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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Sep 2015 : 22:29:13
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A Broadsheet Becomes a Chapbook:
1. The daily broadsheet “Word of the Deceased” becomes “Words of the Deceased.”
2. Printed and sold in Suzail. The later grew out of the former, as the author developed a network that informed him of more deaths in Suzail, and beyond as word came in from Cormyr.
3. The author took whatever details his network gave him, combined it with his own knowledge, and wrote obituaries that were equally likely to be fiction as fact.
4. This entailed smaller print, a bigger broadsheet that became two broadsheets per day until a chapbook format proved the better way to go.
5. Certain persons found this chapbook to be an excellent way to communicate, and they began requesting (via coin and gems payments) that certain quotes or whole verbatim text from the deceased be included for the deceased person’s entry in the chapbook.
6. Such requests were resisted at first, but the author turned publisher (employing others to do the writing for most of the entries) saw his chance to expand—and to grow personally wealthy—began accepting them.
7. There are no libel laws in Cormyr, but angry nobles acting in concert can practically write their own laws for a short time. Thus the publisher—enriched and satisfied with his run—departed Cormyr quickly when the writings in “Deceased” proved too provocative to ignore.
8. Scrutiny from the Crown would have shut down publication anyway; they’d grown weary of obvious plots and criminal activity being conducted in the chapbook.
9. “Deceased” would have died then and there, were it not for the interest of an old, well-off priest of Kelemvor.
10. Publication resumed within a tenday of the publisher’s departure. The entirety of the first tome was devoted to the rise and fall of “Deceased” under his tenure. Filled with facts and facts only, the chapbook’s publication caused quite a stir in Suzail and Cormyr. Some death and mayhem ensued. The Kelemvorite counted on it to help fill the pages of his new venture with obituaries, knowing also that stories of the fallout would draw new readers. This was not the priest’s only venture in Cormyr, nor was he the only follower of the God of the Dead to find his or her way to Cormyr, to enact Kelemvor’s will.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2015 : 07:48:29
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Kelemvor’s Presence in Cormyr
1. In the last fifty years, Cormyr has seen a slow influx of clerics, priests and their attendants, lay worshippers and followers of the Lord of the Dead.
2. Most sages who concern themselves with tracking the ebb and flow of power, influence, and the presence of the priesthoods of various gods active in the Realms agree that Suzail was the point of entry for Kelemvor’s followers.
3. One sage had always maintained this was not the case, but his was an opinion drowned out by the insistence of his peers. He died.
4. The careful research of an upstart sage based in Cormyr proved that a decade before the first public proclamations were made by priests of Kelemvor in Suzail, a cabal of outlander merchants had assembled in Arabel to lay the groundwork for what was to come. They had one thing in common: a desire to see Kelemvor established in Cormyr.
5. Her work was published quietly. It lingered, unread, in various of the halls and towers of learning in Cormyr. It was not until friends of the old sage discovered this new research that the flame of disagreement was reignited.
6. The old sage’s body of work on the subject of Kelemvor was sent to the upstart sage. Combined with her own work, the young sage pieced together an outline of the activities of the cabal.
7. Her work was roundly denounced by the handful of still-living sages who’d done the same to her predecessor. Likewise by other, younger sages willing to take as fact the words of their elders in lieu of looking at the matter with their own eyes.
8. The matter was of little importance to the public at large, but within the halls of power in Cormyr, high priests, senior courtiers and the Mage Royal all bent their minds to the subject renewed by the young sage.
9. The renewal of the daily chapbook “Words of the Deceased” buttressed the young sage’s research. The second day’s printing of the chapbook under new ownership (see one post above, Dear Reader) focused not on the recently deceased, but on several merchants—some prominent, some not—that operated or otherwise lived in Arabel a half century ago.
10. All but two of the names found in the chabpook had been identified by the young sage as members of the cabal. The obituaries themselves were detailed in their accounts of the struggle of each merchant to establish a foothold in Arabel. They described in glowing words the successes the merchants had—when they had them—and were equally energetic in denouncing those who stood in the way of the merchants, be they competitors, rivals or even officers of the Crown.
11. The labors of the merchants resulted in the funding and construction of a temple to Kelemvor in Arabel, in secret. It was built within a warehouse—literally inside of another building—and revealed only after priests of Kelemvor formally announced their presence at court before the ruling monarch of Cormyr.
12. The warehouse was dismantled around the temple, the recovered stone, wood and other building materials used to construct smaller outbuildings that surround the temple. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2015 : 06:48:05
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Insects of the King’s Forest: the Brainfly
1. The King’s Forest is not free of dangers. Tales abound of persons wandering into campsites or towns without any idea who they are or where they came from.
2. Brainflies are one source for these stories. These insects fly about, zipping around one’s face and head. They annoy, but don’t sting or bite. Instead they steal your thoughts and memories.
3. A cloud of newborn flies can render a traveler witless. Most encounters are with lone flies, however, as adult flies generally avoid others of their kind.
4. Forest lore warns that anyone who is found in the woods, sitting on the ground and staring off into the trees, is to be avoided. Brainflies may be nearby.
5. The head of a brainfly swells as it takes in memories, turning pink and wrinkly; it undulates too. This trait has led to the creation of fanciful tales of intelligent flies that grow their brains and become as smart as men.
6. The truth is this: the flies are indeed growing their brains—to the point where they can serve as an adequate meal for the fly’s young, which grow and mature around the brain as new memories are taken in, eventually bursting forth and flying off after consuming it.
7. Brainflies about to give birth seek cracks in stone, crevice in bark or any other dark, shadowy space the fly can fit into. Their wings become sticky and their bodies ooze a clear liquid that binds them to whatever surface they’ve landed in. The fly is effectively a dead husk up to one day before its young emerge from its head.
8. One stray thought or memory is adequate sustenance for a brainfly. Brainflies usually feast on whatever is foremost in the mind of a traveler, and can make life hell for those on the road who all of a sudden forget where they are going.
9. During breeding season, Brainflies that have found a meal will stay close, feeding once per day for a full tenday before they break off to find a place to release their young.
10. Brainflies can wreak havoc on spellcasters. A memorized spell consumed by a brainfly usually destroys it on the spot (its head explodes like a miniature firework).
11. Sometimes the fly lives, and its spawn emerge on the spot in a frenzy of growth and maturation These young have a taste for memorized spells over anything else, and will seek out the mage if he or she is nearby, looking to feast immediately.
12. Most of these young will die if they do feed on more spells, but one or two usually live, and the process continues.
13. Mages have long tried to control brainflies—to make them steal specific memories and even capture spells from the minds of other mages without being destroyed in the process. Such experiments has proven notoriously difficult.
14. Druids avoid brainflies, but do not destroy them unless they have no other choice. Both druids and rangers of the King’s Forest learn early to discipline their minds and call up nonsense thoughts and ideas whenever a brainfly is near.
15. The buzzing of a brainfly gives it away: it’s less a buzz and more a low hum—like a hummingbird, but the sound is squeezed or stretched.
16. Brainflies are known to feast on active minds, not sleeping ones.
17. Brainfly young immediately seek out corpses to feast on. They burrow into the skulls of dead animals, monsters or humanoids—the fresher, the better, and they prefer the brains of intelligent beings to non-intelligent beings.
18. The young feast on the corpse’s brain, becoming larger and hardier. They remain inside until an intelligent being comes along or the corpse rots away enough to expose the mature flies.
19. The young will burrow together, and their presence produces a psychic resonance that drives off everything from other insects to forest scavengers to fully grown bears.
20. This effect will remain until the young have fully matured. At this point it changes to a psychic call for help—a subtle call that settles into unwary minds and compels them to find the source of distress.
21. Sages have long debated the origins of the brainfly. Most believe it to be a variety of fly bred by druids long ago; something used as a tool to help drive men out of the woodlands.
22. Tales of the dangers of brainflies are wild and varied. It should be noted adult brainflies have no taste for flesh, only thoughts and memories, their pattern of feasting ranging from slow (one thought a month) to frenzied (one thought a day) during breeding season, which is about two tendays long and occurs before the first freeze settles into the woods.
23. When brainflies start breeding, wise travelers and natives to the King’s Forest tend to keep off the roads and trails. Veteran adventurers leave off as well, preferring to spend their time finding a good place to wait out the coming winter over getting lost in the woods, forgetting the names of the people they’re in the woods with, wandering off alone and dying, and then having their skull turned into a winter hostel for brainfly young.
24. It is against Crown law to remove brainflies from the King’s Forest. Experimentation on them is frowned upon, and if word of such experiments finds its way to Council of Mages meetings in Suzial, the experimenter can expect a visit from the Mage Royal or the Court Wizard, along with a stern rebuke and reminder that Crown law is absolute.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 23 Sep 2015 06:51:38 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 26 Sep 2015 : 04:24:41
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Things in the King’s Forest
1. Old portals or gates, of the kind long forgotten about and left unused for centuries, exist in the King’s Forest. The gates that exist are not plentiful in number, but in comparison to other parts of the Realms once can reliably say the King’s Forest is full of them.
2. Elder Druids have long known where the gates are located, and they make a point to ensure the gates remain unfound.
3. The Crown has seen fit to allow the elders among the Druids to keep the gates secret. Like the Druids, the Crown prefers no armies come marching into the woodland unannounced. Likewise they desire no competition between nobles, powerful merchant cabals, wizards and the monstrous (dragons, illithids, drow, beholders, liches, etc.) all of which are likely to despoil the forest around a gate in any battle to claim it.
4. The methods Druids use in order to keep lost travelers and adventurers from stumbling into the gates range from the subtle to the dangerous. Over time they have raised and lowered the elevation of the land, created ravines and other natural obstacles, and filled the woodland near gates with trees grown tightly together, overgrowths of thorny vines dripping sap that causes great pain (but little actual harm) on contact, and predators both natural and monstrous that linger close and never wander.
5. Portals connecting two far away points are powerful works of magic. Thus it is not uncommon for one side of a gate to continually draw on the Weave, and barring that, the energies of creation itself, to maintain the gate’s connection(s). Sometimes this occurs because a gate is damaged, or is the result of the tumultuous history of the Weave in the last millennia and a half (everything from the fall of Mystryl, to the Time of Troubles, to the Spellplague, to the Sundering).
6. Gates that operate (or are malfunctioning) in this manner have had an effect on most everything that grows nearby in the King’s Forest.
7. One example is one form of moss that grows on trees and rocks. In the last several centuries this moss has managed to grow and spread by taking in minute amounts of magical energy flowing into a nearby gate.
8. A side effect of this ability as that the moss can regulate magic around it, up to a point. It can also discharge excess magical energy and even capture it.
9. Moss that has been starved of magic will consume cantrips and simple spells (1st level).
10. Moss that is not starved will “push” magic away. Depending on whether another patch of moss is nearby, the magic so pushed will flow towards the second patch, and so on.
11. Careful cultivation of this moss by a house wizard working for a noble family has resulted in the creation of a space within a large garden where the nobles reside, where box planters made of stone contain some of the moss (it grows on rocks and plants in each planter). The planters are arranged in square pattern.
12. When the house mage casts a simple spell, such as light, on a planter at one corner of the square, the spell effect spreads out, appearing and then disappearing atop each planter, until the magic appears at the other end, then it comes back, as the moss causes the magic to ebb and flow. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 26 Sep 2015 : 21:59:20
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Things in the King’s Forest
1. The noble family (mentioned above in the last post) is of the “woodlands” sort, as nobles based outside of the King’s Forest refer to them. Other, less nice phrases are oft used as well.
2. Woodland noble families (or “forest nobles”) are those who are perpetually concerned with the woods and almost never appear in Suzail, or anywhere else, where nobles “truly matter.”
3. The factors and representatives of these families do much of the work of handling family business outside of the woodlands, though the heads of such families, and trusted sons and daughters, will appear at court to deal with courtiers and to report to the reigning monarch when required.
4. The exceptions are members of forest noble families that hold positions at court. Such individuals carefully manage the use of timber in Cormyr (for everything from construction projects to ship building), and therefore wield much power.
5. Whispers among the nobility have long nourished the idea that certain forest nobles families have the blood of druids in their veins, and so are not entirely loyal to the Crown. “After all,” as the logic goes, “druids long made life hell for Cormyreans in centuries past.”
6. The nobles who whisper against their kind in the forest are usually those who covet what the forest nobles control and manage in the name of the Crown. Other nobles disregard their forest kin, thinking little of them, if at all, unless business or the demands of the Crown require interaction.
7. The whispers hold some truth: the blood of druids runs in the noble family that decorated their garden with echo moss (see #10 in the post above).
8. The bloodline of druids who’ve lived in the woods of Cormyr for centuries intermingled with the nobles after most of the members of a faction of these druids disappeared.
9. The faction watched over a handful of gates in the King’s Forest south of Waymoot.
10. Something sent reaching magic through one of the gates and snatched up the druids and their kin; specifically those who wore magic items fashioned from trees and plants growing near that gate.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 28 Sep 2015 : 05:44:47
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The Hall of Living Statues
1. The Hall of Living Statues is known simply as the North Hall of Storage by the numerous courtiers that navigate the Royal Palace of the Purple Dragon.
2. It is one of many such storage halls located throughout the Royal Palace.
3. A handful of persons know the true name of the hall, as well as its purpose. These including various of the Royal Family, the Mage Royal and Crown Mage, the senior duty wizard assigned to the Hall’s defense, the Purple Dragons that stand guard at the entrance to the Hall, and the blind attendants that maintain the hall day and night.
4. Within, one may find over four hundred and fifty lifelike statues of Cormyreans (and a few outlanders), all exquisitely detailed and lifelike.
5. The most recent additions to the collection depict Cormyreans in modern styles of dress. They statues depict nobles and well to do merchants, their servants, along with a handful of others one might expect to find at any of the exclusive eateries along the Promenade.
6. The oldest pieces depict Cormyreans from over twelve hundred years in the past.
7. Black hoods have been placed over the heads of all the statues. The attendants remove the hoods every morning, and replace them in the evening.
8. The Hall is tall; its iron barred windows are square and small, standing over twenty feet in the air. Little sunlight passes through; the windows long since enchanted to throw radiance into the Hall as though the sun were shining directly into it.
9. The attendants greet each statue by name. For the oldest statues, all are addressed as “Lady” or “Lord,” for the names belonging to these statues are unknown.
10. Of late, a woman has visited the Hall, first in the presence of the Keeper and the blind attendants, lately on her own. She wears a blindfold and speaks in an accent archaic. Her clothing is ancient, but it echoes the styles worn by the eldest of the statues. The flesh and blood eyes of the eldest statues have only started to register her presence. The eyes of the younger statues betray their keen interest in the woman.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 29 Sep 2015 : 06:34:08
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The Hall of Living Statues (continued)
1.The statues stand on heavy iron pedestals, to which wrought iron wheels have been affixed. The wheels are greased and the statues are moved and rotated according to the desires of the blind attendants. This is done regularly.
2. The Hall is guarded at all times by a pair of Purple Dragons in field plate armor and wearing longswords sheathed on one hip, dagger over shortsword on the other hip, and carrying tall spears and heavy shield. The weapons and armor are enchanted and terribly dangerous, and the Dragons seem perfectly at ease while standing guard for hours at a time.
3. The Dragons are supplemented by three duty wizards (two junior wizards who report to the third, more experienced Wizard of War), the trio residing in a multi-room space that stands opposite the heavy wooden doors that open into the Hall.
4. Next to the duty wizard chambers, another multi-room space exists; it is the living quarters of the blind attendants.
5. The entrances to the pair of chambers have doors, but they are concealed behind illusory tapestries which match the other tapestries hung from floor to ceiling up and down the corridor.
6. Speaking of: the long, tall corridor that stands between the duty wizard’s office and the Hall entrance is on the ground floor on the north side of the Royal Palace. Only one other obvious doorway is visible in the corridor, at its eastern end: it leads to the personal quarters of the Keeper of Statues.
7. The courtier in charge of the Hall of Living Statues is Crownsworn. However, the office of the Royal Keeper of Statues is not recognized as being one of great regard or influence.
8. Most know the office to be the position of a skilled functionary. The Keeper is in charge of maintaining statuary throughout the Royal Palace, including repairs, replacements and acquisitions of new pieces, and commands a large staff to do just that. His office is in another part of the palace.
9. Within the Hall, however, the word of the Keeper of Statues is absolute. Only the Mage Royal or a member of the Royal Family can gainsay the Keeper, only the Keeper may enter or leave the Hall without escort, and only the Keeper or someone of greater rank may grant the right of entrance without escort to others.
10. The War Wizards do not treat with the minds inside the eldest statues. They long ago went mad, and then became dormant. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 30 Sep 2015 : 05:24:25
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Dangers of the King’s Forest
1. Tenday Mold: a type of mold or rot or fungus. Some say it’s a parting gift from the dead god Moander.
2. If Tenday Mold gets on your skin in a warm, moist spot (under your armor, in your armpits or on your crotch, or if you inhale a cloud of it), there is a good chance it’ll take hold and grow. DM's choice on saving throw, if any.
3. The stuff is nigh impossible to kill without killing you (i.e. burning it off). Druids know how to remove it safely, as do forest denizens like Dryads and Pixies (who are just as vulnerable to it as humans, elves, orcs, etc.), but you better be good at convincing them to help you, or quick to offer a favor or to accept the equivalent of a magical geas placed on you once the healing is complete.
4. Magical healing in the form of the one-spell-heals-damage clerical magic tends not to work on it; the right combination of healing-type spells must be cast (DM’s choice what spells work, and in what order, plus any required Healing Skill check or not).
5. In ten days one’s body is fully covered, you draw your last breath and die, and your corpse is basically frozen in place, looking like a statue obscured by thick, powdery mold.
6. The mold bores into the body, devouring muscle and solidifying over joints, making you immobile within 1d4 days after infection.
7. It also makes you smell so bad that anything living (i.e. that has to breathe) is driven off, so the mold can grow, multiply and kill you.
8. Another ten days after you die, the smell goes away and you’re more or less a green, gray and blue mold covered humanoid-looking statue in the forest.
9. A thick, calcified crust lingers underneath the mold. Mounds of spores have formed in the center of the various colored patches. The spores are very sensitive to movement and to the presence of flesh and blood creatures; you will burst in a 20’ radius if anything the size of a Halfling or larger comes within the area of effect.
10. Druids and rangers that sight your corpse will mark the area as dangerous. A goodly act among druids is to cast spells causing bushes or vines to grow swiftly around or over your form, encasing it in a shell of green that can dampen the eruption of spores (which seem still able to sense two-legged life, even if a thick wall of undergrowth stands between the shell of your corpse and any living creatures that wander by).
11. Honeysuckle eagerly takes root in Tenday Mold, consuming the stuff like candy in about a month and leaving a hollow mass of vines over the spot where you died.
12. If the mold spores erupt, one can see that all your flesh and bone is gone, but anything not flesh or incapable of rotting lays in a pile on the ground, covered brittle bits of white that look like eggshells.
13. Wise adventurers know to look for human-high mounds of vines, and to carefully cut away at them to get at whatever valuables may lie inside, while unscrupulous persons will lure or lead the unwary (such as rookie adventurers or the desperate) into the presence of Mold shells in order to set them off. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 01 Oct 2015 07:26:27 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 01 Oct 2015 : 07:16:41
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The King’s Forest: Old Portals Lead to New Problems
1. Thanks to the presence of old, forgotten magical portals (gates for us aging Realms fans) in the King’s Forest, nearby trees, plants, moss/fungus/mold, and some animals have come to feed or subsist on magical energy drawn in by the gates, in addition to their normal fair.
2. At first this meant odd shapes in a tree’s growth. The very oldest trees had a slight bend to their branches. Slightly younger—but still quite old—trees featured one or two large branches that were skewed in their growth, like fingers pointing in whichever direction a portal existed.
3. The outer limbs of trees that grew from the seeds of already affected trees sported curling limbs, some spiraling and twisting outward as they grew, again in the direction of a portal.
4. In later generations the outward spiraling growth had stopped. Instead the limbs curled outward and flowed back on each other.
5. In the last three hundred years trees have grown up whose branches are circles within circles, the outward growth of a branch ultimately joining back up with itself, while other, smaller branches grow out from it.
6. These trees still grow tall, most of their largest limbs are straight enough, and they are still covered in leaves. But their branch spirals are all oriented in one direction, like the sails of a ship trying to catch as much wind as possible, and so are hard to miss once sighted.
7. What is impossible to miss for those with a feel for the Art is that these trees are bathed in magical energy. It flows through the spaces in their circular branches, the leaves catching magical energy as easily as they catch sunlight.
8. To a proper Weavemaster (someone who can readily see and sense the Weave of all magic), the trees that have grown and evolved in the King’s Forest around old portals are like enormous signposts signaling “The Weave Flows Strongest Here.”
9. An overhead view would show this to be true, inasmuch as the Weave must be bent and shaped before a portal can function, and lines drawn outward from an old portal to the oddly shaped trees that sometimes grow nearby would resemble a spider web.
10. It is simply the case that for even the greatest of portal makers, crafting a permanent magical connection between to points is a brute force affair, one that infringes on reality itself, and occasionally warps other more natural paths in the process. Sometimes fey appear out of nowhere near these odd trees.
11. So it is that the magical backroads used by fey and similar creatures (and foolish or desperate adventurers) to move from one woodland to another in the Realms sometimes lead to places in the King’s Forest that not even the regular backroads travelers can anticipate.
12. It would have been best, the fey thought, to destroy the warped trees, because the trees acted like funnels for seeking spells, sometimes they snagged teleporting wizards, and unwary wizards battling for control of an old portal while in the presence of these trees could have their spells caught, duplicated and amplified, turning something as simple as a magic missile into a deadly riot of magical bolts that burst outward from a tree in all directions, slaying anything living within sight of it. Dryads objected to the tree’s destruction, however (dryads are attracted to the warped trees, and some had already joined with them) and other creatures had come to depend on the trees for sustenance.
13. Instead the fey chose to convince the human druids of the King’s Forest to harvest the trees. Not necessarily to destroy them, but to prune them so as to lessen the chances of a power hungry wizard, dragon or other being from finding a lost portal, and so lessen the danger to the woodlands, and in so doing avail themselves of a magical resource; the idea being that humans—even druids—are essentially like dwarves: greedy for power; and haughty like elves: believing they are best suited to wield whatever power they attain.
14. It was a small matter to set a circle of druids on the path the fey had chosen for them. In time the druids learned how to make powerful magical objects from the circular branches, and the circle of druids grew into an order dedicated to protecting the portals from marauding wizards, lost adventurers and whomever else might come upon them while lost in the King’s Forest, while the trees themselves were lessened as the druids equipped themselves.
15. Like most mortals wielding too much power too soon, the druids were nearly destroyed as others sought what they had, and the druids sought to wield their power to protect their interests. Some of the survivors married into a noble bloodline; others retreated into the Hullack or disappeared altogether.
16. The fey had foreseen the fall of the druids, believing that the humans would grow too numerous and powerful, and so would be winnowed by their arrogance plus whatever countervailing force, or forces, grew to oppose them. The number of Druids would increase as the years went by, just as the trees near the gates would grow and flourish anew, and right about then it would come the time for a second winnowing, because in the experience of the fey most humans forget the hard lessons learned by their ancestors, and so they made the same mistakes that would lead to their destruction.
17. Thus would the fey influence and manage the humans as they had done so with the elves fifteen centuries ago, and one arrogant dragon before that.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 01 Oct 2015 07:55:21 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2015 : 07:20:55
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Does Moander Linger in the Portals?
Topics: Tenday Mold, Moander, Portals, Cultists
1. Tenday Mold does not play well with magic; not in a catastrophic way, but in an “I’m oil and you’re water, so we don’t mix” sort of way.
2. This is one reason why healing magic isn’t a good first recourse to deal with Tenday infections.
3. It’s also the reason why some sages, priests, fanatics (read: cultists) and wizards believe the essence of the divine resides inside Tenday Mold.
4. Specifically: the residue of Moander, a dead god of rot and corruption, who’s always trying to make a comeback, it seems.
5. Fanatics of this dead god appear in Cormyr from time to time, having almost always traveled from far away Yulash; most carry some form of corruption on their persons (that is hidden as much as possible, while traveling).
6. From time to time, adventurers who’ve been co-opted by the undying corruption of Moander that lurks within ruins within the Elven Court will also appear in Cormyr.
7. Corrupted individuals are usually immune to the effects of Tenday Mold (including the rot stench that drives living creatures off), and about one in five Corrupted is capable of sensing Tenday Mold at ranges that have been catalogued out to 200’. (Such observations made by Wizards of War, and set down in Dark Documents that are currently housed in successive shelves of war wizard records within the Royal Court).
8. In the past the Corrupted have tried to infect their fanatical followers with Tenday Mold; barring that, to infect others and then capture them, the idea being to transport the afflicted out of the King’s Forest, and to introduce them into large population centers (Suzail, preferably, though Arabel has been targeted in the past).
9. This is just one of a nigh-endless list of reasons drummed into the heads of Wizards of War (as well as officers of the Purple Dragons) why adventurers are watched so closely in Cormyr, and why adventurers are required to obtain adventuring charters and to present them on demand by officers of the Crown.
10. The distribution of Tenday Mold in the King’s Forest is sporadic, with the exception of rarely used or forgotten portals; around them one can almost always find evidence of Tenday Mold—usually in the form of humanoid shaped, hollow shells covered in mold spores that are just waiting to erupt and infect. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 02 Oct 2015 07:21:23 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 04 Oct 2015 : 07:44:37
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When you bring the bad news home with you.
Topics: Tenday Mold, Soon To Be Dead Wizard, Portals, Scornubel, King's Forest
1. Tenday Mold is a regular danger for those who seek out old portals in the King’s Forest. It has felled a variety of explorers and seekers, including a score of confident and otherwise intelligent wizards down the centuries.
2. In one example, a wizard native to Scornubel followed clues hinting at the existence of a master portal key that would allow anyone wielding it to access portals throughout the King’s Forest, and select as his or her destination any other portal in the same wood, in addition to the portals’ regular destination(s).
3. This mage was no portal master, but neither was he weak in Art. He lived with his wife, one apprentice, and three servants, in a three-story tower, square in shape, the décor equal parts modest and unpretentious, that stood north of Scornubel, about halfway between the city and the Reaching Wood.
4. The wizard made his play, his teleport placing him in the middle of a clearing that stood a good hundred paces from a portal overgrown with vines, that the wizard intended to test if he found the key, which he believed was in the vicinity of the portal.
5. He’d scried the area and availed himself of magical defenses, including several contingency magics, spells to deflect missiles and thrown objects, and spells defend him against wild bursts of magic that might erupt out of a portal. He didn’t know the dangers of Tenday Mold, but he had confidence in his magic.
6. Thus the first Tenday Mold shell was largely deflected by the wizard’s magic when it burst nearby. The wizard backtracked through the clearing, away from the portal, and sought a path to the side.
7. This time two bursts hit him; again they were mostly deflected, but his magic was being used up in the process as it flared up to defend the wizard.
8. The portal, it should be noted, was hungry for magic, as was much of the plant life in the area, the later bending itself to the mage, sensing the power he carried around himself, and subtly, slowly drawing on it.
9. The wizard backtracked a third time into the clearing, chiding himself mentally for not preparing better, and cast a spell of flight. The tree canopy was low, and the going was slow, but the wizard ascended high enough and was able to move forward through the trees and towards the portal, without losing his way or suffering more dangers.
10. He descended behind the portal, careful to check for more exploding mounds of mold first, then cast a spell of his own devising on the portal.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 05 Oct 2015 : 06:25:04
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When you bring the bad news home with you (continued).
Topics: Tenday Mold, King’s Forest, Portals
1. The portal nearly ate the wizard’s spell outright, but enough of it survived to serve its purpose, and a high-pitched tone emanate from the portal. Thirty paces away, the sound was matched in pitch, though not volume.
2. Every ten breaths this process repeated, and the wizard flew in the direction of the second sound. The Master Key was not on the ground, but about ten feed up in the air, wedged partly into a tree trunk surrounded by a riot of bushes and thorny vines, like a man standing in waist high water.
3. The Master Key looked just like the drawings the wizard had viewed in a treatise on portal keys, written by one of the endless number of sages that have made a living in Scornubel writing about things related to the Art: it was rectangular in shape, with three round studs on the top, and made of a dark metal that looked like stone, but was closure in texture to cold iron.
4. The Key was lodged in the tree trunk. It’d been there for some time; the tree had clearly suffered a wound when the key was propelled into it. Over the years the tree bark had grown around it, partially encasing the key.
5. The wizard worked a spell over the Key to remove it, right about the time his magic started to fail. The Key was dislodged and floated before the mage, right as his flying spell failed and he crashed into the bushes and thorns below.
6. His spell over the Key failed moments later, and it dashed the wizard over the head, knocking him cold. The mage’s warding spells drained away, flowing into the vegetation all around, and through it into the portal. The Tenday Mold set in.
7. By the time the mage awoke to great pain in his head, his joints were already stiffening. He found that he could not move his mouth to cast spells, and he had equal difficult with his hands.
8. He had little choice but to trust in his contingency spells. These activated days as he neared death, and he was whisked back to his tower.
9. His apprentice found him nearly grown over, and no amount of potions would help (they broke his jaw to force it open). Unfortunately for the tower occupants, the return of the master of the tower meant the tower itself locked down magically. Only he could unlock the tower, or his apprentice upon the master’s death.
10. However, the apprentice tried and tried to heal his master, refusing to unlock the tower until his work was done. He was caught in a burst of Tenday Mold days later, dooming everyone in the tower to death by slow starvation. The Master Key came along with the wizard.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 06 Oct 2015 : 06:48:59
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Kelemvor to the rescue?
Topics: Kelemvor, Mystra, King’s Forest, Harpers
1. Suppose Kelemvor is aware that a fragment (or the fragment, if there's only one) of fallen Mystra is clinging to existence in the King’s Forest in Cormyr, and he decides to help. More to the point: some aspect of Kelemvor that isn’t concerned with maintaining the balance, being neutral, etc., decides to help. Perhaps it’s the part of him that’s still human and still cares.
2. Perhaps Kelemvor develops an aspect of his divine form geared towards magic. Or maybe he masquerades as another, lesser deity, one long forgotten, that’s “making a comeback.”
3. Kelemvor could support the Harpers (i.e. the Harpers of Cormyr and the Dales), who never went away despite what the 4E FRCG has to say on the subject, by sending visions to his priests that they are to begin purchasing magic, and to transport it to Cormyr and to give it over to certain Harpers, on the assumption that they would transport the items to certain parts of the King’s Forest. Likewise to defend and support Harpers covertly; overtly only if necessary. Maybe this leads to Kelemvor becoming one of the deities the Harpers look to for guidance and support, even if the public doesn’t know about it.
4. An influx of magic items into Cormyr will always draw attention to the place, so it becomes the focus of attention for several NPCs, which is good from a DM point of view because the more outsiders you have flowing somewhere, the more varied the encounters you can present to your players. Some of these are likely to be lost or stolen, which may have an effect on any number of power grabs and plots going on in Cormyr (busy place the last ten plus setting years).
6. Aldrus Steelshorn, Malthar Bearslayer and Lady Moonmantle are all Harpers of Cormyr and the Dales. Would Mystra trust them? Would Kelemvor have to appeal to other deities, or have his people bypass these Harpers and do all the work of aiding Mystra themselves?
7. Your earlier idea about merchant faithful covertly building a temple to Kelemvor inside a warehouse in Suzail (see #11 in this post) could be taken one step further: the temple is abandoned by its occupants as the events in the novel “The Herlad” draw to a close, and given over in its entirety to priests of Mystra.
8. A less overt method would be to have the merchants haul in magic the old fashioned way. Might get expensive, depending on Cormyrean tax laws. Might be better to smuggle items in. Or rely on adventurers to bring the magic items in. After all, if it’s on your person and you’re a chartered adventurer, one can’t exactly say you’re evading Cormyr’s tax laws aimed at goods hauled into or through the Kingdom. Also priests generally, and altar sworn priests in particular.
9. Adventurers might balk at being akin to a two-legged pack mule. But if the job only requires you to pick up items at point A, safely carry them to point B and defend your person along the way—something adventurers are already good at, plus most of them like a good fight—then it can’t be that bad. All the better if you are an adventurer priest of Kelemvor or an adventurer who keeps Kelemvor as your patron, because this is a position of trust you’re being put in.
10. That whole idea of yours about Kelemvor desiring a strong presence in Cormyr could be pointed towards the idea of supporting Mystra’s renewal, and not just by bringing in magic to feed to the goddess. All sorts of actions could be taken by Kelemvor’s priests, worshippers and lay persons to help things along (like identifying talented youth that could become Wizards of War).
11. Do any of Cormyr’s nobles owe priests of Kelemvor favors? What of Cormyr’s established merchants or already chartered adventurers, who might have called upon Doombringers for aid and now have to pay the piper.
12. If you place a magic item on an altar that’s consecrated to Kelemvor and you offer it up as a sacrifice, can Kelemvor send that item to Mystra? That is, whisk it away from the altar and have it arrive in the vicinity of the fragment of Mystra mentioned at the top of this post? Is this sort of divine transfer (for lack of a better phrase) against Ao’s rules? |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 06 Oct 2015 06:49:32 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 07 Oct 2015 : 08:15:55
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The Firehair
Topics: Sune; Lesser Divine Aspects; Nobles
1. The fair flower of a noble house stands on a west-facing balcony as the sun sets, her hair and clothes awash in crimson orange, her cheeks and brow illuminated by golden light.
2. Her hair seems to catch flame, but what rises up isn’t fire; instead it’s the sunset light trapped by magic. The whole of her body writhes as the light that finds her is caught and made to settle over her form.
3. The effect carries into the night, the noblewoman appearing as though bathed in sunset light, the effect lending color to her hair, face and clothes in a manner that no makeup could hope to match.
4. She can be a little too bright to look upon if she catches the sunset too soon. Sometimes this is necessary, on the nights when she will be up late working, because then she is her own light source, and need not worry over lighting lamps or candles, nor suffering the chance of setting fire to precious things in the dead of night when exhaustion sets in.
5. In utter darkness, the effect can be quite arresting to the unsuspecting viewer. Spells that summon light are paltry things to wizards, likewise items enspelled to provide light; both are common enough among nobles. But this effect attracts the eye in a way that only sunsets can.
6. Where does the magic come from? Some say from the balcony itself, and then only to ladies of the blood of the House.
7. Others claim the source is a set of hair pins, not easy to see but always worn by successive generations of noblewomen of the House.
8. Most nobles think it’s the clothes the ladies of the House wear. Something the mage of the House must renew.
9. Those who’ve visited the noble’s manor while attending one of the celebrations held there each year have viewed portraits of the women of the House that fill the walls of several large rooms. If there are portraits of the men of the House, they are not let out for public viewing.
10. The eldest and most senior females of each new generation born to the House all have the same mark on their portraits. Most anyone you ask will tell you it is the mark of the painter, and later the mark of the live-in family that grew to serve the House and flourish as the House flourished (remember: entire families moving in with nobles in order to serve them, and doing so for successive generations, is something that happens in Cormyr), but what most do not realize is that the mark is a symbol for a lesser aspect of the goddess Sune.
11. This aspect claims the sun, but only during sundown, twilight and dusk; the holy times of the year are in the autumn months, with much activity before, during and after the commonly recognized “holidays” of Highharvestide and the Feast of the Moon; reveres strength and perseverance in the face of certain defeat; finds valor in striding up to darkness, the better to be in contrast to it and stand out against it; encourages acts of love and kindness before night takes hold, the better to charge full on into it and live to see another dawn; encourages support of those who carry the light into the darkness; sees beauty in children yearning to stay out as late as possible, before the last light fades away.
12. Of late this aspect of the goddess Sune is seen by followers and the handful of priests as the caretaker of the new days and new beginnings wrought by Lathander with the coming of each new dawn.
13. Priests of Lathander—to the extent that they are even aware of this aspect of Sune—are not inclined to look kindly upon such a claim.
14. Whereas those who worship lesser aspects of the gods often do so in secret—curtained off alcoves, private chapels with seating for one, and so on—the high balconies of the manor house serve as a place of prayer and reflection. To be able to carry the sunset back into the manor house is a gift from the goddess.
15. It’s no coincidence the manor house was built with its front to the east, its rear face and extensive gardens facing west, bordered in fields and trees that give way to deep woodland growth that reaches all the way to the Stormhorns. The view of the mountains is impressive enough, but it becomes that much more impressive when the sun sets behind the mountains in a fiery display that is impossible not to watch.
16. Most activity in the manor house comes to a standstill when the sun paints its last colors in the sky over the mountains.
17. What name, this aspect of Sune? Sononder, perhaps. Or Solne. Rana. Faduwar. Surysta. Soare. Faduwar seems like it could be a masculine name for those who worship this aspect of Sune. Soare seems like a good name to call this aspect of the goddess.
18. The ladies of the House are not redheads. That hair color runs in the blood of the family, but among the women hair colors are usually browns shot through with strands of gold, red and black. The beards of the men of the house are this way as well, and in sunset light they blaze with color.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 08 Oct 2015 03:25:29 |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 07 Oct 2015 : 20:18:45
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quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer
17. What name, this aspect of Sune? Sononder, perhaps. Or Solne. Rana. Faduwar. S#363;ry#257;sta, Soare. Faduwar seems like it could be a masculine name for those who worship this aspect of Sune. Soare seems like a good name to call this aspect of the goddess.
Nifty idea... But we have some funky characters in this bit. |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2015 : 03:29:09
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Nifty idea... But we have some funky characters in this bit.
Thanks for the heads up.
When I hit the Preview button, everything appears OK, but when I hit Post New Reply it comes out with problems. So I removed all the macrons over the vowels (the U and the first A) in Suryasta. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 08 Oct 2015 03:29:46 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2015 : 07:14:52
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Backdrops for Elminster Novels
I greatly enjoyed the use of Oldspires as the backdrop for the action in the novel "Spellstorm", by Ed Greenwood and featuring Elminster, among others.
Here are other locations In Cormyr I would like to see featured in a similar manner.
1. A huge old playhouse.
How is it that we have numerous quotes from plays performed in the Realms as chapter headers in Realms novels, but no city maps and map keys that include playhouses? Gitter dun, WotC!
2. A warehouse in Arabel.
3. An abandoned temple to Mystra or Azuth.
4. The dryad realm of Aloushe, in the King's Forest.
5. Greatgaunt and the castle Greatguard.
6. The mountain keep of Hornshield.
7. Daunthers.
8. The Ruins of Crownpost, with a side visit to the Blisterfoot Inn.
Start with Elminster and/or Amarune already on the run and facing dangers, then go back in time to the Inn, or to Crownpost before it got dangerous, and give the reader some backstory on how the next fresh peril that will be threatening the characters came to be. Done right, the reader will have an "Oh man, how will they survive this?" moment, and then read a chapter of harrowing escape and near-death survival.
9. A fortress or place of power that most of the surviving Shadovar would retreat to or rally around, with El and Amarune trying hard to snatch up or otherwise sabotage/neutralize whatever the most powerful magic is in that place. Might tie into a larger story detailing all the bad things Telamont and company Had planned to do to the wider Realms, had their gambit in Myth Drannor succeeded.
10. Scornubel. Aka the Divided City. Lots of practitioners of the Art there, as well as sages and others looking to sell their knowledge. Maybe this is the place where El and Storm and Amarune do their part to set the stage for Azuth's return. Better yet, maybe we start with all three characters but shift to Amarune on her own--not even Arclath at her side--and carrying the responsibility of helping to raise up Azuth. Why on her own? Mystra commands it, just as she expects Amarune to fail.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 12 Oct 2015 06:55:20 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 11 Oct 2015 : 05:27:24
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The most mundane things provide the greatest gifts.
Topics: Immortality; Longevity
1. A wooden cabinet; something that manages to look both aged and pristine. Shaped like a bell: wide at the bottom and rounded at the top, with a flat back and face, the later opens up via two doors to reveal three shelves. Below the doors rest a pair of wide, thin drawers, their interiors lined in a soft black fabric that is soothing to the touch. A single piece of wood runs up the back of the cabinet, curls over the arched top, and flattens out as it approaches the front face of the cabinet. Atop the flattened portion (currently) sits a stylized carving of a dragon’s head. The cabinet stands about as tall as a halfling.
2. The cabinet was designed to capture the essence of a living thing, and concentrate it into any liquid placed onto one of the cabinet’s shelves.
3. The cabinet was already solid and durable—it had to be to house the magic layered into it—and it only became more so after it was enchanted. The cabinet has survived the death of its creator, avoided being crushed when a wall it was set against fell in, endured the hot flames of a house fire, and stood firm against one solid kick from a frustrated mage who’d tried and failed repeatedly to unlock its secrets.
4. The cabinet’s current owner has no idea what she’s gotten her hands on. A squat, stoppered glass bottle of hard liquor was in the cabinet and not much else when she purchased the piece. She has no taste for drink, and gave the bottle away. The recipient is already enjoying a renewed vitality (though he’s not getting any younger), and will live for another century unless misfortune or one of his rivals gets him.
5. The cabinet has been topped by wooden heads other than that of a dragon. For a long time it sported a halfing’s head, which was knocked loose by the aforementioned wizard. He stomped the head into splinters, then screamed as magic erupted from the top of the cabinet that sucked him into it. The wooden splinters became a whole Halfling—one now aged and greatly confused—while the wizard was rendered into a wooden head atop the cabinet that matched his likeness perfectly. The Halfling died soon after—she was just too old and the shock of transformation and the passage of time was too much for her heart.
6. The only part of the cabinet that shows age or signs of wear and tear is the carved wooden head that tops it. As the cabinet draws the life essence of the being its captured, the head shows signs of age: the head of youthful halfing, for example, would soon become that of a middle-aged halfling, and after that an elderly halfling, if the drinkables inside of the cabinet were drained on a daily basis. When the life force is used up, the head crumbles away and the cabinet waits for a suitable replacement to get close.
7. Physically removing a wooden head from the cabinet is almost impossible if the being trapped is vigorous (a middle-aged dragon, say) or youthful (a human in his or her early twenties); otherwise as the head shows signs of age—both physically in the wood its comprised of, as well as in its seemingly carved appearance—it becomes easier to remove.
8. Doing so is a dangerous act, however, as the cabinet automatically reaches out with seeking magic, latches onto the first living thing it comes in contact with, and draws that being into itself, capturing the being’s life force and producing a wooden head to top the cabinet that matches the being’s features when that being was captured.
8. The longevity the cabinet imparts stays in the liquid. It will even remain if the liquid is removed from the cabinet and stored somewhere else. There are bottles of drinkables in cellars in Cormyr that to this day contain the essence of longevity in them, imparted by the cabinet.
9. Likewise if the liquid is used in recipes. For a short time the cabinet sat in the kitchen of an eatery in Arabel, the cabinet’s shelves filled with ingredients both liquid and solid. That eatery suffered the disappearance of two cook’s helpers, and soon after the cook—which led to the eatery closing for business—but prior to the cook’s departure the place had a steady business and specialized in baked desserts, the sale of which soon equaled all its other fare combined. Those who consumed the provender and were not already destined to die by disease, heartstop or violence, all lived a little longer than they would have otherwise.
10. The effect of the enchanted liquid is to suspend the aging process all together. Hair still grows, skin cells are shed, etc., but that which replaces the old is exactly the same. The liquid shows no discernable difference in taste or texture; liquids that are aged still age the same and wines can still go bad, though the magic remains in place in whatever rancid stuff the wine has become. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 11 Oct 2015 05:38:53 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2015 : 06:35:22
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Inspired by the movie “The Age of Adaline” (haven’t seen it yet, but I think I get the gist of it) and the American television series “Forever”.
Topics: Immortality
1. A woman that lives in Cormyr. She’s lived there for a very long time. 600 years, give or take.
2. She knows she was born in the year 849 DR. She’s traveled to Sembia, and in the opposite direction as far as Scornubel. She’s been across the Dragonmere, and spent a peaceful decade in Westgate, of all places, as the governess of a pair of children. She doesn’t remember the time she spent in the Dales, nor her harrowing escape from Myth Drannor. But she remembers taking poison with a man she’d loved for nearly sixty years, that they could die together in each other’s arms.
3. She’s not immune to mundane killing tools, accidents, or death by magic. Subsequent to her death, her body turns to dust in 1d10 days—if not already burned or substantially destroyed—like what remains after a living being is hit by a disintegrate spell, save that this dust mote swirls about, catches the wind and disperses into the air around it. This residue seems to have no trouble passing through solid stone (like it did when she passed away inside Darkhold), nor moving about in water. Within another 1d10 days she reforms somewhere else, her last memories those of her death. What is she wearing when she reforms? The DM decides. She heals just like normal people do, so a broken leg not set correctly leads to a limp and much pain. Only death renders her whole and healthy once again.
4. Death by magic takes away her memories. The effect is piecemeal on her mind—it doesn’t scramble her wits, nor her ability to do something she learned in a period of time she otherwise can’t remember—and so magic is something she avoids as much as possible.
5. She’s managed to avoid long-life induced madness; she’s at peace with the fact that she can’t remember the entirety of her past, because she’s certain she lived, she loved, she was good to her children and to all the people in her life.
6. She’s been fertile her whole life. She’s found love, raised children, been abused, fought back (and won), lived as a maid, a laborer, toiled on a farm, been a virtual slave, killed when she had to, stood nose to snout with a dragon, and above all she has a good, strong heart. [1]
7. Hers is a beauty that captures the eye of men and women alike, draws children to her, and at first glance convinces the arrogant and conceited that she is weak.
8. Pain to her is not physical; it is seeing someone she loved after she left or disappeared from that person’s life; when they see her it brings pain and confusion to their minds and hearts. In these situations sometimes she is truthful about who she is, sometimes she claims to be one of her daughters, other times that she has the blood of elves in her veins.
9. She has the ability to sense when someone she encounters is related to her. The first three centuries of her life, these were the people she tried to avoid as much as possible (after wizards and their ilk). Now she watches from a safe distance, and allows herself to find joy in the successes of her descendants.
10. Her way is not to openly interfere in the lives of her descendants who have become assholes. She knows how deeply words can wound, and how they can incite anger and cause others to lash out. Instead she prefers to pick up the pieces, working to clean up messes if she’s so inclined and is in a position to do so.
11. She has to be careful, for a variety of reasons. Among them: Six hundred years is a long time to perfect the art of living, meaning she can sew a button onto a coat or mend clothing as fast as anyone. She can make a fire and forage for food as well as any novice Ranger. She’s seen and overheard a lot too. Thus, while she doesn’t remember ever wearing armor, she knows how to assist in strapping it onto someone else. All of this, if noticed, would make her seem out of place, and bring unwanted attention her way.
12. So she’s skilled at helping without being seen. Where she sees an opportunity to do good or to teach someone something that will help them, without that act of kindness causing her trouble, then she’ll do it. This is what she’s always done, even before she noticed that she’d stopped aging.
[1] Her last words, before the dragon immolated her, “Kill me, if you must. I will live longer than you.”
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 12 Oct 2015 06:49:48 |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2015 : 20:55:33
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Every time I check into this thread, I'm thinking "hey let's see what Jeremy is up to" ... and then an hour vanishes and I have dozens of pictures in my head of books that somebody needs to write.
I think you're very good, sir. When the urge strikes you to write a novel, don't chicken out.  |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2015 : 22:09:17
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Thank you, sir! That was very kind of you to say.
I haven't graduated up to writing novels yet, though I'm trying my hand at writing Eye on the Realms-style articles.
It's slow going. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 13 Oct 2015 : 01:34:59
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In eight short months this scroll has been viewed over 10,000 times!
Must be doing something right. 
A big thank you to everyone who took the time to read what's set down here, and to the scribes who kept this scroll going when I had to step away for a time.
Onward to 100,000 views! |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 13 Oct 2015 : 03:31:15
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Congrats on 10k!  |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 13 Oct 2015 : 07:00:48
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Inspired by the artwork of Ryan Alexander Lee
Link: http://ryan-alexander-lee.deviantart.com/art/Until-I-Say-350311505
The first thing I saw was the axe. Second, the skull. I didn’t see her face until the fourth or fifth time I viewed the artwork.
Topics: The King’s Forest
1. In the first piece, it appears the dead guy was looking to chop some wood. Looks like he didn’t get to use any of the wood; rather, the wood is using him. For an encounter where the players stumble upon what’s depicted in the artwork, I think I’d have players roll a Spot check to see the face. Those that succeed get to view the artwork. The rest just get a description.
2. Dryads come to mind. Maybe the dead guy was a defender of the woods. Somebody the Dryads liked. Maybe one of them even loved the fallen warrior.
3. Perhaps a lonely nymph longing for affection is finding it in the fallen, for lack of anything living to touch.
4. Maybe the fallen warrior is the first of many, and whatever felled him lurks in the trees and the roots—which are all one living entity, located deep in the King’s Forest—that elected to destroy the small force assembled to take whatever it is the entity guards, or that it is comprised of that happens to be of value to wizards or merchants. Something rare, then.
5. Perhaps the fallen warrior lay on a slope. Once the PCs move up the rise, they come upon a sun-filled, oval shaped depression in the earth, about a half-mile to a mile long, where the trees are fewer in number than the deep growth that runs for miles in every direction and surrounds this spot in the woods, and the undergrowth is sparse.
6. Sunlight finds its way to the ground easily here, and the expanse is filled with corpses in armor. Yellowed bones picked clean and encased in armor. There are no helmets visible. Gauntleted hands still clutch weapons and shields, the former all appearing to point upwards and the later resting more or less on edge, while tree roots run like a nest of snakes over the armor, at once embracing it and imprisoning it.
7. All of this is visible from the edge of the rise, just past the first body the PCs encountered. The view does not suggest a graveyard—or perhaps it’s not the view but the feeling/vibe the oval clearing gives off. Death happened here in abundance, but that which grows has spent time taking in the dead and their accoutrements, and night and day continue without concern for the dead.
8. Any PC who lingers without walking down the other side of the slope into the clearing begins to feel as though he or she is being watched. It’s a nagging feeling, and one that isn’t shared by anyone who does walk into the clearing to get a better view of the bodies or peer at the trees whose roots have become like manacles and chains imprisoning the dead. In fact, anyone walking in the clearing hears nothing at all, except for their footsteps and any other noise they make (utter silence is quite terrifying).
9. There is no great oak or other dominating-over-all tree in the clearing—should any PC think to ask—but there is a mound of war helms dead center. It’s not hard to spot, if a PC walks a ways into the clearing. The helms are not the same. Some are simple, utilitarian things, others are decorated with antlers or wings, and sport long snouts, spikes and grim visages.
10. As one moves closer to the mound of helms, it becomes harder and harder to hear anything. Within ten feet of the mound, a PC can’t even hear themselves if they shout at the top of their lungs. The air feels denser, too. Not hot or humid, just thick, as though resistance was made palpable. It’s like being in a dream where you’re trying to run, but you can barely move your feet.
11. Should a PC persist and ultimately touch any of the Helms, two things happen, and then something else. First, white glowing ovals appear within each helm, like pupil-less eyes, while everywhere in the clearing, all the hands holding weapons and shields let go. The sound of all the weapons and shields falling a short distance to the ground is heard by all—even the PC(s) at the mound of helms—and the sound is deafening.
Second, the oppressing weight in the air around the helms vanishes, and the helms fly off in all directions to hover over the corpses, while the weapons and shields rise up in the air at about chest-height, one set of weapon/shield to each glowing-eyed helm.
12. The helms and weapons attack, seeking to swarm PCs, to give no quarter, and to slay them quickly and efficiently. Whatever the force is that animates the helms and weapons produces no body to attack. A helm, weapon or shield can be attacked readily enough, though mundane attacks are unlikely to destroy them quickly enough to keep a PC from being hacked down and slain.
13. PCs who escape out of the clearing are not pursued if they can make it over the edge and down past the slope on the other side. The first corpse the PCs encountered effectively marks the boundary of danger.
14. PCs who remain in the clearing can attack the corpses (remember, it's stumbling-over-roots terrain near any corpse). Doing so is the same as attacking an unconscious foe, so unless a PC is being swarmed by flying swords, it’s a no-miss attack. Dashing the brittle skulls (all the bones are brittle), ripping away the armor, and hacking at the roots imprisoning the armor will do damage to the animated helm/sword/shield form linked to that corpse. Note: DM’s who enjoy memorable visualizations can tell PCs that whey they hack at the roots, the roots sever as easily as hacking at exposed flesh, and the roots bleed bright red blood.
15. All of this kind of goes against the caressing, sort of cuddling nature of the artwork, so perhaps there is a Dryad or Nymph lurking near that corpse, who appears and begs the PCs not to destroy her beloved. She could explain the story behind the clearing, and in so doing give more adventure hooks to the PCs, or advice that can help them if they’re already on a quest and can’t deviate, all in return for the PCs agreeing to go back into the clearing and recover the one helm that the Dryad promises them didn’t animate, and return it to her.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 13 Oct 2015 07:06:34 |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 13 Oct 2015 : 15:46:51
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Wow that's an amazing picture, and a nice scenario. I have a few observations about the artwork.
1. Her face looks a little sinister to me. In a creepy "hush now" kind of way. That's just my initial impression though. It could also be grief. Either way, love is apparent from the "nuzzle" of her nose against his.
2. There's a gauntlet on her shoulder, so it's not just her "cuddling" or holding him down. This is a mutual embrace.
3. Her "torso" is a tangle, pointing to the variety of contradictory elements in the whole picture. It's composed of many "veins" and the once-empty space between them -- a space which is now occupied by earth and slowly decomposing leaves. There are some finer "veins" too, perhaps signifying both major and minor plots within the story.
4. There are roots wrapped around both his wrists. Depending on the viewer's interpretation, this could point either to subdual or intimacy.
5. There is a gash on her "thigh" --actually I see 3 or 4-- which look like old injuries...
6. On a story level, assuming for a moment that they were friendly with each other... why does a man go into a forest with an ax? He might have other weapons, but he was holding the ax when he fell. What's going on there?
Impressive work, and I like that it leaves room for wondering.
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2015 : 03:52:52
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quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh
Wow that's an amazing picture, and a nice scenario. I have a few observations about the artwork.
Good observations, too. I didn't see the gashes before now, so maybe they had a tussle before she won the fight.
I'll add one of my own: I failed to think about the title to the artwork: "Until I Say". It suggests the dead guy isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh
Impressive work, and I like that it leaves room for wondering.
Glad you said that. I like to build encounters that cover enough bases so a DM can run with it, but still give the DM room to flesh the encounter out more, whether it be additional monsters, traps, mysteries or story, depending on what the DM needs at that moment in his or her campaign. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2015 : 05:06:40
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quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer
I like to build encounters that cover enough bases so a DM can run with it, but still give the DM room to flesh the encounter out more, whether it be additional monsters, traps, mysteries or story, depending on what the DM needs at that moment in his or her campaign.
Words to live by, for anyone who writes adventure hooks. And mission accomplished as usual. |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2015 : 05:50:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer
Good observations, too. I didn't see the gashes before now, so maybe they had a tussle before she won the fight.
I dunno... you've covered the possibilities that occur to me.
1. her alignment is Chaotic-Lonely and she lured him here to his doom, kinda like the old stories about the sirens enthralling sailors.
2. they were allies in life, and love still burns. Those gashes don't look like ax wounds... they appear to have been made with a straighter blade -- swords maybe.
So, another option for the story arc. Perhaps he's a gentleman... he owns a bit of land and the home that's on it, but he's not noble by blood. He hears, from an old woman or more likely a young niece, that there's a beautiful woman made of wood in the forest, frightened by the inexorable approach of woodcutters. He trusts the girl... maybe she leads him to the dryad's tree and convinces the dryad to appear to the well-meaning intruder. Upon the revelation that fantastic creatures can live in trees, he swears to defend her home and, to the extent of his ability, all trees. Still, the woodcutters are just men; they're not malevolent, and he's not a heartless murderer, so he parleys with the woodcutters. He tries to reason with them. He tries to buy them off with his life's savings -- dryads can be quite appealing, and an aging ("but still spry!") bachelor can be quite easily smitten. The woodcutters are paid/enslaved by Zhents, though, and they really can't accept his deal. So he does his best to keep his word to the dryad (and the girl) by guarding the vicinity of the dryad's tree. When the loggers get close he threatens them, not wanting to hurt them but unwilling to yield ground. So the woodcutters avoid him for a while. As the woodcutters press into the surrounding forest, the dryad's home becomes a prominent green bulge on the front of the clearcutting. The Zhent taskmasters are unsuccessful in forcing the woodcutters to attack the noble knight --his armor is intimidating to a man with no class levels-- so they requisition a few magelings. When the mages finally appear, they follow the woodcutters into the forest, but with their underwhelming magic missile and burning hands spells they're unable to cow the dryad's guardian. The upper levels of the Zhentarim are not interested in spending the time and resources on killing a nuisance, even when they learn there's a dryad, so the peon magelings are left to their own devices... with stern orders to git'r'dun. Skirmishes last for months, maybe years. The man lives in the forest full-time now, sustained and sheltered by the dryad's few stubbornly-loyal pet shrubs and animals. He tires, and the minor wounds inflicted by the mages wear him down. The magelings hire --with money stolen from townsfolk-- a small mercenary band of warriors to bring their swords to bear on the dryad's faithful friend. They also start having more success compelling woodcutters to join the fight. He fends all of them off, but the cost is too high. At last he falls and cannot rise, a woodcutter's dropped ax in his hands and the last of the magelings dead at his feet. As the trees fall silent, the birds having fled and the land-bound animals scurried under roots, the dryad emerges and wraps herself around him, begging the gods to let her touch heal him. When he dies, darkness falls on this wood. Birds come and go freely, but they do not sing when they perch on these boughs. The dryad's pets still linger, bringing nuts and berries to the fallen warrior and nuzzling the dryad, hopeful that he'll rise and she'll sing again.
My apologies for the wall of text. It started, and I let it go. Just one take on the situation, offered for consideration and improvement. The title gives it a sinister overtone... but I ignored it in the interest of keeping possibilities open.
Somebody else chime in? |
Edited by - xaeyruudh on 14 Oct 2015 05:51:51 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2015 : 07:28:56
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Death leaves an impression.
Topics: Investigators; Priests; Murder; Kelemvor; The King’s Forest; Knightswood
1. A round mirror. Tall as a toddler and part of a vanity set. The mirror is edged in round brass three fingers thick, the edges of the vanity trimmed likewise. The knobs on the drawers made easy to grasp for small hands. The mirror alone is ruinously expensive, even in modern Cormyr, but the mirror is old and imperfect: time has bent it the waste.
2. Priests of Kelemvor—such as the priestess Cymbrarra—are capable of casting spells that paint images in anything that can catch a reflection. Mirrors, polished armor, windows, pools of water…these things don’t just reflect, but see, and nothing witness to a death can forget the event. Even then it’s a mighty working of magic to replay the events of a death after the fact, but far easier to capture an image revealing that moment when death is certain.
3. Cymbrarra’s path has crossed that of Ambratha “Hellhound” Halgontar a time or two[1]. The later is an investigator for hire known for her unrelenting persistence. The former is expert at determining cause of death, and has a reputation for speaking aloud what caused the death as part of her process of preparing the dead to make the transition to the afterlife. No use in stating someone died peacefully when it’s clear they were murdered, no matter how badly those in attendance would prefer to believe a lie.
4. In one instance Ambratha was tapped to solve the murder of a lady noble not yet old enough to be wed. Her family was unimportant, and she stood little chance of inheriting anything more than an arranged marriage a no-name lordling from another equally unimportant family.
5. The death was public knowledge; the body had been discovered on the bridge over the Starwater that stands in the heart of Knightswood, dressed in bedtime clothes. Cymbrarra had been hired to prepare the body and to remove any undue presence of undeath, for the family feared a ghost or worse had killed the girl.
6. Such things require investigation, as much to deter any appearance of foul play within the family as to assuage fears that become rumors that become truth in people’s minds, no matter the facts. The manor house deep in the woods where the girl lived has always been considered haunted. The family sent for an investigator before the Crown could muster itself to look into the matter. The Hellhound answered the call.
7. Cymbrarra was certain no undead took the girl’s life. Her spell over the vanity confirmed her suspicions. When Ambratha arrived, Cymbrarra pointed to the mirror, saying, “Death was upon her. She could not avoid it.” Ambratha had to bend at the waste to take in the view in the oddly shaped mirror: it showed a pair of arms and hands to one side of the girl, reaching for her, a brush still in the girl's hair, her eyes registering movement, but her face calm and not yet screwed up into a look of fear.
8. When she looked away from the mirror, Ambratha noticed that Cymbrarra’s smile is off balance: one canine is long, like a vampire’s fang. The other is normal size. She chose not to pursue the matter, knowing full well she wouldn’t be able to stop once the question stood at the front of her mind, looming over her thoughts like a castle wall that can only be battered down with the truth.
9. Unlike the fat priests of Kelemvor—and of other gods—who’ve succumbed to greed and the luxury of power afforded by much coin and wealth, Cymbrarra lives to serve Kelemvor. She doesn’t brag about this, or complain about the situation in the priesthood. Good or bad, they’ll all die and face judgement. But she does not expect stand before Kelemvor. When she dies her soul will fly apart, each piece destined for the many places in Cormyr where she’s burned the dead, buried the dead and interred the dead, to serve as a ward against the pestilence of undeath.
10. The investigation that followed led to the discovery of many unreported deaths in the manor house. The family admitted something was hunting them, but their fear of revealing the truth and being seen as weak was even greater. When the Hellhound and the Doombringer discovered the killer, who’d been lurking behind the walls, living in hidden rooms and watching the occupants of the house through holes in the ceiling, then the real butchery began, for the killer was the last of the family line and every last being in the manor was an imposter intent in keeping their secret.
[1] Ambratha is one of the Five Ladies mentioned in the second half of this post.
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Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 14 Oct 2015 07:37:49 |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2015 : 08:00:15
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quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh
My apologies for the wall of text.
Don't apologize!
This scroll is for ideas, so if you feel the urge to run with an idea in the future, don't stop.
I like the idea of somebody coming upon something magical and supernatural, and deciding "hey this is amazing so I am going to commit myself to defending it." The way you depicted it was straightforward and believable. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 14 Oct 2015 08:02:17 |
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Cormyr: Flexing My Idea Muscle
