After an opportunity to rest and replenish our strength, we consulted with Sorely, our dwarven guide to the portal to Jana's domain. He spoke of a mythic fable about a Queen who rescued a civilization of dwarves from monstrous giants. Lady Seonia teleported back to the dwarven city of Morbirgan for another vial of degrazmifying powder. When she returned, Lady Aiko horrified us by trying to eat degrazmifying powder, with harmful, but thankfully not fatal effects.
With the power of Tongues granted to us by Pelor, Lady Seonia and I could speak the dark dwarves' language. Once we all re-entered Queen Jana's dominion...
I should have let Lady Seonia attempt diplomacy. I should have.
My diplomacy was to tell the simple truth. And the simple truth was that we are the blood enemies of Jana, who has declared war on our world through her collaboration to unleash Siliskor. The simple truth also turned out to be that the dark dwarves were fanatically loyal to Jana as their beloved Queen, venerating her almost as one would a god - for outsiders to even speak her name is horrific blasphemy to them. Once the full truth was known to all sides, there was no possible alternative to bloodshed.
If only Lady Seonia had spoken to them instead of myself. I am sure she could have told effective lies.
We beat back the initial mob attack, and braved the tower that we faced once before. Pelor's commanding presence allowed me to scatter the defenders, yet inside the tower, we discovered that the portal to Jana's private sanctum was still gone - we had been fools to assume she would not move it. Perun's gift from Obad-Hai showed the way to a new entrance, in a house of dark dwarves. Cursed by the huddled inhabitants as butchers and blasphemers, we marched through the entrance, into the stronghold of Jana herself.
For all her seeming flightiness, for all her tendency to change forms between species as a mortal woman would change clothes, Jana's determination to stand against us was implacable. She refused to tell us of your whereabouts, Victar; all she would say was that you were not there. She also referred to you as "The Loophole". What could she possibly have meant by that?
Jana was deaf to my protests of how her control over the dark dwarves' civilization prevented them from becoming self-reliant, stunted their intellectual and cultural development, and cruelly warped their destiny to become nothing more than her brainwashed attack dogs. She had over a dozen dwarven defenders, some with bows, some with axes, some with supernatural powers. What unfolded next was nothing less than total war.
Jana correctly deduced that the Lady Seonia was the deadliest of us all, and used a telekinetic power to restrain her. Yet while Jana sought to hold Lady Seonia helpless and direct the horde of dwarves to slaughter her, she ignored the threats of Perun, Zalajin, Lady Aiko, and myself - to her undoing. Pelor's healing grace, channeled through myself and Perun, sustained Lady Seonia, though she repeatedly came to the brink of death. Lady Aiko was particularly mischievous and used a telekinetic power of her own to remove possessions from Jana, even the Staff of Transmutation itself. Then, mighty Zalajin flew past ranks of defenders to thrash Jana and force her to release her grasp upon Lady Seonia.
Too late, Jana realized her dire peril. Yet even then, the undead fiend who pretended to be a Queen did not negotiate, did not offer any truce or compromise to preserve herself and her dwarven servants. Instead, the false Queen chose bitter revenge over the duty of a venerated ruler. She disintegrated her own Staff of Transmutation - one of the eight keys required to restore the seal binding Siliskor.
And thus the madness became complete. Even the brave Perun and the stalwart Zalajin were infected with blind rage. Never have I been so terrified of all my own allies.
We destroyed Jana. Lady Seonia and I all but begged her surviving followers to cease the bloodshed; yet to the last dwarf, they battled us to the death. And death it truly was, for unconstrained, the Lady Seonia summoned a horrifying sphere of utter annihilation that crushed all living beings in its path... merciful Pelor, I can still hear their screams.
We destroyed Jana's phylactery, claiming our hollow victory as ruthlessly as she had claimed hers. Lady Aiko expressed fear that what we destroyed was not truly Jana's phylactery, so I have taken its shattered remains back with me, as well as the dust of what was once the Staff of Transmutation. Victar, my beloved brother, you were nowhere to be found.
What are we possibly to do now? Perhaps the citizens of Morbirgan can give the dark dwarves a chance at survival, since the Queen who sustained life in their artificial world is no more. But without the Staff of Transmutation, what is to give all of Orenero a chance of survival?
We must not give up hope. The dark dwarves that battled us to destruction saw nothing but doom for their entire civilization, in a future without Jana. We must not fall prey to the same despair. Even in a future without you, Victar, we must find a way.
Transcript 56
From the Journal of Valletta Derag...
Oh Victar, where are you? After all our years apart, I barely had the chance to get to know you before you were taken away. I miss you so. Without your guidance, it has become progressively more difficult to hold the hereditary Derag madness in check...
After an opportunity to rest and replenish our strength, we consulted with Sorely, our dwarven guide to the portal to Jana's domain. He spoke of a mythic fable about a Queen who rescued a civilization of dwarves from monstrous giants. Lady Seonia teleported back to the dwarven city of Morbirgan for another vial of degrazmifying powder. When she returned, Lady Aiko horrified us by trying to eat degrazmifying powder, with harmful, but thankfully not fatal effects.
With the power of Tongues granted to us by Pelor, Lady Seonia and I could speak the dark dwarves' language. Once we all re-entered Queen Jana's dominion...
I should have let Lady Seonia attempt diplomacy. I should have.
My diplomacy was to tell the simple truth. And the simple truth was that we are the blood enemies of Jana, who has declared war on our world through her collaboration to unleash Siliskor. The simple truth also turned out to be that the dark dwarves were fanatically loyal to Jana as their beloved Queen, venerating her almost as one would a god - for outsiders to even speak her name is horrific blasphemy to them. Once the full truth was known to all sides, there was no possible alternative to bloodshed.
If only Lady Seonia had spoken to them instead of myself. I am sure she could have told effective lies.
We beat back the initial mob attack, and braved the tower that we faced once before. Pelor's commanding presence allowed me to scatter the defenders, yet inside the tower, we discovered that the portal to Jana's private sanctum was still gone - we had been fools to assume she would not move it. Perun's gift from Obad-Hai showed the way to a new entrance, in a house of dark dwarves. Cursed by the huddled inhabitants as butchers and blasphemers, we marched through the entrance, into the stronghold of Jana herself.
For all her seeming flightiness, for all her tendency to change forms between species as a mortal woman would change clothes, Jana's determination to stand against us was implacable. She refused to tell us of your whereabouts, Victar; all she would say was that you were not there. She also referred to you as "The Loophole". What could she possibly have meant by that?
Jana was deaf to my protests of how her control over the dark dwarves' civilization prevented them from becoming self-reliant, stunted their intellectual and cultural development, and cruelly warped their destiny to become nothing more than her brainwashed attack dogs. She had over a dozen dwarven defenders, some with bows, some with axes, some with supernatural powers. What unfolded next was nothing less than total war.
Jana correctly deduced that the Lady Seonia was the deadliest of us all, and used a telekinetic power to restrain her. Yet while Jana sought to hold Lady Seonia helpless and direct the horde of dwarves to slaughter her, she ignored the threats of Perun, Zalajin, Lady Aiko, and myself - to her undoing. Pelor's healing grace, channeled through myself and Perun, sustained Lady Seonia, though she repeatedly came to the brink of death. Lady Aiko was particularly mischievous and used a telekinetic power of her own to remove possessions from Jana, even the Staff of Transmutation itself. Then, mighty Zalajin flew past ranks of defenders to thrash Jana and force her to release her grasp upon Lady Seonia.
Too late, Jana realized her dire peril. Yet even then, the undead fiend who pretended to be a Queen did not negotiate, did not offer any truce or compromise to preserve herself and her dwarven servants. Instead, the false Queen chose bitter revenge over the duty of a venerated ruler. She disintegrated her own Staff of Transmutation - one of the eight keys required to restore the seal binding Siliskor.
And thus the madness became complete. Even the brave Perun and the stalwart Zalajin were infected with blind rage. Never have I been so terrified of all my own allies.
We destroyed Jana. Lady Seonia and I all but begged her surviving followers to cease the bloodshed; yet to the last dwarf, they battled us to the death. And death it truly was, for unconstrained, the Lady Seonia summoned a horrifying sphere of utter annihilation that crushed all living beings in its path... merciful Pelor, I can still hear their screams.
We destroyed Jana's phylactery, claiming our hollow victory as ruthlessly as she had claimed hers. Lady Aiko expressed fear that what we destroyed was not truly Jana's phylactery, so I have taken its shattered remains back with me, as well as the dust of what was once the Staff of Transmutation. Victar, my beloved brother, you were nowhere to be found.
What are we possibly to do now? Perhaps the citizens of Morbirgan can give the dark dwarves a chance at survival, since the Queen who sustained life in their artificial world is no more. But without the Staff of Transmutation, what is to give all of Orenero a chance of survival?
We must not give up hope. The dark dwarves that battled us to destruction saw nothing but doom for their entire civilization, in a future without Jana. We must not fall prey to the same despair. Even in a future without you, Victar, we must find a way.