Journal 2: Elven Emissaries

From the Journal of Talmuq ur'Tak

Back to Dragonslayers

24 Lowsummer 807

Recently, someone calling himself Dovar Lightbringer took control of the northern Temple of the Gods. Since then, he’s been sending out emissaries to cities nearby for unknown reasons. Those emissaries have come to the wood elf city of Diomed, and they have called some sort of committee to discuss what to do about these emissaries. The Redfang Guild has been asked to send representatives to this committee. Landallyn, the Redfang cleric, was chosen to represent the guild, and Aalari, Bula, Glendower, and I were asked to accompany her. It will be a two-day journey to Diomed. This time, we get to ride in a carriage instead of the back of a wobbly cart, though, so I have high hopes this mission will go well.

25 Lowsummer 807

As we were riding through the forest near Diomed, we heard a scream off of what passes for a trail in these thick woods. We stopped the cart and got out. Glendower ran ahead to scout it out, but the rest of us were not far behind. We found a clearing where an elf woman was surrounded by zombies. Zombies! I’ve never actually seen an undead before, but they were super gross. Two of the zombies were ogres, and there was something Lendallinn called a Beholder. It was a floating orb with a giant eye in the middle and a bunch of little eyes on stalks. It was monstrous. Glendower wasted no time attacking, but when the Beholder turned one of its eyes to her, she got frozen in place. It did the same to me. I couldn’t move, I could barely breathe, all I could do was watch. Lendalan ran in and destroyed most of the regular zombies with holy light like I have never seen. I managed to shake off the paralyzation and Aalari and I fought off one of the big ogre zombies. Bula managed to slay the Beholder with her maul while Llandalynn called down fire and more holy light to finish off the ogres and the rest of the zombies. Her strength is incredible. I know she’s a cleric and her magic is different from mine, but I hope I can learn something from her. Once the zombies were gone, we talked to the elf. She was a ranger from Diomed scouting the area. She said that there were more undead in the area since Dovar’s Emissaries arrived, though she didn’t have any proof that they were behind the increase. She said things in the world have been getting worse since Dovar “came from the sky”. Those were her words. When we asked her what she meant, she said that he actually floated down from above to the door of the Temple of the Gods. After that, we searched the zombies. We found a few curiosities that might fetch some coin, and I got a very nice rabbit-skin belt. We parted ways with the ranger and we returned to our carriage to go on to Diomed, which we reached in the evening. This city is incredible. Most of it is built into one massive tree, bigger than I could have ever imagined. The tree is hollowed out and divided into levels where people live, shopkeepers work, and politicians talk, all inside this one tree. There are a few buildings outside the tree, but not many. When we went in, there was a small group of guards to welcome us, but they didn’t want to let us non-elfs to the upper levels where our lodgings were. Llendalyn just pushed past them and led us to a stone circle in the middle of the tree. This was some sort of magic lifting device that floated us up to the next level where our lodgings were. Before turning in for the night, we did a little shopping, then Aalari retired and the rest of us spent some time in a tavern. I ate a delightful dish of a meat they called “fezzant”. They told me it was some kind of bird. While we were in the pub, we ran into Tonya, one of the diplomats from our last mission to Lilly-Brooke. She had a companion, a beardless dwarf man named Metzer, who had a very pretty attendant named Sara. While Glendower and I talked to them, Bula, who was dancing in the middle of the room, ran into a halfling named Jenny Bluefang, who seems to have some sort of rivalry with the Redfangs. I got a chance to to tell the first story of Brother, Sister, and Mother the Earth to the tavern, which was received well. When we left the tavern, we found Llendallin, who was talking to a priest from the Temple of the Gods named Lawrence. He told us that Dovar appeared out of nowhere at the temple and forcefully evicted everyone there with the help of his Emissaries, which he apparently had a couple dozen of. Landallenn asked Glendower to fetch Aalari and go scout out the Emissary’s camp. When they came back, they reported that they found the camp in a clearing near the town. They wore all white, perfectly clean robes, and they wore strange white masks. They spoke to each other in a strange musical drone, and they were sitting next to an illusory campfire. We went to bed to ponder this news.

26 Lowsummer 807

Today was an eventful one. We ate a very pleasant elfish breakfast, and then the committee was officially called. We met in a very large meeting room, tiers of chairs on both sides of a central gallery. The entire village of Tak could fit in that room, and it was completely full of people. The meeting was led by two members of the Wood Elf Council, Meddin and Cora. The beginning of the meeting was a little lost on me, as I had trouble keeping up with the pace and flow of the discussion. There was a lot of people talking over each other and a little bit of yelling. What I got out of it, though, is that Meddin wants to create some sort of alliance with Dovar, while Cora doesn’t trust him. Landellyn wanted us to find out what exactly he is and where he’s from. Tonya’s friend, Metzer, wants to use the Emissaries for the economic possibilities they bring and take advantage of the odd cult that has popped up around them, ordinary people dressing all in white to copy them and looking at them like gods. Glendower spoke up and told everyone what she and Aalari saw the previous night. I’d had an idea that was rolling around my head, and I took this opportunity to voice it, that I thought the Emissaries were some sort of construct. More than a few people agreed that it seemed possible. This prompted Metzer to suggest getting the Emissaries in the meeting so they could answer some questions. He sent Sara out to fetch them. For some reason, Glendower followed her back. A short while later, they returned with the Emissaries. Before anyone else could ask anything, I asked them what they were. Their answer was unhelpful. They said they were Emissaries. They did tell us their names, which were Mannod and Orrin. When they were pressed, they said they were “not of this world”, which I can only assume means they come from another plane of existence. When asked to take off their masks, they were resistant, but eventually agreed on the condition that no one in the room ever say what we saw. I won’t put it down here, but what I saw when they took their masks off was like nothing I have ever seen, heard of, or imagined in my wildest dreams. Even if I was willing to describe it, I’m not sure I could. Afterwards, they put their masks back on, then Jenny Bluefang let out a loud, sharp whistle. Her family burst into the room, heavily armed, and surrounded the Emissaries. Jenny told her family what we saw. The Emissaries declared the promise to be broken and immediately vanished. They didn’t walk out, they simply disappeared in an instant. There was a strange sensation when they disappeared, as though everyone and everything in the room was slightly pulled toward the location where they had been standing, just for a moment. The meeting was abruptly adjourned. Llanalin stayed behind to talk to Meddin and Cora. The rest of our group went off to find a library because I wanted to look into the bizarre, alien creatures I had just seen. Except Bula. She went to find a pub. At first, all I found was some information about an entity named EOD. I needed to spend longer in the library, but the others were getting impatient. It didn’t take long for Glendower to leave. She came back about half an hour later swearing up a storm. She said that one of the emissaries, Mannod, appeared in front of her and stole her Bag of Holding with all of her belongings in it. She took Aalari with her and stormed off, still swearing and ranting. I stayed behind to continue my research. A little while later, an Emissary spoke behind me, which definitely did NOT make me scream. This one was Orrin, and he asked after Mannod. I told him what Glendower told me, about her bag being stolen. He was not happy about this news. He disappeared, and I was finally left in peace. Eventually, after many hours of searching, I found a book called A Treatise on Exoplanar Philosophies. It speculated about hypothetical or theoretical planes of existence, and it included a very small section that grabbed my interest. A farmer once described creatures like what I saw in the meeting room, but much larger, hundreds of years ago. They came through a rift in the sky over the plains of a Phynnsia, a continent to the south. This creature fell out of the rift and crash-landed on the ground. When the farmer investigated, the creature vanished before he could examine it, with a powerful suction towards the space where it left. I pocketed the book and finally returned to my room. Not much later, Glendower and Aalari returned, carrying a very inebriated and strangely younger-looking Bula and Tonya. Then all of us went to find Landellyn. Then Glendower gave the drunk pair something that the bartender gave her. Supposedly, it would help them get the “gnomish moonshine” that they drank out of their system faster. It worked very well for Bula, but Tonya was still pretty useless, so we left her behind when we left the city, apparently to meet Orrin outside so we could sort this out. After we met up with him, Mannod appeared and confronted us. He, Llendelin, Glendower, and Orrin started talking about a strange cube that I gathered was the source of this trouble. Landellynn called it a “cubic gate”. She also implied that Glendower had stolen it, which wouldn’t surprise me at all. Apparently Mannod wanted it, but he couldn’t get it out of Glendower’s bag. Orrin scolded him for stealing it. There was a lot of talk about Free Will, apparently they don’t normally have it, as they are extensions of Dovar’s will, but on planes where free will exists, it can “infect” them, which has led to Mannod defying orders. When Mannod refused to give up Glendower’s bag until she agreed to give him the cube, Aalari attempted to charm him. This backfired, and that’s when the fighting began. The battle was short, but very intense. We managed to bring down Mannod. He shed his armor, mask, and the bag and reverted to his alien form. Then he vanished. After that, we had a brief exchange with Orrin and then he left too. After that, we reconvened the committee so that we could tell them what had happened between us and the Emissaries and their arguments about free will. At that point, we declared our job done. We are going to stay one more night and then head home. Landallyn told us she would have to keep the cube, but Glendower gets to keep the rest of the things she “acquired”. It will be a two-day trip back home, and then we’ll be ready for reassignment.