Umber

Umber

A Sword’s Life, or, Po’s Death: A recap

November 16th, 2009

In our last adventure, your group brought back some books from a shadowy past. Most of those, while interesting, were of limited utility – recipe books that call for ingredients you’ve never head of, treatises on long-vanished kingdoms, and so forth. While these may be of interest to scholars, there were three that prove more directly useful upon deeper inspection.

– A black, cloth-bound, slightly stained tome entitled Dark Doorways. If you have the Literacy feat and are trained in Religion, add a +2 miscellaneous bonus to Religion checks after spending one week reading this book.

– An ornate red and gold book named From Beyond, which is a kind of how-to book for performing seances. As you first read it, you laugh over most of it, but one particular section catches Zane’s attention. It’s possible that some of the techniques, if performed by a trained psionicist, might actually work. The book can teach the talent Echoes of the Past which, when performed on an item of legend, will play back particularly instrumental or formative scenes that the item was involved with. (The Literacy feat is required to gain the benefits of this book as well.)

– A worn, but otherwise well cared for, large brown leather-bound volume. Its pages are bright white and rough textured. You cannot read its title because it is composed of symbols composed of short, generally tapered lines instead of the kind of letters that you are familiar with. Within the book, however, are simple but elegant black and white line drawings that identify it as a martial training manual for those who wield weapons similar to the ones owned by Malik’s family line, now possessed by Ivan and Regan. The swords are uniformly single-edged blades of varying lengths, with slight curves and small or nonexistent guards, and hilts wrapped in black cloth exposing white diamond-shaped patterns. The drawings show stances and moves unique to these weapons. The last image in the book is more detailed than the rest and features a set of students assembled outside at night, as a figure who appears to be their teacher lectures, pointing at the full moon.

And as you journey onwards towards Urik, each morning Reign hands Po the Sword of Camelok, and each morning he attempts to restore its healing powers. But the sword no longer glows briefly as it did on his first attempts, and each morning, Po looks more haggard than the previous.

Po wonders if it is his separation from the blade that’s causing his energy to drain, and so asks Reign if he can keep it close for a day, but to no avail. Each day, he seems to grow a bit weaker. And that day’s attempt to revitalize the sword drains his energy to the point where he becomes faint; Reign quickly catches him to prevent him from falling down. Having done so, she notices that he is very, very cold. While he returns to normal within a few minutes, the experience is quite uncomfortable, and Po understands that his life is at stake. He also knows that stopping now means the loss of all progress with the sword, if progress it is.

Saphira finds bits of glass near where Po was standing. “Were these here before?” she asks, and no one can remember that they were. “Need food,” says Po, who is incredibly hungry.

Regan expresses wishes that she were able to heal, but such is the path of the Avenger. “Please, take my rations for today. I’m afraid that’s the best I can do for you,” she says, before returning to the martial manual.

Kerac examines Po thoroughly. “Physically, you’re fine. If I could, I’d try to help you with recharging the blade, but I can’t see how that would work.” He examines the glass, and it is still warm. Some kind of heat transfer? Po to the blade? If this is the case, it could easily kill Po if he persists. But Kerac intuits that it’s not simply that, either – there’s no physical reason why simply channeling healing powers into the sword would do this. It must be a spiritual as well as physical drain. “Perhaps the Avangion wants or even needs you to do this, Po. But the effect is growing stronger each time you try.”

Sugar Primrose plucks a small edible flower from her living staff, handing it to Po, who consumes it. Saphira offers encouragement but few other words, but instead plays a restful song. These simple offerings seem to lift Po’s spirit and buoy his strength beyond their normal measure. “I think I’ll be ready to try again, tomorrow,” he says. “Zane, is there anything you can do to help? Perhaps with the ritual, or the energy transfer?”

Zane considers things for a while. “I think we need more information. Perhaps the ritual described in the book might yield something of interest,” he says, and begins to prepare.

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