To The Corvi

I know you've felt it, the pressure and then the spike of pain. Some of us met it this past Feast.

The Red Road is calling and you are going to end up on it, whether you are ready or not. Learn what you can now of what we face, before it's too late. Find me, find Swyft, find Tyr, find Tsula, and learn.

Fight the Cult of Ceno and show them through steel & claw & shadow & mind that our path to our Lady of Chains is the right one, not theirs. Our goddess has no time for those who will not fight for what they believe in.

Lois Blair
Cenobite of the Harrower

((OOG: Investigation into this plot should be directed to Jacob F.))

I am going to turn them inside out.

***Not Caelvan***

Looks like heretics of all of our faiths are coming out of the woodwork.

You have my, and my church’s assistance.

My fellow followers of The Reaper, help our brothers and sisters in Darkness for they have assisted us. It’s time to return the favor.

Gala’zin Merikh Tazam



—————————

Lois,

I've heard. You need a hand dealing with these gits, Let me know.

-Father MacFhionnlaigh

Show none of them mercy. May their deaths be filled with anguish and the knowledge they are wrong.

For what they have done, my blade will taste their blood.

I refuse to be powerless against them again.

I've already begun to research into them. I would make the request that all those who have material on the subjects of divine such as books or tomes, as well as others who would also research into the topic, convene this next feast so that way, we can all try to collect as much knowledge on this group as possible, so we can destroy them and whatever arch devil they worship.

If I may be so bold,

These people revel in pain and suffering. It grants them their power, no? I would consider a steady hand in this matter. If it is your pain and anguish they seek, do not give it to them. Instead, show them indifference when you dismantle their machinations. Show them that they cut stone and not flesh. Take from them their power with wisdom and compassion, so that they gain nothing when you come for them.

Give not to the beast the blood of which it seeks.

I apologize if this would be considered rude to have suggested.

Stars of Wisdom guide you,
Sq. Wrekk




__________________

Dear Sister,
What is the Cult of Ceno? What is the Red Road? How can I help you?

Love,
~Eden Heimdell

I will be travelling to Anoch to conduct research on the matter, anyone interested is welcome to join me.

In service,

To Squire Wrekk,

Oh, fantastic. Another man telling me not to show emotion when I fight.

Do you think Aguara does not scream in rage on the battlefield?

I draw my strength from my own pain and my own anguish. I know it better than they ever will, for I carry it every day. To deny it is there just because I fight other Aguarans is to cut myself off from my own power, or to ask for it to come bubbling out at the worst possible time, because it will remain with me regardless of how much I try to pretend it isn't there.

No, Squire Wrekk. I will not be stone, and I will not show compassion. Not to other Aguarans.

To everyone else,

I cannot say for certain whether this current resurrection of the Cult of Ceno is truly made up of Aguarans, or is merely cultists who are mucking about with old Aguaran rituals they found. Aguarans do not really have heretics; Aguarans have the Iron Tome, true, but when there are differences of faith we just fight to determine whose way will be followed by those who survive moving forward.

The path forward is the same in either case: onto the Red Road, to fight until they or we relent.

I will post more information when I have a few moments to collect it.

Lady Heimdall,

My deepest apologies for my ignorance. I dare not claim to know the way, but only muse my suggestion out loud. I accept that I am wrong in what I have suggested and if you would permit it, request your wisdom in my error. If you would allow me, I will serve to aid you in your mission to the best of my ability, or simply stay away if you believe it to be the best course of action.

I would never dare to demand what one should do in a given circumstance, and so I apologize again for the offense.

Sq. Wrekk






________________________

Squire Wrekk,

Well, who am I to deny you a chance to learn? Learn at least some of the Aguaran faith from me and then you can decide if you still wish to offer your assistance. The Corvi may not have much choice in this, but you do, and I will not take that choice from you.

They will know pain unlike anything they've felt before. Vengeance for Nix will be had.

Peaches struck the final blow and ended her misery in that form those early hours of Sunday. Peaches took her body that night and we are discussing what burial would be best suited for her.

Her soul is another story; it's still trapped in that place, she is still not at peace. Many tried to do a full resurrection that night to her to no avail. Though this was still while she was the monstrosity they made her to be. We need to find a way to free her from there without causing more harm to ourselves, Travance barely made it out alive as it was.

Know that I will aid in any efforts to find the person who killed her, the cult that grossly disfigured her body and tortured her soul, and a way to help her go to the Judge for her final judgement as it should be.

(This document is written in blood, unsigned, written with shaken hands. The only telling marks is a raven, drawn in blood, with a uppercase C written next to it.)

Who... Who uses The Great Philosophers name in vain....

Who defiles her name with heresy?

Who defiles my research with such grotesque embellishments of the words she spoke to me?

I will not tolerate it......

C.

I will not waste words here, I have spoken to those who would listen last feast, it is now time to speak with my blade. It is time to give my Lady her tithes and offerings.

I know what we are up against, it has spoken to me. If there are others who wish to learn then come and find me. I am done trying to speak to those who refuse to listen and who speak of things they know nothing about.

Lady Lois,

There was a theft, a break-in at the record vault in Stonefall; they stole some amount of pages of ancient Agauran scripture and a smattering of census reports, though the latter may have been an attempt to scrape what they could before the Blackguard came through. We are not dealing with amateurs. No, my assumption is they are well-studied and aim to follow old footsteps with a new direction.

Needless to say, our Fates are tied together. Strange bedfellows, indeed.


~Nalick DeMarche

First, let me express my utter displeasure with anyone stealing from my land. You can do a lot of things to me and to people I care about, but once you touch our books and paperwork, I have no choice but to destroy you and everything you stand for.

Anyway, putting threats of murder aside for the moment, here is what I know from my own personal form of research. Whatever power that is in play here is not quite Aguara. Similar but not the same. The place that Travancians ended up is somewhere in between Travance and somewhere that is not quite Eodra. Again, similar but not the same. The two planes? places? are intersecting at times; and those intersections are happening more and more often.

Hope this helps.

I might have a hypothesis about the interconnection of planes, but nothing concrete. In my studies of old planar magics, there used to be a sort of, planar rotation around elemental planes, where one plane was closer to the prime material, and thus had a slightly greater influence. Usually it would be tied in a similar sense to the seasons, but work on this phenomenon was very little. It's quest possible that whoever was creating this form of pseudo plane on Arawyn, was using planar rotation in either the remnants of the old Aguarran plan from when they were all separated, or the rotation of the combined Eodra to create what we've seen.

Like I've said, this is merely a hypothesis that I will need to research deeper into and test in order to test its validity.

Aleister (Aleister) wrote: If I may be so bold,

These people revel in pain and suffering. It grants them their power, no? I would consider a steady hand in this matter. If it is your pain and anguish they seek, do not give it to them. Instead, show them indifference when you dismantle their machinations. Show them that they cut stone and not flesh.
Give not to the beast the blood of which it seeks.

__________________

((NOT ANGELIANA))

Can nay believe D about t'agree w'th'mind fucker spineless puss sammich o'er here but he be right.

It struck a cord aye? This here be how D took incentive away fr'her captors a lifetime ago. Years o'torment ago. IF ye can stop showin' yer enemy th'reaction they be wantin' from ye? Their purpose fer their actions be destroyed aye? Mind fuck puss elf be correct. Let'em cut into stone, nay yer flesh, smile, like D does, when they be strikin' ye with their daggers. NAY, it nay easy. But, aye, it works.

Praise her an'th'chains D was born into, this here be how. SO learn from it fellow Corvi. It be a great lesson. Breathe in tha'wonderful pain, revel in it, and vanquish yer foes without slowin' down.

Pain, Anguish, Rage, Blood, GLORY. Praise be.

Nay D ain't helpin. Fuck land. Trident be sailin' gloriously again.

~ D

Oh, I'll smile alright. I'll smile as my blade removes their head from their neck.

Some further information, as promised:

The original Cult of Ceno is the reason Aguaran priests call themselves "Cenobites". They were a Kormyrian sect led by a person named Ceno around the time the Rift formed. Aguarans were not really known for scholastic pursuits like "writing things down", but Ceno decided to apply their Kormyrian sensibilities to the faith. They and their followers studied the philosophy and metaphysics behind the faith. Their personal end goal was to find a way to ascend to a purer form of pain and strife than a human body could contain, and become closer to/another mask of Aguara, though it had the ripple effect across the faith of bringing attention to the value of scholastic pursuits in general. To this day, those of us within the faith who have closer connection to the more cerebral aspects - priests - bear Ceno's name.

They studied, debated, and performed many experiments, and built a vast series of underground tunnels in which to hide their knowledge (and themselves - remember that at the time, openly worshiping a Dark goddess in Kormyre was punishable by death). They called this labyrinth the Red Road - yes, named after that Red Road - possibly because they wanted to use it to call forth the liminal space? It's unknown, because so much of the knowledge has been lost.

It was lost because one day Ceno believed they had hit upon the correct method and ritual to achieve their goal. The cult performed this great ritual, and then vanished entirely from Arawyn, never to be seen again. Some of their notes can still be found, in bits an pieces here and there, but I don't know if anyone has ever found the original tunnels. It's unknown whether Ceno's ritual succeeded or not; it either worked perfectly and they ascended, or it went horribly and the backlash destroyed the Cult of Ceno. Either way, nothing was ever heard from them again.

There is another piece of information you all need to know. Philosophy of battle and the Aguaran faith aside, these cultists in particular do not require seeing your pain or anguish in order to draw their power (no true Aguaran does, but that is another topic).

They dug up the body of a girl who died suffering and used the pain in her soul to do what they did.

You can't hide your pain when you're dead.

They don't need your pain. They just need pain. How many bodies do you think are buried in Travance that died suffering?

(Once again, another letter, written in blood, unsigned except for the similar raven and upper case C.)

Evolution.

Not only in the physical, but the spiritual

These are the teachings....

To become greater you must shed the negative aspects that bind you.

Conflict leads to suffering,
Suffering leads to reflection,
Reflection leads to Evolution.

Find the parts within that bind you to and offer your pound of flesh to be shown the way.

She whispers in my ears still. She tells me of the path.

The Great Philosopher speaks in many different volumes.

Sometimes the message is polluted if not one's attention is scattered.

But I remain pure.... Still pure... And I will consume the polluted waters to give flocks clean ideals to drink from.

C.

Nice to see you're just as insane as ever, Dunn.

I'll be keeping my chains and negative aspects, thank you very much. I earned them. We can quibble about that when this is overwith, though. Let's go kill some cultists together.

Lois...

Always a pleasure to speak to you. You're one of my favorites. For those who read above...

While Lois is missing some of the finer intricacies, the words are a correct summary of Ceno.

Ceno and his teachings never once mentioned what I have heard about.

God gifted me 2 years ago with information of this Cult. it's beginnings, it's roots.

I left to go searching for the truth. And I come back to lies.

When I next arrive in Travance, I will speak of the true nature of Ceno.

As God has tasked me with controlling what was asked of.

Do not let these heretics deceive you.

Cenobytes.... Carnifex alike... I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Signed,
Professor Dunn Ironwill.

Perhaps it would be prudent to patrol known grave sites and battlefields? And see if they are trying to or have exhumed those they wish to use for their twisted beliefs. Many have died suffering here, and i'm inclined to think they wont just stop with one.

In service,

I will not stop until all of them are dead, and I refuse to take any other route. They defiled my daughters rest in the afterlife after a her final moments of pain in this life. I swear upon my soul as a Galamachian, my body as a Dragoon, and my honor as a Father, I will give my life if it means the end of this cult.

What Merikh said. I have had quite enough of heretical religious extremists cults lately. I'm here to help, if I can be of assistance!
Also. I'm sorry. What. Defiling a body and the soul of a child? That. Is. Unacceptable.
The faithful of the Reaper will be with you. This is a grave insult to our Lord as well as your Lady.