From the journal of Caesar Bonaparte, human Illusionist.
I heard that the Mershani are looking for clues to find their homeland. The Mershani are a community of humans who decided to pass the Scourge in Throal rather than their homeland. It seems that a few (human) generations after the start of the Scourge, much of the Mershani records suddenly went blank or selectively censored so that no maps or records exist that state where they are from. Other writings, such as literature and financial records remain largely untouched, but any maps, descriptions, directions, or anything that would give even a hint as to where they are from has been erased. At the same time, suddenly nobody could recall hardly any details that their (now dead) elders had told them about their homeland. They don't know why, but they assume it was a great work of magic of some sort (or at least they can't think of any other explanation).
When the doors of Throal reopened, one of their younger scholars (Bessel) became fascinated with Astronomy, and it's related field of Navigation, and realized that some ancient star charts (including one engraved in stone that was precisely dated) had survived the great editing, and that with some precise measurements at certain places during a certain season, it ought to be possible to calculate the exact place where this stone star chart was made. Bessel and Elder Brahe calculated three likely places, hills about 10 days walk apart, and constructed some instruments that would gather the observations needed. They needed somebody to guard and protect Bezzel in his travels.
I had traveled to Throal to visit it's great library, and to observe its theater scene. I am greatly impressed by its library, particularly its history and research stacks (its litterature stacks, while large, are not as impressive in quality). The throalic theater scene I have so far found disappointing. Or maybe it is just that dwarvish plays lack a certain passion. I mean I sat through an entire 4 hour play about some iron minors opening a new shaft, and there was not a single cave-in!
Anyway, to get back to the point, I was in Throal, and being short of funds, decided to hire on as an escort to this Bezzel guy. The escort mission was headed by Thage Stormblade, a Mershani Warrior adept himself. In addition to myself there was also Chitra the Elven Weaponsmith, Garak the Ork Archer, and Z'mokki the T'Skrang Thief.
Our first stop was to be high in the Throalic foothills, so I bought some cold weather gear. We traveled on the road to Sossanopa for a few days, then turned up into the mountains. We stopped at Mt Meru, (4208) and made camp so that Scholar Bezzel could perform his observations of the stars at night. The chosen spot was right in an avalanche zone (which I had read about). We moved out of the zone and purposely set off a small avalanche so that one would not take us by surprise late that night.
During that night we were attacked by 4 ... something. Some sort of Ice Elemental I assume. They all had different powers, and the one with a zone of cold around it was most distressing. After the fight it seemed that the whole mountain woke up, as if the mountain was one enormous earth elemental. Bezzel announced that his observations were complete, and we gathered our stuff and ran down the mountain as fast as we could.
In the next location, in the hills not far from Clear Creek Crossing (4412) we were attacked by 4 Hill Boar. Sadly Chitra the Elven Weaponsmith was gored to death.
The final location, a few days north of Irondelve was the strangest location yet. It featured fields of flowers, carefully planted in rows. These were tended by thousands of large (fist sized) insects. Some of the insects carried swords and shields! We were careful not to damage the flowers as we carefully entered the cultivated lands, and when approached by the insects, greated them politely. They obviously sent away for someone else, and we waited until a human woman covered in bees appeared. She was escorted by 2 human sized insects. The woman gave off a vibe that reminded me of Questors of Jaspree I have met. Human, but not quite wholly human. She communicated with us and said that they were interested in being good peaceful neighbors with Irondellve.
We asked, and were given permission to do our observations. She left us one of the human sized insects to communicate with. She named him Bizzalt. We got to the section of the fields we wanted, and there was a huge obelisk there. Bizzalt caused a 30 foot long dragonfly to "decloak" and lift us to the top. From the top we would see past the flower fields a large "city" of mounds similar to termite mounds. Beyond the mounds we could see more flower fields. In addition to the swords and shields, we saw much evidence of a highly evolved society. The irrigation of the fields seemed very sophisticated, and the insects worked together very speedily and efficiently.
That night Bezzel completed his observations, and we rode the dragonfly back down and traveled to Irondelve with the Queens words of greeting and peace. A few weeks later we got word from Irondelve that a massive fire to the NW had destroyed the area and completely annihilated the hive city and all the fields. The destruction was said to be total. Nobody could think of anything that could do this except for Dragons or Fire Cannon, but this is just speculation.
The grateful Mershani arranged for an Illusionist of their number to train me in in the mysteries of the 2nd circle of Illusionism, and copy the spell "See the Unseen" from his spellbook.Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Thu May 20, 2021 2:20 pm
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