Author's Note
Wizards of the Coast owns the general concept of Dungeons and Dragons, from which this story was devised. However, The New World and its principal kingdoms of Mardan, Urhal, Utrecht, Tourant, the Island Duchies, Arnheim, Trzebin, and Argent Forest, are mine. Likewise, the characters, while ostensibly created through the use of the Dungeons and Dragons character generation rules, are also mine. While I am not completely averse to someone requesting to use The New World as a backdrop for a campaign or story, ask my permission first. Chances are you'll have my blessing; after all, I'd be interested to see what someone can do with the political and social backdrop I've created. I won't tell you anything about The New World; that's for you to find out through the stories. However, since it may be confusing to some that see the weather getting colder as one moves south, I will mention that The New World is set in the southern hemisphere.
Fire and Darkness is the third story to take place in The New World campaign setting. Although some of the events in Hounds of Winter and Orcish Vise may have a very indirect impact on the plot line, Fire and Darkness easily works as a stand alone story and it is by no means necessary to read the other works. All three stories are a continuing attempt to write a story for each of the One Hundred Adventure Ideas found on page 138 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, no easy feat for any author.
One of main character of Fire and Darkness, Lady Valtaya, is heavily based on the character concept and description given me by the author Lady Valtaya on this site, although I did have to make a few alterations to fit her completely into the story (basically, I couldn't bring myself to write an elf with purple eyes, even if she is a surface elf. Oh, and she got a little taller, too. Nothing major.). As such, the character of Lady Valtaya belongs to, well, Lady Valtaya. Finally, this story is dedicated to Lady Valtaya, who, besides being a great inspiration to this story(hey, give me a character and my imagination does the rest), has also been my biggest and most supportive fan for my works in both this fandom and Diablo.