The Dark Future

He sat, still. The dank smell of the vast swamp persisted in his mind, although he hadn’t breathed it in for days. Thoughts flashed through his mind: his old home, his family, idyllic peace. It was perfect. Remembering his home was his one final attempt at keeping sane.

Red hoods. Burning flesh. Ilivarri.

Visimar was patient, ignoring the memories. He waited for his trance to end, but something was different. He didn’t stir. He did not wake from his trance. Something dark had a grip on his fractured mind. Was it his attempt at reunion with his fallen ally?

No. It can’t be. He told himself. That shard is no longer within me. The visions ended. It failed.

He attempted again to end his trance, but to no avail. Whatever or whoever was influencing this was stronger than his feeble mind.

Llar’Quell constructed itself before him. He knew his village in an instant, and he knew something was terribly wrong. Crimson flames tore through the houses. A deep, red fog blanketed the sky, turning the moon scarlet and impure. Visimar’s home was under siege.

The night I was taken? He paused. Whose eyes am I seeing this through?

No response was given to his questions. All Visimar could do was watch, held hostage by this great force. The bombardment of Llar’Quell was a horrific sight, especially through the eyes of who appeared to be its perpetrator. Yet, no red hoods were to be seen.

Visimar continued to watch, attempting freedom from this vision yet again. The being walked up the stairs of the House of Cormrane, lifting an ornate halberd from the body of a guard, drained of its blood. Finally, he saw a glimpse of the body he possessed. Long black nails, an ice white hand. It was familiar, yet so unknown.

What are you doing here? The house of Von Tann is left, by the water mill, this is Illiva-

He was no longer able to think. The being he was observing had silenced him. Visimar was the sole captive audience to this grim sight. Forced to watch as the front door opened with no push. The once ornately decorated entrance room was torn apart. Paintings were ripped from their frames, and priceless artefacts were shattered beyond recognition. A hand raised, and a crackling blast shot from its old, pale fingers. The door to the basement broke, and was easily taken care of by the halberd.

Now weaponless, the being began its descent into the basement. Whispers swarmed its mind, Visimar’s too. Familiar voices brought fear and anger to both of them.

'Honourable men are forged in the fire of loss.'

As quickly as this whisper came, in an attempt to halt the attack. It was shook, replaced by awful screams. Visimar heard Vilwyn, Kharmir and Callidus begging for their lives. He heard Byron’s screams, the sound of alchemists fire raging.

The hands of the being lifted before it’s eyes. Before turning to a decorative rapier on the wall. In one swift action, a finger was severed. Dark necrotic energy shot from the wound, surrounding the hands in this darkness most foul.

Then it entered the room.

Families sat in fear, begging this sole attacker to grant them mercy.

No mercy was granted.

One by one, each man, woman and child fell, as this being swooped from wall to ceiling, biting necks and attacking with its necrotic claws. Within minutes only one remained. The mother of Ilivarri. The head of the House of Cormrane. Visimar watched as the being threw the drow around the room. Torturing him to near death. Her fingers were removed, her eyes gouged, before she was finally hung from the wooden beams of the basement by her feet. The being took one final meal. No blood remained in this body.

'We don’t have much time together remaining.' A familiar voice spoke from the being’s lips. 'Our future is but a linear path, a path of vengeance and power.'

Visimar was petrified, watching the being walk towards a grand mirror, spotted with blood.

'Oh Visimar... how long I’ve been waiting for our Queen to allow me to talk to you.'

The being looked in the mirror, and Visimar saw himself. He was bald, with crimson tears leaking from his dark eyes. He no longer hunted for food, it was now sport to him.

'Lancion gave us a gift, Visimar. He’s one with us now. Our Queen has granted us the power we deserve.'

He had Lancion's shard in his chest. It was implanted perfectly, with black veins crawling out of the hole.

'Our time is up for now, Visimar. But I will return, I will guide you to this grand future. Just you wait, you will see the world’s cleansing. The future is ours, Visimar. You will see what true power can give you.'

The reflection of the glass shard began to warp the mirror.

'Just you wait. Your vengeance is near.'

The mirror shattered, and so did the grasp on Visimar’s psyche. He awoke, sat in his room in the Taproot Inn. He took a long breath in and began to get ready to leave for the day.

Visimar would not let this dark future happen.

By Brandon Hattam

Campaign One: Chapter VIII - From the Fires of Loss...

The Battle Beneath the Emerald Brewery

Mercuras 15th Concord, 30 Fifth Age

It was a minute after midnight on the morning of Mercuras. Walter was dead, and the party stood at crossbow-point as Osborn Tealeaf loaded another bolt. Behind him stood a group of ten conspirators who had rushed to Tealeaf's side after the burning of Rosenstock's house. Vilwyn and Kharmir tried to convince Tealeaf that wanton destruction was not the way to bring justice to the town, and that killing Larassan wasn't worth bringing the wrath of the Pontiffs down upon innocents. Tealeaf refused, saying that his triumph was assured. Rosenstock's arrival in Correnwald was a miracle, and another miracle would secure their victory. Realising that Tealeaf could not be bargained with, the party drew their weapons, and Callidus sent a crossbow bolt of his own through Tealeaf's shin. 

The armed conspirators rushed into the basement, while the four bogroot farmers formed a wall of pitchforks in protection of their leader. Kharmir invoked the Great Crucible to bind Tealeaf in single combat and prevent him from leaving. Tealeaf whistled, and the rug beneath Vilwyn's feet awoke, wrapping itself around him and smothering him. While Callidus beheaded one conspirator, another was attacked and drained from above by Visimar. Tealeaf managed to break free of his magical bind and retreated behind his cronies - Kharmir pursued, leaping across the worktable with his greatsword drawn. From within the rug, Vilwyn rang his bell in an attempt to enchant those who hear it, but the muffled rug limited the extent of the charm. Infuriated, he tore free from the rug, which flew up to attack Visimar, who struggled to hold it at bay. Kharmir knocked Unlaf, Tealeaf's right hand, unconscious with the pommel of his greatsword and, with the compelled duel remaining, Tealeaf returned to the fray. While Visimar and Callidus held off the remaining conspirators, Vilwyn blasted Tealeaf into the shelves with a guiding bolt, and Kharmir approached the slumped halfling. Tealeaf spat at Kharmir's feet. 'You make me sick. How many will have to starve? How many must die while you stand in silence?' Kharmir angrily decried his heedless violence, declared him guilty of the murder of Father Anselm, and beheaded him in one clean swing.

An Altercation and an Accord

Seeing their leader dead, the survivors fled in horror, unequipped and unwilling to fight any longer. The party assessed the damage, noting with distaste the men that Callidus had slain, but Callidus insisted it was necessary. Visimar opened the locket around Tealeaf's neck and found a black iron coin within, stamped with the visage of a grinning horned face on one side, and a clawed hand on the other. He surreptitiously pocketed the coin, then took Tealeaf's moleskin gloves and gave them to Callidus, who relished the fine attire. Vilwyn roused the unconscious Unlaf and warned Visimar, who was approaching with a hungry look in his eyes, not to hurt him. Unlaf swore and struggled, cursing the party and their slaying of Tealeaf. Kharmir slapped him, but only received a spit in the eye. Vilwyn calmed the raging dwarf and asked Unlaf if there were any conspirators willing to enact Tealeaf's plan in his absence, to which the despairing Unlaf admitted the whole plan would collapse without him. They learned that Unlaf had a wife, and he was acting out of a desire to keep her from starving. Though some suggested that he be slain for his participation, Vilwyn and Kharmir - who already regretted Tealeaf's rash execution - decided to release him. Visimar pursued, and the others restrained him, shouting that the matter was done. However, while the rest were occupied with the dhampir, Callidus calmly climbed the ladder and threw a dagger into the fleeing man's back. 'Now it is done,' he said. 

Outraged, Kharmir instantly struck Callidus in the face. 'We showed him mercy!' he cried. 'He had his back turned, you bastard!; Callidus only smiled, nursing his bruised jaw. 'Mercy is naivete,' Callidus said. Kharmir drew his blade. Vilwyn rushed to intervene, interposing himself between the two men. A danger was in the air: the thrill of four exhausted men at a breaking point. Mistrust and division had them to the brink of a schism. If the party could not resolve their differences, they would separate, if it did not come to bloodshed first. 

To the surprise of the rest, it was Visimar who made the first move towards reconciliation. He bade the pair cease hostilities and remember that they were standing amidst something far greater than themselves. Upon this uncharacteristic display of sobriety, and Vilwyn's frantic attempts to prevent a schism, Kharmir lowered his blade, and offered terms of peace. He acknowledged that he was neither Baesellor Rhelareon nor Lancion Strong, and did not seek to replace him or wrest control of the party's leadership. Instead, he proposed that the four of them make an oath of companionship - henceforth, the group would show an even hand to each other, to handle future disputes without prejudice, and try, whenever the circumstances allowed, to prevent the needless spilling of blood. The group agreed, and shook hands upon their newly-made oath. Callidus did not immediately respond, but finally acquiesced. 

What followed can be considered a great test of their tentative agreement. Visimar turned to Vilwyn and Kharmir, and asked them calmly: 'Heal me.' He then drew from his pocket the shard of glass that had lain in the chest of Lancion Strong, and tried to push it into his own chest, while the dwarf and the firbolg provided enough restorative magic to keep his strength. The shard cut deep, and visions of glass split Visimar's pain-wracked mind - a world aflame, a map fragmented, a crystalline angel weeping blood. However, there was a resistance: something that prevented him from pushing any further. Finally, he gave up. His mad dream of resurrecting the fallen warlock was shattered.

A vision of a world aflame

As the party questioned his sudden and disturbing decision, Visimar admitted that, though he had known him only fleetingly, Baesellor's death had renewed his unwillingness to trust, and had sent him down a familiar dark path that he'd once hoped was behind him. He explained that, when he was a young man, he had loved a drow woman named Illivarri of the House Cormrane. Though their imbalance of class prevented them from marrying, they shared a powerful bond. However, before he was captured by Kastalavic torturers and made into a monster, Illivarri vanished, and Visimar came to believe that all those who he had loved were gone. Solitude turned pain into hatred, and hatred fuelled the blood-hunger that raged within him. 'No more', he said.

Vilwyn noted that loss was something they had in common. His own family and hometown mysteriously vanished, leaving him alone. Callidus grew up on the streets of Sturmenfell, and lost his innocence young. Kharmir lost all that he had known in the fall of Norod Dulum and the centuries that had passed since that day. Vilwyn reminded the group that Baesellor's death was a guilt they all shared, but as Baesellor said, 'honourable men are forged in the fires of loss.' They had intervened against Tealeaf's unnecessary violence - now was their opportunity to quell their own. 

Thus, their manifesto had been decided: 'No more loss.'

The Aftermath

With their friendship consolidated, the party turned first to the sheriff to inform him of what had happened tonight. Sheriff Dagoban answered the door in his nightshirt, but allowed the party inside despite the lateness of the hour. As they explained Tealeaf's plot to the sheriff, he laments that he didn't intervene sooner due to his trust of Tealeaf, and was rocked by the revelation that Tealeaf would have committed him to the flames just to get at Larassan. He wished it had not come to violence, but commended the party for their intervention. Visimar told him that it would not be long before the party left Correnwald, but they had a few loose ends to tidy up first: namely, the Monster in the Hellmire that had claimed their friend's life. Dagoban thanked them for all they had done, but warned them that he would have to inform the Lord of their actions, and the Lord would likely want to thank them personally. Bidding the sheriff a fond farewell, the party returned to the Taproot Inn for a well-earned rest.

The following morning, Visimar sat down on a jetty in the Middle Docks, watching the town rise with the sun. As the residents of Correnwald went on about their day, oblivious to the disaster that had been so narrowly averted, Visimar spotted Sheriff Dagoban crossing the bridge, delivering the news to the Lord's Lodge. He then went down to the forge, where Byron accepted his prior offer of leaving Correnwald. Alice still hadn't spoken since her imprisonment in the goblin cave, and Byron, concerned for her wellbeing, had decided to seek a new beginning somewhere far away from the swamp. Visimar offered a treasure - the silver crown found in the sunken mausoleum - to get him and his daughter on the path to a better life. Overcome, Byron protested, but upon Visimar's insistence accepted the gift gratefully. 

Meanwhile, while breaking their fast at the Taproot Inn, Callidus, Kharmir and Vilwyn were interrupted by a pair of Lord's men, who delivered a summons to the Lord's Lodge for dinner on Tondras evening. Though their dislike of Larassan had only intensified in the wake of the failed rebellion, the group agreed upon the promise of a reward. While Visimar - with the sheriff's permission - took one of the carts and barrels of alchemist's fire from the Emerald Brewery, the others went to the seamstress to acquire some fine clothing for Callidus, and then pooled their silver so that Byron could coat Kharmir's greatsword. They spent the rest of the day carousing in the Wheezing Beaver, celebrating their bittersweet victory in the pit of the world. 

Dinner with the Lord Deacon

Tondras 16th Concord, 30 Fifth Age

The following night, the party ventured to the Lord's Lodge in the dull mist of the summer eve. Greeted at the door by Tanda Elehen, the chamberlain led them into a chamber with dark panelled walls and a roaring fire in the grate. In front of the fire, Lord Selwyn Larassan sat in a chair at the head of a long table, one of his sharp eyes covered by a gold eyepatch. Beside him, the pockmarked, hook-nosed Luther Maldrud ate quietly. The table was set for a grand meal, with a headless roast boar and its apple-bearing head forming the twin centrepieces, alongside partridge, crocodile stew, bogroot broth, emerald giffle sauce in gravy boats, skinned frogs stuffed with herbs, and a gold pitcher of fine Kallantine wine.

'The gold is nothing to me.'

The Lord Deacon greeted the party warmly, and bade them sit alongside him. He commended them for their service in saving his life and the lives of his beloved citizens. He expressed his intention to have them publicly named as Heroes of Correnwald in the Siltwater Market before the assembled town, and mentioned that he had already sent a letter of commendation to the Pontiffs. The group accepted his thanks with muted gratitude. Larassan then presented them with a box of four bars of gold, stamped with the crest of House Larassan, totalling to no less than one thousand Alagosian thors. This was received with greater enthusiasm, though their acknowledgement of the Lord was still made curtly. The meal progressed without hiccup, until Larassan had his waiters bring in a tureen for dessert. When the lid was lifted, it revealed the head of Osborn Tealeaf, dressed as if for dinner. Larassan was tempted to have Tealeaf publicly hanged as a traitor, but he felt this was a more suitable punishment - the rest of him was dumped in the Ramman for the alligators. The room was silent save for Kharmir, who picked up the head, bid the Lord a stony thanks, and left at once. 

Though privately disgusted with Larassan's display, the remaining three accompanied him onto the upper balcony to share in some marshweed, which Vilwyn politely declined. Larassan alluded to his frustration with being assigned to such a backwater as Correnwald, believing himself worthy of a greater position given his 'unfailing loyalty to the Pontiffs.' The party nodded in agreement, and suggested that they would be willing to work for Larassan again in the future. Visimar added that they would even accept tasks of a more unorthodox nature, of which Larassan feigned ignorance, before making clear that the appointment was finished. He waved them farewell, and when they thanked him again for their reward, he dismissed it: 'Don't thank me. The gold is nothing to me.'

---

Faustas 17th Concord, 30 Fifth Age

The next morning, the party made their arrangements for their final days in Correnwald, and began their expedition to tie up one last loose end: the terror of the Monster in the Hellmire. Collecting Kharmir's newly-silvered greatsword from Byron and tying their barrel of alchemist's fire to Vilwyn's back, the party turned into the woods to the north and set off in search of the creature, hoping to put the last flourish on their new accord by bringing justice for Baesellor Rhelareon…

And so it is written.