Now for the start of the second adventure of Maradil and his friends. It picks up a few years after their first adventure and in it, more of Darzul's past will start to be revealed. The first adventure may have been a bit more light-hearted, but this second adventure is a little darker than the previous adventure; just to give you a little heads up. But don't worry, its nothing too insane that the average person couldn't handle. Its mostly creepy, weird and psychological stuff and maybe some stylized violence and a little bit of blood in there too (but not a ridiculous amount of it, like guts and gore). Also, expect some character development in this adventure. I DO NOT OWN THE LORD OF THE RINGS.


Three years later

It was the inside of a dark and cavernous room that seemed to be a chamber of some sort. In the back of the room were two mysterious figures, one of them sat on a throne, both obscured by the darkness; the room seemed more like a burial chamber than a throne room. The one on the throne got up and walked over to a large chasm in the chamber, the bottom of which shone with an acid-green glow. Down below in the chasm, what sounded like the cries and screams of unnumbered souls could be heard. It raised its skeletal arm over the chasm and spoke.

"Rise my servants, ancient spirits of darkness from ages long past. I have a task for you." it said. Out of the chasm came two black streams of what seemed like shadows that oozed onto the ground. They began to take shape and slowly rose up from the ground, while they cried and writhed in agony as they were twisted and molded into two humanoid shapes. One of the figures took on a skeletal form to mimic the summoner, and the other figure took on a demonic form to mimic the summoner's partner.

"Good, that's it." said the summoner. "You know what your mission is; I don't even need to explain it to you. Go forth, find them and hunt them to the ends of the earth, make them suffer and wish they had never come into existence." The two creatures of shadow let out a horrifying shriek and with lightning speed they sped through the air like shades and were gone.


There was a little boy out on a walk through the forest with his mother. The two of them smiled and happily ran together without a care in the world. The mother ran up ahead and the boy tried to catch up.

"Wait for me mommy." the boy said. No matter how hard he tried, she seemed to get further and further away from him even though she had stopped and was not moving. "No, don't leave me!"

"Come to me Maradil." she said. "Don't you want to come home with me?" The boy finally reached her, and when he got there, she was silent. She did not seem to move.

"Mommy?" she was bleeding and fell over dead. The boy became frightened and began to cry. What would he do now? He did not know the way back home and his mother was dead. Then he heard a rustling in the trees. He quickly turned and out of the trees jumped a fell, skeletal creature that flew with black wings. It stared at him and laughed a terrible laugh.

"What are you?" said the boy, panicking and frightened.

"What are you?" the creature mimicked in its own evil voice.

The boy was now scared out of his mind and began to run away. He ran through the forest as fast as he could, but he always seemed to go in a circle and end up back where he started. The creature chased him and he took a different path, but he was lost and was desperately trying to find the way out. He ended up in an area that seemed familiar to him. He looked around and found that there where dead elves everywhere, many of them people he recognized; all killed in a similar manner as his mother was. The creature cornered him and slowly it lumbered towards his, reaching out with its clawed skeletal arms. As its hands got closer to his face, he could feel that the aura around them felt icy cold, as if death was approaching. Then, everything went black.


Maradil awoke with a sudden fright and shot up in his bed. He then realized that it had only been a dream and felt a great relief; he had not had a nightmare this bad in a long time. Alone in his dark room, everything came back to him as he was brought back to the present. Then a fond memory flashed within his head as he tried to get his mind off of the nightmare he had just had; the worst ones were always the hardest to forget. He remembered that back when he was a child, whenever he had a nightmare he would go and cuddle up in bed beside his adoptive mother Awenrith. That always made him feel better, but now she was gone and Maradil was all grown up, and alone.

Maradil put his face in his hands. "Why did you leave? Where did you go?" he said to himself, lamenting the loss his adoptive mother and father, and grieving for the death of his older brother and almost every other immediate relative he had. "Everyone's dead or gone. Everyone. Everyone except for her..." He still had one relative left that he was close to.

It was still a few hours before morning, but all sleep had left him. Maradil got up out of bed and decided to try and find something to do to occupy himself. After several hours of aimlessly wandering around and doing whatever things popped into his head, Darzul and Barin had finally woken up. They sat down for breakfast in the dining hall and began to eat.

"You look like you didn't get much sleep." said Darzul.

"I had bad dreams." Maradil said. "I haven't had one that bad in a long time."

"You too?" said Darzul. "Mine were sort of bad as well. What were yours about?"

"Just remembering my family members that aren't here in this world anymore." Maradil answered.

"I was dreaming about the time when I last saw my father." Darzul said. "It was on the day we fled when our village came under attack by some of the Terak-hai orcs."

"It's a good thing I don't really get nightmares." said Barin, who joined in. "Dwarves aren't really effected by things like that."

"Speaking of the Terak-hai," said a voice at the doorway. "Have you heard the news?" It was Jeredia, who sat down and joined them. "Recently, some of the hordes of terak-kai and other orcs have been making raids throughout Kunrude."

"What does it matter?" Maradil said. "I'm sure that the forces of the king are more than capable of fighting them off. The orcs will soon get the message that they aren't welcome and leave."

"But that's the thing." Jeredia continued. "Why the sudden interest in raiding Kunrude? Isn't that a little far from the lands that they usually target? What could cause them to suddenly start doing that? Did their usual raiding areas go dry and they had to find someplace else, or is there something more."

"They're orcs," said Maradil. "Who knows what they're thinking."

"I guess maybe I'm just a little paranoid." Jeredia said. The four of them finished eating and went off to find something to entertain themselves. Over the past three years since their adventure in Kunrude, Jeredia had periodically visited them, and had even gone with them on a few minor adventures they had undertaken, though nothing particularly of note. Maradil and his friends had not really done anything big in a long time; things were starting to get boring again in Aradale.

While in the courtyard, Maradil got to thinking, it was time for a change of pace; they needed something to get their minds off of the bad dreams and days of idleness. "Hey guys," he said to Darzul and Jeredia who were nearby. "I've been thinking, since things have been a bit slow around here lately, that we should go on a little expedition. You know what I mean..., an adventure." He had caught their attention and they turned towards him.

"Did someone say adventure!?" Barin suddenly appeared out of the bushes right next to Maradil, who immediately jumped.

"Dammit Barin don't do that!" Maradil shouted. "My heart jumped up to my mouth. What were you even doing in there?"

"Sorry" Barin said. "I was just looking for those things I'd put somewhere in the garden."

Jeredia watched them and thought to himself: "Even though the three of them are grown adults, they still have the minds of children and act very much like them too sometimes."

"I'm all for it." Darzul said.

"I haven't really had much to do recently." Jeredia said, "So I guess I'll tag along with you too."

"So, what will it be this time?" Darzul asked.

"I'm not sure." Maradil said. "Maybe this time you should decide Darzul. Oh wait, I know, what if we traveled southward to visit your homeland in Uracania? Maybe we could even visit the village where you're from, or what's left of it."

"I don't know Maradil," Darzul said. "Going there could bring back a lot of bad memories for me."

"Maybe this is just what you need." Maradil said. "A journey back to your roots. If you've been having bad dreams about you're past, maybe going back will give you some closure so then you can move on."

Darzul thought for a moment, "Now that you put it that way," he said, "The suggestion sounds pretty appealing. Still, it could be dangerous."

"That's never stopped us before." Maradil said.

"I'd say go for it." Barin said. "Maybe afterwards we can head towards the east, some of the lands there are pretty interesting."

"That sounds fun," said Jeredia. "On the way back, we could maybe take a different route while circling back and pass through the desert-lands where the kingdom I'm from is."

"Then what are we waiting for?" said Maradil. "Let's get started."


A few days passed by and the four of them were ready to leave. They had packed just about everything they thought they would possibly need; for them, it always turned out to be a good idea to over-prepare. Caron was with them and was seeing them off. He handed them a map and a box of medical supplies he'd put together, very similar to the ones he had handed them before they had set out on their adventure to Kunrude a few years before.

"This map should be able to help you find your way around." Caron said. "Many of the lands in the southeast are not fully explored and it can be easy for one to get lost there."

"Thanks, we didn't really have a good map for the places where we're going anyway." said Maradil.

"Also, stay out of trouble and don't do anything stupid." said Caron. "But you probably will anyway and I'll have to come and save you."

"Here's something I've noticed," said Maradil, "How is it that you always seem to arrive exactly when and where we need you the most and you always save us when we're in the gravest danger?"

"An old friend of mine once said, " answered Caron, "A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."

"Why does that sound familiar?" Maradil said.

"Well, I must be going." Caron said. "I have business to attend to. Take care of yourselves and good luck." With that he disappeared out of sight and back into the enclave.

Also at the gate was Sarwen, who had seen them off on their first adventure. She was one of the few people in the enclave that was a dear friend of the group, and she had also taken a liking to Maradil. She had a small crush on him, but it was doubtful that Maradil would ever notice. He always ignored things like that and chose not to concern himself with them. Maradil saw her as just a friend. It just wasn't in him to find someone and settle down; his itinerant nature was one of his biggest flaws.

They said their goodbyes to her and left. Maradil and his friends then turned towards the gates and headed out onto the path. They began walking the path towards the woods to the south. Passing by a hill with a stone marker, Maradil stopped.

"What's wrong?" Darzul asked.

"You see that stone marker on the top of that hill? It's a grave. My real parents are buried there. They died from a plague shortly after I was born. Ever since then, I was raised by my adoptive mother Awenrith, and then my adoptive father Auril."

"I remember them." said Darzul. "We were both very young at the time. Awenrith was really sweet and caring, and Auril was very strong-willed and cunning. Where did they disappear to?"

"I don't know." said Maradil. "I'm still wondering to this day." He looked towards Barin, who seemed as though he had no idea what they were talking about. "I don't think I've really told you much about them, this was before we had met you Barin."

"I would have very much liked to have met them, the people who made you the way you are now." Barin said.

Maradil picked some flowers from the hillside and set them in front of the grave marker. Even though he had never met his real parents and had no idea what they even looked like, he would still from time to time come and set flowers at their grave. He read the names on the grave: Myrwin, that was his mother, and Dorthir, his father. Apparently, Caron had known his parents before he was born and had told him some things about them. He had given Maradil a vague description of what they were like and how they looked, and from that he formed a mental image of them and what they looked like.

"Alright," said Maradil. "Lets continue. Leaving from the south part of Bornodir and coming out of the forest, we will end up at a large swamp area known as Jarak Swamp. It may take us a few days to get through, but we should know our way around for that part of the journey. We've traveled through the swamp before.

"Alright, lets get this adventure started." said Barin. The four of them began walking and with that, their second great adventure had begun.


Maradil and his friends have now started on their second adventure. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to stay motivated to write more of the story before I lose interest for a while. The next few chapters might be released a little slower than the ones for the first adventure. But, in the next chapter, the group will gain a new member, who will join them on their adventure.