Location of Tess' base ====================== The location of Tess' base ... Graakhalia is a big place, and their borders come close to Baratkand, although the Graakhalians avoid Baratkand due to historical incidents. The Graakhalians are frequently nomadic, and have a large amount of territory anyway. They don't have towns or even large villages. The edge of Baratkland is about where Gola keep is, or nearby. One reason the keep is there is to protect against the "humanoid menace" (plus creatures that wander out of the Plain of Fire). We decide that Tess' base would be two days from Gola Keep towards Graakhalian territory. It's out of the way enough that Sindhi won't come across it, and the Graakhalians are also unlikely to pass through there. Tess checking on his followers and Mark Sutherland ================================================== Tess has 10 followers whose primary role is investigation: the one's with that primary role have the following scores in Gather Information: 11, 10, 8, 9, 8, 8, 15 (Ratnam), 8 (Madhuri), 9 (Janilee), 16 (Mark Sutherland). An average of 10.2 There has been no signs of the former Rajah in Baratkand or Hulean agents. However, they have picked up signs of another group operating in Baratkand. This group seems to mainly be made up of young people (younger than 15 years) - these are Turia's group, who live in the palace. Over this time, some of the former Rajah's siblings have been meeting with people, probably to discuss the current Rajah. Some people think they have a better claim than Grey does, he just happens to be in power at the moment. The three siblings have all died over the last year though, of natural causes. Turia confirms that they were watching them. One drowned, one died of a heart attack, one fell off his horse. Tess is suspicious of these circumstances, but decides it is best not to investigate further. No need to air the Rajah's dirty laundry. The former Rajah has no other siblings. No one else is openly suspicious of their deaths - if the other relatives are suspicious they are keeping quiet about it. Tess puts it down to Turia keeping busy in Grey's absence. Some of the people meeting were nobles (names noted) but they (in your analysts opinion) are unlikely to do anything themselves. Tess' operatives find no sign of a Hulean spy network. They do note various people, merchants and such, trading information, but nothing out of the ordinary. i.e. They do sell information about things they see to people in other places. Tess spends one week developing another Sindhi cover, and then spends a spends a couple of weeks on the ground himself. Checking out their deadends (the nobles who had met, stuff like that) and any other possible leads. Tess doesn't find anything out that his people haven't. ** three weeks pass: 1029/01/26-1029/02/18 ** Then Tess and Mark Sutherland embark on a training and reconnaissance trip to Jalawar then Shajarkand by horseback. Tess gives Mark Sutherland some pointers and training. They travel incognito as itinerant Sindhi merchants. Rani Priya rules Jalawar. Her brother was the former Rajah of Jalawar, and had sympathized with Hule. Her brother was exiled from Jalawar, and would be killed if he returned. Rani Priya seems loyal to the Rajahirajah, athough that is difficult to tell from an outside point of view, rather than political. Rani Priya has her own issues it seems with those loyal more to her brother than to her though. Jalawar's land military capacity is about the same as Baratkand. It also has a navy - it doesn't seem very good, though Tess knows little about navies. The number of soldiers in the army seems to have been stable. Part of her army is actually engaged in fighting rebels loyal to the previous Rajah, her brother. They are having the standard difficulty in fighting the rebels - how do you tell who is who? The rebels are fairly well organized. The rebels seem to be provincial rather than urban in nature. The rebels don't seem to be able to threaten the urban areas or the overall security of the mumlyket, at least not if they are not permitted to recruit - as they have some difficulty due to patrols. It's fairly obvious to Tess and Mark that the Rani has some issues with balancing loyal and maybe not-so-loyal forces. If she sends disloyal forces to fight the rebels, they won't be very successful and might even join them. If she sends loyal forces, then she is surrounded by disloyal forces. Not so good. So Rani Priya mixes things up a bit, which seems to be working. Tess thinks that someone has to be funding the rebels and organizing them, given that they are fairly active. He will recommend that Grey consider offering Rani Priya some help with subterfuge towards the rebels (e.g. an offer to trade weapons to the rebels to find out how the money is flowing, and also insinuating some of our agents). Tess expects that as the former Rajah of Jalawar was a Hulean sympathizer, that he may have links to the former Rajah of Baratkand, thus it would be good to track down the source of Jalawar's problems. The capital of Jalawar is very commerce orientated. There are plenty of foreign merchants in town at any one time. Jalawar does not border Baratkand, and their is little opinion of Baratkand here. Those loyal to the Rani say that she would have freed them from the Hulean yoke without Rajah Kvana's (Grey's) help. ** two weeks pass in Jalawar: ~1029/02/19-1029/03/04 ** Tessarael and Mark Sutherland head on to Shajarkand. This mumlyket is also on the coast, but unlike Jalawar is not bustling with foreign merchants. It seems pretty dead actually. The only nice area is at the end of the Asanda river, with a grassy valley a few miles long. In population, it seems a fair bit bigger than Baratkand. This mumlyket borders the Atrughan clans. Publically, the Rajah of Shajarkand supports the Rajahirajah. Shajarkand does not border Baratkand, and their is little opinion of Baratkand here. Its military seems a bit bigger than the Rani's. Shajarkand seems a bit tiger mad - their standard is a snarling tiger, the uniforms are yellow and black stripes, and so forth. The number of soldiers in the army has been stable, although it recently went through a time of reorganization - shuffling of positions, some people got retired, that kind of thing. Tessarael and Mark do not spot anyone who seems to be a member of Shajarkand's competent intelligence service. Although they do find out about a mysterious building that people occasionally come in and out of, which is spoken of in hushed tones by the natives. The natives say that people that are taken in there don't come back. They say it's a tiger training place, and the Rajah trains his tigers to hunt people using criminals in there. Tess watches that building for a couple of days. There is very little traffic in or out of the building. The people who enter and leave the building do not appear to be military. Tess and Mark sneak up invisibly to the building and examine it. From the outside, they can see that the windows are tightly shuttered. Bushes have been cleared from around it, making it difficult to sneak up on it, although there are no obvious guards. There are sufficient gaps in the shutters that one could sneak inside with Gaseous Form. There are front and back doors. Tess casts Detect Magic, but does not see anything magical on the windows. Mark Sutherland does not Detect Thoughts of anyone nearby within the building. It is most probably that the building is protected from divinations, given that when Tess returns invisible the next day, there is a note at the spot where Mark and Tess were observing, which says, "The tigers are watching." Tess decides it is best not to cause political trouble, and does not investigate further. ** two weeks pass in Shajarkand: ~1029/03/05-1029/03/18 ** The travel time for the round trip to Jalawar, Shajarkand and back to Baratkand was two weeks. ** two weeks travel time: ~1029/03/19-1029/04/04 ** Tess and Mark head back to Baratkand, changing their disguises and making sure that they are not followed. Tess spends another week in Baratkand working on security network stuff. As far as Tess can tell things in Baratkand are pretty quiet. There really isn't much for Tess to do there. Of course, having a two sets of operatives (Turia's and Tess' operatives) combing the place for trouble does reduce the likelihood of problems, especially when several potential rebels happen to die. Tess had been considering setting up a school for teaching sign language. However, deafness is very uncommon in Baratkand (and presumably elsewhere in Mystara too), primarily due to magical healing being available. Tess' followers have only met a single deaf person, and Tess has never met one himself. To test the impact of having Gnollish followers working with the trade caravans, Tess disguises himself with Alter Self as a Gnoll and wanders around Baratpur briefly with Mark Sutherland. There are some tense incidents with the local populace, which Tess manages to cool by some diplomacy. However, Tess thinks other Gnolls may have some violent incidents (normal human standards of violence that is - clubs and fists, not sword fights to the death like adventurers expect). Given that, Tess decides that it is best not to have the Gnolls working on the surface. They will work only at Tess' base and the Graakhalia <-> Tess' base portion of trade routes. Tess has had his follower Vijay create a cipher for secure communications within the security network. Vijay spent a week doing this. The resulting code takes a DC 21 Decipher Script check to break. Tess has set Vijay to work creating a code which is more difficult to break. That will take Vijay about 20 weeks of work, and the Decipher Script check will be DC 31 (i.e. effectively taking 20 on the cipher). Tess limits knowledge of the cipher to Tess' investigators and analysts, to reduce the likelihood of it being compromised. It takes at least a day to break a cipher, which should reduce the chance of information falling into the wrong hands. ** one week passes in Baratkand: 1029/04/05-1029/04/11 ** Tess then spends one week working on a Shadow Elf cover. ** one week passes in Baratkand: 1029/04/12-1029/04/18 ** Checking up on Aengmoor Forest ============================== Tess heads to Aengmoor Forest and checks for troublemakers and how the attitude of people is towards the temple. Tess spends about a month checking around for trouble which may be destabilize the Shadow Elves. In that time, Tess finds out that the average Shadow Elf in Aengmoor Forest seems less devout than the average Shadow Elf underground. They are still followers of Rafiel, just less devout. Maybe only as devout as most humans. Many are uncomfortable with the open spaces and the bright light (still), and there is some dissent about how the "promised land" isn't as nice as their own caverns. Most of the dissenters have returned to the caverns though. The princess is well liked here. She has different ideas to the king (and the priests) which the more radical people here like. The unhappy and such tend to be the people who leave to settle a new area. Kanifesti, the Royal Wizard has been here occasionaly, but not that often. Aengmoor Forest still owes it's loyalty to the king, but it owes it through the princess. There is some grumbling, but nothing that indicates they are ready to rise up and do something that radical. At least, not yet. What Tess hears from this worm's eye view of politics is a bit different to what Tess has heard from Phoranin. It seems the princess and other leaders are more radical than the populace, and they are aware of that, so they don't say things which would push them too far. The Shadow Elves here are as xenophobic as normal, thinking that other races can't be trusted an inch. They are more than ready to defend themselves against attacks by the other races (where "attack" includes attacking Shadow Elven forces marching across the territory of other races). Although there has been some talk of getting alliances with some of the humans, for the short term benefits. The humans seem to be trying to be diplomatic to the Shadow Elves. Tess goes and talks to Phoranin to update her with what he has found out. She is reasonably aware of the mood, from talks with her priests who talk with the people. ** one month passes in Aengmoor Forest: 1029/04/19-1029/05/18 ** Tess visiting the Pachydermions and finding out about immortality paths ======================================================================= The Seekers mentioned the Pachydermions on the invisible moon to Tess, b����������������� �����ÿÿÿðE-ñw7Ç`������|v�� ���������� �������<ÿÿà�ÿÿü���� ��� ���€������������ÿÿþ���� ������@���������� �������������������7È���������� ����7Ç`�����€�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ÿÿÿÿÿÿ�ÿÿÿÿÿÿ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������6ø«Á������ ÿ������ÿ��������\��`�T��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������uirements." Tess spends two weeks with Phoranin. ** 1029/06/19-1029/07/04 ** Following up on the Chronosphere of Lagos ========================================= Tess teleports to Norwold to check up on Knolimer, who never got back to Tess about the Chronosphere of Lagos. It simply slipped Knolimer's mind. Tess gets the impression this happens a lot. Tess chats with Knolimer - about the Chronosphere, about Tess' time travel experiences, about how one casts a spell to travel into the future a set time, and also ask if one can do Clairvoyance type spells that look at the past a set time or scanning the past (e.g. looking at time in fastforward). Knolimer is quite interested in Tess' experiences, and makes notes. Knolimer is somewhat interested in the Chronosphere of Lagos. He isn't interested in looking for it, but would gladly examine it in detail if he was able to. Knolimer doesn't know of any arcane spells which allow time travel, although he has heard rumours of some Alphatian wizards that could do that. He never found any though, so it was probably just a rumour. Traveling forward in time is quite easy. Knolimer has heard that priests of Khoronous can look into the past, and have some limited ability to predict possible futures. But priests of Khoronous are rather rare, and they never seem to actually cast these spells for anyone, so maybe that is just a rumour too. To travel forward, you could develop a spell, but an standard way would be to use temporal stasis. However, temporal stasis requires that your surroundings and you be undisturbed - there's plenty of cataclysmic events that have occurred historically that could make a mess of that. You are invulnerable to damage while in stasis. Make sure you pick somewhere stable. The Seekers got back from hunting a monster they released, and investigated the area the creature ended up, on Mystara. They have found a young girl, encased in some solid block of crystal. In some very ancient ruins known as Jusinnia. It is an appropriately stable place. The ruins are 8,000 years old, and this vault has been stable for that time. Although the city above is long gone, being just some foundations buried under the sand. The place wasn't always a desert for that matter. There will be some quibblign over viewing the vault, but they can tell Tess that it was protected magically, including by several golems. Although some of the golems were damaged and one was destroyed, but that was probably in the initial attack 8,000 years ago rather than more recently. The girl was placed in stasis that time, during a battle. Tess will memorize a teleport location there for use in the past if necessary (e.g. if he goes back in time with the Chronosphere of Lagos). The area is presumably geologically stable, but as to what will be present at different times, it's difficult to say. The teleport location will be in the underground ruins, but these are mostly intact. There may be more ruins nearby of course. ** 4 teleports to Norwold and 4 back, 1 day in Norwold, so 9 days: 1029/07/04-1029/07/13 ** Tess talks to Roland and Safranna about borrowing some money to get a Rod of Plane Shift 1/day made so that he can start hunting down the Chronosphere of Lagos. The cost to get a Cleric to make that will be 16,200gp. Roland and Safranna: "Hmmm, I guess you are good for a loan. How much do you want? 50,000? 100,000?" Tessarael: "Oh no, that's far too much. I was thinking about just enough to get a Rod of Plane Shift 1/day made. I don't want to impose on you." Roland and Safranna: "Well, to be honest we plan to settle somehwere, and this large amount of money we intend to use when we get there. We would prefer the money be used in the meantime, as we don't yet know where we are going to settle. 100,000 won't worry us, we have plenty of money left over after that." If Tess' trade is going well (we can figure that out later) they can invest some there if they like. Plane Shift requires A small, forked metal rod. The size and metal type dictates to which plane of existence or alternate dimension the spell sends the affected creatures. Each end of the rod can be keyed to a different place. Tess gets the Rod of Plane Shift 1/day made so that one end is keyed to Mystara and the other end is keyed to the Cage. If you want to go somewhere else can you use the Rod of Plane Shift with an appropriate focus for the Plane Shift. Three weeks pass while Tess waits for the Rod of Plane Shift 1/day to be made. He will spend that time in Baratkand, working with his traders and the security network. ** 3 weeks: 1029/07/14-1029/08/06 ** Tess then uses the Rod of Plane Shift to go to the Cage to start tracking down the Chronosphere of Lagos. Tess does some hunting around in the Cage, trying to follow up ideas/leads from the info he has as to work out which gate he needs to go through. It turns out that Oier of the Middle Mind has found the Chronosphere of Lagos. Before Ogier left, he said how he wanted to go explore ancient history - something about Mystara actually. He activated it in triumph, and promptly dissappeared, and hasn't been seen since. Most people think it was all a clever ploy by a rival to get him to find an item which he would then activate himself. The item obviously being cursed. Tess will check up on Umbra while he is in the Cage. Umbra is good. She is considering moving from the cage though, as she is getting hassles from some of the other groups. They don't want the competition. They say if she is the centre of a religion, then she shouldn't be in the Cage. The Gov'ners are considering that matter, although the Lady of Pain hasn't acted on it. So currently Umbra is fighting it - she doesn't want to be moved. If she moves, it's by her own choice! The Zactars were a significant faction historically, although they had been dead for a while. The difference is that Umbra (their "object of worship") is here now. The other factions don't like having a new faction. Messes things up. They would be mostly happy if she left. It is rumored that the Formians are planning to nibble off some more of one of the other planes and make it part of Mechanus. The big question is - which one. Tess uses Plane Shift to Mystara (Darokin City) and then teleports to Baratkand. ** 2 days pass: 1029/08/07-1029/08/08 ** Getting a bonsai tree for Rafiel ================================ Thora has several bonsai trees. They are very old. That seems like a good idea, given how important trees are to Rafiel. Xeris isn't completely sure if bonsai will survive underground, but given expert care, they should be ok. They should get some sun sometimes though. A Daylight spell will suffice for some it, but the plants need real sunlight sometimes too, every few months. Thora believes that sunlight from the Sunblade (1 minute 1/day) would suffice. Thora got her bonsai tree from Ocheala. Roland and Safranna got her a book about the care of bonsai trees from there as well. Tess goes to the City of Stars and get copies of some appropriate religious tracts and religious material (to be used later). Tess then teleports to Thyatis. ** 3 days pass: 1029/08/09-1029/08/11 ** Tess can take a ship from Thyatis down to Ochalea. The journey should take less than a month. At Thyatis, Tess finds a ship which leaves straight to Ochalea. It goes from Thyatis to Raven Scarp, on the north coast of Davania, which is within teleport range. The journey from Thyatis City to Raven Scarp takes 16 days. Raven Scarp is slightly under 900 miles as the crow flies from Chung Tsu in Ochalea. ** 16 days pass: 1029/08/12-1029/08/27 ** Raven Scarp is the main city for the Thyatian colonisation effort on Davania. It contains a mixture of Thayatians, other Brun people, and the natives - some Thyatised, some not. Raven Scarp has a particularly beautiful series of natural coloured bands on the cliffside which one sees as one approaches by ship. The ship on the way there is carrying colonists and supplies, and the other ship on the way back is carrying colonists, treasures, reports, and so forth. Tess memorizes a Teleport location in Raven Scarp. The Thyatians haven't been in any more wars recently, since they lost the few they were in, although there are disturbing rumours about the Isle of dawn again - Thyatian colonists pushing up against the Thothians again. The Thaytaisn had two problems on the Isle of Dawn - they didn't fair well against the armies of skeletons and mummies, and the remants of Alphatian fleets who took up with the Thothians - the Alphatians which went with the Thyatians defected to the Thothians; and the mummy rot the Thothians put into the bread supply in Thyatis. Officially, the Thyatians won. They captured former Alphatian towns (one of which the residents had burnt to the ground and fled to Thothia before the Thyatians even arrived) and have some territory. Unofficially, the Thyatians only have territory on the other side of the Isle of Dawn from Thothia. The ship takes 12 days to get to Chung Tsu. Chung Tsu is a chinese style city. Tess can get bonsai books and plants there. Chung Tsu is slightly over 900 miles from Thyatis city. Tess memorizes a Teleport location in Chung Tsu. ** 12 days pass: 1029/08/28-1029/09/11 ** The bonsai plants are 500gp each. Tess spends 1,000gp on a healthy, old bonsai plant. Tess also spends 4,000gp on getting a high quality craftsmanship glassteel enclosure for the bonsai plant - getting some advice and an appropriate drainage and aeration system. It is intended to be simple yet durable and elegant. In Ochalea, Tess asks to be recommended some books on bonsai. He buys three books, and translates these into Shadow Elven as he travels. Tess will pick up the religious tracts in due course, and will pen the 14 verses in his own handwriting as a dedication at a start of the bonsai books. Tess decides to travel back by ship and on foot when on land, as an appropriate pilgrimmage before petitioning Rafiel, taking special care of the bonsai plant along the way (e.g. ensuring it gets sufficient sunlight during the day, and putting it in Heward's Haversack when he is hiking, to ensure that it doesn't get bumped around). ** 28 days pass: 1029/09/12-1029/10/11 ** Tess walks through Thyatis, through the duchy of Kerendas, through Karameikos, up the road towards Darokin. ** 2 weeks pass for time in Chung Tsu getting enclosure, books, and walking 1029/10/12-1029/10/25 ** Coincidentally, Tess walks right through the town Thora investigated some of those artifacts in. Tess stops to ask for information on: - the Comb of the Korrigans - an Elvish artifact. It was supposed to make the wearer the 'epitome of the elven race'. - a set of magical armor that makes the wearer immune to magical detection and hard to detect normally as well. In due course, Tess may check other sources of information on artifacts that he has reference previously: Hurrack the Sage, the Serraine Library (a tome entitled: Relics of Mystara and Other Fanciful Tales), Glantri library, and Baron Skyborn.