Above our Pay Grade - By Roesis Print

Above our Pay-Grade,  Within Our Capability.

Wind Moon, 2 Years Post Cataclysm.  
Aspirant Roesis, OSM.
I shall attempt to be brief in this after-action report but there was a considerable amount of activity packed into this mission.
Mission Roster
•    Aspirant Kellorin,  Order of Saint Michael.   Party Leader
•    Aspirant Tarndeth,  Order of Saint Michael.
•    Aspirant Rianna,  Order of Saint Michael.
•    Aspirant Roesis,  Order of Saint Michael.
•    Drake,   Warrior from the Menagerie.
•    Walker,  Warrior fresh from the barracks.
•    Frannk,  Mage of the Black School
•    Igor,  Priest of the Hospital.
•    Mordecai,  Priest of the Hosptial.

Primary Mission
Lord Malcolm Middleton had set us on equipped with the Mystic Tabards on official business.  Our task was to summon the Mistweavers to a Moot, resolve their war and restore the mists to Orin Rakatha in order to enforce the law of travel with appropriate sanctions (and restore the dwindling Hordling population).
Suffice to say this was not easy.  We were met and travelled with a Mistling for several days who was performing a role for the Mistweavers to review our performance and essentially provide the evidence for them that we are indeed capable and worthy of being the Voice of the Mystics.  She was given several names during the course of our travels but we eventually discovered that Enthusia SparkleQuilt fit her best.  Although she did express the opinion that the last name wasn’t “quite right”.
We performed several tasks under her auspices including;
•    Removing a tendril of Darkness/Void from the local area where it was corrupting trees and eventually a Kalid Children of the Brood breeding pit
•    Assisting a member of the Horde with an incursion from the Forgotten
•    All of the activities detailed below
The results of our actions were that all the remaining Mistweavers gathered for the Moot at the Vanquished Waystation on the Fourth Steelday of Wind Moon.  Those present were;
•    Ragamuffin Heartbeaker, 3 Walk Mistweaver
•    Usurak, Original Mistweaver (formed by the Mystics in the beginning)
•    Bethellim, Original Mistweaver
•    Arnold Sparkfist, 3 Walk Mistweaver
The discussions were long and many heartfelt opinions were presented but in the pursuit of brevity and accuracy the following actions were taken;
•    The banishment on Bethellim in punishment for attempting to subvert the laws and create a Hordling Tower is repealed and he will return to Orin Rakatha to perform his duties as a Mistweaver.
•    The Mistweavers will first undertake a Shook in the North East of Orin Rakatha for the dual purpose of expanding the Hordling stock and to make a visible reinforcement that the Law of Travel will not be violated.
•    The Mistweavers will then take up their positions to guide and shape the mists as intended.  Each will oversee a quarter of Orin Rakatha until such time that additional new Mistweavers are able to take on the burden;
o    Ragamuffin will oversee the North (including the Valley Lands)
o    Usurak will oversee the East
o    Bethellim will oversee the West (including the Central Isle)
o    Arnold Sparkfist will oversee the South (including the Icarthian  Triangle although not to enter it)
•    The Valley will take responsibility for providing volunteers to undertake Mistwalks when the individuals are ready in order to begin the process of restocking the Mistweaver ranks.  Three volunteers have already been marked with this duty.
•    The Voidweaver, Burblegut Fantasia, must be destroyed to allow a third true Mistweaver to rise.  This is the responsibility of the Valley.
•    The Horde were not to be consumed en-masse to replenish the stocks.  Despite many of them stemming from original Hordling lines our group determined they had every right now to be treated as any other nationed people.
•    Anyone found breaking the law of travel will be subject to the Mists and face transformation into a Hordling forfeiting all rights and privileges of being a nationed being.
•    The Hordlings would retain their current appearance and nature.  The offer was made to turn them into “automata” who would simply arrive and slay.  We decided to leave them as they are.  Their current nature is that they represent a different face to each nation depending on their fears or history as is suitable for their task.


Secondary Missions / In Field discoveries
Mescona / Drow Assassins
Information reached us from a number of sources that “figures in black” and “drow” have been assassinating high ranking members of several towers across OR.    This culminated in a visit from The Prophet known to us as The Grey Man who is the nation leader of the House of the Weaver.   He spoke to us of these assassinations, very briefly,  and when he spoke of a being known as the Mescona our minds reeled and a figure in black, somewhat Drowic, appeared behind The Prophet thrusting a dagger deep into his back and then both of them disappeared as quickly as it arrived.
The incident left behind a number of void creatures that attacked us but these were of trivial concern.
While the House of the Weaver do not blame us for the abduction it bodes ill that the enemy moving against us can commit such an attack so cleanly.

Bloodlines and the Void
We met with the First Son of Father a shaman of the Snverheim.  We were told a long tale about the creation of Orin Rakatha and how its purpose was to bind the heart of the void within a prison made up of the bodies of the Mystics and the Masters of Lore.   As a result of this the forces of the Dark have long sought to control and destroy this land (refer to reports on: Maeglor, Cardinaris and Otion Wraithchild) all with the intention of freeing this Darkness which will ultimately bring about the end of everything.

The prison is weakening due to death of a number of ‘Bloodlines’ that bound the original people of Orin Rakatha to the land and strengthened the prison.  This bloodlines are
•    Halmaddons Heights.  The family of Sir Danus.   This bloodline is no longer present on OR.
•    The Shendai.  The bloodline was finally severed by a Valley group in Saldor recently.
•    The Halls of Sutekh.  Kasanwati the Eternal was the last of this line.  Slain by the Valley.
•    The River People.  Currently missing from OR.  Potentially fled through a portal in a similar way to their old stories.  Requires investigation.  Not present on OR.  
•    The Sneverheim.  The First Son is the last member of his bloodline.
•    The Otomi.  There is one remaining living member of this bloodline who dwells with the Elves of Laire Tinwe (See below for further notes)

The Tree of Life
Late one night we were visited by the last living Otomi (I am afraid the name escapes me) who had not left the lands of Laire Tinwe for many years.  He came with a dire warning that a Void Tendril has wrapped itself around the roots of the Tree of Life and is beginning to cause it’s death.  He expressed concern that a Druid (THE Druid?) of OR named Cormac has not been seen as he would normally be expected to have been abroad as the result of such a calamitous incident.  He grew further concerned when he learned that our Archdruid Arbor has also not been seen in some time.

Calix Wraithspawn
During our stay at the waystation we were visited by Calix Wraithspawn himself who sought the judgement of the Voice of the Mystics in sanctioning the actions of the Dyman in preventing his visit to the Node of Necromancy upon their lands.  We discussed this with the Dyman Chancellor Unatap and it transpired that it was not Calix that was being prevented but the Void corrupted creatures with him.  The discussion raised two things of note;
•    Calix would be allowed to present himself to the node without his retinue of corrupted beings
•    The ‘sanctions’ against breaking this law can reasonably be expected to be delivered by the Master of Lore that are bound to those nodes.  While we are the Voice of the Mystics we are not necessarily it’s enforcers.
Calix was unhappy with our compromise and we were sorely punished as a group by his minions.

Laying the Honoured Dead to Rest
The Vaniquished Waystation proved to be an interesting place.  It is adorned with banners of knightly orders some which we recognised (Knights of the Dark lady and Sir Guy Da Valor) and some which we did not.  While settling in we found ourselves confronted with an unquiet spirit who claimed to “Hide from the Dark, Shield from the Light” and was somewhat hostile to those professing to follow either.  
We later discovered that the banners we did not recognise were those of Orders of Halmadonian Knights who had fallen to darkness and become the Knights of the Dark Lady.  In response the leaders of the other orders wiped out the remaining members of these orders down the last child.  Those spirits that remained were the last of those found and destroyed and had been using the waystation as a final refuge to Hide from both the KoDL and their old companions.  It was with much souls searching that suitable penances were offered and these tortured spirits from eons ago finally passed on to peace.  

Legal Clarifications
During the course of our dealing with the Horde we rescued a Troll (named Lungash) who was being held by the Kalid.  They claimed to have purchased him from the Dye Fai Dyne.   We pushed on to challenge these traders as it sounded dangerously close to slavery.  The resulting conversations led to a decision being made that debt cannot be leveraged against the body or service of another being.  This seemed fair and just to those present at the time.  
The result of this however was the delivery of a message from the DfD, with a promise that they were gathering the other nations to support their point of view, that trade was suspended until the withdrawal of this clarification to the law of slavery.


Addendum
While I do not use these reports to display our group’s skill and individual bravery it should be noted that each and every member of the group was unstinting in their service to the Valley on this mission.  Of particular note Drake, Walker and Rianna, all of whom are but recently out of the training grounds performed unflinching in combat and spoke clearly and concisely on behalf of our people.
I thank you all for the chance to join you and hope we find ourselves assigned on other missions together.