"Anyway, I spoke with my order, and they gave me a different job - I was to deliver a message to the church in Specularium. I hoped I could protect Cimorene while performing my duty to Kirn. On the way to Specularium, strange creatures that surrounded themselves in darkness attacked us. I believe that they were called 'Murk Dwellers'. Cimorene was kidnapped from her own bed while the rest of us fought in the dark. Even magical light had no effect on them.
"We followed the trail that they left to a cave where fought a host of the vile things. Once we got inside, we found Cimorene laying naked on the floor in the center of a strange rune that had been painted there. She had been painted with runes all over her body. She was catatonic for weeks, and she nearly died. I learned the meaning of the ritual that she had undergone later.
"A psionicist that had been traveling with us contacted one of his friends. Landry came and brought us into the dream world where her soul had been trapped, unable to return to her body. We had just found her when hordes of demons with animal faces charged us. How the demons got into the world of dreams, even I am uncertain. I think it had something to do with the ritual, however. We managed to bring her back, thanks to the sacrifice of a man named Torin. He stayed behind to fight the demons that we could escape with Cimorene. Hopefully he managed to find his own wife, Melanie.
"After that grueling experience, we were detained by a wandering party of dwarven warriors. They wanted to turn Cimorene over to the Loriene. A troupe of soldiers in strange black plate mail came to our rescue and led us to the barony of Vorloi where we would be safe from both the elves and the dwarves.
"The barony of Vorloi was an evil place. The lords there were all feuding, trying to wrest the barony from each other's power. It was called the Game of Houses. Cimorene and I, along with the rest of the people that had been traveling with us became the object of the lords' attentions. After managing to stay away from looking like we were taking sides, Landry disappeared. Another woman we were traveling with, Lucretia, fell in love with one of the lords. Kelvin, another mage that we had been traveling with entered yet another lord's tower while trying to steal his spell book. We learned from Roderick (our dwarf friend who had followed Kelvin) that the mage had been taken into the lord's chamber and not returned. Needless to say was a long week.
"We finally managed to escape when the lord that Lucretia had fallen in love with told us the best way out of the city. A half-drow guide led us through the sewers and finally out of the city. The lords must have been doing something strange in that place because we found all manner of creatures as we left the place. Roderick was bitten by a strange snake-man. He nearly turned into one before we figured out how to halt the effect.
"When we finally made it to Specularium, we were told by a fortune teller that we were somehow important, Cimorene and I, and to seek an oracle just north of the city. When we made it there, Cimorene met her mother through the oracle's magic hall of mirrors. She was given a book of unfulfilled prophecies. Prophecies that were starting to come to pass. When I looked into the oracle, I saw the future. I was a general. It was a war against the demons that had found their way out of the world of dreams. We were losing. My fortress was just breached as I saw a newt that spoke to me. It was the voice of my god, Kirn. He said to seek 'The One' here in the southern continent. I had no idea what that meant at the time.
"Afterward, we were discussing our visions with the oracle's keeper. He gave a message to his courier, Aias to carry to the Republic of Darokin. No sooner had he sealed the message, than the hall of mirrors shattered, the work of dark magic. The building we were in collapsed just as we got outside. The keeper was crushed inside. Aias asked us to accompany him to Darokin. We did.
"On the way there, we were attacked by the...man that had performed the ritual on Cimorene. He was mostly dead, half rotted as if by a wasting disease. Still he was extremely powerful. He had brought some friends too. Murk Dwellers. He had a strange glowing green gem that managed to shine despite the darkness. Aias disappeared during the fight. We had just managed to defeat him when we heard the beating of very large wings. As it turns out, Aias was a dragon. He had killed a couple of giant that were headed our way to join the fight. He gave the message to us to carry to Darokin, and left us on some business that he seemed to think was important. He said that we would cross paths again. I wouldn't mind a creature like that on my side...
"When we got to Darokin we learned that a civil war had broken out. In trying to rescue one of the senators from the bastard that started the war, we learned that a demon had been responsible for the war. It escaped before we had a chance to kill it. The senator who started the war disappeared. The war ended. An uneasy alliance was reached in the senate, and a new council was formed to keep the senate from falling into war again.
"We left Darokin and went back to Karameikos. There I informed my order that the Great War was coming. Even now, the priests of Kirn should be gathering for war. We then took a boat bound for this place.
"When we finally got to Zodonia, we found their widely touted libraries lacking in information we needed. We had just come back outside when a purple worm burst into the city square and started eating people. We killed it, then found the guy that controlled it. He wore a black helmet with eyes that shined red. Before we could kill him, he disappeared. Perhaps he became invisible. Perhaps not. At any rate, we were rated as heroes in Zodonia.
"Such was the state of things when the mayor came to us with a problem. We felt strangely obligated to help look for a party of adventurers that had gone missing. One of them was a friend of his son or something like that. Anyway, we tracked them to the castle where they had gone, fought a basilisk, where Aran was stoned, and met the lord of the place: a vampire lord.
"The Baron turned out to be a strange fellow. He wasn't entirely evil. He only fed on those who came to his home seeking treasure. Rather than feed indiscriminately, he ate only those who he found lacking in moral character. He was upset about the death of his basilisk and was going to send us packing without Aran, but then he saw the amulet that Cimorene wore. The Baron has been around for a long time, almost 2,000 years. He had collected a large library about ancient things, in particular, The Age of Darkness. He recognized the necklace for what it was: a talisman of ancient evil. Aran had thought it was an amulet of protection from scrying.
"The baron gave us tons of information from his library and told us all that he knew about the Age of Darkness and its return." Kheldar pauses with this last bit to let the information sink in.
"This is called the Age of Rebirth. Just over 2,000 years ago, the world was a dark, dismal place. The world was ruled by demons, and drow walked the earth instead of elves or humans. Humanity had been almost wiped out by the merciless effort of the 'Dark One', Darok.
"Darok had almost won when he was betrayed by one of his lieutenants. He lost control of the demons that he had used to eliminate all that was good. They revolted, killing each other, killing drow, killing whatever got in their way. The good races fought back, driving the drow back underground and finishing the job that the chaos had started. Light came back to the world, and things grew again. We had won. The hero that had betrayed Darok fled the Dark One's domain. Darok chased him though.
"History is strange. There are conflicting tales about what happened to the hero of the last age. Some say Darok killed him. Some say he lived to an old age then died. Others say that he yet lives, ready to fight again when he's needed.
"Cimorene's prophecies tell another tale. In light of the other information that The Baron provided us, I believe that the Dark One is not dead, and neither is the man who betrayed him and ended the Age of Darkness. The book of prophecies speaks of a second Age of Darkness, an age that is almost upon us. It speaks of a woman who would open the gates to hell. It says that Darok will rule again. It says that the betrayer of the world, the hero of old may be found to come forward and fight again, and that his resting place is in a place called Frost Vale. According to Darkblood, the dwarves of the Ice Mountains seem to think that Frost Vale is in their mountain range somewhere. The book also says that the woman who opened the gates to hell will close them again. I think that Cimorene is that woman.
"Cimorene and I have been hunted and haunted by this our whole lives. She's now pregnant. I am not about to let my child be born into a world of darkness. I intend to find the man that that will help us fight. He knows the enemy. He knows how to fight him. He knows where to find him. Then all we need to do is find out how to close the gates to hell."
"Where is she now, Kheldar?"
"She's in Zodonia with some friends looking through the information that The Baron gave us until I return from Frost Vale. I can sense her through this ring."
Even in his meditation, Chris realizes that the ring is empowered.
OOC: DM hint: a lot of this may be relevant later....
