Visuals & Clues to the Mystery of the Princess

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Beyond the Hall of Pools strange mongrel creatures lurked...


And from the red mists they came!

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The untold tales of her extra-planar travels.

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The latrines of the Silver Princess...

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"...hundreds of encased squares panels with small carved heads about six inches in size. As you take in the room the little heads begin reciting a poem, each head saying one word, creating a dazzling audiological effect as the words seem to flow about and bounce around the room..."


The poem The Palace of the Silver Princess:

In Haven did the Silver Princess
A stately pleasure palace decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! As holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By a woman wailing for her scorned lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult the Princess heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the palace of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw;
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Whiteplume.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
Her flashing eyes, her floating hair!
Weave a circle round her thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For she on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.*

(*adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

The sphere antechamber opens into a library study hall...

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In the library reading room... a large framed picture, 6' x 6', its canvas slashed in several places. The title on a brass plaque: Lady Myshella the Silver Princess and Cornelia the Dragon, the Later Years...


The library stacks...


It rises...

"I am Catharandamus, sage master and philosopher to Lady Myshella," mutters the apparition in the minds of the adventures as a wave of cold passes over you. "Long has been my torture since the heart opened. Long my contemplation of its influence. Chaos has tilted the balance in many worlds -  Lemuria, Mu, Mystera, Gondwanaland, Altlantis, Amyrika, Abeir-Toril -- swallowing civilizations in anarchy, entropy and dissolution. I fear the same here. My philosophy is now death. Consider it..."

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Images from the Library of the Silver Princess

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A vision of Raquinel the sorceress...

A succubus transforms into a monstrous demon and tears the heart out of a Kender.

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The Fellowship of Law's strange experience with the Eye of Illumination, the Librarian of the Palace of the Silver Princess.

The eye turns silvery and speaks in tears of metaphor, soaking into your consciousness. "I am the memory of knowledge here, and the mirror of its place." Your mind unfurls stacks of shelves, lined with paper mouths whispering truths and fictions. You hear mention of the Palace, and are drawn to a house, floor, room. You know where to go in your mind's eye. At the same time, you knows the shelf to be empty outside. Indeed, the stacks are bare.

"Who is the dragon and why does he stand peaceably with the Silver Princess in painting but torment us in dream?" you think.

A bibliophilic chiaroscuro swirls about in your mind. You realize the librarian catalogs the dreams and fancies, facts and fiction of the tomes with the library. In your mind's eye you know the shelf location of books, scrolls and grimoires on the palace's construction, its royal family, court histories, poems and plays. This eye - a wondrous entity to inhabit a library the scale of Princess Myshella's! But its utility is more limited when the books it directs you to are missing, ransacked over the past 200 years since the fall of the Palace.

Still there is one bookmark that flutters in the your mind. You grasp it and follow its trail through a valley of spines, down rivers of ink to a small rickety house of cheap boards and glue. The door hangs off its hinges by frayed sewn threads.

You pass through the door, following the bookmark. Your mind publishes the inside of the rickety pulp building: a mass of scroll-work in the script of Sir Erykose, lover, husband, and reputed murderer of Lady Myshella, the Silver Princess.

This journal is part of the answer to your questions. Though the journal is not on the empty shelves of the library stacks, you remember where it is?

The house of words dissolves around you. You are inside the eye again, looking up into its iris.



The iris dilates and speaks in your mind with biblio-metaphors and nonlinear visions of expectations not met. But you understand it this way: "You are not the first to ask about this Runestaff. There was no reference made to it in the library, so I cannot point you to any book on whatever that is."

You recall the words of Count Brass when you first left on your quest: The Runestaff was detected and appeared just recently, hence the scramble to gain it by the sides of Law and Chaos. Its purpose is shrouded in conjecture, but is assumed to help in maintaining the Cosmic Balance. As the artifact appeared recently, you see the logic that the eye and its old library have no record of it.

As to Palace plans, the eye reveals again the shelf locations of tomes about the famed palace itself, including architectural plans. Alas, the books are gone, victim to 200 years of looting, decay and chance. Of the palace structure, you recall from the outside that the first level seemed most intact, there was a partial second floor, one of four towers remained (which could be seen through the glass dome top of the library stacks room), and it would be a safe assumption that there is a lower level or dungeon beneath. For all great castles and palaces have such, in your experience as an adventurer.



"Regarding the ruby, the heart of Xiombarg, what do you recall? Where was it kept?"

The eye unfurls the location of an occult tome that discusses Chaos Lords, a codex of symbology with references to Xiombarg; and a cook book by a crazed gourmet with a recipe that calls upon Xiombarg. All of which, you know from seeing the empty shelves, are not present in the library.

Still there is one bookmark that flutters in your mind. You grasp it and follow its trail through a valley of spines, down rivers of ink to a small rickety house of cheap boards and glue. The door hangs off its hinges by frayed sewn threads. You open the door. Your mind publishes the inside of the rickety pulp building: a mass of scrollwork in the script of Sir Erykose, lover, husband, and reputed murderer of Lady Myshella, the Silver Princess.

This journal is part of the answer to your questions. Though the journal is not on the empty shelves of the library stacks, you remember where it is?

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Shen the monk opens the tattered journal of Sir Erykose, the lover, husband and reputed murderer of Lady Myshella, the Silver Princess. Who knows how it ended up on the floor of the library study hall, not far from the corpse of Catharandamus, but it certainly shows its age. The vellum pages are rippled and the ink splotched, as if the whole book had gotten wet. Pages are stained with what could be blood; many pages are ripped out; there is a large section of mold in the back; the fore edges are foxed; and insect damage is apparent. But the monk and other readers do make out many entries. Interspersed in the journal are sketches, some in Erykose’s own hand, others tipped in and signed by the court artist Bowgentle of the Brushes.

Arpillana 5, 237
I have glimpsed the divine. Her name is Myshella Kaneloon. Even Cornelia seems fond of her.

Maylana 13, 237
My heart is hers, willingly chained to her kind spirit and playful soul. We are to be one.


Junelana 27, 237
My only request was to forbid her to open the jewel case.

Augustlana 29, 237
The citizens of Haven are surprised at the speed with which their Princess has wed. If they knew her as well as I, they would not be surprised!

Octoberlana 31, 237
Why Myshella oh why, by the Balance! No! She has opened the case and beheld the heart!


Novemberlana 14, 237
A fortnight has passed. Thankfully all seems well with my love. I pray Xiombarg’s power was ebbed. The heart is in its case.


Decemberlana 15, 237
Myshella has become private and withdrawn.

Januarylana 18, 238
The Princess has started new construction projects in the Palace, expanding the sub-level.

Februarylana 3, 238
I sought the jewel case today. It is gone! I launched an immediate…

Februarylana 18. 238
Myshella has moved her sleeping quarters to the Tower of Roses. I am beside myself.

Marchlana 5, 238
Cornelia said the Princess hit her this morning.

Aprillana 1, 238
The servants now avoid the Tower of Roses. Yesterday a servant girl was horrified to see…

Aprillana 21, 238
Catharandamus is concerned. He claims to have seen the Princess carrying the jewel case. I confronted her and she denies it.

Maylana 9, 238
The Princess has taken up hunting. She has a retinue I do not entirely approve of.


Junelana 13, 238
I cannot believe such rumors! I questioned the man and he insists it was she who initiated the act…

Julylana 4, 238
There were screams in the sub-level last night. I personally led the guard troops in a search. We found nothing. But Catharandamus detected…

Julylana 20, 238
Cornelia has come under her influence. She refuses to take flight with me.

Augustlana 2, 238
A gargoyle creature was sighted last night flying over the Palace. Is this coincidence with the band of Norkers found at our borders?


Augutlana 22, 238
My heart is broken. It is true. I witnessed the atrocity myself. It occurred last night when…

Septemberlana 11, 238
All of Haven is at risk. What is asked of me I cannot do, but must.

Septemberlana 13, 238
Gods forgive me it is done.

Octoberlana 1, 238
The people of Haven are sad, and my melancholy endless.

Octoberlana 15, 238
We have still not found the heart.

Novemberlana 1, 238
Today the earth itself rumbled. Much repair of the Palace is underway. A strange glowing rift was found in the sub-level. Catharandamus says it is…

Novemberlana 10, 238
More bad weather today. It seems unnatural to me.

Novemberlana 29, 238
The Farmers Council said there will be food shortages due to the crop plague.

Decemberlana 14, 238
For the first time, Haven’s natural springs have run dry. The gnomes says the underground river Alph has been depleted…

Decemberlana 28, 238
I cannot seem to lift my heart. Finding cause to smile is difficult. How I miss my Myshella.


Januarylana 1, 239
All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre. The feast is over, and the flames expire.

***

There is more, but it is smudged. Careful study may reveal more, but it will take some hours of studying Erykose’s script, matching and cross-referencing clear letters with the fuzzy, and the fuzzy with the more grossly smudged letters. It is clear to the adventurers that the Heart of Xiombarg changed Lady Myshella from a kind soul to someone different. That Erykose was forced to take action. And by his last entry the rumors of his suicide may seem true. Powerful his despair to overcome the fortitude of a paladin. No mention is made of the Runestaff, which is not surprising given the artifact has but recently appeared.

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Sir Erykose and his dragon steed Cornelia...

From the faded tapestries of the Library of the Silver Princess...

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The betrayal of Cornelia...

From the Journal of Sir Erykose...

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Lurking in the hallways...

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Pausing to assess their mapping...

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Raquinel the sorceress swoons and is overcome with another vision…

"Your souls smell of sulfur and brimstone," it says, the raspy voice rattling in your mind telepathically. "Legio mihi nomen est, quia multi sumus.

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From some card game...


Super Terrific Happy Palace of Scintillating Princess...

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About 30' down, at the edge of the party's torchlight... What is that in the middle? Is it moving?

The girl runs down the corridor and into...

The Atrium of the Silver Princess

The Fellowship of Law beholds a wondrous chamber...


In the northwest corner is a colony of mushrooms and fungi...


The monster plant lashes out at Bjorn the cleric...


Shen the monk sees a flying snake arise from the lake...


At the top of the stairs is a kingly statue... its eyes move!


A pretty grove of purple flowers and moss is south of the lake...


Honnilee the hobbit spies a statue...


A map of the Atrium...


The little girl laughs and Ianin turns to stone...


The girl clutches a doll...

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Behind the Door...



A Battle With Strange Giants





Watch Out!



The Hall of Games, in which The Wheel of Balance is spun...

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The Palace of the Silver Princess in all her glory, during the halcyon days of Princess Myshella...

The view from the rear. Today, the dry ruins of the fountains remain. The surrounding rear buildings are gone. Much of the second floor of the Palace proper is gone. The dome of the Atrium can be seen, with the Tower of Roses to its right.

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Dangers in The Tower of Roses...

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A puzzling door behind which lies the Gallery of Song and Art...


Artwork from the Gallery...