The Unhallowed Campaign: 1719CE - 1724CE
Structure
Exposition
You are a child, slumbering in the hollowed-out cave entrance in the woods which you call home. In the night, nocturnal creatures are on the prowl and anyone around would hear the crackling of branches beneath the feet of woodland predators seeking prey. You, however, are accustomed to these noises. No anxiety or fear provokes you to wake. You are sleeping, but not as usual. At first your dreams appear as your unconscious playing out memories and problems encountered throughout your days, but as the night wears on, you being to stir as a terrifying vision fills your vulnerable mind.
The visions change:
You are standing on the parapet of a large stone tower, overlooking a vast horizon. You don't recognize this place. A cold wind blows across your bare arms, forcing the hairs across your body to stand on edge. It's twilight. The sun is beginning to fade behind the cover of a range of mountains in the distance, yet there is enough light to see the grassland below.
As you watch the sun fall, the dream unexpectedly changes. A gulf of water envelope you like a massive wave striking a beachhead. You're forced back, consumed in liquid, unable to breathe as you are dragged along with the current.
The water subsides, quickly receding to some unknown place and you are left alone, this time in the middle of a massive field. Ahead of you is a large body of water, so massive it could be an ocean. You cannot see the shore on the other side. As you stare, shivering and wet, the surface of the water begins to boil and churn. A vortex begins to circle the center of the massive body of water. You hear howls and screeches, as if a horde of something were waiting just below the surface. Quickly, the water begins to evaporate, steaming as if a boiler were placed just below the surface as well.
As the water fades, a massive crevasse is revealed with hundreds of caves adorning the walls. You stare out over this vast new scar. The walls begin to move, seeming to churn and bubble. As you watch, tens of thousands of arms begin to breach the dirt and mud of the walls. All appear to be reaching for something. It is nearly impossible to distinguish, but you can see hundreds of races represented in the arms. From the caves, you see movement. Focusing your vision, you can see creatures begin to emerge from the depths of the caves. You watch as they ascend the cave walls, climbing towards the light. As they ascend, you are aware that the sun has died behind the mountains, and an orange fire reigns in the sky. The creatures find their way to the edge of the canyon, pulling themselves into the world by the thousands.
You feel a hand grasp your foot. In alarm you try to step back but are unable. You get a good look, for the first time at the creatures birthing themselves from the abyss. It is not human, or elf, or any other race you have seen or heard of. Except yourself. A pair of spiraled ram's horns adorn its head. Four long, muscular arms are adorned in razor like claws. The creature pulls itself onto the stable ground, standing up fully. The creature's eyes are a striking yellow shade, with a black flame burning behind the surface. A pair of large leathery wings extend from the creature's body as it stretches out and screams out into the air in a tongue you do not recognize, but which chills you to the bone. The creatures ascending the walls respond to this call and begin streaming out into the night, assuming ranks, and forming into bands. The creature looks down at you, now clutching you by the leg, holding you upside down, and speaks.
"Bear witness to the fall of the Hallowed."
In that instant, he tears off your head with his teeth. Instead of waking up, you feel yourself floating in a sea of blackness. You feel yourself turn, looking down at a massive battlefield. You can see legions of demonic creatures charging the ranks of a combined force of men, elves, dwarves, and other races. The demons tear into their ranks unflinchingly, decimating battalions. The vision blurs and you see now villages across the Continent burning. Men, women and children lay dead or dying, with unspeakable things having been done to their bodies. Flayed flesh and remnants of tortured souls are strewn in the streets. You hear a voice in your mind as your vision shuffles between locations, speaking in a voice you do not recognize:
“See what the fruits of the Unhallowed will bring. Your story will be intertwined with the rise or fall of the legions and you shall decide upon whose shoulders the Continent will reside. Go to the place where the eyes silenced the voice of ruin, where you may see the Void and the Void sees you. Here is where the fate of all will be decided. Claim your powers and venture into the labyrinth below the mirror's surface. Nature's will shall be done and purge this world of this plague forever. You will become the savior of many and the champion of one. A father's child shall emerge from amidst a tortured soul and like the phoenix be reborn a living legend, embraced.”
Your field of view begins to extend, as if you are no longer inside your body, but rather floating above it. As you pan out, you see the Continent expanding before your eyes. Flashes of battles, massacres and violent creatures throw themselves across you vision. The continent at first appearing green begins to blacken as countries and peoples are violently uprooted. The voice speaks to you one final time before you awake in a violent fit of emotion, shaking to your core and drenched in your own cold sweat.
"Let nature guide you. But choose your fate wisely. One decision will determine the outcome of all."
***
You awaken, thrust violently back into the material world by your vision. Cold sweat covers your skin and your muscles are trembling violently. You can still smell the burning flesh, the rotting corpses, and the sulfurous hellfire. You do not scream, waking the Firbolg family that has taken you in. Instead, you remain beneath the covers, remembering the horrors of the dream. You wonder what the voice meant, if it was even real, or a figment of your imagination.
As the days and weeks wear on, you continue to think about the vision as you go about your tasks. The Firbolgs are a peaceful people, passive unless threatened. It is what stayed their hand the night one of the Elders, Nikthu found you on the edge of the forest, left to die. Since that day, you have been brought up in the forest, raised by the Ik’thuin tribe, by a mother and father not your own.
Years pass and you remain thinking about the riddle of the dream, not telling anyone for fear that they may see and evil in you, like you saw in the Unhallowed creatures of your vision. You remember the voice from the dream. It appeared to be warning you about a danger to come, and appeared to present to you the path to overcome it, “Claim your powers…,” “Nature’s will shall be done and purge the world of this plague forever.” You watch for years as members of the Firbolg community move in harmony with the natural world around them. Tribal elders teach the young about the druidic ways, teat them about wild magic and the balance of nature. You find your place.
As time wanes ever on, you are granted a place, being trained as a druid by the elder who found you. You learn the ways of the Firbolg and commit yourself to the preservation of the balance of nature. As you train, you encounter a number of unnatural obstacles, of concern to the Firbolg and to you. The appearance of magical circles in the woods, where nothing ventures and nothing grows; the appearance of
wild creatures, dangerous and novel; and of your own powers.
You are sixteen, accompanying your elder deep into the woods on a quest to stop a blight that has begun to harm the nearby dryads. You appear before the blight and begin your rituals, when suddenly all is changed. Your power turns on you and your target. Your body becomes a conduit for an energy unlike anything you have experienced before. Instead of healing the blight, it begins to grow. You feel the power at your fingertips bastardized by an evil you remember only in a dream.
A tear is created by the emergence of your powers. Several monstrous forms begin to emerge from the earth, clawing their way to the surface. Terrified, remembering the crawling masses of the Unhallowed from your nightmares, you are unable to respond. The creatures escape, killing your teacher in the process
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