Margaret's Perspective:
What you missed? What we missed? What we all missed! So much happened. Until it didn’t happen. But I’m going to tell you about it anyway.
I was just enjoying a nice relaxing vacation, when all of a sudden I’m pulled through a misty haze and into Coventry. There, we were face to not-face with The Arbiter. This is how I knew it was going to be a ‘great’ day.
It was The Arbiter who answered Janus’s intervention at Uncle Cecil’s all those months ago, instead of Chronos. "If it would heal on it's own, help me resolve that issue. If it won't, help me revert it to back before it was broken.” Janus said. As we arrived in Coventry, we were told that reality was broken. Things were changing, but we did not know what was real; our version of history we remember, or what we see before us. There were 3 portals, and we were to split into 3 groups to go through each of them. We would then go through those portals, and reconvene to discuss what occurred. Before going back through the next portal to try and fix it again. Until each group went through all the portals.
I got to team up with a group of Aurorans, A Rorin, N and Adoros. Our group went to the first portal, bringing us into the center of the dreaming. There was an election being held, and we were told to vote between Minerva and Lucien for who would be in charge of the Dreaming. There was also fortune telling, the world's tiniest dungeon, storytelling, games, and more. It was all fairly bizarre. I was pulled away to do my Sun and Shadow trials. Eventually, we left with a few more artifacts than we came in with, as well as the warning to not trust Meerkat.
We arrived and reconvened with the rest of the group. One group had gone back in time to Chimeron, when Queen Meg was going under the hill. I didn’t get all of the details, but it seemed like someone was convincing her not to? I think in order to spend more time with people here. Something along that line. Something happened, and Sir Wil ended up assassinating her. And Chimeron faded into the mists. Those of us in Chimeron felt terrible pain as this occurred. The third group arrived at the forging of the Sword of Kings. Something was trying to change it as it was forged, but the heroes were able to use sleight of hand to adjust the components put into the sword, ensuring it was properly assembled.
After exchanging notes, our groups went back out trying to fix things. My group were met by Sir Wil, and asked if we were there to stop the ascension war. I asked which one, greatly confusing him. He responded that it was the ascension war. The only one. So we were clearly in the past still. Instead of Shane acting as Champion, it was instead Queen Makhta; Queen of Chimeron without lands. They were hoping to use the boon from winning the Ascension War to return Chimeron from the mists.
As we approached, we were asked if we were Dark One or Rexan worshipers, the only groups still left aside from the Chimeronians representing Rawonam. I looked around at our group, including someone with a glowing Sword of Kings and two glowing Auroran necklaces, and I sarcastically said yes. We then explained that we were Aurorans, to which they responded that it was too late, the Aurorans were already defeated. Laika mentioned that we weren’t Quick enough to help, something which got him thoroughly kicked by his Squire.
Regardless, eventually the real Rexan and Dark One worshippers showed up, and lost to Rawonam. Thinking we had succeeded, as Rawonam was supposed to win and Chim be returned from the mists, all was well until Makhta began to bite both friend and foe. Turns out, instead of an Auroran Vampires she was a Rawonam vampire. All worship of gods outside of Rawonam was made illegal, as vampires ruled over the landless Chim.
We met back up with the other groups to once again exchange notes. A group found Faelinn in the Spaces in Between, where she was able to talk about something which she normally could not; the location of a golden seed which held the power of the Avatar of Aurora. She gave the group instructions on how to take down the ward, and that her blood must be given freely and willingly.
Some people also met King James in the Dreaming. He explained that they must imbue the Sword of Kings with the aspects of the Knights of the Crown. Mercy, Honor, Courage, and Duty. He also gave them the Warriors Prayer, which he suggested be returned to be used by heroes in these times.
We switched portals one last time. My group is met by Meerkat and Faelinn. We go through a portal in order to take down the wards and get the seed. There was some confusion regarding what exactly we were trying to do, but an unnecessary death and some explanation later, we gave the seed to Straphmore, who was to return it to King James. We saw the old avatar restored, once killed by Soultaker and now back in his rightful throne. For now.
When we reconvened, it was mentioned that Queen Makhta did not have enough power in order to return Chimeron from the Mists, and they were thinking of making a deal with Dionin for more power to complete their task. The adventurers convinced them not to, and JB ended up stapling Dionin to his chair with the Sword of Kings.
Gathered together once more, our surroundings faded into shadow, as we say Dalindanna and The Champion. As Matthew went to strike down The Champion, he paused, and began to ask Aurorans if Dalindanna should be struck down. Both Laika and Tirvanel said that history needed to go the way it always did.
As this was happening, my voice was heard, disembodied as it began to call out to The Champion for his Intervention. The terrible deal I made months ago was coming to fruition. He chose not to kill Dalindanna, and instead we saw Chan in his final battle with The Champion. Chan calls out his true name to banish him, but it doesn’t work. Dream Demon’s True Names change after 3 uses, and while Chan had only used it twice, my intervention went through time and to him in this moment, changing his True Name and causing Chan to be unable to defeat him. Instead, he is turned, and Chan strikes down Liselle and Aelias; obliterating them.
The next morning, things continued to be weird. So much was happening it is impossible to keep track of it all. But here are some highlights.
The Aurorans and Knights of the Crown were summoned by Dame Faelinn for a conversation, involving the Knighting of Sir Zula to the order, and Magnus becoming a full Templar. Our meeting was interrupted by the once obliterated Liselle and Aelias being chased by people trying to murder them right in our direction, likely BC? Unsure.
Things continued to be weird and chaotic. Blue was running around killing people. Cultists were trying to summon the Lord of Change; the sibling of The Champion who had been trying to break into our reality. Their minion, it turns out, is a man named Robin, who happened to be an alternate reality’s Meerkat, who had been teaching people reality magic in order to make more cracks and help his master through.
The Champion, who now is going by Orlando, shows up. As does a corrupted version of Chan, who is the new The Champion.
Sir Lars showed up; with my dagger on his belt, an alleged gift from Rexan. He ends up challenging those who wore Chimeron tabards to honorable combat, and those who lost had to take a black mark in their spell books.
Tim the Enchanter eventually shows up, and explains that us capping the reality well in preparation for the Erl Kings invasion of Coventry has caused reality itself to be harmed, as it is contained with no release. We work to reopen the reality well, this time with a tap, through stories and other acts of inspiration.
N’s time bomb ticks down, and a group of us attempt to disarm it. It was less than successful, but Janus managed to buy some time with his Mage call. While this was happening, Death Knights attack, trying to get the Sword of Kings from Laika. He was able to defeat them.
Throughout the day, we were fixing anomalies. One of them was the fact that Shoshanna was saved from the well of souls. This one was fixed, as the well got sealed.
A group works on a ritual to send Blue back to the color plane once and for all. The ritual gotten from the Blackstar guild, the portal is opened, and Zula Bois begin to stream out. Eventually, Magnus manages to do a ritual to defeat Bedlam Zula, sacrificing himself in the process, and allowing for the gate to be closed.
Minerva shows up, and begins to yell at us about how reality is collapsing and we’re making things worse. She also screams at Omri for being a poor imitation of a reality mage due to Robin’s training. Omri ends up being Squired by Laurante, and given a task to make amends with Minerva.
Eventually, the heroes made our way to the Dreaming where there is a manifestation of the Night Masters Door, which the Lord of Change was to use in order to come into our realm. We were able to close the door, but not before the Lord of Change came through to our realm, and The Champion into theirs. I went off to a nice bakery during this in order to get birthday cupcakes to bring back to my friends, when I fell into a nightmare of despair. So much of what I learned here is from accounts from my friends and my own nightmare fueled perspective. There were also people who saw the Chained Gloom Father, whom, from my understanding remains chained at Minerva’s insistence.
The next morning, after forging N a new body, there was a counsel of Dream Demons. They began to vote on which anomalies to fix. Chimeron was returned from the mist. Bedlam was never reopened. Though they did decide to add more random vampires to Chimeron in order to spice up life. By royal decree from the Court Mage of Chimeron, Black and White and Feast of Chim will include more garlic dishes, and Clan Riverhawk was contracted to build more crossroads to bury vampires at.
Regardless, a majority of the anomalies were fixed. The big one which was not had to do with The Chanpion situation, since this was done by mortal actions via free will as opposed to weird reality altering stuff or Dream Demons. Because of this, Chan is currently The Champion, a Dream Demon and Avatar of Dionin. But we have a path forward to work towards fixing this and having him restored to us.
There was then a vote for who was to be the Dream Demon in charge. Soultaker made a deal that if he won, he would leave Cecil alone. A tempting offer that likely swayed many votes. Ultimately, Soultaker won the vote, with Death Dealer as his second and Risk Taker in third. What this means for King Cecil and Chimeron is unknown at this time.
When the Counsel of Dream Demons disbanded, Coventry held Court. King James sat on his throne, and thanked us all for his efforts in restoring him. He brought three figures of importance within Coventry to our attention; Sir Hall, head reality mage, High Priestess Bianca, and Knight Commander Faelinn. He entrusted them with finding a new Mortal Avatar, a task they pointed out some are already working on including himself. King James then walked off with Dalindanna into the light, joining her as an Immortal Avatar of Aurora.
So this is where the story ends for now. Reality is more or less restored, Coventry is entering a new era, and the future is full of opportunities, good and bad. In spite of the length of this article. I’m sure there is a lot I am missing. I definitely suggest reaching out to those who were there, learning from their experiences and uncovering the secrets they hold together. In the meantime.
May Aurora Light Your Path
Squire Margaret August
Lightbringer of Voraniss
Until next time
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DelHemar's Perspective:
I have been asked to report on what I witnessed over the past few days. I will begin by saying that there was simply too much. I did not see everything, I certainly didn’t understand everything, and now it seems that much of what I did see and understand never happened. That’s time travel, my friends, it gets weird. Have a seat, this is going to be long.
We arrived and gathered in a tavern, there were three boards, one of which would fill with things we all knew about history, one would fill with longer stories, and one was available for us to write upon to scream our frustrations at the void. While I did not take part in this last one, I could certainly see it being cathartic for some. The first board contained a single message, advising that Dalindana had been struck down by the champion, and that Dalindana had not been struck down by the champion, but had survived and lived out her days, and that both of these things were true.
The arbiter arrived and advised that reality was breaking. Holes were being punched in it, and paradoxes were forming. We divided up into three teams to go deal with three separate holes in reality. My team, consisting of the non-auroran members of chimeron, and two members of creathorn were sent twenty some odd years back in time, to the night when Queen Meg of Chimeron went under the hill. Sir Wil met us, and led us to the hill, insisting that we needed to help Queen Meg complete the ritual and go under the hill as she was meant to do. When we arrived we found Princess Brynn insisting that, no, she’d found a document in a secret library in Chimeron that said Queen Meg needed to be spirited away and given a few years to raise her son. That she would go under the hill in a few years, but not that night.
There were other members of old Chimeron there arguing for one side or the other. I didn’t know all of them, but I was delighted to meet Queen Meg. Eventually, we persuaded the queen that before any of the rest of us had shown up, her plan had been to go under the hill, that she knew it was what needed to happen, and should follow her own plan. We stood by to watch Chimeron’s first queen inter herself, Sir Wil guiding her by the shoulder toward the entry. Which put us all in a fine position to witness Sir Wil stab her in the back before she could cross into the hill.
We were shunted back to the tavern before anyone could react. Chimeron faded into the mists. The other groups returned and reported that one had sat down to a pleasant dreaming tea time, and the other had witnessed the forging of the sword of kings, but something had been trying to corrupt it, turning it into what we thought might be a wayland blade instead of a the sword of kings. That group had been able to exert some influence through slight of hand, and ensured the sword of kings was made mostly correctly. The board confirmed that they were successful.
My group next went into the dreaming and met King James. He had the newly forged sword of kings, but it needed to be imbued with the traits of one of the knightly orders, I don't recall which one. The traits were Duty, Honor, Courage, and Mercy, which probably doesn’t narrow it down much. Four people volunteered to stand in for these traits, Griffin, Ryu, Ypnn, and Pawldo. They each gave a little speech about what that trait meant to them, and how they tried to embody it. King James was satisfied, and then split us into two groups, one went to learn the true name of the sword, while the rest of us went to retrieve The warrior’s prayer. I was in the warrior’s prayer group. An angel challenged us to three trials, first was a riddle, then they put us all in a circle and told us to divide into two teams, and that only one team may leave the circle. We got no further instruction, and made a few bad assumptions, but eventually Ryu pulled everyone together, and declared that we were one team and we were leaving together. It worked. Finally, we each had to face the angel in honorable combat. So long as one of us won, we’d get the prayer. I didn’t win. And i was dead and facing the wrong direction to know who did, but we got the prayer. We went back, did the ritual to imbue the sword, recited the prayer, and then went back to our bodies before we could lose our way.
When we got back, we were told that Makhta was Queen of Chimeron, and had fought in the ascension war for Rowanam. Worship of other gods was now illegal, also Chimeron was now full of vampires.
Our third destination was the tea time. We voted for who would run the dreaming, Minerva, or Lucien. But we didn’t know who we were voting for because nothing was labeled. Welcome to the dreaming. The tea was quite pleasant, but the snacks were hazardous. We told stories, made anchors to help us get back to our bodies, and had a much more relaxing time than the other two paths.
When we got back we learned that Dionin had offered to pull Chimeron out of the mists, Jean Baptiste had used the sword of kings to staple Dionin to a chair, and ordered him to pull Chimeron out of the mists without extracting any price, and Chimeron was still full of vampires.
We got a peek through the mists of time and got to witness Dalindana not being killed. The champion of that time froze time, and sought the advice of some of the aurorans, who I'll credit, stuck to the goal of trying to preserve the timeline, even at the cost of a goddess. Still, The Champion chose not to kill her, which was good, and bad, and had a ton of ripple effects. Then we saw the moment, ages ago, when Chan faced The Champion. Chan called upon the true name, but we heard a voice from the present, Margaret’s voice, using the true name instead. Turns out it can only be used 3 times before it changes, and time and order doesn’t much matter. The champion froze time, moved people around, and caused Chan to obliterate their friends instead.
And that’s all friday night.
Saturday, we woke up, and were almost immediately marched upon by Blue Coyote. He was very blue, and had a Coyote skull for a face. He was convinced that we were trying to destroy him. He froze us all in place with his voice so his lackeys could search us. They ran off with a few magic weapons, but left our gold. That was nice of them.
We faced a lot of things throught the day, and i’m sorry if i get the timeline a bit jumbled up. A lot of people showed up multiple times, or simultaneously. I met Sir Lars, who had been displaced in time, he warned us that a younger version of himself was coming as well. He seemed a very pleasant man, and i hope to meet him again. I met a fellow named Rothgar who really wanted to fight a bunch of folks who were at the top of the heroic ladder back when I first started adventuring 15 years ago, some of them people who had already retired by that point. He said his purpose in existing was to challenge the heroes of the realms. Eventually we got a few exhibition matches going for him, and he started getting power, and using it to grant armor and powerful blows to the combatants. It was great. Eventually he was ready to face some of us himself. I myself had a very pleasant duel with him.
We met Ragnar Blackmane, master of the Black Star Guild, which is an organization I certainly haven’t heard mentioned in many years. Griffin spoke to him and made a deal, which is his business to discuss or not as he pleases. In exchange Ragnar provided us with a ritual to banish blue back to the plane of colors, and helped us find the materials we would need to do so. We gathered prisms and keys during 3 excursions. I rather enjoyed those excursions. Once we had the materials we were told to wait for sundown, as that was the time for the ritual, so we’ll come back to this.
There was a house fire, where the fire came to life. The downside of a living housefire is that it’s extra malicious. The upside is that it can be killed and beaten back with regular weapons. There was a girl inside who we needed to rescue, but she wouldn’t leave without her doll. Someone said that we knew the girl was supposed to die in the fire, but I don't think any of us had the stomach for letting a child burn to death. We grabbed the doll, grabbed the girl and fled the burning building, because while the individual fire elementals could be killed, they kept respawning from the flames. The girl’s name was Anna. her doll was creepy, and talking, and creepy. We took the doll to “clean it” Identify said it was “Anna’s doll” disenchant didn’t seem to do anything. It was able to pass through a COP, but then disappeared when we weren’t paying it our full attention. Maybe we were meant to smash it? Maybe it was meant to burn, I don't know.
Younger Lars showed up with a challenge that anyone wearing a Chimeron tabard could either surrender it to him, or face him in combat. If you won, you kept your tabard. If you lost, you kept your tabard but got a black spot. No explanation for what the black spot was. I didn’t have to face him because i was wearing a green vest with a sorbus patch, and the heraldry on my armor. It wasn’t a tabard, it didn’t count. Others were excused because they had the leaf on a different color background. He was only interested in the chimeron leaf on green background, on a tabard. He rules lawyered his orders as far as he could possibly bend them for us, and I appreciate that.
Sir Chan showed up, but they were different. Now they were the Champion, or Chanpion if you felt like irritating them. Apparently, this version of them turned to Dionin when Justari failed them. We didn’t much like them, when I refused to kneel before them, they shattered my legs to make me kneel. That said, later on, they did give me a small bit of help during a thing that didn’t happen, so maybe they aren’t completely awful?
There were other versions of Chan as well, and death knights who came to kill them, and other “The Champions”. Laika fought a death knight that only he could kill.
When evening came, we performed the ritual that Ragnar gave us to banish Blue. it involved chanting something that sounded like mage runes, but i’m not familiar enough with them to remember which ones. There were pretty lights, and a gate way opened, Zula walked out followed by a hoard of Zula Bois. they rolled over our ritual party pretty quickly and headed off toward the tavern. I died a lot. Up and down and up and down, and raise people and get rolled again, and raise them again. Eventually we got everyone moved into a shadowy corner of the field near the woods. We got everyone up, and started sneaking into the woods. But there was a stone wall. A Zula Boi approached, and i knew that if i turned and tried to go over the wall i’d just get stabbed in the back and regenerate someplace uncomfortable, so i turned to face the threat that tried to slow it down so others could get over the wall. I died loud enough so they knew there was danger. I was left behind, which was 100% the right choice.
When I regenerated, i quietly recast my spells, went to a nearby pile of bodies one of which was only playing dead, and together we took the other two and snuck toward the tavern, keeping quiet, and low and hiding in the shadows. I started to make the crossing through the light toward the tavern, but saw The Chanpion inside who subtly gestured for me to stop and hide. He was right, he was too late. I’d been seen. I died again. When I regenerated I just stayed sitting in the dark, hoping not to be noticed, and watching for a chance to drag Ryu to the tavern. Eventually the folks who snuck off into the woods caught up to me. Apparently the larger group going in a round about path took longer than the smaller sneaky group of regenerators. Who would have guessed? Magnus did something to seal bedlam away again, but it cost him his existence. I’d put memorial service details here, but it didn’t stick. We got him back, so, if you’re going to raise a glass in his honor make sure you pour one for him too.
Minerva showed up, and was furious. She gave Omri 5 seconds to run before she would obliterate him and scatter his remains across a thousand worlds. She issued a warning that those who learned reality magic from Robin were breaking reality every time they used it, and if they don’t stop she’ll stop them. Permanently. She threatened a lot of other people too.
I started setting up a ritual to bring us all into the dreaming. It was beautiful, there was singing, and sleep sand, and we were all on board my ship. Somewhere during set up Omri got squired to the Red Branch to try to placate Minerva, but he didn’t seem thrilled about it.
We entered the dreaming and faced our own personal nightmares. I got to witness a bunny rabbit trying to eat JB, and him overcoming it by eating it right back. The lord/lady of change, who was the being Robin served, Robin being an alternate reality version of Meerkat who had instigated many of our troubles throughout the day, was there, and instigating trouble. We’d gone to a big important door in the middle of the dreaming that was supposed to be locked, but was at that time unlocked, allowing the lord/lady of change to pass through. We saw the Gloomfather trapped in a circle and the lord/lady of change wanted us to let it out, but wouldn’t tell us anything about why or how or what was inside. Minerva told us more, which makes sense for a goddess of knowledge. She seemed pretty reasonable when she wasn’t shouting at folks and threatening to unmake them.
We gathered materials, including the blood of a demon, angel, and mortal, and performed a ritual to reseal the door. That accomplished, we tugged on our anchor line back to our bodies and went home, where we talked for a while before going back to sleep, but this time in a more natural, less supernatural way.
The next morning, after we’d had breakfast and put N back together (N had a time bomb that advanced whenever we did something that made things worse. It had exploded the night before but i wasn’t present for that.) the Dream demons showed up and held a meeting to try to sort out the timeline. The mortals were instructed to keep quiet, raise our hands and wait to be recognized before talking, on pain of death. Given that Soul Taker, Death Dealer, and World Destroyer were all present, that seemed like a very credible threat. Given that Risk taker was also present, a few people pressed their luck anyway.
The first order of business was that bedlam reopening was bad for everyone so by unanimous vote it never happened. That whole segment above about bedlam opening and Zula bois? A complete figment of our collective imaginations. Didn’t happen. Also Cimeron never faded into the mists, Meg wasn’t assassinated, Makhta wasn’t queen, but thanks to a petition from Risk Taker we do still have vampires in Chimeron now. Due to an issue with the specific wording of contracts, and the particulars of the dream demon’s charter, we couldn’t undo Sir Chan Slaying their friends and becoming the Chanpion, but we did restore Dalindana to having been slain at the proper time, angering Garm and causing aurora to cry the tears we’ve used so many times over the years to save our collective backsides. There was a lot of debate back and forth, and a lot of business to discuss, and I was not taking notes at the time. The dream demons said the meeting minutes would be available immediately. If you really want to know the minutiae of the meeting, petition them for a copy. I do remember a blanket offer that anyone could turn in “contraband” ie artifacts of timelines that had changed and would represent a paradox, like the skulls of people who had died but then not died. Blanket amnesty for any contraband that was turned in then. We fixed what we could, what the dream demons could be persuaded into. The rest is the reality we have always had, even if we don’t remember it that way. Time and memory are strange that way, but they rarely match up perfectly anyway, so I suppose this isn’t that different.
Then there was a vote for who would lead the dream demon counsel. There were a few speeches. Soul Taker offered that if elected he’d leave King Cecil alone. The vote went up and the end result was Soul Taken in charge. Death Dealer in second, Risk taker in Third, right where he wanted to be. And the lord/lady of change somewhere below them in the ranking. We were informed that their charter stated that World destroyer could not be elected to the position ever, and that Risk Taker was allowed to vote for everyone. The Chanpion was less than thrilled to not have placed in the top three, as he’d insisted that tradition held that the champion was always at the head of the counsel.
After that meeting King James showed up and held court in Coventry. He made some appointments, assigned the task of finding his replacement, and then ascended to be with his goddess after what I understand to be a long and illustrious career.
These are my recollections. I cannot say with certainty that they are in the right order, time travel being what it is. I can say with certainty that some of these things did not happen, though I remember them all too clearly, and that many things did happen that I have either forgotten, or did not witness. I doubt this is the last we will see or hear from the entities we saw, though I suspect that the lord/lady of change and their servant Robin will be different when next we meet.
DelHemar,
Baron of Sorbus