Nemnosti: The Story So Far
Chapter 1
At the beginning of the year 768, Surgu Takovenga was killed at an ancient Hulti temple site west of Gil Hargush. You now have identified this figure by the name Gunuremai, who you think is a female Hulti shaman of considerable power. Surgu was systematically stalked and hunted through the Ghengom, taking advantage of the fact that he was a revenant who suffered from hallucinatory delusions and had few social ties. He was killed, as best as can be told, using the power of shamans to lay revenants to rest. After he was murdered ritually involving red ochre (a Hulti practice), Surgu's body was brought to the 'Dropping Stone', Istu Levunu, miles away, a carved sigillant stone at the very top of the Pardopasu looking immediately down over Nemnosti. As Surgu's sister, Ailal, is a respected acolyte, this is interpreted as a threat against the ulajeta and ultimately, Nemnu Ula Herself.
The name Gunuremai, found in a book on Hulti stories, describes a demon of revenge, embodied through a teardrop-shaped mask, worn as a kind of mantle or focus by a shaman. Through investigation, you have learned more of "Gunuremai's" activities in the area. A woman of middling years who could be her spoke to Desam, Surgu's corpseborn son, which learning more information about his hallucinations and his isolation. You also know much about the power of shamans - the ability to kill bubun, revenants and saints, and the ability to see through others' eyes and speak messages into their minds. But Hulti masks are also said to have additional powers, whose nature is still unclear.
The hill temple is an area of great interest. It is located in the Ghengom west of the ruined fort, Gil Hargush, at the north end of the province. You have learned that although the fort at Gil Hargush was occupied by Corps followers, there were certainly Hulti in that area perhaps until the Great Purge about 200 years ago. Hulti temples, in the old days, at least, appear to have consisted of earthen stepped terraces with a stone building on top, which matches the hill you discovered. It appears that Surgu was lured to the hilltop before being killed there, as if the place were important. Within the terraced hills, you discovered tunnels in which a magic bronze ring and iron dagger, as well as a carved slate, had been stored or placed long ago. The site has now been damaged and those tunnels collapsed due to the earthquake that occurred while you were inside.
There are not any open Hulti in Khutu at all, although some surely still secretly practice the faith, such as (perhaps) at least some of the Pekai lineage. But ever since the Third Council of Romaz was held in Malfan eleven years ago, some radical shamans have been advocating for more direct conflict with the Corps for the first time in centuries. One such group is known as the Sijunikh, a group of masked shamans who oppose any compromise or coexistence with the Corps, and reject the existence of saints, bubun, and revenants. There is clearly deep dissent among modern Hulti, most of whom aim for peaceful coexistence.
Gunuremai's next action was to unrender four bubun at Nemnosti, and then to place them in a spiral pattern on the courtyard to be seen. The loss of the bubun is sad, but much more disturbing is the idea that Gunuremai could enter the ulajeta freely, despite Nemnosti's many protections. It appears that Gunuremai used one of the Lanky Stones, secretly a megalithic door, to enter unobserved. But to do that she would have needed to know the password (and indeed, of the existence of the door), which was not known to many. One candidate to have told Gunuremai is Saza Gago, who has been summoned to Nemnosti by Nemnu Herself and who, at least for now, is staying as Her guest, while she awaits a response to her demand: in exchange for changing the password, a new acolyte to train as her new Pebble.
During this time Gunuremai also seems to have taken over the identity of Susuva Nemni, another revenant, this one from Nemnu's own family, allowing them to be in the ulajeta without difficulty. You have recently recovered Susuva's body from the Turtu, where Gunuremai apparently left it. The real Susuva apparently left the ulajeta days before she was noted to be missing, as her double (presumably Gunuremai?) escaped capture through the Lanky Stones.
Many of these facts are known to a high degree of certainty, but few to an absolute. Many questions remain. Above all of these, it remains unclear how any of this relates to the concept of levununde (cataract) foreseen by Nemnu Herself, or to the notions that Ushukuna, the Queen of Bones, has shared with some of her vultures.
Chapter 2
Given all the events of the past months, Alai, Jevai, and others have concerns about Nemnu's secrecy about her past actions and what she knows about what is going on. Alai finally speaks to Nemnu, and their period of coldness comes to an end as Nemnu begins to take an increased interest in Alai's contact with the entity or power that she calls the Abyss. Jevai, in consultation with her upward Giri, protects the Lanky Stones with a new password and protective seal, and in so doing comes to have a deeper understanding of whatever happened to Eng-dur.
The team finds a group of Taizian sentinels injured by a hurmumez 'land mountain' or living hill, who had been sent across the border to investigate the Naznaz, a Hulti sigillant hengi from the high hills who Rechegoko reveals to be his uncle, Aizhanefer Naznaz. Aizhanefer taunts Marga and Rechegoko in a common vision, who are bonded by the experience. He appears to be in uneasy alliance with both Saza Gago and the mysterious Gunuremai, each pursuing their own goals that happen to coincide, particularly with respect to undermining the authority of Nemnu Ula and Nemnosti, and perhaps worse.
They begin to understand that the earthquake in the Ghengom occurred due to some kind of powerful sentient entity located west of the temple near Gil Hargush. The slate that they discovered under the temple is some sort of map or chart relating to Source and/or the earthquake. Nemnu reveals to them that the entity is an Unkind Stone of Her creation, a manifestation of de-Coherence that destroys Kinds, and which She used against the Hulti during the Great Purge of 534-9 after they destroyed Lurusiru. Ifa's temporary blindness, a product of magical backlash, and her more permanent ability to see strange signs of Unkindness, is related. There is some connection, as yet not fully clear, between the realm Eng-dur Chuchuru finds himself in, and Ifa's sight, which allowed her to see his presence at the Lanky Stones. Unkindness is also related - in ways yet unclear - to the Luetkan Abyssal magic to which Alai has access.
Azolte Rumnoska received shelter among the welcoming Keronaf clan in Hertu, despite unclear goals and motives raising concern. These concerns increased when the whole itinerant Rumnoska clan arrives in the village, led by their hengi Rondal Rumnoska, with no obvious purpose for being in the Pardopasu. Rondal, it turns out, trained as an envoy in Onighus years ago. They learn that the Rumnoska, including Azolte are in fact actually the Sarguni, a saintly lineage whose saint Sargunel Ula disappeared over a hundred years ago, apparently a victim of the Unkind Stone that Nemnu shared with the Emperor Eluli Ula Himself. Unfortunately, Azolte (whose true name is Ishikande Sarguni) was petrified by the Unkind Stone during an expedition of a few of her people to the earthquake site. Worse, although she, and the former bubun Ghevra Gorga, were unpetrified, they came back changed - Ghevra could not be contacted as an Ancestor, and Azolte eventually was driven to some kind of madness and was killed by Kuspir and Marga. Unkindness of some sort rested within them, brought back in their stone bodies, and from there, moved to create an Unkind crack in the Fingerprint, the sacred cave mural and megalithic door of the Nadenigh clan, from which the entity has contacted Jevai.
Matters come to a head when Gunuremai reaches out to Jevai mentally to invite a conversation about their common interests deep within the Musune forest, and Marga receives an equally mysterious vision from Ushukuna regarding this circumstance and the Laigrunuf lineage. The team travels upriver to a waterfall against a cliff face, full of natural and artificial spirals full of meaning, and with two holes for iron daggers. Although Gunuremai seeks to ensure their compliance by having Jevai's brother Pughan Nadenigh in her thrall, they wrest back control of Pughan and both iron daggers, leaving Gunuremai grievously wounded by Kuspir and Marga's blades and talons.
