Our Mission:

A meeting had been called by the other nations to vote on our suitability as the Voice and Will of the Mystics. We were tasked with travelling to that area, finding as many details as possible about this meeting and if possible attend it to put our point across personally. 

Our Group:

Given the bulk of this mission was spent in diplomacy with other nations I have grouped most events under their respective nations. Broadly we spent our time travelling from one nation rep to another to sway votes, meet new nations and solidify old alliances. 

We were able to speak directly with the representative from the Jewelled Pavilion. Being a relatively new nation and after our help with the plague they had experienced the Pavilion were on side with the Valley. However, they were under a lot of pressure from various northern nations and the Fortress of Pentar to vote against us. We were able to sway them by offering them access to our library and information about Hepaths. It should be noted that thought this nation does deal with Hepaths they do so very differently from the Fortress. They summon, speak with and dismiss Hepaths. If good relations are continued, we may learn much that would be useful against the Fortress.  

 

The Reader were another nation having pressure put on them by other more militant nations to vote against us. In their case the Shadowsfall whom they hired as guards had betrayed them. This came to a head when the guards tried to forcible escort the rep away. We protected him and this combined with a large repayment of part of the Merchants Council debt to the Reader ensured their vote. They also offered alternatives such as guard work to the Valley as a way of repaying more of our debt.

 

To the surprise of no-one the Khalid were a serious hindrance throughout this mission. More surprisingly they were the final candidate put forward to replace us as the voice of the mystics should the vote have gone against us. The Khalid had spearheaded a “Northern Alliance” of nations opposed to the Valley. We fought and killed a number of their groups over the duration of the mission. Our count of Khalid killed was 29, while not as many as some missions this did take the running total since the game began to above 100.

 

The Shadowsfall are a bit all over the place at the moment. We met with the Adjudicator who made their position clear in a tense conversation. Following that it became apparent that the Shadowsfall were heavily involved in the “Northern Alliance. We fought a group attempting to strong arm the Reader representative. We also believe the Shadowsfall were responsible for attempting to tamper with the votes of other nations.

 

 

Not a lot of interest to report here. We avoided the Fortress aside from when they directly got in our way. 

 

We did not meet the Saldorians at all but they did show us support in the vote as a sign of our good relations. 

 

The Concilium were incredibly helpful for all of this mission and it is honest doubtful that we would have succeeded without their aid. The Concilium facilitated the vote itself, spoke with other nations and ensured that tampered votes were detected.

The reason for this assistance is partly that we have had and should continue to have good relations with the Concilium but mostly because at the orders of Malcolm Middleton we (unknowingly at the time) handed the Concilium ALL of the valley teaching scrolls.

 

We did not interact with the Warriors at all. They seem to be part of the Khalid formed “lets hate the valley brigade.”

 

A unsurprisingly large amount happened with the Forgotten. There were the obvious repeated fights as they generally got in our way. The important things however:

This is one of the surprising votes. We went to speak with the Halls when we found out their intended vote. Unfortunately, a dark witch has arrived from Iliana who is senior to King Gundral. It is she who ordered the Azgard not to join the fight against the Void Weaver. She is not void related but does have a long standing problem with the Valley and is clear that she is intending to punish us for some past transgression. 

 

We met with Captain Scar and he reiterated the keepers support for us in words and with his vote. He asked for access to our achives and in exchange for their support and guidance with mystics and the lore the Shadowsfall hold we agreed. 

 

Our interactions with the LoX were rather strange. We heard in advance that they were planning to vote against us which given their support with the Void Weaver and our improving relations seemed odd. Wayland Wycan did teleport in to speak with us and after a brief somewhat dismissive conversation changed his vote. I suspect that mostly he wanted to remind us that the LoX support is not unconditional and that they can easily remove that support if things become problematic. 

 

We did not interact with the Dai-Fah-Dyne at all over the mission but their support should non the less be noted. 

 

Again we did not interact with the Dymwan and honestly their vote was surprising given our recent cooperation against Lord Cardinaris. Apparently there were actions taken by some on the mission to destroy Cardinaris that have upset the Dymwan enough that they will not support us for the time being but did not want to go as far as voting against us. 

 

The Heights backed us as expected. We were able to speak very briefly with Sir Bors about the void and the need for the Sword of Ice. He confirmed that High Priest Andrew had taken the Sword of Ice (one of the anti-void weapons) off plane. 

We were not able to speak with horde directly but they voted for us. This support is heavily due to the work of High Priest Nathan in forging positive relations with the Horde. 

 

A representative of the Laire Tinwe did appear to speak with us and after clarifying that the last of the Otomi gave his life for the Staff of Life willingly the Laire Tinwe agreed to continue their support of us. 

 

Another somewhat surprising vote. The Celestial Bureaucracy are apparently being strong armed by the more militant Keisora Dynasty who are opposed to us. 

 

The House of the Weaver and the Grey Man continued to be a close and invaluable ally. The Grey Man helped by providing us with the planned votes of many nations early thus enabling us to target those votes we could change. 

 

Keisora Dynasty have sided with the Khalid and the rest of the Northern Alliance against us in all things. 

 

The Cold Dawn seem to be general on side with us based on previous brief encounters and this vote. As much as possible should be done to continue these good relations. 

 

Despite their almost exclusive use of Evil magic, red magic and the burning eye emblem for their nation the Circle Aflame were very clear that they were not Morgothians. They were also very clear they were not on our side and we had several fights prior to the vote. 

 

One of the least surprising votes. We were also informed of the latest in the Halls attempts to control the Black Pharaoh. We arrived and disrupted what we could. As it turned out the ritual was unsuccessful for other reasons. 

 

Initially neither the Thessesin nor the Pordaradrim were invited to the vote. The Thessesin were also being forcibly enslaved by the Forgotten. We travelled to aid one of their Brood Mothers who had been caught and was being used as ransom to keep the other Thessesin in line. We were able to free her and a number of other enslaved Thessesin. We also had enough support from other nations to ensure that both the Thessessin and Pordaradrim were allowed a vote. 

 

As with the Thessesin once we made it clear to the Pordaradrim that the vote was occurring they forced their way in. There was some work done by part of our group to meet with and talk to members of the Pordaradrim regarding Arbor and his hunt. Unfortunately I was with the other part of the group so can’t offer a huge amount of information regarding this. 

 

Final vote count – 

For the Valley – 14

Against the Valley – 11

Spoiled – 1

The vote carried. The Valley remain the enforcers of the Will of the Mystics on Orin Rakatha. 

Other things of note that occurred:

Several times during the mission we encountered Master Delta who appeared to be stuck in a strange time loop being tormented by the void. They were trying to convince him to join “The Void Council.” Initially he believed us to be part of this in some way. We were able to see and interact with him enough to learn that there was a way to break him out of the void prison. He gave us details of a potion of blood bond which would enable him to link with adventures he knew and break free. When the Captain Ska of the Keepers turned up later he had with him a potion which he said the Keepers had been entrusted with long ago with instructions to give to us now. There are some advantages to being the Oracle of the Master of Time. Late in the Mission the Void Council itself turned up to try and stop us. There were void versions of many of the ranking members of the valley and void Oracles. An incredibly tough fight ensued as we tried to hold them off long enough to find Master Delta and get everyone required to drink the potion. When this was done the void council disappeared. 

 

Once free, Master Delta was able to confirm that the other Oracles had likely been suffering similar things and he left to try and free them. As the vote was coming to an end one of the major problems was the current lack of access to Oracles and the Black Pharaoh not being in the Temple. At which point the Dreadlord and all four Mystics arrived to observe the end of the vote. The sickness that was effecting Shard is now cured though unfortunately Dreams of Shadows was too far gone and could not be saved. The Master of Time was able to reach back to find an ancestor and Walks in Dreams is now the Oracle for the Traveller. 

Once the vote had concluded the Dreadlord informed us of the actions of the Forgotten in corrupting more of the nodes. The Black Queen was sentenced and punished for her role in this. To protect them from further corruption all nodes have now been withdrawn to the Central Isle. 

After the nation had left the Dreadlord spoke with our group to give us some important information. Firstly, the title “Black Pharaoh” is no longer applicable. From now on the Mystic of Evil is simply The Dreadlord. The Dreadlord Arakis is now the only personality and this is part of why the Halls of Sutek cannot control him. The Dreadlord is also no longer a member of the Valley Nation. To fully fulfil his duties as a Mystic he must take a clear step away from being a part of our Nation. We are still the enforcers of the Will of the Mystics and hopefully this separation will help clarify everyone’s position. 

For years Dreadlord Arakis has acted in the interests of the Valley and of Law. He has stood for strength, loyalty, respect, responsibility, cooperation and above all for the Valley. He became a Mystic to help guide the plane through the cataclysm and is now bound by laws and responsibilities higher than his own. Regardless of alignment or personal views as a Nation we owe more to the Dreadlord Arakis than can ever be repaid. 

The second important thing is that the only way to protect the nodes is to withdraw them to the central isle and until the Bloodlines are restored they will stay there. We have (again) be given a year to restore the Bloodlines and then with work the plane can begin to stabilise and return the void to its prison. 

After the vote the last of the Sneverheim arrived to speak with us regarding the restoration of the bloodlines. He provided us with names and locations for those Bloodlines we did not already have leads for. We now have at least the name of the last know member of the bloodline on Orin Rakatha and a location to start our search. 

The leads are:

While there the last of the Sneverheim was attacked by a Shadowmancer. The attack matched the descriptions of the attack on The Grey Man and others. The Shadowmancer appeared struck a single blow and Shadowshifted away again. None of our healing did anything to the wound but we were able to take the Sneverheim to the Mistweavers. They had some way to undo the shadowmagic and after this the Sneverheim left to return to the Mists where he would be safe. 

 

At the end of the meeting The Dreadlord had summoned the Mistweavers so that we could explain the situation with the nodes to them. Thankfully they arrived shortlay after the attack on the Sneverheim and we were able to fight our way through their accompanying Hordlings in time. Special mention to Driedyn for leading a formidable charge down the hordling tunnel. We informed the Mistweavers of the situation with the nodes, that the Forgotten lands no longer qualified as a nation and also asked about the mistwalk of Slag. As of yet nothing has happened but Ushrak has said he (though he was a she at the time) will attempt to aid and speed up the mistwalk.  

 

Lord Malcolm Middleton has been suspended as the head of the magic cabal and Sector Lord of Aether Town. This is as a result of his instructions to give all of the valley teaching scrolls to the Wizards Concillium. Any adventuring groups encountering Lord Middleton should instruct him to report to the Council of Sector Lords. 

Zalphuron Nightspell has been suspended as head of Darkhome. This is as a result of his admission of being a Shadowmancer (a void corrupted form of magic) and attacks on valley members. Any adventuring groups encountering Sorcerer Nightspell should instruct him to return to report to the Council of Sector Lords.

As every if you require more information I can easily be found in Darkhome. 

Khandis Greyspider,

11th Sorcerer of House Drannath.