Information from Eclipse

Regularis info

Initial info

• People from there are often called "Regularians" (slang term "Regulars")
• Eclipse studied at the Harmony, the bard school in Regularis
  • bards focus on one note ("boring" in Eclipse's terms)
  • very heavily specialized -- powerful in groups (chords)
• Temple of Light in Regularis is big. They are looking for her.
  • There are three branches: primary colors
  • involved with the ketronel artifact

Answers to follow-up questions

[re: Temple of Light & Keepers]

[re: news about Ketronel connection]

Involvement with Zzukiss

Initial info

• Found out about Zzifl in Regularis from an infiltrator (who got captured)
  • he gave her an annular mirror (black in center)
  • allows her to talk to them at night; sometimes goes on missions
• Missions:
  • went to a strange crystal city to look for a "rainbow crystal"
  • cloud-land with giants
  • underwater with intelligent (good) octopi

Eclipse took her current name after Zzukiss saved her life; I think that he also helped her relocate in the Silverton area, but she generally doesn't like to talk about that part of her life.

Answers to follow-up questions

[re: Zzifls]

• "The Talker" -- probably Zzukiss
• "The Watcher" -- a silent Zzifl with a quiet expression
• "The Ghost" -- an insubstantial, misty-looking Zzifl

[re: Cloud lands]

• giants, probably cloud (rumors of a titan and huge winged trolls)
• large flying creatures like manta-rays (and rumors of big birds too)

Other info

[re: high elven clans]

• the Shorin -- who are originally from the Silverton region
• the Parnos -- who are originally from Auramkil
• the Others -- who are remnants of defeated clans and wander in the wilderness

Her questions, and G's answers

• "You guys are a very interesting group of adventurers. What motivates the different people in the group? Where are you based? Who are you affiliated with?"
  
  We're not permanently based anywhere, though we have contacts in a few places, and the party as a whole isn't affiliated with anything but itself. So we're basically freelance fighters of whatever evil is in need of being fought by freelancers.
  
  If you hang around with the Shorin, Kalis and his friends will probably try to tell you that we go around mugging people for their magic items and leaving them to die. Which is amusing, since they're usually the ones trying to kill me and take my stuff (though they haven't tried in the last twelve days or so). Kalis and I have a history that I won't go into; I'll just warn you that the Shorin are generally cutthroat and mercenary, and if you deal with them, go in with your eyes open, and watch out for dops and Shalas. (I also heard a rumor that their leader tried to make a deal with the spiders to draw people to Silverton, have the spiders beat them up, and then finish off the weakened adventurers when they fled so they could scavenge their items. Since the spiders took out the Shorin base on the island, this deal is probably off, but they could still try picking off wounded people in the area for items -- so your friends in Sunrise should be careful if they try adventuring near Silverton.)
  
  
• "Where did you get the unicorn? Isn't it odd for such a creature to stray outside the forests?"
  
  I haven't seen any other unicorns either in or out of forests, but I suspect it's pretty unusual.
  
  
• "How is it that you have so many powerful mages -- so out of proportion with the rest of the world?"
  
  The fire mage is only around for the short haul, our highest-level spellcasting member is actually a priest, our unarmored human is a kensai, and the guy with the minotaur head is a ranger, so we're not as mage-heavy as we look.
  
  
• "You seem to know a lot about our enemies -- have you fought them before?"
  
  We've been hearing about Khimar and the driuds there for some time, though we haven't been in direct conflict with them. We've been having skirmishes with the spiders on and off for about eighteen years, so we've naturally learned a fair bit about them.
  
  
• "How did you first get involved with Zzukiss? Do you think that Zzukiss is the embodiment of Chaos on this plane?"
  
  Zzukiss isn't interested in chaos per se; he's actually True Neutral (so he claims, and it makes sense). But he's not looking to spread neutrality in the sense of everyone individually becoming neutral; he wants to maintain a dynamic equilibrium between all the alignments. With too little order, nothing ever develops; with too little chaos, everything withers away. So Zzukiss is looking for the balance; around here, that means introducing some chaos to keep the often-dominant Lawfuls from letting everything stagnate, but I could imagine him pushing the other way if Chaos takes over and makes it so nothing at all can really survive.
  
  Zzukiss calls himself the Destroyer and says that he acts to oppose stagnation because it stifles new birth. But in a truly chaotic universe, nothing could ever cohere long enough to develop or give birth to something else, so pure Chaos really doesn't fit with his objectives.
  
  I'm not opposed to Law per se, but I think we need to be able to transcend the rules on occasion. Lawfuls are also much more prone to infiltration and subversion; it's one of the spiders' favorite tactics for neutralizing LG organizations. So I don't find Law to be an intriscally bad thing, but I think it needs to be counterbalanced more than it often is. What I'm really opposed to is Evil; each type of Good has its strengths and weaknesses, but the CG approach happens to work best for me. (For me, the C is a means for achieving the G, not an end in itself.)
  
  So Zzukiss and I have some philosophical similarities. We differ in that I take sides between Good and Evil while he doesn't. But to the extent that our goals coincide, we have something in common.
  
  And while we're on the subject of embodiments of Chaos, here's a free tip: The gold and platinum bracelets have some serious side effects, so think long and hard before you get in any deeper.
  
  
• "What kind of Zzifl missions have you been on?"
  
  I've only projected once, to a world of intelligent ant-like creatures under a LE regime. A dissident leader had managed to engineer herself into a rival queen and create some non-Evil offspring. They had been captured by the evil ants and were going to be executed; I helped her escape so she could continue her rebellion.
  
  
• "Are you opposed to Law? How do you feel about Freeing Regularis -- as a long term goal?"
  
  I can't say that I like anything I've heard about Regularis, but it depends on the methods involved in freeing it. I'm honestly much better at beating up evil creatures (and people) than at shifting people away from entrenched bureaucracies, and I don't think Regularis calls for openly armed rebellion at present, so I'm basically not the person you're trying to enlist. On general principles, I think I would like to see Regularis become less smotheringly rigid (and it would give the place some resistance to LE infiltration...since it sounds like the Keepers were pretty ineffective during the last undead uprising, I wonder if they were neutralized along with Sun Temple and the other major Lawful anti-undead groups), and it's worth keeping an eye on the place to see if it starts trending toward LE, but this sort of stuff really isn't my forte, and I'm already committed to more fights than I'm likely to come out of as it is.
  
  
• [eclipse has more, but you guys probably didn't have time for them...]

Eclipse's reaction

In particular, Eclipse is quite impressed with your discourse on Zzukiss. She claims that others she has spoken with (especially priests) on this issue claim that Zzukiss is just a destructive, chaotic force. However, your explanation of "dynamic balance" makes a lot more sense.

Eclipse understands your reluctance to meddle with Regularis. She hopes that one day things there will erupt into an open civil war -- at which point your party will be welcome to interfere :)