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Message: <blockquote data-quote="peteyfrogboy" data-source="post: 1541615" data-attributes="member: 5677">A Short Visit To SolaceIt was a strange group I had fallen in with, but things were to get stranger still before the day was done...***Auresh was intrigued by the architecture of Solace Town; all of the buildings save the forge were built up in the branches of the giant vallenwood trees. He made a mental note to start preparing his fire spells as sonics, just to be safe. The Inn Of The Last Home was a pleasant refuge from the dusty road, and the wizard sat down in the first chair he saw.His companions, being locals, were busy making the rounds of their old acquaintances, leaving Auresh to his own devices. He waved over the barmaid after she was finished greeting the returning adventurers. He could hear a bit of their conversation, enough to determine that her name was Tika. She was a pretty, red-haired lass with bright green eyes; a far cry from the dour and dusky girls of his youth on the Plains of Dust. As she brought him his beer he made a comment about showing her the power of his staff that earned him nothing but a cold glare. He was a little puzzled; he had seen that sort of line work countless times before. Then again, the men using those lines had been paying for the privilege. It seemed that growing up in a whorehouse was not the best way to learn the fine art of romance.Auresh sighed and resigned himself to the simple pleasure of hot food and good drink. He looked around the room as he ate. Aside from the innkeeper and the barmaid, there were only a few others present: a storyteller sitting near the hearth, a cloaked man drinking alone, and a dark-haired woman with a sickly-looking plainsman for a companion. Gildas and Raelyn were talking with the pair of plainsmen, while Glupin spoke with the storyteller. Auresh finished his meal and went to join the knight and elf.The woman introduced herself as Dreya, and her companion was named Wolfsong. The soft-spoken plainswoman said they were just passing through Solace, though she was guarded about their destination. She had one of those faces that didn't show her age; she could easily have been anywhere from twenty to forty.Before Auresh had a chance to say much more than his name, Gildas bumped into the walking stick leaning against Dreya's chair, causing it to fall and strike Raelyn on the shoulder. As it touched the elf, the staff flashed with a right blue light; for a moment it appeared to be made of shining blue crystal rather than simple wood. All conversation in the room ceased instantly.Raelyn's eyes widened, and she reached up to untie the bandage on her upper arm where one of the hobgoblins' swords had grazed her. the rent in her shirt was still there, but the wound beneath was gone. Her head turned sharply then, and her expression of surprise was replaced with her usual elvish wariness. "We should go," she said, nodding toward the empty chair where the cloaked man had been sitting.Dreya scooped up her staff and gripped it with both hands. Her normally serene expression was clouded with worry. "We should go. This is not your concern."Gildas shook his head. "I don't know exactly what's going on, but if you're in danger my Oath demands that I offer aid."Glupin approached then, his face unreadable. "I agree. We should make haste.""As you wish," said the plainswoman.***The appearance of this blue crystal staff both disturbs and intrigues me. Clearly it is of importance to someone -- someone who will go to great lengths to acquire it. Traveling with Dreya will put us in further danger, but to leave it unprotected would increase the chances that it would fall into the hands of this "Onyx" or someone else. Of course, I am eager to examine the staff myself. It is a source of healing magic of the sort not seen in centuries. For this reason alone it would be a great prize, but I suspect there is more to it than that.***The six travelers struck out west from Solace. The sun was already set, and they marched as quickly as they could across the hill country. After they had put several miles between themselves and the Inn Of The Last home, they stopped to rest.Raelyn peered eastward from the crest of a hill. "No one's following us... yet." She trotted back down the hill to join the rest of the group, who were sitting on rocks and fallen trees eating some of the food they had taken with them from the inn."We were attacked by a band of hobgoblins on our way to Solace," said Gildas to Dreya. "They said they were looking for a staff like the one you carry. Do you know who they are?"The healer shook her head. "I know little of the staff, much less who might be seeking it."Raelyn arched a golden eyebrow. "How did you get the staff in the first place? It's not the sort of thing you just find lying around."Dreya's gaze drifted toward Wolfsong, who sat apart from the rest of the group, looking out into the darkness and muttering to himself. "Wolfsong brought it to me. He wet on a long journey -- where, I do not know -- and when he returned, he had the staff with him. Whatever happened, it... changed him. I hope to find some way to heal his mind, but it has so far been beyond my skills at healing.""Have you tried using the staff to heal him?" asked the elf.The healer shook her head. "It can heal wounds of the body, but it has no power to heal the mind. At least, not that I have found."Gildas frowned. "The question remains: where are we going to go from here?""We need to learn more about the staff," said Auresh, "and the largest library I know of outside the Tower is the Seekers' archive in Haven.""Xak Tsaroth," said Glupin, who had remained silent until now. The others looked at him curiously. "The storyteller at the inn told me that, in a few days, I would bring the staff to a place called Xak Tsaroth. He said that there I would receive the greatest gift given to the world.""What's that supposed to mean?" asked Raelyn.Glupin shrugged. "I don't know. I just know what he said.""Well, that puts a new light on things," said Gildas. "Does anyone know where this Xak Tsaroth place is?" Everyone shook their heads."I think I may have read something about it once," said Auresh. "It's an ancient ruined city, lost since the Cataclysm. Maybe we can find out where it is once we get to Haven." Auresh, of course, knew exactly where it was, or at least where it was supposed to be. Xak Tsaroth was one of many grand cities destroyed during the Cataclysm. Besides being a broken ruin in a stinking swamp, it was hundreds of miles in the opposite direction from Haven, and he had no intention of going there. "Well, I guess we have no other choice," said Gildas.Auresh smiled. "Don't worry about it. Prophecies like that are funny things; if we're really supposed to go to Xak Tsaroth, we'll go there whether we want to or not."***Notes: Since all of the players already know and it may not actually come up in the story for a long time, I'll go ahead and reveal that Dreya (being played by my wife) is a disguised Irda. She is also a cleric of Mishakal, though at this point she hasn't actually figured that out yet. It's all very strange, but that's a Dragonlance campaign for you. The DM has heavily customized the cleric class for this campaign. They cast spontaneously like sorcerers, but with a very limited spell list. Essentially, each god provides six domains, and their clerics have access to those domains spells (including all six domain powers) and nothing else. It's an interesting system, but I think it will work out well in the end. As Dreya's player has never played a spellcaster before, it should make it easier for her by doing away with spell preparation and the sensory overload of the full cleric spell list.At the beginning of this session, the DM gave each player a sheet with some backstory and motivation for their particular character. Auresh's has already pretty much played itself out now, so I can put the details in the story hour without giving anything away. I still don't know what any of the other players' agendas are.</blockquote>

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