Information regarding the ritual and future plans, Next event plans Options

[dnsmantra]

OOC: Assume this is accessible only to guild members. Just easier to post here so all can see it and we can chat, than trying to do so privately with everyone on the event.

Evening all,

I've spent some time researching the ritual we were gathering things for last we travelled, and also the options we have available to us.

The ritual itself is somewhat conceptual at this point. Our friend has not fleshed it out to the point of it being something we could cast. We could enlist the help of one of the Stadtus of a friendly city (e.g. Alguz or Gothiel) as they would likely be able to put the pieces together into more defined steps. Or someone else who has experience of ritual of this scale. Otherwise we would need to conduct our own research and experimentations.

The nature of the ritual is that it sends power at the Empress as the Realm Spirit of Glass, and so shapes and affects her realm. The consequences of that are how we choose them to be. I would suggest, quite strongly, that we do nothing aggressive or detrimental to her. Such would both be morally wrong, given she is, after all, a goodly divinity, who to my knowledge seeks only the best for her people (much as her temporal power is often wielded by morally dubious individuals). What we could do though, is significantly bolster her capabilities to see off supernaturally evil threats, make it harder for undead and the infernal to manifest or influence her realm, reduce the ease with which infernal power 'touches' people or for forces of evil gods to thrive. We could also direct power to her such that she herself could manifest angelic beings to oppose such powers directly, or as an alternative bolster her such that through her influence the hearts and minds of the common folk are much less likely to be swayed by the machinations of evil, and are much more likely to turn to those of goodly faiths for support and guidance. There is, as it were, almost limitless possibility. We should decide carefully.

How we couch what we do will in my view be incredibly important. It must look, and genuinely be, that we are trying to help her and the realm/people. Not doing so would be very likely to draw the ire of the Empire's authorities, and while I know there are those who would care not a jot, it is vastly easier to act and accomplish meaningful change when we don't have the Inquisition and others breathing down our neck and countering our every move. We not only want to look 'on side', we want to 'be' on side and have that stand up to scrutiny, while also achieving the ends we wish.

Frankly, in my view, we should be thankful we have the Empress and not awful people like my father still on the throne.

I digress. On to more practical matters. The rite requires a Shard of Divine Flame as its centrepiece. This is something directly linked to the Empress and is very likely something you don't want to scry about unless you like being burned, a lot. Radiant, I'd suggest if you have any access to scrying this would be something good for you to look into. It may, perhaps, even be something you could craft. We should certainly seek to acquire this as a priority, but I'm afraid I have no leads and it is probably worth us acquiring more of the secondary foci first, at least when next we gather. [Correction: this is the crystalline shard Solaris has, that we were given last time].

The shard then needs a number of supporting foci, relating to goodly faiths. We can't use more than one for each faith, and the better the focus is and the more faiths we represent, the stronger the effect will be. So far we have:

Talthar - the ritual/prayer mat with the seven rings on it.
Mortai - the grail we recovered.
Sacred Heart - the wrappings recovered from the demonic plane through the rift in the Thanatari temple up north.

Other possible options on our list, which we currently have information on:

- A holy sword called Ortanya's Bane lost in the nacht with the village where it was lost. I can't discover why it or the village were lost, but I think I can get us there. Auspice, as it is with the 'nacht, is that we should go after this when we next gather. It is also probably just a really good relic to recover, regardless of the rite. (OOC: Heather chose this for us and she's already writing it, so we're locked in on this one).

- A Fallen Star (Lady of the Stars) - two main options here - summon one ourselves; there are some scrolls in a library in Amlas we could use to do this. Or, there's some gyth in the baronies summoning and corrupting stars. Personally, I don't much fancy having my brain fried or my limbs cut off, but it seems like stopping them would be good to do if we can.

- Brilliant Grail (Border) - likely a negotiation with its owner, possibility for caveats or something we might need to do to secure its use.

- Hand-bindings (Unity) - are made for marriage to help partners get through grief. I suspect primarily around the end of life or other problems. I'm not prepared to cause someone such grief, but we could hunt down a place where such grief has already happened, try to put things to rights, and recover the hand-wrappings from there. They need to have been used to be useful to us. That's the key.

We should do the sword first. What are everyone's thoughts regarding the other three main options? My instinct is that we should probably go for the fallen star (which option?), and perhaps arrange a meeting with the owner of the Border Grail.

Worth saying we can also come up with other relics for other faiths if we can think of something suitably potent we could acquire.

Jarle

OOC: We should try and decide on the other thing(s) we want to go after asap, so Heather has time to write for us.

[Gordon]

With members of the Lady of the Stars being integral to our combined successes through the years and with Bradley and Faithful due to be with us I would suggest the Fallen Star.

The Baronies is somewhere I know fairly well for someone born outside it and with Thor, Quintus, Yorso and myself being based there we can hopefully make the right preparations to act upon the Silverfolk.

Happy to scry as and when the possibilities allow and as for the Stadtus thing, luckily the Supernatural Defence of Alguz is another of my responsibilities...I have a desk and everything.

Radiant.

[dnsmantra]

Brilliant. I think it's all falling into place nicely. I'm afraid I had no idea you were Stadtus. I spend much of my time simply wandering from place to place, going where I'm needed, and pay little attention to such appointments. A very happy coincidence though. And I agree with the Fallen Star. Makes sense given the connections we have.

Jarle

[dnsmantra]

Also, slight correction. Solaris has the Shard of the Divine Flame. It was the small crystal we were given by our friend. The one that made you somewhat warlike and with a desire to burn/smite/destroy evil. We also learned that there were other similar shards I think. If we could acquire more/others that would probably help too.

Jarle