Kulman's past, our future....

Kulman closes his eyes, places his hands on his chest plate while the group begins to debate the next move.  You each can hear Kulman whispering to himself, asking questions, seemingly to a friend of swords and he keeps using the name Azusu.. "Do you know of this Hermia, what of the Gold Dragon, what of the Orbs.... Does any of this ring true to your memory?"

Kulman's frustration is evident in his demanor when he returns from this seemingly silent conversation, and you can see the Luck Dragon emblem upon his chest piece moving as if communicating with him.  In his frustration Kulman takes off his pack and tosses it to the ground.  His gear seemingly spills out onto the cave floor... A waterskin, some rations, a small bed pack. A holy symbol of Iommede. A coin.  Seemingly plain, and yet not of a currency that you recognize.  Kulman picks it up and holds it in in his closed hands...

“Friends, I can call you that, because I feel that we have all found a common bond.. Whether it be glory, he looks to Thornborn, Salvation, he looks to Tala, Knowledge, he looks to Wong, Redemption, he looks to Chad, or Honor, he looks to Mal and Thomas, we have found friendship.  All of these traits of yours I admire, I even stive to copy.  There was once another.  To understand what I am about to tell you, you must know me.  I have kept myself guarded, protected, for reasons that possibly my history will explain.  But only then will you understand the terror and reverence I give to this coin.

When I was young, even by human years, no more than 10 my Mother passed.  She was taken by the bleaching.  My Father told me her travels back to the first world were quicker than normal, and out of fear he uprooted us and began our travels.  My Father was a great alchemist.  He could turn dung into mana if it were required of him.  From our homeland, of which I know nothing, we traveled through Golarian.  From town to town, and city to city he found work but never kept us in a single location for more than a year.  By the time I reached my 33rd birthday we found ourselves on a Horse farm in Lastwall.  It seemed it would be another stop in our endless journey but my Father found a peace there that he could not find anywhere else.  There in Lastwall I found my first true home.  With the marvelous steeds of the farm I found my calling.  The owner of the farm was a kind and gentle human who not only marveled at my Father's ability to treat the horses but also granted me access to his vast array of books.  It is there that I read of the famed Knights of old.  The valiant heroes of years past.  As a young Gnome I saw in those knights a greatness that I never thought I could match.  A grandness that was all inspiring.  In all of the tales Knights rode upon mighty steeds and vanquished the terrible denizens of darkness.  I saw it as a simple task.  Learn to ride a horse.  Learn to carry a lance.  Ride fast.  Aim true.  Strike.  And Evil would fall.  How little I knew as a child.

 Over 35 years I trained, I honed my skills upon smaller breeds, ponies mostly, and discovered that I had the fortitude not only to strike true, but also to stay in the saddle and take a strike in return.  Upon my 70th birthday my Father bid me farewell.  With tears in his eyes he told me that I was no longer welcome in his home.  That if I were not to travel I would be overcome with the bleaching and would leave this world.  He had found his secret, normalcy that was tempered with an ever changing conundrum.. whether it was a sick mare needing to give birth, a wild stallion needing taming, he had found an everlasting pursuit of knowledge and new adventure that seemed to stave off the bleaching.  His worry of my complacency created a situation where he bid me farewell, for my own well being....

And so I traveled..  From town to town, city to city, in an attempt to find my way.  The story of Knights and their grand adventures spurring me to believe in myself.  Commonly looked down upon, literally and figuratively, I never found my place until I met them.  I had no idea what they were when I met them, only that they gave me an offer.  They talked down to me surely, all creatures of grander stature did, but they offered me an opportunity.  I had no idea what horror and wonder lay beyond me.  It started with the Dwarf, Derrak Stoneskull.  He was consuming libations in the local bar and somehow he and I struck up a conversation, I do not recall how.  He was exceptionally well armored, based on my knowledge now of these things, likely a highly magical full plate made of Adamantine.  I called him Ser, which seemed to make him chuckle, but I saw no reason why any warrior with such fine armor and weapons would be anything less than a Knight.  He seemed to appreciate the title I had granted him, and bought me a drink introducing me to one of his companions, Inaris Jerveel a human woman with equally impressive armor and weaponry.  As I bowed and addressed her as Lady the Dwarf spit out his mead and made it a point to call her lady from that moment forward.  I felt I was in the presence of greatness.... I was, just not as I had imagined.  The Dwarf corrected me and told me that he was no Knight, but that Inarris was a Lady and insisted I continue to refer to her as such.  And so they introduced me to their leader of sorts, Wotywina Turncoat, a hafling who had only a fine blade upon her waist.  Wotywina along with Derrak offered me the opportunity to be their squire.  I was so excited I could barely contain myself.  The placed a contract in front of me and bid me to read it and sign it placing myself in their care.  It was for a single task, which was not listed in the contract but that Wotwina told me I was more than capable of handling and so I signed it on the spot.  That is when I met him, my greatest friend, and the man who helped me understand myself, Echean.  Echean was neither impressively built, nor well armored.  He was an elf, very common looking and quite unremarkable.  Yet he seemed to give both Inarris and Derrak pause.  

  And so I was under contract.  Lady Inarris as I knew her then, and the others.  On an adventure.  They gave me coin, with which I purchased Almer my pony, and we went about our way.  We traveled for a few weeks together.  Conversing at times, and laughing when we were able.  I took care of the horses.  I oiled the armor.  I listened.  The job for which we were contracted had to do with an item.  One that we had not yet found, but were tasked to find, and once found we were to deliver it to a man.  Sounded simple, but simple can take many turns.  

Echean and I began having evening discussions, about life, about purpose, about self.  I would tell him about my dreams to become a Knight.  To help others.  To ride valiantly into combat.  His words still haunt me to this day.  “What is it that makes a man a Knight?”, “When riding valiantly toward your foe, what does that make him and what does that make you?”, “What becomes of you once you have slain your foe, and what are you to his family who loved him dearly?”.  These questions made me question the simplicity of the world I had thought I lived in, and then my world finally became grey.  We had received a lead.  The item we were searching for had recently been in the ownership of a man in a village not far from our location.  We went to go see if he would disclose to us the location of the item.  Derrak and Inarris went into his shop while I waited outside.  I heard them asking him questions, and what sounded like strikes.  I turned to Echean and asked him what it was that was happening within the shop and he told me they were simply asking questions.  Sometimes they would get pushy, but that as long as he disclosed the information, Derrak and Inarris would not harm him.. After only a few minutes Wotywina entered the shop and although I did not hear what she said I did hear the splash of liquid and the smell of iron hit my nose.  I knew instinctually what had happened and I found myself vomiting by the side of that shop.

Echean tried to comfort me, he told me that the world is not always black and white and sometimes decisions would be made that are not ideal, but necessary.  I seemed to swallow those words, but they never took root in my soul.  We left that man in the shop and traveled for a number of days, I stayed almost completely silent.  Not sure what to do, I was under contract, and I could not break my vow, and yet I had seen these people just kill another.

Finally I struck up the courage to ask Echean what has occurred.  He told me the man worked for a dark group, and that the book we were searching for held dark secrets that could not be let into the wrong hands.  That at times we are called to do terrible things, in hopes that we can prevent even worse atrocities from falling.  It was then that he told me what they were, a mercenary group.  One of great fame, that had been tasked to retrieve this tome, this ancient book, and to have it delivered to a man named Silas Glibb.  That my task was simply to transport the book to this man once it was in our possession.  All of the members of the mercenary group are well known, he told me that they are also wanted in many locations, he explained that many times the truth of what happened is not always what is reported to the authorities.  Sometimes good deeds do become ones other attempt to punish you for.  As such he and his companions, now my companions were not welcome in as many locations as a traveling Gnome might be welcome….. I told him that when this was all over I wanted nothing to do with them, and yet I felt that I owed them this task as I had a contractual obligation….. He understood and hoped that I would find peace, and not look down upon he and his companions for making a little coin while doing what they thought was right….. I thought on that for many days, until it was found.  We did not expect the book to be found so unexpectedly.  We had reason to believe it was being transported and knew of the most likely route of transportation.  I was to ride up past a clearing and signal whether it was the caravan we sought, then they could sneak in and retrieve the book.  What I rode upon was far from peaceful, and in no way expected.  An intense battle between two groups was under way. Fire, and beasts of all kind were being thrown about with magical means.  Swords of great brilliance and dark design were slashing flesh and chopping limb from bodies.  There I was, a Gnome, no taller than a desk, caught in chaos. And I froze.  My friends, my companions swept in and defended me.  Echean threw out bolts of arcane energy the likes of which I had never seen, and in truth have not seen since.  Wotywina moved with grace and speed that I had not even read of cutting through armor as if it were parchment.  Derrak and Inarris stood and swung down hacking through multiple bodies at a time, all the while Inarris was chanting an ancient prayer.  They were awe inspiring, and absolutely fear inducing.

In that caravan was the book.  Something about Dragons, I could not read it, nor did I attempt to do so.  I transported it to a town, meeting its owner Silas Glibb, and turning the book over into his possession.  That is where I met all of you, he asked me to stay on and make some extra coin to help him move the book to another location. 

Before I left my companions Echean and I had one final talk.  He told me many things about himself.  His past.  His truth.  That it was not the life he had wished for himself, but that choices have to be made in life and we cannot always see the whole picture when the choice is being made.  The choice to protect me instead of letting me perish led to the battle at the intersection. He said he would not change that choice for anything, and yet he knew it could cause trouble for he and his friends in the future.  He chose to protect me, over the mission, and over the ease of simple thievery.  Our choices define us, I learned that on that day.  And because of that bond, that friendship, that trust he gave me this.”  Kulman holds out a simple coin, likely made of a steel or iron.  “Echean told me that if I ever needed him, that this coin would allow me to call them forth, and that they would help me in any way that they could. He did say it may take some time for them to reach me, as I do not know what this coin does, but it may be the time where his, their assistance is warranted…. 

“Yet, I must warn all of you although only four, I have seen them in combat and I am quite confident and proud of our skills, and we would not last 6 seconds if they brought their force down upon us.  I do not wish to crush anyone’s sense of themselves I simply need to you all understand that these are my friends and they are terrifying.  If years from now, one of you were to call upon me in a time of deep need I would hope that no matter who you were with they would welcome me as a friend and not with aggression or distrust.  I trust Echean.  I trust that if he can help us, he will.  But I also know that as a group we have come to be untrusting, for good reason, and so I wanted to first tell you everything so that I can answer any questions you may have, and secondly I would like Thomas to look at the coin itself to see if he can tell what if any magics may be cast upon it….. I tell you all of this because this coin did return to my memory based on something Tala had said… I do not think there is a connection, but I do know that if you did not hear it from me you would desire combat, which is not what we should wish for, I have traveled with these people well before the new diseases, the dragons, and know all of them well.  They are not tattoo’d, they are not dragon worshipers, and none of them have any desire to hurt us, if they did they would have done so in Oppara as they had arrived to watch me be Knighted…. With that you should know, they are called, the Children of Steel…..