Decitina 25, 25-9

Post date: Jan 22, 2010 11:0:4 PM

The radiance of Taevon's visit had barely faded when something out of my dreams, or should I say nightmares, rode up to us on the largest horse I had ever seen.  Zodyu the Grotesque, black inside and out, stood before us.  His terrible presence would have been overwhelming if not for having Aifos among us.

He was very politic in his introduction, which was later explained by his efforts to emphasize his human heritage.  When Aifos addressed him by his title, Zodyu became curious why we all seemed so familiar with him: Ozimius hailing him by name before ever encountering any of the humans of this area, Wintersky's future tense statement, Oliveryn's snippet of Dieris Skald's ballad about Zodyu, Nyza's mention of sorcerers and Aifos addressing him as Grotesque. Being aware of Gresham, I presume from his mentioning the archmage in the tower, and unusually comfortable with mages, Zodyu turned to me for an exposition of our true knowledge of him. I explained how he received his title, which I was certain would not be known by anybody but him at this point due to him having slain all others who would have known at this time; his ogre tribe.  He was understandably surprised and seemed to almost loose his composure, but he quickly mumbled something about us being the ones.

The explanation of his strive for humanity and what our quest to set his path to divinity is sets off a speech about the necessity of evil by Ozimius that Luanes cannot help rebuking.  Finding Ozimius' tirade unsettling as much as I found myself agreeing with some points of it, I commend Luanes for her restraint and respect her tolerance all the more for it.  With Luanes' departure for Walton and Aifos' obvious agitation, Ozimius finally ceased his argument and disappeared into the canopy of Tanglewood.

After hearing of genocide of ogres and deicide of Vaprak, attention turned to Walton and we began our trek up The Mount of Walls.