The Mantle of Ores

"Warriors!" snarled Carlagnios "Attention! Stand all in a line!"

The sworn warrior quickly lined up.

"Step forward!"

They all took a step forward.

"Step back!"

They all took a step backward.

"At ease."

The warrior relaxed their stances.

"What next?" asked Tiny. "Tell them to put their left foot in and their left foot out?"

"Sir!" shouted one of the warriors. "We have waited a long time for your return. Have you come back to fight the Chimera?"

"Who is the Kai-meh-rah?" asked Carlagnios.

Kale let out a long sigh and explained the Chimera to Carlagnios.

"Right," muttered Carlagnios and turned back to the warriors. "Do you need food or water?"

"No, sir. We can take care of those ourselves."

"Are you ready to fight the Chimera?"

"No, sir. We cannot leave here."

Carlagnios growled impatiently. Kale whispered to him, "Tell them we are here for the weapon."

"We have come to retrieve the weapon," announced Carlagnios.

One of the warriors produced a knife and handed it to Carlagnios. "This is the weapon -- the knife of Ores."

Kale examined the knife. "This is an Exodus Knife. You use it to trace the outline of a door, and you can open a door to another place."

The warrior continued. "This was Ores' knife. He left instructions. You are to take this to Ores' chamber, move the dresser, and use the knife of the wall behind the dresser."

"Good," grunted Carlagnios. "We shall go there now. What about you?"

"The enchantment keeps us here. We are bound to stay here forever."

"That doesn't seem like a life worth living," noted Kale. "You know, if you want, we could just kill you."

"Yeah," agreed Garg, "I have no problem with that."

Tiny and Firinne paled.

"That won't be necessary," snarled Carlagnios. He turned to the warriors. "We will see you in the future."

And with that, we left and made our way back to the room with the sunken circle.

When we entered the circle, the animata appeared. "Would you like to go to your chamber?"

"No," replied Carlagnios. "We would like to go to Ores' chamber."

The animata paused. "That is an unusual request, sir."

"We have the knife of Ores, and we need to get something from his chamber."

"Oh," said the animata, "why didn't you say so in the first place?"

And in a flash of light, we found ourselves in the chamber of Ores. The room was filled with indoor plants. There was a path through the plants. Bran carefully checked for traps and found none.

An animata appeared in the distance. It carried a light bucked and headed toward us.

"You there," called Carlagnios, "where is the dresser of Ores?"

The animata ignored him and continued on.

"We need to figure out how to get there," said Garg. "Can you determine the right path?" he asked me.

Unfortunately, my sense for nature was terribly off at this point in time. Fortunately, Kale was able to find the path to a small cottage.

"We should be on our guard," noted Tiny.

"Oh, right," said Ryn. "We were attacked by a Kraken in a room. Perhaps in this cottage, we'll be attacked by a giant squid. Or crocodiles."

We entered the cottage and found an animata setting the table with food. The animata had also started a fire in the fireplace.

We discovered a sword hanging nearby. Kale examined the sword and declared that it was a magical sword with the ability to cause different types of damage -- a Dynamic Longsword. "Who wants the sword?"

"Why should we take the sword?" growled Carlagnios. "It is not ours. Let's ask the animata who the sword belongs to."

The animata did not respond.

The dresser was full of old, disintegrated clothing. We moved it out of the way to reveal the wall behind it.

Kale took the Exodus Knife and carved the outline of a door on the wall. He opened the door, and the Mantle of Ores was hanging there before us.

"So this is the Mantle," said Kale. "The Mantle that hid Ores from the Stone Men, so that he could steal the Seed of Contradiction."

We now had the Mantle and the Seed. All that we needed were the instructions.

The Kraken

After we woke, Bran suggested that Carlagnios ask the animata for some food for breakfast. Carlagnios stepped into the circle, summoned the animata, and asked for food.

"I am sorry, sir. There is no food."

Carlagnios growled. (There is nothing more frightening than a Dragonborn who is woken early in the morning and who has not had his breakfast.) "Fine! Just take us back then."

We stepped into the circle and, with a flash of light, we found ourselves back in the Centenarch. We made our way back to the East exit. Kale tried the Amulet of Opening on the East door.

The door opened to a dusty room. In the room, a cracked, crystal orb sat in a metal vise. Kale approached the orb and, with a few gestures, activated the device.

We were all overcome by a feeling of unease, as though we were surrounded by insanity.

"Who is there?" demanded a voice. We all felt too ill to respond. But Carlagnios eventually did.

"I am one of the 100," Carlagnios declared. "Who are you?"

"I am the Keeper. I am the most powerful of the animata. I am charged with the care of the Centenarch."

"Oh," said Carlagnios. "So how's the Centenarch these days?"

"Quite boring. Each year that passes is like 1000 years to me."

Carlagnios seemed to be getting bored with the small talk. "So is this the Armory?" he demanded.

"No, the Armory is next door."

"Is that why you're here? To watch over the Armory?"

"My essence is kept below, beneath the old prison," the Keeper replied.

"Ask it about the Ritual of Immortality," suggested Kale.

"Keeper," said Carlagnios, "do you know about the Ritual of Immortality? When was it cast? How was it cast? And how can it be undone?"

"I saw it attempted once before," the Keeper replied. It paused before offering, "I will trade what I know, if, in exchange, you would end my suffering. Destroy my essence beneath the old prison."

Carlagnios agreed and showed it the Seed of Contradiction. "Do you know how to use this?"

"Look at what you found," said the Keeper with a note of surprise in its voice. "I only know what the patron told us. To use that, you will need to find Ores' mantle."

Ryn, Garg, and Kale surmised that we could use the sunken circle to visit Ores' room to look for the mantle. But first, we needed to get into the Armory.

"Thank you, Keeper," said Carlagnios. "Don't go anywhere."

The Keeper let out a long sigh. "No, I suppose I couldn't anyway."

With that, we left the room and used the Amulet of Opening on the door to the South. The door opened to a hall that broadened into a wider corridor. There were pillars along either side of the corridor. The design of the room seemed familiar -- almost like something we had seen in Focus House 17 long ago.

Lined up on both sides were circular spheres. There were 30 of them. Eight of them snapped open, revealing warriors armed with bows. Four more of them snapped open, and dead bodies fell out.

In the middle of the room, something was bubbling from the floor. It began to coalesce, until a giant Kraken emerged.

"A Kraken? Here? On land?" asked Ryn, looking puzzled.

The warriors shot at us, while the Kraken grabbed us and tried to crush us. Kale cast a spell to force the Kraken back, breaking its hold on us. We were assailed by powerful blasts of force, but Kale managed to cast a protective spell to keep the blasts from harming us.

Even with the most powerful blows from Firinne and Carlagnios and the most deadly strikes from Bran and Ryn, the warriors did not fall. Instead, more of the spheres snapped open to reveal more warriors. Garg healed our wounds, but the warriors and Kraken kept up their attacks. It seemed like we were facing an insurmountable enemy.

Kale stared at the warriors and a glint of recognition flashed in his eyes. "Carlagnios!" he shouted. "Command them!"

"What?" Carlagnios growled back.

"Tell them to stop!"

Carlagnios put down his jagged axe and called out to the warriors. "Here me, Carlagnios of the 100! Stop your attacks!"

And they stopped. But only for a moment. As they lifted their weapons again, Kale shouted, "Command them to attack the Kraken!"

Carlagnios nodded and barked out the order. "Warriors! I command you to attack the Kraken!"

With those words, the warriors turned their weapons and fired at the Kraken. The Kraken was no match for the combined assault from the warriors and the rest of our party. Before long, the Kraken had lost and sunk into the floor.

"Couldn't you have done that sooner?" asked Garg.

"How was I to know that they would listen to me?" Carlagnios snarled back.

"It's a good thing that they did," said Firinne. "I just hope they don't harbor any ill feelings toward us after we damaged them."

The sworn warriors surrounded Carlagnios and awaited his next order.

"Before I Leave This World"

We made our way to the East exit and stood in the hub.

"Let's try the North door," Bran suggested.

Carlagnios tried to open the door, but it would not budge.

Kale sighed. "To one side, Dragonborn. Let me examine this door."

He looked it over carefully for several moments. "There is a magical force that holds the door closed," he declared. "The key to the door is an amulet."

"I have an amulet," said Firinne, approaching Kale. She handed him the Quartermaster's Amulet that she had received long ago. "Will this work?"

"Well," replied Kale, "it's not the same amulet. But there are some faults in the enchantment, so perhaps I can make this amulet open the door. Stand back now, and see what a powerful Mage can do."

He spent several minutes fiddling with the amulet and the door. Nothing happened.

"Do you need help?" asked Ryn.

"I can help as well," offered Garg.

Together, Kale, Ryn, and Garg tinkered with the amulet and the door for several more minutes. But the door still remained shut.

Tiny rolled his eyes. "OK, guys, it's not hard." Tiny effortlessly unlocked the door with the amulet and went inside.

As we followed him in, Kale explained, "Well, I can usually break these types of enchantments... It must have been some bad luck that made this fail."

"Uh huh," said Carlagnios, seeming unconvinced.

The door led to the Hall of Records. The room was filled with scrolls and books. Most of the parchments had crumbled to dust.

Of the scrolls and books that had survived, we found:

• a scroll that captured the account of the bribery of Shabriri

  
  Ores had negotiated with Shabriri and convinced him to do a job.



• the proceedings of the Council of the Centenarch

  This included a debate on moving the Centenarch from the world to here — 99 voted for this, and 1 was opposed



• notes about the Assassin (Brother John)

  
  This included a field report when Brother John was captured and tortured. Under duress, he revealed that he was the Assassin, but he was sworn not to reveal his name.

  He was in the Centenarchy, spying on the 100, when the Ritual of Immortality was cast. This explained why he became immortal and why he was known as the 101.



• a ritual of simple finding



• an account of how they caught the Whale

  Ores used the Seed of Contradiction and wore the Mantle. When this happened, he multiplied. (He was able to keep his copies from going into other worlds.) He was a powerful warlock, so once there were enough copies of him, he could reach the Whale.

It had been a while since we had rested, so we decided to go back to the room with the sunken circle to rest.

Kale thought that it would be a good precaution to disable the runes. He had the scarab that we had used to disable arcane devices before. But there was no place to attach the scarab in the sunken circle.

In the end, we decided to sleep around the circle. Ryn stood guard while we slept.

After only an hour, animata suddenly appeared in the room and began to attack us. We scrambled into the sunken circle, and the animata stopped attacking.

"Why did you attack us?" Carlagnios demanded.

The animata replied, "I know you as Logrid. How are you named?"

"Named? I am Carlagnios. Who are you? And why do you attack us?"

"I only exist to serve. You and the 100 use this circle to transport yourselves to your rooms."

"Well," Carlagnios started. He thought for a moment. "Can you use this circle to take us to my room?"

"Please step inside the circle. Keep away from the edges."

We followed its instructions and, in a flash of light, we found ourselves in what appeared to be Logrid's bedroom. It was an irregularly shaped room. There was a cloakroom with hooks, a chest, a bed, and a writing desk. Beyond the desk was a large window. From that window, we could see that the room overlooked a forest. The forest was shrouded by dark fog. There was also a sunken circle in the room -- a circle that seemed to have the same arcane runes.

As we moved closer to examine the chest, Tiny stopped us. "There is a trap. We will spring it if we open the chest."

"That's no problem," declared Bran. "I'll disarm the trap."

He took out his tools, fiddled with the lock, and deftly ... triggered the trap. With a puff of gas, Bran was knocked unconscious.

"We really don't seem to be having very much luck today," observed Firinne.

"Speak for yourself," quipped Tiny.

In the chest, we found a locket with a picture of Brother John. Kale carefully examined the locket. "This appears to be an amulet of opening."

The chest also contained a letter. Kale took several minutes looking over the letter before shrugging. "I can't understand it. It is written in a script that is not familiar to me."

Carlagnios scoffed. "Give me that letter. I'll read it."

Kale fought to keep from laughing out loud. "Really? Carlagnios, can you even read?"

"I can read this," Carlagnios answered. "It is from Logrid. It is her final message before she left this world for ours."

"Hmmm, perhaps it is written in a script that only the 100 can read," surmised Ryn.

Carlagnios continued, "'Before I leave this world, I shall take the tree and kill it. I will prevent others from becoming the 100. We are to be exiled from our world. I leave behind this key to the armory. The armory contains a powerful weapon.'"

"Key?" I asked.

"The locket," suggested Kale. "This must be the key to open one of the other doors."

Bored with the discussion, Carlagnios tossed away the letter and moved to examine the sunken circle. As he stepped inside, an animata appeared before him.

"Greetings, My Lord," it said. "I live to serve."

Carlagnios snarled, "That's nice. I hate you. Goodbye." He stepped back out of the circle, and the animata disappeared.

We decided to rest here in Logrid's room for the night. We fell asleep to the sounds of rustling wings as bats flew past the window outside. Tomorrow, we would continue our exploration of the Centenarch.

The Futility of Interrogating Animata

The West exit led to a square room with a sunken circle in the center. The room was much smaller than the room we had come through. The circle was about a foot deep.

Carlagnios peered down into the circle. "Something is carved here," he called out.

Kale quickly joined him and examined the markings. "These look like magical runes. Some of these are used for teleportation. Some look like the rituals we used to summon animata. Curious."

"I wonder what this is for?" pondered Firinne.

"Well, let's find out," said Bran.

"Wait," Firinne interrupted. "Maybe we should -- "

Bran jumped into the circle and began to kick at the runes. Firinne rolled her eyes.

"Get out of there!" warned Kale. "It's dangerous! Will you stop that??!"

Bran looked sorely disappointed as he climbed back out of the circle.

Kale shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Clearly, this is getting us nowhere. Let's go back and investigate the North exit."

We went back to the circular room and peered through the North exit. There were stairs leading down to a lower chamber.

"Should we try the East exit first?"

The East exit led to a hub with doors to the North, East, and South.

"I say we go downstairs," announced Bran. He dashed to the North exit and headed down the stairs.

We scrambled to follow him. Kale muttered something about breadth first versus depth first and accompanied us.

At the bottom of the stairs was a large circular room, lined with doors. There were 100 doors.

Carlagnios approached one of the doors and tried to open it. The door didn't budge. Carlagnios growled impatiently.

Suddenly, an animata appeared beside him.

"Welcome, My Lord. What are you doing?" the animata asked.

Carlagnios was taken aback. "You can talk? Tell me -- what are these doors for?"

"They lead to the old prison, My Lord. That is where you -- and the rest of the 100 -- meet. Any of these doors will lead you there."

"Really?" said Carlagnios. "Why won't they open?"

"You need a quorum."

Carlagnios seemed puzzled by this. He turned to Kale. "Mage, what is a -- kwoh-ruhm?"

Kale sighed. "He means that we need 51 of the 100 in order to enter the old prison."

Carlagnios looked irritated and turned his attention back to the animata. "What else can you tell us. Can you tell us what Gamerat is? That thing that looks like an angel?"

"I do not know who Gamerat is."

"Well, then tell me what you do know. Tell me everything that you know." Carlagnios was snarling and smoke was billowing from his nostrils. "Tell me or I will kill you with this great, jagged axe!"

The animata did not seem to notice Carlagnios' rage. "If killing me will help, My Lord, I will be happy to be killed by you. I only live to serve."

"Stupid animata," muttered Carlagnios.

Garg had an idea. "Why don't you ask it if anyone else has been here?"

Carlagnios nodded. He decided to change his tactics and spoke in a polite voice. "Hello, Animata. How are you doing? Have you seen anyone else here?"

"I only appear for the 100. I have not seen them since the Centenarch moved."

"When did it move? And where did it move?"

"We moved it 10,000 years ago. It used to be in the world, and now it is here."

Carlagnios gave up. He was not going to get any useful information from this animata.

We bade farewell to it and made our way back up the stairs. The only unexplored area left to us was the East exit.

A History, Told in Pictures and Figures

The statue allowed us to pass, and we entered the narrow vestibule. We walked through a hallway that ended in two tall, brass doors. As we approached the doors, they swung open by themselves, as if the room on the other side were eagerly welcoming back Carlagnios, one of the 100.

Beyond the doors, we saw a broad, tall room. Light from a distance illuminated the room. Carlagnios casually strolled forward, without any sign of fear or caution.

The room seemed to be shaped like a rotunda. It was vastly tall and broad. Above us, in the distance, we could see 100 hovering orbs. Most of them glowed with an unearthly light. Oddly, 7 of them did not shine, and 3 of them were blinking.

"This looks like a civic building," declared Kale. "Note the murals along the walls and the statues in the center."

We approached the wall and examined the murals. There were 9 of them.

The first, "The Release of the 100," depicted a number of individuals being released from a jail.

The second, "The Age of Service," showed these individuals battling wraiths.

The third, "The Harrowing Ordeal," was a familiar scene. The tree that we had faced was shown killing a woman. Carlagnios gazed at the mural thoughtfully. If the memory had caused a shiver to run down his spine, his steely Dragonborn face did not reveal it.

The fourth, "The End of Service," illustrated these individuals slaughtering the Judges.

The fifth, "Life Everlasting," depicted an angelic figure bound to the ground. Something terrible was about to happen to the figure. I suppressed the urge to quickly shuffle over to the next mural.

"Is this Gamerat itself?" Kale wondered aloud. "It has power over life and death. Perhaps this is showing the time when the Lover of the Raven Queen imprisoned him, in order to harness his power." He turned to Bran and asked, "Is the angelic figure Gamerat?"

Bran shrugged. "How would I know that?"

Carlagnios snarled, "Don't be so sleazy, Bran. We know who you are. We know you follow the Raven Queen." Carlagnios huffed and impatiently moved on to examine the next mural.

The sixth, "The Seed of Contradiction," showed a man in peasant's clothing. He held a coin. In the mural, there were 5 "copies" of the man.

The seventh, "The Whale," was a drawing of the Cthona that we had seen in one of the Focus Houses so long ago.

The eighth, "The Torment of the Chained Man," was an illustration of a man being held underwater. Chains bound the man to the floor. Curiously, the man closely resembled someone we had met long ago. "Isn't that Brother John?" I asked. Kale scowled, as though this was no revelation to him. "Of course. He is the Assassin. The Chained Man. The 101."

The ninth, "The Patron," depicted a wise man, staring in the distance. This particular mural had been vandalized. Someone had scrawled the word "BETRAYAL" across the wise man's face. Beneath this word, someone had written a curse in Old Warrior. "He lies in his shit."

"That doesn't seem very good," remarked Firinne. Bran shrugged, looking somewhat bored. "Let's look at the statues," he suggested and scampered to the center of the room.

There were two large statues, perhaps 3 or 4 times larger than the people they depicted. To the left, a statue labelled "Gezu" stood. The figure was slumped, as though Gezu was falling down. He had a javelin piercing through his chest. One hand gripped the javelin. The other hand was outstretched.

"Gezu sacrificed himself to save the 100," Kale reminded us.

The status on the right was labelled "Ores." The statue depicted a man in a rough spun. He crouched, as though he were sneaking somewhere. In one hand, he held a dagger. In the other, he held a coin.

Kale noted, "This depicts the time when Ores stole the Seed of Contradiction from the Stone Men."

Carlagnios frowned. "All of this seems dimly familiar. It's as though I somehow know this."

"Well, you are one of the 100 now," Kale said, carefully resisting the urge to make a remark about the choice of the word "dimly."

There were three doors exits leading from this room: one to the West, one to the North, and one to the South.

"Shall we proceed West?" suggested Bran.