The Dark Lord sat, within the cave. Water dripped off the ceiling, and echoed throughout the caves, in the Malas mountains. Within the demons hand, he held something, something he had been looking for, it had raw power.

The Dark lord turned to one the two mortals that had ventured into the cave with pickaxes.

"You have found what I required, now you shall get your reward"

The Dark lord moved across to the dirty miner, he moved his demon hand across, his head, then with a turn on movement, he grabbed the miners head, and twisted it, the mortals neck broke, the dark lord let go, and the body slumped to the floor.

"You killed him" cried the other miner "you promised us a reward"
"So i did, and its a merciful death"
"Nooo" the miner cried, he charged the Dark Lord with a pickaxe held in the air. The Dark Lord swatted him aside against the wall of the cave, the miner slumped to the floor in a pool of blood.

"With this bit of rock, I can now pull myself into this dimension, and there will be no stopping me"

Graham the Gray, sat looking at the items he had gathered, the Crystal Ball of Demon seeing that Ama and Faramir had recovered from Deceit, was proving to be mystifying it just seemed to be cloudy..not very helpful, something must be effecting its magical properties.

Igor had sorted through Sambas books, and had found two promising items, they would have to see if this would work..

On the spells list they had at least recovered one item that was needed, an eye of a ice demon, one out of the three, They still needed to recover some scales from a hydra, and a serpents fang.

If they could just manage to free Samba from the Blue Meanie and the dark lord hold, samba had been lost to the court for too long..

Lurtz sat at his campfire looking at the stars, wondering if he would ever see his mentor again He craved the taste of human blood again, and the thrill of the hunt Master where are you

Muldran had taken Tabbitha to talk in a secret place; accessible only from a strange rune hidden within his Library. While there, he was suddenly struck be waves of nausea, and he fell to the ground.



With his strength failing, Muldran dropped the ward on this mysterious location, and Tabbitha raced to find some assistance from the other Shadow Courtiers whom Muldran had said were working within the valley of Rhovanion.

Runnings through the blizzard like conditions, Tabbitha sought some help... and found it in the form of a wandering mage, Samba. With the ward dropped, Samba entered the location with Tabbitha - only to turn into the hideous, twisted blue shape of the creature branded the 'blue meanie'. It seems the Court's little secret is out - one of their own is the big blue creature that has been carrying out attacks for the last year!

Muldran told Tabbitha to seek more assistance, as he attempted to cast out the meanie, but he was suffering from the strange effects of the seizure that he'd experienced.



Finding some assistance, Tabbitha returned, and helped slay the creature - leaving the shell of Samba behind. Samba pleaded to be helped, and then was dragged back into the mishapen blue form, as Muldran gathered enough energy to reignite the ward around the building.



The Dark Lord draws closer!

The Dark Lord, sat with box in his hand, his minion Lurtz had snatched it off Muldran in Trinsic..a small victory..so Muldran was trying to seal away items of power, he had split this onto into five. Bertrand had revealled so much in his confrontation. What was this item of power that Muldran had sealed away?

The Dark Lord pondered for all of about 30 seconds, before
"Lurtz, minions, find the other boxes, kill the owners if you have them, but i want them recovered, by any means" The Dark Lord ordered
The minions nodded and grovelled before him
"Hunt them DOWN!"

The Dark Lord smiled inwardly, he would cause the court pain, along with some of the other powerful guilds, this was looking very good.

The Dark Lord sat again looking at the box, and his cowering minions, they had not managed to recover any of the other boxes as he had ordered. If his minions were going to constantly fail him..they would be sacrificed at the right time at least that way he though some good might come from them.
The Dark Lord gazed into the pool of water he used to scry the actions of others. As he did an image took shape, the dark lord was drawn into this

He stood in in a darken room with all the artifacts he had liberated. He gazed at the reddish brown box, and smile. How little that fool Muldran Skully realised about this item. The Dark lord reached out towards it to touch it - and recoiled his talons burn't. The Dark lord looked down at his burning hand to realise it is no longer a talon, but human flesh? The Dark Lord quickly turned to look in the mirror, and saw that he was slowly transforming into human form, and is repulsed by it...

...but the warm glow of the box soothes, reminds the demon of what he could achieve like this. Surely it is much easier to corrupt others when they cannot see your magnificient form? And think of the other shapes one could take to inspire fear into people... or persuade them to do your bidding... might it not be easier to...

The box pulses with a warm, black light, and soothes you again. You can use this. Perhaps you can use it to change others into shapes you find more appealing? Yes, yes, that's right. Providing, of course that SHE doesn't take it from you. Your eyes narrow as you realise that SHE could take your form, and masquerade as you... Unless, of course you find her first...

...snarling he drew away from the pool - and realised that he is still in his chamber. Intriguing...

You remember the Black Box, the one he'd stolen from Muldran. You remember how Muldran said it was important, how it would protect the weaklings from the poisoning of the mind that Blackrock caused. But a thought started to creep into his mind - there were other boxes out there... Could others have this wonderful power to shift shape? To truely become something else? Could they use it to trouble you - and HER - what about that mysterious woman?

It was time to ponder more in the darkness, there was a whimper from the corner, some lone traveller that Lurtez had captured..at least tonight he could feed on human flesh........

The Dark Lord pondered on again..the power was distance now in the blackrock..where had that powergone..he had been drawing on that power to summon forward more minions to strike fear into the cities..now this power was drained....this would mean back to more blood rituals and sacrifices..the blue meane would be sent out to recover such sacrifices.

Could he use a sacrifice ritual to draw out where the power of the black rock had gone...was it HER that had taken the power?

Blood poured across the floor of the cave, the Dark Lord had been unsucessful in his rituals so far..nothing had managed to draw power from the waining blackrock. Perhaps now it was time..before his powers wained further to release his army of demons onto the court..The Dark Lord started his summoning to open the gate between the worlds..


Graham The Gray Awoke studdenly..the ground in the valley was shaking, a burning log rolled off the fire onto the cold floor sejnding sparks everywhere..The first instance he thought perhaps it was an avalanche in the mountains..but something didn't feel right about it.

The door of the Inn swung open, Faramir of the Rhovanion guards rushed in..
"I thinks its begun" Faramir started
"we better alert the residents" Graham the Gray responded