Favored Sons - Monthly Summary

Shattering the Dark – Aug 06
Trouble began to brew in the Sho lands. An organized group of bandits, possibly backed up by the Aluvian thieves to the north, began raiding Sawato. A Sergeant from the Temple of the Dragon of Power stepped in to help keep the peace.

Come What Follows – Sep 06
Nanjou Shou-Jen of the Tanada Clan began to appear in some of the more dangerous dungeons, apparently for the same reason we have been going there, to train their skills. However, they would attack any Isparian they came into contact with.

Remembering the Past – Nov 06
A few months passed with relative peace as the festival season came and went. Soon, Ben Ten sent a student to Shoushi to investigate the appearance of the Tanada by sending adventurers into the tanada training school, the House of Air.

At the same time, Another of Ben Ten's followers was sent to Sawato to investigate the soul hunter and his possible connection to the disappearance of Asheron. A memeber of the Exloration Society discovered a new Falatacot temple in the swamps of the direlands, where subservient Burun and Scalvi were found working together. Deep inside this temple was a Falatacot portal device, and out from this device came a Burun messenger bearing a collar with Falatacot symbols. This collar lead to another Falatacot temple near Stonehold, where a new tome was found.

Cold Tracks – Dec 06
The investigation of the Tanada continued. This time, another follower of Ben Ten sent adventurers to the long hidden Tanada House of Earth. This house was established long ago when the Sho people first came to dereth, and was thus uncorrupted by whatever was tainting the newly arrived house of air.

Ben Ten also sent a student to Cragstone to send people on the trial of Asheron by making contact with his golem Servant located at a strange empyrean site on a hill north of Holtburg.

Newer arrivals discovered something new in Folthid's cellar, the mountain sewers of Tou-Tou, and the three halls of Metos. The secrets of Asheron found in these dungeons were revealed only to the inexperienced adventurers, as they would not have the ability to recreate what the great mage had done.

Bridging the Vast Divide – Jan 07
Small hunting parties from the Tanada House of Air began to roam the southern and northern mountain ranges, attacking all who came too close. Ben Ten’s students in Shoushi and Yanshi would reward adventurers for the medallions taken from the hunting party leaders.

The location of Asheron’s golem was revealed to be the summoning site for a portal to the distant world of Bur – the location of the missing Asheron. Isparians raided falatacot strongholds to repair the summoning pedestals and retrieve the missing orbs.

Once the site was complete, prince Borelean was able to summon a portal to Bur, despite the attack launched by Falatacot agents to stop him and the rest of the Isparians.

With the portal to Bur open, Isparians began to explore the underground caverns, helping the rogue group of Burun Ruuk fight back against both the Guruk loyal to the Burun kings as well as Falatacot and their servants. However, the location of Asheron was still a mystery.

Rekindling the Light – Feb 07
After working with the Ruuk and rescuing their lost leader, the location of Asheron was discovered. Isparians were able to put a stop to the Falatacot plan to steal the unique life force of Asheron.

Back on Auberean, the golem crafters of metos began to function again, creating special golems helpful to the crafters of Dereth. A previously undiscovered colosseum was discovered in the ruins of the abandoned arena west of Yanshi, offering challenges for warriors of all strengths.

Ancient Enemies – Mar 07
Asheron returned to the safety of his castle, and opened his home to Isparians as thanks. After learning of the attack on his castle by the forces of Grael, Asheron began to collect pyreal and crystal material to construct a new Tower Guardian Golem.

The investigations into the strange behavior of the Tanada continued as yet another house was discovered. However, this newly discovered House of Water and all of its members had been twisted and altered by the rogue virindi Aerbax.

Aerbax used his altered assassins to abduct several inhabitants of Dereth: The town crier from Timaru, a drudge near Holtburg, the Bandering Champion Harraag from his lair in the Valley of Death, the grocer from Candeth Keep, and the virindi mage from Ayan Baqur.

Lord Ryhteran of the Mage Academy, wishing to restore himself to his former strength, decided to read from a mysterious book of dark magic. By this action, an ancient graveyard rose from the earth in a secluded valley in the direlands.

Strange Sightings – April 07
The fate of the bandering Harraag was revealed: Aerbrax twisted him with the combined powers of the virindi and the Shadow in an attempt to create a leader for the banderling race that he could control. The experiment failed when the banderling tribes rebelled against the altered Harraag, keeping him trapped in his lair.

There was trouble with the other children of Ezheret, the drudges and mosswarts.

The drudges became unusually organized and began to raid Cragstone, stealing everything they could get their hands on, including chunks of the fallen shadow spire. They revealed they had learned to use lifestones and warned us of their new leader Bonecrunch.

Meanwhile, a new mosswart village was constructed on the Vesayens, offering a new god for the mosswarts to follow. Isparians were sent to the various mosswart tribes to make contact with them and learn of their intentions to follow this new leader.

Last, there was a disturbance in Linvak Tukal. There were hints of a virindi connection to Lord Kresovus. Explorers discovered a hidden dungeon and a virindi guarded by strange lugians. Upon returning to Cragstone, it was revealed that the Lord Kresovus in Linvak Tukal was an imposter.

Prodigal Sons – May 07
The plans of the drudges became a reality. They contructed a huge fort from the stolen supplies from Cragstone. Underneath this fort was a vast web of tunnels leading to the throne room of Bonecrunch. It was revealed that the drudge leader was the very same drudge that Aerbax had abducted from Holtburg.

The mosswarts in their new village turned violent. Guard Hrothgar, who had lead the investigation in both the mosswarts the previous month and the missing people before that, stationed his troops in the town of Kryst to defend it from the impending mosswart assault.

Adventurers launched a strike against the mosswarts and learned the new mosswart leader, Bragara the Chosen One, was yet another pawn of Aerbax.

The crisis with the banderlings of the direlands continued as Isparians explored the newly discovered virindi lair not far from Harraag’s cave. There they discovered this dungeon was used as an observation point to watch the experiment that was Harraag.

Evolution – Jun 07
There was more trouble, this time with the tuskers and monouga.

Bobo the tusker king fell ill, and a new speaker for him appeared – the strange tusker Mudmouth. A resistance formed against mudmouth deep in the tusker emporium, and adventurers discovered that Mudmouth had poisoned Bobo with jungle orchids to take his place as the tusker leader.

In the direlands, a new cave was discovered near Teth. Virindi altered drudges were gathering large amounts of food, speculated to be stolen from Cragstone, to feed strange imprisoned tremendous monouga. The monouga were being held in some other dungeon, but could be summoned by ringing a bell.

Meanwhile in Olthoi North, new olthoi appeared. These virindi-shadow altered bugs, paradox olthoi, began to roam the lands in small groups of grubs and nymphs.

A strange portal appeared in the Black Death Catacombs – the home of the original olthoi queen Elysa slayed years ago. The portal was guarded by the strange paradox olthoi. It was unstable and could not be entered. Scattered around the portal were the corpses of the tanada from the house of water, servants of Aerbax. A note on one of their bodies revealed that they had captured a young olthoi queen for Aerbax to alter, and were then ordered to bring it to the catacombs.

Intelligent Designs – Jul 07
Paradox Olthoi infested a small valley on the southern edge of the Lost Wish mountain range, digging tunnels deep into the ground. A small group of hunters set up camp above the valley as a staging point for attacks. Those who explored the deepest regions of the catacombs found a ward guardian nymph. When it was killed the protections on the portal in the Black Death Catacombs fell and warriors were able to pour in to the new paradox hive. They discovered an egg hatchery deep inside, with a sealed door leading to even deeper tunnels.

A royal guard in Cragstone handed out gems developed by Prince Borelean that would reverse the portal magic of the bells in the monouga feeding pits. Those who dared to enter faced an army of Aerbax’s shadow and virindi minions, but they were able to recover logs of his olthoi, tusker, and monouga experiments.

Meanwhile, more tanada activity was detected near Sawato. Pau Yajin sent those who had already investigated the other Tanada houses to the nearby Temple of Black Water. There, the last remains of Aerbax’s tanada servants were being kept for further study and alteration.

Corrupted Sovereigns – Aug 07
The paradox-touched Olthoi finally began to mature into full-grown adults, and with that the way to their Queen’s lair was opened. Skilled hunters extracted scent glands from these adult olthoi to pass through the sealed door in the paradox-olthoi egg chambers. There, they were able to find their way to the Queen’s chambers and kill, but not permanently destroy her.

Mudmouth, the tusker simulacrum and pawn of Aerbax, was banished from Oolutanga’s lands when the tusker resistance was able to sneak the cure into Bobo’s food and the king awoke. After a showdown with Isparians on the mainland, Mudmouth and his henchman Dark Bobo retreated to their secret lair on a remote island of Aphus Lassel.

Dark Materials – Sep 07
There was trouble brewing with the Harbinger. Not only were there changes happening in the elemental caverns below the ruins of old Yanshi, but a new complex was discovered on the Singularity Caul. Inside, explorers found a wing full of elementals and another full of shadows. The Complex belonged to Aerbax, and it wasn't long before brave adventurers discovered his most powerful creations yet: the Prodigal Harbinger and Prodigal Shadow Child.

Masked Memories - Oct 07
It was time for the festival season again, but not all was peaceful this year. Claude the Archmage, the Virindi who was abducted from Ayan some time ago, returned to his shop. He had been twisted by Aerbax into his Prodigal Virindi, but Cluade acted as if he had never been taken and altered at all. Leopold, the other Virindi of Ayan, was concerned by his companion's change, and sent adventurers on a quest that would take them into the very mind of Claude.

Concerned with the growing number of Shadow-powered Virindi created by Aerbax now lurking in the Valley of Death, Queen Elysa sent out Royal Guards to the settlements of Ayan Baqur, Qalabar, Candeth Keep, and Wei Jhou. These soldiers tasked hunters with missions to destroy certain kinds of these new Virindi.

Back on Osteth, Al-Jalima was attacked and occupied by the forces of the Undead. Defense forces could not push out the attackers, but they did manage to discover the location of the lich behind the attacks, in a hidden dungeon inside the nearby Burial Temple.

Children of the Prodigal Lord - Nov 07
The Kresovus Doppelganger, who was another child of Aerbax's experiments, was finally removed from power and the real Lord Kresovus was rescued from the tunnels below the fortress city of Linvak Tukal. Balor's pelt was found below the city, but the fate of the beast is still a mystery.

Concern grew out of Qalaba'r of a new Prodigal Child, Hea Rheaga. But Isparians who went in search of the new threat found that Aerbax's attempt to create the ultimate Tumerok from an abducted Hea warrior failed, and Rheaga had no desire to destroy the humans or command his brothers.

A plague spread among the Carenzi of Marae Lassel and Caul. An Aun hunter was sent from Timaru to Bluespire to help direct Isparians in hunting down and eradicating the infected Carenzi.

Later, Elysa sent out a tracker named Tailen to investigate the possibility of Aerbax creating a Prodigal Human. Tailen used her tracking abilities to find the location of a hidden lab, all the while being attacked by forces of Aerbax and defended by Isparians. Inside, warriors found forces of the Martinates attacking Aerbax's lab, while Aerbax's forces, powerful hollow minions and paradox Simulacra, fought off the invading humans. Deep inside they found the missing grocer from Candeth Keep, Dojiro Sangi. He had been twisted by Aerbax into the Prodigal Isparian, but his will was too strong to be completely under control of the Virindi. With help from the adventurers, Dojiro destroyed Aerbax's experiment and took his own life.

Later still, Aerbax called out for all Isparians to come to an open area in the dunes east of Yaraq. There, Aerbax released all his Children upon the Isparians, but the humans prevailed. Afterwards, Aerbax appeared and thanked the Isparians for helping them with his experiment.

Recollections - Jan 08
The Isparian discovery of an ancient Empyrean Colosseum had an unexpected side effect: the creatures we were fighting inside were gaining just as much battle experience as we were. These super-creatures began to roam the direlands looking for Isparians.

Aerbax created devices powered by strange Virindi magic to assault three important memories: Asheron sending his people in to portal space, Elysa defeating the Dereth Olthoi Queen, and the Isparian victory over the Hopeslayer. At first it was thought that Aerbax was doing this in an attempt to break the will of the Isparians, but when his plans were thwarted, Asheron revealed that it all might have been a distraction, mentioning activity on the obsidian plains.

The Beast With Many Heads - Feb 08
The Aerbax story arc came to a conclusion when a great floating citadel appeared over the Bore at the center of the Obsidian Plains. Gate devices guarding the citadel were destabilized using enormous quantities of shadow shard material allowing Aerbax to be defeated. A shade remains in the citadel.