The Ancient Scroll

As the description says!

Moderator: Game Administrators

Post Reply
User avatar
Gullander
Posts: 1465
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:34 pm
Location: Gladsheim

The Ancient Scroll

Post by Gullander »

This is a continuation of the comment on another thread by me developed into a short story. Here is the introduction copied for you here. :)

New information has come to light! My dwarf while digging graves found a rather unusual item, an ancient scroll. He traveled to the island home of Vitus Lector for help understanding it. If it is a true rendering of actual events and motives it will shed new light on the silver sword and reveal a conspiracy larger than we could have imagined. But you may not want to believe it as no one who plays FT ever would believe and hold a conspiracy theory! :lol: :lol: I believe if it is true will reveal a forgotten ending to Forgotten Tales is intentionally shrouded in the mists of uncertainty, and in this way is an end in itself of sorts, at least a glimmer of an answer. A more detailed explanation will be coming in a new thread when all the details can be thoroughly researched, or not, we shall see. A strong magic has held all attempts at making sense of an ending up until now, but the scroll seems authentic and may move us closer to the why. Or it may just be another false path that offers false enlightenment as the magic on this world to forget is very strong. :o

And here is the link to the original thread
viewtopic.php?p=143484#p143484
Retired
User avatar
Gullander
Posts: 1465
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:34 pm
Location: Gladsheim

Re: The Ancient Scroll

Post by Gullander »

Here is part one!

The Ancient Scroll

Part one: The Scroll Discovered

AD- Our dwarf
D- Digger

Coming upon a graveyard

AD- Hi! Any luck?
D- Naw, lots of dirt and whew!!
AD- Rotting corpse?
D- Yes, someone said we pixels don’t have a sense of smell! I’d like to throttle those who control us and fill them in! LOL
AD- Yes, they really don’t have a clue do they! LOL
(after some time and more corpses)
AD- Wow! I got a scroll!
D- Oh, a useless blue one?
AD- No, it looks old, very old
D-Weird, that shouldn’t be on the item list for digging.
AD- Yes, but here it is. Doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen in the game.
D-New item maybe, for an old item? 
AD- I better give this to Gull, she will want to investigate
D- Yes, take it to that kooky hermit…what’s his name again…hmmm…Vital Lecture?
AD- Ha ha ha, we all need those at times!
D- What?
AD- I think you mean Vitus Lector! You know I don’t need to bother Gull with this I’ll go see him myself!
D- Ok, good luck, no graves over there
AD- What?
D- Volcanic, they just get incinerated!
AD- Very funny…
Retired
User avatar
Gullander
Posts: 1465
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:34 pm
Location: Gladsheim

Re: The Ancient Scroll

Post by Gullander »

Here is part two!

Part Two- The Scroll Translated

AD- Our dwarf
V- Vitus Lector

In the volcanic isles where the hermit lives

AD- Hey, I have something for you
V- Another Proditor scroll? I am so sick of telling players over and over again about the Artifact! I have other interests you know!
AD- Exactly!
V- Huh?
AD- I think I will make your day today! Here is a very, very, old scroll never before seen in the game.
V- Hmmm….by your level you haven’t seen everything yet.
AD- But I assure you..
V- Yes, yes, very well….let me see this unknown scroll. Ah, well, oh my goodness, this is totally new to me!
AD- Told you!
V- Hush!...let me examine this more closely.

Here is how Vitus reacted to what he saw

As Vitus Lector read the scroll his visage changed from excitement, to confusion, and finally to a sorrowful pained look, the look of someone who has just lost the final shred of hope to which they had clung. Then torrents of anger poured forth! He was trying to assure himself that what he was reading was a lie and contrived only to disturb his quiet island hermitage. But, it was very old. It was in the ancient tongue of FT that very few besides him could still read and understand. No, it must be true, of this he must affirm. The sullen face of the condemned returned to him. If this was an accurate and truthful manuscript the prospect of FT’s golden age of freedom might never come. And worst of all, this was intentional!

AD- Mr Lector, you seem quite troubled..
V- It is no doubt authentic, and its message so troubling!
AD- Tell me kind sir, Gullander controls this account
V- Good, good, I have to tell someone. Now my dwarf friend listen carefully in case there is an enchantment on this scroll that will make it disappear.
AD- I dug it out of a grave…
V- Oh….it wasn’t meant to be found then. So you are a grave robber instead of a miner?
AD- No, no, everyone everywhere is digging up graves
V- No telling what other secrets will be unearthed or what ghostly beasts may be unleashed! I fear for this realm. The wrath of the undead is sure to be released. I know what the ancient scrolls warn of such things!
AD- You are scaring me…
V- It is right to be scared, now this scroll is scary in its own way. Now listen!

Vitus begins to tell of the scrolls contents and some of the history at play. “There appears to be a conspiracy at the highest level!” He continues with these assertions. I do not mean Sebastius or Ascanius but higher yet. These mages, though mighty in deed and the embodiment of FT struggles, are themselves, in the end, as much a pawn of the fates as the lowliest of FT inhabitants. No, the Gods themselves have conspired to thwart a conclusion to the FT battle of good versus evil! The forces of chaos and the forces of order, though set against each other need each other to exist. Both sides decreed that FT must ever be in a state of conflict, no complete victory for either force but a constant waxing and waning with chaos ruling then order then chaos in a perpetual pendulum of change.
(AD interrupts)
AD- Wait, Gull is a demi-god, can she help?
V- Don’t be silly, this is way beyond any of us these doings of the Gods. Now…be silent and do not interrupt me again!
AD- Yes Mr Lector, sorry Mr Lector! 
(AD hasn’t yet let the importance of this moment sink in properly. He will shortly!)
The scroll reveals that the quests, and hints of quests to come, that we know about that have been unveiled to us as solutions to this realms troubles and appear to point to a final and decisive conflict, are but a ruse, a misdirection, a fake scenario. They purport to show the triumphing of order and good but all the while knowing it would be thwarted by chaos and evil and never be able to fully develop. The result? FT remains ever wanting to defeat evil in finality, but finds the means to do it ever shrouded in confusion.
(Vitus talks now directly to AD, but AD told to be quiet tries to pay attention in silence. He feels like Vitus is talking into the air to some unseen person or persons reading this account. Vitus continues.)
So in one way this is very good news. How you may ask? This removes the false hopes of an ending to the FT drama and allows the players to simply enjoy playing or living the moment for itself without the gnawing sense of needing to do something else to move the game along to a conclusion. Like real life death will come to them all but they dare not try to hasten to it but enjoy the now they have.
(AD attempts to speak, but receiving a stern look, stops.)
But it also is bad news. How can it be both good news and bad you may ask? It is bad in that it is a kind of resignation to the fates, the lots they have been given. It means even though they dislike the evil and chaos at work they must learn to live with it as no recourse will ever be allowed to appear! But…will no recourse ever appear? (AD is beside himself and breaks his silence)

AD- Wait a minute!!! You tell me this scroll I found is only here to tell us how hopeless it is and how the Gods are set against us doing anything about it? I should have tossed it back in the grave and covered it over! Wow!!! What a depressing thought, I came all this way to be slapped in the face!!!
V- Tempting….very tempting…
AD- What?!?
V- To slap you! Ha ha…I’m not finished yet. I think you will be interested in the rest. If you are quite through with your tantrum….
AD- Digger was right! Vital Lecture!
V- What was that?
AD- Sorry sir, please continue…
There is a part of the scroll that is a bit cryptic but may mean there is yet hope. It appears there are three forces at work, chaos, order, and neutrality. The Gods of neutrality do not take sides never pushing for chaos or order. They press instead for freedom of choice and will. That means the end is not a locked and resolute thing. Chaos and evil has its goals, order and good too, but neutrality allows for the possibility of going either way or being a mixture of both. Thus in this scroll the Gods of neutrality give the possibility of the freedom of choice to potentially sort things out and defeat chaos or evil and conclude the goal of all planeswalkers, or conversely to surrender to the chaos. Here is how the cryptic saying goes: “When that which is shattered is whole, the whole will be shattered. When the silver shimmers are seen, what once was will have been.” Near the bottom of the scroll are 4 symbols with arrows between them forming a circle. In the center of the circle, though worn, there appears to be a sword. As best I can tell the symbols look like the silhouettes of FT inhabitants, a dragon, a magician, a dwarf, and a devil.
V- What all this means we may conjecture. But is it yet another potential hung before us that the Gods will later thwart?
AD- I hope not! Well what does all the symbols and the saying mean?
V- That my friend is the task I have yet before me to discover. (V gets that faraway look lost in thought)
AD- Do you really think this is another dead end to thwart a final victory? Vitus??...
(Vitus didn’t seem to hear him, but this is what we know)
Vitus didn’t think so. The final statement on the scroll and the symbols sent him into a whirl of activity. The sullenness he had felt was being replaced by a search among his vast supply of scrolls. He had seen parts of that symbol before and bits of the cryptic statement before among his scrolls. Perhaps, just perhaps, this new found scroll by this digging dwarf would tie it all together.

Next time we will learn what Vitus discovered among his dusty scrolls of antiquity.
Retired
User avatar
Gullander
Posts: 1465
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:34 pm
Location: Gladsheim

Re: The Ancient Scroll

Post by Gullander »

The final part!

Part Three: The Scroll Understood

While Vitus was scrutinizing his many scrolls AD was trying to amuse himself on Vitus’ island and the bigger island below chasing and being chased by monsters. He tried to fish but realized he had traded his rod (though he was a lousy fisher anyway) for a shovel. Which we might add was the indirect cause of these whole series of events! The shovel felt more normal in his hand, something solid not a wimpy pole. He had successfully dug up some fine treasures but he supposed even though that scroll would never mean gold in his bag, it might be the most valuable find ever! He wondered about Gull. She seemed rather twisted up of late about the game not having an ending. Perhaps this find would help and she would return to the fun of the game offered her every day. But AD decided he better wait till Vitus had a conclusion before he told her anything about it. Gull was sneaky though and often times seemed to know what AD was thinking and what he would say before he said it!  She probably sensed something was going on!
Finally the long wait was over and Vitus come out from his study to share his findings.

V- I think you will be surprised and excited by my findings!
AD- Great!
V- Now, carefully listen to me again. You will need to rehearse this to Gullander.
AD- Re-hearse…..what an odd word…you know…putting someone in a hearse after they have fallen out!
V- What are you saying? Did you receive excessive damage out here from the fire archers and golems?
AD- No, just a little….very little…gravediggers humor….
V- This is not the time for levity!
AD- Oh sorry…its hard for me sometimes…I’m not a professor like you.
V- We all have our strengths
AD- You know my initials indicate my name
V- Yes….sigh…and?....
AD- My friends say to me it stands for something else
V- Ok….I suppose you will have to tell me before we can continue with our life and death discussion…
AD- They say it means Attention Disorder….I just thought you ought to know…
V- Ok…..I know you can do this…now listen carefully. All of FT may depend upon you remembering!
AD- Ok…I’ll do my best (clunk!)
V- What was that?
AD- My axe….if my mind wanders I’ll drop it on my foot….and please try not to be boring!
V- Good grief….(to himself he offers this prayer) Oh Gods of neutrality help this noble dwarf to excel his expectations and remember what I tell him! Please!!
AD- (clunk!)
V- I haven’t even started!
AD- Sorry, just practicing…LOL
Vitus did his best to be animated in his telling of his findings and tried not to think about what AD might have already lost in his memory. Though the occasional (clunks!) during his telling didn’t help to build confidence he realized that this whole thing was bigger than AD, bigger than himself, and maybe even bigger than FT itself. He supposed there were forces working behind the scenes that allowed the scroll to be found and be read by him. He took a bit of guarded solace in this thought it seemed that the conspiracy of the Gods to suppress was being lifted. Although he had to admit a lingering worry that this whole thing might just be a new ruse. Here are the explanations he shared with AD.

Vitus explained saying ‘let us first look at the cryptic saying.’ ‘When that which is shattered is whole’ means there is something that needs to be reconstructed for the second part to happen ‘the whole will be shattered.’ I believe that means the force that shattered what now needs reconstructed will itself be defeated, or shattered, when the shattered is restored whole again. But what needs restoring you may ask? (clunk!) The second part tells us. ‘When the silver shimmers are seen’ this part can be nothing less than the silver sword! So that part of the Gods’ ruse was true but what it did not tell us is that the sword was no longer whole but shattered! Even Ascanius searching all this time for the silver sword did not realize it was in parts! And the last phrase is the promise ‘what once was will have been’ is a cryptic way of saying time will be restored through the silver sword’s use to what it should be! (clunk!)

V- Pretty exciting….are you storing all this away?
AD- Yes I am! I dropped the axe this last time by mistake as I was getting excited about the prospect of FT restored!
V- Excellent, now we have a bit more to see in the symbols.
AD- You have my full attention…and believe me that takes some doing!
Vitus continued disclosing, the four symbols united in a circle with arrows between mean the four are part of a whole and are inter-related. I believe the symbols are literal and indicate the sword is shattered in four pieces and each group represented has within its realm one of the pieces. My best guess is the cryptic dragon lair has one, the magician lair accessed in the dungeon of doom has one, the dwarf warlords have one in their dungeon, and finally a piece among either the underground or ghost devils. The center symbol though faded is a sword, and united with the saying and the rest of the symbols surrounding it has to be the silver sword!
AD- Amazing! But I have a question..
V- Ok, say on
AD- People have traversed in those places for a long time and no one has stumbled upon any piece.
V- Yes, this is what I believe happened taking in the whole meaning of the scroll. The Gods of chaos, order and neutrality came to an agreement that the pieces would be hidden. To be equal and fair to all the Gods neutrality would decide where.
AD- You lost me (clunk!) What do you mean?
V- It was decided since the sword could be used to vanquish chaos, or used by chaos to possess and keep FT in its present state forever, neutrality would allow the finder of the pieces the choice to do either of those or do nothing or just ignore the scroll and the quest for the pieces. Any outcome would be out of the God’s choosing.
AD- Wow! So much then rides upon what we decide!
V- Exactly
AD- But how does one find the pieces?
V- I mentioned this scroll might be enchanted and perhaps disappear; I was partly right and partly wrong. It is enchanted but won’t disappear. It will open up the hiding places of the sword pieces!
AD- Yippee!!! We win !! Gull will be so happy!
V- Sorry to discourage you, but there are some questions you have not yet asked.
AD- Oh…..(clunk!) I always get ahead of myself or really behind because I wasn’t listening. What questions?
V- We have the why and what but only part of the how.
AD- Oh, so you mean we can find the pieces now and know what it could mean for victory but…
V- We don’t know yet how to bind the shattered sword into a whole again
AD- And we don’t yet know even if it is reconstructed how a battle in the Weisstein room will commence or even if what we have been told before presents the whole picture.
V- Exactly! You are learning.
AD- I’m suddenly depressed again…sigh…
V- Oh don’t be! You have been an instrument of bring illumination! We now know that there can be an end even though the Gods up to now have been suppressing it as if there was no substance to build hope. Now there is!
AD- Yes, finding the sword pieces alone will cause great hope again to rise
V- Yes, and most likely great opposition!
AD- I thought you might say that! So the conspiracy at the highest level is now known to suppress a clear path to victory, but through this scroll hope is renewed that there really is a way, but we must yet remain patient till all the hows come together.
V- I couldn’t have said it better myself! Those Gods are tricky and fickle but in due time the silver sword will arise in strength and the rupture in time will be repaired and justice will be served to Sebastius and his evil cohorts.
AD- Ok…off I go!
V- Nice to have met you
AD- Yes go back to your dusty scrolls. I think I will dig something. Who knows I may unearth another artifact of antiquity!
V- Ha ha, you know I’ll be here to give it a look!
AD races to leave re-invigorated to play the game, and as he leaves Vitus yells to him but he is just out of chat range..
V- Don’t forget to tell Gullander right away!! Oh dear, nice dwarf but easily distracted! Oh well, its taken years waiting for the silver sword, what’s a few more minutes, hours, days, weeks or years!

The End
Retired
User avatar
Leone
Posts: 5051
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:00 am
Location: Ashdown Village

Re: The Ancient Scroll

Post by Leone »

I enjoyed reading this. Let's hope it can be incorporated into the game:)
User avatar
merisajan
Posts: 903
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2018 10:49 am

Re: The Ancient Scroll

Post by merisajan »

👌🌺❤️
Active account 👇
Meri(axe)
Meri inred (mage) :mrgreen:
Danada ( bow) :lol:
Squirrelso (ogre) :D
Cherry (ogre) :)
Adre9aline (ogre) ;)
Bank account 👇
Ice meri
9icemeri
Apple meri
Polic car 1
DAGODY1
merisajan
And more i can't remember
User avatar
SellSword
Posts: 4036
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2017 11:16 pm
Location: Ardesia

Re: The Ancient Scroll

Post by SellSword »

A very nice read alright!
Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.
User avatar
LostKnight
Posts: 6399
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2017 8:02 pm
Location: Rockhiem nord i Steinhus nær Kedington

Re: The Ancient Scroll

Post by LostKnight »

After a very long day, both outside and in I come to find a nice read as the clock heads to a time for bed.

Thank you Gull for yet another tale.
Fact or fiction, only time will tell!
I was always AFK!
I was LK, A Friendly Knight.
Post Reply