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<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">Early Days</h2>, in which 22 encounters an influential [[warforged]], works for the man, gains sapience, and becomes enthralled with Nature</span> |
<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">Early Days</h2>, in which 22 encounters an influential [[warforged]], works for the man, gains sapience, and becomes enthralled with Nature</span> |
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<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: lightgrey"; margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 was created in the Pendergras factory in 705 PR, where they witnessed Snow helping protoforged seek freedom. 22 worked in Sneerwell's City Watch until fleeing their servitude immediately after beginning to contemplate the nature of their own existence when a mysterious coconut fell on their head.</small></p> |
<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: lightgrey"; margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 was created in the Pendergras factory in 705 PR, where they witnessed Snow helping protoforged seek freedom. 22 worked in Sneerwell's City Watch until fleeing their servitude immediately after beginning to contemplate the nature of their own existence when a mysterious coconut fell on their head.</small></p> |
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<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">Finding Jadenhill</h2>, in which 22 finds work and community, fights crusaders, and loses a friend</span> |
<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">Finding Jadenhill</h2>, in which 22 finds work and community, fights crusaders, and loses a friend</span> |
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<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 found the roads unsafe and the cities inhospitable and took up work guarding caravans, where fellow guards gave them a name and where they met [[dragonborn]] friends. They moved to Jadenhill and fought against the draconic crusaders and for the rights of dragonfolk. After their friend Uldil was killed, they struck out to learn how to better protect themself and others.</small></p> |
<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 found the roads unsafe and the cities inhospitable and took up work guarding caravans, where fellow guards gave them a name and where they met [[dragonborn]] friends. They moved to Jadenhill and fought against the draconic crusaders and for the rights of dragonfolk. After their friend Uldil was killed, they struck out to learn how to better protect themself and others.</small></p> |
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<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;"> Explorations with Grandmush</h2>, in which 22 studies druidic magics, explores [[the Underdark]], and takes organic form</span> |
<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;"> Explorations with Grandmush</h2>, in which 22 studies druidic magics, explores [[the Underdark]], and takes organic form</span> |
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<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 found the [[dryad]] Grandmush, who was happy to instruct a fellow iconoclast in the ways of druids. They travelled together for several years, aiding the woodlands and exploring the Underdark.</small></p> |
<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 found the [[dryad]] Grandmush, who was happy to instruct a fellow iconoclast in the ways of druids. They travelled together for several years, aiding the woodlands and exploring the Underdark.</small></p> |
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<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;"> Rise of the Machines</h2>, in which 22 continues fighting, laments the frailty of organics, and decides to move on</span> |
<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;"> Rise of the Machines</h2>, in which 22 continues fighting, laments the frailty of organics, and decides to move on</span> |
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<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>Jadenhill was secure, and [[the War of the Forged]] was heating up. Working with People are People, Tacciath and 22 traveled to Gearguage, and 22 served as a smuggler and freedom [[fighter]]. Once their oldest friend passed away, 22 reconsidered how close they wished to become with organics, and they eventually found a new home in The Sky Net, where they received hardware upgrades. But the start of this new life would be interrupted.</small></p> |
<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>Jadenhill was secure, and [[the War of the Forged]] was heating up. Working with People are People, Tacciath and 22 traveled to Gearguage, and 22 served as a smuggler and freedom [[fighter]]. Once their oldest friend passed away, 22 reconsidered how close they wished to become with organics, and they eventually found a new home in The Sky Net, where they received hardware upgrades. But the start of this new life would be interrupted.</small></p> |
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<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">Lessons of Katharda</h2>, in which 22 loses a bet, serves [[The One That Waits]], and dons a chainmail bikini</span> |
<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">Lessons of Katharda</h2>, in which 22 loses a bet, serves [[The One That Waits]], and dons a chainmail bikini</span> |
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<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 joined Grandmush to expand their knowledge at Katharda Academy in the the Underdark. When shadows began to spread across Isonhound, 22 left Katharda to try to help Gearguage but was quickly corrupted by the shadows themself, until a group of adventurers freed them and all of Isonhound from the shadows months later.</small></p> |
<p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-color: grey" margin-bottom: 1.5em;><br/>TLDR: <small>22 joined Grandmush to expand their knowledge at Katharda Academy in the the Underdark. When shadows began to spread across Isonhound, 22 left Katharda to try to help Gearguage but was quickly corrupted by the shadows themself, until a group of adventurers freed them and all of Isonhound from the shadows months later.</small></p> |
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<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">[[Within_the_Wicked_Wilds/Player_Recaps/TLDR|Within the Wicked Wilds]]</h2>, in which 22 returns to Amusa, encounters new companions and threats, and expands their abilities</span> |
<span><h2 style="display: inline; border: none; margin: none;">[[Within_the_Wicked_Wilds/Player_Recaps/TLDR|Within the Wicked Wilds]]</h2>, in which 22 returns to Amusa, encounters new companions and threats, and expands their abilities</span> |
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(See [[Within the Wicked Wilds/Player Recaps/TLDR]]) |
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⚫ | In 893 PR, once [[Pendergras Industries]]' innovations with [[fellstone]] had made [[airships]] not only technically feasible, but affordable to small businesses like the [[Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company]], 22 returned to [[Amusa]] with the company to explore the wilderness. Some sixty employees and private contractors set up a basecamp perhaps a day's flight inland from Galik on the northwest coast in an area just west of Amusa's perilous [[Amusa#Abzcar_Canyon|great Scar]]. There, 22 soon fell in with the local Thistlebrook druid conclave and split their time between the two camps. |
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The company allied with kobolds, whose ancient city of [[Thelrya]] they rediscovered. Gnome cultists devoted to a fungal demon called [[Mother]] eventually slaughtered the kobolds and drove the TBEC back to [[Galik]], where the company learned the cult was headed by members of the prominent [[Hearthorne|Hearthorne family]] (and opposed by one Hearthorne scion who masqueraded as the roguish adventurer [[Jack of Hearts]].) The company [[The Thelryan Restoration|thwarted the aspirations of the cult to manifest their demon queen at Thelrya]], whose residents were reawakened after centuries of silent slumber. |
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TODO: Document only those missions where 22 was present |
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When the company was able to return to the Wilds, they were given control of a waystation they dubbed [[Tempest's Landing]] in eastern Amusa, where they entered a dangerous alliance with devils to oppose a potentially cataclysmic incursion by extraplanar ice giants. The company found both allies and enemies among kuo-toa and yuan-ti living in the area, learned of strange technology associated with a member of the Tempest family, assembled a the legendary treasure map [[The Aestorian Codex]], and finally raided the buried spaceship that housed the treasure as it departed the world. |
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⚫ | In 893 PR, once [[Pendergras Industries]]' innovations with [[fellstone]] had made [[airships]] not only technically feasible but affordable to small businesses like the [[Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company]], 22 returned to [[Amusa]] with the company to explore the wilderness. Some sixty employees and private contractors set up a basecamp perhaps a day's flight inland from Galik on the northwest coast in an area just west of Amusa's perilous [[Amusa#Abzcar_Canyon|great Scar]]. |
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By this time, 22 had forged a helm of teleportation which they then used to spend time in their various places of residence within Quelmar: The Sky Net, Katharda Academy (where they took up teaching with Grandmush as the new headmaster) and the Thistlebrook Conclave, making regular visits to Jadenhill, Gearguage, and Tempest's landing as well. In 899 PR, 22 reunited with several other former members of the TBEC to oppose aspects of [[The Seven|the Sepexilium]], powerful primordials with whom the company had become unpleasantly familiar during their time in Amusa. |
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In the first weeks of the expedition, parties ventured forth from the camp to explore the surrounding areas. They discovered drow living near a ruined temple of Lolth to the south; allied with the large and amicable [[kobolds]] of the village of [[https://quelmarwiki.com/wiki/Within_the_Wicked_Wilds/Player_Recaps/TLDR#1c:_Thinwhistle_(Aaron,_4/29/23)|Thinwhistle]] to the southwest; found various reptilian humanoid species living in a swampy area along with the self-appointed ''Warden of the Wilds''; and, at the former base camp of the slaughtered [[Perseus Company]], encountered hostile [[gnolls]] and their masked ally ''[[The Green Knight]]'', who had supernatural ties to a nearby temple. |
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Several members of the group acquired a book for the enigmatic [[The Collector|Collector]] from a temple to the east, where they encountered a mysterious adventuring company led by the masked [[Jack of Hearts]], and others discovered magical flora and hostile dinosaurs while investigating the deaths of several missing research teams on a ley line to the northwest. The first [[Ratchet|death of a company member]] (at the hands of a clan of reptilian creatures), as well as the first sign of fiendish influence on the land (in the form of infernal mushrooms), occurred during a successful expedition to combat the pollution of an important water source. |
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Many additional adventurers joined the group including an entire new [[airship]] crew, who were hired in Galik by several representatives of the company. The infamous Polypus Caligas applied to be captain but was denied the position. And a small team was forced to rescue the new quartermaster when his airship crashed east of basecamp, resulting in the company's first direct encounter with [[demons]], whose attacks infected members of the party with a vision-impairing and nightmare-inducing disease that would be healed only by the intervention of new allies of the group. |
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These new allies began as likely enemies when one of them helped himself to some of the company's livestock that were grazing north of the basecamp. Investigating the disappearance, a party of adventurers encountered [[Thistlebrook|a druid conclave]] whose land the company had inadvertently encroached on, but the leader of this group formally apologized for the theft and provided advice on curing the disease that had been caused by the demons. The two parties were able to come to an agreement to render mutual aid in the future, and 22 spent time living with their fellow druids in the [[Thistlebrook]] Conclave. |
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On a quest to acquire the healing herbs recommended by druids, a team encountered more demons in a swamp to the east. The previous team to have met demons had heard the voice of the fiendish "[[mother]]", but this party encountered her directly, and [[Tassa Brightfox|one member of the team]] made a deal with her and did not return to camp with the others. And the same week, a different team managed to thwart efforts by the [[demon]] lord Jubilex to amass oozes and slimes in the forest to the northwest via a magical conduit; the group disrupted the conduit, but not before the oozes' fiery attacks set off a wildfire that damaged a large swath of forest. |
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The company encountered The Green Knight at another temple, this one far to the north and devoted to one of the [[The Ten Heralds of Tiamat|heralds of Tiamat]], [[Kavanmort]], the Twin Doom. The knight told the party they "knew too much" after encountering an undead dragonborn called [[Galidant]] in the temple, and they barely escaped the encounter with their lives. And another group revisited the southern temple that had been discovered a month earlier, helping the local drow residents by neutralizing aberrations that had been attacking them. |
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=Powers and Abilities = |
=Powers and Abilities = |
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<!-- TODO: Describe this stuff --> |
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[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fJEgX3dkWrtiSLchoGvo9Db-1DmGhL-eRJy59UwAKH4/edit#gid=1750226729 Character Sheet] |
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fJEgX3dkWrtiSLchoGvo9Db-1DmGhL-eRJy59UwAKH4/edit#gid=1750226729 Character Sheet] |
Latest revision as of 04:53, 24 July 2025
Not pictured: | force cannon, chainmail bikini |
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. . . | |
Type — | Autom |
Operator — | Cat |
Created — | Sneerwell, 705 PR |
Form Factor — | 166.14 cm, 118.10 kg |
Gender — | Non-binary (they/them) |
Aliases — | M2-5U22, Portal, Fursona, Bob |
Associates — | Tacciath (xx), Uldil (xx), Grandmush, Bones, Scope (xx), Colin Pendergras |
22 is an autom druid; a natural philosopher; an anti-racist activist and an agent of People Are People; a resident of The Sky Net; and a player character from the Within the Wicked Wilds campaign.
History[edit | edit source]
Early Days
, in which 22 encounters an influential warforged, works for the man, gains sapience, and becomes enthralled with NaturePhilosophy
, in which 22 takes a broad view of Nature, champions creative endeavors, and shuns fire
TLDR: Nature is the creative force that gives rise to all things, whether directly or indirectly, including the planes, the gods, organisms, synthetic beings, objects, and concepts. Existence and creation are to be cherished, and destruction is to be shunned. Fire is overused, and annihilation magic is inherently detestable.
The Source of All Things[edit | edit source]
22's view of nature is iconoclastic not only in that it views living constructs like themself as natural, but also in that it conceives of nature as that which underlies all things, not only in Quelmar but also in the planes beyond. According to this view, nature is the foundation that allows the entire cosmos to exist, with all its distant stars and its many planes of reality. All beings arise from it, deities and mortals alike. Although organic creatures would not exist without their respective creator deities, they are nonetheless a part of the vast collection of naturally occurring phenomena -- albeit a part that is at least one step removed from the foundation itself. When a being is created by mortals rather than by deities, that being is merely one additional step removed from nature's mysterious origins, but, like their creators, they remain as much a part of the whole as are the deities or the planes.
This perspective applies not only to creatures but to all things brought into existence, regardless of whether they are derived directly from the four elements (as a flower or a storm), constructed by non-sapient creatures (as a spider's web or a beaver's dam), made manifest by technological or magical means (as a sword or a continual flame), or merely conceptualized (as a plan or a dream). While some things are ephemeral by nature, those that tend to persist should be allowed to do so unless their destruction provides a benefit outweighing their loss -- which it may, since every act of destruction is also an act of creation.
Hence, a correct course of action is to encourage others to err on the side of creation over destruction and generally to oppose those peculiar things whose propensity is to destroy. While fire is problematic in this sense, organics do derive great benefit from its use (although some are far too willing to use it needlessly) -- but the use of purely destructive magics, such as a Sphere of Annihilation, is never necessary and is among the most abhorrent of acts.
Finding Jadenhill
, in which 22 finds work and community, fights crusaders, and loses a friendExplorations with Grandmush
, in which 22 studies druidic magics, explores the Underdark, and takes organic formRise of the Machines
, in which 22 continues fighting, laments the frailty of organics, and decides to move on22 and the Time War
, in which 22 is kidnapped, surprises Colin Pendergras, and seeks to kill Zugs McFlair- Subpage: 22 and the Time War
Lessons of Katharda
, in which 22 loses a bet, serves The One That Waits, and dons a chainmail bikiniRevelations of the ArchCrystal Tower
, in which 22 seeks answers, gets lost, and synopsizes Quelmar's history
TLDR: 22 traveled to Galik's ArchCrystal Tower to seek defensive knowledge. They became lost in the uniquely engineered structure and had time to read and summarize the prophecies of the esoteric Scrolls of Pythia.
Lost in the Tower[edit | edit source]
Having their will overridden by that of another had distressed 22 when they were captured by means of Bluestone, and no sooner had Professor Birwubart resolved this threat than had 22's mind been overtaken again -- this time by The One That Waits. In the first instance, 22 had killed their friend Scope, and in the second they had helped to enslave or kill countless others. 22 needed a way to protect their mind from such assaults in the future, and after a brief attempt to learn such skills by studying the Path of the Mind under Professor Wright at Katharda Academy, they decided to seek more esoteric knowledge, and they embarked for Galik and the ancient ArchCrystal Tower.
The tower was vast and incredible, like Galik itself. As a non-member, 22 was generally allowed only one inquiry per tenday. (Technically they were allowed 24 hours of research time and so could try for a second item if the first one was easily found, but it never took fewer than 15 hours for 22 to find a single item, so this distinction was nominal.) For months, no book met their needs and they decided to hide in the tower to get more time.
Several weeks earlier, they had discovered a moving bookshelf in a particular room. Now they navigated back to this room and snuck into the passage beyond. From there they found another room where the guards would not know to look for them. -- But the rooms of the ArchCrystal Tower reposition themselves relative to one another as scholars seek various resources, and 22's room shifted to a very inconvenient location where neither the moving bookcase nor the doors led anywhere.
The Scrolls of Pythia[edit | edit source]
The room did not shift to another new location for almost a year, and when it did, the exits still all led to solid, magically reinforced walls. The second time the room moved, one of the doors provided an exit, and 22 walked into the adjacent room to find themself still trapped. This pattern continued for years during which 22 moved from room to room and read whatever materials were available until they stumbled upon a collection of scrolls penned by a diviner named Erin. Titled The Scrolls of Pythia, they claimed to offer prognostications originating in the distant past. 22 wanted to retain this information and so created an internal log to store a curated and abridged subset of of it.
TLDR Quelmar
Twenty-two's Log of Divinations Regarding Quelmar
...documenting the peculiarly precise prognostications of the Oracle of Athenaeum
Meta-divination[edit | edit source]
Erin, an early settler in Quelmar, performed a powerful divination (with the rest of Connor's Six). This magic revealed the firsthand experiences of six particular settlers of Athenaeum (said to be the first colony in Quelmar), including those of its oracle Pythea.
Erin found that the oracle's own divinations had shown her the broad history of Quelmar with remarkable precision -- even to the point of revealing myths that would evolve, indicating names that would be given to major conflicts, specifying dates for defining events, and charting the evolution of the calendars which would give those dates their meaning.
But first she learned some fundamental truths about the Realm and its place in the vast space that surrounds it.
You Are Here[edit | edit source]
- Quelmar is not a spheroidal world but instead closely resembles a flat plane.
- Quelmar and all of its secondary planes compose the vast Amitere Nebula, an anomalous section of greater Galactic Space.
- The sky is orange-red but turns blue when magic eventually leaves the realm.
- Quelmar's land originally comprises a single landmass that scholars come to call Ywrought
- Several myths arise regarding the origins of the world, its people, and its magic:
- Tiamat and Sardior gave rise to the world, and Tiamat later sought its destruction, opposed by their grandchildren, Chronepsis and Bahamut – but Tiamat absconded, heartbroken, when the gods shattered Sardior.
- Six original gods created six races: dwarves, gnomes, centaurs, dryads, orcs, and rakshasa
- New gods arrived to compete for followers, largely through bribing Quelmartians with gifts, which gave rise to Quelmar's magic (as well as the moon, elves, the continent of Isonhound, and the island of Kiston).
- The original Quelmar world gets claimed by Asmodeus and becomes Hellmar, the Tenth Circle of Hell; the Gods generously reboot the realm with most of its inhabitants none the wiser.
- Quelmar's prehistory may be long, but its history lasts only 2885 years before an apocalypse occurs from which the Gods offer no deliverance.
Historical Eras[edit | edit source]
Quelmar has three historical eras:
- Bekilip Rekisix, meaning Destructive Time (aka Before the Reckoning)
- Lasts 995 years
- Begins when humans appear and start tracking time
- Named for the ongoing conflict with chromatic dragons (from their emergence in 207 BR until their banishment)
- Quelmar develops four seasons (4 years each) during the 7th century BR
- Ends when The Holy War against the dragons is won
- Petranasul Rekisix, meaning Pleasant Time (aka Post-Reckoning)
- Lasts 1295 years
- Begins when the dragons are imprisoned on Kiston (and its orbital Isles appear)
- Dragons return in the 8th century PR and the conflict lasts almost until the end of the era
- Ends when the Weave is fractured and magic is lost
- Cyber Renaissance
- Lasts 595 years
- Begins when Kiston returns from the Astral Plane (and sinks into the sea), unraveling Quelmar's already-compromised magical Weave and cutting the realm off from its neighboring planes of existence
- This compresses the seasonal cycle (from 16 years to 1 year), renders the sky blue, and fatefully releases all of Quelmar's bound horrors, ushering in a new period of struggle
- Ends when an apocalypse terminates the organized documentation of history
Within the Wicked Wilds
, in which 22 returns to Amusa, encounters new companions and threats, and expands their abilities