Knowledge Creates Truth, Truth Destroys Knowledge...

[Nuzatch]

It has been a long while since I've heard anyone asking me about the disease.  Perhaps because I have hermited myself on Dregar, or perhaps because after my wild goose chase for a map led me no closer to finding a cure.  However, I have found many thing out about myself in these times.

I do not like fighting.  I do so because my friends do it, but I cringe every time a hear a giant let out his last shriek before silence.  I once shed a tear after a heated battle with an elven ranger.  He must have seen Ichabod, my golem, blundering about and thought for sure I was here to collect upon perhaps a bounty on his head or some other reason.  But he took aim and released his arrows upon me.  I had no choice but to fight back, it was simple enough, yet more complex than I had ever experienced.  I've slaughtered drow, I've maimed giants, I've cut down mercenaries in their tracks, but today seemed different.  I lifted my bow and made a half-hearted shot in his direction, and heard a gurgling sound for my efforts.  I cautiously crept up to the man and saw him lying there, arrow, sure enough, piercing his throat.  I reached down to pull it out, and he looked up and said "Go ahead, finish"  I could only think about the fact that maybe this man had a family.  Maybe this man had to provide for someone.  I reached down and pulled the arrow out, silencing him, and ending his suffering.  

Then I felt something come over me.  I felt conflicted.  Sure, I defended myself, but why should this man die for such a stupid and petty cause as this.  I leaned over him, said a small prayer Aragen, and raised him from the dead.  He stood there, shivering and quivering from still being near death's door.  He gritted his teeth and looked at me.  "Why....did you...do that?"  I didn't know.  It was simply an urge to end suffering and preserve life.  "I...you..."  I stammered like this for a moment, before finally tossing one of my home-brewed potions at his feet.  "Here, take this, you'll feel much better soon."  With that I left the man there.  I felt a sense of calm take over, and I thought to myself...perhaps I've found a niche after all.  Knowledge is such a broad thing.  Why shouldn't I focus?

Since that day, many week ago, I have been pouring over medical books, studying the art of healing.  It is amazing how many techniques there are, and methods to ease suffering and cure over all.  I have taken a small liking to helping others.  My friends I travel with think that I lag behind because I am slow and frail, and perhaps I am, but it is usually because I am preserving the lives of our foes.  Even the relatively abysmal intelligence of a giant can cognate compassion for living beings.  They think I'm lagging, I'm simply raising our fallen opponents.  Besides, perhaps, in the true spirit of Aragen, they will learn from the mistakes, and adjust.  And even in this crude form, knowledge is passed and gained.

I am Scherzo Prestissimo...Healer...of Aragen.

[Nuzatch]

I raised another giant today.  His name was Gornk, best I could make out.   He started at me brandishing a particularly sharp looking axe, and instinctively I ducked, threw my golem in front of me and then slayed him with divine wrath from above.  I stood over the giant's corpse for a moment, trying to process why he would attack for no real reason.  I chalked it up to basic giant intellect, and said my prayers, and brought him back to life.  At first he was very scared, but in the condition he was in, all he could do was back himself against a canyon wall.  I strode over, careful to not get too close and healed him, as best as my abilities would allow.  He got up and picked his axe up over his head, and then paused for a moment, lowering it, then raising it again, and then lowering and then finally in a booming voice he asked  "Why you no kill Gornk?"   I simply shrugged, and told him that I didn't think it was his time to go.  He stood there confused for a moment, and then finally thought about it for a moment and said "Gornk not like you, but Gornk know he can't beat you.  Gornk finding easier em-a-nees."   And with that the giant trudged off.

I accomplished two great things today.  I preserved a life, and taught him something.  I walked back to Pranzis with a smile on my face, thinking of the Cherry Lambic that I was soon going to reward myself with at the local tavern.

[Nuzatch]

Yawning and stretching, Scherzo emerged from The Great Library.  Pale as a ghost he stepped out into the daylight for the first time in days.  Or was it weeks?  It was irrelevant to him, as his thirst for knowledge had been temporarily satiated for the moment.  He looked around groggily as he stepped outside, looking as if he had just woken up, and to him, perhaps he had, from a dream in which the world's knowledge was at his fingertips.  

Fortunately for him this was no dream.  The moment he had heard that it was recovered, he dropped everything he was doing and rushed to gorge himself on this newfound knowledge.  And gorge he did.  For over a month Scherzo poured himself over book after book, reading many a day and sleeping as little as he could.  Not that he found much sleep, as even when he forced himself to sleep he layed awake, restless as to what the next book he'd pick up and read would hold.

Now, a month later, he's pulled himself from the library, to get in contact with old friends and new faces, and to learn what has transpired in his absence.  Would they remember him?  Would it be a warm welcome?  Or would the old faces have moved on and left him behind.  All of these thoughts festered in the back of his mind as he set out for that stupid little city called Hlint.

[Nuzatch]

It was a very restless sleep Scherzo was in, and he awoke in a cold, excited sweat.  Yes!  I remember!  He yammered on to himself for a moment and then began scratching notes in his book.  He remembered talking to Baron Blacklung a long while ago, before he had shut himself in the great library.  He had plans for a great academy.  A place where ideas, knowledge, and creation were all passed on and shared.  A place that would make Aragen proud.

He began scribbling notes wildly, and spent many hours pouring over and writing in his journal.  And then, he came to a jolting stop.  How am I to do this?  I can't even afford a home yet.  Let alone build an academy.  But Blacklung did it.  He saved, and conquered, and crafted, and created until look at him.  A Baron.  Hmm...Headmaster Prestissimo.  It had a nice ring to it.  Quickly Scherzo snapped out of his daze, gathered up his belongings which had now be strewn all over in the creative process, and forced himself to sleep.  "How in blazes am I going to get myself started on this?  Where could I get money?  Who would..." and at this Scherzo nodded off into a deep and wishful sleep.

[Nuzatch]

And within the dream lies reality...

"Outside of the main hall itself is a pathway leading to it, lined with fountains and on each side The Three watch over any who would enter the school.  Aragen, Dorand, Goran, standing in marbled grandeur overlooking all that enter or exit the premises."

Scherzo scribbled away in his notes even more.  He was surprised at how well he had been picking up drawing, as it was not something he had ever tried his hand at, though as he drew, The Academy came to life.  Libraries, Statues, Living Quarters, Tinkerariums...  At this Scherzo had to stop and chuckle.  As little tolerance as he himself had for gnomes, he couldn't help but enjoy their passion for invention, and find humor in the names that they managed to come up with.

Scherzo paused for a moment to take a sip of his Cherry Lambic and noticed the candle on the table had almost burned all the way to the holder.  "Hmm, perhaps I should call it a night and concern myself with this further in the morning."