[AC] Rollout Article Dezember 2005

[Sun_al-Mage]

[turbine]

http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=431

Count Dardante sat at his desk, pouring over a diagram of arcane sigils that had been copied from an ancient tomb by some of his assistants. He'd spent the last several days analyzing a sheaf of such tracings, and felt no closer to unlocking the mysteries they contained.

He put aside the papers, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. There was a knock on his office door, and then the door swung slowly open. Dardante prepared a biting rebuke for whichever of his assistants intruded upon him without being called in – and then he noticed that the intruder was his King, Varicci II.

"Majesty... I had not expected you here at my remote outpost," Dardante said, trying to pull together his scattered thoughts.

"I didn't think you would expect me, Dardante. How goes the translation effort?"

Dardante grimaced. "It comes slowly, Majesty. The sigils bear superficial resemblance to some of the ones we found on the Dericostian tombs, but when we try to read the characters together, the language is gibberish... I think we have stumbled across yet another Empyrean sect, which uses a very similar alphabet."

Varicci snorted. "These Empyreans are even more fractious and troublesome than the Bloodless on Ispar." He tapped on Dardante's desk. "The real reason I have come is to bring you out of here. I would have you return to Sanamar for a time, to advise me on our current efforts in the Grael matter."

"Is there new information on that one?" Dardante asked.

"There is. It may, in fact, shed further light on the nature of the beast himself. The scholars who examined this latest set of artifacts are quite excited. They seem to have found themselves a firsthand account of Grael."
Dardante rose from his desk eagerly. "Say no more. True first-hand sources would be invaluable. We spent far too much time pursuing the false leads and ignorant theories we found among those benighted cultists."

With that said, Dardante rolled up the pages of arcane diagrams to take with him. He wanted to share them with the scholars in Sanamar again. He locked the rest of his notes in a chest behind his chair. With his office secured, he turned to accompany the King outside.

On their way to the courtyard of the fortified compound, another question occurred to Dardante. "Majesty, if I may ask, whatever became of those cultists we captured?"

"Most of them were given over to the Vivimancers for reshaping. We had wanted to keep them in captivity longer, in the unlikely chance that we would be able to extract some useful knowledge from them... But given some of our recent military setbacks, the need for shock troops overwhelmed that consideration. A few of the most thaumaturgically promising have been kept, in case we do decide we need to wring more secrets from them, or simply use them as experimental fodder."

Dardante nodded. "It would be a good to have a few on hand for some more severance experiments that I had in mind," he said. "If we can solve that problem without having to delve too deeply into the mysteries of Grael, I would consider the realm well served."

Varicci stopped to look at his most senior thaumaturgical advisor. "It is true that I am only interested in Grael so far as knowledge of him, or his power, would serve the war effort... But you, my friend? If we had our severance solution tomorrow, would you truly abandon your Grael research?"

Dardante smiled slowly as he turned to face his King. "No, Majesty. For my own interest, I want to know all there is to know about Grael."