The World of Telvar

Research Info Extravaganza! The following news goes out in bardic mail to
the SS only and should be ignored by other players [you can read it, but your
characters won't know it].

Constructs and Technology of Tan-El:
The people of Tan-El worked to free themselves of daily chores by
inventing time-saving machines. Most were golem-like creations that
did some specific job, but small iron servants were used as multi-purpose
workers in the homes of the rich. Making war-golems was strongly
discouraged for religious reasons, but some found their way into the
defenses anyway. Elemental lightning was a preferred power source, since
it freed the city from the whims of deities that might influence clerical
magic, and was much more powerful than energetic magic-user power.

The Tunnel
I researched tunnels in the Hadarna/Tan-El area because I do not
know enough to pick any particular tunnel. No source I can find
mentions Tan-El at the same time as "tunnel."

There is a tunnel of terrifying winds in the Hadarna Mountains. It is
a dangerous and terrible place, long ago invaded by demons. Elaborate
magical transport whisks characters over vast miles to the magical jungle
land beyond. [I suspect that this is the tunnel through which King Ranore
traveled in the story I related a while back in connection with the
City of the Gods.]

Another tunnel was built by a strange and dark mage to help people
escape from a horrible fate, but the mage panicked as the first folk left
the tunnel and sealed it with a magical spell to guarantee hims safety
from the destruction. He sealed most of his people in the tunnel where
the darkness and evil twisted them into hideous things. The crowd who
had come through killed the wizard in anger over the loss of their loved
ones and neighbors when he refused to re-open the tunnel (for he knew it
was too late by then...).

Great Ones/Abominations
Despite finding the terms I was looking for, I can neither confirm
nor deny whether these quotes are about the beings we know as demonspawn.

"And the Great Ones stepped down from the alabaster throne and blessed
the warriors of the people, 'Go now, and may the might of all of the
spirits of good be behind you in this great endaevor.' And the chosen
vanquishers marched out of the chapel stronger and more resolute."
Tales of Early Masters (fragment)

"The wizard Wsyglyth worked on his dark abominations, terrifying the
countryside with the rejected spawn of his experiments. These
abominations of nature wandered through the forest, preying on the
common folk, until the heroes were summoned to do battle."

Adventuring Reserve Stuff:

I'm not sharing these details with the party until/unless you go there
yourselves. However, I found info on the Spring of Eternity, Mountain of
Thunder, the Living Stone, the Well of the Moon, and the Citadel of Might.
I'll share just a little about one place since it has a remote link (via
lightning) to Tan-El.

Mountain of Thunder
Very little is known of the Mountain of Thunder. It is said to be one of
the tallest mountains in the Reserve (the Throne of the Gods is supposed
to be the tallest) and cloaked in clouds and storms. Some claim it is
nothing more than a gate to the quasi-elemental plane of lightning, [...]
still others speak of a dark being - the mother of
all beithir who slumbers in the sphere of her power, [...]

Hope these answers are interesting. Write back if there's anything more I
should research. The full outline of Gram's letter was sent to you a while
back.

David

This will be fairly short-- a number of details were resolved that I won't
go into in great detail. Please remind me if I forgot anything major.

There was much training (Theo/Ludo/Rangorn/Eli/Raven/Runt)-- there might
have been more even that I missed in the early part.

We traveled through two different groups to Cromwell-- on the way Eli and
Sahrak did spell trading.

In Cromwell we bought supplies of all sorts of survival equipment for
multi-year adventuring. In addition the intelligent spear Seeker was
traded for magic armor, a ring of protection, and some potions/tokens. The
dwarven leather+1 was traded for a +1 medium shield.

The Stone Soules headed south through Cromwell and have just reached the
southern tip and are about to attempt the mountain crossing through frost
giant territory (in the late spring/summer months, of course).

That's it for the log...

The party expanded to huge proportions, currently seventeen people: a
quick list for all those interested:

Rangorn (5th level woodsman)
Ceydric (7th level cavalier)
Mordrick (name level fighter/thief)
Runt (2nd level henchman woodsman)
Raven (7th level fighter)
Ludo (8th level thief)
Eli (9th level magic-user)
Claude (5th level fighter)
Alegra (8th level cleric)
Star (5th level cleric)
Aria (5th level cleric)
Sahrak (4th level illusionist/5th level thief)
Xavier (7th level cleric)
Arabica (1st level cavalier)
Famu (1st level fighter/ split 2nd level magic-user)
Sean (2nd level ranger)
Theo (8th level fighter)

That's 17 people! We make it a crowd!

Joel/Rangorn

P.S. Average level has slipped slightly below 6!

Well, the behir's leaving was not done during a game session, which is why I
never put it in any of the logs. Shortly after the deathstealer encounter,
we decided that other than Tellah, the last major evil (that we know of--
shudder!) was the behir. We had talked to it before (you guys know this
better than me) and spent years avoiding it. We had the key and decided that
it was best simply to release it than try to deal with it in any other way.
So we negotiated-- or more specifically, Xavier negotiated. We got a few
items including another Protection from Devils scroll, a weird helm (sex
change thing-- its been on the magic item lists we've broadcast), and a
couple of potions. There might have been some other items-- I can't
remember. So it decided to head north to the Indicara jungle upon receiving
the key, and has been gone ever since.

Hope that clarifies a few things we may have said recently!

Joel