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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 258529" data-attributes="member: 4036">10th day of ChillwindI find it amusing now that here I thought yesterday was eventful.  Of all the days of my life, I do not believe that any have ever held so much meaning as this one.  In one fell swoop, the entirety of our quest has been laid bare before us by the most unexpected of sages.  A Circle of Oaks, an aged elf, a dusty tome, to these I might look to find answers.  But twelve unified wielder(s?) of magic, casting the most powerful of all spells, and guarding the nexus of our world?  I had never thought of that.It would seem that those who reside within the dome have come to collectively call themselves Caretaker.  He, or they, took every precaution in catching us unawares this morning, subduing us in a quick and relatively painless fashion.  After determining that our intentions are noble, that we hold the items we do, and that we fly the ancient banner of Ardoneth Calienthus from our mast, Caretaker became very forthcoming.The dome itself protects what Caretaker calls Origin, the birthplace of the world.  Thousands of years ago, our world was created by wizards who wished to study magic in a place where time did not flow as it did on their world.  Time here, in this…it is strange to say it….artificial world, passes far slower than in the….real….world.  Harnessing the elemental magicks, the creators sealed these energies into four artifacts called Elemental Anchors.   These, appropriately, are the same four objects we found at the Temple of Elemental Justice, the same temple we know to have been created by the Daystorm.  The Daystorm, as it turns out, are only four knights who protected the Anchors, along with one wizard, Tiztserak himself.  I already knew from my studies that Tiztserak was once a member of the Daystorm, and a goodly man at that.  I know what he studied (the functioning of worlds, life, death, and greater magicks including flying ships), what magic he specialized in (necromancy), and, according to the tomes I found in Galearon, it was his ambition that corrupted him.After a time, Tiztserak, being the most powerful of mages, decided that he wanted to return to the real world.  (Caretaker calls the real world Ersadia, which is the same name the Firestar brothers gave to their home world.)  To do this, Tiztserak needs to corrupt the elements of this world until they break down, or break our Anchors (I’m still not sure which, perhaps both) destroying our world and allowing it to meld into Ersadia.  Unfortunately, Caretaker tells us, this would actually annihilate both worlds.To corrupt the elements, he has enlisted a variety of agents.  The Tiztserak we plan to face in Terraj’s Breath is a mere clone, it turns out, and the real mage’s essence lies somewhere outside of this world.  He also has a Yuan-ti, a kraken, and a hydra corrupting the other three elements (which, we cannot know for sure, though I can venture to guess easily enough).In order to aid us, Caretaker divulged the full truth of our Anchors’ powers.  He now calls us the Knights of the Daystorm*, and has bid us to end Tiztserak’s corruption of the world, thus preventing the utter destruction of two worlds.  Quite a lot to ask of four young adventurers.With that, Caretaker left us, needing to return his attention to protecting Origin.  We, the Daystorm (and how it fills me with pride to think of ourselves in such a way!), concluded that we had the leverage we needed to go to Terraj’s Breath.  The subsequent trip around the world was introspective and somber as the weight of our task began to finally sink in.  Terraj’s Breath turned out to be well protected.  Scores of slave-beasts with spades and shovels were keeping the mouth from caving in on itself.  The corruption of the earth was so complete that even a cave named for the earth god was not immune.  To complicate matters, the flying Kraan circled above.  I took the liberty of making our group invisible and dismissing our mounts.  Now with a little more time to scout, Zerin took to the skies and got a better look.  He felt it might be possible, but risky, to fly straight into the cave.  We did not know just how deep we might be able to go, but it was a risk we were willing to take.  We would be prepared to fight at any time if the cave got too small for the dragon man’s wingspan.  Luckily, very luckily in fact, Terraj opened his mouth wide for us and we managed to bypass dozens of slave-beast groups.**  So far below the surface did we end up that it felt as if we were in another world entirely.  The walls even this far deep were little more than wet clay, easily scraped with a fingernail.  Tiztserak’s clone did his job quite thoroughly.  Reaching the end of our decent, those of us who could see in the dark (Sheeji, Zerin and, by psionic extension, Tylette) noticed we were in the center of a cavern with seven exits, two of which were lit by torches.Sheeji scouted ahead while we all hid back in a cave.  She discovered a few small buildings, several dead ends, a staircase leading further down, and that two of the tunnels connected at the end, making a big circle.  Down this last tunnel were two giants with stony, grey skin.  Down one of the lit tunnels was a larger building, a command post, we thought.  So, guessing there might be some important information there that would lead us to Tiztserak, we quietly made our way down the tunnel until we reached a spot where it narrowed in.  Fredrick turned around and wisely sealed the tunnel behind us using Druveln, the Earthstaff.  It created quite a noise, but the hundred feet of muck seemed to be adequate for keeping the other guardians at bay.  There were about a dozen of the slave creatures in the large building.  The pitiful creatures proved utterly defenseless against Zerin’s flamberge.  Tylette managed to dominate one of the creature’s will who we thought could read some of the documents found in the building.  But alas, the stupid beast proved uselessly illiterate.  Judging our location, we used the staff to open a new portal to the adjacent cave.  We passed through and could hear the giants beating on the wall like idiots, digging through ponderously with their great clubs.  We walked a bit down this new tunnel, the one which had the staircase leading down, then sealed it all once more behind us.  The giants would have a difficult time with that, to be sure.Up ahead was another group of the slave beasts, nearly twenty, led by one of the larger lizards.  We held back and thought to get the drop on them.  Imagine my shock when Fredrick instead chose to charge right out into their midst.  It took only seconds for the swarm of axes to bring our friend low and he would have surely died again were it not for Zerin’s valor.  The dragon man flew over the top of them all with one great sweep of his wings and landed right on top of the priest, thoroughly covering him with his bulk.  I called forth great lions from the plane of earth who managed to cut down the beasts at Zerin’s back whilst he dismembered those before him.  The battle was short, and Fredrick would be healed.  With a bit of time left on their stay, I sent the lions through the muck behind us to play with the giants.We have decided that it will be possible to actually seal ourselves into this area between the staff-formed wall of muck behind us and the door before us.  Fredrick called upon the Earth Anchor to seal us in and so it was.  There are rumblings from somewhere far off, or deep below.  The earth here is so fragile that it cannot support the vast open caves.  Wouldn’t it be a humorous twist of fate if Titztserak’s clone buried himself in his own corruption.*The Daystorm were some of this world's greatest champions over a thousand years ago.  Collin has been fascinated with them for a while and commissioned a banner with their long forgotten symbol which he began flying from the mast of their "ship".  Caretaker took in this and their possession of the 4, erm, artifacts and began addressing them as such.  Collin was very pleased.**Imagine for a moment if you will a monstrous cavern beneath the earth so large it bears the earth god's name.  Imagine the terrible excavation at Isenguard beneath Saruman's terrible tower of Orthanc.  Imagine the orcs mining and digging and building and sweating, now imagine a 10 ft tall dragon man invisibly circling it from above, then tucking his wings and praying that a catwalk or turn or drop or wall doesn't come up on him too fast to notice.  Most of the party couldn't bear to watch.  *THAT* was fun.</blockquote>

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