Chapter 5
" A Path Set On Skulls And Paved In Blood "
special - ' Nicolas tells his story '

The wooden mugs are placed in front of each person overflowing with refreshments. After a few moments it finally came to him and Nicholas said that he hasn't seen Darwin in over fourty years. However thing kept nagging them at the back of their heads and without reservation Enutrof asked, "What do you know about Harfein?" "That isn't a name that I've heard in a long time," Nicholas replied, "I don't know the entire story, and I know that. But from the time I met them they changed my life forever. You see Darwin was part of a group lead by some wierd . . . I'm sorry I'm getting ahead of myself. Why don't I tell you what I know from the beginning. That's usually the best place to start a story isn't it?"

"Now remember that this happened before the Mage War (circa 997) in the winter of 995. I had just met the woman that I loved, Juliet, and not long after had her taken from me by the Duke, who ruled the cities east of Miragon to Brandywine. Juliet was a noble's daughter and I was no one of significance from a common background but we fell in love but she was betroved to the Duke. When she tried to turn him down he kidnapped her and cursed me for getting in his way. I didn't realize what happened at first but I found out that every night I would turn into a wild beast, a lycanthrope. In this werewolf form I attacked innocent people and the government offered a bounty on my head. There was no way that I could get to Brandywine by myself, who knows who I would attack during the night. That's when they caught up with me Darwin, Rohm, and Wes and trapped me with roped in a small alley. I don't know who was more lucky but that was around morning and when the sun rised above the horizon I polymorphed back into myself."

This time luck was on my side since they didn't turn me in for the reward but decided to help me out with my problem instead. Complete strangers willing to go against the Duke for me; thought it was strange at the time but I trusted them anyway. They chained me to a tree each night so that I wouldn't get loose as a werewolf. Just north-east of Brandywine is a bridge and a large lake and the Duke's place was there at that lake. We were unable to find anyway in through the gates or walls but after Wes purified the lake one of us was able to sneak inside so they could unlock the gate for the rest of us. That's when all hell broke loose. The Duke was keeping Juliet as a common prisoner and I went there to get her out and save her. But as were escaping we were attacked by a group of soldiers and I lost grip on her hand and later found that one of the soldiers had killed her by order of the Duke. The Duke was killed by his Queen, Diana, and I went to bury the one I loved and found as the sun started to set that I was no longer cursed from lycanthropy. I didn't know at the time but later found out that Rohm had encountered Longinus, who at the time was working for the Queen.

I thought that if I traveled along with them that I might find a purpose or something better than that, a way to bring Juliet back to me. While traveling south we ran an elven madien that was having some problems, her name is Charisma. She didn't tell us the entire truth since she was on the run and was then recaptured by her fellow elves. We tracked them down into Mirkwood Forest where we came upon the elves who had Charisma in a trial. Before they could even get halfway through the entire village was attacked by the goblin warmachine and in the confusion Charisma was kidnapped. This attack was all a cover for what Melaar was trying to take from the elves treasure vault. We followed Rohm to where the goblins took Charm and rescued her."

"Typical Elves, of course we were all banished and they wouldn't explain why. On the way out of the forest we encountered Melaar himself and his brute strength, Ergo. Because they killed a young elven madien who joined us after we rescued her from the Duke, named Amber, we followed Melaar south to Volkrad, then north to the Gimieguche forest, then farther north past Stelward into the Talocian mountains. Along the way they kept making it their business to get involved with the people around them and help out. At that time I had never seen anyway act selflessly like that and it kind of changed me. Though at Volkrad I was able to meet the master who I guess trained them, some knight by the name of Dre. Anyways when we made our way into the Talocian mountains was our first encounter with the fort of Harfein and Harfein-Tor. At that time both places were populated with beasts. Some Minataurs were living in Harfein-Tor and a young White Dragon nambed Terru had taken up residence in Harfein, which was the place were we ran into Melaar again. He left some of his hired goons to take care of us while Ergo and he retreated. Melaar just cared about his one goal, whatever it was, and no one or nothing else."

After taking a drink of the beer in front of him Nicholas continues, "They knew someone in Pax Tharkas and we stayed at his place awhile. Some crap happened there too, to me it seemed like these people always knew the right places to find problems. But after all of that we were given some nice directions to travel directly to Brandywine directly and ended up helping out the commander of that town which brought us to an underground theft ring of rogues that were headquartered in Port Drake, which was now the seat of power for the new Queen Diana. The Augustine Empire was slowly expanding at that point and had control of Port Drake, Brandywine, Dunnealgate, and just recently Croc's Crossing. She offered to help us as long as we took care of a Wyvern problem that they had and after a couple of Wyvern heads and some really nasty poison later we were rewarded and then helped. Although we were captured by those rogues we did end up killing or capturing most if not all of those rogues. We then traveled north and slightly out of Wyvernwater we encountered the to be crown King of Waterdeep, Scott Cadeltrel. We saved his life from some bandits lead by his brother Eric and then were invited to the festivities that were going down in Waterdeep before the coronation. These two brothers would be a big escalation of the Mage War especially after Longinus changed to Scott's side, but at the time we knew nothing about that.

On our way to Waterdeep we ran into a group of gypsies who had camped for the evening. They offered us food and warmth and although we were hessitant about it at first, we had problems like that before, we ended up helping them from some barbarian Orcs. Those gypsies were really skillful but there was one by the name of Magdallen who was their fortuneteller, she was blind but still able to read our fortunes' perfectly. I didn't hear what she said to anyone else but after I heard mine I knew that I was on the correct path to save Juliet."

"In Waterdeep we enjoyed ourselfs with the festivities and Archery games until we were able to see Scott Cadeltrel's coronation. We were having the time of our lives until we heard some distressing news from the south, Volkrad. Like I said they like to help out people a lot, and last time we were in Volkrad they saved William Elders life, he was the king of the city at the time. I also think they liked to help out since Rohm fell in love with Sarah Elders, the youngest of Williams daughters and a wizard. Anyway, gossip aside, when we got down to the city we found that Williams Elders died of natural causes and Elizabeth Elders, his eldest daughter and the head cleric, took control. Of course it really wasn't her. We found Sarah Elders outside of the walls because she had been banished by her older sister. Luckily Dre was there to help her out and give her a nice tent to sleep in since we arrived there late in the evening. Though it was strange how quickly he wanted to leave, would've been easier if he helped. Well anyway we broke into the inner breaches of the keep where she stayed and found that a doppleganger had taken her place. It kind of creeped me out its eyes even glistened over this black color, it was like a dark oil filled its eyes, but I've never seen a dopplganger before so I wouldn't know the norm. We killed it when Darwin gappled it into the flames but was protected himself by an elemental protection spell. After getting the correct people back to power we traveled back north to get back on our path. That was cut short when we were attacked by a powerful Orc Shaman that had an unresolved issues with us. We would have been killed in his trap if Contei had not come to our rescue when she had. Contei is a very unique magical Dire Wolf that had the ability to reason, think, and speak and she was also a hell of a fighter. After we looted the Orcs' camp Contei told us how she was sent by the government of Ceartree with a message from Dre. When we got to Croc's Crossing I split paths with the group although Charimsa choose to stay since she didn't really have a home to go back to. I took their caravan and horses as they traveled directly to the Hullack Forest over the countryside

I don't know what happened but heard from Charm, err I mean Charisma later that they traveled to Ceartree to talk to King Millich about some problems he was having with the bandits of Hullack Forest. After doing some investigation throughout the Augustine Empire which was the one that was lead by Queen Diana. It was the same Empire with whom Longinous was working for and they had been slowly expanding north into Wyvernwater and west to Miragon. With my investigations I found out Longinus's intentions were not to help out Diana but . . . well you see Atmose powder was not common back then and the Augustine Empire had the entire west coasts stock which was stolen by the bandits in the Hullack Forest. The Augustine Empire was sending Longinus and a legion of soldiers along with him to retrive it. That's when I met up with them again in the forest to warn them that a legion of soldiers were comming to fight and I barley made it to the field in time. I arrived around the same time as the Augustine Empire and while their soldiers fought on the outskirts Longinus broke into the center of town to the stock of Atmose. While Charisma, Rohm, and I were finishing up dealing with the bandits pet green dragon Darwin came running at us right before a large explosion decimated the town. The ground even opened up at the devistation that this powder had cost."

"With their soldies numbers low from many battles they traveled south to the Talocian mountains to recruit some of the barbarian tribes who rejected their intentions. As we were being chased out of one of the towns that was when Darwin came in contact with the Spear. Now this was no ordinary Spear, I mean I don't know what it was just that when we returned everyone of the tribes decided to follow Darwin. We traveled south to Volkrad to gather help from the Elders' and then back north, with all of these new soldiers, we traveled to Pax Tharkas where elementals were overrunning the city's defences. The Augustine Empire was putting many of their soldiers in harms way to protect the city and with their help we were able to protect the city. But I saw something there that I've never seen before or want to see again. Remember that friend that I said they had in Pax Tharkas, well his name was Pearl, strange for a dwarf ain't it. Well when we got into town we found that Longinus had broken into Pearl's domicile and was now holding his dead body. Some strange things happened but I won't forget how Longinus's face distorted to something that wasn't recognizable as human, it was, well . . . something I never want to see again."

"Darwin started to 'liberate' towns from oppression gaining more followers to the cause but the Spear seemed to be changing him and Charisma, Rohm, and I knew we had to do something. So we came up with a plan so that Charisma and Rohm would steal the spear and return it to where they found it. Darwin chased after them and I stayed behind to try to keep the army together but without Darwin no one wanted to stay. All we had left was some of the true believers and the original army from Ceartree which we couldn't take with us when we traveled into the Cadeltrel Empire so Darwin housed them in the unknown keep of Harfein so they could be the last line of defence just in case we didn't survive. Darwin knew that it was a long shot but needed someone to stay behind just in case the world needed to be rebuilt. The Augustine Empire was battling the Cadeltrel's while Ceartree was fighting two separate fronts and the northmen were barely holding their own on the northern front. The Mage War was comming into full swing and with that we left the Augustine Empire's boarders into the Cadeltrel's Empire, who were the main instigators, and we were captured."

"We were able to escape with the use of their magic and after we fled we found out what was happening near the front lines first hand. We found Melaar again and chased him to the top of a tower where Ergo tried to kill us. Hmmm, I guess that's when we all found out Charisma's secret that Melaar was her uncle. Since Ergo tried to kill Charisma, something that Melaar told him not to do, Melaar 'touch of death'd him. That wasn't the end of it because that was when we first encountered Ruby the ancient Red Dragon who destroyed the tower with just her wings. We were all lucky to survived the falling chunks of rock in one piece and after we dug ourselves out we put all of our effort onto killing that beast. This Dragon had been enhanced with some sort of fusion with metal and was losing its mind. We found out who was behind this fusion of flesh and metal, Longinus, who had changed sides to the Cadeltrel's and was behind the construction of Mecha-Ruby. But, with the help of the brains of the group they were able to devise one of the first Airships which we used to fly over the walls of Waterdeep so we could face this Mecha-Ruby one-on-one while it was on the ground. After we defeated this monster it allowed Ceartree, the Augustine Empire, and the people of the north to turn the sides to their benefit.

"The last time I saw Darwin was when we escaped from Longinus's forces while retreating up north. To think of it that was the last time that I saw Longinus because he left Scott Cadeltrel after that dragon died. That was the last I saw of him until I saw who was in charge of the Crimson Knights. Even though his name has changed his face has not changed at all. I'm sorry I can't tell you what happened to Darwin but Longinus's story continues because I don't know of any other weapon that can hurt him except for the Spear of Destiny and that Spear was lost after it was taken from Darwin. I myself once believed that Darwin will come back with the Spear one day to finally put an end to Longinus but it has been far too long and I think that it was just a fantasy to begin with."