(RP22) The Lizardfolk Seer

Idris: 

I had a vision about Leilon, with a giant dome of it, and on the tower in the centre there was a dragon on it repeatedly getting dropped by lighting, and a massive scale on the top.  Hat does the vision mean?

Seer: 

there will be a battle grand enough to shake the land. It will determine what happens to all here.  Many sides will war for the same power.  The lightning fierce, prepared to destroy, the scales [check wording].   The dragon is not as it seems. Something controls it. I see that you will be able to influence to ensure will win this battle. In all the futures I see, it is best when no one does.

We await your decision

Idris: 

Idris pauses, letting the words echo in his mind, their meaning resonating deeply. He closes his eyes and turns inward, reaching into the well of his own being, where the spark of his power resides. He feels it, raw and untamed—the power to shape his destiny, to bend fate itself to his will. In that moment, something within him shifts, as if the world is no longer merely happening to him, but waiting for his hand to shape it. Change stirs in his soul, and he knows he is not the same.

Siax:

Siax would ask the seer for a private audience to discuss his question.

"Your guards can be present but my question is of a personal nature..."

Siax turns to the overs and says, " I am sorry but I wish for me to know about my future and me alone."

His eyes to the others seem firm, direct and determined. Not aggressive.  More to let the others know of how serious he was regarding the request.

Pine:

Pine would be willing to give Siax the space to do so, stepping out of the chamber if that was necessary.  He had never truly fought against something someone felt was very important to them, unless it was in opposition to his own tasks.

Seer:

The lizardfolk seer remains still. Their golden eyes, though sightless, seem to fix on Siax as they speak.

"Your request is not one I can deny, Siax of Moonglide," the seer says slowly,  The guards shift uneasily, their eyes darting between their charge and Siax. The seer raises a hand and speaks. "Do not question the path of fate, warriors," the seer intones, voice carrying an authority that stills their concern. "The winds of destiny are not always what we would choose."

With a slight motion of their hand, the seer beckons Siax forward. "Follow me," they say simply, before turning and gliding toward a small alcove hidden in the shadows of the chamber. The guards stiffen but make no move to follow, standing at attention as Siax steps toward the seer. The alcove is dim, lit only by the faintest glow coming from the river. The air here is thick with a peculiar scent. The seer stops at its threshold and turns to Siax. "Here, we will speak of what cannot be said in the open," the seer says, their voice now a soft echo against the walls. "Ask your question, and I will give what I can."

The Seer raises a hand and pulls a thick dark curtain, sealing the alcove from the outside. No one can hear what is said inside.

Effie

Effie believes that your actions control your future, albeit with a hint of luck to spice it up. So in a way you're always prepared for what's to come, as your actions put you in that situation.

But regardless, she'd take the opportunity to see if she could find out more about the whereabouts of the Baron considering her recent vision when using the Wish spell, and the mention that he was nearby. when her turn came, she'd approach the edge of the river more or less in front of the seer, and ask with an excited tone: "Will I - and if so when, where and how - be able to reunite with my long-lost mentor?" She assumed she wouldn't be able to get concrete instructions on how to get it to happen but hopefully enough details to figure it out on her own.

Seer:
As you speak it seems to you that the river’s murmur deepens. Its rhythm steady and deliberate, you feel it thrumming through your very bones.

"Blackbird, I see threads entwined in shadow and stone," the seer murmurs. "Your mentor walks a path not of his choosing, deep within a place where roots twist around the bones of the fallen. Where the forest forgets and the mountains rise, he serves purposes not of his own."

Their hand moves slowly, tracing unseen patterns in the air. "In some futures, you find him. He teaches, hones, prepares—though not for himself. His hands shape futures for another's design."

The seer’s blindfolded gaze shifts slightly, as if catching a distant glimpse. "In the futures you find him it is because you dared to trust a friend, a paladin a noble, a superior, an enemy, a friend to guide the way. Together you could face what lies beneath the canopy’s shadow."

A pause, heavy with meaning.

"If you meet his captor, trust in your song—it carries further than you know."

Arya
[I don't think Arya will ask anything. She doesn't believe in fate or a fixed future, different potential futures she can already visualize herself]

Seer:
As the previous answers fade into silence the Seer turns their attention to Arya. She had not spoken but it was not needed.

"You see the roads ahead, the many paths that could be. Your eyes are sharp, your mind a map of what might come." The seer leans slightly as if overcome with the effort to glimpse what they see.

"You live in the moments before choice, where the future branches into infinite paths. And yet, some of those paths have you walk them by the will of another."

The seer then remains silent, allowing the weight of their words to settle.

Arya:
Arya looked at this strange creature, strange in this world perhaps but somehow familiar to her as it talked and how it seemed to perceive the world as someone from her own world. She listened but did not  react, she assumed it would sense her acknowledgment anyway.

Pine:
Pine would have listened to what had been said, and what had been offered in return from the one whose power was different to how he knew divination.  There was always more to be learned from watching and listening, and Pine was good at that.  So it was that when all the others had asked their questions, Pine had made his decision on what he wished to know.

He had considered asking about the shards of god power, but when even Zatharius with all his knowledge had faltered at the question, having no good answer for him, and when his Gods themselves questioned if any others were out there at all since they could not feel any more, he decided to go a different route.

Stepping forward, he didn't go far, only enough that he stood at the edge of that river but not past that point.  The river was a magic he didn't understand, but more than that, it was clearly sacred in some way to the lizardfolk, and much like he had cautioned Idris to being more thoughtful towards their hosts, so he was aware that his own presence was likely to unsettle further.  There was no need for him to leap across the river, although he could have done so with ease, and so he did not.  His voice would carry easily enough to be heard without that.

"In what future would you and your people willingly aid and support my path to restoring my Gods to power?"

There was thought put into the wording, for he had grown more confident in the nuance of questions over his time with the group and the dead he'd had to speak with.  The question was not just for him, but perhaps for the lizardfolk too, for in asking the question, the seer may find paths that they might not have considered before.  And if the seer decided to aid in him in the manner of finding other shards, well that was a possibility too.  Not everything needed to come down to aid in battle, after all.

Seer
The sound of water on stone has been constant but as the question is asked it seems to abate for a moment, as if it too paused to hear what came next. The seer remains motionless, their scaled form frozen like a statue. When they speak, their voice is calm, betraying none of their thoughts.

"I see your aim shining clear in most of realities. To restore Gods long sundered...a task we above all understand." They pause, the air thick with unspoken tension. "There are futures where claws meet, where we strike you down to protect what is ours. And there are those where you bring ruin upon us, ending all that we are."

As those words are spoken you see the lizardfolk guards stiffen, ready to strike against you all if need be. The seer does not notice or care.  Their tone does not shift, but the words carry a quiet intensity. "There are also paths where your journey touches ours, where strength is shared, and purposes entwine. Yet such futures are few and flow only when the divine stirs."

The seer lifts their arms in a slow, reverent motion, as if offering themselves to an unseen presence. "Our gods left us, deeming us unworthy to accompany them on their journey. But there are futures where we rejoice in their return—where rivers, roots, and skies are once again filled with their power. In those futures, we raise arms not only for our gods but to see yours returned as well."

Lowering their arms, the seer tilts their head toward Pine. "I name you Claegssthisis in our tongue, so that we may know you."

Their words hang in the air as the sound of the river returns to it's normal, eternal lapping.

Pine
Pine listens, and the listening is easy comparatively, for the sound of the river lessened around them, hushed, as if even the river itself wished to hear the answer.

The fact that there were many future possibilities where the lizardfolk were set against him did not come as any surprise to him.  The river itself was a power, and something that flowed throughout the Mere, or so they had been told.  That alone made it a thing that Ularan especially would likely wish to utilise, and he doubted Ularan would care much how he got it.  But Pine cared, for he had no wish to pit himself against the lizardfolk who, like him, were searching for a way to restore what had been lost.

"This name you have granted me, what does it mean in a language I know?"

It was never simple, of course.  He could reach out, and he could hope, but nothing was simple.  Whatever the lizardfolk considered gods, it seemed as if they would have to be restored before they would help him, and he once more felt some of the weariness that this journey weighed upon him.

"You say the futures where strength is shared are few, and yet I stand willing to discuss terms, much as I aided your people in the journey in the Mere."

Seer
With everyone adressed, the seer speaks once more to all of you. Their voice takes on a deep, reverent tone, carrying the weight of something ancient and sacred.

"Long ago, we were nothing, Unthinking beasts, weak, hunted, and scattered like leaves before the storm. We lived and died in ignorance, our scales soft, our minds clouded, prey to every claw and fang that found us." Their head tilts slightly, as though listening to something only they can hear. "But the gods, in their power and mercy, rose us up. They gave us scales like armor, to shield us from those who would harm us. They gave us strong bodies, so that we might serve their will with unyielding strength. And they gave us minds—minds that could grasp, if only in part, the glory of their holy words. All that we are, all that we have, is their gift. We are but a shadow of their greatness, a fragment of their light cast into the world. We honor them, not only in what we do but in what we strive to become."

They pause, the weight of their words settling over the group like a tangible force. Then, slowly, their blindfolded gaze turns to Idris.

"You," they say, the single word like a stone dropped into the river, rippling outward. "You have received their blessing. The river has found you, chosen you, molded you. When you see the Great Mother, the Dragon who protects us, she will know what you have become."
The seer raises a hand, pointing toward Idris with a slow, deliberate motion. "You bear the weight of their gift. Yours is the path of the blessed, the burden of one touched by divine purpose. Do not squander it."

Their hand lowers and they stop talking. It feels final.

Hissain
Pine's first question was not answered by the Seer, instead it was Hissain, the shaman of the group you had escorted who whispers in your ear. He had entered and observed your conversation with the seer.
"It means... The one who embodies death. The translation is not exact, your words do not... Differentiate well."

Pine
Pine would look to Hissain and incline his head. In many ways it was an accurate description and it left him feeling... quite honoured. Like he has been recognised in some way for who and what he was.  Most just saw him as somewhat of a 'creepy cat'.

"It is not death I wish to bring to your people," he said to the shaman, and the room at large.  He did not wish it, but unless given an alternative option, it was probable that he might have to.  It was why he asked what he had, to attempt to find another way before the choice was taken from him.

Lizardfolk
But the Shaman was not listening. By the time the Tabaxi would look back from Hissain the seer was being led away, leaning heavily on a guard as if extremely fatigued.

However, an answer was forthcoming from one of the other guards who had remained behind. His common was not as practiced as the seers or Hissains and while understandable it took focus to determine the meaning.

"Sssseer hassss ssssaid. Deedssss not wordssss prove you ally. When sssssomething threatens our godssss and you make decisssssion to sssstand with them, with ussssss then you are ally".

Anothe guard, this one more slender and holding parchment stepping forward."What are thesssse termssss you ssspeak of?"
It bears no pen or ink that you see.

Pine
Pine would watch in a bit of dismay as the Seer was taken away, and for long moments he thought that was it; that any hope for a peaceful alliance between them was gone, and yet hope stood in the form of those guards who had been ready to cut him down only moments before.

"I do not even know who your gods are, to stand or not stand with them," he said to the guard, but perhaps time with the lizardfolk would answer that  in time. He rather thought, feared even, that their gods were the elves of Merdelain themselves perhaps, and that wouldn't be good for future amicability.

As his attention was brought to the scribe to the side, he once more lamented his lack of intellect, for it surely would have sided him with such a question.

"I do not wish to harm your people," he would reiterate, "but my Gods are eager to return, and those who are set to do that would see your river, and people, as something to utilise without consideration for your ways or wishes.".

He paused a moment hoping to find words that would make a difference, they would help him safeguard the lizardfolk, when he truly had no clever words to convince.

"To safeguard what you believe to be sacred, and your paths in life, I need a reason they would understand to not trample what you have here.  I cannot safeguard what has been shown to me without something like that."

Lizardfolk
Hissain starts speaking rapidly in his native tongue to the guards with them speaking a few words back [Idris, you understand what is being said, Hissain is translating what Pine said and defending his cause while the guards tell him to beware as he is being insubordinate].

As the conversation ends the two guards speak to each other.

The first guard speaks and while there is no tinge of anger in his voice the words say otherwise.
"Reassson you need, is that one that comessss to take and usssse will be desssstroyed."

The other glances around and speaks. "I do not undersssstand. An enemy comessss againssst ussss and we will hide, ssssay what must be to be sssspared? No, Reassssson is that the Godsss are sssacred, bring only good to our people. Our cause issss just.  It issss good. That isss enough."

Two more guards vanish after the now retreated seer leaving only four behind. The first one speaks again.

"If you wish to be ally then do not work with people like the ones you describe. One jaw cannot close upon all prey".

Pine
The more Pine heard, the more he inwardly despaired. Those were not the words, the reasons, he had hoped to hear. To turn his back on Ularan, who was the very one who was the means of bringing his Gods back, with no other option to do so?

"To bring back my Gods, it is he who I have to work with. They sent me to him."

Lizardfolk
Hissain takes a step back from you. As usual with the lizardfolk no discernable emotion crosses his reptilian features but his dismay can be easily felt.

The first guard speaks. "Then we sssshall cross ssspearsss when you come back. Your group has done a boon to our people sssso that is all"

Pine
Hissain is not the only one who felt dismay, and Pine is not adept at hiding such feelings, especially with how expressive his ears and tail are.

He didn't like this, at all. But there was frustration there, that the lizardfolk seemed unwilling or unable to give him the reasons he needed.

"I will ask my Gods for guidance, but without another viable option I am not very hopeful for a different outcome."

Pine would look to Hissain and the other, "I can reach out to them here, or in another room if that is preferable," he would say, not wishing to inadvertently cause offense. "Hissain, Lorekeeper, you can both stay and witness it, if you wish.  I am told that my words to them are audible."

It would not come as any particular surprise though that he would ask the group to watch over him while he was speaking to the Three, considering the tense atmosphere the conversation had created had caused.

Still, he would settle down somewhere the lizardfolk deemed appropriate and focus his mind and power upon once more contacting the Three in the ways he had learned.  It was his hope that the connection would be stronger there, where the reach of the Mere did not seem to hold.

Should he make connection with them, he would speak quickly, knowing his time with them was short.  He could cast it a second or third time, of course, but he was wary of the effect that might have upon him.

In as succinct a way as possible, he would tell them everything he knew about the situation, being careful to state the exact words that the Seer had said to him about the possible futures, as well as what he knew about the river itself.

"I wish to intercede for them," he would say, and it was rare that Pine had ever felt this strongly about others.  He had been unhappy but willing to go along with the possible genocide of the elves of Merdelain before, seeing no other option to holding to his agreement with the Three, but this was different.  It was easy to forget, if people knew at all, that Pine felt strongly about people following their path, and the lizardfolk sort of epitomised that, and it felt truly wrong to him to be the source of that being cut short.

Those sorts of things caused regrets and unfinished business.  It hampered the smooth running of the way things should be, and that sat at odds with what he believed.  To be the cause of such a thing, especially on such a scale, especially if there was other options, it sat very poorly with him, made his fur stand on end at the thought of such a needless and unnecessary happening.  He did not want to be the cause of it.

"Their river is powerful, and their dedication is strong.  But Ularan's plans seem set on one course that is likely at odds.  Even if you deem the information to be kept from him, I am not alone here, and words can slip unintentionally.  What would you have me do?"

His gaze would largely focus on Bane, as Pine had always seen him as a leader adept in war, in judging a battlefield, but he would certainly not be ignoring the others.  Each had their strengths, after all, and he was just one half-dead tabaxi bound to their cause.

DM

You reach out through the ruin that was once a piece of Merdelain, through the invisible miasma that lay upon the swamp like a film of oil on water, through to somewhere... Else.

DM
[Give me an intelligence saving throw]

Pine

[int = 13]

DM

[Oh no]

Pine

[sadly oh yes]

[unless idris is close, in which case its a +4]

DM

You reach out farther and father and... Where are you? With a start you realise you've gone too far, too wide, too.. Everywhere.

Where is your body, the three, the swamp. It's all wrong in this place, rotting away at intentions, at good deeds, at heroes and saviors, makes them dirty, makes them tainted.

A thousand thousand lives have sunk in the mud here and it isn't enough, it'll never be enough, not for this sucking wound, it won't rest until it has everything, everyone and maybe it should, maybe all should die, why should any survive when life means what it looks like now. A small part of you realises that these aren't your thoughts, not entirely, almost like other minds are floating through your own. But that part is small and it is sinking...

That is until you see the small torch far in the distance. The beacon is where you should go, where you should be. With a mental effort you tug back towards it, towards your body, mind and Idris.

With your bearing restored you carefully access the odd realm that is where you have met the three before.

The shade that you knew was Bane answered. "A leaf in the wind is unable to determine it's course, be not the leaf but the Scythe"

The words were oddly cryptic to be coming from Bane but you realise that the proximity to the Mere was limiting and that this was what could pass through.

Pine

Pine would drift, become lost, only to find his way back once more.  There would be a time to reflect on what he had felt, what he had noticed, but for now his focus had to be on the Three.

Unlike the last time he had contacted them in this manner though, it felt restricted.  Constrained.  Even the response from Bane felt so.  Cryptic as he was more used to Bhaal being, and the words brought no comfort.  No solution that wouldn't likely end with him being in opposition to the lizardfolk.

"I would have my course avoid those here, but a scythe does not wield itself, and a cleric should not forge a path against their Gods' wishes.  Does trying to safeguard them go against yours?"

DM

Barely audible, Bane's voice was almost drowned out by the mental buzzing the swamp made.

"Perhaps, Perhaps not. Make it so it is not. Impose your will. Demand it"

Pine

The words left him conflicted, for there was no clear answer, and yet Bane also seemed to be trying to get him to be more confident in his authority, more demanding.  That was not who Pine was, not really.  And yet he was not under any illusion that his current ways were particularly effective.  Conversation was not his strong point, and neither was taking control.

"Who are the lizardfolk's gods?"

That had been a concern, a worry, because unless he knew, then it would obviously hamper his ability to make a decision one way or another.  The lizardfolk themselves seemed to have shared memories of them, and yet they also seemed a little confused at times.

DM

A single line almost contemptuous in its brevity. "You already know who."

Pine

He had feared the confirmation, but confirmation had been more necessary.  It made more hope fade from him, that knowledge, ears falling down either side of his skull.

"What could substitute for the ritual of sacrifice?"

DM

Bane's shade appeared thoughtful. "A sacrifice that means something, a sacrifice of scale. Perhaps the fall of Ularan."

Pine

Pine would look at them at this answer, trying to see any hint of displeasure in them at this thought.  Ularan had been their servant for far longer than he had, and was by far more powerful and learned.  It went without saying, he thought, that a sacrifice of himself would not have the same effect.  He had one more question and he did not wish to squander another, as he had already, on a question he knew the answer to.

"How can I safeguard what I hold for you, should I fall?"

DM

"You cannot."

The swamp swallowed any proper communication, leaving only these tatters as the results. It sounded final.

Pine

Pine opened his eyes to the room around him, with the group and any of the lizardfolk that were still around.

"I can make no promises," he said to them, his voice gravelly with things unspoken.  "The future is not clear to me, and only time and circumstances will tell."

DM

The guards (and Hissain) had not moved, simply observing you with their large dark eyes.