Part: The First

Our story begins when the Royal Black Watch first traveled to the Shadowland. Andrella and Bain had found this world and established a home there, then invited RBW to come and explore the land with them.

Guthnor

The tale really begins with a seemingly innocuous plea for aid by an ettin named Guthnor. Unlike most ettins, Guthnor was kind and timid and spoke the human tongue. He treasured a golden rock that had come into his possession. At the time, the RBW members thought nothing of it.

But later, Lord Blackthorn recovered Kianne's magical silver bow and tried to barter with her to trade the bow for Guthnor's golden rock. Realizing something was afoot, and being against stealing in any event, she did not immediately deliver the rock to Blackthorn. He grudgingly gave her the bow, and she promised she would at least look into obtaining the rock.

Yet before any plan could be made on what to do about the golden rock, the Shrine of Justice was attacked by a group known as the Order of Sin. These warriors always wore black armor and blood-red cloaks. Guthnor and Dupré arrived first to fight off the attack, but by the time RBW arrived on the scene, Guthnor was already dead.

Rumor held that Blackthorn himself was behind the Order of Sin, but there was no evidence that could be used against him, so Kianne took the golden rock into safe keeping and refused to hand it over.

The Golden Rock

The attacks by the Order of Sin continued; it seemed that the Rune of Justice was the target. Dupré was poisoned and the rune stolen. Once the antidote for Dupré was obtained, RBW chased after the rune to one of the Order of Sin's fortresses. They struck luck and were able to recover it.

This led to the Crypts of Yew, where RBW discovered more members of the Order of Sin along with the dark wisps that were aiding them. Inside the crypts, they met the apparent leader of the Order of Sin, Larix Vageous, and discovered a pentagram circled with more golden rocks identical to Guthnor's. The slot for the fifth rock was empty.

Near the pentagram was a coffin with the words, “The prison of Soth.” The most senior members of RBW recognized that name as a foe from their past, and as the coffin was empty, they realized Soth had somehow been loosed on this land. Vageous was defeated, but the whereabouts of Soth were unknown.

When RBW reported back to Lord British, Nystul brought up a disturbing possibility that the pentagram and the golden rocks might be part of a summoning spell to open the Black Gate. Once placed, the golden rocks could not be moved until the spell was complete or seven years passed, whichever came first. And destroying the rocks was impossible—they represented pieces of Britannia itself, Nystul said, though RBW didn't recognize the significance of that until later. Since RBW could not remove the other four rocks, their only hope was to keep the final, fifth rock, out of the reach of whomever was trying to open the Black Gate.

Lilith and Cloud

For a time both sides seemed to be at a stalemate; the golden rock was carefully hidden, and the waiting game was being played. Then another foe from RBW's past, Lilith from Krynn, appeared in the Hedge Maze. She was finally dispatched with a gem of entrapment—an item which was able to suck Lilith inside its own facets and trap her within.

Lilith's very presence seemed to suggest that Soth was definitely on Britannia and active, but no one had yet seen him in the flesh (such as it is).

Cloud, a member of RBW, claimed to have been able to resurrect Guthnor, something none had been able to do. The ettin did appear briefly, during which time he urged Kianne to give Cloud the golden rock. But, unsure, Ki spoke with Dupré, and in the conversation the two were reunited. It turned out Dupré was from the same Britannia where Ki had been the Avatar. But she had thought he was simply another alternate version, and Dupré had thought much the same since Kianne had not aged. Ki explained that she was immortal, and learned that Iolo was also there but was in the elven city of Dawn, which was sealed from entrance by most.

Cloud tried to insist that the others give him the rock to protect it. Kianne, hesitant, still refused. While the stalemate between the two was continuing, new information came to light. It seemed the undead in the lands were growing stronger, even to the point that the entire Order of Sin was now undead. Vageous himself reappeared, seemingly from the dead, and revealed that he had been controlling Cloud the entire time. But not as much as he'd thought, since Cloud turned on him and killed him.

It was learned that evil sword that had been used to attempt to corrupt Cloud had been given to him by Lord Blackthorn...

Lord Soth Appears

The first person to report seeing Soth face-to-face was Nystul, Lord British's mage. Soth had attacked and attempted to steal the eight moonstones of Virtue, but they were scattered and went missing instead. It was unknown why he wanted them, but RBW sought to recover them.

Dupré: “I need some ale.” Kianne: “I'd like to pour some ale on Soth and ignite it. Soth Flambé anyone?”

Their search led to the dungeon Shame, where they finally met Lord Soth themselves. He proved to be a powerful opponent and they were unable to dispatch him. Soth almost wiped them out right then and there, but then Dupré appeared out of the blue, saying he had “felt” something, and with his help RBW was able to escape.

Back at their castle in their city of Northwind, the RBW members discussed the situation. They learned that there was now a force field blocking entrance to the area with the golden rocks. They were not at the time able to figure out a way to get through it.

The Moonstones

With nothing left to do, the search for the moonstones continued. Six of the stones were recovered quickly by various members of RBW. When it came time for Christmas—which was celebrated by RBW because many of its members were from Earth—they decided to go ahead and hold a party. Even Lord Blackthorn attended, though his personal guard Garn did nothing but stir up trouble.

Not long afterward, RBW received word of an attack on Empath Abbey, so they quickly went there. They encountered Soth and some undead apparently after the Candle of Love, though no one knew why. They were able to chase Soth away, and learned then that Nystul had discovered a way to use the moonstones to hopefully destroy Soth for good. With that, RBW turned their sights on tracking down the last few stones.

Clandestine Spying

It was at this point that Kianne learned of a secret entrance into Lord Blackthorn's castle. This would mark the beginning of many spying missions as she entered the castle in secret and strove to learn what, if anything, Blackthorn was up to.

Additionally, news came of the possibility that Soth was creating clones—undead duplicates of people with apparently some of their skills.

RBW finally recovered the final moonstone, and Walkryie, who had read an ancient scroll on the matter, described the necessary process. The stones would be handed out to various members of RBW, those members who embodied the Virtue of the stone. Then, circled by these eight people holding the eight stones, Walkyrie could cast a spell to obtain a scroll that could hopefully spell the end of Soth—by making him mortal.

During the preparations, Kianne was attacked by Soth. After she was rescued by Andrella, the two decided to confront Blackthorn. Ki had discovered Soth and a clone of Connor in Blackthorn's castle, so they decided to demand answers from Blackthorn directly. Unfortunately, Blackthorn refused to give answers and even made up imaginary offenses to justify jailing them. Fortunately, they were too well-known for the charges to stick, but the end result was that Blackthorn denied knowing Soth had ever been in his castle and denied any involvement.

And there was still no proof...

Larix Vageous Revisited

Soth stepped up his attacks, leaving messages making it clear he was after the golden rock, and threatening RBW if they did not deliver it to him. Kianne, having been gifted with a cloak of invisibility, snuck into Blackthorn's castle once again to try to learn more of Soth's presence. While there, she discovered, in a chest there, a Wand of Magis that had been stolen by Soth from Nystul. She was unable to retrieve it, since her cloak made her incorporeal and unable to manipulate objects, but she did note the significance that something stolen by Soth would have appeared in Blackthorn's castle. Perhaps this was proof they could use...

Soth attacked Northwind with hordes of undead, but RBW fought bravely and were able to prevail for the time being. Soth himself was chased away with the new, powerful weapons that RBW blacksmiths were learning to create, called ancient weapons. Additionally, and ironically, Balinor was able to harm Soth using the sword of Nine Lives Stealing that he had obtained from Blackthorn.

Not long afterward, RBW attacked another lair of the Order of Sin they had discovered. At different times, they also had to deal with clones of themselves that Soth was making. RBW established a codeword amongst themselves so that they could recognize true members from the clones.

During their final attack on the Order of Sin, they once again encountered Larix Vageous, who was now clearly undead. Defeating him, the RBW members discovered evidence that Soth himself had used this lair for his own necromancy experiments, and for making the clones. But Soth himself was not present, so there was little they could do at the moment.

Guthnor Rests in Peace

It was around this time that Kianne and Sygil encountered Guthnor's ghost. They and Andrella went to Nystul to ask him about it. Finally, they were able to help Guthnor pass to the next life by bringing his ghost to the Shrine of Justice. Guthnor departed, finally resting in peace.

Guard Disguise

Kianne: “You always have such good ideas!” Andrella: “Yeah, but you're the brave one for trying them!”

Meanwhile, Andrella had mentioned something that sparked Kianne's imagination. She had suggested dressing up as a Chaos Guard and simply walking into Lord Blackthorn's castle. Ki obtained an ID of a guard from one of Andrella's contacts, then she purchased the correct armor and equipment. Complementing her costume with an Incognito spell that made her look like a completely different person, she walked boldly into Blackthorn's castle in bright daylight. She was able to fetch the Wand of Magis and escape the castle without anyone showing any signs of suspecting her.

The Circle of Moonstones

When Kianne returned with the wand, she learned that RBW was preparing to cast the spell that Walkyrie had been preparing. The wand was placed on a back burner as the RBW members gathered into their circle.

This time, it was an army of orcs, not undead, who appeared to attempt to stop them. RBW successfully fought them off, and the scroll was obtained.

Kianne and Andrella took the Wand of Magis to the castle to return it to Nystul. There they learned that the queen of the Ophidians had agreed to a peace treaty with the Britannians, but only if they respected the sign of the treaty, a magical blue staff. In order to facilitate this, Lord British had decided Dupré should carry the staff, but that would require an audience with the queen herself to ask permission.

The RBW members spoke with Dupré about it. Teasingly, Dupré mentioned that every time he said Kianne's name, Blackthorn would grit his teeth and grind out, “Kianne....” This proved true as Kianne would discover in the days ahead.

More orcs attacked the RBW keep, and this time Soth was among them with his newest creation: something known as a black void golem. These creatures were strong, enough that an entire team of RBW members needed to work together just to fell one. Soth seemed to indicate that he was going to be creating these golems instead of clones, but of course RBW continued to remain wary.

CoCM

At some point, Blackthorn recruited the help of another guild, this one known as CoCM. Kianne spied on some of their meetings using her cloak of inevitability. It was difficult to say at first just what Blackthorn was up to, except that he had given them a chilling command to obtain something that “belonged to her.”

Kianne had no idea why, but knowing Blackthorn's command allowed her to be wary when one of the members of CoCM, Banion, came to her house and innocently asked her if she would sell one of her prized shells. She politely refused, and he proceeded to offer her outrageous sums of gold for anything that was nailed down to the house, and she continued to deny him without revealing what she knew. Sygil's appearance finally put an end to that, and Banion left empty-handed.

Additionally, another time when Kianne was using her cloak, Nystul performed a summoning spell to bring her to him, since he couldn't find her in his crystal ball (as she was invisible). This led to a humorous exchange regarding the cloak and an empty bottle.

The next time Blackthorn met with CoCM, he instructed them to make allies with RBW and try to get in their good graces. Of course, since Kianne had secretly witnessed the entire conversation, RBW was on guard. They did not reveal their knowledge, however.

Goarla

The orc attacks on Northwind continued. Several members of RBW managed to meet with a captain of one clan of orcs, Goarla. Goarla revealed that his own clan, the Reganade Clan, was not in responsible for attacking Northwind, but the other clans were following the new “King Beast:” Soth.

Using information from Goarla, RBW captured two of the leaders of the other orc clans. They were able to find out from these orcs the location of Soth's lair, the Twisted Tunnels. They were unable at that time to break through the magic gates he had placed to guard his secrets, but they noted the location for later.

Blackthorn Imprisoned

One day when Kianne was spying using her cloak as usual, Blackthorn learned from his CoCM friends that Sygil had found the entrance to his castle. He already knew that Ki had been in there, although he'd not yet managed to actually catch her there. Blackthorn decided to see if he could use Sygil as bait for a trap. He sent a messenger to fetch Sygil to his castle while he made preparations.

This was where Blackthorn made his biggest mistake, because he was unaware that Kianne was watching (and others were listening over magical communication crystals that she had planted in secret in the castle). Blackthorn summoned Soth to his castle and told Soth to ambush Sygil when he arrived.

Soth tried to warn Blackthorn that he sensed that Kianne was near, but Blackthorn blew off his warning. He would regret doing so later.

Sygil was one of the RBW members who had been listening over the communication crystals. He knew it was a trap but decided to intentionally walk into the trap if it would mean exposing Blackthorn. He did so and was taken away by Soth, just as Blackthorn had planned. But RBW was already mobilizing to save Sygil. It was an ordeal, but thanks to Sygil's willingness to risk his life, RBW finally had the information they needed to prove that Soth was working for Blackthorn.

They lost no time in reporting the situation to Lord British. As it turned out, Lord British already suspected Blackthorn but had, up until that point, no evidence. Now that RBW had furnished the evidence, Lord British immediately had Blackthorn jailed.

Shalilissta

RBW was to travel to meet with the Ophidian queen, Shalilissta. But they first needed to go through the Terathan queen. Nystul polymorphed Navien into the form of a Terathan, in hopes that this would allow Navien to act as our ambassador. But Nystul forgot about putting up the enchantment, and ran away whenever Navien came near.

Also at this time, Nystul mentioned to Kianne that he had something for her, but he'd given it to a guard, and he couldn't remember which guard. It would be weeks before she ever recovered the item.

With Navien disguised as a Terathan, RBW traveled to Shalilissta's lair to negotiate with her. They were eventually successful with their quest, but it was a difficult task. Shalilissta was fond of treasure and insisted on gifts of rare items at every opportunity. She demanded that RBW provide her with a large cache of serpent's bane weapons. They agreed and were eventually dismissed from her presence.

When RBW returned, they were attacked by Soth and his undead army. This turned out to be a mistake on Soth's part, because Walkyrie was there with her scroll and had simply been waiting for a chance for Soth to expose himself. She cast the spell off the scroll and turned Soth mortal, but Soth was able to escape before RBW could bring him down for good.

Not long afterward, Andrella and Kianne stumbled over Soth while searching for serpent's bane weapons. Soth gloated at them that their spell to turn him mortal had done little. When they responded that he looked different to them, Soth taunted, “Oh, I will look very different to you soon enough.” Without explaining, he teleported away.

When Shalilissta came to take the weapons we had gathered for her, the main significant event was that Banion somehow managed to offend her and got turned to stone. Shalilissta also revealed Navien's disguise, but did not seem bothered by it.

The Twisted Tunnels

The forest was dying. It seemed that Soth's sheer presence was killing the trees. But now that Soth was mortal, RBW decided to storm his lair and put a finish to him once and for all.

Rather to their surprise, though they should have suspected something was amiss, they discovered that the gates were now unlocked. Soth essentially allowed them into the winding tunnels that led to his lair. The halls were not empty; however. RBW had to fight through a number of different undead creatures in order to reach Soth's inner chambers.

Finally, they reached Soth, who seemed to have been waiting for them. He had put up a magic barrier to protect himself, and taunted RBW for a short while, as if stalling for time. Finally, he cast a spell to plunge the entire cavern into darkness and used the cover of darkness to cast another spell, the spell he had specially prepared for just this occasion.

When RBW managed to create light to see again, they realized the barrier was down. They charged forward and attacked Soth without hesitation, only to learn that Soth had switched bodies with Kianne. Using his stolen body, Soth fetched the golden rock that Kianne had stashed away and used it to open the Black Gate.

The enchantment wore off shortly, returning Kianne to her proper body, but the damage was done. The Guardian was loosed on Britannia.

The Black Gate

The Guardian went immediately to Lord British's castle and captured Lord British and Nystul, as well as Dupré when he tried to fight back. RBW arrived too late to stop him. They did finally manage to track the Guardian down in Northwind, where apparently the Guardian had gone in search of Kianne. They chased the Guardian off with their ancient weapons, but were unable to defeat him.

The Guardian took his captives back through the Black Gate, which closed behind him. RBW was unable to follow.

Caton, one of the head guards at the castle, asked for aid. Andrella was named regent to take Lord British's place temporarily. Vows were made to rescue Lord British and the others, but no one knew how to open the Black Gate...

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