With her bag bulging with 5 pounds of feldspice Isa knocked on the side door of the Temple of Fazar. The same pale young man opened the door. The moment his face appeared Isa realized that she did not remember his name. She winced unconsciously, but the expression passed too quickly - she hoped - for him to take offense.
“Hi, I’m--”
“Madam!” the young man yelled over his shoulder. “She’s returned!” To Isa he said, “Wait here.” And he scurried back into the dark passageway.
The sun was setting, and Isa watched the disc drop below the tops of the trees, trying to gauge how long she’d been waiting. About 10 minutes passed, and finally the man returned. “This way,” he said.
He led her down a narrow set of steps, a glowing ball held aloft in one hand. He stopped at a large, dark door. He knocked once. “Madam?”
If there was a reply, Isa didn’t hear it. Nevertheless, the man opened the door and stood back to let Isa enter. For a fleeting moment Isa wanted to pull out her rapier, but she resisted the impulse.
“You have naught to fear here, Isa.” The Fazarian priestess’ voice floated up from a dim corner of the room, and Isa stepped forward. “I have returned with 5 bundles of the feldspice.” She unslung her bag and opened it. “Where do you want them?”
A light flared, and Isa saw Ealda sitting at a desk with several large books at her elbow.
“Give them to Aggar, please.” The priestess gestured behind Isa. “He has your gold.”
The man handed Isa a small, but heavy, cloth bag. She opened up her bag and let him fish out the bundles. Once her big bag was empty, Isa dropped the small coin bag inside. The moment it left her hand, she remembered handing a bag of copper to the merchant Anne and getting an earful about how there wasn’t enough money in the bag to buy much of anything.
“Aggar! A moment please.” Isa held up her hand to signal him and then grabbed the coin bag. In the glow of his glass ball Isa saw that there were 8 gold coins inside the little cloth bag.
Isa watched as the young man and his glowing light left the room. She saw shadows flicker on the wall as he mounted the stairs. The room seemed darker now that he was gone.
“You have completed your quest,” Ealda said. She carefully laid a hand on the stack of books. “What knowledge do you seek? I have brought several of our finest tomes, filled with the knowledge of generations of wizards. What would you read first?”
Isa bent to look at the spines of the books, but the letters made no sense to her. She began to straighten up and realized that Ealda’s eyes were fixed on her face. The priestess repeated her question.
Isa shook her head. “I can’t read the spines, your, ah your holiness.”
The woman smiled, but there was no warmth. “You may call me Ealda.”
When the priestess didn’t go on, Isa said, “I can’t read the spines, Ealda.”
“True, but the pages are written in Common, I assure you.”
“Common what?”
“The common tongue, dear. It is your native language, is it not? How can you speak it and not know its name?”
Isa flashed a nervous smile. “We call it English.”
Ealda mouthed the word. “How odd. I have not heard that before, but I am glad to know it now.” She picked up the top book and flipped it open. “As you see, Eng-lish.”
“What I want to read about it is magic, I guess.”
“Of course, child. We are wizards. But what about magic, exactly?”
Isa felt reluctant to say too much, and she couldn't quite say why. “I'm interested,” she said, “in, I think it's called plane shift.”
“Really?”
Ealda seemed so surprised that Isa had a pang of doubt. “I think so. I mean, I'm interested in other planes and how one gets to them. I guess.”
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“It is your wish to become a wizard, then?”
“No, I--”
“If you seek infernal information, you must leave.” Ealda rose and with her height and the fact that Isa was sitting, the woman loomed over Isa. “We have no truck with warlocks.”
Isa jumped up so that they were more eye-to-eye. “I don’t know what this is, but I’m not trying to be one of those either.” She shrugged. “Is it weird to want to know how magic works? I’m just really curious about other planes and how you get to them.”
“The spell - the plane shift spell - is conjuration. Each arcane spell belongs to a school. Conjuration, Transmutation, Evocation…. Do you understand? The wizard - or sorcerer or warlock - has access to many schools of magic you see. A poor mind is an unfocused mind. And so I say to you, there are so many planes,” said Ealda. “Which one?”
Isa shook her head. What could she say?
“Perhaps,” the priestess said, “you wish to go to Stone City on the Welkin plane? Or to the Dead Lands, or Becali Va, or Skottush.”
“Scottish?” Isa’s head shot up. “Like Scotland? Scotland’s a plane? I want to go there.” She could get a flight home from there. Her mother would get her a ticket, no questions asked. Well, questions asked - many questions asked, but not right away. Maura Chamberlin would wait for her daughter to be safe at home before peppering her with questions about how she came to be stranded in Scotland.
“No one goes to Skottush - very few anyway. Is that your home? Is that the plane from whence you came?” The priestess searched Isa’s face.
“No but, you haven’t heard of my plane, so--”
“I know many, many things, Isa.”
Isa resisted the urge to say You didn’t know what English was. But maybe she did know something that would be useful to Isa. It could happen, right? And she and Joth were not the only outsiders. “I’m from - my plane is called America.”
“I’m afraid I-- Wait, is that spelled with an A?”
“Uh, yeah. Two of them.”
Ealda ignored or missed Isa’s bit of snark, and instead she rose and went to the far bookshelf. Her thin fingers trailed across the spines of dozens of books. As she moved down the line, Ealda cast a spell, and her ring began to glow, casting extra reading light on the books.
With each second that passed Isa’s heart beat faster. Was it possible, was it even remotely possible that she was about to be one step closer to home?
Finally Ealda returned with a thin volume bound in blue cloth. She sat in her chair with the book held to her chest. “I see hope in your eyes,” she said to Isa. “And I’m not sure it is warranted.” She laid the book on her desk, just out of Isa’s reach. “This book was written by a madman. A wizard, true, but a madman nonetheless.” She pushed the book toward Isa.
The cover was blank, but Isa let her finger caress it anyway, as if the cover has an invisible title that would somehow illuminate at her touch. She opened the book to the first page.
Spoiler: Isa's Character Sheet:
Name: Isa Chamberlin
Race: Human
Height & Weight: 5ft 6inches / 120 lbs
Class: Fighter Level: 3
Alignment: Good
Background: Stranger in a Strange Land
Hit Points: 20 AC: 13
Current Hit Points: 20
Combat: +4 to Hit
Weapons: Rapier (left hand) 1d8 +2 (piercing) / Quarterstaff (right hand) 1d6 +2 (bludgeoning)
Coin: 13gp, 10sp, 22cp
STR
11
0
DEX
14
+2
CON
11
0
INT
13
+1
WIS
13
+1
CHA
12
+1
Saving Throws: Str and Con +2
4
Acrobatics* (Dex)
1
Medicine (Wis)
1
Animal Handling (Wis)
1
Nature (Int)
1
Arcana (Int)
3
Perception* (Wis)
0
Athletics (Str)
1
Performance (Cha)
1
Deception (Cha)
1
Persuasion (Cha)
3
History* (Int)
1
Religion (Int)
3
Insight* (Wis)
2
Sleight of Hand (Dex)
1
Intimidation (Cha)
2
Stealth (Dex)
1
Investigation (Int)
1
Survival (Wis)
Special Attack: Two weapon fighting. When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.
Class Features:
Second Wind - On your turn, you can use a Bonus Action to regain hit points equal to 5 + your fighter level. Short or Long Rest before you can use it again.
Action Surge - On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible Bonus Action. You must finish a short or Long Rest before using it again.
Martial Archetype: Surgical Fighter
3rd level - Clinical Eye: Spend 1 combat turn studying your enemy and learn one of the following: if the enemy is equal to or stronger than you in strength, dexterity, or constitution. Can spend up to 3 turns to discern all 3. Can be used outside of combat as a free action - spend 1 minute to learn all three.