The Binder's Challenges

[Eraamion]

THE BINDER'S CHALLENGES

VOLUME I

BY XAVIER OF OGHMA


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CHALLENGE THE FIRST: ON THE NATURE OF THE MISTS OF YMPH

IN THE NAME OF OGHMA ALL-BINDING EVER-TRUTHFUL
 
A Mistchild roams the woods around Mistlocke. It speaks of seven spirits that dwell high in the mountains where dragons sleep. These spirits seek vessels, living men, to become Champions incarnate. The first vessel is the orc. The second vessel is said to be one Rauryk Aberdenn. The remaining five, we do not know.

Once all seven are incarnated, the Mist Dragon awakens, his body that is the Mist sheltering us retreating, the Mist withdrawing. Thus, the Mist's wrath will be given form and strike against H'bala.
 
Brave the challenge and bring the answers to Xavier the Namer in Mistlocke.
 
Is the orc truly possessed by spirits of the Mist?
What would happen if the one Rauryk Aberdenn finds these spirits and yields to become their vessel?
If the tale is true, who are to be the remaining five vessels, Champions of the Mist?
 
The truth will become part of METAGNOSIS and glimpse into the Knowledge shall be granted.
 
Thus, the Will of Oghma.

Note I: The Mistchild's tale is hereby declared FALSE until further knowledge proves otherwise. The Binder's Challenge on the nature of the Mist remains.
Note II: Is the Mist a parallel realm with spirits of different interests and sentiences? Will imbibing the distilled essence, said to turn the living man into the Mist itself, aid in understanding the Mist and its secrets? The Binder's Challenge on the nature of the Mist remains still.


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CHALLENGE THE SECOND: ON THE FATE OF THE DESERT OF YMPH

IN THE NAME OF OGHMA THE INQUIRING, MUSEFUL
 
A desert waste is sprawled on the isle of Ymph. It rains there, yet no verdant foliage springs forth. Creatures of plains roam there, yet they could not call the environment their home. Winds that blow there are not those of desert, they bring the moisture of the sea. Yet waste it remains.
 
Brave the challenge and bring the answers to Xavier the Namer in Mistlocke.
 
What made the waste in the first place? Are the causes natural, magical, divine, or otherwise?
How it is that the waste endures?
What is it that might lie buried under the sands and how to reach it?
 
The truth will become part of METAGNOSIS and glimpse into the Knowledge shall be granted.
 
Thus, the Will of Oghma.

Note I: Deep beneath the desert, through sinister approaches, lie ruins of alien origins and full of strange devices of unfathomable purposes. Vile substances appear to be controlled by broken devices. A sample of the substance has been taken for examination and Xavier the Namer holds it for further study by men learned in such matters. Could this be the cause of the desert's fate? Can the fate be reverted? The Binder's Challenge stands unbested.
Note II: Records exist of Netherese weather control devices, suspected to have caused a great diversity of climate on the island. Several of them are supposed to exist. Could these be the reason behind the formation of the desert?


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CHALLENGE THE THIRD: ON THE MYSTERY OF THE BURNING FORTRESS

IN THE NAME OF OGHMA THE CURIOUS, ALL-INSPIRING
 
Along the river Tear, past the freshwater springs, a remote fortress stands ablaze with unquenchable fires. Unaccessible and magically warded, it resists the advances of adventurers seeking knowledge and riches.
 
Brave the challenge and bring the answers to Xavier the Namer in Mistlocke.
 
Who built this fortress and to what purpose?
What caused the fire and what is the fate of its original dwellers?
How can the fires be quenched and the fortress entered?
What lies inside?
 
The truth will become part of METAGNOSIS and glimpse into the Knowledge shall be granted.

Thus, the Will of Oghma.


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CHALLENGE THE FOURTH: ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE LAST KEEP

IN THE NAME OF OGHMA THE ABSOLUTE, EVER-CREATING

Unknown foundations might lie beneath the Last Keep, it is not the first edifice to be raised on this place. Caiir Mairthiir, the misted refuge, words that could indicate elven heritage, a connection perhaps to the Ilythiiri ruins in the woods. Mystery surrounds the Founder and his fate and strange things happen in the Keep's lower levels still. Scrawlings in the dark recesses of newly excavated corridors provide fragments of knowledge from all periods of the island's history. The prophetic scenes provide us with a sense of doomed future for Last Keep, of a star bringing about barrenness of womb and stillborn infants, husbands marching off to war and mothers throwing their surviving children from the walls, to their death, protecting them from some other, more terrible fate.
 
Brave the challenge and bring the answers to Xavier the Namer in Mistlocke.
 
What foundations lie underneath the Last Keep?
Why was Last Keep built in this place, what drew the Founder to it?
What is the cause of strange happenings and hauntings in the lower levels?
What future has been prophesied for Mistlocke and by whom?
 
The truth will become part of METAGNOSIS and glimpse into the Knowledge shall be granted.

Thus, the Will of Oghma.


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CHALLENGE THE FIFTH: ON STARGAZERS AND THEIR HIDEOUTS

IN THE NAME OF OGHMA THE WANDERING, SEEKING
 
The Stargazers once consisted of many tribes. The Fox Tribe was lost to them before the Shrouding but now we know it went into the Mist and we witness the remnant of their existence - the Fox Dell. We can access their burrows below Mistlocke where no magics seem to be working - only the curse of the Witch continues to spread through our bodies even there. But there are other sanctuaries of the Stargazers - the sietch, rumored to be hidden by the desert sands. One name appears both in writings and visions - that of Sietch Noor, and of an armored figure called Pra'raj, also heard shouted by the feral flayers.
 
Brave the challenge and bring the answers to Xavier the Namer in Mistlocke.
 
What causes the magics to cease working in the burrows below?
Where to can one travel through the burrows?
Are there any remaining sietch to be found on Ymph?
Who is Pra'raj and does it live still?
Did destruction of Sietch Noor already happen or is it a vision of the future?
 
The truth will become part of METAGNOSIS and glimpse into the Knowledge shall be granted.

Thus, the Will of Oghma.


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Here ends Volume I of the Binder's Challenges.