What we learned at the June Gathering.

jwconvery

Spellsword
Time destroys memory, secrecy prevents growth.

Please share what you heard/learned/did so others can benefit from your efforts. Obviously if it's something inherently personal and you don't want to share, that's fine, but please mention any parts that could be relevant to the greater community. For instance if you have a connection/contact with a guild for your own personal journey, please share the fact that you are associated so perhaps if people need help from that guild they have a way to contact them.

New Faces:
The PuzzleMaster: Member of the Order of Arden, speaks cryptically. Wont share information he knows that other adventurers already know. Sent here to followup on a missing member of the Order of Arden. See the mist creation section for more details. Can be convinced to retrieve assets from Arden, see below.

Earnest: Member of the Order of Arden. Currently trapped in an adorable Spirit Home. Very knowledgeable/ presumably powerful planewalker. Currently sealed off due to planar lock, wants the adventurers help in sealing off Void and Time.

Billy: Member of the Moonblades. Healer, likes naps, likes helping people. Hopefully getting us in contact with a more senior member of the Moonblade to fill in some holes in the information. Also MoonBlades think 'the adventurers' killed Maxwell, the dark elf.

Unamed Order of the Thorn Guy: Needs an Undead Elven king Assassinated, "defeated stealthy". don't have more details, I think Robert Karstark has more details. Not a new person, but was new to me, so mentioned here.

Mists Creation/Fracturing of the Empire/ Plan to fix the fracturing.

The story as I understand it. If you have more information please let Gideon know. For this conversation, 'the mists' are the local mists we're dealing with in these fractured lands. not 'the mists' that one travels to get to Dragonreach.

We start in Arden:
Where The Whisperer, who we need Ahlana to give us more information on, was causing some trouble involved with the Elder Doors. The Order of Arden did not like his actions. The adventurers fought The Whisperer defeating him, and banishing him to his home plane. Which happens to be the plane we are on now.

The Order of Arden, was grateful The Whisperer was banished, but knew he could return and sent "Terran", a member of the Order of Arden, to find him on this plane and deal with him more permanently. "Terran" traveled here and needed help finding The Whisperer so he looked for help from the locals.

Now the story is here in the Empire:
"Terran" contacted the MoonBlades, for help finding The Whisperer. We aren't sure what exactly the Moonblades did for "Terran", or promised to do for him. So the Whisperer might already be dealt with, or might be still out there. Hopefully Billy get's us in touch with someone who can help. Regardless, at some point "Terran" joined the Moonblades and cast a ritual for them.

From Billy, we learned the ritual was to get help for the populace, perhaps with some Obfuscation first. We would like to confirm exactly what the ritual was trying to do.

The Ritual (information gained through multiple Visions):
Two members were in attendance at the casting. "Terran" doing the casting and Arden who seemed to just be watching. At this point the naming is a coincidence, but obviously there is probably more, that we don't know about Arden, the person. The overall power of the Ritual seemed to be Obfuscation related.

The ritual failed and back-lashed. The reason for the backlash seemed to be the caster trying something a little outside his weight class. Which is impressive, if "Terran" was as skilled as the PuzzleMaster says he was. However, all ritualists know that every ritual has a chance to fail and backlash even if the caster does everything right.

In the course of the backlash:
1. The Mists began spreading chaotically (but not Chaos) out from the circle
2. The dragon-gate analogues that were dotting the land across leylines disappeared. Maybe destroyed, maybe obfuscated.
3. "Terran" was pulled apart. Mid-backlash, "Terran" began to reach out with his power and pull things from different Planes here, including the adventurers. We aren't sure if that was a means to try and save himself, or a means to salvage his presumed ritual goal of getting help from an outside source for the Moonblades. His body was pulled apart and pieces lay strewn about the ritual area.
4. Arden, the guy, was destroyed.

After Ritual:
Order of Arden doesn't hear back from "Terran" Sends Puzzlemaster to go investigate. Due to mist issues, Puzzlemaster has trouble getting here, and gets trapped in a mountain mist pocket.
Puzzlemaster Rickshaw-hijacked a vision I was casting about Arden, King Klaus specifically, to escape his containment but not a prison.
Puzzlemaster wants to fix the mist and restore his friend, "Terran"

Adventurer actions:
Shar is going to try and find the site the ritual was cast.
We've contacted the Moonblades to try and find out the exact intent of the ritual and more information about Arden, the guy.

Shards of Arden
Lots of conflicting information regarding these things. They are illegal to use, I am more interested in the their connection to the ritual that created the mist. I am listing everything I remember hearing about them, so we can filter things and try to get a clear picture. (If you add to this list, and please do, state where you learned the information you are saying.)

Believed to be true based on evidence:
1. The shards are pieces of "Terran's" power (not spirit) that are used up when invoked. (PuzzleMaster)
2. The "downside" of using a shard seems to scale based on how heroic verses villainous they are being used for. (Educated guess based on adventurer accounts)
3. Shards of Arden are composed of pure magical power, and are NOT pieces of Arden "The guy", but pieces of Arden"The place" that were reconstituted into their primal state of creation energy, having previously been offshoots from the creation of the plane of Arden itself (Vel, who learned it with OEF visions last fall)

Conjecture:
"Terran" was a good guy. So if the shards invoke his power, and he has no way to stop it he might be able to control the 'downside' to make sure the shards, his power, are used for good. Which is also inline with the current understanding of the original request from the Moonblades of "cast a ritual to get help"

It is possible that the shards contain both parts of Arden and the power of "Terran." Perhaps Arden controls one aspect, "Terran" the other.

I don't think the ritual's purpose was to create the shards, in some kind of phenomenal self sacrifice, since we are sure the ritual failed. the creation of the shards could be just a last ditch self sacrifice, since he knew he was done for. We believe "Terran"'s task within the Order of Arden was a skill in reality manipulation.

The Whisperer
We need more information about this guy, since he's here on this plane. Maybe dealt with, maybe a problem. What should we look out for?

Planar locked
Our current location that goes by many names, (Elorian Empire, Fractured Lands, Gideon's World) is planar locked. Earnest convinced us to make some connections, so we could control the connections that were made. Earnest, and his organization were mainly concerned with sealing Void and Time away. The adventurers discussed/argued about which 8 to connect, and settled on the standard options. Fire, Ice, Lightning, Stone, Order, Chaos, Life and Death. The plan was Frederick was going to use his personal connection to cast a planar gate and go get a more permanent connection made, which would give Earnest enough power to get the rest connected.

I talked to Earnest on Sunday, and there were no new connections made. Frederick, I know you opened the gate successfully. What happened on your trip to the Plane?

Arden, the place:
Apparently a very very happy and peaceful place. We wont be returning there, but you can get your things.

Recovery of Assets form Arden
Currently requires Gideon and Puzzlemaster to send you to your asset, then it's on you to figure out a 'creative' way to be able to take it with you. So far it has worked twice. Once with Earnest, and once by Nommeric. Gideon get's paid by PuzzleMaster, not sure what PuzzleMaster charges the adventurers.

Despair

Was 'defeated' within Maxwell's, the Hog member, spirit. According to some that means Despair's power goes to Hope. We aren't sure if we'll have to fight Hope, I would assume yes, as it's a primal spirit that was sealed away for a bunch of years. If Hope will get the same power that Despair had, Havok either can't go to fight Hope or needs to learn to be afraid of something else.

Genesis
Seems like a lot of memories, were viewed which helped? I don't have the whole story, but it seems important. Please respond here.

Empty Dwarven Mountain.

Puzzlemaster was trapped there for a bit, but it wasn't a prison. It did seem like a very impressive area/Forge, that had nobody around. Might be fun to investigate if you are inclined.

Mist Meownsters
We fought a combination of phasing-spider-bear-kobold-things, while travelling within the Mist. It was awful (for me). Don't assume you are safe while walking in the mist.

The Syndicate
Supposedly they are a general but secret magical organization, and not just necromancers. Gideon is trying to gain membership with the Celestial group within them to confirm. We have already confirmed they are quite adept at fancy/different alchemy. They are interested in the now-obfuscated dragon-gate analogues.

TinkerTown Tabby (Tinker Tabby?, am I falsely adding the Town?)
She can get you stuff. Her delivery times can be subject to weather delays, but she hasn't said "I can't get you that" yet. So if you need something standard or exotic, you should talk to her when she comes into town. Seriously. If somebody asks for something and she says "can't" that's worth mentioning here. Prices on basic production are amazing.


-Gideon
 
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This is a wonderful compilation of knowledge, thank you for putting the time and effort into it, Gideon. I would like to clarify a misquote in the Shard of Arden Section, however: According to various True Empowered Visions the OEF and I conducted, the Shards of Arden are composed of pure magical power, and are NOT pieces of Arden "The guy", but pieces of ARDEN "The place" that were reconstituted into their primal state of creation energy, having previously been offshoots from the creation of the plane of Arden itself.
Further proof that the Shards had no connection to any spiritual power lies in the fact that Genesis was unable to manipulate them with spirit magic, something I found out he attempted to do when the misinformation that they were pieces of spirit reached him by way of eavesdropping on me.

The misconception that the Shards are pieces of Arden's spirit was propagated by incomplete information and assumptions, and is the initial reason as to why the Empire banned their use.


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Whether or not your information is correct, it was decided by the knights and nobles that the use of shards are illegal unless preapproved by at least 2 nobles.
Edit: a harsh standard of justice will be applied to any one who violates this mandate.
 
I am well aware of that fact. I was presenting information, not trying to dig up an issue that was decided on long ago. I was referring to the reason the Elorian Empire outlawed them, not why the authority figures of the adventurers outlawed them.

-Velnaeus Xevaz, of the Seekers.

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Edited to update with info from Vel, and the Puzzlemaster's escape from a not-prison that I forgot to include initially.
 
I'm touched that you believe that I care enough to warn you a second time. That was not aimed at you but the two persons that were discussing how to avoid any consequences from either carrying or using shards while the whole town looked on and close enough to me that I could have reached out and touched one of them.
 
I thought we dealt with the whisperer. If we haven't, no one tell him I have his hat

Saro
 
I was able to force open a gate to life, it was not easy and it sealed itself faster then the magics should have allowed. On the other side was what you would expect however with the insite that the connection fulled sealed off, I think there was a task to do on the other side. I donnot know when I will be up next but when I know, I will need a planar gate scroll and a planar asylum scroll to protect everyone with.

A note, I think it was my empowerment more then my link that allowed the gate to open.

-Fredrick
 
Earnest seemed pretty confident the link was required.

So you didn't go through the gate to complete the task? Just opened the gate and watched it time down? What did Earnest say you'd have to do when you asked him?

-Gideon
 
I thought we dealt with the whisperer. If we haven't, no one tell him I have his hat

He was dealt with in Arden and banished to his home plane.... this one.
 
Details seemed to be, lacking. I am fairly sure it has to do with some posts I saw on the other side.

-Fredrick
 
What info did you get from the posts when you investigated?

-Gideon
 
No one had a planar asylum, so I wasn't able to investigate. There were a lot of elementals in the way, and without an asylum Life is one of the harder planes to traverse.

-Fredrick
 
on a sidenote, we did find a fishing village that said they would be willing to trade us fish. It is also possible that we could turn this into a tradable good and market them to other areas with in the mists
 
It was also suggested to me that we may have a way to remove the effects from traveling the mists in large groups. I was warned that it would take an extreme amount of resources. Any opinions on this? It would allow us to move in force, however it would also allow others to move in force. Like contract apocalypse, the empire, the syndicate And a number of other groups.
 
Contract Apocalypse and the Empire surely, but after their bout with us, I don't think the Syndicate has "en masse" to move.
Jokes aside, in my opinion, now isn't the best time to remove that aspect from the mists, strategically. We still don't have a firm grasp of the lands the mists shifted us to, and it's very possible other factions do, as they were around before the mist existed. Not only that, but as far as the mist goes, it benefits us, the adventurers, the most: we are a small contingent of strong combatants, while the other factions seem to have much larger groupings of more average combatants. Right now, the scales balance between us and those larger factions because of their inability to outnumber our forces significantly enough to overcome that gap in individual power.
Again, this is only one side of the issue, but I believe we need more information about the land before we can safely assume the risk of tipping the balance. Maintain the status quo, as it were. If we could, I'd like to hear the other sides of this issue.


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As an addition to my previous dream, I'd like to point out that such information as pre-mist geography and such will be essential for when we restore the Puzzlemaster's friend back to his body, as all the methods I can think of for doing so will also remove the mists.


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HaVok,

When last I was there the Spirit of Arden inhabited me. It used some of what I am to alter the mists and granted me and anyone with me safe passage. I also found I could navigate anywhere in the mists with ease at will. It's worth saying Arden was with us to the end. My spirit ride along was the reason early in the fight the mists concealed us from the huge beasts allowing us to rally and win.

However my efforts to bond with these new lands were, in a way, unfortunately successful. The bear spirit totem made it very uncomfortable for Arden to remain.

I don't know if it is possible for me to communicate with the Spirit of Arden again but I can always try. Can you provide me details on what the effort and resources would entail to alter the mists? Anything would help. I'll make no decision in your territory without consent.

The window to commune with the spirits closes very soon.

Zane Al'Vera
OEF
 
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