Haledan scooted up on the leather couch in the hilltop cottage's warm main room. He leaned forward straight-spined until his blonde locks swept out, as if to point down to the documents arrayed on the low table. His hand gestured across the same, and he tapped the open atlas thoughtfully.<br/><br/>"From our own readings, the intuitions and speculations you made during your own looting, and you first unpacked the tomes and papers here, seem not to've been contradicted, and indeed elaborated upon."<br/><br/>"Some of the writings in what Sara knows to be Garland's hand upon maters planar or arcane read like notes taken down by a college lad during lessons, often with quot marks that go quote-such-and-such-endquote-dash-A," the cleric pointed to an example, "From this and notes of Bikke's about going to see Astos -that fellow kept what might pass for a captain's log, though it's mostly narcissistic musings about his own dreams of being a pirate lord dreaded across all the seas of the Prime and planes - I gather Astos had either researched or stumbled upon the arcane underlying the mechanics motivating their designs. Neither Garland nor Bikke seem to show any direct understanding of magical matters, though Garland made notes that Bikke had contacts, would-be plunderers and tyrants like himself, who'd have paid greatly for secret means to infiltrate upper planes."<br/><br/>"I personally, from my own understanding of the forces which drive and align our existence, might go so far as to speculate that such would-be clients might include fiends on one or both sides of the Blood War, for both hate and desire invasions against celestial realms almost as much as they do one another. I might also speculate that certain dark and ambitious gods which have an interest in some furtive breach into the realms of their archrivals - Tymora herself has one, who split apart from her same essence long long ago. And of course there are a few dark deities of unbounded ambition, whether that of the dark-throned tyrant of hypocritical aw or the stark raving madman of random murder, whose wants know no sane limit." He made a thumb-flicking gesture as if to flip a coin, a common warding  or 'for-luck' gesture among the faithful of Tymora.<br/><br/>Aria twisted her lips thoughtfully, remembering the wall-paintings in the room at the Coin on Edge they'd passed through again on the way to the portal-tree and cottage, with an artist's depiction of that moment and also the primordial split between Rose's goddess and her nemesis.<br/><br/>Haledan continued, "Though there are of course magics to shift and gate oneself from plane to plane, such as you may be soon to use yourselves, a more permanent portal has strategic value for bringing across war-hosts in greater number. Also, Astos seems to've believed that the secrecy of these portals, and perhaps some particular tricks of their means of manifestation, might've kept the Powers who have their divine realms in these upper planes from knowing or succeeding to block such passage, at least for time enough for this trio to collect some handsome rewards from whomever they planned to avail of their use."<br/><br/>"They believed they could create discrete portals between celestial and fiendish realms by traversing through neutral planes, such as the House of Nature - where some goodly Powers such as Chauntea, Lathander and Mielikki reside, and where those hungry for spoils or conquest may've had designs just the same. In each case, it seems, a needed....spell component, for lack of a better term," he smiled with a grim tenderness at Sara, "...was certain such individuals. I know not the details of the choosing, nor what harm if any would befall such chosen souls - though as a matter of course I assume the worst: sacrifice, to speak plainly - only that Garland seems to've delved deep in his knowledge and ongoing research of heraldry and personages suitable for these designs. Perhaps this is Astos contacted him after stumbling upon this mad idea in his own magical research. As Sara mentioned to you before, and you had teased out of Bikke before that, the three rogues were likely all accomplices in various petty schemes before about Cormyr and the Moonsea."<br/><br/>Sara nodded sadly. " 'Tis like they were Garland's first influences towards...the path he's chosen...though I don't mean to excuse him."<br/><br/>Haledan seemed to reach for her skirted knee for a sympathetic pat, but stopped short, and resumed. "This is what I assume Sara was to them, though in Garland's own personal writings I have some sense of...dilemma or reservations...about it. He seems even to have some differing opinions about the nature of their magical designs, despite his own lack of such expertise, as if he had confided else he knew as knowledgeable and which he may not have shared openly with Astos. Of their other kidnapping victims, I know not for sure their identities, or even if they were already chosen or taken - the lack of information is perhaps a hopefully sign of a lack - save that Astos seems to've had some elf prince in mind. This deed it seemed Astos intended to do without Garland and the undead Purple Dragon Knights or Bikke and his crew , perhaps using his own elf-hood to take the prince through guile and social closeness rather than a snatch by force. He planned, Garland knew, to use some sleeping or paralytic agent which elves were not immune to, to keep this prince in relative stasis until their larger designs could be worked. Perhaps they intend to open several portals in relative simultaneity, so as ti accomplish more before any god or other celestial force or heroes such as yourselves noticed and intervened."<br/><br/>"I found not whether this elf prince was of Arvandor or the Prime, or Astos's exact timing and whether he would already have returned to his lair with his captive. I gather the details of this were Astos's, and merely had Garland's personal written musings rather than a detailed plan for that particular snatch. Sarda was, I'm sure, write about the drawings stuck in the atlas, used by Bikke to know exactly where to gate to for his dealings with Astos and perhaps other clients. The portrait of the druidic stone-circle in the Arvandor page was the way to Astos's residence in that otherwise-merry elven plane, though I don't think the circle itself is where he stays."<br/><br/>"It may be that Astos preferred a neutral meeting ground, or at least not for Bikke to commit his exact location to writing, but from the writings I gathered Bikke and Garland visited Astos from thence by foot, so it ought'n't be too far. One might hope they've left boot-tracks, or that you might find thereabouts elves who are more typically amicable and good-hearted, and could be plied for information about Astos - I gather he keeps his nature secret from his kin, feigning a merry spirit like all their kind - or so I always thought - on that plan. Or perhaps a lack of dwelling structures nearby will narrow where he might dwell, and in the celestial planes, as you may know, even 'beasts' can be intelligent and friendly enough to impart things they know."<br/><br/>He tapped Bikke's journal thoughtfully. "The pirate captain, an unfortunate unsurprise, seems to've been juggling a few other mad designs of his own. He had a few more plainly material loot-and-booty raids planned for the Gates of the Moon, and was even following up on rumors that there existed somewhere in the planes a great icy cave which held a 'levistone' by which he might make his ship fly, like the fabled airships of long-lost Netheril and its supposed present-day heirs Halruaa. Also he had been invited by Garland, perhaps related somehow to the latter's earlier contrary musings I mentioned, to explore a castle which Garland believed held some 'test' or 'trial' which might grant him greater personal power somehow. In Garland's own writings I caught some reference to this, and that it might relate to his self-torn musings about designs contrary to Astos's. The two seem to've convinced themselves of the locations of these places, and have portrait-pages for gating even, but do not seem to know precisely if their hopes would bear out."<br/><br/>Sara  hung her head once before, guilty-faced, and Haledan looked at her quizzically. She said quietly, " I said something to him once I've always regretted; I didn't mean it this way, but - ever since he seemed to think he must become better than himself, and 'tis such a tightrope between excellence and power. The irony is, it was as he was at the first that I always thought he was his best, and his true self."<br/>