The Time Of Troubles
Pharien walked through the streets of Rampart. The once a majestic city, teeming with life, now only saw the hustle of military troops as they went out to fight against the onslaught of orcs and goblins in order to protect there fair city. As he continued to survey the city streets he saw a group of dwarves and felt a pang of loss as he remembered his own clan and how they had been denied him.
Five years ago, after Pharien had been initiated into the priesthood of Moradin, the chief god of the Dwarves, he had been leading a patrol on the surface some distance away from the mines where he lived, when they stumbled across a recently abandoned camp. The odor of Orcs and Goblins was very pungent and judging from the path they had left behind, they were heading straight for the mines!
Without really pausing to think, the entire patrol began racing towards there home. As they approached it, the sound of battle reached there ears. As they came out of the tree line of the forest, the entire patrol halted. The 300 dwarves were being overwhelmed by the thousands of orcs and goblins. The patrol watched in horror as each of there fellow kin were slaughtered one by one, including the women and children who were trying to escape, but to no avail.
With a scream of rage, the rest of group ran towards the battle to aid there fellow clansmen while Pharien watched, horrified, as each one of them were killed off. Suddenly, an unnatural anger came over his body, suffusing every fiber of his being with hatred, sorrow, and despair. But when he tried to move he found that his body was no longer obeying his will. As he cast frantically around his mind to bring it under control, but he detected another presence in his brain that was not his own. Before he could probe it or make an effort to force it out, his uncontrolled feelings became so intense that he screamed in a mixture of anger and pain and then he blacked out.
When Pharien awoke later on, he found himself lying, not in the place were he was standing, but in the middle of the battle field with a ring of Orcs and Goblins around him, all dead. As he stared in astonishment at the blood on his war hammer and his armor, he noticed that littered all over the battle field were the body's of his fellow dwarves. With a shock he realized that the number of body's within the battlefield was roughly the same number of dwarves that had lived in the mines. All his friends, all his family, all of his clan, were now dead, with him being the only survivor.
Pharien shook his head and snapped back to reality as his friend Cohan walked up to him. Unlike Pharien, Cohan was a Half-Elf, a person with both Human and Elfish parents. Cohan was more attuned with the shadowy arts of getting into places where he wasn't supposed to be and managing to palm things without anyone noticing. He was very handy into getting into locked areas and finding and detecting traps. This was always an asset when you go onto stealth missions.
Pharien hailed his friend, "Heya Cohan, what's up?"
"The duke wants to see us right away. He wants to talk about your last mission," said Cohan.
Pharien sighed. On there previous mission, Pharien and a group of friends were sent to a damaged outpost to investigate a strange tunnel right underneath it. Apparently it had lead to some caverns underground that contained a massive army of orcs. Pharien had managed to seal it with his magic but the duke had insisted that he send his own army under there to deal with it. But another interesting find that they made down there was a strange door that glowed blue and could only be opened by a special ring that they had found earlier.
When they had opened the door, it turned out to be a portal that lead across the vast wilderness and jungle that separated the Empire of Rampart from Selene, the land of the elves, to a great fortress that appeared to be devoted to Grummish, the evil god of the orcs. Inside the Fortress, there were other portals of different colors that probably required different rings. When they had returned to Rampart, the duke asked to keep the ring for safekeeping so that it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.
"Alright lets go than," said Pharien, vaguely wondering what the duke wanted to talk to him about. He had already told him what the ring did and thought it was quite clear that it was a key.
"Any idea what he wants?" Pharien asked his friend.
"No clue, all that he told me was that he wanted to see us," replied Cohan, sounding a little puzzled. Pharien grunted.
They walked in silence until they reached the tower where the duke held all of his meetings. When they reached the top, they found the duke bent over an overlarge map. Pharien's comrades were also there. Quest, a female elvish monk who specialized in martial arts; Efram, a local mercenary who had become good friends with the group; and Lunette, a female Paladin of Heironious, the god of valor.