The Falcon Pin and the Discovery of the Infirmary (short story)
Title: The Falcon Pin and the Discovery of the Infirmary
Author: Lyvonia
The following story was constructed by Lyvonia, who gave acknowledgments to Frijthof Shoun for his assistance.
The Story
River's Rest is a town of mysteries and for many years, one that had perplexed those that took up residency there was that of the door that could never be opened, phased through or unlocked. The door was part of a white building in the Citadel complex situated next to the zoo. As time progressed, most efforts to find out where the door led to or what the building was faded as many figured that it would be one of the many mysteries that would never be solved. All this changed however, not long ago with the return of the enigmatic elven scholar, Taistil Agalloir.
He had appeared in River's Rest once before gathering stories of things that people had seen during their time in the lands. This time, however, his return to River's Rest was not to gather knowledge or historical information. Rather, he had come to impart an artifact that he had come across in his wanderings. Though he professed to have no concrete information about the object, he believed that it had something to do with the Citadel. The artifact proved to be a cloak pin, which he entrusted to Lord Frijthof Shoun, founder and at the time, chair of the Beacon Hall Archives, provided that he would house it in the museum that were proposed to be a part of the building of the Archives. With that, Taistil took his leave once again and it would not be for many months until he returned. Frijthof pressed Oliga, a bardess who was in town at the time, to sing to it ((follow the link to the pin itself for its loresong)).
The images brought to light when the pin was sung to revealed many things. The description of the tall spires was that of the Citadel located near River's Rest on the mainland at a time before it had fallen during the Kannalan Empire. It was discovered that the whitewashed building was none other than the one in the citadel grounds that bore the door that could not be opened. When Taistil was to return to River's Rest again, months later, he came to give lectures regarding the colorful history of the town, some of which enabled us to understand more about what the pin revealed ((Most of what Taitstil related to the town is located at the External link at the bottom)).
The compound of the Citadel still reflects the ferocity of the attack but nowhere else is it more evident than in the infirmary. The infirmary had been sealed up for centuries by some magic, perhaps a curse, that only the return of one of the Falcon Battalion's cloak pins could dispel. When Oliga related the images she saw when she sang to the pin, Frijthof and the others with him came to realize that the building which the troops had retreated to in order to make their final stand was the enigmatic building in the citadel grounds that had the door which would not open. With a new found curiosity, Frijthof, Higuchi and Aeto ran off to find the door as impassible as ever. It was not until Frijthof wore the pin that they were able to push in the door and be the first to have stepped into what proved to be the infirmary for over a thousand years. In that time, the building and its contents have been rather well preserved, and bear only some signs of decay.