Hell's Precipice

 

 The gates of Komalie are open.  Speaking to a gentle lost soul in our safehold, I learn that the gates are closed by "Soul batteries".  The chosen are sent as sacrifice to keep the gates closed.  This is what we were sent for, to reclose them with our lives, but I have a suspicion that should we time it right, the Vizier, i'm sorry... the Lich, would be enough to close the doors for good and end this prophecy. If I am to die, I will not die withou taking a few of grenths bastards with me.

Abaddons Mouth

We come out of our stronghold, we must destroy the Gate of Komalie now.  The Vizier appears to us before the large shining fortress and gives us a new wind as we charge at the doors.  Taking out their archers in the towers first, we burst through the first magical seal and annihilate the awaiting Mursaat. They stare at us blankly, I would assume surprise but i'm sure the mursaat are devoid of all human emotion. In our haste, and for Brechnar, we keep our speed and tear through the marble keep slashing all in our way.

The Dragons Lair

It is my last test.  The dragon Glint awaits us, and will battle us with cyphers of every sect.   We have five levels to defeat, and a dragon to tame.

Our first facet is that of light.  There are healing sages, and fearsome blades throughout the small level, but it remained quite straightforward.  What was frightening was just being here seemed to drain the life from me.  The facet of light is a draconic being, viceral and transparent.  We go through the magical portal to the next level.

 This area causes us to be slow.  Our senses numbed and our legs sink in the ground like in the sands of the desert.  Theres a green glow coursing off the walls of the chamber, and it becomes more mazelike as I go.  There are a large number of archer foes here, we are against the facet of nature.  We lay down the being and move on.

Level three.  There seems to be no inherent effect to this chamber,  but the air glows purple and there are mesmers everywhere.  Large crystal spiders attempt to hex us, and there are invisible walls. This is definitely the facet of chaos.  He is of no match to us.

On the next level, I feel drained of energy.   The air smells of decay, and there are cursers and scarabs all over.   On the ground, I pass corpse after corpse of Ascalonian soldiers, their armour telling me that they are my kin.  The facet of Darkness lay before me, and then lay dead before me.

Teleported to the next chamber, we are met with great crystal guardians.  Elementalists.   There seems to be no inherent effect, but I spy wards in which fire falls from the sky.   We crumble the crystal guardians and soon are at the Facet of the Elements.  His spells backfire, and we are on to the last level before meeting Glint herself.

Facet of strength.  Ruriks facet.  The last facet. The ground rumbles and knocks us off our feet in seemingly timed intervals.  There are foes of all kinds on this level. They will not stand between me and my destiny.

We finally meet Glint.  This dragon is the largest creature I have ever laid eyes on. She tells us that she has been waiting 800 years for us, the chosen ones, to fulfil the flameseeker prophecies.  We unlocked our inner abilities for true sight, and we must know what happens in the world now.  The White Mantle have unleashed the Mursaat.  Creatures of such strength and power you would think they were borne by Grenth himself.  They hunt the Shining Blade, led by the traitor Markis. Most of the Blade have been captured, and the Mursaats only mission is to destroy the chosen.  That means us.  We must save whom we can, and head to the fire islands to take on the Lich.  Head on.  We will brave to him, but first, we must save Evennia.

Sanctum Cay

We arrived in the small beach port with no real difficulties.  The White Mantle never managed to catch up, but now with the scepter we must find the Vizier on the island.  Our boat sets sail on the calm blue sea, and within no time we reach our destination.  Evennia lets us off and hands me the Scepter.  She says she would trust no one elses skill with it over mine.  The compliment is humbling. If only she knew how I failed my prince.

Aurora Glade

The jungle is at war with itself.   I cannot think of how else to explain it. It is beast against beast, human against human, druid against demagogue.  Yes, the Druids join our cause.  This is a blessing within a curse, for something dark must be at work for the druids to feel the need to join any cause.

The Wilds

It has gone bad.  Deep in the jungle, where the air is heavy and humid, the jungle rebels of the Shining Blade have killed the brother of Justiciar Thommis, and they have kidnapped all the of the chosen and lead them to their deaths.   Justiciar Thommis is in the throws of grief at his lost brother and swears the death of all Shining Blade.  He commands me though, and my team, to chase them in to the jungle.  Chase them in to the Wilds they know much better than myself.  Though my skill is forever rising and I have yet to fail a mission, I can't help but think this isn't something to give to the new allies. A piece of me tells me this is a trap.  A piece feels honour bound to do what they ask.  I wish Rurik could command me, level my thoughts and fears and rationalize me.   He is not.  I must forget him. He will never be seen again.  In to the wilds I go. 

 Deep in to the forest we forge, and it is not far before we are seen by the Shining Blade.  They have the advantage of knowing the terrain.  We are trapped by entangling branches, and swarmed by scarabs, beasts that suck the life from you at every touch.

While we blindly stumble through the thick brush we stumble upon a centaur meeting.  They speak of some big name commanders meeting in the area, a party I think I will crash before we save the chosen.  The Blade have already seen us, the element of surprise is long lost.  After I get as much information from them as I deem necessary we slit their throats and I take my spoil.  A seed that seems to grow, and return to seed form.  Magical, it could be very useful to me in the correct places.  We run across massive fallen trees that serve as bridges, and trip through the moving roots in the jungle floor and from around a mountain side I spy the Shining Blade at a cliff.  He is surely lost himself, maybe we aren't as hopeless as I had though, but then I see him take a seed not unlike mine and drop it within a shining orb in the brush and from it emerges a mass of vines creating a bridge and off he goes. 

We dismember centaur after centaur until we turn off towards the meeting.  This could work in our advantage, for if the Shining Blade does not think we are following after all, they may slow.  We come to the meeting area.  Empowered statues of what looks like shining blue energies litter the area, and so do more centaurs.   In the back, we find two powerful elementalist centaurs, they must be those spoken of.  They definitely have the advantage of power, but we have the numbers, and the brain. 

Our jobs done, we continue on our path to the Shining Blade.  They have left us a trail with their vine bridge.  We come across fields of Trolls, their skins green from the jungle diets, and great spindly wind riders trying to invade our minds.  We finally catch sight of the Blade again, they run in to the river.    The moment my feet wade into the cool jungle waters I feel renewed.  The waters must be enchanted with mending powers.  We run anewed, darkness around us from the thick canopy above until we are surrounded with spiders.  One by one they come from the canopy tops and attack, and I get a bad feeling.  This is how they intend to dispose of the Chosen.  They will feed them to the spiders.

Sure enough, we are in a nest.  The chosen are all spun up and ready to be fed, and the Blade are keeping watch.  The spider slowly lowers itself and runs to its first victim, but the Shining Blade soldier attacks the spider instead.  Their leader, a woman in white, yells across at us to stop following them for now, if we had a heart we would help them save the Chosen... Save the chosen? We cut through the spiders, the Chosen are freed, but we are now surrounded the Blade.  The leader, the woman in white, is named Evennia, and she questions us.  Not harshly, but directly.  She says they were saving the chosen from the Mantle. The spiders, ofcourse, were a mistake.  The mantle kill the chosen every year, an offering to the Bloodstone.  What the Bloodstone is, I have no idea, but Evennia says we are free.  We are free to find our own answers, to head to the bloodstone, and then we will know what fools the Mantle have played us for.  Fools indeed my heart tells me.

Lion's Arch

Lion's Arch is unlike any city I had ever been to.  A mecca of historians, researchers, and travellers.  Merchants and armorers litter the cobblestones, forges prepared and adding to the humidity of the small ocean port.  The people are different.  Soldiers and townspeople alike relatively uncaring as to why we are here or where we came from.  Some people scoff at me when I ask directions or history of the town. "An Ascalonian asking a Krytan for help? Thats a first" among the most common reply.  Some are friendly enough, but for the most part, no one seems to care.  

I long to explore the beaches and enjoy the sun, but outside the gates the land is hostile.  Creatures I only heard of in tales over the spit exist here, and many dangers are around every corner.  Leaving the citadel is to the risk of the person, and no one will help you when outside but those you leave with. 

The Ascalonians have set up camp under Captain Greywind, who awaited for us in the courtyard.  The camp is to the north, right by the ocean, and has been cleared and protected by those who went ahead of the Prince.  No one has news of Ascalon, or of Adelbern, but I am sure word of Ruriks death must have reached him by now.  He will blame himself for banishing his own son, but he will blame the Krytans unfoundedly for not stopping the events that lead to his death, even though the Krytans were nowhere near the Shiverpeaks.  While exploring, I found something that made me smile. A statue of dwayna, as perfect and complete as the ones I prayed to in Ascalon.  I felt a little at home at last.

Gates of Kryta

As soon as I left the barracks through one of the Lions Gates I saw it.  Hoards of undead, skeletons and ghouls by the bucket full.  The lush green near jungle like visual that I had so waited to see after all the barren sand of my home spoiled by these specters.  Farmers run from all directions to the gates for safety, and a small pig oinking gently between some thatched stalls.  I soothe the pig, as the humans are long gone by now, and he decides to follow.   If anything, atleast I will have bacon in the morning.

 I follow the undead in to a soggy marsh.   Bakkir the forsaken, a great skeleton of a Necromaster appears in front of us and I am sure leading in to the marsh was a trap, but then I see it.  The pig is fighting with us, and doing quite the job as well as any soldier I had seen.  Perhaps I won't eat him when this is over.

We leave the marsh and come across a small town where the White Mantle are already in heated battle to protect the gate.  With our added help we pick up the bones of the fallen as our reward and they let us in.  I go to speak with some of the new townsfolk.  There is a small boy Cheswick and he is crying. He lost his mother I am thinking, or his father, but upon asking it turns out he had lost his pet pig. "Oink" is the pigs name, and "Oink" was my soldier.  I return "Oink" to the boy and he is so overjoyed that his father, a local historian, tells me there is a sacred script upon a sunken ship not far from the town.  I must retrieve it, I know I must, and I will return it to him, for he will translate.  My Orrian is not up to date.

I tell Justiciar Toriimo to throw open the gates, and he says I am to find Justiciar Hablion on the beach.  A beach vacation, just what I always wanted. First, to the sunken ship. 

 I find a pass between the mossy mountains leading to what I guess used to be a deep river.  I wade throught it, spying sharks in deep drops of the river bottom. I find the shipwreck easily and the text just as easily.  I wonder why the historian could not just do this task himself.  As soon as I laid my fingers on the text we were immediately attacked by smoke phantoms, powerful smoke phantoms.  The likes of which I had never been matched with before. Though not bosses in their own right they certainly stung like it, sending streaks of electricity that shocked us to our cores.  We manage, barely, to send them back to the Underworld and the text is returned to the historian.  Turns out, it is an autobiography of an unknown orrian sailor.  Lesson? Never trust a historian.

 Finally we head to the beach and to Hablion.  We aid small pockets of White Mantle soldiers on our way.  He runs towards us, he has heard we were coming.

 He tells me that now is a terrible time for us to be coming to Kryta, there is civil unrest, and hoards of undead springing out of the ground.  He will allow us our entry, and hold to the deal, if I were to help him in his trouble.

 So the Ascalonians will be free to set up a new life, but I will still be under service.  Small price to pay, in my opinion.   What else would I do? After these adventures I could not be happy sewing seeds and darning socks.  We help him clear the swamp, which had been overrun.  He is greatful.  My skill is undenialable, and my bravery unquestionable.  We are to go to Lion's Arch.  My promise to my poor prince is fulfilled.

The Frost Gate

The magical becaon burns bright here at the gate.  I had a troubled sleep.  We are almost at Kryta, atleast we are closer to Kryta than to the breach.  Come so far, but all we learn of is more and more turmoil in the continent.  If indeed it is the flameseeker, than that means now is the time for our heroes aswell.   Some of these heroes among us may save the world, or we may all perish in titan fire.  The Frost gate is closed.  Its not as simple as lighting some beacons this time, the Summit dwarves have broken the levers and outnumber us in mass.

 We are followed up the mountain by minotaurs.  Rurik and I split up, he is to take the lower path while I take the upper path.  He cannot continue until we slay the ballistae engineers.  It is a slow process, and we can only inch further, our progress depending on that of the princes and he on ours. Garris Nightwatch, a foe ranger dwarf of the summit mocks us while he hides pretty behind a gate, but the look on his face was not so pretty when we killed his engineer, throwing the gate open unwillingly.

 Running through a cave we find Rornak Stonesledge, captured again. He stinks of ale He is no good at this spy job.  He got the information he was looking for though.  The stone summit are attempting to further their Ballistae of mass destruction, but they are not done and the blueprints are easily stolen.  We lead Rornak to a decripit shooter that he will fix, and he will blast the gates to where the plans are hidden.  We sit thier bosses throats and forge on until the last ballistae gate is open.

We finally meet with Rurik.  He tells me that I must fix the lever to the gate mechanisms.  He and his small troop will hold off the wave of dwarves that will spill out when seeing the Frost gate move, and I will lead all the refugees towards the gates of Kryta.  First we must attend to the ballistae. We melt and crush ice beast after ice beast and redden the snow with the blood of dwarves and retrieve Rornak what he was looking for. The Deldrimor Dwarves are finally getting ahead in this rebellion.

I find the gear level directly next to the mechanism. No doubt the planning of a drunken Summit.  Now is the time to open the gate.  Soon we will be overcome, and Rurik will be in danger.  It is time to open the gate. I see three mechanisms I must start in order to open the gate to Kryta.  I begin the first while Rurik readies himself for battle.  I start the second mechanism and Rurik shouts over to me.  I am promoted again.  Probably not the best time, but I see that he's been spotted and the Summit are flying at him en mass.  I run the lever to the third mechanism.  Rurik is fighting for his life.  

 The gate is open, we start leading our refugees through when I hear a great screech.  I run towards where Rurik fights and see Dagnar, Summit boss, atop a great drake.  He yells to Rurik that the mountains belong to him, and his punishment for trespassing is death.  A great avalanche erupts and I run for my prince.  When the snow clears I see he is stuck under debree.  He cannot get out, and I cannot help him.  I am dumbstruck.  He screams at me to take our people to Kryta.  I must obey.  He will not have died in vain.   I get back throug the Frost gate to see him beheaded by the dwarf.  A great man is lost.  We are lost without him.

Borlis Pass

It is indeed dark times. Rurik has not been seen for days, and some fear the worst. It snows nonstop.  Jalis has taken a shine to me, and I am sent to negotiate the safe passage to Groobles Gulch for our people.  The way is covered with centaurs, and the dwarves are in a panic.  They want me to light their magical storm beacons in order to show pacifism towards us.  Ascalon Guard Hayden has the torch.  He fled in the initial charr takeover, and I should be cross with him for abandoning hope but I cannot help but feel sorry for him, leaving one storm only to come upon another. 

There are six beacons in all, and I must light them all.  Maladar is on the other side of the gate, and the Ascalon gate guard Tolis, whom I remember guarding the wall before the searing, waits to open the gate for us.  I give him the magical torch, and we forge on.  Rurik appeared to the guards not three days ago. We are close.  The Stone Summit have an advantage, beasts so large they shake the ground, and knock us off our feet.  There are more gates, and we must end the siege of Krok's Hollow.  Luckily it seems these rival dwarves are not very smart, and they leave pyramids of explosive powder kegs near every gate.  We slay their ballistae engineers, and leave bloody footprints in the snow. Behind one of these gates I find Rornak Stonesledge, ally and friend of the dwarven king.  He tells me the Stone Summit have a trick up their sleeves.  An ice drake, so large it rivals the dragons of old.  I have trouble believing this, and his breath stinks of ale, but I have no choice but to investigate.

Within a cave I see my first dryder.  I've heard of the from adventurers who made it this far, explorers spinning tales in pubs over free mugs of ale. Spindly creatures with 6 legs and fangs the size of my head. They string along our path the ice drake, and Rornak was not lying.   The accursed beast splays over the ice like a troop of yaks at rest.  What the Summit did not account for was a beast of such large breeding would be fat and lazy. Power as he may be, he is idle, and thusly put out of his misery.

More gates, more kills, we make our way to the final gate to the hold.   We pull the levers to open it and with a start we see something we did not expect.  Rurik stands behind the gate.  He has been trapped, much like Rornak, yet not captive.  Now freed and with a cleared path from us, he gives me his praise.  Praise from a prince! I am humbled. He sends me to King Jalis, who gives me the magical flame yet again and asks me to light the beacons at the Frost Gate.  This will ensure that his brother Brechnur allows us our safe passage.  An enemy of the Stone Summit is forever a friend of the deldrimor dwarves. 

Beacons lit, we and the prince march upon the small dwarven community.  They offer us kind housing and ale.   The prince can now congratulate me in true dwarven fashion, should our livers survive it.

The Road to Borlis

The more I travel, the more I realize that many people actually made it out of Ascalon.  Yak's Bend was full of travelers and craftsmen.  Even Captains of the kings army.  Captain Osiric holds a place by the fire where he teaches travellers new skills to protect themselves.  I was able to make a small fortune of some salvaged runes from my battle in Rin.   Rurik, former prince of Ascalon, has gone ahead to meet with our dwarven ally Jalis Ironhammer, King of the northern shiverpeaks.

If we thought our trip to Kryta would be uneventful after we escaped the infested Charrlands we were wrong.  Very wrong.  It seems unrest has spread through the Shiverpeaks, and possibly even to Kryta. The dwarves are amidst a civil revolution.  A group of dwarves, under the misguided malice of Maguuman Justiciars have decided to rebel against good King Jalis, and they plague his lands slaying innocents and former allies alike.  There are centaurs and rogues, heading in to the mountains where it was easier to pillage and thieve.  We must continue though.  As far as I know, Kryta is free still.  To the captial, Lions Arch, is where we aim to head.    Osiric warns us the way to Borlis is blocked by these rebel dwarves, the Stone Summit they call themselves, are murdering anyone who attempts to pass in to safety.  They are looking to succede Jalis and change the shiverpeak order.  They will fail, I know it. Unless they and their "power" Jusiticars can provide some foreign powers and enemies, they will never defeat Jalis.

I met Cynn along the way.  I remember her from my training before the searing.  Always sour-faced and jealous, her attitude much paralelled her specialty for fire magic, and burning passion.  She and Mhenlo, the monk from Cantha, are together I hear.  Oh to find love in such turmoil, they are truly blessed.  If only she didn't want to incinerate anyone he speaks to.

We arrive at Borlis Pass.  The dwarves here proved no match for my crew, and our new additions of Dunham, an enchanter, a very flamboyant and dramatic man, and Little Thom, a bearded barrel of a man.  He and Devona would make a perfect match I think.  I should introduce them should they survive long enough to be in the same place at the same time.

Nolani Academy

It does not start well.  A charr has penetrated the castle.  He must have stumbled upon a crack in the foundation, and we are forced to give chase and cut his throat before he can relay his secret to his warband.  We are also forced to continue down the path lest more charr stumble upon the same opportunity. We are fortunate to have Warmaster Casana join us on our mission, but well in to savage lands we find Watchman Pramas.  He has taken the Tome of the Fallen from the ceremonial burial ground.  This is not good.  The spirits need this tome to remain at rest, soon we may have more to fear than the charr as the undead will unleash their frustration upon we who took it.  He is too afraid to return it himself, the great coward.  I am forced to take it from him.  We do not need the added enemies.

I arrive at the cemetary to find the spirits of the fallen in great distress.  They are hostile, we will need to fight.  We are quickly outnumbered and must retreat.  Luckily, a passing unfortunate devourer take their attention and we manage to escape.  We regroup and lure them in smaller gangs, their ghostly remains our trophies.  Once the book is restored, a spirit thanks us.  He tells us that these ghosts are the men who died defending our great wall.  He says we should listen to the prophet.  The prophet?  He must not be speaking of the Flameseeker prophecies. Now is not the time to ponder this though, we must sneak up on the charr camp.

We pick off the ranger groups silently, but as soon as we defeat the leader the Prince prematurely throws up the gates of their fortress.  Charr swarm us from all directions, but the Prince is in a fury. He slays the charr, Sohothin causing the smell of burnt fur to waft through the air.  We run with Rurik to the wall.  He is enchanted by the spirit of Balthazaar, he fights like a God.  He demands the watchman throw open the gate to Rin.  The gate has been ordered shut upon pain of death, but the Prince promises death if it is not thrown open and in to Rin we go.  Stormcaller awaits.  We have the mouthpiece now, that he and Erol found back in Surmia.   He blows the horn.

An earth shaking scream erupts.  The charr fly in a panic, as a sudden downpour of rain extinguishes their flaming pyres.  A hope enters all of us.  I see our bretheren and captives turn on their jailers and destroy them, and some be destroyed in the process.   We find Burntfur.  Rin is ours again.

Trumpets in the distance alert us of the king's arrival.   Adelbern will be pleased for sure, and proud of his valiant son.  It does not end a happy day though.  Rurik pushes that we emigrate to Kryta.  The king will hear none of it.  They quickly become heated, and the Prince is banished forthwith.  He has lost his heirdom and favour.  He takes his fall from grace in stride though, and still plans to go to Kryta with anyone who will join him.  It is our salvation, he believes.  I believe it aswell.  We will go to Kryta and rebuild.  The King will stay in fallen Rin, with no heir or populace.  A fool, the king.  We must head over the Shiverpeaks.  There will be no charr there, we will be safe.