The Great Library of Palanthas
Astinus' Office
Dominating the center of this room is a massive birch desk. Legend claims this desk has supported the thousands of volumes of history Astinus has recorded. A large pot of ink, a container of sharpened quills, and a candelabra complete the desks decorations. Small windows line the room, allowing light to trickle in and gently illuminate the entire room. A comfortable couch rests against the west wall. Tapestries hang on the walls between the windows. Shelves line the walls, filled with tomes of the more recent records of heroes and villians upon the face of Krynn.
The librarian notices you aren't reading anything... Astinus hands a private journal to an Aesthetic standing by you. You note the spine bears the word 'Eidilys' scribed in dull yellow ink. As you glance down at the page you read..
From the pages of Eidilys's book..
Author: Eidilys Date: Sat Jul 27 10:09:05 2024 Subject Begin at the End, Pt. 1
"Why do we have to leave," asked the elven girl. "Because, little Eidilys, the humans from the north and settled elves from the mainland have encroached on our land too much for us to survive. There is not enough food," answered her mother. Eidilys frowned, "Then why are we going east across the sea to where they live?" Her mother mussed the girl's yellow hair, "There are now more wild places there than here. We will live as ourselves right under their noses." And so the small group of Kagonesti left Ergoth, migrating to southwestern Ansalon. They moved seasonally, staying high in the mountains in the warmer months and in the deeper lowland forests in the colder ones. They mostly escaped notice, even from the settled elves who lived nearby. They were perceived as legends or ghosts. As Eidylis grew up, she learned the ways of her people, how to survive without attracting attention. As the years passed, like many migrant children, she remembered less and less of the land her birth on Ergoth, recalling it instead with an air of myth and tales. As an adolescent, Eidilys did her part increasingly on her own. Harsh realities of nomadic life had dwindled the group's numbers. She observed the settled people that came and went without noticing her: humans, dwarves, other elves. They were not so bad as her family had felt, only seeking to survive in their own way. In this way, the little group discovered links to other Kagonesti in the area, some living nomadically as they did, some living with the settled peoples in the towns.
When war came, Eidylis did her part in protecting her kin, as well as the helping the settled people in the area without their knowledge. She soon began to cooperate with others of the same mind, whether human, elf, dwarf, or otherwise. These allies were few enough, though. The marauding raiders came in too great numbers. She eventually met a wandering kender, who was seeking the tales of the legends and ghosts that waylaid the more malevolent creatures. He had told Eidilys many stories that were beyond credulity, but one stuck with her. It told of a time when all elves formed an alliance against destruction, and that some of them rode gryphons through the sky. Eidilys asked a few of her elven contacts about this story. The first two didn't want to speak of it. However, the last had relented and said that such a group had indeed functioned, but that no one had seen any sign of them for years and years, and what had become of them was unknown. Eidilys kept wondering, but no one knew any more.
She asked many more contacts about rumors of elves and gryphons allying together, but got either silence or denial that they existed anymore. The residents of southwest Ansalon--people and animal alike--were loosing ground to the dragonarmies. Killing, enslavement, and destruction of habitat were expanding without enough resistance. Eidilys did what she could, but one short elf had her limits. After chasing off a goblin from a pour farmer's sheep, a wolf stared at her from the edge of the pasture's surrounding trees. Not at the sheep, at her. She watched the wolf in return, then turned away to leave. The wolf growled. "What do you want?" Eidilys asked the wolf. The wolf trotted away into the trees for a few yards, then looked back at the elf. "All right then, be that way," she said, and turned away again. But the wolf growled once more. Eidilys looked back at the wolf, who repeated the motion of taking a few steps further into the trees. She consider for a moment, then asked, "Do you want me to follow you?" The wolf just stared. Uncertain, Eidilys made two cautious strides toward the wolf, who turned and walked into the forest, looked back occasionally to make sure that she was coming. This strange procession continued for about ten minutes before she began to hear shouts and screams, the animal leading her directly to the sound. The wolf stopped a minute later and looked at Eidilys, as if presenting the scene before before her. A small child was struggling against to human dragonarmy soldiers. Eidilys charged silently at the two, who exchanged a few sword swings before letting the child go and running off. The child said a quick "thank you" to her and scampered off in the opposite direction, where Eidilys knew lay a small village. The wolf was nowhere to be found. This phenomenon happened again and again in the next few months. A mouse led Eidilys to a farmhouse attacked by goblins. A deer led her to a family of refugees chased by a bandit. A snake led her to a kender overmatched by a group of dragonarmy soldiers. When she was a bit farther north than she usually roamed, it happened again. A noisy and insistent raven led her for hours in forests completely new to Eidilys. At dusk, a solitary white shape rose from the trees as the raven suddenly flew off. The wraith turned its head toward her and spoke, "We have been watching you, little elf. To begin what has ended is difficult. Your capabilities must be examined." Eidilys opened her mouth to ask what the ghost meant, when her question was silently answered. A dozen shimmering, translucent figures appeared and raised their weapons at her. She knew immediately that neither flight nor taking them all at once were real choices, tactics were called for. She retreated an ran for cover. She wondered whether hiding from ghosts was possible, but she'd find out. Creeping through the underbrush as quietly as she could, she found the ghosts broke formation and began hunting her. Moving fast from behind a tree. She managed to land a strike on a ghost, and her sword went harmlessly through it. Before she recovered from the shock, the ghost faced her and bowed low. Then it vanished, but the rest sighted her and advanced in a rush. Eidilys retreated and ran again, but took much longer to achieve cover again. The fight continued in this fashion--stalk, attack, retreat--for hours. Eidilys, however, began to tire. When the ninth ghost bowed to her, she knew she could not run again. Time for a different approach. Out of the remaining ghosts, the two closest raced to her from opposite directions, beginning their swings as they rushed her. Eidilys forced herself to wait until the right time, then twirled out of the way the last moment. One ghost's attack hit the other, who bowed and vanished.
This time, the elf stood her ground and somehow parried the ghost's blade. Parry after parry was made without Eidilys getting the chance to attack. The last ghost caught up and joined the fight, forcing her to fight both simultaneously as her energy flagged. The two ghosts forced her back and back again. She managed to block both blades together and pushed both attacking arms away. With the last of her strength, Eidilys swung a wide arc grazing both ghosts. She collapsed on all fours in a patch of ivy, while the ghosts bowed and vanished. While the elf knelt on ground exhausted, the wraith approached and regarded her. She could see now that he had the features of an elf. He looked down at her, "You need improvement, wild one." He raised a hand, and Eidilys thought that this was the end. Instead, the wraith bowed elaborately. Vanishing as the sun rose, he whispered, "Follow the first to begin at the end." The elf was left alone in the forest morning.
Puzzled Eidilys went back to her normal pattern of resisting the advance of the war, with no more animals leading her anywhere. Weeks passed. The strange--and creepy--episode of her "examination" fighting the dead ran through her mind repeatedly. Obviously, she came up short somehow, but she didn't know for what she had been tested. And what did, "Follow the first to begin at the end," mean? One summer evening, she stalked a trio of dragonarmy soldiers who were in turn hunting something else, what, she didn't know. After an hour of winding around, they backtracked, straight-lining for destination she didn't know. After twenty minutes, the soldiers stopped at low hillock. Stooping at a brush-covered hole, they lifted out four wolf pups. They must have been tracking the mother to make sure that she was absent. Eidilys snuck into position, then jumped the soldiers, killing one quickly. The other two recovered, and turned on her, but she dispatched one, and the last turned and fled to the east. Fatigued after the effort and burying the corpses, the elf sat to rest while the pups tackled and wrestled each other. Eidilys looked up to find a grown wolf running into the area. The pups immediately ran to the older one, obviously the mother, who dropped a small animal that the pups devoured. The wolf mother regarded the little elf instensely. Eidilys regarded her back, then averted her gaze to respect the wolf's authority with her pups. The wolf didn't growl or give any indication that the elf should leave. Recovering her energy, Eidilys noticed that the wolf looked familiar. Could this be? Could she be the same wolf that had led the elf to the child long ago, the wolf whose insistence had had eventually led to the trial with the ghosts? She considered that for a long while. After the pups were fed and sleepy, the mother pushed them tripping over each other back into the den. With dusk settling, Eidilys stood and turned to leave, when the mother wolf returned and growled at her. Not angrily, just sending a message. The elf stood very still, while the wolf began walking up the hill. Again, the wolf looked back at Eidilys, who dutifully followed. I have the energy to hike but not to fight, the elf thought. The wolf stopped at the top of the hillock and waited, then gazed westward when Eidilys caught up. Before her were more hills surrounding a shimmering, moonlit inlet and the sea beyond. The wolf looked alternately at the elf and the inlet. Eidilys looked closer, and saw an empty boat on the shore. The wolf stared at her intensely. "What?" Eidilys asked. Then she remembered, "Follow the first to begin at the end." This was the same wolf! "Is that for me?" the elf asked. The wolf responded by sitting and sniffing the air, apparently contented. Eidilys walked down to the boat. It had Elvish script carved on it, but in a language she didn't know, and looked very old. She stepped into the beached vessel to examine it more closely. There were holes in bottom, and no oars. What was she supposed to do with this? She looked back up at the dark silhouette of wolf on the hilltop, who threw her head back and howled. The boat started moving. Eidilys startled, but had done nothing. The boat unbeached itself and floated into the inlet. The holes were still plainly there, but didn't let any water through. The boat propelled itself out of the inlet and westward across the sea. Eidilys looked back at the hillock, and the wolf was gone.
The boat steadily picked up speed, with Eidilys gripping the sides white-knuckled. An unseen force drove the sail-less, oarless vessel through the waves across the western sea at an unnatural velocity. The holes in boat's bottom let in no water, and old craft remained light in the water. Hours later, she shot through strait, with land she knew and didn't know to her side. North was Ergoth, the home of her early life. She didn't remember specific details herself from so long ago, but she knew features of the land from the stories of the elders in her community. She saw the southern plains, Thunder Bay, and the mountains and forests of her ancestry in the distance. The moons' light made them visible, but the island was dark. Eidilys felt something was wrong. She indeed felt a longing to go ashore and see her people's ancient home, but she also had the feeling that all was not well there. In any case, the boat had another destination in mind, and soon Ergoth was left behind. The boat entered the open sea, and Eidilys lost her bearings. For hours more, the decayed boat raced at incredible speed through the waves. The wave crests had long since soaked her thoroughly. The moons set and left her in the dark. With a faint glow in the east, a dark shape grew in size ahead. Jagged silhouettes indicated rocks or trees. The darkness grew around her, telling the elf that she was in a small bay or harbor. The boat slowed down as the sky lightened, showing a circle of water with trees on steep banks on all sides but one. A sharp crack issued from the boat's timbers. A visible split extended from one of strange holes to another. Underneath Eidilys, the old boat broke up into three pieces two hundred yards from the banks. As the elf swam to the shore, the sun peaked through the gap behind. The elf crawled up out of the water, stranded she knew not where.
After taking care of the essentials--bearings, shelter, rest, and water--Eidilys tried to think. Why was she here, wherever here was? There was a reason, that was clear, but what? And how was she going to return with the strange boat gone? Not much time passed before she heard distinctly unsettling noises. Far off, but not far enough not to be wary, sounded the deep-pitched cries of creatures, somewhere between a screech and a roar. The elf didn't know the source, but it sounded very large and probably hungry. Not wanting to disregard the possibility of other people in this place--she assumed it was an island--the elf carefully made her way inland uphill. There were steep, forested mountains in the distance, maybe she could survey her surroundings from there. As she climbed, she felt strange at the quiet around her in the clear absence of people, at least on this part of the island. It wasn't that life wasn't there, plenty of evidence existed for it. Rather the wildlife seemed to be holding their breath, exercising more stealth then seemed normal. Higher up, the lush vegetation cleared in a brown lifeless area about fifty yards wide. In the middle was the bare skeleton of an enormous animal, what kind she didn't know, but dead for years. No plants grew around it, an odd thing for a place of decomposition. By the following morning, Eidilys could see the highest point of the island, and the large, hungry sounds were getting louder. When she got closer hours later, she could see large shapes moving there. The elf slowed down to increase her stealth, taking the apparent advice of the wildlife. She climbed a tree when within sight to observe the less densely vegetated area. Walking, sleeping, and flying were giant creatures, half eagle and half big cat. Gryphons! A glint of sunlight near her made Eidilys turn her head. Perched on the next branch was a smaller gryphon not five feet away. Their plummage blended in with the tree, she hadn't even noticed. The gryphon opened its beak, uttered the loud hungry screech-roar, and snapped at her. Eidilys fell out of the tree with a thump.
Eidilys was bruised but otherwise unharmed from falling out of the tree, her landing, however, attracted every gryphon eye in the area. The smaller gryphon from tree--a juvenile perhaps--landed to her side. A clack sounded behind her, a much larger adult gryphon was crouched, snapping their beak at the elf. Eidilys was quickly ready to move, but hesitated. She retreated slowly from the adult, backing into the middle of many avian gazes. There were at least twenty gryphons here, eyeing her with...curiosity? The elf began to notice other things as well. The space contained piles of debris, tents, cooking equipment, an intricately carved chair, now broken, all the evidence of a camp. Under one pile, peeked the corner of a book. Bones were also abundant, the gryphons looked well fed. Eidilys slowly backed out of the area, grabbing the book on her way, with every eye watching her every move. A few gryphons followed her. Stealth would not serve her here. Once she had crossed beyond the other side, she paused. Most of the creatures had stayed in the ruined camp, but three stayed with her settling down and staring at her. They didn't seem hostile, just not wanting to let her out of their sight. Keeping one eye on them, Eidilys examine the book. It was a notebook, torn and faded. The language was Elvish, but not a form she knew well. From her own native language, she could make out the gist, and the first word was clear enough, "Windrider." From what she could understand about wildrunners, gryphon training, who bonded with which animal, and fighting tactics, this had been been a base for the legends she had sought. But something had ended those efforts. She remembered the wraith's final words, "Follow the first to begin at the end." She had followed the wolf, who had led her here. Was reestablishing this bond with the gryphons the answer? Could she do this?
She spent the next month letting the gryphons grow accustomed to her. She got to know their personalities, but progress was slow. They were curious, but distrustful. And the end of the elves who had been here was a mystery. One day in late summer, a quite different roar was heard, this one unmistakable. The gryphons all took shelter under the trees. Eidilys' keen eyes could see through the tree canopy that the dragon would be overhead any moment. The gryphons had reached cover, all save two hatchlings who were wrestling in the middle of a clearing. Their mother was screeching at them. Eidilys couldn't fight a dragon, but she could use her skills otherwise. The elf knew that if the mother broke cover to protect the hatchlings, the dragon would see them. Eidilys sprinted across the clearing, grabbed the little gryphons in mid-stride, and slid with the two wiggling creatures under a leafy shrub an instant before the dragon appeared above. She locked eyes with the gryphon mother, understanding passing between them. The dragon circled low over the mountaintop for an hour. Its scales were black, and suddenly things made sense to Eidilys. The enormous skeleton downslope, maybe a dominant gryphon, had been killed by the dragon's acid, poisoning the soil around it. The elves maybe perished or were forced to flee. Finally the dragon passed flew north across the sea out of sight. The elf released the hatchlings and stepped out into the clearing. The gryphon mother appeared to scold her little ones, then flew over and landed with flourish in front of the elf. After a tense moment of glaring, the big gryphon nuzzled her hair. "Maybe I can do this," Eidilys said.
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He states simply 'You might start with that one.. or you could take a look at the latest story..'
The Latest Entry
Through the Fog, Pt. 2 by Ralas, posted on Wed Sep 18 20:45:23 2024.
Though he did acquire basic survival skills and some ability with healing, the elders still viewed him with concern. Ra(read more)....
The Storytellers of Ansalon, The DragonLance MUD
Astinus points to the massive wall of books behind him and bids you to make a selection.
Authors: All|A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
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