Teresyum Herald - Issue VIII
War of the Thorns
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and I fear no evil because I’m blind to it all. To the night sky and the sharpness of each sword I lay my loyalty as I can’t walk on the path of the right, ‘cause I’m wrong.
With the month of Dragon I walk through life ahead and I expect foes stronger, far stronger than I have ever seen.
Flames, the month of endless battlefields and rivers of blood that I cross in my track through sorrow.
Giants fear not the steel of my blade or the power of written words.
In the month of Flowers I wonder what bewitching beauties shall my eyes fall upon in undiscovered kingdoms.
Mercy will follow me all the days of my life and in Harvest I shall reap what I sow and my soul in tatters forevermore.
The Summoning shall restore my soul to the fields of glory.
For Snow shall cover my years of torment though thorns remain sharp.
Shadow over all and the war that brought them among us.
piece of text discovered in an old charred notebook “War of thorns”
Adventurer's Confessions
The Avatar
My good friend Reader has yet another tale to tell, this one of an attempt to make sense of another adventurer’s writings. As always, his story was gripping and well crafted.
“Simple issues are capable of becoming grander, more expansive lines of trials, tribulations, and lessons quite easily. It is especially so when you are an adventurer. A walk down the street, in an instant, can turn into a force to take down a criminal gang in the right circumstances. It is the job of the adventurer to help the people, so this is what we’ve come to live with. This is one of those instances. Just another day in the life of an adventurer…
I was researching elementals. My leads were shrinking in number and I was beginning to lose hope that there was any information to be found on elementals that is documented publicly. However, I did manage to find the diary of an ex-adventurer. That is where the leads became greater, as it was the key to the exact thing I needed.
The diary, after some deciphering, led me to a young individual named Timmy. He was referred to as Little Timmy, for some reason. After a bit of searching, and interesting interactions with them, he agreed to let me go on some mission to some location that may give me some information on elementals. Of course, I accepted.
The next day, I was to meet with one of my acquaintances and delve into this… dungeon… It was interesting and it had to do with the four elements. At first, there was an infinitely long staircase. A staircase that only showed the true path when the four elements; fire, air, earth, and water, were combined. It took us two hours to realize this. After experimentation with several spells, we were able to unify the four elements, turning them into gems, and gain entry to the next section.
In here, there were four symbols on the wall. Each representing the four elements. An upside-down triangle, a tree with a broken branch, a half-sun, and an octopus. After more experimentation with the symbols, they came to life, pulling themselves off of the very wall, turning into incarnations of the elements they symbolized. Wind, earth, fire, and water respectively. They came to life and were hostile to the other elements. In the center of the room, there was a pedestal that made mention of some other world consisting of elementals. Gathering the four creatures there made way for the final puzzle. A massive expansion of water stood before us. It was like we were in a glass tube in the middle of an ocean, but there was nothing holding back the wall of water. After some experimentation, we found that there were pillars of earth and fire off in the distance. After taking control of all the elements again with magic, I managed to absorb all of each of the elements, turning into some kind of avatar of all the four elements. I felt as though I was pure power and energy, but the most at peace I’d ever been, as if everything was natural. Then I fell…
I opened my eyes to a grove, forest like area with a path leading to a pedestal. There were flowers everywhere, each had some grand piece of gear. A sword. A shield. A hammer. A wand. More… It seems as though it was a garden of very large flowers and each flower had a piece of adventurer’s treasure in it. The room was filled with massive amounts of currency pilling over in chests and piles. The pedestal, at the end of the path, was what held what I was truly after. Upon reading it, it wasn’t very intelligible, but the information was planted in my mind of a location that seems it would hold elementals. There was much more I could have gained from this room. However, it turns out that these things belonged to Timmy, and were not to be touched, I was warned. I complied, heading over to a pedestal, where we started in this room, that had a knob on it. We twisted it and we were being lifted…
We lifted past the room with the elementals in it. It was empty, save for the alter in which they elementals gathered. We then reached the stairs in which we’d come from. We walked up. And as simply as we started, we returned. It seems that in this location, we were some sort of copy of ourselves, while our bodies stayed. I was not aware of this until this point. We stepped back into our “original” bodies, having completed our objective. Timmy is an interesting character, shrouded in mystery and an interesting history. Whatever his past, he’d assisted greatly in my endeavor.”
- written by Kenneth Oberon
Mighty Mino
Minotaur handed me a piece of paper. I am unsure if this is a fanfiction or not...
IT IS I, MINOTAUR GREAT!!
Don't worry, I AM HERE! Here to keep you up to date on my legendary training regime! Once again! Today I will bench press logs, stockpiling on more logs INCREMENTALLY!
[don't tell my tree friend, please…] the mask is sweating
Minotaur Great starts with two very large logs
One... Two... Three
The log pile increases
Twenty-one… Twenty-Two
The log pile is so numerous you cannot see Minotaur Great
Fifty-four… Fifty-five…
The pile becomes so numerous it has in fact been built into a fully furnished log cabin…
One Hundred… One hundred and One…
A family of four has now taken residence in the log cabin as a holiday home for the summer. One has eaten far too much turkey, which might go a way to explain why they are rarely seen in Teresyum.
One thousand and five…. One thousand and six…
It appears the log cabin is now a permanent abode, and they have had four more kids on each branch of the family tree each.
Two thousand and seven… Two thousand and eight…
Oh no, it appears the turkey eater and her circular turkey children has invested in a trampoline…
GAAAH!
Hang in there, Minotaur Great. Break Thine Limits.
Adventure
I received a visit recently from my good friend Wilhelm, who has once again gotten himself involved in a thrilling adventure.
“So me and my party went to this town to solve a magical problem they had. There was a magical dome of shadow that covered the village. Our contact that met us outside the village told us that all the men were working in the mines and were kept there unless they had to reproduce. We went into the town and the first person that sees us, a young firbolg girl, ran away in shock and probably rang a bell. After that, everyone went into their houses to hide.”
“We explored the town a bit coming across a book in the middle of the town. When one of our party members approached it the book attacked with a shadowy tendril. Assuming it was magic I dispelled it after a failed try. We managed to catch a couple words written in it before the text also disappeared. Either way, we met with our contact again and he led us to the entrance of the mine the men were working in. When we saw the men, they were deathly afraid of us, thinking that we were a part of this thing called ‘Reapers’.”
“So we continued to investigate the area, eventually coming across these trio of elves that attacked us. We managed to kill two and capture one. After interrogating the one left alive, we learned that they were from an organization similar to the adventurers guild. After learning all we could from the elf, we let him go and went to investigate the mines further. Eventually we came across a group of hags, 3 of them to be precise. We of course killed the hags but unfortunately couldn't solve the problem of the town. However we still accomplished our goal of freeing the town of the tyranny of the hags.”
- written by Kenneth Oberon
Sunken Treasure
This story was told to me by one Zygith. If I had to describe the man in a word, that word would be neutral, or perhaps balanced. Everything about the man from the way he carried himself to the manner in which he spoke was even, level, still. Nonetheless, like other adventurers, he had many tales of danger and excitement to share.
“Today we went on a grand adventure exploring Sivania. We were looking for something to do when we found a man who offered us a job. Supposedly there was a pirate who went out into the ocean and buried his treasure in an underwater cave. We were all intrigued by this so we decided to go and explore this for some adventure. Our whole party ventured down into the water and after a few minutes we found a cave in the water which seemed to get smaller and smaller. We ventured into it with me leading the party. Eventually we reached a spot where we had to go one by one, and as soon as we passed this spot, I got grabbed and pulled off the ground, being stranded in the air because of a Roper who grabbed me and was on the ceiling. No one in our party was able to do anything because of it being so high up in the sky but I had an idea to have Vorgons launch me towards it. Sadly we missed it but while in the air I was able to stab my spear into the the wall. I ran off it and jumped to the roper, grabbed onto it, then stunned it. This caused it to fall to the ground, dealing massive damage to it. Right after it fell, Bagel came stampeding over it with their giant cricket killing it. After that encounter we ventured further into the cave and eventually found the man and his treasure, as well as many interesting things with him. Our party then went back into the city to take a rest after this grand adventure. That is where we end our story, but it was a fantastic one, was it not?”
- written by Kenneth Oberon
From the journal of Della the Bard:
It has become increasingly difficult to remember. I don’t mean the big stuff, (I do not believe I will forget the giant pink crocodiles in a hurry) but I mean the “day to day” stuff. The little things. The human things.
What did I have for breakfast today? Have I even eaten? What did I do yesterday? Did I really not leave my room all day? No, I must have…right? But I could be thinking of the same day last week…It’s a blur. I cannot track a little things. I must confess, my mind is a mess. It has been since the war. I have to remember that rhyme. I am a bard after all…
I joined with a party to travel to Platiak. I remember that name- it was on the announcement the nice stuttering man brought him. It was a quaint little town. Hated adventurers for some reason. We could not really find the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak, but still absolutely banned adventurers. We were downright illegals, trying to be heroes within those walls. I am not confident I can recall who I traveled with…
There was Q. She is a peacekeeper, I guess. At least, according to the badge. She accidentally murdered a robber- struck him down with some sort of blast. Well, I say “she” but I don’t remember if she actually confirmed she was a “she”. Nice enough adventurer, I suppose…Black Hand B. A cad if I ever saw one. All noise with the stink of sulfur clinging to his wares. But there is something underneath, something familiar. Something I had come across before in the war. A bit of revelry but with a bite of steel…Stoli. Young boy. Quiet, did not have much to say during the trip. Disappeared once we got to the town. He must have had family there. No, that’s not quite right. He was interested in adventuring. He wanted to come adventuring. Did we ever find him again? I…I should probably check that out…And finally Hunter. He could do some flips and tricks. I don’t think he liked be associated with the concept of “doing good”, he seemed to be looking to make a quick buck. Interesting enough person just quick to try to sell out or disassociate membership with the group. I think we did well as a group. We threw a concert. We filled the area with music and good will towards adventuring.
See, I’m pretty good with people I spent a long time like a week with. I like people. Or humanoids. Or non-humanoids…I just cannot remember the little things like if it is correct to apply the term people to sentient beings. There are conversations I half remember swirling in my brain blurring together. A shifting jumble of misinformation and near recollections. I notice myself. I am in a middle of a conversation I don’t remember starting. I am waking up under the stars in my bedroll when I went to bed in the inn. There are strangers who recognize and greet me by name in the street.
Sometimes, I fear that I will wake up and not remember my own name.
But I do remember my oath. Kindle the light…Shelter the light…Preserve my own light…So I swear to myself to honor these tenants to my last dying breath. My mind might not be there at times and I may lose my memories but these words shine through. Kindness, mercy and song shall shine down on the land of Teresyum now and forevermore. I have to believe that…I have to…