Alison kept the folded flag of her company in hand. She held it and focused on the symbol, two crossed hammers. She had not earned this paradise. She could not remain...right?

Abadon nodded to the dragon as he explained more appropriately and less offensively.
It was a simple thing, and expected, but something that had needed be said.

~
"The effect of the place is gentle, but pervasive.  I had no intention of coming nor remaining here, yet part of the place's aura suggests such.  I feel that I would be happy here forever, yet I know that remaining here would limit my learning of magic, and that is by far the most important gift and love in my life, so I know the first feeling imposed, despite its gentle nature.

"Likewise, I had no feelings of being unworthy, for my love of Azuth's gift is my greatest gift received, yet I feel the feeling impressed upon me.

"I remain quite my own person, but I advise in courtesy, lest the rest of you not be being affected, and to know my weakness; or if you are being affected, then to know the feeling not unknown or dissimilar."

"Insidious might be a better description," Atraxus replies. "The sensation lingers at the periphery of my thoughts, amorphous yet present." He looks forward at the dragon and the paradise that lies ahead.

"I can only imagine what someone who strives to be a paragon would feel..."

By the time this little group reaches their destination it's no longer just a feeling, it's a constant desire they need to struggle to suppress.  A burden.

Staying would be... perfect.  Everything here is perfect.

There's a lake, and a gazebo on a hill overlooking it.  As you get closer, you can see that the gazebo isn't a built structure, it's as if wisteria plants simply took it upon themselves to grow into the form of a gazebo... complete with outdoor furniture.

Of course.  Why would you need to build anything here?  This place will always take care of you...  whatever you need.

The lake beyond is almost to perfect to look at.  Everyone knows, instinctively, that going there... that would too much.  Going there means no going back, the world could have nothing worth living for, after you've felt the embrace of those clear and sparkling waters.

Even from a distance, you can see one person sitting in the gazebo, reading.

"Behold the object of your quest," the Dragon says.

Alison began to say, in a whisper at first but louder as she went, "The purpose of life is to endure. Pain is part of life. Without valleys there is no view from the mountains." She just repeats this, over and again, keeping herself focused against the torrent.

"Well, that is an...unexpected sight," Atraxus replies to the Dragon, perplexed at seeing the supposedly endangered Paladin sitting and reading peacefully. The Half-Orc glances down at his makeshift totem---the feather necklace. He focuses on the memory it embodies, and the lesson it taught him. Perfection is something to strive toward, not a destination for mortals to reach.

"Ho! Derne Goldfire! We come with tidings of your Order!"

"A perfect place - and yet, I know it is not.  There is no magic to study, no magic to cast, no art to play and manipulate, for this place would resist change and learning - it is... no, it is not perfect, it is perfectly static.  It wishes stability."  The gnome worked his way through a very problematic situation, and finally turned his back to the water, focusing on his holy symbol and different water he raised to act and dance.

"This place is a gift, for certain, but not for folk that seek to appreciate a greater gift.  Let us indeed approach Derne."

Abadon trekked forward with the other party members.  "Yes, Derne - your friend, Thaller, sent us to find word of you - he is greatly wishing to hear from you."

The party approaches almost to the gazebo before the man inside responds.

He turns at the sound of his name.

"I am... I was.. .I am Derne," he says, sounding very unsure.  "Who..."

He pauses, recognizing one face, the female paladin who came here with the party.

"Mae? Why?"

"To find... what is this place?  I don't deserve to look at such a place."  Mae falls to her knees, and looks at the ground.

Derne shakes his head.  "Who are you, why did you bring Mae here?" he asks the party in general, not being clear on whom he should speak to.  "The Dragons told me I wasn't ready, how could she be?"

"We have come for you, Derne," Atraxus replies. He keeps his eyes focused on the young paladin, using every ounce of his will to keep from looking toward the lake.

"You are correct," he continues, "Mae is not ready. None of us are. However, we have traveled here to bring you back from the brink. What lies beyond is not meant for people like us. We are not dragons, friend. Let them have their home, and let us return to ours."

Abadon poured water from his flask, using his magic to raise frozen curtains to block the site of the sparkling lake - which was perfect for other people, achingly so, but he WANTED, NEEDED to learn and treasure the true treasure of Azuth's gift to the worlds.  Indeed, upon each of the watery curtains, a symbol of the lord of magic was seen centrally focused.

"You are, Derne.  Your friend Thaller called us in to help look for you, make certain that you were okay, or find what happened.

"Mae is here because People, like magic, have different strengths, different ways to work through life.  Mae is here because, as she said, she wished to find you, help you, and bring you home.

"The dragon we met along the way thinks you will recover yourself as we move away from this area.  Your stay here is done, Derne, as Atraxus here is noting.  Your duty now is to come with us, and help protect this special place.

"Do you need help in gathering your belongings?  We should depart shortly, to help protect Mae and you both.  You need to come with us, now."

Alison kept repeating her mantra and tried to get Mae back on her feet. "ON YOUR FEET SOLDIER!"

Alison's very unpredicted, unexpected response to Mae snaps the Paladin back, if only to look at Alison and ask, "Huh?" with a weary and bewildered expression.

Derne, though, shakes his head.  He speaks in a very weak and tired voice.

"I'm not good enough.  I'm not.  Too many failings, too many things I haven't done.  Here.. I can learn.  How can I be a Paladin when I'm not good enough?"

"What lesson would you learn there?" Atraxus asks Derne, gesturing toward the lake while keeping his eyes locked squarely on the paladin. "I know little about the life of a paladin, but I do know something. Your orders are dedicated to helping the flawed, the fallible, the helpless. Would you find any who might fit that description here?

"Believe me," Atraxus continues, "I know what it means to always feel unworthy or unwelcome. I am a Half-Orc. I know nothing about my parentage, but those who meet me often assume the worst. They only see the flaws. When I walk among Humans, they see a monster in their midst. When I encounter Orcs, they see a weakling. It is no easy life to live, but I do it because I need to prove to myself that I am better than what they assume from my appearance, and I do that through deeds. I pledge my strength and service to good causes, and look for ways to make sure my actions help more than they harm.

"Could you find such deeds within this paradise?" Atraxus asks the young man.

"Oh.  You can only learn to be a better paladin where it's easy, where you choose yourself over helping others, and where you turn your back on your friends, those who care for you, and those of your order in trouble.

"Interesting."  The gnomish priest tapped his lips in thought, then continued.

"Did you ever consider this place wasn't where you would learn, but where you would be tested?  About putting yourself, an almost perfect place, beautiful magical waters...  or putting the care and protections ahead of gratification for yourself?

"I study wherever I go, to learn more, and better myself.  The more magical energies I can examine, learn from, master, the more skill I accumulate.

"Like Atraxus said - How can a person become a better protector by sitting on his arse and acting like a drunk on payday?  That was the expression, was it not?  From the docks in the last city?"

Alison shouted again, "I SAID ON YOUR FEET SOLDIER!" Pointing to the others in her group, "I need your help soldier. These people can't get back without you. You have to endure. Making mistakes is what life is all about. YOU will get on your feet and lead us out of here!"

As they try to bring Derne around, Mae looks back and forth, herself only barely suppressing the messages that seem to emanate from the lake beyond the gazebo.

Her face changes seeing Derne's brief, but fast fading reaction to Alison.

"That got through," she says mostly to herself.  Then she pauses.

"But we're not soldiers," she says, louder.  "Orders mean nothing.  Need is everything.  Atraxus, Abadon, you are right, but where he is... I know... you cannot reason him out of.  He must feel it."

The Dragon had been watching the whole encounter.

"Of course it is better to feel it, and this is what he is trying to do."

Mae turns towards the Dragon.

"But we are not Dragons, and we are not monks, who can find enlightenment sitting in a holy gazebo gazing on holy waters for a year.  For a paladin, wasting time in such a way only makes things worse, not better.  Someone else might find something this way, but not Derne. Not a paladin.  In the end, the knowledge that he sat here while others needed him will only drive him deeper."

"How is it you have not been affected as he was, then?" the Dragon asks Mae.  "You are both Paladins, are you not?"

"I have the advantage of seeing what it's done to him," Mae replies.  "Seeing ourselves is always harder for us."

"I need to help someone," Derne says weakly.  He looks at the lake as if he is asking permission and adds:  "Can I?"

"Yes." Alison responded. "We in fact are rather desperate for a bit of your help at this exact moment."

Derne straightens himself, turns, looks at Alison.

"What is wrong?" he asks.

Mae looks puzzled.  She wasn't aware of anything specific they needed Derne to do, except be found.  But if a Paladin is needed, well, she's one too.

"We're ready," Mae tells Alison.

Alison looked back and forth between the two Paladins, and kept her Commander's voice going. "We need the two of you to lead us out of this place before it overcomes us with it's...joy."

"Wrong?  More need of paladin skills in defending others, and standing against evils," Abadon clarified, subject to some hint from Alison where she was thinking to offer/suggest in direction.

"The fey of Dzellion Break have provided warning that the badlands are under changing magic, which puts all travellers at special risk.  Yet, more particularly, there is a quest undertaken by the Baron of Sanzi, trying to establish an overland pass through the northwest, to aid all travellers, especially those impecunious, and unable to afford the ship travel, in being able to travel to the southlands for new opportunity.  It goes without saying that those with little or no coin are most vulnerable, and in greatest need for assistance.

"The quest by itself would be dangerous in best of times, with the creatures and monsters about in the high mountains, but the helpful fey warning suggests much greater risk facing the caravan.  We knew of the expedition intending to depart shortly after we came here to find you... but we have heard nothing of what has happened to them.

"We need your aid in returning to Thaller, and would request your further aid in tracking down and defending the expedition across the mountains.  It is a great and daunting task, and to my knowledge, they had none to aid them with a paladin's aura and guidance."

---

OOC: DM, if any of that is wrong, that's on player, not much smarter Abadon)He isn't trying to lie.

"But most important of all," Atraxus adds, "we need your aid in keeping the location and nature of this place secret. This land belongs to those of pure Good, such as the dragons who dwell here." Atraxus extends his hand to Derne, hoping the paladin will accept it.

"Come, and let us be off."

Mae gives a surprised look.  She hasn't heard of that at Deluzion Break before!  But it has the ring of truth... she has heard of strange things from that area, many people have.  Having only recently come under the sway of the land's powerful emanations of Pure Good, she is quicker to snap out of it.

"In a land of absolute good a paladin has no purpose," she realizes, "so we shouldn't be here.  We shouldn't even come here, ever.  We are worse than useless here."

"Everything is perfect here," Derne says quietly.

"Not for us.  We are needed.  We must go to Deluzion Break.  There is trouble.  It's important."

Mae looks at the Gnome, and then at the Derne, and grabs Derne's hand and puts it in Atraxus.  She takes the other.

"Let's go, quickly, and do not think too much about it."

Derne does not resist.

Alison turned and marched double time back the way they had come. She was relieved that they seemed to have accomplished getting the Paladin out of danger. She moved as quickly as she could and focused on her mantra.

Atraxus' hand closes firmly on Derne's the moment Mae places it within his reach. He follows Alison, doing his best to match her pace with the paladins in tow. He uses every ounce of his willpower to keep his focus on moving forward without looking back.

Abaddon kept up his water magics, creating moving curtains of opaque ice to help block sight of the bewitching waters.

"Derne, what can you tell me of Veritas?  We encountered much misunderstandings between the larger mercenarial companies versus the paladin orders - how has that been addressed, or come to fruit, as it were?"  He continued a series of factual questions - might as well learn as they walked - but the conversation seemed intended more to keep assessing the paladin's mental focus, establishing a baseline for monitoring and studying the paladin, even as they kept his focus on something besides his own failures.