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Hello, and thank you for checking this recruitment thread. I am here because my fantasy RP, [I]The Prophecy[/I], is in dire need of new players, and I hope to entice as many of you as possible to consider joining.

[QUOTE=Jaelnec][I]And so a new adventure begins... let us see how many will join me.[/I][/QUOTE]

The Prophecy is an "open world" and "open ended" RP, permitting the characters to explore a vast and detailed world with deep lore and rather fleshed out mechanics for non-standard things such as magic. Along with players adding their own touches to the world, I am always expanding it, both writing new entries for its [url=http://theprophecycompendium.tk/]Compendium[/url] and expanding things behind the scenes, detailing new lands, magics, societies, characters and creatures.
Posts in The Prophecy are quality over quantity, and for most part I would like for us to strive for at least one new post a week.

Though the RP is not quite as dead as it would appear here, as much of the OOC activity is currently handled on Discord, there is no denying that The Prophecy has seen better days. What you need to understand is that The Prophecy is [I]old[/I]; one of the oldest running RPs on RPGuild, if not literally the oldest, dating back years into the days of the old RPGuild, and that is only counting the newest iteration of it. Having started back in 2011, some quick math makes the RP eight years old at the time of writing.
Since its infancy players have come and gone, frequently at first, but more and more slowly as time went on. I have had the pleasure of some amazing players over the years, at least several of which I now count as friends, but time has taken its toll. Life has interfered for a lot of people: some found themselves unable to post and unwillingly stalled the RP, causing others to stagnate and lose interest; some ran into trouble in real life and had to leave; others yet simply lost their drive and decided to retire from the RP rather than force themselves to write uninspired posts.
I blame none of those people; perhaps more than anyone I blame myself, but blame does not change the present circumstance. Players have left, and with the age, size and currently slow progress of the RP, others have not exactly been encouraged to join. At this moment in time the cast of The Prophecy counts only me as the GM, Legion X51, ASTA, Biscuits (formerly cthulu) and, last of the original players of the RP, Shienvien.
The RP needs new blood to thrive. So here I am.

[QUOTE=Angora Kelenwyn]"A philosopher once said... All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. And it is easier to stand by and do nothing, than to intervene and place oneself in harm's way."[/QUOTE]

I have written up some points about the RP here for relatively quick perusal and consideration, which you may read as much or as little of as you like. Any questions you have are not only welcome, but encouraged; I will do my best to help you decide whether The Prophecy is an RP that would interest you.

[HIDER=What is The Prophecy?][h3]The World[/h3]
The very first iteration of The Prophecy, though then by another name, started more than seventeen years ago, and has been slowly developed and built upon until this, what I think is the fifth iteration, which is still even now being expanded upon. Not only have I established a huge amount of information about the world, the players have also been adding their own species, races, nations, organizations and historical events, all of which I work to integrate into the world. In case it was not clear, you are allowed to add to the composition of the world, with a promise from me to work to fit your additions into the existing world.

The short version is that The Prophecy takes place in what is collectively known as [I]the planes[/I], a collection of worlds existing within the non-plane of [I]Stupor[/I]. For most part the composition of the planes will sound quite familiar: the [I]Upper Plane[/I] is home to gods and angels, while the [I]Lower Plane[/I] is segregated from the rest by the barrier called the [I]Divide[/I], and is home to demons. The [I]Spirit Realm[/I] is the chaotic plane of dreams and the subconscious, within which we find [I]Reniam[/I], the first plane and the world of mortals. In Reniam we find the ruler-less kingdom of [I]Rodoria[/I], the Land in the Middle, and it is here the story has its epicenter. A supernatural plague is killing millions, the country is torn apart in civil war, monsters and outlaws run rampant, all while threats beyond the borders seem only more pressing by the day. And through it all one grim plot after another is revealed; brainwashed human tools, superhuman assassins, powerful half-demons, soulless indestructible heart-eaters, vengeful gods... one insurmountable obstacle after another. Yet it is here that the characters must prevail. The challenges your characters face will almost always be superior to them in one way or another, and it is up to your characters to find a way to beat or even the odds.

With help from Shienvien I have put together an ever-expanding [url=http://theprophecycompendium.tk/]Compendium[/url] of information on the world of The Prophecy, and even then what you see there is only a fraction of the things I have prepared privately, established but kept secret from the players until such a time when they might discover the truth. The Prophecy is an adventure of many things, including discovery... and believe me, there is much to discover in this old, old world.

The end-goal is entirely up to your characters to decide; nothing is adamantly predetermined in The Prophecy, and the story is whichever story we tell. Currently the characters are on an urgent quest to end the devastating plague known as the [I]Withering[/I], but other objectives keep appearing by my hands or those of the characters. One character has fallen in love with another and prioritizes this love highly, another wants to dismantle the crime syndicate she used to be a part of, and a third wants to rebuild an extinct order of knights. The objective is chosen by the characters... although sometimes choices have consequences.

[QUOTE=Jaelnec]“Yes. We all have a common enemy in the Withering.”[/QUOTE]

[h3]Beyond the Characters[/h3]
Your characters might be protagonists of the story – or antagonists, if you want – and there will undeniably be a hand of fate making it significantly more likely that they have interesting encounters, learn about relevant things and discover rare creatures, locations and artifacts; in this, The Prophecy is no different from your run of the mill RP. There is one thing I am very particular about, however: just because your characters are in one place, all other places still exist. The world goes on with or without the characters.

Whenever time progresses in The Prophecy, I keep track of a huge amount of things that happen in the background, much of which you may never even realize, or wont realize for a long time yet. Political machinations, battles, economical changes and migrations are happening all the time, even when your characters are not there to see it. Just because the characters have been somewhere does not mean that that place will be the same if they return later; events occur all the time, everywhere.

This persistence also carries over to the characters and their actions: whenever a player adds something to the world, or a character does something, this might very well set events into motion that will affect the world of The Prophecy for years to come. The soulless monster currently rampaging through Rodoria, having already wiped out one of the ten major cities of the kingdom, was once a player-character set loose due to how that player decided to write himself out of the story. The character of another player who left was killed, sending a plot-character on a quest for vengeance. Every action has a reaction, and the ripples of what the player-characters do can continue spreading indefinitely. What your characters do today may come back to haunt or help them tomorrow, or a decade later; I keep track.

[h3]Deus ex machina[/h3]
For those unfamiliar with the term, [I]deus ex machina[/I] is a plot device that has quite frankly been overused in a lot of modern media. Wiktionary defines it as:
[QUOTE=Wiktionary]Any resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and that is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, and presumably allows the author, director, or developer to end the story in the way that he or she desired.[/QUOTE]
or
[QUOTE=Wiktionary]A contrived solution to a problem, relying on an agent external to the situation.[/QUOTE]
Now, veterans of The Prophecy will know that I have employed deus ex machina in the past to resolve situations stalling the RP, but they will also know that I loathe doing so, and will go to great lengths to avoid it.

What this means in practice, then, is that I enforce that events in The Prophecy adhere to the mechanical rules that apply to them. While some plot armor is unavoidable since the player characters are each guided by their own demiurge with the ability to pause time to think, expand their knowledge beyond what the character knows and alter the characters’ state of mind, plot armor in The Prophecy is not to be relied upon. No one is safe in The Prophecy; anyone can die.

Now, this is not just a threat, but also a promise to you: [I]literally[/I] anyone can die, be they your characters or one of mine pivotal to progress of the story. I have already witnessed the death of what was canonically one of the protagonists of the story, and we have seen an antagonist that was canonically defeated survive the encounter that could have vanquished him. Nothing is going to end a certain way just because it is the most convenient for the story; if odds are against one side, that side will lose, and if a character finds itself in an unsalvageable situation, they will likely die. I give a lot of leeway to save characters, especially if other characters make efforts to protect them, but no one – not your characters or mine – are invincible.

[QUOTE=Domhnall MacRaith]"Aside, peeple be peeple. Ye cannae control wha' 'ey do." He shrugged. "Jus' learn tae expect wha' 'ey do."[/QUOTE]

[h3]Life Happens[/h3]
The Prophecy is an advanced RP, make no mistake; posts may vary in length and quality as the situation demands it, but always entail a good deal of consideration and work for the one who writes it. While it would be great if everyone had the time, drive and constitution to spend hours upon hours every day reading and writing RPs, it just is not a realistic expectation to have. We all have lives outside the RP, and we all need to respect that... but we also need to preserve the RP, something I have failed at in the past but endeavor to remedy in the future.

The expectation I have, and that I encourage everyone else to have, is that a post will most likely take several days to have ready, possibly even as much as a week, and that this is the kind of timetable we are working with. If someone is able to write a post in less time than that it is great, but it will likely be the exception rather than the rule.

On the other hand, we must also work to ensure that the RP progresses at a reasonable rate, unlike the abysmally slow pace it has been going at for far too long. To that effect I strongly encourage players to make sure to get posts done at least in a week’s time, and otherwise [B]communicate[/B] about conditions preventing them from posting so that arrangements can be made to avoid the RP stalling. This goes for me, too. In turn, I promise that just as I have kept this RP running for years already, I will continue to keep it running for as long as there are players invested in it.

[QUOTE=Gerald Glass][I]Don’t say what you’re thinking. Don’t get angry, don’t belittle her, don’t tell her what an idiot she is... Say something positive. No? Come on, anything will do! You’ve been silent for too long, Gerald! It doesn’t have to be positive, it just has to sound positive! Say something![/I][/QUOTE]
[/HIDER]

[HIDER=The Cast]Let us have a look at the characters currently at the center of the story of The Prophecy, just for a little more context. I will start with my own “player characters” that I will prefer to use for narrative point of view when applicable, though it should be noted that I also “play” NPCs and, preferably in Harbinger’s voice, [B]assume direct control[/B] of other or new characters as the RP calls for it.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/NRzeHzt.png[/img]
What one might call my “main character”, who has been in the story from the very start and has always been an integral part of the main group of companions, Jaelnec is a [I]nightwalker[/I]; a human-like creature with somewhat longer lifespan, slower maturation and black eyes that are extremely receptive to light, allowing them to see in all but perfect darkness, but also makes even moderately bright lights painful and blinding to them.
Having acted as the leader of the group for some of their adventure, Jaelnec is a squire of the [I]Knighthood of the Will[/I], an extinct yet storied order of exceptional warriors. He is an extraordinarily skilled swordsman and knife-thrower, possessing different techniques fit for fighting man and monster alike. He is capable but inexperienced and naive, being only twenty years old, and is haunted by insecurity, which caused him to give up leadership of the group.
He possesses a cuirass of ghiril, a light, flexible and durable metal that protects his torso from piercing or cutting attacks but less so from blunt force, and a sword of Sartal, which is nigh indestructible, inhabited by the soul of a deceased dragon called Roct. He is quick, strong and has been taught many things of the various monstrous and supernatural beings of the planes, to better fight them when they threaten the innocents he is sworn to protect.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/c11HuiU.png[/img]
Olan is also a nightwalker from the main group, though significantly older than Jaelnec, and is for most part an unknown to the companions and himself alike. He recently lost all memory of his past, and though memory recent events returned quickly, his more distant memories continue to elude him.
Fancying himself an “explorer extraordinaire”, Olan is no fighter; he bears no weapons and typically retreats out of the way in battle, though he has proven willing to put himself in harms way to protect his friends. He is a kind and patient, if quirky, man, and always have words of encouragement for anyone who need them.
Remarkably, he does possess one ability that sets him apart from the rest: for reasons not even he understands he wields the primordial language known to some as the [I]true words[/I], a language from which all other languages were derived. This allows him to speak any language fluently, to understand and communicate with anyone, even animals, and to speak words universally understood by all at the expense of magical energy. More remarkably, the true words function not only as the base of the mundane languages, but also the languages of magic; though demanding incredibly huge amounts of magical energy, they allow the user to command reality to bend to their will. If someone commands another to die in true words, they die. Whether Olan would actually do this is doubtful, however, since it is all but certain that using the true words like this would kill him.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/zbsLCdm.png[/img]
Lastly there is Gerald Glass, the exiled step-son of Count Remdal of Zerul. Physically feeble and with fragile health at best, Gerald is a capable arcanist and necromancer, specializing in delicate control of magical energy. Once taught by agents of the Black Tribunal, a sinister coven of practitioners of the outlawed art of necromancy, Gerald betrayed them and set out to use their powers for his own purposes: preserving the world at any cost, and ultimately trying to resurrect his late wife and unborn child.
Gerald is a grim, pessimistic and pragmatic man for whom smiles are hard to come by, and even then they are usually derisive, sarcastic or wicked. Despite his ungainly personality, Gerald has a genuine desire to protect all things, even if he does so on a different basis than Jaelnec; whereas Jaelnec wants to save everyone in the most humane way possible, Gerald believes that ends justify means and that sometimes the few have to be sacrificed for the sake of the many. This is made manifest by the fact that he is one of the only people to have survived contracting the Withering, but rather than having cured himself he has gained dominion over it, using the plague to drain magical energy from others, killing others to replenish his own magical power.
Originally a member of an offshoot group narrated for the sake of a player who has left the RP, Gerald is not currently engaged in the immediate story of The Prophecy, but was engaged in a hunt of a human cult-leader possessed by a demon lord, as well as a quest to end the Withering.

Next, the players’ characters:

[h2]Shienvien[/h2]
[h3]Aemoten[/h3]
A Sekalyn (made by Shienvien) from the southern lands of Balazth, Aemoten is a member of the caste that his countrymen name what can only be translated as “warriors”, and is someone who not only was trained hard and long as a potent soldier, but also has the benefit of a longer life than should be humanly possible. Due to a bargain made between his mother and the deity Koraakan (made by Shienvien) to bring Aemoten back from the dead, Aemoten no longer ages with time and, regardless of how badly he is wounded or even if he is technically killed, he always regenerates, albeit only at the rate ordinary humans would, making death highly inconvenient still, potentially taking him out of action for decades.
Having always been a part of the main group of companions along with Jaelnec, Aemoten was the natural choice for a successor when the nightwalker chose to abdicate leadership of the group, and he has been the leader ever since. He exhibits incredible self-control and both physical and mental constitution when necessary, demonstrating high discipline and strong will.
He is a skilled and powerful swordsman, wielding a black sword that time and use has rendered practically impervious to magic, and has undergone specialized conditioning that causes him pain or outright kills him if when subjected to mind-affecting magic. He is accompanied by his horse and a foreign beast called Etakar, a dekkun (made by Shienvien) that is big, strong and with almost human-like intelligence.

[h3]Domhnall MacRaith[/h3]
One of the éireannach (made by Legion X51), specifically the so-called forestfolk of the race, Domhnall is another foreigner who speaks with a much more noticeable accent than Aemoten, is less disciplined and arguably more charismatic, and who is generally more likely to get curious about things than he is to feel intimidated, even if he is appalled at just how fearsome things have come after the companions in the past.
He is a hunter, not a warrior or any sort of likely champion, with little to no experience fighting anything but mundane animals. He fights using either his crossbow, a spear or, in a pinch, one of his knives.

[h3]Sir Yanin Glade and Jordan Forthey[/h3]
Though they have not yet encountered the companions, these native Rodorians have not played much of a role in the RP, but this is likely to change. Both are human, but whereas Yanin is a knight from a respected family with significant holdings, known for their prowess in battle, Jordan is a mere son of a farmer who became Yanin’s squire. Yanin is a formidable and well-rounded warrior, capable of wielding his mace, halberd, bow or sword as the situation demands it, and is teaching Jordan to fight, though the squire has yet to manage to win a sparring match against his master, even armed with a spear against the knight’s bare hands.
The two are accompanied by two horses for transportation and for carrying their equipment, but more notable is Yanin’s passenger, something until now referred to only as a “void beast”. This void beast apparently has dominion over Yanin’s dreams and is seemingly weakening his soul, while at the same time disrupting magic near him. The void beast is considered a problem and Yanin is determined to learn more about it and its purpose with taking residence within him.

[h2]Legion X51[/h2]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/KdKNvud.png[/img]
Another of the éireannach like Domhnall, though of the highlanders rather than the forestfolk, Iridiel Taileflaith Caomhánach was exiled from her people for killing an official meant to apprehend her upon discovering her affinity for magic and has been traveling since, and as such has very little knowledge of the Rodorian language. She seems somewhat meek and with dubious constitution, but has strategic value through her being “Marked” by the deity Sulis (made by Legion X51), giving her significant powers of healing and the ability to periodically call lightning.
Aside from having travelled with Domhnall since her exile, the two of them are now with the companions and have shown interest in undertaking the task of ending the Withering. She is also accompanied by a tame wolf and carries two small crossbows, a sword, a dagger and a hand axe.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/MMhK4f8.png[/img]
Encountered by the companions only recently, Angora is currently the youngest in the group at the age of nineteen years, yet is viewed some mixed feelings as their introduction to her came through her attacking the group. Formerly the henchman of a Zerulic crime syndicate known simply as “the Firm” (made by Legion X51), Angora failed to report back after being assigned to steal an artifact being smuggled across the country. This artifact was what Angora has simply named the Black Sword, which is a weapon with the property of being a ceaseless siphon of magical energy from the Spirit Realm. Something else unfortunately got caught by the sword as well, however, and when Angora claimed the weapon she quickly melded with what is generally referred to as an “outsider”. Melding with the outsider drove Angora insane for a long while, and for months she lived in the wilderness, attacking and killing those who came near, until she attacked the companions and Iridiel managed to restore a semblance of calm and sanity to the girl.
Though her skill with her sword is unimpressive and she has no real way of taking advantage of the limitless magical energy supplied by the Black Sword, Angora fights with an almost feral ferocity that turns into an almost blind frenzy under the influence of the outsider, ignoring pain and fatigue and stopping at nothing to maim and kill her opponents.

[h2]ASTA[/h2]
[h3]Ajanok'Tez, or Claw[/h3]
Another currently somewhat tentative member of the companionship, Claw is a del-korm (made by ASTA) from the distant island of Malkor’Kurz (made by ASTA) and a practitioner of the magical ability known as the Echo (made by ASTA). A fur-clad, mildly wolf-like hulking creature that stands twice the size of even tall humans, Claw is a brutal fighter that fights with tooth and claw, using raw strength and ferocity to rip opponents to shreds.
For Claw the Echo manifests as the ability to manipulate sound, enabling him not only to use sound as a weapon but also for subterfuge, to silence what he does not want heard, projecting sound to distant places or mimicking sounds he has heard before. The Echo comes at a high price, however, for it is fueled by the life force of other creatures; Claw must absorb the life force of subdued prey to continue to wield this terrible power.

[h2]Biscuits, formerly cthulu[/h2]
[h3]Thaler[/h3]
Thaler is a naturally occurring half-nightwalker, half-human crossbreed known as a [I]daywalker[/I], which means that she was born with nothing but sclera on the exterior of her eyes, meaning that she has no pupils to see through and is effectively blind, with completely white eyes to contrast the totally black ones of pure-blooded nightwalkers. A long-time member of the group, Thaler is a former thief once infamous in Zerul under the moniker of Black Sun, though the companions, once they learned of her prior profession, convinced her to leave this life behind. Aemoten is in love with her and is fiercely protective of her.
Beyond the skills one might expect a thief to have, including a perhaps unexpected proficiency with lighter, dexterous bladed weapons considering her blindness, circumstances have left Thaler with her share of curses and blessings. Due to the deity Rilon taking interest in her at an early age, Thaler has been given gifts that persist even if she is now free of the god’s influence. One gift is the ability to use echolocation to perceive the world in a way beyond what others might, and another is what Olan identified as being bastardized and flawed true words, capable of issuing orders like perfect true words, but only to influence creatures mentally, and only how the recipients of her words interpret the command. Unknown even to her she is also under the protection of Rilon’s divine intervention, allowing her to either make one request of the god or to cheat death a single time and be returned to life.
Much has happened with Thaler as of yet, from her discovery of Rilon being her malevolent influence to her agreeing to become his champion and mortal instrument, to finally betraying the god and using the gifts he gave her to enslave him to another god, Koraakan. Events have left her deeply mentally and emotionally fatigued, and she and Aemoten have temporarily segregated themselves from the rest of the group to recover.[/HIDER]

[HIDER=The story so far]At the beginning of their journey, the first companions met while attending a supposed auction for a cure to the Withering, which proved to be a ploy by the [I]Crusader’s Guild[/I], a racist human-centric cult under leadership of a demon-possessed man, who intended to kill all those attending; a plan that failed due to the efforts of the companions.

Recognizing their common goal of ending the Withering, the companions went in search of a supposed source of information about the Withering nearby, and found yet more crusaders besieging the place. After defeating the crusaders they discovered that the information they were looking for was at the hands of Gerald Glass, who not only revealed that the Withering was of provably magical nature, but that it was actually of demonic origin and functioned by continuously siphoning the victim’s magical energy to the point of death by magical exhaustion. He also provided another clue to follow in the Anaxim Forest, where victims of the plague were reportedly inexplicably recovering. The companions opted against going to the forest, however, choosing instead to seek out a confirmed survivor in Zerul City. Gerald chose to follow them, but only as far as the forest.

The companions’ next challenge came with the discovery and exploration of a ruined place of worship hidden away in a small forest, where they first encountered Thaler, but then discovered that the ruin also housed a small pack of vampires. Though at the cost of some wounds and a ruined pair of trousers the companions prevailed, only to find that one of their numbers, the mercenary Immanuel, had become a soulless creature known as harvesters. Rather than slay his former allies Immanuel luckily elected to chase more nutritious prey, and the adventure was allowed to continue.

When they reached the Anaxim Forest the companions were once again struck with misfortune, this time as they encountered another temporary ally being chased by a horde of [I]goblins[/I], small vaguely humanoid creatures with unquenchable bloodlust and no sense of self preservation. Though Gerald slipped away in the confusion the companions were victorious, slaying every last savage beast.
The companions were not safe just yet, however, as unrest in the group caused one of their numbers to be scrutinized and criticized by the rest, leading to increasingly intense arguments culminating in the dragon-spirit Roct possessing Jaelnec to protect him. Though Roct was quickly subdued the offending companion proceeded to reveal her demonic nature, prompting a fight that ended with her and Aemoten fighting until the demon could escape. After this Jaelnec was so devastated by his own failures that he abdicated, passing on leadership of the group to Aemoten.

On their way onward towards Zerul City the companions encountered a [I]witch[/I], a practitioner of outlawed [I]black magic[/I], named Jillian, at a ferry-station wrought with carnage after a black spell cast in self-defense went out of control. Unable to forgive Jillian for the dozens of lives lost at the ferry and her blatant disregard for the danger of black magic, the companions instead pointed her in the direction of Gerald, hoping that the two practitioners of [I]forbidden arts[/I] – black magic and necromancy, respectively – could find support and companionship in each other.
Jillian soon after arrived at the Anaxim Forest, only to be invited in by the [I]living wood[/I] itself, as the sapient collective consciousness of the plants of the forest opened the way for her and guided her where she needed to go. It turned out that the Anaxim Forest was under attack by a sizable force from the Crusader’s Guild under personal oversight of [I]Kevalorn the Holy[/I], the high priest and leader of the cult. While the attack was done under pretext of being a purge of non-humans, however, the true purpose was to retrieve a magical crystal acting as a [I]demon prison[/I] for the violent, fiery demon lord [I]Hazzergash[/I], the patron deity of the cult. Jillian joined Gerald and the creatures of the forest, and though they ultimately failed to repel the crusaders, resulting in the destruction of the forest and the massacre of its inhabitants, they managed to escape with the demon prison to stop it from falling into the hands of the Guild.
Accompanied by two of the defenders of the forest, an ancient sorceress called Crone and an elder dragon called Renold, discussions were had about their next step as they found themselves facing two important tasks: contain the part of Hazzergash that had already escaped his prison and taken residence in Kevalorn the Holy, or focus on ending the Withering. An agreement was reached with Crone that they would seek to contain Hazzergash first in exchange of her brokering a meeting with the [I]Grand Master[/I], one of the most powerful demons, known among other things for being willing to barter for almost anything. Gerald and Jillian entered a wager with the Grand Master to get the information they needed, and learned that the Withering is actually caused by [I]Kreshtaat[/I], a former human that is now the single most powerful demon in existence, who infects mortals through their dreams, when their souls pass into the Spirit Realm. He told them to go to the duchy of Fokon, where experts would be able to help them become conscious within the Spirit Realm to allow them to find Kreshtaat’s mortal self and purge him from the Spirit Realm.

Meanwhile the companions traveled onward, crossing the river but deciding to find rest at a border post of the duchy of Zerul, where the guards deemed to grant them food and shelter. While there Thaler was visited in her dreams by Rilon who, for the first time throughout his haunting of her, revealed his identity. Whether because of desperation or belief that she could redeem the evil god Thaler agreed to become Rilon’s champion, receiving the [I]relic[/I] that held part of the god’s own power and essence, the sword Black Thorn. She also received a mission to steal the relic of Rilon’s sister, Reina, in exchange for a promise of Rilon’s divine intervention.
Upon waking Thaler found that Black Thorn had materialized, only for her companions, especially Aemoten, to chastise her for agreeing to Rilon’s demands and driving her to undo her ties to Rilon. Thaler ultimately agreed to give Black Thorn to Koraakan, knowing that a relic of one god would enable another god to control them, in exchange for the promise of safety for her and her friends. Rilon discovered this and initiated a fierce assault of the border post, culminating in a battle between the avatars of Rilon and Koraakan for possession of Black Thorn, which Koraakan ultimately won.
While the two gods fought, however, the companions furthermore discovered that the border post was also home to a conspiracy, as one of the guardsmen was secretly an agent of the [I]Death Clan[/I] in service of Kreshtaat, and that this agent had been breeding and training the predatory snakelike vermin known as [I]yths[/I]. The yths were slain and the agent confronted, though the confrontation was complicated by the agent absorbing a mysterious sphere, naming himself a [I]Nephilim[/I], gaining immense physical and magical strength, indifference to pain and the ability to seemingly life through any injury. Aemoten managed to kill the agent by weakening him with divine energy traded from Koraakan to negate the infernal energy giving the agent his power.

Finally able to move on from the border post, the companions next encountered another group of travelers, Iridiel, Domhnall and Claw, who agreed to accompany them, only to be assaulted by a frenzied Angora. After a short but intense skirmish the companions managed to subdue Angora, and with the help of Iridiel restored sanity and self-control to the girl, who in turn offered to join them on their way to Zerul City.

Finally the companions arrived at Zerul City, where they were greeted and informed of recent events elsewhere, learning that Immanuel had wiped out Nemhim City after leaving them and that interviewing the survivor identified by the companions had revealed the apparent cause of his recovery to be vicinity to the nearby Mount Zerul; information which, when it was made public, caused those in the city inflicted with the plague to travel to the mountain en mass, regardless of the dangers involved. Despite the urgency of their quest the companions, recognizing that they were in desperate need of rest, spent the night in Zerul City, and have just now started the next day.

Independently from the companions, some other small groups of adventurers have also made their own discoveries. Several adventurers encountered an agent of one of the Rodorian dukes, a so-called [I]tool[/I] who proved to be specialist brainwashed units rendered totally obedient and without any personal desires, though this tool was soon after summarily executed by the [I]Fixer[/I], a mortal agent of the Grand Master of extraordinary prowess, who was also a former tool and the dead tool’s true target. He allowed the adventurers to live, though with the promise that spreading word of his existence would only result in the death of innocents.
Later that day the adventurers encountered two high-ranking members of the [I]deo’iel[/I], an organization of professional monster-hunters, and learned not only of Immanuel’s rampage, but of two especially powerful half-demon [I]demonspawn[/I], one of which was supposedly near Zerul City and was known to kill other demonspawn and being able to acquire the abilities of his demonic victims.
Finally one of the adventurers encountered one of the long-lived humanoid species [I]deigan[/I] called Male’dai, although this deigan proved to also be possessed by an [I]archangel[/I], one of the most powerful angels, called Nimbus. The two had become somewhat intertwined since Male’dai summoned the angel in a fit of panic, trying desperately to save her home city from an enemy assault, but not only managed to summon just the angel’s soul, but also managed to drain herself to the point of certain death. Male’dai and Nimbus expressed interest in joining forces with the adventurer, being eager to do some good in Reniam before Male’dai inevitably expired, but were ultimately left alone due to the adventurer choosing a different path.[/HIDER]

[QUOTE=Aemoten]"Time is worth about as much as you have of it. The less time you have, the more valuable it is, and the other way around. Those sitting in one place and complaining over boredom obviously have too much of it. I, for one, think this is an easy fate to come if you don't take what you do into your own hands, and just wait something to happen. Might be that the right opportunity passes and you'll never have an equal one again."[/QUOTE]