PCs:Pilder Glittermil
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BackgroundSince his birth Pilder was a healthy and curious Gnome. He never took things at face value, especially when dealing with others, he was always doubtful of things that seemed too good to be true. For example, there was a time when he found an open jar of honey but decided not to taste it since he surmised it wouldn't be sitting out unless there was something wrong with it. He was right of course, shortly before he found the jar his Mom broke a mirror over the open jar and glass fell in, she hadn't time to throw it away since there was a pot of stew burning on the fire. Pilder enjoyed his childhood, he was not spoiled by his parents nor was he neglected, his father (Paafen) was an inventor, a member of a local guild, and a pious man. His mother took care of the home and she was involved in the local politics of the village. Pilder consistenly outperformed his peers in mathmatics and puzzles but was only mediocre in games involving physical exertion. He was not drawn to team sports but did not mind playing 'backyard' games since they were less organized, he was unsurpassed at hide and find. Pilder left Deglos on a whim after his mother's execution, she killed his father by sneaking up, knocking him out, and dumping him in a vat of acid. At the trial she said she was tired of his inattention to her, she was executed by beheading and her body was dropped into a bottomless pit while on fire, Pilder insisted on watching the entire process. Pilder has vowed to finish his father's last project, an attempt to collect and store the suns rays into a diamond and then releasing small amounts of light over a long period of time, he postulated the resulting light would illuminate an entire 40x40 room for a year. Pilder has abandoned the Gnomish practice of carrying more than one name, he will only answer to the name his father gave him and he will not speak the name of his mother. He began by his travels by packing lightly and heading in the direction of the Elven woods of T'Nanshi. He arrived at Le'Or T'Nanshi but didn't stay long since he was afraid of heights and felt overwhelmed by the size and beauty of the Elves. He decided to continue on to Elysia to explore the city, along the way he decided to explore a cave. He lit a small torch he was carrying and crept crept slowly inside, after a short while his torch went out, so he slowly began to return the way he came but somehow ended up in the web of a giant spider, he struggled and called for help but no answer came. However, a human female arrayed in robes and with a light over her head arrived, she silently moved toward him and with a single motion and a slight murmur disintegrated the web and strode back the way she came without speaking a word to him. Pilder quickly followed her, thanked her and asking questions but no reply came. He stopped outside the caves entrance grabbed his pack and hurriedly moved on toward Elysia as the stranger disappeared in the direction of T'Nanshi. He felt fortunate and decided trusting humans might be okay even after the horror stories of the M'Chek and T'Nanshi war. He finally arrived at Elysia but the walls of the city made him feel confined and gave him an unsettling feeling, he stayed no more than a day and wandered to the open lands of Ferrell. He remembered childhood stories of the welcoming atmosphere and the abundance of flora and minerals to study, not to mention the learned members of AKN. Just before entering the town of Port Eridanus he waded in the cooling waters and happened discovered a golden coin, Pilder carries the coin as a sign that Fegall wanted him to settle in the land of the beirynki. Pilder intends to spend some time on his father's last attempts of an invention and learn the intricasies of the creation of fine items, he follows Fegall as his father did and is determined to settle in Ferrell and to shed the burden of his recent past. Recent timesShortly after settling in Ferrell Pilder heard of a festival occuring in the city of the mages, Visimonitium. He journeyed to the city seeking entertainment and the companionship of others, as he entered the city he ran into several Ashen Order mages who invited him to join with them as they walked to the festival. This is the day that Pilder will remember for the rest of his days, it is the day he met a halfling named Coraline Cleawater. She had flaming red hair and piercing blue eyes, they chatted throughout the festival getting to know each other. At one point, they faced off on the field of battle for a friendly match of spell slinging, before he knew it he was being helped up off the ground by his new friend. As the months and years passed he and Coraline grew closer even though duties and distance kept them apart. Pilder visited Mikona, Coraline's home, as often as he was able to, they could be seen traipsing around Mikona looking for places to talk and adventure; both grew in power together as time passed. If he was unable to make the trip he was sure to send word of his doings by messenger and from time to time Coraline's fairy dragon companion, Fie, could be seen delivering messages in Ferrell. Eventually, Pilder learned of Coraline's reassignment as the head of the Ashen Order in Visimontium, she was now further away. The times they saw each other grew fewer and fewer but messages were still exchanged regularly and eventually Pilder visitied Visimontium more and more. He obtained a room in a local inn and they eventually decided that two of them paying for inn rooms did not make sense so they decided to rent a cottage togther. It was the day they moved in together that Pilder asked Coraline to wed and she accepted the ring offered.
The wedding of was a joyous occassion attended by many close friends and guildmates. The ceremony was blessed by Andrinor and Fegall, each having a priest present to perform the joining ceremony. Afterwards the couple had a reception at the place that they first spent time together where their friends could have fun after having to sit through the ceremony. Here follows some of the sketches from the day:
Major Events ScribedIfthan's QuestThe Raising of a Halflingas told by Pilder Glittermil On an open FEAT expedition night a group of five adventurers: Calatin, myself, Gurky Bogglewig, Ognar Kro-tash, and Elvorfith Briin entered the Berryn Temple in Kityana Hill. Several paid their respects and continued to the basement, where Gurky purchased healing supplies from the priestess Shiela. As the rest of the group talked and prepared for the eventual hostilities, Calatin entered through a secret door and began scouting ahead; heard for the next 10 minutes were the dying cries of many rats and a few giant spiders. During this time two other FEAT members arrived, Ewnin Amnannu and Arania Moonshadow, and small talk ensued as introductions were done. When Raney learned that Elv was also a Maker of songs and tales, the conversation ended with Raney offering to talk at further length with Elv of their profession. After observing that all were present that were to attend this exploration of the crypts, the group moved to reunite with Calatin through the well-hidden door. We encountered several large rats as we progressed through the maze of doors until finally meeting up with Cal. The way was clear so we made straight away for the crypts beneath the sub-basement. Once the traditional roll of the dice was the accomplished (at Raney’s prompting) it was determined that I was to be mule and Ewnin was to lead. No sooner did we enter the crypts then we were set upon by several Xeg-yi. The creatures keyed on the rear element and ignored the front line fighters. I noted that this was a bad Xeg-Yi decision. The fighters reacted quickly by coming to the aid of the rear guard and the Xeg-Yi did not stand long against the ferocity of the assualt. They were vanquished back to their plane. As the group continued on, I began collecting the loot of the fallen while Ewnin found and disabled traps as he came upon them. All the while the FEAT continued to encounter resistance of the Xeg-Yi and even a Crypt Thing. At one point, it was determined that the bones collected would be donated to Ancalopuk, a member of the Order of the Dragon, to aid in his unnamed research. Further to this it was also mentioned that his Order and the Turiva Ilnuru, which I had no Knowledge of at the time, were at cross purposes; Raney acted extremely agitated at the mention of Turiva and I was to find that it was for good reason since Turiva Ilnuru is trying to assist in the elevation of master vampire Se’Fassu into godhood. While the others discussed various things I took the opportunity to say a few prayers to Fegall, asking for his wisdom and strength for what lay ahead. We continued on after I collected gold from several of the sarcophagi. FEAT continued to move through the crypts with only the occasional difficulty caused by the undead, though on occasion we had a few problems trying to find the locations of the secret doors and switches. Throughout the adventure I noted that the Xeg-Yi curiously attacked those in the rear elements, especially the Word Weaver, Elv, and myself as we attempted to put crossbow bolts and sling bullets into the advancing foes. At some point Gurky wandered off from the group; it was later learned that he was off exploring the crypts in search of moss or other growths that he could use for the Making. This was suppositioned at the time which is why we continued on grudgingly, knowing that Fegall would protect such a devoted Fegallian as Gurky was. As we continued deeper into the complex we came into contact with many more Xeg-Yi, successfully repelling them largely because of the protections that Gurky placed on the party before he had wandered off. With Ewnin in the lead the group moved surely toward the destination that was set before them, Calatin and Arania lent much to the fight with their psionic powers and Ognar with his axe did cut through the foe quickly and efficiently. The lesser powered Elv and this ganoomkin guarded and protected each other and healed the others as best they could but relied heavily on the strength of the group to make safe passage. I was also able to bless the group with small amounts of Fegall's awesome strength and power and Elv's aim was as if blessed by the gods, striking unerringly the targets picked. The notion of attempting to return the way we already tried was mentioned due to the impending loss of Gurky's prayers of protection. This course was dismissed as futile, however, as there is no way to return by going back. Only by going forward could we ultimately breath fresh air again. At some point walking through a lit area several of the group claimed to hear a female laughing but before the opportunity for discovery could be seized we were set upon by more Xeg-Yi. We had to fall back slightly as the ferocity of their attack was great, but in the end the courage of the front line did prove to be great and repulsed the onslaught. Eventually after much battling our small group of FEATers found a place that was safe enough for a few to rest at a time while the others stood watch. Once all were rested and prayers for protection and enhancments were done, the group moved on. We next came to hallways that were magically darkened but also contained many crystals lining the path. Elv and I took the time to examine one of the crystals. Elv was pained by what she explained as a cold emanating from the crystal, however, I sensed pain from it. Not physical pain, but pain that one feels when a close one is lost. It was very difficult to explain the sense that I did detect, it still does leave a heavy impression on this priest. As the rest of the group surveyed the area we again heard a female but this time she was crying instead of laughing. Moving forward, we again ran into magical darkness. As we groped our way through the area the female was heard again but this time she was singing and very close to our location. Arania attempted to sneak up on her but was discovered rather easily by a witch (I'll call her the Black Witch as we never did learn her true identity). The Black Witch reacted violently in surprise and several of the group fell to a spell, including this author. Once all of the members were on their feet again Raney accused the witch of conspiring with Se'Fassu, to this the witch claimed ingnorance and began to explain that she was conducting an experiment. Many in the group were instantly curious at the word experiment and moved closer, for as you all might not be aware, most of those assembled also belong to the AKN. The witch did not stop them but encouraged it as she explained that she was about to animate some old bones. As the witch talked about the process of animating a corpse she applied a black goo, and explained that the goo replaces the liquid that a living body would have. At this point, I inched closer, sniffed the goo, and put a small dab on my tongue This was a painful mistake. Even though I instantly spit the goo out, I experienced cramping in my gut over the next hour. The lights were dim in the area where the witch worked because she claimed that the zombie she was to reanimate would be disoriented by brighter light. Through the various brightening and dimming of lights due to the witch's short duration darkness spells I did notice the witch was of good looks -- which was a surprise to this ganoom as I did expect to see a shrivled old woman with a crooked schnauzen! As the witch fielded various questions from the group she explained what further was needed to animate the corpse. She also told us that she had previously massaged in a mixture into the corpse to keep the skin from tearing due to the movement. Some of the questions elicited very interesting responses, which I will attempt to summarize here to keep this story as succint as possible. The witch claimed that it is possible to call back a soul, to give sentience to a corpse, and that it is even possible to call back an unwilling soul but the more a soul struggles then the chance of success is diminished. However, a powerful necromancer can call back a very specific soul, ie: one of the necromancer’s choosing. This I did find of very much interest, as I had hopes of calling back my jada as his Making and experiments were not complete. I have since decided to continue his studies and let him work in the Gnomefather's laboratory for eternity. The original goal of the witch would be unrealized as our intrusion to her experiment did force her to defend her studies out of impulse and weakened her to the point of not being able to call back a soul to create a sentient servant. The process of animating the bones of the halfing was aided by Calatin he likened it to 'jump starting' the corpse. The zombie appeared to be a husk of a former halfing farmer. It rambled about for some time while we continued to ask questions, except for Elv that is, she had a very hard time with the experiment. The witch, finally tired of the gathered FEATers, placed one of her hands on the zombie’s head and released the energy from the corpse, at which point the halfling collapsed. Interestingly I did notice that the witch had a glimmering ring on that she did ensure was touching the halfling. I am unknowing if the ring did allow the energy release or not. The Black Witch then summoned many undead to attack us, saying that her secrets are not to be revealed and taken away so easily. The weaker of our group ran as fast as we could through the magical darkness, bumping into walls and doors, not to mention nearly falling off of a bridge. Our retreat was covered by Calatin, Ewnin, and Ognar. They valiantly fought off the undead and ensured that Elv and this Fegallian made it out safely. Seeing as Raney had turned invisible during the process of animation and returned to Ferrell for a meeting, the now five adventurers of FEAT finally all met at the crypts exit where we discovered that Ewnin nearly did not make it out as he had fallen bleeding. Thankfully he had recovered in short order. Our group, under Ewnin's continued leadership, exited the basement of the temple without delay to try and escape the witch, but she was laying in wait among fresh corpses of Berryn priestesses. She was intent that her secrets would not be lost. She hurled a flurry of spells, damaging several of us severely. This time Calatin closed on the witch angrily and unleased his mind powers with such wrath that the witch was caught off guard; she clearly did not expect to suffer such an assault. The few seconds that were gained were enough for me to start healing the others and Elv to regain her voice to give heart to the bruised FEATers. Next to close on the witch was Ognar. He snarled and jumped into the fray, slicing the flesh from her bones with his axe. It was truly inspiring to watch. All this time, Ewnin was filling the witch with arrows. He was placing one next to the other between the thrusts and chops of Calatin and Ognar. This battle was my first experience around such well-disciplined fighters. I walked away with many notes from the overall experience! Surveying the damage done to the priestesses, this priest of Fegall and a surviving priestess of Berryn began praying over the bodies of the fallen, entreating our gods to return those worthy of it. Thankfully all were deemed of goodness and were returned to the living. The group of FEATers turned to exit the temple, all except for myself that is, as I was bid by Fegall to remain behind a moment. It was this day that this follower of Fegall became truly one of Fegall's own as I received my robes and holy symbol from the Gnomefather! On my return to my companions, I was entreated warmly and congratulated for the recognition of my devotion to the tenants of Fegall. It was indeed a most happy end to the adventure for this ganoomkin. | |||
