Mission Concerning White Magic

February 7th – 9th 2003.

I was charged with leading a group to attend a meeting arranged by the White College of the Wizard's Concillium. The party consisted of the following people:

White Magic

Our group were the first attendants to arrive, and were asked to make ourselves comfortable by Ranga-fel, Acting Dean of the White College. He was confused why Helios the Luminary nor Reolf Cryandor of the White School of Magic were not to be found among our number, but recognised Myrrh to speak on behalf of the White School.

Ranga-fel reminded us that the meeting had been called to discuss the issues concerning white magic upon our plane, and said that there would be an open floor with many other races and towers invited. He said that he had studied Myrrh's ice shard from the elemental Plane of Ice, which had proved useful to his research. The shard had shown him that there is a way in which the inhibition of white magic can be lessened, although not removed.

While the Plane of Shadows is blocking the arrival of white mana, it is possible that placing beacons of the right type of magnitude on Orin Rakatha and the Plane of Ice will allow white magic to be accessed to an extent, but for a cost. Although the cost of using white magic in this fashion is unknown, the mana and physical cost will still be high – no sorcery, for example.

Ranga-fel would be required to travel to the Plane of Ice so to locate one of the beacons, thus presenting us with somewhat of a challenge, as he is cursed to hate elemental beings and will attack them all upon sight (thus placing himself in danger). We were tasked with escorting him to a "safe place".

Meeting of Towers

After this had been discussed, representatives of other towers arrived one by one. These included: Koran Ice-Cleaver of Halmaddon's Heights; Aljack No-Jo from the Dai fah Dyne; Surgat Shadow-Servant from the Morgothian Tower. Although their motivations for their interest in this matter varied significantly, a common goal of removing the Plane of Shadows from Orin Rakatha pervaded.

• The Dai fah Dyne representative complained that he was losing money and business, as the Shadow People were attacking his caravans as they travelled across the lands.
• The Halmadonians have been greatly afflicted by the disease – their Knights, sent forth to stop the Shadow People, have been returning to the Tower as empty husks, devoid of life. The Shadowsfall have confirmed that these husks cannot hold status, in a similar way to that hordelings and undead are incapable in this regard. Some of these Knights who have been afflicted by the Shadow disease have also then been caught out by the mists, and thus the numbers of hordelings in the area have increased.
• The Morgothians have suffered in a similar manner, with their people diminished by the essence drain.

From what was said at this meeting, we can deduce that "Icarus" has headed East since the last Ritual of Ashes.

Ranga-fel and the others asked now that red magic had been restored, if we had tried performing the Ritual of Ashes once more. I said that we were unaware of any effort to do so; but that additionally, I understood white magic to be an essential component of the Ritual.

After the meeting was concluded, I elected to mnemonic. During that time, I am informed that some Drow of House Dranath shadow-shifted into the building, but that we defeated them without too much ado.

The Second Day

We were disturbed by some Xenos drones; the first set casting magic, the second set casting spiritual invocations. Acting-Dean Ranga-fel then arrived, and we met with the enchanter from the Labyrinthe of Xenos. The latter was accompanied some hideous-looking creatures, and some drones who could follow basic commands and answer basic questions. They performed the ritual. We then took the opportunity to ask some questions concerning their knowledge about the Ikarthian People and Ritual of Ashes. Woolf in particular raised a number of pertinent points.

We later set out to journey to the Plane of Ice. Dean Ranga-fel was expecting to meet with a Sorcerer from the Blue College, but instead we were met by an elemental (who he felt obliged to attack). Fortunately this elemental immediately sent him to sleep, and after a number of preparatory spells and seeing that we were so prepared, set the rest of us to sleep and teleported us to the other Plane. We were immediately assaulted by a number of ice elementals, further groups of which continued to inconvenience us on our onward journey. Apparently such creatures are regarded as dogs on this Plane.

On The Plane of Ice

We came across a small group of natives huddled behind a fallen tree, which they named as their base. They called themselves "The Invisibles" and after a while, revealed that they were outlaws who feared "The Spoken" due to the cruel treatment that they received at their hands, and that they sought to create a slow revolution (involving poisoning of food and throat-slitting those who slept). They directed us to the nearest "Spoken" dwelling.

There we were greeted by a number of nobles, who offered us their hospitality. I spoke at length with the one who commanded the most authority of their family, and we quickly reached an understanding. I recommended a particular course of action to Dean Ranga-fel, and after I finalised a few details, he agreed that this was what he would do.

Ranga-fel had given our group a number of scrolls of Resurrection, which he reminded us must only be used for that purpose, due to their value. Our task complete, we returned to our origin upon the Plane, where the blue elemental was waiting to escort us back to Orin Rakatha.

Shadow Apprentice

We were attacked again by waves of Shadow People. Later, a figure approached, and named himself Anooj Odit. He said that the Towers would fall, and that future power would be measured by such things as how much land and wealth one possessed. He offered us land, in exchange for that we would become Shadows of our former selves. With him were those who had seemingly accepted his offer, whispering "join us" repeatedly. However when questioned, they did not appear to possess any land as had been offered, much as one would expect.

Owajawar convinced this Anooj Odit that we would consider his offer and return to meet him shortly within the woods. During this time, we took the opportunity to prepare for a grand fight, combining items and proficiencies so that the most appropriate people would take on each task. Thus, not long after we met the Shadow Apprentice and his followers, and slew them in short order.

A Descendant of A Hero

The waystation was later approached by two towerless men named LongHand Odit and Jarek. I granted them entry, and LongHand Odit told us of a confession he desired to make.

It transpires that his people were formerly of Icarus's Keep, and that he was descended from one of the apprentices of Icarus himself, one of the 7 Heroes who originally cast the great Nemesis - "more than one man, in many aspects: a despoiler of cities, a winged beast" – onto the Plane of Shadows. His ancestor, this Hero, was named Anooj Odit.

LongHand Odit wished to make a confession to the Kern Valley Alliance: a confession of cowardice. He said that for some time, it had been written that the Nemesis would return, and that he knew it would happen. Last All Hallow's Eve, swathed in black and grey, he waited in the forest while we cast the Ritual of Ashes. He heard a single cry from afar: a signal that the Nemesis had returned. He took up his sword, but was too afeared to fight the creature, and thus sought to flee.

Although he could not face the creature, he left at the site of the Ritual his father's token – passed through the ages – the black disk. It was said that they were carried and used to throw the Nemesis into the void, and that there was at least one for each of the 7 Heroes (possibly more). Many of the disks were lost after the Tower fell: they were not all handed down as sacred as they should have been.

LongHand Odit then placed upon the table another of the disks that he had recovered, along with a beneficial potion, before departing.

Confirmation of Success

We were visited late that night by Alfred Coakes of the College Guard, assigned to the White College of the Concillium. There was word from the Blue College of that our task had been completed successfully, Bronte Cull using a Wizard named Cleam as an intermediary.

By my hand,

Kevralyn Soulfire
26th Wizard of House Tumdurgul.