The Wandering God
As we left, battered and weary from what I now know was known as The Astral Link, the figure I now know to be Shaundakul approached me. His robes blew in a nonexistent wind, and his gaze went right through me, and without preamble, he told me a story. It seemed like he'd been holding onto it for some time, and that the time for it to reach the ears of another, had finally come.
The God spoke. "Friedrich Dela Rosa was a human knight-errant from Cormanthor that caught my attention three centuries ago. He used to make long treks only for the sake of traveling and discovering. Wandering east and west, roaming in plain roads or harsh highways, but always watching for the safety of the caravans. In one of his longest treks through the forest I appeared to him. He was baffled, obviously, and took me for someone else. But it didn’t take me too long to convince him who I really was. I went straight to the point and told him I might had a task for him that would forge his character. Friedrich wasn’t likely to object to such a quest coming from me, so he agreed to undertake it."
"It was a rather simple task for him and his capabilities. He needed to explore a specific high mountain -- one you are now familiar with -- to find ‘something’ I eventually didn’t tell because, you know, where’s the thrill on telling all the details? As much as I hate riddles, sometimes they are entertaining. You can imagine the thing that was to discover as the request came from me. So then, no time to be wasted, he packed up all his care and woe, took his mount, his knightly lance, and wander off as a truly knight-errant. "
"He left behind the Rimwood, the Midwood, and the Starwood. He explored the Earthwood and even climbed the Galena Mountains, all of which took their brutal toll on both his courage, and his strength. Despite that, he kept his battered head high, and willed his increasingly beaten body onward, despite the foes before him. You know giants and their ilk are not something you deal with in a friendly manner, and he was no stranger to this by now, either."
"Overcoming the giants, never giving up in this long trek, he still wandered East, looking for this highest of peaks. Singing low, he closed in gradually to the Giantspire mountains, and entered their range, until the majestic and eldest mountain stood before him. The long road and cruel dangers were something he should overcome. You certainly can make up an idea of what he had to face centuries ago in this land of demon’s demeanor. However, Friedrich was a stubborn... and nothing, absolutely nothing like demons, giants and bandits, would stand in his way to achieve glory. Glory? I ask myself why he thought he would have found glory. Human hearts never cease to amaze me in their endless search to attain futile and illusory goals."
The God kept to his tale, while I listened, as the others rested and recuperated after our flight from the pit fiend that also slew me, but his twisting, rambling tale started to worry me, as his goals, and Friedrich's goals, didn't seem one and the same, so soon in it.
"Alone, he reached the peak, and dared to explore this cavern. I appeared to him once more and warned about the dangers inside, about what he was actually to find this time, and no jokes were present any longer. Instead, the truth: A planar gate, a vortex of astral links between hells and heavens. An ongoing battle of the Bateezu and the Celestials to gain dominion of such a place. When he heard this... his will almost abandoned him. He had doubts, many doubts about how a simple human, a knight-errant, could interfere and do something significant in this battle between good and evil. To do something, already without provisions, without equipment, even running low on sheer strength of will. To do something with only his mere lance, that had served him to climb to the top of the mountain after losing even his mount and most of his gear due to the harsh weather and enemies that he faced."
"I told him not to worry too much about that, but not to case aside all concern...since things could escalate quickly if he wouldn’t take part in the task I had set. I assured him that I would watch over him, and blessed his lance. A lance he used now as one might a greatsword, much to my delight, admittedly. The lance... was to contain all the bliss and woe both planes represent to work as an intermediary. Charged with both different types of energies to be effective, and to never fall in one or another category. And so, with such a tool in hand, he walked forward to battle and seize the place from the Bateezu along with the Celestials."
"The matter was settled, the task accepted, but there was still work to be done, as the portal was not to be closed... but to be kept. And to be kept by who else but him? I made Friedrich Dela Rosa one of my few Champions. He carried the key, the weapon used to settle the affair. He was to watch over this specific link of antagonistic planes. He’d held the link itself that let him teleport at will. As a mere human, however ... some traits from his past can’t never be changed. As a knight-errant, he started to wander between planes. He became a planeswalker and I allowed it."
"Perhaps it was loneliness at the end, that pervaded his feelings. As every woeful human, he strove from the road and started to frequent the company of devils more often than their adversaries. The devils, the Erinyes specifically, persuaded him easily, as they are wont to do with their various tactics, skills, and arts ... and in no time he was about to favor more one side than another. That was when I had to step on and destroy the lance that I had once so joyfully granted."
"Stricken, seeming lost, he stood there for months, with the splinters scattered, at the foot of my Shrine. He thought I abandoned him, but that was never the truth. In fact, a part of those feelings were transferred to the lance during Friedrich’s decay. He chose to believe that, it overcame him, and so he let himself die. "
"Time elapsed, and as his own self was likely to be two now as a planeswalker in the Material and the Astral plane, where a body once lay, a ghost now stood. The devils, interfering as they are known to do, spirited him back to the place he once watched over, and you have an idea of what happened next. Humans seduced by devils are always to be fools. And I’m glad now I can take care of the soul of this fool, Cecil. "
The God looked about to say more, but my companions stirred, and some seemed to be speaking to him elsewhere, and I very much felt like perhaps I was not the only person being spoken to at the moment, somehow ... but I suppose it can be like that, when chatting about past mistakes with literal, actual, Gods. Overwhelmed, I nodded, and did my best to remember his words, so I've put them down on paper so that I may not forget, and will be able to share them. I admit, on these pages, that I truly don't know what to think of this God, or his actions. I do know this, though. This story, is not over. The convergence of planes is REAL, it's still present, we kicked up a HELL of a fuss on our way out, and now I walk about with the key to a power that no mortal should have (Clearly!), that still works despite it's shattering ... and I even bear the pieces to repair it, if such a thing is possible. For now, I guess I'm simply happy that I was able to bring the soul out of that place.
It appears I'm going to have to make a decision soon, one way or another. I suppose I'll share this with my friends for now, though I know what some of them will say already. (Like Nate ... he'll just go on with the lance jokes, for example. Goodness, my reputation...) For some reason, I have a deeply unsettled feeling about what the God may have to say next.
May the Lion preserve me, and bolster me. The affairs of Gods are above my mortal head.
