Conspiracy Monthly

 by Kyra Barry

Straight Outta Context

Here's our second installment of “Straight Outta Context” where we post a photo with absolutely no context and see what you think is happening! To kick off each post, we'll ask someone random in the community to take a stab at what's happening! 

Justin “J’orsta” T  guesses: 

1. Voraniss smoked wayyy too much special stuff before questing and decided the only way to get more is to sacrifice Laika
2. Pixie Viet is there to ensure no funny business happens
3. The pink thing has killed Laika to take over as the new head of the Church of Aurora

Share your guesses via discord or in the Facebook comments!

Looking Gods in the Eye: Rawonam

by Ethan "JB" Goldman

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”― Voltaire

“War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him . . . but to make him do what you want him to do.”- Robert A. Heinlein

Behold the Mighty King of Metal. Rawonam is the god of War, a domain that has many claimants but none who have earned it as Rawonam does. Nowadays the god, like many, has faded in prestige, suffering from his own neutrality. The god does not manifest problems like Dionin does to sustain his image, the god does not rain blessings like Gaia. You do not HAVE to face him, you don't NEED to beg him… you simply obey him, unknowingly and unquestioningly.

Oh? You do not? You are a free thinker? Outside of the worship of such things. Look down at your shirt, notice the symbol emblazoned upon it, the mark of your nation. The Flag of your tribe.

How many have died for that flag, how many more will die tomorrow? Vorainess is, at the time of this inscription, at war with three different fronts, one that crosses eras, one that crosses dimensions, and one that crosses borders but is also a war that the king warred longer then nation itself existed and also the Erl King is a alien god so its kinda all of them at the same time?

“Oh but Baptise, I am not in Vorainess, I’m in Chimeron”. Okay so you’re merely at war with two interdimensional murderkings? Maybe you're independent, have you ever stepped afoot a Dreamliner? Have you ever fought the Aberrant Gate, did you ever step upon a viper? If so, you have seen war, you just are not kin to the banners it is fought for. 

There is only war. Look upon the spell books, how many of them dictate the preservation of food? Weaving clothes? Constructing Bridges, anything not directed at the logistical optimization or continuation of war? 

It’s not many, it may not be there at all. Rawonam’s worship does not need new altars, new sacrifices. He has those, he needs no loyalty. He has yours.

Because, here’s the thing… Rawonam won. He won aaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back in the Ascension War. Not that there ever was any doubt. After all, he was in the name.

Buuuuuuuuut I am not here to give the Boars sermon, you are welcome to doubt. I am here to tell you WHY you'd worship then, not why they don’t need it. 

War is ever present in our world, but we mix these and mistake them for slaughter and play. Rawonam knows the difference between honorable combat, and combat as a joke, a game. Rawonam knows the difference between War and an Extermination that isn’t going as well as you hope it would. War is a negotiation, not the failure to do one. War has rules of engagement, but practical rules, rules that exist to allow the enemy to surrender to you. If the enemy does not trust there is a alternative between fighting to the death and surrendering, they will never surrender, and your edginess will only cut yourself.

I bring this up because this is where Rawonam differs from Khorne. Khorne ISN'T war, he's the blood god. War is not the nectar of his nature, but the vessel it is held in. Khorne believes in discipline and power but not kindness and mercy.To kill the unarmed brings no glory, but to Khorne does not detract, it is offal, organ meat that may be slaughtered as reward for cracking the skull of the army. Avoiding the army is cowardly. Deception is cowardly. Khorne does not believe in Honor as pragmatic, he does not believe in honor as virtuous. To  Khorne, to fight with honor is to fight honestly, to never trick a stronger foe to a death you should not have managed. 

Now you might think Arius is the god of Truth and Battle. And he is, but as you can see gods mean different things when they say the same words. Arius is self reflecting on one's one nature, so one goes to battle knowing what they are fighting for, why they are fighting for it, and does so anyway. Khorne is the Truth OF Battle, not the battle for Truth, Khorne is the honesty of knowing your opponent is a fully sentient individual with hopes, dreams, loves that they are willing to die for, and admitting, to yourself and the world, you really just don't care.

But Rawonam DOES care, because War IS diplomacy, those truths of the enemy are tools, leverage that need to be acknowledged and harnessed for a swift victory. 

Rawonam cares so much about the diplomacy of war that it is incorporated into his very worship. Any who seek love under Rawonam’s shield will endure great hardship and pain. But, unlike the punishment of Gaia and the Dark One, if you were to surpass these trials you will be rewarded.

When you marry, Rawonam brings suffering upon you, and when you surpass Rawonam’s efforts, you are afforded his blessing. This is not a punishment, this is a WAR, between love of your god, and love of your life. You either break, and return to Rawonam with a tattered relationship, or Rawonam breaks. And if you best Rawonam, well you can best anyone. 

Except Orlando that guys wily, but what can you do?

Granted I am talking a lot about the logistics and psychology of war to describe a God who championed Shane, an individual who cared so much about these concepts that anyone who honors him loses the ability to read.

But that's the difference between the Officer and the NCO isn’t it. The Officer does all the thinking and hand wringing and pencil pushing and the NCO has to accomplish all of it. 

Rawonam offers success in War, and opportunities to prove yourself. If, and this will never come true, there are no opportunities to fight, no causes worth fighting for except to fight itself, Rawonam will personally provide you with a Deathless War, a fight with the God himself through storm and stampede and woe until you prove the iron in your blood. 

Rawonam is a mountain, moreso the a leader. His faith is a challenge to prove yourself with. But while Rawonam is a distant god, he’s not an unaffectionate one. When people follow the gods of battle, it’s for a challenge, to prove themselves. Like the mountain, you climb it because its there and you can look down at the world below and smirk.

The Boar is the same. He's in the landscape, but you don't SEE The mountain when you are close, you see a incline, its a uphill struggle and people don't REALLY care if you reach the top…

But only the Boar knows the view, and maybe, if you are brave. You might too.

Mantra 4: No one’s going to care if you don’t care. Manifest your own challenges. Boast of your own accomplishments. Showcase your piety, so that people understand, if not WHY you value, but THAT you value at all. The Gods are a color, paint with them.

Meme Tuesday

 by the Meme Team

Merry Christmas

The View from Valehaven Staff would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all of our readers who celebrate. We'll be back with our regular content on Tuesday.

What You Missed - Avalon Questing 2, Multiple Perspectives

Owen "Kalashai" Lacey

Part 1 - A Trip to the Briar

A friend of mine, Odd, came to us asking for help. His home, a place in Fae called the Briar, was overrun with something called the Rot. We were told it had been draining the magic from the place, and that we needed to destroy it. Odd warned us that it may drain our magic if we touched it, and I certainly felt those effects during our time there. In order to reach the Briar, which is on the west coast of the continent (somewhat close to where I come from, I believe), we entered Fae, and jumped over rather quickly. 

Once we arrived, I could immediately see evidence of the rot. Black goo had spread across large areas of the Briar, and magic felt… funny around them. Our initial landing point was somewhat unremarkable, and covered in mushrooms. In typical fashion, it took our militia captain, Bogen, only a few moments before he took a bite out of one of them, before promptly dying before our eyes. He is a fae, so I imagine he got the good end of the deal there. None of the rest of us took any bites, but we also didn’t know what to do for a few minutes.

After exploring the whole room and finding nothing else to do, I started arranging the mushrooms into a circle. I was certainly curious what would happen, but it was also mostly just a joke. Haha, mushroom circle in fae, what could go wrong? Once again, it was Bogen who immediately jumped into the middle of the circle and vanished before our eyes. The rest of us followed shortly after, and found ourselves in a forest confronted by living Rot creatures. A small runestone sat in a protective circle, and a locked chest hid among the trees. I spent most of my time there fighting off the Rot creatures, but some of the party found small runes that fit together, unlocking the chest and finding another runestone inside. After driving off the creatures, we recovered a third runestone from them.

Once we had proven ourselves by retrieving the runestone lost to the Rot, Odd and another native of the Briar opened the protective circle, giving us the last piece we needed to set up a ritual to destroy the rot entirely.

Deeper into the Briar, we found what appeared to be the core of the Rot, guarded by more of the creatures from earlier, and their leader. I didn’t get a chance to catch its name, as I spent most of my time in that room putting armor-piercing shots into it. It took a few minutes to get the ritual set up due to all the fighting going on around the woods, but we eventually kept it calm enough for three people to set up a ritual that stripped the power away from the Rot leader. Once that happened, one last piercing shot ended it. Once the Rot had been defeated, the magic that had been fading came back to us fully restored.

Part 2 - Tír na nÓg

Our next quest was… unusual. I spend most of the time fighting, so I don’t have the clearest idea of exactly what was happening outside of that. Some of us had felt a call from someone called The Shining One to travel to Tír na nÓg and do something? I’m still not sure. We arrived in Fae after quite a trip, and found some people there in need of food. Their hunting grounds were running out, and we were sent into a nearby castle to retrieve an Ewer to help restore them.

When we reached the castle however, we were stopped by a bunch of Fae ghosts who wanted nothing more than to fight for all eternity. And unfortunately, that’s just what they did. They fought. They fought so hard, in fact, that they had to decide to play it honorably and let us recover a few times because otherwise they would have wiped us out. After a long, hard fight (where I ended up on the front lines a few times), we made it into a throne room. It turned out that whoever owned the castle wasn’t too thrilled with our presence, and took control of the ghosts, forcing them to completely destroy us instead of playing fair.

I died shortly into this fight, and when I woke up, Fern was completely destroyed, and the ghosts and king(?) were gone. I’m told that they were able to use Fae stones and some other trickery to keep the ghosts back, and then somehow sacrificed themselves to save us. 

After that, we found a magical gate guarded by runes. While some people started throwing the unbreakable dragon egg at it, the rest of us sparred with the ghosts, who had returned to a friendly state. Once through the gate, we found the Ewer and returned it to the hungry hunters outside.

Ethan “Alias”

What you missed at Avalon Questing 

Avalon Questing was great fun. This was a pretty standard questing event. At this event we were questing in Fae. Some of the biggest highlights were three people owe the king and queen of Fae each a favor, with some overlap. Ed/Tulli donated to the Wavern College snack plan so everyone could participate, which was very generous. Finally I liked how they broke down NPCing for the event.

As for the plot, I am not a person very involved in the plot, but I found it very interesting, and I did not need a lot of background to be able to follow. There were three quests. The first was about saving Odd’s home and maybe navigating through Fae to set us up for the second quest, where I was a NPC, but the goal of that second quest was to find a vase that held power to heal a part of Fae that was hurting. In the final quest, there was a lot of dynamite and it involved helping some spirits. I apologize, but I am not the best with the plot. 

The Combat at the event was terrific. All shots that I took were well placed, and they were the perfect blow strength. I think often time, both NPCs and PCs need a little reminder about blow strength, but I found no problem with that at this event. On top of that, the Combat was balanced, and I feel that Marshalls did a good job of keeping that balance. I like how you limited us to a 5-foot max reach as we were in a small space.

Magic and special calls. I think that the magic in this event was well thought out, and every question was answered by putting thought into the answer. Some events go a little overkill on special calls, but this event made it very manageable to remember all the calls.

I want to give a shout-out to Fern and Sir Saka for leading the way for the quest. These two really seemed to take charge and lead the group. Omri and Lady Tranisha both made hard sacrifices that I respect and admire. And everyone contributed something to the quest. My final thought was that I rarely broke character in this event, which was great because I felt like Alias most of the day. I love that because it takes you out of the real world's troubles for a little while. That is what you missed at Avalon Questing.

Kelly “Fern” Perfetto

Recently small groups of adventurers traveled to the lands of Fae in response to calls for aid. Though I was unable to help with Odd’s mission in his home directly, I went on the two other missions that I was aware of. I feel it is important to list everyone who went. Even if I do not call people out by name, they fought, healed, fixed, and solved alongside all of us. 

To the best of my knowledge the group that went to the Briar consisted of Saka, Alias, Isaac, Laika, Kalashai, Voutiá, N, Johan, Bogen, Azimuth, Mistral 

Tír na nÓg

The group: Fern, Tarnisha, Pawldo, Styx, Omri, Zephyr. Isaac, N, Laika, Kalashai, Voutiá, Johan

Our group was met by a Fae dressed in green and shimmering fabric, sent by “The Shining One” to help restore the lands of Tír na nÓg. As preemptive thanks, the woman gave us a bit of magic which could give us one trip out of where we were in Fae, to where we had entered. She then bid us to take each others’ hands, and to close our eyes and trust her as she led us to Tír na nÓg.

Once there an elven man named Cliff greeted us and explained that they were running out of food. Cliff said that a legendary “Ewer of Healing” kept in a nearby castle may be the key to restoring food and prosperity. At the castle we observed the impossibly high walls and moat full of piranhas. The drawbridge was lowered, but guarded by about a half dozen semi-spectral Fae warriors. They greeted us in friendly tones, saying they had not had visitors in some time, and then proceeded to try to kill us. Despite their ferocity each seemed to have their own personal sense of honor and their own tricks. 

We eventually pushed through to the portcullis, or rather I believe Styx teleported behind their lines to gain the upper hand. We soon met the ghosts again in the winding corridors of the castle. Omri led an initial charge into the room, but was taken captive by the ghosts for a time. The fight in that corridor was brutal, but we finally reached a wider room. While Zephyr replenished their healing magic, some of the party fought in honorable combat against the lead ghost. Voutiá ultimately prevailed. 

The next step in our journey was the throne room. The ornate chair was draped in lush red fabric, which probably helped to hide the stains as this room quickly became a bloodbath. We had only a moment before a spirit dressed in purple sauntered in, followed by the ghosts who had been haunting us. This lord spirit seemed to be magically controlling and compelling them. They attacked without honor or mercy. 

With a Fae stone in hand, I moved to the majority of the adventuring group, but everyone was dead by the time I got there. After a few minutes of attempted negotiation and information gathering I looked around and Tarnisha, Pawldo, Zephyr, and Laika were standing behind me. Laika also brandished a Fae stone. Isaac was alive and separated from the group, but working with fragments of a story which seemed to be a key to getting everyone out. Laika and I rushed to defend Isaac, but in doing so the group had lost their protections and were killed. After that I am not entirely sure what happened, but Laika must have looked away or lowered his arm. He was killed, dropped the stone, Isaac scrambled away and was killed. Once again I was the last one standing against six endlessly regenerating warriors with only my sword and a rock. There was still some sort of ambient power around me though, and I pushed on it just a little to put my life force somewhere else…

I woke up to a relieved Tarnisha, all of my companions standing, and a distinct absence of ghosts. Apparently Isaac and Omri had assembled a story relevant to the master of the castle, and speaking it aloud banished him. The final room was guarded with magical rune wards, fireballs, and… those damn ghosts again. They were at least back to their old selves and even graciously left Kalashai alone while they used a circle of healing. Omri invoked Mantarok, Pawldo caught at least one fireball to the all of him, and eventually Laika and Styx decided to just throw the giant dragon egg at the wall until it broke. The Ewer of Healing was in fact inside the vault. We returned it to the people in the grove, and it seemed like the land was already beginning to recover by the time we left. 

The Mines

The group: Fern, Tarnisha, Pawldo, Styx, Omri, Zephyr, Isaac, Azimuth, Saka, Alias, Mistral 

Our contact for this journey was a little more mundane than the last. I did not get all the details, but miners had been killed, and the survivors wanted answers. We traveled down into the mine tunnels. As we approached a more open area we saw dozens of dead miners scattered about the area, bearing terrible wounds. The bodies in front of us began rising. We managed to fight the undead off long enough for Saka to activate mining portal runes to bring us further in. 

In the next area there were more undead, a pile of rocks that we thought we had to move, and dynamite. At some point Omri set off the dynamite and the boulders crushed some of the enemies. Malicious ghosts added to the ranks by their own numbers and by possessing us. Eventually I spied a way out through a boarded up tunnel. The primary feature of this new area was a quite probably bottomless pit. Once we finished off the undead there Saka leaped across the pit. Isaac followed soon after. It was honestly quite impressive. Using the ropes they had jumped with we all made our way across. 

In the next section of the mine we found a ghost of a man sitting on the floor, holding a bundle of dynamite. The ghost could not speak words we could hear, but we learned that he had been killed along with the other miners we had encountered. He indicated that we should destroy a pile of boulders with yet more dynamite to move further in and stop the undead. As rocks and fire filled the air, spirits flew into the room and began attacking us more skillfully than anything else we had fought in the mines. When I was revived I was relieved to see that the only ghost remaining was the friendly one. But we had not defeated the beings. They had escaped.

As we regained our bearings a living Fae approached. She seemed displeased to put it mildly. Apparently we had released ancient malicious spirits. As the miners had dug deeper and closer to this prison they became more and more enraged until they turned on each other. The woman told us they had been sealed away in Queen Titania’s time by the queen herself, and that this woman was their warden. These beings were faster than us, could float over the bottomless pit, and it was only by skill, the magic of the lands, and some amount of luck that we were able to survive their whirlwind onslaught. Rather than pursue we began working on a way to funnel our energies and magic into summoning the spirits back and re-sealing the prison. 

Isaac led the ritual outside of the prison. Saka, Styx, the Fae warden, and I went into the spirits’ cage. Outside, the group created a seal, and called upon the power of King Cuculhain and Queen Nimbus. I do not know the exact details, but it sounds like for their assistance, the king and queen both asked for favors, though that phrasing on my part is not quite accurate. 

In the prison Styx and Saka powered a reversed Ritual of Banishment and brought the spirits back to us. I stood between the spirits and the casters as long as I could, and then we teleported out using the favors for helping in Tír na nÓg. 

As far as I have been told, everyone else made it out safely as well. The remaining miners have been warned, and the ghost we met is content to stay where we found him.

OOC

I have added a few embellishments to some of the descriptors here, but boy we really did have to fight for it in these. Our victories were not assured, and we had to find creative solutions. I wanted to take a paragraph out of character to also thank the people who NPCd more than one quest, or were EHs. Kathy, Zack K, Kai, Nate, Maria, Jay, Bri, Eric, and Hillary made sure to keep us on our toes. Also I wanted to say Jay did a great job with their first quest!

I ended up writing a longer version with more details about the quest for those who are curious. This version can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_ryMfXPgr7PTjTcabKCZlfP8_5P8jbgX/view?usp=sharing 

Kieran/Kyra “Omri” Barry

Brief shout out to Isaac for commanding the room with a powerful verbal against the big bad of quest 2 that ended with “why isn’t anyone taking advantage of this obvious distraction” which let the rest of us know it was distraction. Unfortunately the enemy too. Too good a moment to go unrecognized.

Shout out to Fern for carrying against the big bad of the second quest as well, and doing a sacrifice they didn’t think they’d come back from. It’s what inspired me to attempt an invocation to understand some runes, to hasten the opening of the vault and hopefully the end of battle. Alas it did not succeed, although attempts to use the dragon egg did to break down the vault’s defenses.

Odd’s home is safe.

Shuben was the ghost guard, their boss claimed to be the/a Representative of Seelie who was in charge of Shuben and the imprisonment of the Fuath.

And for the re-sealing of the Fuath, the King and Queen of Fae asked for three people to complete a task for them each. Aka three people do a task for the king, three people do a task for the queen, with some overlap. Let us hope there is no need to find out if the Fuath, spirits of rage incarnate, will be released if these tasks are not done within a year and a day of the ask.

What's It Do? What's It Do?

In this continuing View feature, we show you a picture of a theoretical magic item. Then you go back to Facebook and in the comments, invent your idea for the powers that this item would have.

Here is this week's item:

What's this door do? Head on back to social media and let us know!

Banecroft Blue

Banecroft Blue, filked by Diamond

Original tune “Grey and Blue”

Performed for the Realms Nations Fair, but made incomplete then by lack of something called “bandwidth”. While one performer does not a band make, I tried to distill what was most essential essence of Banecroft for this musical presentation. 

Play MP3 File

Em                   G
There were some men of Banecroft       

D            Em
Through the realms they strode
Em              G
Defending the defenseless
        D               Em
It's to them I sing this ode
         Am          G
This nation of Justice
   D                 Em
would face every foe
C
Safety for our families
     D              Em
It's this to them we owe

         Em
Banecroft blue
         G
Banecroft blue
    C        G
The men and women of Banecroft
D                 Em
Wore the Banecroft blue

Em G
They fought the vilest villains

D Em
questing every year       

Em G D Em
ranging the Realms over from there to here
Am G D Em
But what made them different was the mercy that they brought

C D Em
They shouldn’t be defined by the evils that they fought.

Em
Banecroft blue
         G
Banecroft blue
    C        G
The men and women of Banecroft
D                 Em
Wore the Banecroft blue 

Em G
But beneath their tabards were just some men

D Em
Same as you and me       

Em     G
An honorable path trod together, 

D Em
A shared identity
Am G

But why endure this shared crusade

D Em
Fight-the-fight that just won’t end

C     D
If asked the Baron would tell you

Em
“The means are not the end.

Am       G D Em

”We owe a duty to the common folk of our land

C D   Em

So we can’t allow these dangers to stand.”

Em
Banecroft blue
         G
Banecroft blue
    C        G
The men and women of Banecroft
D                 Em
Wore the Banecroft blue    

C        G
The men and women of Banecroft
D                 E
Wore the Banecroft blue