[Expeditions] To TaUrTaIkaTaNur… and beyond!
Richard Jackson
It’s a big old world out there.
No, seriously, I hadn’t appreciated just how big. But I’m starting to.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. A storyteller should really begin at the beginning.
Day 1
Just over a week ago, Aila, Birel, Briar, Krithra and myself – the name’s Dramble, just in case you didn’t know – set out for further exploration. Equipped with cold weather furs, plenty of provisions, healing potions (Thank you, Tagariel), a set of magical coloured bolts and a mysterious stone sphere, which the previous adventuring party had (rather unceremoniously) left behind the bar for us at the Lakeside Inn, we set out.
After descending the rope ladder behind the waterfall, we chose the most direct route to the elven settlement at Klippica to maximise the journey we could make with our provisions. The journey was, at first, uneventful. The migrating animals we had seen before had… migrated on. The winter cold meant we no longer had to forge our way through head-high grasses. The Blightwood, previously in full leaf, was now bare and wintry. This allowed us a glimpse, through its barren branches, of a stone circle we had not seen before. What mysteries did it hold? We made a note to find out on our journey back.
Even a supposedly empty landscape has its hidden dangers. Our friend Krithra suffered an injury which slowed us down. It was deep in the middle of the night as we approached the six tall crags which mark the mystical pool at Klippica. Banners strung between the crags bore Corellon’s mark, a welcome sign to this weary traveller.
Birel and Aila greeted their friend, Felosial, who informed us we had missed the travelling caravan of dwarves, who came from distant Kassiter in the west (about which, more later!) in the late summer. More troublingly, she warned us of the High Priestess’s distress. Corellon’s stars, often seen illuminating the pool, had not been seen for over a week. Despite this ill omen, we were warmly received and given food and a place to sleep for the night.
Day 2
The fog had descended thickly as we awoke and resumed our journey. Had we not the river and the edge of the swamp to guide us, we might have lost our way. Yours truly’s keen eyesight helped us see our way, but it was still slow going and we realised we would have to camp another night in the wilderness. At dusk, we heard the flapping of wings. Lots of wings. Lots of large, leathery wings. Aila theorised that they might belong to a flock of stirges.
Sometimes it isn’t nice when other people are right. Before we knew it, the stirges were upon us! Aila and Krithra quickly loosed arrows, downing two of them. But there were so many! As Aila and Birel fended two off, a third swooped down and sunk its claws and proboscis into Briar. Seconds later, another did the same to Birel. We were in trouble.
Fortunately, we sorcerers do not easily panic. Birel incinerated her attacker with a fireball, declaring, “That’ll teach you!” I fired a similar warning shot at another stirge, who was moving in for the kill. Picking up on this, Briar called upon the Sacred Flame but, incapacitated as she was, was unable to make a clear strike. Aila skewered a stirge through the wing, which did not seem to hurt it much, while Krithra shot a bad tree which was looking shifty.
A surviving stirge, covered in the (toasted) entrails of its fallen brethren, sought its revenge on Birel. I sprang to her rescue, firing another magical bolt in its direction, but it was hard to hit it without also wounding my comrade. As it detached, gorged on half-elf blood, Krithra cleaved it in two.
Meanwhile, the stirge that had been feasting on Briar had strangely decided to flap ineffectually around Aila. Perhaps it was something the halfling ate? In her weakened state, Briar was unable to hit it with her Mace, but Aila stabbed it. The stirge exploded in a shower of blood (mostly Briar’s). The last remaining foe tried to force its way past Aila’s shield, leaving it vulnerable to incineration by fireball, as Birel splatted it against the shield.
Deciding to move a safe distance from the swamp, we set up camp and ate. The night passed uneventfully, with only the sound of a distant frog chorus.
Day 3, part 1
By morning, the fog had lifted to a light mist, and we could see the sandy bluff to the south, topped by the white tower of EnTaTraTaShan, our destination. We headed towards the gnome settlement of Riverglade which surrounded it, whose inhabitants this traveller was keen to meet. The others had promised to return there months ago, but some trivialities around the harvest and midwinter festival prevented them leaving the Valley. A poor excuse for not adventuring, if you ask me.
As we neared, we could make out a scaffold and a circular platform surrounding the tower. We could see no one up there, which was unusual, according to those who had visited this place before. I eagerly rushed forwards, but the (boring)other urged caution, muttering some nonsense about jangling metal and a tripwire warning alarm.
Alerted to our presence, an elderly woman with wild hair came charging out of a nearby building, armed with a spear. But on recognising my companions, she relaxed and greeted us. Her name was Elliwick and, according to the others, she was the matriarch of the settlement. She told us of how kobold raiders had attacked in the night! There was a nest of them in the canyons downriver. They were armed with a new kind of weapon, a fiery crossbow of some kind, which cast dancing red lights upon its targets. This sounded very much like the strange weapon the previous adventuring party had brought back tales of.
Poor Dimble, leader of the settlement, had been grievously injured in the fight. We found him bedridden, his scorched clothing hung by his bedside. Your humble storyteller magically brewed up a hot cup of tea to soothe his aches, and he immediately began to feel better. Briar may have helped also, by tending his wounds and casting a healing light. She earned a kiss for her troubles.
We got talking with Dimble. He told us the tower seemed warmer than it had been. They have set traps in the surrounding area to fend off further attacks by the kobolds. One of these traps involved young Pog hidden in a tree, armed with a thunder rod. For some reason, this caused my companions to feel concerned. We planned to explore the lands beyond gate inside the tower, but agreed to return that evening to help them in their fight.
We made our way to the tower, where a look-out named Breena had now appeared. Sensing the power of the place, I stood dramatically before the doorway and spoke the words I knew would admit us, “Daresh! EnTaTraTaShan!” A doorway appeared in the stone and light poured in to the ancient halls beyond, containing arcane secrets and, until recently, unexplored for centuries.
And where two children had decided to play. “Hey!” they complained, about us letting the light in. Tsk, kids eh? No appreciation of the dramatic. These were Mina and Pog, who some of the others had met before. Pog fretted as he realised he had forgotten to bring Dimble his tea, but I reassured him it had been taken care of. As Krithra worked the six finger holes in the wall to open the way to the next room, I was taught how to seal the entranceway behind us (“Uresh!”). The children settled down in the dark with their nightlight. I made the light more interesting by casting images of skipping gnomes in it, which they were enchanted by. They’re good kids really.
As Krithra took the stone orb out of her pack, we could see fiery motes dancing within its cracked surface. As we had hoped, it was repairing itself now that it was within the temple. Leaving it to its gradual restoration, we added the mystic bolts we had brought with us to the green and purple ones already in the floor. As they clicked into place, a circle appeared on the wall in front of us, with blue lights, glowing an inch from its surface in the air, marking out two points.
As Aila touched one of the lights, familiar Builder number glyphs were indicated by the bolts in the floor. We were able to translate them as TaUrTaIkaTaNur (242629, by our means of counting). A voice rang out through the chamber in the language of the Builders as a light filled the floor. Well, this was clearly a time for action, so your humble storyteller leapt into the light to discover what lay beyond, followed by the others.
Day 3, part 2
On the other side was a room very much like the one we had left, but bitterly cold. We hurried into the fur coats we had brought with us. This room also had a circular map on the wall, this time marked by four lights. As we made contact with the lights, the bolts revealed the names of the places they marked. One was EnTaTraTaShan, where we had just mystically departed. Another was TaUrTaIkaTaNur, where we were now. The others were discovered to be previously unknown locations – EnTaUrDeshShan (1240B) and ShanShanAnShanIkaShan (BBAB6B). Noting these down, we reset the mechanism and opened the door to the strange lands beyond this temple.
A snowdrift slumped in as the doorway opened. I had never before seen so much snow in all my days! Time was different here too. We had left EnTaTraTaShan towards lunchtime, yet here the sun was just rising and it was early morning. We were in a tall, narrow valley. Ahead of us lay Glasswall Lake (as named by the other party), an enormous, fan-shaped expanse of water, the morning sunlight glinting off it. Its shores appeared to be made of glass and rock that seemed somehow to have been melted at one time.
Well, what is this daring adventurer to do, when faced with such a landscape of wonders? The obvious answer is a snowball fight, so I pelted our dragonborn friend. She promptly scooped up a larger snowball and threw it back, not noticing that my Mage Hand was behind her, ready with another!
We sealed the temple doorway behind us (“Uresh”) and hiked off towards a settlement we could see by the lake. A curtain wall there surrounded other buildings, with steps leading up to huge double doors. Wall, steps and doors were all made of solid stone. At the base of the steps stood two obelisks, much like those we found on our earlier expedition to the Temple of Healing. Everything here was still very large, but human-sized rather than Builder-sized. One obelisk was marked with a hexagon within a circle, the other with a symbol of a dragon. The doors were marked similarly, but with the dragon appearing within the hexagon. Above the walls fluttered azure banners, marked with the same combined symbol, in white.
“Who’s there?” came a shout from the walls, in the draconic tongue. Fortunately, your storyteller speaks draconic, so I was able to exchange greetings with them and gain our entry. “By the blessing of Ikata, come in!” said the sentry. We did not know who this goddess Ikata was, but noted the similarity with the name of the Builder gate we used to travel here.
Were these people worshippers of the Builders? It was clearly a monastery of some kind. Inside the courtyard, dragonborn monks clad in silver and white robes made their way to prayer. A lantern-lit path led up to a large stone hall, which appeared to be their main temple. We also noticed a group of halflings, who were not monks and were obviously less comfortable with the cold, bundled up in furs as we were.
The monks’ leader introduced himself as Ikata-Kesharyx. We took up his kind offer of hospitality and enjoyed a second breakfast, which was an unexpected benefit of travelling in time. Our host switched to speaking in common, for the benefit of those less versed in the draconic tongue than I. He asked if we had come from the nearby market town of Bressel. We said we had not. Aila spun a tall tale about us losing our map and wandering lost in the mountains until we stumbled upon this place. It was a good tale, though (in this storyteller’s opinion) a little lacking in thrills and spills. She could’ve added in a narrow escape from an avalanche, for example, or our party having to fend off attacks by hungry polar bears or yeti. Never mind, she has her own talents.
The abbot pointed across the refectory towards a group of four halflings, and said they were from Bressel and could answer our questions on the wider area. He would arrange for one of the scribes to draw up a replacement for our lost map. Briar went over to talk to the other halflings in their own language. The monastery grows very little of its own food, so they were there to trade. In return, the monks protected them from nearby aggressors. Speaking now in common, the halflings (Marigold, Jaspar, Lindal and Perrin) told us of the “faithless frogmen” down by the lake. “Rather the Tebin Road than the frogment” said one, earning him a sharp dig in the ribs from his colleagues. How curious…
They described the area. Bressel is a large settlement, with a population of some 10,000 souls. It is divided in two by the Langmer River. Another settlement named Cathor lies to the north, while a third named Tebin (“Rather the Tebin road…”) lies south. They invited us to come find them in the Windmill Tavern should our journeys ever take us to Bressel, and described how to find the tavern.
After our second breakfast with the halflings, Ikata-Kesharyx led us up the path to the main temple, which was adorned by more of the dragon banners we had seen earlier. Inside the antechamber, several dragonborn scribes were at work. A stone arch beyond led to the main shrine to Ikata, which was shrouded in darkness. Curious, we asked about the legends of their goddess. The abbot turned from the scribe he was about to ask to draw us a map, and told us the tale. The scribe, Iskaron, rolled his eyes at this and went back to his work. How rude!
Thousands of years ago, the abbot told us, in the time of the Goldfire when the sky was filled with golden lights, there was a war between the gods. Ancient spirits danced on the Black Path. In this time, Itaka the water dragon fell from the sky. She came to earth here, creating Glasswall Lake. Her eyes are sometimes still seen in the lake to this day, as white and blue lights (This seemed reminiscent of Corellon’s lights at Klippica. Hmm…). Her heart lies in the mountain, and is contained in the temple shrine. Itaka now protects the mountain as its guardian spirit, and guided the monks to where her Heart lay, many centuries ago.
You see, this guy knows how to tell a story! As Iskaron prepared our map, we wondered how much further we could push this line of enquiry. Well, “she who dares” and all that. Krithra, being dragonborn herself, asked to see Ikata’s shrine and the abbot agreed! Only those with dragon blood are permitted to enter. Well, if that isn’t destiny calling, I don’t know what is! I rolled up my sleeve and showed him the dragon scales on my arm, casting just a flicker of fire to drive the point home. Ikata-Kesharyx was, naturally, surprised at my revelation, but seemed delighted and allowed me to enter the shrine too.
It was a chamber carved out of the mountainside, with a pedestal (also carved from the bedrock) in its centre. On the pedestal was a cylindrical object as big as yours truly – the Heart of Ikata! It seemed to be made from melted stone and metal, like the shores of the lake, and it too was melted to the pedestal, where I had laid for centuries. Getting a closer look, I saw it was covered in Builder glyphs. I memorised them as best I could, not wanting to disrespect the shrine by drawing copies. I recognised one as the glyph for “flight”. Another was a four-pointed star.
A group of monks surrounded the Heart and began to chant prayers to Ikata in the dragonborn language. As they did so, the Heart gave off a pale blue light, its glyphs glowing and a flickering halo around its crown.
After such a sight, I felt it only fair to share one of my legendary tales in return. As the scribe finished our map, I told him the story of my ancestor, Warryn Wildwander, the great friendship he struck up with the dragon Smiddibranner, and how together they had protected a mountain kingdom of their own for many centuries. He was obviously impressed, even though he tried not to show it.
From the map, we could see it was a half day’s journey to Bressel. Conscious of the difference in time between this land and Riverglade, and of our promise to the gnomes there, it was time to return. Bressel would have to wait for another day. The road there, however, was the Dragon Pass, the very same path we had joined upon leaving TaUrTaIkaTaNur. So it was easy for us to say farewell and head on our way, without resorting to deception. We were not obviously followed and the snow would soon cover our tracks.
After sealing ourselves back in the temple at TaUrTaIkaTaNur, we figured we still had a little time in which to see what lay at the other destinations which could be accessed from there. Birel decided we should check out ShanShanAnShanIkaShan first, using the highly scientific means of choosing the place with the best-sounding name. As a gnome and a scholar, I thoroughly approved of this method. We activated the circle and stepped into the golden light once more.
Day 3, part 3
We emerged into a circle very much like the one we had left, but much, much bigger – some 20 feet across. Four more lights were on the map here, meaning another two unknown places could be accessed from here (though we really didn’t have time to do that!). There were two filigree tables in the chamber, but no crystals to be seen. Moving out of the chamber, we found ourselves in a place that was absolutely dark and silent, with no movement in the air. Even my keen eyes could only just make out the stone flagstones on the ground.
Lighting a torch and conjuring a Mage Hand to lift it 30 feet above us, I could see we were inside an enormous stone chamber, the dimensions on a scale I had never before seen. Disturbed by the sudden light, bats flew down from a vaulted ceiling 100 feet above us. Stone pillars, seemingly not enough to support such a massive structure, led away on all sides. A large object, 50 feet high, could be seen some 200 feet in front of us. We went to investigate.
The object turned out to be a statue, but not like the automata we had encountered before. This was artistic rather than functional, possibly the first example of pure art from the Builders we had seen. Six figures of Builders stood at the points of a hexagon, holding aloft a large circle, which (we speculated) may have once contained a fountain. Between each of the figures, the image of a towered city projected into the ring.
Taking a closer look at the figures, we could see they were all different, and appeared to represent different professional trades. They were also marked with the Builder glyphs 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and A on their chests:
- Desh (0) wore a satchel containing paints and brushes, clearly an artist.
- Ta (2) was a craftsperson of some sort, with a belt of tools and a pick strapped to their back.
- Ur (4) carried books and charts. I recognised the constellation of the Axe, but it appeared different – some of the stars were in the wrong place, and the handle of the Axe was too short. Had the very stars changed their place in the heavens since this statue was constructed?
- The face of Ika (6) was obscured by its hood and strange eyeglasses. Bottles hung from its belt, densely covered in innumerable Builder glyphs.
- Orta (8) was also cloaked, but their hood was lowered. They carried a satchel of twigs and flowers, and wore a brooch of an unfamiliar 8-petalled flower.
- Finally, An (A) was clearly a soldier, though their plate armour seemed impossibly thin to offer any protection. On their back was slung a long, cylindrical weapon of some sort, with a crossbow-like handle and trigger at one end.
Moving on past the statue, we could see daylight beyond the far wall, where vines had forced cracks to appear in the stone. Calling out, “Daresh! ShanShanAnShanIkaShan!”, we emerged into thick jungle. It was dusk here, but the air was warm and humid. I could just make out the stars above us, and checked to see that the Axe did indeed appear in its familiar form, and not as it had on the statue.
The vines were too thick for us to penetrate easily, and the jungle seemed to stretch out endlessly ahead of us. To our backs was a colossal cliff face, concealing the Builder temple we had just left. The plants appeared quite similar to those back in the Valley. Aila collected samples of leaves and buds for later study.
Birel observed that we were near to EnTaTraTaShan on the circle map and, if it was dusk here, it was likely close to dusk at Riverglade also. We closed the temple and travelled back through the mystic gate, with just enough time to follow the final light from TaUrTaIkaTaNur, to EnTaUrDeshShan.
The Builder temple here was much closer to EnTaTraTaShan in scale, and the stone was similarly warm to the touch. Once more, there were four lights on its circular map, indicating yet another two places for future exploration. Who knows how far this network extends across the world? It will be exciting to find out!
As we spoke the words that opened the outer wall, we were briefly alarmed as rocky scree poured inside. Clearly this temple had been partially buried. Outside we found ourselves deep in a rocky ravine (possibly once a river bed). Here the day was a little younger than at ShanShanAnShanIkaShan, an hour or so before dusk. This confirmed our theory about how distances on the map marked out times of day as well as locations.
We could see and hear the ocean to the south. What a sight! We had never before seen such a vast expanse of water. Birel made the wonderful observation that, with the Builders’ temples at our disposal, we could build igloos and sandcastles all in the same day!
We made our way out of the ravine. The land all around was arid desert, covered with scrub and cacti. The dying sunlight illuminated a small city a couple of miles to the east. We saw lights there. A mile marker on the nearby road identified the city as Kassiter. Yes, the very city the dwarves came to trade from to Klippica. For them, their journey took over two months, yet the lights for EnTaUrDeshShan and EnTaTraTaShan appeared so close on the circle maps as to be almost touching one another. This taught me two things: (1) Just how enormous is this world and the Builders’ empire, for two months’ travel to be virtually no distance on their maps? (2) I simply HAVE to be there to see the dwarves’ faces when they learn of these gateways and just how much time they’ve been wasting on travelling!
We were astounded, but our time was up before we could explore any further. We closed up the temple behind us and returned first to TaUrTaIkaTaNur, then to EnTaTraTaShan as the sun was almost setting. The sphere we had brought there was now almost fully repaired, its cracks filled with gold.
Day 3, part 4
As we followed the path back to Riverglade, we heard ominous sounds – warlike clangs and drums of a marching army! We could see a dozen torches down the road on the other side of the river, towards Riverglade. The kobolds had returned! Briar, Krithra and I snuck silently over the bridge and hid behind a group of rocks. Aila and Birel, being less stealthy, chose to hang back, so that they could catch the kobolds in a pincer attack. As we lay in wait, we spotted Pog hidden in a nearby tree, thunder rod at the ready.
The lead kobold illuminated a glowing green sword, like the one we had recovered on a previous adventure. Behind him, two others carried crossbows with glowing lights, as we had Clan Veshtak territory now!” Well, we obviously weren’t going to let that stand. Many things happened, very quickly:
Briar called up a pillar of Sacred Flame, causing one kobold to dive out of the way, right into the path of one of Krithra’s arrows.
At the same time, Aila hit the kobold leader in the chest with another arrow. As he fell to the ground, his sword sunk deep into the earth, until only its hilt remained.
A deafening crash of thunder shook the trees, as Pog unleashed the thunder rod. A third kobold caught the brunt of the attack and was, quite literally, shaken to pieces. As his crossbow fell to the ground, it discharged a pencil-fine beam of intense red light, starting a small fire on the other side of the river.
Birel unleashed a Chaos Bolt of such power, it instantly killed the two remaining kobolds of the first wave with its poisonous curse.
Just in case the message wasn’t clear, I caused one of the dropped torches to leap into a pillar of fire as a further warning.
Well, that was quite enough for the remaining kobolds, who promptly turned tail and fled. To hammer the point home, I cast a booming voice, telling them, “And don’t come back!” The entire battle was over in about six seconds!
We extinguished the fires, retrieved the arcane weapons from the fallen kobolds, congratulated Pog on his first battle, and returned to Riverglade for tea and cake. (After all, we hadn’t eaten since second breakfast half the world away.) We received a warm welcome from the other gnomes as we assured them the kobolds weren’t likely to be back any time soon. Pog ran off excitedly to find his sister, shouting, “Mina! Mina! I killed a kobold! Did you see it? It was so cool!” Dimble seemed to have recovered well from the previous fight. I lent my talents to help the local bard compose a suitable poem recording this Battle of Riverglade.
While we rested there, Birel and I took the opportunity to experiment with the strange weapons we had recovered. We removed the green bolt from the sword for safety, but the two crossbows did not contain red bolts as we had surmised, unless they were completely sealed inside. It seems each has a fire elemental bound into it somehow – a different form of Builder technology? However they were forged, they are highly effective weapons. Birel and I discovered we could target objects up to 300 feet away, and they had an effective “close” range of 100 feet. Taking time to line up the red pinpricks of light on a target gave us a more effective shot. (It occurred to me that one could cause a great deal of panic by conjuring red lights on enemies who are familiar with these weapons.) We left one of the crossbows with Tippletoe, leader of the “gnomerilla” warriors, for their protection, and brought the other with us for further study back in the Valley.
Day 4
By morning, the stone sphere was completely repaired, giving us another new toy to play with. I learned from the others that speaking “Hatan” activates a Builder artefact, whereas “Sonjon” will return it to a dormant state. So Briar uttered “Hatan” to the sphere. It awoke, glowing with a pale blue light, just as the Heart of Ikata had done, and hovering two feet in the air. Clearly, my adventurous spirit must have rubbed off on our normally cautious halfling friend, as she reached out and touched it. She told us she felt a crackle of energy, and we saw all her hair stand on end. She called, “Sonjon”, and the sphere sank gradually to the floor.
We tested it again outside the temple, and found it worked no matter the location. We were still no nearer to discovering its function though. The glyphs on it did not match the symbols we knew to mean “Hatan” or “Sonjon”. We knew they meant “power”, “flight” and “stillness”, but not how to pronounce them in the Builders’ tongue, so our experimentation was unfortunately limited.
We considered returning to the gates and exploring more of the strange, faraway lands beyond them. I’d have liked to, but we decided it was important to return to the Valley with all we had gathered (the map, jungle specimens, the working sphere, and the crossbow) and learned, lest any fate befall us on a second expedition. After breakfast, the gnomes gave us wine and cakes to sustain us on our return journey, and we bade them a fond farewell.
That day we set out back to Klippica, choosing to cross the rocklands, away from the dangers of the swamp. It was easier going than we had feared it would be. We made camp and enjoyed our view of the Ghost Mountains and the stars above. Experimenting further with the sphere, we found a gently push was all it took to move it while it hovered, though we could not make it move under its own power. It makes a good volleyball though…
Day 5
We arrived in Klippica mid-morning the following day. Felosial rushed to greet us with a spring in her step, bearing excellent news – Corellon’s stars had returned to the pool the previous night, in greater numbers than had ever been seen! We mentally checked and were fairly sure this had nothing to do with our activities, then shared the gnomes’ cake with the elves, in celebration.
Aila told them I am a gatherer of stories, and tried to coax stories out of our hosts for my (and, I suspect, her) collection. Felosial introduced us to Uthariel, who was old even by elven standards, perhaps even 800 years in this world. She shared epic poems with us, which told of the elvan queen who set out across a distant sea to this place, and founded Klippica, where the lights danced with the elves. They told of her rivalry with the Children of Asteri, who had also travelled from across the sea. She described them as wicked elves who played with powers which should not have been meddled with, which didn’t sound too bad to me… They were eventually banished to a distant city.
We asked if she knew any stories of the elven homeland beyond the southern sea. These were less detailed, but we learned of an elven king, who was said to have spoken with giants in the time of the Goldfire, during the days before the giants left.
We wondered whether these “giants” were in fact the Builders, but the mention of the Goldfire had also piqued my attention. Partly to gauge their reaction, I chose to tell one of my most recently-added stories from my collection – that of the water dragon who fell from the sky during the time of the Goldfire, as war between the gods raged in the heavens. Briar told me afterwards that Felosial had seemed VERY interested in this. When she asked why, the elf told her it was an incredible story. I assume she meant that in a good way!
Moving on from Klippica, we made our way to the stone circle we had espied on our outward journey. It stood on a small island, and we had to wade through marshes to reach it (no mean feat when you are my size). The monument consisted of three stone pillars, each ten feet high, supporting a large disc of stone. Aila recognised the spirals on the pillars as symbols of Melora, goddess of nature and the wilderness. “That explains all the wildflowers” she remarked. Indeed, the whole area was surrounded by flowers. There was also a hut there, of human scale. It was unoccupied, but well-maintained. From the objects inside, we discerned that it was more likely someone’s home than intended as a rest stop for travellers, but needs must. We lit the stove and treated the place with care.
While we slept inside, Aila meditated out in the open, and was surprised to see a flashing light, signalling from the top of one of the Klippica crags. Half a minute later, she saw an answering signal flash from the opposite direction to the east, from the hills north of the fox temple. Completely unfairly, the others decided this curious signalling was all my fault for some reason.
Day 6
In the morning, we replenished the firewood we had used and left a few coins we had picked up on our travels, for the hut’s owner, to say our thanks. Before leaving, we experimented one final time with the stone sphere. The monks had sung to the Heart of Ikata, so we wanted to see what would happen if we similarly sung to the sphere. We discovered that, by changing the pitch and tempo of our voices, we could make it move under its own power, and control its direction in three dimensions! (We recalled the litany, “We say your words; we sing your songs…”) Naturally, as the premier performer in the group, the sphere followed my directions best of all.
Well, now we wanted to see if we could use the sphere for transportation. We tried with a light weight to start with. Say, the weight of a halfling for instance. I could make Briar fly! She hooked a blanket over it and held on tight, though perhaps 40 feet up in the air was a little too daring for a first attempt…
Look, she was fine, okay? I really don’t understand what all the fuss was about.
It was only after I lowered Briar to the roof of the hut and we helped her down that it occurred to any of us that we could perhaps have tested the sphere with a non-living weight instead, like one of our packs. That would’ve been boring though. And we wouldn’t have gotten to see our halfling companion get crazy hair again.
We retrieved the sphere, which had now dimmed from its exertions, though its light swiftly recovered. After that, we headed for home, and that’s really all there is to tell. We felt we had achieved what we had set out to do, and learned a great deal. None of us died, and we didn’t even need the healing potions. It felt like we are starting to get the hang of all this. What is to be done with the knowledge and artefacts we bring back, we will leave to the next group of brave explorers!
For now. Fear not, this sorcerer still feels the call to adventure, as strongly as ever. I will be journeying back out into the unknown again soon!
- Your humble storyteller, as always:
Dramble Firespinner Tavatarr of the Feygrove
Ed Chivers
Another dwarf stood groggily to his feet, clearly drunk. "And, don't forget, 'e said there's a big dwarf city out there by the sheesh... seashorsh... ocean! All full of bright lights! Kassiter! What are they like, these strange sea-dwarves?"
The drunken dwarf fell back down into his seat and mumbled to himself before passing out "...maybe they've got fins and tails, like fish. Or beards. Even mussels have beards..."
