From musseauh@esiee.fr Mon Sep 30 12:31:09 1996 Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 10:54:14 +0100 From: Herve MUSSEAU Reply-To: mystara-l@io.com To: mystara-l@io.com Subject: [Mystara] 1014FAL SVIFTMONT 3, AC 1014 Event: Prince Jaggar von Drachenfels ends his affair with Dolores Hillsbury and the two seem forever opposed in Council meetings. Meaning: Two years ago, Prince Malachie brought Jaggar some scales of a dragon and wanted to learn which type of dragon they were. Jaggar has been intrigue because despite being the master Dracologist, he has never seen that type of scale/dragon before. After a few more talks with Malachie and sending his spies out to discover where the Prince of Morlay-Malinbois found these scales, Jaggar has eventually discovered that Dolores has something to do with them. (Malachie did not tell him directly as he finds it would be more believable if Jaggar finds out for himself) After examining everything he has done since taking up with Dolores, including supporting Kol and his kobolds over the elves of Erewan, Jaggar becomes dismayed at the fool he has been. He has vowed to destroy Dolores for the chaos she has caused in Glantri, and for the evil he has unknowingly done in her name. But he knows better than to try and confront her directly. As all Princes/mages do in Glantri, he begins to use his influence and political power to destroy her on the political level since a direct confrontation between Princes is not allowed without sufficient cause (personal hatred does not count, nor does not being human, in Glantri). Also, he has more pressing matters of planning the defense of his nation against Ethengar's invasion, which could come at any time. This is a battle he has been waiting for a long time and wants to make sure everything is perfect. SVIFTMONT 4, AC 1014 Event: Back in the Makkres Mountains, Thar, Psa'gh, and the survivors of their hordes return to Thar's lair and gather what they can in terms of supplies and new recruits. The rag-tag horde then leaves the area and moves south, toward Rockhome. Meaning: Thar and Psa'gh have been soundly beaten by the humans, and they know it. They view that Thar's lair in the Makkres is undefendable with the small number of humanoids they have with them, so they want to move as far away from the humans as they can. The logical choice was toward Rockhome; a large area of the dwarven nation, particularly near three volcanoes, is rather barren of dwarven settlements. The two goblinoid leaders view this as the best place for them to once more gather their forces. SVIFTMONT 6, AC 1014 Event: The Kin faction publicly declare that the turmoil currently happening in Ylaruam are all because of the Preceptors, their Sultan, and their political method of dealing with foreigners. They make proud speeches about how the true Ylari way and way of Al-Kalim is the warrior way, not by the weakness of the so-called "civilized" people of the rest of the world. The preach out that the brave warriors should help restore the Kin faction to lead Ylaruam, to return the Ylari to glorious warriors they should be. The sides are therefore made in the Ylari civil war; the Alasiyani (Preceptors) against the Abbashani (Kin). The other Emirates help neither side officially as the tribes within are more or less evenly split between the two, or just don't want to participate. Meaning: This is the official declaration of war against the sultan by the Kin faction. Although is was tribe against tribe at first, now there are definite sides, and thanks to the news spread around the nation of what has happened in Ylaruam City during the World Games (admittedly mostly exaggerated by the Kin), the Kin faction is receiving enough support to stage their coup. SVIFTMONT 12, AC 1014 Event: Princess Tanadaleyo of Rafielton again invites the former elves of Alfheim over to discuss peace and help save the forest. She states that the attempted assassination was not at all sanctioned by her, and that they are still looking for the individual shadow elf who fired the first arrow so he can receive proper punishment. She claims that elf must have been one of the discontent of her nation who are paroinoid of the surface elves, just as the Alfheim Avengers who have been constantly raiding them the past year or so are paranoid of shadow elves. Tanadaleyo wishes to prove that only a minority, on BOTH sides, wishes for war, while most want to live together in peace. Unfortunately, after the last incident, the former elves of Alfheim are rather insecure about returning to the land of their enemies. A few of the more adventurous ones do go back, but they are always on the edge, expecting a trap, and discussions go very slowly. Meaning: Princess Tanadaleyo's statement is more or less true. Although she has no love for the former elves of Alfheim and couldn't care less what they do, she does need them. First, they have the magic necessary to save the Canolbarth forest, which she and her people have come to see as theirs, especially since they are the ones who caused its present state of near- destruction. Even more important now, she needs them for the influence they can have on the Shadow elves of Rafielton. She has noticed the steady entrance of worshippers of Atzanteotl into her nation from the city of Aengmor and believe it to be rather dangerous. Her own spies report that the Atzanteotl elves are preparing a rebellion against the shamans of Rafiel, although they have no idea how they are planning to do it. Although Tanadaleyo herself dislikes the shamans and wants to get rid of them, she would rather keep the power for herself rather than simply replacing the control of the shamans of Rafiel with the control of the shamans of Atzanteotl. That is why she would like her people to see the way of the elves of Alfheim as there was no religious control in their nation. Admittedly, the priests/Tree Keepers of Ilsundal were respected, but they did not have the political power shamans do in the shadow elf lands (more accurately, they did have the power, just rarely used it beyond advising the Clan Leaders, but the shadow elves don't know that). She would therefore rather see her elves become more like the surface elves than those of the city of Aengmor. SVIFTMONT 19, AC 1014 Event: The ambassadors of the Western Defense League in Ylaruam inform the Sultan that they are willing to send him, the rightful ruler of Ylaruam, troops to help stop the rebellion. Sultan Mohammed Al-Kalim refuses their aid as to bring in more infidels to help him will only make matters worse in the eyes of his people. EIRMONT 1, AC 1014 Event: A significant portion of both the Kin and Preceptor factions' armies are wiped out on the battlefield by a sandstorm. Meaning: This is just bad luck on the both sides of the war. The sandstorm is completely natural, and just happened to strike on the battlefield of the two groups. Although the number of casualties are equal on both sides, the Preceptors have just lost their best leaders in the storm. EIRMONT 7, AC 1014 Event: Tension begins to grow in the Freedom Warriors. Many of the units not directly under Anand or Sitara's command start to ignore her suggestions or plans. This begins to cause loses in various strikes that should have been easy victories. Meaning: The underground movement of Sind had been started by the Rishiyas. They have been wanting to get rid of the Prophet of Gareth for some time now, but since she has been helping their movement so well, they decided to leave things alone for a while. In fact, that has helped them out tremendously, as Sitara and Anand have done amazing feats for the rebel movement. But now the common people are beginning to associate the Freedom Warriors with Gareth, and this is beginning to scare the Rishiyas once more. The occasional rumor that Sitara is the mortal incarnation of Himayeti has struck and even bigger nerve to the priests of the traditional cleric caste. They are beginning to fear that the Immortals will take offense at such blasphemy and curse them to fail at freeing their nation if they allow it to continue. But the Prophet is too much of a hero now, so they simply cannot eliminate her. The Rishiya are taken an indirect route by ignore her plans and suggestions, hoping that the people notice the Freedom Warriors make mistakes and blame it on their "leader", the Prophet of Gareth. None of them seem to think of the possible result of losing Sind to Hule by destroying their own resistance movement themselves with such internal conflicts. EIRMONT 9, AC 1014 Event: The Glantrian agents of Synn discover the obsidian dome that covers the portals of the Dead Place. They kill their guides to prevent them from telling anyone else that they have found it, then begging to dig up the huge obsidian bowl so they can examine it further. The leader of the group teleports back to Glantri to inform Dolores (Synn) of their discovery and to gather more servants to help in the digging (probably goblinoids). Meaning: Synn has now found a place of great magic and is rather interested in seeing what she can learn from it. It will be some time before her agents can dig up the depression, as they fear using magic too close to such a magical place, which could have disastrous consequences. EIRMONT 23, AC 1014 Event: The commoners of the Heldann Freeholds start a massive riot/rebellion in the city of Hockstein. Unlike other revolts, this one is well lead, planned, and funded (by the gold stolen several months ago). Geoffrey of Grunturm has been in the city for a while, making the plans and providing magical support to the revolt. Meaning: There is no hidden meaning here. The people of the Heldannic Territories are once again trying to free their land of the rulership of the Heldannic Knights. This time, the revolt has been well planned, and the Knights are lacking in their magical (clerical) support they normally have, giving the rebels the best chance they have had in decades. EIRMONT 28, AC 1014 Event: After a few days of fighting with the garrisons of Knights present in Hockstein, the peasants manage to take over the city while the Knights barricade themselves in the central keep. By this stage, most of the commoners of the city has joined sides with the rebellion seeing that there is actually the chance that they might win. Geoffrey immediately sets men to watch the city walls, now heavily fortified thanks to the rulership of the Knights for the past several decades. He prepares plans for surviving the siege that is sure to follow by the reinforcements sent by Freiburg. KALDMONT 2, AC 1014 Event: As predicted, forces from Freiburg and Grauenberg arrive to help the Knights in Hockstein, but are kept outside by the peasants who are driven to ridding their lands of the Knights. A long siege starts. KALDMONT 8, AC 1014 Event: After the rising tensions between various factions of elves within Rafielton, Princess Tanadaleyo declares that there will be no official religion of Rafiel in Rafielton. Elves may choose themselves which one they want to follow. The statement is backed by General Garafaele of Aengmor. The City of Stars declares such acts as rebellious and warn that necessary actions will be taken to restore the religion of Rafiel before too much blasphemy transpires. Meaning: Tanadaleyo is trying to reduce the tensions without declaring either Way of Rafiel the right one. She would rather abolish the Way of Rafiel completely, so choosing one or the other will just make it all the harder for her to get rid of it later. Unfortunately, this answer satisfies none of the groups, especially with the cult of Atzanteotl hiding in the shadows, pulling strings, and just causing trouble while drawing little or no attention to themselves. KALDMONT 11, AC 1014 Event: In the city of Akorros, a shrine built in the honor of the Immortal Gareth is completed today. Meaning: The shrine is a small church; nothing fancy enough to be called a temple. Still, the high priest Arturo Olivera has managed to attract enough followers in the city to fill it during the ceremonies. It seems the people of Darokin can accept the philosophy of Gareth that mortals are not the plaything of the Immortals above. Many also simply come to see what this Immortal who has a priestess who seems to be single-handedly running the underground movement in Sind (or so claim the rumors that leak back to Darokin) can do. KALDMONT 15, AC 1014 Event: After weeks of fighting throughout the desert of Ylaruam, the Kin faction finally make their move on the City of Ylaruam. The capital of the Preceptors is surrounded and all trade supplies are blocked off, including access to the oases just outside of town. Meaning: The Kin faction has had the advantage ever since the sandstorm. Although both sides lost an almost equal number of men, the Preceptors lost their best leaders and warriors, while the Kin only lost ordinary warriors. Since then, the Kin have been out-maneuvering the Preceptors on the battlefield and slowly winning the war in the desert. KALDMONT 17, AC 1014 Event: Having started to feel the loss of power she once had in Glantri, Synn decides to try and cause trouble elsewhere in the Known World. She sends a powerful lich called Deimos to work on harassing Darokin to the South. Using her connection with Prince Kol, Synn sends several humanoid forces with Deimos to the Broken Lands. She also sends one of her shadow elf agents to act as Deimos' general of the humanoids. Once in the Broken Lands, the lich uses his magic to create a tower to act as his headquarters while his humanoids roam the area, gathering all the humanoids still alive and hiding on the shadow elves. These humanoids, still afraid of the shadow elves, are eager to join what appears to be a powerful horde in the making. Deimos calls his base Sable Tower. Synn herself occasionally visits the Dead Place in Ylaruam to see if her agents there have discovered anything new. Also, to make sure no one can link her to Dolores Hillsbury, she takes on another human form, this time with long blond hair (instead of the dark hair of Dolores), when she visits her followers in other nations. Meaning: As mentioned, with the loss of Jaggar, Synn in losing her political pull as Dolores Hillsbury in Glantri. Since she just has to cause chaos, she has decided to send some of her forces elsewhere to inflict chaos in other lands. Darokin has now become one of her targets. The shadow elves sent with Deimos will help keep the Shadow elves of the city of Aengmor away from the tower, hiding the humanoid forces there from the elves. The civil war of the shadow elves also helps. These shadow elf agents were originally spies on Glantri, but came to love the power, magic, and cutthroat politics of the human nation and decided to stay in Glantri rather than return to the City of Stars. Dolores Hillsbury learned of them and hired most of them to work for her. The spies, having been trained by Xatapechtli, were already evil since they are assassins without any compassion for their enemies. They got along rather well with Synn. Anyone who recognizes the names will know that Deimos and the above plot comes from the arcade game "D&D: Tower of Doom." The adventure of the arcade games are rather good and can easily be made into a standard rpg-module type game and even a complete campaign plot. It is my belief that the events of the arcade game take place in the year AC 1015, while those of the follow up game "D&D: Shadow over Mystara" take place in the year AC 1017. The actual details of the plot can be given in the AC 1015 version of this on-line Almanacs. KALDMONT 19, AC 1014 Event: The Kin faction breaks into Ylaruam and manage to take over the city. Sultan Mohammed Al-Kalim is captured by the Kin faction, as well as several members of the Council of Preceptors. The Kin declare that the Council of Preceptors will now be replaced with the Council of the Kin, and that the new Sultan of Ylaruam will be Hassan Al-Kalim, a true blood descendant of Suleiman Al-Kalim (for more information on the two factions and Al-Kalim's "bloodline," see GAZ 2: Ylaruam, p.4). Meaning: The Kin have just taken over Ylaruam. Although most of the Council of Preceptors has been captured, some have escaped, as have the other Preceptors not on the council. KALDMONT 20, AC 1014 Event: Winter finally arrives in the Heldannic Territories, and the Knights are forced to retreat from besieging the city of Hockstein. Meaning: A part of the plan was to wait until winter to make their move, as the snow and cold would force besieging enemies to leave of freeze to death. With the departure of the Knights outside the city, the rebels now have the whole winter to rest and recuperate, as well as prepare for the next onslaught come spring. KALDMONT 21, AC 1014 Event: After a "trial", Mohammed Al-Kalim and the Council of Preceptors are executed for treason against the nation of Ylaruam, having let the foreigners roam freely on sacred and holy ground and corrupt the citizens of Ylaruam. Foreigners in Ylaruam are also ordered to leave the country on pain of death, and all laws of murder and assault shall no longer apply when inflicted upon an infidel. The Council of the Kin close the borders of Ylaruam to foreign trade. Ylaruam also withdraws from the Western Defense League. Meaning: The position of Hassan is now very secure. The few remaining Preceptors flee to various nomad tribes still loyal to their beliefs. They intend to stay in hiding until the time is right to reclaim their rightful rulership of Ylaruam. Anyone harboring a Preceptor is considered to be an Outlaw under the new Sultan, so the tribes are very careful about this. As for the foreigners in Ylaruam, it is now acceptable for any Ylari to kill them. The new Sultan has ordered them to leave, and has not given them any time of grace for them to do so. The only ones who will get out without any trouble are the ambassadors in Ylaruam who will be escorted under guard back to the borders. KALDMONT 22, AC 1014 Event: With the propaganda spread by the worshippers of Atzanteotl in Rafielton, many of the elves begin to see Princess Tanadaleyo as a heretic who is turning her back completely on the Way of Rafiel. Tensions rise higher, people accuse each other of being traitors, and then a blow is struck. Soon, the city of Rafielton is at war; shadow elves are fighting shadow elves. The City of Stars declares war on the rebellious kingdoms of Rafielton and Aengmor, and shadow elf armies begin their march to retake the surface lands from the traitors. Meaning: The cult of Atzanteotl has started a civil war, and they don't even have to fight (although they are more than likely to get caught in the crossfire). Within a few days, the fighting quickly spreads throughout the Canolbarth Forest as "resistance" groups scatter and hide everywhere, taking up hit and run tactics on "traitors." Although the original battle was small enough to be contained by the Rafielton military, the cult of Atzanteotl started running around the city, yelling that the military was on one side or another, making them believe that others were being unfairly treated. Before anyone could sort out the truth behind what has happened, it was already too late; fighting broke out throughout the town, and militia groups had taken off into the forest to fight their war. The actions taken by the City of Stars has more to do with the influence of the shamans of Rafiel than the desires of King Telemon. The King himself cares nothing about the shamans or their way, but he knows that to openly defy them in the City of Stars, where they still have direct control, would be suicidal. Phophyriel doesn't care about the renegade elves and is glad to be rid of them, but there's still the matter of principal behind the revolt, so she uses her influence to force a punishment on the blasphemers. KALDMONT 28, AC 1014 Event: on the 28th, the Day of Dread takes place once again. No one has yet been able to solve this problem and eliminate the curse or magical effect that seems to cause the day without magic. -- Herve Musseau Primary Email: musseauh@esiee.fr Secondary Email: herve@hotmail.com Homepage: http://www.esiee.fr/~musseauh I'm a QSQWBEEEGGNFR Mystaran