Tome Shield Potion, THRESHOLD TOMB, LORESHADE -- The massive door is carved into the gray granite base of a towering peak. The amoral wizard, executed for crimes committed but denied access to the Ever-after, reads the oneiriscrit signs etched into its face, of which there are three. The first is the sign for “portal”. The second is interpreted as “at” or “from”. And the third sign, in this context, is rendered as “death”. Ferah, the amoral, the revenant, opens the door....
Dreamgate: What to Know About WIZARDscape
Serial: The Gauntlet
Venue: Delver Down!
Campaign: Second Dawn
The Party
Avatar (Wakeling): race class level
Ferah (Carsten): revenant wizard 5Threshold Tomb Crossing
...A sudden gale buffeted him from behind, casting the unnatural-gray hair of the revenant before his pale visage. Between whipping strands, Ferah saw beyond the stone archway of the door, a rocky climb below quick clouds streaming overhead and into the dim distance. Only a few steps away, the contrast of a solid dark precipice against the passing sky drew the stark line of the horizon.
The revenant stepped onto the rocks with awkward footing. He chose a less jagged pasage toward the precipice, half-climbing, half-stumbling up to the edge. He stood upright in the billowing wind and looked out across the Loreshade, this foresaken land in the shadow of the surface of the metaverse.
There, in the far dark distance, a dense, roiling cyclone of clouds was underlit by the sickly green glow of a city beneath. Before the city lay a still, misty bog, and beyond, a storm-wracked sea. Ferah was reminded of his late-night perusals of the mildewed grimoires in his former master's library. He smelled again the dank air of the closed lower levels of the solitary tower in the remote wilds of Daggerdale, and he recognized from his reading the midnight city of Gloomwrought.
Dreamily, Ferah took a step toward the edge of the precipice. Directly below was a long and deep darkness, where shed no light. Of his precarious position, the revenant was only casually aware. A force outside of himself compelled him forward, toward the green-glowing halo of the city, and he took another step – this one, into the void.
The wind screamed in his ears as it swept up his outstretched form and hurled it forward into the streaming sky. He seemed to lose consciousness for moments at a time, but always he flew through the shadows of clouds toward the nauseous illumination of the city.
As he approached ever closer to the city, the sky lightened by degrees only just noticeable. The sea calmed to a still desert wasteland, and the bog resolved into low sprawling ruins. He saw to his right, far away and just above the flat horizon, a red light, tiny and bright. Then he knew, though he didn't know how, that he was on the frontier between the Wheel and the Loreshade - Threshold Tomb, a crossing from one cosmos to the other. He knew the city before him as Architrave. He was sure that he had never been there before, but he thought that he must have read of this city as well. For he knew the cracked and crumbling paths that serve as streets in the city of dungeons, and he could recall the names of some of its inns and taverns. Names like, "the Door, Monster...," and "Lower Level," "Delve House," and "Stairs Up." He remembered reading a letter addressed to another who never received it, and he knew of a map that led to an historic treasure. He also remembered vaguely, as if in a dream, that a powerful tool of arcane magic lay deep within the bowels of the former metropolis. This knowledge, these details, this familiarity... was frightening.
His speed seemed to increase as he fell now toward a disinherited quarter of Architrave he knew was called Last Delve, an ancient necropolis become cemetery for the less rich or unknown citizens and delvers of the city.
Then he seemed to drift into and out of consciousness again for a time. When he finally woke, all was still and quiet, and he lie in close darkness on cold stone among grave goods, treasures intended for the dead in the Ever-after.
The Quests
Stormstave (minor): In his surreptitious library studies, Ferah learned of the existence of an item of unusual power. The search for this item, named Stormstave, was the object of Ferah's previous adventures. He had traced the location of the item to Architrave, just prior to his first capture which eventually led to his execution.
Experience Awards
Avatar: XP award + contribution award if any (total) | contribution link
Ferah: 500 (6,000)
Coming Up!
The monk stands in an unfamiliar body, peering across a foreign landscape. He feels for the first time the distinct sensation of the surface of the metaverse turning beneath his feet...
THE PARADIGM
