A few more veiled questions, and you discover that Sharaka is the goddess of all Yumar. (this country) A couple other questions, and you also find out that people don't know of anything existing outside of Yumar. Apparently Sharaka lives in the temple. (he is in the capital of Yumar). You'll be able to catch a glimpse of her tonight, for it is Drezday, and the weekly sacrifices will be tonight. (this was told you matterfactly, as if it were sunday night football...)

Apparently mages are rare, and considered powerful men, not to be messed with. At least this is what Xej is told by a store owner. Apparently selling one of his spell books for some cash might not be that difficult. He is given the directions to one of the local mages, and finds that there is a line-up into his place. His name is Zanzar. After about an hour and a half in line, with others who are apparently seeking his much needed services, Xej is finally allowed in. His room is smokey, and full of charms and strange items. Many peak Xej's interest, including something that looks like a crystal ball, but hollow with bubbling water in it. Zanzar sits on the floor in the middle of a small mat. A similiar mat in front of him is empty. Xej sits. He looks at Xej with his steely eyes, and says, "What can I do for you today?".

"I was wondering if you would be interested in purchasing a spell book."

His eyes widen slightly, and then his surprise is replaced with a frown.

"How did you come upon such a thing?" He has a slightly disapproving look in his eyes.

"The spellbook in question I obtained from a fallen comrade. She was a powerful mage named Zadanna, perhaps you've heard of her? She was killed by touching a trapped,exploding altar of some ancient god. I am a warrior, though recently have started studying the arts of magic."

"Well, you are quite old to be starting study in the arts. But I feel power in you, and I think you will be a powerful man, indeed, perhaps already are. But enough. You wish to sell me this book. Well now, I would not regularly sanction purchasing this kind of knowledge, but perhaps I will give you some money for it, and when you are of sufficient knowledge to use it, you can come back, and purchase it back from me. Please let me see it."

He peruses the pages quickly, feeling the paper, and inspecting the book, rather than the words inside. "Very well, this is a fine quality book. Now then, just one moment." (he begins casting a spell) A nervous moment passes. "This book will do fine. I will pay you, 1500 crowns for this book."

You take the 1500 crowns, which turn out to be slightly larger gold coins, (about maybe 10% more), and leave the man with your book. You head across town. The town seems fairly homogeneous, with nicer buildings near the center, and mostly shacks near the walls. The walls are large, made of grey stone, and about 30 feet tall, with ramparts and walkways on the top. Towers dot the wall intermittently. Across town, you find an Inn called the Waking Cat. For 1/2 crown you get a room and 3 meals. Your first meal is of some kind of spongy potato like substance, and some shaved meat of some sort, all smothered in gravy. It is quiet tasty. As you eat, you seem to get even more hungry. By the time you're done, you are quiet stuffed, but a feeling of hunger still seems to brush your mind.

After eating, you head out again, and find a small market place. You easily buy a nice pipe for 1 silver, and are directed to a shop that sells high quality mirrors. A while later you locate it, and enter. Mirrors of all shapes and size dot the walls. You ask for a mirror, worth about 950 crowns. The young woman smiles at you, flashing her white teeth and dimples. "Surely kind sir. But it won't help how you look in the morning, I've tried." (she giggles) She shows you a very fine hand mirror. It comes with a fine wooden box, padded with velvet. 950 crowns later, you own the fine mirror, in a nice cherry wood carved box.

You spend another couple hours finding the special spell components you seek (though no-one seems to know what a will-o-wisp is, let alone have essence of one). It's now about 6:00pm, and the sun is starting to go down. Returning to your room, you begin your magic mirror spell. (does it really take an hour to cast?)

After an hour of intense concentration, centering, and focusing, you concentrate on the image of Wolanin. The mirror surface wavers and shimmers, and then returns to that of a normal mirror. You attempt to view Zaaj, your son. The mirror surface wavers, and shimmers, and then his image appears on the mirror. Looking about the scene, they are apparently camping, Zaaj wakeful on his watch. He's apparently playing with Dingle. It looks like he's....singing. He bonks Dingle on the nose, and starts again. A frying pan flys through the scene, and Zaaj looks up startled. He gets that "I've been reprimanded" look, and stops his singing.

You banish the image, and the mirror again becomes reflective. You begin to concentrate on Kendrick A view slowly comes into view. You see an incredibly busy street. The press of people isn't as disturbing as the fact that they are all lizard type men. You do not see Kendrick anywhere in the crowd, though the view of the mirror is centered off to the side of the road, where there are plenty of places for an invisible man to be standing.

Just to be on the safe side, you pick a place on the roof of one of the vendors places. It looks to be made of wood and quite sturdy. You begin to draw the energy for your spell...and you focus on the view, and form the energy. The room around you blurs as your body begins to magically transport. As your body turns to magical form and begins shooting away, you get a strange feeling of vertigo, and a brief moment of being hit by a running bull. Then you lose consciousnous.

The land around you shimmers and waves. The rock itself moving in huge bulges, though the rock you stand upon is still. In front of you, about 40', you see a dark shadow form. It has no eyes, but you feel it seeking you. Waves of rock move about it, but apparently the land it stands upon is also solid and does not move. You become aware of a large snake wrapped around your head, though you get no feeling of danger from it. The face of the snake twists and turns until it is looking at you face to face. It hisses, "The Crystal Tree...the crystal tree..."

You awake. You are laying on your front on a hard rocky surface. The dust and small grains of sand stick to the side of your face. It is dark. You think of the staff, and know that it is quite distant from you. You request it's presence, and a moment later you feel it quite near. You summon up some light. Small things scuttle away to the darkness of cracks and crevices. Huge blocks of black granite make up the walls, ceiling, and floor of this place. You are in a hallway, that does not appear to have been used in some time. It is dry, and ancient, and full of cobwebs. You brush a large spider off of your leg, as you stand. The hallway stretches off in two directions.

You begin down the black granite hallway. All kinds of creep crawlys scuttle away at the approach of your light. The corridor is about 4 feet wide, and 8 feet tall, and it's closeness is a little pressing. It twists and turns, always in 90 degree turns. Some time later a loud brief hum noise echo's down the corridor. You continue will a little more caution. About 5 more minutes of walking, and you come to a straight section that ends in collapsed rubble.

Large chunks of black granite fill the hallway with a mess, and they are covered in a dried redness. By falling, they have opened a vertical tunnel of sorts, that apparently goes up a couple floors. You climb up, and peak into the next tunnel. It is old and cobweb covered, and stretches off in two directoins. You hear voices above you. You climb up another level to take a peak, and you find yourself in halfways into an old drain of some type, and an iron grate is to your left. The drain and grate are caked in something dried, and red.

Through the grate you see several figures. The room is long, and high, and supported by carved pillars. A huge throne of granite sits at the end. The throne is at the end of a huge black granite table, that stretches down the length of the room. A huge form sits in the throne. It is about 15 feet tall, and heavily muscled, and quite female. It has tanned skin, and wears a black smock. There are 8 figures in the chairs about the table. All of them also somewhat oversized. There is a 12 foot tall creature, with a human body, and 10 snake heads. A creature that looks to be half man, half hyena. Another has the body of a woman, but the head of an arachnid. Also there is an elephant man, an eagle man, with feathery arms, a cat woman, and finally a man with a crocodile head. They all sit about, some of them eating, some of them sipping drinks, but you can not see the table top from your angle. They all talk, and it seem the one in the throne is in charge, or at least, the chairman. You pick up a one name immediately. The woman in the throne is called Sharaka. Occasionally some lean over the table and point to it's surface (you can't see the table top from this angle) They are speaking in a language that you do not know.

Between you and the throne is a large black slab, and you see that the floor around it is carved to direct fluid to flow into the drain. The floor is stained red.

They all radiate magic. They have overlapping magic spells on. The room radiates magic (that stops at the grate about 8 inches in front of you. The alter radiates magic. The conversation is fairly calm and collect. It is orderly, and no one speaks out of turn. You are reminded of watching an elven council. A couple times voices raise somewhat. It appears that they are debating on several issues. They continualy refer to whatever it is that is on the table. Pointing, gesturing, and sometimes manipulating. When they manipulate it, they use long sticks and poke and prod at whatever it is.

At one point a couple humans come in with trays of food and deposit the steaming food upon the tables. The humans are silent and solemn. Some trays are taken away. They do not halt their conversation. As you listen, you begin to listen to the style of talking, and it reminds you of the bits of Gyshin common that you were taught by the slave in Kara-Tur. Though so far you have recognized no actual words.

Leaving the long conversation behind, you head out into the tunnels, with a peice of paper and a pen out as you walk. The tunnels are quite extensive, and you've been walking for quite some time, (all on lower levels), when you finally have mapped out these sections. They are all old and unused because at various points they are blocked, or collapsed. A couple of them might allow a rat through, but not someone so large as you. The temple does seem quite old, and all of the collapsed points seem to have collapsed at around the same time, or event. Possibly an earthquake? Anyway, you found one more spy point on your searches, apparently a crack in a wall that you could look through and look into a store room. It was dark, but your light you could see the large forms of sacks, and shelving. You also found 7 things that weren't hallways. 3 were ex bedrooms, looks like cramped full of pads for servants. They were all empty, though one block had fallen from the ceiling and now lay on a skeletons crushed skull (the skeletal body splayed out to one side). 2 more rooms are store rooms, where you find decrepid brooms, rope, buckets, cloth, and various other rotting supplies. One was the original gutter that you probably would be able to crawl down (though it would be a tight fit), and finally the doors. You found a hallway ending in double doors. Two magical lit torches cling to the walls, and the floor approaches the doors seem clear of dust. (there is a distinct point in the hall where dust stops...)

Standing up, you take a look around. The ground about you is a dry reddish dirt. In the sky above you, the sun beats down, though it isn't as hot as you'd expect. You are on a fairly barren hillside, with red rocky outcroppings stretching off behind you. Down in a valley before you, you see a wide river cutting through the landscape, it's purplish waters wide and slow moving. Bordering the river, the land is green and fertile, and you see large area's given over to farming. You pick yourself up, and the book on how to Harness your mind powers, but as you look about, it is apparently missing. You were sure it came through with you, and yet you can find no evidence of it's existance. Down river someways, you can see what apparently is a huge city. Near it, the river is crammed full of river boats.

As you consider what to do, there is suddenly a loud humming, and as it increases to an unbearable amount, a huge shape shudders over top of you. As you fall to the ground clutching your ears, you look up to see a huge boat fly past overhead. As the sound lessens, the large flying vessel wisks through the air away from you, making a B-line for the city.

You walk across the dusty land, down into the valley. You see a few small animals scurrying about in the dust, on the way, but nothing larger than a rabbit. You finally come to a road, with the vast farmland between it and the river. The road is dusty, and red. As you walk down, you pass your first group of natives. You pass a party of 10 lizard men. They are supporting on their backs, a huge pole, with a fearsome creature, about 10 feet long, with a hard chitineous shell, 4 legs, and a maw that looks like it's been taken off of one of those nasty looking beetles. The thing is dead, with several obvious wounds. It takes all 10 lizard men to lug the thing down the road. You pass by and continue on.

You pass a few more groups of lizard men, active in various tasks of moving vegetables, or taking some strange animals to and fro. They seem to have squat things, about 5 feet long, and 4 feet wide, that look like cockroaches, to pull things, and work as labor animals.

As you get nearer to the city, small vendors begin having shops set up on the side of the road, and the road gets more busy. After about 40 minutes of gradually increasing traffic (it's getting nigh impossible to walk about without lizard people slamming into you), you reach the main gates to the city. Written in common above the city walls, is the word "Whelnor". The gates are at least 50 feet high, made of some reddish stone. On various points in the wall are small porches, where soldiers stand with odd metal staffs, looking down into the crowd. The odd thing is that the soliders are human. The gates are wide open, and a press of people fill it's void. The clamour of the vendors and the selling going on inside and out is very loud.

A noise begins to slowly make it's way into your consciousness. It begins as a quiet rumbling. Then you notice the leaves on the branch near you begin to shake. The platform you are on begins to shudder slightly. You grab a branch beside you for balance. The elf beside you (you think his name is Drishmorkan) reaches for a branch as well, but also lifts his horn to his mouth, and sucks in a lung full of air, ready to blow warning.

Then you see them.

The effect is nothing less than stunning. Even you who have seen the demons hordes filling the sky above Myth Drannor on it's final day, have to be impressed by the wall of sheer terror charging through the forest. A wave of giant insects pushes forward, trees fall in their wake here or there as the press of insects comes through the forest.

The horns begin blowing.

You look down at your crossbow and wonder what the point of it is. There are millions of the things.....

But elven will does not die easily. And besides, it wasn't like you weren't expecting this. Once they could no longer breech the magical ground beneath the elven communities, a frontal assault was there only hope remaining. And frontal assaults are the kind of thing this elf home was built for, over 10 000 years ago. As the first insects begin passing the line that signifies the old elf homes border, the begin exploding. You fire down your magical bolt, which explodes far back in their reaches in a huge ball of fire and shrapnel. The whole in the ranks fills quickly. Drishmorkan begins loosing magical bolts as well. He hand is a blur, as the forest fills with the roar of magical and energy being unleashed in pure form.

Sheets of lightening and power arc through the forest, cutting, maiming, and exploding the insect army. The flying bits of chitin begin wipping past. A large peice embeds itself in your leg. Your stumble back, but then gain balance, and continue reloading and firing your crossbow. One rather nasty one leaps from a nearby tree towards your platform, but Drishmorkan looses an arrow which forms a single beam of light. The thing explodes in good and chitin in mid air.

Walls wood, and ice begin appearing between trees, and the things are crushed into them by their comrades. You see a few flights of mages whip over your heads too let loose their weapons of death down upon the creatures.

Not a living member of the army had yet made it 30 feet into the elven home. You hear a familiar loud clacking noise, and the army halts, and begins reversing. Taking such horrible losses in the first few moments, that a retreat be called. But they're not going to get away this time. The elves are ready.

More horn calls begin unleashing, and as you watch the first ground underneath the whole army errupts in death, as millions upon millions of insects begin pouring out of the ground and eating into the army. The death cries of the chitin covered horrors are high and screeching.

As you continue to loose bolts into them, suddenly the grey sky goes black, and the wind picks up. Arcs of lighting begin slamming down into the army.

The final horn calls are given, and the roar of the elves are defeaning, as they charge into the battle. The ancient powerful ones, in gleaming armor, with powerful flame etched swords charge out into the melee of the army. You leap gracefully out of your tree, and charge forward, the ancient elven dagger known as "Klithstorn" urging you forward to feel ichor upon it's blade.

The elven chain armor that you wear feels like silk, as you leap onto the back of a huge mantis creature. The dagger slams into the things neck, and it's head explodes into a mess. You leap away from the body and charge off, before it can collapse.

Even with the battle magic and fearsome weapons, the day stretches on, and many are killed. You are not among them, but by the time you all struggle back to your camps to rest, the cheers are deafening. The horrible army of mantis creatures that have almost ended the elven empires, cover the forest floor for 5 miles in every direction, their threat ended.

But soon the hard work will begin. Apparently the Gyshin have attacked everywhere, in some massive combined assault, and the bad news is rolling in. The elves will be needed. The decision to leave the elf home was already made a month ago. You are already packed. The elven army leaves tomorrow, to fight for Toril.