Post by David on Sept 29, 2014 21:30:07 GMT -5
More than a decade ago, Taarna received a minor Suel artifact from King Nathan for Furyondy in exchange for freeing his kingdom from invaders AND illithids. The object appears to be an extremely old, strangely-tooled, six-inch diameter, nickel globe with arcane runes and designs. Set into the globe are a few ornate protrusions and even a few semi-precious stones of various colors. If detected for, the globe will radiate a dim aura of magic, nothing more. Moorak verifies that the sphere will ONLY work for someone of pure Suel blood and he reveals that the sphere is called "the Globe of the Hunter" in Suel. Moorak legend lores the command word to activate the sphere. Rhom asked his mother, Esmerelda the Green Witch, and she said that "opening the sphere will lead to a chain of events which are likely to change the Flanaese in ways unforseen and involve a long and complicated quest." For these and many other reasons, Taarna has long held-off opening the sphere.
Now, the night after her fosterling, Martin, celebrates his coming-of-age, Taarna decides to open the sphere. With her are Rhom, Esmerelda, Moorak, Brand, Saanau, and Treblo as well several of curious Klarrians, including orcish children spying out their second story bedrooms. In early morning light of the archer-field south of Klarr, just within sight of the Red Witch's orphanage, Taarna walks to the center of the clearing and puts the sphere into her right hand. She holds it slightly above shoulder height and speaks the command, "awaken!" in Suloise. For a brief moment, nothing happens, then several of the jewels seem to twinkle and a subtle pulse surges out as the globe comes to life.
The shell of the globe peels away like the rind of an orange. These bands of metal slither down and onto Taarna's right arm, coiling along her forearm like snakes where they congeal into a strangely-tooled, twined steel bracer. Floating an inch above the palm of the speaker is a fragile, dimly glowing, amber sphere five inches in diameter. A pair of matching pin-pricks will glow from the wrist-ward end of the newly-made bracer.
Taarna can see herself and everything around her in 360 degrees. She realizes that she is viewing the scene through the glowing, translucent amber sphere. Then the globe begins to float up, slowly at first, but steadily gaining speed...
The sphere rises above the forested hills of Klarr and heads southwest. It travels into the sky and passes near Griffon Mountain before moving onto rocky hills and then a high mountain range. After this comes a massive valley with a small forest near the middle and a large river running through it. Beyond are a wide band of hills with with river canyon splitting them in twain. The sphere is moving at incredible speeds now as it whizzes along the edge of a valley encircled by massive, snow-capped mountains, though at least one peak has the smoking plume of an active volcano. The sphere now starts its descent, flashing over a white, barren desert of powdered lye beyond the smoking mountain range. Countless leagues of wasteland slide away before Taarna catches a momentary glimpse of ancient ruins half-buried in the white sands. The spheres slams into and through these stones, to somewhere beneath...and Taarna feels an echoing pulse to the first one...
Taarna immediately sets out, joined by Rhom StrongArm, fellow Knight of the Hart and of the Wild March, and Esmerelda StrongArm, the Green Witch of Klarr, and her barn owl familiar, Drusilla. Todar Giantslayer suggests that his apprentice, Visglir, should accompany the group, "it will be almost like old times," he jokes. Joining the two Knights is Aeronne, paladin of Angellus; he is hoping to avoid all the pagans that plagued him in his earlier adventures serving under Prince Garlok...poor guy! Corvin Oakmead, the local dwarven nobleman, also agrees to join the expedition, joining his former adventuring companion, Esmerelda. The Violet Witch of Klarr, Saanau, helps round out the party, a winged elf, she is a very powerful mage, having joined Taarna's group which attacked Dorakaa. Finally, the traveling monk, Ichi, seeks to join the group. He knows Saanau and seeks to travel as far from the center of the Flanaese as possible...!
The group spends two days moving through the woods on horseback, coming to the town of Nulb late in the day. Thanks to the information gained from the children, the party knows that the Temple of Elemental Evil is making a comeback and the town is their base of operations. The party nearly flattens the place as they travel through. On the morning of the 2nd, at the edge of the wood within sight of griffon mountain, the party (really, their horses) are attacked by hungry griffons. The party slaughters the four before they know what hit them, but two of the ridding horses are slain. The group purchases two new ones in Yursil and continues on. The same day, they're ambushed by four ettin. Taarna spies the ambush and surprises THEM! The heroes make very short work of the giants and track them back to their lair, a silver mine filled with recently-slain dwarves. The party gathers what treasure they can and Esmerelda dimensional folds the rest to her room in Klarr for later. That afternoon, as the heroes are burying the dead miners, elves of Celene arrive and ask the heroes for help with a problem -- minotaur and drow have invaded a section of their forest!
The trip costs the group three days of travel (two there and one back), but Taarna agrees. The master ranger tracks the minotaur and the group come to a maze-like thicket. There, they slaughter a half dozen giant spiders before encountering the minotaur encampment. The creatures are no match for the heroes, despite being armed with StrongArm weapons and armor stolen from Corvin's merchant caravans! A lesser priest of the TEE is the author of the situation, controlling the spiders with a magical ring (there are no drow, but the ring came from another TEE operative whose plan to use bugbears to attack Klarr failed). Again, Esemerlda uses a dimensional fold to send the left over loot back to Klarr. The heroes spend a couple hours to "clear the woods" of giant spiders and then continue on their quest with a special prize -- a writ of passage through Celene!
Early on the 6th, the heroes reach the pass through the Lortmils. They spend fives uneventful days traveling the winding mountain roads when they're attacked by a pair of chimera. The flaming breath of the creatures kill all of the horse as well as Esmerelda's dire wolf companions, Skögul and Róta. Visglir and Drusilla also join them. Rhom's hammer, Saanau's spells, and Aeronne's flame strike (via a ring!), however, balance the situation and the monsters fall quickly. The heroes lick their wounds and continue, only to be surrounded by four criosphinxes. The ram's headed creatures are trying to extort the party for "safe passage"! Rhom's hammer wounds one and they respond with dropping boulders, but Saanau quickly whips up a wall of force to give them cover. The range of Night Splitter confounds the sphinxes' plan as it offers long range attacks. Three charge Rhom but with the help of Aeronne, Corvin, Visglir, and Ichi, they're quickly bested. Saanau mops up what still is capable of twitching. Taarna, meanwhile, climbs up to the leader of the sphinx, now unable to fly and trapped on a peak thanks to the elf's magic missiles. The heroes accept his surrender in exchange for his treasure, but Esmerelda's ESP reveals that the creature doesn't plan to keep it's word. So, Rhom shatters both its wings and tells it to avenge itself on his home in Nulb or die here.
The heroes reach the bottom of the pass and resupply at the trading post.
Now, the night after her fosterling, Martin, celebrates his coming-of-age, Taarna decides to open the sphere. With her are Rhom, Esmerelda, Moorak, Brand, Saanau, and Treblo as well several of curious Klarrians, including orcish children spying out their second story bedrooms. In early morning light of the archer-field south of Klarr, just within sight of the Red Witch's orphanage, Taarna walks to the center of the clearing and puts the sphere into her right hand. She holds it slightly above shoulder height and speaks the command, "awaken!" in Suloise. For a brief moment, nothing happens, then several of the jewels seem to twinkle and a subtle pulse surges out as the globe comes to life.
The shell of the globe peels away like the rind of an orange. These bands of metal slither down and onto Taarna's right arm, coiling along her forearm like snakes where they congeal into a strangely-tooled, twined steel bracer. Floating an inch above the palm of the speaker is a fragile, dimly glowing, amber sphere five inches in diameter. A pair of matching pin-pricks will glow from the wrist-ward end of the newly-made bracer.
Taarna can see herself and everything around her in 360 degrees. She realizes that she is viewing the scene through the glowing, translucent amber sphere. Then the globe begins to float up, slowly at first, but steadily gaining speed...
The sphere rises above the forested hills of Klarr and heads southwest. It travels into the sky and passes near Griffon Mountain before moving onto rocky hills and then a high mountain range. After this comes a massive valley with a small forest near the middle and a large river running through it. Beyond are a wide band of hills with with river canyon splitting them in twain. The sphere is moving at incredible speeds now as it whizzes along the edge of a valley encircled by massive, snow-capped mountains, though at least one peak has the smoking plume of an active volcano. The sphere now starts its descent, flashing over a white, barren desert of powdered lye beyond the smoking mountain range. Countless leagues of wasteland slide away before Taarna catches a momentary glimpse of ancient ruins half-buried in the white sands. The spheres slams into and through these stones, to somewhere beneath...and Taarna feels an echoing pulse to the first one...
Taarna immediately sets out, joined by Rhom StrongArm, fellow Knight of the Hart and of the Wild March, and Esmerelda StrongArm, the Green Witch of Klarr, and her barn owl familiar, Drusilla. Todar Giantslayer suggests that his apprentice, Visglir, should accompany the group, "it will be almost like old times," he jokes. Joining the two Knights is Aeronne, paladin of Angellus; he is hoping to avoid all the pagans that plagued him in his earlier adventures serving under Prince Garlok...poor guy! Corvin Oakmead, the local dwarven nobleman, also agrees to join the expedition, joining his former adventuring companion, Esmerelda. The Violet Witch of Klarr, Saanau, helps round out the party, a winged elf, she is a very powerful mage, having joined Taarna's group which attacked Dorakaa. Finally, the traveling monk, Ichi, seeks to join the group. He knows Saanau and seeks to travel as far from the center of the Flanaese as possible...!
The group spends two days moving through the woods on horseback, coming to the town of Nulb late in the day. Thanks to the information gained from the children, the party knows that the Temple of Elemental Evil is making a comeback and the town is their base of operations. The party nearly flattens the place as they travel through. On the morning of the 2nd, at the edge of the wood within sight of griffon mountain, the party (really, their horses) are attacked by hungry griffons. The party slaughters the four before they know what hit them, but two of the ridding horses are slain. The group purchases two new ones in Yursil and continues on. The same day, they're ambushed by four ettin. Taarna spies the ambush and surprises THEM! The heroes make very short work of the giants and track them back to their lair, a silver mine filled with recently-slain dwarves. The party gathers what treasure they can and Esmerelda dimensional folds the rest to her room in Klarr for later. That afternoon, as the heroes are burying the dead miners, elves of Celene arrive and ask the heroes for help with a problem -- minotaur and drow have invaded a section of their forest!
The trip costs the group three days of travel (two there and one back), but Taarna agrees. The master ranger tracks the minotaur and the group come to a maze-like thicket. There, they slaughter a half dozen giant spiders before encountering the minotaur encampment. The creatures are no match for the heroes, despite being armed with StrongArm weapons and armor stolen from Corvin's merchant caravans! A lesser priest of the TEE is the author of the situation, controlling the spiders with a magical ring (there are no drow, but the ring came from another TEE operative whose plan to use bugbears to attack Klarr failed). Again, Esemerlda uses a dimensional fold to send the left over loot back to Klarr. The heroes spend a couple hours to "clear the woods" of giant spiders and then continue on their quest with a special prize -- a writ of passage through Celene!
Early on the 6th, the heroes reach the pass through the Lortmils. They spend fives uneventful days traveling the winding mountain roads when they're attacked by a pair of chimera. The flaming breath of the creatures kill all of the horse as well as Esmerelda's dire wolf companions, Skögul and Róta. Visglir and Drusilla also join them. Rhom's hammer, Saanau's spells, and Aeronne's flame strike (via a ring!), however, balance the situation and the monsters fall quickly. The heroes lick their wounds and continue, only to be surrounded by four criosphinxes. The ram's headed creatures are trying to extort the party for "safe passage"! Rhom's hammer wounds one and they respond with dropping boulders, but Saanau quickly whips up a wall of force to give them cover. The range of Night Splitter confounds the sphinxes' plan as it offers long range attacks. Three charge Rhom but with the help of Aeronne, Corvin, Visglir, and Ichi, they're quickly bested. Saanau mops up what still is capable of twitching. Taarna, meanwhile, climbs up to the leader of the sphinx, now unable to fly and trapped on a peak thanks to the elf's magic missiles. The heroes accept his surrender in exchange for his treasure, but Esmerelda's ESP reveals that the creature doesn't plan to keep it's word. So, Rhom shatters both its wings and tells it to avenge itself on his home in Nulb or die here.
The heroes reach the bottom of the pass and resupply at the trading post.
