The Wonderful World of Mystara

A Manuscript about the Natural Magical World of Mystara

Chapter 1

The Start of our voyage.

As spoken by, Salechaam Deraan, later penned down by Separim Longstrider.

Corunglain 1014 AC, 25^th Flaurmont, early Morning

The sky was grey, the street-tiles were wet, when Salechaam looked out of the small window. The first carts and wagons were already passing by, and the sound of their metal plated wooden wheels made a sound hard enough to be heard from within the room. He washed his face, hands and upper body with the cold water decanter. Then he cleansed his brown red beard with the remaining water, adding some strokes of the scented soup  and rinsed it all away. Wrapping a towel around the precious hairs to dry, he heard soft tickling on the window panes, rain. “A nice beginning of the voyage, the piss of Orcus, clearly a sign of troubles coming” he muttered within the towel. Sitting down he pulled up his pants, and boots, sturdy dwarven boots, made with the excellent craftsmanship of Ylari cobblers. Donning his shirt, the towel fell on his lap. He pulled the still moist beard from underneath the shirt, before putting on his chain-mail bodice. Then two silken bands were each wrapped around a separate even strand of the beard. The picture was almost complete. Salechaam grabbed a 3 inch stick from his bag, chewed it flat and caked it with the soap, then brushed his teeth with it. “Good sense this tavern-keeper has, mint scented brush soap, only the taste they have to invent something for. But hey, it is always better than no teeth at all.” Were his words while donning his other equipment; A belt pouch with some change in it, a large sack with his other belongings over his shoulder, and his proud axe Mahawudi, Djinn Slayer tucked in the leather ring on his back.

He went into the dark oaken hall, to the stairs down. The scent of fresh coffee drifted through the building. “Good Morning Salechaam” said the barkeep, when he saw him treading down the last steps.

“Morning”. “One coffee?...to lighten the spirit of the day?” Nah..Nay…I’ve to prepare our departure, my comrades will arrive soon from Glantri”. “Aye…Glantri, still a no-go for dwarves”. “Indeed”, while placing a few coins on the till, “Not by us dwarves and not by them frigging mages. For da night”.

“Thanx, and where will the voyage be going?” “Vestland, is all I know…Somewhere in Vestland. Thanx for the service and da hospitality”. “You’re welcome”. Salechaam opened the backdoor, and was instantly welcomed by friendly bark of Row. Almost toppling the dwarf when making a meeting jump, Salechaam corrected him with a soft pad on the back. Swaggling his tail, he eagerly awaited his treat. A dwarven hand dug into a pant-pocket and drew forth a string of beef jerky, tossing it up towards Row, which greedily caught it mid air. He passed Row, and moved towards the stables, to release Samen and Dolos, the drafthorses, and reign them in onto the Discovery. He removed their feeding sacks, affixed the reigns and led them to the wagon. A few minutes later, they were ready. He filled the barrel with fresh water, and loaded all the boxes and crates, sacks and bundles of food, tools, and other stuff…some completely unknown to him. “Not something a dwarf needs to know” are his words.  Sascha, the young daughter of the tavern-keeper straddled forth, gently stroke the head and nose of Row, slobbered by a wet tongue as thanx; “Are you going away? Are you taking Row with you? Were are you going? Will you come back? When…” “So much questions little human, soo less time…lets just say we will meet again. So bye bye” while stroking the little girls head, he climbed up the wagon and drove through the porch onto the road. “Northbound, towards the border of the Broken Lands”, he mumbled under his breath. ”The adventure begins…naah.”

Callair Farmlands

The room was dark, and only the runes on the floor gave a bright white-blueish light. Separim Longstrider stood in the corner viewing the incantation of Gaston Vanderklil. The spell went fluently and within a moment the room around them changed. The dark stones made way for acres of freshly dug up earth, where farmers were tilling the earth to sow new crops. To the south the sight of a large city could be seen, smokes rising from hundreds of chimneys, to the north broken lands and high peeked mountains. 7 stones were around them, and nearby a farm. A small brook cobbled towards the farm. Gaston knew this place, and favoured this over any failed attempts at teleporting towards Corunglain itself, unknown were to appear due the Tele[ort Ward, even when it was further away from the city proper. 

A small figure approached from the farm. It was Straddle Leafboots, a Hin from somewhere in the Shires. “Greetings Friends”. He gently spoke with a smile on his face. “Greetings Stwaddle” responded Gaston, “You didn’t have to wait too long I hope?” “No, two days only, with these gentle farmers. Some field work in the spring rain helped passing time”. “I hope you paid these fawmews some coins fow ouw use of theiw field I pwesume?” “Yes, yes, two gold seemed enough I thought” Straddle responded with a strange question-like face. “Allwight Sepawim, awe you paying them anothew thwee gold? A total of Five will do bettew I feel”. Without a word Separim moved towards the farm, while Straddle and Gaston started to pull the chests and boxes and bundles towards the road nearby. Placing it all next to the road, they had to go back and forth a few times, even with the help of a Floating Disc cast by Gaston. “I’ve given them five gold” said Separim glancing Straddle when he accompanied them. “Good, good…Now where is our transport? He should already be here, by now…I think”. “We’ve to wait until he awwives” Gaston responded, settled on a chest, and drew fort a long porcelain pipe, stuffed it with Halfling tobacco, and blew fort figurines in the smoke.

Artistic representation of Corunglain's Three Bridges 
as seen from looking back from the Bridge to Fort Nell.
The middle being the Dike Road along the Streel River,
the farthest away is Darokin's Main Road.

The grey sky gave firth some more short showers, but not enough to get truly wet. Then after about two turns, movement became visible in the south . A wagon, and indeed it was the Discovery, pulled forth by Samen and Dolos. The wagon was driven by Salechaam as agreed, and Row ran towards Separim when he recognized him. Happily they tumbled over the road. Even Gaston smiled. It had been a long time since they last seen each other.

Salechaam frowned like only a Dwarf could do muttering “Elves”, and climbed down do help loading the boxes and other stuff. “Aren’t we supposed to travel lightly?” he responded grufly while stocking a roll of tapestry wrapped in a waterproof tarp. “Yes we awe” Gaston replied, “just the basic necessities”.

Bulging eyes were the only resonse Salechaam could give. Luckily the wagon had enough space, for all this unknown stuff. Again he muttered “Mages”.

Tavern "Lord in the Mist"

Separim and Straddle entered the wagon while Gaston took his place besides Salechaam. He took the reigns and steared the wagon back south towards Corunglain. Near the city they took the eastern road along the city, until they met the road towards Fort Nell. The large stone bridge was only 5 horses abreast, and no wagon could travel here without making a sound. In the middle they stopped and paid the toll of 6 silver (one for each wheel and horse). 

The first village they met was Zottegem before the crossed a small brook. Here the road became worse. It was an ancient road from times gone by Separim declared. Salechaam agreed and added it was good to keep the past from getting lost. The day went well, disturbed only by the short rainshowers. The landscapes was predominantely farmlands, with the Broken Lands towering on the northern horizon. When the night beckoned they reached a small town, named “Sword at the lake” after some legend. The travel was somewhat over 26 miles on a road. From here on the road would be more like a trail, limiting the amount of daily distance covered to about 18 miles at most.They settled at a local tavern called "Lord in the Mist", probably named after the same legend.

They day was uneventful as was the night. A few silver pieces each for the stay at the Tavern and for some food. The next morning the continued. Not much was spoken by Salechaam nor Gaston, but Separim and Straddle boasted several stories of history, and own stories, and had a lot of Joy. Row was in his happy mood too, as he ventured fort of the wagon, and returned with a freshly killed hare. The next morning, the critter was gone, except some barfballs of hair and bones.

Day 1; Corunglain to "Sword of the Lake" village

In the next morning Salechaam was in the wagon and Gaston took the reigns, with Separim on the bock. Straddle dared to ask were the voyage was going.
"South East of the broken Lands, along Calor's Spur, then through Ethengar towards Vestland. And then probably back again." Answered Salechaam.

"Strange?...going forth and back?"

"Yes for Gaston wants to remove the flaws in our common knowledge of the Known world. 

As the Great Sage Bruce Heard once said; The world is more different than you know, the maps you know off are wrong". 

"And as thus the Streel River also belongs?"

"Indeed". Salechaam responded.
"It is a common flaw of knowledge about the Streel River. Hence we are going to the source, the well of the river". 

"And along the way we will discover the truth".

"The truth?" responded Salechaam with a questionable face? 

"I don't know if we will find the truth, but we will come very close at least."

Earlier chapters;
Prelude, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3,
Interlude;
Geomorphological History of the Broken Lands 1
Geomorphological History of the Broken Lands 2
Following Chapters;
Chapter 4, Chapter 5

The Artistic representation of Corunglain is original art by Stephen Fabian form Gazetteer11 Darokin , in which digitally removed the Mountains in the Left part of this art, as these do not exist there.