#84 - The Weaver's Shadow

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

A magical darkness enveloped our oni enemy and at the same time a black vapor arose from the tattoos of the Shadow etched into mine and Magnus’s palms. It was the first time these tattoos had ever activated, although I certainly had my suspicions that there was magic involved, likely divine as I could never fully analyze their magical matrix. Zerasha took our basilisk-gaze-stoned bodies from the arena in Graywall and brought us back to animated form, however in the process giving us our palm glyphs.

Unseen beneath the screen of darkness, the oni flew up into the air and beyond most of our reaches. When the darkness subsided, our oni was less protected and Magnus was able to land a fierce blow against his lower half. However the oni looked different than before; his features were slightly different and he was wearing different clothes. Just as I was about to fire upon the creature, he called out to me and Magnus claiming no intention to hurt us. I surmised that there was some relation between the subsiding black vapor about the oni and that from my palm. Stepping between Magnus and his prey, I called out for a parley and it was accepted.

The oni claimed to be Sorrel, a friend of Zerasha and a servant of the Shadow. Through some magical means he did not explain, he was able to switch physical places with his brother Hiraz the Weaver, the oni we against which we had begun this battle. For a short yet indeterminate amount of time Sorrel would remain with us in the ruins, sent as a spy for the Shadow. It was clear he, like the medusa priestess, was a servant of the Sovereign of Magic and Mayhem. Sorrel explained that Zerasha had gathered new intelligence and now sought more; it was only by our presence here that he was able to manifest. His brother, Hiraz, had made Glyphstone Keep, or at least this level of its dungeons, into his lair for some time. But now he had made alliances with our enemies.

Someone asked about the nature of the Hiraz’s slave. Sorrel said he was of no consequence, but I said that we should converse away from the slave, in case he were to reveal our intentions to his master when Hiraz returned. Sorrel admitted this to be an issue and stated his intent to therefore kill the slave but we were able to get him to move to the rug storage room instead. In there he was searching through the rugs; he said he was looking for a magical rug his brother, a skilled weaver, had produced. He was unable to locate the one in question and did not explain what it was for.

We spoke with him further and Sorrel then told us of news from Zerasha. She had communed with The Dark One and learned that Avashad had placed here Governor Trazzen, the vampire lord who had hounded us since his appearance in the Graywall arena, giving him full authority over Glyphstone Keep. Avashad had, at least in Droaam, presented himself openly as a rakshasa, a terrible sign since his ancient kind tended toward subterfuge and shapeshifting as a rule. Magnus and Clarion described to Sorrel our interaction with Lucerix and Avashad, much to Sorrel’s interest. Zerasha, he said, believed that Avashad had acquired an ancient device—possibly here in Glyphstone Keep and of Dhakaani design—that he intends to use against the great nation of Breland to some horrible end. However the artifact’s destructive power is only meant as a distraction, there is some greater game being played. Nonetheless, I vow to myself to destroy this device at all costs, Long Live His Holiness King Boranel.

We searched the next room with Sorrel, a tapestry room with several fine tapestries hanging from the walls. Likewise, war banners were displayed on tables in the center of the room. Each of the banners depicted a different version of the same beautiful harpy, slaying her foes with her deadly voice or rending claws. Sorrel named the harpy as Callain of the Bloody Word, ruler of a clan of notorious harpies from the Byeshk Mountains and one of the few that did not pay tribute to the hags that govern Droaam.

The tapestries on the wall were of more subtle design. But I noticed in particular two of them that depicted humanoid figures that interested me for some reason—a young human in the uniform of an Emerald Claw knight and another human wearing cold weather gear. I touched the second tapestry and detected a strong magical emanation; I also noticed the human in the banner bore many tattoos that immediately reminded me of Magnus’s but they were white instead of red. I told Magnus to look at it and he recognized the man as a Seren. He turned away after a warning from Sorrel to not look upon the tapestry for too long or Magnus would switch places with the man! For indeed real men were trapped inside the tapestry's magical threads. Extradimensional magic!

We decided to attempt to retrieve the Seren human from the tapestry and Sorrel dragged in the slave to swap with the Seren. Magnus, Aleae, and Kard were very uncomfortable with forcing him to do this, but we promised to take the tapestry back with us and return the man to Fairhaven, the capital of Aundair, where his family was. Although Kard was particularly against this course of action, Sorrel was much in favor, and stated that if the man did not submit to this, he would slay him. Kard, perhaps because he is duty-bound to a religious order, once again spoke in the man's defense, allowing for neither the death or the imprisonment of the man.

In fact, this would be the only means of rescuing him from the chains of his bondage. At last, after Kard vowed to liberate the man afterwards, the slave gave consent. He thanked Kard, then stared into the tapestry. Within a minute's time he was transposed with a short, dense and lean-muscled human with reddish-dark skin and white tattoos covering his body. Sahlessh, the white-painted Seren, likewise had white hair and a narrow tied beard. He was not very forthcoming with information. Magnus talked with him and made common references but Sahlessh was cautious to not divulge too much and he seemed especially distrusting of Magnus!

We determined that he was a monk from a tribe on Seren with an affinity for the cold-breathing white dragon and that he had been trapped in the tapestry almost a year ago by Hiraz.

Sahlessh asked us a lot of questions but he followed along as we went to clear out the rest of the rooms on this floor. Sorrel and Sahlessh spoke briefly beyond our hearing, then the oni left us to investigate deeper levels of the structure but not before telling us about a carpet that his brother was rumored to have made. Woven into the carpet was a teleportation circle that allowed swift passage between Glyphstone Keep—here, well within Breland's borders—and the Tower of Shrouds in Droaam. That I cannot abide, especially if the Avashad had allied himself with harpies and who knew what else!

We continued our exploration. As Aleae, Clarion, and Kard studied the pool and glowing chalice in the vast central chamber, in one of the rooms on the north side, I found a writing desk and noticed indentations in the papers stacked there had been used for notetaking. I grabbed some ash from a room that was completely burned of any evidence and used my expended griffon feather to dust the indentations for information. This yielded the words “Children of Winter” and “Frost,” the latter as a proper noun.

As I finished gathering evidence in the writing room, I heard the telltale shout of impending battle from outside the room. Sahlessh was calling out. I quickly tucked the remaining ash and feather into one of my many pockets and readied my magical whip, the Tongue of Hrasta, for battle.