The Stone Soules
Adventurers struggling against evil

The Stone Soules Adventuring Party was founded on the 15th of March in 2167 at the Blue Star Inn in the city of adventure, Teft.  The original party was composed of Alegra, an acolyte of Phaulkon; Ceydric, a young cavalier of Dunador; Borin, a dwarven warrior;  Jana and Elena, sisters, a thief and a mage; Dranigh, a Ranger; Hawk and Stump, warriors; and Stan, another acolyte of Phaulkon.  The party held no particular ethos, had no particular reason for being, held in common no particular goals.  But over the years, the party formed of its differences a cohesion, a system of priority and battle and finances and quests.  The party chose a name, The Stone Soules.

Party members fell as a result of wounds and could not be saved.  Others were lost to dreadful magical causes or diabolical traps.  The others struggled on, choosing their quests by vote most often and other times being chosen by their circumstances.  At times it was rough going, at other times a joyful progress towards advancement and glory.

The party which would become the Stone Soules was founded in September, 1993, by Chris Allen, Zack Hubert, Kyle MacLea, Hersh Reddy, and Mike Reed under the direction of Edwin Anderson, Jr., the DM. Since then, many players came and went.  A couple of email lists, maintained by Chris Allen, brought the adventures and blunders of the Stone Soules to a larger audience, facilitating many conversations between the original Telvar players of NCSSM and NCSU and the newer Cornell players.  The email lists still exist, providing many folks with tales of impromptu pick-up Telvar games, ongoing adventures in one or more parties within Telvar, and allowing everyone access to news from our esteemed DM Edwin (the date of Telvar Open Tournaments, rules changes, etc.).

Edwin had gone to a great deal of trouble to make the cast and the world both realistic and consistent, while maintaining the exciting feel of a fantasy role-playing campaign. And when these circumstances place in your path characters that are smart, crafty, and bent on your destruction, you can expect to be smarter and craftier or be destroyed. "There are no losers, only dead people."
 
 The Stone Soules did a great many things, making some enemies along the way and a lot of friends and partners as well.  The party began its work as caravan guards in Petethal, and ended its days with the founding of a new City-State, brought about among the ruins of ancient Tan-El.  From there, the group splintered to its own personal quests, but the great majority of the party formed the government of the new Council of Tan-El.

At the dissolution of the Soules, only Alegra Falconer, High Priestess of Phaulkon and Sapienter of Tan-El; and Sir Ceydric Arathorne, Grand Knight of Dunador; remained of the original group.  But now their friends and comrades were manifest and powerful as well, those who had joined them along the way.  Chief among them were Theo, warrior and High Praetor of Tan-El; Eliandor Lothander (Eli), mage and Magister of Tan-El; Ludo, thief and Hand of the Council of Tan-El; Xavier, Patriarch of Aurora; Raven, Patrol Captain of Tan-El; Sahrak the Traveling Storyteller; Rangorn, Patrol Lieutenant of Tan-El; and Mordrick Ironhand, the Lordly High Chiseler of the Dwarven Peoples.

Of those who had retired from the party many pursued other projects, including Borin Firebuilder who joined the Cromwellian Academy teams; Jerem and his brother Janthro, who went back to Sark; and Gor Ebaum, who went out to "hunt evil merchants."  In the course of the travels of the Soules, they had founded a small city, known as Middle-of-the-Road.  There, a veteran of the party, Sir Faranyn Arathorne of Anserial, remains the Governor and protector.  Other veterans of the party assist him, including his retinue as well as Cassana, who is now the Patrol Lieutenant of Middle, and Dari, the Druid of Middle.

When the party was together, it operated under a defined party system.  The party was run by its Core Members.  This Core Membership was composed of those non-henchman party members who had been with the party at least six months and had been approved by a vote of the other Core Members.  Core Membership allowed votes on all party issues.  The group was led by the Triumvirate: Alegra, Ceydric, and Theo.  The Triumvirate was chosen solely on seniority.  Though in general party decision-making, the Triumvirate held no particular power, these three leaders held overriding 'emergency votes' which were binding on the whole party in extreme situations.  In practice, the leaders of the party were often its spokespeople but not always and often helped guide the group to common goals that everyone could agree on.  All party resources were owned by the party and were distributed and redistributed to individual party members based on party necessity.  Though some party members had individual items that were not beholden to the party's economic system this was not the general rule, and the overall Cause of the Stone Soules was to use its resources for group goals, and not to distribute individual 'shares.'

To learn more about individual party members, examine the Triumvirate, the Core Membership, Veterans, or Obituaries pages.  Other things you might wish to read about are the party History-in-Brief, the Summaries of Party adventures (including the Log of the Stone Soules, written by Alegra, which covers all of the party's adventures; and the summaries, which picked up only after email became an important part of the group), Party Quotations, Party Philosophy and a Party "Theme Song," the colony founded by the party, Middle, and the Scouting Organization founded there, some of the party's goals, the Church of Phaulkon, the Observatory, the City-State of Tan-El and the Tan-El Charter and Bill of Rights, some of the geography of the Northlands which they call home, and some of the loyal friends of the Soules.