The New Campaign - Realities

The First Reality, the Eldren

Your people, the Eldren are a tall graceful people' long-limbed and beautiful.  You are tall and slim but possess a surprising strength.  Your skin is fair and your hair tends to be light coloured.  Men do not grow facial hair and both men and women have yellow eyes with a purple iris. Heads tend to be oval shaped and the ears possess no lobes.  The Eldren are a content people who farm and raise livestock and practice the peaceful arts.  Poetry, dance and music are highly valued and help wile away the hours.  The Eldren live very much in the day and think little of the past.  They are a kind, peaceful people who rarely raise their voices in anger and always seek consensus in major decisions.  Peace reigns.

The Second Reality, the Vale

The place you live, the Vale is a deep bowl 50 km across.  It is almost perfectly circular.  Steep, impassable mountains ring the valley.  At the exact centre a deep lake sits.  The bottom of the valley slopes gently up to the base of the mountains and is covered by lush grass and some copses of trees.  A small settlement circles the lake but there are a few isolated huts where shepherds and cowherds live while watching their charges.  The Vale is lit by a gentle radiance during the day and at night stars fill the sky.  Life is good.

The Third Reality, the Children

Sixteen years ago sixteen children were born to the Eldren over the space of a year. This was unprecedented as normally one child might be born in sixteen years.  Most of the children were unremarkable but four were not.  Twelve babies were quiet, restful babies who developed like their parents and grandparents before them.  But four were restless, striving infants.  From birth they seemed plagued with intense dreams from which they would often wake crying.  Or worse, lie there with a thoughtful expression on their faces that seemed out of place on someone of their youth.  As they grew they raced and played with the other children, in itself an oddity since it had been years since there had been more than one child at a time.  But unlike the other children they never seemed content.  They were always asking questions about odd things.  They always accepted the answers they got from their elders but they often frowned at what they heard and seemed confused.  They always seemed puzzled by their surroundings.  Eventually their strange ways made the other children too uncomfortable and they were schooled separately.  But they seemed to know much that their elders didn't.  Matters of war and magic.  They asked the clan smiths to make them swords and when they were refused they begged the woodworkers to make them wooden swords.  This was reluctantly agreed to and when they were presented with them they waged play wars against each other.  At first their compatriots were drafted into the wars as well but this didn't last long as they felt too uncomfortable in their roles.  

And they knew magic!  No large spells but they could perform feats which made everyone extremely uncomfortable.  The supreme elder eventually took them aside and asked them not to perform magic in sight of the others.  She also asked them not to perform any summonings and she was surprised when they did not know what she meant.  She changed the topic and provided them with a private place they could practise their magic in.  And so they grew into tall well-formed youth.

The Fourth Reality, a Visitor

In the sixteenth year an event occurred.  All the youth who had been born the same year had gathered together for a picnic north of the village.  Everyone was relaxed and none of the four of you had been dreaming lately.  Because it had been such a beautiful morning and no pressing work waited you had begged permission to take a day of rest.  Laughing your parents had agreed and sent you off with a feast.  You had eaten your fill and lain back to rest when Affrica sat up and pointed off into the distance.  "What's that?" she asked.  You all looked where she pointed and saw three birds tumbling through the sky.  Two seemed to be attacking the third which even at this distance looked oddly formed.  One of the two attackers slammed into the odd bird and it fell from the sky.  The pair wheeled briefly over the spot where the third had landed and then, as if satisfied departed.  Bran said, "Let's go and see what it was."  You all agreed and ran over.  

When you reached the spot where the bird had fallen you saw an odd sight.  Crumpled on the ground was a large winged animal.  It wasn't a bird though as it lacked feathers and was instead covered with scales like a lizard.  Its body was the size of a sheep and it had two large wings growing out of its shoulders like a bat.  Its head was long and narrow and its mouth was full of sharp teeth.  Tabor went in for a closer look but jumped back when the creature twitched.  "It's not dead," he exclaimed.  "What should we do with it?"  Gabrielle said, "We should nurse it back to health."  You were uneasy at this utterance but nothing you had ever dreamed had contained a creature like this so you were unsure.  Despite your misgivings, the majority agreed to bring the creature back for the healer to examine.  A makeshift stretcher was arranged using the picnic blanket.  The creature, which was surprisingly heavy did not move as it was placed on the blanket.  Taking turns you returned with it to the village.  The healer looked at it, tutted and proceeded to tend its wounds.  None of you felt comfortable with the attention this creature was receiving so you stayed at the healer's house to keep an eye on it.  

The elders agreed to allow the creature to be tended but insisted on it being housed in the strong stall that was used for animals that were behaving erratically.  You all nodded at the wisdom of this and the creature was carefully moved from the healer's place to the barn with the secure stall.  All the animals that were normally housed in that barn had to be moved into another barn as none of them it seemed could stand being around the thing.  You all decided that you would take turns watching the creature throughout the night.

The Fifth Reality, a Death

That evening as one of you was keeping watch you were joined by some company.  Affrica had snuck out of her parent's house to "help" you keep watch.  Time passed in a most enjoyable manner.  The creature had been stirring a bit and had started making pathetic noises.  Affrica was all for opening the stall door to see if you could aid the beast somehow but you were insistent that the thing be left locked up until morning when the others could help.  She pouted prettily but seemed to agree.  You had left her side to go relieve yourself and was just heading back to the barn when you heard Affrica scream.  You grabbed a pitchfork and headed for the door but had to duck when something lunged at you.  Sharp talons tore into your cheek and from the ground you looked up to see a winged shape wheeling above the barn.  It uttered a loud shrieking call that seemed to mock you and flew off towards the rim.

Affrica was buried the next day.  Tricked by the wily beast and blinded by compassion and wishing only to help the thing she had opened the door to see what she could do to help it.  The creature had torn her throat out and savaged her body before fleeing into the night.  No one blamed you but yourself. 

Last updated March 11, 2011