December 6th-28th, 569:

The woman calling herself Argent leaves the City of Crossroads for Gateway in an attempt to become an apprentice to Lord Sharadin Sculley.

GM Notes:

While Argent did appear back in the Q-Link days, much of her own personal history wasn't formed until her time in New Frontiers. When I began New Frontiers I had every intention of introducing Argent at some point. However, my old timeline had her busy doing other things in the Sword of Doom and Borderlands games so I had to wait for her to be freed up. Plus that didn't address the issue of her later appearance in Jyslera's game.

The reason she left The Frontier game after Sword of Doom merged with it was not a in game reason, but a real world one. I only had the ability to play 3 characters in the game and at that point I had 4. Q had a strict 1 user name 1 character rule in their games. So someone had to go. At that time, the other characters were more entrenched in the games, so Argent left. She later appeared in a short game run by another GM, the game where she met Victor. Then she appeared in Borderlands and then later in Borderlands 2 and then eventually in Clash of Empires.

Given all the things that she did before New Frontiers and the stuff that would come later, if I was going to use Argent, I would need a second one! So that's what I did. The Pillar Artifact was already acting wonky, so having it make two (or more) of her was easy enough. Eventually I did work out exactly what did happen and why and it will be mind blowing if things ever get that far.

So, in short, there are at least two Argent's out there. Both did their time in Sword of Doom and then in The Frontier games. After that the duplicating occurred. One Argent appeared in New Frontiers from that point on and the other took the Borderlands track that eventually leads to Jylsera. The other Argent is going to be appearing soon. That's why Sherra kept running into hints about her in the last few New Frontiers posts. While Argent's Adventures would have switched to what that other Argent did after the split, Argent's Biography will offer up a snapshot of that time. The events also be noted in the timeline when we get to them.

Argent arrives in Gateway and travels to Lord Sharadin's home. There she meets his twin daughters Sherry and Terry. Lord Sharadin denies Argent's application, but changes his mind when she uses a cantrip to manipulate fire. Lord Sharadin takes Argent to his class room to have her take a test. While there she meets Apprentice Burant and solves the Elder Puzzle on Lord Sharadin's chalkboard.

GM Notes:

When it came time to do Argent's Adventures I noted that she had many skills that required her learning or being taught. Unlike most of Stephanie's skills that she just learned growing up on a farm, Argent had things that she couldn't just pick up anywhere. So part of her early days also involves learning things such as history, the Elder Language, and even learning how to speak and read Alphatian. These things she needed to learn were woven into her story.

As I mentioned before, Argent didn't have much of a backstory before. In fact she mentioned her magic teacher as a him only once. While working her into the new status of the world in New Frontiers, I had her being taught by Jallarzi, along with Kharyna and Kylie. A lot of other stuff just snowballed from there. Much of what happened in Argent's Adventures were things she mentioned about herself in New Frontiers.

Argent is accepted as an apprentice by Lady Jallarzi Sallavarian provided she can past another test. That test being traveling from Gateway to Elcadan in the far west of the kingdom. Argent flirts with Burant.

GM Notes:

Since Argent didn't meet Chareos before New Frontiers, they had to keep missing each other. So Chareos was away. I added a new apprentice for Lord Sharadin named Burant. He was specifically created to fill the void of other characters in the revamped happenings of Borderlands. He'll appear soon in the present stuff.

Argent leaves Gateway heading back to the City of Crossroads as part of journey to Elcadan. Lord Sharadin secures her passage on a supply caravan returning to Crossroads led by Master Trevor.

GM Notes:

Master Trevor appeared both in The Frontier and Sword of Doom games, so using him here was only natural!

Argent arrives back in Crossroads and takes a room at the Blushing Maiden Inn. There she meets Lyra Stinson, a disguise used by Lady Jallarzi Sallavarian. Jallarzi uses this deception as a way to learn more about Argent without her realizing whom she is talking to.

Argent wakes up feeling sick from having drunk too much wine the night before. She spends the day at the Blushing Maiden Inn recovering and meets Lady Anastasia Ashbrook and Elspeth of Azrella.

Argent rides with Lady Ashbrook and Elspeth to Nemiston. Lady Ashbrook is another guise of Jallarzi. She tests Argent's honesty by leaving an expensive bracelet in the carriage. Argent returns the bracelet to the driver, actually Jallarzi's cousin Lord Sherwood Sculley, as she is not a thief and spends the evening at the Wood Gallery.

Argent leaves Nemiston, now traveling in a regular caravan. It reaches Brookside by days end.

GM Notes:

All these way stations that are one days travel apart were created during the writing of Stephanie's Tale, which was written before the Argent's Adventures stuff.

Argent's caravan reaches Ridgeway, near the edge of the Duchy of Graystone.

Argent's caravan arrives at Cruthway in the Barony of Pyris.

Argent's caravan reaches the village of Hillside.

Argent's caravan arrives at Wood's Edge.

Argent arrives in Pyris City and spends New Years Eve at the Green Forest Inn.

GM Notes:

And that brings us to the end of the year 569 Cynalon Reckoning. The Green Forest Inn would later be used as the gathering point for the adventurers Sherwood recruited at the start of New Frontiers.