Topic: The Notes of Silas Greyshott, Cross-Realms Analyst

Warlock

Date: 2009-01-29 10:08 EST
The notebooks of Silas fit the character of the rest of his belongings. They were soft brown leather, like suede to the touch, with tough yellow pages built for the abuse of the quill and the rough scrawl of an excitable scholar. They did not bear his name, though most entries were dated, usually by one of two "alignment" calendars - F.C. (Faruin Cycle), or C.A. ("Common" Alignment), the year at the recording of the first entry of this particular notebook being 225 F.C. or 2009 C.A. He wrote most of the time in Norras, the language of magick in his homeland that Aberth had first taught to him years ago, but occasionally jotted a note in Common English where it proved more convenient to him.

His notes were primarily concerned with his work for House DeMuer and the Barony of Sainte-Ouen, especially in his research for ?cross-realms market strategies,? in which he identified connections to other realms, and their location, strength, and accessibility. From there other market analysts decided which realms were easiest to ship to and evaluated further strategies from there. Connections ranged from actual gate-anchored portals, to tunnels and roads, paths and alleyways that merged seamlessly into another world, to very specific little breaks in space-time, ?rifts? that seemed to favor lonely coasts and provided easy access for the House?s frigates.

The Board for DeMuer Exports had stressed to him the importance of these rifts both at sea and in space, as they were the best means for moving the largest quantities of coffee, spices, liquor, beer, soda, and whatever other resource the Board schemed to exploit as a luxury item ?abroad.? Dib Jaster Aurene, Jas to his friends, was a sly young Aurkindar who chaired the Board in Alain DeMuer?s absence from the meetings, and his absence was almost a sure thing at most meetings. He made his decisions after consulting Alain?s notes and always decided with the man?s interests in mind, and played the prejudice against him as a hard advantage ? as an Aurkindar he appeared orcish, with green skin, four fingers to each hand, squat pointy ears and numerous piercings, and two of his lower teeth were large enough to count as little tusks, often slipping over his upper lip when he smiled or when his expression tightened. Many people, and many elves especially, chose not to take him and his brethren very seriously based on their appearance, and Aurene loved to remain silent for the long opening stretches of his meetings, invite mockery, and lash out swiftly and coolly when it suited his needs.

He was a ruthless businessman, as wily as his kin, but he proved to be a kind and loyal friend to young Silas Greyshott.

That name, Greyshott, was not Silas? given name (he had been an orphan, adopted at a young age by the wizard Aberth to be trained), but had been adopted as he had found himself drawn into the House. He was young, still in his late teens, but carried himself as and clearly believed himself to be a grown adult with all the attached responsibilities. He was an able mage very skilled not only in cross-realms analysis but the manipulation of the Air element, especially when it came to electricity. He was one of the few blessed (or cursed) enough to be born as a node, an anchor for a ley line of lightning magick, and had already been ranked by his peers as a Greater Lightning Mage only a few weeks ago. Silas was on the ?fast track? to becoming a wizard, likely to attain the status before fifty, and possibly even before forty.

While his spoken word was often shy and broken except with great preparation and effort, the written word for him was far easier and allowed him to articulate his intelligent voice in a way not otherwise possible.

Warlock

Date: 2009-01-30 15:28 EST
29 January, 2009 C.A.
In spite of the luckiness of the Common Alignment date (2009 can be read as 29 if the zeroes are treated as space as they usually are in Norras astrology), even under the influence of grotto nectar I could not detect any significant shifts in ley lines, nor were any existing paths thrown suddenly into light, and I do not think that will happen today; so now is an excellent time for me to restate an exciting recent find in the hopes of finding new leads in the process.
A few of the findings of Mr. DeMuer?s and Ms. Michiko?s Heathron-Greyfast expedition were sent to me to be shared with my colleagues, and although their intent in Greyfast will remain confidential, and although it was the assumption of my colleagues that the Greyfast Rot had poisoned all of her sister realms, the fact that it progressed no further than Heathron towards RhyDin in two centuries time I found most encouraging, and endeavored to discover if any connections existed to Greyfast?s old trading partners in the interest of expanding DeMuer Exports? business.
By ley-attuning Aberth?s old automated telescope I have been able to observe on nights where the Nexus shifts considerably ley lines carrying not the terrible Greyfast Rot itself but muted traces, the faint signature of the caster behind the plague. At once I aligned the ley line to five anchors (four Eyes of Thearros and my staff) and sent through it a very strong pulse of energy that by nature is ill-suited to cross-realms travel (the very reason the Greyfast Rot has not doomed us all), inspired by Mr. Paszinski?s description of a high-technology invention called ?sonar? to me some months previous. I withstood the initial rebound and waited for my signature to echo back as it crossed the realms, then broke the anchor and subjected the Eyes of Thearros to thorough magickal examination.
The Astrolabe of Johannes the Bald (an instrument of considerable value given its adaptive nature with ?uncharted? realms) combined with my findings made it clear to me that not only was the realm of Vrashne quite safe from the Greyfast Rot, it can be reached by passage through only a single intermediary realm! Most travel to Vrashne happens quite by accident, but now I believe rifts into the quasi-realm between that great mysterious place and RhyDin are behind the disappearance of the West RhyDin Spice Company Jackard Fleet, which, as it occurred only two weeks ago, means there may yet be hope for the crews! The Moon?s Livery, accompanied by two ships from the Spice Company, has departed with great speed for the rift once I had positively identified it.
My first hope is for the safety of those poor souls; second, my hope is that the rift will prove as stable as I have projected, and that we may conduct imports and exports freely in the realm of Vrashne. While the Company may prove too much competition for us to corner the spice market there, I do not doubt our profits in the exchange of coffee blends and whiskey will be enormous.
I urgently await further news regarding Vrashne, and hope that we have made a new friend in the West RhyDin Spice Company. The spirit of friendship is, after all, a greater aid to the exploration of new knowledge than any form of competition.

Warlock

Date: 2009-02-02 18:35 EST
2 February, 2009 C.A.
Good news! We managed to meet up with the Jackard Fleet - they returned to RhyDin very quickly, while the DeMuer ships (and the Spice Company observers that accompanied them) returned only several hours ago, bearing with them contracts (to be reviewed by our lawyers) as well as samples of coffees, wines, liquors, spices, and surveys and other records of how their people reacted to our samples.
I have been gathering more data about the RhyDin-Vrashne rifts in the past four days and have found that they are quite stable, such that they may be exploitable for centuries to come without any artificial anchoring. These findings, coupled with initial survey results and our own surveys with the Vrashne samples in RhyDin, indicate that Vrashne may even be suitable for our first permanent overseas holdings!
Because of this potential, Jas has asked me to depart tomorrow morning for Vrashne, scout the local talent among the attuned, and begin research on cross-realms transport out of Vrashne and into other realms, as it is my belief, based on ley-"echoes," that Vrashne is a minor cross-realms center.
Must stop writing. Still need to pack. Forgot it was past sunset!

Warlock

Date: 2009-02-21 22:28 EST
29 February, 2009 C.A.

Since my return from Vrashne my responsibilities seem to have shifted, and understandably so, at least in some part. While the services to House DeMuer incidental to my research aims in cross-realms ley studies have been rendered to "excellent ends," according to both Jas and Mister DeMuer, our organization's trade capacities seem to be overextended by recent expansion into the space trade in Terminus, and the tea and spice markets of Parube, the Arkangel Colony, and Vrashne. Due to this and perhaps coinciding with some ulterior motive of House business I have only begun to ponder, the priority of research into the realms as they connect directly to RhyDin has waned, and it has been determined my services will be better served in a quest for a relic of great importance to the long-term aims of the House and its business interests in RhyDin, at least until such a time that the House can expand its trading capacity.

The relic in question has been called the Source, and while further information is at present being withheld (or, as I suspect and my conversations with Jas have alluded to, the House does not know very much about it), its nature and containment are of monumental importance to the House and potentially the "good health" of the realm of RhyDin and the numerous stable connections that keep it so central and lively.

To reach the Source I will have to traverse a number of realms, many of them "Dead" realms similar in nature to Greyfast, and I cannot help but think on the possibility that the Source is somehow tied to this strange -- what I will call, and I hope my colleagues will forgive me should my memoirs ever see the light of day, "realm-rot," for lack of a more precise term; for it is clear to me that a corrupting rot has consumed Greyfast and gone so far as to taint the Heathron Gate, condemning that once lively village of beer halls and tradesmen to the fate of a ghost town, wisely called cursed by the locals and avoided.

The journey to the Source may take weeks or maybe months, and hopefully no longer, but the fruits of knowledge that I will be the first in centuries to savor as a result make the commitment and any risk of mortal danger involved well worth it. As an acknowledgment of his growing faith in my abilities, by which I am flattered, if not confused, Mister DeMuer has instructed me to select a team with which to travel, as small or as large as I like, that will aid and protect me and perhaps mitigate the obligations of the journey enough that I will be better able to pursue my academic interests in the old realms abroad, and looking into the poorly-understood phenomenon of Metaphysical Decay.

It is my great hope that my findings will refute the idea of Sheridan cycles or at least provide an alternative, as I believe Metaphysical Decay is very much a patterned process. Sheridan has called it the 'same random chance as a passing rainstorm' as recently as his lecture at the Yuts Hall Conference of 1990 C.A., and yet men more learned in the natural sciences as well as the most ancient of peasants wise in their own habits will tell you there is a pattern to the rainstorm as well.

At minimum I must find for my journey an able woodsman and a skilled healer, if I am not so fortunate as to find someone with both talents at their disposal; however, having more than one companion, I believe, would better suit my often withdrawn and solitary nature.

It is difficult, though, to figure out where to begin.