Re: Myrran Wars

[Flagmauth]

I'll take that to mean I get to decide. Excellent.

Shi'nrae stood in the doorway to her room, looking around at the now-finished decorations. She had hung a tapestry from one wall, a masterwork of weaving that was one of the few things she had managed to save from her family's destruction. A black and silver lockbox rested on a small table, containing a few arcane talismans that had some utility in her practice. Finally, she had taken down the lantern that swung from the ceiling, as it was a massive fire hazard. The room was now lit by a few witchlight candles that provided light without the additional risk of combustion. The lantern sat, dark and forlorn, near the foot of her bed, now adorned in silver and black satin and silk sheets.

Though really, it seemed as if they had been going nowhere for a ridiculous amount of time...

[President WIN]

(Since Doomwing isn't posting, I'll just move the story along. Chances for character exposition be darned.)

After getting something to drink, Alkam announces, "I think it's aboot time I had a talk with the master of yer 'Ruby Night'." (I'll assume Kern follows him. Doom can tell me if he doesn't)

Alekssander greets Kern and Alkam, and sends them to the meeting room (think medieval boardroom) of the Ruby Night. He then goes to find Shi'nrae. Discovering that she has comofortably decorated her room, he tells her Kern and the master of the Evergreen Fens have arrived, and that they are waiting in the meeting room. (Again, I'll assume Shi'nrae follows Alekssander, pursuant to Mycro's approval)

As Alekssander and Shi'nrae walk into the meeting room, they find Kern and Alkam seated as they please around a long rectangular wooden table with a red velvet runner down the center, trimmed with white and gold satin, built to accommodate a group much larger than the four who now find themselves in the meeting room.

When everyone is seated, Alekssander leads off.

http://qkme.me/3us6gp (Sorry, couldn't get the image itself to appear)

"I don't wish to sound dire, but I'm afraid what we just witnessed may be more than mere air piracy. As you all know, for many years our plane of Myrror lived in a state of relative peace, punctuated by naive, relatively uneventful wars between the five native races; the Beastmen, Dark Elves, Draconians, Dwarves, and Trolls.

All of that changed when the squabbling wizards of our sister plane, Arcanus, became aware of the possibilities of our plane. Magic is richer here than on Arcanus; it saturates the very land, making magic more potent, and 'rare' herbs and minerals more common.

When the Towers of Wizardry, artifacts from an older age which permitted travel between worlds, were uncovered, many wizards scrambled to invade our world, but none were succesful, all repulsed by our people. Jafar, the Sultan of the Sands, and a Specialist in the school of Sorcery, saw the folly of fellows, and envisioned a different path to the conquest of Myrror. Instead of invading, he looked to tempt one of the established races, and thereby gain an easy foothold.

The Beastmen were a proud race who had always relied on strength of arms alone to combat their enemies, unlike the other four races, each of whom had practiced a particular school of magic to aid themselves since time immemorial. Jafar sent a peaceful emissary, and between a demonstration of the great power of Sorcery magic to manipulate time and space, careful playing to the Beastmen belief in their superiority over the other races, and perhaps use of mental manipulation, Jafar gleaned his alliance, and, thereby, his foothold.

Between Beastmen strength, reinforcements from Jafar's army, and the mighty sorcery of Jafar and his newly trained Beastmen Shamans, the unholy alliance had no difficulty beating the other four races back and seizing most of Myrror. In fact, each race had only one city left unto itself at the height of Beastmen power; today's capitals. Each city was guarded by the most powerful enchantments and wards each race could devise. But it mattered little. The battle seemed lost for the Dark Elves, Draconians, Dwarves, and Trolls.

In his pride, Jafar declared Myrror won, and returned to his battles on Arcanus with the aid of Myrror and his new Beastmen allies, leaving the Beastmen themselves as the rulers of the plane, responsible for finally eradicating the other four races. But the Beastmen either could not find the capital cities, or could not destroy them. And so the war continued for many years, with the Beastmen always at the brink of victory, but never achieving it.

It was in these terrible years that the Draconian Warlord Sss'ra came to power. After early victories proving his tactical skill, he sought to unite those besieged by the Beastmen. Forging an alliance between the scattered races, he managed to bring to bear the best forces of each race, and do the unthinkable.

With the aid of Dark Elven Nightblades, Nightmares, and Warlocks, Draconian Airshps and Doom Drakes, Dwarven Hammerhands, Steam Cannons and Golems, and Trollish War Mammoths and Warblades, he defeated the Beastmen when they seemed undefeatable, and pushed them to the same edge they had pushed the other four races. Before Jafar could intervene, he invoked great powers of Life magic to conjure a Planar Seal to seperate the worlds for as long as its magic was maintained.

But rather than deal the final blow to the Beastmen, Sss'ra showed mercy, of a sort. In repentance for their folly, the Beastmen would donate their strength to the races they had nearly annihilated in the form of life-long servitude in perpetuity, until such time as the other four races should see fit to release them from it."

"Sorry for the history lesson, but you'll see what I'm leading up to in a moment. Besides," Alekssander smiles a toothy grin, "I do like going on about history."

"Before I go on, though, are there any questions?"

[Flagmauth]

Shi'nrae gazed calmly back at Alekssander, plainly not about to ask a question.

[Flagmauth]

(I like how this is still locked and we completely forgot about it, apparently, because Admins can still post)

[President WIN]

(Admins can still post? Wow. Didn't know that. I'll unlock it.)

[Flagmauth]

so on with the exposition!

[Doomwing]

(Bwahahahaa) Kern nods and drinks from his flask again.

[Flagmauth]

Shi'nrae wondered what exactly Alekssander was waiting for.

[President WIN]

(Sorry, between volunteering my time from 8:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night for a charitable cause for a week, and forgetting what I wanted to say, it took a while.)

Alekssander continues,

"All of that was many years ago. Sss'ra ruled for several years, but ultimately died heir-less. That's when my house, the Drakes, stepped in as the leading house, and thereby the de facto rulers. As you all know, they have been content to observe the alliance between the four races as a given, and not interfere in the other races' business. The Dark Elves, Draconians, Dwarves, and Trolls have lived in relative peace for many years, each minding its own affairs, but now that is beginning to change.

As a young scion, and now a merchant ship captain, I hear more from the common people than most of my noble brethren, and the word on the  street is that tensions are high between the Dark Elves and the Trolls, and neither the Draconians nor the Dwarves are doing anything to try to bring an end to the skirmishes between them. (See Post #1 for a more succinct summary)

Given the instability of the times, the disunity of our four races, and the fact that we didn't see anyone other than Beastmen on that pirate ship, I'm afraid we may have just seen some kind of Beastman uprising.  There have always been small revolts, and with any luck, that's what we encountered. But considering that the ship... sort of... jumped... into battle, they clearly have powerful Sorcery magic. And that indicates a much larger and organized foe than we've ever faced since Sss'ra's time.

Now, obviously, this isn't our direct concern. Right now, our first priority is to get to Silvervale. But in a larger sense, if there's a powerful Beastman threat, it impacts all four races. Things will only get worse if we ignore the situation. Keep an eye open and an ear to the ground and maybe we'll learn something useful."

Alekssander pauses a moment, thinking. and then continues. "As a matter of fact, the same goes for the Troll-Dark Elf conflict. If that could be resolved peacefully, there might be more forces available to look into disturbing acts of air piracy like the one we faced."

"Anyway, as you no doubt felt, while we've been talking here, both ships have gotten underway. I gave the order for the ships to continue their journey as soon as our Beastmen had done as much as possible, and the most pressing repairs had been taken care of, which Kern and Shi'nrae took care of nicely. I hope you don't mind, Alkam."

Alkam looks outraged for a moment, but then cools considerably. "Lad, I dinnae like other folk messing with my ship, but ya did help me out of a bad scrape, and ye seem wise enough, so I suppose I can excuse it fer the moment."

Alekssander continues, "Thank you, Alkam. In any case, I ordered that the ships fly adjacent, cannons armed and ready, so we ought not to experience any more trouble on the way there. That just leaves what we'll do when we reach Silvervale. I'll go and see about buying some of the city's famed high quality Mithral, and our ship will be repaired. I imagine that we'll part ways with Alkam." Alekssander looks over at the Master of the Evergreen Fens.

"Aye, but I'll be in town fer a while, what with repairin' my ship, and doin' my own buisiness, have no fear. And I owe ye all a debt. I have some connections in the city and if there be anythin' I can do to help any of ye, just let me know. Especially you, young dwarf." Alkam nods gratefully at Kern.

"Very well then, I'll remember that." Alekssander then regards his two employees. "As for you two, considering your valor and ingenuity, I think you've both earned a pay raise, and an advance on some of that pay." He produces a bag of gold for each of them.

"When we reach Silvervale, you'll be able to do whatever you want. But I would like to know where you plan on going when we get there, in case I need to find you. And no doubt you'd like to know what there is to do in the city."

"There is/are
an Alchemist's Guild
an Armorer's Guild and Smithy (Does Arms, Armor, etc. Also would have space for Kern to do his own crafting, as would the Mechanician's and Alchemist's Guilds)
a Forester's Guild
a thriving Marketplace
a Mechanician's and Miner's Guild (Which pretty much runs the town; it is a Dwarven City)
a Sage's guild with an extensive library
numerous freelance wizards
a Temple (There aren't really any deities in this world, or at least I haven't created any. So this temple is the Magic/Life Force/ a Local Saint/ whatever you want, really)
Embassies for the other three races of the alliance"

And pretty much anything else you might expect to find in a city. I haven't been to Silvervale much, but I am fairly familiar with the city; if you want to know if you can find something specific in Silvervale, just ask and I can probably tell you."

(Again, sorry about the delay. That should be the end of the exposition. Posts from me for now on will be much shorter, and more frequent, assuming your continued participation.)

[Flagmauth]

[hmm. What would the best place for my character be, in your opinion?]

[President WIN]

(I was thinking maybe the Sage's Guild, Alchemist's guild, and/or Temple would be best for Shi'nrae. And while she is from the destroyed Arabarn House, if she has any interest in current Dark Elf society, or if it helps you to expound on your backstory, you might try the Dark Elf Embassy.

Also, a couple of notes. First off, you can both pretty much flesh out your backstory as much as you want, because the world is hardly set in stone. I'll let you know if something could be tailored to fit more neatly with the world, but the more I think about it, the more I realize the world is pretty much Vanilla D&D, with just a few odd elements to make it unique. You might think of it as "Homemade Vanilla  D&D", or "French Vanilla D&D" or "New York Style Vanilla D&D"   lol

What's more, I'm trying to be more flexible than before. For example, for Shi'nrae, "Sorcery" will no longer be outright taboo; merely frowned upon. You'll be able to find fellow Sorcery users and practice your style of magic in public without fear. Remember, of course, that "Sorcery" means something different here than in D&D. (Unless you want me to keep Sorcery taboo. Let me know.)

Which reminds me, (this is really minor stuff) I thought I ought to say that most spell casters here combine natural talent and book learning, but it's not unknown to work from either one alone. Someone who couldn't do anything without books would be called a "ritualist", while someone who ignores spell-books completely would probably be called some like an "innate-caster". I assume since Shi'nrae was originally a D&D-style sorceress, she probably has little need for books. But you can decide if she gets anything out of them or not.

My second note is just this; I listed off the locations that a well developed Dwarven city could have in the game, but it doubtless has all the smaller staples of D&D cities, like taverns and thieves guilds and such.)

[Flagmauth]

[So, I figure Shi'nrae might head for the Sage's Guild to see what she can find in their library about that temporal spell she accidentally pulled off. Also, what exactly would it be like if I chose to keep the Sorcery taboo? That sounds like it may produce interesting RP scenarios.]

[President WIN]

(If I left it completely taboo, I think it would just be a pain for you. Basically, anywhere you went, if you used your magic, you'd be immediately distrusted, and probably arrested. It would be you (and your adventurer friends) vs. the world, basically. This was my original understanding of the worldview I created, which is why I tried to dissuade you from playing a sorceress initially.

However, after some reflection, it makes more sense that even if it is still frowned upon by normal society after all this time, (due to its unfortunate connection with the Beastmen atrocities), there would still be some practitioners and that Sorcery would be too useful for society to completely ignore. Hence, I've retconned the world so that now you'll still get some stares (and maybe those roleplaying opportunities) if you use sorcery magic out in the open, but you won't be lynched for it.

As for your plans, sounds good to me. Have Shi'nrae announce them.)

[Flagmauth]

"I believe I shall go to the library; they're sure to have some information on temporal magic." Shi'nrae said after a few moment's contemplation.

[President WIN]

"That sounds good, Shi'nrae. I'm eager to hear what you find. If you could harness that time spell more often, that would be quite impressive."

"A word to the wise though? While I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for at their library, many of the 'Sages' at the so-called 'Sage's Guild' prefer theorizing and pontificating about magic to actually practicing it. Your best bet may be the books. But you probably already knew that."

"And what about you, Kern? To whence shall you go?"

[Flagmauth]

"Not many people...appreciate my branch of magic. I had intended to use their library system, yes." Shi'nrae replied.

[I think Doom may be inactive from the forum entirely; I can't get him to respond to me on Steam or FB either. Maybe we'll have to draft Numbers or Opera into the RP."

[President WIN]

(Very well. He might just be really busy again; don't hassle him too much, I don't want to drive him away. In the mean time, Kern'll be passed out drunk on the Ruby Night. We can recruit other people when the ship lands in Silvervale.)

Alekssander notes Kern's current drunken state, and sighs. Under his breath, he mutters, "You'd think a dwarf would have a stronger liver."

Returning to the group at large, "Oh well, we'll find out about him after he wakes up. We should be arriving shortly."

As if on cue, the Beastman known as Captain enters the room. Bowing politely he says, "Sir, Silvervale is in sight, I've instructed the crew to prepare for docking. Master Goldenrod might wish to return to his ship."

"Very good, Captain." Alekssander replies as the Captain ducks out. "Well, Alkam, it was a pleasure meeting you."

"And you, young Drake. And Master Kern and Mistress Shi'nrae as well of course. Again, you all have the thanks of myself and the Goldenrod Clan."

******

Soon, the ship docks and Alekssander wanders off to do his trading.

[Flagmauth]

[I haven't hassled him hardly at all - even if I was, he's always been diligent about FB messages in the past regardless of his inactivity on the forum and business outside the Internet.]

Shi'nrae, as per what she said earlier, headed for the library.

[Flagmauth]

[I DEMAND POSTAGE]

[President WIN]

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