These eccentric sages were exiled to Border’s Hill (20.18, on the borders of Thring) after an unfortunate accident involving a magical experiment on a herd of the Duke’s cattle.
They call themselves the Hunters of Truth, but others refer to them as the Foolish Sages. Their curiosity consistently surpasses their common sense and instinct for self-preservation. As a result, various calamities have befallen them and less than half their original number remains.
Recently a party of Foolish Sages travelled to the Black Ziggurat (18.26) and in their hubris decided to experiment upon the changing of the sky from day to night. Half the party entered and then left the ziggurat, while the other half stayed outside. What happened next is unclear, but several of the former party vanished completely and several of the latter were driven mad, ranting about “the third sky.” However, the most dramatic effect was upon the rest of the latter party (the ones staying outside). They become divided in time, with half their body parts (i.e. left arm, nose, right eyeball, left foot and liver, or some other such combination) being sent twelve hours forward in time while the other half of them remained in the same time.
The time-splintered sages can yet be seen at Border’s Hill. They look like a collection of body parts floating in the air, which walks around and talks quite cogently. Twelve hours after this body passes through a space, the other half of the body will arrive and play out exactly the same actions that it performed twelve hours ago. Alternatively, some early bodies will act out nonsensical scenes which are in fact premonitions of the action of the later body.
To make matters even more grotesque, it is possible for the two halves of one sage to come into contact with each other, and it is not uncommon to see one of the sages arguing vehemently with his past or future self. In fact, one sage who brought his pretty young wife with him from Tarengael (16.16)* *is now constantly vying with his past self for her love.
Connections:
- The bastard daughter of one of the Sages is a hedge wizard who is poking around the Piss-and-Shit Castle (13.12).
- The remnants of the Foolish Sages will pay to have the Inverted Temple (20.20) mapped so that it may be properly explored when they have recovered from the Black Ziggurat fiasco.
- The foolish sages attempted to turn the Duke’s livestock into cowhorses (16.16.05) with unfortunate results.
- The Sages have recently learned of the discovery of the misplaced obelisk (46.01).
- The Sages know the weakness of the witch-hounds (22.16).
- The Sages have learned that the descendants of the lost books of the lizardman historian Kashikik now slither about the Haunt of the Mud Dragons (16.23).
- The Foolish Sages desire any scrolls that record dialogues between Moldenke the Aloof and the demons he conjured (21.16).
- The Sages must now teach a crocodile to joust (18.17).
Hooks:
- What were the ‘incursions’ that the tower on Border’s Hill was set up to defend against? Why is defense no longer necessary?
- What exactly was the experiment that got the Foolish Sages kicked out of Thring?
- What other foolish experiments have the sages performed in their quest for knowledge?
- Can a time-splintered sage be used to predict the future?