The Three Feats of the Amazing Djorn

It was during the ending of his training that Djorn was instructed by the sorcerer, Mathus, to preform three tasks to end his tutelage. The First Task: Retrieve the Blood Cape from the Tomb of Thotek. The Second Task: Contact the dead on the Mountain of the Nethereths. The Third Task: Ease the distress of the common man. Djorn was instructed that if he was to accomplish all of these before the next full moon he would be granted access to knowledge beyond his imagination.

I

Djorn sat in the desert with four great pillars surrounding him. He marveled at the night sky as the cool air filled his lungs and froze his skin. Yet, he wasn’t cold. The stars were out and the tops of the pillars were emanating a marvelous brush of colors. These colors waved like the ocean across the sky, and Djorn’s eyes stayed fixed on them. He was told to come here, to the pillars that sit in the ruins of Ghania, and by his teacher’s request. His teacher, the greatest sorcerer, Mathus. When Djorn arrived, there was a great heat that filled the air. As he jumped off of his teil, and sunk his feet into the sand, he felt the source of that heat emanating from the steamy horizon. But, it was not the desert that let out this heat.

This was the breath of terrorhydes, hot on Djorn’s trail, thirsty for the blood of his steed. Perhaps, depending on how hungry they were, even thirsty for his. The terrorhydes approached from behind, gaining on Djorn. He let out a cry as he took his teil’s saddle and yanked it along, trying desperately to reach the the center of the pillars before the beasts could catch up to them. Djorn made the hand gestures his teacher had taught him before entering. The pillars shined, granting passage to Djorn and his steed. The terrorhydes weren’t far behind, and with claws as sharp as a scared man’s wits. The beasts leaped for their prey, but were knocked backward by the unseen barrier surrounding the pillars.

Djorn looked up as a loud roar boomed from the sky above. One of the Ten Dragons, made of life and the flame of creation, came down upon the hoard of terrorhydes, breaking through the maelstrom that began to form above. It’s breath turned the snarling beasts into nothingness, as ash soon stood in their place. It was then that the dragon glided back into the cloudy sky, and the atmosphere began to clear. Now, Djorn’s eyes were fixed solely on the colors of the night. Before he knew it, a platform beneath the sands began to sink, and down Djorn went, beneath the pillars. Beneath Ghania. Before long Djorn was within the Tomb of the dark-deity, Thotek. With his teil staying behind, Djorn moved forward and unto the thin corridors that delved deep into the tomb.

Djorn remembered his mission; to retrieve the cape of the Unnamed Pharaoh. This pharaoh was the first to serve the deity, Thotek, and the last to witness the presence of Ganza, the Unfathomable. The pharaoh’s cape, made from the blood of Thotek’s sacrificial victims, would be the last ingredient needed to construct a spell to stop the eastern deity. Thotek was retuning to the world of man, threatening the lands of Questhor and Livaria, and this spell would be the only thing able to kill him once and for all. It would be a seal crafted by the sorcerer, Mathus, and born from three of Thotek’s personal artifacts. The final ingredient was the Pharaoh’s Blood Cape. Djorn did not fear the presence of Thotek, as he knew the evil-god no longer lingered within his tomb.

But, he did fear Sh’ehm, Coveter of Jewels. This deity lived deep in the earth, moving among the plated rocks of the crust and causing earthquakes. Djorn feared Sh’ehm would sense his Stone of Guidence. The very stone that helped him detect and discover find Thotek’s tomb in the first place. The white stone lit the dark as steps began to sink. Djorn ran while pendulums dropped from the ceiling. All fear of Sh’ehm suddenly vanished as the corridors of the tomb became a deathtrap. Spikes and needles and blades covered with poisons stuck out of every nook and cranny. Djorn dodged them with incredible accuracy and finally dived into the throne room of the pharaoh, unscathed and quite panicked.

Catching his breath, Djorn gazed upon the pharaoh’s throne. Upon the sandstone chair, there sat the Blood Cape. Wasting no time, Djorn snatched the cape, tossed it over himself and made for a quick exit. Before he could enter the corridors once more, he was confronted by three hooded specters. At once he knew, these were the last of the Hal’mystics; Sages that his teacher had fought in retrieval of an old treasure. Djorn drew his sword and took a stance, but the Hal’mystics stepped aside, urging him towards the exit. Taking his chance, Djorn ran like the speed of light, hearing the voices of the Sages behind him; hearing them whisper into his head. The sages spoke, revealing that it was to be a greater evil that would stop him on his journey.

That it was not their place to end his life. Djorn pushed their words to the back of his mind as he raced back to the platform where his teil awaited his return. From a distance he could see the platform begin to rise and he ran as fast as he could to reach it before the entrance to the tomb was enveloped by the undergound. The cobblestone ground began to fall behind him, and before long he was running on sinking stones. He jumped for the platform and reached the outside and pulling the blood cape through the crevice just in time. Back at the side of his teil, Djorn watched as the platform began to rise and the light of day appeared above him. Sands began to fill the ground as the four pillars of the ruins of Ghania came into view.

As he reached the surface, Djorn folded the blood cape and re-saddled his teil. Back into the desert, they rode; back to the Tower of Mathus, where the conclusion of their retrieval mission awaited. For now, they could complete the spell that would put Thotek to sleep, indefinitely. In time Djorn would come to look back on the words of the Sages; but that time was yet to come.

II

Djorn looked up, and there he saw the rain running down the mountain’s edge. The three great structures punctured out of the earth, and they stretched higher than any other. Completely stone, not a speck of grass grew upon the sides or peak of these dead-stone tops. Between these mountains laid flat land and bridges, constructed of wood and bone. Great big giant towers that made up the Nethereths’ Fortress were connected by the peaks. Here, it always rained outside the halls of the dead-fortress. Within the fortress, the Nethereths, in endless numbers, made up a feast of the afterlife. For the Nethereths were a continuum of the undead, regenerative and eternal who all followed a hive-mind.

They existed as an endless force of chroniclers. So, from their fortress, high up top the Mountains of Cha’ar, the Nethereths watched the earth; and it was here that Djorn had come. The reason behind his arrival was in service of his teacher, Mathus. Djorn came to ask the aid of the Nethereths in slaying Ganza, a reawakened force of destruction. Ganza, the Unfathomable had begun to make his mark among the highlands, North of Livaria. It was then that Livaria asked the King of Questhor for aid. Though the king of Questhor could not risk the lives of his armies against Ganza himself, he did send a plea to Mathus, who resided on Xanialis, across the sea. Mathus knew that only the Nethereths held the power to overrun Ganza.

So, it was from there that Djorn travelled to find the Mountains of Cha’ar and the Nethereth forces. Told in the stories of old, Ganza was the creation of pure hate, grief and pain, summoned up by the Nameless Pharaoh in a fit of unhealthy concealment. When Ganza first manifested before the pharaoh and his court, Ganza’s birth cost his creator his very life. In the temple of the Nameless Pharaoh, Ganza’s appearance blinded his maker and his maker’s court. Ganza’s voice made deaf the pharaoh and his court. Lastly, Ganza’s presence boiled the skin of the pharaoh and his court until they were nothing but groveling piles of burn flesh. Through the screams of all who witnessed him, Ganza, the Unfathomable was feared by all, as he faded into the shadows of the new ages to come.

The Nethereth’s flesh could boil, yet it would grow back. Their eyes would melt, yet they were already blind. Their ears would go deaf, yet they could always hear one another. The Nethereths were the only ones who could stand against Ganza. So there, Djorn stood on Cha’ar; the rain growing heavier, and the halls of the fortress lit ever so faintly in black-light. As Djorn ventured over the bridges, he looked down to take note of where the rocky mountains had connected, forming the flat land. He wasted no time in opening the doors to the Fortress’ Hall. There he looked upon a sea of the undead, rotted flesh, grey and faded, hollowed eyes and loosened fangs. He greeted them, as well as the student of  grand sorcerer could, and made haste inside.

The room had gone silent and all the many dead glared at Djorn with hollowed skulls. They sat in a long hall, with long double-sided tables, seating four rows on each side. The middle of the room was a straight shot to where the Grandmaster Nethereth, Faul Duul, was seated upon a wooden chair, with a golden goblet in his left hand. He was the biggest of all the undead. Standing ten feet tall, Faul Duul spoke in a deep voice, and with the emanating intimidation of a leaning great oak. Djorn looked up at the immortal being, yet no fear came from him. The dead behind him growled and hissed to keep up their appearance. It was then that after taking one look at Djorn, Faul Duul knew who he was, and knew why he had come to the peak of the dead.

Faul Duul spoke to the other undead, telling them to stand down. Silence followed as Faul Duul spoke to Djorn through his mind. Djorn told Faul Duul of Ganza’s awakening; and for a moment Djorn’s head was flooded with the undead’s pleads; cries to keep the problems of the outside world out of their business. Faul Duul told his fellow soldiers to be silent. After thinking it over Faul Duul had decided. Djorn was to return to Livaria. Upon his arrival he would be tasked in telling Mathus that Faul Duul, himself, would travel overseas and stand against Ganza, alone. Djorn was to tell his teacher that Faul Duul had also taken notice of Ganza’s rapidly growing strength and that if Ganza were to continue to flourish, it could mean the end off Questhor, the lands of Livaria and the Nethereth Hordes.

So, Djorn departed back to Livaria as the settlements began preparations to welcome Faul Duul, Grandmaster of the Nethereths. Djorn not only planned to be the recruiter of Faul Duul, but he had also planned to be witness to his and Ganza’s great battle; something he wouldn’t miss for the world. And an event that couldn’t be missed.

III

All the paladins have gone away, and in there absence there lingers a faint fear. This fear first manifested at the cry of the Eastern battle-horn that sounded the previous morning, just after the noblemen had awoken. The Vanguardians were on their way to the small village of Fanbrooke, yet their forces were said to have been heavily armed and in a battle-ready march. The Townskepper wasted no time in preparing the local forces for a confrontation. They had planned to halt the Vanguardians before the bridge into town; by the river where the streamlings sleep. It was faintly snowing by morning and the bell had awoken the entire town. Djorn had been up the entire night prior, waiting to join the paladins upon the bridge and chronicle the events that were to conspire between the town and the Vanguardians.

The paladins crossed the bridge and met up with the group just out of the underbrush. Djorn waddled behind with pen and paper in hand. The paladin leader cried out for his forces to halt as the opposing leader commanded his men to do the same. All was quiet for a moment before the paladin-commander inquired upon the Vanguardian’s arrival. The head of the group called out so that all could hear him. As Djorn knew well, the Vanguardians, for a time, had been serving as the Questhor Kingdom’s law-enforcers since the time after the Ceron War. The Vanguardian’s head informed Fanbrooke’s forces that payment for their town’s monthly land fee had not been payed for several months.

Of course, as Djorn all knew, payment would be taken by the messenger of the towns and villages around Livaria, and brought to the Questhor Palace, where it would be presented to the king. But, the king had not received the land’s bill for sometime, which in turn caused the townsfolk to place blame upon Fanbrooke’s messenger, Fennan. Furious the paladins marched through Fanbrooke, hunting down the young man. Djorn also joined in the search, but Fennan was nowhere to be found. Djorn had his suspicions, believing that not everything was as it seemed. And being the last member of a dying breed, Djorn was quick to question the Vanguardian’s manner of blame placement.

Djorn proposed to the Townskeeper, and his men, that the thievery might have been the cause of the local hooded specter that had been seen passing through the local towns. Djorn supposed the idea that this hooded figure was a mancer of sorts. He supposed that the mancer could have hypnotized Fennan into giving him the town’s payment to the king, and made him completely forget their encounters each month. Fennan, seeing the Vanguardians arrival must have realized something was amiss, remembered something about the encounter and fled the previous  night to avoid persecution. The Vanguardian’s head questioned Djorn as to how he could specifically propose this string of events.

Djorn replied by revealing that he had witnessed the events himself, showing that he even had documented the instances of when he first caught on to what was happening, just four months prior to the Vanguardian’s arrival in town. Djorn explained that he did not tell anyone, for fear that the town’s forces would move too quickly and the mancer would escape capture. The Townskeeper asked Djorn what their next course of action should be, and Djorn replied simply. He told the paladins and Vanguardians that he himself has been tracking some of the smaller crimes this mancer had committed. This involved a number of small thefts, robberies, burglaries and an assortment  of other crimes; all with mind-control being the head-factor in the accomplishment of the crimes.

Djorn revealed that he had pinpointed the mancer’s next target, the village of Glennam. Djorn joined the Vanguardians as they left for the next town. Meeting with Glennam’s Townskeeper, Djorn took up the mantle of the village’s messenger and took to the roads to deliver the town’s monthly payment. As Djorn suspected, the mancer appeared on the road before him, inquiring about the money he was holding. It was then that Djorn revealed his identity and slapped the mancer with a spell-canceling bond. Unable to control minds, the mancer snatched the sack of coins out of Djorn’s hands and made for the forest. By this point, Glennam’s paladins were deployed and they swiftly captured and subdued the mancer.

Djorn figured that if the mancer hadn’t taken the extra time to wrestle the coin-sack from him, he might have gotten away. What infuriated the mancer even more was Djorn revealed there was never any coins in the sack. Just metal-coated pebbles that sounded like tokens to give the impression of coins. That was, in the rare possibility that the mancer had actually of escaped.