# What can the Story Tellus?



## Crothian (Oct 28, 2005)

Forgive the pun in the title the world is called Tellus.  And it is not so much what the story reveals but the character involved in it.  I am not their biographer nor am I even their friend.  My relationship with them is rather basic and can be defined most easily of one of a stalker.  I know all about them.  I know where Presdon’s mother is summering.  I know what darkness hides Taegan.  I know what Balinor is after.  I know who speaks to Maur Kaj in the night.  I know what fuels Sanuvas.   I know why Hunter has such a hatred for the fools of Isis.  Not the Isis you know, a different goddess of similar name who resides over pure water.   I know everything about and they know nothing of me.  Secrets are my specialty and the secret behind my rise in power.  I have been everywhere they have and I foresaw the events they participate in.  Not because I am a seer or anything so crude as that.  But because I know people and I have seen events unfold in the past, and the past gets repeated often.  I can not explain my fascination with them.  And that does worry me a bit, but I think it has something to do with their success despite their actions.  They do not do exactly what needs done and even less so do they understand what is happening around them and how it all flows with their actions.    Either they are ignorant and completely unaware of it or they are smooth customers that get the job done.  

They meet at in inn.  Can you believe that?  Of all the stupid and clichés way for a group to get together, that’s how they do it.  It’s like I’m writing some bad fiction.  Maybe I’m really one of those terribly unskilled Bards that train down in Montinnelle at the Bard College.  Bunch of worthless people, trust me on that.  Might as well start the story off with “It was a dark and stormy night…”   But how ever bad the opening is it is a truthful one.  Now they did not just all meet at this place one night and choose to adventure together.  It at least was not that ridicules.  They were all in the small city of Thesden and needed a place to winter as with the snows and the bandits only people like me and fools like them travel.  But they proved at least this once not to be fools.  They were the only ones wintering at this inn as it was small and not one of the main inns in the city.  So that at least allowed them to slowly get to know each other as acquaintances as least over the long winter months.  By the end of the winter they had gotten to know each other.  Presdon was a wizard and from the city of Calador, the capital of the country..  He was also obviously from money.  Taegan was a dwarf cleric of Voltar.  He comes from Korr, the dwarven country that has been losing a war with entropy for the past few centuries.  Voltar is the god of Fire, magic, metal craft, knowledge and things like that.  Balinor was from Andevar, a country to the south.  He was also from money and seemed to think himself a knight of Althea, goddess of victory, war, and craft.  Maur Kaj was not from money and seemed to be from Corsryra a country west across the sea.  Though he was not Corsyrian, he was too big and dumb and rude.  Anyone with a brain knew him for an escaped slave, but not one of value to bother with.  Sanuvas was a monk of Alsan, the true god of war, manliness, and destruction.  He was from Calador but seemed to have some training from Thelenar, the elven isle.  And lastly was Hunter, a bastard half elf from birth as most people say him but I learned otherwise.  And with the boring introductions out of the way we can continue with the story.  

	As I said they stayed at the inn and got to know each other.  A few days before the spring equinox they were invited to a dinner party by the person who owns the Inn.  A nice celebration of sorts before the caravans and people started arriving and making the city of Thesden busy.  They spent the day looking around the city and came across my old haunt.  It is now a burned out building with the ground salted and destroyed.  I had some fun there centuries ago and it spooked the people of the city.  I don’t know why, the people I experimented on and removed livers, lungs and hearts from were barely missed.  I killed a good dozen people before people started to take notice.  But I needed the parts for my creations.  Good parts are hard to find especially with such worthless races.  But I digress.  Balinor could still see the evil of the place and of that I am quite proud.  Taegan seemed to see something moving in the shadows.  It was not what I first thought it was, the shadow seemed to like Taegan and it stretched out to him.  He failed to notice and walked away.  The shadow was sad.

	From there they went to Belinda.  She’s a seer of remarkable ability and someone I’d searched for her for ages.  By the time I realized she was so close she already left.  I know some powerful people that want her dead but first want to know how she escaped.  She was the first every to do so and to that only one of two though the second had help.  Belinda somehow did it all on her own and that is not something people wanted to know.  

	She told them their fortunes or something; I don’t think it was anything on consequence except at some point she mentioned that they would meet someone of importance in Norwick.  I’m not to sure which of the three important people she was referring to, but I’ll save that for when they made their way to that city.  For now I will tell the story as it happened.  Well, close enough for my purposes.  Certain details are not important or have been changed as I see fit.  It’s my story; I’ll do as I please.  

	Back at the inn they enjoyed some good wine, haunted wine but the vintage was a good one.  The wine tasted of blood to some of them though Taegan refused to drink alcohol.  Through some rather inept investigations and pure luck they learned the original owner of the inn was killed by his brother and buried in the basement.  The brother then ceased control of the Inn and tried to live happy ever after, but ghosts won’t allow that.  It’s a fun story and all the brother needed to do was sprinkle some specially prepared holy water from the church of Moloch, god of the dead and all, and he wouldn’t have been haunted.  Beginner’s mistakes; it’s so hard to be an evil genius so many people just miss the details.  It’s a real shame, really.  

	Well, the mystery solved got them hired by the mayor to investigate a series of thefts.  This is what brought them to my attention as I was the one doing the thievery.  Well, not me personally I staffed it out to some minions.  They did a good job, got killed when they needed to and left no paper trail.  I was very pleased.  Little things had gone missing from a number of the residents of the city.  Nothing really valuable and it would have been no big deal if it wasn’t so much stuff.  They investigated and found rats stealing items and going down the city well.  

	Taegan was lowered down the well and wrestled a small snake.  The snake won that round and Taegan was healed and cured of his poisoning.  Hunter, in a surprisingly competent move, shot the snake with his bow instead of letting it bite others.  He’s the secret brains of the operation though thankfully the rest haven’t realized it yet.  He was also the only one that could find the secret entrance in the well that the rats were using.  

	In the darkness of the underground cave they ran into a large spider, plenty of traps and obstacles, and really every thing I placed there to hinder people they walked into face first.  But they survived.  It was not easy especially since not a single one of them knew how to deal with a trap.  Well, besides setting it off and hoping it didn’t hurt them.  They went on found the minion that had magical panpipes to control rats and steal things.  And then they took the brave option of shrinking down and following the rats farther on.  This surprised me.  Most people would have regrouped and made sure they were ready for it but not them.  Shrunken down they fought many creatures that are not a threat unless one is 6 inches tall.  They did find Blackspire down there, a psuedo dragon whose ego rivals my own but his is unearned.  They found some goblins, but at 6 inches tall they were not a real challenge for them.  They fought them anyone.  Well, that’s a bit unfair.  Presden messed up and grew too soon and the goblins saw him and the rest of the group had to rescue him.  This is where I showed up.  I had to pretend to the goblins that I was helping them out, but the goblins didn’t speak Caladonian and I talked to these fools why I pretended to aid the goblins.  I needed them to kill the goblins and let the goblins be blamed for what happened.  I retrieved my book, the only thing of true importance at that time.  I don’t know why they didn’t try to stop me.  They wouldn’t have been able to, but still most would be heroes make the attempt.  

	Before I left I did see one of the goblins lay a terrible hit on Balinor killing him.  The goblin had aid of a magical belt it had found at some point.  I might have been more curious about that but a goblin belt is really not something I care to look into.  I paid the party since a group of heroes that accepts money from the bad guy is just funny.  And they did.  A lot of their means came from me and that allows me to hold power over them.  Of course it didn’t hurt that being familiar with the gems I gave them allowed my to scry them at will.  I find that is a great way to watch people.

	They took their gems and went back to the city.  They didn’t spend it fast or do anything rash with them.  I half expected a drunken orgy, least that is what I did with my first wind fall.  These guys are much more boring.  They told Belinda about me, least what little they knew.  She was smart enough to recognize me from that and got out of dodge fast.  Thankfully, since she is hunted she can’t explain to them who I am without having them want to kill her.  It is tough having an evil past that no one will ever forgive you for.  It also makes my job of finding her easier, she can’t fully trust anyone.  She did turn one of the gems I gave them into a gem of seeing.  She tried to give them a hint with that but they never use the thing.  I’ve meet them a half dozen times since then spying on them and seeing what they are up to and they never noticed.  

	They were now famous and the big noble families and guilds wanted part of the action but they showed some intelligence and refused.  Of course that insults the wrong people and that was not forgotten.  But they joined with a small caravan and went north to Bellhold.  They had a letter from some of those details I skipped to deliver in the Sylvan woods, but of course they didn’t go in that direction.  

	So, that is how it all began.  One of them died the rest were wealthy.  They solved two small mysteries but did not look too hard at the bigger mystery of the temple of Vecna the book I got was upon and of the secrets of Thesden I was able to learn.  But that would of course become important later.


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