The Forsaken One
Explorer
A tale of winter.
“Gather round children, come, quickly now.” The elderly halfing woman beckons to several children laughing and playing around the huge oak tree standing in the middle of one of the large green fields of Keoland.
“Come now children, your mothers will be back soon and then I won’t be able to finish my tale! And we don’t want that now do we?” About a dozen high pitched voices go up in unison “Noooo!” Quickly the fourteen children sit themselves down around the small old woman.
“Well now... where did I leave of last time? Hmmm...”
One of the young gnomes among the children raises his hand. “Winterspring Yidda, you were gonna tell us about Winterspring!”
The little halfing rubs her chin and thinks for a moment. “Hmmm yes... Winterspring. It is not the prettiest of stories my little ones and proof that not all ends well for everyone. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
”Yes Yidda! Tell us about it! We aren’t scared of monsters!” A pair of elven boys boasts while puffing up their chests.
“Heh, well ok then...” The old crone raises her head again and as she gazes upon the younglings her eyes and look have darkened. A cold wind blows over the grasslands and as the sun disappears behind a cloud a shiver runs down the spines of the children.
“A long long time ago, in a land far far away, there was the most beautifull of lands. A land ridden with lush gardens, viriel forests and golden fields where ever you went as far as the eye could see. And wonderous people lived there! O yes! Wonderous indeed! They valued art, music and dance and their history still lingers on in many a treasured song and sculpture indeed!
They prospered for hundreds of years, toying with magic and technology alike and many an invention sprang from their creative minds. But as with everything beautifull in the world, some things about cannot abide such beauty unless it is for themselves. So this land of beauty was besieged many a time by an envious neighbour or a monster beset on the wonders and beautifull things of this land to enrich itself. Or, perhaps, in a quest to turn as beautifull as the land by discovering its secrets.
But luckily the people from this noble land were wise as well and forsaw this envy and danger lurking beyond their borders and sometimes within. Each time evil set foot on their land it would discover that these people were well versed in the arts of war, which they had made into an art in itself as everything they touched and practiced. But next to their not formidable skills there were their greatest allies. Their friends and guides in times of peace, and the icon of their wrath in times of war, the great spirits of their lands.
They had long earned the love and respect of the spirits of nature by the way they respected their land and nature and the love they had for the beauties of the world. But this which allowed them to prospes so long and to these heights would eventually bring about their downfall. For there are more spirits in the multiverse and not all are benign and some vastly more powerfull then those that inhabited their lands.”
Yidda stops for a second while she takes a sip of her berryjuice and with a deep sigh she continues.
“They prospered for ages on end and they created many wonders and marvels, some even still to be beheld to this very day. Their lust for exploration and invention eventually led them to the practise of certain magics and their mages and sorcerers eventually even experimented with planar magic to open portals and gates to world far far away. This so they could see what marvels the gods and the multiverse had created for them to discovered and wonder about. They travelled across dozens of worlds, exasperated each time by the beauties they discovered and sometimes horrified by the evil they encountered. Many things they brought home from these worlds and their curiosity and their unending hunger for more and newer things ever unsatisfied.
This would all change after these hundreds of years. For as we all know, that which history has taught us well. Nothing endures forever my children, not even the gods. The tides of the worlds wax and wane and with it happiness and pain. Treasure what you may younglings, for nothing lasts forever. Live in the moment and enjoy it to its fullest, live your lives to the fullest...”
She sighs again.
“One day their mages opened a portal to a new world. Well, not so much a small demi-plane as a world. It was beautifull beyond compare, irridiscent purple skies, green fields and woods as far as one could see. But this was a quiet world, a dead world. Dark purple clouds raged across the skies and a chill wind blew across the fields and through the woods as all was silent. Not the sounds of birds or other wildlife, nothing, just silence behind the wind.
The mages that discovered the world didn’t think anything of this silence and were over enthusiastic to find such a world. A paradise for their own, a haven of beauty for their emperor yet unspoiled. A garden fit for a god, their god emperor.
They quickly turned to build their towers there, and as spires of master craftmanship soared towards the purple skies around a temple and palace to their god emperor many people flocked to this new unspoiled world of unnatural beauty.
Many mages tried to make contact and peace with the spirits of this world but their calls remained unheeded. Silence was the answer to their spells and a few doubts arose among the greatest of minds of the empire as to the source of this quietude. But dozens of years passed without problems or disaster, dozens of years turned into an age and an age into two ages. Some things however are inevitable as I told you, to all things comes an end and so indeed to this grandest of empires. Perhaps the greatest ever to color the face of this world.
The people who had settled on the world had steadily been building more towns and cities, used more and more natural resources and had been slowly turning the world to their image and in their process they had accidentally aroused something.
And so it came to be that after two ages the dream ended and the silence of the plane turned into crimson song as the world awoke.” Yidda stops as the gnomish boy raises his hand again.
“The world awoke? How can the world wake up? Worlds don’t sleep do they?” And he looks at the grass he’s sitting on looking a bit unnerved.
Yidda looks grimly at the boy. “No worlds don’t sleep, but spirits do. And what this spirit was I do not know, neither do I know how it came to be there. Perhaps it was sealed in this world at the edge of the multiverse as punishment by the gods or perhaps that it threatened them, I do not know. But it was there, and it was aroused by those people as they despoiled it.
The skies turned black as dark clouds appeared in ever greater number, the chill wind turned into a hurricane as all the spirits of that forgotten world awoke. Dark creatures arose from tree and rock as snow began raining down from the skies and the once wonderous world slowly froze over.
The settlers who had now lived there for over two hundred years were caught unawares and most of them perished in that storm of ice and cold. Those who didn’t disappeared behind dark shapes in the show. The tales that survived told about malign spirits of ice and wind that stalked the icy wastes.
But it didn’t stop there, o no... The cold followed them to their homeworld, this world, our world. Their pale blue skies turned purple and hurrican force winds raped their golden fields and beautifull cities as blizzards covered their empire in ice and snow. The frost spread as a frozen blight across their lands, destroying everything in its path. Many people escaped this torrent of ice and blood but at least as many fell before icy claws of spirits of cold and maybe even more to the winds and cold.
The once so proud people travelled far and wide telling their tale and bringing their skills and arts with them. But never unwatchfull of that purple haze, that irridiscent sky and the tingling chill winds that foretell the comming of a cold.. cold.. winter..”
Getting slowly up from the root of the tree Yidda looks at the children.
“Ah look, there are your mothers, hurry up! They must have missed their little ones on a beautifull afternoon as this! Hurry now!”
The gnomish boy turns around as the rest hurries over to their parents and looks at Yidda with a questioning expression across his face.
“Yes Lovar, what is it?”
“You said those spirits came to this world, our world. Are they still here? When did this happen? A long time ago?”
A chill wind blows in across the fields again and Yidda and the boy turn their noses into the wind that blows up from the south.
“No Lovar, this happened last year."
She looks with a serious expression at the boy.
"I fear we may have a cold winter this year.”
“Gather round children, come, quickly now.” The elderly halfing woman beckons to several children laughing and playing around the huge oak tree standing in the middle of one of the large green fields of Keoland.
“Come now children, your mothers will be back soon and then I won’t be able to finish my tale! And we don’t want that now do we?” About a dozen high pitched voices go up in unison “Noooo!” Quickly the fourteen children sit themselves down around the small old woman.
“Well now... where did I leave of last time? Hmmm...”
One of the young gnomes among the children raises his hand. “Winterspring Yidda, you were gonna tell us about Winterspring!”
The little halfing rubs her chin and thinks for a moment. “Hmmm yes... Winterspring. It is not the prettiest of stories my little ones and proof that not all ends well for everyone. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
”Yes Yidda! Tell us about it! We aren’t scared of monsters!” A pair of elven boys boasts while puffing up their chests.
“Heh, well ok then...” The old crone raises her head again and as she gazes upon the younglings her eyes and look have darkened. A cold wind blows over the grasslands and as the sun disappears behind a cloud a shiver runs down the spines of the children.
“A long long time ago, in a land far far away, there was the most beautifull of lands. A land ridden with lush gardens, viriel forests and golden fields where ever you went as far as the eye could see. And wonderous people lived there! O yes! Wonderous indeed! They valued art, music and dance and their history still lingers on in many a treasured song and sculpture indeed!
They prospered for hundreds of years, toying with magic and technology alike and many an invention sprang from their creative minds. But as with everything beautifull in the world, some things about cannot abide such beauty unless it is for themselves. So this land of beauty was besieged many a time by an envious neighbour or a monster beset on the wonders and beautifull things of this land to enrich itself. Or, perhaps, in a quest to turn as beautifull as the land by discovering its secrets.
But luckily the people from this noble land were wise as well and forsaw this envy and danger lurking beyond their borders and sometimes within. Each time evil set foot on their land it would discover that these people were well versed in the arts of war, which they had made into an art in itself as everything they touched and practiced. But next to their not formidable skills there were their greatest allies. Their friends and guides in times of peace, and the icon of their wrath in times of war, the great spirits of their lands.
They had long earned the love and respect of the spirits of nature by the way they respected their land and nature and the love they had for the beauties of the world. But this which allowed them to prospes so long and to these heights would eventually bring about their downfall. For there are more spirits in the multiverse and not all are benign and some vastly more powerfull then those that inhabited their lands.”
Yidda stops for a second while she takes a sip of her berryjuice and with a deep sigh she continues.
“They prospered for ages on end and they created many wonders and marvels, some even still to be beheld to this very day. Their lust for exploration and invention eventually led them to the practise of certain magics and their mages and sorcerers eventually even experimented with planar magic to open portals and gates to world far far away. This so they could see what marvels the gods and the multiverse had created for them to discovered and wonder about. They travelled across dozens of worlds, exasperated each time by the beauties they discovered and sometimes horrified by the evil they encountered. Many things they brought home from these worlds and their curiosity and their unending hunger for more and newer things ever unsatisfied.
This would all change after these hundreds of years. For as we all know, that which history has taught us well. Nothing endures forever my children, not even the gods. The tides of the worlds wax and wane and with it happiness and pain. Treasure what you may younglings, for nothing lasts forever. Live in the moment and enjoy it to its fullest, live your lives to the fullest...”
She sighs again.
“One day their mages opened a portal to a new world. Well, not so much a small demi-plane as a world. It was beautifull beyond compare, irridiscent purple skies, green fields and woods as far as one could see. But this was a quiet world, a dead world. Dark purple clouds raged across the skies and a chill wind blew across the fields and through the woods as all was silent. Not the sounds of birds or other wildlife, nothing, just silence behind the wind.
The mages that discovered the world didn’t think anything of this silence and were over enthusiastic to find such a world. A paradise for their own, a haven of beauty for their emperor yet unspoiled. A garden fit for a god, their god emperor.
They quickly turned to build their towers there, and as spires of master craftmanship soared towards the purple skies around a temple and palace to their god emperor many people flocked to this new unspoiled world of unnatural beauty.
Many mages tried to make contact and peace with the spirits of this world but their calls remained unheeded. Silence was the answer to their spells and a few doubts arose among the greatest of minds of the empire as to the source of this quietude. But dozens of years passed without problems or disaster, dozens of years turned into an age and an age into two ages. Some things however are inevitable as I told you, to all things comes an end and so indeed to this grandest of empires. Perhaps the greatest ever to color the face of this world.
The people who had settled on the world had steadily been building more towns and cities, used more and more natural resources and had been slowly turning the world to their image and in their process they had accidentally aroused something.
And so it came to be that after two ages the dream ended and the silence of the plane turned into crimson song as the world awoke.” Yidda stops as the gnomish boy raises his hand again.
“The world awoke? How can the world wake up? Worlds don’t sleep do they?” And he looks at the grass he’s sitting on looking a bit unnerved.
Yidda looks grimly at the boy. “No worlds don’t sleep, but spirits do. And what this spirit was I do not know, neither do I know how it came to be there. Perhaps it was sealed in this world at the edge of the multiverse as punishment by the gods or perhaps that it threatened them, I do not know. But it was there, and it was aroused by those people as they despoiled it.
The skies turned black as dark clouds appeared in ever greater number, the chill wind turned into a hurricane as all the spirits of that forgotten world awoke. Dark creatures arose from tree and rock as snow began raining down from the skies and the once wonderous world slowly froze over.
The settlers who had now lived there for over two hundred years were caught unawares and most of them perished in that storm of ice and cold. Those who didn’t disappeared behind dark shapes in the show. The tales that survived told about malign spirits of ice and wind that stalked the icy wastes.
But it didn’t stop there, o no... The cold followed them to their homeworld, this world, our world. Their pale blue skies turned purple and hurrican force winds raped their golden fields and beautifull cities as blizzards covered their empire in ice and snow. The frost spread as a frozen blight across their lands, destroying everything in its path. Many people escaped this torrent of ice and blood but at least as many fell before icy claws of spirits of cold and maybe even more to the winds and cold.
The once so proud people travelled far and wide telling their tale and bringing their skills and arts with them. But never unwatchfull of that purple haze, that irridiscent sky and the tingling chill winds that foretell the comming of a cold.. cold.. winter..”
Getting slowly up from the root of the tree Yidda looks at the children.
“Ah look, there are your mothers, hurry up! They must have missed their little ones on a beautifull afternoon as this! Hurry now!”
The gnomish boy turns around as the rest hurries over to their parents and looks at Yidda with a questioning expression across his face.
“Yes Lovar, what is it?”
“You said those spirits came to this world, our world. Are they still here? When did this happen? A long time ago?”
A chill wind blows in across the fields again and Yidda and the boy turn their noses into the wind that blows up from the south.
“No Lovar, this happened last year."
She looks with a serious expression at the boy.
"I fear we may have a cold winter this year.”
Last edited:
Just wanted to post something from an IC point of view 
