Rytheran's Letter
|
Previously found on the corpse of Lord Rytheran in the Mage Academy, now found on the corpse of Rytheran's Apprentice.
Sheets of Paper
Several sheaves of paper, covered with the stark black runes of Dericost.
Pretranslation Author: Unknown
Translator: Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator
Translator Speech:
You give Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator Sheets of Paper.
Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator tells you, "Indeed, this is the runic script of old Dericost, a language not used in well over 5000 years... Save for this letter, which looks newly written..."
Kuyiza bint Zayi looks slightly troubled.
Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator tells you, "This was found on Rytheran's Apprentice? It seems Rytheran is up to something involving that ancient graveyard and some book that was powerful enough to scare even the ancient Dericost into not using it."
Kuyiza bint Zayi shudders
Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator tells you, "Here, see for yourself."
Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator gives you Rytheran's Letter.
Rytheran's Letter
A letter written by Rytheran to his apprentice in the Mage Academy.
Translators Note: There was an additional note on the outside of the scroll. It was from Rytheran telling his apprentice to get this missive to Aerfalle with all haste.
- Kuyiza bint Zayi
Aerfalle My Love,
I will never forget your far-away gaze, and how you did not recognize me when we last met. As the ages pass our minds have drifted from us. I will not fade into this dream. I have descended into the hidden chamber below the academy, into the heart of the Black Library, and I have opened the book once again. You were wrong about the book. It has torn away the mist from my thoughts.
I did not realize how sedentary my mind had become until it was refreshed. As I look again on these black pages I feel as though cool water is poured across my mind, quenching a thirst for thought where before this I had not known I was parched. Memories of our time together, long forgotten, have flooded back to me. It is glorious.
I have begun to study these pages to restore us to our former glory. If I master these runes I know I can restore both thought and form, and we shall walk among them as lords. We no longer need to face eternity putrid in both mind and body. We will be proud, as we once were.
The runes burn in my mind and whisper to me, but I cannot yet comprehend all their secrets. I remember the promise I made to you as we looked upon the destruction wrought on the traitor house; how I swore I would lock away the book and never again look upon its pages. What use to me is a promise if it is forever forgotten? What use is an oath if those who swear it fade into oblivion?
The book seems almost eager to awaken the spirits it once corrupted. Ancient graves have been unearthed by the power of the runes, and the spirits of the traitors have risen with them. Many of the spirits dwell on the past, reliving their judgment and punishment over and over. I am able to observe the magic from my tower above the graveyard. In time I will use the power to restore us. In time when I read from the black pages you will never again forget.
Rytheran
-- Rytheran
Previous Version
Previously found on the corpse of Lord Rytheran in the Mage Academy, now found on the corpse of Rytheran's Apprentice.
Letter
A few sheets of dried human skin, scribed in the sharp black runes of ancient Dericost. You will have to bring them to a translator.
Pretranslation Author: Unknown
Translator: Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator
Translator Speech:
You give Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator Letter.
Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator tells you, "Indeed, this is the runic script of old Dericost, a language not used in well over 5000 years. A moment - I shall transcribe a copy for you into Roulean."
Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator gives you A Letter.
Kuyiza bint Zayi the Translator tells you, "There you are. This was gained from a powerful Revenant you say? He would appear to have been several millenia old! I wonder if there are others of his antiquity still walking Dereth?"
A Letter
Sweet Aerfalle,
Of course I still remember the day we arrived on Killiakta. It has been millennia, but the feeling, as if a page was turning, is unforgettable. How many years has it been, my undying love? They seem to slip away from us now, with only the arrival of the Olthoi and these squalling little magical primitives as a recent landmark. It must be at least 10,000 years. How tired I have become!
But, I was speaking of our arrival. I must focus. The loss of Focus, of Will, will doom us, as it did Jaera, and Inekkere, and…oh, so many. I do believe Kelannik will be lost for good soon, out in his desert retreat. Most of his flesh has dropped away. I had to provide him with a Portal Gem for our next meeting, as he could not remember the spell for himself.
It was during the great Cooling of the World that we arrived. The seas were a sullen gray, and dotted with roving icebergs. We had to travel to the southern port of Nesortania to find a ship not trapped by ice. Our first sight of Killiakta was the peninsula where the cursed Yalain later built their great light-house, to help mariners steer safely around the rocks. We were not quite so fortunate, and the caravel ran aground. The damage was not serious, and we managed to struggle to the ice-rimed harbor. There the crew pulled the ship onto the sands, and the carpenters set to work. They made a poor job of it, being far more familiar with our own coastal galleys than the Yalain's deep-draught sailing craft. It would serve to get us home again the following spring, though barely.
Oh, the first steps on these shores! The rich mists rolling off the Blessed Moors! His Eternal Splendor looked about our little band and nodded, as if it was precisely what he had expected. Your hair – fine even then, I recall – streamed in the wind like pale fire.
Killiakta was so different then. The deserts were green. That blackened crater, testament to the stupidity of Ilservian and Maila both, did not yet scar the mires in Diastra. I feel like the oldest thing on this island, and that is a heady feeling indeed. Almost as delicious as establishing this school to teach the children of Yalain. If only they knew how many I convinced to join us in eternity, down in the rank cellars where the Great Ones once lived.
I dare not go down to the cellars anymore; THEY have arrived, as they do in every dark place, eventually. The more foolish children of the Yalain built an altar, long ago, and thought to worship without my knowledge. Ha! I walked this earth before that shadow was a shadow, and I fear not the Servant, no matter his power. I will only fear the unseen Master which lurks within the bowels of the world.
And It does frighten me, I admit. It could drain the life from me as I do that of the gangly creatures which infest my halls.
Yours forever,
Rytheran
-- Rytheran