Nocturne

Gerrin couldn’t sleep.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to. He REALLY wanted to. It was this damned boat. Where Gerrin was from, if the place you were sleeping moved, someone terrible was happening or someone had done something incredibly stupid.
Either way, it wasn’t something to sleep through.

Staying on the boat had been the best tactical choice. Through the power of his Lord Tempus, Gerrin was by far the most mobile of the party. Not only could he communicate from even the most remote locations, he could walk the very wind itself and travel quite a distance in a hurry. The party would contact the tribes, he would keep watch on the harbor and village and make sure nothing happened off schedule. After all, two of his battle brothers were being held in the jail before him. Tempus would not move four of his faithful to such a far away place without reason. Somehow, this was all according to plan. The trick was figuring out the plan.

Gerrin worked his way out of his hammock. It was a useful invention given the nature of boats. It still wasn’t suited to the stature of the moderate folk. He didn’t bother with the candle. A lifetime in the mines of the undercity had adapted his eyes to the poor light. A glance at the stars outside his window told him that dawn wasn’t far away. Two hours at most.
It was hard to tell this far South.

He went to the work table he had prepared. A dozen scraps of paper with random musings of his travels were scattered across its wooden surface.
He’d poured over them a thousand times before. Nothing was coming to him.
Nothing. It was like his mind hit a stone wall every time he tried to put names and faces together. Could this be an after effect of whatever happened to him in that thrice cursed keep? Could they have blocked the memories that could harm them? What would they be afraid of?

“Who are you?”

That was what they kept asking. No answer seemed sufficient. He had tried his name, his lineage, his title, his occupation….they accepted nothing.
Always the same. A harsh rebuke.

The moonlight off the water reflected strangely in Gerrin’s room. Morning couldn’t come fast enough. There was still so much to do. It seemed like forever since he had been asked to find some lost metal. The minemaster had often said “It isn’t easy to find ore when the mine is flooding.” Gerrin knew exactly what he meant. There were so many things happening at once and so little time to address each one. It was like being in battle with 5 opponents. It was all you could do to just keep up.
Gerrin froze.

Maybe that was it. Tempus often taught that the principles of battle applied to life as well. How do you handle 5 opponents at once? First you find your calm. You center yourself until you can see everything coming at you at once. Then you assess each of your opponents. Use everything you know and pick out the weakest in the group and that’s who you fight. Once by one you isolate them, divide them and then eliminate them. You can’t fight all five at once. You have to maneuver them until they trip over each other and use their strength against them.

That’s when Gerrin remembered an old blind man. He was the fortune teller that he met on his first night in Athkatla. Forgotten until now, his withered a wizened features were crystal clear. His dark skin and snow white hair were an oddity at the time, but it perfectly matched the skin tone of the natives of Chult.

He had said, “You must look deep within yourself and apply everything you know to the events that are to unfold.”

How could he have known? Could there have been true power in the cards that he had? They were abstracts, simple images on paper. Yet, what he had done was not so different than when Gerrin looked to Tempus for aid. Gerrin searched his memory for what had happened. There had been six cards.

“The first card tells us what caused the events that are transpiring. This card shows de stars, and the star man sits at the center of the crisis.”

“The second card is the past. The old Devil is the card and he tells of deception. Someone fooled someone and now they’s awash in discord.”

“This here card, the third card, is the future. A hanged man is your future. It tells of frustration. An inability to act will be forced on one who’s very nature is to act. Remember the metal son of the moderates. It can be strong if used right. Force it wrong, and it will surely bend and sunder. Being like de metal is good when it’s called for. Here it better to be the water, and flow with your fate.”

“The fourth card is the world. This be a happy card, and it represents those who would help us. You are about to meet a number of allies in your quest. It is a quest that will take you far from home and back again. You will see the tops and bottoms of mountains. Green lands where the very land itself can consume you and broken men are fed to worms. You will see a dead man, who teaches the living and a great stone circle that tells of the past. Frozen lands where man and beast are as one and deep deserts that hold precious mystery. And yea though the road will be long and you heart will grow weary, do not forsake those who would aid you with your burden for they will deliver you when you know not who you are….just as you will deliver them from the obstacles in their path.”

“The fifth card tells you of what to do. Temperance tells you to always look beyond what your eyes see. Like the orc warlord of your home, all may be more than they appear. A slight girl can hold great power, and a strong father can seal away and destroy his children for power. Use the power that Tempus has given you and aid the just and destroy the unjust. For while the path is not often clear, know that the lord of blood understands the broken and often they walk hand in hand.”

“The last card is blank. This be a dire portent and a frightful sign. We stand at a crossroads, and seldom do we get the choice to decide de fates of so many. Seek out your lost metal son of de dwarves. Honor your lord of battles and keep his strictures close. Free da lost one of the wondermaker and beware the shadow and the magic that it make. When it seem like the shadow is righteous and can help you in your cause, know that it be a deceiver just like the devil card.”

With that the old man had walked away.

Gerrin blinked. The sun was beginning to rise. Soon it would be time to free his battle brothers.

“Help us.” Gerrin thought, “This be a happy card, and it represents those who would help us.”

Why did he say us?