Sardior Q&A

Ravik: "Where am I?"

Sardior: "You, child, have wandered into more than your superiors could have predicted. Would you care for some tea?"

Ravik: "We have indeed encountered things that are far beyond what I was led to believe it would be. I have many, many questions. But I don't think you called me here for that?

Sardior: "You are sorely mistaken. I saw an opportunity to converse, and took it. Speak your mind, child, and I will speak of what can be spoken of."

Ravik: "*There was once an eighth god, father?"

Sardior: "What do you think of that? Do you believe it to be truth, or some mortals' attempt at valuing their belief?"

Ravik: "I know what I have been taught, my lord. But, knowledge can be suppressed and hidden. It is not what I believe and far from what I want to believe. Do people wish to will something into existence? Of course. And we've seen what is done with false gods. But... I sit in your presence. Traveled from what may have been a temple in your name. And there is iconography suggesting an eighth god. And it would hold no credence in my mind if not for the magic that seek to hide it."

Sardior: ""You show that you are more than your blade, Ravik. This is how one who follows me must be- one must question what is posed as truth to pierce the veil. I am not at liberty to lay the pages open today- speaking as we are right now might already put me in trouble with my kin- but I can say you are onto something."

Ravik: "*Why now? Why are all these forces moving now? The cult of the wandering Shard. The gnolls. The Deepest Shadows. The Kuo Toa. The Scorched. The names we don't know yet?""

Sardior: "They move now because they always have. The efforts of chaos are nigh endless, and those who believe they understand more than they know have always been plenty in this world- you are living an unfortunate moment of many."
"**The cult has put its efforts into growing for many years now, and absorbed parts of other wholes with sweetened promises and half-truths. Do not trust authority alone."

Ravik: "Are you suggesting I cannot fully trust the Disciples?"

Sardior: "Every chicken lays a bad egg from time to time. You can trust most high up. But there are groups aside from the Disciples that put their authority to bad use."

Ravik: "The dragon carvings in this temple, my lord. They are of you. But. There is one other. A creature of maybe the sea? The godhater we just encountered. The Kuo-Toa. Connected via malachite. And the sea."

Sardior: "Gaia claims the rivers, and fishermen pray to her for good catches. Today, there is no god of the sea."

Ravik: "Is your life in danger? Are we too late?"

Sardior: "You have done my work tonight, in saving that child, and Tural deserves his shard back, even if the key was lost. I am merely... Not the best to exchange this information."
"Please, relay all we talk about to your allies, and none else. They deserve to know.""

Ravik: "How do we get the shard out of the boy, and how do we get it back to Tural? He has not been seen in centuries."

Sardior: "The shard's extraction is not so easy. It is not often that a mortal so young attunes to an object such as that, immaterial as it can be. The ritual aimed to forcefully sever the connection- you may need to converse with the child. Explain how to work the process. Or hand him to the Disciples' care, if all else fails. He holds a target in his soul, for better or worse. Tural is here and as active as ever. In the Material, I mean. Move for Nayora, and look for [Redacted]"

Ravik: "We saw a dragon in Embauba forest. It had merged with a demon prince. Zuggtmoy we've learned. And my companion has dreamt of Yeenoghu. Are they too aiming for chaos and destruction? The godhater showed me a vision of every god dead and ruin laid upon Ytesh, if not the whole world."

Sardior: "Our cousins are corrupted by their jealousy and regret. After their seclusion, they seek to destroy- some for the very sake of the act, others in hope to build with the ruins left behind. When you see the work of fiends, seek to topple it, for they will not hesitate to bring you down. This... God-hater is something else entirely."

Ravik: "What is it then?"

Sardior: You know of the Astral Sea- a space formed out of the very consciousness of every living being. A space linked to thought, to desires, to dreams, which houses passages to the other Planes. The Far Realm is the corner where nightmares take root. It is the very antithesis to reality itself. It is formed out of fears both real and imagined, of ambitions tarnished by harsh truths. You can see it at night- a darker spot, surrounded by a golden halo."
"Aberrations are just that. Aberrations. Beings that should not exist, who should not have the privilege of stepping into reality. Fear them. Hate them. As long as you fight to drive them off, you will do the honorable work."

Ravik: "*So... in a way they are connected to the chaos that the cults are trying to sow. As if these aberrations are thought up... no, dreamt up by them. And the malachite? is it a conduit for this?"

Sardior: "**Malachite is... Curious. You have witnessed pieces of the Wandering Shard. Those are touched by the Beyond, warped by her leftover dominion. It is dangerous in the wrong hands, and disastrous in the right ones. Some Aberrations may be directly tied to Malachite, but not all, and their danger lies both in their nature as well as their age. For as long as there have been creatures, they have dreamt. There are presences as old as creation itself in that dark hole.

Ravik: "*How do they get here?"

Sardior: "**They find ways. Some hitch a ride with the Shard's pieces as they break off. Others are brought here by foolish mortals. But most simply... Appear, defying my domain over space, as though a portal were always there. I theorize they rely on mortals' mental states to do the latter, but... I'm unsure."

Ravik: "*I need to know. Am I to serve the secrets or the knowledge? What do you expect from me?"

Sardior: "[Redacted]