shadow_archmagi
2010-03-05, 06:55 PM
In every world, messages are delivered somehow. One plane ties messages to bricks and then hurls the bricks; another ties messages to rodents and then hurls the rodents; still more bizarre ones simply tell someone to tell someone else to tell the intended recipient.
Invariably, however, this process has a center. The center is as preposterous as anything else in the world. There is a place where the wind does not move in a straight line; it flows at hundreds of miles per hour in a vast labyrinth of currents and undercurrents, like a gaseous hamster maze from hell.
At the center of this airy pretzel is an island. On the island lives a man, tall and straight-backed and proud. He reads every letter, regardless of whether it passes through his insane lair. (and, due to the immense difficulty involved, very few take a route that involves the Sea of Wind) This does not occupy all his time; he also occasionally stops to use his power to aid a particular piece of information.
He does this only occasionally though, and there is little rhyme or reason to his choices. Most of his time is spent writing and sending elaborate letters between dozens of invented characters who lead detailed and complicated lives. After the completion of each one, he tosses it into the whirling vortex that surrounds him, already aware of the complex path that will bring it spiraling back to him.
For example, he once wrote a letter from "Thomas Reginald" stating that he was intent on joining the King's Crusade and if he did not write within three months he was dead. Two months later, he wrote another later from Thomas, but tossed it into a pointlessly longer route, so that it took more than a month to return. As such, he then wrote many letters from one grieving family member to another.
REASONS WHY THE PCs WOULD WANT TO VISIT HIM:
1. He can copy out from memory anything anyone ever sent anyone. Enemy battle plans, a letter that prove the king's trusted advisor is evil, and so on.
2. Sometimes his letters do not return as planned and get lost; the PCs may find one and be obliged to return it for a reward.
Invariably, however, this process has a center. The center is as preposterous as anything else in the world. There is a place where the wind does not move in a straight line; it flows at hundreds of miles per hour in a vast labyrinth of currents and undercurrents, like a gaseous hamster maze from hell.
At the center of this airy pretzel is an island. On the island lives a man, tall and straight-backed and proud. He reads every letter, regardless of whether it passes through his insane lair. (and, due to the immense difficulty involved, very few take a route that involves the Sea of Wind) This does not occupy all his time; he also occasionally stops to use his power to aid a particular piece of information.
He does this only occasionally though, and there is little rhyme or reason to his choices. Most of his time is spent writing and sending elaborate letters between dozens of invented characters who lead detailed and complicated lives. After the completion of each one, he tosses it into the whirling vortex that surrounds him, already aware of the complex path that will bring it spiraling back to him.
For example, he once wrote a letter from "Thomas Reginald" stating that he was intent on joining the King's Crusade and if he did not write within three months he was dead. Two months later, he wrote another later from Thomas, but tossed it into a pointlessly longer route, so that it took more than a month to return. As such, he then wrote many letters from one grieving family member to another.
REASONS WHY THE PCs WOULD WANT TO VISIT HIM:
1. He can copy out from memory anything anyone ever sent anyone. Enemy battle plans, a letter that prove the king's trusted advisor is evil, and so on.
2. Sometimes his letters do not return as planned and get lost; the PCs may find one and be obliged to return it for a reward.