• May 5 – Updated Party Portrait ... AGAIN… to show off Watseka’s new look. Updated Watseka Portrait for same reason.
• April 30 – Updated Party Portrait to include Amphion and Jogaila’s new armor. Added individual portaits for each character in Player Characters.
• April 28 – Added updated Fighter to classes, Added Ursanami Centaur, Gruidae, and Human, Korvaduk to races, Added Options section to Wiki.
• April 24 – Added The Dead Races of the Elemental Lords to wiki.
• April 15 – Valera now available.
• April 12 – The Fatesim Class is now up!
• April 8 – The next episode “The Time Between” is not an actual session, but a description of events that have taken place over the next four months. Campaign will resume with “Wind and Snow” -

Message from the Past

Reaching Myrikin’s Wall, Connor began to play the tune taught to him by his mother so long ago. As the first notes filled the chamber, a beautiful white-haired woman suddenly formed, an illusionary message from his mother left ten years earlier…

“My dear Connor. If you have triggered this message, then we have failed. Though I can not know how long it has been since we left, know that my heart cried of missing you each of those days. To you, Langduin, my husband and I thank you for protecting and guiding Connor to this place.

1000 years ago, the Goddess Kol had a vision, a foretelling of a time when a great evil would come to Marai, using horrific armies that would devour the world. In her wisdom, she instructed her most faithful, the Fatesim, to spirit away items of great power to be used in the coming war. She also instructed the three sects of Angels, the Ilgar, the Malfiri, and the Tulari, to vanish from the world. Finally, she persuaded the great Dragons to enter other realms which she had fashioned, to protect them from harm, and ensure they could be brought forth to fight this evil.

This evil is a child forcibly conceived in the womb of Valera by the Unholy King. When news of the pregnancy reached the ears of the Father Sun, he knew Kol had accurately witnessed the future and that only woe would come from such a child’s birth.

The first attempts to destroy the child met with failure, and the Gods soon realized that it was amassing a power greater than any other possessed. Sol Linaru knew that the battle would not only be fought among the stars, but also by the people of Marai. And so he came to us, and the Cerulean Star was formed, with the task of finding the hidden places of Kol, and the keys that would free the Dragons.

But the child was born, and within moments, it destroyed its Father, Ortar. The Black Claw was no more. In a desperate gamble, the Magister sacrificed his own godhood to strip the child of its own. It was then necessary to send us, and other skilled and powerful people of Marai, to defeat this evil once and for all. And as I said, if you are here, then we have failed and the armies have come.

So now, our task falls to you, Connor. You are the last Cerulean Star, the last to hold the responsibility given to us by Father Star himself. I am sorry that your father and I cannot see how you have grown, and I am sorry that we are placing such a heavy burden upon you. We have given to you keys that will help you on your journey; the armor, the lute, and the whip. It is imperative that you release the Dragons, imperative that you stop the Child.

The fatesim will attempt to stop you. The armies will attempt to destroy you. And beware the child, for it will destroy you, and all of Marai with you.

I love you Connor, and I am sorry. Stay with the light, my son.”

It began with three days of night. There have been no answers as to why our Father Star, Sol Linaru, vanished. The world of Marai cooled without its light, the plants withered and wept without its warmth, and the foul beasts trembled in terror in its absence. During those awful days, we believed our world was doomed. We believed all we had known would fade whilst we gaped, our destinies had ended, and our histories forever untold. The blood of those who begged came upon our hands and a few granted mercies when none was asked. We believed that our Gods had forsaken us. I would now that they had.

It has been ten years since that long eve, ten years since we last knew hope. Our prayers have failed, our weariness increased, our magic has diseased since. Our auguries return with conflicting signs, our divinations with uncertainties. The crops, which would rise and fall without fail, have become suspect, and our wine has lost all depth. We are lost in this world, and we have nary but fear.

Clerics and priests, druids and mystics have all reported things odd and terrifying. The Brides of Valera have been instructed to pierce their own wombs. The Elves and Captains have said the Night Mother, Ilsidelius, no longer guides them with accuracy. The Fatesim, who venerate the Goddess Kol, have found their visions fleeting. And the Tyrants of Ortar, their evil bile spewing forth from their lips, have found no power behind their words: as if their hatred no longer holds meaning.

Most disturbing, however, is our own experiences. Is it possible our Father Star be blind or have been struck dumb? The magic flows still, but burns as if unsure how to channel through our bodies. Has Sol Linaru brought upon us a curse? What is it that we have done to cause such pain? Why do the arcane forces we once wielded so easily now tear through our souls, burning our very life from within? Why has our Father Star seemed to have faded since those three agonizing days?

And then there are the whispers. Each of us have heard the breathless; have sensed their speech before being spoken. A dark force has come to Marai, a power so corrupted by entropy which seeks devour the very essence of life. From the corner of our very minds, we have sensed it. It has come. It has purpose.

Our pains are many, our hope is few, and in this darkness filled with light, we pray…

- Journal of Aurith Devair, Chaplain of Sol Linaru, 15th Day of Sunthis, 443 NC