As you are hanging in the Cafe you begin to make friends with your fellow classmates. One of you throws a paper airplane and just as it was about to head straight to the floor, the air seems to catch it. The plane then drifts towards the window where (All four of you) see a strange man standing outside of the bookstore cafe. He really stands out as he is wearing an assortment of crimson robes. He also has a long curly brown beard and a strange looking walking stick. The most unusual characteristic you can make out so far is the crimson "wizards" hat. He reminds you of the Gandalf character from the lord of the rings movie that had come out a few years back only younger.
Things get strange when the paper plane goes, what seems, straight through the window into his outstretched hand. He catches it gently. These windows are the kind that aren't meant to open and the plane seemed to pass right through the glass to him.
He unfolded the paper and gently ran his finger across it. He then folded it back up again and lauched it, through the window, straight to you. It floats gently to a table between all of you and comes to a rest. The man stands waiting. Strangly, no one else in the Cafe or outside seems to notice the strange event.
It is a note written in a very unusual handwriting. It says. Come with me to save Kellmanor. Meet me in the ally next to the building. Don't be afraid. This is your destiny.
You will notice that the window has no openings at all. The plane simply passed through the glass. Also, you never saw the man write anything and as far as you knew, this was a blank piece of paper.
Begin the roleplay.
Perception:
Jen looks at the paper airplane, then back and forth between the window and the colorfully dressed man in "wizardly" robes.
She decides not to say anything and looks at her tablemates to see if they saw it too.
Aiden watches the plan come back to rest in from of the group. He unfolds the paper and lays it on the table so everyone can read it.
"So, we're going right? It's like David Blaine's Street Magic. We're going to be on TV! Adina?"
Aiden stands and holds out his hand. For a moment he looks at Adina, hoping she'll take it. Then, realizing they're not alone, and that he's probably making an ass of himself, he looks to the rest of the table.
"You guys are coming right? The plane passed straight through the glass for Christ's sake."
Aiden crosses himself habitually.
TV?!?
After hesitating for a bit, she nods. I'll go if I can hide behind someone if things go wrong.
Jen looks at Aidan and Floyd, gauging to see which one would make better cover.
"You can hide behind me, Jen." Adina offers as she reads what's written on the paper plane. "I at least want to go see what he's talking about, and how he pulled a Chris Angel with the plane and the window."
She smiles as puts her things away and stands up. After a glance to make sure her news friends are following her, Adina walks out of the store to meet this "wizard" in the alley.
"I hope this isn't some sort of weird mugging attempt." She thinks.
As soon as Adina takes her first step toward the door. Aiden falls in beside her. Just before they reach the door, he picks up his pace and holds the door the group. He nods and smiles to Adina and Jen as they pass, but to Floyd he smiles and says,"After you Thespis."
Once through, Aiden lets the door close as it will and takes his place with the others before the robed man.
Okay, you all make your way outside. The Wizard disappears from the window as you exit the building and you find him in the alley next to the building. As you approach he gestures with a big grin. "Ah so you are the chosen ones. The ones who will save Kellmanor."
Kellmanor? Is this some sort of nature preserve? She mutters under her breath, Well, the ones that love nature more than me usually do dress in strange clothing.
"You didn't know who the 'chosen ones' were until we showed up? For now, I just want to know how you got the paper plane through the window, and how you switched ours out for one with a note while we were watching." Adina says, arms crossed as she waits for an explanation.
The old man chuckles at the volley of questions. "My aren't you the inquisitive bunch and quite bright too." He gestures to himself. "My name is Yalm, the Crimson Wizard." He takes of the wizards hat and takes a deep breathe. "Well, where to begin? How about a little trick. We need a private and comfortable place to talk in greater detail. Does anybody know of such a place?"
Aiden looks at Yalm.
"Crimson Wizard? Are you for real?"
He walks along with the rest, hoping for an answer before they reached Floyd's house.
Yalm gestures to Tanner in an expression of joy. "Excellent! I asked you to this alley because what you are about to see is for your eyes only. Now, hold still" Yalm put's hat back on and reaches out and puts his hand on Tanner's head. Surprisingly, it seemed to relax him. "Now all of you need to hold hands, I'm going to show you a neat trick." You all accept the man's request and hold hands. "Now Floyd, I want you to envision your living room very vividly. Picture it in your mind. Now here we are." Before you know it your standing in Floyd's living room. "Well now that's more like it." Yalm looks for a place to sit down and finds a couch. Once he is seated he sighs in relief. "Excellent. It feels good to not only sit down but have fun access to all of my powers too." He then puts his hat down and looks at the four of you with a wide grin. "Now, what were those questions again?" He looks quite pleased as he waits for your questions.
In case you didn't notice. None of you gave him your names yet he has called Floyd by name.
Amazed to travel so, Aiden stands awed and nervous behind the couch. Eying the strange man cautiously, "Who or what are you really? What do you mean 'chosen ones'? Where is Kellmanor?"
It looks as though he could continue this way indefinitely, but Aiden finally catches himself leaving his subject no chance to respond; he closes his mouth sheepishly.
Perception:
Well Floyd, are you sure that you haven't experienced this before? It seems that the wizard knows your name, and we haven't introduced ourselves yet.
Yalm looks at the four of you. "Fair questions. I'll answer the easiest question first. I know your name because I read it on your mind. As for who I am, I am Yalm the Crimson wizard. The chosen ones are those who are destined to save Kellmanor. Kellmanor is the world I have come from. It is a beautiful and rustic. It is reminiscent of the medieval times. I'm sure you all would love the scenery. I need to bring you all there to save it. Are there any other questions?"
"What threatens this world so that you need to turn to four teenagers from a completely different world for help?" Adina asks from her spot near a picture on Floyd's living room wall. "If the rest of your 'powers' are anything like we've just experienced, I can't think of much you wouldn't be able to handle. And what you can handle, it is almost certain that we can't."
"Floyd how can you be taking this so seriously? No offense Yalm. Seriously man, this is some reality TV show."
Aiden stops short. That's good logic, Floyd The doubting Irishman turns back to the crimson wizard.
Yalm sits forward. ”Well I think it is best to start from the beginning. I’m doing to show images to illustrate my stories. Kind of like television only in color.” Yalm waves his hands and an image appears floating in the air like a picture with a hazy frame. In the picture you see images to match Yalm’s story. ”This is Kellmanor” A beautiful landscape with ancient castles and villages in various places appears. You move along the image as though you were flying over the land itself. ”Kellmanor is a beautiful land home to all sorts of species such as dwarves, elves, and the like. Many different wonders exist there that you will never experience here. There is also magic. Many people had learned to use magic in this land. They could access is through incantations that derive from spellbooks and bonded items, or they are part of a domain that would grant them spells. Domains were either beliefs or material elements from which people could draw what they considered to be divine powers from the spirits that embodied those domains. There are various other methods that people were able to adopt the use of magic, but none for potent that the Sorcerers. Now to explain the Sorcerers, I need to go back to where they began. The land is governed by to forces and their minions. The Lord of Brilliance,” An image of a white angelic figure appear. ”And the Lord of Darkness” A dark shadowy outline of a man with glowing red eyes appears. ”For many centuries these two have fought over control of Kellmanor. This was a fierce battle that took place in the shadows so as not to disturb the land they were fighting over. The extended their powers to mortals to aid in their war efforts. The war soon began to affect the lands. Then, elementals began to appear in defense of this world. These were the elements of life itself. Neither the Dark Lord, nor the Lord of Brilliance were good for the land so it was up to the elementals to protect us. They did so by empowering individuals with their blood. The Strongest of the elementals were those of the four main elements, Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. These were the strongest. They would lend their powers to mortals by interbreeding to create powerful bloodline spellcasters called Sorcerers. These sorcerers were capable of using magic without the aid of rituals, spellbooks, domains, or any other method. They simply embodied this power. They helped turn the tides of that Great War away. Without them the war may have destroyed Kellmanor. Now the two Lords of light and dark ended up killing one another. Rumor has it that they had stored all their powers into two separate books as they lay dying, hoping that they could be resurrected. Now this is where this start to go wrong. Kellmanor had been at peace for millennia. Well there were the few occasional conquest or dispute wars but nothing that affected the entire world. It was only when an expedition of a handful of foolish younglings went out in search of the books of darkness and light. This expedition consisted of some brave and powerful souls, me and a few friends of mine. My team was of five and our leader was named Xivasar. We had spent years following the clues of where these books may have been hidden and one day we had found the lead we were looking for. After much trouble and turmoil, we found the ancient text. However, our leader had become corrupted with power. You see, along the way, we came across many artifacts and writings indicating the possibilities of that power and Xivasar became obsessed with it. He wanted it for himself. Once he had gotten the books, he betrayed us. He and one other turned against the rest of us and fled with the books. A couple of years later, and he returns. They powers of both the dark lord and the lord of brilliance are now at his fingertips. Now it is said in ancient writings that the Sorcerers would band together should the books ever fall into the wrong hands. Xivasar knew this had had used the books to cut off the Sorcerers from their power source. How this was possible, I don’t know. I never got the chance to ask him. Without the sorcerers, our lands soon began to fall to his dark and evil ambition. He created a device that allowed him to control people with wicked feelings in their hearts. This allowed him to hunt down any magic users that exist. Now he had also managed to put into place a limiting device that also drains magic power. This means that I can only use certain level spells while in Kellmanor. Here I can use my full arsenal but there I am nothing more than a parlor magician.That said, it seems as though there is no hope, but there is a prophecy that says that four young kids will come from another land, become sorcerers, and defeat Xivasar.”
The image vanishes and Yalm straightens up. ”I have conducted the ultimate test and have discovered you four as our saviors. People from this world are immune to the effects of both the magic inhibitor and the power of the obelisk of control that forces all weak hearts to join Xivasar. That said, the fate of Kellmanor rests in your hands. I ask that you come with me to my land and become the Sorcerers of legend and save us all. It’s all written in the stars so you really have nothing to fear. And once it is all over you will be back home as if nothing had ever happened, but the experience will remain. So, what do you say? Will you come with me to save Kellmanor, or will you leave us to our fate?” Yalm looks at you all anxiously awaiting your response.
Aiden's mind flashes to all the old Irish stories: castles, magic, feudal lords.
Even if this just turns out to be a movie, hell, a dream even, it'll be better then this monotony I'm in now.
"I will go. I have no idea what I can do to help, but I will do whatever I can."
Throughout Yalm's explanation, Adina watched the illusions and listened with intensity. Kellmanor looked so beautiful...
"No extraordinary powers? Think wider, Floyd. Is there anything you could do that other people cannot?" Adina asks. "Yalm, I'll help too. Kellmanor looks to nice to let it be ruined."
Well, clearly leaving your land to its fate is not an option. But from the pictures, it seems that much of it is wooded?
Yalm smiles, "The powers of the Sorcerers will come naturally to you, that is what makes you the chosen ones. As for the land being wooded, yes for now anyways. Xivasar's powers will soon destroy everything." Yalm stands up and makes his way to the back door. "Now, If you have all agreed to join me in my quest to save my home, meet me out back and grab a handful of my robes." Yalm heads out the the backyard. Once he is out there, he raises his staff towards the sky. He starts some kind of strange incantation. The wind picks up and begins to jostle everything about. The sky turns dark and a funnel cloud appears above the wizard. "Now, grab a hold of my robes." You all race out to the backyard, overwhelmed by the spectacle but a great deal of adrenaline pushing you on. Once you have a handful of the wizards garb, you feel a new rush. A cyclone lands on the ground surrounding all of you. Next thing you feel is you feet leaving the ground. You are sucked up into the cyclone.
-----
You seem to black out for just a moment only to be brought back by falling about eight feet onto the dirt. As you come about you will notice that you are on a hill overlooking a vast forest, in the distance you can see mountains and in other parts a few open plains. The sky is clear and clean for the most part. Off in the distance you can see that there is a darker part of the sky. Thick black clouds seem to come pouring out from behind one of the mountains. It holds an ominous feel to it.
The landing zone you fell into is a hole in the ground, a perfect circle about a foot deep and a 30 foot diameter.
You will notice that the dirt in the hole seems scored and there are ashes that seem to form human shaped pattern on the ground as though someone was laying there before being incinerated.
----
Yalm quickly gets to his feet. "I wont be able to teleport us like I did back to your home so we need to walk from here. We have to get a move on, Xivasar may have seem the dimentional tunnel and would be sending someone to investigate. We need to leave this place and return to my home." Yalm walks over to a pack that is sitting on a stump not far off from the landing zone and throws it over his shoulder. "It is a two day journey on foot but I know of a place along the way where we can stop and rest for the night. Now come we need to get moving."
----
On the trail you follow Yalm in to a beautiful wood where the trees are taller than houses and the golden rays of sunlight shine through the canopy.
Perception:
When Jen first awoke from the sudden teleportation, she was so shocked that she could not speak. Her travels had taken her farther than she'd ever been before. Even though she had dreamed about such an epic adventure before, actually experiencing it was an entirely different matter, especially when it had started so soon, without any preparation.
The first and only coherent thought that entered her mind for a while was, What have I gotten myself into?
It was only on the hike that she pulled herself together and began to comprehend her situation and her surroundings. What were those mountains, surrounded by dark storm clouds?
Aiden whips out his phone and tries the camera!
When the cyclone sweeps them up, Adina wonders for a moment if she'll see the Wicked Witch of the West. When she she wakes up and dusts herself off, Jen's comment about the clouded mountain causes her remember it. A chill runs up her spines and she rummages through her backpack for her sketch book and ink pens. She wanted to banish those mountains from her mind, and this hike was providing her with the means to do it.
"You know... I get the strangest feeling from these trees." She says as she begins to sketch from memory so she doesn't get separated from the others. "I don't think I've ever seen sunlight filter through the leaves like it does here, and I love the the way the trees sing."
Very good observation Adina. After about 40 minutes on the path, you are certain the trees are singing. A faint majestic melody begins to carry through the air. The words are diffcult to understand.
Jen sees that the wizard is busy leading the expedition and decides not to prod him for an answer.
We've travelled for hours, but it feels like we've already travelled for days. Has anyone brought their watch? I can't see the sun clearly from under these trees.
Aiden walks along quietly. Never having been good at dealing with change, he is overwhelmed. That's an understatement. Aiden is speechless.
Just one foot and then the other, til it all makes sense.
He plods along between the wizard and Adina, not wanting to miss it if wither of them speak.
Yalm doesn't say much as you progress through the forrest. You will notice many things as you continue. The air is clean for one thing. You also notice that the season is autum The air is just a little crisp and the leaves are turning various colours. The nature is very rich.
You travel for four hours before you stop for a break. Yalm sits at pulls out some rations and begins to eat.
Jen rummages through her bag and finds a few trail mix bars.
Well, I was saving these for a camping trip later today, but I guess since we're on one now, might as well use them.
She gives one to each person if they are interested.
Aiden accepts Jen's granola bar graciously, but he devours it quickly.
""Thanks Jen. Yalm, will we be able to make food with magic? I don't know how to hunt and I don't have much money."
Adina thanks Jen before she starts to nibble at the bar. She's put away her sketch book and is now looking around. She had a question of her own, but decided to let the others have theirs answered first.
Yalm looks at the kids and then reaches into his sack. He pulls out a couple of rations and hands them over, he then passes them his water skin. "Here, you will need your strength." He nods at the comment about money. "Your money is useless here, This place deals in silver and gold coins. You needn't worry about having to buy things as I will be providing food and shelter for you. Also. Magic can be used to manipulate food to some extent but only conjurers can really make it simply appear. Your powers will not likely make food appear for you I am sorry to say but I will provide what you need."
That reminds me. How do we know which magic we can use and when will we learn how to use them?
Jen imagines herself teleporting to various places and producing giant round craters in the ground, or crop circles in fields.
Yalm finishes and gets to his feet. "Now, we have quite a hike ahead of us so let's get moving." You all pack up and follow the wizard again. Yalm turns in response to Jen's question. "You will gain the powers you are most compatible with. There is a ritual I will conduct to find this out."
Yalm leads the teens deeper into the forest. You travel for hours and any attempts to complain are met with "Just a little farther, keep up."
You follow him for several hours until it gets dark. By now the singing has stopped and the sounds of night are really loud and eerie. Crickets chirping, wolves howling and other strange sounds most of you if not all of you have only heard in horror films. Yalm uses his staff as a source of light for the group. After another hour or so Yalm turns to the rest of you. "Take a moment to rest. I'm going to leave you here for a moment to find our shelter for the night. I will return once I have it." Yalm picks up a stick and casts Light on it. He then hands it over to Jen. "Here, you hold this, I will be right back."
Jen holds the glowing stick hesitantly and keeps her eyes focused on where Yalm disappears into the distance.
We should've set up camp by now. If it is not safe to be exploring at night in our world, it can't be safe here.
Ya know, everytime someone says they'll be right back in a horror story, they disappear.