Mar’Khabazza, Ravenna, Magnus Strange, as well as Senior Sergeant Joktuk and his rangers and soldiers scour the building and inquire with the rescued prisoners as to the whereabouts of Mondaleth, but of him or any other of the monastery leadership there is no sign.
Ravenna is busy looting the bodies of the slain invaders and recovers what looks to be a journal for the leader of the invaders, a woman named Oolay’ah-ben-Ethrah-mah-Lanoorha-Tis who apparently is from the Koyatki Plains of Provence Brilend. In the last entries of the journal describe how she usurped her sisters to take control of the her tribe – Clan Jaguar – and the schism that her ascendancy created. It details how a pair of winter elves approached her and others, forming a war band to assault the monastery to help the winter elves “locate something of great importance in the library within”.
The diary also has a list of names (link) that matches a list of names (link) found in the lecture hall upstairs drawn on parchment and tacked to a wall. Putting two and two together, Ravenna returns to the strange mirror and mutters the invocation with Mondaleth’s name and with an eerie surge of magic Mondaleth the Sage steps forth from the mirror muttering, “well that was unpleasant.” He looks around. “And who might you be? Hopefully my liberators and not my torturers?”
Mar’Khabazza steps forward and introduces himself with aplomb and the rest almost as an afterthought. Mondaleth tells his tale about how the war band suddenly came boiling out from the catacombs somehow, slaying and improsoning the monastery’s inhabitants. What follows is a grim tale of torture and sacrifice as the winter elves drove everyone to clear out the contents of the libraries and bring the collection into the caves beneath the catacombs, revealing a fresh excavation of a room containing an exposed gate to the void. Books were searched and tossed into the void as they were deemed useless to the winter elves.
Ravenna sets about releasing the other prisoners:
Be’ezhom, the master of Magic – supremely intellectual, always aloof and concerned only with the aesthetic.
Seelohnor Delohvra – a stunningly beautiful elf of exotic disposition. She speaks no languages that anyone can understand, but after muttering a short incantation she is able to speak the common tongue of the land, introducing herself as “Fortune” and a bard and minstrel of some talent. He is not familiar with the name of Brilend, nor of the Khizdushiz Empire nor is anyone present familiar with the names of her lands.
Nythel – the Master of Combat. Fearless, well-spoken and cheerful
Besh-roh – the secretary of the monastery, loyal to Mondaleth to an almost fanatical degree
Kilphor – a guard of the monastery
Geskhy’-ged-Ethrah – a “kinsman of Oolay’ah” and a tribesman from the Jaguar Clan of the Koyatki Plains
Selevona – a guard of the monastery
Mylo’omha – a tribesman from the Ana-sin-emid plateau, thousands of miles to the south and west
Ni’osyl, the retiring and studious Apprentice Master. She is mostly concerned with the well being of the rescued prisoners.
Ghanorlah-ben-Thylorh-mah-Lanoorha – a diminutive Koyatki woman of the Jaguar Clan. Upon her release from the mirror, she looks around the room at her liberators and then her eyes land upon Geshky-ged-Ethrah. Her eyes narrow and with a war cry she launches herself at him with outstretched hands. Mar’Khabazza and Ravenna block the impending attack, looking for an explanation. “This filth is the consort of Oolay’ah and the orchestrator of the deaths of many of my kin! Where is Oolay’ah, the deceitful cow?”
When pressed, she stands erect and proud and introduces herself. “I am Ghanorlah-ben-Thylorh-mah-Lanoorha, heir to the scepter and circlet and rightful leader of Clan Jaguar.” She motions to Geskhy with her chin. “This cur murdered my mother and orchestrated the banishment of my aunts so that Oolay’ah could ascend the scepter and circlet.”
Geshky protests his innocence. “I was a dupe to Oolay’ah such as we all were! I, too, was banished to the mirror. Surely that counts for something?”
Mar’Khabazza is mission focused and temporizes for now. “Keep them seperated as we get the monasterie’s occupants organized.”
The last figure out of the mirror is Selthor’ah-mah-Lanoorha, a younger Koyatki woman and half-sister of Ghanorlah. She looks at the assembled gathering and does a double-take between Ghanorlah and Geshky but says nothing.
As the group leaves the mirror room and heads towards the recovering ex-prisoners, Magnus simply passes a knife to Ghanorlah. She looks at the steel dagger in her hand and up into the eyes of Magnus and a strange smile lights her face. Quick as a striking cheetah, she is next to Geshky and the dagger is in the side of his neck. Blood sprays and he collapses at her feet.
As shock and outrage ripples though the gathering, she faces them all. “I am Ghanorlah-ben-Thylorh-mah-Lanoorha. With the presumed dealth of Oolay’ah, and my mother and my two aunts, I claim he scrpter and circlet and claim. I am Ghanorlah-ben-Thylorh-mah-Lanoorha-Tis.”
Selthor alone bows deeply to Ghanorlah and stands by her side. Mondaleth is more curious than anything. “Clearly there is a tale here that is winding to a close. Would that there is an opportunity to collect it for the library.”
The rest of the day is spent dealing with the logistics of righting all of the wrongs of the invaders and helping the mistreated and wounded recuperate.