#44 - National Borders and Outer Planes

Excerpt from the Cypher's Codex: The Scrawlings of a Warforged Scholar

Combat with General Darveshek ended abruptly after I disabled him with my arcane missile barrage. The only remaining Brelish traitor was the dwarf who had run up the stairs. I sent Rendar after him while I created an alchemical healing admixture in one of my empty ink vials and revived the badly damaged Magnus. I also worked to reverse some of the damage dealt to my iron defender Rungo, and would later repair the life-matrix that sustains it. Rendar was unable to stop the dwarf from climbing out of the second-story window and was not in a fit state to follow so we had to let him go.

House Tharashk agents soon showed up to deal with the commotion we had caused. Rendar explained our situation to his Tharashk Inquisitive contact, Jana Velderan d’Tharashk—a human among half-orcs—and she cleared us of any further trouble. I told Rendar of my desire to take the traitorous remains of Darveshek back to Breland to justice at the hands of the glorious Army of Breland. I thought this would be a simple request but I am glad I had the forethought to ask Rendar; he spoke of the matter to Jana using cryptic phrases and she acquiesced. I later learned from Rendar that there are many statutes and codes that apply to the act of claiming a person for bounty, and he had used appropriate terminology to enable me to carry out my task. Lately I have been studying the way thieves and soldiers are able to communicate secretly using code, and the language of bounty hunters is not so dissimilar.

I arranged for Darveshek’s body to be packed in a wooden coffin and shipped with us on the caravan, just as we had done for Grapnel’s former captain. Kard was willing to study the divine magic used to preserve a corpse, the same ritual the priestess Zerasha had used on the dead Karrn, and was able to preserve Darveshek later the next day. 


As our caravan was leaving the city, the young medusa Sa-Jira had a private conversation with Rendar—potentially of an illicit nature based on the sexual overtones in Magnus’s confrontation of him after the meeting. But that might have simply been Magnus. I have knowledge base for interpreting this sort of social interaction among non-warforged. Sa-Jira spoke some words to Rendar and passed him a pair of potion vials as a parting gift. I do not know what she said; Rendar did not impart her words to us.

Grapnel initially walked alongside our caravan, much to the dismay of my friends. When prompted to enter the wagon we had secured, Grapnel explained to us that he did not require rest in order to travel. My companions still do not understand the warforged physiology, but I was able to ease all parties using a bit of trickery. I gave an overly complex lecture on the nature of the arcane power held in the Mark of Passage and some elementary magebreeding principles. I do not believe anyone, certainly not Grapnel, was able to fully comprehend my analysis, but the point was clear: Grapnel would not be able to match the speed with which we would be traveling. He acquiesced enough to jump up and he hung off the back of the wagon with one hand and one foot on the vehicle's outer edge. This still made my companions uncomfortable, so I negotiated with Grapnel to join us inside the wagon, but allowed him to maintain a defensive watch of the outside world. Naturally, he was too tall to stand fully so he remained bent at several joints. Magnus felt that he must be very uncomfortable, and demanded that he sit with us, but I told Magnus to leave Grapnel to his task, assuring him that a warforged cannot experience the sort of discomfort that a human’s muscle tissue would feel in the same position.

A fascinating man rode in the wagon behind and adjoining ours. We struck up a conversation with him very early in the trip. Myrcose was a human male of particularly symmetric and flawless features and I noted his nuanced Aundairian accent. I recall us being very protective and cautious at first, having been impacted greatly by our ordeals in Graywall, but Myrcose was a pleasant and smooth-talking man, and after several hours we treated him as a friend. He said he was a collector of stories. I was intrigued by his professional claim, and prodded him with great effort to understand what seemed to me like a strange job. At first I thought that he might steal memories like the hag Xoma met in Graywall but Myrcose patiently explained it to me; stories are just one way of storing information, and a collector of stories is much like a spy trading information.  

After the first day of travel, we camped at the side of the road just outside the Brelish border. There were a set of six massive likenesses carved into the nearby mountains. Myrcose identified them as the Six Kings, ancient hobgoblin warlords from the Dhakaani Empire. The next day we passed through the Brelish border guard checkpoint. Everyone’s identity papers worked without incident. When I handed over my papers, I gave the officer a salute, which he returned in kind after noting my service record. A guardsman had some concern over our cargo but I was able to convince him that the bodies were in my care, that I intended to bring the fugitives to justice through official channels. He accepted my explanation and wished me luck on my journey.


I noticed a commotion near Grapnel and just then realized that he might not have any papers, having traveled as a servant of those slavers. I came over to the captain in charge and explained that Grapnel was in my care for now, that I had recently liberated him from the wrongful servitude of a group of barbarous Karrns. The captain relaxed his position and shared an expletive aimed at Grapnel's former masters. Grapnel asked me once again if the war was really over–this time I think he truly was ready to believe it. I couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate moment for Grapnel to speak his mind, because the Brelish captain gave Grapnel a look of dismay, and promptly sent him on his way. He then took me aside and reminded me to appropriate some papers for the large warforged once we reached Galethspyre. This has even been marked on my own papers.

The second day of travel also marked the 28th of Vult, the last day of the year 998 YK, and the third and final day of Long Shadows. The night the sky was perfectly clear, with four of Eberron's moons full and bright, and even the Ring of Siberys clearly visible over the southern horizon. 

In my studies of the planar geometries I learned that Risia, the Plane of Ice, becomes coterminous with Eberron in the last year of the century. The scholars believe that this causes places of cold to become colder, and places of extreme cold to become dangerous. So it was quite appropriate that almost right at midnight a light snow started falling as the year 999 YK began. I shared my knowledge of Risia’s movements with Myrcose and Grapnel, the former taking detailed notes while the latter made no sign of acknowledgement whatsoever.

Over the course of our journey, we also passed briefly through the town of Ardev, and within sight of a distant castle on the plains mounted atop a hill. I later learned this was Castle Arakhain, the personal estate of King Boranel's family. While he governs from Brokenblade Castle in the capital city of Wroat, Arakhain is the ancestral estate of Wroan, the princess of Galifar from long ago.

After seven days of travel, we arrived at our destination, the Brelish city of Galethspyre. As we were arriving, we noticed a large fair set up outside the city in celebration of the new year and the season itself. Known simply as the Winter Festival, it is observed in many communities across Breland but in Galethspyre is a grander gathering than most. People come from far and wide to attend the festivities here. I had never considered it before, yet here we were, happening upon it. I believe even House Phiarlan has a standing involvement with Galethspyre.

One feature of interest to me is the one that gives the city its name, which I spied from a great distance even though it was getting dark: Jutting from the bedrock near the river itself, hundreds of feet high, was a tall spire of blue rock. It did not look Dhakaani in origin, yet I believe its existence predates the nation of Breland, perhaps even Princess Wroan's rule and the kingdom of Galifar itself.

We made plans to get settled in a local tavern, the Golden Chalice, and we included Myrcose in those plans, and then would set off to explore the carnival.

In the town square where we gathered our belongings (after securing are human cargo), I noticed a pair of unusual travelers: another warforged and an elf.

The warforged appeared to have great pipes built into an obvious mithral frame, unlike any construct I had previously seen. Even the composite plating was unusual, in both shape and design, for it appeared to be painted or embossed with stylized figures. I approached the pair and asked the warforged if I could inspect his outstanding frame, but his companion was quite taken aback by my request.


I looked at her, the elf woman, and listened to the way she spoke, and concluded with some interest that she was not just an elf but a "high elf"—an eladrin, a fey creature not of Eberron but of Thelanis, the Feywild. Though not many know this, the eladrin are the planar ancestors of Eberron's elves.

A fey, progenitor species of elf and a warforged of atypical design, traveling together. What a delight! Two new and fascinating creatures to study!