Auction

Two of the 12 books were in Thorass, the rest in various variants of Netherese. Steve and Theo spent a few days looking them over and found a few things of note.

Thunder's Last Days by Gôrdaric Narrenærgar:

This text from Netheril's early Silver Age is primarilly a study of the archaeological record from the Days of Thunder - the earliest age of Faerun when it is said that "the North was always warm and the seas of the world were deeper, the lands of Toril were dominated by empires of inhuman peoples. In the elven oral tradition, these were the days when cruel lizard, amphibian, and avian peoples (known as the Iquar'Tel'Quessir, or creator races) tamed the dinosaurs, built towering cities of stone and glass on the shores of the warm seas, spanned the wilderness with shining roads, and fought wars of extermination - such was their hatred toward each other."¹

Many exciting finds are discussed in the text, such as a "set of strange musical instruments made from glass that can be played or will play themselves magically. The music produced is so unearthly and peacefull that listening to it for one hour has the same effect as 8 hours sleep", a "copper clockwork torso, like unto a lizard man, which can be made to copy any text, even magical ones, flawlessly, translating as it goes if required", or a "small chest which when opened becomes a small fortress, capable of holding two score men comfortably as it flys through the air at twice the speed of a swift dragon." Most of the artifacts mentioned were small things that were clearly moved at the time of discovery, with no indication of their "current" location in the text. Likewise, most of the sites mentioned are either unidentifiable or sites that The and Steve can identify as long since destroyed or plundered. The book has also since been written on in elvish by a previous owner, who had frequent ascerbic comments to make about "meaningless place names". Theo observed that this elf was obviously not scholar of Netherese literature.

One noteable exception to the litany of lost sites was found, The book describes the discovery of what was apparently an ancient emergency travel system - a set of six interlocking teleportals⁰ hidden in out-of-the-way locations that would have been reasonably accessible to the avian creators. Narrenærgar carefully describes the technique he discovered for activating the gates - a set of specific modifications to the spell Explosive Runes which allow the caster to trace one of six runes indicating destination on the stone platform which forms the gate. Casting the spell activates the gate for 1 minute per level of the caster, during which time anyone who steps on the platform is instantly transported to the indicated platform elsewhere. (This counts as a new spell, Open Elder Gate, which must be written out and learned as a seperate spell. 10% bonus to learn if you already know Explosive Runes.)

Narrenærgar then goes on to briefly detail the locations of the six gates:

1. "A hard to reach bowl below the Ruins of Glass."²
2. "A cave off of the hidden pass that the forces of Eaerlann used to surprise the Skewered Eye horde in the Battle of Sîelvale"³
3. "A magically concealed cave near the west end of the Wall."⁴
4. "A hidden valley on the south face of the peak due south of the construction site of Dhaerkenlivel - a close call, as that peak was Dhaerkenlivel's other choice and he only went with the northern peak at the last decision."⁵
5. "An artificial chamber at the base of a mile-wide split in a nameless peak 20 miles northwest of Westendt."⁶
6. "Most surprising of all, a concealed cleft facing the water to the south from a peak on Sounlock Isle."⁷

Footnotes:

After several careful readings, Steve concluded that all the description to be had of the teleportals was "Raised, round stone platforms, about 6 feet in diameter, with runes on them." slade, Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven Schend, Paul Jaquays, and Steve Perrin The North: The Wilderness, 1996, TSR, Inc., Lake Geneva, WI The Ruins of Glass are mentioned in several places in Thunder's Last Days. They were apparently a well known archaeological site - an avian city in the clouds made mostly of glass. Unfortunately, Narrenærgar seems to have considered it too well known to bother mentioning its location. Beside this entry, the following message has been written in elvish: "Note to self: Find a way to go back in time and kill this man." Theo has read about the Battle of Sîelvale" in other sources. It took place at the river crossing where Silverymoon was later founded. Even today, nearly 3000 years after it was named that by a Netherese explorer, The Spine of the World mountain range is still sometimes referred to as The wall. A notation in elvish beside this passage reads "Lovely, an identifiable location and it covers 200 square miles in its vagueness. Note to self: time travel - hurry." Dhaerkenlivel was a late Golden Age city built in the Sword Mountains and one of the few surviving Netherese city construction sites known to scholars. Known today as Mount Flat-top, it is considered by most to be just an unusual mesa west of Amphail. Few outside of the community of Netherese scholars recognise it as a mountain whose top was sheared off roughly 2000 years ago. The mountain due south of Mount Flat-top is highlighted in green in the illustration to the right. The town of Westendt is mentioned in several Netherese texts. It was apparently one of the last Netherese communities formed on the ground. It's location is unknown in modern times. Sounlock was known to be an island in the Narrow Sea, which was completely destroyed by magic used in the conflict between Netheril and two mysterious races known as the Sharn and the Phaerimm at the end of the Shadowed Age (3163 to 3520NY / approx. -700 to -340DR). The Narrow Sea was located in what is now known as the northern half of Anauroch, or The Great Desert.

Specific Properties and Uses of Peculiar Fauna by Andes Mûrecýp:

This volume, which dates from Netheril's Golden Age, is a discussion of the various uses of the remains of the animals of Faerûn. Most of what is contained therein is either so well known now or so obscure (or questionable) as to be of no use. However, Theo was able to sift out a few potentially useful tidbits:

• Giant crocodile teeth can be used in place of the normal material components for an Animal Growth spell.
• Minotaur horn shavings added to the components of a Maze spell increases the spell's duration by 50%. Steve observed that this shed interesting light on the Lich who attacked Stewart.
• Ettercap glands can be used to double the area of effect of a Web spell.
• Hook Horror beak can be used in Monster Summoning I-V to reduce the casting time to 1 segment.
• The blood of a night hag can be used in place of the other material components for either Globe of Invulnerability spell.
• Roper eye used as substitute component for a Wizard Eye spell doubles the duration but causes a 6% chance of spell failure

Forgotten Mysteries of the Savage North by Relgar Ordearmon:

This book is a 200 year old treatise on some of the lesser known or forgotten legends of the North. Each chapter disects a particular tale and presents a case for its basis in fact, providing new evidence gathered from alternate sources. Someone has added their own notations in dwarvish to the front of each chapter. Some examples of the notations are "Long since found and emptied.", "Previously sacked, was ogre lair, 975gp, magic shield.", "Destroyed it.", or "Still intact. 3250sp, 2280gp, 1237pp, 19 sm gems, 7 large, crown, magic axe!, wand (fear?), 3 potions, amusing magic door." One exception stands out, being annotated "Doesn't bloody exist, at least not where Ordearmon says. Three wasted months of slogging through mountains and giants just to be sure."

This chapter concerns the "Chardalyn Tower" - a mountain stronghold made by a Netherese mage after the time known as The Fall. This tower was said to be made entirely from chardalyn and to be the repository of many powerful Netherese artifacts, including the remains of one of the Nether Scrolls.

The Nether Scrolls are, of course, well known among scholars of Netherese history. Netheril was just a puny kingdom of fishing villages on the Narrow Sea, trading fish to elves for training in cantrips, until one of their people discovered the Scrolls and chose to share them with his people. The so-called scrolls where supposedly two sets of 100 pages - each a powerfully enchanted collection of magical writings on a near-indestructible sheet of gold. Together, they were believed to be the sum of all magical knowledge. Each scroll covering some particular topic, but magically changing to become more detailed as the readers knowledge grew. It is said that the greatest archmages of Netheril still turned to the Scrolls for further study. Over time the Scrolls were lost through various forms of theft. Some disappeared magically, some were stolen by a band of warriors protesting mage rule. When the warriors were unable to destroy the pages they had captured, it is said that they pounded them into nuggets and sold them for less than 50gp. [I swear I didn't make any of that up. -- Ian

The scrolls were said to be able to heal themselves like living things over long stretches of time. It was even hoped that the pages pounded into nuggets would eventually recover, although this would likely take thousands of years. One of these pages is among the artifacts believed to be housed in the Chardalyn Tower.

Ordearmon notes that there have been only a handful of reports of the Tower being seen since the last days of Netheril, the most recent being almost 400 years ago. At this point he references a passage of the Saga of The North, which concerns some of the exploits of the barbarian hero Skardesk, who once united his tribe with a rival tribe by rescuing the cheiftains daughter from frost giants.

Above the River Kedrun Skardesk swarmed,
To slay ten score of giants all of frost,
And bring Maergana back again unharmed,

Apparently an oral account of Skardesk's journey still exists amoung the Great Raven tribe and that during that account, Skardesk reached a waterfall from which he pursued the giants due north for three days before slaying many in their sleep and fleeing south with Maergana. Two days later, they were forced to flee west up a dry riverbed and across a barren ridge to evade the pursuit of the remaining giants. They took refuge in a small valley "at the foot of an ancient tower walled in those dull stones the city folk are so fond of". A day later they continued their flight south, eventually encountering and fighting a running battle with more giants that ended when the pair led the remaining giants back to Skardesk's comrades.

Steve notes that these lines have been altered since the original version of the Saga, apparently to enhance the legend and to place the story in a better known location. The River Kedrun is well known as part of the Valley named after the same legendary dwarf. The Ice Flow is less well known and flows only in spring and summer, although it is well marked year round. It is also roughly 250 miles further west. Steve's version of the Saga reads as follows:

Above the western Ice Flow Skardesk went,
To slay two score of giants all of frost,
And so Maergana safely home was sent,