Zaya's Message
Zaya: my name is Zaya. If you are reading this, then I have failed. My mind may no longer be my own, or I may simply be dead.
I have branded a Fremen symbol on my thigh, and I shall mark the location of this message with the same symbol. If my body survives but not my memories, then I hope that I will find this cache and reteach myself my nature. If you have no such brand on you, then you are not Zaya. I can only hope that if you recognized the symbol and you read this, then it's because you're a basher who shares my cause, and you will carry on in my place.
This is the chant you must learn.
I am a proud Githzerai monk from the Temple of One Thousand Tears in the heart of Limbo. I have dedicated my life to vengeance on slavers, especially the illithid. I have learned the dark on a large guild of humanoid trafficking, the League of the Rusted Crown.
I tracked one of the League to this Prime, a particularly insidious alien who calls herself Violetta, the Childstealer. Everywhere this sore goes, her influence invades like a cancer. She bobs the natives or corrupts their minds outright, until they provide her with a steady supply of slaves. These slaves she sends back to Sigil, for her associates in the cross-trade.
I was pleased to learn that on this Prime, emancipation has begun. A great world war was fought between the wicked Shangon Empire and the glorious Freelands Republic, as enough free folk stood up to a greedy conquest-state built on slavery. I allied with a faction who call themselves the Valiant Fremen. A brave freedom fighter named Isa Redsteel taught me this very cipher, and other mysteries of the Veiled Path: a secret society dedicated to helping slaves escape.
With the help of the Fremen and the Veiled Path, I've learned the dark on Violetta's dealings here. Violetta first allied with a black dragon: Vesperchoke Thorntail, the Queen of Nettles. Together, Violetta and Vesperchoke garnished, bobbed, allied, and otherwise manipulated the factions of this world, until they built a secret kingdom in the north. Then they cultivated three steady streams of slaves.
- They convinced several orc tribes that Vesperchoke was a god, to whom they must give prisoners and even some of their own kin.
- Their agents infiltrated the Veiled Path, to capture escaped slaves fleeing through the wilderness between the Empire and the Republic.
- They bargained with the Fleshweaver, a transmuter. In exchange for magic items, she gave them intel on the transport of prisoners of war. She also helped drive refugees northward into the nets of the orcs.
Together, these streams became a river of flesh flowing into the League's insatiable maw. But Violetta wasn't finished.
The true high-up men in the wicked Empire are called the Imperial Eminence. Violetta made a deal with the Eminence to teach the creation of bloodstones. In exchange, the Empire looked the other way as more and more people disappeared. In addition, for every four bloodstones created, one was sent to Violetta, for reasons I don't yet know. The power of the bloodstones allowed the Empire, and later the Republic, to build graven hulks. These weapons of mass destruction bring only terror and chaos to every plane on which they're invented: more chaos on which Violetta and Vesperchoke could sup.
Yet now, at last, their machinations are falling apart.
- The orcish gods are coaxing their people to turn stag on Vesperchoke's heresy. The Cave Mother herself has appeared to me, offering aid in my quest. She tells me that she has stirred the orcs' war-fever: in their eagerness to bring prisoners to Vesperchoke, they are planning raids into the Republic. These raids will bring unwanted attention to Violetta's secret kingdom.
- The Valient Fremen are investigating the hidden conspiracy in the Veiled Path. A blood named Arnen Corby is particularly close to uncovering the truth.
- Together with some druids, a group of heroes called the Titan Breakers has defeated the Fleshweaver. Furthermore, the Titan Breakers have learned that the orcs are mobilizing for war. They have come north to deal with this threat, and they will likely stumble on the true menace.
I came north just ahead of the Titan Breakers. Yesterday, I arrived at the burg of Bitterseed, just in time to witness the immediate aftermath of an attack. Vesperchoke and her orcs had devastated the village. Strangely, they executed most of their victims, rather than take them as slaves. I reckon that Violetta must be calling an end to her operation. She is likely preparing to leave before she can be caught. She's a slippery eel, she is.
But I will not let that happen. I've followed the orcs this far. I'm leaving this message here, before I scout ahead. With luck, I can get valuable intel, and use it to ally with the Titan Breakers in an assault on Violetta's headquarters.
May the gods favor our cause: freedom for all, death to slavers, and death to all who serve slave-built nations.
-Z
