Stories Of Lore 19

 

Well…that was… this is going to be rough. I have been working with Khota to condense all we have learned so that it can be approached more simply.

 

The Spirit Keeper is widely thought of as being a god. We understand that at the core of it, he is the brother of the King of Crows and a rival to him in power. He is said to be an immensely powerful shaman but we’re not sure what that power entails as we didn’t have Hakenu’e get a display from them. Though it seems he trained Eerihild, Hallvard, and Haleh. By the process of…paying attention I am pretty sure he trained Icno as well. Since he would round out to it being all four shamans with white hair and blue eyes, not to mention the four strongest, all having been in contact with this one entity.

I have consulted with Xacalli on the matter, she was unaware the King of Crows even had siblings.

He has offered to heal Alihana in exchange for helping Hallvard and Eerihild kill Haleh and then taking Hallvard and Eerihild away from the north. Such an entity could be a valuable ally though Hakenu’e gets the sense there is far more to this man than we have been able to learn with this meeting.

He is in direct conflict with Haleh. Who has revealed that her bloodline has more than one trick. It is likely that her family’s abilities all have to do with affecting the mind in some way or another. Unfortunately, her eldest daughter has the ability to steal knowledge from others. We are not sure of the entirety of its extent, but this is likely how Haleh has been so effective in controlling so much of the north in such a short span of time. Her ‘interrogations’ carve all the information she could ever need out of anyone she wants. So this means she now knows everything Tlalli knew. While the Nezatl messenger wasn’t fully informed of everything we know, she was aware of the general ongoing affairs of the tribe as most are.

Extra unfortunately, that means Haleh just learned we don’t have Alihana right now and we’re not entirely sure of why but she seems very confident that without her she could destroy us. If not through sheer numbers she might have another we don’t know about in her family of loyalists that only Alihana could deal with. However, she has agreed not to do so for now since we sent a peace messenger before either of us ‘knew’ that she would likely win the war. On threat of us making sure not to sneak Alihana back onto Auwana. She also wants us to send her Xacalli for…’interrogation’ which appears a little painful. In exchange she will tell us all she knows about the Spirit Keeper, and I get the feeling she knows a lot more than most people do or would so easily tell us.

So she wants to make sure I have no ulterior motives to help the King of Crows or the Spirit Keeper, and by proxy that the tribe has no such motives. If we don’t, she is hoping to reveal information to us that might draw us to her side at least as allies for the time being.

I will state, I do not have any such motives or knowledge. However, there are three other things that I would not so easily let her learn. The first being the ritual of crows. The second being the ritual of the King’s call…which I may not have told you I can do. Basically, I am of high enough status to call for the King’s attention. Essentially, the reverse of the scrying pool. The third is my blood magic, I do not truly know if it is tied to my bloodline or not. There is a chance…we end up giving her daughter all of my magical knowledge. Her daughter’s ability is terrifying, but it can’t protect her or win a fight. The north is mostly filled with shamans, this requires more than raw knowledge of the art. You need to be able to interact with the spirits and that is something of a deeper journey. If she can use my magic I have spent decades refining in an instant… Well consider that risk appropriately.

I’m not really concerned about how much it appeared to hurt Tlalli. She’s fine and I’m tougher than that. Though the repercussions of arming the Chanai with my knowledge could be vast. At least for everyone else. I doubt that girl has the passion I do nor the power of the crow’s mark.

I’ll do it if you ask me to, but I won’t be held responsible for the aftermath.

I must ask you to leave the meeting Xacalli. I know we asked you to be here for this part, but you will understand if the option to give your knowledge to this Chanai woman is taken I would prefer you not be here for the rest of this discussion.

The one time these were interesting too. Alright fine, though if the option is not taken I wish to be informed of what is going on. Consider me…invested in this Keeper business.

Thank you. Alright then, since Zhuan is missing I would like to say the crazy things he would say for once. What if…we just have Xacalli perform the King’s call? Instead of siding with the Spirit Keeper or Haleh, we just…go get the King? Haleh was clearly distasteful of crow-folk. If we brought them here she would have a very serious problem. They are ruthless, rampant, and can’t actually reach Auwana so we would be spared from their warpath. I don’t know if that’s how the ritual works, I just wanted to float the idea while Xacalli isn’t there so Haleh doesn’t…misinterpret me.

I’m not as fluent in the ways that people think so I won’t pretend to know all the details of how these people work as Zhuan does but I will give my thoughts on the options of war.

As for my actual advisory statement for this council, as a war assessment it is likely we cannot defeat Haleh outright. Though with the savage folk and the Thorin, perhaps even the Ivor, we should be able to as I said before. We have not even solved the Howling Horror for her yet, she would be under attack from every direction and no matter her confidence that is too much for her numbers to handle unless the Asvald wipe out the northern forces before we make a move. However, we will have to operate with just those who are already off of the island to avoid drawing her attention until we are ready for it. We will also be at great risk of losing those same people if she finds them, especially with her daughter’s talent for interrogation.

The next and safest option is to stand neutral as Haleh demands and just…float on by without getting involved though the Keeper may see that as siding with Haleh. Not sure how reasonable he is. It is likely that Haleh would host our wayward champions in her village if she doesn’t want them to return to Auwana in this scenario, so they would at least be safe.

We could outright ally ourselves with Haleh. Her objective is clear, to establish a line of influence into the far north where she can stage a plan to destroy the Spirit Keeper. If we were to partake in this, we could easily solve the Howling Horror for her. Well perhaps not that easily but thanks to Citlanal we could mitigate the biggest risk of engaging it. So much so that wild experimentation is quite easy to do. The Ivor aren’t moving but we could still send Sakazai to…quell the threat to take some pressure off Haleh so she can focus on the northern dispute. From there it is a matter of brute force, which we could aid with just a little given our current ability to deploy our warriors though without the other two problems I am sure Haleh could deal with the rebels and the invaders herself. She might even give us more assistance in mobilizing our warriors across the land if we wanted to help in an even greater capacity. The problem here is I have no idea what the capabilities of this Keeper actually are. Not even Xacalli can give me a meaningful idea since no one has actually seen the King of Crows get into a fight.

At the core of the situation, Haleh and the Spirit Keeper are in a battle to the death. We have…perhaps not ideally positioned ourselves into the middle of it. For our own ends, we are most interested in expanding our tribe before we float further away. However, the shamans all predict the same thing, we will be going southeast on the next currents. A land that we are steadily learning is going to be  an interesting affair, so the more allies the better.

Zhuan is not here so I will do my best to counsel on this angle of the situation. Haleh may not be willing to outright join us, she is a proud queen. Though she may be willing to ally with us, at which point we would be akin to an empire of two tribes. We have enough land up here to let her build her own village wherever she likes to house her people and we know she has…a grudge against certain entities we can expect to meet to the east of here. Ragniva and Icno also clearly share these feelings, which is what binds them together. This path will put us at significant odds with Hallvard and Losvir’s followings as well as the Keeper. Perhaps even the King of Crows as well in the long run and several other gods of equivalent status to them. Taking this path will ally us to the many powerful champions who follow Haleh, a number larger than any other choice and with no lack of quality. This maaay put us at odds with the Rahana to the east though, we have to discern the truth of the matter there. It also is immediately placing us as the enemies of all these deified entities.

The Keeper only offers us two champions of his, assuming they both live. Hallvard and Eerhild, while powerful it is notable he was very specific that it was those two and only those two because he needs to rebuild the north afterwards. However, there is another angle here. I have…convinced Xacalli to share with me one critical piece of information. There are three of these deified beings here in the western half of the world, they intend to wage a war with the rest who reside in the east. Allying with the Keeper would earn us his patronage and at the very least some allies in the King of Crows and the Oldest Man. Though…it may be awkward teaming up with the cannibals. I imagine should the invasion begin, we will suddenly have some interesting allies sharing the island with us. Though we will also have the protection of the followings belonging to these three beings. This puts us at odds with the others of their ilk in the east most likely, who we have not even met.

As another more difficult but perhaps more rewarding angle, we could just…try and sneak off with whoever we can. I am sure we could recruit many of the savage northerners who desperately need a new homeland. Not to mention the Volsung who have lost their ancestral home and apparently know some things about farming. Some of the Vargr seem less aligned with the full weight of their tribe than one might think. It is known that Haleh can sometimes rule through force and fear.  The Ivor would likely also be interested in this since Xiomac is no longer, and we already have the Huanacan for them to fit into. There are likely more clans that have escaped our notice amid this conflict we could dedicate our people to seeking out and finding. Not so sure about what Ragniva is up to. While her loyalties seem in a difficult state, her motives are not. I do not know if she would side with us if we could not prove ourselves in battle whilst showing no interest in the greater scheme of Haleh’s to pick a fight with beings whose powers we do not understand. Though this option would be the best way to avoid making enemies of anything we have not yet met.

 

We’ve been experimenting with copying what we can of the Asvald’s methods though in this snow its hard to get anyone to practice much of anything effectively. Though the idea has some merit to it.

Citlanal went to deal with the Howling Horror, or at least assist Icno in the effort. She was able to prevent its murderous howl, then we discovered it is immensely strong and very hard to kill. However, it moves very slowly and isn’t particularly bright. Kind of like one of the Hariwana zombies but way stronger and tougher. It seemed to have a weird fascination with Icno and wasn’t interested in chasing anyone else.

Also it occurrs to me, isn’t almost Hallvard’s entire army technically enslaved? Should we be doing something about that?

We’ve sent out some people to look for any fire beasts but that might be awhile given that everything up here is frozen.

Tlalli was sent with two others to try and establish talks with the Vargr. Turns out her daughter can read minds. So…that could have gone better. Though its a good thing we didn’t send Citlanal or Kaya as they would have learned so much more from them.

 

Greetings Chief Chants. With Sawiri, Alihana, and Hamona all away, I shall take over the solemn task of keeping you up to date with the affairs of the clan once more. The Vanguard have reached the Lone Mountain, and they are awaiting counsel on how to handle the affairs with the Spirit Keeper as we have learned.

On their arduous odyssey of crossing the lifeless cold that we call the White Lands, they have come to fall in with the witches of the Volsung clan during a quarrel with the village proclaimed as Sigehea. It is quite nearby, Hakenu’e has acquired the attention of the Volsung on terms favorable for us.

Tehanau has made her way to the village of the Thorin. She cannot find Losvir’s presence and no one is knowledgeable as to where he might lurk. Lokala’i is also there, so they have taken to dueling people around the village to ensure their names are marked and remembered. Tehanau is undefeated.

Hamona has traversed the lands and returned to the plains. As winter comes, the plains are as still as the earth its people have been returned to. The cannibals have departed from the land, yet only after their victory. Demon bones lay speared over campfires. The Halik and Witch Doctors lay still in their camps, never to awaken again. All that remains is the solemn silence of a land which has perished. Auwana is all we can call home for there is nothing left, just an ashen grave.

That is strange. The cannibals were powerful but so were the demons. It seems odd that they took over the entire plains so swiftly and then just as quickly left it for dead. The land may have been burned but there was enough there especially for just one clan to last through the winter.

Zhuan has Hallvard’s forces taking a slower march to delay the inevitable invasion long enough for us to figure out what we want to do about all these matters. Some of his forces morale has been shaken by our ministrations though others seem more difficult to sway. Not to mention Hallvard himself will not be deterred from this war. While his personal motives are in seeking a new land, we have recently learned he and his ally Eerihild have a shared master with other motives that just so happen to align to the task of invading the south.

Also my arm is better now.

Wehilani was occupied with her journey to the north with the vanguard. Though I was able to ask Esin if any of the harpies could make the flight for us. Between the vanguard already taking off, and the flight to deliver the clothes to them they are unable to catch up with the vanguard without a proper idea of where they might be found in all the north. They are now tracing the path Haleh most likely took in search of the wyvern’s…is it right to call it a resting place if we know its spirit is with Haleh still?

Lokala’i is doing fairly well. He managed to reach the Thorin village and met up with Tehanau there and so now there are two weird underdressed elves fighting people around there. Lokala’i has only lost three of his eight attempts, though it is clear many of the Thorin’s greater champions reside here ready to repel Haleh should she assault them again.

A duo is traveling back to the jungles, but since all of the gryphons are already in the jungle with the Akoa they will have to walk. We’ll hear back from them someday, hopefully before the island floats anywhere else.

As for the pair hunting the strangest of creatures in the north there has been a complication. A large number of them have no bones. Though a few have managed to be collected but now there is the problem of getting back to Auwana through the siege of Ragniva. Though perhaps fortunately, Sawiri is not far from them at the Lone Mountain.

Esin had no ideas on improving the lifts.

This device you call a sword reminds us of Alihana’s unique weapon sawiri made for her. It is as if it were a giant knife, similar to these swords though perhaps an even greater version. We’ve also noticed that the Howling Horror wields a similar object. A long sharp…thing. As for its purpose as a sidearm there are those curious if it could be as versatile as an axe. Since such a weapon is great for gathering fire wood as well. Silas has been experimenting with the device. So far it cuts saplings well enough at least. Though those are rarely good for fires. However there is something to be said for the ease at which it can place its edge along an opponent as its basically just a long edge sticking out of its wielder’s hand.