The end of an Era has come. Magic is broken. New Heroes are needed to face the challenges of the new Age!
RECAPThe group met with the Daimyo after a night of restoration and recovery in their cells. He basically told us the offer to collect the lost "spectacles" was off and that he had a new deal for us. He would summon the warlord of the lands and we would do as he pleased. The warlord, Etch, was familiar with people who were from another world similar to the one we were on, but different in it's history and details. It was told to us that Etch was looking for people like us.While walking back to our cells, Ada whispered to us that we should make a run for it and that he would aid us since we were honorable and saved his life several times. We agreed to discuss the matter and considered our options which were steal horses and run, sneak out on foot and run, haggle with the witch for a deal, or stand our ground and meet with Etch. These discussions lasted a couple nights, and in that time, we found ourselves trapped in the town by a magic circle of some sort. Feeling trapped and held hostage by magic, Taye contacted the hag telepathically against our wishes to forge a deal. She gave us a profane way of breaking the circle that involved ritual magic and blood sacrifice. Several of us refused to be a part of the process, so we decided to wait for Etch. While waiting, we fully healed and recovered all lost ability scores.Upon Etch's arrival, he met with us in our cells and engaged in conversation. Gareth recognized him as the true Etch from Habololy, but his mind is clearly enscorceled or drained of knowledge in some capacity, although he's clearly fighting it every step of the way. The group realizes the GoLK is involved since we're able to retain our memories here, but that doesn't bring us any closer to getting home.Etch and Gareth would proceed to discuss for several hours who they do and don't remember. Gareth mentions all our deities, heroes, and people/events of note throughout several hundred years of Habololian history. Etch rattles off who he knows and remembers and his list is essentially everyone who vanished or was vanquished from Habololy. Only Dedestroyt seems to make both lists as death seems to be one of the only conduits the GoLK can't fully control.The conversation continues for hours and Etch reveals he wants to go to Habololy as he feels compelled to get off this current world. His memories go back roughly two and a half decades when he arrived here. Upon arrival, he fought and killed a Gnome named Gneon who piloted a sophisticated flying machine. He stole a map of the current world from him and took over as warlord since Gneon held that title before Etch. Etch asked Os if he could cast Gate since that seems the only method of escape. He revealed that the hag is only capable of transporting people within the realms of this world, but not the powerful magic of true escape. Since Os can't Gate, we're not sure what to do. It was then that Etch mentioned he's unable to get to certain places in this world; the most notable a major city at the northern most part of the world. He had no explanation as to why he couldn't get there other than he simply couldn't. He also mentioned that the "Sun Elves" who live west of where we are beyond the Great Forest have access to powerful magic. He tried threatening them in the past to get what he needs, but they resisted him and now won't work with him. It seems our goal is now to make our way to the land of the Sun Elves and eventually to this mystery city in order to escape this pocket realm. This, of course, is assuming we make it out of our conversation with Etch alive.
Note that Etch, unlike virtually everyone else you have encountered, understands your common and other languages you speak, so when do you say this?
This may seem unorthodox, and I realize Lord Etch is evil, but perhaps we should ask him if he's aware of the GoLK. Since we're able to retain our memories in this world, maybe Etch will have some insight that we don't. As far as we all know, this is new to us, but Yoshi has apparently been trying to tell us about this menace for quite some time to no avail. His connection to The Oldest Orc seems to protect him. It's virtually impossible to fight an adversary that we can't remember and have no means of realizing even exists, but at least here we can form a strategy. I'm not entirely sure where we are, but I agree with Gareth in that there's definitely something more at play than a pocket universe. If it is some sort of prison or cosmic hiding spot for GoLK, then making others aware and spreading knowledge of it would be it's undoing. We just need to figure out how to do that while we still have the ability to remember things.
Gareth, you mentioned many prominent figures on Habololy had been replaced with imposters…what happened to the fakes?
