The Return Of The King!

  For several days now, mediums across the land have been wracked by terrible migraines caused by the screams of some great power in the realm of the dead. Today Shalane, a young mage and artist with a gift for speaking to the dead, contacted the guard after becoming wracked by pain so intense she could barely move.

 Captain Freyy and Bastet were quick to come to her aid, leaving her in the capable hands of the healers before rushing off, together with Christine, to follow the one clue Shalane was able to give… Something had survived the destruction of Trammel almost unscathed! It seems something has protected the town of Moonlgow from the daemons, although not from a group of giant spiders that have set up home there!

 Swiftly, the party made their way to Montor, where the Black Gate lies, and crossed through to the ruins of Trammel. Moonglow – indeed, the world – lay in shadow, and a quick glance upwards revealed the reason. Both moons were in conjunction, blocking the sun in an eclipse that had lasted since Kahoris ascended to power.

 With a heavy feeling of dread in their hearts, the party set forth towards what remained of the town. There, to their intense surprise, they discovered that the land was not quite so badly ruined as it seemed. Moonglow city stood intact and alone, a weak but poignant monument to the glory that had once been.

 None but Bastet noticed the brief flicker in the darkness, a sputtering candle of ectoplasm, winking in and out of existence. As Chronus and Jethro joined them, the party cleared away the spiders, revealing amongst them a ghost. Swiftly, they resurrected the soul, and were shocked to find it was none other than Dupre, long-time friend of the missing Lord British!

 Dupre spoke swiftly, for he saw that there was little time to waste. As quickly as he could, he explained how he had been sent to find an artefact, but had been left behind when the gates were sealed. This artefact was all that kept the daemons at bay, it seemed, and he had been unable to rescue it. Now, its whereabouts were lost, and it stayed protecting the town to no avail.

 But Dupre had more to say. He had felt some mystical force moving things through the ether – people from the land, dragged to different lands! Not only that, but a black knight had arrived, a being with no discernable soul, who sought to retrieve the mysterious artefact. He had, it seemed, left empty-handed.

 They returned through the gate with him, taking him to the Guardhouse and showing him the mysterious stone given to them by Minax. He quickly ascertained that the “Tower of Despair” was none other than the prison in a small bandit village known as Despair. The party hurried there, and to their intense surprise heard voices of ghosts screaming from within the prison! Quickly, Freyy handed out explosion potions, and the party made short work of the walls. Within lay two ghosts, weakened by time and their ever-increasing cries for help. The party returned them to the living, only to discover them to be Lord British and the real Lord Blackthorn!

 

People of Sosoaria take heart! The king has returned!