Tin Feather had mastered many abilities, including the Summoning of Storms, Controlling of Winds and the Throwing of Thunderbolts. He was so Pious a member of Orlanth Thunderous that all his feathers had long since turned to Tin. He also had a left fist that was made of Thunder Stone. Tin Feather had gained several of his powers through Questing to the Underworld and, unique amongst his kind, had learned not to be afraid of confined spaces. This was an ability he was trying to teach the other Wind Children, but was having trouble gaining support. What he needed was a new show of strength.
He had not participated in the Slaying of the Dragons as his kind knew the dragons as friends. He therefore decided to make an attack on the land of Dorastor and to kill some of the Chaos there.
Armed with the Chaos Killing Quests he knew from Orlanth, Tin Feather drew together his best warriors and flew over the Rockwoods into the Blasted Land, never to be heard of again. Neither his descendants nor those of his followers could summon their ancestors afterwards. Something very bad had happened. Tin Feather was now known amongst those who still remembered him as "Lost Storm".
One of the things that Brankist had to do was to free a Storm Hero. After a while, he found the Dragonewt of Storm and thought that was the Hero to be freed. He was wrong.
In one of the scenarios, Brankist found a tin feather, very realistic and with a spark of magic about it. He used his abilities and tried to communicate with it and true enough the feather spoke to him "Fevver" it said. Despite everything he tried, all it ever said was "Fevver", so he called it "Feather".
When "Feather" fell to the floor it always pointed to the location of Lost Storm. This was fairly obvious to anyone with half a brain, but it took the party ages to work out. "It points towards Fort Wrath", "It points towards the Seven Hills", "It points towards Never Dead", depending on where they were, all they needed to do was draw lines on the map and they would have seen that it pointed to approximately the same place. I thought this was a basic and elementary piece of Fantasy Role Playing but I was wrong, obviously. I had to use some fluorescent arrows to get the party to work it out.
When they did work it out, the party took ages to get around to going to where it pointed. This was infuriating - I could only guide them and did not want to say "This is the scenario, go there and do it." I had to use subtle hints to get things going.
After a while they went and found Lost Storm bound between some monoliths near Fort Wrath, I believe. He was in a sorry state and warned the party to leave or he would have to kill them. The party went to him anyway and was hit with a barrage of Lightning and Thunderbolts. When they got close, Lost Storm hit them with his Thunder Stone fist and they ran away as they could not hurt him.
Eventually, they found the secret of how to free him. I think they asked some other Hero in Dorastor who traded the information. I had a phase where Ralzakark had told various people various secrets so as to ensure that one person could not know them all. Things are a bit sketchy here, but the party returned to Lost Storm’s prison, pausing only to kill Heidi, and freed him.
Brankist then made him his friend and ally and proceeded to try and keep him away from the rest of the party - "my hero, not yours". He knew of a Storm Shrine on Griffin Mountain and offered Tin Feather the chance to take it with his followers and Brankist’s help, to kill the Griffins there and to restore the Storm Shrine to a full Temple. This they did, in the process really annoying Solarus who was King of Balazar and the Elder Wilds and who laid claim to Griffin Mountain.
After much shenanigans, Solarus decided to take over Griffin Mountain once and for all. He asked for Derak’s help and they cooked up a clever plot. Derak went on a Quest as The Shining One, went to Festering Island and awakened the Chaos there (He had the HeroStone which used to be able to Close Chaos Maws, after the Chaos Dragon Incident it could also Open Chaos Maws). The Shining One then led the Chaos against Griffin Mountain and attacked it, killing the Orlanthi at the bottom and starting to attack the Wind Children. So far, so good. This was during the Sacredd Time Rituals when the Orlanthi Summoned their Enemy. Then Granny Keeneye appeared, disembowelled the High Priest, swallowed the other priests and summoned her friends to help. Her friends were Cacodemon, Cwim and The Son of Thed, all of whom had become sworn enemies of various members of the Party and could be summoned in HeroQuests against them. The Son of Thed lasted nearly a round against Brankist and his amazing Sword. Cacodemon flew against Tin Feather, grappled him in mid air and covered him with particularly nasty Vomit, dissolving him to nothing. So much for girly Wind Children. Bolgar, Brother of the Bull, engaged Cacodemon by garrotting him with his Golden Garrotte. This took four rounds and all the Strike he had but he managed to twist its head off, sending it back to the Chaos Voids. Cwim was killed by a number of things, mainly Solarus and his magicians.
Derak then turned up with Solarus’ army, drove off the Chaos, as Nysalor, and ended up as the conquering Hero. This was all part of his Quest. He managed to become High Priest of the Temple and favoured by Orlanth.
They could have brought Tin Feather back, but Bolgar, having slain Cacodemon, claimed the Fist as a trophy and stuck it on his own arm. He does not know that Tin Feather’s spirit is bound into the Fist and probably would not care. I don’t mind as I never liked Tin Feather - too limited and not a lot I could use.
When cast on a Wind Child, Courage allows the Wind Child to go underground without suffering the normal crippling effects.
When cast on anyone else, Courage acts as a fanaticism spell while undergound, but allows them to parry as well. They also defend against Fear spells while underground with Species maximum POW.
A handy enough spell, but Tin Feather would only teach it to Wind Children and only after they had proven themselves to him and had become his followers. He had many wives who could live underground as one of the "proofs" was to marry him if female.
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