Journal of Miyara Kyosuke (81)

    Hosei continues laughing.  His eyes glow, but then so do ours.  Rabena calls Hosei by name, and he stops laughing.  He seems to be himself again.  He wonders about touching the others with the crystals, pointing to Egred and saying "that;s the bad guy.:  Suddenly there is a lot of wind and the dust blows away, and we have to close our eyes and mouth to keep it out.  THe wnd lets up after a momemnt.
    Before us the dusty figures are extremely well defined, and Egmeld now stands in front of them, all looking at us.  We hear uneartly music, dwarven song.  Egmeld steps forward and says "Yes, it was I who did this.  Thank you for freeing us."
    Hosei asks if he can help us destroy this stone.
    I point out that this is what he wants, this is Tzeentch.  And you're asking him to help us?
    Hosei thinks this is Tzeentch's discarded tool.
    Eg says he doesn't know how, only Tzeentch does, and he wishes he could.  I understood it, even though it was dwarven.
    I say in Nipponese that this is what happens when they don't take on an apprentice, he finds other ways and things to learn.
    I ask them all what we can do to destroy it ,and say the crystals are all together.  They say that's bad.
    I ask them if they're free?
    Eg says he's had 4k years to regret.
    Miyara asks them what they're going to do.
    They don't know.
    I say that Zockri is still around, he can't die.
    The wind starts blowing, gets into a vortex, and this time it picks up the five figures and we see five dwarf-shaped forces gather, four shoot down towards afterlife.  Fifth starts to follow, then stops, glows red, then goes black, and then vanishes.  We hear Eg's voice crying, "You must destroy the crystal.  Only Tzeentch knows how."
    The room fills with steam, glows hot, rocks fall and shake, and as we run the place buckles and heaves and starts to collapse.
    We rush and try to get out before it all falls around us.  Hosei falls, but I leap back and pick him up and help him make it out.  The lava rises, melting the stairs as we run up.  Noxious fumes fill the area.
    As we clear the head, we feel the ground vibrating, and keep running.  A spurt of lava spurts into the head, blowing it into the air.  The forest bursts into flames as we run for about six hours.
    After six hours a ferocious thunderstorm springs up which puts out the fire and soaks us.
    As we sit and rest, Hosei says that he believes that while Tzeentch does know how to destroy it, but he does not believe he is the only one.  The Feathered Lord (and he knows the real name) taught the spell to put the crystals of power into this state, so he may well know how to destroy them.
    We make camp and rest, and hunt, and collect herbs.
    Hosei suggests talking to the magicians of the church of Barena, a couple of months travel from here.  They can teach him to summon the demon, and it will help him save the world by destroying it., his destinyl.
 
    We spend several days catching up on sleep, food, and making clothes.
    I mention that Mathilde might well have noticed the volcano and linked it with us.  She is probably on the way to kill us right now, although she may be some way away.
    My priority is to get better clothes first, and supplies too.
    The druidess is fairly close, and that will be our first destination.

    About an hour before sunrise on the fourth day, Balaku is on watch.  He notices the smell of beastmen, not overwhelming, but there is one coming.  Then he hears the steady sound of something, probably man-sized, crawling through the undergrowth.  It's moving slowly but not furtively.  He wakes Miyara.
    They wake Hosei, who makes a light pebble and Balaku throws it over where the noise is.  THe pebble goes a little further than intended, and lights the beastman up from behind. When he lights up, he stops crawling about 15 yards away.  He gets up to his knees and goes down again, in a bow.  It looks like he has a bird's head.
    Miyara calls out, "Slurk, rise to your feet and come over here."
    Slurk does, and prostrates himself again.
    Miyara questions him.
    He apologizes for being away so long.  He has been following us.  The others have not yet caught up.  The knights, poor humans, went down the mountain and they avoided them.  He thought it better to serve us that fight the things.
    Miyara says we are not ready to leave here yet, and tells him to go make a camp and be ready as he did when following us earlier.
    Slurk gets up and backs away obediently.

    The druidess should be ten days to two weeks away from here.  Rabena says that there will be all kinds of storms in the weather.
    Slurk does not want to be sent away, but wants to serve us.  Miyara says that he serves us best by doing our will.  He wants one task, to prove himself.
    I suggest with a smile that he could prepare us a meal of Cold Fire Knight.
    Miyara says she has a task.  He is to collect the others of his group, find out wher the knights from the empire are, and if possible where they are going, and meet us at the tower in the middle of the Yetsin Valley.  We should be there in a couple of weeks.
    We let him pack up and move out, and then set out ourselves in mid-morning.