:We're back: Yfandes relays to Fazil. :They have a lot of questions. Enough that Van brought some of his friends from there over to talk to you directly: Pause. :Well, probably tomorrow. It's late: 

:I don't actually know very much about the Worldwound but I'd be happy to try to answer them.:

Savil is honestly shocked that the Tayledras couple were willing to leave their land (and also their eight-year-old son), but she goes to catch up with them, and gets them set up with a guest room.

The next morning, they have a meeting to discuss the Worldwound, at least what Fazil knows of it.

It opened up shortly after Aroden died, in a country he thinks was called Sarkoris at the time. It was a tear that opened into the Abyss, rimmed by black flames. Creatures poured out of the Abyss and quickly overwhelmed Sarkoris's defenses; the whole country was lost by the end of the decade. Eventually some powerful casters put down four wardstones of nearly unimaginable power that maintain a magical barrier over the whole area. Demons frequently try to destroy the wardstones, but they're defended by armies from the surrounding countries. Some demons are powerful enough to cut, fly, or teleport through the magical barrier, but they're usually quickly brought down on the other side. Occasionally a crusade is called and the armies fighting the Worldwound try to gain ground; if the wardstones could be moved in to cover a smaller area the magical barrier would be correspondingly more powerful and fewer demons would have a way to cut through it. But gaining ground is difficult because the land has been defiled and is now magically distorted, full of rifts and cliffs and hard to advance through. Also full of demons, of course. The fourth crusade wound down a few years ago basically a failure.

Cheliax has committed substantial forces to guarding the Worldwound, which means that if there's a war with Cheliax - and they think there probably will be - then it'll abruptly lose about half of its defenses, which has the potential to be disastrous. 

That sounds like a terrible situation and they're sorry to hear his world has a such a predicament! Their own magically-defiled lands are difficult and dangerous to clear but they've at least been able to make slow progress on it over the centuries.

The Tayledras don't have armies to offer. They do have scouts and powerful mages who are experienced with work in magically-distorted, treacherous land. They also have a small number of specialized magic users called Healing-Adepts; his partner Moondance is one. Healing-Adepts have a sense for the magic inherent in a patch of land, called 'earthsense', and can use a number of secret techniques to cleanse it. 

k'Treva would consider lending Moondance to help with the Worldwound, under the condition that the rest of a plan is in place to make it not unduly dangerous for him.

Also, (and Moondance half-glances in Vanyel's direction, apologetically), they've heard from Savil that Golarion has magic to raise the dead? If that would work for non-natives killed there, it would make this considerably less risky an offer for k'Treva to make. 

Yes, Golarion has magic for that, and has confirmed that it works for people from Velgarth who die in Golarion. He can do it personally as long as there's a body and Osirion would likely be willing to commit to doing it for everybody who comes from Velgarth if Velgarth can supply the diamonds though that's not actually a guarantee he can make himself. Probably they should wait for an update via Mindspeech-through-a-scry from their allies in Golarion, and can ask for that at that time.

That makes sense. They can wait to hear. 

Meanwhile: Moondance has been trying to answer Vanyel's questions about the Cataclysm? (Starwind and Moondance also just learned today that Vanyel has been TALKING TO LEARETH, his destined enemy, for TEN YEARS, and they are kind of in shock about this, but the Heralds seem to be taking it in stride.)

If Leareth is claiming to have been around at the time of the Cataclysm and even been involved in it, he was probably the mage who fought Urtho, a hero and forefather of the Tayledras people, which cannot say good things about his character and they're pretty worried. Their purely oral histories are incomplete, though. The Shin'a'in keep written histories and probably do know more of that awful time in their past. 

That is indeed what Leareth was claiming. They would love to talk to people who might know more.

Moondance has had a feeling that it would be good, if they knew more. Unfortunately the Plains are about eight hundred miles south of Haven, and none of them have been there before in order to Gate there. 

Golarion's magic allows Teleporting off a map but there's substantial chance of landing in the wrong place and they really cannot risk landing in Iftel again, probably Vkandis will escalate from setting them on fire if setting them on fire didn't work to keep them away. ...the pharaoh could get them to a location on a map with perfect precision from his palace in Golarion, and then they could Teleport home when done, and might agree to this, he too has an interest in learning more about Leareth...

It seems like a big outlay of resources on the pharaoh's part, and like it'd be time-consuming - and maybe dangerous, he isn't sure - but Vanyel does think it's a good idea to do some discreet research into Leareth's background if they can. 

If they can arrange transport, Starwind is happy to accompany them with Moondance and provide an introduction to the high shaman in Kata'shin'a'in; they haven't actually met, but the Shin'a'in and Tayledras peoples do maintain some level of relationship. 

It would indeed be a substantial expenditure of resources but he can at least mention that it's an option as soon as Mahdi and Hagan return from Rahadoum.

How long is that likely to take? 

Vanyel looks over at Fazil. "We really don't know. I think they signed on for a month, we're hoping they get word back to us of what they've found sooner than that."

"They can do a Sending any time they're not being closely observed and I suspect they will once they have a good guess one way or the other. And if anything happens to them I expect Sothis to contact me."

That makes sense. Starwind and Moondance will stay in Haven and wait, unless it ends up being weeks in which case they'll have to go back to k'Treva and have Vanyel or Savil fetch them again. 

Well, they've covered most of the strategy stuff for right now, so, pending hearing from the pharaoh or from Mahdi or Leareth, would Fazil be up for healing some other patients at their House of Healing and in the process letting Shavri study his healing magic more? 

He’d be delighted to! He can tell her a little about how healing works in his world, too, though he’s a combat healer which is a really different specialization and he doesn’t know all that much about treating normal peoples’ normal illnesses.

Shavri is so much more engaged and animated in this conversation than in any of the previous meetings! Except for the one where he healed Randi. She would love to hear everything he knows about how healing works in his world, whether for combat or not. They don't tend to have as much specialization like that, here, although of course the Healers who volunteered on the border for the years-long war with Karse have relatively more experience with severe wounds than with treating elderly people's pneumonias and heart ailments, for example. Shavri wasn't one of the volunteers, of course, because of the lifebond with Randi; in fact, she's spent far less of her time on Healing at all than she would prefer in recent years, and especially in the last few months, since Tran is unwell and Vanyel was recovering from Sunhame and then vanished and so she's been taking on all the usual work of the King's Own. 

...Speaking of that, it's possible they should see if he can heal Herald Tantras, their actual King's Own, although it's a bit confusing since the Groveborn Companion was killed in the battle and Tran was re-Chosen by his old Companion from before. (They don't currently have a Groveborn at all and this is kind of awful, especially given the recent stressors.) Fazil is probably aware at this point that it's very bad for Heralds to lose their Companion? Anyway, Tran is currently mostly unable to get out of bed; it's not a physical ailment per se, but she wonders if Lesser Restoration could help with his constant exhaustion anyway, it'd make such a difference for him if it did. 

Honestly for that he would try Break Enchantment in case it makes the magical soul bond breakage effect stop, though he can also throw Lesser Restoration at the tiredness. (It might be more powerful than Break Enchantment can handle and want a limited Wish but might be worth pursuing either way because whatever does work might also work for Van’s magical soul bond breakage effect. (His world doesn’t have this; losing a familiar is bad for you both magically and emotionally but not permanently so.)

Healing in combat is different because firstly you have to be quite close so it’s dangerous and you need decent personal shields and the ability to throw off spells yourself, and secondly because everyone is much much tougher; it takes a lot more channeled energy to put Hagan back together than a commoner though it’s also much harder to hurt him that badly in the first place. Almost all adventurers in Golarion travel with a priest, for the healing and also for the moral guidance; the profession is bad for your Good and disastrous for your Law if you aren’t careful. Also he can do useful things like heighten peoples’ reflexes and shield them from evil and take curses off them and make them immune to fire or electricity and so on. Clerics can’t do as much as a wizard but they’re otherwise hard to surpass.

Wow! Healers in Valdemar can't do anything but Healing, unless they have other Gifts - though, she confesses in a lowered voice, Healing-Gift is a very general way of affecting a person's body and it's possible to harm people with it instead. Even stop their hearts. It's what Vanyel used to assassinate an extremely skilled Adept mage who had been helping the Karsites win a lot of battles and killing large numbers of Valdemaran soldiers for years; it was a better plan than a more conventional attack because the man was so well shielded but almost no one shields against Healing.

It would mean a lot to the Heralds if they could do something for Tran. Not just because it'd be so incredibly helpful for their staffing to have him back and functional, but - he's so miserable and she's been trying to visit him every day and it hurts to see him like this. (And, of course, it would be incredible if, after all these years, they could do something to make it easier for Van.) 

Also! She's really curious how it works that adventurers are so much tougher! If Fazil has some of the same effect himself, can she look at him with Healing-Sight? 

He does, and she's welcome to! They don't know themselves; one theory that seems more likely in light of Valdemar's mages not working similarly is that constant magical healing makes the body tougher the same way exercise does but more comprehensively.

That would be so fascinating! Shavri, someday, would really like it if Valdemar's Healers could help study this phenomenon, figure out what implications it has.

She has a peek at Fazil with her Sight, first broadly and then diving in much closer to the very fine structure of his body's processes.