The Lodge, the Prophecies of Mades, and the Question of Choice

Honorable Priestess of Melora,

We have finally arrived at the Lodge, after a long journey through the snow. This is quite a harsh land, devoid of the nurturing warmth of the sun. I am always amazed that even in environments like this, trees and plants are still able to survive.

We approached a four-story timber building on the lee of a tall rock. Smoke crawled up out of the chimneys at the top. Lights were glowing on the eaves, and the air was thick with the smell of animal fat.

In the building itself, there were a number of rooms (and some rooms were even carved out of the rock!). We passed by some rooms for curing pelts before arriving at a common room, where we met Mades.

Mades was an older Half-Orc, perhaps 50 years in age. He told us that he was born with the gift of prophecy, which was a useful skill during the hunt.

We had a long discussion about the nature of prophecy. Tiny, our Cleric, discovered that Mades was the author of the old, rare, long-sought-after book, "Time, Choice, and Prophecy". (Mades had a copy of the book, which he gave to Tiny as a gift.)

"Prophecies are complicated," Mades noted. "You must be careful which ones you set down."

There are two types of prophets, he went on to explain. Some prophets are just instruments of a higher power that intends to change the world. Their prophecies seek to deny us our ability to choose. The other type of prophet is complicit in the prophecy. They look into the future and decide what to do.

For Mades, when he foresees events, the world becomes blurry, and some of the choices appear before him. (It is almost like the Dreamwalk we took earlier, where we explore one possible future.) Mades cannot see all possible futures -- the number of paths forward would be too overwhelming. Instead, he can only explore a few of the possible paths to the future.

As time passes -- as choices are made -- as the future becomes the present and the present becomes the past, the worlds that Mades explored (the realms of the other possibilities) die and their forward paths close off. After a choice is made, you cannot go back, and Mades can no longer see the path because it has become part of the past.

"I once had a twin brother," Mades reluctantly said, "A brother who is dead to me now. He could see into the past, just as I can see into the future."

Mades explained that most prophecies come from the Divine, and prophecies can be fulfilled in different ways:

• Some prophecies will definitely come true, regardless of what else happens.
• Some prophecies might come true, and prophecies can be made to make it more likely to come true.
• Some prophecies won't happen without some sort of intervention. A prophet might lie to someone and give them the wrong information in order to make a prophecy come to pass.
• In some cases, the prophecy must be stated in order for it to come to pass.

Kale, our Mage, nodded in agreement. He had heard that prophecies were like gem cutting. If you find a flaw, you can use the flaw to cut a better stone, or you could use the flow to destroy the stone.

For every day of Mades' life, he saw worlds and possibilities die and cease to exist. But he could only see the possibilities in our world. Prophecies made across worlds are weak.

"The area between worlds is guarded by men of stone," Mades said, reminding us of our encounters with these creatures in the past. Carlagnios, the Dragonborn, growled at this memory and asked if there was any way to recover the items given to the men of stone. (He had, as you remember, given up his father's ring in order to pass between worlds and save his father.)

Mades shook his head. He only knew that the men of stone extract the costs needed to make sure that the balance between worlds is maintained.

We asked Mades if he could see the Mad Mage. He replied that he did but kept forgetting about the Mad Mage. The Forgetting Spell is quite powerful.

Bran, the Rogue, asked Mades if he knew about Gemeret, the follower of the Raven Queen. (Bran encountered an aspect of Gemeret along the path from Samhain to this Arctic land.) Mades explained that Gemeret was a death angel and that where Gods and angels touch, the prophecy gets obscure. (The Gods and the angels obscure things.)

We also asked Mades about the 101. He did not know but thought that his brother would know.

Finally, Mades stood up and declared that he had a prophecy for each of us -- each one except Tiny. The Gods have been trying to move Tiny around too much.

Some of these prophecies could be shared, but others must been kept secret. If the secret prophecies were revealed before they came to pass, Mades could not foresee what would happen.

He met with each of us separately to tell us our prophecies. After our meetings, some of us were able to share their prophecies. For Bran, he was told that he must die to get what he truly wanted (and what he truly wanted was something other than a riding wolf as a mount!). For Carlagnios, if he were to give himself up to the Orc King, he should recite a poem about a swan, its children, and the moon.

My prophecy was not one that I could share and presented a difficult dilemma. I can only pray to Melora for the strength to make the right choice and for the understanding from my comrades when the time to make the choice comes to pass.

As always, your faithful servant,

Aelar