Episode description[edit | edit source]
Something is wrong.
I am no great pattern worker. I know a few techniques that aid me in my duty: How to lower the light of an already dim bar room; how to sharpen a blade without a whetstone; how to make voice twice itself. Even to call these ‘techniques,’ feels false: They are tricks. I know that. But I also know this: The world is askew.
There is a simple pattern I do when trying to find mirrors: I break an egg onto a large, north-facing rock and then break the yolk with something made of copper. The yolk splits in two, and from how it falls, I know which direction to travel. Except for the past month, the yolk doesn’t split, it shatters.
But even that is not why I write you, Tel. Patterns change, we know this. The earth shakes 20 days from here and that upsets the alignment. Sure. Fine. But my mundane efforts should not be affected. I am not a successful Collector because of some gimmick, but because I can track a horse’s path over stone, Tel, but I lost one in the mud last week. Because I can see in a face the construction of a white lie, but had a thief tell me he was a philanthropist and I believed him. Because I can track the smells of certain plants across distances you would not believe—but I’ve lost track of a man covered in its scent.
What is happening, Tel? And how can I help?
-M
This week on Friends at the Table: The Shield of Our Will
M—,
Your instinct is right, of course—your technique has not faltered, it is only the world that is changing. I write these next words only because I trust that they will go no further:
Something is wrong. The Original Pattern has come out of alignment. H, K, and I work on it still. We are close to achieving a route to it, but we must send the right agent.
Your quarry is not lost on the wind, my young friend. He is drifting towards where he is needed most.
S.E.U.T..
Contents[edit | edit source]
Plot[edit | edit source]
The whole party follows Fero into the strange room which has illusions of jungle and a giant statue on an island in the sea. Fero tries walking behind the door from within the illusion and then back through, and finds himself in a bedroom that looks down onto the Archives from higher in the mountains. He tries to go back out and show the room to the others but finds the door is locked behind him. Fero blows out a candle in the room and suddenly the jungle where everyone else is standing goes dark as the sun disappears.
Lem calls through the door to Fero. Fero warns him not to come in and relights the candle, restoring the sun in the jungle room. Then blows it out again. While the sun is out, they can see the eyes of the giant statue are glowing. There are also a couple other islands around the statue, including one which they can see is inhabited.
Ephrim recalls a story about how the Eastern shore would occasionally be broken up by immense waves and cause catastrophe, until the ground itself rose up into a protector with glowing eyes and a shield. After the protector left the people built a giant statue in his image that served the same purpose. Devar identifies the figure as Samaantine, also known as Galenica, who left this area to join the Grand Tour. Devar realizes the events from the story he read about Galenica in are happening now, and that there's about the be a bunch of whales coming out of the sea. Hearing a whale call and seeing huge heads pop out of the water, they all run into the door to join Fero in the bedroom.
Devar starts talking to Jean on the other side of the door, who threatens to go get a guard. Lem reads through Jean's notes and finds a way to unstick the door. He also sees that Jean has been practicing illusion magic to power pattern magic, and that the jungle they were in was just modeled after a story to power a teleportation spell from Lot 27 to Jean's bedroom. He also sees that Jean figured out the pattern to restore the sun, which required Corsica Neue's appearance as a hero. So Jean was the one who put Baron's Gate in danger in order to manifest the pattern. He used illusions in order to manipulate events to that point.
Lem sees the notes he would need to illusion his plant, and copies them down. Meanwhile Fero goes into a trance to commune with the spirit of the land. When Lem finishes, he's nervous enough about being caught that everyone rushes out and leave Fero behind in his trance. Fero sees himself seated on the ground that was here before the building was built, and sees a series of apocalyptic events to the west and east. They converge on his mountain until just before they reach them he's snapped out of the trance by Morbash placing him in custody.
The rest go back to Lem's room. Devar points out that they might take Fero to the ominous Mental Acquisitions. Devar takes off, not wanting to get any more involved. Meanwhile, Fero is led through a maze of corridors and secret passages to a well furnished room where he is left alone for several hours. Eventually the door opens and an Orc comes in, though he is silent in the face of Lem's questions. He takes a series of random objects out of a briefcase, then stabs Fero in the hand with a fork. The orc mixes Fero's blood with some pot shards and Fero starts feeling shaky.
Finally the man speaks and begins questioning Fero about the events in Nacre, and where the queen is. The man continues to fiddle with things and Fero feels increasingly disoriented as he refuses the questions. Fero tries to turn into sand, but something goes wrong and suddenly all of the sand from the western beaches of Hieron, the type Fero had studied, disappears at once, consumed by the heat and the dark.
Lem and Ephrim, studying Jean's notes, suddenly notice that the light has changed. A new bright white light starts glowing from the direction of Rosemarrow, as well a purple glowing light from the Long Sand. They become two pillars of light taller than any structure they've ever seen.