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story:theblackheart_hb

Scroll the 1st : The Blackheart

This scroll was transcribed by Scribe Morvanious from memoirs written by Senalt Nokoma and found buried in the crypt of the Wight King. Further notations from this scroll were taken from the diaries of Xanatharious of Dar’Amkul and Lord Erkane of Akar. These events were first transcribed during Ekeris, year 952, 7th age.

The events depicted in the scroll take place during the fall and beginning of winter of the year 897, 7th age. The dates are not conclusive, as Nokoma routinely used dates and times that do not match our calendar.

It should also be noted that as of this writing, the scrolls of the Hordebreakers currently reside in the Tales section of the library. As more ample discoveries are made there is a growing lobby amongst the monks to move the Hordebreakers into the proper canonical readings of the Worldbreaker Saga. Until that time these will remain Tales.

The events depicted in this scroll is fantastical to say the least and goes along way as to why this and future scrolls the Hordebreakers currently reside inside the Tales section of the library.

It begins with a summoning gone wrong. Garun Nezrii, High Mage of Akar, was attempting to summon a demon when the summoning went wrong.

Instead of summoning the demon he was looking for it reached across the worlds and ripped from them three wanderers, who were then deposited into his summoning circle, completely unaware as to how or why they were summoned.

These wanderers were composed of Lindall, a halfling with considerable roguish skills and a connection with the Yazghou, and the only member of the three from this world, Senalt Nokoma, an elf that was a powerful swordsman and budding magician in his own right, and Naya, a human of middle age who was a warrior from his realm and who broughtwith him strange and unique weaponry he called “guns”.

Master Nezrii, at first confused, then realized that these three wanderers could be a great help in his endeavors. He was summoning a demon to glean information about a missing artifact, but now that he had these three wanderers, he could enlist there help in searching for it and retrieving it.

So, the adventures of the Hordebreakers begins!

The party first decided to explore the museum where the artifact had been on display. The artifact was called the Blackheart by the curators, but Master Nezrii explained to the party that it was much more than a diamond the color of night.

This diamond was a soul gem, used to imprison a powerful demon lord named Na’Az’Karumin, the right hand of the Burning Lord. This jewel had laid deep inside the museum for ages, when a curator discovered it and put it on display. It had sat there, on display, for over 30 years before someone decided to break into the museum and steal it.

Lindal was able to use his connections with the underworld in Akar to discover that the Yazghou had been hired to steal it and delivered it to an unknown party on an airship. Senalt used his knowledge of boats and airships to bluff his way onto the ship, where the party then waited and watched for all newcomers to arrive. The only people of suspicion to arrive on the airship that wasn’t crew was Xanatharious of the Conclave of Eskardia, and Lord Erkane of Akar.

The airship left port shortly after the passengers arrived with the party still on board. It was a two-week flight to Dar’Amkul, and it gave the party plenty of time to root through and discover which of the passengers had the Blackheart on them. After a thorough search of Xanatharious cabin, Lindall was able to discover the Blackheart hidden in a small compartment in a mirror. Unfortunately, he was unable to retrieve it without breaking the mirror and subsequently decided that the best course of action was to make it look like someone didn’t know exactly what they were looking for and trashed the cabin room.

Xanatharious and his entourage were enraged that someone broke into there cabin! He asked for help and the captain quickly ordered a search of the ship. The party was able to deftly escape detection by the captain and his guards, but the party did not get to celebrate their near miss as the airship suddenly came under attack by pirates riding wyverns!

The engine of the airship was damaged, and the airship crashed into the ocean. Naya nearly lost his life as he broke into the pilot’s cabin and deftly lifted the nose of the crashing airship, allowing it to skim the surface of the water and break up in the ocean instead of crashing nose first. The party, with Naya’s ingenuity, quickly built a raft with the debris of the airship and began to paddle to shore.

It was one week of ocean journey before they found land. The party was overjoyed to have survived the harrowing journey but realized that they would need to cross over the Shan mountains and into a desert before they would get anywhere near civilization.

Preparing for the journey as best they could, the party travelled into the forbidding peaks of the Shan mountains. After several days the altitude climbed into the snowy peaks. That is when Senalt discovered a cave that lead into the mountains.

Convinced it would lead to the other side, the party followed the cave deep into the mountain. For several days the travelled in the unrelenting dark, before coming into the icy den of an Ancient White Dragon!

After talking to the Dragon, it took the party as slaves and immediately told them to remove a clutch of bothersome wyverns that were living outside his lairs entrance. Although he could take care of the problem himself, why waste the energy when he had newly acquired slaves?

The party trekked outside the mountain, happy that the white dragon had recently eaten, and aimed towards the wyvern camp. Upon arriving they discovered that Xanatharious and Lord Erkane were tied to posts in the snow outside of the tents of a pirate camp. The same pirate camp that had led an attack on their airship! They must have taken these two as prisoners before the airship had crashed into the ocean.

Sneakily Senalt and Lindal made their way into the pirate camp while Naya provided overwatch. They freed the prisoners and made their way to three wyverns tied up outside the camp. With extremely good intentions they convinced the wyverns that they were the new masters, and quickly took flight!

Flying over the Shan mountains and away from the White Dragon, the party soon arrived in the Gem city of Izeh. There stay was brief as they parted ways with Xanatharious and Erkane and hired an airship to sail back to Akar.

Even that trip was not uneventful though as when they were staying at a stop over in Vizrand they were attacked by two demon halflings. The halflings were after the blackheart and somehow had tracked it back to the party. After successfully killing the demon twins the party was met by a strange man by the name of Mr. Rasmussen.

Mr. Rasmussen offered them a small silver box, free of charge. He spoke honeyed words and convinced the party to take the box. Inside the box was an exact replica of the Blackheart. It had strange magical energies that resembled the true Blackheart and would pass inspection from most magical scrutiny.

Mr. Rasmussen told the party that it was in their best interest to put the true Blackheart in the box and deliver the fake back to Garun Nezrii. Afterall, he did such a poor job keeping it safe in the first place that it would be better protected in the skilled hands of the party that went through all the trouble in retrieving it.

The party agreed, took the box, and placed the real Blackheart inside the box to protect it from scrying eyes. Then the party continued their journey and returned to Garun Nezrii in Akar. They presented the Blackheart to Garun Nezrii, who did not see through the fake, and deposited it into his safe. Having accomplished their goal, the party took a much-deserved rest.

Scholars Note: It should be noted that even though this is a tale, certain aspects of it do line up with the scrolls of the Greyslayers. In particular, a Mr. Rasmussen, who the Greyslayers referred to as a demon, was seen at the end of the battle with the demon in Riston, with a small silver box that he pulled a black diamond from. It is later written that Atmat Duskflame had a powerful demon he could summon by the name of Na’Az’Karumin. One would speculate that perhaps Rasmussen’s goal in giving the box “free of charge” was to get his hands on the Blackheart himself through some nefarious means.


story/theblackheart_hb.txt · Last modified: 2021/08/15 16:48 by clover