Ice Caves of Sorrow

I have returned the Shiverpeaks.   It is time to save Evennia.  I meet with the Dwarves of Droknars and they fashion me armour of the highest quality, though a bit drab, and they send me to my rendezvous point.  The Dwarves and the Shining Blade have come together against this common foe, the White Mantle, joined by the Stone Summit who are all now led by the fearsome Mursaat.  I've yet to see one, but I hear they are quite ungodly.  Crosses between magi, birds, and undead, the very images to freeze your soul.  We leave the safe point in to the dunes of snow, my breath freezes in my lungs.   We must find the Seer, but first, Evennia needs my help.

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.

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.

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.