On the Outside Timeline

Arc One

Scenario One

Our Arrival

• We four arrived in a darkened, dusty locale that smelt of old darkness and memory. With a small degree of stumbling about, eventually we found light and found ourselves in an ancient vault of some kind, filled with wooden shelves groaning with all manner of gew-gaws and trinkets.
  • Ever martially-minded, Riddle discovered a small dirk and a somewhat tattered hunter's bow.
• Eventually we found a door just in time to greet the arrival of a young boy, Threeq, who turned out to be a scout of some manner. Helhet immediately proclaimed the boy the fortunate first of his servants.
• Our questions of the lad were interrupted by the arrival of the three tomb-robbers who'd sent him down there in the first place.
  • Corby immediately reached upward, to the thin line of condensation where the cold of the stones above his head met the heated sands above them, and from there pulled down his Mists, surrounding himself in them and disappearing from sight.
  • Riddle and Helhet met them each in their own way: Riddle with blade and violence, and Helhet with recriminations and castigation. Both were effective, in their own way.
  • Jack, in the meantime, [Did something I really don't remember. Ack!]
• Defeating them, Corby and Helhet returned to the shelves, checking to see if there was anything of use. Threeq remained with us, fearful of Corby and strangely drawn to Helhet, who continued to insist the boy was his new servant.
  • Both of them discovered some raiment better suited to their august presences, and Corby found a magical harp of prodigious size that played the Winter Revel, a song of far-off Saruma, flooding him with memories, and the song he sang for the (unfortunately pock-marked) raven-haired girl with ice-blue eyes.
• Jack, a little further down the tunnel that led out, was in position to warn us of the arrival of six more of the thieves.
  • A conflict broke out once more, with Jack being buried beneath a pile of thieves, Riddle fishing their leader out of the pile and threatening him, and Helhet once more exerting his power over one of them, filling him with fear. Corby, as seems to be typical, hid in his Mists.
• The thieves invited us to meet their master, the esteemed Hassim al-Jadar.

Meeting the Lord of Thieves

• We agreed to the meeting, and Corby press-ganged two of the thieves into carrying his harp with them on the trip to the encampment.
• There we entered a splendid pavilion of great size, thick-woven rugs covering the sands, and a man of some severe countenance reclining in its middle, literally being fed grapes and fanned by palm leaves.
  • (How dedicated his servants must be, to pack palm leaves! The desert was only sand and dunes for as far as the eye could see, with not a single palm tree in sight! Very commendable.)
  • Introducing themselves, the four escapees made the acquaintance of Hassim al-Jadar, and Corby made a gift to him of the harp.
• After some inquiries and attempts to learn about one another, Hassim al-Jadar revealed that he was one of us, another escapee of the Prison.
  • Though he was reluctant to speak too much about himself, Corby was able to divine from his interests and a few choice slips of tongue that they were speaking to the Lord of Thieves himself, the legendary Roos Gar'ub.
  • He intimated that some of us had met him before, in particular making mention of Jack and the "Cave of Wonders" at some point. Delightful!
• We learned some things about the state of the Tapestry.
  • We had been gone some two hundred years (although there's no guarantee that we'd all been gone the same length of time). Magic was considered a mere bit of folklore and superstition.
  • We also learned that he considered it dangerous for multiples of we escapees to gather together, for it strengthened whatever it was in us that allowed the Knights of the Lock and Key to find us. It seems these knights claimed to be connected to whatever force it was that imprisoned us.
• Moreover, many of the ancient items of magic - potent relics and little magics alike - were locked away in things called censoria (censorium singular).
  • It seems that contact with these relics helped the escapees to recover their memories of ancient days more readily, as Corby could vouch for from his experience with the harp.
• Eventually, though, he expressed a desire for us to leave his domain, and suggested that we find new names to serve us in this new Tapestry.
  • Around that time, we divined the presence of a spy in our midst, a little sand-flea shaped like Threeq. The boy was hauled into the tent, and Corby suggested the boy should accompany them as a guide and helper. (Plus, really, the boy now knew quite a bit about us.)
• The rest of our meeting was interrupted by servants warning us of the arrival of a danger of some kind, one which we assumed was the Knights of the Lock and Key he warned us about.
  • With that, we asked for mounts and equipment, which he provided, albeit of unmagnanimous quality and quantity. He even refused to provide us weapons.
  • Along the way out, Corby waylaid one of the soldiers rushing about, convincing the man that his master had told him to fetch us a sword. In order to make us leave him alone to tend to his other duties, he gave us his, which Corby promptly gave to Riddle.
• The four escapees, plus their guide, fled, riding two to a horse (Riddle and Helhet together, Corby and Jack together, and Threeq perched precariously atop the pack horse).

Awaiting Nightfall

• Riddle's power of Seeking found us a good hiding place to await nightfall, to ease travel discreetly.
• Whiling away the time until sunset, Corby kept trying to call upon his blackthorne staff, to no effect. Threeq noticed his attempts, and asked some pointed questions about who he was.
  • Corby was not the only one to evade those questions.
• Further conversation with Threeq led to a discovery that the folk of the Tapestry believed magic to be corruptive and evil, and only something called "utilimancy" was still in any kind of use.

Scenario Two(?)

Arrival in Mandala

• Avoid any troubles in desert; arrive in river valley and see the city Mandala where the Bright College awaits.
• Entering into Mandala through the Crimson Gate, Riddle engages in some petty theft...er, accepts a gift from fate itself.
• Interrogate some foolish girls about where to find geography or history. They direct us to the School of Arcane Lore.
  • Once arriving there, we find the Department of Wayfaring, and Helhet elects to interrogate a student, who seems very intent on not being taken in, slipping away.