The Characters
Vahlna'LA Neria Ar'ae'oe Tha'nyssa
(Neria Bladesinger) –
Elven Protector
Lord Thó'ef Sharpshooter – Former Guardian
of the Silver Tree, Elf.
Fifthbthidl – Sprite
Narwalla – Halfling Nomad Gatecrasher
Yo-yi – Awakened Chimpanzee Monk
Roland – Chaos Lord of Oard, Human
Phoebe – Sorceress, Human
The Place: Redshore
(small city): Standard;
Neria and Lord Thó'ef sat in Neria's castle and played a game of chess.
Neria had brown hair, and almond shaped green eyes.
Above them hovered an invisible sprite that had a thing for Neria.
The sprite's name was Fifthbthidl.
Without warning, Neria, Fifthbthidl, and Lord Thó'ef each had a waking
vision of a beautiful elf woman floating in a domed underwater cathedral.
The woman seemed to be writhing in terrible agony, and her body shifted
and wavered as pain went through her. Beyond
her floated a roiling sphere of prismatic liquid.
The elf cried out in pain, "To Redshore! Urlkathoon!
They have gone to Redshore!"
Neria knew Redshore, one of the farthest outposts of the human race on
Inzeladun, was near a place the elves hid a great power.
She had recently been told to be warned if the humans start populating
places further north of Redshore. The
elves would fight back. She wondered
if that was what was going on. Lord
Thó'ef said, "We should go to this place.
Do you know where it is?"
"Aye," said Neria. "I
do. Xanthrall will get us
there." Neria and Thó'ef got
up from the gaming table to head for their rooms to dress for battle.
On the ethereal plane, Narwalla, a halfling gatecrasher, was eating a
meal with her companion, Yo-yi, an awakened chimpanzee monk, when both had the
same vision Neria and Thó'ef had. They
were not sure what it meant.
"I think it has something to do with the Prime Material world,"
said Yo-yi in his chimpish voice. "Let's go there."
"Alright," said Narwalla. She
activated her cubic gate and opened a random portal to the Prime Material Plane.
Yo-yi and Narwalla appeared in Neria's castle, high in the
The halfling just stood there, but the chimpanzee made chimpanzee noises.
Neria repeated her question. "I'm
Yo-yi!" said the chimpanzee. "This
is Narwalla!" The ape made more
chimpanzee hoots and squeals.
"Yeah," said the halfling. "I'm Narwalla."
"Who are you?" asked the chimpanzee.
Neria ignored the question. She
was not about to answer to an ape and one of the servitor races.
Instead she asked, "Why are you here?"
She wanted to just kill them and get it over with.
She didn't trust people who just walked into her fortress.
But they weren't really doing anything violent.
"We had a vision!" said Yo-yi.
The chimpanzee nudged the halfling beside him. "Tell her about the
vision!"
"Yeah," said the halfling. "We had a vision." She
stuck her tongue out at the ape.
"Tell her about the elf in the vision!" said Yo-yi.
"Yeah, there was a woman in it."
The halfling spoke softly, and her eyes never left the eyes of the ape.
Neria wondered if the halfling was charmed by the ape.
Was the ape a wizard?
"She was in pain," the ape reminded her.
Narwalla nodded and said, "Yeah, in pain."
She still did not look away from the chimpanzee.
Neria nodded to Himreth Xanoniel, the second in command of her castle,
and motioned quietly for her take care of these two visitors.
She said to Thó'ef, "Let's go.
Xanthrall should be ready now."
Thó'ef nodded.
"Can a dragon carry us too?" asked Yo-yi between monkey hoots
and howls.
"Who says you are going," asked Neria, irritated.
"No."
Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, Narwalla recalled that she could
teleport them all there if she had a description of the place.
She mentioned that to Neria, and Neria grudgingly told her where Redshore
was. Narwalla closed her eyes and
manifested the power. With a
flash of green light, Neria, Fifthbthidl, Thó'ef, Narwalla, and Yo-yi
vanished, reappearing in an instant outside the red walls of Redshore.
Redshore, however, was in the midst of a hurricane.
With difficulty, they reached the gates, and Yo-yi climbed the wet, red
walls and opened the gates. They
passed through the section of town devoted to Redshore's thriving whaling
business, the most lucrative and prosperous venture in town.
This section of town was now little more than a tangled mess of lumber.
They reached the bridges over the
The near-hurricane that wreathed the town made travel through the streets
difficult. They didn't see any
people for the longest time. Most of
the buildings were boarded up or just out-right abandoned.
They dodged pieces of roofing that blew off of the buildings in the
strong winds. Finally, Yo-yi saw a
person moving across the street. Faster
than the others, Yo-yi went to the man and said, "What is going on
here?"
The man was shocked that a chimpanzee was speaking to him.
He saw the others coming. One
was obviously an elf. He carried a
bow. Another must have been one of
those halflings he had heard of. Another
was with them, shrouded in a billowing cloak.
The chimpanzee repeated his question.
The man thought he must be going mad, but ever since the animals had been
acting so strange around the city, he didn't know what to expect.
"Uh, heading for the Hall of Records where the town leaders are
meeting."
Yo-yi rushed back to Neria and told her that they needed to go to the
Hall of Records. They followed the
man through the empty city to the Hall.
The Hall of Records was where the majority of the town's records were
kept: tax information, payment records, birth and death records, land deeds,
pretty much anything of a non-military nature.
Inside, they found a lively meeting in progress in the main meeting hall.
The participants in that meeting all watched as the rain-soaked party walked in.
Neria approached first, but the leader of the civilians said,
"Welcome! I am Erik Lorchester,
the son of the late ruler. This is
Sara Remme, representing the Redshore guard, Sir Delon Basilwik, representing
the Redshore Merchant's Guild, and Prelate Ivalar Skeen, representing the House
of Timballayamu. Who might you
be?"
"I am Neria Bladesinger. With
me is Thó'ef Sharpshooter, Narwalla, and Yo-yi."
"Yeah, I am Yo-yi!" said the chimpanzee, making more ape
noises. "What going on in this
town?"
"Well, about seven weeks ago, ships in the vicinity reported
increased trouble," started Erik, but Yo-yi interrupted him.
"Who attacked? Is storm
natural?"
"I don't know," answered Erik, a bit disconcerted that he was
talking to an ape. Neria tried to
interject a comment, but then Fifthbthidl began barraging them with questions,
despite his invisibility. The
assembled people began to get extremely nervous and frightened of the newcomers.
Erik became very nervous. Ivalar
spoke up and said, "I think these people may be part of it.
They are not human. None of
them. And I don't like this voice
from the air."
"That's enough, Ivalar," said Erik.
Neria closed her eyes. Why
was she saddled with invisible sprites and talking chimpanzees?
There was no saving this situation at this point, so she gave up.
However, Fifthbthidl did not. He
cast charm person on Ivalar, and flew
down beside him, still invisible and whispered, "What has happened to your
town?" Ivalar, hearing the
voice, asked the question of Erik. Erik
said, "You know what has happened here, Ivalar!
No ships for three weeks. Animal
attacks. Attacks from elementals.
Be quiet for a moment."
Fifthbthidl continued to speak invisibly to Ivalar, causing him to act
strangely, and Yo-yi continued his ape antics.
Neria and Thó'ef could only stand and stare, much like the leading
citizens of Redshore. All were
growing angry. Narwalla, however, was oblivious, and just watched Yo-yi.
Finally Erik had enough, and he ordered Ivalar back to his temple and to
get out of the Hall of Records. He
also ordered the strangers out as well. Fifthbthidl
told Ivalar to wait outside for them. Neria
marched out, followed by Thó'ef. Fifthbthidl
noticed a beautiful, although short, woman taking notes of the entire event.
He then followed Neria, Thó'ef, Yo-yi and Narwalla out the door.
Neria saw the lighthouse in the distance, so she wanted to go there, to
climb its height and see if she could see anything out in the sea that could be
causing this. Still angry, wishing
she could find a reason to kill the chimpanzee and his fawning companion, and
the damn sprite, she nearly stomped the entire way across the silent city,
daring the rain, wind, and lighting to harm her.
Fifthbthidl stayed inside the Hall of Records.
He listened to them wonder at the strange behavior of the priest, and
heard Eric say it was a wonder they weren't all mad.
The beautiful, but short, girl stood up and said, "I know I am just
the record keeper here, but I have something to say."
Fifthbthidl thought her voice was quite musical.
"If none of you louts are going to say it, I will.
We all have heard for years that the Shadow Shoal has established a base
of operations here and everyone is too afraid to talk about it.
Those that talk about the Shadow Shoal end up dead, or worse!
Nevermind the fact that until today, we haven't had anything remotely
like an assassination in Redshore at all; if there were a branch of the Shadow
Shoal operating in this town of the past year or more, wouldn't we have seen
evidence of their actions well before today?
If you ask me the problem is up north.
They've got a circle of druids leading the giants there.
Maybe something riled them and they're taking it out on us!
Anyway, I hate to interrupt things, but I just had to let you know where
I stand on it."
"Thank you, Amyrella," said Erik.
Fifthbthidl decided to leave the building and let Neria in on this
information.
As Neria, Thó'ef, Yo-yi and Narwalla raced across the town, the latter
three trying to keep up with Neria, Fifthbthidl spoke to the charmed Ivalar.
He learned that elementals had attacked the keep and killed Erik's
father, and that the temples in town were filled with wounded and dying.
Most of the survivors had fled the town, although a few here and there
were holed up in their houses or shops. Fifthbthidl
thanked the priest and then caught up with Neria and the others.
He noted that the sun was going down.
Neria made her way to the to the lighthouse.
She was extremely angry by this point.
She pounded on the door of the lighthouse.
The door opened and Tanner Herrison opened it slightly, worried more
animals were assaulting the city. He
saw a cloaked figure at the door. He
couldn't see the others behind her clearly at all because of the rain, wind, and
mist. He said, "What'cha
want?"
"I want in," Neria said, careful to keep her hood drawn to hide
her ears and eyes. "I need to look out into the bay."
"Yer voice is almost musical. You
related to Amyrella Kientai, the record-keeper?
Yer voice is similar."
Neria pulled down her hood, thinking Amyrella must also be an elf, so
this man would not fear her. Immediately
Tanner Herrison recognized the features of an elf, the first he had ever seen.
He slammed the door shut. Neria
whipped out her blade and slammed her shoulder into the heavy door, trying to
break it down.
Yo-yi saw the futility of trying to bash in the door and tried to climb
the lighthouse, but the heavy winds kept him from succeeding.
Then the winds calmed.
"Uh, oh," thought Neria. Then
more rain began to fall. The rain
this time was acidic, and burned. She
saw lights at a large building near the shore.
She pointed to the building and said, "Run for there!"
As they ran, they saw another man in the street, coming out to look at
the sky. Suddenly lightning struck
down and hit the man. Yo-yi diverted
his course to run to the man to see if he was still alive.
Then lightning struck the top of the lighthouse, and it exploded into
shards of glass and stone.
Yo-yi checked the man and found he was dead.
Yo-yi made chimp noises and ran toward the others, and was nearly struck
down by lightning himself. Yo-yi
dodged the blast adroitly, then joined the others as Neria and Thó'ef broke
down the door. The winds resumed
their hurricane force.
They found themselves in a small shipyard.
The bulk of the building consisted of a construction room, complete with
two large wooden cranes and block-and-tackle apparatus for lifting heavy
objects. Ships were built directly
on a launching ramp that extended out the southern face of the building, which
bore a heavy pair of massive doors that allowed most of the southern wall to be
opened to the harbor. Although the
doors were now closed, the southern half of this huge room was flooded.
The northern third of the building was enclosed, containing office
spaces. Neria wanted to go up into
the tower she saw on the east side of the building, so she led the way upstairs.
They found a bedroom and an observation room.
Nothing of real interest until Fifthbthidl found a secret door.
Inside the secret door was a room full of documents and maps, and a coral
ring on one wall. The coral ring had
a five foot diameter, and was several inches thick.
Neria and Thó'ef looked through the papers, for they could read the
Drychtnothian the papers were written in, although all present could tell many
of the sheaves of paper were floor plans. There
were floor plans for a walking castle built by Grindill, for the
Fifthbthidl told Neria and Thó'ef what he heard about the giants in the
Hall of Records, as well as the comments about the Shadow Shoal.
Yo-yi and Narwalla investigated the coral ring, for Narwalla could see it
was a portal. She tried to force it
to open to its true destination, and, in failing that attempt, activated the
trap. She vanished.
Yo-yi cried out and touched the center of the ring.
He also vanished.
Yo-yi and Narwalla found themselves four and a half miles beneath the
ocean. The pressure hit them
suddenly, like a building of stone had been dropped upon them unexpectedly.
The air was knocked out of them instantly.
The weight of the water, the pressures above them, squashed Narwalla
almost immediately. Yo-yi had enough presence of mind to try to take an abundant
step upward, to reduce the pressures. He
vanished, and reappeared, and the reappearance, despite his readiness, hit him
like a solid blow. He vainly tried
to swim, but he felt his skull start to collapse, and then darkness overtook
him.
Far away, Roland, the Chaos Lord of Oard, was in his castle, talking with
Phoebe. Roland had a curious aura of chaotic power about him, despite
his appearance akin to a peddler or tinkerer.
Roland wore an old wide-brimmed hat, a worn and threaded cloak, a loose
shirt with wide sleeves, a dusty pair of trousers, and a dirty pair of well-worn
work boots. Phoebe, blonde haired
and slender, had a wonderfully graceful, although languid movements. Suddenly,
the vision came upon them both. They
saw a beautiful elf woman floating in a domed underwater cathedral.
The woman seemed to be writhing in terrible agony, and her body shifted
and wavered as pain went through her. Beyond
her floated a roiling sphere of prismatic liquid.
The elf cried out in pain, "To Redshore! Urlkathoon!
They have gone to Redshore!"
Immediately Roland was galvanized into action.
He looked up old maps and found the location of Redshore.
He didn't know what this vision was all about.
For all he knew it was something he had sent himself.
It was hard telling sometimes. He
grabbed Phoebe by the hand and teleported
to the mapped location. He was hit
by hurricane force winds. The red
walls before him was barely discernable. He
did note that he was standing amidst the ruins of the central castle of the
city. Ruins?
His hat blew off, and he barely caught it.
He made his way through the still open gates of central portion of the
city. The winds were less here,
blocked by buildings, although in a few of the alleys and streets, the winds
were actually increased in magnitude, channeled into strength.
Where to go?
He saw lights at a nearby building, and people were leaving that
building, struggling against the winds and the rains.
He caught up to one, Phoebe still in tow.
He caught the man's arm. Erik
Lorchester turned around. Erik instantly recognized the man. Roland was not a man
easily forgotten, although now there was something vaguely threatening about the
man, a nameless fright that hovered around him like a cloak of dark bats.
"I am Roland," said Roland.
Erik said, "I am Erik Lorchester, son of the ruler.
I once knew a man named Roland, a shipwright in Lamapacher."
"I am he!"
"No shit!" said Erik.
Neria and Thó'ef went to the coral ring when Yo-yi and Narwalla
vanished. Fifthbthidl said,
"No! It is trapped.
They are surely dead." Neria
pursed her lips, said a silent farewell and returned to the maps and documents.
Neria discovered that the coral rings were indeed portals, and to use
them properly, the one touching it must have a certain tattoo on them.
They also discovered this building belonged to Aaron Kientai.
The name was recognizable as having the same last name as the record
keeper at the Hall of Records. Fifthbthidl
decided he wanted more information from the humans, so he polymorphed into human
form and left the shipyard, braving the rain and lightning to return to the Hall
of Records. Neria and Thó'ef
continued to sort through the papers and maps.
Inside Kestral House, the highest quality inn in Redshore, Erik and
Roland spoke about what had been going on while Phoebe looked out of the window
at the falling rain. Roland found
out that seven weeks ago, ships in the vicinity of Redshore reported increased
trouble with the sea life. Whales in
particular were acting strangely antagonistic toward the vessels.
Four weeks ago, this strange activity increased as numbers of whales and
even elementals began to sink ships traveling to and from Redshore.
Word spread quickly, and all trade and travel via the sea dropped off
within a few days. No new ships had
arrived at Redshore for the past three weeks.
Food stores in the city were beginning to run low.
Three weeks ago, animal attacks began to increase in the outlying areas.
Two weeks ago, the animal attacks spread to the city itself.
They had to put pets and horses to death.
One week ago, elementals and various plant monsters joined the animals.
The city guard was hard pressed to keep the streets safe.
The storms began one week ago as well.
They had been slowly building in power to the hurricane force winds that
currently pound the city. They
brought freak lightning storms as well, the bolts of which seem to unerringly
seek out large buildings and individuals.
Five days ago, a large number of water elementals burst out of a sewer
entrance in the northwestern part of the city.
They were led by a water elemental of great size that commanded powerful
magic. The elementals destroyed
several buildings before they were forced to retreat.
Three days ago, a host of water, earth, and air elementals struck at the
whaling industry in the southern portion of the town at the height of one of the
destructive lightning storms. At the
same time, a great scarred sperm whale swam into the harbor and destroyed many
of the docks and waterfront warehouses.
Yesterday, a third attack proved more devastating than anything that came
before. A huge number of elementals,
led this time by a spellcasting air elemental of enormous size, struck at
Lorchester Keep. The battle was
furious, and although the elementals were eventually repulsed, only a quarter of
the city guard survived the battle. Lord
Lorchester himself was slain in the battle, and the survivors have had to
abandon their ruined keep to live in the town.
After hearing all of that information, Roland asked Erik what he planned
to do now. Erik answered, "We
intend to wait until tomorrow in hopes that the worst of the storm passes, at
which time we plan on traveling from door to door recruiting as many citizens as
possible into a militia to help defend the city.
The problem is that we don't know who our enemy is, or where they are
located. Although some of us on the
council believe the elves and that monkey are involved somehow."
"Elves?"
"Elves."
"And a monkey?"
"And a monkey. The
leader called herself Neria."
Roland nodded his head slowly. He
had heard of Neria, a name spoken of in whispers, a bringer of death to mankind,
an appointed protector of elves. "Where are they now?"
"I believe they went toward the bay, perhaps to the
lighthouse."
Fifthbthidl had invisibly gained access to the Hall of Records.
He found where the records were kept, but found nothing of real interest.
However, when he followed Amyrella to her bedroom, he discovered she had
a coral ring on the wall over the head of her bed… and that she wore the
tattoo that would allow the ring to really work.
Fifthbthidl decided to return to the shipyard and rejoin Neria and Thó'ef.
Roland and Phoebe ran through the rain and wind toward the lighthouse.
They saw the lighthouse had been destroyed, but they also saw a light on
at the shipyard. They decided to go
that way. They entered through the
door, and Fifthbthidl stopped them, saying, "Stop!"
Neria heard voices downstairs. Thó'ef
went down to investigate. Neria
returned to her reading as the elf archer went silently down the steps.
Thó'ef entered the room and saw two humans arguing with the invisible
Fifthbthidl. Humans. He shook
himself. Neria's attitudes were
rubbing off on him. He stepped into
the light. "Hello," he
said. "I am Thó'ef."
Roland looked at the elf and said, "I am Roland, Chaos Lord of Oard.
This is Phoebe. We are here
to help, but I am not sure yet in what capacity."
Thó'ef could sense the power radiating out from the man.
The elf didn't know what a Chaos Lord was, nor where Oard was, but he
could tell the man meant business. The
man's personality was powerful. "Follow
me," said Thó'ef. He was
impressed by this human; he seemed very much like Grimhelm in many ways.
Phoebe followed behind Roland quietly. Her wisdom was a silent wisdom, one
of action, not words.
Upstairs, Roland was introduced to Neria.
Immediately, both of them felt respect for the other.
Neria could tell he was the keeper of an ancient magic, and could smell
the taint of Angust upon him. Roland,
for his part, knew she was charged with hard responsibilities by the Elven
rulers. Her presence signaled
something dark to Roland. There was
a pall of doom hanging over the city and he was ready to get out of there at the
first sign of trouble. Neria glanced
up at him, meeting his gaze, and he felt a little uncomfortable, though he could
not say why. She handed him a sheaf
of papers. He looked through them
quickly. Maps of his castle.
Documentation on what he had been doing.
Very thorough documentation to boot.
He wondered what it all meant.
To be Continued…