The Beaches and the Tower

Autumn 19th, 453

This has been an important day for me. Today, I ventured to the interior of Kizmia's Island, in the company of a large and powerful group of exiles. The telling of the journey will take some time, and I think much of it will best be done with the sketches I made along the way.

Our party landed on the island at dawn, crashing through the waves to land on the southern beach, near the Castle owned by Umbrion, the Pyromancer.

The breakers and the rocks were terrible, and our boats were destroyed on the way in, I can only imagine the fear which the first exiles who ventured here must have known as they realized that with their boats destroyed, there was no way for them to leave the island safely.

Unlike those first explorers, we were well equipped, well prepared. But I will not slight the contributions of those who went before me, Our journey was carefully executed, but the knowledge needed to make it must have been gathered through long and painful effort.

The island is quite dangerous, it is perhaps fortunate that the casual explorer probably cannot find her way through the breakers and reefs. Only those keen eyed explorers who have studied the nature of paths can manage to find the way through. It is to be hoped that those so trained would be able to assess the risks before making the attempt.

The castle of Umbrion the Pyromancer is quite near the beach on which we landed. It is surrounded by rocks and other debris, however, all is not as it seems, in the sketch above, one can clearly see that there is a passage, blocked by an illusion of rock. One with my training can see through such a simple illusion easily.

Our leader for much of this expedition was Yor of the Darkhorse Clan. Here you can see us as we prepare to enter the castle itself. The interior is guarded both by the guards similar to those used by Umbrion's brother, Tenebrion, and also by various Lava walkers and other fiery beasts.

Once inside the fighters were able to subdue the guards with considerable alacrity. Readers may note that I make frequent references to the speed at which we proceeded. Kizmia's island is dangerous during the day, even a strong party can be overwhelmed. At night, the situation becomes far worse. The cats which roam the island by day are transformed by night in to shambling humanoid creatures. Creatures far more dangerous than their more normal seeming forms observed during the day.

This being the case, the reader must understand that when I refer to speed as I tell the tale of our journey, I do so because even a group as strong as the one we braved the island with had reason to be concerned by the fall of night. The island is large, as you will see later in my story, moving around the island is quite difficult. As is finding such materials as are necessary to safely sail away from the island.

One of the primary reasons for our group venturing onto the island was to bring those of my profession who were present to see Leladar. In this case, it was myself, and Himitsu, one of my students, who wished to meet Leladar. Neige was also with us, but he had been fortunate enough to have already studied with her, and he felt no need for further instruction.

Leladar is a slave, or perhaps a servant of Umbrion's. Umbrion is the person who makes the Ethereal Amulets, and Leladar has been assigned to teach it's use. The Amulet is a fragile tool, and does not seem to be something which either Fighters or Healers are capable of using well. Several of our party attempted to study with Leladar, but she only agreed to teach Himitsu and me.

Neige reports that the course of study offered by Leladar is a short one, which leaves me wondering. Even those who have studied those materials she offers still report that their Amulets exhibit fragility, and also that the readings seem strange and inconclusive. These two characteristics seem remarkably similar to the results seen by new Apprentices as they attempt to use the wands, or new Journeying mystics, as they first peer into their new Skristals.

I am curious, is there another person who can teach us more advanced uses of the Ethereal Amulets? Perhaps the adventurous will encounter such a trainer, we shall see. Tenebrion has hinted that one who is truly well trained might be able to manipulate the Ether in places where it is thick, and use that to travel the planes, but I cannot imagine doing such without more knowledge of how the Amulet works.

Readers will have to forgive me if I use the occasion of our encounter with an Ember Wyrm to offer a shameless plug for how useful it can be to bring a Mystic or a mystical student along on your hunts. The assembled fighters were quite powerful, an I have little doubt that they would have brought the Wyrm down eventually, but even those as powerful as Yor and Babajaga were having trouble hitting the creature.

However....

One of the most interesting spots on the island, to me, was Umbrion's tower. It was filled with books. Rare wonderful books, though as the librarian informed us, it would not be cheap to study there.

The library tower is vast, containing perhaps five or six levels. We explored as far as we could, though in the end, as you will see, we were blocked.

One of the first things we discovered was this Altar, and Siresha with his omnious offer. The Altar is right near the stairs, where the unwary can easily stumble against it as they come up.

All contained herein, are the works of Callia the Mystic,
who is a character in the game Clan Lord by Delta Tao Software