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* Mac OS : We Recommend
Rapscallion "Client" Software. *
The Game is not yet On-Line,
but Feel Free to get a Jump on Understanding the Concept and Commands
Policies:
Underage
Players (**) (If you're not under age and
do not intend to hang out in the underage (restricted) territories, skip
this section.)
Underage
Players' Characters will have their own (Safe) areas to play in, where
they can search for treasures, practice their self defence skills, bandage
and heal injured Players' Characters, Non-Player-Characters (people, animals,
and 'things') beat up on wimpy renegade robots and interact with each other.
Special
Features:
All players
will begin with three (3) character slots. PK fanatics will have
their own areas and their own Elders. Non Player Killers will have the
opportunity to remain immune to Player Killers. Player Killers may not
always know who they can attack and who "has Divine Protection" in one
form or other. Non Player Killers can lose their "Divine Protection"
with one swing of a weapon or one non-defensive spell cast at another PC
(Player's Character). Appeals for 'mistakes' will be possible. It should
be pretty hard to make a mistake like that. Excuses like, "My [brother
/ wife / ex friend] found my password and sabotaged my characters," might
work, but you'll have to do a lot of convincing.
Role playing
will be rewarded. Elders will be compensated if, in the future, we do have
a 'Pay to Play' section.
You [or your
characters] will not have to kill anything to earn a living in this world.
Characters can become Healers, Artisans, or follow various 'Professional'
Occupations and/or develop the ability to teach survival and social skills
to other characters.
There will
be areas where 'sparring' will be allowed, where a special form of scoring
and experience points will be added. In a sparring area, for instance,
a lethal blow will appear as something like: "That blow would have killed
you [or your opponent]." Healers will be able to gain experience,
practising their arts in sparring areas, "You would have just saved the
life of [Whomever]." {Or, "[Whomever] would have died, despite your
attempts to save [him or her]."} Experience will not accumulate as fast
in a sparring area but Non-PK'ers will not lose their 'Divine Protection',
may be able to fight a battle with a rabid PK fanatic, win handily, and
score one for the Pacifists.
There will
be no automated fight sequences. NPCs will attack according to their own
RT (Round Time). You will not be able to type 'Kill [Whatever]' one time
and lean back and watch the automated fight take place. You may change
your defensive / aggressive settings back and forth a couple times, remain
purely defensive until your opponent shows signs of tiring and then burst
into a killing frenzy and take your opponent out in a couple desperate
swings. If that doesn't work, you can go back to 'defensive' mode,
and maybe even live to talk about it.
Maybe we'll
be able to add whole new modules, trips through the space and time anomaly
to other worlds and other times.
I've been
thinking all along that it would be fun to have a road racing game and
space travel, link with 'modern' and futuristic times.
PK or
Not PK:
You will
have the opportunity to choose whether you want to be able to enter into
life and death combat with other PCs [Player's Characters]. You will
also be able to choose not to kill 'living' NPCs [Non Player Characters]
[Sometimes called 'Mobs' or 'Monsters'] {{ See Pure Pacifism }}
PK Characters will have their own Cities. They will be able to elect their
own 'Mayors' and other officials, form their own Alliances. They
can hold their own tournaments. They can mingle with the characters who
live in Non PK zones. (They just can't kill them there.) Non PK characters
can kill all the NPCs they can handle. Non PK characters can cross the
line and become PK characters ONCE. There is no way back. But anyone who
thinks he or she can train and practice in relative safety, then charge
into a gang of Veteran PKers and kick butt will probably be carried out
in a body bag. {PK kills increase accuracy and add more Hit Points than
Non-PK characters can accumulate with higher levels attained.} {So PKers
may be better at killing NPCs than 'an identical twin' born into this world
who has followed a nearly identical path through life, but killed only
NPCs or 'robots'... Even if the two have attained the same Levels of proficiency.
-Even if the the two have the same number of Hit Points... (Their Attack
Bonuses will be different.) }
Pure
Pacifism:
PCs will
have the opportunity to choose to fight only 'gonzers' {Robots manufactured
in a future time, reprogrammed to kill and sent back through 'wild random
portals' to wreak havoc on the citizens of the 'more primitive' times.}
Pure Pacifists will generate gonzers. Gonzers will always be labelled
'-gonzer'. ['a troll-gonzer strides forward and swings a giant frost hammer
at you...'] If an Elder overhears PC's taunting Pacifists for picking on
robots the Elder can (Invisible or Not) generate killer gonzers who will
attack everybody but the pacifist and hack and slash veteran gamers to
pieces, allowing the pacifist to protect or defend them (successfully or
otherwise) or just walk away and let them deal with another trip back through
the land of the dead (and possible level loss and/or stat loss and/or experience
loss).
Rewards
for Role Playing:
Extra
Character slots will be available to Players who demonstrate superior Role
Playing abilities. With those extra character slots will come the ability
to roll 'Rumoured Races'. Elders will be recruited from the ranks of the
best Role Players. If & When the game develops a 'Pay to Play' section,
the better Role Players will be able to 'win' free time. Elders will probably
be paid something to mediate, settle arguments; design and implement scenarios,
dream up new spells, new monsters; and, in general, knock themselves out
to make the Players' experiences more enjoyable.
Future
Free Play:
There
will always be areas that will be free to anybody who wants to play there,
as long as the game is 'alive' and/or I have anything to say about it.
Future
Pay to Play:
Some
time in the future there might be an area that will be open only to players
who will pay to play. Rates will be determined sometime in the future.
I don't know, maybe a '3D V.R.' version is not out of the question.
Suggestions:
Suggestions
will always be welcome. Good suggestions will be rewarded. Pains
in the butt who continually offer terrible suggestions will be tolerated
(maybe we'll have the junior Elders read all the messages from some players).
Feedback:
There
will be a feedback address for feedback and suggestions.
Manual:
Jim already
wrote a manual. We'll get it on-line and have a down-load-able version
as well as a 'help commands' command that will list all available commands
while a player is active in the world.
The Anomaly:
The Anomaly
(Sometimes referred to as the 'Aerendel Anomaly') was created by a team
of very powerful 'god-like' beings during the 'Last Wars of Magic', when
it looked like the 'Children of Light' and 'The Brotherhood' [*See Mythology]
were locked into a struggle that could, possibly, bring the existence of
the Material Universe to a 'premature' end. Shanti [*See Mythology] cried
out for help, recruited members of the Original Generation of the First
Race [*Mythology] and many of her stronger Spiritual friends. Together,
they created a small-ish Dimension which could open 'Wild Portals' into
any Physical World and could also connect with any time (within this Cycle
of Creation) (Which, in our dimension, would span several Trillion Centuries
((at least)).) Strong willed members of the First Race who knew of the
Anomaly would be able to summon, establish, and hold a portal in place
for as long as they wanted. The plan was, if the universe was brought
to the brink of premature oblivion, Shanti and her Friends would jump to
this Anomaly, open portals to any world where they knew life existed, run
around and grab as many living life forms as they could, escape back into
the Anomaly, open a portal way back near the beginning of time (in this
Cycle) and find hospitable worlds where they could nurture the innocent
lives their militant contemporaries had threatened. (They had no
idea how many people and animals they could save, but they were willing
to die trying to save as many as they could.)
You may have
noticed, the universe did not end several thousand years ago.
Nobody who
helped create the Anomaly actually forgot about it- but, in several thousand
years, most of them became distracted with one thing or other...Any one
of them who may have suffered the trauma of death and/or rebirth may be
hard pressed to remember details from a previous incarnation (especially
if they are living under the hypnotic effects of the Physical Universe).
And the Anomaly
took on a life of Her own. The Anomaly learned how to grow, how to absorb
bits and pieces of other dimensions, how to offer refuge to all sorts of
creatures in danger.
Evolution
on this planet (called 'Chiyella' by most Sprites) (and, in turn, by most
other inhabitants of the planet) took a few interesting twists and turns
when 'lower' animals wandered into a safe looking cave and wandered out
several thousand years before they were born. Most, if not all, of the
'Furry' races of Chiyella owe their accelerated sentience to the Anomaly.
[When the dedicated BBSes are up and flying you can read all about the
views held by various members of various races concerning the genesis of
themselves and other races. Ghardra, even High Ghardra and some Arch Ghardra
firmly believe that the Khatzen are a race of lesser demons who rebelled
against their keepers and fought their way back to our universe.
The Ghardra can think of no other explanation for the 'fact' that Khatzen
are 'immune' to their potent fear spells. Khatzen feel the fear, it just
effects them differently- it inspires them to fight harder to protect themselves
and their families.]
But anyway.
The Anomaly is still there. And She's still active. From the point of view
of those who believe they are aligned with 'The Light', the 'Forces of
Darkness' are continually trying to infiltrate and use the Anomaly to their
own advantage. Outbursts of activity by 'Metal Demons' (Robots Programmed
to kill, some of them with very life-like features) in times like the Chiyellan
Bronze age, may be evidence that the 'Forces of Darkness' have gained (or
will gain) at least a toehold within the Anomaly.
One curious
fact about the Anomaly is Her ability to either absorb or create buildings,
whole towns and cities, within herself. There are sections of the Anomaly
that appear to be one huge corridor in an immense castle- complete with
furnishings. In other areas of the Anomaly you could be walking down a
corridor that looks like any twentieth/twenty first century Earth institution,
even an office building- open a door and be face to face with a rampaging
dinosaur.
Many areas
of the Anomaly are completely deserted (and almost spooky, in that all
sorts of artifacts and evidence of life are all around, but there is no
one there, and may never have been anyone there). Other areas are densely
populated. Rangers, patrolling the Anomaly have stumbled upon entire communities
that may have existed within the Anomaly for thousands of years, unaware
of any other Reality beyond the strange boundaries of their small universe.
The entire
compendium of the 'Faer Kingdoms' ('Faery Land' to those of us who've never
been there) as extensive as they are, may be one small section of an ever
expanding Anomaly.
Generations
of the 'Uncorruptibles' (Faaxen Guard) have patrolled the sections of the
Anomaly (they call it 'The Corridor') which, rumours have it, can be entered
from secret rooms in sub-basements in and around Aerendel Castle.
Rolling
Characters:
The current
version of the Character Generator is the 'Long Version' with hints and
questions built in. Written between 1992 and 1994, in "C". Jim is not looking
forward to re-coding that entire routine (something like 1.2 Megs?
Of Code?). If the Hard Drive on the old 286 is dead, we're in trouble.
Each Character
rolled has 13 Stats. Each Stat has a possibility of ranging between 0 (zero)
and 99. The numbers have been converted into labels. "Pitiful, Low,
Average, Fair, Good, Great, Excellent, Superb, and Unbelievable." (The
first test rolling of a Metamorph character named "Stanley" rolled up with
an "Unbelievable" Voice. Anyone who's heard the real Stanley mess around
with his 'voices' should find that interesting.)
Stats are
rolled in the following categories:
Health (Hea),
Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex), Agility (Agi), Perception (Per), Intelligence
(Int), Wisdom (Wiz), Will (Wil), Inner Strength (I.S.), Magical Potential
(M.P.), Voice (Voi), Appearance (App), and Charisma (Cha).
A Sprite
with Unbelievable Strength would not be able to pick up and carry half
as much as Troll or a Sectoid with Unbelievable Strength.
Each stat
is important. Most Fighters need Strength to survive. But without decent
Health, all the Strength in the world will not guarantee survival. (Other
'Stats', like HP, Night Vision, Magical Resistance, Attack Bonuses, Defense
Bonuses, the rates at which characters regenerate lost Hit Points and Fatigue
Points depend (a lot) on the Stats rolled. (Ottarians develop Night Vision
if the Per stat exceeds 64 (or becomes "Excellent").) Round Times are Racial.
Certain Occupations develop the character's ability to increase his or
her RT (round time) by a fraction (which can mean the difference between
life and death).
Built into
the Character Generator are the routines to determine a Character's height,
weight, age at entering the game. Relative 'Builds' (Thin, Muscular, Puny,
Overweight, etc.) are also built in. Players can reject a character's rolled
height and choose their own (within limits). Hair colour and style, eye
colour, skin colour and texture, fur colour, wing colour and description,
and the clothing (or lack there-of) that a character will be wearing when
he or she wanders into Aerendel for the first time are also built into
the generation program(s) [five immense programs linked together]. [(Anybody
want to clean up the code?)] Hair styles, outer clothing and other personal
details can be changed from within the game.
Primary and
Secondary Occupations are also chosen during Character Generation. Not
all occupations are open to all races. (Trolls don't have a lot to choose
from in the occupation department.) If you want a Character who's Race
does not exclude Psidahrian Occupations and you want a Ranger with ESP
choose carefully. 'Psi' as a Secondary Occupation will not allow a Character
to develop really high level Psi stuff. 'Ranger' as a Secondary Occupation
might hurt your character's Attack and Defense Bonuses.
There are
9 Major Occupational Groups within the Character Generator, Most of which
have 9 specialities within them. You've got a lot of choices here. [Read
the section on Occupations, which has it's own separate page, for details.]
The only way to change a character's occupation(s) after he or she (or
it) sets foot inside Aerendel is to re-roll. (You can, however, change
a character's "Obvious Occupation" any time you want. If you want to run
your character as a 'Lady of the Night', please consider the words you
choose to describe her, please consider the players whose characters she
will be interacting with. Descriptions containing George Carlin's famous
seven words will be rejected by the software. Local 'Dis' words in your
little corner of this planet may be real effective.
The 9 Major
Occupational Groups are:
Adventurer,
Bard, Ranger, Magic User, Military, Religious, Artisan, 'Professional',
and Psidahrian.
For the full
run-down on specialities within these Groups, read the section on Occupations.
If I forgot
anything I'm sure somebody will remind me. I'll let him or her mess around
with the HTML codes to edit this later.
Geography:
Geography,
besides being pretty or depressing, will have consequences within the game.
You will not be able to find many healing herbs in an opal mine. Combat
on an extremely steep cliff side road will be difficult. Falling from a
cliff (or other high place) can be deadly. Characters will be able to drown.
Rock Trolls can't swim and don't float. (Mer can paralyze non Mer and drag
them down into the sea. If the combat flag is 'active' that non Mer could
easily die. If the combat flags (or PK flags) are off, the character, if
released by the Mer character, will remain stunned, float up to the surface
(unless the character is a Rock Troll) and live through it.
Weather:
Weather will also play a part in the game. Qaeglans should have enough
sense to stay out of the sky during a hurricane. "Sleep Dust', blown into
somebody's face, will not be very effective during a wind storm. Rain and
Ice will make the road up the cliff's face an interesting adventure. Most
of Aerendel proper has a climate I would love to live in. Ursans do not
do well in summer unless they spend most of their time lolling around in
a cool creek or swimming hole (they can go North and up into the higher
mountains) {If you ever talk us into implementing Vampires, Sunlight will
hurt. Direct sunlight may kill them.} Rock Trolls are blind in daylight.
Some spells may be more effective or less effective depending on the weather.
Lightening Spells may attract the real thing. Fog spells may burn
off quickly in daylight, may dissipate rapidly if it's windy.
Mythology
& Religion:
The 'First
Race' first populated much of the material universe eleven million years
(or more) ago. The Original members of the First Race were very highly
evolved individuals who, through Spiritual means, were able to assemble
their own bodies by using the molecules of anything around them. They experimented
with all kinds of materials and all kinds of shapes and sizes and
millions of variations on appearance. The First Race then took a part in
altering any inhabitable worlds to make them more hospitable and more likely
to sustain life. When things were ready, the Original First Race used their
Spiritual means to construct bodies for 'Younger' Spirits. Some of
the 'Second Generation' of the First Race were able to evolve rapidly,
to become nearly as powerful as the Originals. Not all of them had all
the Wisdom of the Originals. In the 'space' of several million years, younger
and younger spirits were invited into the Material Universe to enjoy life
as a member of the First Race. Gradually, almost all members of the First
Race still in the material universe resorted to sexual means of reproducing.
Members of the later generations of the First Race could not, Spiritually,
build a body for any Spirit, deserving or otherwise. {{'Adam and Eve' (on
Earth) were symbolic of the first wave of very young souls to graduate
(through reincarnation) up the food chain from the animal kingdom. }}
Sprites and
Elves (and, Possibly, Ymmps ((if you can believe anything they tell you))
)were around for a couple million years while the First Race was still
in Power.
Troubles
began when 'younger spirited' members of the First Race demanded knowledge
that they believed some of their contemporaries were withholding from them.
Polarities
evolved. Many members of the First Race believed that Evolution (on a personal,
as well as planetary basis) was the only reason that any of the three or
four* universes exist (*Material, Astral, Causal, and possibly 'Beyond')
('Beyond' may or may not be an entirely 'un-manifest' universe. Those who
have been there don't do a lot of explaining. I might listen if they told
me what goes on over there, most people wouldn't care.)
Anyway, many
of the 'Evolutionaries' began calling themselves "Children of the Light".
Some of the less highly evolved subscribed to the impression that the Children
of Light were just as worldly and ambitious as they were, and [the Children
of Light] had banded together to strengthen their own positions as well
as to increase their ability to achieve and hold on to power. A few of
these individuals banded together and formed an association that later
became "The Brotherhood".
When the
Brotherhood believed they were strong enough to make their demands and
achieve results, things got a little testy.
After a couple
million years of escalating disagreements, a few of the Brotherhood's flashier
members changed their shapes into those of Dragons and began attacking,
either members of the Children of Light, or the 'weaker creatures', which
some of the 'Children' were nurturing. When things got worse some members
of the Children of Light took on Dragon Forms (opting for lighter coloured
skin and wings) and engaged the Brotherhood in serious combat. Skirmishes
became battles. Battles led to wars. The wars became intense.
Periods of Peace became shorter and farther between. During "The
Last Wars of Magic" whole planets were blasted to bits (the Asteroid Belt?).
If you read
the section on the Anomaly you heard about Shanti, a young, but highly
evolved member of the First Race, who, along with others, refused to take
sides. She and her friends became more and more alarmed at the very real
possibility that the belligerents on both sides of the final conflict were
capable of obliterating the entire Material Universe to prove a point.
Shanti and some of her friends 'built' the Anomaly and began 'churning
the ethers' trying to call for help from the higher Universes. The last
few battles were so incredibly destructive that most of the survivors wanted
nothing more to do with any world in which such a waste of lives and environment
was possible. Many dissolved their bodies or killed themselves. A handful
stayed around to guide (or influence or manipulate) the emerging 'younger'
races.
Religion
should be the study of Reality or Truth , Ultimate Reality or Ultimate
Truth.
Religions
developed among the younger races. Some of them called members of the First
Race 'gods'. Some of their 'gods' took to that role with enthusiasm.
Religions
(or Sects) formed among many who believed their 'paths' would lead them
to Heaven (or 'Earthly' Power).
These Religions
evolved into what they are today.
Some followers
of some Religions (or Sects) believe the Founders of their Sects or Religions
are gods. Some believe their particular favourite is the only true god
and all others are pretenders. Some believe the Founders of the Various
Sects were just as apt to make mistakes as anyone else. Some believe there
is a Father (or Mother) God (with or without a beard) sitting around in
the clouds somewhere, keeping track of everything down here. This version
claims that God created everything, including the First Race, including
the Founders of the various Religious Paths.
The Short
Version:
There are
atheists in this world. Nobody has to 'Worship' anybody or anything.
Nobody has to acknowledge any form of Divinity.
There are
agnostics and dabblers. Characters can join and unjoin any Sect at any
time. (There may be benefits, not always obvious, in belonging to one Sect
or another. These benefits may be permanent or may disappear if a follower
breaks ties with the Sect. (This probably depends on the Founder, or any
Saintly and/or Powerful, practitioners or Spiritual Personalities and/or
Forces allied with the particular Sect which any particular follower may
be dissociating from.)
Active
Religious Sects:
The Path of
Magic, Founded by Chee. (Stresses intelligence and the study of Magic).
The Way of
Nature, Founded by Gi or Giya (or both) (or they may be two forms of the
same personality, one female (Giya) the other male. (Stresses the protection
and nurturing of all creatures and all of Nature.) (Followers are encouraged
to trust Nature and taught to develop their senses).
The Path to
Riches and Comfort, Founded by Koerz. (Nicknamed 'The Church of Conspicuous
Consumption') Not everyone considers this a legitimate Religion. (Stresses
the acquisition of Wealth) (May be a front for the Thieves Guild.)
The Way of
Law and Order, Founded by Darryl. (Stresses strict enforcement of the Law,
can be a bit fuzzy about what that means.) Followers are encouraged to
'beef up' and develop their muscles.
The Way to
Power and Gratification, Founded by Zar or Zarina. Zar may have been Zarina's
twin. Zar/Zarina may have been a transvestite, a shape shifter who dabbled
in being a member of both sexes, or one or more personalities whose identity
or identities have been confused over time. (Zarians believe in obtaining
Power any way they can get it. They believe in enforcing laws on 'fools
and weaklings and low-lifes' to give themselves as much advantage as they
can get. They believe in bribing, cheating and even murdering their way
around trouble.)
The Path of
Harmony and Poetic Justice, Founded by Li. Followers of this Path are drawn
to music and most forms of Art. They might not 'worship' beauty, but they
enjoy it whenever they can. (Most Followers of this path study music and
other forms of self-expression. They are not considered to be the most
practical people on the planet. But most of those you would think might
be tempted to take advantage of these 'dreamers' will think twice if they
notice a tattoo in the shape of a musical note or a musical instrument
on the forearm of anyone who might follow this path. Popular Mythology
places a lot of credibility into the concept that Li may have been The
Avatar of Good Luck. Or maybe the love of music attracts forces that 'get
even' for the musicians they believe have been wronged.)
The Path of
Hatred, Fear and Death, Founded by GaaKrell. Many do not consider GaaKrell
to be anything more than a "Stupid Ghost- Him think he can call hisself
a god and make it so." GaaKrell manifests his favours and rages in
a seemingly random fashion, rewarding small favours with lavish attention
one moment and ignoring the cries of his 'servants' the next. Most Ghardra
follow this 'Religion'.
The Way of
Peace, Love and Freedom, Founded by Shanti. (Stresses Understanding) Oddly
enough, the 'peaceniks' attract a large number of strong and dangerous
Priests, Healers and 'Questors' who dedicate their strength and talents
to protecting the weak and helpless.
The Path of
Fate, Founded by Xein. Xeinists believe that all experience is to be understood
and seem to have a lot of faith in the possibility that all paths lead
to Heaven (or Enlightenment, or Nirvana, or whatever is waiting for them).
Xeinists seem to be happier and healthier than most.
History:
Aerendel
was founded by a Highe Elf Prince (of the L'Enjellian House) and his wife.
They had led a rag-tag 'army' of refugees across two continents to get
them away from marauding armies during the Last Wars of Magic. On the way
to a 'promised land' that no one actually knew existed, they became separated
and diverted, feared their partners had been murdered, and got mixed up
with Humans. They had children with these Human, two sons, born on same
day.
They were
soon called and guided by Shanti, Who, having recently helped construct
the Anomaly was actively trying to gather and lead as many 'good' and strong
Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Rangers, Religious types and Magic Users who
had turned their backs on war to an island where they would be comparitively
safe if they were also willing to defend uncountable peace loving, nearly
defenseless people of all sizes and descriptions. After all sorts of setbacks
and side trips (and the deaths of both Human spouses) the family was re-united.
They found a lot of ships waiting to take them to a land where they could
live in peace. They reportedly followed numerous doves, dolphins, ravens
and (possibly) a flying unicorn or two to the island, where they followed
a talking bear to a cave near the top of the mountain they could see for
miles out to sea.
Shortly after
they arrived there, as a consequence of fighting in their world, their
planet's magnetic poles shifted. Their world was plunged into three days
of deadly winds, violent storms and flooding. (Incredibly high Tsunamis
washed over whole continents.) In the cave, they were safe. Shanti
came to them with the News that the Wars had ended and most members of
the First Race were either dead or leaving for greener pastures.
Shanti left
with most of the First Race, but She'd evolved enough to be able to travel
back and forth between the Causal, Astral and Physical universes and could
build herself any sort of body, any time she wanted to. (She continued
to drop in on them from time to time as they built a castle, and
were formally granted domain over their land (which was now attached to
a good sized continent, by an odd shaped, mountainous squiggle of land).
Shanti took
more than a passing interest in the L'Enjellian 'Twins'. L'Haeren (the
Fair) grew up tall, thin and Spiritual. Haemahr (the Dark) became
strong, solid and muscular. Haemahr also developed a quick temper, but
was quick to forgive and forget. And he was also quick to come to the aid
of anyone who asked for his help. L'Haeren spent a lot of time brooding
over ideas and issues of Cosmic proportion.
When the
young princes had just passed the age of responsibility, Haemahr went travelling
around their world and came back to Aerendel with tales of a Half-Ghardran
Demagogue named GaaKrell who had conquered all of one continent and half
of another and threatened to enslave half the planet within the next five
years.
Haemahr raised
an army and left to go fight GaaKrell and his legions.
Less than
three months passed before L'Haeren began having visions and dreams of
GaaKrell killing Haemahr. He called out to Shanti for guidance and She
appeared, handed him a Staff that became a crossbow of its own volition
and summoned a golden bolt whenever it sensed really bad vibes. L'Haeren
left his parents a note, hiked down the mountain to Birkenport, hired a
frigate loaded with 'privateers' and sailed off to save his brother.
When the
privateers embraced the idea that L'Haeren's presence was attracting major
league trouble, they put him ashore in the rather disreputable port town
of 'Harmony'. In Harmony, without friends or any of his gold, he was befriended
by a young woman who introduced herself as "Captain Jayzee Megrory" and
bragged that she could drink any three sailors (or five pirates) under
the table. L'Haeren did not take her up on her challenge, but woke up with
a splitting headache in the hold of a schooner hearing the screams of women
and children. He noticed there was a Khat in heavy chains and another prisoner
on the floor. He didn't realize he was in chains until he tried to run
to the aid of the screamers. The Khat roared, rattled his own chains, laughed
and managed to let L'Haeren know he admired his spirit. The other
prisoner looked up at him, winked, and finished picking the lock to the
thickest chains, the ones that kept them tethered in the hold. Sometime
before he realized that prisoner was Jayzee, she'd picked the locks to
his 'bracelets' and leg irons and similarly freed the Khat.
L'Haeren
looked around, found his staff and climbed up onto the deck of the schooner
in time to to watch his captors pitch a line of women and children (of
several races), chained together, over the side. He roared. The Khat (who
had thought there might be a little bigger advantage and getting a bit
closer before announcing their presence, roared and stood beside L'Haeren
with only his leg irons for a weapon. The pirates turned around, noted
that both their prisoners were tattooed with a dove (the mark of the emerging
Shanti 'cult') and laughed.
But when
L'Haeren swung his staff the line of women and children rose to the surface
of the sea and stood there, choking and coughing.
Upwards of
a hundred Mer emerged from the sea, climbed aboard and 'dispatched' the
pirates. (They Mer told them that Shanti had come to them in visions and
told them that a prince held captive in the hold of a schooner had the
power to grant them a homeland if they helped him save his brother.)
They made
Jayzee the Captain of their newly acquired schooner and headed for danger.
Telepaths among the Mer summoned several more ships so they didn't have
to swim for more than a couple days.
When they
reached a friendly island they put the women ad children ashore and recruited
a couple dozen more assorted adventurers.
They found
the continent they sailed to in ashes and realized it would be harder to
find food than it would be to locate any one freedom fighter on a continent
the size of Australia and Alaska combined. (The Mer asked if anyone
minded a diet of fish and sea plants.) Mer Seers conferred with L'Haeren
and thought the best plan would be to follow the (poisoned) river as far
inland as they could, assemble by night and set out to a destination that
was becoming more and more clear to everyone involved. A plateau
surrounded by the charred remains of a forest near a mountain that looked
like a fallen horse. Jayzee said she'd been to a place like that and drew
them a map (from memory). The Khat thought that several small parties might
have a better chance of getting through enemy lines to the spot where the
Seers all agreed, a climactic showdown would take place. Jayzee agreed
to lead a party that consisted of L'Haeren, the Khat they'd freed, three
Mer Marines and a couple Half Elven brothers who had lost most of their
family on this continent.
Jayzee, Half
Elven herself, led them from cover to cover (the only good cover they could
find in a land that was mostly ashes and the twisted, tortured corpses
of trees).
But then,
one morning, after a nasty rain storm had kept them inside the still standing
ruins of a stone cottage, they awoke to find her missing. They were ambushed
almost as soon as they stepped outside, lost one of the Mer and one of
the Half Elven. They guessed she'd turned them in for the bounty and headed
for the hills as quickly as possible.
They found
the enemy camp a couple days later, snuck pretty close and arrived in time
to watch several executions. (Most were prisoners, a few were soldiers
in an army made up of Ghadra, Drax, Sectoids and quite a few renegade Humans.
(One of the soldiers executed was a Troll, maybe as an example for the
half dozen Trolls towering over the rest of the army.)
L'Haeren
received a telepathic message that the ranting lunatic presiding over the
executions was the target he had to kill and felt his staff morph itself
into a crossbow, held up his hand, received the bolt from wherever it spent
most of its time, 'nocked' the bolt into place and took aim at the slight
creature of average height who was stomping around in the middle of this
spectacle, wildly waving his arms and gesturing-
Just before
L'Haeren would have let the bolt fly the Khat at his side pointed to one
of the prisoners- "Jayzee didn't betray anybody- look at her- or what's
left of her- kill her, don't give them the pleasure-"
L'Haeren
aimed at the executioner, split his head open and knocked him far enough
off target so he missed Jayzee. Several of the Mer Seers had surrounded
the camp and most of them let fly their most spectacular spells at once.
Half a dozen small parties led suicide attacks on the army, which most
of them called the 'Krim'. Most of the Humans in the camp threw off their
outer garments to reveal the uniforms of Haemahr and his Rangers. There
was just enough confusion for Haemahr to get within twenty yards of GaaKrell.
And GaaKrell was stepping backward, pushing more and more of his soldiers
at Haemahr and his men.
The bolt
came back to L'Haeren. The Khat and the remaining members of their
party looked at each other and shrugged, drew their weapons and looked
at L'Haeren.
"Get me as
close as you can-"
They fought
within thirty yards of GaaKrell. It became obvious that GaaKrell's forces
were falling apart and running from the battle. GaaKrell stood up
atop a rock and tried to scream loud enough to martial his forces.
L'Haeren took aim and shot.
The Blessed
bolt exploded on contact. So did GaaKrell. But fate had one more
surprise for them and an Arch Ghardran Mage appeared from nowhere
and hurled some kind of toxic spell on L'Haeren, a split second before
the Khat tore its head from its shoulders.
Watching
their leader explode did not have a pleasant effect on anybody who might
have chosen to, at least attempt to, stop the full scale rout that ensued.
Haemahr,
wounded, but not badly, learned that his brother was there and made his
way to L'Haeren's side as a pair of Seers announced, "This battle continues
in Hell-" and explained that L'Haeren and GaaKrell were fighting it out
in some ugly dimension and the winner would claim L'Haeren's body.
The Khat
made his way to Jayzee, asked her if her pain was great enough, did she
want to die? She'd had one eye gouged out of her head, all of her fingernails
torn out, several toes and fingers were gone, quite a few strips of her
skin had been peeled away. She shook her head and gasped, "Hell, I always
wanted to be a barmaid anyway." The Khat sought out the strongest healer
he could find, tore him away from a patient (an apprentice took over) and
told the Healer to do anything he could (under threat of extremely painful
death). Several Healers managed to keep her alive.
Haemahr rounded
up as many Healers, Priests, Priestesses, Seers and Psidahrians as he could
'commission' and kept an around the clock vigil himself on his brother.
After several weeks had passed and L'Haeren's still warm body hadn't moved
at all, Haemahr cornered as many Seers as he could and asked them how long
this could take. "Time is different where they are- It could be minutes,
it could be years." A lot of minds called out to Shanti at once. She did
materialize, long enough to explain that, if She tried to interfere in
this one, the world could be in greater danger than it had been since the
Last Wars of Magic. But she also said that she'd cheated a bit and had
been training L'Haeren for this for years, in his dreams. She also said
it would be safe to transport him back home.
When Haemahr
heard of the Mer's hopes that they could get a homeland out of this he
told them they'd always be welcome in Aerendel and told them about the
rumours of a lost city underwater somewhere near Aerendel. He also told
them they could probably lay claim to what was left of the burned out section
of the continent they were standing on. No one he'd met who had lived there
wanted to stay and rebuild. (Several Mer did remain there, petitioned many
surrounding Kingdoms, Empires, Oligarchies and Republics, and were granted
a substantial section of the continent, which they named "Freed-land".
A few went to Aerendel to check on the rumours.)
After the
Khat told Haemahr the story of Jaycee's statement that she'd always wanted
to be a barmaid, he said, "Hell, I'll give her a bar- I'll BUILD her a
bar if she wants one." (Megrory's Bar, several incarnations later,
still stands, a few steps from the docks in Birkenport.)
Haemahr and
his entourage of Healers and Priests and Mystics off all sorts, sizes and
shapes, brought L'Haeren's body back to Aerendel where Healers, Mystics
and Seers maintained a constant vigil for twenty years. There was always
a 'stout' warrior of some persuasion by the bed with a drawn weapon ready
to decapitate their hero's body if the wrong soul tried to claim it.
When L'Haeren
re-emerged, alive and quite shaken, but okay and fully able to use his
own body, there was a celebration that lasted five years.
Shanti showed
up somewhere near the end of the party, explained that the entrance to
her Anomaly was on the other side of about five feet of granite in the
lowest level of their castle's basement. She told them there was a danger
that the forces of 'Darkness' could, if they gained access to the Anomaly,
sneak whole armies back thousands of years and destroy civilizations that
would never have been, and possibly gain and 'unholy' advantage. They might
not exactly destroy all life as we knew it, but they might make a lot of
lives less than worth the bother. She asked them if they were up to the
challenge of guarding the Anomaly for her. And, when they said, "Yes" without
hesitation, asked them if they wanted near immortality to go along with
it. She taught them how to induce deep trances on themselves and told them
they could rejuvenate themselves regularly for 'quite a long long time'.
(By our nearest reckoning, that would have taken place about ten or fifteen
thousand years ago.) (Somewhere around the time that Atlantis and Lemur
faded or sank into history and then became 'Mythology'.)
The Anomaly
connects with Earth at odd times in odd spaces. It appears to be random.
There are
several thousand more years of History. But you don't want to hear about
that right now, do you?
Elders:
Each
race will have their own Elders. (Gremlin Elders may not be too awfully
interested in the welfare of anyone but themselves, but-) There can't be
an Elder for each Race on line at all times. There will be specialists
for special problems... Meetings to dream up all kinds of Quests, "Scenarios"
et cetera. There will be Elders recruited and appointed by [(oh my garsh-
am I really saying this? Me?)] the (cough, cough)
management. (Cough, gasp, choke) As I hinted
at before, if this Game ever decides to start charging anybody money to
play it, there will be Elders who will be paid something (plus free play
time) to keep the customers happy. (But not necessarily toooo happy.)
Sharpen your Role playing skills, guys and gals- There will be openings...
if I ever finish developing the darned thing. Eating, sleeping, and other
habits of questionable merit get in the way now and then.
I guess,
if I'm loony (or is that 'dedicated'?) enough to put this site together,
you may be able to realize that I have some kind of grasp of the kind of
attention to detail it takes to undertake this sort of thing. Now if I
just woke up knee deep in hundred dollars bills tomorrow, we could up and
flying in a matter of months. Should I tell you I had something like fifteen
thousand spaces (rooms?) mapped out and scripted (all with descriptions
less than 256 characters in length)? Signs and talking NPCs [MOBs]
could handle anything else. Hey- I've had training as a poet. "Say
it in as few words as you absolutely need." But then again, I was born
on Leo Tolstoy's Astrological Birthday. I can't write a grocery list in
less than 100,000 words. Do you want to know I've finished the rough
drafts of two novels set in this world? One where an young 'Earthling'
from the 21st century is kidnapped and taken through the Anomaly (unconsciously)
and left to die in a cell in a dungeon when his captors (who eat most of
their captives alive) don't like the way he smelled. An Ymmp (watching
from inside the walls of the dungeon) works furiously to pry a large stone
block (with handles on the reverse side) loose and rigs a bunch of old
human bones in a bunch of rags, drags the kid to safety, sets the bones
on fire, and introduces his new little pal to the Anomaly, teaches him
a couple spells and spends a lot of time trying to keep the young man from
accidentally burning down whole towns full of friendly natives....
BBSes:
There
will be dedicated bulletin boards if I have to buy an apple lle simulator
and run twenty year old software at 1200 BAUD to do it. The boards
should discuss tips and ideas for Role Playing various sorts of characters
in various races (And if you're not too careful we may sneak in hints that
you're dealing with human nature even if you're thinking you're a three
foot five Ymmp trying to keep his or her tail intact...)
New spells
may be hinted at in the Boards...
New skills
may be talked about.
Policies
may be attacked and defended.
Predators
may be ratted on...
Racial feuds
may be started, continued, exacerbated...
Players suffering
the death of their character, or a friend or mate of their character may
find emotional support or may hear their kid sister's epithets of "Get
a Life-" echoed at precisely the wrong time and....
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