Sage Advice

[Martyna Z'muir]

Queen Dawn summoned her subjects to the throne room of Castle Britannia today to partake in an adventure to Ilshenar. A particular form of sage, Salvia pietas, or Compassion sage, was required to aid the Queen's troubled sleep.

Since the rare sage grew in central Ilshenar, the group followed the Queen to meet with a Royal Scout named Cole near the Honor Shrine. Cole suggested gathering seeds from the beasts roaming the swamp near the savage fort and then acquiring a sample of the potion the Exodus Controllers brew from the plant's leaves.

As we galloped towards the swamp, a comment the scout offhandedly made stuck in my mind. He said the "Whole land's been on edge," and implied that that many around central Ilshenar have experienced troubled sleep recently. This struck me as important due to a passage regarding the sage in a tome entitled 'Medicinal Flora,' which could be found in Dexter's lab at the castle:


"The Controllers of Exodus have been known to brew potions from it to protect their minds when interacting with the inhuman sleeper of the fortress."


I had to put the thought out of my mind as we entered the swamp and began the process of collecting seeds from the bog creatures. Queen Dawn wanted a few hundred gather so her agricultural experts to sort through so they may cultivate the sage.

When the seeds were shipped back to the castle, we headed for the Fortress of Exodus where many controllers fell before our might. Eventually, a sample of their potion was recovered and a book containing the brewing instructions was found. With all the items required having been assembled, we returned to Britain where the Queen thanked us for our service.

Able to think again without the distraction of combat, I realized common thread... Queen Dawn is having bad dreams. People and creatures in Ilshenar are having bad dreams. The Controllers drink a potion to protect their mind from Exodus. Exodus was never actually destroyed, only disabled. Could Exodus be reawakening after all these years? Might the angry hellspawn of Mondain and Minax be quietly readying itself for a renewed war on Britannia?

Only time will tell. Vigilance Britannia, vigilance.

Martyna Z'muir, Library of Sosaria

(OOC: The Controllers will now have a chance at spawning a 'Compassion Sage,' which appears as a green bubbling potion. Drinking the potion will cause you to gain in the Virtue of Compassion, limited to once a day.)