Category Archives: Chronicles

Chronicle, game 60

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Ëlinyr sat at the desk in the corner of the room that would eventually become her home’s library, leaning back in her well-worn desk chair, thinking to herself for a moment. The past few days had been so busy, with everything going on at the Adventurer’s Guild, that she hadn’t really had much time to set the library to order. The room wasn’t quite as organized as it could be – there were still piles of boxes everywhere, and the bookshelves were still mostly empty. She and Alair and Ithuryn were still in the process of moving into their new home in the Green District, and given how busy the three of them had been of late, the disarray was understandable. The only place in the house that was in any sort of order at the moment was the basement – Alair’s printing press and other newspaper needs were set up almost immediately once they’d purchased the house, as he needed to get the first issue of The Diamond City Times published. Ëlinyr could hear the faint noises of the printing press at work downstairs – it seemed that the first issue of the newspaper was a success, so much so that Alair was downstairs printing out a second run of the first issue to hand out in Victory Square tomorrow.  

While Alair was busy working on the newspaper downstairs, Ithuryn was busy with his own work. He sat in a plush armchair shoved haphazardly into another corner of the library, a small pile of papers resting in his lap with another pile sitting on a stack of boxes being used as an impromptu table. Ëlinyr guessed they might be notes from the murder investigation they’d been working on – he occasionally paused his reading to scribble notes down in his notebook, or to take a sip of coffee from the mug he’d set down on the stack of boxes, but otherwise he seemed entirely wrapped up in his reading. 

Thankfully, Elinyr’s desk was clear of clutter for the moment; her red journal was opened to a blank page, and she’d unearthed her favorite pen from one of the drawers of her desk. Picking up her pen, she thought for a moment about where to begin her chronicle, then started to write. 

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Chronicle, game 59

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[written the day after the battle with the Flame Lord]

I have been incredibly lax in keeping updated chronicles lately. However, I feel that maybe now is as good a time as any to start writing them regularly, especially since so much has changed in the realm recently.

A lot has happened since my last chronicle – to sum up recent events very, very briefly, someone murdered the Sultan, and as a result, the Jeweled Cities fell into civil war. The Nocturnal Empire took that as an opportunity to attack the Jeweled Cities, making things even worse. However, eventually, the civil war was put to an end – and just in time, too. As that was happening, the Flame Lord made his way to the desert to rain down fiery doom on us all. (I hope you understand now the reasons behind my lack of written updates!)

A few days ago, as the members of the Adventurer’s Guild gathered to prepare for the Flame Lord’s arrival, J’ameishut had each of us write out our wills, as a precaution. Thankfully, they were not needed, but this reinforced the seriousness of the task awaiting us. To be completely honest, it showed me that I wasn’t quite ready to face death. As an adventurer, I knew I would do what needs doing, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified to my very core. I didn’t want to die. (And I still don’t.) That evening, I helped fight a wave of rogue sand dragons that made their way too close to the Outpost for comfort, then climbed into bed for some much-needed rest. After all, we were to meet the Flame Lord and his allies in battle the next day.

The next day, we started by discussing the tactics we would use to trap and defeat the Flame Lord. The members of the Guild were to lure him out towards the Diamond City by engaging his troops in battle, eventually drawing him underneath the city. Once the Flame Lord arrived, we would perform a ritual to essentially phase the Flame Lord out of existence once and for all. I volunteered to help in the ritual, as I know I wouldn’t have stood much of a chance in direct combat against the Flame Lord.

Before undertaking this, Orcus and I (and a few others) went up to the Diamond City to perform a ritual to open the city library. The ritual was successful, and Orcus and I both opened the doors to a library that’s beyond my wildest dreams. It’s so incredibly vast and full of so many books, more than one can read in a lifetime! (And many in languages I don’t know – I must fix that.)

After returning to the Outpost from the Diamond City, I was surprised (and so very pleased) to see Alair! He had stopped by the Outpost to gather interested members of the Guild to share stories and songs to raise morale before the big fight. Thankfully, I had recently found a story to share, so I brought it along and read it to the adventurers. However, my story paled in comparison to Alair’s singing – he even sang a song for me! I didn’t know he could sing, so this was a delightful surprise.

However, it was not the last of Alair’s surprises for me that day. After singing to me, Alair asked me to marry him. Me, the awkward and excitable scholar who could barely put words to paper when it came to telling him about my feelings for him. (I’m nowhere near as good with words as he is.) Of course, I said yes, although I had to try very hard not to cry with happiness when I did. Right when I think I’ve experienced the height of certain emotions, I’m surprised and overwhelmed with new depths of feelings – in this case, love.
After Alair’s proposal, I had a renewed desire to not die in battle with the Flame Lord. I was going to do my very best to survive this terrible battle, as Alair was waiting for me to come home safely. I couldn’t let my love down, and the thought of breaking his heart by not returning from this battle was unbearable.

The rest of the day was spent fighting the efreet forces, trying to keep them from breaking through the walls surrounding the Outpost. I fought very bravely, and ended up injured during the fighting, but not so much so that I couldn’t keep fighting. Sadly, the gnolls took heavy losses during the battle against the efreet. The matriarch of the Lightning Stones tribe was killed, as well as Sharp Ear, a gnoll that Blackshell had helped earlier in the year. We were able to bind their spirit to the necklace Blackshell wears, representing his small clan (of which the fallen gnoll was a member of). B’hari should be able to resurrect them when the fighting finishes.

After evening fell, the Flame Lord finally arrived at the Diamond City. Myself and other Guild members poured our magical efforts into the ritual that, with the help of the machines under the city, would phase the Flame Lord out of existence. My fellow adventurers fought to distract him until the ritual was ready. I was so very terrified that he would wipe us all out of existence before we could visit that very fate on him – but we did it! The engines worked – and made me feel quite weird indeed as the fabric of reality was torn, and the Flame Lord sucked through it – and he was gone.

After that, there was much rejoicing, and also much exhaustion on my part. Opening the grand libraries of the Diamond City, fighting the Efreet forces, banishing the Flame Lord, and getting engaged – all in one day – made me one very exhausted adventurer-scholar. And so I fell into my bed, exhausted, but ever so happy to be alive.

Today was a much calmer day, yet no less exciting. We found some constructs patrolling the city, likely awakened by a power surge from last nights’ ritual. Given that they hadn’t been activated since the last time the city had been raised from the sands of the desert, they saw us as intruders. We had to deactivate them until we can determine how to reprogram them. I’m hoping I can find more information about these constructs in the library. There has to be some documentation somewhere; it’d be silly to create something like that and not leave behind some information on how to work with them later on. That’s just asking for trouble, if you ask me.

Speaking of the library – now that things are calmer in general, I can’t wait to get into the library again and explore what’s in there! I doubt my first few trips into the stacks will be terribly productive, aside from just mapping out what’s in there. (Even that might be a tricky task, as I’m pretty sure some parts of the Diamond City’s library don’t exist in our reality). I don’t care, though, as I’ll be surrounded by books. I can’t tell you the last time I had the chance to sit down and be around books. I am so incredibly relieved that the war is over, both the civil war and the war against the Flame Lord. (I missed my books!)

Now I have to figure out what to do with myself in the immediate future. Many of the faculty members of the Royal Academy vacated the city during the civil war, taking the most precious books of the library with them. Some are in the Diamond City, but not all. I think it might be quite some time until the Royal Academy is ready to resume classes again. It is tempting to see if there is any interest in starting a school in the Diamond City and volunteer my services there. The city will soon be full of new inhabitants, and I’m sure they’ll be interested in learning more about their new home. At the very least, I can reach out to those in charge of the city and see if they require a researcher to help gather information about the city. (After all, researching is something I excel at!)

Until I know more about what I should be doing, I suppose I’ll wander the library, researching those constructs, and daydreaming of my upcoming wedding. After all, someday soon, I’ll be Ëlinyr Syldithas, scholar of the Royal Academy and adventurer, married to Alair Syldithas, poet of the Liminal Circle. (Ëlinyr Syldithas has a nice ring to it, I think – much better than Ëlinyr Andaleh…)

Chronicle: Game 43.5

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I have been encouraged by friends to get out and explore the world beyond the four walls of The Royal Academy’s library, as I apparently spend far too much time perusing books, so I finally listened to them – mostly to stop their incessant pestering. I made the decision to go out on a mission with members of the Adventurers’ Guild – as I have heard many stories of their experiences, I thought they would be best to work with for what would be my first adventure, and apparently my first stealth mission.  I shall tell more of that later.

But yes.  My first adventure.  And, well… it was indeed an adventure.

The band of adventurers, a small group consisting of four – a necromancer, a rogue, a scout, and myself – were given the task to determine what the corsairs were doing in the Lady’s Forest.  (I will admit to some trepidation when faced with the task, as my mother would often tell me stories of the strange creatures that lived in the forest, in an attempt to dissuade me from exploring its depths.)  It was indicated that there was some suspicious activity occurring in the forest, and our group set out to investigate and learn as much as possible about what was going on. For the most part, the necromancer (named Evixa) and I spent most of the expedition working together, as we were the only magic casters there.  (She seems rather preoccupied with turning people into zombies, including herself.  Curious.)

We were not very far into the forest when we apparently disturbed some moas from their homes.  I ended up killing one of them, albeit unintentionally.  I may have been a little too eager to test out my evocation skills on a live target.  After all, there aren’t many who actually volunteer to be test subjects for destructive magic.  But I digress.  We were also, at some point, attacked by creatures that looked like earth elemental wolves of some sort, which attacked with wicked spikes coming out of their backs.  I’m quite glad I wasn’t hit with any of those spikes, they did not look pleasant.  In fact, we ended up encountering a number of strange creatures in the Lady’s Forest, including something that resembled a pair of bright magenta tigers, some sort of blue, slimy lizard-type creature, a giant orange centipede, and a pair of creatures that resembled slender horses with a single curved horn coming from their head.  These latter creatures were most interesting, as it appears that their horns have healing powers – they healed scarred tree bark with a touch.  They also smelled quite pleasant, like honey.  Upon my arrival back at the Academy, I did some research and found out that those creatures were forest kirin.  I think, out of all the creatures we encountered, these were the most fascinating.  I shall have to do more research on them…

Strange creatures aside, we did indeed encounter orcs – a handful of scouts, and one massive orc who wielded an anchor for a weapon.  He was fierce, and while fighting him I realized I am in dire need of swordsmanship training.  That anchor HURT when it made contact with my leg – despite quick healing from Evixa, I’m still rather tender there.  Somehow, however, our tiny band defeated him, and the necromancer tried to get information from him. We weren’t able to learn much – just that there were a number of orcs in the woods, and that they did indeed have a leader.

After more traveling through the forest, we came upon a blockade wall at the edge of the forest, extending into the Silver Sea – and the scout and rogue decided that the best course of action would be for them to swim around to the other side of the blockade and attempt to set the wall on fire from within.  Their plan wasn’t quite as effective as initially planned, and Evixa and I managed to blast a hole in the blockade from the front and joined the rest of our party as they fought the orc scouts guarding the blockade. We were able to defeat them and continued on our way.

Eventually we made it to where the corsairs were camped out.  They’d built a rather sturdy wall around their compound, and breaking through said wall or scaling it without assistance were not options.  After discussing the remaining possibilities (involving attempting to unlock a back entrance that may or may not be guarded), the rogue decided he would sneak in, with the scout staying nearby for backup in case a distraction was needed, while Evixa and I stayed near the back wall and waited for the rogue to toss us down a rope to assist in scaling the wall.

This is where I learned that I am not nearly as good at climbing as I hoped.  I made it three-quarters of the way up the wall, lost my footing and my grip on the rope, and slid most of the way down before I caught myself, managed to get a better grip, and finally made my way up the wall.  (This is why I tend to stay in the library.  I don’t end up falling nearly to my doom there.)

Once we scaled the wall, apparently our mission had turned into a stealth mission – had I known this ahead of time, I wouldn’t have dressed in my red dress. I’m a scholar, not an adventurer. Eventually, we made our way up close to the main encampment of the corsairs. And given my bright attire, I was easily spotted, so I ended up making myself the best distraction that I could and dashed as fast as I could across the camp, drawing the attention of the orcs guarding the camp so the others could attack them. This led to a fierce battle against the orcs at the encampment – we ended up being chased into the forest, our tiny group fighting fiercely, and eventually we felled the last of the orcs.   The rogue searched the camp for anything of importance and found a chest in the largest of the tents in their encampment.

With the orcs defeated and the chest acquired, we made our way out of the forest. And of course, as we were close to exiting the forest, there were more moas.  We tried to scare them off.  We failed.  More moas died.  The silly birds brought it upon themselves.

Once out of the forest and back under the wide-open sky again, we examined the contents of the chest – there was a fair bit of goods and coin inside, and two very curious letters. Both letters seemed of an amorous nature, one wrinkled and obviously well-read, waxing poetic about how much they cared for the recipient and how they couldn’t wait to be reunited with them, the second more somber in tone, looking less physically worn, and wishing the fight between their peoples would end. Most curious of all: the letters were signed with a seal belonging to the Lotus Court.  I sincerely wish I had thought to take the letters with us, but after the long trek through the forest and the rough battle with the orcs, I was a little worse for wear and not quite thinking as quickly as I normally do. I do wonder who wrote those letters, and to whom (I’m assuming an
orc camped out in the Lady’s Forest, but who?), and what they really mean.

I asked around, and the rogue’s name is Flint, and the scout is named Erax.  I only properly introduced myself to Evixa.  Ah well, I am sure to see them again, and I’m quite sure they’ll remember this clumsy scholar-mage sun elf. After all, I was rather… obvious.  Stealth missions are clearly not my forte, it seems.  I plan to take some time to recover from this most recent mission (my body and my pride took a fair hit during this recent adventure) amongst my beloved books before venturing out again.