Closed:The Red Gem, aka Heart of the Spirit Neima

Gloomy_Sunday

I do not claim familiar links are illegal. I claim that linking your soul to a gem is illegal.

Elias Goldcrown

Fizzgig

Wizards can link themselves to staffs, boots, rings.. well all manner of items. Just because you do not understand it, doesn't mean it is illegal.

E.C. Blythe

Gloomy_Sunday

No, because the law book says it's illegal is what makes it illegal. Linking your soul to an item alters your soul, that you chose to link a necromantic gem of unknown power to your very soul is the recklessness I speak of.

Councillor Elias Goldcrown

Fizzgig

Was my soul ever linked to the item? No, that would be far beyond my humble abilities.

E.C. Blythe

V-Rage

Stop trying to shift blame Ethel.

This was all your fault, This entire debacle was caused because once more you chose to operate in secrecy and not reveal this ritual was planned to the council at whole. Much like you have hidden much about this ring from the council to try and keep the Precepts councillor in the dark. Worst of all you commited this in the palace where the Royals reside. Had the wards failed more they may have been placed at risk. When I first came upon the ritual before it began I advised the palace was an unwise location.

Let us go over this saga from the beginning

You made a decoy ring to trick people, By your own words you tied part of yourself to the ring, Which according to the lawbook of this land may very well be a magical crime

-Magical Crimes- Animation or Control of the Undead. Summoning of planar beings from both lower and higher planes. Magical tampering with memory, mental states, or other compositions of an individual's body or their humors.

Note the council as a whole did not exempt you from this.

Only after the decoy ring was destroyed did you wish to break this link after Miel was seen feeding the ring to allow you to throw Zuguk off you.

The only reason I entered the room during the ritual was because I heard combat from within so entered to put down the threat so there was no chance of spilling out and harming others

Pierre

Fizzgig

You were strictly informed not to enter the room, never to open the door, and never to let anyone inside. This, you were incapable of. As such, everything was compromised.

The fact you were unable to even attempt to respect Councilor Tylel's knowledge, as well as Goldcrowns hunger to try and oust me whilst claiming the artifact, proves to me that it was a wise choice not to share all information on the Council. In fact, I had the blessing of Dame Drakebane to do so.

E.C. Blythe

Gloomy_Sunday

Do not dare accuse me of such base greed woman, I do not lust for the gem, I wish it placed in the guardianship of those who can safely study it. At every opportunity I have suggested Scion Riversnow to be the best candidate rather than myself.

Councillor Elias Goldcrown

Fizzgig

Councilor Cambrian has repeatedly accused yourself and your uncle of being would be thieves and robbers, do you claim that Councilor Cambrian have lied and these allegations are false?

E.C. Blythe

Gloomy_Sunday

I claim that if councilor Cambrian believes this to be true then he is mistaken, I further claim that this bizarre accusation has little bearing on the matter at hand.

Councillor Elias Goldcrown

Fizzgig

The accusations were based upon the belief that you were willing to murder and rob for the "Red Gem", as such the Ravens offered Councilor Cambrian to me as a bodyguard against any possible attacks. I politely declined until there was further evidence.

E.C. Blythe

Cadiz

The purpose of this council is ostensibly to protect the kingdom from threats.

I believe that in your actions with regards to this Red Gem you have created rather than removed a threat Blythe, and it is in poor taste to shift the blame to another in my opinion, even if it is a Raven.

I was not a witness to the happenings in the palace, but had there been any mention of this ritual then you can be sure that i would have been in attendance and doing my utmost to ensure itse success. Clearly this would not have given any guarantee of success but it would have been proper protocol for such a far reaching happening.

I would urge you to actually share information if you wish resolution, further deceit will not benefit the city. Indeed the deceit you have perpetrated so far has cost the city one of its councillors.

Dawnbrother Aland

Swifty Willownall

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20220102T08&p1=240&ah=2
In two days time we'll be looking to head out and conduct the ritual that will hopefully cleanse and repair the damage this gem or 'heart' has caused.

A meeting was held with the councilors and our plan is as follows. The diviner Aurora, along with 4 already chosen others will head to their selected location to conduct the ritual. The rest of us and the volunteers from Tilverton, Eveningstar, and Arabel, will march to the Hullack forest. Our job there is to cause a distraction and pull the attention of the orcan host to limit attention to the ritual as much as possible.

Due to how separated the two parties will be, it may be nigh impossible to know if the ritual is successful or not, so we'll have to last as long as possible to give the ritualist ample time. Ideally we will be able to lure the orcs to attack us and fall back to a beforehand selected defensive position, retreating only once absolutely necessary.

-Councilor William Thatcher

@Prof-Misclick

Orin1234

As I am not much of a warrior, I can keep track of their progress and also keep informed on how well you are holding back the orc forces. Making sure the ritual knows if they are short on time, or you to know when it is safe to disengage.

Arn Targon

Shadowfax

I would like to summarize what is currently known of the gem and the future steps to come concerning it, so that everyone is on the same page. Councilor Moonsilver and Aurora, if you would be so kind as to fill in anything I may have missed?

The gem is the Heart of the Spirit Neima. A spirit of Death, Unbalance and the Unnatural. She exists to remind us of the imbalance. There cannot be balance without imbalance.
The Spirit is said to be deep underground somewhere. However, there is currently no clue of even a region. It is why Councilor Aurora will be performing a divination. I will leave it to hear to explain the details of it if it is necessary.
The new objective is to see the Heart return to the Spirit. It was foreseen, here I am uncertain by who, Miel?, that if it is not return, it would spell our doom.
The Heart is an artefact of powerful negative energy, which makes sense due to the nature of the Spirit.
It will slowly corrupt its bearer over time. This was seen by Scion Riversnow when she examined the gem. Miel's good heart is currently strong and keeping him from misusing the Heart. However, how long he will be able to hold on is unknown. The sooner the gem is returned the better.
The ring requires blood to remain stable. Otherwise, it can have adverse effect. However, if it is overfed, there will also be ill effects. Miel has found the right balance so far. Any blood suffice.
Bloodhound Ydira

Swifty Willownall

For the distraction team, we've narrowed the defensible locations down to two areas, thanks to the scouting efforts of the Ravens and others.

The first is a hidden underground cave. The area is relatively small sized, though the tunnel ways only really leave enough room for there to be one main entrance. However, this also means there's only really one main exit. The plan for this location would be to hunker down inside the cave and defend it, eventually luring orcs inside at which case, we would probably look to collapse the cave on top of the orcs with a series of explosions. An orcs caught within surely wouldn't survive, but it should be obvious just how dangerous this would also be for anyone else inside.

The second location is a somewhat abandoned fortification within the Hullack. A small keep if you will. The plan for this location would be to battle in a fighting retreat. As the orcs attack, we'll try to stall out for as much time as possible. Our first line of defense will be in the field just before the keep at a few chokepoints lined with snares to slow the orcan host down, then retreating to the keep proper afterwards. There are a few locations around the keep where the archery towers can be scaled, and a single drawbridge with a modest moat. If they do break in through the drawbridge, we'll need to do our best to hold them in the small courtyard to rain arrows upon them. Similar to the cave, the keep doesn't have too many directions to flee once we are inside. Differently from the cave, there is no big tactic we can employ to wipe out a large chunk of the force that may attack us, but it does seem to be the better defensive position of the two.

Councilors, please make your votes on which location we will defend.

-Councilor William Thatcher

Burgesse

A note is added

A Pool of Reflection, pure and clean.
-To see the past is to make the present ripple, as a stone cast into a pond

A ring of silver, to confine the view
-Pure silver walls while enchanted draws, to direct the gaze back

A foundation made, a focus present, the Sight to see and the Others to guide
-Follow the threads, delicate as spun glass, back through the ages to when it began.

Cast the prediction and let now fall away, using the beacon to guide Sight's way.
-A Heart now, a Spirit then, tap on that link for it knows the way.

-Aurora

an addendum is added
Can add other symbolic items, but the core is the Heart to be the beacon, the Pure silver to ring the Heart and Pool, the enchanted silver to focus the spell and the casters themselves.

Swifty Willownall

On this day, a collection of adventurers, councilors, and representatives from Tilverton and Eveningstar set off to conduct the ritual. With it, we had hoped to divine the location of the spirit that this gem, this "heart", belonged too. As they often do, our plans changed and we all went to the ritual location. The ritual itself was a success, and we discovered the location of the spirit, deep within the forest of eyes. As we traveled there, the party was attacked by all manner of corrupted creature and plant. Nature itself had been warped to stop us. Even the very water rose to claim us.

After hard fought battles we eventually made it and came across a figure that had a gaping hole in its chest. The "heart" was returned to this spirit, though it asked for more to repair what had been broken. Grete, Ethel, and Miel paid the costs. Both Miel and Ethel aged, seemingly giving up years of their life. Sadly, Grete's cost was too much. Ethel also paid though it seemed like her mind was the price. She doesn't even remember who she is anymore...

On our way back, we were blockaded. Zuguk and his orcan army came to find us, and take the "heart" for himself. To say it was a hard fought battle would be an understatement. There were countless orcs, and countless more bodies on the floor. The sand turned red. Zuguk himself barred the way, and attacked us in a frenzy. He too however, was eventually brought low by our concentrated efforts, thank the gods. However, once the dust had settled, three more among our number had fallen. Rawen of Tilverton, Aland of Eveningstar, and a halfling. One last trial awaited us however, as some...other worldly being appeared before us.

Seemingly wanting to cause more chaos and strife, it offered us a.."reward" for our victory. We could bring one of the deceased back from the dead, or restore Ethel's memories. A vote was held, with a tie between the halfling and Rawen. The tie ended up being decided by a duel between mister Cambrian and mister Shepard. The latter one, and so the halfling was brought back.

The final casualty count:
The warlord Zuguk and his orcan host
Numerous eyeballs, beholders, and monsters
Rawen of Tilverton
Aland of Eveningstar
And Ethel who is but an echo of their former self

The results of our actions today are...inconclusive. We can only pray we did the right thing, and that the land will begin to heal itself.

-William Thatcher

Shadowfax

To add to Councilor Thatcher, for the sake of clarity, the Spirit was found in the depth of the Chasm, at the heart of the Helmlands, beyond the Forest of Eyes. The sacrifice requested from the Spirit was unknown to us all until the book mage Ethel revealed its necessity, almost forcing this on those present. Had we known this from the start, proper preparations and alternatives could have been set.

The Spirit that offered to return only but one of our fallen, was a nature one from my understanding, as it spoke with Miel of the offer. The creature was in the form of a Raven.

Neima, the Spirit of Death, disappeared once her heart was restored. We are already hearing rumors that the damage to the land is being restored. So at the very least, we have succeeded in this, although the price was terrible.

Let us mourn the loss of our comrades.
Councilor Benjamin "James" Rawen - Warden of Tilverton
Councilor Grete Moonsilver - Luckbringer of the Church of Tymora
Dawnbrother Aland Signe of Eveningstar.

May their souls find their rightful place among the gods.

Bloodhound Ydira

Orin1234

As no new information is forthcoming, and the matter is dealt with. I am closing this file.