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The World of Teréth End - Chronicles - Othic |
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"Too often days swiftly pass / Weeping in the evening grass / There just is not enough time / Forthings you dreamt you'd do / The hours still drift by. "Too many years, too high a cost / Too many lessons earned but lost / And still you complain all the time / Cursing the days before you / Lamentng the days gone by. "And finally laying in your bed / Staring skyward, nearly dead / It all floods back one last time, / The chances that you left behind / But alas there's little left to do / ... but cry." Dirimoran song  |
Armies of Everdeath Apprehensively, Tarawyn meets the minions of Draun. Alcerra finds necromantic forces at work within Kry Moradem and seeks to turn their allegiance. Jak charges into battle with the ancient priestess as years are drained from his body. Alcerra appeals to the courtyard dead and raises an army empowered by Draun and centuries of mounting revenge. Kelzerak is beared down by her ancient followers and slowly picked to death by Punishment. Return to Eldarkar. Jak returned to Alcerra's simple camp with an older man in cautious tow. The man stopped short of entering the area as the rotting bat creatures bounded toward Jak with claws scraping at the air, and their teeth chattering madly. Alcerra commanded the creatures to withdraw from the travelers before the bounding zombies fell upon the intruders. Jak introduced his companion as Tarawyn, Kaithah's teacher when she'd lived in Eldarkar. Nervous, the older man agreed to stay at the camp for the day's remainder and Alcerra kept her minions at a distance. In the morning the group awakened and headed toward the ruined keep of Kry Moradem. Tarawyn was able to show the group a shortcut to the ruins though he claimed he'd never been to the keep himself. Once inside the keep, Tarawyn called to Jak. The perimeter of keep grew into a writhing tangle of moving thorned vines. Someone knew they were here. Alcerra began the process of commanding skeletons to rise from the keep's courtyard. The loremaster explained that their had been a revolt here in 115 DR where the townspeople had swarmed the keep. The Roth-Attrakar priestess Kelzerak in turn commanded the Heedar to fall upon the townspeople, killing them all. The place has been avoided since, and believed cursed by those who live nearby. The group wandered into the main building, and again pushed their way into the ancient chapel. Jak poked his head into the upper room but saw only guano and indistinct shapes. When he noticed something moving he quickly withdrew down the stairs, regrouping with the others in the empty gallery. Soon figures were visible, moving in the chapel, and an old hollow female voice filled the walls of the keep demanding that the intruders `bring her the other eye'. The mummified creature appeared in the doorway to the chapel, a large bronze eye set into one bony socket of her skull. When it became apparent that no other "treasures" were to be forthcoming, the dnuroo explained, "Then there is no further use for you." With arcane words the room was plunged into inky darkness, swallowing the sight of all but the thing that was crawling up Alcerra's cloak. The priestess of Draun blindly went through the motions of spellcasting and successfully dispelled the blackness. Her new skeleton legions pushed into the doorway of the chapel trying to overbear the dnuroo with little success. Jak took the opportunity to circle through a side door into the chapel and attack the creature from the rear only to find the things attention drawn to him. First, Kelzerak fired her gunne at the spearman and then came forward with death-cold fingers. With each bony touch Jak's body screamed and twisted. Jak fought back, slashing savagely with Punishment, but the trusted spear did not seem to mark the mummified flesh. As the fight continued, Jak pushed his hair from his eyes, and adjusted his grip on the spear-shaft though his fingernails were growing long. Before he could retreat back into the gallery, 16 years were robbed from him. Alcerra's Heedar-zombies bounded in after Jak's departure. The priestess of death stood in the courtyard summoning the dead from the keep floor, where they had fallen some 500 years before. Once risen, the skeletons pressed into the chapel in numbers that nothing could escape. Dammon, Mishara, and Tressta appeared through the gathering throngs of bony subjects. Dammon's familiar skittered along the walls to a chapel window to observe the progress of the undead press. It entered and returned with some of Dammon's possessions, claiming that it did not seem that Kelzerak was a further threat. It seemed the skeletal command had dogpiled the dnuroo on the chapel floor, pinning her to the flagstones. Next, Tarawyn who had escaped conflict when the light's were extinguished by scampering up a wall, begrudgingly agreed to enter through the same window, and retrieve what he could from the upper room of the chapel. The loremaster first brought back a guano covered bundle of Tressta's cloak, a shield, and four large books. Next, he retrieved the remainder of the party's clothes and items. After some healing, Alcerra turned her attention back toward the chapel, commanding select skeletons to part a path toward the pinned dnuroo. Slowly, Alcerra and Jak made their way into the chapel and found the ancient priestess pinned to the stones as Tarawyn described. Though prone, Kelzerak was defiant, demanding the return of her book. After some arguing, Jak maneuvered his spear through the pile of writhing bones and stabbed at the mummified woman. Her screams filled Kry Moradem as Jak repeatedly pushed the point of his weapon into her brittle undead flesh. The screams continued and continued. All in the keep stood silently bye, listening to the horrible wailing, wondering how long it could last. Jak, aware of the unfortunate effects of his melee with the creature found strength in his despair, and stabbed harder and harder through the skeletal mound. The unearthly wailing grew weaker, and weaker, until the courtyard was quiet. Kelzerak, priestess of Roth-Attrakar, was finally dead. Soon the thorny barrier that had grown around the keep withered, crumbled, and blew away on the cool autumn winds. The group gathered to decide what next to do, and Alcerra explained that there was much more work still remaining at Kry Moradem. The final command to her skeletal legion was for each to scrape a grave for their final rest. Thus, the courtyard was filled with the thousand echoes of bony fingers clawing the dirt and stone, seeking to return to the earth from which they had risen. The night was spent in the empty keep armory, with a cadre of undead to guard against the Heedar that lived throughout the walls of the place. In the morning, Alcerra spent hours walking through the courtyard and giving these ancient victims their last rites; entering them into the grace and protection of Draun. By morning, the ashes from Kelzerak's burned body were gone on the night's winds. No ashes remained. The group covered the shallow graves before leaving at mid-day, heading back again toward Eldarkar. Arriving in the small town, Tarawyn invited all to stay in his empty home where he'd lived these past ten years. Most were happy to sleep in a warm home, while Jak and Dammon talked late into the night with the loremaster about the mysteries of the lands of Oth. Their conversations touched upon many things and places that neither had ever heard of, and some that they'd only heard in passing. By dawn it was time to leave again. Dammon winced at the rising sun, still weakened from his adventures. The small round wounds that covered his body were still fresh and unhealed. His eyes turned to the priestess. She'd passed him over in her rounds of healing these past couple days, and now she possessed his "Eye". What was her quarrel with him? What had he done to cross her? What had he done to any of them to deserve this treatment? "In time," he thought, "they will need him, and then they will learn their error." 14 Nov 1998
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Navigation People Kelzerak
(Clr8) Introducing Dnuroo: Dnuroo are misguided wizards or priests who have embraced the eternity of death in the world of the living. All Dnuroo are bound by an item or place as Kelzerak was bound to Kry Moradem. Eye of Ül: The bronze Eye of Ül is a famous artifact among scholars of Othic relics. Fashioned in 1245 HK for Thdr. Ül, Thard Commander of Irklunne, the eye is believed to enable the wearer to see great distances in day or night (an invaluable tool for a general that would be commanding troops across the forested spans of northern Oth). How did such an item come into the hands of Sadast? That story is long as the eye has passed through scores of hands since Gerrit Kauln stole the relic from Valsadalareun, Elve ruler of Oth during the Occupation. Valsadalareun had been presented the eye by an Elve soldier who'd plucked it fom the general's skull following Cladth Doril. The Elve ruler had the eye set into the head of an Acentran advisor who then searched the region for rebellious factions. Gerrit infiltrated Kry Shurulm, found the Acentran advisor, cut the eye from her head, and stole away with it (30 DR). News of this theft precipitated many other displays of defiance, also inspired by the appearance of the Wheel over Kyrm Oryroth two years before. Gerrit was never caught by the Elve but died ignominiously in 55 DR when he was burned at the stake, mistakenly identified as an Acentran. Though many had heard of Gerrit, none knew what he looked like, and the old man lashed to the post could "definitely" not be the Othic folk-hero. Since 30 DR, the eye has passed from hand to hand until it was purchased at an estate sale by Sadast in 638 DR from an owner who had received the item as part of an inheritance, and did not know the value of the heirloom. |
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| Ref. PHB (Player's Handbook), © Wizards of the Coast  |
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