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Old 09-02-2013, 10:38 PM   #219
Abe Sargent
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Catonsville, MD
Begin quote…


….of books and a shooting star

The Books of Prophecy are the well guarded treasure of the sages of the Towers of the Heavens. Those few who know of these ageless tomes speak of them with the hushed reverence commonly afforded to the ostentatious might of swords or wands.

The books are closed to the eyes of ordinary men since they deal not with the transient forces of arms or magic, but with destiny itself.

Each page is crammed with cryptic references to the fates of the great and the famous, written in an obscure script. In all of the world there is but one man who can read the pages of the close-written symbols; only one man who can fathom the weirdly coded prophecies.

This man is Shalfey, Elder Sage of the Tower of the Heavens. He inherited the unique power to read the books from the line of Elder Sages that came before him. For generations this line has been unbroken and, as is traditional, Shalfey has gathered a small college of lesser sages from whom to select his successor.

Like his forebears, Shalfey’s command of the books is limited. Although he is able to read them, their pages can be turned but one at a time, allowing him to glimpse only a short time into the future…and then only dimly. Yet such glimpses are rare and their sources are coveted. To protect the Books of Prophecy, and to account for their ability to see into the future, the sages make a great show of the study and practice of astrology. They have even come to use this uncertain art to tell the fortunes of those too humble to be mentioned in the books.

In an uncertain world, any precognition, however vague, can command a high price, and the sages have long offered their insights for sale. With the riches thus gathered from the great and the meek, the Tower of the Heavens was built; a secure refuge on a rocky island washed by the swirling waters of the River Keldir. This place is home, fortress and astrological observatory.

The tower is garrisoned by gnome mercenaries and for their personal protection, the sages have monk bodyguards. While the loyalty of mercenaries must be bought with gold, however the unquestioning loyalty of the order of the monks repays a prophecy granted to their brotherhood many years ago.

The origin of the Books of Prophecy has never been established. Some claim that they were written by a seer in ancient times; others that they were enscribed in the distinct future and sent into the past by powerful magics. Whatever the truth, recent events have shown the books to not only be bearers but also the instruments of destiny – the destiny of a certain shooting star…

The shooting star - omen of change, fell to earth in Therno Pass, destroying the lair of a tribe of derro. To these creatures, it was the instrument of sudden disaster, but to Shalfey, far away in his tower, it came as no surprise.

Only days before he had turned a page of the current Book of Prophecy to find blank parchment! Worse still, he found that the following pages could be turned easily, as could those of previously unopenable books. Shalfey has looked upon these books as the foundation of the tower’s prosperity, but to his horror, he found that every last page was blank! Every page that is, save the last page of the last volume. There, in clear words, the coming of the shooting star was foretold and the Elder Sage was instructed to plot its course, to find it and take it to a certain group of smiths, who in return would provide a second set of Books of Prophecy.

Unknown to Shalfey, it was the intention of whoever (or whatever) wrote the books that the shooting star should be cut by the smiths into a great flawless gem which, in future years, would serve some great, unknown purpose. To this end the smiths had been well prepared and the Elder Sage had been left with no choice but to play his role in which destiny had written for him…
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