The party was busy with the Shade Lord, Hezlik, and the Shadowing for much of AK 593; meanwhile, Streck went into seclusion within the Nirduk Vault, where he was believed to be doing spell research. According to Kelmin, Streck was last seen on 7/24, though Ekali claimed to have seen him on 7/26, the day of the Shadowing, and gotten an urgent message for Ganeth; she flew off to deliver it and hasn't been seen since.
Toward the end of the Shadowing, Ganeth and Silvana were able to decode Elbret's letter; it had been encoded with the Nirduk cipher, using the names of the non-human members of Milana's adventuring party on the Southern Continent as the key (which means Milana's survival is no longer a secret from the other high elves). Meanwhile, Elbret claimed to have defeated Streck and set about trying to break into the Vault. Kelmin hung around the base to keep an eye on things and was mostly ignored, while the young non-defectors headed to C-Ra to ponder their options. (Ganeth and Kelmin later learned they'd gone off with some wood elves to join the Eastern revolution.)
Ganeth arrived at the Nirduk base on 9/28 hoping to warn Streck about Elbret and get some spell research in. Instead, he found the base looted and deserted except for Kelmin, Nirtuni, and Piyalo Shorin. Kelmin and Ganeth collapsed the base to slow Elbret down and fled to C-Ra; they eventually made their way to Rogtubbins and the Hollerith Temple. Rogtubbins was unable to get a sending to Streck; he and Nomistrus declared Streck officially missing and opened Streck's will on 10/7.
The will authorizes Ganeth to take charge during Streck's absence and manage the clan's financial affairs; allocation of research resources and items from the Vault require the approval of both Ganeth and Kelmin. It also contains information about the Vault combination. There were also instructions for a funeral ritual for the death of an avatar, an expensive and archaic rite that calls upon Corellan to send down a new avatar. After performing the rite, Ganeth is to wait for his subleaders to reach 7th level and then "embark on a solitary quest and wait for the Avatar to manifest within you." The will closes with a poem in a variant of elvish that has something to do with the arrival of a comet.
Ganeth was able to hire some of Rognukena's miners away from their war preparation in exchange for a favor to be named later, round up most of his party, and get back to the Nirduk base, where the miners set to work digging up the Vault and one of the clan pentagrams while the party fought off wererats and captured Sirax. On 10/25, Ganeth entered the Vault and changed the combination, hosing Elbret's chances of looting it. The following day, he found some of Streck's old correspondence; these letters and drafts implied that Streck was planning to leave the plane during the Shadowing and had gone into the desert to investigate something called the Portal of the Eightfold Path -- looks like there's been a problem with the return ticket.
A year later, Ganeth returned to the Nirduk base with the party (594/10/27), relocated the Vault to the Hollerith Temple (10/28), and discovered Kharnzeel inside, renewing himself in the Crystal Cocoon (10/29). The party decisively aborted Kharnzeel's recovery, and his unique treasures have been put to better uses. The Vault drew on power sources in the ruins beneath the Nirduk base (now ruins themselves) and will shortly go dormant.
Since Ganeth believes that Streck may well be alive (if another plane), he has yet to perform the funeral ritual. However, he and Silvana are considering a new approach to continuing Streck's work on behalf of Corellan and the high-elven race: Their theory is that Corellan has been somehow suppressed on this plane (why are there no high-elven priests?), and Streck's historical and astronomical texts may provide some leads on bringing him back (or at least powering a new and improved Corellan religion). Ganeth is also considering abandoning the clan motif entirely and founding a school, guild, and information/support network for aspiring adventurers who want to do some good and don't fit with the established Good power bases (which tend to be LG, or at best NG).
Kelmin has decided to stick with Ganeth, who's likely to be recruited as one of the Nation of Good's transitional leaders (even if his ideas are more than a little unorthodox). She's currently helping with the defense of the Hollerith Library and learning to get along with humans.
Maintained by Erich Greene; last changed 3-29-99