February 29th & March 1st

The party spent the next day traveling southwards, towards the Light Temple.  They made good time, though before they left Arwic they had to pay a substantial fee for the chunk of wall that Thog had destroyed, and barely managed to talk their way out of revealing anything to the Fairy authorities.

The trip itself was uneventful, and at about 3 in the morning on the 1st the party came within range of the Light Temple sufficient to see it.  The Temple itself was huge, consisting entirely of what looked like a deep glowing amber light made into solid substance, with pulses of white and yellow streaking along it in tight lines and corners.  The center structure was a large ring, jutting up from the ground and high into the air, surrounded on both sides by two massive 'plates' that reached even further up into the heavens, seemingly connecting at the very top.  At the base, as per usual, was a large township in which the people present stayed and traded and otherwise lived, but this one was slightly different from the other two.

Here, the energy in the air was so lively that even Rory, who had a lot on his mind, felt his mood lifted.  All fatigue had faded and been replaced with boisterous energy, and even from a distance the group could hear what sounded like a city-wide party.  It turns out the entire city literally never slept, as the energies of the Light Ley Line kept everyone at peak shape all the time, and given the nature of the Light Element, there was essentially a never-ending festival going on that had been going on for decades.  Rather than any other form of public transportation, there was a massive conga line that circled and moved through the city which people would join, only to debark once they reached their destination.  The place was alive with food, entertainment, and joyous activity.

The party spent some time in the city enjoying some much needed R&R, purchasing a few goods and enjoying some nice foods and otherwise relaxing for the first time in a long time. 

It was hours later that the party finally decided to go ahead and enter the Light Temple itself.  There were elevators of sorts within, constructed of the same hard amber light that everything else in the Temple was, which moved exceedingly slowly as they rose people up to the higher levels.  Several party members and other onlookers decided this was the perfect time for some backflipping, and to Snarg's sudden amazement he realized he had his Mana back for the first time in days, a fact the others quickly confirmed. 

Once further up they realized that the ring in fact had people all along the 'outside' lining of it, and if one were to start walking along it the gravity would keep them to the floor, even as they walked up the slow slope of the 'wall' until it became the 'ceiling'.  Similarly there were bridges leading out to the massive wings that jutted up on either side which also kept someone walking along them as though down was out.  The party enjoyed the novelty of it for a bit before traveling up the long, long trek along the wings and up to the very top, almost a mile in the air, where they saw the bridge that connected the two wings at their tip.  At the very center was a tall, inscribed pillar, the only thing in the entire Temple not made of the same amber light, seemingly constructed of steel and marble.  People would enter it, and then exit on the other side, as per the usual Trial objects.

The entire party decided to undergo this Trial, and regardless of their individual experiences all encountered one strong similarity; within the Trial was a sense of dread and foreboding that threatened to overwhelm them, but it faded the moment they left back into the real world, which left them wondering.

Since we are the 1st of March, Zeiss is now 26 years old. Happy birthday Zeiss!

I just read that we had a few hours doing our own thing before our Trial. I would like Zeiss to go find this important place I talked to you about Arch in one of my PM. He will just sit near that place to think about a few things while he pets Rainbow at the same time.

That is all. Again, thank you for those summaries.

The group was enjoying a suspiciously enjoyable buffet table and mango juice when Javan, and then shortly thereafter many nearby other Fairies, began to freak out as they spotted some kind of absence of elemental energy in the air around them.  Mere minutes later, the Skyclaw became visible in the distance, and was approaching very quickly.  Within a few minutes the ship was present, and stopped beside the Temple itself, hovering over the town below.  The group quickly identified that Fierneceal was on the ship, and learned in advance what the Olthoi quickly announced to those below; the Olthoi were going to use this ship, which they claimed was of Olthoi design, as a peaceful ship to provide support in the form of food, aid, medicine, supplies, etc. impartially to everyone across the continent in these harsh times, and they identified 'their' ship as the Sperca. 

This done they learned from Fierneceal about the Sperca's journey across the globe, and learn that the ship journeyed straight over (refusing to stop) the lost continent of Auburean, which according to Fierneceal was heavily urbanized but totally abandoned.  There was foliage, but no animals, no bugs, and no people.  The entire place made everyone on the ship feel quite uneasy.

That tidbit given, the group was sojourning at a tavern when Zeiss received a letter from Sareth and Bonebreaker entailing a plan the two had concocted over the past few days to further the Exchange's position, money, and etc. which involved a wealthy food magnate in the Sho territory.  Thus, the group decides to head straight back to Holtburg and reconvene, where the two outline their full plan in detail.  Some time after their conversing, Gwydo realized he was under attack by some kind of assassin.  Bonebreaker, furious at someone attacking in the Veil, went into a Frenzy and rushed out after the assassins, followed by the group.  Bonebreaker brutally killed the two he found, failing to catch the last one, and narrowly avoided killing Higaide as he forced himself to calm down.  Realizing the potential danger the group split up; Bonebreaker, Higaide, and Z stayed in the Veil.  Rory, Javan, Zeiss, and Gwydo headed towards Rory's mother's place at the docks.  Kolson and Snarg headed towards Tia's place, to get Iridona to safety.

The group at the Docks found a particular Elf that Zeiss believed was one of their assassins, which Rory promptly decapitated in a rage.  Rory and Gwydo both went off full tilt, and Zeiss fled towards the Veil realizing that his own family might be in danger.  Javan was left alone to deal with the guards, but managed to convince the guard that there was a mad Lugian on the loose.  

Meanwhile, Kolson and Snarg had arrived at Tia's house and found the racist nanny there as well as Kolson's niece Iridona.  Within very short order Snarg realized the house was being watched, and they very quickly decided to leave.  Not 3 feet out of the door, the nanny fell to the ground, unmoving, and they rushed right back in.  The nanny was very dead, with a dart in her dress.  Kolson and Snarg quickly came up with a plan to distract their pursuers, breaking a window and setting a fire out the window and calling for help from the neighbors, who quickly helped put out the fire then rushed off to grab help.  A few minutes later they returned with officials who were there to help, but Kolson realized instantly they were lying about whom they were and, playing along, quickly grabbed Iridona and rushed out the door, locking it behind them as they rushed out.  The duo also realized one of the nearby taxis was also a further layer to the trap, deciding to keep going and narrowly avoiding further attacks as they go before successfully picking the only non trap taxi present and rushing off to the Veil, with the neighbors in tow.

Dropping the neighbors and Iridona off, the entire group headed off towards Rory's, frantic with worry.  By the time they arrived, Rory had been fighting a slowly losing battle against assassins trying to kill his mother for quite some time.  With the rest of the group's aid they managed to finish off what they believed to be the last of the enemy, and take a few prisoners as well. 

Reconvening back at the Veil, they found Iridona with a message from their mysterious attackers; "We could have killed her."  Apparently when the group left, they had forced their way in and a strange fully cloaked creature which seemed to have no legs had hovered its way over and handed that to her with a gloved hand.  

The three prisoners, they realized quickly, were actually all Desolates, and that left them with a dilemma of how to interrogate them.  After some thought they had a rune Woven by Kolson to help track them which they had Zeiss hide on one of them, while Fierneceal tried to mentally implant suggestions into their minds.  Then they moved them to an obvious prison, so when they awoke sometime later they instantly Translated out.

The rune informed them that the individuals had fled to somewhere far to the south.  The rune remained active for about an hour before suddenly stopping, and by that time they narrowed the focus down to the far eastern section of the Sho Empire.  Meanwhile, Rekarg had returned and informed the group that he was being punished for directly assisting the party in non Gaerlan related issues, and he was forbidden from doing so henceforth, but he was available for information, contacts, and otherwise fully.  In that vein, he also informed the group that he had gotten messages out to his contacts with regard to the soul augmentation experiments, which were centered in the Hebian-To area.  And finally, through the Exchange the party had agents within the city of Kinshoy in the Hebian-To Province, and they also had a Magicite trawler already hired and ready to go, having already prepared it for the other purpose.

The party piled onto the ship and made sail southward, towards Kinshoy, and the Sho.