Curse of the Azure Bonds
The sky darkens and the last rays of the sun disappear, leaving the landscape a rippling set of grays and shadows. It might just have been your imagination, but this evening you feel that the sky seems slightly darker than usual as the sun begins to set. For a singular moment it looks like the tendrils of shadow cast by the dying light reach out with dark fingers to entangle you within their shroud. There almost seems to be conscious intent in the way they crawl across the ground towards you.
And yet that is what they are. Simple shadows and nothing more.
Putting your overactive imagination back in its place, you settle back down again. You unfurl your bedroll and you nod your head to your companions. All is well and this seems to be a night on the road like any other. There is nothing to fear here it seems, nothing to be wary of.
Like shadows in the night they come. Whispers in the dark. They blend in so well with the blackness of oblivion as they encircle the camp, and as they do the fire blazes merrily with no indication of what is about to come. Like tiny, flickering shadows they flit in and out around, dancing close then away before they can be seen. When they strike from the shadows they do so quickly and without warning. It begins with the drow as they seem to materialise from nothingness against a backdrop of night. With a cry of alarm, you bring your arms to bear as do your companions in response to the sudden and vicious onslaught.
And yet the drow are not alone. Other figures materialise in their midst, humanoid shadows bearing swords swathed in fire. Dancing shadows that flit and flicker at the corner of consciousness and reality itself.
Before it even starts, it is over.
~
You waken to the sound of two dogs barking and the evening hubbub of wagons and carriages passing by your window. You are resting on a simple straw tick covered with graying sheets. You look around to find your companions similarly laid out and just now awakening. You remember an attack, drow and figures leaping out the shadows and appearing magically among your midsts. Then nothing, a deep void of blackness until your awakening.
Your gear has been packed neatly beside your bed. You reach for it, then stop as you notice that your entire right arm has been covered by an ornate, gleaming tattoo. A tattoo marked with strange and mysterious symbols.
So begins the mystery of the Curse of the Azure Bonds.
