Part: The Third

Shamino

Shamino, the Shamino from the Britannia of the Avatar Michael, told much of what was taking place. He explained that the Tome of Stars was being guarded by a black void golem, this one much more deadly than any that Soth managed to create. Shamino warned that he didn't know how or why, but that the golem was said to spell the death of the Avatar. But Shamino also revealed that the tome was in fact Michael's journal and contained coordinates to all of the places that Michael had traveled or had learned the locations of, including perhaps some that might help us, such as Dawn and maybe even Pagan.

Weakened from years of being a stone statue, Shamino went to Skara Brae to rest. He returned a week later with white hair. It seemed that he was not ageless while a statue, but just that his age took a little while to catch up to him.

Shamino spoke of dreams of Soth with the Gem of Immortality and urged the remaining few RBW members not to let that come to pass. The group realized they needed to figure out how to get to the golem, the black void golom that consumed all living things around it, and perhaps the answer was tied to the reason why Shalilissta had never feared it...

The Skull of Mondain

The next morning, her mind full with the discussion with Shamino, Kianne found she kept going back to one statement that had been made: “There is nothing alive in Felucca.” She couldn't figure out why it was stuck in her subconscious, until she realized: The Skull of Mondain! The skull, if used, cast a weaker version of the Armageddon spell—a spell which killed all life on the current plane of existence.

Kianne: “Soth's getting what he wants—a first class ticket out of here. Or maybe a third class boot to the rear.”

When Kianne broached this subject with Shamino, he made the final connection. Shalilissta had not feared the golem because she had the skull. So it must in fact be the golem's bane for one reason or another.

Shamino also explained that the teleporter on Moonglow island could perhaps provide coordinates if they could find a Star Sage with the knowledge of how to calculate them.

The Whistle

A few days later Shamino delivered the item that Nystul had given to the guards so long ago. Caton, the guard, had come across it. It was a note from Iolo along with the Emp's whistle that the Avatar had once used to summon wisps.

Shamino also brought news that the Star Sages had disbanded, but he had managed to locate one. Unfortunately the telescope was not functioning and needed several special cogs which had been in the possession of the Star Sages. Most all of the sages were dead now, so the whereabouts of most of the cogs were unknown. Shamino thought he could track down two, but the other two were buried with their sages and Soth had raided those graves long ago.

Shamino also pointed out that the sage could only calculate coordinates in Britannia. But that included Felucca, so they would still be able to get to Felucca if they could repair the telescope.

The Wisps

With the whistle in hand, the group went to Yew to try it out. Kianne blew the whistle and a wisp responded, speaking in its variant of the human tongue. The wisp was able to identify her, which startled her at first until she remembered that wisps are actually all part of a single pan-dimensional being, and that the wisps she had spoken to on a previous Britannia were part of that same entity.

But the wisps were unaware of how Kianne had ended up in this dimension instead of her own, so Ki traded that information for the answers that she sought: information on the black void golem that guarded the Tome of Stars.

The wisp explained that the golem was the lost place in time, the void created by the death of the Avatar Michael when Minax twisted time. If they destroyed the golem, they would be releasing Michael, the wisp said. It also revealed that throwing the Skull of Mondain into the golem would destroy it. And doing that would be possible because the black void golem could not absorb anyone holding the skull, which explained why Shalilissta had never needed to fear it.

Gargoyles

Since they still did not have the location of the golem—all they knew was that it was in Felucca—the group decided to try asking Blackthorn. They knew he was allied with Minax and so forth, but hoped that he would give them the location of the golem, perhaps thinking it would destroy them. Unfortunately, Blackthorn must have been tipped off by Minax because he refused to reveal anything.

Afterward, the group was accosted by a blind gargoyle who, despite his handicap, was amazingly perceptive. He said that Andrella was respected by the gargoyles for her ability to kill Lash, and that the new gargoyle king, Gratagmalem, who had replaced the benevolent Draxinusom that Kianne had known, was challenging her to a duel: her gargoyle blade against his, its match.

Gratagmalem had chosen to ally with Minax, which explained Lash's presence with her. They had done so after the Avatar Michael had “failed” them by not protecting the Vortex Lens that was one of their treasures and allowed access to the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. Shamino did not know what had happened to the lens, and so didn't know why they thought Michael had failed them.

Cogs

Andrella: “COGS! LITTLE GOLDEN CIRCLES WITH RIDGES! SEEN ANY!?” Soth: “Is she serious? I am creating an army to fight against the gargoyles... I am preparing to launch an attack against a force of great power...” Kianne: “And we want cogs. Yes.”

Still needing to obtain the cogs for the telescope, the group went to Soth's lair. They found Soth creating his army of undead, using a zombie he called “Egor” to do his manual labor since Soth himself could not touch anything. The resulting conversation was amusing but not terribly fruitful; Soth was sly enough to realize they wanted the cogs for a very good reason, so he did not want to hand them over easily. He finally told them he would reveal the location of the cogs if they defeated the gargoyle known as LemaKara. Andrella and the others agreed, if for no other reason than they were already at war with the gargoyles already, seeing as to how they hated the Avatar and were allied with Minax.

Soth also revealed that he'd traded with the wisps for the information that Kianne had given them about herself. However, she had suspected that would happen, so she had purposefully not told the wisps anything she thought would compromise her or her friends.

Skeletal Star Mages

When the RBW band defeated LemaKara, Soth kept his end of the bargain and told them that the cogs had still been on the skeletal Star Mages he had raised from the dead. He had sent the mages to attack the Terathans and they had been defeated. The cogs were probably still in the Terathan lair, somewhere.

Shamino joined them as they went to the lair and finally located the cogs inside an amethyst chest.

Gorjez

With Shamino's help and aid from their contacts, the group finally gathered all of the cogs. They took them to the telescope and met the Star Sage that Shamino had tracked down, named Gorjez. Gorjez was somewhat fruity like Nystul, but had the knowledge to repair and operate the telescope.

Gorjez agreed readily to calculate coordinates for them, although each time he stressed that he was not responsible for anything they did with them.

Trapping Blackthorn

The RBW members were at a quandary. They couldn't get coordinates to the black void golem yet because they didn't know where it was. Soth had no idea, and Blackthorn wouldn't help. Andrella and Ki finally decided to see if they could force Blackthorn to tell them.

So, armed with the Orb of the Moons, they went to the chambers where Blackthorn had trapped Soth. They knew that Blackthorn had long removed the exit teleporter, hoping to trap Kianne there someday. So Andrella hid herself while Kianne pretended to be trapped.

Blackthorn appeared soon enough to gloat over his trap, but Andrella appeared and captured him, tying him up. Blackthorn cracked quickly, trying to claim that he was working for Minax only to save his own life and that of Lord British. They did not believe him, but did not argue with him. They asked only for the location of the golem.

Blackthorn revealed that the golem was locked behind a blackrock gate. There were three keys. Blackthorn handed over his own. Another key was held by Gratagmalem. And the third...by Shevilia. Soth's treasured undead dragon. Who apparently was not all that she appeared.

Finally, Blackthorn told them that the golem was trapped in the Felucca mirror of Lord British's throne room.

Terfin

Andrella: “What are the undead doing here?” Navien: “Take a wild guess.”

The group went first to the new gargoyle lands of Terfin to get the key from Gratagmalem. They were in for a shock when they got there, however, because Soth had beaten them there. The place was crawling with undead. The only gargoyle left alive there was Gratagmalem. The team helped the gargoyle king fight off the undead army.

Gratagmalem was not grateful for their aid; when he realized who it was that had rescued him, he simply attacked them. But Andrella defeated him, though she stopped short of killing him.

Gratagmalem accused them weakly of trying to conquer the world. He had been fed lies and half truths by Blackthorn. Gratagmalem finished by asking why the Avatar had waited so long to save them, years ago during what had become known as the serpent wars. But what he didn't know is the original Avatar of the Shadowland had already been killed by Minax by that time.

Still, Gratagmalem would not believe them until Kianne took out the Stones of Virtue which were glowing with their restoration.

It was then that Gratagmalem revealed that Shevilia had destroyed the original gargoyle homeland of Terfin. The dragon was somehow connected to Exodus. Minax had loosed her to destroy the gargoyle city, then she'd killed the dragon herself, pretending to be on their side in order to gain their alliance. Then, throwing a wrench in everyone's plans, Soth had come along and raised the dragon as undead.

Gratagmalem gave them the key, and he also gave his sword to Andrella, to go with its twin that she had gotten off of Lash. Then he returned to Draxinusom to return the rule of the gargoyles to their original king.

Shevilia

The group wasted no time in going to Soth's lair to take out Shevilia. They said nothing to Soth, since they knew anything they said would be heard by Minax; instead they simply charged in. Soth was confused at first, then simply laughed at them as Shevilia began to defeat them all single-handedly. But then Shevilia seemed to go berserk, attacking even Soth, even through his ethereal form, forcing him to flee.

When the battle seemed lost, Andrella finally took down Shevilia with one of their few, precious glass swords.

After the dragon was down, the RBW members were startled to realize that Soth was corporeal again. He was standing there staring at his hands as if he couldn't believe it. “What have you done?” he demanded, completely confused.

They explained to him that Shevilia had been a spy of Minax. Soth realized that it was Shevilia—whom he had thought was a trusted and valuable ally—who had kept the ethereal curse on him the entire time. Angered, he suddenly demanded to be returned to Krynn. He was sick of Britannia and wanted out.

They agreed as it was the only way they could get rid of him—after all, Soth was now corporeal and immortal, with his full power. Soth brought them to the Yew Crypts where the Black Gate had been opened. He explained that the location was significant because all of the great mages, Nicodemus and Rudyom and such, were buried there. Apparently their powers somehow helped in the opening of pan-dimensional portals like the Black Gate.

Soth taught Kianne how to use the orb to open a gateway to any place she could focus her concentration on. She did as he asked and produced a portal to Krynn. Soth verified that it was not a trick, but Kianne would not break her promise in that way. Finally, Soth walked through and was gone.

Exodus

With the death of Shevilia, RBW had gained several valuable items: the golden rocks that Soth had possessed, and the presently-inert core of Exodus. They stashed the core carefully away, hoping that this would prevent Mondain and Minax from ever activating Exodus.

They went to Shamino to report that they had gotten rid of Soth, which brightened Shamino's mood considerably. They also mentioned the core of Exodus. And Shamino warned them that Minax could animate objects, such as weapons, to fight for her. Still, they would have to face her at some point.

Soth's Journal

The next day Soth's zombie, who turned out to be named Egon, not Egor, delivered Soth's journal to them. No one knew why he had done so, but perhaps he had a bit of his humanity left in him.

The journal explained how Soth had found Shevilia after the destruction of Terfin. He had also been aware that Shevilia had the core of Exodus, but didn't seem to care beyond hoping to someday obtain Exodus for himself.

When the journal also revealed that Soth had been aware that the golden stones were shards of the Gem of Immortality, the small band of RBWers were all the more glad that they had gotten rid of him before he'd gotten his hands on the entire gem and brought Shamino's nightmares to life...

Immortality...

The restored gargoyle king, Draxinusom, requested an audience with the Avatar. Kianne and her friends traveled to the gargoyle lands to meet with him.

Draxinusom opened by asking of they would destroy the killer of Avatars. They thought he meant Minax at first, as she had killed Michael, but it turned out he was speaking of the black void golem, which apparently was going around systematically destroying the various Avatars of the various Britannias.

Draxinusom also revealed that the Vortex Lens was fine, but the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom was gone, destroyed by the golem. But Draxinusom had viewed the Codex long ago, before it's destruction, and had learned that Kianne would someday come as the Avatar. That was why he had urged his gargoyle people about the Avatar's return, but some had not believed him and had split off on their own to join Minax.

The black void golem, Draxinusom said, was actually the Avatar. Not a void left by the Avatar, but Michael himself, twisted somehow into something unrecognizable. For a time, Minax was able to bring the void to various Britannias and it killed various Avatars. But when the void destroyed the Codex, he apparently saw within it his true self, and turned against Minax, forcing her to lock it up for fear of her existence.

But, Draxinusom said, there was one Avatar who could not be killed by time and gates. An immortal Avatar. Kianne.

The shards of the Gem of Immortality would need to be destroyed. Draxinusom told them this from information he had gleamed from the Codex. Inside each of the large rocks were the actual gem pieces. Those pieces would need to be brought together into the gem, and then gem could be destroyed. But the only way to destroy the gem was for a person who was already immortal to touch it. The paradox in this was that the gem makes its holder immortal. However, if someone who was already immortal touched it, that person would lose his immortality and gem would be destroyed. As if the power of the gem was reversed.

The gem would be gone, but only at the sacrifice of one's immortality.

To live, only to die...

The Black Void Golem

They gathered together with everything they needed finally to take on the black void golem. “It is a good day to die,” Ayla teased.

To die, yet to live...

The group traveled to Felucca, to the castle that was the mirror of Lord British's, but belonged to Minax. Minax herself spoke with them from the top of the walls, but did not fight them directly. Instead, she sent the undead Garn and some animated weapons after them, then fled from their presence.

After RBW mopped the deck, they realized the magical gate blocking the way was down. Apparently Garn himself had been the key. In fact, Garn had been carrying another piece of Exodus, the psyche, as a part of him.

They moved carefully into the throne room. They assumed the black void golem could not hurt them if it was behind bars; otherwise it would have harmed Minax as well. But they were cautious just the same, with Kianne leading the way with the Skull of Mondain.

The void was there, inside the gate. Kianne opened the gate using the three keys, then threw the skull into the void. Immediately it began to crackle and flare with lightning. Then, impossibly, the golem reformed into the shape of a man. It was Michael!

They were able to speak with him briefly, but Michael didn't seem to remember anything that had happened to him except for a few sketchy memories of Mondain coming for him on Earth to kill him while he was helpless. Apparently Minax twisted time to bring Mondain back, then Mondain had gotten his revenge by killing the Avatar with his own hands.

After a few minutes he faded away, vanishing out of existence. The Tome of Stars was the only thing left.

With sad hearts they retrieved the tome then quickly left Felucca before Minax could return. But when they reached their Shadow Keep, Kianne opened the tome to realize all the pages were blank. For a moment she was able to make out a few words and bits of coordinates, but that was all.

The Tome of Stars

Kianne and Andrella broke the news to Shamino. After they talked for a bit, Shamino asked to see the Tome of Stars. Like Kianne, he could not read most of the pages, but he pointed out the coordinates to the Star Chamber and said that was Mondain's lair.

It wasn't until the next day when Kianne realized that the Orb of the Moons, which she had been keeping in her bag along with the Tome of Stars, had absorbed some of the power from the Tome. It now could open gates to some preset locations, not just using coordinates.

Dawn

The small band was unsure how to continue, but when they learned that the gateway to Dawn would be opening shortly, they decided to visit Iolo and perhaps leave Shamino, whose health had been growing steadily worse and worse.

An elf ranger met them on the other side of the gate, but when he learned who they were, he told them of Iolo's location. But first, they met with the elven king, Erimani. The kind ruler was good friends with Shamino and gave them coordinates that would lead them directly into Dawn, so that they would not need to wait for the gate every time.

Kianne experienced a warm reunion with Iolo, and they discussed matters long into the day and night. She was also gifted with a beautiful set of elven-crafted amethyst chain armor. Finally, she learned that Iolo and Dupré had ended up on the Shadowland after the explosion of the Black Gate on her own world, long ago.

When the others finally left, they convinced Shamino to remain in Dawn for a few days to recover. They promised to come and retrieve him a few days later using the Orb of the Moons, and kept that promise.

The Link

Afterward, the party used a book that Iolo had given them to trade with the wisps. They tried to ask for coordinates to Pagan, but unfortunately, the Guardian had already made a trade with the wisps to ask that they deny that information to anyone who asked.

They did obtain some more information from the wisps about Michael. They learned that the Time Lord had prevented Minax from changing events on Britannia, but had been unable to stop Mondain from killing Michael on Earth. Michael's death then, somehow, apparently changed time and prevented Mondain's death on Britannia. It was, as the wisp said, too complicated for the humans to understand.

The wisp also mentioned that Soth on Krynn wanted to rely a message, but the wisps refused to do so, except to mention that Soth was extremely angry for some reason.

So, unable to get to Pagan that way, the group went to Sami to ask if she knew anything about the Tome of Stars. She explained that there was a link that was needed in order to read it. Sami guessed that the link would be in the Star Chamber because that was the only legible set of coordinates, and she said the link's coordinates were always visible.

The Star Chamber

After much thought, Andrella and Kianne decided to go to the Star Chamber while protected by cloaks of invisibility. They only had two cloaks, so everyone else was forced to remain behind. Since the Star Chamber was Mondain's lair, they could think of no other way to avoid getting killed the instant they stepped foot within.

So they donned their cloaks and Kianne opened the moongate to the chamber. When they went through, they discovered both Mondain and Minax. Minax cast a spell to dispel the gate out of existence, but not in time to stop Andrella and Kianne from going through. Neither Mondain nor Minax appeared to sense their presence.

Kianne and Andrella watched and listened while Minax and Mondain talked about someone named Kilmas who knew the secrets of the Tome of Stars. They also mentioned the Time Lord. Then Mondain left, ostensibly to hunt down and fight the Time Lord. Only Minax remained.

Andrella and Kianne were about to throw their fates to the winds and attack Minax when she suddenly Minax teleported herself away. So the two took the opportunity to claim a magical hammer that apparently had been used to shatter the golden rocks and reveal their shards within. But the hammer was not the link for the Tome of Stars. So they then tracked down Minax.

Luckily for them, Minax was not hard to find, as she was attacking the Shadow Keep. It was a long and difficult battle, but Minax was eventually forced to flee. Unfortunately for her, she chose to go to the Star Chamber. Guessing this, the remnant of RBW followed her and attacked her within her lover's lair. Again the struggle was difficult, but with their combined might, they managed to kill Minax then and there.

Andrella looted her of anything of value and they retreated to their Shadow Keep. Andrella had found on her two of the shards of the Gem of Immortality, but more than that, she'd recovered Michael's Orb of the Moons. Apparently, Mondain had possessed Michael's orb since killing him; the orb that Kianne had was actually Lord British's.

The orb turned out to be the key to the Tome of Stars. Although Kianne still couldn't read everything, she was able to get the coordinates of Pagan.

The final objects of significance were Minax's Staff of Time, and a seemingly innocuous hourglass that would prove to be the key to finally contacting the Time Lord.

Pagan

With the coordinates to Pagan in hand, the group prepared diligently, then, when they felt ready, then opened a moongate and stepped into the fire.

Pagan was crawling with the Knights of Valence, who had once been honorable but had been corrupted by Xavier, Andrella's cruel uncle. Part way in, the group encountered a man in golden armor named Jarred that Andrella knew from her past, for he had killed her parents. The Valence Knights kept scoffing at Andrella in armor, saying she was a mage, for no fathomable reason.

The group explored the caverns they had found themselves in, finally discovering levers that opened doors and walls. They also discovered a blackrock cube like the one that the Guardian had used to communicate from a distance with his followers.

After flipping one lever that seemingly did nothing, they retraced their route and found that an opening had appeared in what had previously been a dead-end passage. Inside, they found Dupr´, Lord British, and Nystul.

The rescue was not as bright as it could have been because Lord British and Nystul were unconscious from the poor treatment of their captors, and Dupré was just barely hanging on. But Dupré and Andrella carried Lord British and Nystul while Kianne formed a moongate with her orb, and they all quickly fled Pagan without having ever once seen the Guardian...

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