Part: The Second

Soth Returns

When Lord Soth reappeared after the opening of the Black Gate, he stated that he had no intention of fighting RBW any longer. Soth revealed that he had been summoned against his will to the Shadowland by Blackthorn. He had agreed to get the golden rock and open the Black Gate for Blackthorn in return for being returned to his home world of Krynn. However, now that Blackthorn was banished, Soth was left stranded with no one to keep Blackthorn's end of the bargain.

RBW forged an uneasy alliance with Soth. After all, Soth knew how to open the Black Gate, which RBW needed to free Lord British. Soth agreed to do so for them, but only when they could prove they had a way to send him home to Krynn.

Leaving them, Soth set up a new lair in the center of the Hedge Maze. He was still mortal, but that didn't mean he was easy to kill; being undead, Soth was able to raise himself even if he was brought to death.

Now that the Black Gate spell had been completed, the golden stones were movable again. RBW divided the rocks between them. Soth insisted on taking one as a way to force RBW to keep their end of the promise.

Kianne told Soth of the Orb of the Moons, an artifact she once possessed on her own Britannia which could open moongates. She was hoping that if RBW and Soth both searched together for the orb (one of which was rumored to exist in the Shadowland, though so far no one knew where), someone would eventually luck out.

The Black Sword

The Black Sword was a weapon implanted with a gem entrapping the daemon, Arcadion. Somehow, Soth came into possession of the powerful blade, but because he didn't want to put up with Arcadion, he pawned the sword off onto Sygil instead by tricking him. Once the sword was bound to Sygil, he was unable to put it down, and Arcadion's evil festered, seeking release.

Lord Valkoris

A new King of the Beasts introduced himself to RBW as Lord Valkoris. Unlike most monsters, this beast was relatively benevolent, much like Guthnor. Valkoris, who was capable of shape-shifting into any form he saw, asked for help against Soth, whom he despised. RBW helped Valkoris fight off Soth's standing undead army, but of course could not dispatch Soth himself.

The Cloaked Man

Later, Soth saw that RBW had destroyed his undead and sent a message inquiring about it. Kianne went to the Hedge Maze to respond. Rather to her surprise, Soth invited her inside, and the two had a discussion of sorts. It was during this time when Soth suddenly ran out of the building shouting, “Come out! I know you are near!”

Kianne learned then of the cloaked man. This man had been seen by RBW a couple of times in the past—a man totally covered by his hooded cloak, who would disappear as soon as someone spotted him. No one knew who he was or what he was up to. Soth said that his power was so terrible, he could sense when the cloaked man was nearby. Even Kianne could feel the evil miasma when she was close enough to the cloaked man. She decided then to try to chase down the cloaked man the next time she saw him.

Felucca

Soth revealed that he had stumbled across Exodus in Felucca, that mirror dimension of Britannia. Apparently Minax ruled Felucca and was trying to restore Exodus. After some discussion RBW decided to try to get to Felucca to see if they could find the Orb of the Moons or dispatch Minax—or both.

Travel to Felucca required a Felucca moonstone. Soth said he could make one, with the right ingredients. RBW began to gather the necessary supplies. Navien expressed interested in the necromancy involved and Soth took him under his tutelage, much to RBW's disconcertion.

Blackthorn Returns

One day, Chaos Guards appeared out of the blue and jailed the prominent members of RBW. The startled members of RBW learned that Blackthorn had somehow returned from his supposed permanent banishment. Lord Blackthorn had immediately taken the throne that had been vacated by the missing Lord British, proclaiming himself king and jailing anyone who could get in his way—principally, Andrella, the appointed regent, and Kianne, who had irritated Blackthorn to no end. Sygil and Navien were also eventually jailed when they were tracked down by the guards.

Sarriff, the informant that had gotten Kianne into Blackthorn's castle, came to the jails to try to spring them. Unfortunately, he was killed in a single blow by the cloaked man, who vanished afterward.

Jailbreak

Navien, Andrella, and Kianne plotted a way to break out of the jail. When the guards had jailed her, they had not confiscated her items. She still had a Bag of Holding, a special item that allowed her access to her bank box. Kianne used this to fetch her Chaos Guard outfit that she had used before. Then they devised their cover story. Kianne would pretend to be a guard, and would say that “Kianne” had somehow cast a spell which had exchanged their places—leaving the guard in the jail cell and “Kianne” free.

Dressed properly, Kianne yelled and shouted until a jailer appeared, then acted her role as a very distressed guard. Andrella and the others in jail backed up her story, making it more believable. Fooled, the jailer released Kianne, thinking she was really a guard, and sent her to tell Blackthorn of “Kianne's” escape. (Knowing Blackthorn's fits of violent anger, he did not want to go himself.)

Wanting to learn of Blackthorn's plans, Kianne dutifully went to him to report the jailbreak. Blackthorn very nearly killed her just out of a fit of rage, but she escaped with her life.

Kianne: “You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I really hate to see Soth losing to Blackthorn.”

When she was away and alone, Kianne removed her costume and donned her cloak of invisibility. Returning, she discovered that, of all things, Blackthorn had managed to jail Soth. Soth was unable to be killed, but he also could not get out of the jail cell.

Yet Blackthorn released him voluntarily when Soth agreed to discuss matters with him. Kianne found them at Blackthorn's castle and eavesdropped.

As expected, Soth agreed to give Blackthorn his golden rock if Blackthorn would send him home. Soth offered his pupil Navien to Blackthorn as well. Ki was unable to do anything thanks to the incorporeal nature of her cloak, and Soth did not to care about his deal with RBW since Blackthorn could get him home.

The only bright side was when Navien forced Soth to apologize to RBW before he would agree to work for Blackthorn—one of Blackthorn's stipulations. Other than that, Soth handed over his golden rock, and Blackthorn raised his hands, casting a spell to send him back to Krynn...

Or did he?

Blackthorn then gave Navien his first task: to find Kianne. Of course, Navien couldn't do that, not while she was invisible. He also was not genuinely serving Blackthorn, but rather was playing along in an attempt to keep track of Blackthorn's plans. Navien finally convinced Blackthorn to agree to the release of all of the RBWs if Kianne would meet with him. The deadline was set for tomorrow.

Fugitives

The next day dawned and the RBW members had been released. Kianne was unwilling to show herself in public for fear of being jailed on the spot by Blackthorn. Navien revealed to the others that Blackthorn was making dire threats of things that would happen if Kianne did not turn up soon. Angered, Andrella stormed off to Blackthorn's castle with many others in tow—including Kianne under her cloak.

Andrella chased Blackthorn into his chambers where he hid himself behind a magical door. She talked him into agreeing to release the bounties on the RBW members so that they would not be jailed again. She also got him to give the release orders to her in writing.

Blackthorn agreed, at first seemingly out of fear of her sword, but then they began to wonder. He kept asking repeatedly to meet with Kianne.

Blackthorn: “I have to stay here.” Kianne: “Just in case we blow ourselves to kingdom come?” Blackthorn: “I have to make sure the moons are in the right position. Like she said. Any wrong move...” Kianne: “And we blow ourselves to kingdom come. Yeah, I'm starting to get that impression.”

Finally, once the bounties were lifted, Ki came out of hiding and joined the group on the street outside his castle. Taking everyone by surprise, Blackthorn immediately asked her about the Orb of the Moons. When they asked why he wanted to know, Blackthorn said that Exodus and Minax were becoming a threat, and that they would need the orb to take care of them. Blackthorn was pretending to be eager for Lord British to be rescued, although of course RBW didn't believe him.

Blackthorn told the gathered RBW members that he would need a book called the “Tome of Stars” in order to calculate the coordinates needed to eliminate Minax and Exodus. He informed them that the tome could be found in Felucca, and that Navien, as a necromancer, could make the facet stones that would allow them to travel from Trammel to Felucca.

After the meeting with Blackthorn, Navien reported later to the RBW members that Blackthorn had claimed that Soth had given him a fake golden stone. Navien had no way of knowing if Blackthorn was lying or not, but it was a possibility to consider. He also revealed that Soth had not in fact been sent back to Krynn, but instead had been frozen into a statue by Blackthorn and imprisoned somewhere.

RBW pondered the possibility of attempting to free Soth; after all, Soth would not be happy with Blackthorn, so RBW would simply have to get out of the way and let Soth have at him. It seemed like choosing one evil over another, however, so they were undecided on the matter.

Magincia Council

Andrella and Kianne, wondering how Blackthorn had been able to proclaim himself king despite Andrella being the regent, called a meeting of the Magincia council. What they discovered was it seemed that Blackthorn had either bribed or threatened the members into going along with him.

Northwind

It was sometime around here that the RBW city of Northwind began to disappear. No one could explain how it was happening; the best they could do was pack up all items of importance and evacuate. Many members of RBW vanished as well, never to be seen again.

But a new informant that Andrella discovered sold information on how to get into Blackthorn's personal chambers, which he normally kept magically locked. Kianne snuck in there and recovered Guthnor's journal. She also accidentally discovered a teleportation tile which led to the hidden room where Blackthorn had imprisoned Soth. As Navien had said, Soth was frozen like a statue and apparently could not hear or see anything.

And the room was in Felucca, Ki discovered. Unfortunately the chamber had no exit except for the teleportation tile which led back to Blackthorn's room.

Kianne discovered various things in Blackthorn's Felucca room including a book titled “Virtues of the Guardian.” This was not looking good. She also saw signs that Blackthorn was interested in the green Stone of Justice. But she did not know why.

Guthnor's journal revealed a few new pieces of information, including the fact that the Black Gate was opened with the names of the Shadowlords and the blood of the Avatar.

Ages of Armageddon

The next day, Kianne learned that Blackthorn was supposedly going to be meeting with the cloaked man, so she snuck back into his castle to watch. She discovered a note to Goarla which stated that the previous Beast King, Valkoris, had been killed.

The cloaked man arrived, but when he pulled off his cloak, he was revealed to be Hook instead—a mercenary which had once had dealings with the Guardian on Kianne's version of Britannia. Hook had brought the remains of Garn, whom he had killed. Blackthorn gave him his next task—to deliver the note to Goarla—and sent him on his way.

Kianne remained hidden in confusion. Hook was an evil man, but nowhere near powerful enough to warrant the kind of description Soth had given him. Besides, Ki had seen the cloaked man up close once or twice, and though the hood hid most of his features, she had noticed he had a black beard. Hook had red hair and beard.

As she was pondering this, a rift opened in midair and another cloaked man stepped forth. He lowered his hood and revealed himself to be none other than Mondain himself.

Mondain spoke with Blackthorn with the familiarity that indicated the two had been through many previous meetings in the past. Mondain pointed out to Blackthorn that the golden rocks were his relics. They were, in fact, the shards of his Gem of Immortality, which after it had been shattered by the first Avatar, were now here on the Shadowland. The first Avatar had been slain by Minax, who twisted time to revive her lover, Mondain. Now Mondain was on the Shadowland to rebuild his gem.

Mondain also mentioned that he would not release Exodus until he had his gem, because otherwise Exodus might eradicate the gem along with the rest of the Shadowland.

Pacing, Mondain instructed Blackthorn that he must get the Tome of Stars. Then, once they had the Gem of Immortality, Minax would call the Guardian and offer the Avatar to him.

As might be expected, Blackthorn became confused at this point. After all, Mondain had just finished saying that the Avatar was dead.

Patiently, Mondain explained that when the various copies of Britannia were spawned, multiple Avatars had been born. This world's Avatar was now dead, but another had come to take his place. Kianne.

Mondain told Blackthorn that he had called her here by twisting the Virtues. Only Justice had remained. Telling Blackthorn that he could change the future, Mondain showed him a book called the “Ages of Armageddon” that spoke of cataclysmic events that had not even taken place yet on the Shadowland.

Andrella: “You are the Avatar now. You have to be more careful.” Kianne: “Are you kidding? I was never careful.” Andrella: “Okay, you have to BE careful!”

Mondain left as his parting gift one more tidbit of information: As the Gem of Immortality was being gathered together, the various alternate realities were pulling together. This meant that some Britannias were being erased, and it explained what was happening to Northwind.

Caton

Kianne stumbled over Caton in the dungeon Deceit. The Order Guards had thought that RBW had either been defeated or scattered. The situation was explained to him, and Caton revealed that Blackthorn no longer supplies the Order Guards, but rather only his Chaos Guards. So the remaining members of RBW decided to help supply the Order Guards instead.

Meanwhile, Goarla apparently was going to live up to his agreement with Blackthorn to gather the golden rocks in exchange for being made the Beast King. He attacked various towns, trying to discover the locations of the golden rocks. RBW tried to talk some sense into him, but he would not listen.

Soth Freed

Surprising everyone, Navien talked Blackthorn into freeing Soth. When Blackthorn released the freeze spell, Soth was still trapped in a circle of runes that were projecting a barrier. Blackthorn tried to convince Soth to continue to side with him, but Soth was completely fed up with Blackthorn and refused. So Blackthorn left him there.

A little hesitantly, Kianne went to the area and helped Soth get free from the barrier. Soth, however, was in no mood to return favors. He stated flat out that he had no desire to fight Mondain or Minax. He just wanted his revenge against Blackthorn and then he wanted to go home.

He left them then, but Sygil and Kianne encountered him later. Soth had been attacked by Hook, of all people. Apparently Blackthorn had finally decided to eliminate Soth. It was a rather wise decision, although pitifully belated.

The interesting part of the conversation was when Soth mentioned that the cloaked man feared only one person, and he was already dead. “The Avatar?” Sygil and Kianne asked at once. Soth affirmed, but seemed oblivious to the fact that Kianne herself was also the Avatar. She and Sygil decided not to point this out to him.

The Guardian Speaks

One day Kianne was going about her business as usual when she suddenly heard the Guardian's voice gloating in her mind's ear. No one else around her could hear the voice. She'd experienced this exact same thing with the same Guardian on her own Britannia, and now it was happening again.

RBW also made an attack on Soth's Twisted Tunnels to put down the undead army that Soth was gathering. They had freed him but did not want him building an army that he could use to kill innocents. Soth got away, but his army was decimated, slowing down his plans of conquest.

Additionally, searching for the Truenames of the Shadowlords, which would be needed to open the Black Gate, Kianne befriended a scribe at the Lyceaum named Sami. She revealed that the original Avatar's name had been Michael.

Shamino

The remaining members of RBW learned that Soth believed Shamino might possess an Orb of the Moons. Shamino was presently a stone statue in the lair of Shalilissta; he had once sacrificed himself, years ago, to earn peace between the serpents and the humans.

RBW went to Goarla to try to enlist his help in gaining an audience with the Terathan queen, which would again be necessary to gain access to Shalilissta. Goarla finally agreed, but when he later contacted them, he said that only the one known as Kianne could speak. Apparently, Shalilissta was interested only in speaking to the Avatar.

The reason was revealed when they arrived at Shalilissta's lair. As it turned out, Lord British had made a pact with Shalilissta. He had made her promise two things. The first was to never invoke the powers of the Skull of Mondain, an artifact she was in possession of. The second promise was that if the Avatar ever returned, Shalilissta was to release Shamino to him. “For when the world is in peril, the Avatar will return.” That was what Lord British had said.

But the previous Avatar, Michael, had been a man. Shalilissta wanted proof that Kianne was truly this world's new Avatar. She tasked Kianne with reviving the Shrines and Stones of Virtue.

Quest of the Avatar Take Two

Before Kianne and her friends could begin their restoration of the shrines, Soth came to them, revealing that he had restored himself to immortality, undoing the scroll that Walkyrie had cast. The problem was, he was now ethereal; he could not touch anything solid. But he could still control his undead armies.

Soth tried to convince the others that Shalilissta's request was a trap, that she really was going to turn them to stone when they returned to her. But RBW didn't really buy his words. And when Soth insisted that they get his solid body back before returning him to Krynn, he simply made their situation even worse.

Connor also made a brief reappearance; RBW's inter-dimensional gate had been destroyed along with Northwind, and Connor was able to contact the Shadowland only briefly. Apparently the RBW members who had disappeared had not been killed; they had simply been sent to another land. But with the portal down, they could not return.

The remaining band of RBW members visited the eight dungeons, reviving the eight underground shrines one at a time. The trips were perilous not only because the shrines were found deep within dangerous territory, but because the shrines usually gave them further tasks to perform to prove their attunement to the Virtues in question.

As each Virtue was revived, its stone would begin glowing.

The Runes

Once RBW had recovered the shrines and the stones, they then needed to do the runes. Unfortunately, the runes were currently on display in the Avatar Museum in Britain, and only Blackthorn could give the authorization for releasing them. This, they judged, might be difficult to get, not only because of how much Blackthorn disliked Kianne, but also because he flatly denied that she was the Avatar. He was apparently trying to lie to himself, for Mondain had told him the truth and yet he still lived in denial.

Devising a plan, Andrella and Kianne went to Blackthorn and asked him to come to the Avatar Museum with them where they would ask him for the runes.

At the museum, Issac, the head priest, explained at the tiles on the floor were now glowing because the Virtues had been restored. “The Avatar must have returned, sire,” Issac told Blackthorn.

When an ankh shrine at the museum began to glow in response to Kianne's presence, it was too much for Blackthorn. He fled at a dead run.

Luckily, Issac, who was thrilled at the return of the Avatar, happily agreed to loan them the runes.

Royal Ceremony

Word spread quickly. Unable to deny Kianne as the Avatar any longer, Lord Blackthorn was forced to pretend to be happy about the turn of events. He scheduled a dinner to “commemorate” the return of the Avatar. Kianne was thinking of other things; there was a lot of evil stacked against them, and the fate of Lord British and the others could not hang on the survival of just one person. So she entrusted Andrella with some vials of her own blood to use in opening the Black Gate should anything happen to her.

During the dinner, Blackthorn attempted to appear sincere but dropped several unsubtle hints about potential harm coming to the Avatar. The other RBW members privately vowed to defend Kianne all the more diligently.

The Shrines

With the runes in hand, RBW now had to restore the aboveground shrines. Soth came to them and warned them that the Order of Sin was guarding each shrine, and that it was all their fault. They argued that Soth was the one who had created the Order of Sin to begin with, but logic didn't seem to settle well with him.

In any case, apparently Blackthorn had managed to secure the services of the resurrected undead Larix Vageous. That's how it appeared, at any rate, but when they arrived at the final shrine to restore it, they discovered Blackthorn and his Chaos Guards were there, with Vageous dead at their feet. Blackthorn almost stunned Justice, but RBW was able to restore the shrine despite his interference.

Shamino Freed

With the quest complete, Kianne and the others returned to Shalilissta. But they discovered that Soth had raided the Ophidian's lair and it was empty. As they were wondering what to do, another Ophidian revealed himself and took them to Shalilissta's hidden lair in Felucca.

There, Shalilissta brought them to the statue of Shamino. She spoke with them for a short while, then turned and cast a spell that transformed the entire group to stone.

And then Minax entered the room. Shalilissta demanded to know where Soth was; apparently, Minax had offered her Soth's head on a platter if she would betray the Avatar. Minax made a couple of excuses and went out again, briefly.

Shalilissta begged forgiveness, saying Soth had killed too many of her people. She promised that once she had her revenge against Soth, she would kill herself, and her death would undo her stone spell, thus keeping her promise.

None of the rest of the group could move, but they could see and hear. Minax returned, accompanied by a gargoyle named Lash. She laughed at Shalilissta and ordered her companion to kill her. Shalilissta fought bravely but was no match for the gargoyle.

Minax then instructed the gargoyle to take the Avatar to her laboratory, saying someone wanted to see her. But the stone spell, broken by Shalilissta's death, wore off just then. As everyone was freed, Minax fled, and Lash fought. Andrella challenged the gargoyle to a one-on-one battle to prevent him from killing any of the others. She almost lost her own life, but managed to defeat Lash in a duel, and she claimed his large, twisted gargoyle sword.

Just then, the stone spell binding Shamino faded away, and he was freed. He revealed that he had been able to see and hear the entire time he was a captive of Shalilissta. She had treated him as a valued treasure, but had spoken to him at times, and he had learned much.

The group recovered the Skull of Mondain from Shalilissta's body, and Shamino handed Kianne an Orb of the Moons. He had been the keeper of it this entire time.

Using the orb, Kianne formed a red moongate, and everyone escaped Felucca and returned to the Shadow Keep.

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