E4Q3 The First Mages

You enter the cave, the waterfall becoming distant thunder as you head farther inside. After following a stairway, you come out in a small room where you stop and build a fire. A sharp whistling echoes from deep within the mountain, sending a shiver down your arms.

You're grateful when Drue suggests you rest awhile. Maeka is exhausted from your ordeal in the canyon, and you're all tired from your run-in with the bandits. Alster helps Maeka recover with a tea he has brewed from some herbs he carries as Maeka sorts through the memory shards you retrieved.

You sidle up to Drue, who's examining paintings on the cave wall and you look ever closer at the giant blue figures. "What are they?" In the picture, a figure passes an object into the hands of another by pressing them together and energy is released.

"These are the Voek," Talik explains, "and the first Mages. Long ago, the Voek gifted the Karazians with the elements. They gave them masks to stabilize the energy once they had mastered their powers, lest it consume them." "So you were paying attention in class," you say to Talik as Maeka looks over impressed with Talik's explanation. Talik kicks you in the shin as you embarrassed her in front of the head mage of Kath. 

"Do you think that's what happened to Ky, she was consumed by the powers she wielded?" you whisper to Talik. 

Drue looks around the cave some more and finds an antechamber that was obviously a place of study as it held an old table meant for a kneeling mage to write on and candles to cast light on a script that covered the antechamber's face. "I've found something...Old messages on the wall," Drue says excitedly, and says, "I'm more worried about this." He lights the candles and he sits at the ancient table and studies the wall and the mysterious text. He carries a candle in hand so that he can read in the dark corner of this nook, his fingers move over what moments ago you thought were mere scratches but which became clearer as you approach the side room where Drue had called from. "This says the mountain's power is an ancient protector, a sleeping force that awakens when the islands are out of balance."

Maeka interrupts, holding up a shard for light. "Amazing! Ky discovered that combining other elements with sound creates new effects. That must be what the mages at the monastery are trying to master." The three of you mages don your capes feeling the cold creep in as you are distant from the fire. You stand in awe of the cave and its treasure wanting to stay for longer and learn more but you worry about the warning of the mountains power, you stand talking in front of the messages for a while. Haden wanders in to see what you have discovered, is less impressed by all the magic talk and says, "training, heightened senses, strength and cunning, they are what can tip the scale in a battle, magic can only go so far."

You ponder this, but you feel distracted by Drue's words. An ancient, sleeping force ... You're not sure you like the thought of that.

In what order are the images from the story. Match them to go forward.  Add this sequence to Thy Quests below.

Next: E4Q3 Into Chaos