Yurthgreen

∙April∙

09 Yurthgreen,
351st Year after the Cataclysm
~ Riddles on the Path ~

Spire

Our band of travelers made their way to High-Haven, where the tiny population had been plagued by disappearances. They met with their new patron, Ispin Greenshield and his "pet" blink bison, Kojo. Ispin helped the group investigate the town's woes, but no one could find the culprit.

Urged by the residents of High-Haven to make the climb up the mountain ridge to Highhaven Priory, the heroes sought their way up. Though assured that, in the absence of the gods, the divine tests that once barred faithless pilgrims from reaching the priory would no longer function, they nonetheless found themselves facing off against a series of riddles and challenges.

As they neared the priory's high place, these adventurers found themselves hunted by crimson mists, beings who once had been vampires, but having lost access to their resting place, they have become a hungering mist, unable to regain humanoid form. The mists, however, could not approach Kojo, so the group used this to push ahead to the monastery. Finally, facing the final riddle, they mounted the blink buffalo and bade him blink them beyond the barrier that protected the temple from both good and evil entrants.

Knights
What happened next seems to be more dream than reality. Kojo, the heroes found, does not teleport-- instead, he plane shifts! They rode the celestial bison across some shining outer plane. There, Ispin Greenshield revealed himself to be an avatar of Kiri-Jolith, the god of justice, and Kojo his pet dragon!

Kiri-Jolith announced the return of the gods from their self-imposed exile, charging the adventurers with the full cleansing of his temple at Highhaven. They must, he demanded, enter the priory and destroy the master vampire who remained within, his evil so powerful that even the glimmering slivers of Kiri-Jolith's power shining from the altar could not banish him.

He revealed the vampires at the priory to have once been the faithful priests of Kiri-Jolith, but these had abandoned the path of good and chose to become monsters instead, blaming their horrible decision on their god's silence.

Alas, they receive greeting not from a vampire, but by a pale woman in the garb of a priestess of Chemosh, complete with reaping scythe. Could it be that more gods than the god of justice have returned to Krynn? If that be, the troubles are only beginning!

Knights


∙April∙

03 Yurthgreen,
351st Year after the Cataclysm
~ An PInterlude in Ansalon ~

Spire

The world is Krynn.

The continent is Ansalon.

The land is called Hinterlund, in the nation of Solamnia

The village is High-Haven

The time is almost four centuries after the gods destroyed the world, turning their faces from mortalkind, perhaps forever. With them, the king of the gods, beloved Paladine, and his wicked sister Takhisis, took all dragons out of Krynn.

With no gods, no divine magic, and no counsel from long-lived dragonkind, the mortal races have rebuilt slowly. One of the shining lights in this era, known as the Age of Dreams, is the nation of Solamnia.

Knights
Home of the holy orders of the Knights of Solamnia, the ancient nation has stood against the darkness, chaos, and panic that gripped the whole world in the wake of the fiery hand of the gods.

Only a few leagues east of Solamnia, the theocratic nation of Istar, once the shining light among nations, grew so powerful and ambitious that the gods destroyed it as both a punishment and a warning.

In that cataclysm sunk the collected artifacts and treasures of the ancient world. Most of the worked steel had also gone to the great city, now thoroughly lost to the ravenous storm that stands in its place. So much was lost, that steel is more precious than gold these days.

So you have come, drawn by the promise of steel rewards, to the town of High-Haven. Here, you will meet your new employer, Ispin Greenshield. Why such a prestigious benefactor would choose such a meeting place causes you to wonder, for High-Haven lies along the infamous "Road to Nowhere," the stretch of road leading from the heart of the capital city of Palanthas, through the rocky region known as Hinterlund, touching on little else but small fishing villages like Vogler, and half-abandoned pilgrimage sites, like High-Haven and the Highhaven Monastery.

You have met up with several other interesting folk while traveling toward High-Haven, all of whom have come at the behest of Greenshield. What's more, some of you intend to continue on, heading to Vogler for the upcoming Kingfisher Festival, where you may find gainful employment with a mercenary company or merchant caravan, and then on to greener pastures.