Lore

Backstoryy

Premise

The story begins with Cainomos van Durge, the duke of Dimis Araddrae which is the capital city of Vennis Araddria, finding himself as a helpless blackmailed errand, caught up in the midst of royal treason, but it was Sharri Hazbrinde, one the city's scholars and healers, whose path crossed with his to discover the deep fiendish trouble in which he was caught.

Her Introduction to the Usurper

When she first met Cainomos who was still the duke of Dimis Araddrae at the time, he came to her as a patient just as another.

"Please, miss, heal my arm. It hurts quite badly..."

He hurried into her office, not giving her a chance to greet him. He looked calm, but he claimed to have been wounded while hunting a giant boar which had been ravaging the countryside. He said a pack of wolves attacked his exhausted party, and indeed he had a bite mark on his left forearm, from which he was bleeding. As she started to perform her restorative magic, she noticed that he size of the injury was larger than what she thought a typical wolf fang could make. She asked of it, and he admitted that the attacking beasts were large and thus could have been worgs rather than regular wolves, but that he was not sure, and trusting the judgement of Bryophen who had let him through, she thought not to enquire further.

After the treatment, he lamented, talking about his concerned that something like that may happen again because he was not experienced in hunting, and his party lacked the support of a healer of any calibre, and wished that he could take her with him next time. Sharri was sympathetic; however, she kept sensing something odd in his tone--probably he was simply asking her out like many of her other patients, she thought. She gently told him that her sister Erima, who spent much time outside working, was much more skilled with a bow and in hunting than she was, and that she could also find him a suitable healer. The man, showing his understanding with a sign of disappointment, said he would welcome Erima into his party anytime, and wanted to speak with her. Sharri told him where they could find them, which was a nearby tavern the sibling ran together by the woods behind the guild. Then the man kindly asked her to book a room for him for the night, and took his leave with a word of thanks and wishing her a good day.

Curious, she spoke with Bryophen once the man had left to see if he had anything special to say about him, and he revealed to her that he could not get any useful information out of his mind at all apart from his immediate interest in having the wound cured by her hands as if the door to his mind had been guarded by an impassable thick dark mist, and that nonetheless he sensed something dark or covered in darkness in him. This deeply troubled her as she also could not sense any emotional energy from him with her empathic nature, which she usually could from other people unless her own mind was not at peace, and worried her about both him and, of course, Erima, her own sister, whom he was going to visit. Therefore, she decided that she would accompany her sister if she were to go with him and whenever she would. She had a sense of guilt that she even suggested her--now that she did, she wondered, would it be impolite for her to turn down the invitation of his grace?

Her Second Meeting with the Usurper

The same evening, Cainomos showed up at their tavern as he said he would when Sharri was home with Erima bantering with a few customers. Once he and Erima were awkwardly introduced to each other amidst a hush among the drinking townsfolks, Sharri showed him the room on the upper floor in which he was staying, and told him she and Erima would be waiting downstairs until he finished unloading. He asked her then if she was worried, showing his curiosity about her participation, to which she responded by saying that she changed her mind about not joining his hunting group because she wanted to stay close to her sister. The man's countenance brightened upon hearing it.

For about a half an hour after he came back and sat with them at a table, he spoke to them about his job as a lord and how he ended up with his hunting party as an amateur huntsman, revealing that it was more of a temporary group of defenders. His story was that it had recently come to his knowledge that towns in the countryside were suffering from attacks of monsters and dangerous beasts like never before, and needed military aid from the royal palace immediately; thus he sent a messenger, but the boar came and began destroying towns and crops, and he figured it would take them too long to deal with the boar, which was already killing people too; he could not allow any more lives to be lost on his watch, and therefore gathered his own band of private mercenaries, who were nonetheless better with swords and spears than with bows, to protect the towns until they arrived.

Sharri, while commending his courage, suggested their help might not be needed anymore now that the royal troops were coming. He agreed; however, he dropped his tone and leaned forward, and started to expressed his concern that, perhaps, they were all wrong.

Puzzled by his remark, Sharri looked at Erima, who looked back at her helplessly, and asked him why he thought so, but he held his silence, seeming as if he had been trying to analyze all his possible moves to draw the best result as any chess player would, until he broke it with yet another enigmatic comment, which left them even more puzzled.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. You know, I should not be second-guessing his majesty."

Having said that, he told them that he changed his mind about taking either Sharri or Erima with him, and decided to wait for the reinforcement from the king's army. Then he told the two that he was tired and wanted to sleep, and left the table for his room, thanking them for listening to himself, and wishing them a good night. For a moment afterwards. they sat together while Sharri pondered what he meant as she felt a sense of relief replacing the anxiety that she had, whereas Erima on the other hand was yawning and smiling at her nonchalantly, and spoke to her how strange she thought the man was, and then they went back to their other customers to continue the banter until it was time to close the business.

The Story Unravelled

Days later, Sharri saw him again when he was being carried to the entrance to Mage's Guild by some men in a rush shouting for a healer as she was working in her office as usual. He was wounded, and more severely than he was last time. She rushed to him amongst other scholars of the guild, telling the men to lay him down so that she could heal him. He had multiple wounds all over his body, and they were so deep that he was nigh death as he had lost much blood and that she alone could not save him, so it took multiple healers to bring him back to an acceptable condition.

While he still lay unconscious in the infirmary inside the guild, she asked the men who carried him to the guild. They were his servants, and one of them who called himself Melcus told her that they were fighting savage beasts and monsters in defense of a town in the countryside until those enemies increased in number and went out of hand, and Cainomos had to lead them away from the town while his men helped the civilians escape before the town was overrun, and that they found him again at a portal by his manor not far from the town, where he told them to find him, in the condition in which she saw him.

When Cainomos had regained his consciousness, he seemed to be in a state of shock, but soon he was in his original strange calmness, and able to communicate properly, and even to make a joke about his being alive to see her face again.

"Ah...so it was you. I am truly blessed that I am able to see you again, my healer. I thought I'd not make it. You have my sincere gratitude."

She brushed it off that it was not time for flirtation, asserting that it was not she alone who saved him, but nearly the whole guild, and she could not take the full credit which he was giving her. He complimented her modesty, and acknowledged the fact that he and his men failed to protect the town they were trying to protect, presuming that she had already been informed of what had happened by his servants, and expressing his regret. Sharri asked why he was still fighting the attackers, and he told her no reinforcement had arrived since their last meeting even though it was only a day's journey on foot to the royal palace, and his messenger should have already been there and back by now, and continued to mumble something about guards and how he should trust the king, seeming frustrated. Sharri prompted him to explain what he was saying, noting her own question of why he had to send his own messenger, and he opened his mouth to answer, but held himself back immediately, and instead asked if he could trust her--specifically to keep it between them at least for the time being. She affirmed by reminding him that she would not have helped him or wanted him to bring her sister if he could not.

With a deep breath, the man explained that he tried to find a guard who could travel to the palace when he first discovered the monster attacks, but could find none in their usual stations except a handful of archers, to whom he offered to send a messenger to the palace himself as he believed they could not spare a hand to do so. Sharri asked why this information had to be secret, suggesting that they should have a guard nearby deliver the message again immediately. To this, the man replied that indeed it would be the most sensible action, but he did not expect it to have any positive meaning, and then continued to elaborate on it, revealing to her the king's strong obsession with magic and his reliance on the force field protecting the whole kingdom.

"See, as you know, our kingdom is protected by a force field, an invisible wall through which no living material may pass from anywhere, whether physical or spiritual, except those that may. It was created 125 years ago--35 years before you were born--by the royal mages after King Bellus ordered them. It is a product of a new spell they invented, whose formula and incantation are akin to those of the existing Force Wall spell which we know, but it entirely differs in the fact that the wall is not of a magical property, and is therefore unaffected by the laws of magic...It means that it cannot be disintegrated. It also does not accept travels from any other planes."

Sharri knew about the wall as all other people that learnt about it in their history classes, but its exact functions were unclear to her. She wondered if anybody else knew it, and was curious to know more, but she avoided interrupting him as she wanted him to continue talking.

"I know all about it, for I was there when the mages were working on the new spell. They asked me as well as the guild for help when they realized the task was too much for them alone. First of all, they had to gain favor with the church of Corellon, which opposed the very act of inventing it. I would tell you the whole story if we had the time. The point is that soon the barrier was up to protect the whole kingdom, and King Bellus was pleased with it as he was able to focused on diplomacy while he kept his political enemies at bay. Peace has prevailed since then. Then he became comfortable in safety, and stopped making war with those who oppose the teachings of Araddra. With no need to prepare for battle, the army weakened, and the guards are barely strong enough to deal with petty thieves. Now it appears that the peace is finally taking its toll on our kingdom."

Sharri asked where the beasts were coming from in the countryside and what he thought they could do about them, pointing out the fact that, if they did nothing, the beasts might reach Dimis Araddrae. Cainomos told her that they were spawns of the spell, revealing to her another fact that the spell was created with the help of the Archfiend, the infernal lord, after the divine power that protected the human kingdom on The Island of Padera, and that the best and the only way to destroy the beasts was to end the spell.

There were two problems with it, however: the spell was an infernal spell inscribed by the demifiends, and the king would not allow to end the spell.

The demifiends are notorious dealers of the dark realm, who trade anything the fiends can supply them with in exchange for anything they may deem equal in value. When King Bellus ordered the royal mages to recreate the divine power of the human kingdom, he was envious and adamant about making the copy a spell because of his love of magic while they quickly realized the order was impossible, so they turned to the church of Corellon for a blessing, but to their dismay, the priests denied the request, saying that their god would not be affected or driven by the influence of another god, and also that the king's interest had nothing to do with their god, and was therefore in no position to make a demand. Then they consulted Mage's Guild of Araddria for a possible solution, whose committee suggested to make a deal with a demifiend, but told them they would not be helping because the code of the church prohibited having any dealings with those from the Under World.

Following this, they tried bribing the church, but they refused to take even a single coin from the royal mages, whom they now branded heretics, because they already had a major benefactor: Cainomos, and even went on to warn the mages that, if they were to violate the code and become traitors, they would publicly denounce the king. As a result, they sought Cainomos to have him use his position to the church as a leverage.

At first, he refused to help, but they threatened to harm his brother Haedrich, and made him choose one of two options: to get the church to approve of a fiendish trade, or to join them and find them a demifiend. These were both unacceptable options for him as he was devoted to the church, but with his dear brother's life on the line, he had a choice to make, and he told them he would go with the latter as it would buy him more time--perhaps he could try and save his brother without violating his own faith, and he had some friends inside the guild as the duke.

As an advanced wizard, he could obtain some basic information on his brother's whereabouts and his surroundings, but to know his odds for rescuing his brother alone, he needed to consult some of his friends at the guild, and from the information they gave him, he planned his moves. It appeared that his brother was in a safe place, but nonetheless being watched as he was also, and he reckoned that getting to him alone without being discovered would be impossible. In fact, rescuing him was going to be impossible for anyone for as long as the mages kept watch over him. This meant that bringing them what they wanted was his only option.

However, as he was with the church on denouncing the king, he realized that he could take advantage of his predicament to gather the evidence of the king's treason, and turn the tide, especially if he had his brother as a witness.

To do so, he needed to start by looking for a demifiend. For him who had gained much wealth and influence through his business as a merchant, it was a simple thing, and he knew exactly where to find his counterparts of the dark realm--the black market. As the duke of the city, he had visited it frequently in order to inspect the wares for possible contraband, or to chase down a criminal, and made connections with some demifiends. One of such was Jaa'pha who managed the other demifiends there and the goods from the under world.

"Ah...if it isn't the duke. What has brought you here today? I can assure you that our stores are clean. Please, feel free to look through our storage."

As he came through the narrow opening on the ground in a corner of the Volosa graveyard, which was the entrance, he was greeted by Jaa'pha. He told him that he was not there for the usual inspection, but as a customer of a sort.

"Well, well. What a pleasant surprise. What has changed your faith?"

As Jaa'pha tried showing him all the goods in the shops, eager to entice him to the fiendish allures, he stopped him, saying that his faith was unwavering, but he had a customer who needed a special work done. Having understood his need, Jaa'pha showed him to the back room behind reception, then asked what sort of work he needed done. When Cainomos had finished explaining how he was involved with the royal mages in search of the new spell, Jaa'pha nodded and told him it could be done, but needed an upfront payment. Cainomos asked if Lady Succubus needed a little feeding, and told him that he was willing to be in her thrall--he, in truth, was not as any sober man, but he had reconciled that it was the only way for him to avoid being complicit in the act of treason and betraying his own faith and the church.

Jaa'pha called upon her, who was the eldest daughter of the Archfiend, called Malana, and the lady of the Last Lair, and introduced Cainomos to her.

"State your business, Jaa'pha."

"Greetings, Lady Malana. I have called upon you here at the request of this nobleman of Araddria."

As he briefed her on the deal to be made,