Power in Knowledge ...

Oathring of the Wreccae

One of the items returned from the seabed during the hunt for the Denyan akho was a great silver arm-ring, generally in the possession of Ravna of the Survivors of the Tel. Having identified something of the strange philters retrieved during the same expedition, she turned her attentions to research the ring. First, with the help of Torkol and Gan, inscriptions around the ring were identified as a series of solemn oaths in an old northern tongue, but imbued with a power to bend the will's of men. Armed with this knowledge, Ravna was then able to roust up some old legends of the north from the sailors frequenting the harbor-side taverns. To wit:

One of the grimmer and more famous of the oath-ring cycles involves Scarred-Wala, whose single-minded quest ultimately led to the doom of himself and all his companions. The tales of his early heroism are many--a warrior who inspired awe and respect, and could have been a great king of the Solamnite tribes he walked amongst. But a twist of fate on one of his voyages brought him to a glimpse of the Greyjewel, a weirdstone so wondrous as said to contain a psychic impression of Magician himself.

Knowing he must have it, Wala returned to his tribes and worked in secret to forge an oath-ring of power; and when it was finished, he had six of his finest companions swear great oaths on it, and so bent their minds to his will, and with them as captains, he gathered a great host of Solamnite sea-reivers (wreccae in that tongue) to fall on the great city Sark-on-Solwe, where the Greyjewel was then purported to be, on the famous Street of Gems.

A bloodbath ensued as the city was put to sword and fire, but the Greyjewel was nowhere to be found. Thus began Wala's long doom-quest in seek of it, chasing after every scrap of rumor, squandering the lives of his friends and boon companions until, as it is said, he died alone, crushed by the falling timbers of his rotting ship as dwelt under it on a beach.

But the ring had passed out of the story before then, along with all his companions; and word is that such an one had recently resurfaced somewhere in the East. It certainly could have been on one of the vessels embraced by the Denyan akho, perhaps carried by another would-be hero who perished to the sea ...

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The Eye of Morwe and the Hamdi Codex
A Happy Coincidence

Two separate research projects came together in an unexpected way as Razo's continued work deciphering the periplus of the ancient Voyager (with the help of Hry-Haya Yehat, of course) suddenly helped shed some light on the strange eye-like orb that Gan was experimenting with, attempting to divine its purpose.

Though the current section is incompletely deciphered (Razo rolled a shaky 8 for research), its description involves Hamdi and his crew befouled by a tempest and run aground on the island of the strange wizard Morwe where he dwelt with his daughter Altayra and their servant Imfawr. A reference to the salvation of one of Hamdi's crewmen, drowned in the storm but returned to life mystically by Altayra's use of "her father's eye" might have gone by unremarked, as a part of an already fantastical story, except that Hry-Haya indicated a tradition among his own people that Altayra had come with Hamdi on the return-voyage, carrying copies of her father's spellbooks, and that she had ventured with an Alkari companion (whose life she had also saved) into the Tel al Safina, and there battled ancient fungal horrors, amongst other adventures.

At talk over wine in the common room later, Gan hears this and suddenly leaps up to go and retrieve the orb--excited by the sudden possibility lit in his mind. He calls for Althalos to go and slaughter a djeja-bird for him, and to bring it hence, and when the bird's body is brought in, its throat slit skillfully by the innkeeper (somewhat perturbed to be slaughtering an egg-laying bird for nothing!), Gan stands over the body, points the orb's iris at it, and presses the stud--and the bird leaps up in a flurry of feathers, cackling mad to be surrounded by people!

The episode is the talk of Cothon-Under-Star for the rest of the week, and certainly makes the rounds to the other taverns that same night ...

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Bartholomew and Ilasha

It has been just over a week since a group of merchant vessels came in from the east, escorted by Hanseatic ships, with word about the campaign against the pirates among their other wares. One of their number was Captain Ilasha, whose ship carried alongside its break-bulk goods a smaller selection of wares the captain intended to sell separately for her private enrichment.

Among those items was a scroll case and scroll, purported by the captain to be of magical origin, and which immediately caught the eye of Bartholomew Pettibone, newest member of the now-public Survivors of the Tel. Immediately evincing interest, Bartholomew ultimately purchased the scroll from her on the promise of it being arcane, and invited her to supper and ale at the tavern, if she would regale him with just how she came into possession of it.

She agreed, and later that evening the two were seen supping together at Cothon-Under-Star. This is the tale she told, in short:

"Well, Bar-tolmai, know that in my country, which lies to the east, is a river, al Nahr al Tur. It bends around an ancient motte within which lies a mysterious and dangerous underworld, much as I understand the Tel al Safina here to be. That mound--we call it Beit al Nadhir, House of the Doom, and there are riches in its depths, but also ru'un and other such dangers.

"Bayn the White, Karagoth, al عador, and Chhrr Poliorketes are just a few of the names of those who delved seeking glory, and never returned.

"Even I have set foot across that threshold of darkness, as you do now in that Tel. I ... found that my mettle was not equal to the strangenesses within. Better for me the open air, the swell of the sea, and the taste of salt on the air--with the sun shining. I do not envy the dead their place in the dust.

"As to the scroll--as I said, I have worked with wizards before, and I think I can recognize something of their work. I dis-covered it within the Beit--whoever carried it in was not so lucky to carry it out--and though I know not the magic, I know it is of some value!"

... Several days later, convening with his associates before a further adventure, a read magic spell was cast over the scroll, and it was found to hold the formulae for three spells, of strange and intricate nature: seeing other planes, locate gold and gems, and withering.

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Shining Avin's Sword

Having deciphered the strange script on one of the two eye-like spheres recovered from the seabed on the hunt for the akho, Avin of the Survivors set about attempting to divine its use. Fortuitously, the inscribed verse suggested something about "shining weapons" and so Avin aimed the "iris" of the orb at her sword and pressed the stud opposite. Nothing seemed to change, and frustrated, she set the orb aside and went about other business.

But later, when drawing her sword for a bit of practice to keep in form, it seemed to Avin that the blade "cut" through the air cleaner than it ever had, and fairly sang in her hand as she went through her practice cuts. And indeed, thumbing the edge, the already keen blade seemed somehow finer, though she had not put it to a whetstone for some time.

It seems the orb has somehow caused Avin's sword to strike at +1 to hit! (but not to damage)

Armed with this knowledge, and the fact that the orbs were found as a pair and on the Peregrine Kyni treasure galley, sunk as it came from the east, Avin is able to roust up possibly helpful rumors concerning their identity. There was word that a pair of Eyes were included in the tribute sent from one of the lesser cities to the east, one of those protected by the Decapolis; in the mountains near that city stands a ziggurat or temple said to have once contained a kind of "gate" to the Fortress Moon, and that the pair of Eyes were recovered by a sortie there, and that the use of one made weapons majestic, while the other made men mad. ...