Fistandantilus Reborn - Douglas Niles [41]
CHAPTER 13
An Historical Analysis To his Honor, Patriarch Grimbriar High Priest ofGilean Inscribed this year ofKrynn, 372 AC Your Eminence, I have been surprised to discover, during the course of my research, references of interest in the dragonarmy records pertaining to the fall of Haven and the subsequent occupation by the minions of the Highlord Verminaard. Specifically, there is some reason to believe that one of the great artifacts of Fistandantilus may have found its way to that chaotic city at some time following the creation of Skullcap and preceding the arrival of the dragonarmies.
Of course, the fall of Haven and the occupation of Abanasinia, Qualinesti, and the Plains of Dust have been well documented in the official histories, not to mention the detailed military accounts available in the rolls of Solamnia and the Highlord Ariakas. It would be presumptuous, and wasteful, of me to attempt to improve upon that body of work.
Rather, my patriarch, I shall strive to clarify several pertinent facts.
It is known, for example, that most of the Seeker priests were thrown down by the arrival of Verminaard’s army. Some (the weakest and least influential, it seems) were allowed to maintain their holdings and congregations. Most were incorporated into the ranks of the dragonarmies, and a few-the most powerful, those who were perceived as a threat to Takhisis-were cruelly executed, their cults violently disbanded.
There is a strange tale regarding a red dragon rider, one Blaric Hoyle.
The officer was sent to destroy a sect created for the worship of a false god, a faith dedicated to the archmage Fistandantilus. This temple was one of the more successful of the false faiths, reputedly because the high priest had demonstrated some small measure of immortality. At least, many witnesses claimed that he had lived in the city for perhaps a century, but during all this time had remained a very young man.
The hapless dragonrider apparently did not fully grasp the lethal intent of the order. He confronted the Seeker priest and closed the temple as he had been instructed. However, he then allowed the false cleric to leave the city of Haven before the executioner arrived.
Blaric Hoyle was tried by a military tribunal presided over by Highlord Verminaard himself. Apparently the officer was unable to offer a very good defense of his actions; the notes indicate that he seemed confused, even forgetful, about the circumstances of his confrontation with the false high priest. However, he made several references to a “sparking stone,” and once claimed that he saw “sparks within the gemstone.” These were vague perceptions, related without specificity, but they aroused my suspicions.
Hoyle did not know why he allowed the false priest to leave, but his responses to the question imply that the mysterious stone had at least something to do with his disobedient choice.
Alas, we hear no more from him. (As usual, he who failed to please his ruthless highlord master was granted only a very short appearance on history’s stage.) However, it seems at least possible to me that the stone referred to could have been the bloodstone of Fistandan-tilus.
I know that all previous reports have indicated that the stone was destroyed during the convulsion that created Skullcap. However, Haven is not terribly distant from that place, and there was a strong belief that the “priest” of this faith came from the south (the direction of Skullcap) when he arrived in the city to establish his sect. And, too, there is the previously mentioned business about the man’s strange propensity to resist the effects of aging.
The fugitive Seeker and his few remaining followers are believed to have made their way into the Kharolis borderlands. There it is reported that he established a camp as rude as any bandit’s. They survived by preying upon weakness, plundering from the local citizenry, even stealing from the dragonarmies when they could find a detachment or supply center that was weakly defended.
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