3 Hammer -2127 DR

Dear Master Zorthaster,

Greetings from the height of ancient Netheril! We have successfully traveled through Mystra's Time gate and are adventuring almost 3500 years in the past. How absolutely glorious!

On the far side of the gate we found Master Wands and Primula patiently waiting. We donned our smocks and explained our diversion to Pharael's Hell. Master Wands was, I think, a bit concerned about the whole affair and had no explanation for what occurred.

Shortly thereafter, we were joined by a specialist hired by Master Wands to aid us in our journey. He was a planar "gatecrasher", and his specialty was activating gates. Fortunately for us, he was able to push through the time gate and retrieve our gear from the present-day side. His name was Bargin and he turned out to be a surly fellow. He appeared to be trying desperately to maintain a sense of self importance in the face of the grand expanse of the multiverse through a puffed up and prickly personality. It was a bit sad really when I came to understand this about him. His flashy garb and flamboyant style which at first had struck me as exotic and refined became more emblematic of his need for self affirmation. He was a trifle annoyed at Master Wands when in the course of his work on the gate that he discovered that a deity had "tinkered" with the gate. Despite his personality, Bargin proved his worth in operating both this gate and the next one we came to.

As Bargin was working on getting our gear from the present-day side of the gate, Master Wands explained that if we should become separated from him or something should happen to him here in the past, that we would automatically be drawn back to our proper time after a year here in the ancient days. The art would return us to Daggerfalls about one month later than the date of our departure. He also gave us a lesson on the deities of the age. Mystral, of course, is the Mother of All Magic in these times. Tyche, Amanator, Jannith, Jergal, Koza, and Moander are all still alive and active now.

As the hour was late and most of us had experienced plenty of adventures for the span of our "day," we agreed to rest here for the night. After confirming with Master Wands that there was no reason for concern, I conjured up a Magnificent Mansion. When Bargin saw the portal to the mansion, he immediately broke away from his work and examined it. I discovered that he could, with relatively little difficulty, push his way through, into the mansion. I will have to keep this ability in mind when I use this spell. The portal is not an impenetrable barrier to a skilled gatecrasher.

As we rested, Master Wands finally confirmed that we were indeed going in search of heavy magic to bring to the present day. History told of shipments of Heavy magic from Ascore going astray and never being recovered. His plan is to track one of these missing shipments and use it for our own purposes. We would travel through the forest to another gate. Bargin would open the gate and take his leave of us. We would take the gate to Ascore to investigate the heavy magic issue.

In the morning we began our wilderness journey. The forest was thick and lush and felt wilder than any wood I had ever experienced. Late in the morning we encountered a band of stone giants. They spotted us before we could hide properly and moved in to attack. Master Wands, discovering that we simply wished to avoid the war party cast a remarkable bit of Art. I was not able to discern how he did it, but we advanced in time to late in the evening of the same day. It may have been that he shifted everything else and we stayed the same, but I cannot even imagine the power that would be needed for such a thing. As it was, the chronomancer was quite exhausted after the spell and remained so until we had the opportunity to rest fully.

The following day brought us to our destination. Master Wands explained that the gate was guarded by a monster that caused serious harm to the party of scouts he sent in search of this gate. They survived and were able to tell him that the creature had to be destroyed before the gate could be used. Our task, while Bargin forced the gate, was to kill the thing. I suspect that the Arcanist who set the guardian in place will be unhappy, but his mistake was to put such an obstacle before an important gate. Let's hope he doesn't compound his error by trying to make an issue of it with us.

The guardian turned out to be a hydra. Unfortunately it was one of those difficult creatures that sprouts two heads for each one severed. The only way to defeat the thing was to sever each head and burn the stump before it could regrow. Unfortunately, it took only moments before new heads appeared. It was a long battle. Wands of burning hands and Melf's acid arrow proved somewhat effective on the thing. The difficult part was hitting the wildly flailing severed necks and not hitting my companions with fire. It meant that I had to get far too close to the beast to be at all helpful. Oskar had thankfully cast friend shield on me which helped enormously. I think my disintegrate rays should have been more effective than they proved to be. I had two prepared today. A third may have made for a much shorter fight, but as it was, if I had gotten a ray through to its body, the story may have been different. As it was, each ray destroyed a head but only temporarily.

Using the burning hands spell in such close quarters, trying desperately to hit a smallish target and avoid my friends made me wonder about the possibility of taking a more active role in shaping spell effects. It may come to nothing, but it is something I intend to think about later today when I finish this letter.

By the time we had finished fighting the hydra, Master Wands and Bargin were at work on opening the gate. We kept an eye out for additional dangers. We didn't want the master of this guardian catching us unawares. In the course of our watch, someone discovered a Deck of Many Things. It was in a small pouch and we tucked it away for later. This was not the time to be fooling around with such dangerous and unpredictable magics.

Bargin cracked the gate and took his leave. He seemed less pompous and more friendly after watching us defeat the hydra. Before leaving he said some kind words and hoped that we might meet again. Flamboyant as ever, though, he took his leave by conjuring up a well and jumping down its dark shaft. The well and Bargin disappeared.

We quit the place almost as quickly, stepping through the gate to ancient Ascore. We emerged from a cleft between two griffins statues, overlooking a bustling port where the ships as well as the docks were made of stone. Dwarves swarmed over the docks and ships. Off at a distance to the side of the port, a shipyard that appeared to be like a quarry than a place to build sea vessels teemed with dwarven activity. It looked like a perfect place to explore.

Your faithful student to be,

Cedar