<long yawn> As a crazy-haired gnome gets out of bed, gods above we drank too much last night, say what you will about the Dark Elf Sorvani that elf can pack away the mana wine. The gnome slowly stretches, gets dressed and splashes some water on his face. Living above this shop has some advantages to sleeping- in, as he mumbles about his mana-ache being a cross between a headache and a manapool. Slowly he makes his way down the stairs to his shop, climbing upon his stool behind his counter, and with a big <sigh> he mutters something about inventory. And then he hears a banging on his door outside his shop, pressed against his glass window with a faint sound of “Are you open?” Gorlen mumbles, “clearly we are not … it should seem pretty obvious”, slowly getting off his stool and walking over to his door. As Gorlen approaches the door he flips the Closed sign to Open and waves the customer into the shop. As Gorlen makes his way back to his counter, he tells the customer to have a look around while Gorlen tries to recover from his hangover. But then he smelled it, felt it, and then the managanger masked deep down across layer upon layer of cloaking magics shivered. Thankfully Gorlen already had crazy hair from the evening he had so he didn’t show many of his cards, but he took immediate interest in an unfamiliar customer. As the customer is slowly made his way through the figurine aisle, he found it odd yet interesting there was a carved figurine of a battle ogre paying exceptional attention to it he grabbed it off the shelf and started heading to the counter. Gorlen sensing this customer isn’t projecting their natural state, slowly reaches down to pick up a specialized set of spectacles that he uses to create jewelry, carve gemstones, and create figurines additionally it provides the enhanced ability to see things truly as they are. Looking down upon the figurine as the customer hands it to him, Golen says “Ahh yes, you know I remember carving this one, it’s a popular piece for folks when they are in a pinch”. Slowly looking up, Gorlen looks upon the customer “What’s your name?” The customer, clearly an adventurer now that Gorlen sees him up close, says “I am Draven Sunshaper.” At this point, the glasses need a round to sync and another round to process their surroundings, so Gorlen needs to stall a bit. Gorlen says “have you seen the rest of the shop are or do you want anything else?”. Draven looks around a little nervously almost looking ashamed, and Gorlen interjects “The Merak items are behind the curtain in the back no judgment go have a look.” After about eight minutes later a visibly embarrassed Draven comes out, “That was not what I was looking for”, Gorlen gives a bit of a chuckle “You were in there for eight minutes, must have found something you fancied”. Draven looking mortified, Gorlen waves his hand …“It’s okay, if that is not what you want what are you looking for?” Draven responds…“I have heard folks call them spellbreakers?” Gorlen smiles…. “Ahh yes, we have spellbreakers, but how did you hear about them? I’m certain you are new to the city”. Draven says “I came a long way from the city of Esagend, in the Autaria Kingdom”, hmm Gorlen taps his finger on the glass case thinking …He has either seen my Gnome form in the siege of the library, maybe he recently arrived in the spelljammer port in Esagend, or he is full of crap either way I should be getting a synopsis of his true form in a few moments. Gorlen says “Ok I’ve heard good things about Esagend, dragging out a box of spell breakers and setting it on the counter. It’s 500gp per Spellbreaker.” Draven visibly looks excited … “How do you make them?”, Gorlen smiles…” As much as I would like to show people, V’Ral rules, the recipe, and the process is not to be shared, it is a popular requested item.” Draven looking disappointed, dismisses the unfortunate news and says “I’ll take thirty of them.”, dropping 15k of gold on his counter. Gorlen thinks to himself, as much mana wine Sorvani and I packed away last night I don’t think that 15k will go far in digging me out of that debt. Gorlen shaking off the memories of last night’s indulgences peels off 30 spellbreakers and hands them to Draven. Gorlen says, “Have fun do you need anyone to show you how to use them?”; Draven responds, “I’ll figure it out.”, Gorlen smiles “Confidence, I like that”. As Draven begins to turn away, an internal ding within the minds of Gorlen occurs and the glasses begin telepathically giving him a dossier upon the true form of Draven Sunshaper. Telepathic data feed from Gorlen’s infinity lenses: Race: Ethereon (currently believed to be extinct) Capital City: Etherhaven Kingdom: Aetheria (previously believed to be destroyed) The Aetheria kingdom, previously believed to be destroyed and the Ethereon race wiped out, which appears to be untrue as little is known about both, in your adventure to the Dreadstone Necropolis library you discovered the only piece of literature presently discovered to ever hint at the existence of Aetheria and the Ethereon people. Aetheria in its former glory consisted of floating cities, a crystalline arcanarium that includes crystalline spires, and arcane libraries, elemental nodes, and skyborne gardens. Ethereon are enigmatic beings that exist between the realms of matter and manaethereal energy. They appear as shifting, amorphous masses of the Manaetheral mist, constantly changing shape and form. Able to take any shape, their natural true form, is constantly changing shape and form. Ethereons are adept at manipulating the fabric of reality, bending space and time to their will. The city of Etherhaven, has a whole host of diverse array of manaetheral races such as Slyphs, Tethers, Ethersprites, and Astral Arcanids, each with their unique traits and characteristics. The Ethereon are the ruling class in Aetheria. The city is ruled by a Magocracy, along with a council of elders that include solely powerful wizards. The Magocracy governs with wisdom and authority, guided by principles of arcane law and magical harmony. While their rule is benevolent, the Magocracy brooks no dissent when it comes to matters of magic and the preservation of Aetheria’s mystical heritage. The Kingdom of Aetheria is extremely xenophobic and goes to great lengths not to be influenced or discovered by outsiders. As Draven continues to walk toward the exit, Gorlen not realizing he is mumbling as he digests the data feed huffs…” I guess you don’t see that every day”. Draven turns around noticeably with his guard up, and Gorlen responds “ohh umm not you and he points out the window display in his shop at the caravan pulling up, Wednesday they usually don’t arrive until Thursday. Will wonders never cease!” This was made up they always come on Wednesday, but Gorlen had to make something up. Walking Draven to the exit Gorlen says “Since you’re a new customer here is a big ohm on the house and look forward to doing more business with you in the future” Draven looks down at the big ohm, responding “Thanks!”; enthusiasm seemed partly genuine, but also a little manufactured. As Draven makes his way out of the shop and down the street deeper into the market of V’Ral. Gorlen sends a telepathic message to the Obelisk…” Hey O, I just planted a big ohm tracker on a new customer that I need to learn more about, can you keep an active trace on where he goes?” Obelisk responds… “Active tracking enabled, and actively being logged” … “Thanks O.” Gorlen smacks his belly, switches signs on his shop door…”Out for Breakfast”… and heads down to the local greasy spoon to nurse his manaache.

Gorlen Blackhammer – Journal Entry, #413 Hey Gorlen, what are you writing in your journal while in the Drunkin Ogre? Ohh hey, Earendil, lots to do, planning my expedition to the deep mana ethereal, got an update last night on the Penetrator’s progress in the demi-elemental plane of fire [holds both hands up and rolling his eyes]…yeah yeah, Sorvani is none too happy, but he is rarely happy, and then I still have to plan to ramp up the shop in anticipation of the city-wide orgy. Earendil grimaces… Gorlen responds not for me, I don’t get involved in that nastiness… I leave that to my golems to run the shop and take a leave of absence for that week. Earendil interjects… where do you plan on going? Gorlen looks up, bringing his attention to Earendil, as his hand leaves his quill…his quill continues to write. Well, Earendil, I’ve only been to this island once before; it roughly translates to Titan’s Rock, but don’t let the name fool you. It’s an interesting island with incredible mountains, high meadows, and deep green forests. The countryside is filled with small farms, and a few castles dot the coasts. The coastal cities primarily trade in lumber, fishing, and minerals. However, Titan’s Rock’s people are reclusive and strangely highly magical. Some incredible Archmages call Titan’s Rock home. If born in Titan’s Rock, chances are you are a wielder of magic, know that I am thinking about it, the only non-magical people there were rare implants brought to the island. Visitors are scarce, immediately looked upon with suspicion but largely left alone. The magic schools of the island each sit a lord, and the lords govern the island nation. It’s reputed to be roughly nine lords and a King forming a very tight-knit royal family; this is what I gathered from their library. Every ten years, they rotate the King role, allowing the King to return to being a lord and his teaching and magical research. Sadly, I haven’t earned the privileges to get to the good stuff in their library, but I have managed to digest some history and culture-related information about the island. At present, the wizard-king is Dalatharn, a powerful diviner who has successfully used his powers to stop threats against the island before they could get out of control. King Dalatharn and his court of advisers have successfully guided the island Kingdom; the popular consensus is that divination specialists should lead the island kingdom from now on. Gorlen leans back, glances down at the quill’s progress, and looks back up at Earendil taking a drink…. Let’s see what else I remember. Ohh, yes, they jealously guard the secrets of the island, I have my suspicions of what those secrets are, unverified, of course. But have learned that in the past, they have had troubles with the Laputan Empire, the Wizard Kingdom called Thusian, apparently one of the Kingdoms on the continent opposite of V’ral called Eras, and lastly, pirate kings like to try and raid the island’s coastal cities. So, as you can imagine, the island is in a constant state of readiness, and the Lords are ever vigilant hence the suspicions about newcomers. Thinking about it, I noticed another very interesting feature about the island nation is that it had a remarkable and diverse set of mounts, with an entire knight school dedicated to mounted flying in combat and defensive strategies, including magical strategies. They had everything from griffons, rocs, drakes, hippogriffs, Pegasus, and Dragons. It was more than that; those flying mounts had been augmented. I suspect this is one of those closely guarded secrets, but the flying mounts were more powerful than you would expect, the mounts were not familiars to the knights but were bonded in some strange way. Gorlen leans back in his chair; you know the island had an unusual mix of races for such a magically focused society. The dwarves would come into the cities, and if they were born on the island, they were welcome and treated fairly but returned to their mountain homes. The same with the elves in the deep green forest and the halflings from the fertile farmlands. If I had to put a number on it, the Halflings were about 15%, the Dwarves another 20%, the Elves another 20%, a 5% of other, and the last 40% were Humans. Each race was mainly segregated but worked together for the mutual defensive benefit of the island. Now what was odd that I noticed is the predominant church on the island was to Kranera, who, as best as I can tell, was a God that was here before V’Ral’s appearance. Now strange enough, I haven’t come across any writings in any of the manaverse libraries I have found thus far on this god. Only within the halls of the island’s library, given what I have seen of the island, she resembles a likeness to a God of Magic. Now there is a rumor about a pair of twin siblings, marked spellfire wielders; it’s said they bear the mark of Kranera. We were in a local bar called The Broken Wand, near the town of Askim. To get the people to talk, I had to buy the bar a few rounds, and eventually, everyone began to talk; the trick is you have to stay sober enough to remember it. In the drunken ramblings of the residents, they talked about the twins but had not seen them in two years after the church came to take them to train. Many of the residents liked the kids; they were well-behaved. So anyway, there is still a lot to get a handle on with this island nation. I do think I will try and open a store there. Obviously, I will have to bribe the prominent merchant houses to get a good store plot, but I can make it work. This way I can keep a more regular eye on the nation island, they seem to be very interesting, plus I also need to work my way into the good graces of the librarian there. Maybe I should bring a few new books to the collection. I don’t believe anyone there has heard of the Triple K Trading Company, which mirrors similar wares that I offer in V’Ral. That would be a good cover as I perform surveillance. The island strangely doesn’t import much, and the guilds run the crafting on the island. So, when trading or placing an order, you’re not dealing with a crafter but with a guild. That may complicate things as I import my wares for sale to my store, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I need to. The island must have its own source of manacite, as it was abundant, but I never saw any imported. King Dalatharn and the lords are aware of V’Ral’s arrival and find the obelisk an endless source of study; since they landed on the southern portion of the Laputan continent, the island nation figured V’Ral had its own problems. They thoroughly enjoy watching V’Ral out-maneuver Laputa as no love is lost between Titan’s Rock and Laputa. Earendil looks at Gorlen, so how did you learn so much about the island? Well, Gorlen says, normally, when you arrive by ship, you stay on the ship unless you unload goods to the island, if you stay the night, you are restricted to the docks district of the city you docked at. They were very serious about this, so I had to bribe the dock foreman with some mithril to get a two-week pass to the island. [the animated quill falls into the book as if it’s done writing, ahh well, I guess that’s it Earendil, I will leave in a few weeks. Dregnoth was supposed to deliver me an order, specifically a Deep Spawn, but he has been delayed on the moon. So, I want to take receipt of that before I head to the island unless he takes longer than I had hoped, and I will have to leave before the V’Ral midsummer solstice orgy. I don’t want to be here for that so it may delay my departure a week or two. All right, Earendil I need to call it a night, I still need to inventory some exotic Sylvan Tea, Bedine coffee from Anauroch, a runewood shipment that came in, and finally, hang the new meteoric gold Rolandite holy symbols. Good night Earendil; till next time. -Gorlen

So the Penetrators defeated a few empty rooms, found a few fire snakes, played with some fire toads, and fire elemental giants, slain a few bottles of sake, and per usual each demi-elemental plane had a game of slap and tickle with its respective Dragon. Eventually finding the fire fragment, and two staffs of the archmagi. Kargin’s babysitter shenanigans once again failed, and almost triggered a fate point from Dregnoth Ankle activation, but alas no middle-of-the-night wake-up call for Sorvani. The Penetrators will have to do better next time. It was quite the night, the Penetrators now need to decide to move to the water node, and risk missing the planned city-wide V’Ral orgy, in observance of the midsummer solstice of love by the Church of Merrack (sp?) but before I logged off…we did not get XP for the session. Ohh Cloud in the sky, what XP did the Penetrators earn for the night?

The purpose if to have a place to put lore, even unfinished, where we can continually update and edit it. Once a story is complete, it will be moved to here in the lore section. Here is an example document: [image: ZsegllF.png]