And so it begins...
It is fall; season of fading leaves and bright colors in the northern lands, and season of rain for the fairer parts of the land.
In the swamplands of the far northeast, a odd event occurs.
As a Lhii Swordsage hones his art in hunting for game in the marshy woods, a distant call sounds upon the wind, like someone crying out in pain. Shocked, he searches carefully, suspecting a lost Rin Toh child from one of the villages in the swamps. He finds nothing; and later, even after a catch and a good meal, he is visited again in his dreams by the sound, and the woods appear before him as he sleeps, etheral and foggy. His vision expands, and a forest of Jade colored trees and brush looms ahead, with lightning forming a ominous ring over a distant peak.
The dream persists for several days there after, Until The Swordsage is driven to wonder where it is that this dream refers to. Upon praying at a small shrine in the swamp, However, this time the dream comes to him much stronger than before. He dreams of traveling, and of a brightly colored wooden gateway, with a girl standing silently beside it. She waves him on, then darts inside it herself. Curios, he darts in after her...
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Meanwhile, down by the outlands coastline; away from the blight spreading from the Jin Shou empire, A lone traveller, Xain Zhi-shou, stops for the night on a beach with a strange rock on it; a chunk of stone carved with the symbol for water, standing alone in the sand of the shore. Asleep, he to witnesses a strange even in his slumber as well: a girl wanders up to him in a ruined, half sunken village, clad in white and red robes and bearing a bow. She refuses his queries and instead points to a distant peak with her weapon, a arrow of lightning arching across the impossible distance to strike the mountain. Stunned, he asks the wordless girl what she means by all this , and and is handed a scroll in reply. Opening it, he reads a proverb taught to him as a child:
"A good deed lends the noble the wings of angels; for heaven smiles on a fool that listens to his heart."
The girl holds out a arrow, and Xain takes it. Instantly he feels as though he is the arrow; nocked and set to the bow, and then released into a stormy sky; flying upon a lightning bolt across mountains and streams, over forests and glades....
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Jing, a Tian Rin with a hand for trouble and eye for all things shiny, is busy in a attempt to produce wealth within the walls of a city in the frosty land of Zhen Wu; in the shadow of the divine peak, Zhou Tu. While lurking in a tavern one night as the leaves fall from the trees; a strange girl wanders in, dressed as one of his profession. She and him swiftly strike up a conversation, and he find himself drawn to her and her statements, sensing she is a kindred spirit. She questions his resolve on matters of treasure, and throws out several examples of valuable objects in strange places and asks how he'd get them. Eager to impress her and slightly prideful, the Rouge answers confidently to each case, and earns a wink from her.
"Then, Why don't you prove your skill? I know of a place where your talents could be used..."
Sensing treasure or some handy artifact to sell, the Tian Rin Rouge inquires further, and she offers to take him to such a place, claim it's not far, just a short distance away. she leads him into a old shrine near the peak; dedicated to a local nature spirit but empty of staff; it had been so for a while. In the moonlit central room, The female rouge halts in front of dusty jade plaque with the Character for Earth carved in it. while the rouge debates wether it would be a sin to take it, The girl begins chanting in strange language he has never heard, and making motions with her hands like prayer. the old candles around the jade panel light up on their own with a green flame, and the dust in the chamber begins to rise. Leaves blow in and mix in a swirling rust of a whirlwind that spins about the shocked elf He shouts to her to stop, but she fails to respond. The flames of the candles flow off the wicks and add to the swirl, And the Tian Rin Rouge suddenly feels buffeted by a strong wind, and the floor blurs under his feet; he glimpses clouds and and mountains under the night sky filled with stars as he is tossed about in the jolting vision like a leaf on the wind....
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At the border of the Ruined Lands, The Master of Jiang Shi, Jiow Gin Ho, stands atop a cliff overlooking the blackened, dark mountains spreading from the empire , his Ivory guardsman keeping watch nearby. Fascinated by the strange, death like effects on the land itself, Gin Ho considers setting up camp to study the effect more closely. However, dark clouds overhead become rain, and violent storm sets upon him as the sun drops below the horizon. Finding a old shrine in a glade between the peaks, he ducks under it's creaky roof and takes shelter in it gladly. A chunk of jade lays on the floor, carved with a faded image of the symbol for earth. With his skeletal ally standing Guard at the opening to the single-room structure, Gin Ho tries to get some rest as lightning crackles overhead. Lighting a small fire on the clay tiles for warmth, he dozes off in it's glow...
Shortly later, he sees a girl, walking in out of the rain, lit up by lightning flashes. she is dressed in fine robes, but they are rain soaked and tattered, as if she had wandered a long distance. She doesn't seem to notice his guard, or be scared by the skeletal watchman at the entrance. Concerned, Gin ho rushes out into the rain to help the staggering girl inside not desiring to witness her death by lightning. She is grateful, but doesn't speak much at first. However, around the fire she begins to talk, asking him about his powers and why he seems to haunted. feeling compelled, He speaks of the haunting feeling of his missing siblings whose souls seem to both empower him and hate him at once, and she offers the notion that there is a place to find the knowledge he seeks; to better understand his powers. Enthused, he asks where in a rush of hope. she smiles softly, and holds up one finger; tapping him on the forehead with it.
Instantly, the shrine dissolves into a dreamscape, and a distant forest whirls into view....
was it a dream?
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Pan Tang, The skeletal warrior who hungers for revenge, trudges along a high mountain pass near the eastern border between the Outlands and the advancing empire, seeking more irreverent imperials to teach a lesson, His sword hungering for the blood of the fools that dug into his resting place in a foolish effort to mine something of value. Prowling the area about the ill-fated mine, he seeks new foes to destroy. After dark, as a storm rumbles elsewhere in the mountains, he encounters a Rin Toh girl, kneeling in a rare grove of trees in a small valley up in the mountainous area. Angry at first, the warrior from beyond the grave halts when they witness the clothes of a priestess, stopping out of respect for those who are able to better understand souls and the great wheel of Heaven which renews all life. Skidding to halt, The skeleton questions her in his dry, airy voice, of why she is here. At first, she says nothing, then comments without looking up that His revenge cannot be found in the mountains any longer, that the will of heaven has a purpose in mind for his disturbed rest; that it is why his soul was allowed to return to his long-dead body.
When asked what it might be, she describes a great evil that stirs in it's sleep, corrupting the rest of all those near it and poisoning the minds of mortals. Roused to battle-fury, pan tang demands to know where this desecrating force can be found. She comments. "Just beyond the nest step you take", and makes a motion with her hands. unnoticed, the shadows formed in the moonlight contort about her, forming the symbol for "dark" on the ground near her. The living skeleton suddenly finds himself upon a vast plane of gray ash and floating lanterns. Sinking to his waist, he becomes angry as he thrashes about in the lake of fluff and dust; but a skiff drifts by and the girl stands aboard it; the watercraft floating on the strange sea. Hooded figures row it, and one helps him aboard at her behest, and the skiff drifts on in silence as he stands on the deck in impatience.
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Honing his mind, The Human Warrior Furious Jing spends several days at a southern temple at the base of sacred mountain in the outlands, Quai Zhuu [kwai-joo], attempting to learn from monks there how to better focus his inner power to achieve perfection of the mind.
One night, he awakens from the room where he stays, drawn by the temple gong. Entering the main room, he at first thinks it is prank; witnessing a girl in priestess robes standing at the temple gong as it rings; moonlight and a few lanterns lighting the chamber.
Oddly, no one else seem to come at the loud sound, and the girl turns and draws a bow from nowhere, looking at him with glowing eyes like candles.
"Spar with me, for a moment..."
She requests, and opens fire with a bolt of force from her bow, drawing a radiant arrow from thin air. Jing Man bares dodges and swiftly responds with several blows of his own. After shaking the room for a while and battering at each other, the girl puts down her bow and nods, pointing to him.
A jade panel at the heart of the shrine, set with the symbol of wind, glows with a strange force, and a lighting bolt arches down from inside the chamber to strike Jing; and the the world vanishes....
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And last, the wood elf Ranger Bai Na rests in the gentle twilight of fall in the Land of Dusk Timbers, leaning against a pine tree next to his camp, overlooking a pass travels have begun to claim is haunted. intent on solving the rumor one way or another, Bai awaits nigh-time.
As the evening falls, nothing happens. Then, at the moonlit hour of midnight, Bai hears a flute playing, high and shrill. Drawing his weapons, he travels down the path to a nearby gorge, finding a girl in red and white playing the flute on the bridge. Suspecting her of being a spirit, he approaches with his weapon drawn, but still she plays; not reacting. Finishing her mesmerizing song, she stand up, and suddenly leaps from the small wooden bridge, hurling herself over the rail. Bai reacts instinctively to pull her up, cursing about insane artisans as he grabs for her hand. he catches her barely, and drags the evidently suicidal girl up to safety, chewing her out about the foolishness of suicide.
She waits until he is out of breath, then comments that pointless death is foolish indeed, yet it is being allowed before his very eyes. when asked what she means, she cryptically replies that the winding threads of the looming force lay beyond the road ahead, and bids him to return to camp, following him back.
At the trail-side camp, she taps the tree he was lenaing on before, pushing moss aside to reveal a old carving of the symbol for wood, scarred into the trunk. As Bai Na steps forwards to examine it, The girl steps back and begins to play her flute; summoning a ring of floating fireballs of blue flame about him and the tree. Angry at this, Bai accuses her of trickery but is met only with a calm statement "another wood, another tree, needs you." and more playing. At the nots hit a fever pitch, The whirling fire forms a solid band And Bai suddenly feels drowsy, his eyes growing heavy even as he tries to stand. the air sings and the flute's song resounds on the wind everything fades to a blur of stars and clouds, of trees and a tall mountain...
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And, In the desert Twilight of the Ku Dan wastes, A half orc Tool of fate wanders about near ruins, seeking a purpose or something to do; having accidently lost his way while traveling between villages/camps out in the sandy wastes.
As he stumbles upon the well-known but foreboding sight of A ruined structure that once sat proudly on a rocky outcropping in the desert's hear, Lan Tao notices a sandstorm whipping up on the horizon and decides fate has led him to these ruins to provide him with a place to stay; ducking inside the structure of stone and dried-out wood timbers, He sits flipping his lucky coin in a sandy court yard in the center of the tower-like structure, having made a small fire for protection as well as to deal with the night time chill.
After a while, however, his eyes feel heavy and he dozes off as he waits for the sandstorm to fade.
He awakes to a clatter, and finds a female figure wrapped in protective clothing standing by the fire, tossing dice on the floor in a bored action. After getting over the shock, Lang Tao demands to know who they are, and the visitor makes a contest of it, deciding to let the dice decide. Unable to resist a game of chance, Lang Tao joins in and the dice fall; revealing her intent as traveler but not enough to learn her name. He lose slightly, giving up his name, but not his reasons for being in the structure. However, the two strike up a conversation, and after sharing stories about great moments in gambling, She offers Lang Tao a serious bet: a challenge of grand scale and interesting odds, with high risk and high rewards; a adventure as the ultimate bet. interested by this offer, lang Tao simply reaches for his lucky coin, flipping it to decide. It lands in agreement, and he accepts the "bet"....the female visitor promises they will set out soon, but should rest first. they both lay down against old wood beams, and Lang Tao finds himself dreaming of mountains and trees instead of rock and sand, and of towns and cites with far more chance and opportunity than tiny nomad camps. As he does so, It feels closer, as if he is right there near it, walking by various cities and places in a quiet journey towards the best challenge....
The Girl in traveling clothes dashes ahead of him, and in teases that he will be too slow to beat her to the destination. With a cry of "you're on!" he charges up a dreamscape set of stairs and through a bright gate hovering over the glittering mesh of towns and trees.....
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You find yourselves in a large temple, each laying comfortably against a cushion laid out on a polished floor of pine boards. This is clearly the main chamber, and a large alter in the back of the room is set into a alcove; with stars leading to it. On both sides burn large torches in ornate brasiers, and a set of black, lacquered steps of dark wood lead up to the alcove. Within this inset chamber, you can see a stone statue of a roaring dragon, four orbs of colored glass held in it's paws, and several more hang in front of it on cords from the ceiling. They are colored in living green, ash gray, muddy brown, searing red, cool blue, and wispy purple; each bearing a elemental character upon them. The statue itself sits in a small pound, fed by a small, artificial waterfall behind in the back wall.
Boxy Lanterns of paper and wood hand on cords from the ceiling in the main room above your heads, and several doors can be found on the sides of the rectangular room, each made of wooden strips and fine white silk stretched out to make a sliding screen.
At the front of the room, opposite the altar and shrine, the whole front wall is a set of sliding screens, which are partly open. You can see it is dark outside, but also a small garden of some kind and you more lanterns light the plants up in a orange glow...but, alarmingly, they seem to be floating, without cords or stands!
Last, there are fine scrolls set upon the walls, holding masterfully done paintings of wilderness and wildlife. Oddly, however, despite feeling warm and secure, the room and temple structure seem...muted. Despite the perfect condition, there are no monks of priestesses in the room, nor do there seem to be any sound; as if the whole structure keep itself clean of it's own accord.
As you rise to look about, you notice others in the room, like yourself, and notice with alarm a skeleton standing up by the altar in evident rest or meditation; but before you can reach for your weapons, you spot medals hung about it's neck, marking them as divinely accepted and not evil spirits; merely a another force of nature that is recognized by heaven as being needed.
[[DM: The skeleton is Gin Ho's Ivory Gaurd, Jiow Bo Bew(they wouldn't really be taking a nap on a cushion...). As only a few of you had backstories, I approximated for the rest of you. here we go! 3nodding Welcome to my temple...heh. Also, please tell me if I left you out in my intro scenes.]]
