The World of Telvar

II. The Scroll in the Bah Nareth Sage Library (the Castle)

Would it be beneficial to the party to have Alegra (combined) cast Dispel
Magic on the Scroll's case by touching it? It is likely.

So, Alegra did so. The dispel on the trap worked. The Scroll was carefully
removed from its case and placed on a table. Alegra found no traps on it.
When she glanced at the scroll, a shadow of some kind rose up from the
scroll and enveloped her. The other people in the room felt their senses go
numb for a moment, and Alegra hair stood on end. Then, nothing obvious had
happened. It was promptly discovered that Alegra's shadow was magical, and
alive, and had an alignment like Alegra. Alegra's research on shadows
showed that all mentions were bad, but the shadow was able to follow her
onto Holy Ground.

Would dispelling the shadow by beneficial? Under no circumstances would it
be beneficial.

And BTW, the scroll disintegrated at this point.

So, we let it be.

III. The Box in Gen Quarath's room, hidden in a panel, that had an
_Antipathy_ effect that still keeps Claude from being able to enter the
entire tower it is in. It has an effect on it that Eli considers to be
area-of-effect as well as possible a _Death Spell_ or similar effect.

Would it beneficial to _Dispel_ the trap on the box and open it? An
answered question is not always pleasant.
Again? Rash action _will_ result in deaths.

We decided to leave the box alone.

IV. Sage Research

Tale of Years -- about Tellah, original attempt to write his life, person
who wrote it died.

Mithril Key -- he's sending for info., a Great Mithril Key was recovered
long ago from Tan-El and was ID'd in the Near Realm/Cromwell.

LE Force -- Found in older records about the area, esp. by Adventuring
Reserve parties come to kill the Behir who sold the sage of the time info on
the LE force in return for Behir info. (They did Divinations and Legend
Lores, because there was a lot of cash inside the L-shaped building in the
Castle of Bah Nareth, behind the brass doors).

The LE force is a small number (3 or so) Deathstealers. They are able to
steal a soul from a body from a significant distance and transform your soul
into a twisted, evil creature, and then install in your husk of a body an
evil spirit from nearby, thereby turning you into 2 enemies to continue to
fight your friends. They were intentionally summoned by the Council in some
way to destroy the Lightning creatures that were on the verge of consuming
Tan-El. They are probably imprisoned due to the careful contract with the
founders, but are just waiting to be released by someone. (On a hunch, I'd
say Tyner was probably involved).

V. The Book -- The Tale of Years.

Let us say that many, many auguries were done on the book. The eventual
result was that "Only true wisdom can be trusted to discern good and evil"
so Alegra prepared to read the book, by praying and fasting, and casting
ceremonies. She had the benefit of several party magical items and chants
that turned out to be irrelevant, as only really her wisdom came to bear.

It was exactly as we thought, imparting the life of Zardos in amazing
detail. Alegra had the opportunity to "cheer for the underdogs" or "follow
the path of power that Z learned towards vast power and evil." She chose the
former. Later, she had a decision towards whether to reatin the memories or
forget them, and she chose to remember them. Her wisdom saved her any
permanent damage, and she gained 15K experience. She then had to rest for
some time.

The Book fell apart and disintegrated at this time.

She can think about the story, but thinking for too long tends to give her a
headache and make her ill. The sheer repulsion of his evil deeds would
offend any good person.

Basic story:
Zardos is bored, expanding the frontier, kills the Grey people (probably
original inhabitants of the New World). People try to stop him, he wastes
them. Makes pipes out of the bones of the High Priests he slays (he goes
from being a great warrior to a great wizard as well at some point) that he
uses to whip his evil hordes into a frenzy. Makes a coat out of the
feathers of Devas and the Planetar he kills which gives him amazing
immunities and powers (appears to steal their powers in some ways). Makes
deals with LOTS of infernal Evil forces. More or less violates the ancient
rules about deity non-interference in worldy affairs (in spirit anyway).
When the good powers react by summoning a host, Evil takes it that this is a
violation in letter as well as spirit, and so helps Zardos more. Then,
turns on his own empire after more or less destroying the Grey People
empire, and begins to take over the Kepta empire (probably in the indicara
peninsula).
30 heroes of all his opposition (Kepta, Grey, others, about 1/3 Korian, 1/3
druidic and Grey people religions, and 1/3 other good religions) come up
with a plan to stop him, eventually setting on the plan to intentionally
lose, and allow him to take a "beneficial" magic item (the Great Warrior's
Ring of Prot +6) and put it on. He is stunned and shocked and falls down.
The Evil powers desert him and take his soul with them, but he still lives.
One of the three remaining heroes (not the strongest, but the ones that
Zardos wouldn't have considered to have been as much of a threat) tries to
remove the coat and the pipes, but contacting such evil destroyed his soul
and transforms him into a twisted wreck, which his comrades slay out of
mercy. The two people left are approached by Tyner, from Tan-El, who has
lived a long time and served on the Council, esp. as its leader, many times.
He convinces them to chain Zardos to the Library rather than kill him. It
is clear that Tyner is following the same road as Zardos once did, and the
writer of the book is greatly saddened by this. [A Life of Infamy, the more
accessible version of this book, indicates that he could NOT be killed,
which seems to contradict this book. It is my opinion that probably Tyner
had A Life of Infamy written anyway, and so he probably edited out the parts
about himself being on the road to evil].

VI. A question -- Yes, Tellah can understand Common now.

VII. The Auroran Treasure Map

It leads to the Witches Ziggurat (WZ), west of Miles High, and is clearly
ancient (contemporary to a thriving Tan-El and other ruins).
We go there and investigate. It is populated by a huge bugbear village.
Demon worship at the WZ has been reinstated in some way. We look at options
to destroy the entire village and the WZ.

Kyle/Alegra