The winds were howling in the valleys, after the Dark Lords maddness had passed due to the elemental stones..and that his plans to release demons had been foiled by his own minion...that couldn't fully possess and take control of Samba..it was time for him to move on..to cause terror again somewhere else.

The Dark Lord sat chanting, draining the skys of there magical energy, forming a darkness and purple swirling vortex.

Meanwhile...

Graham the Gray sitting in the Inn watching the snow flakes fall as he studied a book on possession by demons, written by some obscure mage from Umbra. Graham sensed something was happening, he felt the magic been drawn away. This was serious, he called Faramir and set off for the disturbance..

They hand not travelled far when in the sky the vortex could be seen, Graham then knew this was the Dark Lords doing, and whatever it was it could not be good.

.....

The Dark Lord had finished his vortex, and gathered his surviving minions back into the the Realm of Torment, he watched as they passed through, the Blue Meanie trudged along carrying a large chest, ready to go through the portal. Graham the Graham and Faramir stepped into the Dark Lords lair.

"What are you up to this time?" Graham the Gray shouted
"If you think you can get away with it you're wrong" Faramir followed up

A ball of fire landed at there feet, caused them to move quick apart.

"i already have gotten away, you will not meddle with my plans again" the Dark Lord boomed

Graham the Gray could hear a faint voice in his head it was Samba saying stop him now...

The Dark Lord strided across to the Blue Meanie and shoved him through the vortex.

"I won't let you leave" Graham the Gray shouted, the noise of the vortex was making this hard, he sommon a ball of energy and cast it at the Dark Lord. The Dark lord stepped aside, then cast a spelkl that shook the cave. It forced Faramir and Graham to the floor.

"Now I will be going" The Dark Lord laughed, he turned and stepped through the vortex.

"Great!" Graham exclaimed "i'll follow him, Faramir go inform the court what has transpired"
"be careful" Faramir replied
"you know me" Graham the Gray responded he go to his feet, noticed the vortex was getting weaker, "i better go now" Graham the Gray just past through the vortex before it closed, plunging the lair into darkness, where the vortex had been there was solid rock wall.

Graham the Gray plunged through the Darkness of the vortex, and landed with the thump on the other side. Graham suddenly got the smell of burning around him, he opened his eyes to look around, the trees, ground were smouldering, in the distance there was a city with flames devouring it.

This was not good, what he couldn't see was the Dark Lord where had he gone, and had he caused this destruction. There was a roar, a large furry beast was charging towards him, with a very mean looking axe.

Graham drew his bow sending and arrow into the beasts shoulder, knocking him back. Then Graham followed this up with a energy bolt, leaving a smouldering beast on the ground. He walked over picking off some gold coins the beast, examining the critter in some detail. It looked part dog, part cat part humanoid..now, where to next..the city which was on flames would be the best place to start if there were survivors.

As Graham approached the city in flames, there were small skirmish battles going on against these beasts, A female warrior with a large hammer was surrounded by a group, of these beasts. Graham tried to summon an Earth Elemental to join into the fray but nothing happened. It would have to be a lightening spell…he thought, he cast thunderstorm, the beasts howled as lightening jumped out of the sky with vicious power and struck them down, one tried to flee but was cut down by an archer, who had seen the struggle. Graham headed over to the female warrior, who wore a tight chain mail bodice, carapace gauntlets and armoured chain mail leggings. Her neck length blonde hair was messy from the battle.

“Thank you” The warrior said “your timing was good”
“That’s ok” Graham the Gray responded “What’s happened here?”
“What do you mean what’s happened here!” the warrior said
“I’m not from around these parts, I seemed to arrive in amongst blazing fires” Graham the Gray informed
“The Charr have attacked the city of Ascalon, as you can see very little left” the warrior said “I’m Devona one of the Ascalon’s Chosen”
“I’m Graham the Gray, from the Shadowcourt of Rhovanion” Graham replied
“I’ve not heard of there” Devona responded
“I have travelled far, looking for a friend whom has been kidnapped” Graham informed

The archer had come over, he was holding a\n arrow at the ready. He wore a deep blue loose fitting out fit with cloak. He was rough looking, with black hair and beard.

“Devona, we must get back to behind the walls, before they launch another wave.” The archer informed
“We must” Devona nodded “come friend, follow us back to the remains of the city, this is one of my companions, Aidan, and he is a ranger”
“Well met, Aidan, I’m Graham the Gray of Shadowcourt” Graham introduced
“I see you carry a bow of kinds” Aidan said
“I can use a bow, but magic is my area” Graham the Gray answered
“You’ll have to meet Cynn and Orion they are mages” Devona said

A horn sounded in the distance.

“We better make haste” Aidan observed
The party broke out into a jog towards the wreckage of the gates.

The devastation in city was massive, he didn’t think it was much of a city any more , tents were scattered around treating the injured, foot soldiers were running around inside the burning city. One headed towards Devona with a written message and placed in her hand. She broke the wax seal, and read it.

“I’m afraid we must head to the northern wall, it seems like the Captain thinks that’s where the Charr will strike next.” Devona Informed “well met traveller, good luck in your quest”
“It seems you need every trained warrior you can get, I can help defend the wall, I’m sure they won’t turn down another bow” Graham the Gray replied
“Well another bow always helps” said Aidan
“Well if you are sure” Devona replied

She gave that look of yet another lamb to slaughter, but Graham was no lamb to the slaughter, the Dark lord was pretty fearsome, and the ancient wyrms were pretty nasty as well.

Devona, ran off, Aidan in tow, Graham the Gray headed with them, they ran though burnt out streets, there were burnt corpses, bloody bodies, the fighting had been fierce, mixed in where bodies of Charr. We ran past what looked like the remains of a palace, and a graveyard, and towards a huge defensive wall, it was as big as anything that Graham had ever seen. Large catapults sat upon it, a officer stood directing his troops against small groups of Charr that seemed to be testing defenses, where a chunk of the wall was missing.

Atop of the northern wall, a small group ventured out into the breach to scout ahead. The earthy upon this trip revealed large scorpion like creatures called devourers. The small party battled there way through small Charr scouting parties to see the huge Charr camp who were gathering ready for the assault.

“This is not good” Devona stated
“There are hundreds perhaps thousands of those beasts down there” Graham responded
“Lets quickly go back to the wall and report this” Aiden informed

As they turned to creep off there was a growl of alarm…

“We’ve been spotted” Graham said hurriedly
“Lets make a run for it” Aiden said “follow me”

The group ran down an aqueduct, the Charr fastly approaching after them, Aiden turned every so often to fire arrows at the Charr, Graham followed suit with arrows for fire balls. They approached the breach in the walls, Devona was shouting orders to the soldiers. The battle for the breach began, catapults fired balls of flaming rock into the advancing Charr hordes. The Charr though had sheer wait in numbers and started to over run the defenders. The Captain gave the order to retreat and regroup.

“Its time to go” Devona said “follow us”

Graham turned and nodded, after taking down another Charr in a burning ball of fur. The soldiers and other fighters retreated to a fortress of Ranik this would hopefully break down the Charr invasion force.

The Invasion force broke against the walls of the fortress; parties left the fortress to push the remnants back to the northern wall. After the battle finished Graham sat eating some broth with some bread, he should get back to his task of finding Samba and the Dark Lord. After a chat with a merchant who was selling his good, he learnt rumours of demons over seas. But the only way to get over seas was to cross the Shiverpeak mountains.

Graham spoke to Devona and Aiden and informed them he was going to set-off, they said that Prince Rurik was taking his forces towards the foothills of the Shiverpeaks so it was worth staying with these hardened fighters a while longer yet.

The trip into the foothills of the Shiverpeaks was treacherous, the Prince and his guard stayed with refuges, a small party forged on ahead, Graham was grouped with a healer called Alesia, a mage called Orion, Stefan a fighter and Reyna an ranger. They passed between Charr patrols, huge mountain hydras, and rogue earth elementals, until they started to reach the frozen areas of the lower Shiverpeaks.

The snow storms set in as the party moved forward, to the mountain stop over point of Yak’s Bend. Before they reached there they were ambushed by huge snow elementals and some armoured mountain dwellers, a brief battle, against greater odds the small party came through with only some minor injuries. They struggled onto Yak’s Bend to seek refuge from the blizzard.