She enters a dark theatre like place and hears a deep feminine voice that naturally echoes.
She can see several gods here. Iara and her twin Cardos, Arazeal, Rhinther the God of Knowledge, Axthar God of War and Heroism, Skriath God of Summer, Zeduum God of Fury, Talgoth God of Undeath, Deyma God of Renewal, Eriska God of Plenty, and Kovosh God of Magic. No Oris? First mortal in a long time to be present.
Fake Oris appears, an illusion of some kind. She is human sized.
“I regret that I cannot be here in the flesh. I am quite otherwise occupied.”
Rose recounts what she knows of Prophets: that she appeared 7 years ago. Previously, Malphas eliminated all prophets, but Malphas is trying something new to learn more about the high ones.
ALL prophets are magical, and this is part of why the Holy Order polices magic so hard.
She is taken to the back room, where discordant angels (female) sing. Oris says not to mind it, ‘it is the only thing keeping THEM at bay.’
Do you mean the high ones?
Perhaps. (This is confirmed as a yes later)
No mortal has ever gazed upon something here, and Oris does not know what will happen. She wants Rose to look.
Singing gets louder as they proceed. A warped rumble that sounds like something is rotating mixed with spooky static-ish eldritch horror sounds. The angels try to drown out the eldritch horror. Rose passes a wisdom save. The hallway behind them becomes twisted and unreal. Opening the doors, she sees a blinding light and many more angels. They form a grid at twisting wound in reality. A gash has been cut in thin air to outer space(?). In the middle of the grid is an enormous angel with more carvings and six wings. THAT is Oris. No angel that goes through return, but they get back broken wings and armor. There is an intelligence on the other side they believe wants to enter the world.
Oris and Rose talk:
Oris: How do you feel?
Rose: Fine
Oris: Can you hear the high ones?
Rose: No
Oris had hoped to learn if the two are correlated.
Rose felt the whispers of the High Ones, she offers to let them in for Oris.
Arazeal appears, and exchanges a look with Oris.
Arazeal: Do you believe it is safe to let these whispers in?
Rose: Did you not once hear the whispers?
Oris held them off for many years. They grew tired of her resistance, and sought a more direct path.
Arazeal wishes to risk things to destroy it. It interacts with the souls of the dead in a way he does not like.
Kovosh, God of Magic appears.
Kovosh: Introduces himself, says in a casual way that due to the lack of screams figured that it was a fine time to show up. He asks if she feels healthy and resolved.
Rose admits she has permanent arcane fever, and Kovosh fixes it. He says it wasn’t easy. He says that if the Dawnborn give in to the whispers it could doom the world, but a mortal is an acceptable risk.
Rose lets the whispers in. More distortion and spookies. She is alone in the void with the high ones. Clearer voice, louder voice, more proper sentences than before.
“We have found you.”
Spider appears. Wolf appears. Bear appears.
“We knew you would come. Let us in.”
Let you in where?
“By my guiding hand. Perfected you stand.”
“I won’t be denied. You are mine.”
“For you the time has nearly come. Your sun is setting. Let me in.”
“Lay your soul bare, be it foul or fair.”
What will happen if I let you in?
“You will say goodnight to the weakness that you hide behind. No more lies, no more fear, pride, greed. You will be perfected.”
What are you?
“I am the true divine.”
Then why do you need me?
“I created you. My chosen ones. Your time has come.”
Rose looks to the High Ones and lets them in, weakening her mental barriers before REALLY putting them up again.
“Not here. Not now. Your time has almost come.”
When?
“Dark Horizons. Boiling Seas. From the borders chaos bleeds. Savage Nobles. Cultured Thieves. Let me in.”
Rose comes back to reality, and Oris claims she was gone not two seconds.
A new song emanates from the rift, growing loud and overpowering the angels.
A twisted metallic monster comes from the rift. It is called the Angelic Mockery. When it strikes Rose, the singing pounds in her ears and does psychic damage.
Based on the inscriptions and carvings, they made this of the parts of the angels that were sent in.
Oris: The world has suffered in my absence… I task you to reclaim my holy fire and set this world right.
Oris points out the items on her statue. She mentions that the circlet is her grace, the horn is her call, the bow her conviction, the Deathward pendant her eye, and the sunfall blade her blade, the chalice of Sunlight her chalice, and the Dawncloak her drape. Rose must assemble the items. Oris thinks that she has been absent too long. She believes that they can be used against the Duskborn, which is the first step in defeating the high ones. She hugs Rose, and Rose really needs it. ‘When you assemble all of them, head to the sun temple and blow the horn. I will come.”
Arazeal says it is a shame that Leanna and Shiloh split up.
THE DAWNBORN GET ARCANE FEVER AND THE MAGIC GOD FIXES THEM. Kovosh suffers the effects of arcane fever eternally, for the greater good. He has COMMENTS on our argument. Kovosh says magic can be controlled, but should not be handed out randomly. Only to those who can wield it correctly. He thinks Lithiel’s magical anarchy cements her identity as a ‘reckless apostate’ and is rather stupid. He doubts her ability to control magic. He thinks Florian he thinks is immature and not all present. Kovosh thinks Amelia is a wise user of magic. Shiloh he is neutral on.
He says the magical parchment that Icelia got from Scrimshaw is a potent spell SCROLL. Kovosh made this spell! It is ‘Diluvial Torrent’ A tenth level spell that drops a 100ft tall 20ft radius cylinder water (620,000ft cubed) 200 feet up that causes tremendous damage as it falls. SMV, silver gong after 1 min cast (destroyed). It does many many different things. The water falls on the caster, which may drown or kill them. (5.5 Olympic swimming pools) Kovosh said he used it to flood a continent. King of the ocean had the scroll, meaning that Scrimshaw replaced the actual king of the ocean.
There is a ritual that controls mages in Ark, that he recommends she bring Lithiel to if she loses control. ‘She poses a greater risk to you than I think you understand.’