Exiles/Hidden Valley II Timeline
The Hidden Valley II Timeline is copyright ©1999 by Hydra's-Head Press. Permission is hereby granted to make copies of this document in any medium for the use of current contributing members of Tower Mountain/New Hope.The dates on the Exiles' timelines correspond to those on the New Hope and Servan's Enclave Timelines. EX 0 corresponds to Tower 1180.
Locations other than Hidden Valley:
GW = Great Water Holt; NH = New Hope; ST = nomadic location of the Stinkers; TM = Tower Mountain/Redrock Valley; TwN = location of the Tribe without Name; WG = Wolfgang
Seasons: (winter), Moons 1 - 6
(spring), Moons 7 - 12
(summer), Moons 13 - 18
(autumn), Moons 19 - 24Years begin on the winter solstice ("Year's Birth").
| EX -1 -- | Beliel's trial. Beliel is exiled from Tower Mountain for his crimes; Adiana choses to accompany him. Silara's arrival; Doleera and Silara have a knock-down drag-out fight, in the aftermath of which Doleera decides to leave with Beliel as well; after all the shouting is over the Brightcolor Desert elves whom Silara brought with her as her army leave the Tower (with the exception of Sunbreath, who has Recognized Servan and chooses to remain with her.) |
| EX 0 -- | Beliel, Doleera, and Adiana leave the Tower. They are provided with adequate supplies and possibly even pack animals, but are forbidden to take any humans with them. Beliel, in shock from Tyaar's 'betrayal' of their soulmating, allows Doleera to lead them where she will. The little group heads west because the New Hope colonists went east. |
| EX 1 -- | The Exiles establish a small camp in the mountains
north of the Tower and try to figure out what to do next.
Back at the Tower, Basile, recovering from her long stint as a Functional, learns that Beliel has left and determines to go after him. |
| EX 5 -- | The expatriate BCD, after moving northwest for
several nomadic years, establish a new home camp in mountains near the
Kepetal Empire and begin raids. Doleera, out exploring, attempts to make
contact with them, but they refuse to accept the leadership of someone
obviously in worse straits than they are.
[Doleera may use her cult to keep track of them during this period. n.b. Should establish how this is done, as I imagine Erik and Shadaln take precautions against this eventuality. Possibly these are cult members who followed her, rather than staying in the RRV?] |
| EX 6 -- | Doleera chivvies the other exiles into moving again. They head north. |
| EX 12 -- | Exiles find Hidden Valley when Beliel senses a large concentration of rockshaping magic. Beliel and Adiana begin restoring one of the Towers in the High City. It is this work which brings Beliel out of his funk and makes him begin thinking and planning again. The exiles decide to make this their new stronghold and raise an army--though Beliel and Doleera each have very different ideas about what they should do with the army once they have it. |
| EX 20 -- | After several failed attempts to capture a completely wild great hawk, Doleera sneaks back south to try her luck. |
| EX 22 -- | Doleera acquires first hawk, a Tower cull which has left the Redrock Valley to seek its own territory. |
| EX 23 -- | While training her hawk, Doleera spots the Nieali-Cin settlement from the air. |
| EX 25 -- | Doleera "acquires" a pair of star-crossed Nieali-Cin lovers. Begins learning their language and culture from them. |
| EX 30 -- | Armed with knowledge gained from the two young lovers (now her devoted bodyservants), Doleera passes herself off as a Nieali-Cin goddess. She orders the N-C to move to the Home of the Gods, the Hidden Valley. |
| EX 32 -- | Doleera contacts the BCD again. This time she has a far more impressive case to present to them for accepting her as a leader and convincing them to resettle in the Hidden Valley, offering a safe refuge for their children and a safe base for raiding... plus the lure of the great hawks. Doleera starts working toward the eventual foundation of her hawkriders. |
| EX 45 -- | Foundation of what will become the Stormriders. |
| EX 48 -- | A Hidden Valley patrol discovers the DWF elves, but do not make contact. Doleera and Beliel debate the best way of approaching the DWF elves. |
| EX 51 -- | Beliel takes a small group of his own followers and attempts to contact the DWF elves first, stealing a march on Doleera. He runs into and Recognizes Tailshadow while she is out herb-gathering; horrified at what she senses in his mind, she runs away. Beliel almost dies of frustrated Recognition and the event puts another nail in the coffin of his sanity. His eventual recovery proves that Tailshadow must have died first. The DWF elves never find out what became of Tailshadow. |
| EX 52 -- | The DWF are "officially" contacted and invited to resettle in the Hidden Valley. DWF schism; part of the tribe follows Redmane, the chief, to the Hidden Valley; a smaller portion led by Flintrock leaves for elsewhere. |
| EX 58 -- | Birth of Winddance to Waterfinder and Birdlure |
| EX 62 -- | Lionclaw and Desertwind Recognize. |
| EX 64 -- | Warspear (Raikan) born to Desertwind and Lionclaw. |
| EX 67 -- | Birth of Desertbloom to Waterfinder and Birdlure |
| EX 68 -- | Birth of Ebonwolf to Eclipse and Beliel |
| EX 70 -- | Birth of Starchaser to Firebloom and Redmane |
| EX 84 -- | Birth of Mink to Sandblossom and Beliel |
| EX 86 -- | Birth of Heron to ?? and Beliel |
| EX 91 -- | Birth of Viper to ?? and Beliel |
| EX 92 -- | Treefrog born to Desertwind and Lionclaw. |
| EX 96 -- | Recognition of Doleera and Treetall. Later in
the year Treetall is almost killed by a collapsing arch. Doleera, terrified,
knocks him out, drugs him, and carries him to New Hope.
Jinan is captured by a Brightcolor raiding party while on a prospecting expedition with Meiji, and brought to the Hidden Valley. Meiji manages to rescue her. [Story in progress -- V. Bowe/C. Haywood] |
| EX 98 -- | Birth of Starling to Doleera; Winddance is attending midwife. |
| EX 99 -- | Hidden Valley attack on Tower. [Stories "Two Voices Falling" and "Second Voice", K. Coleman] Death of Lionclaw. Disillusionment of Raikan. (While downed, he gets a good look at the ground fighting, and sees some wholesale slaughter that will tend to noncombatant elves, Mraal kids and old folk, and so on. The battle he sees is not the sort of battle he feels is honorable, and it makes him stop and think.) |
| EX 100 -- | Beliel learns that Mink is his daughter, and promptly moves her to the High City. |
| EX 101 -- | Mink gives birth to Nightleaf, her daughter by
Deathwater Falls mate TBD.
Beliel comes to believe that Catsclaw is bearing his child. ("Meditations" -- K. Coleman) Catsclaw gives birth to daughter Jeimi (her former student Desertbloom assisting her in the birth and what follows) and returns to their original meeting place to give her to her father Nez. She returns to Hidden Valley, mourning the loss of her daughter, and tells Doleera the child was stillborn. Wisp captured by Nez and Davrille, imprisoned at Tower, and continues her espionage activities from within. (Story: "Captive," V. Bowe) |
| EX 105 -- | Tathlyn, Beyla and Jeimi wander out the kitchen doors and get snatched as excellent hostage material. Poofu and Fluster are with them. Tower offers Wisp in change for the kids. Wisp, who knows the hostage taker (Dawnsky) all too well, escapes and determines to get the kids back if it kills her. It does. |
| EX 109 -- | Birth of Windstorm to Rainmist and Ebonwolf |
| EX 123 -- | Starling goes to New Hope, ostensibly to get to know her father, but also because Doleera wants to keep her out of Beliel's clutches. |
| EX 126 -- | Heartseeker penetrates HV on a spying mission,
Recognizes Basile; is caught and held captive for a while, becomes Doleera's
s slave, escapes to New Hope along with Basile and a young DWF healer,
Shade; Sungold helps them escape.
Sungold's role in the escape is discovered and Beliel decides to make An Example of her, turning her into the first of his Meditation Garden statues. (This will ultimately lead to his instituting the "Brides of the Earth-Shaker" custom among the Neiali'Cin.) Woodwise, Sungold's daughter, takes her mother's death personally and follows Basile and Heartseeker to New Hope, to (ultimately) offer herself as a spy/double agent. Mink gives birth to Longclaw, son by Beliel (Hey, it says right on her CIS she loves her father "in more ways than one"). |
| EX 169 -- | Birth of Hiddenspring (aka Beanpole) to Sandblossom and Sparkstone |
| EX 170 -- | At about this time, the Hidden Valley's population has grown to the point where just about all the available arable land inside the Valley is being used for crops. In good years, there is enough for everyone, but there is very little surplus, and a bad year will bring hardship. |
| EX 175 -- | Wolfstorm meets a Brightcolor scout while out hunting, one of the older warriors born back in the desert, and recognizes him or her as someone he'd known back home -- his birth-tribe had occasionally traded with, occasionally been raided by, the Brightcolor tribe. The two swap a few stories about old times and part. Over the next few eights of years, Wolfstorm and this elf meet several more times. Wolfstorm hears plenty of stories about the glorious raids and battles, and life at New Hope begins to seem very tame and dull. |
| EX 185 -- | Russet (Silverrill) born to Sandblossom and Sparkstone. |
| EX 189 -- | Birth of Afterglow to Eclipse and Beliel |
| EX 190 -- | Lyeth and Lodestar take to the heights to shake
enemies off their trail (perhaps some of those human nomads who have suffered
from the Brightcolor elves' raids) and are caught in one of Doleera's traps.
(Note: during the time that the Exiles have occupied the Valley, they have
trapped the outer perimeter to the actual curtainwall of the Valley (about
1/2 day's walk) in the following ways: thorn barriers, pungee stick traps,
maintained deadfalls in cleared areas, concealed wooden spike traps, reinforced
guard posts with archers, walls trapped so as to make them impossible or
lethal to climb, drop net traps in the trees close to the Valley.)
Once they're discovered, brought in and questioned (and patched up -- though Lodestar can take care of part of that himself), and it becomes clear they're wanderers with no ties to any local group, the Exiles turn on the charm in hopes of getting a couple of recruits. At first they are primarily interested in Lodestar because he's a healer and you can never have too many of those (heh!). Lyeth, true to form, senses this and starts making veiled hints about his magic, which is after all much more special. Encouraged to demonstrate, he shows the Exiles enough "stuff" to give them the idea that this elf would definitely be someone worth cultivating. It is at this time that Lyeth takes the callname of "Masque." The two are installed in the High City. Note that (at least at first) Beliel, Doleera, Lodestar and Lyeth himself are the only ones who know the secret of Lyeth's magic. TBD who else learns of it. During this period, Lodestar becomes increasingly worried about how much Lyeth is getting into the "perks" of being a "secret weapon"/favored person. N.B. One of these "perks" is considerable sack time with Doleera, who thinks joining with a shapechanger is =lots= of fun. Beliel and Doleera, OTOH, are no doubt delighted . . . |
| EX 194 -- | Lyeth lovemates briefly with Mink and sires a child (Foxtail). Mink does not tell him the child is his. |
| EX 195 -- | Rionu, a young Taiakaari noble on Journey, arrives
in the Hidden Valley, is discovered and injured during his capture; is
nursed back to health by Lascha, one of the Neiali'Cin. The two fall in
love.
Beliel and Doleera learn of the existence of Taiakaar, and of Rionu's "Lakaaza", a Great Holy Man and Worker of Miracles who, upon closer questioning, would seem to be not only an elf, but one of some power. Beliel, Doleera and a host of others (including Lyeth and Lodestar, to take advantage of the pair's mountaineering knowledge as well as Lodestar's healing abilities and sense of direction) travel with Rionu and Lascha to meet "Lakaaza" and Her Radiance of the Taiakaari. "Lakaaza" proves to be a High One healer named Arteuran. For reasons of his own, Arteuran agrees to return to the Hidden Valley with Beliel and Doleera. Rionu and Lascha finally get married. Anyone interested in (some of) their subsequent history may consult Lascha's CIS. After taking formal leave of Her Radiance, Arteuran travels to the Hidden Valley with 50 Taiakaari monks and initiates of both sexes, several cages of Sacred Pigeons, and randomly selected portions of what is possibly the Most Incredible Junk Collection in the Known World. Lyeth apprentices to Arteuran, effectively becoming a monastic novice. Arteuran does this partly to start deflating his ego, partly to teach him the self-control he'll need later. Lyeth takes the Taiakaari name "Kiriima" (Changer) at this time. Though Lyeth is not thrilled at the notion of scrubbing floors, he is impressed enough by Arteuran (and relieved enough to have a mentor) that he submits to the regimen. Lodestar, essentially, becomes Arteuran's lab assistant/grad student, perfectly content to stay in the background and absorb whatever scraps of knowledge in the healing line that Arteuran lets fall, in the meantime keeping an eye on his soulbrother. Though he does not enter the novitiate as Lyeth has, Lodestar also acquires a Taiakaari nickname, "Kizhuneko," and takes to wearing Taiakaari clothing. Amberhawk presents herself to Arteuran as a colleague. |
| EX 196 -- | Mink gives birth to Foxtail, son by Masque/Lyeth. |
| EX 199 -- | Birth of ?? to Winddance and Beliel. |
| EX 200 -- | Arteuran goes to a formal dinner hosted by Beliel
. . . as Beliel. Afterward, having gotten an earful about the evening (so
to speak) from the hand of her cousin Zhuba, Her Radiance sends Arteuran
a pigeon bearing the message: "Behave yourself!" along with her chop.
Afterglow, on a bet with one of his sisters, sneaks into Beliel's statue garden. He's plagued by violent nightmares of suffocation until Lodestar convinces him to see Arteuran about them. Around this time a blight strikes one of the Hidden Valley's major food crops, causing a shortage of food the following year, as well as a reduced supply of seed for the next year's crop. Plantshapers are able to combat the blight to some degree, and to increase the fertility of the remaining seed -- but this brings its own problems: the "enhanced" plants suck more nutrients from the soil and the fields become barren more quickly. Raids on the Kepetal to the west and the Wing Tribes to the east are stepped up to provide more food for the Hidden Valley. Neither set of humans takes kindly to this... |
| EX 201 -- | Recognition of Hiddenspring and Ashgleam. |
| EX 203 -- | Birth of Embergleam to Ashgleam and Hiddenspring. Winddance conceives a child by Arteuran, more or less on purpose. |
| EX 204 -- | Arteuran journeys to Taiakaar in late spring, returning to Hidden Valley before the passes close in the autumn. TBD if any of the Hidden Valley people (Lyeth and Lodestar?) accompany him. |
| EX 205 -- | Birth of Cloudseed to Winddance. Arteuran is
the sire, though Cloudseed grows up considering Starchaser her father.
Wolfstorm's Brightcolor friend, having played for years on Wolfstorm's inferiority complex and his desire for fame and glory, begins seriously pumping him for information about New Hope and implying that there's certainly a place for a mighty warrior like him in Doleera and Beliel's army. Wolfstorm is eventually brought to meet Doleera; completely bowled over by her warrior-babe charisma, he accepts her vague promises of "being appreciated" and begins willingly feeding information to the Hidden Valley. |
| EX 206 -- | Mink gives birth to Lilac, daughter by Afterglow. |
| EX 213 -- | Arteuran makes second visit to Taiakaar. |
| EX 220 - 223 -- | Several years of drought strike the Hidden Valley and environs. What little food reserves there are are quickly hausted. At about the same time, the Kepetal become annoyed enough at the more numerous raids on their territory to send a major force into the foothills, thereby cutting off that source of supply. |
| EX 222 -- | Arteuran makes third visit to Taiakaar, perhaps brings Fortunu back with him at this time. Zaadire accompanies him, returns with Zhokai in tow. -- |
| EX 223 -- | Death of Ashgleam from illness complicated by
malnutrition. The illness that causes Ashgleam's death also affects Silverrill,
who goes into mid-term labor and miscarries her daughter.
Plans for the attack on New Hope begin, on a contingency level at first, becoming more definite as the conditions grow severe. While the plans start to firm up -- and as Beliel reveals plans of his own for a certain white-haired runt and her mate -- Arteuran quietly arranges for envoys of the Taiakaari to visit New Hope and initiate trade. (Story, "Deployment," R. Pruehs) |
| EX 224 -- | The Taiakaari insist that Dove and Feather (along with Seahawk and Raventongue) be conducted to Taiakaar to serve as ambassadors to the court of Her Radiance. Beliel seduces Reedweaver, who has previously been put in charge of food distribution for the entire Hidden Valley. |
| EX 225 - 229 -- | Hostage Crisis. See Hostage Crisis timeline. |
| EX 225 -- | Treetall goes to Hidden Valley to confront Doleera. Agrees to work with Arteuran to help restore Hidden Valley fertility. After Geibryl's death, stops being helpful in this way; remains in Arteuran's compound but begins working on experiments of his own. |
| EX 227 -- | Hiddenspring starts to smell a rat about the
continuing food shortage. He goes to Birdlure, who tells him he can't go
to the Stormrider without some hard evidence. ("Numbers, boy, I need numbers!")
He does, however, agree to help Hiddenspring turn up such evidence if in
fact it ists. Somehow Cloudtalk gets involved.
People Hiddenspring would likely go to in the course of looking for evidence would be Reedweaver (who will naturally stonewall like crazy), Desertwind (in charge of food distribution for the Brightcolor tribe, who's very likely to get involved in the investigation herself) and Mink. Mink is forced to confront her own suspicions about food production, but when she discusses it with Reedweaver, becomes convinced that, if there is missing grain, it is part of some plot against Beliel. Mink begins searching for likely suspects. |
| EX 228 -- | The BCD food-shortage investigators get figures regarding the current and previous year's harvest from Fortunu (this is a desperation move considering the mistrust between the BCD and the Taiakaari -- but enough remains of the working relationship originally forged by Geibryl that Hiddenspring feels he can approach the Taiakaari farmer); they find that these figures do not match up with the "official" records kept by Reedweaver. Now they know for certain that food is missing, but still don't know where it went. They ask Fortunu if the missing grain is being shipped to Taiakaar under some sort of trade agreement. Fortunu doesn't know, and refers them to Lakaaza. The trio tries to get in to see Arteuran, but is balked by Taiakaari ever-so-helpful-and-don't-you-believe-it-for-a-second red tape. (The monks are "protecting" Arteuran from three possibly hostile BCD that they are reasonably sure he isn't sleeping with.) |
| EX 229 -- | The hostages escape. Hidden Valley promptly declares
war on New Hope. During the actual escape, Treetall unleashes the result
of his experimentations, a strangleweed/kudzu cross, to delay the pursuit.
He is killed in some way by someone who probably regards this act with
an honest sense of outrage. After the warriors leave for the battle, the
Investigators finally get in to see Arteuran. His response: **What trade
agreement?** The Investigators remain just long enough to perform an pository
quartet with the aged healer, then depart.
Hidden Valley forces attack New Hope. Mink, convinced that the battle is doomed, leaves orders for such of her family and Beliel's supporters who have not gone away to fight to begin gathering together supplies. She intends to make a safe hideout for Beliel in case of defeat. Raikan, convinced that the Hidden Valley attack is unprovoked and inexcusable, throws his lot in with New Hope and fights on its behalf. During the battle, Doleera realizes Beliel has tried to kill Starling. She goes berserk and attacks him. Both are mortally wounded in their combat. Beliel entombs himself in rock. Doleera, before going unconscious, calls for a cease-fire. She is taken to New Hope by Charise for healing. Jand attempts to finish the job Doleera has started, but is unable to do so. Jand, exhausted, takes refuge in Piet. Under orders from and with the help of Arteuran (who communicates with them astrally), Lyeth, who has taken Catsclaw's shape in order to allow her to escape with the prisoners, joins the invasion force. Lodestar and five Taiakaari monks shadow that force closely, using the sending link between the soulbrothers to keep track of their relative locations. Their purpose is to protect Arteuran's family, but once in New Hope, Lodestar and the Taiakaari are ordered to get Beliel out of the rock and spirit him away. In the course of these operations the disguised Lyeth runs smack into Snowflower, and they Recognize. The shock and the forcible pulling out of his soulname cause Lyeth to revert. Lyeth runs like a scared rabbit. Snowflower follows him and stumbles onto the rescue operations. The rescuers have no choice but to kidnap her to keep her from raising the alarm. Arteuran's agents, lugging an unconscious Beliel and Snowflower, steal a boat and head north along the coast. Since four elves and five Taiakaari are not going to fit comfortably into a mere fishing boat for a 600-mile sea voyage, the boat they steal is none other than Peysol's Seawing. The Investigators, with help from (an exasperated) Tiamath, stumble onto the stores of grain. (The betting is that, after repeated unsuccessful tries at contacting them by sending, she simply drops them into the secret storeroom.) Upon finding the missing food stores, the Investigators confront Reedweaver about them. Reedweaver breaks and Confesses All. Arteuran and the Taiakaari leave Hidden Valley, headed for Taiakaar. Jand, reviving, realizes Snowflower and Beliel's putative corpse are both missing and suspects the worst. Organizes search efforts. Snowflower, reviving, becomes better acquainted with her Recognized. Lyeth learns that she can be a real bitch when she wants to be. HV hawkriders return to bring word about the battle. The Investigators, after giving them an extremely long-winded and pissed-off earful about the grain stores, send them back to New Hope to bring this news to Doleera. Mink, convinced Beliel is dead, escapes with Redblade back to the Hidden Valley. She takes off with a group of followers, including Afterglow, to form an outlaw band in the hills in the vicinity of Hidden Valley. Beliel, after being patched up in mind and body, is marooned on the Isle of White. Agents plus Snowflower continue to Taiakaar. At Taiakaar: Arteuran returns home, about the same time that Snowflower arrives. Grand Family Reunion, Wherein All Is Revealed. Arteuran discovers his daughters inherited their mother's temper. Lyeth and Snowflower (**Finally!**) consummate the Recognition. During Doleera's recovery, Desertwind comes in from New Hope with news (and to see her renegade son), gets acquainted with Doleera and vice versa. Doleera spots her potential and makes Desertwind her aide-de-camp. Arteuran compares notes with Her Radiance and She suggests peace negotiations to be held in Taiakaar. Messengers sent to New Hope, Tower, and Hidden Valley inviting representatives to peace conference. Invitations accepted; conference scheduled to begin in midsummer, when traveling weather is good and certain of the prospective delegates will have recovered. Dove, Feather, Raventongue, Seahawk and Snowflower decide to stay in Taiakaar until New Hope delegation arrives. SUMMER -- Peace Conference at Taiakaar. Peysol heads the New Hope delegation, with Wasp as his aide; Shadaln will be included as an adviser; other members TBD. Members of Tower delegation TBD, though Nez, with his memory, would make an excellent "recorder." HV delegation will include Doleera, Redmane, Birdlure, and Desertwind, among others. Hidden Valley plans a reception/social event of some sort, to introduce the Taiakaari to Hidden Valley culture. One topic that will almost certainly come up at the peace conference is the disposal of the Meditation Garden statues. Basile volunteers for this task, feeling some responsibility for Sungold and wishing to say goodbye to Tiamath and others of her Hidden Valley friends; unless serious objections come up, her offer will probably be accepted by all parties involved. Other things to discuss: reparations to New Hope and the Tower for the damage HV did. Someone will certainly bring up the subject of restricting HV's military capability for some period of time. AUTUMN -- The delegates come home for the winter; TBD whether this is the actual end of the conference or not. Lyeth and Lodestar stay in Taiakaar for the present, since Lyeth has gotten the notion fixed in his head that Snowflower (not to mention the in-laws) can't stand the sight of him. Doleera becomes ruler of the Hidden Valley, while Beliel... disappears. Applying the time-honored principle of "You complained, so you get to be on the committee," Doleera appoints Hiddenspring to the position that Reedweaver formerly occupied (Birdlure already has a job, and Cloudtalk is obnoxious and disliked.) Birth of Browneyes to Mink (sire unknown, though Mink will use the possibility that Nalkor is the father to her advantage). New Hope and Taiakaar initiate (or resume) trade. Trade also initiated between New Hope and Hidden Valley. Lord Erik absolutely refuses to deal with the Hidden Valley while Doleera is still in power, though it's possible that individual Tower elves may make their own private expeditions. |
| EX 230 -- | A number of Brightcolor elves, unhappy with the peace terms and Doleera's leadership in general, begin trickling away to join Mink in the wild. Mink's tribe eventually numbers three or four eights, and dedicate themselves to living by the 'Old Ways" -- i.e., raiding everyone, including their old tribesmates. They seldom stay in one camp for more than half a year at a time, keeping constantly on the move to elude capture. Mink, convinced her beloved father is dead, begins to plan a revenge upon New Hope for Beliel's sake. |
| EX 231 -- | Birth of Mistkit to Snowflower and Lyeth. Arteuran
attends the birth in astral form. Lyeth and Lodestar arrive at New Hope
immediately after the birth, having been delayed by bad weather. Needless
to say, Lyeth is in deep kimchee . . . Snowflower has had two years to
develop a real mad on, and now acts like he doesn't exist. Lodestar and
Stillmorn roll their eyes, sigh deeply, and start working on the reconciliation,
possibly with the help of those well-known perts, Bugdance and Heartseeker
. . . the ghost-in-law may also get involved. (For further info on Lodestar
and Lyeth, see New Hope timeline.)
Doreel arrives at the Hidden Valley and adopts into Sandstorm's tribe with the name Halfheart. Determined to prove his worth to the society, he develops a plan to turn the Meditation Gardens into an indoor garden/farm to help against future food crises. He enlists volunteers, among them is Silverrill. (Spring) Meiji and Jinan take an extended trip out to Meiji's black diamond pipe to ensure that the area is safe and that it has not been discovered by Hidden Valley forces. Vaynyar convinces Davrille to follow them on hawkback. On the way, Vaynyar and Davrille run into Mink's bandits. Vaynyar sees a method of striking back at the Hidden Valley indirectly, and manages to convince Mink that he can provide her with more long term benefit than just robbing them would provide. He and Mink strike a deal: Vaynyar will provide her with weapons, and certain information that she needs for a private project of her own; she will give him a share in any loot liberated from the Hidden Valley trade caravans. (Fall) The 'black market' goes into business, with Vaynyar, Davrille, Mink, and Tumblesides as the main 'partners.' Meiji, Jinan, and Vanjir know something is up but deliberately choose not to notice. Tumblesides makes the weapons and caches them, Davrille picks them up on her mail runs to New Hope and drops them off at a pre-arranged location on Long Patrol. Mink's group picks up the weapons, attacks and loots trade caravans going back and forth between New Hope, Hidden Valley, and Taiakaar. Mink leaves Vaynyar's 'cut' in another prearranged location, and Vaynyar's cultists pick that up, bring it back, and smuggle it into the Redrock Valley under cover of a legitimate trading party. The members of the black market crew get first pick of the merchandise; then Vaynyar fences the rest of the Hidden Valley goods at a lower barter price than can be had by getting the same item through the middlemen of New Hope. |
| EX 232 -- | Birth of Kalae and Keshir to Goth; Afterglow is the sire. |
| EX 237 -- | Death of Kozheraruu. |
| EX 238 -- | Sandstorm is killed on a raid on the Shigyeveth.
Doleera has a nervous breakdown and is brought to New Hope for healing,
causing much controversy. With the War Chief obviously disabled for some
time, the Brightcolor elves hold a challenge contest to pick a new one
Rattlesnake emerges the victor. During the course of Doleera's healing,
Doleera and Twilight become soulsisters. Once Doleera is rational enough
to start encountering people again, she and Peysol have a conversation
and re-establish their friendship. ["New Beginnings," D. Beaver/M. Dean]
During Doleera's absence, certain of the young BCD raiders start considering "why are we leaving the Valley for raids when there are perfectly good humans to raid right here?" Certain of the N'C similarly consider "Why are we sharing this place with these lousy point-ears when we are obviously a Superior Race?" Hostilities brew. Escalate. Etcetera. |
| EX 240 -- | Open warfare between BCD and N'C. The DWF, thoroughly disgusted by the situation, take up an old invitation from Heartseeker and go to New Hope. Heartseeker is amazed by this turn of events. |
| EX 241 -- | The Killer Kudzu, which until now has been kept in check by the DWF treeshaper elves, reawakens and starts growing with a vengeance. The BCD and N'C cease hostilities in the face of having to fight this new enemy. Some of the wiser heads begin realizing that the two groups can work together. Birdlure and (N'C shaman?) go to Hidden Valley as a peace deligation and beg the DWF elves to come home. Foundation of triumverate leadership at Hidden Valley. |
| EX 245 -- | Doleera and Twilight make plans to return to
the Hidden Valley. (Story, "Expectations," R.Pruehs) The plans are interrupted
by Twilight's Recognition to Flare. As Twilight and Flare have no interest
in becoming mates, Doleera and Twilight decide to raise the child together.
They leave for the Hidden Valley.
Somewhen during her stay at New Hope, Doleera and Nalkor decide to have a child. Exact timing and circumstances unknown. |
| EX 246 -- | Doreel comes back to the Tower for the first
time, on a trading mission, with his assistant Silverrill. After meeting
Dijin, Rill decides that she wants to be an engineer and inventor and asks
if she can apprentice to him. Over the next fifty years or
so, Doreel's visits to the Tower increase in frequency and duration.
(tentative) Doleera, finding that the Hidden Valley elf tribes are not in as big a hurry to welcome her back as Lord as she had hoped (and in addition rediscovering that the job of administrating the day-to-day problems of a peaceful tribe is far less fun than being a barbarian warlord), becomes bored and frustrated. She and Twilight begin working on a Cunning Plan. |
| EX 247 -- | Since Doleera no longer seems to be
a signifigant power in the Hidden Valley, Vaynyar decides he has little
more to gain in supporting Mink. In turn, Mink thinks she's pumped Vaynyar
for all the information about the Tower's geneology and the inheritance
of magic that she can get from him, and the bandits have enough weapons
for the foreseeable future anyhow. They agree that their partnership is
over.
(date tentative) Denaya born to Doleera ??? born to Twilight. (date unknown) Doleera announces plans for a new colony which will supply food for the Hidden Valley. She and Twilight set out with a large number of N'C (who welcomed their goddess back enthusiastically) and whatever elves decide to go along (Hiddenspring, others?) and found Firsthold (where?) |
| EX 296 -- | Doreel returns to Tower Mountain for good. |