Radira slows down her prowling step and turns to look down at the dwarf calling after her. His garb and way of acting still struck her of being almost an opposite of her own. But he would work with her on the task. They would form a pack. Sniffing him out might be good before they get started.
"Mror Holds." She tasted the words. Dwarfs lived in the mountains, or so she heard from the stories. Perhaps these mountain-homes were called holds? She contemplated the dwarf.
"You may come. We will speak. We are of one pack now."
She continued outside.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:00, Sat 10 Sept 2022.

Once everyone leaves the young man, finds nothing interesting to do, so eventually turns in for the night....

Magnus thought on her words as she walked.  Broken speech, probably not used to conversing woth people.  He rubbed his beard and nodded.  "Aye, suppose we are at that.  Interesting to think of it that way.  Well, I believe the Guildmaster called you Radira?  So tell me, he mentioned your wilderness skills.  And I believe you mentioned the Reaches.  You a member of those Wardens of the Woods?". Magnus asked, trying to get to know their companion from the woods.

"No." Came the simple reply. But Radira sensed the dwarf wished to know more of her. She decided to oblige him.
"I come from there. But there are many sects of druids. Many tribes. My tribe is of my people. Shifters. Our traditions are different from the Wardens. We look to the Moons, and those who speak for them. The Wardens look to the Great Druid, who we respect but do not follow. But there is no strife between our sects."

Radira stepped outside as they talked. Immediately she looked up to see the sky once more, free from the confines of the building. She took a deep breath. She knew where every moon was, night and day, even if she could not see them. She could feel them, each pulling at her. Whispering in words she could not understand. Feeding her inner beast, the ancient lycan blood, giving her strength. Every shifter drew power from the moons, or so she believed. Her people's bond to them was strong. She tried to imagine life without it, as the other races had to, but could not. She thought it must be an empty existence. She looked down at Magnus.

"Where do your people draw strength from?"

Magnus walked amd listened as the shifter spoke about different druidic sects.  He had heard that but knew little beyond they exist.  As she spoke of the moons and how they gathered their guidance from them he saw her pause as they exited.  Yes, not comfortable within the walls of structures as evident.  He was sure he could pull some strimgs and get her a room with a roof window or near the observation car.  So she didnt feel claustrophobic.

When she asked her question, he tilted his head to the side.  "Well, complcated question.  If you mean as a dwarf, then the answer would be the very stones.  Said we were born of Eberron itself, and why we are so close to the underground, the mines, the mountains.  If you mean my house?". He rolled up the sleeve of his robe, up to his bicep, showing off a Dragonmark.  "I suppose some of us draw power from these.  But, as a whole, the wealth and bounty of the stones.  Most dearves are natural crafters.  We fo love to build with our hands."

Sparky watched Jack leave quietly but eyes gleaming. In truth the construct wasn't opposed to minor mischief like this, but felt it was too likely they'd make trouble for themselves and unlikely to be all that pleasant. That one, Jack would need to be watched, to make sure a hand was there to lift him out of trouble when he stepped into it.

They readied to head back to the books for some reading, but stopped to listen to the religious discussion. The enigma of Moonspeaker tradition which seem wholly disconnected from Vvaraak's prophecy, and the first Orc druids, was of course interesting, but there was little hope the shifter was a scholar of such things, perhaps an elder could give some answers. The best tact would be to be polite interested and interesting, until better opportunity for inquiry became available. "Not to put too fine a point on it. We are strength. Dwarven crafted weapons are solid strength multipliers, but we Warforged are martial strength made form. Dwarves live and work the mountains, but we forged for war are stone, wood, metal and dragonshard made life." Despite the monotone, there was enough of a pitch drop in the construct voice at the end to actually sound a bit sad about it.

Radiza bent down to take a closer look at Magnus' arm. Her eyes traced the mesmerising pattern.
"A dragonmark? I have  heard the tales.." She mused. Then she rose again, contemplating the strange magical connection.
"My people do not possess them. But they are somehow tied to the world, of that I am sure, so it is said among my people. But I like your first answer better. Stone, the very solid ground we stand on. That is a thing of great strength, and your people must surely be connected to it for your skill at crafting it and even living so deep within it. Your people share that bond. Is that not a far deeper connection than that offered by the dragonmark within your House?"

She then looked sadly up to the Warforged.
"Life, as you say, yes. To see your kind is to know you do live in body. But I sense your despair, warforged. Yours is a crafted people. Outside of nature and the intended pattern of things. There is no higher power to call your own, or any purpose but the one you were build for or make for yourself. As the moons call to me, and the earth we trod lends strength to Magnus, you are disconnected from such things, are you not?"

"Sorry you misunderstand. You draw distinction, where there is none. The Dragon Eberron crafted the races of flesh. A crow builds it's nest with wood and mud, how then is the farmer in his cabin any less of the world.
We Warforged are as much a part of Eberron as any other. Your "nature" is an aesthetic idea of how things aught to be, not unlike the church of the Silver Flame who sought to impose their aesthetic values on what was. We were created in the liminal space between strongly held opposing ideas. Holy War, Political War, They call it the last war, not because it was the most recent, but because it is unlikely anyone would survive the next one so there must never be another war. Our most unifying aesthetic is war, war was the intention behind our creation, war was the forge that made us who we are, and yet we must prevent war for the good of all." The monotone of the construct was ever hard to read. The eyes dimmed slightly as if absent in thought they showed no sign of anger or distress, but began walking slowly towards the reading room.

"Do not compare me to the Silver Flame, warforged!" Radira hissed, her feral nature drastically presenting itself with bared fangs.
"Theirs is a false faith, stained with the genocide of my people. You think you carry wisdom? Why do my instincts tell me that all you do is parrot that which others have spoken?"

Jusepus had not gotten as far as he would have liked when the voice of the shifter grew in volume and vehemence.  This is not a conversation in which he wishes to be involved, but to which he is, unfortunately, drawn.
He follows the sound to the location where she argues with the warforged.  Expecting the shifter to attack when he makes his presence known,he steps into view with trepidation.  His stance is natural, non-threatening, loose, with his hands at his sides, his gaze unfocussed to tale in all around him, his feet shoulder width apart.  And, when he speaks, his voice is calm, collected, and serene, almost matching the monotone of the warforged.
For all of your bluster about the zealous history of themember od the Church of the Silver Flame, even in regards to those of us who are too young to have been involved in the murder of your people, it seems to me that YOU are the one filled with hate and prejudice.  One of my teachers once said, "One must be careful when fighting monsters, that they do not become like the monster they fight."
You, my dear, have become like the monster you hate.

Radira did not relent. In fact, her claws seemed ready to rend flesh from bone when Jusepus appeared, but she held back from physical conflict. Instead, she spoke bitterly.
"What rubbish. None of your kind have changed into Shifters. But call us monsters you do. Who cares this was in the past? My people are still driven from their ancestral homelands to the far ends of the world to this day. All the things taken from us, the Silver Flame never thought to return. No, they profess their holiness and say 'it is of the past' as if that excuses their crimes. It does not. Blood clings to the Silver Flame, and will until it has made full amends to my people. Until then all who adhere to its wishes share in its sins. You cannot overlook the Purge. It had defined your faith."
The Shifter's agitation transferred to Fang, who similarly became restless as she continued.

"I know it must be hard for you, boy. You want your patron to be shiny and holy and good. But it isn't. It is a thing of evil and genocide wearing the mask of benevolence. What it has done once it will do again. All it takes is for it to decry a new target as evil, and the Purge begins again. What will it be? Another round against the Shifters and the Lycans? Or the 'monsters' of Droam? Maybe the soulless Warforged? Or now that you have a theocracy, perhaps your neighboring nations?"

Magnus listened to Radira as she asked about the connection to the earth being stronger then that of the drsgonmark.  He laughed a bit when they were interrupted by the strange Warforged.  Listening to him, talk about they were martial strength iven form he raised hos brow.

That was when the conversation once again turned ugly, as the Warforged was.. insulted?  Hard to tell, but of course he had to try comparing the feral girl to the silver flame.  Was the warforge trying to get a rise outta her?

As the Warforged started down philosophy Magnus rolled his eyes.  "Sparky was it?  Your logic appears flawed to me.  A nest may be of nature, but does not make it natural.  Just as these stone streets and buildings.  Stone is from nature.  Stone is natural.  The building is not.  So while you might be of nature, your still crafted.  Anothers hands made you, or several.  You were built, sensless.  Inanimate, until whatever the creation forge did to you to animate you.  Give you life.  And yet, still most still so mechanical.  When granted freedom, many regiments remained wgere they were for days.  They had to be ordered to leave and disperce.  Your right in that you were a tool, a piece of equipment little different from the skeletons and zombies Karrnathi armies used.  And you are foolish if you think wars will end."

That was when the Flamer showed up speaking how Radira was a monster being as close minded as those she fought against and condemned.  Was this pick on the shifter day?  He quickly stepped between the two.

"Eh, we all ot histories.  But insultin each other aint gonna do naught but make this job harder. She obviously hot some ruffed fur when it comes yo the flame.  And its gonna be hard enough since we gonna be going through Thrane, luckly its the top part and only the one stop is on our trip is Thaliost.  So it should be easy.  Lets keep cool heads, and learn to work together.  The Guildmaster did say that this might become a more permanent arrangement."

Radira fired back at the Flammer and he stayed between the two to keep in the middle.  "Radira, it is in the past.  Its ok to not forget or forgive.  But you need to learn yo control ypur anger and show temperance.  The Church does good works and runs food kitchens, and many of your kind are among its members.  Like all faiths and beliefs it calls to some more then others.  The Flame calls to him the way the moon calls to you.  You are both drawn to it.  As you say hos faith makes him culprit to the crimes of his church are you held account by the horrors spread by your kin?  The werewolves that would turn whole villages?  Or the attacks by shifters from the woods against the encroaching civilization they deemed was unnatural?  Or any of the other events that the Church used to justify their Silver Crusade?  Do you condem the Flamers that hod shifters?  Or the shofters that acted as scouts for the crusaders to ferrit put Lycan dens?"

Radira felt her hot blood surge. As the dwarf's words tried to soothe and find reason, she could barely hear them. With iron will she urged her inner beast to still. When she finally cooled, she listened to the last part of Magnus' plea.
"Shifters and Lycans were never aligned. That's how the whole purge started, based on lies. We understand them better than most, can interact to some degree as we sometimes share the land, but they are too feral for even us to reason with for long. As for my people attacking interlopers.."

Her hard stare, now filled with a cold anger, returned to Jusepus.
"..we have been driven to the far end of the world. When you corner any animal, there comes a point where it turns back and fights."

The others had journeyed outside and they were obviously having discussions of major importance and also some heated tensions exist for some of them, once they have fully cleared out Jack waits around a bit, before he too is in the streets....

He considers the area around and looks back and forth.....what excitement awaits around this area and is there indeed trouble to be found...perhaps a rapscallion selling an arcane tome, or some beggars to get any local rumors....


21:07, Today: Jack Springhill rolled 23 using 1d20+5.  spot
This message was last edited by the player at 01:07, Thu 22 Sept 2022.

In reply to Radira Tuva (msg # 70):

Really?  Have you personally been driven to the far enda of the world?  Or, were you simply born there?  Jusepes voice remains calm, showing no signs of anger or rancor.  Are you going to continue living in the past?  For that way is where death and a repeat of those events lie.
His eyes go unfocussed as he stairs past her.  I see the past, I know the past.  And those are very uncomfortable truths.  Horrible things were done by both sides.  Your people's claws and fangs are no cleaner of blood than the swords and arrows of the Silver Flame.  But, the Silver Flame was born of Hope, and Goodness triumphing over Evil.
He shakes his head sadly as his gaze returns to the present.  Sure, there is Darkness in the Flame.  Just as there is Darkness in all of us.  But, which one survives in you depends upon which one you choose to feed.  I choose to feed the Light.  I choose not to live in the past,but to live for the future.   One where, hopefully, if I extend my hand in friendship, you won't try to rip it off and slap me with it.
He shrugs.  I have no ill-wil,l or hate, or fear, for you.  Just as I hold no ill-will, or hate, or fear, for changelings.  Or orcs.  Or goblins.  Or dragon-kin.  Or Cyrans, for that matter.   He shrugs again.  None of us is worthy of hate directed at us for being who and what we are born.  It is what we do that determines that.

Jack spots a small sign  on a shop that is adjacent to the main road...
"Emeralde Tomes and Crimson Phylacteries".....

"This holds some promise..."


He walks through the beaded curtains into the incense filled air.....(ad lib)...

"Hello?"

Casts detect magic through his arcane attunment....

He looks into the melange of curiosities, baubles, trinkets, and other knick knacks......
This message was last edited by the player at 14:32, Fri 23 Sept 2022.

"Lies and deceit. I was born in a different land than my ancestors because of the Silver Flame. That is another way how its crime endures. But tell me, serpent-tongue; What people have shifters massacred? Burned at stakes for the crime of existing? Hunted down to the ends of the world? Whose blood do we have on our claws as you say?"

Radira prowled, watching her enemy intensely with feline eyes.
"The mistakes of the past being repeated is exactly what you are doing. Throwing allegiance to a monstrous force that conquers nations and commits unspeakable evil in the name of so-called good. So eagerly you spread its lies and defend it, ignoring the horror it spread because it does not suit you to think on it, nor do you make any effort to have it account for its misdeeds."

"Interesting, I read more metaphysics than history, but even Shifter scholars I'm aware of either claim Shifter are a stabilized lineage of the more chaotic and infectious lycanthropes, or that lycanthropy itself was a Demonic or Daelkyr based curse that split from the Shifter line. On it's face it seems like you're conjecturing an untestable claim to vilify a your chosen victims, precisely the sort or crime against reason the Puritans used against your ancestors. The lyncanthropic inquisition was a response to millions being slaughtered at random across Khovaire mostly by infected wererats and werewolves but we're going in circles.

Perhaps a softer question of lunology would help break the ice. I was forged under Zarantyr the storm moon. Zarantyr influences the mark of Storms born by the house Lyrandar and is connected to Syrania the Azure Sky which manifests in Sharn, which is as close to home as I have. Those made under Zarantyr are said to possess wild unbridled and boundless energy.

What about you Jusepus, when were you born? They say more Paladin of the Flame are born under Olarune, than in any other month, though a skeptic I believe this was more to do with certain unofficial sacraments of Promisetide." The Construct "Sparky" Buzzed slightly with inner power talking about boundless energy, but mostly seemed to want to position itself as a scholar above and separated from the underlying conflict.

OOC: In modern terms she just asked Jusepus what his astrological sign was.
https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Calendar
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/e...s-of-eberron-article
Each month is named after one of the twelve moons. Olarune is associated with both the Silver Flame and Shifters.

"Millions? You are delusional warforged, or very poorly informed. What nations have lycanthropes burned to the ground? What cities razed with every man, woman and child to reach such numbers? None. And even if it was but a fraction, their crimes are not those of my people."

So, you say that no shifter,in all of history, has ever committed a crime or an act of unmitigated evil?  None?  Not even just one?  Not ever has a shifter harmed an innocent?  ai would have to say that you are either blissfully ignorant, intentionally ignorant, or an outright liar on that.  But, admittedly, I have no actual proof of that.  Other than there not being a single other species in the world that can boast that.
He shakes his head but gives a small smile.  I was a small and frail child, an orphan of The War in a refugee camp, he explains, near death when I was brought to Flamekeep by one of The Flame's paladins.  They healed me.
Fed me.  Clothed me.  Housed me.  Raised me.  Cared for me,  Taught me.  Trained me.  Gave me a life, a family, a sense of purpose.  Would your people have done the same for me?  Or, would my death just have been "the course of nature"?
He turns to the warforged.  I don't know when I was born.  The closest I know to my birthdate is the day I was rescued, which was in Therendor.  Hells, I don't even know how old I am; the priests estimated I was about four years of age when I was found.  But, if I take the day I was saved from death, as a kind of "re-birthday," I am seventeen.
His gaze and attention return to the shifter.  How many werewolves and wererats are responsible for the ultimate fate of people who have "gone missing"?

"What a poor argument you make, zealot. Of course Shifters have killed just as any race, but we never banded together to exterminate another people off the face of the world, nor a nation, as your power-hungry and murderous superiors have in times past, times that seem to come again as you now claim land as your own. And the crimes of the lycantrhropes are theirs. I do not defend them. The sickness makes them moon-mad and dangerous, even to my people. They can still infect us, you know? And the cures only rarely work."

She looked over the boy. She understood his loyalty to his saviors, but it made him blindly loyal.
"I cannot speak for what a Shifter might do when they find an abandoned human babe at their doorstep. That is up to the Shifter, or tribe. We would not take one in, that much is true, as our ways do not fit humans. But perhaps we would pass it on to the human tribes or druids. It would be a small burden to do so. Perhaps you would have grown up under the Great Druid's tutelage. And perhaps the Shifter does not want to bother, and would have ignored your plight. Is it not the same for humans? How many passed you by before your masters came? Who is to say they did not adopt you just so you would become their little preacher, serving their own ends?"

"You don't know the history Radira. I do. The Lycanthropy surge of 830 saw several changes to the observed behavior of the curse/disease, the best known is that prior only those born lycanthropes could spread the condition to others. Now Lycanthropy can be spread by those infected later in life. Entire towns WERE wiped out by the disease. That is well known.
But there seem to have been other changes as well. Druidic scholar observed that even previously kind breeds of lycanthropes such as werebears became violent and sadistic. There is also the matter of Sharn. Sharn had multiple wererat nests, the infection rate spread the curse through the lower city with ease. Infected wererats marched together against the church of the Silver Flame in armies as if an organized attempt to break the ward holding the Overlords in Khyber.
The shifter tribes were not innocent bystanders in this. Several tribes aligned themselves with and even seemed to worship the Lycanthropes an apparent corruption of the Blessing of Olarune theory of Lycanthropy, which seems likely to have been a cynical geopolitical land grab that went very poorly in the end. Most tribes seem to prefer neutrality but the Lycanthrope positioned themselves to use the Shifter tribes as a shield. Add a bit of perfidy by Lycanthropes, sympathetic shifters, or possibly infected shifters and you end up sparking the slaughter you describe. And yes Puritans saw this and spuriously concluded all Shifter were culpable should be slaughtered but the official stance was shifters were innocent until they personally committed to the lycanthropic cause.
These details lead me to believe the confluence of moons of moons explanation is unlikely to be complete. Personally I find the Demonic Overlord loosening it shackles, most likely in which case the goal of it's using perfidy to get shifters slaughtered was to drive a wedge between two orders of sentinels that defend Eberron. After all it is Olarune the Sentinel who brings more paladin of the Flame to be born that month than any other.
I am incapable of sleep and have no war to fight to occupy my days. If I'm not working I'm reading. I have read several thousand tomes on the matter. I know more of religious matters than most priests even those who are scholars."
The construct locked primarily on Radira, gazing hard through the crystals where the eye should be. Points of lightning burned at a constant low intensity producing a barely audible buzzing sound.

Jack stands still but keeps looking around.....

"Hello?  I have coin, I am a customer......"


He takes in all the curiosities of the shop, perhaps there is a dusty tome of magic to be found here, or some trinket to add to his growing collection of odds and ends......
This message was last edited by the player at 13:34, Tue 11 Oct 2022.

Jusepus shrugs at Radira.  Perhaps we can learn from each other one day.  Until then, however, we will still have to work together.  At least for a while.
He looks around.  I think I could use a meal, and I do not feel like returning to the temple, yet.  I wonder where I can find a decent tavern.  Or,at least one that washes the glasses sometimes.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:43, Fri 30 Dec 2022.

Jack pokes around the shop and looks at everything possible, seeing no apparent deadline....