Fırtına Tepe

Fırtına Tepe ("Storm Hill") is a place of old Inran ruins in the forest, about seven or eight kilometres from Aquila, in the campaign Yeni Dünya ("New World"). An elf of a mercenary company said that he did not know its local name and that mercenaries called it Fırtına Tepe for its lightning scars. It lies to the south of the city, the opposite way from the fishing village of Uzun İskele.¹²

The handover

According to the elf, it was here that his company met its employer's leader face to face and handed over the abducted scholar Orson. The leader, who kept his face covered, had ten or twelve people about him and a separate ambush party, was guarded by those around him and paid generously; such leaders, the elf said, could be in several places at once. The mage Manfred said that he gave Orson to a man in Geroni dress whose name he did not know, was paid in full and was ambushed on the way back by two mages and crossbowmen in a tall tree.³⁴⁵⁶⁷

The cave beneath

Beneath the hill lies a damp stone cave used as a laboratory, thick with the smell of alchemy and filled with liquids of many colours, vessels and casks. Old stone beds with dirty cushions face one another, ringed with red magical writing, and a circle marked with alchemical symbols lies on the floor. Its one way out is an open passage hidden by vines, where rain and mud gather.^89101112

Spoiler: Waking in the caveRevealSpoils: Yeni Dünya #27; Yeni Dünya #28 · Say what you have read

After a shared vision, the band woke in this cave with a green, glowing magical liquid running into their arms through gut tubes. Their weapons, armour and money were still on them. In the larger chamber they found a hastily written note signed "K.", a half-burnt lamp, a sandwich and tea still warm; the writer judged it unwise to face them, said that all they had seen might be made real by his master's power, asked them to stand aside and promised to return for an answer. Outside a real storm was raging. Fauna followed fresh footprints that ended just beyond the entrance.^91314151617

The hilltop

A road winds up to the top. There the band found overturned tables and chairs, an old tent with a newer fire beside it, a dead white tree with plants growing at its foot, a broken stone structure explained as a very old altar, a mirror, an old ballista and a bronze lantern. The full moon broke through the clouds above; the sky of Teneris has two moons.^1819202122

In Fauna's culture the white tree has a name meaning roughly "grace". Such a tree dies after its life for no known reason and becomes very hard and unharmed, and rare healing herbs grow at its foot. Its holiness is tied to an almost single-god faith in the Amber Light among her people, and Fauna said that they had come to visit the tree.²³²⁴²⁵

The mirror, dirty but unbroken, is magical. Its shape, size and some of its carving resemble a painting the band had once been carried through, so it may well serve to carry travellers too. The ballista is linked with the style of the Geroni city-states; though old, it still shoots, though its trial shot missed the rock it was aimed at.²⁶²⁷²⁸

On the hilltop the band met the stranger Klam Ezor, who had made camp there and spent the night talking with them.²⁹