An Evil Upon the Land

**Maddux** · 29th November 2006, 01:52 PM

Maddux placed his hand on the blue stone. Instantly the glow began to glow and light up the room. As the stone began to fade, Maddux grinned "So thats what you use a pickaxe for, and all this time I thought it was for bashing people's heads in."Glancing at the floor by the anvil, Maddux spots the rune Eowyna had left and picks it up and inserts it into a blackrune book. Placing his hand over the magic glypth, Maddux found himself recalling to where ever the rune had been marked for.

Maddux began to materialize on top of a building somewhere in the lost lands. As Maddux began to gather himself and his bearing, he can hear an evil hiss from an Ophidian. Instinctive reaction caused Maddux to go into a combat roll and slamming a smoke grenade into the ground. The Ophidian lost Maddux in the smoke and confusion. Maddux carefully stealthed to the west corner of the roof, and saw the massive black crystal spires. Maddux thought to himself "Eowyna was correct on her vison, now I just have to get her the blackrocks."

Maddux stood on the edge of the roof and surveyed the scene "A three story drop to the ground and close to thirty ophidians lounging around down their in the sun." Maddux spotted his landing spot and leaped towards it. Traning and experience began to take over as his feet touched the ground; Maddux began distribute the landing shock along feet, calf, thigh, hip, and shoulders. As Maddux shoulders hit the ground he began to roll and all the while maintaining stealth. Maddux came to a stop about 5 meters from his initial impact. Maddux thought to himself "I'm getting too old for this, but I still love the rush any way."

Maddux stealthed past what amounted to about one hundred ophidians and made it to the black crystal spires. Maddux made his way past the blackrock elementals,toxic oozes, and ethereal voids and began to dig at the base. Each time carefully removing blackrock of varying sizes and weights. As Maddux swung the pickaxe, the thought of Eowyna, If she is save the elves from Armagedon, she is going to need all the blackrock I can get. Hopefully we can rich while we are at saving the world also. Maddux smiled and continued to swing the pickaxe.

Eowyna Rohanna · 29th November 2006, 05:01 PM

Amar landed on the balcony at Vend 'en She Sul. "sqwak!!... Amar want blackrock candy...blackrock candy! sqwak!!!" Eowyna frowned and fed the parrot a few wafers, whereupon Amar tucked his beak underneath his wing and promptly fell asleep. She tossed the remained of the wafers over the balcony onto the grass for a few crows who had gathered there and went back inside. Much good that silly bird was. Maddux had arrived even before the bird had returned. Maybe next time she would send her messages by Flynn.

Maddux had arrived and immediately departed again. He had smiled at the sight of Bob's large blackrock nugget, commenting on the largess in store from mining the mineral, but Eowyna was still puzzled as to why he felt the need to mine the blackrock himself! It was unlike him to risk injury to the hands that played the Black Bow like a fine instrument. She shrugged and smiled to herself. Sometimes Maddux's behavior was beyond her understanding.

As she turned to re-enter the house, a movement down near the edge of the water caught her eye--a great hart. But something was wrong with it--blackrock infected! She grabbed a few veterinary bandages and went down and out to the creature. But as she reached out apply the bandage the stag charged her. "Corp por", and the ailing stag fell dead. Eowyna reached down and touched the hide of the poor creature--it was an odd color. "What a shame," she thought to herself, "but at least it's out of pain." But this also made her aware that there was no time to lose. If blackrock was making the fauna of Sosaria ill, then it was even more dangerous than she'd believed.

Eowyna had a quick journey to make. Taking the small bits of blackrock and blackrock dust that Griswold had brought her, she quickly wrapped and stuffed them into a small ashwood box. She knew just who might be able to examine this stuff and enlighten them as to its powers and properties. She rinsed her hands in the Fountain of Life after handling it. She'd discovered that the pure water helped her avoid the ill effects to some extent. Searching her runebook, she found the proper location..."Kal Ort Por."

Arriving at her destination, she found the house deserted. No sign of anyone, much less the elven alchemist, Dante. She was a friend of this house, so she went upstairs to the alchemists laboratory and placed the box of samples near the retorts and flasks on his achemy table. Rumaging around she found parchment and quill and wrote Dante a quick note:

"Dante, mellon 'en mellonamin, I have left some scrapings of the substance, blackrock, for your study. Please subject it to all the testing your great learning allows. We need to know everything we can about it's properties and effects. But do beware! I fear it is highly toxic as it's making many of the animals ill. Handle it with extreme care for your own safety. But do make haste, for it is of the utmost importance. Please report your findings to myself, Griswold or Lord DiP--whichever of us you can find first--as soon as your studies are completed. Doila lle, Eowyna"

Eowyna Rohanna · 30th November 2006, 11:35 PM

The crow landed on the shoulder of the demon Ba'al with a chatter of caws and cackles. Ba'al seemed to listen, then he reached up and wrung the neck of the crow dropping it to the ground in a drifting of black feathers. He turned to Gaiges and said to the dark necromancer, his eyes glowing like coals, "We will soon have Maddux exactly where we want him." Ba'al smiled slowly. "I know just where to go."

**DiP** · 2nd December 2006, 08:12 AM

"That's all I have on me," Griswold said. "be careful with that Albert, Eowyna looked uneasy when I showed it to her."

"Aye, she hasn't been herself since she first encountered this stuff," replied Albert.

"Well, do tell her myself and Lord DiP wish her well, I must be off to run more errands. Farewell."

"Will do, farewell."

He didn't quite understand why she hadn't taken the rocks herself, or why she was so stand-offish, but he was glad he hadn't brought all of it. Now he just had to figure out what to do with the rest. His own tests had shown hardly any results. A voice is all he heard, and that was only once. There was nothing else his limited skill would do, there had to be someone else.

Not knowing what else to do, Griswold went back to the spires to gather more blackrock. Even with the danger behind it, something gave him the urge to gather more. Not so much greed, perhaps just curiosity.

Griswold had been digging for hours, thinking of what to do next. He didn't know many other people; he was usually alone along a mountainside or stuffed away hammering iron into weapons or weaving leather into armor. Another piece of blackrock, he stuffed it in his pack. The only people he knew were those he worked with, except Lord DiP's friends. Izual! Izual was an exceptional wizard, maybe he knew what to do with the blackrock. Griswold tightend his straps on his backpack, it nearly weighed 200 stones with the amount of blackrock he had gathered.

Griswold knocked on the door, no answer. "Figures." Not wanting to carry the load all the way back home, not to mention back through Felucca, he left his burden in a secured chest and wrote a note informing Izual everything he knew and to inform Lady Eowyna, Lord DiP, or Maddux, if he knew his whereabouts, of any findings. He checked the area to make sure he was clear to travel, and set out for home. He hoped he wouldn't run into anyone again, far too many times had he travelled in Felucca only to be attacked, and then left with blood on his hands.

**DiP** · 2nd December 2006, 11:41 AM

Still no word from Maddux. "These double duty patrols will be the end of me," sighed Izual. His last orders were to scour the lands to ensure no one would take the Feluccan blackrock deposits. Although he hasn't seen any lying about himself, he still made sure there was no one else not seeing them either. It had been months since the last intruder in the lands attempted to snag a small piece of it, not to mention days since he last had a confrontation with anyone, he was sure the stuff was no longer in existance.

With no word from the Bandit King, he thought perhaps there was something more important happening than protecting the tiny bits of rock he no longer saw. His armor was battered, his horse was tired, he was tired. It seemed as good a time as any to head home and get some rest. "Kal Ort Por." His house was off a few hundred meters from where he appeared. At first, it had taken him by suprise, he should have been right outside of his door, but upon considering his tired condition he didn't give it a second thought.

He gave his horses ribs a quick tap with the heels of hit boots. It didn't move, he assumed it was exhausted from the days travel and didn't want to carry him the short distance home. He dismounted, grabbed the reigns to guide the horse in, and started walking. It still didn't move. "Fine by me, you can stay here then." He tethered it's reins on a nearby tree and left it there.

As he neared his house he felt odd, he didn't understand the feeling, and reasoned it had to be from his months of being out in the field with little rest. The feeling persisted and grew with every step he took, he noticed a note on his door as he was getting closer. Just to be sure "Wis Quas," nothing there. He felt queasy as he arrived at his door, he quickly grabbed the note and went inside.

The note looked hastily written, and incoherent at times, but the meaning was all too clear. He slowly opened the door and peered at the chest outside, the queasiness in his stomach getting stronger. "Just what I needed to come home to." A meal first, some rest, then the rock.

Eowyna Rohanna · 2nd December 2006, 11:41 AM

Eowyna paced. She hadn't heard from Dante, Lord DiP, Griswold, or even Maddux in several days. In fact, she was a bit angry. Didn't anyone take this blackrock issue seriously?

The other thing that bothered her was the presence of the blackrock itself. As it was now contained in the ashen chests, she no longer felt ill in her home, but for some reason the stuff tempted her. How powerful was it? She'd used it once before, of course, to create the black gate, but what else could it do? Could she control it? She'd wanted to get the results of Dante's tests...but he was being so slow! She told herself to be patient; thorough testing would of course take quite some time, but....... Enough was enough, she just had to find out. The urge to use it was irresistable.

The cellar was dark, but she easily located the Ashen chest in which Albert had stored the blackrock. As soon as she opened it, the familiar disorientation assailed her. She wouldn't use much--just a bit, just a small piece. She quickly found a pebble-sized chunk and closed the lid. Quickly, before she became really ill--outside, yes, outside in case of any unpredictable result. Eowyna litterally ran up the steps out of the cellar and onto the open grass near the sea. And, placing the blackrock on the ground, she uttered the words, "Vas Kal An Mani In Corp Hur Tym!"

There was a deafening explosion and a crashing release of energy, and that was the last thing Eowyna remembered. The force of the blast hurled her some distance through the air, where she collapsed in a heap upon the grass.
A large red hand reached down and scooped her limp body from the ground

**Maddux** · 2nd December 2006, 10:01 PM

Maddux continued to work that pick axe into the side of the black crystal spire. With every blackrock found, Maddux carefully wrapped the rock and placed it in his backpack. A scream echoed through the valley, and Maddux paused and looked in the direction from where the scream came from. maddux grinned "Stupid Edan, its not my problem." and watched the blackrock elementals tear the limbs from a human miner. Maddux raised the pick axe "One less human is a good thing." and struck the base of the black crystal spire once more.

Maddux thought to himself as he counted the number of blackrock mined today. Not a whole lot, but still some is better than nothing at all. the small hairs on the back of Maddux's neck began to tingle. Maddux continued to to take inventory of the blackrocks, but nonchantly scanning trying to acquire a target. Maddux spotted the human's location, and made out the red and gold trimmed robe he wore. In a flash Maddux grabbed his black elven composite bow and had it at the ready "You may as well come out, I see you and your friends."

The red robed figures came out from the shadows. One of the red robed figures spoke "Howdy..." and Maddux sent an arrow sailing the the air striking the robed one in the throat penetrating the Medula. The red robed figure laid was dead before he struck the ground. The other two red robed figures stared at their friend's lifeless corpse in disbelief. Maddux grinned "Don't ever say howdy to me. It only brings out a bad side in me, and yes you guys can be killed."

Another red robed figure spoke "Give us what you took from Magacina." Maddux laughed "You got to be joking? I suppose this is where you teleport me and play good cop, bad cop." The red robed figure replied "Something like that." Before Maddux could reply he found himself in a stone prison cell. The only light emitted from a candlebra in the corner of the room. The red robed figure looked at Maddux "Give it to us and we will dispense with the plesantries." Maddux shook his head and smiled "Do you honestly think, If I had whatever you were looking for, I would give it to you. You a member of one of the most corrupted groups in all of Sosaria." and began to laugh.

A portly red robed figure stepped forward "Your disrespect and insolance will be dealt with." In a well practised movement Maddux slammed his palm into the the red robed figure's nose crushing it. The cartiledge crunched, and broke into pieces traveling into brain. The red robed figure corpse colapsed on the ground. Maddux grinned "Fatboy, should have spent more time in the gym than at the cafe." Maddux gathered the red robe from the corpse. The remaining red robed figure asked "What are you doing?" Maddux replied "It's my loot. Eowyna would love to add this to her collection." The red robed figure replied "I'll give you time to think about this." Maddux replied "If you take too long, my friends will show up."

Eowyna Rohanna · 6th December 2006, 01:59 PM

Ba'al returned to Magencia, carrying the unconscious elf woman with him. He found the city in chaos. An alliance of Elves and humans seemed to be over-running the long-held city. He made his way to the halls Gaiges occupied and found the dark necromancer quickly tossing his belongings into bags. Ba'al groweled lowly, "I brought her. What is going on here!"

Gaiges barely glanced at Eowyna. Still packing he exclaimed, "Damn that Maddux! He stole the signet and seals, and it seems that boosted the morale of the Elves...they've organized and stormed the city! We are vacating immediately. Almonjin is livid! He has sworn to crush Maddux utterly now!"

Ba'al glanced down at the unconscious woman dangling from his claw. He frowned a little dimly. "So what do I do with this?" He held out the elf.

Gaiges turned hastily, "I don't really care. Drop her, bring her along, kill her. Whatever suits you. I don't have time to deal with her!" And he stormed from the room, calling to minions to load his baggage.

Ba'al took time to examine his prize. What to do with her? He thought he saw an opportunity here. If Almonjin was in a fury with Maddux, he'd still find her useful perhaps. All was not lost, merely posponed, while they dealt with the business of retreat. So Ba'al thought he'd keep her to score future points with the ancient liche lord. After all this settled down, Almonjin would still want to use her as bait. Ba'al would just have to babysit until the time was ripe. Gaiges had reentered the room to supervise the removal of his baggage. "Where is Almonjin going from here?" Ba'al asked the necromancer.

Gaiges waved his hand. "I'm not sure. Some dungeon or other, no doubt. I'm just following the baggage train. The Lord Almonjin will share his plans when he has time. This offensive by the elves and their allies was quite a surprise. You should prepare to leave immediately!"

Eowyna was vaguely aware of being roughly moved. She seemed to hover somewhere just below consciousness, but voices filled her head. She didn't understand what she was hearing:

"greetings, Eowyna Rohanna"

"kill them, kill them all!"

"hahaha, I knew it!"

"I am one. Thou art one too"

None of it made any sense. The voices teased her off and on. Eventually she ceased to struggle with who it was and what it meant, and lapsed back into darkness.

**DiP** · 16th December 2006, 11:58 AM

His eyelids were heavy. Forcing them open he noticed there was little light, must be evening already. He had taken a light meal and decided rest was more important after returning home in the morning. Not looking forward to what he knew he would be up to all night, Izual took his time getting out of bed.

He has never experimented with it before, everything he's heard has been speculation, and he's only briefly tiny piece before. Nothing like what he was working up the nerve to deal with now. The note explained in full what was in that chest, he did not look forward to what he was about to do. Heading down the stairs to the front door, he grabbed a pair of thick leather gloves thinking he did not want to make contact with it if at all possible.

He opened the door, and pulled the chest inside. It was heavier than expected; he doubted it was weighed down by supplies of bandages and arrows left for those who needed them. He opened the lid and was shocked at how much of it was in there, if he had to guess it would be 25 to 30 pieces, and not little pieces either. He picked up a piece off the top and ran some simple tests on it. It seemed as if any magic he used on it had no effect, whether or not it was because the Blackrock nullified his spells or it had the same properties as a mere rock, he did not know.

Not knowing what else to do, he knew he had only one last thing to try. Armegeddon, and he wasn't looking forward to it. The only tests he'd heard about had brought forth a terrible explosion, killing the caster instantly. That was not sounding too enticing, but he was a bit curious. He placed the rock down and backed off a few steps in caution, remembering the incantion he whispered "Vas Vas Kal An Mani In Corp Hur Tym"...