History

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="0f800500dvldtc.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6633FF" FACE="ForgottenUncial" ><B>Dark Kingdoms</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dark Kingdoms"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <IMG SRC="056af420.jpg" border=0 width="175" height="66" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> History Timeline<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> (GA = Golden Age)</div> <bR> <div> First Age (-700 to -250)</div> <div>   Arember Founded (-700)</div> <div>   Magewar (-500 GA)</div> <bR> <div> Second Age (Golden Age)</div> <div>   Golden Age (-250)</div> <bR> <div> Third Age</div> <div>   The Great War (0)</div> <bR> <div> Fourth Age</div> <div>   End of the Great War (200)</div> <div>   The Tear of Morlus (240)</div> <div>   The Seven Sisters (245)</div> <div>   Time of Witches (245)</div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> 40 years after the fall of the Dark Queen, Loren Blackwoord, Artemis Keron, and Larcen Danig (aka "the Captain") take on the quest to destroy Morlus, and therefore stop his armies, when Morlus' armies attack from the south. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="735" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 399 WIDTH="723"><div> The Gathering (How the Heroes began their Journey)</div> <div> ----------</div> <div> After an intense battle against powerful giants, where his mentor and general Thane II were both killed, Larcen Daneg lost his hand to a traitor, who worshipped a god named Morlus. That same night, larcen was visited by the spirit of Salvador and sent on a quest to find the forger of the Axe of Kraythorn, a weapon of myth. He was told that the forger would be found in the elven forest.</div> <div> ----------</div> <div> Loren Blackwood grew up on the streets of Portraven, trying his best to find food and shelter day by day. Approached by Zerek the mage, he was told that he would be the "charm" of a group of three adventurers that would begin a quest for the king. Soon he met Artemis and Larcen and began his journey...</div> <div> ----------</div> <div> Artemis Keron was born to the house of keron, as his idol, Argon the Archer. Trying desperately to join the ranks of his brothers in the elven archers, he found that instead he was approached by a human priest, Larcen Daneg. By pure luck and coincidence (it would seem), Artemis' arrows had notched the same pattern in an archery target as the star constellation that formed the "axe of Kreythorn". Taking this as a sign given by the Highfather, larcen asked the elf to come with him. Argos agreed Artemis leaving the forest, but only if the duo would deliver a message to the king for him. </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div>   </div> <div>   Morlus, the first and greatest servant of The Highfater was said to have fell with his army when he defied the Highfather and tried to take his power for himself. Thought to be only a legend, Morlus appeared at this time, discovered by Zerek the mage. Summoning the heroes to Portravem, the group was given the task of finding the Tear of Morlus, the actual single tear that fell from Morlus in shame and guilt as he fell. The tear formed a single gem that fell to Arember in a place unknown. </div> <div>   The group traveled to the northern mountains on the quest devised for them by Malachi (now known as "The Old King, as his son Michael had officialy taken the throne), to find an ancient dwarven sage who possibly knew the location of the gem. They were able to find the dwarf and retreive the information, but the sage gave his life in the process. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="718" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 467 WIDTH="706"><div> The Sword of Gresha (grey-sha)</div> <div> An adventure on the way to the Sage</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#C0C0C0" FACE="Arial" > The group traveled quickly to the north, and all was well for days until they reached the south of the Silver Mountains. There they encounted wolves, but this was not the real problem. It came to them the following morning.</FONT></div> <div>   Approached by a dying man from the mountains, the group learned that their caravan was attacked by bandits and were killed, except for the man's son, who belonged to his family, Everwatch. His son Ansar was still alive and he begged them to rescue him. </div> <div>   The group traveled north into the mountains where they discovered a group of bandits lead by a powerful woman who was a beautiful albino and weilded awesome spells It was later discovered that this was one of the Seven Sisters, daughters of the Dark Queen). She also seemed to leave hoof prints instead of boot marks. They found that her name was Piera (peer-ah), and that she sought the Blade of Gresha, which would lie with the body of an ancinet saint buried in the silver mountains (many such tombs run within the mountains). </div> <div>   The group defeated the bandits and Piera disapeared. Deciding to stop her plans, the group followed a map that they found at the site to discover the sword first. Finding the tomb took all of their tracking and nature-based skills, but they were successful. A kodiak bear made it's home in the cave, however, and it was only by the spells of Artemis that no deaths were caused by the creature. </div> <div>   With the sword in hand, the group set their tracks to Southsea, and then began their journey to Trader's Haven...</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div>   </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="676" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 475 WIDTH="664"><div> The Sign from Morlus</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#C0C0C0" FACE="Arial" >The crew traveled to Southsea where they gained passage (in trade for work) on the Pegasus, a fast trading ship led by Captain Gold (a half Raskaha woman, but one apparently of good alignment), and her first officer Commander Kar. </FONT></div> <div>   However, the characters spotted a large fire on the shoreline to the north (and three ships from Morlus sailing away), and the Pegasus (being paid by Captain Paner of the Arember armed forces of Southsea) went to investigate, being the fastest ship. The military came in close behind. The crew found that the ships had attacked in the west and killed hundreds of men, women and children, and left all of their bodies to burn along the shore, as a sign of war, and to obviously spread fear. </div> <div>   The bodies began to rise as undead, and the company decided to get off of the Pegasus and head south down the road toward Southsea and alert people that danger was on the way.</div> <div>   Some of the undead veered off the path and went east to the village of Pinecrest. there the company met William, a strong heroic lad who helped them fight the flaming dead. Loren discovered that the undead had a weakness to water, and the village was saved. </div> <div>   William went to tell Southsea the message of the weakness of the flaming dead, and the company decided to keep traveling north, thinking that the attack was only a way for Morlus to divert them, as each day he grew stronger and stronger. </div> <div>   While camping, Piera (see The Sword of Gresha) appeared to the group as The Silent Saint and attempted to trick them into traveling back to Portraven. However, Artemis discovered her tracks and her ruse was foiled.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div>   </div> <bR> <div>   The Tear was held in the fortress of the Dark Queen. Although long since defeated, the Queen's ancient fortress still stood and the Tear was guarded by an ancient black dragon of incredible power. </div> <div>   During the quest to travel to the dark Queen's fortress, the group encountered troops from the northern nation, who had come to Arember to aid the king in his battle. Slipping from them (twice), the group traveled further, until they encountered Vilos (former partner of Rotan, both great crimminals of the most evil degree). Vilos, now aged, was not the swordsman he was at one time, but was still one of the most deadly warriors in the Realm. The group overcame him, and discovered that he had been charmed into hunting them down by Piera. He sowre revenge against her by helping the company find the Tear. Although it was a very difficult decision, they decided to let Vilos free instead. Soon after, however, Vilos returned and saved the group from an attack by a winged Owlbear. He then traveled with them to the Fortress.</div> <div>   On the way to the Tear, the group had to face giant bats, and slipped by the slumbering and brooding Lord Gruth. Although the tear was stolen and the company flew from the mountain on winged unicorns (the female unicorns of the Fey Realms), the dragon followed.</div> <div>   As the magic of the summoning spell wained, the unicors disappeared, and the group was left facing the dragon at the top of a mountain. Urging them to leave, Volos took on the dragon single handed, and decapitated it with nothing more than raw skill. </div> <div>   </div> <div> More Coming Soon</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>