Rune Seeker

“Let me get this straight,” Seena started, already rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Not only does Olimpas have the incredibly dangerous Urn of Ur’Thul, but the man is also missing?”

“That seems to sum it up, yes,” Elezad said, only wincing slightly at the tone of the party leader’s voice.

With the influx of information, part of Hiral’s mind just wanted to reel in shock and pretend it couldn’t be real. But, thinking back, Drake had reacted oddly that time he’d summoned the dracolich outside where the Urn had been. He must’ve sensed somebody up there, and Hiral had basically ignored the concern. The whole party had, more focused on getting on the trail of Nivian and Wule.

And now it’d come back to bite them.

“How long ago did Olimpas go missing?” Hiral asked, forcing himself back to the task at hand. Reprimanding himself – and apologizing to Drake – could come later. “And would anybody else know what he was carrying?”

“The council didn’t even know…” Elezad said with a helpless shrug. “Ebidi?”

“My party who brought him down all knew,” the big Shaper said. “But, we were told in no uncertain terms not to tell anybody else. Not that he needed to be so strict about it. My people are professionals. We don’t gossip about work.”

Everybody sort of just looked at him, since that was kind of, exactly what he was doing right there.

“Another councilman asked!” Ebidi said in his own defense as he realized the same thing, and pointed at Elezad. “My point stands. Nobody leaked this. Anybody else who know about this urn-thing was because Olimpas told them.”

“Or,” Seena said, and looked at the lich on her shoulder. “Could somebody have sensed he had the urn?”

“Not even I could sense he had it,” Li’l Ur said, then kind of deflated. “He was right in front of me with it, and there wasn’t even a trace of the energy.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Ur,” Hiral said. “The Trunk of Asinef is more than just an interspatial storage…”

“You just told us that was exactly what it was,” Seena pointed out.

“For sake of expedience!” Hiral countered with a roll of his eyes. “Anyway! The tattoo is A-Rank because of how well it seals things within it. The story goes Asinef used the trunk specifically to carry dangerous goods, which would make it the perfect ability to move the Urn. In a way, it might actually be safer with Olimpas than where it was in the undead city.”

“Except we’re still not convinced he didn’t try to kill my sister and her party,” Seena said. “Or that we trust him at all with something of that power.”

“Does he have any enemies?” Nivian asked. “Somebody who wouldn’t know about the Urn, but would want to harm him?”

Every eye turned to look at Seena.

“While my sister has been very vocal in her urge to stab the man,” Seena said. “She hasn’t done any such thing. Besides, we’ve all been out of the camp together.”

“Any other enemies?” Nivian said.

“Usual council nonsense,” Elezad said. “We all make minor enemies through the politicking we’re forced to do. Olimpas is no different. You think somebody took him?”

“It’s one possibility,” Nivian said. “Unless you think he left on his own?”

“I hate to think somebody here,” Elezad said while looking around the bustling camp of people working together. “Tried to hurt or kidnap somebody when we all need to be working together.”

“Could he have gone back up to Fallen Reach?” Ilrolik asked. “The Discs of Passage are still here. Does he have a Recall Token?”

“He does,” Ebidi said. “We all got one together.”

“I’m not sure him being back on Fallen Reach would be better,” Elezad said. “Just how dangerous is this urn?”

“Before my Mistress and would-be-apprentice stopped me,” Li’l Ur said. “I was on the verge of finally unleashing my Urn’s power on the world, spreading a creeping plague to turn the living into the unliving. To create a land under my iron-fisted rule, obedient to my god-like power and infinite wisdom. To…”

“We get the idea, Ur,” Seena said. Then she looked at Elezad. “Really, really dangerous.”

“I’m starting to see that,” Elezad said.

“The War Table,” Hiral said with a snap of his fingers. “Can’t it show us where Olimpas is.”

“Only if he wants to be found,” Ebidi said, and everybody looked at the Shaper.

“You haven’t even seen the War Table, how would you know that?” Elezad asked.

“Hold on,” Hiral said before Ebidi could answer, something just clicking into place in his mind. “Olimpas has the Trunk of Asinef tattoo?”

“Yes,” Ebidi said.

“Olimpas is a Shaper? Not an Artist or Academic?” Hiral’s first question went to Ebidi, while the second went to his father.

“I…” Elezad started. “I always thought he was an Academic.”

“As did I,” Sera said. “Though he never clearly stated that – as far as I can remember – he certainly let everybody believe it.”

“Another secret we were told to keep,” Ebidi grumbled. “But, yes, he’s a Shaper. Very limited tattoos. With a few very focused on staying hidden. Unless the War Table has a way to pierce through his Veil of the Forgotten…”

Elezad, Hiral, and Ilrolik groaned in unison.

“Veil of the Forgotten,” Hiral said to Seena and Nivian’s questioning looks. “Another tattoo. Obviously. This one is all about being undetectable. Among other things, it includes invisibility, sound negation, and even memory manipulation. It’s limited, but it makes you forget you saw the person under the Veil even if you notice them.”

“It’s technically S-Rank,” Elezad said. “Few people have it, and nobody has been able to use its full power…”

“Could Olimpas?” Seena asked the pertinent question.

“He’d need to have at least one S-Rank solar attribute, possibly two,” Hiral said. “An A-Rank person can pull off an S-Rank tattoo… sometimes. Barely. Most don’t bother.”

“He can definitely use the tatoo,” Ebidi said. “As for whether he is A- or S-Rank, I don’t know.”

“Somebody has to know,” Seena said.

“His output is A-Rank,” Ilrolik said, head tilted back like she was thinking. “If I’m remembering his test at the Measure correctly. “C-Rank absorption, and maybe B-Rank capacity.”

“Did you know he was a Shaper?” Hiral asked. “Did he take the test?”

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Ilrolik shook her head. “He never took the Shaper test.”

“Then how did he become…?” Hiral started, then stopped. Beside him, Left turned and met his eyes, then nodded. His double had just realized the same thing. “PIMs. We didn’t know about PIMs for so long. Is the Shaper test even needed to become one? Or did we have our classes the whole time, and the traditions were… just that. Traditions? All the people who failed the test repeatedly, they just didn’t have Shaper PIMs from the beginning.”

Hiral and the four Makers all paused at the implications of that. Hiral wasn’t the only one who would’ve never passed the test, no matter how many times he tried. What about the people who didn’t pass the first time, but passed later? Was it just because their PIM wasn’t fully formed enough to connect with the tattoos?

“Growers are born with our classes,” Seena said quietly. “Would it be so strange for Makers to be the same?”

“Undead gain their class upon their rebirth,” Li’l Ur said. “At least, that was how it worked before the PIM brought them under its purview. I suspect it’s the same now, as Nivian was a Death Knight from the moment he… transformed.”

“We thought the test was so important…” Ilrolik said, clearly shaken by the revelation. “That it was something to be proud of. Prestige.”

“Doesn’t change anything for me,” Ebidi said with a shake of his head. “I always knew I was born to be a Shaper. This just proves that.”

“And… and it’s not the problem we need to focus on right now,” Elezad said. “We need to figure out where he is.”

“Just so I’m on the same page as all of you,” Seena said with a slight raise of her hand. “Him secretly being a Shaper is a big thing, right?”

“It’s almost unheard of for somebody to conceal their class like this,” Sera said. “There is no rule stating we need to share the information, but most openly do. It doesn’t need to be a secret.”

“It’s very common though,” Hiral started. “For people not to share their status windows. That’s the only place that actually says our class. If he didn’t show anybody that…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence for everybody to understand the implications.

“Yeah, so, all the more reason not to trust him,” Seena said.

“You suggesting we should’ve let Seeyela get on with her stabbing?” Hiral asked.

Seena shrugged. “If you ask me, it’s looking more and more like he really was the one who ordered those Shapers to kill Seeyela, her party, and you,” she said to Hiral.

“It really is,” Hiral agreed. “But, if that’s true, and he chose to disappear now, there has to be a reason. He’d know this would make him look suspicious.”

“War Table,” Elezad said. “We’re not getting any answers out here.” With that, he turned and strode back through the open door.

Hiral shared a look with Seena and the others – though Ilrolik still looked a little shocked at the revelation about the Shaper test – then followed his father inside. They got to the room that housed the War Table in short order, where they found Grandmother and their Guide – Al the Arborean Triclops – in quiet conversation.

“… and I’m telling you, that’s too much water. You’ll drown it,” Grandmother was saying.

“And I’m telling you – respectfully – it is not too much. The air here is very dry, and the sapling needs…” Al trailed off when he saw the others entering. And, maybe the looks on their faces.

Grandmother followed the Triclops’s gaze, then sighed. “I know that look. Was it something from the beast wave? Did Devison lose more than a foot this time?”

“No more than usual,” Ilrolik said distractedly.

“It’s Olimpas,” Elezad said, immediately going to the War Table. “Him being missing could be worse than we feared. He has the Urn of… Unusual…?”

“Ur’Thul,” Hiral filled in.

“That. He has the Urn of Ur’Thul in his possession, apparently,” Elezad explained.

“The thing you told me about?” Grandmother asked Seena and Nivian. “The one that turned the whole city into undead.” Her eyes went to the Death Knight. “Turned you.”

“That’s the one,” Nivian said. “Apparently, he took it shortly after the others returned to the surface to find me and Wule.”

“He said it was dangerous and we couldn’t leave it lying around,” Ebidi grumbled.

“Nobody is blaming you for anything,” Ilrolik said.

“Any luck?” Hiral asked his father as he moved in to stand by the man.

“Checking the camp first,” Elezad said, his finger flicking through the air while he squinted at something only he could see. “The War Table provides a list of anything within the walls. Even the Veil of the Forgotten shouldn’t be able to hide him from that.”

“Anything?” Seena asked. “As soon as you locate him, I can tell Seeyela…”

“He’s still not here,” Elezad said. “I checked this before when we first noticed we hadn’t seen him in a while.”

“Any idea when he vanished?” Left asked.

“None,” Elezad said. “Last time I personally saw him was before you all left for your trials,” Elezad said.

“So, he could’ve been gone for twenty hours, or more,” Hiral said. “A lot can happen in that amount of time.”

“And this table won’t tell us if he’s gone back to Fallen Reach,” Seena said.

“Let’s check the rest of the valley before we worry about that,” Elezad said. “While unlikely, he could’ve asked another party to take him out into the Cradle. Like he got Ebidi and his party to work with him.”

“To do his dirty work, it’s starting to sound like,” Ebidi growled. “He made it sound like we were doing such a great thing for Fallen Reach.”

“And, maybe you were,” Hiral said. “It’s… still possible Olimpas has a good reason for what he’s doing.”

“Do you actually believe that?” Seena asked him flatly.

“Not in the slightest,” Hiral admitted. “I was just trying to make him feel better.”

“Really didn’t work since I can hear you say that,” Ebidi pointed out.

“Feelings aside, here,” Elezad said, spreading his hands above the War Table. With the motion, colored dots appeared in a wave starting with where the keep was. The space there was almost instantly filled with blue, red, and green dots. A couple of white dots moved around as well, while a single yellow dot showed exactly where Hiral was.

From there, a kind of pulse spread outward, illuminating more dots – parties and individual scouts – out and running trials in the Cradle.

“I’ve modified access for a short while to allow you all to interact with the War Table,” Elezad explained. “But it’s only temporary. You’ll need to tap one of the dots to bring up the information associated with it. Best you’ll get is a name and Rank.”

“Since Olimpas is a Maker, just worry about the blue dots,” Hiral instructed as the assembled people spread out around their half of the Cradle’s map. “We’ll have to check each one to see if it’s him.”

“If he’s even still in the Cradle,” Seena said, though she was tapping blue dots closest to her as she spoke.

“If we don’t find him,” Elezad said while also poking dots. “We’ve got people watching the entrance of the Cradle to make sure nothing unpleasant sneaks in. They… may have seen Olimpas leave if he wasn’t using his tattoo. Or token.”

“Not something I’d be willing to bet on,” Ebidi said.

“It would be a very bad bet to take,” Sera said, eyes lingering on a pair of blue dots in front of her. “My girls,” she said quietly, then shook her head. “None of these are Olimpas.”

“Not here, either,” Hiral said, having checked each of the dots closest to him. Twice.

“No luck,” Seena said. “Nivian?”

“Nothing.”

“My arms aren’t as long as all of you,” Grandmother said. “But Olimpas isn’t in this corner.”

“Not in this one either,” Ilrolik said with a scowl.

That just left Elezad, Right, and Left. The first two likewise shook their heads to say the hadn’t found the councilman. Left, though, while he shook his head at the dots in front of him, his eyes were entirely focused on something else. The wall of fog in the map?

“Al,” Left said. “Could somebody enter the fog?”

“Technically?” Al said. “Yes, though they wouldn’t get far, and the magic of the barrier would turn them around to spit them back out where they started as they walked.”

“What if they didn’t walk?” Left pressed. “Just entered, then stopped there?”

“I’m… not sure,” Al admitted. “The fog’s magic needs movement to trigger it.”

“Do you see something, Left?” Hiral said, moving up beside his double.

“Maybe, though it’s hard to tell,” Left said. “I had a better view of it where I started, but in front of that tower in the small valley. The one near what looks like a large oak tree. I was sure I saw a hint of blue before. You see those two green dots there?” The double pointed at a pair of Growers out near the fog. “The blue was just past it. A straight line from where we are here.”

“Let me see if I can…” Hiral started, and took a few steps back to where Left had started. He hadn’t even gotten the whole way before the entire wall of fog simply vanished, leaving a single, blue dot, and the two green ones not far away, standing practically in the middle of the map. No sooner had it appeared – everything on that half of the map was completely revealed – than it all grew blurry. Like looking through a window with heavy rain running down it. They could still see the general shape of the other side of the Cradle – including what had to be the enemy fortress – but none of the details.

“Dad, what did you do?” Hiral asked his father.

“Nothing,” Elezad said. “I have no idea what happened.”

The notification window that sprung up sure seemed to, though.

Dynamic Quest Update: The Cradle of Tomorrow

One faction has reached the required threshold of trial completion. Both sides now have eight hours until the Cradleis completely unlocked, and the true battles will begin.

Prepare well, and protect your Generals. Surrender by or defeat of the General will result in a loss and extermination for their faction.

“Surrender is an option?” Grandmother asked. “Not in my book it isn’t.”

Despite the woman’s strong words, they weren’t at all what Hiral was focused on. They had no way to be completely sure that blue dot they’d seen for a fraction of a second was actually Olimpas or not. None of them had had a chance to poke it.

Really, Hiral only knew one thing from the brief instant he’d seen the dot, and that was in that split second between the fog wall vanishing and the blur taking over, the dot had moved.

Into the other faction’s territory.