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Filename: Ancients.zip |
Size: 143 KB |
Downloaded: 0 times |
Last Modified: Wed Aug 25 08:35:22 1999 |
Story |
The Fall of SkargornIt has been a long time since the dungeon was destroyed, so long in fact, that people remember this event only as a legend or as a story for small children. The legend tells of a mighty dungeon filled with magnificent rooms and of how in ancient times, King Reginald's ancestor the Mountain King succeeded in sacking it. To consolidate this accomplishment, the King's wizard cursed the dungeon halls with an eternal plague of giant flies and then buried the entrance under several miles of rock.The story of how this momentous event came to pass is just another of the usual sordid run-of-mill tales of greed and treachery, that one reads about in the Kingdom tabloid almost every day. Usually, the consequences are nothing more serious than the disgrace and fall from favour, of some scheming and unfortunate minister. This time however, greed brought about the downfall of the great and mighty Dungeon of Skargorn. The cowardly King timed his invasion of the caverns to coincide with the Keeper's yearly birthday celebration. Knowing that all the Keeper's minions would be revelling in the casino and that the Keeper himself, who by tradition possesses his favourite warlock, so as to regale the assembly with spectacular feats of magic, would be distracted and unable to survey his domain. So it was, that amidst the cheering, loud music and singing no-one noticed the rogue Ladros, sneak off and disappear down one of the passages leading north. Ladros hurried silently down the tunnel. The sounds of music and raucous good cheer, interspersed with deafening farts from the bile demons, became fainter and fainter, until there was nothing but silence and a darkness broken only by the feeble glow of Ladros' thief lamp. Some hours later he perceived a faint and irregular ringing, like a cat playing with a small bell. His keen ears heard this long before he came anywhere near the source of the sound. Ladros already suspected the origins of the sounds. He briefly scoffed but did not even pause in his stride. He hurried on while the ringing grew louder and in the distance he began to see the eerie greenish glow which only magical items can produce. Finally he arrived at the entrance of a sizeable hall. The faint ringing having changed into something closer to the sound of church bells, when heard from inside the belfry. There, standing amidst an enormous group of huge knights in silver armour, a group of sullen wizards scowled and sighed, their magic staffs casting a faint light on the scene. As Ladros arrived one of the wizards lost patience with two Knights engaged in a friendly sparring match and unmistakably the source of the deafening church bell sounds. He cast a freeze spell on both, interrupting the brandishing of swords in mid swing. Curious looks of surprise were still discernible behind the now glassy, temporarily frozen eyeballs. The ringing sound abruptly ceased, leaving only the clanging of hundreds of elements of armour rubbing against each other, as the other 50 odd knights continued to cut the air, shift their weight and punctuate their finer strokes with exclamations of "hey ho". Fifty lumbering Knights can only keep so quiet no matter how hard they try and it is not in their nature to try. The fate of their fellows did not deter the other knights, who were so absorbed in their heroic posturing and practice of the latest sword techniques, with which they would impress the maidens back at court, that they hardly noticed two of their noisy brethren suddenly frozen in mid swing. Even if they had noticed, it would not have deterred them from continuing their practice, as fear and intimidation are not emotions that frequent the brain of a Knight. This is going to be some surprise attack, thought Ladros, thinking that the racket emanating from these clowns, once they actually had to go somewhere, is likely to drown out the sounds even of the Keeper's birthday party. Ladros should perhaps at that point, have felt some remorse for his treachery towards a Keeper who on the whole had treated him well, but a rogue is a rogue and loyal to none - but he who pays the highest fee. And the King had offered him free access to the Kingdom's magic gem-column, an inexhaustible source of wealth. To cap the deal, a troupe of dwarves to mine it, was thrown into the bargain, free of charge so to speak. This was one offer Ladros couldn't refuse. to be continued ... ResurrectionNow, the Keeper has summoned three Champions of Darkness, to search for the buried caverns and reclaim them as his own. Legend has it that when the Champions reach Skargorn, an elite band of evil minions will rise from the Underworld to aid them in exacting a fitting revenge of the Mountain King and his descendants. This revenge however, will not come easily.The King's wizards, on seeing the Champions of Darkness with the aid of their Gem Viewers, have in turn summoned four stone guardians to stand against them and the King has sent large bands to waylay the Champions and defeat them before they are able to reach Skargorn. One of his bands managed to capture and imprison the vampire Longtooth, who set out to join the champions and aid them on their path of vengeance. |