Teresyum Herald - Issue VII

Faction Experimentation

Avallonis

   An immense sphere of polished white granite, two miles in diameter, hangs in the sky.

   Bright, like a third sun in the sky, it casts no shadow.

   Passing through the top half of the outer shell, you see a flat open plane with a bustling granite metropolis, covered in a lush garden of vegetation, heavy with fruit and vegetables.

   You look back to the stone shell, but see only an open, bright blue sky. You notice giant owls flying above the city, with people on their backs.

   In the very center of the metropolis, you notice a grand, towering cathedral, surrounded with a beautiful garden. Like the rest of the city; the building is made of a seamless white granite that pierces up out of the ground.

   Below the metropolis, in the lower half of the sphere, there are many interlocking tunnels.

   High-speed animated carriages speed through the tunnels, carrying people where they need to go. Other tunnels carry water, and other utilities, to all the buildings of the city above.

   Deeper still, you see pockets of air in the stone. Storage spaces for things that should not see the light of day.

Snakes and Demons

   Rumors… But are they just that?

   The Freeholms has been a very unstable place. First the war of Ice, and the 2 nephew kings, falling in combat against the ever growing Hagar Björnmantel.

   But now… Something dark looms over the snowy landscape of the Freeholms..

   A dark figure of a demonoid creature observes the western Freeholms, settling inside a deep valley within the mainland of the Freeholms.

   Legions upon legions of demons have been talked about, marching through the terrain, trying to reach this shadow. They leave no eye witnesses.

   There have been much speculation of what they are doing or what they will do. But the crazy thing is, is that they’ve not made a single move yet to invade any cities.

   A few villages in their path have been burned to the ground, and no survivors were left.

   The most common thought is that they ventured into the abandoned castle of Stoneheart. A keep long forgotten by the Freeholmians themselves. Nothing has been heard from the village Windshire, which was located close to this keep.

   What the plans of this forsaken army are, no one can be sure of. But whenever you get close to where they’re expected to be, you quickly feel like something is… looming.
   Something very.. very dark. You feel shivers down your entire spine, and you could almost feel the air itself… Choking you.

   No one has dared to venture into that valley, and maybe that's a good thing, for that some things are best to be kept hidden from this world….

   People claim the less knowledge you have, the less you have to worry about. And in this situation this is very true… Until they… Strike.

Adventurer's Confessions

Champions… But not I?

   I might have to start paying the wizard Reader a commission, as once again he took the time to sit down with me and tell of a thrilling and terrifying adventure into the unknown.

   “The guild has been investigating strange monuments that have appeared from nowhere. Magical structures that have little known about them but the information adventurers have gathered manually. What they all have in common is that they seem to be magical in origin, and all seem to be some kind of test. I was called, once again, to investigate one of these monuments in an effort to gain information about them. Along with others, of course.

   Accompanying myself were Leta, a cunning wizard; Ursa, a ravenous Barbarian; Memnarch, a crafty Artificer; and Sanguinius… a brute. With our party set, we met with the leader of the operation, who discussed with us our objective. We were to go to Belafora, the Isle of Giants.

   We make our way to the island via air ship. We step off and make our way to the main city. At our arrival we find out that what we are looking for guarded, on display, and the reward of a competition in strength. Sanguinius, the brute he is, takes lead, finds us a suitable ally, and makes way for the arena. The fight was three versus three. Our team was victorious and we were allowed entry into the monument… after we figured out the locking mechanism.

   We finally made our way to our objective. The monument floor. It seemed like nothing at first, but after investigating, we found phrases that spoke of the final task of some group of giants being to protect the island. After reading the phrases… several times… 3 of our party members say they were challenged telepathically. They accepted.

   Three giant stone creatures formed. Two large, and one colossal. They battle begun. It was a treacherous battle. Clashing and pounding of stone rattled our ears. The crack of lightning and electricity through the air boomed in the large cave. Explosions shook the very rock. In the end, however, the creatures fell before us. Though… despite all of our efforts, only three of us were named champion. And they were rewarded despite the help of the entire party. We made our way back, for a reward we ‘all’ could partake in, and to rest. We were not done.

   No… This was only the beginning… and the worst was yet to come…”

- written by Kenneth Oberon

Not Every Day You See a New World

   Not long ago I was approached by a kenku named Bandaid, who seemed to have something to say to me. However, her being a kenku, she was unable to engage in effective verbal communication. However, she was quite capable of writing her thoughts down, and once I translated them from Abyssal, I was amazed by what they told me.

   "Some days you get to go slay crocodiles infesting a small village by the river, others you get to investigate strange rumors that are much less than true. But some days...A miniature yacht pulled by two robotic horses rolls up to the Tavern, calls out your name, and says to come inside for a journey.
   That's how it all started. I was brought amongst four others called by name to join a resort of some kind, and it all started with sitting in that small boat and putting on a headset. One by one we were put to sleep, and awoke in a new place, an ocean behind us and a tower in front of us. Our tour guide, as it were, told us to pick our classes, and to allocate some kind of stats. This did not bode well, and some of us requested to leave. He informed us that we had to convince five other people to enter the game in order to gain but a week of free time in the real world. We were prisoners. As a 'Trial Period' he said we had to make it to the fifth floor, and there would be a temporary exit for us. Most of our party members were unhappy with this situation, but in the end we decided our best bet was to go into that tower.

   Within the first floor was an adventurer's greatest enemy: Puzzles. Doors that sent you to different doors in the same room, others that had passwords. I kept track of and broke down each door's path, and was fairly close to solving it too while my companions fumbled around in the dark. That is until Oozkar activated a cheat code. A massive looming figure arrived, informing us of having cheated in the game. Everyone continued to cheat and utilized these cheats to defeat this 'Game Master' that had arrived. What happened next was as though I'd been transported to a place far, far crazier than Teresyum.

   We used the newfound cheating powers to break out of the game, escaping through the top of the tower. We awoke, bound and gagged in a prison room. The place that the proprietors of this place claimed was where all cheaters are brought. Our slime friend broke us out one by one and we went to collect our equipment. We then saw the resort...Four massive complexes, hundreds of thousands of 'players' in this game, some outside in the resort itself, some still within the game. One of our companions used some kind of charm to convince the manager of our complex to let us free, but time was wasted in the resort looking at the various shops. Others contemplated going back in to free the other inhabitants, but many would go on to argue that this was a guild problem, and one that needed solving on a greater scale than five people.”

- written by Kenneth Oberon