Chapter One: Sweet Dreams are Made of These

[Rezantis]

Rez shakes his head, "I think he was talking getting some actual sleep, because we're not going to have much opportunity for a while."

[Brian]

Liandral nods in agreement at Nathan.  "That's right.  And you are wise to not like this place ... were it a good place in any sense, more would know of it."

The lady yawns, rolls her pack up behind one of the statues to use as a pillow, and curls up underneath her cloak.  "We'll move on when we wake," she says drowsily.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn similarly prepares his pack for a pillow, but before going to sleep, he takes out the book and flips through it.

[Dracos]

Dracos gestures Nathan over as he sets up a spot to rest as best he can.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Rez wanders over, as asked.

"Mmhmm?"

[Dracos]

Dracos whispered as he settled down, "Thoughts?  I don't like this.  Half of us dead is a bad end, even if we succeed in this quest."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Well, it doesn't sound like it's something we can fight anyway. That means, we run. And if you ask me, it's easier to be evasive with less people," comes the whispered reply.

[Dracos]

"Or else we could try and convince them to bet on one.  If there are other dangers it would increase the chances."

Dracos

[Brian]

Bjorn: Not too much light to read by, as the lady's glowing necklace is beneath her cloak, but Liandral steps closer to you before sitting against a wall.  The light from his flame is decent enough.

Your book appears to be a religious text.  A bit dry and overdramatic, but the gist of it is that the old gods (who are not named) created the world, and then created the Archonae.  These Archonae are the first, the eldest, and the wisest beings in the world (according to your book, anyway).  They assisted the elder gods in the creation of all things good in life, until the gods grew bored, and decided that the world should be used to stage contests through mortal hosts.

The Archonae were reluctant to slaughter one-another, but readily assisted in the creation of other, lesser beings to participate in the gods' bloody spectator sport.

But the Archonae were wily, and said that the balance in all things beneath the gods (even themselves) was evident in the humans they created.  The gods thought humans weak, and toyed with them, but their games fell to a dark end.  Humans (and humans alone -- the other races were created to protect them and make their duty possible) had the potential to create new gods, which they did.  They dreamed of kind and loving gods, to war with the cruel elder gods.

So they fought, a lot.  Most of the elder gods were driven back, and went away to play some new game.  Most of the younger gods were slain.

But among them, three remained.  Hamar, the lord of the forest, and the god of wrath.  Liena, the lady of the moon, and the god of love.  Aestock, the lord of wind, and the god of balance.

The book doesn't really mention much of Liena and Aestock, mostly it centers on Hamar, his whips of rose thorns, and the battles he fought to protect the humans that brought him into being, and the other races that worshiped him for the change he wrought.  (Not much mention of other races, either.)

In any case, the end result is that some of the elder gods remain (their names are forgotten, if they were ever known) and instead of warring directly, force the younger gods to play their games anyway.  Without the help of the Archonae (who the elder gods have branded traitors), they created twisted and hateful beings to dwell in the night and destroy.  Humans, animals, buildings.  To destroy anything, but most especially that which the younger gods represent.

For if humanity dies, then too will perish the younger gods.  At least, that's the theory.

In practice, the forces of cruelty and spite march once every hundred and sixty years from the cold waste where no loving god governs, and try to drive south into the heart of the human kingdoms.

This is a siege that lasts all thirteen days of the long night that comes to Stormwall Keep.  Each day, a different general of the Dreadmarch leads his forces against the assembled defenders of the host of light, and each time, the moon is kept from rising until that general is slain, or forced to flee.

After that there are some myths, some parables, some legends, and a handful of prayers.  There's more of the main story, too, but you're about halfway through the book (the letters are pretty large, and the pages are thinly cut strips of wood, not paper as you're used to), and getting pretty sleepy.

[Rezantis]

Rez shakes his head.  "I doubt it.  There aren't enough of us to risk pitched combat even if we do all stay together."

[Dracos]

"Hmm...well then, let's stick close, cover the backs, ye?"

Dracos

[Bjorn]

Putting the book back in the pack, Bjorn lays out and tries to sleep.

[Rezantis]

"Sounds like a plan."

[Brian]

Ginra:  You flip through your book before going to sleep, as you had planned.

This stuff is more complicated than you'd thought ... it's like linear algebra, only you're solving for fireball instead of n.  There's a lot of hastilly scribbled memnonic notes to yourself in your own handwriting that remind you the easy way to remember things, but it's going to require some serious study to figure anything complicated out.

Three pages (and your pages are thinner and finer than the ones in Bjorn's book) however, leap out at you.  One of them is a screen of air (you're not sure what it's going to do), that you're supposed to be able to summon.  Another is a 'bolt of force' (not sure what that means, but sounds offensive.  The final one is a 'firefly' summoning spell.  You can't figure this one out, but it gets your attention, though, because it seems to describe the thing that's floating over Liandral.

Apparently, it's a tiny fire spirit and a tiny wind spirit dancing, so it's a constant spark.  According to the spell (which you can't figure out how to cast yet, if that's what this is) the spark will stay with someone until the summoner either banishes it, or dies.  In exchange for providing light, the spark spirit only shows itself (and its illumination) to the friends of its hosts ... but also hides some things from the host's eyes.  Because of some mechanic you don't quite understand, apparently the spirit only gets to see what the host doesn't, so if it's interested in something, it blinds the host to that.

Other people will see it just fine, however.

[Dracos]

Dracos turns over and gets some rest himself, focusing on going to sleep.

Dracos