The situation has become almost surreal.
We met up with Sseth after our battle with the demons. After much discussion, we determined to continue south to New Sellador with William, while Sseth would remain behind and help his god cleanse the place of the remaining demons.
We travelled for a day or two, and came abruptly out of the jungle into miles of farmland encircling a small city. Even small as it was, even knowing it was populated with Selladorians, it was a welcome sight. Until we approached.
The illusion magics I'd used to disguise myself and Arilyn fell away as we walked through the farmlands. A quick inspection showed us that it was not isolated to our disguises. The entirety of our magical gear and spells, save the crystals, had lost their effect. I deduced that we were in some kind of anti-magic field, but it was strange. By all information we were able to collect about it, it appears many times larger than the strongest anti-magic field I've ever seen. It shrouds the entire city! I found myself both intrigued, and worried, by this huge field, when I noticed that my ring was sparkling more brightly than usual. As I examined it, I heard an unfamiliar voice behind me. When I turned, I saw the half-incorporeal figure of an elf standing there, informing us about the "protective zone" surrounding the city.
It turns out that this elf was some sort of construct created--by none other than Lanathar--to assist and provide information to elves entering this human city. Typically, the few elves who travelled here would be members of the Garanlyon, checking on the so-called progress of the humans here, and making sure that everything was in relative order. There were, in fact, two members currently in the city, according to our walking codex.
This thing, however it may have helped us, was maddening in the extreme, for most of the information I wanted from it was restricted to those who had more authority. The ring I carried was of only a low calibre, it seems; rings of more power were required to persuade the thing to speak its piece on the subjects I was most eager to hear. After some little time wrangling with it for information, we decided to proceed to the city. It was then that I noticed that I'd developed a rather nasty little cough. Arilyn and I kept ourselves covered as well as we could, and Elana had shapeshifted, leaving her better disguised than either of us. It seemed the guard at the gate was passing suspicious of us, but with Nyran's help (he happens to speak Selladorian), William managed to get us into the city.
He took us to the home of what he termed a friend. Friend she might have been to him, but she was none to us. After revealing ourselves to her, this woman Sariana rattled off a few short sentences in Elvish, and told us that we should leave. She knew of all the depredations the elven court had perpetrated on the Selladorian people. How did she know the Elvish language, and how did she come to know what my own people had done? I've met none before from those lands who'd any idea what we elves had done to them. Though it made our situation much more precarious, I cannot blame her for her actions. Well...I can, but I cannot hold ill will toward her for doing so. She is right; we have long kept them from knowledge and from the power of self-determination. She has cause to be angry towards the elves, and she probably showed a kindness to William alone in that she did not announce our presence to the Selladorian clergy. Someday, I will show my people the error of their ways, and I will redress the crimes we've committed against the Selladorians. I still retain my belief that the Selladorians are probably some of the worst examples of humanity, but for all their zealotry, hatred, and quashing of differences, they did not deserve what we visited upon them.
William then led us to another friend, an apothecary named MacLeane. He agreed to shelter us, and as my cough had grown more prominent, he took a moment to examine me and determined that I had contracted the plague. Unsure as to whether Elana's magic would function here, we inquired as to whether he had a cure available. He said that he was working on one, and had it almost perfected, but he would only treat me in exchange for knowledge of the world of magic. I agreed, with the caveat that I would tell him nothing of our crystal shards.
As he led me to a sick room, who should we come upon but Threnody, our old nemesis, and the one person, out of the entire world, who I would have understand our quest, and help us, that we might at long last give her what she desires. She posed us no threat, for a change, as she appeared to have been in the advanced stages of the plague. MacLeane was rather put out by this, and after bustling her back into her room, had it out with us. We came to an agreement, and I was put into the second sickroom, with a guard to help watch over my crystal shard.
Our bad luck held, as we heard voices upstairs wanting to know where we were. How they found us through all the back alleys stinking of dead animals that William led us through, I do not know, but find us they did. Nyran went up with William and MacLeane to speak with them, and that was the last I have seen of him for some little time. I do hope he'll be all right up there; not a bad sort, I suppose, though I get the feeling he's not been entirely honest with us about his magics. Something doesn't mesh with what he's told us about the magic he uses; I've seen or read nothing of its kind in all my studies on the subject.
Well, as I've nothing else to do, and the means to peruse it without sizzling myself, I will return to copying out Mortedamos's spellbook. That is about the only good thing to happen to us since entering this city. I should have known better than to come to a port city called Sellador. It is like Sellador in microcosm, and our problems in the actual Sellador are mirrored, indeed magnified, here. |
