Chapter Nineteen - The Dark Wizard of Netheril

Session was held 30th of June at the Altar of Games

Melkor made Arius very upset. Poor kid.

As the great peril loomed over the Kingdom of Darnon, Arius prepared himself for a speech that was meant to raise the last remaining men for the final battle. Melkor had declared that they would should move with haste towards the city of Berdusk that was currently besieged by the Red Wizard Alzarseth. Melkor pointed out that encountering Alzarseth was crucial if they wished for Darnon's best, as the Red Wizard gathered strength with every passing hour.
But Arius found himself troubled by the late events. Melkor had always been close to him as a mentor and foster father, but now as it had turned out that the Black Wizard actually was his father, he had great problems accepting the truth. Even more so as his legitimacy for the Crown of Darnon had been forever lost. Although he still struggled with his thoughts, Arius heartened the remaining soldiers to join him for the final march. A march that was destined to end in suffering of many without a promise of victory.

The Final March
The preparations for the Last Stand of Justice were made roughly in one day. During their planning meet with the last remaining rebellion leaders they agreed that General Almatheus Ochrefield, Dortherion, Count Anthrop and Constantin Almert would join them for the last march. Uddard Blackcaster was nominated to act as regent while our heroes would be making war elsewhere, and he promised to give his fullest to prevent the conquered cities descending into turmoil. Cidela Pepperpath and Lot were stationed to guard the Cube of Tybor during the march and while Melkor would do his magicks.  During the meet Ochrefield stated they managed to raise around thousand soldiers for the march, many of them ex-Blackhelms who had deserted from King Osanders army.

While planning for the tactics, Blackcaster brought up alarming news. It had turned up that the carcass of Merthoflagrion, the red dragon that was slain few weeks ago in the Battle for Asbravn, had vanished into thin air. Blackcaster assured the rest that there was no reason to worry and that natural explanation for the disappearance of the huge rotting serpent was to be found.

Next morning the small army of tired freedom fighters began it's march towards Berdusk. Captain Ochrefield  calculated that march would take four days to the Great Bulwark, where they could ask Colonel Erebald (well known sympathizer of Free Darnon) and his men to join them. But before that they would have a long forced march ahead of them that would really test the endurance of the men.

Route of the Last March. 

The men marched almost two days in a row with minimum rest, but outside the village of Borhus they finally had a little rest among the village houses and maturing crops. After the nightfall when the camp had been built and most were fast asleep, Melkor was still writing to his notebook.

Zelthaum the Eldritch

Suddenly he noticed how his magical amulet began to hover on his chest, and how inside the tent every other item of magical nature did exactly the same. Arius woke up as his sword Ilbrandir began to float away from him, and soon all of our heroes charged out of the tent to see what was causing this magical anomaly. And as a thunder shook the camp, great giant appeared in front of them.He declared to be Zelthaum the Eldritch, claimant to possess the Cube of Tybor. The gigantic man listened no reasoning and the ownership of the Cube had to be dissolved with arms. Zelthaums gargantuan bastard sword was a force to be reckoned and his magical abilities boosted his power further, but as so many times before, our heroes proved to be triumphant. The giant was soon slain, heroes claim for the Cube restored and soon the camp returned to peaceful slumber.

The One who Returned
At dawn, the camp was dismantled and the march continued. Sun didn't illuminate their path anymore as a dark gloom had fallen over Darnon. The black clouds over Berdusk had grown even thicker, and the dense veil of darkness was spreading over the lands with ever growing speed. It was clear that Alzarseths magic was the cause of this unholy gloaming that hung heavily over the land. The army moved with haste towards the border Bulwark, and two days later they reached Hope's End, a refugee village outside the Morihig border station. The village was empty, sacked by the conquering army of Alzarseth. But death reeked also at the border station. Colonel Erebald, who was expected to join them, hang gutted, upside down with his close officers at the camps gate. Douglas donned his ring of invisibility (freshly acquired from Asbravnian merchant) and went for a quick recon mission. The thief soon returned and informed the others that the border station had been overrun by undead warriors. Jared was encouraged by these news and promised to get rid of the menace with his positive energy bursts granted by his deity Lathander. Talk about being positive, the crazed cleric walked all alone in the middle of the soldiers of unlife. An undead officer in black full-plate ordered them to turn because the border was closed, but the priest launched his positive burst that tore the skeleton army apart, but only partially, as many of the creatures rose again.

Death Knight Irongrave and his zombie-dragon steed.

By releasing the burst, Jared also evoked the high commander of the depot of living dead. Great doors of the wall gatehouse fell, as a gargantuan beast crawled in. And look, the beast was Merthoflagrion, once slain red dragon that had risen again. The zombie dragon had a rider, donned in black full-plate, wearing a cracked helm with huge deer antlers, and the rider was the greatest of the Skull Riders, Captain Irongrave. He was slain in the battle of Treeward, but now the captain was bestowed with unholy powers and risen as a Death Knight. As a response to clerics energy burst, Irongrave grunted "Here only you can die" and launched a volley of unholy fire towards Jared, knocking the priest down. Then the dragon vaulted to the sky and swiped behind our heroes, frying many soldiers with it's fiery breath. Furious battle ensued as the Death Knight dealt punishment from the Beyond. As Jared regained his consciousness and was ready to continue the battle, he unleashed another burst of energy, decimating the weakened Death Knight and his terrible minions. Without these superpowers of our heroic cleric, many of the men would have died in the claws of the skeleton horde, now they could sigh and wait for day or two longer for the Kothian blades to slay them.

The army marched through the border gate and gasped as they saw malevolent powers growing in the berduskian sky. A great red sphere glowed it's death on the doomed city and it was now crystal clear that there was n more time to be wasted. With a forced march our heroes and their army struggled onwards, but soon general Ochrefield had to call for a quick rest. They headed to a farm called "The Verdants" where the men gathered fresh water and crops for fast nourishment. But encounter followed as the main building was already occupied. A great warrior launched forward, killing two soldiers. He told the heroes to back off, but when questioned, the man, called Strong-Dong, revealed that he was serving a master. And the master answered when he was called forth.

Here Strong-Dong and Man-with-a-pointy-hat both marvel
how well the Man shot his arrow into Ebonmars ribs.

A wretched shadow of a man walked out of the building, and soon our heroes recognized that familiar scumbag, he was Lord Lullicius Ebonmar. The fat coward had escaped from Berdusk just before the siege, and was hiding here with few of his menservants. It didn't take long from our fellowship to negotiate Strong-Dong to leave his slavemaster and join for the glorious battle. That obese bastard tried to sneak out of the situation but by heroes command, a man with a pointy hat & feather stopped his escape with a well aimed arrow. The pointy hatted man was complimented for his bravery in action. The owners of the Verdant-farm were found and released from the basement, and they gave their sincerest gratitude for our heroes. During the night the farmer Matteus Verdant finished his issues with Lord Ebonmar who was left to die on the yard. As morning came even more hazily than the others before, resting troops found Ebonmar hanged into nearest tree. Many wondered how that chapped farmer had strenght to lift that fat carcass high up in the air. After this scene the last camp was dismantled and the march for final judgement began.

The Last Strike 

The red glowing orb over Berdusk and it's besiegers.

The Last Army of Free Darnon progressed with rather hasty pace, even though they were marching to their evident deaths. As the last hills and meadows of berduskian farmlands were left behind, the army reached a last little hill before the city, and on the top of that our fellowship finally saw how dire the whole situation actually was. The city was completely surrounded by besieging force. Dark black clouds hung heavily over the city, and in the middle of the clouds a gigantic red orb pulsated, sucking red energy from the city and the besieging forces to itself. And from that red eye, a small line of that same red energy streamed into a small mountaintop, which glowed with bright light. There on that artificial peak (that wasn't there before, foul magic of the red wizard once again) Alzarseth did his magics in order to destroy Berdusk.

Only one unit of enemy troops was not under the same lure that doomed Berdusk. These men guarded the small peak where the archmage was conjuring death and demise for thousands. Our valiant crusaders decided to head straight towards the peak in hope of intercepting the conjuring. The enemy let them proceed quite a distance until three-men sentry rode towards them. Their leader, Shadhum Khozo, the leader of Kothian mercenaries, announced that his master is currently occupied and cannot attend their business whatever it was. But mercenary captains speech was interrupted by the red mage himself telepathically saying "Shadhum, I do have time"
And with this sentence, dust began to move in a circle of hundred feet radius. And from that circle rose half-dozen enormous metal blades that reached the sky, still circling with blinding speed, enclosing our heroes into   deadly cylinder. And inside that cylinder was Alzarseth the Red. As predicted, the mage was wearing deep red robe, his face looked powerful, and his eyes stared under pitch-black brows.
This is the speech Alzarseth held when addressing our heroes:

"We meet at last! The King is dead, long live the King!

Congratulations Ariendur, there's finally a man on the throne who righteously deserves it!

And you must be Douglas of Berdusk. It seems that you've lost your face?

The priest of Lathander, Jared. We shall talk about the matters of faith later when all this is over, for then whe truly have time for it.

Oh but Melkor the Black, Confidant of Queen Aeliathe, The Wise Man of West, Descendant of the Great Ancient Wizards of Netheril. Far have you traveled from your books, and even farther from the havens of rationality are your thoughts, how do you believe that you'll ever reach your goals when even your closest ones do not know about your endeavors?

Melkor, let me explain to your little friends..

Don't you remember? You arrived to Iriaebor long time ago, visions of long gone artifact in your eyes. You had managed to dig up that the arch-wizard of the city could possess an item of tremendous power and you decided to investigate this lead. Yes, the Eye of Karsus was mine back then already, even though I had not yet unleashed it's true powers. 

Melkor and Arius back when everything was well.

You conspired with the beautiful Queen, but did you do it for love, I dare not to know. You managed to discover a lot, but much was yet to be discovered, when something unexpected happened. The Queen succumbed as did her first-born, prince Ariendur. But the people of Darnon didn't know that the boy was actually alive and safe, as the Queen foresaw her own death and gave the baby to you Melkor. Little prince was kept hidden in your servitude until now, as I couldn't suspect you back then when I order the Queen and her bastard to death! Yes, I gave that order as the weakling King Osander could not do it. Power is a cruel game my friend.

See, deaths of the Queen and the prince were good excuses for radical shifts in the power balance of the kingdom, because all these years that you call as grim years of tyranny and fear, were only running in for the terror machinery that will lift me to greater power. The Cult of the Bitter Lord has proven itself as crucial aid for my endeavor and without the Queens death and the national mourning that followed it, I couldn't been able to introduce it for the masses, not to mention spreading it.

But what comes to you Melkor, after receiving the boy, a sinister plan began to grow it's roots in your mind. I am even little envious how cunning your plan was. You raised the boy to obedient young man, and you never told him about his true origins. But when the boy turned eighteen, you betrayed him for the Order of the Black Cliff, who had been searching for him all these years. Then you rescued him from the dungeons and told all these tales and lies how he would be the legitimate king of Darnon and how the young prince would act as the sword of righteousness and release the kingdom from tyranny. And the boy believed and your route for power opened. People of Darnon dismissed the tyrant and welcomed Arius with great cheer as their new rightful King. Your success has been great and you almost managed to mess my own personal schemes. But Melkor, your destination is still ahead of you, but now you have managed to create your own machinery for power, which shield might be more polished than mine, but the insides are as covered in smut as mine. And now that  long forgotten artifact is at your grasp, The Eye of Karsus. You have been pursuing it all this time, heedless of anything else... As I said, power is a cruel game.


But now I must continue my own agendas. Extracting the souls from a whole city and from the army besieging it, in order to raise myself to godhood, is not a task done with ease. I am flattered that you've come to share my day of ultimate triumph. Thank you.

And with these words the wizard vanished and the great metal blades that formed the cylinder descended back to earth. Melkor grinded his teeth in anger, as the others looked at the wizard in disbelief, how could he betray them in this horrible manner. Arius especially was completely blown out. His blank expression was wiped when the earth below them began to tremble. As they backed up, the ground fell into abyssal pit more than hundred foot wide. And from the red depths of the pit rose a terrible many clawed and eyed abomination later identified as Elder Odopi.

And thus began the final battle for Darnon.

Manifestation of Tybor

Arius, Jared and Douglas struck against the bizarre aberration of hell, while Melkor concentrated his energy in awakening Tybor from his Cube. The Odopi trampled over many and struck forcefully with it's crooked claws. It grappled Arius and swallowed him. There Arius remained for almost the rest of the battle, fighting the nightmarish innards for his freedom. The creature struck Jared down, mangling the priest badly, but just then Melkor managed to release Tybor. With great white light, the ancient wizard manifested over his Cube, glazing furiously to the top of the peak where Alzarseth did his spells. Then Tybor released a burst of force that knocked the Red Wizard down, ending his dire spells. By that instant the red glaring orb on the sky of Berdusk began to fall. And just before reaching the rooftops it exploded with great white light. Force of the explosion tore down towers and walls, knocked the besieging army down and when it reached our battling army, reeled many. Soon the battle ensued, and the manifestation of Tybor withered slowly away. For a moment the Red Wizard was gone, but then he returned with terrible wrath.

Arius managed to force himself out of the Elder Odopi, just in time to help Douglas who had been left completely alone as Jared had succumbed to terrible agony. The young prince saw Alzarseth standing on a hill, but the wizards appearance had changed from the previous. The Archwizard was a twisted visage of it's former self, and it was quite apparent that the Red Wizard was a lich, terrible undead spellcaster of tremendous power.

Alzarseth the Red

The maddened Red Wizard began his battle by casting the feared Meteor Swarm upon our heroes. While dodging the terrible blaze, Arius was puzzled by Melkors apparent absence. The Black Wizard had put his eye on the Eye of Karsus, a powerful artifact that he had desired for so long. Now it laid unused on the ground as Alzarseth had thrown it away in his whims as he failed to re-activate it, thanks to Tybors strong dispelling charge. And so, Melkor abandoned his friends and pursued his own goals instead, a move that sealed our fellowships destiny.
As the traitorous loremaster disappeared into a dimensional door, Jared, who had already been struggling, was slain by Alzarseths meteors. None could have seen what happened next. The death of the faithful priest evoked a terrible spirit that had been lurking inside the priest since his first demise in Battle of Durunmer. Now the cleric corpse transformed into a shape of terrible demon that growled:

In some sources Arius is portrayed with a horned helm,
but like true heroes, he fought bareheaded. 

 "I am the Harbinger of Gor-Marrak the Eater of Nations! Alzarseth, your time has come!
And in instant the demon began to slay the men around it, progressing towards the Red Wizard who flew his spells on it. One of the spells was Horrid Wilting that killed brave Constantin Almert. Arius also rushed towards the wizard, as he wanted to deal with him personally. Some said later that his plunge towards the hill was archetype portray of recklessness, as he rushed through prismatic spray-spell to face archmage lich  and a terrible demon of horrific hellish power. But the daredevil hero did it, and for a moment he battled alongside with the demon. Alzarseth could not withstand such an attack for long, and our young king struck his glorious sword through the lich, slaying the Evil that had tormented Darnon for decades! Off-balanced by the shock that followed the Red Wizards destruction, the demon took the advantage, and even though Douglas did his best to support Arius in battle against the creature that once had been their friend, the demon struck Arius down with it's mighty heaves.

Arius fell, and while laying there in the middle of the battlefield, he felt his end coming. He saw how Douglas screamed as he tried to save his friend, but Arius couldn't hear him no more. Memories of wondrous adventures full of joy and friendship, rushed to his mind, but then the shadows began to roll over him. Everything grew darker and darker, and as Arius felt he was succumbing to the eternal darkness he knew that this is it, his end....

And amongst the shadows,
there,
there was MELKOR!

Chapter Thirteen - Why To Be Just The Hero Of The Century When One Could Be the Legend Of The Millenium!

Session was held 15th of July at the Altar of Games

Life without the Wizard


Arius fitted a traditional Berduskian noble outfit,
only to find it too tight around his belly.

It had been over two weeks when Melkor left the others for his quest of personal power and wisdom. The others had struggled across Darnon while dragging the bony corpse of Jared with them, and reached Berdusk. There a High Priestress of Lathander the Morninglord had resurrected Jared in exchange of bringing back the Font of the Rising Sun aka the bowl. But before their first quest without the brain, Arius had to perform the second ritual of his legacy sword. Whilst Arius was rubbing coal and mercury to his fine blade, the others auditioned and hired a free-writer to keep track on their adventures and later on, to write up a complete biography in order to make some serious amounts of gold.


This responsible yet profitable task was assigned to certain Kaius Sapphirequill (yours truly) and he began his tremendous work by listening the complete story so far, told by the rest while Arius was wanking some enchantment on his sword.

As Arius completed his ritual, everyone were ready to began their journey to the Purgatory, burned down village some miles west from Iriaebor. There were rumored to be a man called Syrralt, ex-priest and traitor of Lathander who had stolen the Bowl for his own dark deeds. The heroes were to capture and bring justice on him, and to return the bowl to it's righfull owners. As Melkor was still missing, it was decided that Cidela Pepperpath would act as substitute for now on.

Journey to the Purgatory began with unconvential measures. Our braves loaded their mounts to a barge that was destined to sail up the river Reaming all away to the Sunset Mountains. Master of deception, Douglas, disguised our riverfaring posse and their mounts, and none of the authorities questioned these "miners" and their "beasts of burden". Journey via the river went well and our strike force stranded few miles before the Purgatory to close with it by feet/hooves. On 23rd of August 1372Dr  they began approaching the Purgatory, known as the village of Orp Sarkan before it's fiery demise in 1368dr when the Skull Riders rode in, slayed and burned the whole village.

The Purgatory, one can't wait to have a vacation there!

Everything in Purgatory was in ruins. Only stone foundations and charred structures remained. In the middle of the village was the market square, place where a great massacre occured four years ago. Dozens of stakes stood there, with charred, impaled corpses of the villagers still hanging in them. Our heroes were disgusted and upset from this heinous massmurder of innocent people. No signs of Syrralt were seen, until they discovered a tent hidden inside a ruined house. Their investigations at the tent came to sudden stop as unidentified riders approached the market square. Our defenders of justice hide themselves and eavesdropped the riders, who were mercenary vanguards lead by a Skull Rider. Fifteen men began patrolling the ruins, some of them Kothians, some Skogarrim, and five of them Blackhelms, Darnonese soldiers.

Our magnificient hiders continued to hide, and investigate the tent, and they discovered strange writings and trigonometric diagrams that depicted a certain location in the ruined village. Carefully inching to avoid the soldiers attention, they moved to the location and found a basement. Inside it they discovered a ropeladders that descended into a narrow chute. By using these ropeladders, they soon found themselves from a underground passage. Eventually the passage came into a halt and opened into dark underground cave. They saw glimpse of torchlight from the otherside of the cave, and witnessed how Syrralt tried to join into Undersea-God-Cult of fishmen, Kuo-Toa. The situation provoked combat, and a scaling began. Our seekers-of-lost-relics had quite a nuisance from Kuo-Toa harpoon-men who hurled their weapons with deadly accuaracy. Nevertheless, the bug-eyed seamen were bout to suffer a defeat, when the unexpected happened.

Curiously, the Kraken stripped Arius and clad him a loincloth!

From the middle of the cave, where a 50ft wide pool of underground water lied, rose a tremendous monster, a kraken, a creature of immense size and diabolical intelligence. The kuo-toa began shrieking "It's Moolowik the Hoarder" and the balance of the battle quickly changed, as the gargantuan entity began amassing both Kuo-Toa and our braves with it's 60ft long tentacles. Quick in wit, our bold warriors began an expeditious retreat, as Douglas managed to nick the bowl. The Kraken, Moolowik, caught Arius as he was running into the passage, but instead of eating him straight-away, the masterbrain proposed a deal to our dim-witted prince-to-be. Arius agreed with the giant-squid, and he was released to live another day. He only had to promise to bring a steady supply of human sacrifices to the abomination, and the creature would crush the riverharbor of Iriaebor when the heroes would try to seize the capital. Forthright suggestion don't you think.

Like the rat leave a sinking ship, our heroes escaped the Purgatory and began their trip back to Berdusk. And soon the Font of Rising Sun was back in the goldring-rich hands of the worshippers of Lathander. And then, yet another adventure unfolded for our heroes.

Change in Order

While our proud adventurers were in Berdusk, Cidela Pepperpath's father, General Almatheus Ochrefield suggested that they should open up the border a little bit. What he meant was that the heroes would infiltrate the borderstation Morihig, which was located at the great gate that dominated the landscape. This gate was the only way through the massive bulwark, and the camp Morihig was the main base for the soldiers stationed in the guardtowers of the bulwark. Inside the camp, they would track and assassinate General Traaghar, a evil man in responsible of many unnecessary deaths of civilians trying to leave cursed Darnon. His demise should open his post to Colonel Erebald who Ochrefield knows to have sympathies for the rebels, and much lesser thirst for blood, unlike the current commander general Traaghar.

To execute the change in order, the schemers left Berdusk and disguised themselves through the gate. While

Dash-line is the way in, dot-line is the way out.

they walked through the camp they observed everything that could aid them on their mission. After the camp they stayed in a shack village known as Hope's End. It had spontaneously sprung up after the construction of the Great Bulwark as many homeless refugees were denied to leave Darnon, so they stayd and camped near the gate. From the misery of Hope's End our soon-to-be-assassins survailed the camp, learned the basic schedule of the camp, including the changes of the watch, and took careful note on the personal customs of General Traaghar.
 

Finally as all the in's and out's, cons and pro's were mapped, our vigilantes begun to move. They assaulted four soldiers patrolling at the Hope's End and escorted a coal cart to the camp. Cidela was to drive the cart, and as they would close the inner gates, a cart wheel would broke to cause distraction. Douglas managed to jury-rig the wheel perfectly and the distraction went as planned. Cidela coloured it futher with her womanly virtues.



Cidela used pair just like these.

Our braves crossed the campbridge to the southern portions and stayed hidden inside a tent, until the time was right. Approx. 2.am Douglas began to sneak towards the HQ. He climbed to the Generals window with the aid of Jareds air walk spell. Luckily the general was asleep, although just faintly, and Douglas performed the notorious Coup-de-Grace, and the assassination was done. They escaped the camp by going out to meet some local girls, and the gateguards didn't notice their hoax. As they left the camp, they forced the whole shacktown of Hope's End to escape with 'em, as they knew that when the murder would be discovered, a great deal of violence would rain down on the civilians.

After the incident at the Morihig borderstation, our heroes once again crossed the Crossing of Hastur, from where they met commoners who were willing to join the rebellion. This oppinion was shared by many that they came across and one led to another and our alpha-rebels found themselves from village of refugees known as Treeward, located in the northern parts of Reaching Woods. There they stayed for three months, instructing able men and women in the secrets of martial warfare. Many were ready to sacrifice themselves for the better tomorrow, and our humble revolutionares soon understood that Darnon was changing, and the moment of truth was closing rapidly. Familiar foresters, Constantin Almert and his sidekick Viril Massar, continued to hone the skills of their upcoming rebel army, as the heroes were needed elsewhere. A call of distress came from the Pass of the Setting Sun in the eastern borders of Darnon, at the Sunset Mountains. There the Order of The Black Cliff had outsourced the responsibility to direction thats atrocity triumphed even the infamous Captain Irongrave. Place where the evil lurked was called Mor Shathûr.

Man Called Tree

It was mid-november and our fellowship proceed towards the city of Hluthvar. Day before it, a curious incident occured. On a small hill lied a rustic cabin accompanied by a weathered tree with dark red leaves. This aroused our adventurers attention. They rode past four gravestones and at the cabin they found one yet to be buried. A skeleton of a man rested on a small bench nect to the cabin door, holding tight on a rusty sword. Before our dear anthropologists managed to search the cabin for loot, a deep whispering voice caught their attention. In the old tree was a man, chained to it. He was old, grey and his skin was rindy as the tree. Bark had covered over half of the chain around the tree, and was slowly engulfing the man itself. Man was bent to the shape of the tree trunk, and his bones were clearly dislocated. The man told our heroes how he had been chained to the tree over a lifetime, as his captor rested under the first and most worn-out gravestone, near the cabin. Man who's skeleton rested near the cabin was his last guard, and the grandgrandson of his captor, Alestur Grimmoir.

Man Called Tree, as he called himself, had murdered and raped Alesturs young wife somewhere around the late 1240's. Rightfully enraged, Alestur had fastened him around this tree outside their homevillage of Hluthvar which now was a city. There he sworn to see the Man to wither and languish until the end of his miserable life, as death would be to pleasant for a murderer like him. Fed only to keep him barely alive, the Man outlived Alestur, who's son Sarmald continued his fathers duty. Eventually Sarmalds son, Farmald put his father to rest and continued his grandfathers calling. But the chained man lived on, and the decades turned into a century. Eventually, Alesturs grandgrandson Haravald, last of his dried out lineage, died somewhere around 1350's and the Man Called Tree was left unguarded. He believed this to be a boon, as none would feed him anymore. But he didn't die.

Man Called Tree suspected that the tree had something to do with it, as he recalled the leaves to be bright green when he was tied around it. Now the leaves were blood red, and Man Called Tree was sure that the wretched plant had grown roots inside him. He asked the heroes for amnesty, and hoped them to strike the rusty blade of Alestur through his heart into the rotten core of the cursed tree. Although he showed no signs of regret, the heroes agreed to do so. Man Called Tree's last wish was that the adventurers would bury poor Haravald who had died in watch over two decades ago. And as the blade reached the trees core, Man Called Tree finally had his rest.

After burying Haravald, the tree dropped it's first red leaf, that slowly floated to Haravalds grave. Our scales of justice continued their journey and left the site that had confined four generations in a one act of revenge, and continued towards the pass of Setting Sun. They passed Hluthvar, a small city that was just a village when Man Called Tree had done his heinous act, and decided to liberate it as soon as Melkor would return as they had heard that great terror was practised in there.

And as their mounts hooves struck lightning, the darkness of the Pass of Setting Sun rose before them, and the darkness had a name,

MOR SHATHÛR

Chapter Eight - The Journey towards Berdusk continueth!

Session was held 7th of January 2011ad at the Altar of Games

Onwards to Berdusk!

After demolishing the cruel plans of the Bitter Lords Cult our brave fellowship had to escort the rescued captives to near village Borhus. While on the move, it soon became obvious that girl called Cidela Pepperpath would like travel to Berdusk with them, and they didn't mind. But they did mind a bit when Hashim, the redeemed Kothian Mercenary also expressed his will to join their ranks. And to top this all, the young squire Lot was serious about serving as a squire to our young prince. And so with the help from their newly joined mates, this merry band of partisans of ours dropped the rescued commoners to Borhus and continued towards northwest. The journey to Berdusk in their quest for the Cube of Tybor was 'bout to continue!

During their trek to the southern Reaching Woods they met Zolgar Tuohivirsta and his sons Garzol and Spigot. Old man Zolgar warned the heroic delegate from the great Border Bulwark and also from any attemps to circumvent it via the southern Woods. He warned that the southern Reaching Woods was haunted by the dead builders of the wretched bulwark, buried into the forestry soil. Our heroes weren't frightened at all but instead promised to clear the way for the people of Darnon. Tuohivirsta pronounced the hidden path to be a perfect smuggling route of food and weapons for the Darnonese, once purged from its haunting menace.

After departing Tuohivirsta's camp our fellowship proceed on their expedition, and manouvered directly to north after receiving a visual contact with the notorious bulwark. Even Melkor was astonished from the sheer size of it. As the dusk fell on Darnon they reached the Woods, but were forced to march on as they saw distant torchlights coming towards them along the bulwark. Escaping the possible guard patrol, they moved to the forest with haste. Quite hazardous thing to do in night, especially after receiving warnigs about the restless dead. But they weren't afraid, much. Soon they discovered something intresting. The bulwark ended to the tree line, but a high wall of straight-cut stone continued. As they wall rose to the tree-tops seemingly seamless, Melkor "spellcrafted" it to be a wall of stone, cast permanent by a powerful wizard. They continued to move alongside the wall until it ended to the edge of a dark gorge. Our heroes decided to ascend into the gorge, thereby passing the wall. They were quite sure that the ominous gorge was THE haunted pass and thus plunged in. The bottom was littered with bones and remains of the builders of the Bulwark, a mass grave showing the true state of the kingdom. And soon they found themselves in trouble. From the gorges wall a horrendous creature charged forth, a monstrous crossbreed of foul dirt and remnants of the deceased. Immune to Melkors powerful magicks the creature was almost equally invulnerable to steel, but with the help of the new cohorts they managed to smash the abomination back to plain dirt. From a shattered stone carving inside the monster's so called head, Melkor found the same symbol previously featured in the chapter seven.

They continued until the dawn and managed to break free from the Reaching Woods, finally gazing the free and lush plains of Berdusk. They decided to camp under a old oak for the rest of the new day. June 26th they continued towards Berdusk, resting the following night in Donilla Fellkrepplings farmstead inn. After a plentiful breakfast they ventrued to Berdusk in a full vigor. Douglas, an old berduskian provided them lodging from the Dancing Tulip tavern, and after dropping their gear there they launched towards the local temple of Oghma, a place of guaranteed knowledge. Douglas even discovered an old map of the city from his sleeve, making the orienteering even easier. Meanwhile Cidela Pepperpath promised to show Hashim the city, as she had been in the city before, and Lot decided to nurse the tired steeds in Hollybull's Stables and teach Hero some new tricks.

A priest called Eter Glomshaft guided gladly as our seekers of forgotten lore descended to the temples underground libraries. There, after ponderous hours of research they finally discover a manuscript, written by brother Androgas over two hundred years ago, called "Nature of Shadows" wherein a sidenote of an index revealed hidden secrets. To learn from the Cube of Tybor they should get their hands on the "Cultes Netherenes", a esoteric scripture that priest Glomshaft knew to be in the posession of Berduskian lord Lullicius Ebonmar. And to Ebonmar Manor they strode, and settled a audience with the Lord for tomorrow.

Errands for Lord Ebonmar

After late brunch our party conjured themselves to Ebonmar Manor. Lords butler, mister Partanc guided them upstairs to a fabulous lounge, where Lord Ebonmar lied on a divan sipping top grade wine. The obese hedonist questioned our party about their goals and was slightly enthusiastic 'bout their desire to view his precious Cultes Netherenes. He suggested a pact wherein the adventurers would bring him two rare manuscripts that he would designate in order to do some research on the esoteric tome. Our proud posse agreed and begun pursuing the first book immediately.

Lullicius Ebonmar desired a rare manuscript known as Crepusculum Archaicus, altought he clarified that the one here in Berdusk was much younger edition of that pre-historic scripture. The edition in Berdusk was more commonly known as the Ferrum-version and in the possession of noble known as Argold Nathmagan. Like roaring thunder thet rolled to Nathmagan Estate, only to find something crooked going on. There a band of bruisers were collecting a debt from the old man Nathmagan, but by doing so they crossed our commendable bunch of vigilantes. But something went horribly wrong as the whole estate turned into a blazing pyre! After rescuing the servants and the old couple Nathmagan our brave fire brigade found out there weren't much to do in order to obtain the book from the inferno. Gutted and crushed, they returned to Dancing Tulip to sank their sorrow when Melkor had a sudden strike of ingenuity. They rushed back to the burned down estate and began searching, moonless night hiding them from the curious. After three hours of rapid clearing they found it, a book made from iron pages! The Ferrum version! They carried the metallic monolith to lord Ebonmar who only scarcely obfuscated his excitement.

Lord Ebonmar, as enthusiastic as he were, soon gathered his thoughts and revealed the identity of the second book in demand. What he wanted was a book only known as M.D.S, a rare peculiarity only known by few. The lecherous hedonist once again knew the exact location of the item in question, he explained how he had desired it for years but the current owner just declined to sell it every single time he tried to arrange a bargain. But now Ebonmar decided to take the book even by force, sending our brave party to the residence of sorceress known as Sulphuress, the owner M.D.S. Sulphuress'es residence was a tiny hut surrounded by high walls. Our fellowship of bookfinders invaded the surrounding streets by night, darkness concealing their methods of crossing the wall. But they couldn't even imagine that once inside the high wall, the rustic old hut was no more. Now they saw through the illusion concealing the true nature of the sorceresses habitat, and befuddled as they were they tried to guess the height of the tower rising in front of them. But then a pack of lions, guards summoned by the Sulphuress attacked them, resulting in fierce combat, in which the brave posse proved to be triumphant. Horridly wounded by the feline beasts, they retreated back to the Dancing Tulip only to try again in the following night.

Refreshed and ready for futher action, they returned to Sulphuress's Tower next evening. It became apparent that the tower had no conventional means of entrance. The only way to enter seemed to be a balcony 40ft high from the ground. Douglas the thief proved his skills with the grappling hook, on soon they soared via a knotted rope all the way to the balcony. There they found a door to round chamber, devoid of any life but still showing signs of everyday living. A spiral staircase took them a floor higher to a burned down room that once were a sorceress's workchamber. In the middle of the chamber was a stone statue facing a charred incantation markings and symbols in the floor. Alongside the walls were carbonized remains of bookshelves, barely holding the ashes of the disintegrated books. After closer examination the statue appeared to be the sorceress herself, petrified during conjuration gone awry. Then Melkor set his eyes on the only surviving book, it's binding made from the softest & peachiest leather imaginable, and in it's cover the letters M.D.S. They opened the tome carefully, because it quite certainly posessed some magical properties as it survived the Sulphuress cataclysm of "mis-spelling". On the first full page of the scripture was a peculiar image, magical symbol of some sort. Before futher conclusions were made the symbol began spewing forth strange mist that suddenly erupted into a dragonic creature attacking the fellowship rabidly! The monster was Scalamagdrion (from FR Magic of Faerun), strange multidimensional dragon bound to certain book. Battle was nothing less than epic, as the spell turning abilities of the pandimensional beast made it invunerable to Melkors potent magicks. But needless to say, our brilliant adventurers left the tower as victors.

Later, as Lullicius Ebonmar greedfully grasped the book written by Marquis De Sade, who in this ghastly tome narrated some of the most heinous acts of violent lechery done to another humanoid beings, he promised Melkor the access to Cultes Netherenes on the following day. Bruised but relieved, the party returned to Dancing Tulip to count their loot, which was plentiful this time, and once there each one of them ordered a full pint of fresh ale. And after the first, they ordered a second as the next morning was forming to be a "hero-morning", but Melkor was restless, he couldn't wait to get his hands on that tome that had better to pay off all this trouble!