As the ship known as The Starchaser set sail from Merwick, and sailed away from the island of Cristyne, which you had called home, you pulled out the journal given to you by your mother; who had explained her great, great, great grandmother (Haylie Starchaser) had written this journal near the end of her life, in a fevered dream.
The coincidence of her last name, and the ship you now trusted to take you across many oceans, was not lost on you.
Was it madness that spewed these words in her journal? The journal had begun so normal; detailing the days of her life, how she proclaimed to have witnessed – and survived – the Cataclysm. She was hundreds of miles away, but she wrote about how she saw the mountain fall from the sky, a burning star whose light was blinding to gaze upon; but she could not turn away, not even if it would cost her own sight.
As a devote follower of Gilean, the god of knowledge, she had documented how the face of the world had changed; how the continent fractured; once massive lands were now fractured into islands; where stood mountains now stood rivers, and where Istar once stood, a swirling whirlpool, of what everyone called ‘The Bloodsea of Istar’ with a maelstrom so violent that few dared sail near it.
In the tome, she notes that the gods have not left – as a matter of fact, she proclaimed in her writing that Gilean himself had reached out to her many nights and provided her visions. And this… this is where the apparent madness had kicked in. Some of the things she had written were so outlandish, as to what some of these visions were; yet… some could not be denied. Some of the things she had proclaimed to ‘foresee’ as visions had actually come to pass.
It’s her final page however, that has always given you pause. By this time, near the end of her life, she’d stopped writing in her journal and it’d become mad – almost impossible drawings to decipher. The last page however…
It was clearly a drawing of you. She’d drawn every detail of you. And it was you, standing on a board, seemingly sailing in the ocean of the sky, chasing a star. You shake your head, trying to not believe that she’d somehow indicated you’d be on this ship, right now, today, called The Starchaser.
Beneath that drawing was another, and it showed you – standing among others, whom you did not recognize – a minotaur, a kender, a human, a half-elf and an elf. You were all facing what appeared to be a waterspout made to look like a bird with animals all around it. This certainly made no sense. You knew no minotaur, certainly would never be in the company of a kender, and the elves – they’d locked themselves away from the world. But that’s not the oddest part of that drawing – it’s the dwarf in the drawing. With the amount of detail she drew – you might have thought it was a badly drawn dwarf – but it was clearly a gully dwarf. A female. She was there, her arms outstretched above this blue bird.
The bottom corner was the most disturbing of it all. From there, a skull, with you inside of its mouth – the bones from hundreds of people, decorated, woven in around the page in a macabre form of decoration.
You closed the book and put it back in your bag and took a deep breath. Where was fate to take you? Was there such a thing as fate? You only know that you had felt confined on Cristyne and needed to find your own way; a way to breathe and feel free in a world that seemed to be falling apart, still from the effects of the Cataclysm.
The ship sailed northeast, then between the fractured lands of North and South Ergoth. Along the voyage, you did the best you could to help those who suffered from such diseases as scurvy, which occurs due to a lack of vitamins in the diet, yellow fever, malaria, gangrene and even dysentery. You called upon the gods, for those that would not survive the disease, and asked them to take their spirits; and though the gods seemed to be gone, you could not help but pray to them. Your faith was oddly placed in these gods who seemed to have deserted Krynn.
When the ship reaches Hargoth in Coastland, you depart and travel with some of the traders, and head into Winterholm. You stay there for several weeks, making acquintances at the establishment known as the Frost Maiden Inn. You eventually travel back with other traders back to Hargoth and are surprised to see that it is none other than the Starchaser that is docked again. You board the ship once more, paying for passage, this time the ship travels over the northern reach of Ansalon before docking in northern Nordmarr where – to your surprise and dismay – a kender named Tarli Featherfoot introduces himself. Thankfully, an attractive woman with him, named Emeelia Heartroot introduces herself as well, and explains she is a friend of Tarli.
While aboard the ship – it is approached by a ship, run by Seekers known as Cridheolc. Though you’ve never heard of these Seekers – everyone on the boat is panicked and Emeelia explains to you how these Seekers consider themselves “purifiers.” As the Seeker ship attacks the Starchaser, seemingly coming out of the fog is another ship – a ship with black sails, and a wave crafted from a thousand daggers – the Irontide! The Irontide were known to be pirates who often attack vessels who believe themselves superior to the Irontide fleet. With unmatched courage, you watched as the Irontide fleet boarded the Cridheolc vessel and began slaughtering them. The people of the Starchasers wondered if they were next – but the captain of the fleet, a Minotaur named Feroz Irontide called out that they would escort the Starchaser to safety and did so – bringing it to Farholm. It was there that the kender named Tarli parted ways with his friend Emeelia, and was staying aboard the Irontide ship, since Feroz was swearing to go after the Cridheolc followers. This interested you as well – to go after these murderous seekers and to perhaps discover what this ‘god’ is that they worshipped.
As you sailed aboard the Irontide ship, your eyes widened as you took out the journals of Haylie Starchaser – the minotaur and kender in the drawing of the last page – they were unmistakably the same two you were now traveling with…
The fleet traveled over northern Ansalon and made its way to an all too familiar port – Hargoth. From there, you traveled with them eastward towards Winterholm, which was south of Varus and even further south of the large city of Palanthas. The minotaur hired a soldier to come with them – a human by the name of Ronlyn Drahcir Daero. As the minotaur explained they were going after the Seekers known as Cridheolc, a female elf stepped up and introduced herself as Breara Quilphestrie ... then a half-elf, named Tycus Dragonstone, explained if they were traveling – he was in need of companions and would travel with all of you.
By the gods. The last page Haylie Starchaser drew.
It’s them. It’s all of them.