Nyelbert's Lament

“

Cerigg has good tidings he would share with you.

— In-game description

Steps

Taynor shares with you the memories that have finally returned to him. As the boy tells it, he and Nyelbert were born over a century ago as scions to a consortium of powerful mages, the leaders of which sought to master the art of opening portals to other worlds, that they might summon powerful entities from beyond. To that end, they were tutored in the arcane arts from an early age, their skills employed in dangerous experiments. One day, one of these experiments went awry, and Taynor was sucked into a rift between worlds, where he remained until you rescued him. Due to vagaries of travel between worlds largely beyond your comprehension, what felt like a relatively short span of time for the boy amounted to some one hundred years in the world he had left behind. Taynor shares with you another piece of fortunate news─along with his memories, he has also begun to recall the incantations he had learned─incantations which might serve you well in your confrontation with Phronesis. You and Cerigg set out for the Fields of Amber, where you intend to keep the boy safe as he puts his spells to the test.

The boy succeeds in opening a portal to other worlds, if only for fleeting moments, before you are paid a sudden and shocking visit by the fearsome sin eater who is your quarry. Taynor succeeds in pushing away one of Phronesis's hollows and saving Cerigg from a fearsome fate, when suddenly the power of the Echo grants you a vision of the past. You bear witness to yet another vision from a century prior, wherein a youthful Nyelbert begrudgingly lends his strength to the warrior Ardbert and his band to fell a dreadful bovine beast that has risen up from the bowels of the earth to wreak havoc on dwarven mines. What course did the battle take so many years ago?

The companions having triumphed over the great beast, Nyelbert confesses that he wished to claim the sorcerous stone in the fiend's possession and harness its energies to save his friend Taynor, but ends up tearfully destroying the stone when it is revealed that failing to do so would destroy the mountain and put countless lives in danger. In the end, he joins up with the party of adventurers in earnest, with Ardbert promising to stay by Nyelbert's side until they can together find a way to return Taynor to this world─a happy ending that, sadly, was not to be. You regain consciousness back in the present with Phronesis nowhere to be found, and Cerigg and Taynor clearly concerned for your well-being. Together, you decide to return to Mord Souq, so that you might recuperate and share with your friends all you have learned.

Hearing your tale of the visions you saw, and recalling his own experience locking gazes with Phronesis on the battlefield, Taynor is at long last able to accept and make peace with the knowledge that the sin eater and Nyelbert are indeed one and the same. He resolves to join you and Cerigg in your quest to bring Phronesis down, that his old friend might finally know peace. Together, the three of you vow to redouble your training efforts, that you will be fully prepared for the confrontation that lies ahead.

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