Final Battle, Part II: Shadows Fall
As Lord Grey promised, Lady Dawn appeared at the Counselor's Hall in northwestern Britain tonight and opened a gate to the Daemon Temple on Fire Isle. She ordered that the Temple must be taken at all costs, and the remnants of the Shadow Army cut down.
A brutal battle to gain entry to the Temple grounds ensued - shadowfiends, shadow wyrms, and Pauper's Agents fell before the mighty Britannian forces. Fighting up the Temple steps, they found that the Shadowlord's servants had the beginnings of a ritual in place.
Red crystals surrounded the bloody pentagram, each engraved differently:
'Hythloth for the daemons'
'Shame for the Enforcers'
'Covetous for the Pauper'
'Shame for unjust laws'
'Destard for Melissa'
'Despise for Andrew'
'Deceit for Casca'
'One left out for the dungeon that is lost'
On the nearby altar lay a note written by Casca:
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Letter
by Lord Casca
My Masters,
I have placed the focus crystals at the spots you requested. They are symbols of the dark spell you have cast in the past year. May your ritual to reform the Gem of Immortality on this shard be a success. I will wait for your shadow to cover the land in the place you ordered me to go.
--Lord Casca |
Lady Dawn took out the
True Shrieking Grotesque in an attempt to gain insight from the mystic statue, but it instantly turned red in color and began to scream. Fortunately, it was quickly determined that the inscriptions were clues. Each dungeon mentioned contained another red crystal engraved with a letter just inside the entrance. Together they spelled T-R-I-U-M-P-H.
Saying
'Triumph' in the center of the pentagram whisked the speaker to the underworld where the Shadowlords lay in wait. Upon an ebon pedestal surrounded by ether sat a large ruby - soon to become another Gem of Immortality bound to our world, dooming us all.
With spell, sword, arrow, and claw the Britannian forces descended on the Shadowlords true forms. Weakened by the frighteningly beneficial use of the Armageddon spell, the devourers of worlds fell one by one, their evil purged.
As Lady Lava reported earlier, three shards of the original Gem of Immortality slipped into the packs of three members of the Dragon Clan: Ra'Dian Fl'Gith, Pickle, and Gowain. These small blue gems appear to contain a tiny world inside, one which seems to react to the karmic aura of its holder. May they never fall into the hands of evil, for the sake of those living within...
Once victory was confirmed, Lady Dawn took possession of the oversized ruby and ordered we regroup in the throne room of Castle British. Taking the dais, she began to speak:
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"We have defeated the Shadowlords and prevented them from making a Gem of Immortality. And if the information I have is correct, their servants will have died with them. However, in the coming days, we will need to find and confirm Casca's death.
THIS ISN'T THE END!!!
WE HAVE WON THE WAR!!!
BUT WE MUST NOW REBUILD!!!
ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH FOR THIS TASK!!!"</I></td></tr></table>
A heart chorus of "Aye!" was her response. Smiling, she continued:
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"Tonight, we will find those loyal to Casca, those who broke with Virtue and we will arrest them. They will get a fair trial, but we cannot allow them to escape and bother us again!
I must go talk to some others, but Magnus Grey will talk to you about making some arrests TONIGHT, If you are willing.
May the Virtues be with you!"</I></td></tr></table>
She exited the throne room to the sound of the warriors chanting her name and cheering.
Soon Magnus Grey took the dais and instructed the crowd to seek out Casca's 'Paragons of Virtue' and secure them for arrest. All eight traitors to Virtue were swiftly taken into custody without incident. Lord Grey then turned his attention to the repugnant shield display in central Britain, rendering each one into scrap. The assault on the Virtues has ended, Casca's vile laws placed where they belong: a trash barrel!
With the Shadowlords gone we must shift our focus from warfare to social engineering and the rebuilding of our kingdom. We must repair the years of war damage to our cities, and finally expend the necessary resources to heal Magincia give its restless spirits a long-deserved peace.
Tonight, the war that has waged for the very soul of Sosaria has finally come to an end. The Shadowlords are no more, cast out from our Virtuous world. Virtue has prevailed, you have seen to that. Rejoice Britannia!
<I>LONG LIVE BRITANNIA!</I>
Lady Martyna Z'muir, Library of Sosaria
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