Category Archives: Volume 12- Issue 2- Newgreen 124 (April 2014

(On request of Minister Forgedheart, this is a re-print of a letter he sent to Minister Oliver Finnestera of the town of Elmerton in the South Farthings on the second day of Petalsong in this the 124th year of the Age of Fortune.)

Minister Oliver,

I wish to address the town of Elmerton regarding a situation that has recently caught my attention. A while ago, Elmerton created a shared Dream Space that was intended to protect your dreaming minds from the likes of the Harbinger (whom you know as “Mister Hi”) and Queen Amphelise. It has done its job and more, but now it is starting to deteriorate as it has come under an infestation of what are known as Gloam Grubs. These tiny creatures are generally seen during outbreaks of pestilence and in the area where Dreaming Minds are most potent. They feed on dream substance, and shadow when they can get it. As you can imagine, they are a constant nuisance in places like asylums, hospitals, and orphanages. Your shared Dream space, which apparently includes the Dreaming Minds of anyone who lives in the town, is rank with these Grubs. However, it is not entirely a bad thing.

The Good News: Gloam Grubs are extremely versatile in their uses. They produce a very strong type of silk made from Shadow and Dream that is primarily used for weaving magical netting, as well as for creating impassable boundaries and the like. However, due to the very Nature of their being, they are incredibly useful in a multitude of other applications as well. I would not be surprised if you had quite a few visitors in your town trying to collect them.

Devoter Warsson wishes me to inform you that one of the more remarkable uses of this little Grub is its ability, under the right circumstances, to create/become manifestations of various creatures of Nightmare on Magesta and that the banner he set up was expressly for the purpose of Fighting for Hyurog’s cause. As these creatures are generally hostile and will seek to fight as soon as they appear on Magesta, it seems appropriate to use them to empower War. For those who may be squeamish about killing creatures- it is important to note that these are temporary beings, manifested from pure energy and destined to die within ten minutes after they are created.

I have created the proper ritual site outside the Western boundaries of Elmerton (and therefore outside the “boundaries” of your shared Dream Space) in order to allow these instances of summoning to happen. If you wish to summon a creature or a group of creatures, here are the steps to follow

• You must first Gather as many Grubs (make sure that you are fully able to Gather such things, otherwise they will burst, which is one of their means of reproduction) as you would like creatures to summon. This can be one or an entire group.
• Next you will need to assign 1-3 Grubs to each person (the more Grubs per person, the more powerful the manifestation) and everyone who wishes to participate will need to head out of town to the ritual site I have prepared.
• Each person must remain at the ritual site in a state of intense concentration for the entire time he or she wishes his or her Grub to remain manifest. Generally each Grub allows a creature to manifest for 10 minutes at a time. If you wish to manifest a creature for longer than that, you may use more than one Grub per person, and the time will increase accordingly.
• The process of manifesting a creature is a taxing one and the Grub will therefore expire at the end of the process. You will not be able to use that Grub again.
  

  A Gloam Grub. This creature is capable of creating exceptionally strong silk as well as manifesting itself as various forms of Nightmares under the right circumstances.

Now for a bit of Bad News. Gloam Grubs, while having many positive qualities, are generally looked upon as a dangerous nuisance. As I have said, they feed on dream energies and, if allowed to cocoon and mature, they will grow into nasty creatures of Nightmare, fed on your deepest, most intense fears, dreams, and passions. They build their cocoons in the physical minds of those whose energies they are feeding on and when they hatch, it is many times directly out of the skull of that person, killing them and oftentimes rendering their mind permanently destroyed. With a shared dream space such as yours, I imagine it means that they will have access to any of the minds that currently share that space.

Additionally, there are folks who are able to manipulate well-fed Grubs into allowing them access into a person’s dreaming mind. Again, with your shared dream space, this means that there is potential for someone to gain access to all of your Dreaming Minds via these Grubs.

The Grubs are in the process of disintegrating your shared Dream Space (which they are already doing on their own, and will continue to do until the Space is gone), which is a good thing in my opinion, but since they multiply so rapidly, I would say do everything in your power to find these Grubs and use them to manifest creatures into your town. Not only will you be able to help empower the Incarnation of War, but allowing these Grubs to manifest is one of the safest and most effective ways known to destroy them.

I wish you Fortune’s Best with this situation, and please do not hesitate to send me word if you experience complications.

Yours,

Tellah Forgedheart

Minister of Hatchport

My wonderful old home of Elmerton,

It has been a few moons since we have last seen one another. I assume you all miss me just as I’ve missed you. It has been rather annoying trying to find a body suitable enough to contain me, though it is certainly not lacking in any fun! I hate to admit this but I am even starting to miss that vessel you all refer to as Kraven. Be sure to give him my best, will you?

Seeing as we are all old pals, I thought I would let you in on a little secret: your peninsula has a lovely opening to the Abyss that is just ever so alluring to me! Now it is not that big of an opening mind you, so I will do us all a favor and try to expand it a bit. I have seen what our town is capable of and I have the utmost faith that you all will be able to take care of yourselves when push comes to shove. So I will not waste time with the pleasantries any longer. I will be sending some… acquaintances of mine to this opening very soon. However, I will not be sending them all at once. I believe it is better to chip away at this rift one bit a time, wouldn’t you agree? You are welcome in attempting to stop this, though in all honesty, I think  Magesta would be far better off if you didn’t.

As a trade off for the town standing idly by and doing me this kindness, I will repay you all by sending some friends of mine straight to Lex Mitorae! You know, I just would feel too bad for your simple minded brains sitting there twiddling your thumbs. You all just need something to beat up on, don’t ya?


-Beladros (Though this vessel’s wife called me “Sweetheart” before I drowned her… so let’s re-try this….)

Be Seeing You Soon,
Sweetheart

You have all been lied to: The veil of lies is so thick over your eyes no one can see through it.
The Gatekeeper is not here to destroy or conquer. He is not here for those possessions that you believe to be so important. Coin means nothing to him; land means nothing to him; title means nothing to him.

No, those are the things you have been told your whole life to consider important. He is the truth. Those who wish to hold you down see the facts of what he is and hold those ideals and truths in contempt.

What is life without a true fear of death? A hollow and flawed life, that’s all it is. A life without the fear of true death breeds the most horrible kind of people: People who have no fear of any kind of retribution.

When the common train of thought is that no one will be truly judged, the demons of men come to life and realize they can be free to rule and free to slaughter. Free to do whatever they wish, hiding it under the guise of the greater cause.

The Gatekeeper offers something so different: The chance at a true and unsullied life. A life where all are held accountable- the way it truly should be! No deals with Fate, no backdoor ways out of your sins. Just true death. True accountability.

Those around you have said that the old way is how they have been brought up, so that’s the way it should be. This rationalization is meaningless. Their own ideas have been warped by countless years of lies that have been fed to them. They lap it up like soup given to the poor at a Ghaatmic Guild Hall.

Understand that the Gatekeeper is not the wave of the future. He is what the future should have always been. He is here for benefit of all those souls that have not bought into the lies of the deluded masses that refuse to realize that his way is the real way. The Gatekeeper is the hated future, the long hated truth that so many are scared of. He is the way it will be, the way it always should have been, the real way of the cycle of life. He is the truth and he will set all of the known worlds free, whether they accept it or not.

The truth is ready for you. Whether you are ready for it or not remains to be seen.

Brodus Masterson

Morticent of the Gatekeeper

I have made a wonderful thing; A terribly powerful, wonderful creature. The Ashynnied, a cultish group of madmen who worship and are controlled by (from what I gleaned from them while I was imprisoned) what they call “the Darkness*,” kidnapped me and forced me to build for them. They sent their ideas and thoughts straight into my head and then controlled me to force me to build, create, and move. I had no idea what I was creating until it was finished. It took  many months, though I am unsure of exactly how time passed while I was under their control, but now it has been released into the world and provides the Ashynnied, as well as those beings they worship, access to the Shadow Realm. I have created the Dark Walker- a golem-like being simultaneously controlled from afar by three or more of the most powerful cultists known as Dreamers. It has little to no sentience of its own, and its awareness of the world around it is directly linked to that of those Dreamers. It has no free will, however, if not actively controlled, its actions and wanderings my vary according to the subconscious thoughts of any of the Dreamers attached to it, which makes it seem as though the golem is acting on its own.

This golem is a conduit between the Evernight Forest and the Shadow Realm- an enticing and powerful passageway, to be sure. However, at the moment, it can only be used one-way: From the Evernight Forest into the Shadow Realm, and then again, it can only be used by marked members of the Ashynnied. This unique characteristic will not, I am sure, deter most interested parties from wanting to have the golem in their control, and already I have heard rumours and rumblings from powerful sources that want to have the Dark Walker as their own. I can only imagine what will happen should this golem end up in the wrong hands.

Though I was controlled while I built this creature, I managed to build in a failsafe that provided a means to ensure that neither the Ashynnied, nor any other single group or person, could have complete control over the Dark Walker. At this time, I am taking the names of parties interested in this information, however I will need protection from the Ashynnied who will, undoubtedly, go to many lengths to make sure that my knowledge dies with me. Contact me if you wish to know more. I wish you the best of luck,

Sardkern Scurath

-The Shadow Smith

*I was able to discern that there are three distinct forms of this Darkness, and I am convinced that they are three separate beings.

If anything positive can be said about Amphelise, and I am not sure it is possible, it would be about her desire for scientific discovery.  As a fellow scholar, I would appreciate her devotion to invention, had it not been for the needlessly cruel way she went about it.   Still, her defeat left various abandoned laboratories and collections that need to be cataloged, if for no other reason than they could prove incredibly dangerous.

Whimpering first drew me to the creatures on the other side of the door.  Upon opening it, I found 3 emaciated things I can only describe as dog-like creatures.  Further exploration found that they had been kept in small cages but were released from confinement only to remain trapped in a larger facility without anyone to care for them.

The beasts were collared and tame.  While I cataloged the contents of the facility, which mostly turned out to be non-magical equipment best described as broken useless junk, the creatures stayed close responding to my every command.  I began to grow enamored with the strange creatures though I am hardly an animal lover.   They seemed unhappy despite my best attempts at proper care.  I thought maybe these pitiful creatures might be happier outdoors and I told them to go outside for a bit. I hadn’t expected them to understand but sure enough each of them vanished.  I thought I might have been going mad but each returned within the hour.

Imagine my surprise.  Not only did these creatures understand me but they were capable of instant travel.   I begin to give them more explicit orders and they were always followed to the letter.  In time I realized if there was a discovery in this facility, it was these creatures.  That is when I began to pay closer attention to the collars.

Each collar was a blend of mechanical pieces and magic.  I am by no means a master mage but I believe their main purpose was control.  Beyond that however, and much to my unease, there was a second component.  Each collar was armed with a very strong magical explosive.  It appeared that my care with the collars had paid off as the explosive was set to detonate upon tampering.  The explosive would likely obliterate the poor creatures and perhaps those nearby as well.  Worse still, the collars are unstable enough to perhaps go off if magic is cast upon or even very near them.

I packed my things.  These creatures were to be taken to those more capable than I.  I was about to leave when 12 men wearing a strange symbol (a shepherd’s crook crossed with a spear) burst into the room.  They had a strict military attitude about them though they were neither the Crown’s men nor those upstart DoD.  They proceeded to rob me of my materials, albeit in a very polite manner.  They took most of the junk.  One of the soldiers grabbed the creatures and looked them over.  He ordered them sent to the Houndsman.  A braver man would have told the creatures to flee.   With a few swords pointed at me, and the hope that my life may not yet be forfeit, I held my tongue.

If you come across those poor creatures, please do what I could not.  But please MIND THE COLLARS.

To the Citizens of Irvanshire,

Over the past several months it has been my primary job to clean up a mess caused by the dangerous reversal of powerful Elemental locations. Normally I would not provide a report such as this but something very strange is happening and I think it is in your best interest to be informed.

I have been working with a very competent group of people, casters and warriors alike, to restore the balance of Nature. Though we have made much progress, completing half of the work, there are still weak spots in Magesta to shore up. Until this morning, I was absolutely sure that the Blood Moon would enhance the aggressive and unusual weather patterns that have been occurring. The Moon is a powerful source of energy and when it is combined with the power of the Blood, terrible and wonderful things can happen.

I was very surprised when my Irvanshirian contacts communicated to me that  active areas have gone quiet and in some cases have even begun to mend themselves. For example, the large hole that opened up, taking an entire town with it, was almost completely gone by the arrival of the Magestream. The only trace of its presence is a long, jagged crack in the ground. I am happy to hear this is the case but I am also unsettled since this sort of behavior should not have happened until all of the weak spots had been addressed.

It is my personal belief that whatever unknown force was behind the enhancement of the Elemental imbalance has redirected its attention and energy somewhere else. Even though I know very little about this force, I imagine that it has garnered the attention of something much more powerful and focused and has been encouraged to cause trouble somewhere else. The Blood Moon can be devastating and the redirection of this force should be very concerning. I fear that the time for child’s play is over.

Regards,
A. Demeter
Assistant to the Honorable First Father