A letter to Moseke and the Oludibo Cikakken

[Faith Augustin]

Sent: 10th Ashan, 722.
Arriving 20th Ashan 722 via flutterbus

To: Lady Moseke, The Oludibo Cikakken

I am writing to you in order to inform you of a project I am undertaking in my role as Head of the Order of the Adunih and to seek your inclusion in this. I have sent the proposal below to Lady Saoire and have received, in return, an agreement in principle for the setting up of the gateways. I am due to meet with Lady Saoire next Cycle.

The Proposal: As Sent To Saoire
I am setting up a large hospital outside Rharne, near to the town of Volta. My aim is to build the largest hospital currently on Idalos and - most importantly - which serves all of Idalos. This will be one complex which will have five distinct areas.

Four wings (each the size of a large hospital) with a central hub is what I envision. These will be:

- a hospital where currently incurable diseases and illnesses are treated and studied.
- a hospital where chronic and long term patients with complex and often terminal diagnosis and prognosis are cared for
- a children's hospital for the most complex and difficult children's cases
- a military and / or magic injury hospital for all those who have been injured in war or battle, those who have been harmed by magic or incapacitated by it

The hub will have research facilities and labs. There will be accommodation for the families of those who stay in the hospitals and therapy rooms for them. I have arranged for these buildings to be built and I will be donating them to the Order, so that they will not belong to me or any one person, but will be Order property.

My idea, Lady Saoire, is that I would ask you to provide a gateway between all Order buildings and this complex. It is my aim to ensure that no one is denied treatment because of their location and this is a first step towards that goal. If I can secure your assurance of the gateways, then I will contact the government and Immortal patrons of the relevant cities.

Current Actions
I have commissioned the buildings. I will be funding these myself and they will be immediately donated to the Order of the Adunih. These buildings are being created to a very high standard from an organisation in Rharne. Snodgrass, Pendleton & Snoot have provided a substantial discount and will be the official builders for the Order of the Adunih, going forward.

I have met with a mercenary company to discuss arranging security at the hospital site - and in each of the Order outposts, as and when this is agreed and as needed.

I am in the process of writing to the councils for Scalvoris, Desnind, Rharne, Viden and the Eternal Empire. These will be the "phase one" contacts.

Proposal
I would respectfully request that you discuss this proposal and we then meet to discuss, if it is something you would be interested in.

The ability to be able to offer healing to those most in need should not be limited by geography. However, I am aware that the use of gateways poses a risk. I have the following mitigations either in place, or in process.

1. Members of a well-respected and morally appropriate mercenary company to be stationed in each Order outpost with the specific remit of protecting the gateway. These would be as well as any security you wished to provide, should you allow this to occur

2. I am able to designate an area a "safe hearth" - while so designated, no violence can be undertaken there and I will be aware of any who enter with violent intent. I am able to designate three such areas and I will designate the hospital as one.

3. Restrictions on who may use the gateway and - if it is Lady Saoire's pleasure that this is the case - a requirement that the person coming through must be "accepted" by the hospital. I will provide an Echo Scroll to each Order outpost and only when stringent security measures are met will the gateway be opened. Note that this requires discussion / confirmation from Lady Saoire.

I genuinely believe that this proposal will save lives. It also strengthens ties between all those places with links to the hospital. We will be able to provide care to those who most need it, no matter where they are. I would very much appreciate you discussing and considering this, if you would do so. If you need to meet in person, I will be happy to attend, but will need to arrange to travel. The wisdom of the Oludibo Cikakken would be enormously helpful in making sure that this project develops the way it should, with all of Moseke's Domains given due consideration and, of course, I would like to work in partnership with the Medicine House there, should you be willing.

I thank you for your time in reading this.

With best regards,

Faith Augustin

[Pig Boy]

Moseke didn't write back to Faith, but appeared to her in Emea, pulling her into her realm there, in the dawn of Ymiden of the next season.

The place was awash with all manner of life, vibrant, beautiful, and also terrible in some ways. Some often associated Moseke with safety, but she was life and nature, all of it. And nature could be terrible to behold at times. Such was the case in this part of her realm. Yet she didn't bring Faith here to intimidate or strong-arm her. She had a special message for the woman, that might be of import to her mission in Rharne.

She smiled at Faith, as the woman appeared to her in the realm. "Hello my Champion. I have received your letter, and I acquiesce with all those conditions. They meet with my approval, and seem fairly well thought out. Now that aside..."

She pointed out the red-soaked vines that covered a nearby tree. If Faith looked closely, she would see that the tree was pulsating, as if alive with animal vitality. "There is something you should know, however..."

"The Creep, while it has retreated for a time from Quacia, has managed to crawl beneath the oceans, and now roams the world, consuming life beneath the waves. At first it stumbled there, uncertain of its first steps into a new environment, uneasy. But now it gathers strength. It first sought to infect Melrath with its taint, but was defeated and drawn back by the spirits of that place."

"I fear where this mass of corrupt life may find itself travelling next, but I almost hate to suggest it might just be Rharne, but then, that's where all signs point."

"I give you this warning in hopes that you will be prepared when the time comes, to know what you must do."

So saying, Moseke stood there for a few more moments, ready for questions that Faith would surely have for her.

[Faith Augustin]

Faith looked around and, at the sight of Moseke she bowed her head. "It's good to see you," she said softly. Faith was pleased that the hospital met with her approval but it seemed that it was the least of the things Moseke was speaking to her about to-trial.

There was more going on here, and that was as evident in the very place they stood as it was in Moseke's words. The beauty and majesty of nature was at least in part due to the awfulness of it, too. Life and death both were things of terrible beauty and Faith's eyes turned to look at the plant, pulsating red. She listened to what Moseke had to say and she considered it for a moment. She lifted her eyes to meet Moseke's gaze and Faith smiled slightly. "Thank you for this warning. It is important to know, and I appreciate it," That was absolutely true.

"I would like, if I may, to inform Lady Ilaren of this if she does not already know?" That was first and foremost. But it was making its way beneath the water. That meant that there would be mer and leviathans and fish and coral and all sorts of life to be damaged there. "And, of course, Lord U'frek." She didn't know U'frek well but she had once - many many arcs ago - made him soup. Faith recalled the journey to Ne'haer before the battle to Treid's tomb. She and Tristan and Padraig had been on U'frek's ship - Aeon had taught her how to use a sword and it seemed like lifetimes ago. "I have a means to inform Ilaren, but not U'frek. But I can give it a go," she said with a smile.

Then, she turned her thoughts to it. "I wonder if I may ask for what information there is on it, where it's going, what it's doing as it passes through - tactical information, I suppose. And then what you would ..." she considered it and then spoke it as clearly as she could. "I would not ever wish to disrespect you by harming something which you wish protected, but my instinct is that it needs to be destroyed. Are there limits you would wish for, Lady Moseke?"

Faith was used to dealing with Immortals - though she never got used to it - and she knew that with Moseke the best thing was to simply ask what needed asking. Was destroying the Creep an option or did it, in fact, have some place in the world? Moseke's answer would determine Faith's next moves.

[Pig Boy]

Moseke nodded at Augustin's request that they inform other immortals. "I leave that decision to you, my Champion." She simply said. "As for whether they'd be any help against this threat, I cannot imagine so."

"It would make things simpler, and easier if it could be destroyed, or at the very least put on a leash." Moseke sighed, "Unfortunately, things are not so simple. I may have... misled the people of Quacia when I told them that I had rid them of the Quod Disserpum." Moseke bowed her head apologetically, "Rather, I misunderstood my own influence ability to influence the Creep. It was in fact the sealing of Deabrutoa that drew the Quod Disserpum from that forsaken landscape. No longer able to bond with the Quod Disserpum, what mortals call the Creep... It merely wandered, consuming, corrupting as it went. It may well have consumed a leviathan or two on its journey. I can't tell, since it's gone far beyond my influence."

"That's not to say that Deabrutoa being sealed away was a bad idea... In fact it may have forestalled total disaster, had he been able to directly harness the Quod Disserpum as a weapon for his own purposes. As it stands, the Quod Disserpum wanders aimlessly more or less beneath the surface of the oceans, corrupting and taking life where it finds it, but with no real intent or purpose behind it. It simply is, at the moment."

"The Quod Disserpum drifts, a powerful weapon yet to be taken up by anyone for good or ill."

"As to the destruction of it, or my will regarding the Quod Disserpum's ultimate fate..." She brougth a slender hand to her chin, considering, "You had encountered a Heart of the Quod Disserpum in the depths of Deabrutoa's lair, had you not? Have you ever met any of its other 'creation's'? The consumed remnants of individuals, changelings, or beasts, the ferahorns? Something happens to the souls and spirits of those who are taken by the Quod Disserpum. But a soul once seemingly ripped out of its shell, I cannot believe it disappears entirely. Yet Vri would have me believe that no victim of the Quod Disserpum has ever stood in judgement, or reached the Beyond."

"There is a place near our home of Desnind..." Moseke said softly, her eyes misty as if remembering something in fondness. "A place where Pieren the Original used to dwell in solitude."

"It was there that he fractured, roughly the same time as the rest of the seven." She sighed, "There is something left behind of him there, but what I cannot tell... I've never dared to seek his place of rest myself, out or respect and also caution. It has the whiff of souls, a vergeance within an entity I would almost say, if I didn't know better."

"Only one of Pieren's children, Edasha perhaps, or Aelig if he yet lived, could've told you where to find the Foyer. It has been hidden from my eyes." Moseke had a certainty about her face then, as she spoke further, "But I do believe there is something in there.... something connected to the Quod Disserpum, whether an object, or an entity, or both. I believe it wishes to be reunited, although I cannot say what the result of such a reunion would be, should it occur."

Moseke's eyes grew less remote as she turned to Faith. Doubtless the Champion had questions for her.

[Faith Augustin]

There was a lot to unpick from what Moseke was saying and Faith listened carefully. The Creep was free, travelling along the sea bed and devouring leviathons as it went, potentially. More than that, it was headed towards Rharne? She sighed, just slightly. Of course it was, she considered, where else would it ever go. When Moseke asked her if she'd ever met another creation of the Quod Disserpum, Faith shook her head. "I don't think so, no," Moseke then explained that the Quod Disserpum did something to souls and explained what Vri had said. Faith wondered for a moment if she should ask, but Moseke knew her heart, and so she did. "Have you spoken to Famula about it?" Faith asked. The sisters were - by all accounts - on good terms and since Famula was the Immortal of Souls, it made sense to her.

The link to the grand fracture of Pieren was certainly of interest and Faith considered it. "I would be more inclined to ask Ashan or Ralaith for assistance in this," she said, quietly. She was quiet for a moment and then nodded. "I will warn Ilaren of the situation and alert the Lightning Knights," she said. "And, then - once this hospital is sorted, I'll go find out for myself, see if I can get in to this foyer." She smiled slightly at Moseke, but the smile was tinged with the knowledge that what she was trying to do was likely to be - at best - very difficult. "I'll do my best, you have my word." And so she would.

If Rharne was facing another threat, Faith would be there to offer her aid in whatever way she could; whether that was logistics, or healing, or tactical. "Thank you, Mother Moseke," Faith said quietly. "For all that you have done and continue to do." If the Creep could, somehow, be turned into a force for good, then Faith would do that. But, it was becoming obvious to her that she needed to deal with the situation in Quacia, with the Creep and with the seal on Deabrutoa, too. "With Frosvinndur's Effigy, I may be able to help against the Creep in more practical ways," she said, but she mostly was just thinking aloud at that point. She bowed deeply and said, most genuinely. "Thank you. If there is ever anything you wish of me, name it and I will do my best."

[Pig Boy]

Moseke smiled knowingly at Faith's asking if she'd consulted Famula. "I have, but I do not know how much of what she informed me of that she would have you know. You'd be better positioned to ask her yourself, so that it can be put into words that make sense and are useful to you."

But then, Faith would awaken, and the dream ended.

Player Name: Faith

Points awarded: none, part of a Tier 2 plot.

Knowledge:

Tactics: x 3
Writing: x2
Intelligence: x 5


Renown: 5 Moseke will acknowledge that she met with Faith, but is hush hush on some of the details of that conversation. As to the hospital, she's fully supportive.
Loot: A plot hook.
Injuries/Overstepping: None
Wealth Points: None
Consequences: Come Rebirth, the situation in the Jungle will grow to become a problem. You're encouraged to do research, and plan a way forward if you choose to delve into Pieren's Fracture. Will you take others with you? Will you involve other factions and powers?

I will set up a tracker for you come the Cold Cycle, as a phase 1 to this plot. Phase 2 will come in Rebirth, and involve the actual execution of things.

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriately to PC's level

Notes: Faith is quite a different person when it comes to how she deals with the Immortals she serves. With mortals she's implacable, stubborn, and bullish. She can be that way sometimes with Immortals as well, but more often than not you see her acting in a service role to the ones she is champion of. It's an interesting duality to her, but it makes sense for her to be one way with them and another with ordinary people. They wouldn't make a mouse their champion, after all, and she serves them well.

Well done, good writing. And looking forward to heading up the tracker.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this review, feel free to PM. Enjoy your rewards!