sniffles
First Post
Letter #31
Sefmir, 998 CY
Dear brother;
It seems that the childrens' tale of the Tiger Prince that we were researching is true for the most part, if not in all its particulars. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that some details were forgotten or confused over time; after all the events the story was based on occurred some 800 years ago, and that's many lifetimes of those not of our people.
As I was telling you, Ninad and I had followed the effects of Thor's spell to a low tavern and burst in to find Thor in rather poor condition, being attacked by a strange being of a sort I've never heard of before. Ninad thinks it must have come from one of the outer planes. The tall blue creature wielded an odd staff in two of its hands and hurled lightning at us with the other two. I warded myself as best I could against the lightning and called a flame to my hand, but it turned out that the creature was just as resistant to fire as it was to its own lightning.
While I took cover behind the bar, I saw that there was a trapdoor in the floor and the strange woman with the tiger companion had taken refuge there. Her tiger was injured - it had been attacking the blue being - so I drew out my wand and applied it to one of the big cat's wounds. The woman seemed to want us to flee down the stairs, but I had no intention of following her. We would come to regret that later.
Ninad shouted out that he thought the blue creature had one of the black shards. That must have been why it came for us. I don't think it had anything to do with the other events we've become entangled in. Ninad, Erasyne and Thor were all fighting toe to toe with the creature and were looking the worse for it. Erasyne had been dancing around in a frenzy of whirling blades, while Ninad pummeled it with his fists and Thor reduced Beaker in size to maneuver better in the cramped space. The creature had knocked out part of a wall to give itself more room.
I was about to cast a healing spell for Ninad and Erasyne when I realized that the creature was looking as ragged as my friends. I'd tried cutting it with my scimitar, but though I struck a solid blow I couldn't penetrate its tough blue hide. Ninad directed me to take his staff, which is enchanted, as only magical weapons seemed able to hurt the thing. I quickly snatched the staff and struck the creature as hard a blow as I could. It crumpled to the floor. We had observed that it could regenerate its wounds like a troll, so Erasyne struck off its head.
Ninad took out the dowsing rod and found a black shard embedded in the creature's head, which he carefully removed and stored in his magic bag. By then the city guardsmen had finally turned up, but we'd become known as guests of the sheikh so they didn't give us much difficulty. The woman with the tiger had disappeared, but it seemed she hadn't had anything to do with the creature or the men who'd been attacking Thor and Erasyne. She'd been just as surprised by the creature as they were.
Ninad nearly got into a fight with the barkeeper when he returned and made insulting remarks, but my friend was too tired to do any harm. After that we decided to return to the palace and rest. We're never destined to go anywhere in this city unmolested, it seems. We did manage to stop off at a leatherworker's shop so Erasyne could order a bandolier to store her potions. Then we were approached by a stranger who claimed to know something about the cat's-eye amulet.
He didn't want to tell us much at first, but when we indicated we wouldn't accept anything he said without more explanation, he finally took us to a nearby coffee house and revealed more.
He introduced himself as Namdar. It was he who confirmed that the legend of the Tiger Prince was mostly true. But in reality the prince had been replaced by a rakshasa. A sorceress named Gullala had trapped the rakshasa within the cat's-eye amulet, but her daughter Naveen and son Ravana had been trapped along with the demon. We all realized then that the strange woman at the tavern had called her tiger by the name Ravana. Apparently the rakshasa had cursed him.
Ninad reluctantly admitted that something odd had happened when he tried to examine the amulet to determine if it was magical. Evidently the binding magic of the amulet had faded over the centuries, and Ninad's simple spell had broken the binding and released the prisoners - both Naveen and her brother and the rakshasa as well.
Namdar claimed to be part of an organization called the Order of the Black Sands, who were responsible for guarding the amulet. The man who had been carrying it was one of their members. He'd been transporting it to another location. The people who attacked him were thieves who wanted to sell the amulet. There were also some Tiger Nomads who wanted it, though Namdar thought neither the barbarians nor the thieves knew about the rakshasa.
Although none of us felt that Ninad ought to be blamed for what had happened, he naturally felt responsible for releasing the evil rakshasa back into the world, and we agreed to help try to track the demon and destroy or imprison him if we can. I'm a bit dubious about our ability to achieve this, though. I don't recall anything specific about rakshasas, but I have the impression that they're very powerful and I doubt that we have the ability to defeat one on our own.
After we left Namdar we were accosted by another stranger who offered to show us to where Naveen was hiding, for a price. We were all naturally suspicious of him, what with a shapechanging rakshasa on the loose, and our little group being followed constantly by thieves and barbarians. But the fellow turned out to be telling the truth.
He led us to Naveen and Ravana and they've joined us to seek the rakshasa. We also notified one of the temples here of the rakshasa's presence. Now we're back in the sheikh's palace, since that was where we were when the rakshasa was freed.
I'll have to continue this story later. We're off to search for the rakshasa now.
Your sister, Lothiriel
Sefmir, 998 CY
Dear brother;
It seems that the childrens' tale of the Tiger Prince that we were researching is true for the most part, if not in all its particulars. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that some details were forgotten or confused over time; after all the events the story was based on occurred some 800 years ago, and that's many lifetimes of those not of our people.
As I was telling you, Ninad and I had followed the effects of Thor's spell to a low tavern and burst in to find Thor in rather poor condition, being attacked by a strange being of a sort I've never heard of before. Ninad thinks it must have come from one of the outer planes. The tall blue creature wielded an odd staff in two of its hands and hurled lightning at us with the other two. I warded myself as best I could against the lightning and called a flame to my hand, but it turned out that the creature was just as resistant to fire as it was to its own lightning.
While I took cover behind the bar, I saw that there was a trapdoor in the floor and the strange woman with the tiger companion had taken refuge there. Her tiger was injured - it had been attacking the blue being - so I drew out my wand and applied it to one of the big cat's wounds. The woman seemed to want us to flee down the stairs, but I had no intention of following her. We would come to regret that later.
Ninad shouted out that he thought the blue creature had one of the black shards. That must have been why it came for us. I don't think it had anything to do with the other events we've become entangled in. Ninad, Erasyne and Thor were all fighting toe to toe with the creature and were looking the worse for it. Erasyne had been dancing around in a frenzy of whirling blades, while Ninad pummeled it with his fists and Thor reduced Beaker in size to maneuver better in the cramped space. The creature had knocked out part of a wall to give itself more room.
I was about to cast a healing spell for Ninad and Erasyne when I realized that the creature was looking as ragged as my friends. I'd tried cutting it with my scimitar, but though I struck a solid blow I couldn't penetrate its tough blue hide. Ninad directed me to take his staff, which is enchanted, as only magical weapons seemed able to hurt the thing. I quickly snatched the staff and struck the creature as hard a blow as I could. It crumpled to the floor. We had observed that it could regenerate its wounds like a troll, so Erasyne struck off its head.
Ninad took out the dowsing rod and found a black shard embedded in the creature's head, which he carefully removed and stored in his magic bag. By then the city guardsmen had finally turned up, but we'd become known as guests of the sheikh so they didn't give us much difficulty. The woman with the tiger had disappeared, but it seemed she hadn't had anything to do with the creature or the men who'd been attacking Thor and Erasyne. She'd been just as surprised by the creature as they were.
Ninad nearly got into a fight with the barkeeper when he returned and made insulting remarks, but my friend was too tired to do any harm. After that we decided to return to the palace and rest. We're never destined to go anywhere in this city unmolested, it seems. We did manage to stop off at a leatherworker's shop so Erasyne could order a bandolier to store her potions. Then we were approached by a stranger who claimed to know something about the cat's-eye amulet.
He didn't want to tell us much at first, but when we indicated we wouldn't accept anything he said without more explanation, he finally took us to a nearby coffee house and revealed more.
He introduced himself as Namdar. It was he who confirmed that the legend of the Tiger Prince was mostly true. But in reality the prince had been replaced by a rakshasa. A sorceress named Gullala had trapped the rakshasa within the cat's-eye amulet, but her daughter Naveen and son Ravana had been trapped along with the demon. We all realized then that the strange woman at the tavern had called her tiger by the name Ravana. Apparently the rakshasa had cursed him.
Ninad reluctantly admitted that something odd had happened when he tried to examine the amulet to determine if it was magical. Evidently the binding magic of the amulet had faded over the centuries, and Ninad's simple spell had broken the binding and released the prisoners - both Naveen and her brother and the rakshasa as well.
Namdar claimed to be part of an organization called the Order of the Black Sands, who were responsible for guarding the amulet. The man who had been carrying it was one of their members. He'd been transporting it to another location. The people who attacked him were thieves who wanted to sell the amulet. There were also some Tiger Nomads who wanted it, though Namdar thought neither the barbarians nor the thieves knew about the rakshasa.
Although none of us felt that Ninad ought to be blamed for what had happened, he naturally felt responsible for releasing the evil rakshasa back into the world, and we agreed to help try to track the demon and destroy or imprison him if we can. I'm a bit dubious about our ability to achieve this, though. I don't recall anything specific about rakshasas, but I have the impression that they're very powerful and I doubt that we have the ability to defeat one on our own.
After we left Namdar we were accosted by another stranger who offered to show us to where Naveen was hiding, for a price. We were all naturally suspicious of him, what with a shapechanging rakshasa on the loose, and our little group being followed constantly by thieves and barbarians. But the fellow turned out to be telling the truth.
He led us to Naveen and Ravana and they've joined us to seek the rakshasa. We also notified one of the temples here of the rakshasa's presence. Now we're back in the sheikh's palace, since that was where we were when the rakshasa was freed.
I'll have to continue this story later. We're off to search for the rakshasa now.
Your sister, Lothiriel