THE KISS AND TELL POST
Here are all of my e-mails, to everyone in the IR, concerning your Secret Retreats.
As of this moment, everything in these e-mails is public IC knowledge to everyone in the IR.
- - -
TO ALYX
There is a place on the great map (I mean, the big one, not the one Maudlin made) called the Dragon Isles.
The Metallic Dragons, have a civilization there.
Think of the setting TSR produced that allowed you to run a Dragon as a Player Character.
It's like that.
A whole civilization of dragons. Good dragons only, in this case.
There are a limited (I do mean limited) number of humans and demihumans living with them - all are bonded with a specific dragon (ala Pern.)
Now, the Metallic Dragons are opening up the Dragon Isles for your people.
Your people can now freely travel to the Dragon Isles.
But nobody else. And the Dragons, are real good at spotting spies and those that do not belong.
The Dragon Isles do not have 10th level magic, but they have dragon magic, and with their combined strength, the dragons have rendered the Dragon Isles immune to scrying.
They are immune even to 10th level scrying!
You could evacuate your entire population to the Dragon Isles, and nobody would find you!
For even if they searched the Isles, they would not find you. The Dragons have caverns that extend miles beneath the earth, and they have extradimensional spaces, and the greater part of their entire civilization is protected by an extremely powerful illusion that not only makes them invisible, but one could walk right through one of their cities, and never feel anything,
touch anything, hear anything, or anything else - it would all look, sound, feel, like an ordinary rock field!!
And the Metallic Dragons are sharing special secrets of Dragon Lore with your
people.
This sharing increases your PL by 30 (you can do anything you want with it, too.)
Dragons shapechanged into human form are secretly working with your elves and the oriental people of the Celestial Imperium, to help you in every way.
Some of them are bonding with your people (and there are cases of romance blooming, also.)
- - -
TO ANABSTERCORIAN
From Telchuria, the polar continent, comes a message of alliance to the Solistarim.
These are a race of beings akin to elves, but they are as white as bone, and they are cold to the touch.
They cannot abide warmth, and hibernate during Telchuria's summer, but are active during the other three seasons.
Any temperature above 0 Fahrenheit (- 18 Celsius) makes them uncomfortable, and most prefer it around - 40 Fahrenheit (- 40 Celsius.)
They live in great ice castles above ground, which they maintain by magic.
Below ground, they live in the icecaps and glaciers themselves, in a kind of Underdark of Ice.
In that ice, they have built vast and wondrous caverns, beautiful and protected by magic, in which hundreds of thousands of them live.
They also live in great floating icebergs, which with their magic are a mile wide and sometimes thousands of feet high, that drift in the frigid ocean between Telchuria and the lands to the south.
They are a noble but alien people, their motives unguessable.
They are offering alliance to the Solistarim, for they are enemies of the Stormriders (who are played by Zelda, and thus a part of the Alliance of Oerth.)
They also are immune to scrying, even by 10th level magic.
They offer refuge to all of the Solistarim, should the Solistarim be driven from the Godspires.
In their cities of ice, lit by magic and by the sunlight reflecting through the ice, magnified by great mirrors set up by these people, they can accommodate your entire population, should that become necessary.
There are vast numbers of quaggoths (Abominable snowmen) who serve these Ice Elves (NOT to be confused with the ice elves in the article in Dragon Magazine.)
These quaggoths are loyal only to them, and know nothing of Sollir, who plays the quaggoths of the Burneal.
They also have a formidable army of white puddings, which have been given magical intelligence, and which are totally loyal to the Ice Elves. A kind of telepathy enables them to communicate with these devastatingly powerful servants.
Their PL is 50, and that PL is now yours. Along with Inor Taladost, their land in Telchuria.
Addenda:
The Ice Elves teach your Solistarim a magical power that prior to now only they knew.
With this power, you can render yourself unscriable by 10th level magic, without having to go anywhere.
They teach you have to metamorphose yourself into ice.
Once in that form, you cannot be harmed, even if turned into water or steam.
Once in that form, you cannot be scried.
All who are in iceform have a communal telepathy with others in snowform, within 1 mile.
All in iceform can observe what is going on around them as well.
They can think normally.
They are not bothered by sensory deprivation, the passing of time (which to them is vague and meaningless), nor do they need to eat, drink, or sleep.
This is how the Ice Elves hibernate in the summer, going deep into the everfrozen glaciers of their land, and assuming iceform for the summer months in Telchuria.
They maintain their offer to evacuate your people if you are whelmed, on their great iceberg castles, but they give you this secret in case you cannot escape in time.
(Comment: And you thought the Solistarim had all run away. LOL. The caverns of the Solistarim are often filled with ice, for the climate above is glacial. A few extra bits of ice here and there were never noticed ...)
- - -
TO ALZEM
Alzem's Secret Retreat is Hope Isle, Oerth.
TO BLACK OMEGA
Underneath Vesve Forest, is a series of great caverns. Great is not the word: in ancient times, some vast cataclysm blasted the entire
region, and the bedrock of the planet shattered.
The result is a series of caverns, stacked on top of each other, merging into each other, some many miles wide and 10s of miles long, extending downward for 20 miles into the Oerth.
Great crystals, some 50 feet in diameter and 2000 feet tall, illuminate the entire area of caverns. These crystals are broken and shattered for the most part, so some of as small as gems, while others are the size of a skyscraper.
Most glow a brilliant green color, but some are blue, and some are purple. There are isolated caverns where they all glow yellow or orange. Red is extremely rare, though.
And in the glow of these crystals, in the caverns, is the true Vesve Forest.
The area below the Vesve Forest is, in length and width, the SIZE of Vesve Forest, and it is 20 miles deep.
The roots and great tap roots of the trees of the Vesve do not taper off as they go down into the soil - at about 100 feet down, they come into these caverns, and have grown downward.
For millennia, they have grown, downward, sideways, everyway, while creating topsoil, which now covers all the rocky shelves of the caverns.
Now, all the caverns are filled with a three-dimensional forest, of wooden boles running all ways, of shrubs growing out of the dirt, of vines stretching across the caverns.
This Underworld is a paradise, and a race called the Myconid (Fungus Men, who range in size from one inch tall to 8 feet tall) cultivate and protect this vast forest.
They are the gardeners of this forest.
The caretakers are the Faerie. Undisturbed down here, the Faerie are omnipresent in this forest. Especially the grigs and sylphs.
The Faerie have shielded this place from all scrying (it cannot be scried with 10th level magic.)
There are many strange beings down here (think of the various neutral and good oddities from the MMs.) All of them respect and serve the
Faerie, and all of them respect the forest they live in.
Down at the very bottom, is a lake. A lake the size of the Vesve Forest. For water drips down from above, and runs through all the forest, and finally makes it's way to the bottom.
The great sea is not fed from the nearby Whyestil Sea, or it would drain that sea away.
Evaporation from the sea occurs, and it is humid and misty at all times in the great forest.
Actual clouds will form in the upper caverns, for the sea at the bottom is quite hot, being down at the terminus of the planet's crust.
The Faerie will conjure rain from these clouds, and sometimes thunder and lightning occur, a mystery to those who live on the surface.
Up until now, they have not contacted the surface, save in secret and then rarely.
Now, they are allying with their surface brethren.
You could hide your entire population, faerie and mortal, down here, and nobody would ever find you, unless they came physically and stated they started digging holes under the Vesve to find you.
You could be wiped out on the surface, but be perfectly intact down here.
Down here is a food source more than sufficient to feed 100 times your current population, with ease and without disturbing the natural ecosystem.
This place has a PL of 25.
- - -
TO CREAMSTEAK
The elves of Delrune know that they have a magical bond with the very land itself.
Elves and their land are inseparable in so many tangible and intangible ways - it is one of the classic things about elves that this is so.
Well, from the very earth itself, and out of the very essense of the magic (the Weave, as it were) comes a large force of baelnorn (elven liches of good alignment and a very few who are neutral) to help you.
Along with watchnorns (elven spectres and ghosts (of a sort) of good alignment, and other types of good elven undead.
This force has a PL of 30, and that PL is yours now. This force is joining Delrune, taking your side in the war.
But they are doing a heck of a lot more for you than that!
They instruct your people in how to not only feel the magic, but how to BECOME the magic.
In effect, they teach your people how to merge with the essense of the magic itself, disappearing into that magic, vanishing from existence.
In Weaveform, as this is called, your elves need not sleep, eat, drink, nor do they age, or suffer from sensory deprivation, nor is the passage of time a concern to them.
They are aware of all that is going on around them - they can move about in Weaveform freely, but they cannot leave Delrune while in Weaveform, or assume Weaveform outside of Delrune - and they have a kind of communal telepathy that allows them to communicate with all others who are in Weaveform within one mile of themselves.
In Weaveform, they cannot be scried - not even by 10th level magic - for they do not exist. There are no elves to be scried! Only the raw essence of magic, which the scrier cannot make anything of.
Thus, your entire population could hide in Weaveform, and nobody would ever be able to find them. Delrune could be overrun, but all it's elven people would be completely safe in Weaveform, unharmed!
Unfortunately, humans and giants cannot learn this secret. Only elves. It is a part of the unique elven mindset, and it cannot be taught to non-elves (half-elves can understand it, though.)
- - -
TO DAGGER
All under the 3 Uleks, are veins of metal. Gold, silver, copper, platinum, and the rare vein of mithril and adamantium.
Unlike normal veins of metal, however, these are very long veins, and they all angle towards a great nexus far below the surface of the earth.
Where all the veins meet and intertwine, is a realm of the Galeb Duhr, the beings of primordial rock.
These beings are now surfacing, and teaching a great magical secret to all of your people.
The secret of assuming rockform.
Once your people assume rockform, they cannot fight, but they cannot be harmed, even if the rock they became is turned to lava.
In rockform, they can flow through the earth, at a normal walking speed.
But if, in rockform, they go to the veins of metal, they are wisked at great speed to the Nexus.
At the Nexus, there is a great chamber lit up by glowing metal. Glowing silver, glowing gold, glowing copper, glowing mithril, even dark glowing adamantium.
This place cannot be scried by 10th level magic. The magical radiance of the metals block incoming scrying, jamming it like chaff or electronic countermeasures.
The chamber is huge, just as the veins are huge, and the veins run through the several cubic mile large chamber, filling it with wonder and light, and beauty.
It is large enough to hold all of your people in safety: a refuge for the people of the Kingdom of Ulek where nobody will ever find them.
Your people can grab things, even large things (like wagons) before assuming rockform. These merge with them, and when they reach the Nexus, they can assume their normal form again, and the objects will reappear.
There is no fresh air in the Nexus, but due to the magic of the Nexus, breathing is not necessary while you are there - regardless of what form
you are in.
The Galeb Duhr consider this the heart of their kingdom, their sacred place. They are bequeathing it to your Power as a santuary for your people, for they sympathize with your people and your cause, and are allying with you.
The great army of Galeb Duhr are coming from all their mysterious underground cities (which are not open spaces at all) to fight on your side.
They have a PL of 30. Now your PL, since they are strongly and firmly allying with the Kingdom of Keoland.
- - -
TO DARKNESS
Garnak Forest, the great forest raised by those people, was NOT destroyed by the Antimatter Barrage.
The trees withstood the blast waves, and no fire would catch in the great forest.
Only where antimatter missiles detonated within or near the forest itself, was there damage (there was major or total destruction from one direct hit within the forest, unfortunately, over a 1000 square mile area.)
Your people find that, within Garnak Forest, a secret awaits.
The Elder Baklunish are coming forth. They feel the time is at hand.
A vast army of them, undead all, but good undead. Wraiths, ghosts, liches, revenants, all on the side of the Baklunish.
They are totally friendly to your people. They have much to teach to your people.
They add 30 PL to your Power, this Army of the Elder Baklunish. That PL is now yours.
They show your people a secret.
A way of defending themselves against all enemies. A way to avoid being scried by 10th level magic.
A way for your entire people to hide, and never be found by anyone.
For the Elder Baklunish come from great, holy crypts and masoleums.
They show your people how to, in effect, descend into those crypts, and lay down, and place themselves into a form of suspended animation.
There are, literally, hundreds of thousands of these crypts within Garnak Forest.
While in this suspended animation, your people look like that are dead - long dead, and crumbled away to bone.
Probing will not reveal the truth, and hacking at the bones will do nothing - for all intents and purposes, your people ARE NOTHING but bones and rotted flesh while in this form, and cannot be harmed by any means!
The spirits of the forest also show your people how to assume treeform. In this living form, they are relatively invulnerable to harm, and almost impossible to find - there are endless millions of
trees in the forest. Which ones are ordinary trees, and which ones are shapechanged people? ALL the trees have a magical strength and hardness. Windstorms (and blast waves from nuclear explosions) will not blow them down. Normal weapons will not harm them.
Thus, it is now possible for you to sequester your entire population in Corpseform and Treeform. In the former state, they are totally invulnerable to harm, and in the latter form it is very difficult.
In both forms, you cannot be scried, for you do not in effect exist - there are no Baklunish to scry!
You cannot give this secret to non-Baklunish. The Elder Baklunish strictly forbid your people doing so. This secret is reserved for the Baklunish People alone, never to be given to anyone else.
Addenda:
Understand something about corpseform.
When your people lay themselves down in the crypts and graves of Garnak Forest, they become actually dead.
Nothing remains but bones and rotted flesh.
Being actually dead, they cannot be harmed - not even by a nuclear explosion. They are dead. The dead cannot be harmed.
When they decide, they can be instantly alive again, and are refreshed and well.
They can choose to be dead, or alive, at will - but they must be within Garnak Forest to do this, and must lay down in the graves and crypts to accomplish the feat.
Now, you must admit, that is one way to escape an opponent! If you are dead, he cannot harm you. After all, you are DEAD! Then, when you decide to be alive again, he's in for a nasty surprise (along with any wanderer foolishly and unknowingly walking through a Baklunish graveyard in Garnak Forest.)
When your people assume Corpseform, and become dead, all their equipment fades - so it cannot be plundered from them - and disappears.
When they decide to be alive again, those items - like their bodies - reappears.
When the scholars talked about Garnak Forest being a place of eldritch wizardry, they weren't kidding.
- - -
TO MR. DRACO / SERPENTEYE
Underneath the lands of Aerdi, is another land.
It is called the Underworld, and it is a place long reputed of, but never known about, until now.
It is colossally huge. It's caverns are a mile high, and 20 to 30 miles long, and there are hundreds of these caverns.
Molten rock flows through many of them, and the air is putrid and stinks (it would be unbreathable, but the magic of the drow makes it tolerable.)
The drow and the nibelungen (a magical race, a powerful race, of dwarves) dominate all of the Underworld.
They are not nice people.
Demons serve them, in vast numbers, and these demons do as they are told and do not complain, for the magical might of their mistresses and masters is awesome.
There are countless millions of slaves down here, kidnapped since time immemorial from the surface, over thousands of years.
These drow are immortal, unlike normal drow, and those who are enslaved to them are given this immortality also - they cannot die of disease or old age. For the slaves, this is no blessing, but the worst kind of curse - except for those who are romantically involved with their masters and mistresses.
They were not affected by Kalanyr's shift to good alignment, but they know about it, and they consider it the worst kind of sacrilege.
But these people do not worship Lolth.
These people worship the demon lords, and Ghuanadaur, and the Elder Elemental Gods.
The nibelungen, worship their own dark Gods, Gods of creation, battle, and magic.
There are many visitors to this world from other planes of existence, and even from Sigil, but none from the world above - these people desire secrecy, and have maintained that secrecy.
Until now.
Now, irritated by the Bombardment, and by events at the surface, they are taking it upon themselves to influence those events.
They join the Union of Oerth.
They cannot be scried. The UnderWorld cannot be scried. Not even by 10th level magic. Nobody knows these people are down here.
If the Union of Oerth is overrun, you could hide your entire population down here, and nobody would ever know about it.
Furthermore, they would welcome you, since they see the Union as a force that will unify the surface world above, and thus bring order and peace back to that world above, and thus they will be left alone again.
They have a PL of 100.
(Comment: And you thought the Union were turning into nice guys? LOL.)
- - -
TO FESTY DOG
The Sea of Dust is an uninhabitable waste that even monsters stay out of.
But at one time it was a green land, and a tremendously powerful nation, called the Suel Imperium, was there.
They had mighty magic, and indeed they could use 10th and 11th level magic.
They were all destroyed in the Rain of Colorless Fire. Everything above ground was destroyed.
But not everything below ground.
Your Underdark races have been exploring the tunnels that lead west under the Sea of Dust.
They have made a massive discovery.
They have found one of the ancient cities of the Suel Imperium.
This city had spires and buildings over a thousand feet tall.
This city went thousands of feet down, into the ground.
And now, you have found the city.
There are two things about this Lost City that make it crucially important for you.
One is that it cannot be magically scried. The ancient magics of the Suel are still in place - the city is protected from all scrying, even by 10th
level magic.
Another is the army of enchanted stone warriors.
Think of stone golems, but THESE stone golems (there are tens of thousands of them) were made by the Suel, and they will follow anyone who knows the
special magical command word to activate them.
They are all resting, as warriors would rest, in a great cavern at the very bottom of the city, more than a mile below the surface.
They carry adamantite maces, swords, and bows, and they are dressed in adamantite armor.
And they are now yours.
For your people, stumbled upon the secrets of the command word.
The army, arises, in it's countless ranks, to serve you.
This army has a PL of 30 (equivalent to the PL of the entire Dark Union at the beginning of the IR, they are so strong.)
You gain 30 PL. You may use the extra PL in any way you'd like, too.
You could hide your entire people in this city. Your whole army, and the few civilians too. And nobody would ever find you. Just block off the tunnel that you found that led to this place, and you are safe under the impenetrable
Sea of Dust!
And somewhere out there, there are more cities under the Sea of Dust. Your people continue to search the Underdark, trying to find them.
You have the Forgotten City.
- - -
TO FORRESTER
Forrester's Secret Retreat is Realmspace itself.
- - -
TO FORSAKEN ONE
Underneath the Hive Cluster, the Formians have discovered a secret tunnel that leads even deeper into the Underdark.
For many miles this singular tunnel goes downward, and when the Formians reach the bottom (15 miles under the surface of Oerth) they come upon the abandoned ruins of an ancient city.
All around this city are tunnels, and caverns, lit by the strange fungal growths of the deep Underdark.
It is also warm down here, because of the depth.
Down here, you find an artifact. A great Organ. Heward's Mystical Organ, to be exact.
It cannot be moved.
But it can be played.
After experimenting with it several times, and losing a lot of Formians in the trying, you discover that you can cloak this entire city, and all the tunnels around it, with a protection against scrying.
This protection is so complete even 10th level magic will not pierce it.
You could hide your entire Formian Hive Cluster down here. Your enemies could think you totally destroyed way above (only 5 miles down) while you laughed at them from down here (15 miles down.)
Collapsing the tunnel would be easy and quick, and there is fresh air down here coming from some unknown source.
The Organ has other properties as well. One of them causes the shells of the Formians to become incredibly tough and thick, without being encumbering.
The result of this is a 30 PL increase in your total PL. You may use this extra 30 PL in any way you wish.
- - -
TO GNOMEWORKS
The City of the Gods was not the only city the ancients created.
It happens to be the only one everyone thought survived.
They were wrong.
Delving truly deep under the Lortmils, the Lortmil Technomancy has found a SECOND City of the Gods.
Complete with superweapons, functional robots, the whole thing.
But one crucial difference.
The main computer that ran this city was damaged in the cataclysm that saw the end of the civilization that built the City.
As a result, with no directive, the robots sit quiet, and the weapons are powered down.
And now, it's all yours.
The City is shielded from scrying by 10th level magic, because the ancients erected a force field around the entire city - the forcefield has the effect of scrambling any attempt at scrying (the equivalent of chaff, or electronic countermeasures against scrying magic.)
The City is huge.
You could hide your entire population in the City, and never be discovered. Furthermore, the forcefield around the City is impregnable but for a few select openings.
A safehold for all of your people, which you alone know about.
But it doesn't stop there.
Your scientists are able to learn a great deal about science they did not understand, very quickly, from this City (heh, no need to plunder the City of the Gods when you have another City of the Gods all to yourself!)
As a result, you gain 30 PL.
This 30 PL can be used in any way you want.
You are also able to activate some of the robots, and they could conceivably be used in war.
They would be very useful if you used them in that way, what with their disintegration beams and plasma guns, their rocket launchers and laser guns, but ...
If you do that, you will reveal the secret - for it will be obvious you have obtained superscience from somewhere, and it wasn't the City of the Gods!
The other Powers will all then come, and try to take what you have, or blow it up.
Furthermore, your robots would be only another 50 PL or so, if you used them like that, for you can only activate 5 or 6 of the war robots.
After they were smashed, you'd be out of luck.
But your researchers, if given time, might be able to unlock the incredible mysteries of the superscience.
It will take years, but if you hide the City, and nobody finds out about it, you will have those years.
Even if the Lortmil Technomancy itself is destroyed, you can move your entire people into this City, and be totally safe and sound.
- - -
TO KABOOM
First of all, the Isle of the Phoenix has a mountain in the middle. It is volcanic, but has been dormant for long centuries.
Now ...
Do you know what a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion is?
It is a spell that you cast on a wall, or even a tree, and it creates a magical door. You pass through the door (and you can close it behind you) and enter a series of great chambers, one after the other. Indeed, it is a mansion.
Now, imagine that this spell was made permanent.
So, there is a permanent magical door that leads into the extradimensional space, the mansion.
But ... (smiles) ... imagine now that there is ANOTHER door, a door that you have never been able to open, on the far side of the mansion.
Well, on the Isle of the Phoenix, there is such a permanent Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, and it DOES have another door.
A door that nobody could open.
Until now.
Opening that door, you emerge into a parallel reality.
There is ANOTHER Isle of the Phoenix on the other side of that door.
This Isle of the Phoenix has an active volcano, not a dormant one, and from it the Phoenix arises in fire and glory to protect and defend the Isle from all comers.
The people on this alternate Isle of the Phoenix are immortal elves, noble dwarves, and quite a number of races from the Monster Manuals that are not found on the normal Isle of the Phoenix.
It's a bit like Through the Looking Glass. All manner of strange beings and creatures inhabit this alternate Isle.
Around the alternate Isle is a massive undersea nation, consisting of merfolk, tritons, sea elves, and locathoh. They are a lofty people, and friends with the people of the Isle. They have their own King (the people of the Isle are ruled by a Queen.)
They do not know what the world (the alternate world) is like beyond the Isle and the surrounding seas. They do not have Sky Ships and Flying Citadels, you see.
They now offer their full alliance with your Sky-Sea League.
They have a PL of 30 to add to your PL (you can use the extra PL in any way you want.)
They cannot be scried by 10th level magic.
If you wanted to, you could march your entire population through the Mansion, through the door on the far side, and nobody could ever find them (unless, of course, they found the Mansion.)
- - -
TO KALANYR
A beautiful drow maid, dressed in mithril mail and carrying a slim, shining sword, leads a great host of drow and lythari to meet you.
The drow are all followers of Eilistraee, as are all the others.
They have come to ally.
They have a PL of 30. That PL is yours now.
So is something else.
Something very special.
They have the magical ability to, for lack of a better word, vanish.
When vanished, they are out of phase, except they cannot be detected by magic that would detect out of phase beings.
In fact, they cannot be detected by any magic at all, not even 10th level magic.
11th level magic could detect them, if a Power had it.
When in this state, they are semi-aware of their surroundings, and they can contemplate those surroundings.
However, they do not age, do not grow bored, do not suffer from sensory deprivation, do not need to eat, drink, or sleep, and they have little feeling for the passing of time.
They could spend 100 years in this state, then awaken feeling perfectly refreshed.
They can assume this state anywhere, at anytime.
Now, they are teaching all of your people this awesomely powerful secret.
Once your people learn it (it doesn't take very long) you can sequester your entire population in a state where no enemy can find them, no enemy can touch them, and they are safe from all harm.
Furthermore, they can think in a kind of communal way, through communal telepathy, while in this state.
Thus, decisions can be made and plans formulated.
Events can be observed and discussed.
This is a special gift they learned because they were followers of Eilistraee. It is IMPOSSIBLE for any evil-aligned being to use this power.
Neutral and good aligned beings can use the power, but if they turn evil, they lose the ability.
This gift they bestow on you, because your people renounced Lolth and turned to the Light instead. To Freedom.
- - -
TO MAUDLIN
Maudlin's Secret Retreat is his base in the depths of the moon Celune.
- - -
TO LORD MELKOR (TALOS)
Lord Melkor's Secret Retreat was his base in the depths of the moon Luna.
- - -
TO 'O SKOTEINOS
A short story was written by Roger Moore about orcs a while back.
In that story, the orcs described themselves as the Descendents of the Worms of the Earth.
They considered this a great honor, a source of pride, and they considered themselves the stuff of the earth itself, invincible and terrible.
Well, it would seem this is true.
The purple worms (you know, the great big giant ones?) come to the surface in the Pomarj, and do obesience to the orcs, and with a strange kind of empathy, indicate they will fight on the side of the orcs.
The orcs themselves, discover an amazing secret about themselves - as they truly are the descendents of the worms of the earth, they can
assume wormform. Anything from the size of an earthworm up to the size of a small purple worm (about 10 feet long.)
In this form, they can burrow freely into the earth.
In this form, they cannot be scried, not even by 10th level magic, for they are not there - there are no orcs to scry.
With this ability, your entire population can hide underground, and nobody will be able to find you at all.
In this form, your people have a kind of telepathy, and can talk with each other if they are within 1 mile of each other.
They can also hear and see normally, when they are above ground.
Their gear and equipment metamorphoses with them, and they can take large objects (such as a wagon) into the change.
Furthermore, the purple worms (and many other kinds of monsters of this sort) who are allying with you, have a PL of 30.
This PL is yours now, and adds to your base PL.
Addenda:
You can burrow through solid granite. Even if you are in tiny earthworm form. (Which means, a person lying down in the grass, thinking the worms harmless, might be in for a very rude, very final surprise.)
- - -
TO RHIALTO
The Elder Elemental Gods are pleased with the Black Brotherhood, and it's attitude of world destruction and entropy.
And they show you a secret that only those who cherish entropy and destruction can learn.
NOBODY ELSE can learn this secret! It can ONLY be learned by those with the kind of mindset the Black Brotherhood has!
They show you how to become Red Goo.
Thus, your people can merge with existing pools of Red Goo, or form new ones.
This is not an effective war tactic. That is not it's purpose.
This is a defensive tactic.
In Gooform, you cannot be scried by 10th level magic. Your hated enemies, Forrester and Kalanyr, cannot discover you.
Your entire Brotherhood can hide in this form, and never be spotted.
In Gooform, you can move to anywhere the Goo goes.
Since the Goo goes everywhere now, under the surface of Oerth (admittedly, in only narrow streams in most places), you can go anywhere
on Oerth in Gooform.
Your people retain their awareness of their surroundings, can see and hear, while in Gooform.
They cannot talk, but they can communicate with all others in Gooform within 1 mile, while in this form.
They do not need to eat, drink, sleep, do not age, do not suffer the effects of the passage of time, nor do they suffer sensory deprivation, while in this form.
The Elder Elemental Gods are sending you a force of elementals, and puddings (and other horrors of that sort), to help you in your efforts.
They also send you a fair number of dopplegangers to assist you.
This force adds 30 PL to your existing force.
Also, the Elder Elemental Gods resurrect all of your people who committed ritual suicide. In fact, it was THAT act, that made them decide to give you the secrets of Gooform, and that mentality, that
makes it possible.
You can even harden into Red Steel, while in Gooform.
Woe to the unlucky person who tries to forge you, then puts you on as armor!! You can allow this, and be totally unharmed through the procedure.
Then, once they don you, they're fried. Bigtime. You can revert to goo, and melt them away.
You can also communicate with them via telepathy, pretending to be sentient armor, or you can throw ventriloquism, causing the telepathy to seem to come from somewhere else, totally fooling the unwise person who is wearing you.
But this is the secret of the Black Brotherhood alone. It cannot be shared, it cannot be learned by anyone else, and woe to the traitor who
talks about it to anyone outside the Organization!
(Comment: If you read this, Forsaken One, think just how lucky you are that Rhialto never decided to strike at your Power ...)
- - -
TO SOLLIR
Riftcrag is a great canyon that stretches 200 miles east to west, and is more than a mile wide usually.
But what people do not know is that tunnels lead down from Riftcrag to the Labyrinth.
Apparently, the ONLY way into the Labyrinth is from Riftcrag.
However, the way out on the other side, is known to nobody.
Nor has anyone ever, to your knowledge at least, penetrated to the heart of the Labyrinth.
Nobody knows who created the Labyrinth, but it must have been a truly mighty civilization that did so.
WHY they did it, is an utter mystery.
The Labyrinth is staggering: it is 200 miles long, 200 miles wide, and 20 miles deep. It is a succession, in 3 dimensions, of tunnels, caves, caverns, and all manner of magical manifestations and places (including portals to other dimensions and worlds, where the Labyrinth actually extends into those places as well.)
Think of the film Labyrinth, then think of a place like that, only 10 times bigger, complete with all the odd beings of the film, and more.
Now, the people of Riftcrag - and ONLY the people of Riftcrag - know the ways of a part of this Labyrinth. A fairly large section of it (several square miles of it) has been explored by the people of Riftcrag, and mapped.
It cost the lives of a lot of people, over hundreds of years, to accomplish this feat!
The area of the Labyrinth that your people know of is so big, and so incredibly complex, that you could hide your ENTIRE population in it, and no enemy would have any chance of finding them (any enemy that tried, would end up becoming hopelessly and forever lost trying.)
Magical entry into the Labyrinth is impossible, short of 11th level magic (which will allow such entry), and magical scrying into the Labyrinth is impossible with 10th level magic.
Therefore, your people are totally safe within the place, while your foes are walking into a deathtrap, if they try to go down there to find
you.
There are a number of races in the Labyrinth, and (as you might guess) the minotaurs are one of them.
The minotaurs seem to know the place better than anyone, and they can go places your people cannot go.
They know the labyrinth much better than even your people, and know of secret places in it where nobody could ever find you, not in a thousand years of trying.
They show your people those places, and the ways of reaching them - and thus, any enemy spies that have obtained access to your maps are in for an unpleasant surprise if they lead enemy forces down to find your people!
The minotaurs also join the League of the Warlords.
The minotaurs want plunder and riches, and they think you're the people to join with, to get it.
Their alliance is solid and unbreakable - you need not fear treachery of any sort.
They add 30 PL to your total PL.
And now, you have the secret of the Labyrinth, a bolt-hole for your people, a santuary where they cannot be magically spotted, and cannot be found.
- - -
TO TOKIWONG
You will notice on the map a place called the Barrens. It is in your territory (within the Empire of Iuz.)
It is not the climate that causes the Barrens to be like they are (the climate is warm enough, except along the immediate north coast, for boreal
forest.)
It is the burning sands.
There are great cliffs on the north coast, like the cliffs of Dover, and a chalk like substance.
The substance is red hot, and fumes from those substances poison the Barrens, and no plants will grow there.
Your people have successfully penetrated through this red hot cliff, and they have found that it is a blind.
A very thin wall, designed to keep intruders out.
Beyond it is an underworld filled with lava and sulpher, and in the midst of this is a civilization.
Beings who appear to be human have built great cities here.
They radiate immense heat, and they bathe in the lava as if it were water.
They sculp the lava in their bare hands, and make beautiful and ornate things out of it, including their soaring towers and edifices.
They are not exactly a friendly people, but they are now very incensed at the war that is going on above, which is disrupting their underworld society.
They are allying with the Empire of Iuz to put a stop to it.
They command fire, and they can hurl fire, and touching them is death to a normal person.
Thus, they have a PL of 30.
This PL is yours now, because they are your solid allies.
But they do much, much more than that for you!
They teach your people the secret of fireform, in which your people can become like them.
This will only work if your people approach the Burning Cliff, and go through it into their magical underworld - it will not work elsewhere.
However, the underworld behind the Burning Cliffs is vast - so vast that you could hide your entire population under there, and nobody would ever find them!
Furthermore, the area cannot be scried by 10th level magic. The inherent magic of the Burning Cliff was meant to block all scrying, as well as block physical entry. These people do not wish to be bothered, but are making an exception for the Empire of Iuz.
The Kingdom of the Burning Cliffs. It is yours now.
- - -
TO UVENELEI
There is another Realm in Lyrn itself.
It is not a parallel dimension, but an actual realm in Lyrn.
It is the Realm of Arlon, and for all intents and purposes it does not exist - unless one has the ability to see through a very special, and
incredibly powerful illusion that protects it.
Imagine an ordinary illusion. You dispel it by disbelieving it.
Imagine a powerful illusion. It's hard to disbelieve.
Imagine a phantasm. It's semi-real. Even disbelieving it does not totally negate it.
Imagine a very powerful phantasm, where disbelief has little effect on
it.
Now, imagine a phantasm that is fully real, which can think for itself - it was created by illusion, but it isn't illusion anymore - it's become real.
Now, imagine an entire nation that is this real phantasm.
That is Arlon.
However, Arlon does not exist, cannot be seen or heard, and is not affected by anything happening in the normal world (such as the cataclysm that just struck Lyrn) because it IS a phantasm, and it does
NOT exist, so normal events don't affect it.
And yet, it does exist, for all that. It is a paradox, an impossibility, but such is the nature of magic.
To the people of Arlon, YOU (all of the Alliance of the Crescent) are the phantasm that does not exist. Events that occur in Arlon have NO
effect on Lyrn, because for them you simply do not exist.
To you, they are illusions that do not exist.
To them, you are the illusion that does not exist.
But there is a way to bridge the gap. A way to bridge the two worlds.
Belief.
If belief is strong enough, and if both sides will it, one person can step from their reality into the other reality.
When they do, they stop being affected by this reality, and start being affected by that reality.
And, with practice and determination, a person can live in both worlds at once.
The people of Arlon are coming to you now, and offering to ally with the Alliance of the Crescent, for they are foreseeing that their nation
is in peril, and they are allying with the good side to prevent the disruption in Oerth's magic and lifeblood from destroying them.
They are bridging the gap between their reality and yours, and I am assuming you are doing likewise.
They are immune to scrying, even 10th level scrying, for they do not exist.
Yet they have a large standing army, and it is marching to your aid.
You could hide the entire population of the Crescent in Arlon, and your enemies would be totally unable to figure out where they went.
Arlon has a PL of 30.
- - -
TO VALKYS
The Lost Elves are not happy.
They allied willingly with the Dark Union, when it was weak, and helped it to conquer Adri Forest.
Now, they find themselves being treated as a subjugated people.
They are not happy.
So, they - being evil - come to you, the true player of the Unseelie, and they show you something.
It is a place immune to scrying - even 10th level scrying.
It is a place within Adri Forest, but nobody knows about it except the Lost Elves and those who live within it - the Dark Union knows nothing of it.
Protected by magical wards that prevent all intrusion, it is a place of Primordial Evil.
It is a region of forest, and that forest is sentient. It is sentient, and it is VERY evil.
It breathes, or seems to breathe, like an animal.
Whenever something ventures into it, that does not belong, the trees and shrugs animate, and eat said intruder.
It is powerful with negative energy.
Within it, live an enclave of the Unseelie, and within them, at the center, is a great monument to the Unseelie Court.
All manner of horrible undead (wraiths, spectres, ghosts, and higher level types, not weak
undead) live within this forest, serving the Unseelie.
Other evil beings, like will-o-wisps, dwell there, or lure strangers to the area, then feast upon the soul as the body is torn asunder by the trees.
This place is a place where your entire army of Unseelie could go, and nobody could find them, even with 10th level magic, even though it sits in the heart of the Dark Union!
Better yet, it has a PL of 30. That PL is yours now, because the Death Forest is allying with you.
They want revenge on the mortals who dare to usurp the power that belongs only to the Faerie, and they want revenge on the Faerie who roam the world free.
They are allies of the Lost Elves in secret, and the Lost Elves alone may go there, and survive being in that place.
Now, your forces can go there, and find refuge also.
So, you now have an extra 30 PL, a place where your foes cannot find you, and allies of the nastiest sort.
- - -
TO VENUS
Venus's Secret Retreat is the metallic Nexus used by Dagger's Power. The two Powers share the same Secret Retreat, and the galeb duhr are secretly allied with both Powers.
TO WILLIAM
(look of rue - William, I cannot find my e-mail to you! Can you find it amongst your Archives? If so, could you send it to me so I can post it here?)
William's Secret Retreat is Starleev.
The Nation of the Cloud Giants. Literally.
Castles, manors, and towns, all sitting in the clouds, form the infrastructure of this nation.
Cloud giants, avariel, pegasi, and all manner of good aligned flying beings inhabit this realm.
The realm of Starleev is directly over the Kevellond League.
When the sky is cloudy or partly cloudy, access to Starleev is possible. When the sky is clear, no access is possible.
And the cloud giants decide, when to make their realm inaccessible from the ground.
- - -
TO ZELDA
The animals of the Thillronian Peninsula are far more than they seem.
Many of them are sentient, intelligent, and they come forward now to the barbarian peoples.
They state they wish to stand with you against your foes.
And there are a lot more of them than there appeared to be ... animals are coming from everywhere. From out of the woods, down from the mountain valleys, from the rivers and lakes, from places unknown.
By the thousands, then tens of thousands.
They have a combined PL of 30. That PL is yours now, and adds to your total PL. You may use the extra PL in any way you like.
The alliance of the animals is total. They are totally loyal to the barbarians and to Ratik.
They have a special gift for your people.
They teach your people how to assume animal form.
The great advantage of this, aside from the obvious, is that you cannot be scried. Not even with 10th level magic, for in effect you don't exist so long as you are in animal form - there is nothing to scry for, so the scying attempt fails.
They also show you secret dens, secret hideaways within the endless vastness of the Corusk Mountains, and the lesser vastness of the Raker Mountains.
In animal form, your entire people could hide in those mountains, and nobody would ever find you. At least, not without a MASSIVE search over a very long period of time, and then they'd only find a few of you.
In animal form, your dietary requirements are those of the animal form you assume, so you can live off the land. Attempts to destroy you by destroying your agriculture and infrastructure are useless.
This is the gift they bequeath to you. They have a name for their nation (for the animals do form a nation of a sort.) I am not good with names, and I
wish to allow you to make up a name appropriate for the nation of the animals of the Thillronian Peninsula.
- - -
TO ZOURON
Zouron never had a Secret Retreat.
His Power has remained exposed, and threatened, on AnaKeris, since it was founded.
