Crystrum of Tranquility

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This “holy book” appears to be a perfectly round, smooth, clear, and colorless crystal sphere, about a foot in diameter, larger across than most bucklers. It bears no blemishes, no markings, and it has no inclusions. The true nature of the Crystrum of Tranquility is only revealed if it is held in running water or immersed in the waters of a wilderland pool or in a stone, wooden, bone, or horn bowl (but not metal or ceramic) filled with holy water. A priest or priestess of Eldath must hold or touch the immersed bowl in relaxed silence for 2 continuous turns or more. A slightly glowing royal blue script then appears on the surface of the sphere and can now be removed from the water without causing the writing to disappear. The writing is an alphabetical list of the spells contained in the sphere. If the name of a chosen single spell is touched, it replaces the roster, appearing on the surface of the Crystrum. (If more than one item on the register is touched, only the first appears.) The priest touching the sphere can, by silent act of will, cause the spell writing to move to any relatively still surface of water within 20 feet of the sphere. The touch of any living being who does not worship Eldath will cause the writing on either the water or the sphere to instantly disappear forever. A devout follower of the Green Goddess can also make such writings vanish by will. If the sphere is still immersed when it is touched, the spell roster can be brought back by act of will, and another spell chosen by touch—otherwise, the silent immersion must be performed over again to bring writing back to the surface of the Crystrum. Eldathyn regard the sphere as a very holy object, and will do almost anything to safeguard or gain possession of it. The Crystrum of Tranquility is rumored to have been crafted not long after the fall of Myth Drannor. The teachings of the Eldathyn insist that the goddess herself created and placed the completed object on an altar dedicated to her, somewhere in the woods now known as the Elven Court. (The exact location of this altar, where the Crystrum, whatever its origin, is known to have rested for several centuries, is now lost.) Repeated monster attacks upon the Eldathyn community who held the Crystrum finally forced the faithful of the Green Goddess to flee across the Thunder Peaks into Hullack Forest in Cormyr, where the ranger El drum the Silent saw it in the spring of 989 DR, and reported every one of the details he could discover in his diaries, as he so meticulously described everything in his travels. At that time the keeper of the Crystrum was the Eldathyn priestess Analauthe Brenewood—she who later sacrificed herself in a ritual that purified the Wyvernwater after the cruel experimentation of the necromancer Elgarth of Westgate released a creeping “death rot” into its waters. Custody of the Crystrum passed to Shalgreth of the Wings, who in his later years crafted wings for himself and sought (in vain) to found a race of winged folk by taking swanmay after swanmay as consort. Shalgreth then gave it to the rangers’ adventuring society known as the Men of the Green in 1112 DR, seeing in them younger, more energetic defenders of the wilderlands than he himself. The Men of the Green are known to have used the sphere in their epic overland Hunt of the Beholder King—a quest that ended in tragic victory. The Greens slew the only beholder known to have crafted spells enabling it to spout forth monsters (as a deepspawn does), but in the conflict, all of the rangers perished save one. The sorely wounded Aulburne Mathtarke brought the Crystrum to Holyheart House in the Chondalwood (due south of Timindar), where he perished. The grieving Eldathyn of Holyheart House decided that the holy sphere was better to be nurtured in the safe concealment of the deep woods, than to “carry it across half of Faerun pursuing adventures,” no matter how noble the cause. They put the Crystrum in its own shrine and kept it as secret as they could, hiding it even from other Eldathyn. Its keeper was the aged priest Roathoald, and upon his death in 1148 DR, the office of keeper of the crystrum was made a formal one, and the Keeper of Holy heart Fastness retired from leading the community to succeed Roathoald—the first of more than a dozen Keepers to do so. Over time, the name and powers of the Sphere of the Goddess became widely known in Eldathyn lore, and so spread to less friendly ears. On the 5th of Mirtul in 1271 DR, on the heels of a hard winter, mages and warriors of the Cult of the Dragon rode the dracoliches Goarulskul the Black and Arlauthra Manytalons down into Holyheart. The two undead wyrms tore apart the Fastness and slaughtered many Eldathyn, including the keeper of the crystrum—but a young treetender, Lorth Blaenarry, fled with the sacred sphere north and west. He reached Turmish before lurking agents of the Red Wizards of Thay spotted the crystal orb and knew it for a thing of magic. They hunted him through the streets of Alaghon and Telpir and almost slew him in the woods near Starmantle Bay. Escaping them only with the aid of a Harper sorceress (who changed his outward shape to that of an older, uglier man), Lorth took a ship in Starmantle—and found himself on the way to Zhentil Keep, under the very eyes of the Zhentarim agents who had just finished torturing the news of a magical crystal sphere and the young lad who bore it out of a captive Thayan agent. Almost petrified with fear upon his arrival in the grim city of the Zhentarim, Lorth was fortunate enough to be captured and hidden by Harper agents before less friendly hands could seize him. They took him to the Border Kingdom, but were attacked there by agents of the Cult of the Dragon—escaping only when a Zhentarim patrol in turn attacked the Dragon Cultists. Hunted and wounded, the Harper agents used a desperate teleport spell to fling Lorth on alone into the heart of the desert Anauroch—to a holy site of Eldath, the House of the Moon. There the Green Goddess herself appeared to Lorth, laying her hands upon the sphere and adding to it the ability to withstand any heat and any blow. She told him that whenever the Crystrum was brought to the House by an Eldathyn “truly in need,” a stored spell or ability (of her choosing) would be added to it. Instructing the young man fully in the use and purpose of the sphere, she bid him sleep. When he awakened, he was in Neverwinter, far to the west and north of the oasis where he met the goddess. He rose inspired by the mission she had laid upon him—to bring the wilderness back to all the places in the Sword Coast North where the axes, ploughs, and fires of men had cut too deeply. Lorth devoted his long and busy life to serving Eldath’s directives, but in 1336 DR he perished, and when his body was found the next morning, a tree had sprung up from it. The grieving Eldathyn knelt around him to pray—and from the hands of the dead Keeper the Crystrum rolled, straight to a young half-elf worshiper, Ilphiira Alonthar. Thus chosen by the goddess, the stunned Ilphiira took the Crystrum out into the wilderness to pray for direction a scant day before the Fastness of Green Shadows, the Eldathyn temple Lorth had founded, was destroyed in a vicious raid mounted by ambitious wizards of the Brotherhood of the Arcane. Furious when they could not find the “Sphere of Many Spells,” they laid waste to all the Eldathyn and much of the forest around. Ilphiira fled on foot eastward, seeking Silverymoon—but never arriving there. It is generally agreed that she followed the Dessarin into The Woods of Turlang, and certain Harpers insist that they saw her in Everlund one evening, but no further word has come to Eldathyn ears of her fate save the enigmatic comment of Eldath herself, in a vision sent to Meirthond Arbreet, Keeper of Fallen Trees Fastness in the uplands of Amn. “My lady lives, but set down my sphere where only the daring will find it. Seek it. Great will be the reward of anyone who brings it to me in a kindly spirit, in the House of the Moon.” Many young Eldathyn talk excitedly of these words of the goddess, and of the belief that the Crystrum will gain a new power when it is brought into to the House of the Moon—but few dare to mount an expedition into the perilous northern wilderlands to seek Ilphiira or the crystal sphere. Instead, they hire adventurers whom they deem of good character to do such things for them—adventurers who have thus far met with a distinct lack of success. From The Key to the Fastness, written by Lorth Blaenarry as he built the Fastness of Green Shadows, we know that the Crystrum has the ability to purify food and drink by touch, glow with a faerie fire when its Keeper wills (its hue, intensity, and duration as he desires), and contains 30 spells. It also resists all attempts to shatter it, alter it, or cloak it in illusion, and possesses other abilities that he was still exploring. (For example, it can levitate when thrown or dropped. However, what makes it move about, and why does it choose to hang motionlessly sometimes and accompany its Keeper on a plunge on other occasions? These questions remain mysteries.) The spells of the Crystrum of Tranquility are as follows: Banish blight (a spell detailed below), cloud of purification (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), control vapor (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars sourcebook), detect lie, detect snares and pits, find the path, free action, heroes' feast, hold animals, hold monster, imbue with spell ability, invisibility to Warning Eldathyn lore holds that only beings of like alignment and interests (such as a love of the woods, wilderlands, and growing things) can properly employ the Crystrum. Any evil being, anyone holding a source of flame (even a lit lantern), or anyone bearing on his person the holy symbol of any evil faith is smitten if they immerse the sphere or hold it in contemplative silence for more than a round. What precise form the strike takes is not recorded; it seems likely from certain sage writings that it is some form of violent repulsion (a thrust that hurls the offender away) rather than a directly damaging attack. There is also a note in the fragmentary chapbook Wise Eldathyn Sayings (regarded as holy, although its author is forgotten) that “the Sphere of Many Spells” has the power to confer temporary invisibility and dimension door powers on the person holding it, if the right chants are used. Just which chants to use is a secret known only to certain aged Elders of the faith (if any still alive truly recall), but at least two worshipers’ diaries set down the words “lothra durthra ethra daroun” without identifying what power these words awaken, or even if this is the complete chant.