The Fall of Calidore
This is news, this is something that has not only happened within our lives, but since I opened my library. In late October of 603, the Kingdom of Dragonreach, along the southern shores of the Sea of Hadran, to the north of Stonegate, the east of Neridia and the west of Evendarr, lost contact with the outside world.
The loss of the The Kingdom of Dragonreach is total and apparently of magical origin. Countless people have met with an unknown fate. I know that some of my friends who live in the City of Calidore were able to escape from the oncoming fog, or were away from the Kingdom when it disappeared. None who were inside Dragonreach when the silvery mists descended have been seen since.
I am one who often travelled between Dragonreach and Stonegate. I live in a small stone house on the edge of Stonegate, just off the road leading toward Dragonreach. I was formerly a resident of the City of Calidore, the most well known adventuring city within Dragonreach, but political and legal changes in the City over the last two years had discouraged my residence. First, the Celestial Guild was disbanded, all Celestial Circles were destroyed by a Destruction Elemental, and raising a Celestial Circle of Power required a 500 Gold Piece license (or was punished by a 500 Gold Piece fine, I never could get a straight answer on if it was a license or a fine to make a Celestial Circle). The influence of politically powerful Biata in town had eventually lead to the banning of Wards, Wizard Locks, Celestial Circle of Power Spells and Wall of Force Spells, any Celestial Eldrich Energy construct was illegal (I was unsure of the status of the Imprison spell). As a Celestial Wizard who moved to Calidore to join the Celestial Guild and study advanced magical theory, this completely removed any reason I had to stay in Calidore.
The lackadaisical attitude of the town government toward solving some problems, like a nearby Brood lair, a local water supply poisoned by the dumping of corpses into the nearby bay, and ignoring numerous goblin and orc encampments and a series of phase spider nests meant that an ever-increasing amount of hostile creatures visited Calidore and the surrounding creatures. Finally, the presence of a large number of extraordinarily powerful creatures like Dragon Mages, Master Death Jesters and other beings capable of High Magic or the instantaneous performance of Formal Magic without circle or scroll doubtless put a remarkable strain on the magical energy fields of the area. The high magic consumption of the Kingdom of Dragonreach may have made it more susceptible to whatever caused the Silver Fog.
Exactly what brought down this fog is a mystery. I do know that Dragonreach was the subject of a Sessuar incursion a little over a year ago, and that lands that have lost touch with the rest of Avalon are often victims of Sessuar plotting. This may be an attempt by the Sessai to set up a beachhead in central Avalon. However, much of the western half of Dragonreach was under the spell of a powerful fey until only about 5 years ago, this fey created an elaborate illusion over the land, and lured adventurers there where he manipulated them and challenged them with his illusions and fabrications. He called his land "Legerdemain", and while this illusion lasted much of the western half of Dragonreach was lost to the outside world.
In the first week of November, 602 I went to investigate the rumors that all contact had been lost myself as soon as I found out. Attempts to send messenger pigeons to the area were unsuccessful, no pigeon sent inside has returned safely. I found my ability to channel magical energy begin to flicker as I walked towards this mysterious fog at the border of Dragonreach. It had enveloped the guard post at the border, there were no signs or indications of the limits of Dragonreach, other than a silvery and exceptionally dense fog that covered the entire land. From a distance it appears to be like a slightly dark cloud that spreads as far as the eye can see. With great trepidation I stepped as close as 10 feet to the edge of this foggy void. Scrounging a long, thin branch from a nearby tree, I thrust it into the void and pulled it back from it's tip, the stick seemed corroded, like parts of it had melted away, it's tip was gone. Throwing stones into the fog to hear where they hit resulted in hearing nothing, either the rock never hit ground, or the silvery fog absorbs sound. Investigation in permanent Celestial Circles has shown that magical effects created in or tied to the ley lines of Dragonreach are shifting to have ties to lands bordering Dragonreach, but outside the Silver Fog.
It may be possible that the Sessuar succeeded in landing forces throughout Dragonreach, set up illicit circles in secret locations, and performed a series of rituals to seal off Dragonreach while they marshal their forces for some future aim. If the Sessuar have cost me two homelands in less than a decade, I shall swear eternal vengeance against the Sessai, if it takes me ten centuries and ten lives, I will see that menace removed from the continent of Avalon. It also may be that the unknown fey beings that are known to be powerful within Dragonreach have managed to sequester their homelands from the outside world. As a last, and most disturbing option, the Elemental Wars which ravaged Dragonreach may have gone past a point of no-return. The basic elemental balances of the air and ground have broken down, turning the entire land into an indistinct elemental soup, fading in and out, randomly opening portals to the elemental planes and we must watch as an entire kingdom turns into a chaotic mire that will probably settle into being a warm, frothy muddy wasteland (a mix of fire, water, air and earth all prominent in one medium), with hot, dirty rainclouds scouring the land continously. or all we know, the Silver Fog may even drop one day, revealing a new land, taken from the distant past or distant future or even an alternate timeline, transplanted in it's place if the fog represents some breakdown in the flow of Time within the region. None of these options is particularly pleasant.
I have little chance but to trust in destiny and hope that things will unfold as they must. If Calidore can be retaken, I will endeavour to be there to help retake it, if Dragonreach must be rebuilt or reclaimed from some magical or elemental wasteland or void, I will help, although it may take centuries to reform an entire Kingdom. The future will tell what is to come.