Gathering 1106 - Has Anybody Won Yet?

Friday

I arrived at the Gathering reasonably early - Jutah still had some work to finish off, so I went on ahead, made the mistake of going within 20 feet of the healer's guild during their busiest period, and emerged three hours later with an aching throat from trying to organise things. Still, I'd met a few new people including a lovely girl from the Harts called Cordelia, so it wasn't all bad.

Spent a few more hours wandering around saying hi to people and dealing with other stuff around the guild, but I was a bit surprised about how long Jutah was taking. He just had a scouting patrol to do so I'd expected him a bit earlier. I popped into the archer's guild (I'm sure they've forgotten I'm a member) and asked Suki if she'd seen Jutah around, but apparently not. However, just as I was leaving the guild a shout from Mandrake alerted me and I saw Jutah haring out the ritual circle pursued by a bunch of breed. I shouted to him and started chasing after the breed, with Mandrake shouting after me.

Figured out why Mandrake was shouting - a Bear breed had seen me and broken off from the pack to try and take me down. However, he was only armed with a stick so one quick Shatter spell later he was on the floor and I was off again. I could see Jutah only had one arrow left and was silently willing him to just keep running, but he stopped to take his last shot over his shoulder and the wolf breed took him down. Mandrake had brought up Garret and the militia by this time though, so we were sorted. One of the breed shouted at the militia to back off, this was their prisoner. I fired back a spell, the militia decided the balance of evidence was in our favour, and the fight was over pretty quickly. Garvel helped me with Jutah - Garvel's great. I'm sure he's a large part of the reason I'm still alive by now. It turned out the Breed are hiding out by the River Kyot on Archon, and Jutah disturbed them. So they tried to stop him getting word back. Personally, I'm very glad he managed. And impressed - it's a long run from there to the circle.

While we were still sorting out this and getting those of the faction interested organised for the opening ceremony, the Vipers and Tarantulas attacked us. The Bears immediately came to our aid, and the Dragons tried to do so too, except being at the other end of the far field this took quite a while, and then the Harts marched over and blocked their way into the field. The Wolves joined in on the Vipers and Trannies side, and I'm not sure about the other factions. There are rumours that the Unicorns sided with us, but I'm afraid I was taken down and lost track of it all. It was messy, and bloody. Tremayne and Cormac were captured and killed, along with Pernesius and Neomedes of Hydra. Jutah and Elirio tried to rescue Pernesius, but were outnumbered and beaten back. The muggers were out in force too - one stole the amulet Jutah had used to transport from Archon, along with a small tripwire device he had in his pocket. So not a great start to the evening and as the camp was in lockdown as soon as it got dark, not a great ending to it either.

Mandrake told Aldous and I what he'd found on Holy Isle - that thirty four people had had their throats slit and were buried in a mass grave. I really don't envy whoever get that political quagmire to take over, as we have absolutely no proof as to what happened, just a rock-solid hunch who it was and that most if not all of the people involved are now dead. Still, I'm glad we're a faction with enough people who care that it is getting looked into.

On a brief trip down the guild we got another note from Tobin, the scar-faced bastard who'd been learning surgery on me a year ago. It was written on the back of some sheet music, which may have meant something but if it did, we couldn't crack the code. He was saying that Misha was going to do a ritual which he would sabotage to prove he was a good guy now and that we needed to come rescue him when he did. I was severely tempted to leave him to it, and it was surprising how many of the guild without a personal grudge against the guy agreed with me, but talking to Xavin calmed me down and of course we had to go. Just that as Xavin said, we're there to arrest him, not rescue him. Which seemed an ideal solution.

Other Items of Note:
Some of the fae who were hit by the Dragons' enemy with cold iron at the moot were taking very adverse effects. I didn't really understand it - it seemed to let them properly enter the cycle of life like humans do, but this was a bad thing. Since that's what I've been wanting for over a year, I tried to be sympathetic and cursed the irony. A new bunch called the Magpies joined the Lions, to general welcome.

Saturday

Saturday started with a muster, during which Tope asked if there were any questions and I refrained from asking why she was Xiv marked. I asked Gamarren instead, but while he was answering I noticed Ivory at the other side of the circle of people with a similar red mark on her cheek, so I went over and asked her what was happening. She was livid - she and the other sirene and ex-sirene had woken up with it. I tried to help but there wasn't much I could do except promise to keep an eye on her and tell the other knights. And as I was finding Elrood, the Vipers and Trannies attacked again.

Again, we were overrun. I grabbed my bow and shot all the arrows in my quiver, then dropped the bow off by the Fighting Cocks and faught my way round to someone I recognised. I saw someone dragging off Hengist off unconscious - I cast a Fumble at them, but it didn't work and I lost them in the crowd of battle. Eventually someone with more skill in mass battles than me rescued him and he was recovered in the Bears camp. Mog, on the other hand, was cut down and murdered. I found Jutah as the fighting stopped and negotiations began.

Working on the theory that the murdering was probably over, I walked back to where I'd dropped my bow. On the way I was joined by two other people who reassured me that they were also Vipers, same as me, and also out to steal whatever they could from the stupid Lions. I nodded and agreed along (stupid Lions. Honest) then walked slightly faster than them in order to grab my bow - as it's pretty well made I could see them being interested in it. With a bit of fast talking I persuaded 'my fellow Vipers' that carrying off the PBs' shields was pointless and heavy, and they left empty-handed. Not sure what made me look like a Viper, but it was handy.

The CKs held a group meeting in the ritual circle, in which Celestial gave me an Iron Will. I was flattered - no one's ever given me an Iron Will before, generally I'm on the giving side, not the receiving. This was clearly a cue to all of Erdreja, as nobody cast a spell at me all day. Still, both the meeting and the ritual it became went pretty well. Rhapsody is now Master of Arms, Tor-Andre Master of Thought and Gamarren Master of Physik.

Got out in time to find Jutah, Aldous and Jynx for the mission to arrest Tobin. Aldous was asked to bodyguard me, and someone insisted I took Xavin's amulet for a bit of extra protection. I was a little concerned about being possessed by my ex boyfriend, but it didn't seem to affect me. Someone called for a person to provide herbs, and someone else suggested annoying Xavin over it.
"Don't annoy Xavin, he has a hard enough time," I answered without thinking. I was mocked for being possessed.

We transported out to the transport circle he named in the letter, to find ourselves waist-deep in water and knee-deep in unliving. Aldous was a great bodyguard - every time I was taken down, he was either the one healing me, or the one defending the healer. Which is what you want in a bodyguard. We found Tobin as the ritual circle exploded in the distance, so Amber and Alpha stayed back to investigate while the rest of us got Tobin back to the guild. I didn't feel right about leaving them there, but I had to accept that they are a unit and probably didn't need me tagging along.

Once we got the slimy sod back to Erdreja he started talking about how he was glad to be safe and he was a good guy now and then he asked me to forgive him. I'm afraid I couldn't really hold my temper at that and explained in words of one syllable exactly what I thought of him and his forgiveness. He countered that Misha was hard to say no to and while he had enjoyed learning from what he'd done to me but...well, I didn't hear the rest. I hit him.

The silence from the guild surrounding us told me that I'd maybe gone too far, though the fact that nobody tried to stop me suggested I might not have. Either way I stopped, I just...I don't know. I just wanted him to shut up, and to feel a bit of what he'd made me feel, just for a moment.

When he recovered, he said that he understood, but that Misha was now going too far. I managed not to hit him again.
"That's fine, that's good. But tell me: what was far enough?"
He cringed. I think he assumed I'd just forgive him. I arrested him for attacking guild members, murder and abusing surgical skills, then I left it to the other defenders present and I went to find Jutah, who wasn't far away. In the end Tobin's under arrest in guild holding cells somewhere (unsurprisingly, I'm not saying where) and awaiting trial. Whatever the verdict, I've suggested they borrow the Lantian Oathbook and get him to swear he'll never use or pass on his skills again. That way, we can trust him. Or if we can't, he'll be torn apart by the Furies five minutes later, which'll give them something to do as well as make sure no one else goes through this again.

Back in camp, Treacle and Tope were trying to sort out the Xiv marks that had appeared on all the Sirene except Bethanie, the majority of the faction were dealing with an attack on the Unicorns which we were charging on general principles, and Isolde turned up to be creepy at people. Mandrake strongly recommended reintroducing the ticket system they use to have on the gate several years ago, but eventually it all got organised and looked at (Xiv marks) or beaten into the ground (the other two). All the evil keeps turning up at once.

I met a draknor called Apharius, who claimed to have invented civilisation and language and all sorts of useful things. I got him to promise that if it all went wrong and civilisation was destroyed, next time he'd invent fewer irregular verbs. He asked me to put a good word in with Avalon for him - he's trying to sweet talk as many ancestors as possible. I agreed, though I don't know when it's going to come up.

I went up to the Fighting Cocks where Rowan was getting ready for her wedding to Tirell. She looked really nice in the dress - it's rare to see her in one. The question came up of whether Jutah and I would get married but I thought it unlikely: I don't see the point and I didn't think he did either. We know how we feel and that's all we need. Aldous reckoned this was just because neither of us are good at settling down in one place which, given that we'd been talking for a few months of going over to Rus for a bit, was a fair point.

Just before the wedding was set to kick off, a call came up that the Harts were attacking the Dragons so we excused ourselves and mustered up. By the time we got over there it had calmed down a bit and descended into diplomacy, though the Vipers now seemed to be deciding whether or not to get involved.

Since we were near the Harts anyway and since I really intended to do some work at some point, I wandered in and got chatting to some mates before mentioning that I was there as an ambassador and was there anything I could sort out and is the rumour true that they were trying to kill Gwion. Unsurprisingly, they weren't - they were trying to dismiss Spirit out of him, which I think they achieved, but in no way did they want to kill Gwion. And there wasn't a lot that needed sorting out with the Lions. And the main ambassador I'd be dealing with was Cordelia, the woman I'd met on the guild desk on Friday. Which was handy.

Got talking to Thenni and I asked her where she got her wee badge that said "I love Erdreja" (well technically it didn't say love, it had a picture of a heart, but I'm fairly sure that's what it meant). She got it from Spoon McTaff, so since it seemed to have calmed down now anyway everything else went on hold while I went to find Spoon and ask him nicely for one. He was down by the transport circle with the Jackals, making sure that anyone who came through wasn't killed - which was handy, as that was what Jutah, Mandrake and I were about to do, too. We tried to work out what was going on up there - I knew the Lions were there to help the Dragons and not, as Spoon had heard, to attack them, but other than that I'd no idea what had happened next. Spoon gave me a badge (he said I was the only Lion he'd give one too, which I don't know if it's true but was pretty flattering), and I pottered off to try and find out what was happening.

What was happening was that the Lions and Bears had been about to leave when the Trannies and Vipers had attacked the Dragons, so the Lions and Bears piled into the back of them and they and been run off the field by the Dragons/Lions/Bears, and then the Lions had gone to the camps and were killing all the Tarantulas and I think Vipers in there. Bethanie was in tears, and Aldous was livid. I left the area to go back down to the market, and Aldous came with me.

I asked Esmund about why he'd left the Lions and what the weather was like in Teutonia, but he surmised I wouldn't really like it in the Vipers and was just angry at the time. And he was probably right about both, but I can sympathise a lot more with his leaving the faction. He was heading off with Rath to kill the last of the Conclave, and seemed pretty cheery about it. "Take care" wasn't really appropriate, but I wished him luck and asked him to do his best to come back alive. Which, to be honest, I'm sure he did. I didn't see him again.

Someone came up to Aldous, Esmund and I to say that Aldous had been murdered while carrying the Green Knight's Axe. I asked Aldous, but he was fairly sure he hadn't been. However the humour quickly subsided as it became clear that Gamarren had been murdered while carrying the Green Knight's Axe.

I went along to the muster, and was glad to see that in the main the faction (and the crowns) were more of the opinion that the attack on the Trannies and Vipers was something that had to be done to stop the attacks on us, rather than gloating or being proud of it. Something we were proud of, however, was that we finally got the Sword of the Isles back. No idea how, but Hengist emerged with it at the muster. For the rest of the weekend everyone cheered any time they saw the sword being raised up, which could end up being inconvenient in a battlefield situation.

I went down to the guild with Elrood to try and sort out his apprenticeship. On the way we ran into some unliving, and Cosaint and I started doing a swap system where he gave me bleeding people to heal and I gave him targets - like Elrood - to rescue. As he was fighting his way through to Elrood though he saw someone mugging him and called the militia down on their heads. We sorted out who had taken it by the simple method of searching them for potion bottles until we found one that Elrood recognised as his, then the militia took the mugger off. We were a little shaken - particularly Cosaint - when we heard the sentence was that he had two hours to produce 10 gold or he'd be executed. Glad I'm not a mugger, I couldn't afford it.

Later on, I was walking up from the guilds with Jutah and Mandrake when Jerusalem ran up - he had been with a large group of Prince Bishop's Men when they were jumped by a large group of Tarantulas. Jerusalem, Frax and Lithoway had got away to get help, but everyone else had been taken down and, in all likelihood, murdered. Colm, Graves, Masada...and my cousin, Fizaratan. We rushed up to camp to get reinforcements. As we went we passed a group of drow with a person on the floor, and a PBs shield by their side. Sickened, we forced ourselves to look straight forward and saunter up to camp as if there was nothing. Reaching the Bears, we found Huck and some of his friends who were prepared to help, while Mandrake went on to the Lions to get help there.

With Huck's reinforcement we ran out to try and help, but they had pulled back further into the darkness. We approached as confidently as possible but could clearly see we were outnumbered. One of the Bears started a conversation to try and resolve it peacefully but it wasn't going to work.

We could see we were getting surrounded and started to back off, when the Bears broke and ran. Someone - I think it was Jutah - shouted for us to do the same, but I could see Jerusalem had fallen and so I didn't really believe the shout, it took me a few moments to register that it was the only option. I started to turn as Aldous was cut down from behind and we were overrun. I'd lost sight of Frax and I heard Jutah try to draw them off but one of the Trannies stabbed him as he was speaking. I ran up, ready to fight for him, but before I could move the guy said something along the lines of "You take over" and ran off after those who had run in another direction.

Surprised (and a little insulted - does nobody believe I'm a Lion?) as I was at being mistaken for a Tarantula, I took over in the best way I knew how and started rifling through my pockets for healing herbs. We ran back to try and get more help, to find Petal and Mandrake heading the other way, help already to hand. According to Mandrake the Lions command had refused to help but the Splitters had insisted on coming, and thank the ancestors they did.

Frax reappeared, I'm not sure how he managed to avoid them, and he ran down to the circle to try and stop the transport. They got one transport through, no one was sure who was in it. We scattered, and were scattered by, the group of attackers and I pulled up Gray from where they had dropped him, about a foot from the circle, but there was no sign of Aldous. We hunted everywhere until he finally turned up - without his shield, he'd been healed but not recognised. I was so glad to see him. Jerusalem, on the other hand, never returned, and likewise Petal.

We headed back to the Lions via the Healers, to apologise for not being down the guild for the rest of the evening. Hope insisted on accompanying us up to make sure we got there ok, which was really good of her. Xavin volunteered, but he's too well known as a Lion for us to be sure he'd be safe. I must confess to losing track of Hope once we reached the Bears (we were very grateful for the gap in the walls between our camps), but I was rather freaked and thrown off by the events of the evening. I remember wanting to go down to the guild to apologise, but this was vetoed.

Bad news kept coming through throughout the evening. Esmund had been killed by the Conclave - attacking one liche, he was taken down by another. Petal and two other Soulsplitters never made it back to camp. Aldous and I went round camp to make sure all the other CKs were safe. We found Elrood and Nathaniel, and Nathaniel repeated a few times that those three were the only CKs not in bed at that point. I freely accept that I was really not in a good way and it was a really bad time, but I told Elrood that I just wasn't able to stay in a group where I wasn't wanted. It wasn't Nathaniel, it was most of the unit, and I just needed to be somewhere where not only could I feel wanted, the group would at times remember I was one of them. Elrood and Aldous were very nice about it, but it hurts whenever they miss me out and it happens too often.

Adara invited me to the Darkendales, but having just lost my cousin I wasn't really ready to work for another family, and I don't think I'd make a great Darkendale (besides, my surname would get way too long). Jutah invited me to the Wild Geese, which was sweet of him given how dreadful I am at taking orders. I joined Frax in the Small Groups Alliance, then went and sat in the Darkendale's tent with him, Mandrake and Jutah until I felt, if not cheerier, at least less depressed.

Other Items Of Note:
Treacle says that the black sticky stuff is called after her and not vice versa. I kept meaning to check with Apharius, but I didn't bang into him again. Aldous wins the award for "Most Times Accidentally Reported Dead In A 24 Hour Period", and I'd be grateful if no one else goes for the title. Thrydwulf attacked the Rysarius guildhouse and destroyed a lot of stuff, including a book I'd given Cosaint for his birthday. Git. The Wolves dissolved their Northern Alliance with the Vipers and Tarantulas. El Nino was dismissed by a group in the Jackals, who were in turn all murdered by the Vipers. The Vipers did a ritual to remove the element of fire from Lasha, not sure where they put it though as I wasn't paying that much attention. Hopefully somewhere sensible.

Sunday

The main event of Sunday for most people was the Cadre battle. Not me though - I'd long ago worked out that they were all trying to bully, misdirect and lie to us and that one was pretty much as bad as another. And that the weave of magic in the world wouldn't affect people's natures so it probably wouldn't change anything that much. If rituals became more or less powerful, I'd still trust in Adara, Rhapsody and Pericles to do good ones, but more importantly (to me, anyway) I wasn't going to sacrifice my principles by fighting for any bunch of bullies.

I went down to the guilds to see who would be hanging around, but apparently Existence was taking all the guild leaders off to watch the Void for a bit to see what was going to happen tomorrow. Since we quite definitely weren't invited (snobbish embodiments), Jutah and I went off to have a quiet picnic on Tamerus instead. After all, if everything's about to be destroyed, we may as well enjoy it while it's sunny.

The important points of the battle seem to be that a sum total of 27 people supported War, which I guess at least means they got a good hard fight out of it. Six items were dedicated to Famine, six to Feast and two to Peace. Would have been seven to Feast and one to Peace, but Pericles dedicated something to the wrong cadre. I'm not sure why - I've been told it was an accident, that he changed sides at one point, that the Wolves threatened him, and a dozen other things besides. Either way, Pericles wasn't popular. Fate was killed by Morbo, Mordred joined the Feast cadre instead of War as expected, and Satuune was killed by Tirell Dreamstruck. He told Rowan it was a wedding gift - from her reaction when she heard how much danger he'd been in, she may have preferred jewellry. But he came home safely, which was her main concern.

Xavin told me about what Existence had shown them - that Lasha was going to open a void rift here so we could control the fighting, and that four great dragons were going to have to be released by ritual (again, so we could let them out one at a time on our own terms rather than them all coming at once) and then killed. And they'd be bringing hundreds of demons with them. Scary as it all sounded, I must admit I was seriously looking forward to seeing an actual dragon flying across the sky. Then Cosaint clarified that they wouldn't actually be dragons, but dragon-beings in humanoid form. I was really disappointed, which he couldn't understand at all. Ok, yes, dragons would probably be more dangerous, but they would be spectacular. Cosaint felt I had a serious issue with my priorities.

I checked with Carabas and I was right - actual dragons flying across the battlefield would be seriously impressive and I was right to be disappointed. And if a battle-hardened froth monster like Carabas says it, it must be true.

Shortly after it was announced that Feast was the clear winner (I think that's because more of Famine's embodiments were killed), Sister Bethanie was Teleported away from the bar to the transport circle, where she was murdered by a large group of Vipers and Transported to Prague. Hydra was utterly distraught, but he'd done all he could hope to as a bodyguard. It wasn't Bethanie's way to stay hidden in camp, and I know she certainly wouldn't want Hydra blaming himself. But I guess there's a long stretch between knowing that and accepting it. I'm still reeling a bit, I suppose, and I'd be surprised if even her killers haven't had help from her in the past. It was Bethanie - despite me asking her to keep our conversation a secret - who got me and Jutah together. I doubt we're the only people in Erdreja who'll always be grateful to her.

Passing through the bards guild, I got talking to Saracen, mostly about the rather dashing scars across his eye. Turns out the Great Library of Norhault was in the Void with thousands of soldiers, fighting a diversion tactic to draw off as many of the demons as possible to make tomorrow’s cataclysm battle easier for those of us here, but some of the demons had got into the library and attacked Saracen's family. Added to that, some of the librarians were fighting for dominance and destroying huge swathes of knowledge, which is obviously the best response to an upcoming cataclysm. I immediately asked if there was anything I could do to help and Scaracen accepted gratefully. He arranged for Jutah and I and a load of bandages and stuff to transport in as soon as it became accessible. Which would actually be during the cataclysm battle, but we didn't feel we could back out now. Once again I'd double-booked myself. Still, at least we were doing something helpful and I'm flattered he trusted us to do it.

We got attacked by a bunch of Breed, who were wanting to capture a tiger breed guy called Arial who was in our camp with the second most recognisable shield ever. I told him to swap it for one of the most recognisible ones, and once he looked like a PB they found it a lot harder to pick him out. I also met a man in black charging around asking for weapons or shields, so I leant him a PBs shield too (they were spare!), someone found him a stick, and he got stuck in. I later went and found him to check who it was we'd armed, and turns out his name was Cuthbert, he'd no memories before Friday, and he wanted to join the Protectors of Lantia. Which seemed fair enough.

Xavin came up to camp for the election of the new Prince Bishop. Not having been in the unit for a long time (Stefan Lewis released him from his vows), he didn't feel it was right to vote, but did think he ought to be there. On the way we met some highly convenient creatures attacking the Unicorns - whenever things got too crowded, they caused massive Fear effects on most people present, thus giving me clear room to swing a sword. It was very good of them.

I don't know who they were but they had the worst High Mage ever. "By the power of High Magic I command you to Magebolt your head!" indeed - no wonder the guy he cast it at looked confused. Lacking the ability or inclination to Magebolt his own head he stood for a moment wondering why his head hadn't exploded, while I hit the idiot mage.

Once that was dealt with, we went to the Fighting Cocks for the election. Lithoway had organised a secret voting system to do with writing names on bits of paper, but as not everyone was literate we went with the system I remembered from when Jari stepped down - the candidates (Adara, Dalziel and Ivory) wandered off for a bit while someone not voting - in this case Xavin - counted a show of hands and we all swore never to tell anyone anything about the voting other than who won. It was Ivory, so she was called over and congratulated and grinned like a loon for the remainder of the evening while wearing Fiz's little pointy hat. It didn't suit her much but as Aldous said, that's probably a good thing.

Siobhan Douglas came into the Fighting Cocks a little shamefacedly, explaining that she got mugged. We sympathised for the whole minute and a half she was able to keep a straight face, until she explained that while she had been mugged by six people, she had taken them all down and mugged them back. We were less sympathetic, but much more impressed.

The rest of the evening was spent in the Fighting Cocks as various people came in to join us, depending on how hard it was raining at the time. Frax had a cool puzzle box which he took great amusement in watching us fail to open, then quietly showing me the secret, possibly just to annoy Jutah.

Cosaint came up to join us for a bit and so the quality (and quantity) of the singing went up, though Hydra's "Faction Rolling Song" went down pretty well with everyone who wasn't technically faction neutral.

Cosaint played a new song that Jerusalem had commissioned, for all those killed in void rifts. After that Jutah asked for 'The Captain's Tale' but I thought two really upsetting songs in a row was a bit much and insisted on 'Raven'. Which, I explained, wasn't at all depressing and indeed brought up discussion of Lemming mudwrestling the Raven to death one wet winter morning. After that he played the Captain's Tale, and actually listening to the words as I sung I could see why Jutah was so upset by it. It wasn't an easy song for anyone, on the eve of the cataclysm.

Directly afterwards, Jutah made me promise that if we lived through tomorrow, we would leave for Rus and go wandering like we'd promised ourselves we would eventually. And that if we ever had a child and it was a girl, we would call her Bethanie.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur of song and story. Alyssa and I raised a glass to Fizaratan, for we'll never forget that Aylssa was a Sena R'Ios long before she was a Dyzgati. Cara asked about the Nosta Kar and the Xavinbomb ritual, and generally everyone celebrated this last night of being alive in a world we recognised.

Other items of Note:
The Sunset Shipyards re-emerged as one island - I'm not sure if they recombined into one, or if one came up from under them, but it's somewhat inconvenienced the ships docked there. Adara's election promise was "Vote for me and I'll jiggle", which she asked me to report here. Tirell developed a brief immunity to the ritual of peace, which the Wolves tested by hitting him repeatedly. Tap, as always, came second in the bardic competition. I'd really like to see him win it, just once. The Bears entered with a combat singing medley that had Cosaint trying to knock himself out with a table, which I think is the effect they were looking for. Found something Londinium and I agree on – we were stunned.

Monday

Brief concern as I woke up with a stylised Xiv mark on my cheek, but further investigation proved it to be just glamour. I guess with so many people in the camp wearing them, and the glamour liking to copy people at the best of times, the main surprise was that it took so long.

Alyssa had given us a bit of advice about the Norhault library, but I was still torn between nervousness and thinking I was taking the easy option. I really wished I was with Aldous, Carabas, Kianan and our other friends - wasn't bothered if I was out there or they were in here, but I hated being apart when we were in danger.

The library was, well, hellish. There were thousands of dead, and hundreds of dying. Through the windows we could see the void swirling and heaving with blood and demons, and several times we got jumped on from ambush by demons trying to nest in corners of the library. I'd given all my remaining herbs to Aldous, so we had our work cut out staying vaguely healthy. We did what we could - I'm glad Jutah took the time to learn the basics of physicianry - but there was so much more death than we could handle. I would estimate that about two thirds of all the people we saw had died or were beyond saving, and I know we didn't see the worst parts. It was horrible.

The Cataclysm sounds in many ways worse, though - we had the aftermath and the stragglers, but they had the battle. The only things we had going on our side were that we chose when to release each dragon-beastie, and that a group of kids, led by a girl called Clover, had researched and done a rite to make sure the demons at least stayed visible the whole time.

Team Stupid, named with bravado if not dignity, were the ones armed with all the magical weaponry we could find and were charging at the four dragon-beastie-people, while the ritualists tried to control the build up of power and demons tried to drag everyone into the biggest void rift Erdreja has seen. Many hundreds died in the battle, far too many to mention. The Harts were pushed almost into the Void itself by a large demonic charge, and Kianan was lucky to survive when he was Petrified. Many others weren't so lucky, and Oliver, Mandrake, Alais and Dalziel were among the fallen whose bodies were recovered. Far too many were dragged into the Void and to destruction, including Lasha (Moley of the Children of Malar). Tor-Andre, Tynian, Kotkel and Guardsman Kidd were killed, I don't know in what manner.

The 116th charged straight into the Void gate, on the understanding that they could find a route to their home plane that way. I really hope they were right.

Eventually we fought our way out of the Norhault library, and the survivors fought their way off the cataclysm battlefield. Two of the four dragon-beastie-people had been killed, including the one for Famine which was apparently the major one, but two had escaped which didn't bode well for Erdreja. The final muster was a mournful affair, but tinged with hope as we had succeeded in doing so much.

Afterwards I found Tope and told her the good news and bad news: good news is she's getting rid of me for a few years, bad news is I'm taking Jutah with me. She promised that if we lose Lantia she'll leave us a forwarding address. She could see the appeal, I think - Jutah was going to find his family, and I was getting to see the world again, now that it's all different. I can't pass up an opportunity like that.

So that's it. Last event report in a while. I've been with the Lions for over six years and it's been fantastic, but there comes a time when every Sena R'Ios gets the urge to move on and this is mine. I'll be back eventually, with a load of vaguely accurate maps and a list of anecdotes as long as your arm. And if you ever see Jutah and I come charging out a ritual circle near you, please do me a favour and drop whatever's chasing us?

A. Robin Ashwine Sena R'Ios
Guild Troublemaker
Faction Troublemaker
Lion.

Other Items of Note:
I didn't see Vincenzo all weekend, but I'm sure he was very heroic. I have heard rumours that Madeline Falcon and Lachdannon have been killed, I hope it's not true but I suspect it probably is. The Bard’s Guild Tabard of Unyeilding Hideousness was destroyed in the Cataclysm, so at least some good came of it. Made up with Sheyna, and apologised for taking things so personally. Nobody took the Achillean this year, Peter Swift was pretty hurt. Huck Flynn was saved by the Blodwyn’s pretty flowers, though I’m not sure how. Adara and Meggido got engaged! Gray made a point of checking I was ok about leaving the CKs, which was really nice of him. Nobody break Archon while I'm gone.

 

All Works are © Original Author

(OC Author - Marianne Wells)