Lilia Newsman

UP: Great Lakes

    In the news today, two pieces of the Staff of Balance have been recovered. The Staff of Balance, an artifact that was carried by the being known as Shabti, was shattered into three pieces when Shabti himself �blew up� and became the two wisp-like beings known as Ashabti and Sashabti. The two pieces are being kept in separate locations for safety reasons.

The Temple of Balance holds one while the other sits in the Awwrath Tower of TUR. The discovery of these two pieces came hot on the heels of the final translation of the two last books that the sage Anwar had been working at deciphering. Copies of the text have been included in this report for those unable to make the journey to Moonglow to read the books there.

The Restoration of Balance

I�ve been reading all my waking hours. I must find a way to restore Shabti. All I wanted was to balance the world� for the good of all�

Now instead people rally to causes that have no meaning and the death and destruction is unlike any I�ve seen before. From what I�ve read, this has happened before at least once. One relic that was a reagent seems to play a role in the restoration. There was a lantern of balance. It seems that when Shabti split, the lantern split also. There are lanterns of Reason and Emotion� these must be found. The text says that, when this happened before, the Lantern of Emotion was found in a dungeon upon an altar, while the Lantern of Reason was found on the surface, but also upon an altar.

When Shabti appeared for the few moments he was whole� He carried a shining staff unlike any I�ve ever laid eyes upon. This is mentioned in the ancient texts as well. The staff at that time split into three pieces that were found scattered across the world. Each was buried within the bowels of the earth. The texts finally go on to say that� The conduit and the one who summoned Shabi must be gathered with the relics and the two sides of Shabti. Only then can all be gathered upon a symbol of great magic. A ceremony of unification must be held, and this will restore the balance of the one.

Since Shabti was whole when I contacted him, I must conclude that the previous ceremony was successful. However, why Shabti could not remember this I do not know. I am not sure how old the texts are. Did Shabti forget, or did the ceremony corrupt his memory? I am also unable to find anything that happened after the unification. The books were too damaged to understand everything. I must also conclude that Shabti left these lands. How and for what reasons I do not know. But since I summoned him here, it is clear that he left at some point� I shall not write again until we have all the pieces for the ceremony

. Finally we have all the relics. I have my summoner and my conduit. The conduit is a bit less aware than he was when we summoned Shabti. The madness grows within him. My summoner is a common man� though balanced, he was easy to convince to help me. Ashabti has agreed to work with us to reform Shabti. His logic was that reason and emotion cannot exist without each other. Sashabti seems quite content to stay on his own, although we hear he seeks the pieces we have.

What exactly Sashabti hopes to accomplish, we do not know. It is interesting to note here that only the conduit or Ashabti can manipulate the pieces. I wonder if the same holds true for Sashabti - or if he would need the conduit as well.

Finally we have found a way to trick Sashabti into coming to us� The weakness of emotion is that there is no Reason to see things for what they are. We shall do the ceremony tomorrow. Hopefully the next time I write Shabti will be reunited�

Notes on Locations

Editor�s note: This book appears to be a short notebook that contains the locations of the pieces.

For future reference here is where we found the artifacts. I have shrouded them in riddle in case the books fall in to unwise hands.

In dungeon deep, where balrons sleep, I lie for any to spy.

In lair on land, we slither on sand, and worship the light.

In excavated tomb, darker than mother�s womb, emotion drops it�s head, wasted on the dead.

Deep in loathing I lay, muck all around me. Here I shall stay �lest Cyclops have found me.

Frigid fiends my company be, learned books all around me.

Another book, which was translated a few days before the above revelations, seems to warn of dire consequences should Sashabti gain control of the pieces mentioned in the Note on Locations book. The text of this book was badly damaged, but the remaining contents are included here as well.

Notes on Shabti, Ashabti and Sashabi
as translated by Anwar the Sage

*This book was badly damaged. Only parts of it remain*

�he worries nightly. Folk have taken sides and� �habti is leading them. I have never seen such fighting. Even brother against brother.

�mad he is and run off again. Without him, we�ve no hope of bringing Shabti back. Even Ashabti wishes that�

�full moon and the light seems to make the land glow. I can see the portals glowing. He has tricked them all. They did not listen.

� has come to the conclusion that neither can exist without the other. Given enough time, both will die and then�

�have a piece! It was in the bowels of the dungeon as the tome suggested. �become almost a three way war. A race. If Sashabti gains all the pieces, he will do as he has said and we will all�

�died today. The followers of Sashabti killed her. They are a violent lot and refuse to see the treachery�

�lantern. It has a soft blue glow to it. I cannot believe it was just sitting on the altar. There is an inscrip�

�confined him to a room so he�d not hurt anyone. Without the conduit none will get anything they want. Next we must�

�is it??? This makes no sense. Where will we find such a chamber? I grow despondent. The others fight over blame. I feel�

�could work. They are tied together and yet repulsed. If they will not help, we will force the issue.

�second piece is in their hands. They gloat over it, thinking it will help them. I�d hand over our piece if I thought it would end the fighting.

� red color this time. It too was just sitting on the altar. Ashabti refuses to go near it.

�raid failed. Someone freed the madman as well. We must keep trying to find the third piece.

�third piece now. Both sides want all. The beings have learned out ways too well. Death pours from the portals, killing friend and foe. �opened a portal and out stepped the other. We cast our spells and both were transfixed. We tried to�

�pentagram was covered with the blood of his followers as well as those who opposed him. A grim day for�

�or never. All are gathered, we shall see.

�rejoined, but not what we expected!!

* the text ends here.*

From reports, folk have been rallying behind Ashabti and the creature�s desire for more knowledge, while few seem to be flocking to the cause of Sashabti. In this reporter�s opinion, this is probably a good thing, as it would seem that chaos would be released upon our lands should Sashabti get control of these lanterns and the staff pieces.