Muldran looked at the lava filled pit in front of him.

"If it isn't one thing, it's another," sighed the mage, as he idley skimmed a chunk of flint across the surface of the bubbling orange material. The stone skipped three times, and then exploded noisely sending razor sharp shards of rock back at him. Muldran flinched, and waved his hand to one side, diverting the shards away from his face.


He took a step backwards, and looked over towards the Library, in the distance. Rebuilt, and reformed... But he had a lot to do if he was to get the Shadow Court into shape. Frowning, he turned to the ruined buildings next to the now-sunken-Reliquary.

"Things fall apart, and new things are discovered!" he proclaimed loudly, hearing his voice echo across the valley, and reverberate in the chill air.

"Sfal....tandne....ared...ver..." came the incomplete echo, as Muldran turned and marched back towards the Library.

"....sfal...tandne....ared...ver..." whispered the echo as it bounced and rattled across the ruined building.


The words echoed on, much longer than the should have, and drifted through the valley, around the buildings of Rhovanion, and towards the window where one person lay sleeping.

Cherry dreamed.....more than a nightmare:

The Dream

Muldran sat straight up in his room, in the newly built Library.

"Thirty Seven!" he gasped. Shaking, he got out of his bed and staggered to the window. Looking over the valley, he saw some commotion; two figures were hurrying towards the Tower of the Magi. He hadn't seen strange Taliesin in some time; what would people be consulting on at this time of night.

Muldran took a step back and turned, then yelped in surprise. Standing between him and the doorway, outlined in an ethereal glowing blue stood a woman he had not seen in years.

".......sfal...tandne...ared...ver.......dran....urn.. .lement...ston..."




"Wha...." gaped Muldran, as the nun from Empath Abbey drifted across to the window and pointed towards the door with her crossbow. Turning back to him, the glowing figure tried to speak further, but faded before his eyes.

"X'hephra?!" Muldran explained, "But how..."

Both Cherry's dream and Muldran's vision are suggesting that soon - sometime this week - something will rise, and a quest will begin. To all Shadow Courtiers - if you're around in game any time from 8pm this week you may hear a call...

The lava rolled, bubbled and boiled.

A thick popping sound started somewhere deep underground, and the lava seemed to stretch. A strange, black sheen seemed to spread across the firey-orange liquid, twisting and undulating until it covered the entire area. A strange echoing noise chimed across the valley, and there was another dull 'pop' from somewhere under the ground.

At a little after 8pm on Thursday night, something's going to emerge from the lava in the ground of Rhovanion... This isn't an event as such - the building will appear; I have an RL thing to deal with so if it doesn't happen then... watch out for the next story!