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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  |
A Backward Glance A large group is assembled at Kry Shurulm to venture into the high Evalshats in search of a lost caravan. The group meets miners, Ortor, and wolves in the alpine valleys and canyons. A young man discovers his folly, perhaps too late. As the assembled soldiers checked their horses and the mules were loaded with provisions, a group of three riders arrived along the sea-wall road. They rode toward Dammon and stopped. The elder rider introduced himself as Ezikus, a priest of Roth and his assistant Almus, an acolyte. The figure rode around a bit until he could stop his old mare, and then climbed from the saddle. He introduced himself as Valus, and explained that he was here to join the group. After some prodding by Tressta it was learned that he was the son of Saldus, come to find his fortune between Oth and Taldàna to make good on his promise of betrothal to a young woman named Allea Minst. Upon Saldus's return from inside the keep, he angrily confronted the young man who stayed uncharacteristically determined. Finally, hoping that rigors of the road would change the boy's mind, Saldus relented and asked a nearby man-at-arms to find a spare shield. One was soon provided. An so, following a short prayer of good-journey from Ezikus, the group turned their horses and rode back along the dark squat walls of ancient Kry Shurulm. By evening the company had crossed through the upper boroughs of Oth, and emerged into the farm lanes of the Northfields. The soldiers took a side path and made camp near the place known as Seven Springs. And although they could only find five of the natural hillside springs, the night passed without incident. The next morning the group rode west into the Moren Nul. The region looked distantly familiar to Saldus who had marched into the region a decade before to repel Ortor raids on the countryside. Soon they came to the small village of Jorast where Dammon turned-off and rode into town for small time. After speaking with a villager, and getting his bearings for an area that was larger than he'd imagined he returned to the group and they continued toward the mountains. In the late day, they had left the foothills behind them and were climbing up a mountain road into an Evalshat valley. A miner along the way said that he'd seen a caravan of "maybe two dozen" wagons heading up the same road a "week or so" ago, but hadn't seen anyone else. At the day's end they found a flat pine valley where three streams converged and began setting camp. Valus, sent to collect firewood, returned with news of a small stone wall up the mountainside a bit. Jak and Mishara, and the soldiers Flender and Elidir climbed the valley wall. As Jak crept toward the wall he heard movement from within. An Ortor rushed out from the wall, saw the arrayed soldiers and pushed his way back inside. Mishara unslung a strange crooked bow and fired an arrow at an angle into the shelter. The screams and yelling of Ortor issued from within. The group moved up to and pushed into the enclosure, slaughtering the Ortori scouts, but not before the third and last of them sounded a large antler sounding-horn that echoed through the valley. Regrouping, the company sent Huddrum down the valley to sound the horn some more while the rest buried the Ortor in the trees, picked-up camp, and moved further up the road. Huddrum did as he was told, if not a bit more creatively, and returned to the hidden group within an hour. Though the watches were a bit more nervous that night, the night passed uneventfully. The third day of travel consisted of more up-hill riding. After a few hours, Flender directed the company up a secondary road that climbed steeply up a mountainside to a high pass above. Within the pass, the group found the ruins of an old caravan that had come to an unfortunate demise many years before. Mishara dismounted here and moving in front of the company set to explorign the trail for signs of those that had passed. He found traces of horses, wagons, and men many days before. To the side of the trail he found newer tracks of Ortor shadowing the former. They were on the right road. Flender, their guide, studied the crude map he carried and explained that he'd never been this far into the mountains here. At the other side of the pass the company rode downhill into a wooded mountain valley. As they descended a much larger forested valley floro could be seen in the distance. By nightfall they reached a likely camping spot and settled for the night. On the twelfth of Maran the company continued through the trees along the Old Taládan Road and found some stone slabs that once paved the avenue. The day's travel continued peacefully, and the horse's made good time on the level pine-needle valley floor. At day's end they had traveled a long distance, and made camp at the valley's opposite end. That night, lit by the full green glare of the moon Mamra, many of the company were startled awake by the echoing sounds of howling wolves. In moments they could here the footfalls of beasts running through the pine trees. Dammon, Tressta, and Mishara climbed into the trees while the soldiers hurriedly gathered their armor and weapons and waiting for the lupine waves to charge into camp. The horses and mules began screaming and kicking at each other, so Saldus ordered two soldiers to cut their tethers to the dismay of Jak and Mishara. The eyes of the wolves glowed red in the twin campfires as they charged from the dark woods. They were met with reflective green moonlit glow of sword blades and daggers. As a second wave barreled into the campsite from the other end, Valus standing unsteadily in his father's old leather armor, and a shortsword in his hand, hacked at the worg as it approached. He was both terrified and thrilled as the blade went into the wolf's shoulder and blood sprayed from the cut. But the wolf was too strong and ferocious and two quick bites later the young man crumpled to the ground with a scream. Nearby, the young priest Almus also went down with a choked scream. Saldus and Jak fought toward the two, repelling the wolves with sword and spear. Saldus knelt by his son and bound his leg, the gush of blood even now growing weaker as the young man's breath grew more shallow. The veteran soldier cursed himself for allowing the young man to come and for a moment in the chaos of battle thought about his wife and daughter in quiet Botton Liche. Tressta, from her perch swung awkwardly as the worg tried to jump and bite at her feet. The tip of her sword cut again and again at the growling muzzle of bared teeth. Across the campsite, Mishara also stationed in the branches of a tree expertly picked targets moving about the melee. Arrows sailed through the night air, finding the sides of wolves among the soldiers that raced around. Dammon shaped the forces of magic into a tunnel of air with Asalayd's Wind hurtling several wolves off into the darkness. His glowing threads of light were met with howls of pain as they burrowed into lupine flesh. Toward the end of battle, Mishara spotted a figure in the far distance, dancing and waving necklaces in his bunched fists. Two well-placed arrows fell the Ortori shaman. In the end, all the wolves were killed and the campsite was wet with their blood. Mishara investigated the Ortori shaman's body but found only horsehide armor, a wolf cloak, and bone and fur fetishes. The horses were calmed by fading magics, and the wounded were pulled near the fires to keep warm in the cold mountain night. Dammon appeared at the side of Almus the young priest, and as Ezikus the Elder watched-on, he poured a small vial into the young man's mouth that made him choke and spit and sit upright, awakened from his grievous wounds. Ezikus thanked Dammon, and promised him favor. The morning revealed the carnage that the night had concealed. Almus sat in prayer for many hours and then tended to the injured Valus who wakened and sat dumbly staring at the large worg-tooth scars where his leg had been opened the night before. Only four days, and adventure already didn't seem like such a great idea. The company went about its morning duties and prepared to ride from the valley in the late morning. 20 Nov 1999
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Navigation People Almus (Clr2) Introducing Tolar: Nestled
somewhere within the high Evalshat
peaks lies the legendary city of Tolar,
City of the Moons. The builders of the place is not known, though
the name is Early Dwürden meaning
"Four Teeth". It is one of five locations (another being
Arkirun) believed to be among the oldest
structures of Terèthor, built
long before the arrival of the Uren. Uren
have walked the avenues of Tolar but none have uncovered its mysteries.
Powers remain among the ruins still that even the Elve only guess
at. |
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| Ref. PHB (Player's Handbook), © Wizards of the Coast  |
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