Adventure 6: Tiger Sword Glade

After a few days of waiting around Tahirah, the group was brought back to the library where Sihamuni presented them with his initial findings from the Auran Tomes they brought him. He also gave Steiger some information regarding the Dark Witches, one of whom was shown on his cameo trinket.

With new information in tow, the group turned southward toward Tiger Sword Glade. There Anden, the half-elf sorcerer, hoped to consult the sage Yash about his identity and the mysterious cube he'd been carrying around. The first step toward the glade was the Feypool, the sacred lake that the elves' saw as their Edenic beginnings.

Kappa are mischievous water imps.

At the Feypool, they saw the priests setting up camp along the shore, among them Jarumi, whom they'd met at Kali. Jarumi exclaimed that kappa--water imps--had taken over the shrine. They devised mechanical devices to leach away the power of the prayer stones (ino-ishi), and that the dimmed light of the stones brought forth a gumon, a strange spirit creature. The stones had to be freed and reactivated through magical prayer in order for the gumon to be vanquished.

Gumon appear wherever

 divine energy is weak.

The party went into the Feypool shrine where they encountered the long-limbed gumon and the kappa. While party rogue Ichirou disabled the devices around the ino-ishi, the party kept the gumon at bay. With Elaria re-lighting the stones, the party was able to take care of the gumon and free the shrine's divine energy.

Continuing westward, the party overcame a thick wall of brambles and continued to the glade. There they encountered tiger guardians as well as a weretiger, Vepkhi, who had been cursed by Yash ages ago in order to protect the sage. Elaria managed to stymie the tigers' aggression, but Vephki demanded proof of worth. Steiger tried him in combat, but was knocked out.

Vephki was still pleased with the party's actions, and Yash appeared. The sage was a giant, winged white tiger. Unlike Rajasaru, he was more into directness and pride than mental games. Yash told Anden that his small cube was the key to the gates of Adanir, the lost city of the Elder Elves. He recounted how when Shisano lifted Ishtar to the heavens (whose tears became the wood elves), she was with Shen's child, and this child had to stay behind. The child was looked after by the gold dragon Annayur, along with some elven disciples, and through this was born the Elder Elves, a noble and proud elfin lineage who built a great citadel in the Sacanno Mountains, the massive ranged separating Tahirah and Majirah.

Adanir had locked itself away, however, at the close of the second age, and was more a mythical city than any real place. To find its entrance would be a treacherous journey. The group debated which leads they should follow up on, and how they should deal with the threat of Naga invasion. Anden suggested going to Adanir might prove useful in helping bring them into that fight as well, and so the group decided to head back east. They asked Yash for a ride to Cairona, so they could travel back to the temple-city of Mor-Mehr, a rumored shrine to a gold dragon, and a good place to start.

Yash, the great Tiger Sage.

Upon Yash's back they flew toward the city, covering miles in moments, and the party set out for a new adventure.

• The Auran Tomes were translated by Sihamuni, the royal librarian at Tahirah. They mentioned accounts of Kazim the Abjurer's time among the wind djinn, as well as the history of the Astara Desert and unions between the Majirahans and the Elder Elves.
• The Feypool is the holy birthplace of the elves, a great lake that is tended by priests. The group rekindled the shrine's prayer stones and battled a gumon spirit creature.
• Tiger Sword Glade is the home of the great sage, Yash. It is protected by Vephki, who was transformed into a tiger guardian by Yash when the sage caught him hunting in the forests.
• Yash explained that the noble Elder Elves are separate from the Tahirah wood elves, and given that Queen Shahrzad had a cold reaction to Anden's parentage, it might seem there is bad blood between the peoples.
• The Elder Elves were bearers of powerful magic, including flying carpets which they traded with Majirah. They dwell in Adanir, a citadel hidden among the great mountains between Tahirah and Majirah.

The Auran Tomes

Here are the translations of the Auran Tomes that were found beneath Rhotas Barav.


Auran Tome 1: Recordings of Kazim the Abjurer

The first tome is a record of Kazim the Abjurer’s time in the city of the wind-djinn, under the rule of the Djinni lord, Al‘Ŝafan Anil, the Sky Caliph. This kingdom was ruled in a vibrant city that floated about a mile above the dunes called The Citadel of the Winds. Its ruins are now shrouded in sandstorms and clouds, rechristened the Hanging Gardens in the Astara Desert near Majirah.

Most of Kazim’s entries record the lives of the djinn, and how they felt the Majirahans were spoiling the lands of the desert since they’d driven out the Nagas. Indeed, he remarks how the vegetation had been “creeping more and more toward the mountains and coasts since the Shah came into power.”

“The djinn of the winds are kind, if not mercurial, proud of their heritage and nomadic lifestyle. Indeed, like the wind, they are quick to change their dreams and whims, but are still fond of the characteristic nobility and honor-bound oaths that all djinn are known for. They quite lament the loss of the Naga Kingdom, having been burned down by the Majirahan armies to drive them westward, and ever since the verdant hills have become more and more bare for the sake of a human empire.”

Of note are several entries he makes years later.

“The djinn are being courted by powers greater than I. Indeed, even the Naga King Vasuki has hinted that if he could harness the djinn’s power he could exact revenge on all mortals. My time in the Citadel is becoming more fearsome, while I watch my back from supernatural predators in the hopes of making sure no one can use the djinn’s powers for ill will. Friendships may be made of strong bonds, but none is stronger than the will of the Creator to prevent the destructive desires of Evil.”

And later:

“It is with a heavy heart I return to the Citadel of the Winds. My intentions are not as honorable as the Sky Caliph believes, and it is after I have done my duty and sealed him away that I can rest easy. Indeed, after what the Radiant Lord took as his penance for being sealed, I can sleep easier knowing—or rather, not knowing—what I have given up. Each djinn-vessel requires a price, and Al‘Ŝafan Anil’s vessel is that of air. Memories are ethereal, floating in an invisible tether between sensation and consciousness, and these I happily give up if it means I do not have to relive the knowledge I gave my wife and son to the Efreet.”

Auran Tome 2: The Djinn of the Sands

The second tome is (part of) an account of the history of what is now the Astara Desert. It is written by a djinn scholar named Al’Aziran, who says in the introduction, “much of what I write is the truth, although mortals would have you believe we were to blame for the calamities. In actuality, it is the existence of Free Will among both djinn and mortals that conquers.”

Al’Aziran explains that the Creator fashioned three beasts on the Middle World: Leviathan, the serpent of Water that guards the Eastern Oceans; Ziz, the bird of the Air, who perches upon the tower of Zenith and hunts the Great Wasteland Desert of Falak; and the Behemoth, the beast of Earth. 

While Ziz and Leviathan have survived, the Behemoth was slain in a joint hunt by djinn, Nagas, and Men (who would later found Majirah). This massive battle created the Scar, the massive crevasse that runs between the two deserts. It is said Behemoth’s remains sit at the bottom of the scar, waiting to be picked by vulturous wizards and treasure hunters.

The tome also explains that the djinn, when driven out by Majirahans and Elder Elves of the Mountains, went into the desert and hid in the city of Ubar, whose presence is hidden by the raging sandstorms and heat of the Wasteland.

“Indeed, the greatest threat of the desert was the union of the Majirahans and the Elder Elves of AdanÍr, who under the protection of Annayur, created an army of flying-carpet cavalry and sand-storm rangers. Until the alliance broke down, this Empire of the Suns proved troublesome, until Kazim the Abjurer quieted the power of the djinn inside his brass vessels.”

The final chapters begin to explain the history of the Djinn of Ubar, saying that “the realm is lost to mortals with whom the djinn wish no contact, but those who can find the dragon of the sands, Shabnan, may ply him for the city’s whereabouts.

“For the acolytes of Ŝirahz have proven friendly to the djinn, devoted to the power of their dragon and not Celestial manifest destiny. Understanding the clues to a dragon’s whereabouts (such as Majirahan scholars can attest) can bring fortune to travelers looking for the hospitality of the acolytes or the djinn.”

Lastly, the tome also explains the djinn crafted many items that could be unlocked only by djinn blood, that these relics—often weapons and the like—were designed so that the djinn could be protected from their enemies. The djinn of Ubar can recraft these tools if need be, allowing another to harness their power. Such items were lost when many djinn settlements failed, like those of Al-Duram and Kinshala in Lost Khandar.