A Winding Walk
You stand before a six-sided temple. You look down and see a strange deck of cards on the ground. As you pick it up, you hear scraps of a pilgrim’s journey flitter through your head. Inside the temple is a mosaic floor with the following design.
Day ??: Along the path the next day, I saw another pilgrim, who carried a burning flower. They spoke to me of sins they carried in their past, and gave me a strange medallion with the symbol of Doblets, eidolon of prosperity and success.
Day ??: Changing course on the next day, I booked passage with a rowdy mariner; she berated me for uttering the empty eidolon’s name upon her ship, and instead invoked Aquossi, eidolon of the ocean, for protection against my ill fortune.
Day ??: Following the day of that transit, I encountered a shrewd trader, whose clothing was embroidered with the pattern that covered my medallion. I showed it to him, and he claimed ownership, demanding its return. I declined, but allowed him to travel with me.
Day ??: How long was it that I wandered through parched lands, no water, no food, wholly abandoned? Looking back, it was but a single day, yet it felt so much longer in that wasteland. Within my heart welled a strange music, and I knew it to be the strains played by the eidolon Isodoro, skald and entertainer.
Day ??: I explored this place for a third day, seeing all the people who were gathered here. Fortunately, I found the one I was seeking fairly quickly: a foreign dignitary carrying a glass of dark wine. “Your answers,” she reminded me, “lay on the path that you have walked.”
Day ??: I spent another day in that place, and a woman approached me, carrying a fine pen. “Your story has some time yet to go,” she told me, “return to me when you know the name of the eidolon of catastrophe, of tribulation and disaster.”
Day ??: Journeying in pursuit of that riddle, my trail on the next day bent through dense woodland, trees rising far above me. Staying hushed, I concealed myself behind a trunk, and as I furtively glanced out, I caught a rare glimpse of Acclura, eidolon of trackers, of rangers, of pursuit.
Day ??: “Justice,” I answered at last, speaking to the one who had posed me her riddle before. It had taken me most of the next day to return to her, but that was quick time, all considered. “Their name is Justice,” I answered, and with that answer the second week of my journey ended.
Day ??: My path began with an endless climb to a summit. And yet I persisted, to seek the six eidolons. When I reached the top, I saw the entirety of the road that lay before me, and then I rested, and the sun set on my first day.
Day ??: One day later, I found an artist with a bright brush. They saw my countenance, and I disclosed my story, including my futile search for the one who had wronged me. They encouraged me, but said, “Yours is a journey of bridging, of uniting one eidolon with the next. Vengeance has no place for you.”
Day ??: Rested from a night’s sleep, I emerged into civilization again, which took the form of a bustling bazaar. Immediately, my thoughts turned to my old traveling companion, and I was driven by a fury to try and find them amongst the carts that sold trinkets and food. I sought him in vain, however.
Day ??: Stone lay beneath me when the following day dawned, an empty throne before me. I ran out, past portcullis and gate and massive walls, and saw that before this structure lay a bustling town. I spent the remainder of the day tending to my needs.
Day ??: When night fell after another day of travel, I dreamed of nothing but empty void, a terrifying night filled with silence and nothing. I felt in my soul the name of Scourge, the eidolon of entropy, of the final moments of existence itself.
Day ??: Woe befell me: when I awoke the next morning, everything was gone! No traveling companion, no medallion, no supplies. I loosed a curse to the sky upon discovering this treachery!