Lumaron

Introduction
A long time ago, in a world not so much unlike our own, there lived four heroes of renown who walked the lands vanquishing evil and righting wrongs in the name of good. This is not their story. This story is instead of five people with a common goal... platinum pieces.

This campaign, is more heavily geared toward roleplaying than combat, so it takes some getting used to, but you'd best not let your guard down, because when combat occurs, you'd best be ready for it, if you know what's good for you.

Set in the world of Lumaron, Teal'c, Bill, Drom, Vaynor, Lorithnarya, and HT each venture forward in an endless quest of adventure, risk, reward, and love. The following is pieced together from different sources, and as is said elsewhere, in some instances, literary license has been taken with the specifics of the story.

The First Session
Teal'c Hearttail, an orphaned anthropomorphic panther in his mid-twenties, was just finishing up the daily chores and expecting to have some free time with his mentor, father and friend Gelldryn Oakmyst when a strange man appeared on the edge of the thicket. Now this was not an unusual occurrence, though for some reason, this particular man seemed odd to Teal'c. He was dressed in a dark cloak and what appeared to be leather armor, from the sheen reflecting off of his leggings. This man strode towards Teal'c with some determination and our rather unwilling hero found himself staring straight into the cold hard face of an undead master.

Bill Genkins was explaining the intricacies of having business relations with gnomes to the convoy on one of their weekly trips to and from Canthrice. Bill, a scholar of nearly everything and linguist extraordinaire, had a knack for getting people to pay attention to him, though most usually, it was due to his unending speech. He quite literally never stopped talking long enough for those around him to get in a single word, even if it was pertinent. But this time, he stopped midsentence and whispered to Drom, "What was that?"

Drom looked up from his disjointed nap and listened intently, trying to ascertain the source of whatever had startled Bill so much. Drom Thronnik, a drunkard and generally unhappy man, was quite the quiet type. When he spoke, it wasn't so much have great importance, as it was just rare. His life had been troubled in the past, and it showed. His heart was cold to anyone who tried getting near him personally, and once his mind was made up on something, it rarely ever changed. Drom looked back to Bill and said, "I-i-i-t was yo-yo-yo-your... imag-i-nation."

Rindela's long ears perked up at the sound of what seemed to be an injured animal caught in a trap, or so she believed. Rindela was quite the dancer, though wits were somewhat past her. Many bandits and highwaymen along way had lost their hands, arms, heads or worse to her punishing blade when they attempted to hold the caravan hostage. With a flourish of her cape, she stood atop the boxes of the caravan's trailing wagon, upon which she was stationed and looked toward the direction from which she had heard something.

With merely a gesture of his hand, the master had cast a spell and Teal'c found himself helpless and willing to do whatever the undead wished. With a raspy voice the master spoke. "...where is the one...perhaps he is gone, animal..." The voice sounded foreign and strange, as if it was not actually a voice at all, but perhaps a rush of wind blowing through the bones of the cloaked figure.

"I'm not going to tell you... tell you where he... that he is in his study. Kathnir. stranger." Teal'c continued cursing under his breath while the stranger looked on. The stranger smirked at the ease with which he had dominated Teal'c. Perhaps the one whom he was seeking would be just as easily controlled. With another gesture, he bound Teal'c inside a creation of magical force resembling a jail cell or perhaps, as Teal'c feared, a cage.

"The tiger is caged once more, eh?" And with that, the stranger turned and began walking towards the humongous oak that stood within the center of the grove. Teal'c began gnawing and clawing at the cage within which he was held quite fast. When he found that his new "home" was quite secure, the second option for escape presented itself and he began roaring as loud as he could, in order that his master could rescue him.

"There's definitely something out there," said Bill. Rindela looked at the convoy driver and then to the other two hired guards. With a nod, she jumped off the wagon and proclaimed, "Finally, some fun on this trip." Drom and Bill both looked at each other and jumped off as well, landing less elegantly as Rindela had, but nonetheless, they traveled towards the noise.

Through the underbrush of the forests in the Elven Lands, the three trod, awaiting their brush with destiny but they no idea of the nature of what they were about to experience. Rindela had had some training and schooling in the city of Lariom, but beyond that her experiences were genuinely her own. Drom was just a simple human wishing for a simple life in which he would be happy. Bill, probably the most knowledgeable and therefore prepared of the three, was also the least likely to enjoy the prospect of the coming adventure.

When they happened across the clearing, they found Teal'c in his cage, suspended in mid-air, roaring in pain and tormented by the situation he was in. When the three came out into the thicket, they could see the light streaming from the windows high in the oak. Teal'c quickly pleaded with them to save his mentor, the druid of the grove. Upon hearing this, Rindela charged the tower with renewed vigor, with Drom close behind. Bill, an inquisitive type by nature, began inspecting the cage holding Teal'c and looking for a way to release him, but thought that perhaps the druid would have better luck than he. He asked Teal'c for the location of the door's key, and ran toward the others.

As they approached the door to the sanctum of the oak, the lights streaming from above shifted colors and Drom, half expecting a magical spell to come crashing down on him, carefully tested the door and found it to be locked. Bill produced the key from the hiding place Teal'c had pointed out and inserted it. With an audible and resonating click, the lock tumbled over and released its grip on the door, and the three marched inside.

Gelldryn was fighting a losing battle, and he could tell. With each cast of protective magics he could muster, the wraith would respond with one of his own, draining the Oakmyst druid's power. He decided that leaving a legacy would be preferable to killing the entire forest around him, so with a wonderful show of self-restraint, he gave into the necromancer's bidding, hoping to save the forest above his own life.

Teal'c was unsure of the nature of the three "rescuers" who had so blindly charged into his master's sanctum, though now he feared that they were assistants of the undead, and this infuriated him even more. He shook his cage and did everything in his power to destroy the bonds holding him inside, but to no avail. With a last burst of rage, he thrust himself against the bars, and briefly almost to his surprise, the bars flickered and he nearly fell through, but he was pulled back inside by unseen hands.

The necromancer smiled once Gelldryn finally realized his own mortality in this situation. It was not worth it to struggle, it would just make it more painful in the end. With renewed zeal, the wraith destroyed the last bonds holding the key to the forest together inside the mind of the druid. "Lord Moriard shall prevail. The world will all end in his wishes. Incorrigible druids are just a nuisance of which I shall soon dispose. You are the first, Gelldryn."

Gelldryn's face turned white as he realized the implications of the wraith's statement. If what he spoke was true, then it could mean the end of all life upon Lumaron. Lord Moriard had been sealed away in the Age of Destruction by the Creators. If the undead had found a way to release him, then perhaps the world would be on the edge of destruction once more.

During the Age of Creation, Moriard had been Jord Stonerender, a loyal knight to the Creators, the divine beings who seeded Lumaron with life. The Elves and Dwarves were the first races spawned, and Jord had found his true calling as an elven paladin serving Mor, the God of Battle. It was even the source of his new identity. Soon after he was called by Mor, he renamed himself Moriard, meaning "chosen of Mor". Soon however, even though Jord wielded incredible power from Mor, he desired more. He desired more than Mor was willing or even capable of giving him. So in an act of great desperation, Moriard performed a ritual, the first of it's kind on Lumaron, to turn himself into a lich. He reigned with terror over the inhabitants of the realm and changed rather drastically from a being who above all else desired power to something worse, more terrible.

He wanted to destroy. People, families, homes, buildings, livestock, hope, even life. All of these were "evil" entities of which he wanted no part. He reasoned that since he was denied power over everything, that it would be best to simply destroy everything over which he held no control. For 2 years, during the Age of the Creators, Moriard killed and ravaged for only one purpose. To destroy, and destroy he did. With a swift blow he could behead a fully plated knight with a flick of his sword.

The legend went, though Gelldryn was unsure, that Moriard's downfall came when he attempted to gain access to the realm of the Creators itself. He was allowed access and was quite literally never heard from again. Until now, that is. Could it be that he found a way to escape the Temple of the Creators?

With a grunt and a huff, Drom charged the necromancer and knocked him aside. With a screech that would shatter wine glasses, the wraith reeled on it's heels and began chanting a spell at the newcomer to his "party". Such an interruption would obviously not be tolerated, and the proof was about to show. Rindela came rushing towards the necromancer and was nearly on top of him, when much to Drom's surprise, she disappeared into thin air. The necromancer only laughed and started chanting once more. Drom charged towards the necromancer once more and once more, he managed to interrupt the wraith.

"...you meddle too much human..." With another chant, he quickly overcame Drom's relentless attacks and put him in such a spell that he could not possibly wish to harm the wraith. To do so would be preposterous, or so it seemed to Drom, and soon Bill. Once they were firmly in the necromancer's mental hold, he would await the return of their accomplice. When Rindela appeared, quite upset and frowning, the necromancer spoke a single word that even Drom could understand. "...hold..." Rindela dropped to her knees and her eyes began to glaze over and the three watched in horror as the necromancer finished his cruel task.

Teal'c was sure they'd been hurt or killed by the undead when he heard the crashing and sounds of battle cease. With even more fury, he assailed the bars holding him in place. With the last bit of his strength, he pounded his fists upon the bars, but still they would not relent, he would just have to hope for the best now.

The next time he would lift his head would be when the door of the tree creaked open and Drom came out carrying the limp body of Gelldryn to the forest floor. Teal'c brushed away something that had landed on his ear, and happened to glance down at the offending leaf. A leaf. It was all he needed to see to realize that Gelldryn was either dead or close to it. A leaf would never fall in spring this close to the grove.

When Gelldryn turned his head toward Teal'c location, he saw the bars and waved his hand and the three guards watched in amazement as the bars slowly turned to salt and melted away. Thunder cracked in the distance and Gelldryn called out, "Teal'c come close." Teal'c had stepped out of the salty sludge and started the fateful trek towards his mentor before anything had been said.

"Hold on, Gelldryn, I'll get the medicine potions," Teal'c said.

"Don't bother, my son. I need you now more than ever."

Teal'c looked down in dismay and fell to his knees next to his master. "What can I do?"

"Listen carefully, Teal'c Hearttail of the Hearttail clan of the Western Mountains... Your time has come to take up my post as I shall not be able to fulfill it any longer. Your will and strength are more important right now than anything else. Do not lose them or you will lose all we have built here together. The grove is as important to you now as it has been to me and you will realize that soon enough. Hold fast to what you know is right and protect this place with all your heart until someone can come for it."

He switched to a language none of them had heard before and spoke in a hoarse shout.

"Lorith kalarnis mornis loritas kunai monolyra Teal'c." With a great crackle of thunder and fierce lightning, Teal'c's eyes flashed white for an instant as he learned everything of his past and the past of Gelldryn and the grove. "My son, hold fast in the knowledge that we will meet again one day."

As the rain began to fall, the party stood and watched as Teal'c gave out a roar of despair. Gelldryn's eyes slowly rolled back in his head and he breathed his last breath.

The leaves above Teal'c's head began to turn brown and fall away. As the tears streamed more and more from Teal'c's eyes, the rain began pouring harder and which each sob, the wind would gust a bit more. It seemed that now he was bound to the grove like a vine to a tree and with new resolve, he stopped himself from crying and the winds calmed and the rains slowed to a slow drizzle.

He turned, walked to the great oak and pulled out a dagger and began carving the date into it. When he had finished, he looked at the palm of his hand and saw the same writing scoring the date into his own flesh. He put his hand over the marks in the tree and leaned upon it, wishing that he could soon see Gelldryn once more, but he knew that this was not meant to be, at least not in the near future.

The three watched this spectacle and then turned to leave, not wishing to bother the panther further. Once back at the caravan they all sat speechless and the driver asked if everything was alright. Drom said, almost prophetically, "It w-w-w-w-will b-be." In their own ways, each was mourning the loss of a druid, a man, and a father.

Teal'c retrieved an old scroll from the oak and returned to the forest floor among the falling leaves and flower petals floating on the breeze. With a heavy heart, he began reading the ancient words on the scroll and when the letters began to fade from the page, the leaves began returning to their green hue and floating back on the breeze towards the limbs from which they had recently departed. Each falter in Teal'c's voice caused the leaves to shudder in mid-air. Once the trees was back in working order, he set about the painful task of burying his mentor among the former druids of this grove. With his bare claws, he began digging into the dirt a spot near Aurellon, Gelldryn's master and mentor, a tradition older than this grove itself.

When the druid had been placed inside the grave and covered over by foliage and soil, Teal'c began the task of packing for his journey. He would have to find a new druid for the grove before the power that Gelldryn had instilled in him waned away and left the whole area barren. The elders would know what to do, but he was sure that getting to the guild would be no easy task for a panther, unless he employed some "nonstandard" methods. Perhaps for once, being an animal wouldn't be such a pain.

Little did the three adventurers and Teal'c know that their life threads were in fact intertwined and they would once again be seeing each other, but the fates could not even predict how they would meet again.

The Party Returns
The party, recently returning from their battle with a troll, found themselves in the middle of a crisis once they returned to the town of Houghton. A statue of the Heroes of Renown that had stood for ages in the center of town, was once more bustling with activity. As the party entered town from the south, the taller of the companions noticed that the statue had been sundered by some unknown force. As they ventured toward the middle of town, someone very small was also very interested in the possibilities presented by this situation.

The halfling thief had been viewing the wares of the merchants in the square for some time before the statues began to crumble. As they began their self-destruction, the little one became overwhelmed by the large crowd that soon gathered. The locals of this town had been saved during the Age of Destruction by the four heroes; a Dwarven Cleric, an Elven Wizard, a Orcish Barbarian, and a Human Bard. As the time of Houghton's destruction drew near, the four heroes stood fast to protect the innocent who lived therein.

Soon after the heroes were immortalized by a famous sculptor in stone. The likenesses were remarkable and much was to be said for the artist's work, but soon after completing his most important work he passed away.

As the heroes drew closer to the square, news traveled to them that the Heroes of Renown were in fact once again alive. The heroes were presumed dead shortly after the Age of Free Magic began, but the details were always under scrutiny. Teal'c pressed forward and managed to get a word with the old wizard before the clerics from the Temple of Kormindor took him and the other three heroes away.

"Master, what has happened?" inquired Teal'c as he knew them from Gelldryn's meetings long ago.

"Teal'c Hearttail, I imagine..." the wizard stuttered, "the sight of you is quite unusual, but I assume Gelldryn had something to do with your longevity."

A cleric interrupted, saying, "The Heroes must be taken to the Temple to receive healing!" And with that, the Heroes were pushed out of the crowd followed closely by a number of guards.

...to be continued when I'm not so sleepy...