The sword of Thracia
This sword can be placed in an encounters on the road to the City. I put it in the temple of the lizard-king in the Caverns of Thracia.
The sword is called Sarshuharu Shulimkagul, the Sword of the King of the Four Gates. It was a gift of Quirinus, God of Summer Flame. With this sword the King of Thracia burst the gates of the City against the dragons of Tifá after Thracia answered the City’s cry for help. “Ati me peta babka”, he cried, “Gatekeeper, open your gates”, as he and his army road onto the plains of the city. And because he was an official of the City, a servant of the Pillar and the Tree, the gates were opened.
Gatekeeper, open your gates!
If you open not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the gate, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the gateposts, I will force the gates.
I will bring up the hosts of the pillar and the tree,
and the dead will outnumber the living.
Gatekeeper, open your gates!
The dragon tails on the hilt are gold. It is a +2 sword; +4 vs. evil dragons. In the hands of someone with official power granted by the City or the empire of the City, it can cause the City to appear at the Crossroads by calling “Ati me peta babka” three times within six minutes. This will also awaken the guardian of the gates: the first time it is said, something shines in the center of the ruined city: a salt dragon forming. The second time it is said, the salt dragon unfolds and refolds directly in front of the speaker and attacks (most likely spewing briny sodium), before they can speak it a third time. On the third time, the city appears.
When within the City, it has an additional +1 to attack (but not to damage, though warriors can of course divert it to their combat pool), for every tablet that is displayed at the Aureum.
This is a sword. Everything else you’ve ever used has been a meat-cleaver.
The Tablets of Enki
Know then that all those exercises that men call arts, and all wisdom and all knowledge, are but humble branches of that worthy study that is justly named the Art.
There are nine tablets. Tablets in the city influence all of the worlds of the tree. The domains of tablets that are not in the city are fragmented. Thus, no one today speaks the language of the city; all languages have fragmented. And everyone worships echoes of the original gods. The tablet of animals is gone, and so there are monsters and the Autumnal Swarm. Off of the road, the tablet influences the area around the tablet. The stone of Arthur was one of the tablets of Enki, and it granted him the art of war and a desire for civilization. The tablet of war was once in Highland; this is why war was used even to solve scholarly disputes.
The language of the tablets is a proto-language, the language of the city, a written and a spoken language. It is not Latin, but it once was. They appear to be the reader’s native tongue unless carefully examined, but this first language everyone can read if they can read at all.
The tablets are not magical; they are divine artifacts. Possession of a tablet grants great skill in the areas that the tablet covers. The tablets have a tendency to disappear once found.
The tablets have a bulk of 40. They’re about 31 inches by 20 inches by 1 inch and made of stone, clay, or petrified wood. Their form can change depending on the culture in which they reside, but once on the Road they are tablets of stone.
Anyone reading a relevant tablet gains a bonus of 4 to any rolls covering the tablet’s field of knowledge. For studying, a tablet is a never-depleting mojo resources for study in its field of knowledge. Wisdom is required to effectively use the tablets, though anyone can use them to some extent: the tablet is treated as a mojo resource of ten times the reader’s wisdom.
However, the concentrated wisdom found in a tablet is dangerous. Anyone successfully using a tablet on a roll or to gain a field, field bonus, or skill must make a Willpower roll (or their archetypal reaction roll if the tablet and the field pertain directly to their archetype). On a failed reaction, they gain d3 injuries if they were making an individual roll or d6 injuries if they were gaining a field bonus, field, or skill.
Within a place of power, such as the ancient temple of Apuiporo, the tablets grant special facility within the place of power. It is easy to learn languages at Apuiporo because the tablet resides there, even though no one knows about it.
Places that have tablets become places of power, with a level equal to the number of tablets there.
| Tablet | Teaches | Location | If this tablet is in the city, what happens? |
|---|---|---|---|
| war | warrior arts, justice | Tomb of Clanricarde | The cities of the road are secure against the dark, if they choose to defend themselves. Justice prevails for those who choose it. Otherwise, justice is a twisted draught given by the strong, the wise, or the unknown. |
| crafts | woodwork, pottery, weaving | unknown | Craftsmanship advances to its apex, and the tools of the craftsman spread through the road. Otherwise, the crafts must be rediscovered from generation to generation, from village to village, and many crafts are lost for centuries, practiced only sporadically by great men. |
| fire | mining, smelting, metalwork | Lost Dwarven mine | Technology advances in conjunction with magic or the divine. Otherwise, there is no technology. Man’s day is spent fighting nature for each drop of water and each loaf of bread. |
| language | languages, speaking, communication | Library at Apuiporo | Everyone speaks a common language. Trade flourishes. Otherwise, a multitude of languages flourish, and misunderstanding reigns. |
| gardens | farming, botany, gardening | Library at Apuiporo | A “garden of Eden”. Trees awaken, and the great tree speaks everywhere. Otherwise, the roots of the tree are hidden, and plants are twisted. |
| animals | herding, breeding, biology | Cartoril | Monsters scatter and eventually fade. Otherwise, twisted animals roam the worlds. |
| music | inspiration and the arts: magic | Luputac, the lost city | Art is magic; all magic is art; dreams are real; muses are free. Otherwise, magic is the domain of evil men in distant towers. |
| law | government, civilization | Elven underground | Democracy flourishes across the worlds. Otherwise, men are ruled and rulers, slaves and slave-owners, and the people demand kings. |
| faith | lore of the gods and worship of the divine | Circus | Everyone worships common gods, with one Lord, one Tree, as the font of all. Gods live among us in the manner of Olympus and the antediluvian world. Otherwise, the gods are fractured mirrors of the original gods scattered throughout the lands. |
Various mirrors of the original gods have their stories of the tablets. Here is the story of Ishtar:
When Ishtar left Enki, drunken and spent in his castle beneath the waves, she loaded to her vessel the nine stones of enlightenment. These stones she brought to shore and displayed in the market of the City, and the City flourished in their light.
From the tablet of war the people of the City learned to defend themselves against the servants of Tifá. From the tablet of crafts they learned all manner of woodworking, pottery, and weaving. From the tablet of fire they learned to smelt metals from the mountains, and to work that metal into tools for the advancement of war and craft. From the tablet of words they learned the one tongue of the road, and traded their crafts through the cities of the road.
From the tablet of gardens they learned to grow food and flower for the nourishment of body and soul. From the tablet of animals they learned the hunt and the herd. From the tablet of music they learned all arts to move mind and mountain. From the tablet of law they learned the government of themselves.
From the tablet of faith they learned the lore of the gods and the wisdom of a servant’s heart.
Ishtar left the tablets in the City’s care with this command: the tablets must be displayed to the tree; thus their light illuminates the city. Hoard them, and they will be stolen. Hide their light, and they will be lost.
If a prophet if Ishtar is quested to find one or more of the stones, Ishtar—or her consort Tammuz who is fated to die—may talk to them during a Divine Guidance. Remember that if the prophet is straying from the path Ishtar set for them, Ishtar can choose to give them spirits other than the spirits they ask for—such as replacing one with a Prophet spirit capable of manifesting Divine Guidance.
They chose to live in ignorance and poverty of mind, rather than let others live in the light of knowledge and wealth ungranted. So they hid the tablets in the tower. But anything hidden will be stolen, and so the tablets scattered to the vaults of the unlawful. What the city did was put the tablets beyond the reach of all but thieves and burglars; so it is that thieves and burglars only may benefit from them.
The problem is that there was not and could not be a tablet against envy. The nature of mankind is the freedom to choose good or evil. You remember the tower of Babylon? Tell me the Tower of Babylon.
…
Here’s the part they neglected to tell you in the temples of Kish: they didn’t put the tablets in the tower to glorify the gods. They put the tablets in the tower because they were envious that other peoples of the road knew the blessings of the tablets without submitting to the authority of the City.
The Crossroads
It begins with a grass-covered path flanked by flowering trees. The red road is cracked and dusty. Where grand carriages once drove between towering cities, strange creatures scurry from shadow to shadow in the hot sun. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, corruption beckons, and death waits in the sere ground.
But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?
The Road is Life
