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.