Ostram's Hollow


 * Real World Location: Claremont, NH
 * Country: Egoras

Description
The quiet logging village of Ostram’s Hollow is an enigma in its own right, even among the annals of the strange happenings and unusual places that are common across the realms of Sidereus. With only a few communal cabins, a small temple of Tallis, and a simple tavern called “the Vulgar Gargoyle”, this village was of little repute until it came under the attention of Simon Corvax. Corvax, a professor at the Egoras University for the Arcane Arts and Sciences, noticed that prior to the appearance of the Darkstorm in the Third Age, there were no records of Ostram’s Hollow having ever existed.

Corvax conducted extensive research to discover that no records of Ostram’s Hollow or any similarly named location exist prior to somewhere around the year 2100 in the Third Age. This is not entirely unheard of as many records from this period are missing. It was not long before Corvax uncovered the journal of an old woodsman who claimed that he was wandering the woods in the area of modern day Ostram’s Hollow, when a strange greenish glow could be seen in the distance. An excerpt from the woodsman’s journal reads;

''“…then there it was, near as bright as the sun itself. A smoky glow like I’ve never seen before, so many shades of green I couldn’t believe my eyes. I broke through the tree line to try and make out what it was and I couldn’t believe what I saw. Massive bolts of lightning, a stark emerald color, were striking the earth, tearing up the soil. I just about died right there, because as I looked up I saw the swirling tumult of the Darkstorm, gathering above the area like some massive beast ready to reach down and scoop it all up into its maw. The noise was too much, a raging, furious noise like nothing I’d ever heard. Louder than an angry bear and a thousand times as strong. The wind picked up and I was knocked from my feet, and I couldn’t get back up to save my life.''

Then it happened. Just as I stand here before you, the ground itself seemed to vanish from sight. The green lightning grew terrible and violent, and a massive mountain of earth descended from the swirling Darkstorm clouds above me. Not a hundred feet in front of me it seemed as if the earth itself had opened up its arms to accept some long-forgotten child… Before I knew it, this town was in front of me where moments before there had been naught but trees and rock. As the storm began to pass, the strange green lightning also faded – but somehow it seemed as if it was sucked into the Darkstorm itself and crushed. Like the Darkstorm consumed the green lightning to feed its unnatural appetite. I don’t know why or how, but I could have sworn I heard a sound like screaming… I still have the nightmares.

A tavern stood, and an old guild hall… well used though in some disrepair. A small temple and a few other buildings were there too. They all showed signs of some use, all of them had belongings in them, but there were no people anywhere to be found. None… it still scares me just to think about what must have happened to them.”

In his research, Corvax was able to connect the village of Ostram’s Hollow to his theory of “Dimensional Transference” as a potentially unintended side-effect of the Darkstorm’s disruptive powers. While research on “Dimensional Transference” has all but ceased since Corvax’s disappearance in 2173 of the Third Age, now more than a thousand years later, many have begun to continue his research, making the town of Ostram’s Hollow trove of hidden knowledge that researchers are desperate to explore.