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Post by earthwizard on Dec 28, 2008 12:19:06 GMT -8
Harbor Town, Six Months Ago
"Who is he?" she asked.
"Don't know his name. He comes in sometimes, sits in the shadows, haves a few," responded the barkeep.
The woman approached Tenebrae swiftly, overcoming her apprehension. "I'm looking for some help, my name is Penereth."
"Help doesn't come free."
"I can pay you, don't worry."
"You don't catch my meaning. Every action has a purpose, has a price. What do you want done, and what is the price you are willing to pay?"
She paused, contemplating his words, but pressed on, "I need an item found. Someone stole it from me, and I want it back."
Again she paused. When he didn't respond, she took it as nervously continued, "The item is an orb. I only have this clue as to who took it." She handed over a scrap of cloth with a golden sickle emblazoned on a background circle of red.
"You don't seek an orb; you seek the truth." He finally spoke after ignoring the cloth and examining her instead. "Some truths are horrible to behold. I hope you are ready for this one."
* * *
He entered the room, the symbol of the Scarlet Sickle displayed upon his black tunic. Now was the time to act.
Benelil sat on her gilded seat at the end of the long heavy wooden table. No one else had gathered yet, except for the three guards who were always with her.
"Ah, Galahad. It is so good to see punctuality in our new recruits. Come and sit by me."
He strode toward her, "I have news."
"Come and tell me closely, I do not trust that others are not listening." Her fingers played with the orb on the table in front of her. A green and gold smoke sparkled and swirled inside of it.
He leaned in close, and her long dark hair flittered under his breath, "You are a fly in a cosmic web, and I am the spider here to consume you."
Benelil cried out under the influence of the whispered magic. Her ears began to bleed. Galahad looked up to see the guards draw their weapons.
"Traverse," he calmly spoke, shimmered and suddenly transported to the doorway of the room. "Be still or regret your fate!" He commanded to the guards. They writhed in pain as searing light engulfed them.
Benelil stood and drew a wand from her belt. She sent a blast at Galahad. "Betrayer! You will die."
Galahad quickly dodged to the side. He pulled a rod from his side and leveled it at Benelil. "No Benelil, you are the one who has stolen from your own sister. And for purposes as dark and sinister as you had planned, you will wither like a flower poisoned." He sent a bolt of dark crackling eldritch energy at her. She was blasted back into her chair as the bolt struck her. She lay limp in the seat. The orb began to roll under the force of the blast. It rolled down and off the edge of the table. Galahad grabbed it from the air as it fell.
He wrapped his cloak about him and the clasp of Sehanine and Ioun glinted in the candle lights. He strode calmly from the room, letting his face relax again to its natural position.
Penereth cried when she heard the truth about her sister. She could no longer function. The pain wracked at her very soul.
Tenebrae moved on to the Elsir Vale . . .
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Post by kore on May 19, 2009 22:18:59 GMT -8
Wow, looks like it's been a while since someone has posted here. Anyhow, here is the story of Wilhelm Halcyon (thus far):
Seahaven
Amethyst earth rises out of the western horizon as mariners traversing the sea approach the indomitable coastal cliff, looming thirty-one chains above the water, the Black Sea Bulwark. The only feature in its barren face is an inlet etched fifty-two furlongs deep into the cliff and spanning forty in width. Here, seafarers may find refuge from the desolate, hostile sea in this lush basin beset by an expanding wasteland.
Upon the center of the basin stands a plateau as high as the surrounding cliff. A seaward slope gently descends to the basin floor, cleaved in two at its base by the pick-shaped shield wall that follows the shore. The northern half of the immense ramp merges with clear, blue water before meeting the continental shelf and dropping into absolute darkness; the southern half, buffeted by the shield wall, curves south into a sapphire blue cove.
Upon the plateau rests the borough of Seahaven, a settlement of rare prosperity in the forsaken Frontier Land. The cove, nestled between the plateau and southern cliff, serves as port, its deep waters quelling the violent sea whose ebb and flow forces its way through the opening between the shield wall and cliff. A river delta empties into the bay, fed by the Great Fountain ninety miles into the valley carved into the palisade.
The Upheaval
The dark, purple stone, of which the Black Sea Bulwark is composed, is porous though hardened and continues inland for dozens of miles. For eons, in the depths of the Black Sea, water has been forced into the pores, through veins within the stone that weave their way to the uttermost reaches of the unique foundation. The water is ultimately filtered to the surface, providing sustenance to the region. Emerald plains and dense forests covered the land. Lorekeepers call the stone korstone.
Centuries ago, a violent tremor tore a fissure deep into the korstone. Along this fissure a table of water, under great pressure, was instantaneously released, carving a valley into the crevasse and filling it with the debris of crumbling stone and earth. The gout of water pushed through to the sea where it met the stalwart monolith that Seahaven now rests upon. Split in two, the southern torrent pressed against the shield wall, boring out what is now the port of Seahaven; the northern torrent bit into the base of the korstone cliff.
The Great Fountain marks the location of the violent upheaval that changed the face of the entire region. It now flows steadily into the valley, a giver of life to the coastal basin. Peppering the palisades that now flank Seahaven are caverns out of which pour wondrous waterfalls. All this beauty has a cost; the vast surface of the outlying region is now deprived of its water. Neglected thus, it has turned into a barren wasteland.
Wilhelm Halcyon
Wilhelm Halcyon was born, twenty-five years ago, in the frontier borough of Seahaven to Ansgar and Karina Halcyon. Notable among his extended family is his uncle Heinrick who contributed to the early instruction of young Wilhelm and who was a strong influence on his character. A charismatic child, he garnered many friends through the years but none as special as Eckhard Stormfury and Flora Swifttide. It is no mystery why their cord of friendship was so strong; for they all lived in the shadow of the responsibilities their respective families held, maintaining the prosperity of Seahaven.
Ansgar and Karina were lorekeepers in the Garden, the settlement’s university, temple, library, and archive. Knowledge was valued in Seahaven and available to all citizens and it was the lorekeepers who guarded it. They also regulated education and maintained high standards in all vocations. Loremasters identified the strengths of every pupil and guided the education of each towards proficiency in a particular skill set.
Eckhard’s family consisted of captains and lieutenants, natural leaders of the borough’s defense and expeditionary Militia among whom Eckhard’s father was chief-captain, a paladin of great valor. As would be expected, the Militia was charged with maintaining the peace and protecting the settlement from foreign threats. Though mostly martial in nature, the Militia was permitted to avail itself of the services of mages from the Garden. Flora’s father was master of the Guild of Provision and charged with insuring the continued efficiency of resource gathering, from farming the scarce and rich soil of Seahaven to fishing the dangerous Black Sea.
Thusly, citizens of Seahaven recognized the contributions of each of their neighbors, forming a peaceful and prosperous community. Without the students of the Garden, Seahaven would be at the mercy of forces greater than armies of men. Without the Militia, Seahaven would fall from invading forces and remain isolated from the rest of the world. And without the Guild, Seahaven would deteriorate from within.
Seahaven had the rare luxury of having an established portal through which one could travel to the center of civilization, Zon City. It was through this portal that Karina made regular journeys as a representative of the settlement in Zon, spending months away from Seahaven whilst Ansgar and Wilhelm remained. Wilhelm knew little of the nature of his mother’s business in Zon but he knew that her presence in the great city helped Seahaven flourish.
At the age of ten, when all children of Seahaven begin down the path to their destinies within the settlement, lorekeepers easily recognized Wilhelm’s affinity to magic and placed him in the university as an apprentice. This pleased Ansgar and Wilhelm imagined that it pleased his increasingly absent mother. However, Wilhelm was a free spirit and believed his time was better spent among friends and among the wonders the world outside the settlement had to offer. Wilhelm was far too undisciplined to allow study to interfere with life.
Zon City
At the age of eleven, Ansgar and all mages, except the loremasters, of Seahaven were summoned, by urgent decree, to Zon City as the rulers of civilization united to combat the threat of the nefarious Red Hand of Doom. Wilhelm traveled through the portal with his father and continued his education in the city while his father and uncle Heinrick fought with the alliance of civilizations.
Without his friends, Wilhelm had no outlet through which he could relieve his distaste for structure. He began to rebel and were it not for the influence of his mother, whom he only encountered when matters of his discipline were addressed, he would have been expelled from the university. Nevertheless, Wilhelm never subscribed to “their” brand of magic and pursued a self-guided study and practice of magic.
After the defeat of the Red Hand of Doom, Ansgar and Heinrick returned to the city and made preparations to return to Seahaven with their fellow citizens. Many Seahaven mages perished while fighting the Red Hand of Doom and it was imperative that they returned to the frontier to tend to the settlement. Wilhelm and his fellow students who hailed from Seahaven remained to finish their education in the city.
The Forsaken
Unbeknownst to Wilhelm, the mages of Seahaven returned to their home and found it in ruin. With the majority of its mages away in battle, the loremasters were unable to effectively meet the needs of Seahaven. Forces of nature and magic, terrible beasts, and marauders left Seahaven and its dwindled population in poverty. Not men to wallow in pity, the mages and remaining citizens began to rebuild the defense of Seahaven to reestablish its greatness.
Not long after their homecoming did news of the return of the Red Hand of Doom reach Seahaven. Messengers from other Frontier Land settlements were sent to Seahaven for aid. From these messengers they learned that the newly established central government had turned a deaf ear to their cry for help. Seeing that the government of civilization had forsaken the Frontier Land, Ansgar and Heinrick were determined to join the other settlements and stamp out the Red Hand of Doom once and for all.
Thus this Frontier alliance squelched the Red Hand of Doom and out of their conflict they realized they could never rely on Oorlog’s new, united government. They concluded that a new government was needed in order to ensure prosperity in all regions, including the Frontier Lands. Thus a rebellion was born.
Rebellion
It took little time for news of the troubling rebellion to reach the citizens of Zon City. With the integrity of their government in question decisive action was required. Wilhelm, purposefully sheltered from the troubles in Seahaven, worried for his father and uncle as well as the friends he left behind. Relief came from a new decree requiring, once again, the aid of the mages of Seahaven. Among notaries of the decree was Karina. Ansgar and Heinrick returned to Zon City to aid the government as well as reunite with family.
They quickly contacted Wilhelm, now fifteen, and revealed the sorrowful truth of the fall of Seahaven. Wilhelm learned of many tragic things but none as heartbreaking as the disappearance of Flora, abducted by raiders and believed to have been sold into slavery. His father and uncle also revealed that they were spies for the rebellion. At that moment, all of Wilhelm’s distaste and distrust of that which he believed authoritarian was affirmed. Eager for vengeance Wilhelm joined the rebellion, learning to work covertly as an informer and messenger.
Years past and the death knell began to ring in the ear of the central government but then came the Covenant. Their display of power on the battlefield is well recorded. More terrible, however, were their methods for obtaining crucial information about the Rebellion, including the identities of spies. One of Wilhelm’s final missives to the rebellion contained obscure references to a mage’s prison controlled by the Covenant. Shortly thereafter the rebellion was defeated and the remaining spies hid in plain site among the citizens of Zon.
Early one morning Wilhelm awoke to a great commotion, his father and uncle beckoned him to go with them. They told him that someone had betrayed their identities, as well as half a dozen others, to the Covenant and they had to flee immediately. The first task of the Beschermer Mages was to purge Zon City of foreign mages. The brothers in battle retreated to a protected room where Heinrick had prepared a portal. Battlemages clamored at the door using rituals to undo Heinrick’s safeguards and traps.
As Heinrick completed the portal’s ritual Ansgar volunteered to stay behind to remove any evidence of the portal’s destination. He said he could not leave while Karina remained in Zon. After struggling with his uncle, Wilhelm resigned to the portal’s magic and was spirited away to Seahaven.
Exile
Upon their retreat to Seahaven, Wilhelm and the surviving rebel spies of Zon destroyed the Seahaven portal to Zon. Cut off from the capital city, Seahaven was completely isolated from civilization for the first time since its founding. Because of this it became the secret hub of former rebels.
At first Wilhelm tasked himself with acquiring more information from the citizens of Seahaven. Little was known about his father and mother but he did learn that Eckhard had left Seahaven, shortly after the rebellion began, with a small contingent of men at arms to seek out the raiders who had previously abducted several dozen members of the community.
Plotting vengeance, not just for his father and mother but for all those forsaken in the Frontier Land, Wilhelm trained with his uncle. Secrets of Seahaven were revealed to him. Deep within the korstone plateau was a labyrinth of caverns, former vessels through which water from the Black Sea long since stopped flowing. Here he found artifacts, tomes of knowledge and implements of magic. He learned of the intimate history of his homeland never described in his early studies. He was also told a troubling rumor: Karina Halcyon was in league with the Covenant. Heinrick could not confirm the report but it was enough to send Wilhelm into a rage.
Wilhelm was torn, could his beloved mother be one with the enemy? This and many other questions occupied his mind. If she was an informer for the Covenant, or worse, a member, why hasn’t she led the enemy to Seahaven? Regardless of the answers, Wilhelm decided he could no longer remain idle. Guilt about his missing friends wracked his thoughts and a drive to find the truth and discover a way to bring down the Covenant beckoned him.
Sources within the community suggested that Eckhard was convinced that the raiders engaged in some form of trade with the Red Hand of Doom. And his suspicions tell him that the reprisal of the Red Hand of Doom under Sinruth may have been the work of the Covenant. In any event, it is a lead worth exploring. Wilhelm resolved to travel to Brindol, in Elsir Vale, where much of the conflict with the Red Hand of Doom took place. Corellon willing, he will find answers there or perhaps a lead.
Edit: Added some extra details.
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Post by reiphil on May 21, 2009 23:22:20 GMT -8
cool stuff.
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Post by kore on Jul 5, 2009 23:26:41 GMT -8
Joseph, I've come up with a few RP elements for Wilhelm that you might be able to use within the overall narrative. Regardless, this short list will help give you an idea of what is driving him.
- Wilhelm seeks his two childhood friends, Eckhard (relative age 2 years older than Wilhelm) and Flora (relative age 1 year younger than Wilhelm), whom he hasn't seen in 14 years. Neither of their fates have been determined. - Flora was abducted by raiders when she was 14. - Eckhard, at 18, formed a small band of adventurers to seek out the several dozen townsfolk who were abducted among whom Flora was one. This action, as regarded by the community of Seahaven, was ill advised and brash. - Wilhelm has been told his mother may be behind the betrayal of some rebel spies (among whom Wilhelm and his father and uncle were members) to the Covenant and she is perhaps a member the Covenant. Wilhelm is unsure of this claim, perhaps even in denial, told to him by his uncle/mentor. - Wilhelm doesn't know the fate of his father; he may have been captured by the Covenant or he may be dead, but Wilhelm must know. - Wilhelm wants to see the Covenant toppled.
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Post by David on Jul 18, 2009 17:47:05 GMT -8
Here is a bit of backstory for Kel: It began as it always did, with a scream in the dark. This time, though, it was no dream. There was something moving in the camp. A shadow passed in front of the fire, blocking momentarily the sleeping forms of his companions. Another scream followed, a low, inhuman sound that rose in pitch and ended in chaos, like a teakettle brought to boil and shattered. Kel rose from his mat into a world wreathed in blue fire. Everything was the wrong color. Instead of the darkness that should have accompanied this hour, the desert around him shone a burnt orange under an azure sky. It could not have been long since he had fallen asleep with Alara in his arms, for the low purple flame at the center of the camp still licked over the meager remains of its fuel. The campfire was untended. Something like a man stood near the dying fire. The figure was too tall, to thin. Its head was the wrong shape, with a jaw that extended nearly to the middle of its chest. Its limbs thinned at the joints, as if the creature had been made of taffy pulled to the point of breaking. It stalked in a circle around the campfire, shaking its head and emitting and occasional low moan. Where was Tudwyn, who had had the watch? Where was Gaven? Old Gaven would always stay up on Tudwyn's watch on a pretext of sharpening his sword or preparing equipment for tomorrow's journey, and would prod the younger man awake when he dozed. Where, for that matter, was Alara? Not taking his eyes off the creature, Kel groped around him for his sword. His hand closed around the hilt and he felt the blade's reassuring heft as he drew it from the scabbard. A third scream brought with it a gatherering light to the south, centered behind an outcropping of rock. Pools of flickering light rushed over the campsite, coming from all directions, moving toward the rock formation and adding to its glow. Tudwyn came into view. The youth was shuffling toward the camp, silhouetted against the southern incandescence. He seemed oblivious to the strange lights running over and around him, staring instead at his right hand. Rather, he was staring at where his right hand should have been. His arm ended just past the elbow, capped by a circle of sapphire flame. As Kel watched, more and more of the arm disappeared to the accelerating flame. The glow increased behind Tudwyn, pulsing now in cobalt and burgundy. Kel raised his arm, shielding his eyes against the growing brilliance, and saw with horror the outline of blue bones shining within his own skin. Distracted from the uneven terrain around him, Tudwyn stumbled. As he fell, the consuming flame completed its course, and devoured him utterly in a flash. The desert sand shone like glass where he would have landed. The creature by the campfire moved toward with sudden purpose, drawn by the sound of his gasp at his friend's death. In two bounds, it was nearly on him. He braced himself, sword raised in guard across his chest. The creature's mouth yawned wide, far wider than seemed possible, far wider even than Kel remembered. It filled his vision, bringing with it a wave of darkness and pain. It washed over him, receding only slowly, leaving only sapphire flame.
Alara...
Kel Karson, son of Kar Dorson, son of Doris the Good: Kel the Courageous they had called him once. Now it was Kel Crowson, Kel the Cursed. They hated him for surviving, where their daughter, their brother, their father had not. The villagers blamed him for the death of the patrol. Often, he blamed himself as well. He could never shake the feeling that he was the cause of the attack, or even the source. He never admitted it to anyone, but he was sure that he had dreamt of that night before it occurred, as well as after. How was it that he had survived? And what of these strange powers that had manifested for the first time in him that night?
The village needed him still, though. The crossing was hard, and had gotten harder in recent years, as the village ran afoul of brigands both mundane and unnatural. They needed the goods he brought from the city. A stubborn pragmatism still ruled there. They spat on him. They cursed his name. They accepted his gifts.
Perhaps his greatest gift was what he had never told them: The image of that gaping maw had haunted him for years, but it wasn't the distended jaw, wasn't the dripping teeth, wasn't the black gullet that most disturbed him. It was the eyes above that gruesome sight, set in a grotesque mockery of a human face... Alara's eyes.
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