Dungeon vs. Inferno: You choose! 10/02/2014 | comments

Welcome, friends of the Shadow Council. Sorry to summon you on such a short notice, but our window of action is limited, and time is of the essence. As you know, Duke Ivan has decided to follow our advice and asked an ambassador from Irollan to join his court.



An Angel, a Wizard, a Necromancer, an Orc, and an Elf, trying to advise the Duke of Griffin and, if all goes well, future Emperor. A gathering like this world has never seen since the days of the ancient Shantiris.



Yet I feel something is missing



If Ivan is to succeed, he should also be aware of the powers lurking in the deepest abysses of our world. Not to enlist them to fight at his side, of course. But there are stories I could tell him, a darker sort of wisdom that could prove invaluable someday, in the right circumstances. After all, Ivan’s nemesis – Seamus of Stag – has proven time and time again he’s not going to play fair.



Since I will be sitting at Ivan’s table, what kind of story should I tell our Emperor?



Maybe I should tell him a story of the Dark Elves of Ygg-Chall? Renegades, assassins, heroes – sometimes – who obey the enigmatic whispers of their Dragon-Goddess Malassa, and her children, the Faceless? Some of them might even have been involved in this conflict, trying to manipulate events from the shadows to weaken the Light.



Or should I tell him a story of the Demons, Urgash’s spawns, enemies of all creation? After all, this is their assassination of Maeve that started all this. They won’t be a threat until the next Bloodmoon Eclipse, but their tales are worth hearing, as it is often the lust for power that puts one on the path of Chaos worship…



The choice is yours, my fellow Shadow Councillors. Although one option is more appealing to me, I want to hear what you want.

Dungeon

Until recently, the mysterious Dark Elves were believed to be a legend, a tale told to children to keep them in line. Of course, there was a vague awareness that one of the Elven clans had made a pact with the powers of Darkness during the War of Bitter Ashes, and had later been exiled from the forests of Irollan following some heinous act Elves never talk about. But what was really happening below the earth remained shrouded in secrecy. It was only when the War under the Mountain came to an end that the existence of the underground nation of Ygg-Chall became common knowledge, although not much is known beyond that.



Although they have lost both their war against the Dwarves and their clandestineness, the Dark Elves have prospered in their tunnels in the last decades. They have grown strong and numerous, and their traders range far and wide offering irresistible deals that somehow manage to work mainly to the Dark Elves’ benefit. They have made no move against either Irollan or Grimheim, nor have they tried to reconquer their old lands. Instead, they consolidate their power, and they wait.











Inferno Until recently, the mysterious Dark Elves were believed to be a legend, a tale told to children to keep them in line. Of course, there was a vague awareness that one of the Elven clans had made a pact with the powers of Darkness during the War of Bitter Ashes, and had later been exiled from the forests of Irollan following some heinous act Elves never talk about. But what was really happening below the earth remained shrouded in secrecy. It was only when the War under the Mountain came to an end that the existence of the underground nation of Ygg-Chall became common knowledge, although not much is known beyond that.Although they have lost both their war against the Dwarves and their clandestineness, the Dark Elves have prospered in their tunnels in the last decades. They have grown strong and numerous, and their traders range far and wide offering irresistible deals that somehow manage to work mainly to the Dark Elves’ benefit. They have made no move against either Irollan or Grimheim, nor have they tried to reconquer their old lands. Instead, they consolidate their power, and they wait.

The Demons were created by Urgash in mockery of Asha’s children with the sole purpose of destroying the world that Asha had made. From their earliest days, the Demons have known nothing but destruction, chaos and war. Only the sacrifice of Sar-Elam, the Seventh Dragon, bound them up in the prison known as Sheogh, banishing them from the world for what he thought was eternity. Unfortunately, it was later discovered that Bloodmoon Eclipses (when Asha’s Moon gets shadowed by Ashan) have a weakening effect on the prison, allowing the Demons to escape temporarily and wreak havoc.



The Demons have become somewhat more organized and cunning following the ascension of Kha-Beleth, the self-styled Demon Sovereign. Kha-Beleth claims his objective is to break the mystical walls of Sheogh, gain a foothold on Ashan, and expose, if not impose, his people’s right to an equal place amongst the children of the Dragon Gods. Make no mistake however: Demons are not sympathetic, misunderstood, secretly heroic or in any other way redeemable. They are embodiments of Chaos, ravening monsters that would burn the world to a cinder just to watch it burn.



