Archive for the Gavin Wel Category

Gruff, Runepriest of Gaulthum

Posted in Dwarves, Gavin Wel on June 24, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

Gruff and his Khast of the Flame Shield march from the dwarven city of Gaulthum toward the ancient center of Eyrtheria, the artificial volcano. Following the worst natural disaster in a thousand years, the great quake and the great wave of Gavin Wel, just before the the Summer Equinox of year 1135, it was learned by the dwarves that the reactor at the center of the volcano is in danger of melting down. Should that happen, certainly it would mean the end of all life in the Dreamwater. Gruff, the Runepriest, has a great task ahead of him: decifering runes that are five thousand years old, an instruction manual to a most deadly device writ in a dead language.

The Return of the Dark Elves

Posted in Elves, Gavin Wel, the Fey Dark, The Fey People on June 24, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

As the dwarves march to the Heart of Eytheria, the artificial volcano at the Heart of all things in the valley, more threats creep to the surface just as the communities of Maiah, Hammergard and Niskantel are aiding the civil chaos that the metropolis, GavinWel, has become following the Earthquake and Great Wave that swallowed half of the City.

The Dwarves of the Dreamwater: The City of Gaulthum

Posted in Gavin Wel, The Fey People on May 13, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

The proud and mysterious dwarven city of Gaulthum has loomed over Gavin Wel on the precipitous slopes of Eyria for nearly five thousand years, since the construction of the artificial volcano itself. The City’s first king was Baladhor the Liberator who lead a rebellion against the teifling slavers who held his ancestors as captive laborers, those who built the Mountain Made of Hands. The thirty thousand dwarves who live there in modern times are a noble people and operate in a world filled with ceremony, social hierarchy and a righteous sense of artistic superiority. Indeed, the crafts and arms exported from the cliff city of Ravens and Steel are among the highest quality in all DaoTyr.

The City is divided in two four vertical quarters, or castles as they are called by its residents. From bottom to top they are The Sacred Forge, The Castle Black, The Old Castle and the Eaves. The Sacred Forge is the arts district and everyone knows that the artists party the most. Here you will find taverns and travelers from all over the world. Indeed it is the only castle the xenophobic dwarves allow travelers to visit. Castle Black is where the Gaulthumian nobility rule from. There are three houses of dwarven royalty: The Gold Hammers, headed by lord Euranus, traditionally known for jewelry, the Silver Hammers, headed by lord Urthek, traditionally known for armor and the Copper Hammers, headed by Lord Dhethik, the runepriests of Moradin. All of the Nobility honors the young King Thurghiss.

The Warriors of the Steel Crow ride mechanically driven, clockwork birds and patrol the cliffs around Gaulthum. The thin road called the West Path is the only way to get to Gaulthum over land and a specially bred loaded-baring mountain sheep called the durgann is the only animal brave enough to navigate it.

All the dwarves of Gaulthum are literate in the arts and in writing runes. Facial and hand tattooing is common and indeed required for social advancement. The people have an elaborate ranking system based on braided knots of steel worn on their belts called the Quiputek. Other positions are noted by the title KHA, which means spirit guide and these are usually the rune priests and WHAREN, which means sherriff and these are usually warriors and not artists.

The Stealing of the Talisman

Posted in Farwalkers, Gavin Wel, the Archfey, The Southern Kingdoms, the Talisman on March 25, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

The Talisman performed gloriously in the Great War at the end of the Sixth Epoch. Phaedra the Artifacer fitted the Talisman with a ramming prow and transformed the river yacht into a boat of war. At her helm, Pennelius the Eladrin raelfaen steered her to victory again and again. With the coming of the Seventh Epoch, Pennelius wed the archfey Osha and retired to the mansions of his ancestors on the banks of the Emerald Sea deep in the Faywild. There they had a son, Oelin.

Ferrus the Radiant stayed in Gavin Wel following the Great War. He wed the witch Hannah Blackruby and after ten years of childless marriage, they divorced with her betrayal to the demon werewolf, Clay. Ferrus continued to train the young knight of the City of the Raven Queen.

Aolyn, following the victory of the Illyria returned to Isselyth with her mother, Aolbeth in the year 1136. The first few weeks with her mother were joyous, as was Aolyn’s relationship with Collynn, the gold dragon who she had come to be a lover. Collynn took Aolyn to the land of Urkuria, a distant realm of dragons, and there they made their love known to eternity.

Aolbeth retreated to some distant realm, either by her own will or by some plot. This mystery sent Collynn looking for her in the Shadowfell.

Hannah and Ferrus reunited as friends upon the theft of the Talisman and its caretaker, Phaedra. Fetching Pennelius from his retirement and Aolyn for her youthful mastery of shiplore, the four took the ghostship, the Black Swan to Solpries, the City of Sea and Sand, from where Pennelius could feel the elemental embedded within his boat, across the astral wind.

click to enlarge

Upon entrance to the City, Hannah performed the ritual of AmonRalam, by which she transformed herself into a mental link between the three adventurers and thereby be able to learn clues as to the location of the Talisman and Phaedra in a most effecient way.

The three met a deathless Blade Noble named Ben Kahl, an ancient general of the Knights of the Ninth Reljyan infantry. Ben, being of good soul, lead them to the Inn of the Seven Winds, where their host, Ghaelia, entertained and fed them with information about the City: the sovereign general of Solpries is Aliabi, a dragonborn slaver Atavist and if there was wrong at play he was most likely its source.

At the Masoleum of the Raven Queen, the Embassy of Gavin Wel at Solpries, Ferrus met Color Tixneera, Aolyn’s cousin and daughter of Tixneera, the elder witch of Sinis Oebyr. They shared a kiss at dawn and thus blessed Ferrus’ Sunblade.

click to enlarge

Unraveling a strange eladrin ailment called the Deluding Whispers meant Pennelius had to struggle against a Dark Shadow Serpent beast, sent from the Dragon of Tyr at Ur-Buraxa. Meanwhile, at the Inn of Seven Winds, Ghaelia was successfully assassinated in a surprisingly theatric show by a belgoi beast. Aolyn tracked the beast, with the help of Ben Kahl to the home of Marquez of the Black Wind, a slaving society. Ferrus, in the Streets of Haro Hill, battled alongside Color Tixneera, the Slaver Nerrius, a dragonborn responsible for the internment of unknown thousands of illegal dwarven slaves.

Pennelius learns that the Atavist Aliabi means to create a device with Talisman called the Psychic Aethiator. He treats with the Dragon of Tyr, who tells him that such a device can only be made with tiefling magic and is used to be made to kill him, the Dragon of Tyr, an enemy of Aliabi for rule over the people of Solpries. The Aethiator can only be infused on the night of the Eclipse, a event taking place the following night!

Marquez, the husband of Ghaelia, had his own wife killed for informing the foreign heroes. Aolyn and Ben Kahl learn that the Black Wind has been supplying the Dragonborn rulers dwarven slaves to feed the Aethiator to attack the Dragon of Tyr. Color shows Ferrus a secret level of catacombs underneath the City, whose heart lies directly under the Arena of Solpries, where a massive tournament is scheduled to coincide with the eclipse.

Reunited, the party goes to the center of the catacombs to find their boat, suspended on chains and linked to some strange, eldritch machine, no doubt bu Phaedra’s enslaved design. The Talisman hangs over an underground cemetery where the died find no rest. Marautai, the father of Aliabi, a dragonborn Raag ghost Crypt lord, an old friend of Ben Kahl from the Reljyan army, now controls a patrol of cinder zombies, all of whom Ben Kahl can name from life. The whole chamber rocks with the cheers of the City at the Arena directly overhead.

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There great battle ensues. All greatly wounded from fighting psychic orbs and bone funnels of blasting winds that rake and with the killing fire of the cinder zombies as they fall, they find Phaedra as Hannah rejoins the group. The Dragon of Tyr, having learned about the Aethiator, decides to destroy everyone and lands in the arena to the horror of the City, scraping and digging to where the Talisman is be freed. In a last desperate move, Ben Kahl blocks Marautai, sacrificing himself and the device is broken from the Talisman as the boat drops to an underground river and the party leaps there on to their freedom.

Dalwin of the Dark Wings

Posted in Gavin Wel, The Mice Eyes on February 18, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

Emma’s character. Figure painting by Matt. Click to enlarge

Jin the Stalker

Posted in Gavin Wel, The Mice Eyes on February 18, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

Jin.

Figure painting by Matt, Click to enlarge

Kornick the Bleak Assassin

Posted in Gavin Wel, The Mice Eyes on February 18, 2011 by coyoteandthunder


kornick – gnome assassin: unknown background – raised by an old street vendor named Buttle whom used his trade as cover for assassinations. Kornick helped in these plots to earn his keep, learning the stealthy skills of hunting human prey. Kornick has no memory of these days on the streets – for when he became of an older age he developed dementia and has continually relies on his skill of killing to lead his way. Often he hoped a new killing contract would help lead him to remember, only to be driven further into confusing madness. The ones who do know him, keep his identity secret for he has been molded into the perfect assassin. I smell foul play done to the mind of Kornick.

Kornick is a blood member of the Bleak Disciples

Story by David

Figure painting by Matt, click to enlarge

Aukon and the Urban Wilderness

Posted in Gavin Wel, Men, The Mice Eyes on February 16, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

Aukon is a razorclaw. Within him flows the vicious blood of his lycanthropic ancestors. Men fear his people. The wide planes and dense woods his tribe called home were invaded, tamed and ultimately broken. Aukon’s people chose to abandon the shade of the woods of the Dreamwater and take refuge in the great city of Gavin Wel. Not long after, Aukon’s mother fell ill.  The night after she died in her sleep, Aukon’s father preformed a mourning ceremony and  began training Aukon in the ways of  his forefathers, the ways of a druid, the ways of the court of the Nine Stars. Later that summer, his father was killed by the Raven guard. Aukon was a fast learner and in only 8 solstices, his training was finished under the tutelage of Laria Relthathik, Aumbaure of the Dark Wings. Aukon is an urban druid, as much at home in the wilderness of the City as he is in the wilds of tree and root. A reader of signs, Aukon has taken pact with the Dark Wings, who finds his talents invaluable.

Gord. Ready To Rock

Posted in Gavin Wel, The Mice Eyes on February 16, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

Not much is know about where Gord came from or how he ended up handling Gamanalor’s most deadliest assignments. What is know is that Gord is mean and unforgiving. Know to take a blade to anyone if it means a bigger shank at the dinner table. This Half-Orc has no family, very little friends and sleeps with both eyes open. (It’s true he drops dew frown Mucilage to keep the moisture in his eyes and protect them from the elements). Always the first to rush into a battle- act now, ask questions later- if the person can still talk is the usual motto of this double flailed fighter. Although not really shown amongstthieves, Gord is very loyal and good to have on your side, especially when facing large opponents.

The Mice Eyes Faction leaders

Posted in Gavin Wel, The Mice Eyes on February 11, 2011 by coyoteandthunder

The Great War ended 25 years ago and nearly engulfed the world in fire. Gavin Wel was ruled by a great angelic being named the Hegemon, who left in the year 1111. The current year is 1136. The Mice Eyes, the largest and most involved Unionized Guild of entrepeneurial agents to ever exist on Dao Tyr, was and is centralized in GavinWel. The City of the Raven Queen had long turn a laxed eye toward the unsavory ends of many of the Mice Eyes’ means. Of late though, that attitude has changed in that its sovereign lord, Walder, the King of Thieves has gone missing and the company is in a continued state of chaos. The Raven guard has announced and edict against the Mice Eyes and
because of it the City’s economy has been in a continued recession for
the ten years that the King of Thieves has been unaccounted for. Most in the upper eschalon of the organization believe that Walder is gone forever. The Four splinter factions of the Mice Eyes war with one another for power and authority. Would that the Rod of Three Parts, otherwise known as Asiliogn, be found and reunited, the guild that held the rod might unite the factions and restore the glory of the Theives’ Guild.

Aru Ka Tai, leader of the Night Stalkers

Laria Relthathik, Aumbaure of the Dark Wings

Farlie the Blood, Chief of the Bleak Disciples

Gamanalor, Rakshasa Prince of the The Blade Lords