Vance's Novelette
10th of Highwinter, 1980 FG
Azeroth is finally dead. We burnt him and spread his ashes over the surface of the underground lake. I'd like to say we're directly responsible for his death but it appears to have been a side effect of Azeroth using Schmendrick's orb. It blew up in a violent blast of energy. Fortunately, there wasn't much magic in the area of the village so, according to Schmendrick, we didn't suffer from the full effects of the blast.
Not too long after we dealt with Azeroth's remains, Espe and some his Varu showed up. He wanted Azeroth's crown to prove to the Varu that he was now the rightful heir to the throne. He also wanted our help in destroying an artifact that extended the Varu's power from their realm to ours.
I was intrigued by the offer but I found it a bit suspicious. Reduce the power of the Varu in our world? What could a Varu have to gain from that? Furthermore, up until this point I don't think I've ever found a Varu that's proven to be honorable or have integrity. Still, he laid out some reasonable facts and we decided to assist him. Most specifically, he doesn't want the Varu to have a reason to be here. If they're weaker here then they'll stick around in their own realm. Espe's realm. The realm that he now rules. Another considerable factor is that when we've worked with him in the past, it proved beneficial.
We travelled to the Varu realm by breathing some black smoke. We then moved through their land posing as prisoners being escorted by our supposed captors. They eventually turned us loose and directed us to the artifact that we'd need to destroy. Upon finding it, Cole used Schmendrick's orb and the tear of Zorandor, both recovered from Azeroth, to create a massive blast to destroy it. Per Cole's warning, the rest of us positioned ourselves a good distance away from the target. It's a good thing we did, too. The energy unleashed was incredible and nearly consumed Cole's body. Fortunately, he was somehow able to sustain himself with his magic. Having completed our objective, we proceeded to a nearby gateway and left.
We killed dozens of Varu during the attack and escape. Some of them were aware of what we were doing. Many of these willingly fell at our hands, knowing that they'd need to pretend that they were trying to stop us. I mentioned before that, up until this point, I'd never found an honorable Varu. Much like my eyes were opened when I dwelled among the goblins, I saw the virtue that could exist among those I never thought possible of possessing it. I was wrong to judge them to be little more than demons. I even felt sick for slaying so many that were only dying to serve what they felt was a greater cause.
We're back in our world and we're currently not far from where the gate took us. Also, I believe we're in some mountains just north of Pangoria. It appears that Espe may have been honorable in fulfilling his side of the deal.
12th of Highwinter, 1980 FG
We arrived in Pangoria this morning. We don't plan on staying long. I believe the plan is to head out to a mage town that Schmendrick helped raise with Crespin's permission. It appears his rule of the province has helped the Empire to ease its regulations against magic. Anyway, it's about two to three days away and Schmendrick says we can take a portal from there to Tristen.
While Mort, Nim, and the others were about their business, I decided to pay a visit to Bluet. I wanted to make sure she knew that I wasn't dead. It's a good thing I visited her, too. As it turns out, she attended my funeral. The fact that we once worked with Crespin made our supposed deaths somewhat common knowledge. At least common enough for those that might be interested. That's how she found out.
At first, Bluet was a bit startled to see me. After the initial shock, however, she relaxed and we had a long conversation. I told her about how I travelled to Old Aerith and even how I played a part in its destruction. I explained our multiple confrontations with Azeroth and related our last battle with him. I also mentioned the sword and its potential curse.
Bluet has become a worshipper of Danica in these last years. She wanted me see if the priests could do anything to remove the curse. Unfortunately, Nim has already tried and he says he can't find a curse. I'm not sure if I'm truly cursed or not. I don't quite know what to do. I do know, however, that Ellana's heart is somehow connected to the swords. I think the best thing I can do now is continue my investigation of the heart.
15th of Highwinter, 1980 FG
Schmendrick's mage town is spread out over a large amount of area. We arrived here early this morning and have found that not only is it a haven for those studying magic, but also for those worshipping Carthas. Apparently Darby was successful in finding a convert among our old group.
Bluet decided to come with us to the town. She wanted a little more time to catch up, and she was interested to know who my companions are. Plus, she had been meaning to see what the new mage town was all about.
16th of Highwinter, 1980 FG
We're back in Tristen. Rather than spend three weeks on the road, we used the portal that Schmendrick had mentioned. It's good to be home. I don't have a house here anymore but it still feels more like my home here than anywhere else. Well, aside from Ethbar.
Griswold and Gorphen are both back in town. Apparently Griswold is helping our goblin friend get an alchemy shop started. He also announced to us that he's officially retiring from Griswold's Irregulars. I suppose that means the company is disbanded.
Crespin is also still around. He's overseeing the fortifying of our border next to Phoenix. He'll probably be here for a while. I tried to get an audience with him but life is busy for a prince. Instead, I was given an appointment to meet with him in a few days. It's probably better that way. I've had lots to do since returning to the city this morning.
With the company disbanded, I decided it'd be best to get another house. I spoke with Reena to see about purchasing myself a new one. This time, I'd like it to be a bit bigger than the last. In fact, I think I'd like to have my own library. Maybe even a courtyard where I can train to stay in shape. That'd be nice.
The last event of the day I'll mention is that I finally have Ellana's heart. Shortly after we arrived, Griswold delivered to me both the heart and the sword. As expected, I learned that the sword is the twin to the one I used in the past. It looks mostly the same but, rather than being decorated with red jewels, it has blue ones. Also, the voice I hear when I hold the sword is a woman's voice. When I held the red one, I would hear my voice.
I'm a little apprehensive about handling the sword. I'm not sure how the potential curse works. Must I wield both at the same time to overcome it? Does mere touch activate the curse? Am I only worrying about a fabricated legend? I suppose only time will tell. I'll keep her close but I'll avoid using her.
Ellana's heart, aside from beating, has yet to demonstrate doing anything out of the ordinary. I'm not sure if the heart can speak to me like the swords or how it works. Must I be a mage to understand it? I have two rare books on Ellana that I obtained from the past. I think that now will be the time to read them.
19th of Highwinter, 1980 FG
I managed to get some time to talk to Crespin. I told him about Azeroth's death, and I showed him some of our spoils. As I see it, Crespin's probably one of our best Celestine contacts for helping us get a good price on the stuff we don't use. Furthermore, the gear will end up getting circulated into the Celestine military, not into Phoenix's. Crespin, true to my expectations, is going to arrange purchasing our extra gear for an acceptable price. It's a good thing, too. I'm going to need my cut to help get myself a better home.
I also told Crespin about the portals we found in the goblin caves. I believe it's very important that such a network of gates be investigated and secured. If Crespin obtains control over them and does so quietly, they may come to use the next time we find ourselves at war.
Speaking of war, Crespin has hired me to provide the Empire some service. I'm to assist his scout captains in training the scouts in the area. He's interested in increasing surveillance in the area and was more than happy to contract me for help. I'm not sure how long I'll be sticking around in Tristen but I think it'll be good to have some steady income while I'm here.
27th of Highwinter, 1980 FG
I've been having strange dreams and I think I'm having visions. I'm not sure. It doesn't really make sense. The heart doesn't speak to me but I think it's communicating to me. Sometimes I have dreams that are strangely revealing. I wouldn't think anything of them but, just the other day, I learned something from one of my dreams before I even read it in one of Ellana's books. I also have strange epiphanies during the day. I can't expain it. I just know things.
Over the past few weeks, I've been striving to make sure I spread my time over several activities. It's easy to get caught up in my studies of Ellana. I lose track of time. I fear I'm obsessed. Even while I'm deeply involved with training the scouts, I find my mind wandering off on the topic of the heart.
I've made sure that I spend about an hour or so with Gorphen each day. He's trying hard to learn Celestine and I'm interested in learning his language. We've decided to work together and I've made a study book to help us as we learn.
Goblin doesn't have a true writing language. Gorphen just writes out the sounds phonetically. He's not very consistent either. That's created several moments of confusion for me. Just the other day I learned that I thought a particular goblin word was two words with distinct, although similar, meanings. I didn't know the difference. He wrote it down for me differently in two separate places! I think it's in both of our best interest to flesh out some basic rules. Who knows, maybe my studies will be a part of the first book that teaches translations to and from Goblin.
7th of Waxentide, 1981 FG
I think I'm finally beginning to understand the heart. I'm certain it teaches me. This morning, I was able to learn that it wants to make a deal with me. I'm not certain what the deal is but I do know that Errant made the same deal with the heart. At one point, he actually had the heart inside of him. It granted him power and, in exchange, he helped to fulfill its goals. Considering that Errant was a traitor to the old kingdom, the idea of making such a contract with the heart doesn't seem very attractive. I may end up needing to destroy this artifact. It might be what's best for the Celestine Empire.
I've limited my studies of Ellana to no more than an hour a day. I don't know what to expect so I want to make sure I don't become corrupted by it. To help me with that, I've spent some of my time studying religion; most specifically that of Danica.
Time and time again, Nim has shown to us the good fruits of Danica. Through him, she sends devils back to the abyss, protects the armies under our command, and even assisted us in ending Azeroth. I've seen nothing ill come from her work.
Nim blessed me with the protection of Danica earlier this month. If there are any ill influences from the sword or the heart, I intend to do what I can to prevent them from harming me. Danica teaches balance and that's precisely what I need.
Another healthy distraction has been working with the scouts. I've managed to become more interested in the work and, as a result, keep my mind focused. At first it was difficult. The scout captains seemed to resent me for being hired to help them, and my studies of the heart were constantly occupying my mind. Fortunately, I've proven myself to the captains and, with Danica's help, I've been able to suppress my obsession.
14th of Waxentide, 1981 FG
Shortly after returning to Tristen, I'd been spending my nights in the barracks with the scouts. I got busy and forgot about my search for a house. Well, today I spoke with Reena and she mentioned some property that I could purchase. It recently caught fire and killed its owner. The house is ruined but the size of the property is reasonable. I decided it'd be a good project for me; building a house from the ground up.
I'm probably going to be fairly occupied for the next couple of months. On most days, I spend at least a few hours training the scouts. Occasionally, I'll even go on full day excursions with them. Those can be quite fun. They usually entail tracking down criminals like smugglers and bandits. Though, sometimes they're nothing more than boring exercises.
Looking into the church of Danica has become less important to me but I'll ocassionally try to learn something new on the topic. Studying the goblin language with Gorphen continues to persist and my investigation of the heart never seems to end. I've completely read both of the books from the past but, even so, I've managed to lose hours trying to unlock the secrets of the heart. I keep having ideas about how to use the heart. Naturally, I spend a great deal of time putting the ideas to practice.
Anyway, I'm now going to try and find some time to put into building a home.
16th of Waxentide, 1981 FG
I've drawn up some blueprints for my home. They depict what I hope my final product of the home to be. Unfortunately, that means the work will be far too much for me to tackle any time soon. Between materials and time, it's not very realisitc. However, I made a copy and left it with a few of the military architects that Crespin brought from Pangoria. They say they'll take a look at it over the next few days. The intention is to divide the project into several smaller projects. I'd start with building the basics and, over time, add extensions. I also wanted their advice to make sure I built a nice sturdy home fit for enduring a war.
24th of Waxentide, 1981 FG
The architects have been slow in looking over my blueprints. I've made some small revisions but nothing much. Also, I've run into a bit of a barrier in studying the heart. I don't understand magic well enough to comprehend anything complicated that the heart tries to teach me. I feel like it's trying to teach me how to create ice but it just doesn't make sense. If I'm to continue developing my understanding of the heart, I'll need to take a short break and study magic instead. I'll need to see if Griswold is willing to lend me some of his books. Or maybe I can study the books that Mort studied when he was learning about magic.
11th of Icetide, 1981 FG
I got my hands on some books on magic from Griswold and Mort let me borrow his. I've learned a lot since getting them. They were extremely confusing and frustrating at first, but I think I'm starting to get the concepts. I still can't create ice using the heart but its instructions make more sense.
On another note, one of Crespin's architects says he'll return my blueprints tomorrow. He said that a good number of them got a chance to look at it and make some notes for me. We'll see.
23th of Icetide, 1981 FG
Bluet is coming to Tristen! We've been communicating fairly consistently by letter since I got back to the city. Today, I received a message from her asking if she could come down during the beginning of Highspring. She'd like to take a break from her studies. She would also like to see the house I'm building. I started building it on the 15th, the very day after I got my blueprints totally revised.
2nd of Highspring, 1981 FG
Bluet arrived to Tristen early this afternoon. She came by the portal from Schmendrick's mage town. My house is still quite a way away from being inhabitable so I paid for her to stay at the Merchant's Last. I got a pretty good rate from Roger.
In the early evening, I gave her a tour of the city. I took her to the areas with good treller vine growth and we explored some areas of the town that I didn't know as well. I'd never really given anyone a tour of the city so my knowledge of it was mostly limited to what I dealt with while conducting business.
On another note, I'm starting to believe that the curse from the sword is real. I think it's making me unlucky. More specifically, whenever something goes wrong, it really goes wrong. Not necessarily in any social events but more so in random occurences. For example, this morning while I was training with the scouts, one of them nearly got me crushed by a large rock. The idiot decided he'd try pushing it down a hill to see how far he could get it to roll. I wasn't anywhere near the intended path of the rock but I was further down the hill. Anyway, when he pushed it down the hill, the rock hit a small slope just right in order to completely redirect itself toward me. Had I not been watching, it would have flattened me!
That may seem like a random occurence but it's only one of many examples. It just so happens to have been the most serious of them. I'm getting worried. I started noticing it early last month and it appears to be a little worse this month.
I'd go off looking for the other sword if I had a decent idea of where it was. That, and if it's in a giant magical and glass tower, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get it out. When we were going to go for it as goblins, the plan was to have the shaman disable the magic of the area. It also included the utilization of 200 goblins. I'm just one man.
You'd think a glass tower would be easy to find. As it turns out, there are several of them. I've got a good guess that this one is in Suul territory but that's about it. Maybe if I continue to unlock the power of the heart, it'll help me find the other sword. That's how Shandra found it, isn't it? I hope so.
15th of Highspring, 1981 FG
You'd think Bluet would be sick of Tristen by now. Nope, not really. Even more, she's insisted on helping me with my house and with my studies of the heart. I think it's partially because she's concerned about me. She can recognize the effects of the curse, too. I feel kind of bad for her. This was supposed to be a vacation that took her away from the books. Instead, she ended up picking them up to help me better understand magic and the heart.
12th of Bloomtide, 1981 FG
The heart has made its purpose known to me. At least part of it. If I make a contract with it, I'll supposedly be able to eventually obtain all of the power of Ellana. The heart has made two specific requests in exchange. One, I must oppose everything of the Void. That includes demons, devils, a form of dark magic, and possibly many other things. The other request it has made clear to me is that I must work towards restoring Ellana's people. That idea was kind of vague but the idea I got is that it wants me to revive her legacy. It wants me to somehow organize her people, a lost bloodline, and educate them on their origin.
I've also learned that just carrying the heart makes me almost completely impervious to the cold. I thought the winter was fairly mild this year. I feel a bit stupid for not drawing that connection earlier. For some reason, it didn't even occur to me.
Bluet has been extremely helpful this past month. I'm really glad that she's here. I had another pretty serious accident from the curse. Only this time I wasn't able to evade it. I was working on the top of my house when I lost my balance and fell off. It just so happened that I fell right into a pile of rocks that I had been planning to use. I even managed to land in the worst possible position and on the sharpest points of the rocks. The fall knocked me unconcsious. Fortunately, Bluet practices healing magic and she was nearby.
4th of Lowharvest, 1981 FG
I did it! I finally managed to create a block of ice! I can't do anything more than that but I still did it. Not long after I did it, the heart reminded me of the contract. Creating that ice was just a demonstration of the beginning. The heart tells me that if we work together, it'll teach me how to control the weather.
The ability to control the weather? I admit that'd be extremely useful if I were ever to return to Ethbar. However, that's not my immediate concern. I want to live. I don't want to die because of some freak accident. Why did the sword curse me? What purpose does it serve? If that's my reward for using a tool of Ellana, who's to say that using the heart will end any better?
Anyway, Bluet says she needs to get back to her studies. I don't know if any reasonably priced portals going to Pangoria so I'll be escorting her there. We'll be leaving next week.
2nd of Highsummer, 1981 FG
I just got back from escorting Bluet to Pangoria. Due to the curse, she was extremely worried about letting me leave. She wanted me to stay in Pangoria for a while. Of course, she realized that won't help me overcome the curse and eventually gave up in trying to convince me.
I left her with a key to my home and advised her that everything of mine goes to her should I die. I made that arrangement a long time ago with Reena. Now Bluet knows about it. She didn't like me talking about it but I think she understands.
Saying goodbye was hard. That may have been the last time that I see her.
9th of Highsummer, 1981 FG
I'm heading to Ethbar now. At least close to it. Nim has been reassigned to the province just west of it. This is as good an opportunity as any to find that sword. Mort, also concerned for my life, will be accompanying us. I believe Caleb will be coming, too.
Although Griswold's Irregulars have been dissolved, I'm sure we'll still be encountering some mercenary work on the way. As such, I've decided to hire a Trevenici warrior that's interested in such a life. He'll be taking a cut in whatever spoils we discover rather than requiring a regular wage.