Lanal 18 – Vulūne 4, 652 DR: A ruined kurum is purged of its Assembled residents. The Targan legend of Ðr. Nezràfan comes to an end when Jak of Cændan reunites two souls separated in the time of the Old Empire. Jak is given the ring of the Pryór Ðardràm Oð.
Continued from The Vault of the Butterfly.
Amdor, 18 Lanal 652
The day began strangely. A man in the Silver Harp lobby asking the innkeeper, Dyloo Magerrin, where Dammon Shroudson was, insisting that he had unfinished business. The innkeeper insisted that Dammon had left in the night. The man left a note signed, Salàn dā Adal.
Jak wandered into the City looking for the Southgate. At one square he found some red-robed Minions preaching to the masses and after asking questions about the attacks on Portage and Ōddon caused unrest in the crowd, forcing the Minions to take their proselytizing elsewhere. Within sight of the Southgate Jak was overcome by a strange presence that poured images into his mind of a beautiful woman whose words, “Never leave me” issued forth clearly though the language remained obscure Dekàlic. The possessor took Jak’s body and approached two Merchant guards. When one would not hand over his sword Jak’s body attacked, felling the guard in the street. Taking the sword Jak found himself returning toward Southgate, and finding himself clumsily in control of his motion once again.
Seized with a sense of urgency, Jak raced toward and through the open Gate and into the dark Margin of the Southswall beyond. He ran along the shadowed border that separates the City of Oð from the sprawling slums of the Southswall until he reached the bridge to Dreg’s Brewery. There he turned south toward Erhet. As he headed south a familiar numbness returned to his limbs and he discovered that by changing direction he could stave off possession. He continued running north to the Run Merdus, where he met a fisherman who addressed him as a soldier. Westward to Sêryð Swell, he continued north to Wesridge and finally to Cænden where he wound his way to the Rumm household, and committed himself to the care of Dadra.
Wōdìndor, 19 Lanal 652
After spending the day with Dadra and her family, he visited the Fiery Wench Tavern and told his fellow villagers about his group’s adventures. That night he was re-visited by the apparition.
Iyldor, 20 Lanal 652
In the days to follow he stayed in the Rumm family household, playing cards, and telling all that would hear of his adventures since leaving Cænden. Every night he was visited by the apparition of a sad looking warrior, now and again it would speak to him but he could never understand its words.
Irídor, 21 Lanal 652
Resting in Cænden.
Roydor, 22 Lanal 652
Resting in Cænden.
Sūdìdor, 23 Lanal 652
Resting in Cænden.
Talídor, 24 Lanal 652
Resting in Cænden.
Padídor, 25 Lanal 652
Resting in Cænden.
Bærídor, 26 Lanal 652
Once healed, Jak prepared to leave Cænden again. He gave Dadra a silver ring and promised her that he would return in the winter to marry her. Leaving, Jak returned to the Run Merdus and found the spirit urging him westward into the villages and fields beyond the pall of Oð. A day’s travels through these lands brought him nearly to the Falen Nordrul, and he slept alongside the road near Targan, the warrior’s ghost watching over his camp.
Virídor, 27 Lanal 652
In the morning he walked into the town of Targan, and learned of a manor, Kurum Nekùlðe, outside of town. Venturing there he found the place in ruins, and the estate a lifeless blight on the countryside. He was shortly attacked by misshapen creatures that roamed the estate and house. Even upon “death” the creatures would seethe and knit their wounds back together. He tried to talk to a few but found there was no understanding of peace in their minds, only a desire to destroy “untrustworthy Wholes”.
In the manor’s basement he found their leader, a bear-like creature with an infant’s head named Uruss, who despite all his strength and bearing, was brought quickly down by Jak’s spear. In the crypt of Kurum Nekùlðe, Jak was paralyzed by a tentacled horror, but the warrior’s spirit overtook his crumpled form and dispatched the creature with a swing. The unmoving Jak sat slumped against the wall, watching the warrior’s spirit wander from tomb to tomb until he pulled a woman’s image from the stone, the beautiful spirit of the woman whose face had haunted Jak’s dreams this past week. The warrior said some words and they both vanished. Once feeling had returned to Jak’s legs we wandered back to Targan to rest.
Palídor, 28 Lanal 652
In the days to follow he told many of his adventures, but most of all they were very interested in his stories of the warrior spirit and its long dead love. He had finished a long told local legend it would seem, thereby permanently inscribing his name to the end of that tale.
Alídor, 1 Vulūne 652
Resting in Targan.
Kændor, 2 Vulūne 652
After a couple days of rest in Targan, he traveled to the crossroads and accompanied miners into the Morén Nōdrul, toward Dalus. He followed a caravan through the rocky hills to Dalus.
Malídor, 3 Vulūne 652
In the morning, a guide agreed to take him to Ironhold.
Amdor, 4 Vulūne 652
Jak of Cænden arrived at Ironhold, where he was reunited with Endren of Orynder. While at the camp he showed the witch Aanna a scroll he’d found in Kurum Nekùlðe that he allowed her to study before he left the next day.
Continued in The Siege of Kry Ōddon.
Characters
- Jak of Cænden
- Aanna (Witch)
- Bocor (Magician Anatomist): dead
- Dadra Rumm
- Dyloo Magerrin
- Endren of Orynder
- Ezber
- Karrus Nezràfan: dead
- Mara Nekùlðe: dead
- Salàn dā Adal
- Tanus: killed
- Uruss (Ursine Assembled): killed
Played: 29 Nov 1997