The Three Great Heroes

Location: Shao Island (EUWYZ)

As mentioned in the Preface to these stories, the older portion deals with the three great heroes. They have not been mentioned up to this point because they were born on the island after the colony was built. This is the story of their births and the childhood dreams that brought then together as the best of friends and a band of brothers.

It wasn't very long after the boat disappeared that Talia Torvalds and Amanda Telvar found out that they were pregnant. Their children would be the first to be born on the island. The hopes and dreams of survival were heightened as this news spread through the colony.

Marcus and Talia Torvalds had both been raised on farms south of Waterdeep. It seemed natural that they were chosen for the first colonial wave since crops would be needed in this new place for survival.

Bern Telvar was a halfling forestwalker. He was most at home in the dense forests northwest of Faerun. He could move quickly and quietly through even the most dense of forests. He was truly disappointed with the extremely small, sparse forest on the island.

His wife, Amanda, on the other hand, was grateful for the lack of forest. She was an herbalist. She studied the plants and other vegetation to find purposeful uses for them in life. While she and her husband lived on the edge of Faerun, she travelled extensively throughout the territory, studing all kinds of flora.

It quickly became a contest of wills in the colony. At one point, the colony almost split between those who believed Talia would deliver first and those who believed Amanda would deliver first. The tension in the colony grew to such an enormous strain that Talia and Amanda threatened to drown themselves in the sea if there was any further gossip about the pregnancies and deliveries.

In the end, Amanda delivered first. It was her third pregnancy so it came a bit easier for her than Talia, who was having her first. Tanya and Maria were excited to have their little brother, whom they named Chack. Talia delivered a few days later, another little boy whom they named Dale.

With both of the first children born out of the way, the colony proceeded to finish building the colony hall and decipher the Drow language enough to find a listing of fifty-six (56) combinations of the eight Drow characters in sequences of five at a time on what the directions called the "Shao sphere," a two-foot diameter sphere that controlled the portal. There were various other markings with the listing but they made no sense. In fact, most didn't even spell known Drow words. More investigation had to be done with the portal.

The first time they decided to activate the Shao, after they verified that it was a teleportation device, was a disaster (see the next story for more details). Eight went through the gate, only three returned. Talia Torvalds had been one of the dead. Arianna Meadowleaf, who was one of the survivors, had promised Talia, right before she died, to take care of Marcus and Dale.

Not long after, Marcus and Arianna were married. She quickly became pregnant. Two years later, Mackley was born. Marcus and Arianna raised Dale and Mackley as brothers. Arianna has always considered herself as Dale's mother and Dale considers her to be his true mother.

The three heroes are born! Their stories may now be told.