The Blessings of Nereel Pyreen (For Nuria)

#21

Nuria held her hands up in front of her. “Relax, please,” she began. “Do you know of a Nereel Pyreen?”

#22

Elan Dulac looked at Nuria as if Nuria was being dense. The Water spirit created a wall of ice between herself and Nuria and seemed to be preparing for combat.
“Name, Rank and Commanding officer??” Demanded the Water spirit, “if you are asking if I know of the Supreme Air Commander of the airforce i have seen him on tours but never met the Kiorn.”

Then confused the water spirit asked, “what does Nereel Pyreen have to do with you???”

#23

“Supreme Air Commander?” Nuria asked, blinking with suprise.

She considered for a moment, then settled on the truth. “What would you think if I said that Nereel Pyreen came to me in a dream and told me to come here?”

#24

Elan Dulac asked Nuria to describe Nereel, and she did, pulling those memories from her dream. Finally Elan seemed satisfied and calmed down.

“Your pulse and your blood flow tells me you tell the truth. You may explore as you wish. If Nereel send you, instead of coming himself, then times must be trying indeed.”

The water spirit calmly returned to swimming around her bowl.

#25

Things must be trying indeed. Those words rung in Nuria’s mind. What’s going on that’s so trying elsewhere?

She shook those thoughts from her mind and looked around the engine room. When she didn’t find anything else of note, she left and moved on to the Cargo hold.

#26

The Cargo hold was the largest section of the ship. Inside its depths, Nuria found boxes and boxes of trade goods. Some like the bread had long gone stale, and the trail meat was freezerburned, but there were two boxes of tsoga furs, two boxes of raiti silk, an entire ream of finest gold spun cloth, and ten barrels of finest binber wine, and five barrels of finest K’iou Vagna liquor, and twenty barrels of pickled Rainbow Fish.

She checked that last barrel label again, Rainbow fish, Nuria had never heard of rainbow fish. She popped open the barrel and looked inside and saw that it was in fact some sort of fish quite alien to Refuge. The fish had been preserved by the fluids it was stored in, and frozen by the temperature. And it looked like it was still edible.

Stranger still was the Rainbow Fish’s glowing scales. Even opening the barrel had lit up the room as if a sun had risen.

In that moment she also noticed a shine from the far side of the Cargo hold. It was a gold, platinum, silver and steel device nearly as tall as a desk and as wide.

It was the Hot Press from her dreams. Yet here it seemed quite a bit larger. On one side was a crystalline podium with a k’iorn handprint carved it in.

Nuria could feel the Fire Leyas and Earth Leyas drawn by the device. It was a powerful tool of building. The only question was…where to deploy its power to build…

#27

I’m gonna have to get Alphine to bring some hover trucks out here for all this stuff, Nuria thought as she inspected the Hot Press. She went back to the barrel of Rainbow Fish and closed it, then continued on her way. She still had that Warmonger artifact to destroy. If I was gonna hide something, it wouldn’t be out and about, she thought. I should look for that in the crew chambers.

#28

Making her way over to the crew quarters, she found eight bunks. Each had identical raiti silk sheets, in identical grey, blue and gold colors. Pillows stuffed with vinvir feathers, and covered in a raiti silk pillowcase. Most of the bunks had shelves which were empty, and it looked like the crew had left in a hurry. But the last bunk on the left still had a shaving razor, a whet stone, a small brass and silver hand mirror, two sets of winter gloves made from tsoga hide, and a pistol holster with a broken buckle.

Picking up the pistol holster, she noted it had no pistol in it, but it did have a pair of pockets and these definitely had contents. In one pocket she found a vial filled with blue gelatin-like cubes. Nuria wondered if they were Morpheus Cubes. The other pocket had a small brass pipe, a wheel-lock lighter of obviously Earther design, and a small bag filled with Pipe tobacco with a label of Saragosa. There was a small folded up slip of paper.

Opening it, she realized it was a map. It showed a small temple and the labyrinth beneath it. At the bottom of the labyrinth was a Dragon with its mouth sealed shut, from what the sketch on the slip of paper showed.

Then on a whim she turned the holster upside down, and from deep inside dropped a metal sigil. It was the caged eyes of Warmonger.

She was afraid to touch it. Wondering now, Nuria tried to decide. How would she destroy the iron symbol?

#29

Nuria looked at the iron symbol as it lay on the floor. Is that the symbol? She thought. Pyreen had said it would be made if Doomwyrm bone. There has to be something else here.

She put the holsters current contents into one of her belt pouches for later examination. She then grabbed the hand mirror and used it to scoop the symbol back into the holster. She then wrapped the whole thing in a sheet off of one of the beds and tucked it into her backpack.

Then she began a deeper search of the room, checking shelves for false backs and secret compartments.

#30

In one of the shelves, Nuria found a false back. In that compartment she found a commcrystal. Its style was different than most she had seen. From it she could hear what sounded like a wheezing voice. Her sharp intake of breath was enough for the voice on the other side to speak.

“If you hear my voice, tell me whom you are. This is Engineer’s assistant Crackler Watt . My master Vadim asked me to await someone finding that commcrystal. He told me his master Nereel Pyreen would send reinforcements and I was to await them. To guild them to the promised land that Vadim has created here… I have been waiting so long…”

#31

Nuria paused. Promised land?, she thought. Doesn’t sound cult-y at all.

She considered, for a moment, put tube the crystal back and leaving it be. But, this could be important, she thought.

“Your reinforcements are here, sent by Nereel Pyreen.”

And she waited…

#32

Crackler Watt replied, "Excellent, excellent, I had feared the I’tashi Slavers had ended any hope of Reinforcements coming through. Those I’tashi forces have held the Entrance way at the Death Gate for so many aeons. Then the Morgothian knights moved in, and then the Unity…how you got through I do not know. But it is a blessing beyond all things that you have come to reinforce us.

The Master Engineer had many success despite not being able to hold the Death Gate. His retreat here…was not a betrayal to our Lord Nereel. It was a great gift to our peoples. Now we have a citadel to rival the Three Citadels of Hec’ath, here on this planet far from Les’tas’tral and that distant dimension’s concerns. A place where Lord Nereel would see his fortunes triple, and his name lauded like a savior."

#33

Crackler Watt continued, “The Promised Land is at Mt. Sandspire. When you reach our citadel, you will see the sandspire for which the mountain is named. Present yourself to the guardian at the wall of the Citadel at Mt. Sandspire. Ask for Crackler Watt, and you will be taken to see me I am sure. The people of the Promised Land are suspicious so make sure you leave any weapons at your base of operations. Bring only the Leyas with you, and the Hecathi guardians will treat you with respect and not harm you.”

And with that Crackler Watt gave her directions to reach the Citadel at Mt. Sandspire, and finally as an afterthought he asked, “Who might I alert the guardians will be coming? As in what is your name and title, chosen of Nereel Pyreen?”

[Nuria must provide Crackler a name and must decide if she will head directly to Mt. Sandspire or return to Jemison Post first to meet with Alphine and the Banking Guild. Nuria must also decide what to do with the wreakage of the Airship (leave it, try and artifice sections of it to take it back to Jemison Post, sell it for parts to the Banking Guild, etc).]

#34

“My name is Nuria, and I have no title,” Nuria replied after a long pause. “I’m sorry, but I may not be who you were expecting. Nereel did send me here, but I don’t think I was sent to find this.”

#35

Crackler Watt’s voice seemed kind if confused, “If you come with the blessing of Nereel Pyreen you must see the beauty my master has built here in his name. Here are the coordinates.” He gave Nuria some specific information about the location of Mt. Sandspire.
He continued.
“I will inform our guards to allow Nuria entrance. When you arrive here, come visit me in the Engineer’s Promise, my personal social space in the Heights Neighborhood of Mt. Sandspire.”

#36

[Nuria must still decide if Nuria must also decide what to do with the wreakage of the Airship (leave it, try and artifice sections of it to take it back to Jemison Post, sell it for parts to the Banking Guild, etc).

She has also unlocked access to the Citadel at Mt. Sandspire http://dr-forum.whitestarhosting.net/showthread.php?1819-Mt-Sandspire-and-the-Citadel-of-Mt-Sandspire&p=11867#post11867]