A collection of books and notes on portals and other important subjects

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Perle
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A collection of books and notes on portals and other important subjects

Post by Perle »

A collection of notes and books strewn across Scholar Kross' desk shows little organization to the untrained eye. When questioned about this organizational system, Kross says it is according to the Law of Superposition.

Books, trinkets and other items on her desk and a nearby shelf seem to pertain to no particular topic... However, Kross insists they must be related, if only she had the key. Surely more meditation, research and questioning will reveal the linkages.

She provides this information freely to those she trusts:

Ashe
Bae'ithra
Bertilak
Olivus
Saerela

// OOC related to the current campaign. Feel free to add collected information.
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Re: A collection of books and notes on portals and other important subjects

Post by Perle »

Portals: Some Scholarly Notes


A copy of this book on Jhessi's desk:
This book is a tattered and stained general history of portals. Quite thick, it begins with the concept of planes and teleportation, and ends with a three-page list of known portals with at least one side in the material plane. In between, it covers such topics as portal creation, portal mishaps, portal keying, and the hazards of portaling that may be encountered along the way.

The inside cover is embossed with a water-softened stamp that is very hard to make out
Spoiler:
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Re: A collection of books and notes on portals and other important subjects

Post by Perle »

A collection of masks on a nearby shelf in Jhessi's room




Nearby each mask, some scribbled notes in a multicolored hurry, as though using a modified prismatic spray spell upon scraps of parchment:


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A large, extravagant mask designed to look like autumn leaves sewn together, each leaf threaded with veins that connect to each other around it in an endless embroidery.


NOTE:
SOURCE: Recovered from the wizard's maze
LOCATION: Classified, safe location

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An elaborate, feathered mask. The quills are stitched on with what looks like a single, neverending pattern of stitches.


NOTE:
SOURCE: Recovered from the wizard's maze
LOCATION: ???

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This weighty iron mask covers the entire face, concealing all facial features and expressions. Seen up close, the patterns left from forging it shimmer and shift in an endless pattern that might be the way metal flowed and cooled or might be deliberate.

NOTE:
SOURCE: Recovered from the wizard's maze
LOCATION: ???

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Image



An elaborate, scaled mask. The scales glint with red, yellow and orange and in firelight look like liquid flame. The tough, sharp scales are stitched on with a snaking pattern that leaves one end of each scale loose enough to shift and flutter.

NOTE:
SOURCE: Recovered from the wizard's maze
LOCATION: ???

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An elegant mask fit for any party. It is stitched with an extremely fine pattern of endless, criss-crossing lines.


NOTE:
SOURCE: Recovered from the wizard's maze
LOCATION: ???

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Image


(Quantity: 2)
An elaborate, scaled mask. The silken silver scales shimmer like fish half seen in a lake before twisting to flee. They are stiched with what looks like a single, never-ending pattern of stitches.



NOTE:
SOURCE: Recovered from the wizard's maze, lizard's lair
LOCATION: ???
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Scholarly notes from the twisted lizard's lair

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Perle wrote:
Sat Apr 03, 2021 3:42 am
Scholar Jhessi Kross pays a first-year student to make copies of a journal and a history book they found to:

Ashe
Bae'ithra
Saerela
Olivus
Bertilak

A journal of notes by a scholarly hand:


Day 3: This new feedstock is finally subjugated enough that I have informed the Beast Singer that I no longer have any concerns about rebellions. A good ice storm makes them lethargic enough to control two-minds whether to keep that trait Shard planted.

Day 11 Midday. Tuning crystal already my height. Daily harmonics in key of Abj agree with it (and me). Ready for first circle test outflow.

Dusk: Minor setback. Overcharged Abj. There is such a thing as a test subject being too protected. From magic missiles was good. From air was overkilL Very strong proof of concept. Ready for budding, and Tra.

Day 15: First results in!

Day 17: First surviving results in! Two days faster than fey shard!

Day 18: Lost half the mature feedstock last night and all the eggs. One of the ascended refused to put an old cull with a damaged tail into the reservoir. (re-adjusted production ratio to raise Enc contribution within the harmonics. Made no diff in last shard. Highly effective here) The cull claimed a dragon would take exception to hybridizing with lesser draconic stock(!) and produced proof along with threatening me Cull led a rebellion. Theyd been hiding a tunnel While rebels fought off unfinished results, able-bodied feedstock broke through into the underground water table and thence the river, taking the eggs. Most irritating. Mature feedstock provides immediately useable results, but wyvern shard has proven that in vitro allows morphic flexibility with less of a rejection rate

Day 30: By the maze lord's gilded horns! Just when I get enough functional results to go after the eggs. Instead, I am commanded to take a handful of my best results to flatter a green-skinned sub-sentient with promises of slaves and ascension. On my return, I shall see to recovering the lost feedstock and eggs. My results have located the culls rebellious followers, and have them beseiged in a riverbank cave. Ill give them draconic ascension...just not the way they think.


Spoiler:
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History of the North: 1367 - ?, Return of the Beast


Sages, philosophers, historians, and priests alike feel an ill-boding in the chill air. They predict a slow change over the next decade, but within the lifetime of men born on the first day of this age. They believe that the beasts that once ruled the land plan to return to claim what's rightfully theirs, imprisoning and enslaving the crowns. Where elves once reigned, men now rule, but their hold -as true for all civilizations before - is tenuous at best

Spoiler:
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Re: A collection of books and notes on portals and other important subjects

Post by Perle »

Stepping through a portal after Bertilak and his orcish charge, Jhessi and the others emerge into a hall where the cold seeps deep — were it not for the elemental protections cloaking them all.

She and Olivus spend copious hours researching the hall's history and lives, and notify college luminaries of their find. Her notes are fragmented sentences, a name here or a role there. Disjointed on the page but united in mind, reminders or prompts for a later dissertation, perhaps:

halfling servant of a powerful elven mage; sergeant of a military unit

Ages old Aurilite presence. A priestess of Auril name Sh--? Broken fragment...

Multiple battles, or one big one. Partial documentary evidence:

"The Wind blows no more through these halls. The southron mage was instrumental in purging--"

TIMELINE:
Auril owned those halls
Akadi invaded
Phalorm seems to have aided Auril...and eventually supplanted her.

Aurilite clerical magic: Scrolls dated to 709. Arcane scrolls dated to 800s, sealed with three crowns.

She later pieces together some history based on her finds:
Phalorm (known as the Realm of Three Crowns and later as the Fallen Kingdom) was a kingdom in west and northwest Faerûn made up of dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings and humans.

The kingdom was formed in the Year of Trials Arcane, 523 DR, at the Council of Axe and Arrow, a council formed to deal with the growing orc problem in the area. Dwarves from Dardath, elves from the Ardeep Forest, gnomes from Dolblunde, halflings from Mieritin and humans from Delimbiyran collectively agreed to form a kingdom under the joint rule of the elves, dwarves, and humans.

In the Year of the Normiir, 611 DR, an illithid-led orc army known as the Everhorde destroyed the kingdom of Yarlith and laid siege to the city of Neverwinter. The combined armies of Phalorm, Uthtower and others rushed north to Neverwinter's aide and broke the siege. The combined armies continued to battle the Everhorde and finally destroyed it in the Year of the Jester's Smile, 612 DR, at the Battle of Firetears near what would later become Triboar.

In the Year of the Shattered Scepter, 614 DR, another orc horde arose in the High Moor, the Greypeak Mountains, and the Fields of the Dead to lay siege to the Realm of Three Crowns. The weakened armies responded and confronted the horde at Iniarv's Tower in the kingdom of Uthtower in the Year of the Lamia's Kiss, 615 DR. The lich, Iniarv, who lived in the tower, responded by attacking both armies with devastating spells eventually causing the seas to rise and flood the area dispersing or killing everyone and creating the Mere of Dead Men. It is there that many of Phalarm's finest warriors still haunt the swamps.

The kingdom was destroyed by the Horde of the Wastes in the Year of the Lamia's Kiss, 615 DR, and was thereafter referred to as the Fallen Kingdom.
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A report on a dangerous necormancer!

Post by Perle »

While in Olostin's Hold, Scholar Jhessi Kross authors a report and makes copies. She gives several to Aedelvana and distributes copies of to others with her when they rest in Felevel the Druid's sanctuary.
Extremely dangerous necromancer poses regional threat

Author: Scholar Jhessi Kross of the Lady’s College
Date: Eleasias 21, 1388
Location: North of Olostin’s Hold near the River Rauvin
Visual observations: Two treants appeared to have killed two experienced adventurers — a cleric and a woodsman. The report author and Bertilak of Olostin’s Hold tried to convince the treants to leave the corpses, but were instead attacked. After the treants were swiftly killed, the author moved closer for an inspection.

Someone clearly etched runes and figures into the bark of the treants, though the author could not discern much else about them due to the severe damage caused by the dead adventurers. The wood appeared to be in a stage of rot and larvae have already taken hold.

Magical inspection: Upon use of Detect Magic, one treant was clearly undead. It possessed two holes (insects?) within which necromantic and conjuration magical residue was concentrated.

A second treant was deeply rotted, clearly undead and nearly glowed with necrotic auras. It oozed with negative power, which faded as time passed. A monstrous, screaming face was carved opposite its own and radiated a strong negative power.

Below is a drawing of the face as best she can approximate, drawn with Color Spray. It has a strong cleft jaw what appears to be a wrinkle in wood. An arrow points to the wrinkle with a single word: “Scar” Scribbled in the margin is a name and title: Torrence Steadyfist, the Post Knight Corporal at the Silverwood South Outpost.

Other considerations: Consultation with Dawnbringer Borstad Nomephel indicates a strong necromancer in the vicinity, one capable of isolating souls. Examples can include trapping souls into gems. If the author’s research is correct, destroying the gem ends the entrapment.

The very instant the soul slips from the body a specialist necromancer can snatch it. It is in this manner a soul enters into servitude for this vile practitioner. In this manner a soul cannot be returned to its body, nor can it proceed to the afterlife. It is particularly cruel when such occurs to an elf, as is the case with the Corellon Cleric Ashe Eleaf and woodsman Bae’ithra.

Conclusion: It is my belief that a necromancer is behind these poor twisted creatures’ appearances and it will require a combined effort to rid the region of this threat. Adventurers will need strong protection from death magics, and mind-affecting spells.


An addendum is attached:

Strong undead presence located in Olostin's hold and eliminated. Destruction of Onyx-like crystals/gems/rocks resulted in dissipation of necromantic activity. After discussion with Felevel the Druid, we must search all fallen treants for a pair of black stones, which may harbor the souls of fallen locals or adventurers. Examine the fallen treant for a face, similar to one found on the treant that may have harbored Post Knight Corporal Torrence Steadyfist.

Recommendation for future study: Examine the standing stones by the horseshoe falls. Do the fey know?

Proceed only with strong death protection. Inform Priestess Saerela.
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