The story begins in the small town of Nyier where the Birendra is waiting on a contact to arrive. Others file into the inn as a storm brews outside. Birendra is approached by the pixie, Flip who sticks with her until the knight Lordan comes to contract her. He starts to explain the mission when a young child bursts into the inn and runs to Lordan. Moments later the inn is practically under siege.
Chanderio, Dion, Dezaryn, and Flip all scramble to help the knight and young girl escape. Through the chaos, Dezaryn saw an enormous tiger mauling the strange men who were attacking the inn. Not having much of a choice, Birendra guides them all to a wayhouse further out. There Lordan explains what needs to be done, unaware that the group before him was not all together. He paid them a sizable amount of money and told them that the young child, Catlin needed to be taken to her grandfather Olorian in Forst Reach. There, they would receive the second half of their money. A group calling themselves Dominion, which was controlled by an Onyx wizard by the name of Mortegro, was hunting her. The child was revealed as having a strange key embedded in her chest but no information was told about it. Not liking it, but also understanding that the extra help would be necessary, Birendra agreed to work with the strangers.
While Flip and Birendra went for supplies, Dion went hunting, the priest Chanderio entertained the child, and Dezaryn explored the wayhouse. He found a decaying corpse in a side room that had been locked off for years. When the others got there he was taking the abandoned weapons within. Birendra uncovered three strange boxes. Not really having time to check it, they put it away and rested up. Dion brought in a large deer that had been oddly mutilated and claimed it was a “spell” he knew that did that. The next day Lordan left, saying that he would act as a diversion to give them a head start.
The next few days they spent traveling mostly at night and dodging the spies of Dominion. Dezaryn occasionally vanished at night but did so without anyone noticing. Being that he was a Dampyre in reality, he was hunting for sustenance and didn’t want to deal with the group finding out. Finally they reached the Elven City of Lineas. As they split up to relax and re-stock their supplies, Flip located a man who was selling pixie dust from a bunch of captive faeries. His attempts to rescue the enslaved creatures enraged the man and he turned into a mutant monstrosity and started chasing him. The rest of the group arrived on the scene and made short work of the creature, to the relief of many. When the local guard arrived the man was discovered to be the captain of the guard who had been missing for a week. The group was taken to the house of the Governor who told them that people had been disappearing like that for two weeks now, ever since the Temple of Evern became cursed. Chander, who was a priest of Evern, was outraged to hear that and talked the group into helping him clear out the place.
After being outfitted with better weapons and armor, the group traveled to the temple with the court’s sapphire mage, Helios. The temple was shrouded in darkness, but that didn’t bother Dezaryn who started walking right across to the door. But something grabbed his leg and when he poked at it to get loose, the whole place erupted with skeletons! Cursing the group started battling their way to the temple’s entrance, with Dion revealing himself as a weretiger as he shifted into the giant tiger Dez saw before. Making it inside, the team didn’t know which way to turn. When they arrived at an intersection, Dez secretly felt a twinge in his dark blood that alerted him to the presence of another of his kind. He suggested that they split up with Flip and Dion taking the roof, he would check out the basement alone, and the others head for the Sanctuary. Not waiting to see whether they agreed or not, he vanished down the stairs.
Dezaryn went below to find two dead bodies and one that would be dead in a matter of minutes, all drained of blood. When he went into another room, he found it lavishly decorated. Moments later the Dampyre, Argon showed up. Surprised to meet another of his kind here, he offered Dezaryn a partnership and a cup of fresh elven blood. Dez tried to resist the cup but couldn’t and drained it dry, but he refused the offer to be partners. He tried to get away but Argon caught him and fight broke out between the two.
Meanwhile Dion and Flip were attacked on the roof by gargoyles and while they were fighting, the others explored the Sanctuary. Chander found a young acolyte hugging a pedestal that held a bowl of holy water. The soft light around it seemed to be the only thing that saved him. He explained and pointed out that there was an orb of pure evil seated in the Sanctuary and that it was responsible for all this. In a fit of grief and madness the boy grabbed the offending orb and tossed it into the bowl of holy water. The orb went nuts and quickly burned the water out! The young boy then died on the spot.
Argon, feeling the orb being tampered with accused Dez of trying to distract him and being a traitor to his own kind. He kicked Dez down and ran upstairs with Dez right on his heels. The scuffle between the two of them banged against the door to the Sanctuary. That got Birendra’s attention and she opened the door, jumping back as the two battling Dampyres fell through. Dezaryn, not caring anymore if they knew his true nature told them to hurry up and destroy the orb and that he would take care of Argon.
The ferocious battle between the two of them continued on as the rest attempted to find ways to break the orb. Chander tried to dispel it, but was blasted across the room for his efforts. Just as it looked like Dezaryn was in trouble, Helios snatched the priest’s holy symbol and threw it at Argon who was burned by it. Dezaryn broke away and headed over to try and see what he could do with it, finding that his dark blood protected him against the orb’s evil power.
While Dez tried using every ounce of his superior strength to bash the orb into bits (which didn’t work at all) Birendra faced off against Argon trying to buy him some time. This was extremely dangerous and Dezaryn, frustrated was about to go back and rescue her when Flip bashed a hole in the glass ceiling. He and Dion had finished their fight and saw what was going on below them. Looking up and seeing the fragile beam of sunlight filtering through the hole, Dez told Flip to get out of the way and he threw the orb through the glass ceiling with all his might. The orb exploded in the light of the pure sun and a furious Argon fled the temple.
With the curse lifted the missing people started to come back. Dezaryn was badly hurt and exhausted; he went outside and collapsed unconscious. The priests brought him back into the temple where the Archbishop fed him his own blood to revive the unlikely hero. Going back outside he was joined by Dion who was fascinated by Dez’s Dampyre-turned-good nature and pelted him with questions. The weretiger mage followed him as Dez went seeking a sage. In exchange for telling the sage about Dampyric nature, Dez gained the knowledge that Olorian was a high powered druid and the exact location of Forst Reach. Dion received a few magical scrolls but couldn’t decipher them all yet.
Later Flip told the group that the pixies they had rescued were part of a traveling Carnival leaded by a flamboyant woman name Clarissa. They offered the group the option of travelling with them to the city of Sylendell, which they accepted. On the way there, the key that Catlin bore started glowing while she was asleep and the boxes inside of Birendra’s pack were flashing in response. Flip managed to pick the lock and they discovered an ancient journal scroll by a person named Rama Zeni that referenced an old city that none had heard of before. There were all kinds of extremely old objects like coins and the like in the boxes that must have been relics from the city. In the last box were leaves that were strangely fresh as if just picked and a medallion that wouldn’t let anyone touch it. It was the medallion that was glowing.
More mysteries, but one that could wait. Once inside the city, the group split up temporarily again. Dezaryn and Birendra had a mock battle that proved they both possessed the skills of the secretive Bladesmasters. Clarissa, impressed by their martial display, asked them if they would like to be a part of the carnival showing that night. They and the others of the group agreed. Signs popped up all over the city about the “Quadruval” and each member of the group prepared something different for the four stage spectacular. Chander would display his magical arts, Dion would work with the animal tamer in his tiger form, Dezaryn and Birendra would give a contest battle on stage with the winner gaining one request from the other, and Flip joined the pixie troupe with their Faerie light show.
The show was a great success, especially Dez and Biren’s spectacular martial arts combat. They both set a striking figure that had the audience on the edge of their seats. To be fair, Dez didn’t use his dark nature’s speed or strength and Birendra displayed far more skill than many expected and she won the battle. Her request was for Dez to kiss her feet, which he did with class. However with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, he jumped up and stole the victory kiss anyway and dashed off the stage to much laughter and great cheers of the crowd. A shocked Birendra was left on the stage when the curtains went down.
Birendra went back to her room and found that the boxes were glowing again. Opening the one with the medallion she again attempted to get a hold of it. But it wouldn’t let her. Determined she pushed against the force that was barring her and a great flash of light erupted in the room. This got a lot of attention and the group rushed inside just as Birendra’s hand slammed down on the medallion and she vanished.
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Changes last made on: August 13, 2000