This email begins year 1444. The actions are due in two weeks (by May 9th), and the next year will begin two weeks after that (May 23rd). ---+ Events for 1444 *Amo'trall [-4]:* A terrible plague hits the Mammoth tribe. Initially confined within a single clan, it spreads quickly in the Gr'aath fair: a yearly gathering of the Mammoth tribes. *Olozog [-6]:* Severe draught this year, crops fail, and the Olozog tribes have to leave their mountain valleys. They strike against the Hisaria, and are defeated in a dreadful slaughter. ---+ Visions, part VIII: Soon after his meeting with the Sorceress from Mir, the Guide's ship arrived to the harbor of Orasar, in Tarinbar. Waiting it on the harbor was a young and very beautiful lady. Before the ship had been even moored, the lady stepped (or rather - floated) to the ship. She went directly to the Guide, and commanded that the ship must set back to sea at once. With a deep bow, the Guide acknowledged the command, and the Ka'shari ship left the harbor without ever touching the quay. When the ship was out of sight of land, the woman called the Guide to her cabin (which used to his...). The woman revieled herself as Elyisa, the Goddess of Knowledge and Healing - one of the three Goddesses. This much the Guide had already guessed by the markings on her dress. The Goddess interrogated the Guide at length about the Ka'shari search of the dragons and about his discussions with the Mirrish Sorceress. The Goddess told the Guide that the dragons were essential in their plan to find the Ka'shari a new home. "They are both the Way and the Means by which you can bring your people to their new Home. Now, you have to find the Gate by which you must go. You must find a woman called Rahi. She is a former Sinari seeress, but has left her sisterhood long ago. The Eerith might know where to find her, but you must be careful how you deal with them - they are strange spirits, and may just as well decide to hinder rather than help you. She can tell you where the Gate can be found." "What about the dragons? Our attempts to contact them have been unfruitful." "That is the reason I am here. We will go to where the dragons live, and I will handle them. Turn the ship south." "South? But the straits to the Great Sea are to the east of here." The Goddess smiled sadly: "Is this how much you still doubt me. Let us go south, that way we arrive sooner to where we are going." The Guide blushed and bowed to the ground. "Mistress, forgive me. Habit of thinking in terms of mundane limitations overcame me. I shall go immediately and order the helmsman to turn the ship south." They sailed south for a week, and on the night of the seventh night they hit a great fog. The morning was soon to come, but when it came, the sun came up from a strange angle. At first it was thought that they had turned in the fog, but when the fog lifted they noticed that they had done much more than just turned: they were within an hour's sailing from the nest of the dragons. The Goddess left them that morning. She went alone to the mainland to converse with the dragons. She came back two days later, saying nothing, just closing herself inside her cabin for two more days. On the fifth day, she called the Guide to her again. "Mistress, I am here." "Yes, I can see that. Turn the ship east, you will leave me on the coast two hundred miles from here, and then continue to Midsea. You have a former seeress to find." "As you command, Mistress... Mistress, if I may ask, how about the dragons?" "The dragons? Oh, don't worry about the dragons.", the Goddess answered with a voice etched with bitterness. "They will come to heel when the time is right. That poor sage of yours, the one who died here last year? It wasn't contact to a more complicated mind that broke him. With the bunch that we got on that cliff, he was aiming much too high, in terms of any mental abilities. It was probably that realization that shocked him into that coma." Seeing the shock on the Guide's face, the Goddess sighed and continued with a wry smile. "I am sorry, I should not have said that. I just had much bigger hopes for this encounter. The dragons on that cliff are a small pack, and they are all very young, and not very intelligent; a little more than a smart dog. I have to go inland, and find a larger pack, or an old loner, in order to get the knowledge I need." "Mistress, can I accompany you? Or at least send a guard of honor with you? Ten of my best men?" The Goddess smiled again: "You are afraid that something might happen? That this is dangerous? Well, you are right. It is, and something may happen. But it would be more dangerous with your men around." "Anyway", she continued. "If not I, my sisters will tell you how to make use of these dragons. I have started the work, and in time the small pack on the cliff will be bound to you, so that when the scout ship leaves, the pack will follow. However, that will take time. In the mean time, keep the scout ship here and keep it a secret. Getting more information of the dragons out of Mir would be useful, but you must beware of them - even more than of the Eerith." juuso ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
