Torfalhen-Dar-Letter

Winter Star —

I have to admit, I don’t often come across projects such as yours. Thank you for coming to me, though. I appreciate the kind compliments in your letter to me, and hope that this letter in return finds you well.

The drawings you sent with the letter were quite impressive. Whoever rendered them for you is a skilled artist with a steady hand and good eye. It was a pleasant change to receive such concise and excellent references from which to work. I can’t tell you how often I receive half-literal scribbles that attempt to describe artifacts I’m supposed to research for a client who can’t be bothered to even identify the kind of daiklaive a find is, must less anything else like engravings or maker’s marks. Refreshing, indeed.

The first of the items you describe, the blue jade isocahedron, is most likely a lightning box. If they’re in working order, they can gather up the power of a stroke of lightning and transubstantiate that levin into pure Essence. They were used during the Shogunate Era to power many First Age artifacts whose power sources had failed (because in many instances even the savants of the Shogunate — sheer geniuses and wonder-workers by today’s standards — were incapable of understanding the sublime glories of the First Age). Lookshy and the Scarlet Empire still use lightning boxes, as do some Air Aspects whose animas make them immune to the lightning discharge that comes of tapping one of these for the Essence within.

The orichalcum daiklaive and long powerbow are interesting finds, indeed. The maker’s mark on them is one unfamiliar, though it is similar to the stylistic iconography used in some First Age maker’s marks (as recorded in the Shogunate-era treatise on First Age artificing Glimmers In the Darkness: Glorious Relics of the Darkest Age). The names inscribed on them are also familiar — the daiklaive, Burnished Horizon, I found reference to as being stored in a Shogunate-era armory, while the powerbow, Shrieking Golden Epiphany, is listed as a relic in the possession of House Sesus, stolen nearly four hundred years ago from one of their Household caravans moving a House dowager and her wealth between estates.

You rightly recognized the elemental lens for what it was — impressive for a Lost Egg, if I may be so bold. I’ve only seen them in the armaments of Lookshy Dragon-Blooded before. If you undertook all the attempts that you described in your letter to make it work, without results, then it is likely badly in need of repair.

The cloak you found with the elemental lens is actually a gill cloak, a fairly utilitarian item used during the First Age and Shogunate Eras to facilitate breathing underwater. They are notoriously delicate, and usually need careful tending by savants, so it’s very likely inoperable as well.

Finally, the moonsilver items you recovered — the god-kicking boots and the skycutter — actually meet the description of the panoply of a beast-god Anathema killed not quite a hundred years ago by the Twelve Victorious Blades, a part of the Wyld Hunt. The creature’s name was reputedly Ascending Abyss, a creature with the attributes of a bat that haunted some of the caravan routes into and out of Sijan. It was based out of the Black Chase specifically, and rumor has that it left a potent Manse and many other artifacts in its lair there. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever recovered it. The creature’s barbarian servants apparently dragged its corpse away, and by the time the Twelve Victorious Blades caught up with them, its artifacts were stripped and the barbarians gone. According to the barbarians captured and tortured by the Twelve Victorious Blades, the skycutter was called the Empyrean Reaper, and the boots are the Thousand-Swift Talons (for the distinctive clawed-foot shape they were created in).

I’m very glad to have been able to help in this. This sort of project is all too rare, despite my name being well-known among Scavenger Lords. Most of the time, they bring me items either so common that I can recognize them on sight, or items so damaged and corroded that they’re functionally unrecognizeable.

The Guild scrip you sent is more than adequate — thank you for paying in full up front. Should you ever need my help again, please do not hesitate to contact me. My knowledge of First Age implements is second to none here in Nexus, and likely second only to a few others in Creation. If you are ever in Nexus, please come by for dinner. I would love the chance to see these items in person, and to perhaps chat some. I’m sure you have some wonderful stories to tell.

I also have a few theories about the whereabouts of various untapped dig sites, from my research into the Shogunate’s zoning laws. I have a theory that some of the forbidden zones never contained dangers, but instead were either supply depots for the Shogunate armies, or locked down First Age armories or perhaps even Manses that the Shogun’s savants couldn’t get into, but wanted to keep out of the public eye.

Ever Yours,
Torfalhen Dar,
Nexus District,
City of Nexus