Xiloco the Encrusted Champion Lore
Addressed to Grand Arcanist Kelezar, he of the genius almighty, he of the will unsurpassed, he of the power unmatched.
Lord and Master, I write to beg your forgiveness. I throw myself at your feet, unworthy as I am of your mercy.
Some days ago, I uncovered what I thought was a jagged outcrop of luminescent, teal stone. I knew the material was not just aesthetically pleasing. It possessed a deeper power. I could feel it.
My first mistake, oh great one, was not to inform you immediately. I delayed only so I could learn more to better show you what I had found. I was a fool… of course you have no need of me to learn all there is to learn of anything.
My instincts were right. My thralls discovered the stone was fully fused to hard, scaled skin bearing a red-and black, tiger-like pattern. In places it appeared that the material was part of the hide, not a later attachment. The labor to extract it all continued, with great care, for I dared not damage any part of this great gift I knew of course I would present to you.
It was a being. A Lizardman. I sensed it lived, but it was in a kind of stasis that I presumed was the manner by which he had been preserved. My thralls extracted the creature from the rockface under my direct supervision, as well as a shield l surmised belonged to it as well as a heavy-headed mace made from the same teal stone as encrusted the Lizardman.
I ordered my thralls to bring the specimen to my most secure laboratory. To better protect it for you, my master. Knowing you would wish to conduct a full examination of it yourself I carried out only the most superficial of inspections. Nothing intrusive or damaging of any kind. I discovered a faint, distorting field around the creature, one that defied any explanation. All I can say is that I felt decades younger when in close proximity.
To my shock, it awoke. Not wishing to anger or frighten it, lest it force us to restrain it and thus damage it before being gifted to you, I engaged it in conversation, and offered it sustenance.
It looked around carefully. Given its circumstances, it was surprisingly calm.
There was my second mistake, my lord. I did not recognize this behavior for what it was. Deliberate assessment. Escape planning. I beseech you to recognize my humble honesty.
Then it – he, as I learned – talked. By the smell and stone he knew he was in the Stormwind Wastes. He asked about places called Twinrift and Allreach, places I’ve never heard of and referred to the ‘Torcelin Istriv’ the ancient name for the Lost Isles. His face and rocky shoulders dropped at my inability to answer.
Our conversation continued for many hours.
My lord… what he said… he knew of a time when the gods walked Teleria! He claimed he had beheld the Shadow God with his very own eyes at what he called a ‘Grand Symposium’! When I said Lumaya and Siroth had never been present in Teleria, that they existed in different realms and planes, he scoffed, but lowered his head again. Much time must have passed, he said. Things had changed.
Only then did I think to ask his name. Xiloco, it is. He had been a scholar, explorer, and politician. In his youth he had been a warrior, winning renown in the ‘Aravian-Imperial war’. I have never
heard of it.
I did not know what to ask Xiloco next. Where does one go from there? All the more reason to have handed him over to you immediately, Grand Arcanist.
He volunteered more information. The stone he was encrusted with – this you will be excited to hear – there ‘8 more of it out there. It has power beyond anything I have seen. One of my thralls crushed a spider beneath her feet. Xiloco restored it to full life. When she trod on it again, it scuttled on as if nothing had happened.
Xiloco claimed he was studying the rock when there must have been a cave-in. He had surmised that the material possessed some chronomantic power, and his very survival suggested that he was correct. It certainly explained my feeling of youth when close to him.
How did he escape? I don’t know. I woke up, and he was gone. My thralls who had been with me were withered husks, as if they had died and decayed decades before.
I explored my holdings further. The skeletal corpses of my followers were everywhere. For my own protection, I raised them. I searched everywhere. I found nothing. My lord, we need to find Xiloco. We need more of this stone.