The Day of the Scorpion
The 11th day of Pramon 786
With only some exceptions, the entire world was struck with strange occurrences on this day, which quickly became known as the Day of the Scorpion. No one can explain why it happened, or how it happened. Most believe the deities did battle and what happened was what spilled over on to the world at least that is what they believe in the days, weeks, and months immediately after the day. While far too many individual things happened to detail, when it has passed, tales of things that did happen emerge and spread.
Much of what happened that is seen involved gates and creatures appearing, the most evident of those spawned the name that was soon given to the day. Scorpions of all sizes appeared, randomly, in all places. They were out to sea, in the air, on the ground, in cities, and in fields. They were as small as a coin, as large as a house, and every size in between. They acted with no coordinated direction, attacking or resting. No possible count can be made, but at its worst, the city of Edgunt was swarmed by more than fifty, several of the house sized variety. The only saving grace was that the vast majority of them disappeared after several minutes. Unfortunately, several minutes is enough time for a house sized scorpion to do terrible damage.
Elsewhere, the effect was much different. In smaller numbers, creatures of the upper planes appeared. At random, these angels talked with helped, or in some cases fled. In the best cases, they appeared near the scorpions and battled them. In the city of Port Springs, no fewer than five devas appeared. Unlike the scorpions, the angelic creatures did not disappear quickly, although many sought a way back to their plane.
Not only were the outer planes involved, but the inner planes as well. Elementals of air and earth appeared all over the world. These creatures neither harmed nor helped those that saw them, but rather made their way towards each other, doing battle in their age old struggle. The damage caused by those battles in some places was severe. The plateauian city of Nomsincharg saw a titanic elemental battle, with reports of over one hundred of the creatures fighting through the city. No one knows whether the surviving elementals fled to their home planes or remain.
More than just creatures, other events struck the world. In some places, the dead, some of which had been long dead, appeared alive at the homes. In all cases, they were humans, and in most cases they were arcane spellcasters. The reports of this were not widespread. What became of these individuals is greatly varied. Some were killed, or died. Others were welcomed or escaped. The Stalkers of the Dead were infuriated.
Terribly, dark balls and blades of destruction appeared around the world. When the appeared, things were destroyed. However, they never moved and only existed for minutes. Likewise, some spheres of magic appear and then vanished minutes later, doing little. Some spellcasters reported their spell power increased, but it never lasted beyond the strange day. It didn't appear to rain anywhere in the world for several hours, and it stopped raining abruptly when everything occurred.
It is possible even other things occurred, but that is the story that is being spread around the world by the most under appreciated of people…the bards.
