A New Dawn

cy 4862 - Octarius 1st - 3rd

Taryn Bzar increases the temperature inside the sphere. As his inner fire expands the walls begin to crack; the ranger knows that this course of action will have only one outcome. He – like his companions – are suspended in time, captured at the exact second that the Void and Creation were forced together. Cracking the walls of the sphere will fling them all back into their own time.

Viscount Taymar disappears, unmade by the initial Void explosion. Indermere staggers up to Meklor, Taryn and Batista, her face drained of all colour as she stares at the altered landscape around her. The mountains have gone. In a fifty mile radius around the epicentre there is flat highly polished rock with the consistency of marble. Everything within that radius is gone, unmade by the catastrophic union between the two most powerful forces in the universe.

Four riders approach. Prince Antigor of Allorin (a druid) and his friend Fuls Brett, an Allorin sorcerer, Jorgenson Coppereye, an Asharoki warrior, and Scabrus Ratting, a Draxxian sorcerer investigate the movement in the centre of the flat plain. The two groups come together and learn of the plight of Taryn and his friends. But Taryn knows – with the death of viscount Taymar – the reason for their quest is gone.

"We head east," he says, "at the coast we can catch a ship – I have had my fill of these mountains."

They camp in the centre of the flat plain. At night torches can be seen in the distance and each one of them is awake. A scout comes close and returns with ten horsemen. Taryn casts mount and Indermere jumps on the back as the ranger charges at the riders. Batista melts into the night. Meklor casts invisibility and Fuls Brett stays close to his prince as the riders close. Jorgenson moves fifty yards from the group and prepares a longbow.

The riders launch fire arrows at the group, aiming particularly at the three sorcerers. Scabrus is unlucky as he takes a shaft in the face – he dies instantly. Fuls Brett casts feather fall on an arrow and it floats harmlessly down to the floor. Taryn’s horse flanks the riders and he and Indermere launch arrows from the back of the fast moving mount. Their aim is good. Five enemies fall dead and the attackers realise that they face tough opponents.

Fuls Brett hears a scream from one of the attackers – a scream in his native Allorin tongue. He begins to suspect the attackers are kinsmen. He yells at his friends to keep one alive but Taryn and Indermere have already put down four others. Only one remains – the Asharoki Jorgenson slays the horse with a well aimed arrow and the party close on the fallen enemy.

The Allorin elf draws a long knife, a symbol of the nomadic hunters of the Nadir Plains. Before Prince Antigor can reach him the attacker slips the blade into his own throat and dies in seconds.

On one of the Allorin hunters Fuls Brett finds a parchment with the king’s seal upon it. He takes it to the prince and opens it. Prince Antigor is shocked when he reads; Kill them all and take the jewel.

"I do not possess any such jewel," Prince Antigor informs them. He is baffled as to why his father – King Alvarius of the Plains – would want him dead. Fuls Brett casts identify on the heirloom the king gave to his son: a magical katana called The Jewel.

The prince wrestles with the idea that his father wants him dead for the rest of the day. As the sun fades they reach the edge of the explosion and stare in awe as mountains have been sliced in two, gaping holes appear and debris falls constantly from the wounded mountains. Taryn Bzar finds a protected cave a hundred feet above the plain and the party bed down for the night.

Later in the darkness they spot a lone figure on horseback. The armour on the horse and rider along with the unmistakable longbow mark him as a Darklander in full battle armour. The rider seems to have picked up the trail of their horses and stares up at the fractured peaks. Batista slips away into the night shadows as the party gather their weapons and head for the rider.

Fuls Brett is at the head of the party and shouts, "What do you want Darklander?"

"I want the sword that was stolen," he replies, "stolen by a vagabond king and given to a vagabond son."

The Darklander opens his stance, the sign of a man preparing for combat, and the party tread carefully. Meklor casts mirror image on himself and prince Antigor casts warp wood on the armour. The Darklander is constricted by his own armour and shuffles uncomfortably on the spot. Indermere hefts her axe and she and the Asharoki Jorgenson close up on their foe.

The Darklander is a blur as he attacks the two companions with a speed neither has ever seen before. Jorgenson lifts a shield but the katana rips into his throat and kilss him instantly – Indermere is felled by an extension of the same attack, her jugular vein sliced in two by the lethal swordsman.

Meklor casts blindness on the Darklander attacks and Fuls Brett levitates up (taking the prince with him) and prepares his longbow. Taryn and the others start to shoot the blind Darklander and when Meklor casts reduction on the armour their enemy is immobile and vulnerable.

Eventually Taryn Bzar puts an arrow through the Darklander’s visor and into his brain. He looks down at the crumpled form of the beautiful Indermere and carefully lifts the deadly staff of Azael from the body. The others search the Darklander before turning their attention to their fallen companion.

"We’ll bury her here," Taryn says, "I will say a few words and hope that her soul finds it’s way to the goddess…"