Re: OOC 4: Cut Off One Head...
The Irithlium was one of Myth Drannor's leading schools of wizardry. As such, it was an identifiable goal for exploring the ruins, especially since Corym's character is focused on the recovery of elven magic and spells. Choosing "let's go to the Irithlium" was a way of giving the explorations of Myth Drannor a more coherent focus than just digging randomly. It was also a place that might have information on gates, to help explain how a malfunctioning gate pulled a bunch of random people to Myth Drannor at the same time (which was my in-game way of shifting the campaign to Myth Drannor). The goal of exploring the Irithlium has since been shelved, since it's on the other side of the city.
The original group came together in Tarsakh (April), 1360 DR in Scornubel. It's now early Uktar (November). That group was Corym, Elorfindar, a gold elven wizard named Nym Amalith, a half-elven ranger named Taeghen, and a human cavalier from Calimshan named Yurkal. Corym and Elorfindar created the group at the behest of Elorfindar's father, a high-ranking priest of Labelas, to retrieve elven historical items. They were also to keep a discrete eye on Nym. By the end of the month they had found their target (an ancient journal), rescued a human noble from Hill's Edge named Certhick, and returned him to his family. Arriving in Hill's Edge, Nym left the group, having gotten word that his patriarch was ill.
As normal for a play-by-post game, we've had a number of players rotate in and out. Karilla and Krackor both joined during separate adventures over the next month while the group was based out of Hill's Edge. Karilla was escorting a dwarven psionicist of mysterious origin named Obar. Krackor had gotten stuck in a trap in one of the dungeons the group encountered. Several other people joined the group for greater or shorter stretched of time.
Kora Roustinghorn is an NPC follower of Corym and Karilla. She's Certhick's cousin, sixteen, and a spitfire. She joined because she wanted to become a wizard. At Corym's urging, she first trained as a fighter. She's a Fighter 3 who's currently training to dual-class into wizard, and keeps eagerly following the group even though they keep getting into more and more dangerous territory. She thinks exploring Myth Drannor is the greatest idea ever.
The game shifted from the Sword Coast to Myth Drannor about an in-game month ago. We were down to just Corym and Krackor as active players, so we decided to shake up the game and recruit some new people. I used a malfunctioning gate in a ruin that the group was exploring to make the changes. It grabbed Corym, Krackor, and Kora and dropped them in Myth Drannor while throwing the rest of the group (including Karilla) across the multiverse. Elorfindar's player, who had withdrawn from the game earlier, wanted to come back, so I used the gate to grab Elo from Waterdeep and bring him back.
Karilla has been gone from Faerun for about a month. But, because she and I thought it would be funny, time flows differently on Athas. So from her perspective she's been gone 150 years.
Dorian/Kitheras was one of the new players joining when the game restarted in Myth Drannor. He's a very Tolkien-inspired elf, a ranger/bard who's musical and gifted with words while also very nature-oriented. He was serving as a spy for Evereska in the human cities of Sunset Vale (interesting note, all of the party's elves are from Evereska). His real name is Kitheras, but he was operating under the cover identity of Dorian when the gate grabbed him, and so his original player used that name until the character warmed up to the group.
