As the rest of the group tried to puzzle out where in the world Birendra had gone, the warrioress had found herself in a forest glen. Nearby she could hear the voices of children playing and she headed in that direction. The children ran off to hide when she approached, all but one. The elvish-looking child had black hair that reached to the middle of his back, pulled into a ponytail and strange silvery eyes. He was a very cute little kid, maybe about 10 human years. He pointed at the medallion which was now around her neck and unable to be removed. He spoke in a language she had never heard but he gestured that she should follow him and did so.
As she walked along behind him, she had a strange sensation come over her and her body started to fade. She felt in between worlds and watched as explosions started up at the far end of the village. An undead army was attacking, mercilessly slaughtering anyone in their path. Behind them strode a man in night black robes and she recognized him as the wizard Mortegro, leader of Dominion. The army stormed each and every house until they located the little boy she was just with and dragged him out to the wizard. Mortegro took one look at the frightened child’s silver eyes and smiled in triumph.
Birendra appeared back in the room with the medallion still stuck around her neck. She explained everything she saw, even if she didn’t understand what the significance of it was. Later she and Chander talked with Catlin about Mortegro and she admitted to knowing of a beautiful young man with long black hair and silver eyes named Rizzen, that the wizard had been keeping as a slave. Often the wizard would torture the kind-hearted man in his attempts to get her to tell the key’s secrets, since she couldn’t stand seeing her friend hurt. Catlin told them she didn’t know much about the youth other than he was continuously being hurt but would miraculously heal within a day. He was the one who aided her escape from the castle, staying behind to ensure she got away.
All this talk of Mortegro upset the child greatly as her experiences there were hardly picnic conversation. To everyone’s surprise she got a strange look in her eyes, walked up to Dezaryn, held his hand a moment and said that he "felt like Rizzen" and was immediately soothed. As Catlin sweetly fell asleep in Dez’s arms (much to his embarrassment… he handed her over to Chander). Everyone started yapping about what that meant. They all agreed that it was time to leave. And would do so the next day.
Dion however was restless. He headed out that night to a bar where a bard named Elia was telling stories. He asked the young lady if she had every heard any tales about magical medallions. Elia promptly went into the tales of King Miro who was rumored to have sealed up the naga dragon, Icing Death with his crown locking it with seven keys. It was a rather colorful tale and Dion returned to bed, still as confused as ever.
The next few days were spent on the road and dealing with skirmishes by Dominion, and the occasional unease of Dez’s ‘hunts’. They all figured that Lordan must be dead by now if they had managed to pick up their trail. Halfway to Haven, they noticed a large group of women warriors further down the way. Chander lead them off the trail and into the brush in an attempt to stay out of sight. However the large group followed them, not far off and not too close for another day. The weather turned ugly and it was getting much colder. The group took to walking the horses because the brush was too thick in places to ride. Finally figuring that they would not be able to outrun them, the group turned to fight… and Dezaryn vanished!
Dez blinked and found himself in a tropical jungle, fully tied and hanging upside down. He could hear voices in the bushes around him but could see no one. Annoyed, he used his dampyric strength to break the ropes and crashed to the ground. Immediately there was a flurry of movements and voices. Picking himself up he looked around as a group of primitive bushmen with the most archaic weapons in the world inched out to look at him. They jabbered amongst themselves for a while then one of them held out a charm of some sort. Dezaryn felt the darkness in his blood stir and he felt compelled to touch the thing, which he did. The charm lit up an eerie red and the bushmen became rather excited. Out of the bush came a lovely, dark-haired woman dressed rather revealingly. She kicked the bushmen out of the way and introduced herself as Calesta.
Calesta took Dez into the village of Tokar where he met the elder, an old man with a rather malicious streak named Rastanis. He was actually an elder demonling and told Dezaryn that they had been waiting for him for a long time and finally had gathered enough power to pull him there. A confused Dezaryn went with Rastanis and was shone an enormous portal in the center of the village and a golden throne before it. Rastanis told him that he was the son of the Demon King, and the villagers of Tokar had been eagerly preparing for the day when the Tenma Dono (Demon Prince) would take up his place as General of the Army of darkness and open the gates to the Abyss. All this was immensely tempting to Dez and he watched from the throne as the villagers started the ceremony and presented him with a large chest and a goblet with the blood of a sacrifice. Inside the chest was a set of black crystal armor that merged with his body to be called at will, and a scepter. Just as Dezaryn was about to declare his title, a light fused around him, filling the area with earth energy. He thought he felt a tear fall on his cheek and he was gone.
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Changes last made on: August 13, 2000