Of Ages' Breaking
The Season of Still Stone
Thankfully for your peace of mind the flashes of hollow color pass from mind's eye into memory as you murmur the First Prayer before slumber, but you cannot help but wonder:
What did the thing mean when it claimed that you were blood to those who made it? Running your hands over the smooth silver band offers no answers beyond a tingling of the fingers. D
oes it want to be used? Does it like the ring have some purpose of its own, or is it simply a vessel that you can fill with your thoughts and the thoughts of others?
Mina Knowledge (History): 1d20 +8 = 16 (Failure)
Mina has little in the way of answers for you, only vague legends of legends, tales not even of her own people, but of strangers who had come from the south, the Taldan's whose tongue had spread across the face of the world like ragweed through living water. "The Taldans claimed they were the heirs of Azlant, they worshiped Aroden whom they called the Last Azlanti."
"Worshiped, what do they worship now?"
"Oh, I'm not sure. It's been a long time since the days of Old Taldor, seven hundred years since the Even Tongued Conquest when the empire broke into two and the western part, Cheliax gained ascendancy. I do know the Chelish took his death very badly, it's why they fell to Devil worship under the dominion of the Thrice Dammed House of Thrune,"
"Whose death?' you ask, frowning.
Mina turns her head to look at you carefully, almost like she thought you were making a jest in poor taste, before shaking her head. "Of course you wouldn't know would you. Aroden died, on the very day, at the very hour when he was prophesied to return and lead mankind to greatness he perished amid terrible calamity and strike, storms came screaming out of the deadlands, pouring hale and black rain, the earth groaned as though the dead meant to claw their way back out of the earth. They say it's bad luck to talk about it, but then 'they' would probably also agree I'm bad luck to talk to."
"Wait, I'm not sure I understood that..." Which is an absurd thing to say to Mina, much less a reason to stop in your tracks as though you had just stepped in a rock gut, but still, "A
god died? How? Why?"
Mina gives a helpless shrug. "No one knows, there are as many guesses as there are scholars, but all we can know for certain is that when the Starstone Doctrine was proven false, that's the one that spoke of Aroden's return, all other prophecy failed as well, that is why the age we are in now is the Age of Lost Omens."
"So his priests..."
"Lost all their power," she finishes. "Just in that moment all of them, all at once, they still had all the wealth of the church, properties, servants, gold, some even had vast swaths of land, but it wasn't long until rivals or greedy kings and nobles took it all. The lucky ones joined up with the Church of Iomadae, the Inheritor, but when it comes to the unlucky... the people wanted answers and when they could not get answers they would settle for blood. Two days ride from where I was raised there's an old temple of Aroden and the town that formed around it, Godscrest, they had bad harvest after bad harvest following the loss of Aroden, but they thought the priests were hoarding vast stores of hood so they broke in one night under the cover of darkness..." Seeing your confused look, she adds. "Night is when Desna's stars come out, but it is also when the sun goes down so it's darker and many folk think a better time for dark deeds when others will not see."
"They broke in, killed and ate them?" Cob asks, bouncing next to you.
"No, it's..." Mina gathers her thoughts for a moment. "That's not very common where I come from, it's unhealthy for body and soul." Turning her head back to you she continues. "The mob did kill the priests, they were so enraged, so desperate for the food that was not there that they ripped the priests apart, they gave them no rites and spoke no prayers. Three days later the priests rose from the dead, killed every man, woman and child in Godscrest. No one goes up the old cattle road anymore."
"So about the Azlanti?" you prompt.
My blood, my ancestors maybe, strange as the thought is. The kind-voice seemed to think so.
"They were before all the kingdoms of the Inner Sea, before even Taldor and Osirion and they were said to be skilled in the arts mundane and magical. Aroden was the last of them, but all I know of them is from after Azlat's Fall, most of it long after."
"So what would it mean if maybe some of them lived... and I sent them down from... Somal?"
It's her time to stop dead now. "Down from the
moon? I'm sorry, I believe you it's just... I have no idea, I cannot even imagine what that would do or where."
"So... is now not a good time to talk about the rest of it, should I space these out?" you ask as earnestly as you can manage.
Akorian Bluff: 1d20 +7 = 22 (Success)
"That's alright," she starts to say then she notices you starting to grin and rolls her eyes. "Well what else did that thing tells you?"
"The location of four, places of refuge buried under the earth, the Azlanti being sensible people who apparently knew that a roof of stone was better than a giant ball of fire above you," you reply, surprising even yourself with how easy the laugh comes. "How much would that be worth?"
"No idea, could be looted and worth nothing, could be like here were we barely found anything or it could be worth a king's ransom."
Though you are still not entirely sure what a king is, it seems to have implications besides 'strong chief', you get the implications, piles of gold to make a dwarf blush. What would you even
do with that much wealth?
When next you sleep your dreams are filled with the promise of
[] Glory
[] Wisdom
[] Camaraderie
[] Write in (single word only)
Rock Gut - Name given to tar pits and quicksand collectively by the residents of the dark lands. Various cults, particularly those who worship powers of stone and claustrophobia consider these to be the eternally hungering stomachs of their preferred gods. Few of those who might have the misfortune of being sacrificed in such pits are inclined to disagree
OOC: A bit of history through the eyes of one of your companions as well as a chance to address how Kori relates to it 
