Dark Rumblings

[Ebiris]

Oh, that's unusual! Still if Mystra's asking it's hardly going to be a waste of her time.

What can I do to help you, Mystra?

[Anastasia]

'A cult of Shar-serving yugoloths have stolen the Warrior's Spelltome, an artifact I desired to pass onto you one day soon. Still, it is an opportunity for you to both vanquish Sharrans and claim something I desire to give you.'

[Ebiris]

Everywhere she turns it's Shar, Shar, Shar these days!

I'm interested. I'll come to Dweomerheart and you can tell me all about it?

It's actually her avatar that opens a gate to her holding on Dweomerheart on that note, but the avatar's as good as the real thing for something like this!

[Anastasia]

You meet Mystra below Dweomerheart, where a single stone dock juts out into an endless sea of arcane power. An endless, churning sea of it. Here Mystra sits, a young woman in a light blue sundress, as if a mere mortal enjoying a day at the shore. Her hair is black and long enough to touch her waist, flowing free and blown as if by a steady breeze.

Around here you can see all of magic flow, bringing memories to what Mystra has shown you of the Weave.

"Alicia, join me," Mystra invites.

[Ebiris]

Alicia's avatar is armed and armoured as is her usual wont, going over to sit on the edge of the dock next to Mystra. "Thank you," she says as she settles in. "Speaking of Shar, you know what happened with Dweomerkeeper Taldeer?"

[Anastasia]

"I am aware," Mystra says, "My thought was to angle adventurers there and recover her or avenge her, but your own actions made that unneeded. I had no free avatars at the time," she confesses, "I am grateful you saved her, Alicia."

[Ebiris]

"I did think I was a bit heavy-handed," she admits, relieved Mystra also would've considered an avatar acceptable for such a cause. "But my immediate instinct was that it was bait so I sought to pre-empt any trap forcefully."

[Anastasia]

"Often times we wish to move but other things limit us - tradition, resources or simply not being willing to risk what our interference that time may provoke,' Mystra admits, watching the sea of magic behind, her hair blowing in the breeze. A soft breeze, a cool breeze of fall's gentle breaths. "There will come times where you must choose between worthy goals for your avatars and your attention, and live with the fact that sometimes people you care about meet their eternity because of that. You are yet a young deity, Alicia."

[Ebiris]

"I know, and with limited resources. A Sharran desecrated one of my shrines recently too, and I wondered if it was meant to goad out an avatar response to tie me down while something worse occurred elsewhere. That's why Taldeer seemed like bait as well, an escalation on that theme."

[Anastasia]

"It could be, it could not be. Even now you hear prayers and grant what is needed."

A paladin's spells, a call for blessing a holy site, a simple prayer for a successful hunt of the undead, the funeral prayers for one of your fallen faithful who even now rains down from the stars in Sylica. More and more like that, all coming to you, all felt within your mind.

Mystra waits a beat and goes on, "Sometimes you believe that to be so and make a choice, believing it to be bait or a distraction. Sometimes you are correct and sometimes you are not. In this case I believe that you chose wisely, but another day that approach would be folly." Mystra holds a hand out, tendrils of raw magic rising up from the sea into her hand, cascading down in sparkling purple-blue-black waterfalls of light.

"All I will ever ask of these discussions is that you learn from them, Alicia. Learn from my mistakes. Become truly wise in the way of our purposes faster than I did. For our mistakes can so often be ones that shake all of Creation."

[Ebiris]

She's heard of a few of those already, so... "... are you going to tell me about another one?" she asks with a bit of trepidation.

[Anastasia]

Mystra laughs - it's a light thing that chases away any sense of melancholy, a sound of magic and joy. The purple and blue become brighter, the black fading into them entirely, the magic falling from her hands radiating light now. "No, Grandmother Mystra will refrain from going that far into her digression, Alicia. Oh, you took me back, dear Ellis had such a look whenever I told her a story that she thought was an old person's nostalgia."

Lowering her hand and letting the magic flow without her, "Shall we get back to the matter at hand?"

[Ebiris]

"You'll have to tell me about Ellis sometime now," Alicia says, smiling at the improved mood. "So. The Warrior's Spelltome?"

[Anastasia]

"My granddaughter, entirely mortal, from far too long ago." Mystra says, then continues.

"Yes, a minor artifact held by my faithful on Madas, a Prime Material world. The last creation of Saint Bevor, a paladin and sorcerer who lost life and soul battling and ultimately sealing a portal that would let Malar's servants flood the world. He threw himself in at the end to triumph, knowing it would cost him forevermore. All that he left behind was his spellbook, which was greatly empowered by his sacrifice and his blood which stained the cover. It is no longer a spellbook, but a tome that can aid any who wish to blend magic and martial prowess together."

[Ebiris]

He sounds like her kind of mage. "And it's been stolen by yugoloths now? Where was it kept beforehand?"