87 Ignorance Begot Chaos
Valyndria attended to her city and celebrated the defeat of the covens with a great feast, honouring the Emissaries and the Healer of Dawn. Between moments of levity, Valyndria petitioned the group to help her convince Rashyr not to take his knowledge of the traitor in Dawn to the temple.
Their arguments were discarded with claims that Andrakasis had known when the covens came and he had planted the seed of the plan that defeated them in the healer’s dreams. He insisted that Andrakasis would continue to defend his crown, whatever the opposition.
To the queen’s dismay, the group left Dwellen only a day after the healer (whom took the dwarf Go’Vynda with him). They traveled for over a week to reach the disputed borders near Eastgate before entering the wilderness.
At Dell’s tribal grounds the group found the site long abandoned and prepared for extended absence. Finding no trace of the possessions they needed to retrieve from Entropa Dell in her cave, they continued.
Near the border of the village of Moonfall, the group found two Wolfen waiting for them. The girl, Megranis Moonfall was known as “the Oracle of Moonfall” and according to wolfen history, as Karnath remembered it, her short life had included some of the most revered prophecies in the history of his people.
The girl named the group “you who are out of time”. She said “Less than random, the chaos wolf was accosted by her own. From her cell she came to an understanding, and yet what she understands is more than the truth. Her actions will bring her face to face with the Viscera”.
The Oracle told the group that Entropa Dell had come to her on the way to TribeMeet to hear again the great prophecy given before the fateful choice to attack the East. She went on to tell them “You will find the path in TribeMeet. But to follow the path you must escape from TribeMeet”. To pass through the tribe of wise-wolves, Megranis gave the group a talisman of knuckles and feathers that hid them from Moonfall.
In TribeMeet, the group was taken before the council of pack leaders. There they learned that the “Chaos Wolf’s” liberation of her clan from slaving in the witch-king’s mine had utilized “volunteers” gathered against the direct orders of the tribal leaders. Found guilty, Entropa Dell had been incarcerated for nearly 2 years before she had escaped her cell. Entropa had met her clans at the docks of Longknife and sailed north.
As she escaped Entropa, wreathed in the illusion of ebon flames, had said to her people: “Behold the future in store for us should we do nothing. Once unpreyed upon, now we are pursued through the passage of our lives by fear itself. A great predator is upon the world and all the wilderness must fight terror to oppose him. Each of us must come to this realization, but Dell goes to battle for those that are not yet ready”.
The group openly supported the “the Chaos Wolf’s” words and found themselves condemned to the very cell the wise-wolf had escaped from. On the wall of the cell was traced an outline of the world marked with a series of arrows. The group recognised one colour as showing their movements when they had acted as Emissaries. The other arrows converged on the East from the West, Byzantium and the Wilderness.
The Sharwul Grimbar Longknife came to the group’s cell. He told the group the comatose wise-wolf had refused sustenance most of the time she was held. But one day, nearly two years ago, he had been summoned to attend her as she fitted on the brink of death.
Supposing this was the day the group had read Andrakasis’ scroll before the King of Byzantium, McSpade theorised that Entropa Dell had tracked the emissaries of her enemy in astral form. He suggested that whatever magic was activated by the reading of the scroll had threatened the link between her body and spirit.
Grimbar was torn between the words of his leaders and the words of the Chaos Wolf. He remained troubled by what he had seen when he looked upon her writhing form. With Grimbar’s help, the group escaped TribeMeet to head north.
In the battle at the gates the group allowed a wolfen guard to die. Throughout the following days of travel, the retribution of time never came.
Also in this adventure, the distraught Logica brought news that Modulus had died.
Rashyr told the group that he had delivered a child recently and found that the strangeness within the mother had moved from the mother to the child. He worried over the implications for Valyndria’s unborn child.
The Oracle of Moonfall’s prophecy:
“Behold! From border skirmishes will rise the uncalled guardian of the message. Devil Consort, Angel Slayer, General, and Saviour will march as one in the wake of a Nightmare.
After a siege of dreams, he will quench the baying at his borders, and no corner of the civilised world will escape the cloven heel. Leaders of the world will be caught unsuspecting and great nations will hesitate before the will of the guardian.
Seemingly relentless, after the day he is called Angel Slayer, he will be denied for the first time. Before denial his focus will waver and a world of enemies will unite to break his grip.
Coruned in forever, the world moving within his borders, the General will witness the Sharp Talon fall on the Eastern Capital. From the ruins, only Peril will arise”.
Then to the group she said: “The Viscera has always been your enemy”.
