CROCODILE'S
TEAR
The Crocodile's Tear is a sapphire of extraordinary size and clarity.
It was discovered by a slave working the
granola mines of
Antharia, who
died bringing it to the surface. After passing through many hands,
including those of
Thaddium Fzort (who ruled
Quendor from 481-545
GUE),
the jewel came into the possession of the evil sorceress
Y'Syska, whose
collection of gems and minerals is still without peer.
Y'Syska
protected the Crocodile's Tear from thieves by hiding it in the
Miznia
Jungle to be guarded by
bloodworms and whatever traps the sorceress
laid to confound the unwary. Survivors of the jungle came back to
report that the Crocodile's Tear rested on the face of a large idol, just
below one eye.
This idol, possibly a construction of Y'Syska,
but more likely a remnant of a forgotten religion, was a crocodile in
the shape and size of a subway train, not counting the limbs and tail.
Its maw hung wide open with the lower jaw touching the ground to form
an inclined walkway lined with rows of stone teeth. The stone jaw, when
stood upon, lurched like one standing on a seesaw. Anyone wishing to
steal Y'Syska's jewel would have to climb the idol without sliding into
its mouth, and becoming trapped. The Legend of the Crocodile's Tear
became the most famous story of the Miznia Jungle.
The same
peasant who recovered the
Coconut of Quendor in 966 GUE also
successfully stole the Crocodile's Tear by luring a mother
hungus to
stand at one end of the jaw. The weighty hungus was easily able to keep
the far end of the seesaw raised high while the light-weight peasant
reached up to grab the tear. The jewel popped off the idol's face,
slipped from the hero's grasp and rolled down to the mother hungus's
feet, where she promptly ate it, turned and lumbered off the jaw. The
seesaw titled, pitching the peasant helplessly forward into the idol.
The interior long, low chamber of the idol was shaped much like the
gizzard of a crocodile, with no non-magical method of escape.
Fortunately this adventurer was able to escape, and hunted down the
mother hungus. Using a cane of eversion, the hungus found herself being
turned inside out, the effect lasting but long enough for the
undigested contents of the mother hungus's stomach to fall to the
ground. The peasant again had possession of the Crocodile's Tear. That
same adventurer sold the recovered jewel to one of three shops staffed
by
Y'Gael for 1000
zm enabling the purchase of the
Phee
Hourglass. Y'Gael put the Tear up for resale at 2000zm, and its
fate after that point is unknown.