The Gates of Disorder (6/24/20)
You are in the quaint and stately manor known as Maplevale. Bequeathed to you by the city of Mount Cashell as the former estate of the deceased Lich known as Vaarn.
You limped your way here to rest and nurse your wounds. After some exploration and room claiming, you ate a hearty dinner and found yourself drifting off to sleep.
You rest was not uneventful though as you were visited by different dreams. Disjointed tableaus of past events depicted with little meaning.
You see a young man with books in hand entering an apprenticeship for the first time. You see he is studying the Wizard arts. Working himself to the bone to learn, grow, and master the arcane.
Time moves forward - This same young man now a master wizard, an instructor, a mentor. He has an apprentice of his own. A young woman, close in age to himself. Studying dutifully under his tutelage.
Time speeds on again, The two's apprenticeship blossoms into something more. something deeper. Various scenes whiz by as they grow older together. One scene that catches your eye is the woman posing for a portrait.
Time goes ever onward. The woman's health declines, soon she dies. The man weeps for her. Time jumps forward again as you see This man travel to all ends of the earth, speaking with great masters, learning more and more spells, buying, selling, and trading books, you get the sense he's searching for something. Time flashes across your vision as he buys them, reads them, and discards them in a flurry of movement across the material plane.
At this point the old man resembles an all too familiar face. As his search continues, his power grows, he soon has the ability to move to other dimensions and visit other planes. He moves through these realms of gods and demons seeking, no, demanding these beings share the power over life and death with him. For all his accrued power and ability, he is still not strong enough to defeat a god though. And so his search continues. You see him stumble across another dimension. This one exists solely outside of what we can perceive as normal and rational. Tenebrous darkness swirls all around. hideous eldritch creatures with inky black tentacles wander blindly about gibbering and screaming in the endless void. Vaarn finds a being within this void, a monstrous humanoid wrapped in black chains from head to toe. It speaks to Vaarn telepathically. Though you can not hear what the being is saying, you can see Vaarn's eyes light up with an expression you have never seen on him before. One conveying hope. You see The town of Ailec but it is not a ruin. It is vibrant town as it once must have looked in its heyday. The sun shines over head as workers toil and children play. Suddenly you see a figure enter your field of vision. It is Vaarn moving purposefully towards the town. You stand frozen as suddenly you see him begin slaughtering the townsfolk with spell and blade. The wanton carnage continues until there is no one left to oppose him. You see Vaarn literally standing on a hill of bodies. he then snaps his fingers and steps off and suddenly the pile of bodies is lit aflame. Separate from the pile is the body of a small girl. Vaarn picks her up with mage hand and begins carving out her heart. His face remains stoic even in the midst of this butchery. Once he has it in hand, he tosses the girl's corpse on the pyre. Time moves on as you see Vaarn return to the scene of the blaze to collect Ashes from the burned victims. He places them in a jar. You see him inside that familiar cemetery where he has an altar set up. upon it he places the jar of ashes. You can see next to it the heart of the young girl, a jar marked Wyvern's blood, a flask marked "Manticore Venom", another marked "Arsenic" followed by "Belladonna" and "Blood of the nightwalker" and finally at the end of this grotesque concession stand, a single unicorn horn, still soaked with blood at the stem, you get the impression this was removed by force. He places the items one by one into a small cooking pot and boils them together into this inky black liquid which he then drinks fully. He immediately falls to the ground upon finishing this horrid concoction. Days pass by in quick succession as you see his body lie motionless on the cold earth of the cemetery. Finally you see the body stir as it stiffens with pain and you watch as a glowing ball of light is forcibly removed from his chest and it floats up and lands peacefully within a container. Vaarn rises to his feet and immediately shuts the container. You recognize it as the Phylactery you recently destroyed with Moonbeam. Vaarn looks about and examines his body. He seems the same except for his eyes. They glow a sickening yellow. You watch as he collects his things from the altar and mutters to himself "Now the real work begins". And you all come to consciousness in your bed with the memories of your dream fragments still in your mind. What would you like to do? Encounters on the way to The Prison: Cabin with portraits if they bed down for the night A great Elk is seen watching the party from a distance. It almost looks as if the elk is wearing a crown made of twigs and vines. A tribe of Firbolg are seen disappearing into a tree. They look sad and hurried to leave. You find three bears eating the corpse of a blonde female. They revert to Human form once they die and their recently ransacked cottage is nearby.
Time goes ever onward. The woman's health declines, soon she dies. The man weeps for her. Time jumps forward again as you see This man travel to all ends of the earth, speaking with great masters, learning more and more spells, buying, selling, and trading books, you get the sense he's searching for something. Time flashes across your vision as he buys them, reads them, and discards them in a flurry of movement across the material plane.
At this point the old man resembles an all too familiar face. As his search continues, his power grows, he soon has the ability to move to other dimensions and visit other planes. He moves through these realms of gods and demons seeking, no, demanding these beings share the power over life and death with him. For all his accrued power and ability, he is still not strong enough to defeat a god though. And so his search continues. You see him stumble across another dimension. This one exists solely outside of what we can perceive as normal and rational. Tenebrous darkness swirls all around. hideous eldritch creatures with inky black tentacles wander blindly about gibbering and screaming in the endless void. Vaarn finds a being within this void, a monstrous humanoid wrapped in black chains from head to toe. It speaks to Vaarn telepathically. Though you can not hear what the being is saying, you can see Vaarn's eyes light up with an expression you have never seen on him before. One conveying hope. You see The town of Ailec but it is not a ruin. It is vibrant town as it once must have looked in its heyday. The sun shines over head as workers toil and children play. Suddenly you see a figure enter your field of vision. It is Vaarn moving purposefully towards the town. You stand frozen as suddenly you see him begin slaughtering the townsfolk with spell and blade. The wanton carnage continues until there is no one left to oppose him. You see Vaarn literally standing on a hill of bodies. he then snaps his fingers and steps off and suddenly the pile of bodies is lit aflame. Separate from the pile is the body of a small girl. Vaarn picks her up with mage hand and begins carving out her heart. His face remains stoic even in the midst of this butchery. Once he has it in hand, he tosses the girl's corpse on the pyre. Time moves on as you see Vaarn return to the scene of the blaze to collect Ashes from the burned victims. He places them in a jar. You see him inside that familiar cemetery where he has an altar set up. upon it he places the jar of ashes. You can see next to it the heart of the young girl, a jar marked Wyvern's blood, a flask marked "Manticore Venom", another marked "Arsenic" followed by "Belladonna" and "Blood of the nightwalker" and finally at the end of this grotesque concession stand, a single unicorn horn, still soaked with blood at the stem, you get the impression this was removed by force. He places the items one by one into a small cooking pot and boils them together into this inky black liquid which he then drinks fully. He immediately falls to the ground upon finishing this horrid concoction. Days pass by in quick succession as you see his body lie motionless on the cold earth of the cemetery. Finally you see the body stir as it stiffens with pain and you watch as a glowing ball of light is forcibly removed from his chest and it floats up and lands peacefully within a container. Vaarn rises to his feet and immediately shuts the container. You recognize it as the Phylactery you recently destroyed with Moonbeam. Vaarn looks about and examines his body. He seems the same except for his eyes. They glow a sickening yellow. You watch as he collects his things from the altar and mutters to himself "Now the real work begins". And you all come to consciousness in your bed with the memories of your dream fragments still in your mind. What would you like to do? Encounters on the way to The Prison: Cabin with portraits if they bed down for the night A great Elk is seen watching the party from a distance. It almost looks as if the elk is wearing a crown made of twigs and vines. A tribe of Firbolg are seen disappearing into a tree. They look sad and hurried to leave. You find three bears eating the corpse of a blonde female. They revert to Human form once they die and their recently ransacked cottage is nearby.
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