Friends and Shadows

 

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The dragon was brought to nothing by the small group of travel-worn adventurers who even now, as they erase the traces of their camp, take great pains to avoid breaking the oppressive stillness about them. The small noises of creaking leather and metal on metal seem loud, as if the spirits that inhabit this land, be they dwarf or dragon or other, take offense at the disturbance. The group hurries to begin again their journey, their thoughts on the road both ahead and behind.

Travelling from out of the West, they make for the Silverhall, a young realm, but nonetheless one of legend and rumor. Fleeing the once great kingdom of Cormyr, a nation now seemingly fallen to tyranny, the band of warriors, rogue, and wizard bear weapons of dark magic. The heroes accompany a small number of former Pax Draconis, soldiers still faithful to the ideals of the old kingdom. Pursued by agents of the new power in Cormyr, they walk a path out of peril, forward into mystery, and between shade and darkness, even as the black weapons cast their own shadow over the souls of those that bear them.

Now the heroes must try to reach the smallish riverport town of Portage, to rejoin their companions. Whether they will find friends waiting, or agents of the dark, is the question before them. The scholar monk Brother Armando has already fallen, and is now somehow caught between worlds. The elf, Thelisn, walks the swords edge between darkness and light, the black blade Darkfire clutching at his soul. Will the dwarven ranger follow the elf into darkness? For he now wields an axe of black flame, a cousin to the elf's blade. Sigurd, the wizard, only still alive through Armando's noble sacrifice, yet now weakened and healing slowly, even as his knowledge of the invisible art of magecraft grows. Tsaran, the soldier, sharpens his swordsman's skill with every battle, but is it bravery or foolhardiness that drives him, and how long can it be until he finds a foe that his sword cannot best? Last of all, the paladin, Sir Alain, sword of Heironeous, a beacon of light surrounded by many shadows, but will the righteous fire driving him to cleanse the Realms of darkness ultimately blaze too bright and consume him in its fury? Then what of the quest to reach Silverhall and the answers that await, and what of the events that reach from all across the Realms to touch the events there?