Why This Route? For Rezuhz!

It's a little clearer now why we've come this route rather than the one I took to reach the lands of the Gnaeblin. It's hard going in places, some of the floors are cracked and holed, and the floor at times becomes quite steep. But Harik has chosen this route for a very important reason.  Late this morning we passed a boarded off section of tunnel.  It seemed unusual to close down a section of the delve in this way, but it slowly dawned upon me where we were as senior soldiers in Hushmaz's team slowly and carefully removed the boards.

Inside was the humbling sight of the fight for Gora-Rezuhz which was a massive battle between the people of The Underdark and the people of the under-land that took place ten generations (a thousand years) ago.  It was a fight which was won, but not without terrible losses.  At the time we had already sent a huge fighting force to aid our brethren at Riviga, and had it not been for the arrival of the forces from the mighty Kathron delve, on their way to the war at Riviga, we would probably have lost the Gora delve.

This end of the halls where the fighting took place is now a monument.  The battles went on for miles and miles into the deep from here, but these have since closed themselves, keeping our separation from the Underdark intact for a millennium.  It is very seldom that we come by this site - but occasionally military units or individual Dzarraf soldiers have passed this way on pilgrimage.  That's what we did today.

The outer chamber is piled high with the skulls of our enemies, and the glittering stone caskets of our important leaders.  Also in here are many more much simpler caskets of the fighting men.  They line the back of the corridor and extend into the halls beyond.  We did not go there.

Harik read a passage from the Nizchamak-Mahabr, the 'Call to Peace', and said a few words of his own.  Oddly enough it was Mullory who stood forward.  This group of soldiers travel with no Priest of their own, but he had been fulfilling that role for all during the last few days since the fighting ended.  He read some words from the Danethrae book "Wisdom and Soul" which is written in the common language.  It was very moving.  The poignant message was of the frailty of our existence yet the ability within each one of us to do deeds which can make a difference, deeds that stand throughout time and are not just here for this fleeting moment of today.  Deeds that can be measured against those of our ancestors, yet which echo on through the generations to come, helping, inspiring and moving those that follow us.

Dzarraf seldom shed a tear - it's certainly much harder for us than it is for Hznamen.  But I think there was no dry eye left in that room after we'd heard this.  We were in there for only an hour before carefully replacing the boards and moving on until we found a suitable place to stop for a break.