3. Camp Research

Camp Research


  • The following is all the research found by the people actively working on translating the rune pillars… you know who you are 🙂

    Most Recently Updated Map Can Always Be Found Here:
    http://www.blade2k.net/losl/narfell/GC%20Map.jpg
    (Uploaded offsite so Arandor can see it)

    Pillar C, Side 1:

    _"Here I shall record the actions of many, former slaves to the Demonbinders, who were able to rise from the quarries of the crystals and regain their freedom. This place has been a quarry for many years now, generations born and ground into the dust they worked in, imprisoned in these canyons, with our guards above us, ever watching and ever vigilant in the towers on the clifftops.

    Many were the races that were forced into this servitude, and it is sad to say that they only worked together so well when forced. I have born witness to the strength of each, working in forced harmony, each race serving it's purpose, or being destroyed, each creature used for it's strengths, or killed.

    Even now I look at the racial markings that were used to designate where we stayed, that seperated our camps on racial lines, and marvel how amongst all the division, we were still being used the same. Dwarves were used for their mining, alongside humans, Halflings to run errands and cook, Elves for their woodwork in scaffolding and supports. Goblins, Gnolls, Kobolds, and Ogres were used to haul ore. Pixies as tests for mining gasses, and explorers of small tunnels, as were the Gremlins. Spiders to clear the debris. Dwarves and Orcs forced side by side to smelt the raw materials we found in the constant search for crystals.

    All were used. All fearful of not being of use. This continued for generations.

    When war came, we did not know of it, it changed nothing in our lives. We still mined, we were still guarded, were still watched, still dug at the rock that had become our lives, never knowing, never noticing. We were in the far corner of a speck of a canyon that history will forget, and we never knew. When hope came, we did not know better, when hope came, we hoped like fools…."_ -Translated by Celebring

    From A History of Toril Volume 2:
    -2387/
    A work strike by the gnomes of Netheril is successful and the gnomes are released from servitiude to the Netherese, most gnomes head immedately south, fleeing from Netheril
    -1720/
    Netherese wizards arrive near the blasted ruins of Uvaeren, fleeing something; they die within two years after uncovering a hidden library cache and unwittingly setting loose some of its magical defenses
    -1069/
    Orcs in Thay defeated; many flee north and west
    c.-900 Rise of Narfell and Raumathar
    -741/
    Tulan el Akada yi Calimport creates the Aranea, a lycanthropic aracnid race with the ability to disguise themselves as drow or giant spiders, Tulan's magical Controls make the Aranea the most effective soldies in Calimshan's war against the drow.
    -696/Year of Great Rains
    End of the Netherse Age of Discovery
    Begining of the Shadowed Age
    Birth of Karsus, the Netherese Human who later becomse the "child-who would be a god", the "Unmaker of the Weave" and "The Ape who would fly" by the elves.
    -623/Year of the Clipped Wings
    Narfell attempts invasion of Mulhorand and Unther by Sea. The two southern nations defeat the Narfell fleet.

    Pillar C Side 2:
    When hope came, it did not come from without as we always suspected, but from within instead. Felik, Jalixson, Senti’la, Branic, and Vaxin Roe were good men, and close friends who were born and raised in the camp. They never took well to the life we were forced to and were many times marked by the lash as warnings to change their ways. But they wanted to break free.

    Often in the night when the guards were more lax, seeking help beyond what we had to combat those who watched over us, and though they often said the answers had come, none of us believed, for nothing changed. We continued as before, working the quarries we knew so well. When change came, it came swiftly, and none were prepared, for who ever truly is for change?

    We woke to screaming, and to shouts of pain. There were calls to arms, to help, to defend, to anything… There was silence. We milled in our camps, not knowing what to do, for this was a change in the routine, and though we did not know it, we could feel this was a new day.

    Hours after the silence fell upon the cliff tops, all five returned. They were bloodied; a fire gleamed in their eyes, smiles of triumph on their lips. In one day they had broken generations of work, they were heroes, they lived and our guards were dead. The mages had not come to help, we did not know that the mages were otherwise occupied, all we knew was the guards had fallen, and the retribution that we always feared, just never showed.


  • Elor has been gathering information regarding the pillars, looking over the translations carefully. Now and then he smiles somewhat, as if his own theory continuous to fall into place, continuing on to scrounge for more information.


  • Maybe these words are not what to say to activate the pillar, but warning of what the pillar will summon if you activate it.

    Perhaps it is a crystal guardian that is released by the pillar and not a portal to somewhere.

    tala looks a bit displeased with the notion of having let her child play so near to the pillar in years past.

    I'm not entirely comfortable with it near my home these days.

    looks tired, pale and a bit worried.


  • Jerr, spending more time in the camp, reads a copy of the poems and frowns.

    "Hmm, the first one looks more like a crystal than anything else

    The second, a rainbow, odd that they are sometimes made of crystals.

    The third my people know too well. A glacier is the earth death and dies to sun or sea. I suppose that a proper spar of ice is both crystalline and could creat rainbows . . . .

    It is the last that I have not quite worked out . . . . but I will"


  • A mildly annoyed Celebring is heard to comment.

    "This is the same translation I already gave to Lilin over a month ago… It seems she either forgot to release it for all to see, or simply chose not too... We should perhaps co-ordinate ourselves a little better on this, else there is going to be wasted efforts, doubled translations, and much stepping on eachothers toes."

    He compares his notes with Zyphlin's and nods to himself, as if confirming something.

    "Please send word if you wish to work together rather than continue seperately, I am usually around the camp."


  • Another parchment is put up with handwriting that seems to match that of the one baring "Pillar C, Side 2". It states the following

    **This is the translation of the Pillar B, otherwise known as the "Pillar of Four Points". Above each side is this warning: "Names are power. Know the name of what you face."

    Side 1**

    I am the teeth of the mouth of the earth,
    Darkness and water attended my birth,
    Softly and slowly extended in time,
    Name me and know me, solving this rhyme.

    Side 2
    I have split the one into five,
    I am the circle the few will spy,
    I am the path that breaks and gives,
    I am the bow that no man will bend.

    Side 3
    My step is slow,
    The snow's my breath,
    I give the ground,
    A grinding death,
    My Marching makes,
    an End of me,
    Slain by Sun,
    Or drowned in Sea.

    Side 4
    A hoard of rings am I,
    But not fit gift to a bride,
    I await only,
    a sword's kiss.

    It is possible that they represent the elements; the first being earth, second air, third water, fourth fire. However that is only one possibility. I ask that if you wish to ponder what the answer to these riddles are, you do so on a seperate piece of parchment that those which the translations are found ((IE please start a new thread if you want to try to reason out the answers through posts))


  • ((OOC Note to anyone working on the plot, I will be gone from the 19th-28th, but I don't know what LD to do about the folks who pass information to Lil. Hopefully he will respond here…))


  • A parchment bearing the seal of Spellweaver is delivered to Cera's tree.

    Vaxin Roe declared the quarries ours. He stood covered in the blood of our guards and spoke of visions for the future, starting with the founding of a city, from there we could rule ourselves, and be masters of our own fate. We would begin by raising a temple to worship He who had freed us, He who had answered the Five's Prayers. He won over many of us that day, and there were celebrations, and his speech was the beginning of our plans, and the plans slowly became a reality, the framework for buildings and towers was begun the very next day.

    The orcs and kobolds deserted of course, with no further force from the guards they wandered off to squabble amongst themselves. The Ogres delved deep into the ground, and did not return, the spiders wandered free, often feeding on themselves since we no longer fed them. Everyone took this change different.

    The retribution we feared did not come, our city was begun, those who gave us our freedom walked among us, and for a time, we smiled. Our work was begun in the largest clearings in the canyons, and the first stories rose up as did our hopes for the future.

    And then they came. Vaxin Roe met them, Felik, Jalixson, Senti'la, and Branic stood beside him. I can not describe what all I saw, magic was thrown, flames fell from the sky, lightning cracked, and horrors I wish never to see again in my lifetime were summoned forth to fight. My eyes pain still from the brightness of the magics used. The earth was shaken and cracked, and in the end…. five crystals were laid out on the ground. Four of the brightest hue, one of the darkest.

    It was told to me, to us all, that they were unable to destroy them, but that this was for the greater good. We were told that the rest of us were to leave the land, on pain of death. It was told to us many times, told by those who toke our heroes and put them away into rocks. I watched them. I watched them sealed away into caves, and watched as they collapsed the caves behind them.

    I am at heart a coward. I could never face those who had attacked our saviors, so I instead use what little talent I have in working stone, to carve this for those who may have the strength and bravery to free those that should have not been sealed away, to show the truth of what happened, and ignore the lies of those who have done nothing but bring retribution for the justified slaughter of our guards.

    We have been to told to leave, and so we will leave. Our city will lay unfinished, our saviours will lay imprisoned behind their wards, our masters continue to set our ways. The five who chose to save us all, will never know freedom by my hand, I can only hpoe they will know the freedom they fought for, by anothers.


  • Arandor spends his time around the camp with Tala these days, keeping her company mostly as she watches over the pillars. He seems pretty content to eat the cookies and even one or two of the "wings." Sipping on some tea afterwards, he comments.

    "Always knew there was something about those Pillars, I just hope the people studying them know what they're getting into… Also, I would, of course, have to be the sacrifice were it to come to that."

    He nudges Tala playfully, smiling to her.

    –------------------------------------------

    The elf, Celebring, continues to study the charcoal rubbings, spending much of his time at the camp around the Pillar in the Waterfall cave. He helps himself to some tea and cookies every now and then.


  • gives them both a dirty look whilst smiling and speaks her tone mildly amused

    I am not a mushroom… cookie? Tea? Wings?


  • I sacrifice myself to be locked up in the cave with Tala


  • Nicahh quietly comments to those around her, smiling faintly, her voice playful.

    "Or we could piss Tala off and let her rant a while, that would probably open the portal."


  • hmmm

    pauses munching on a cookie

    what if we took one of those shrieking mushrooms and grew it in the cave near the pillar?

    If all the things in the camp are interconnected then they might be connected too.


  • –grr... double post--


  • Penny hears of the sound reactive pillar while sipping some wine by the fire.

    "I wonder if my shriekin' could keep open that portal for ya long enough ta hop in. I once got the pitch up high enough ta make a bugbear's ears bleed, so maybe the same would work 'ere."


  • tosses a bone from some food she is eating a dwin

    I've lived there for years quit your whining before I call you an elf kissing long shanks.

    grins at him motioning towards a platter of "wings" of some form or fashion next to the platter is a large sack of tala's ginger cookies and a huge pale of tea.

    <d>I got some ale for you if you like. I doubt ginger tea is to your liking, and no its not made from the hin.

    laughs and winks at him still looking pale and tired, but apparently hungry.</d>


  • Dwin grumbles

    O course I find this out AFTER I buy the cave next to it!


  • _Rumors start to spread of the pillar inside the warefall cave. It is said that large volumes of sound have activated it. The activation is a portal which stays open for only a few seconds before closing again.

    Strangely enough, this was figured out by a dire wolf who led Nicahh, Equinox, and Wolf into the cave. The large wolf barked so loud, that the pillar had a reaction. It then ran out, whimpering as the portal opened. Then Wolf, with his aquired pot of sound, opened the pot which unleashed a wave of sound at the pillar, causing the portal to open again for a short time. Neither of the three had time to enter the portal to see what was on the other side, but it is suggested to keep large amounts of sound going in order for the portal to remain open. The three decided it was best to tell those who are researching it before acting on it…_